Paul Washer | Students Q&A

miss Church oh hello yeah Southern Baptist Church called Redeemer church and Urbana you know and uh we I got to meet me me on you know February so he's been a joy to get to know and so anyways but yeah so yeah who you're speaking to is uh it's kind of a conglomeration of some people with our church some people with a Campus Outreach Eastern Illinois and other guy who's a missionary and Mexico with Campus Outreach right over here and that a fraternity agricultural fraternity had forty others yeah so so anyways not just strictly our church but just kind of so just let you know what kind of us uh and you're speaking wave and uh so yeah that's kind of interesting I I first heard you speak no what was it yeah 2003 I'm a summer project on a test true believe and the first time I had biblical assurance I was a believer and then uh and then 2000 it was that six between beatings you got about ten minutes and you called me before I went to Mexico you probably only remember that but uh I don't remember a lot yeah well the the great advice you had is don't spread yourself too thin as I went there to study abroad but the focusing water on one or two people and just really go deep there and so took your advice and the Lord really blessed me with a great relationship with a guy named TK and he became a Christian and just got trained up and went on various summer projects with Campus Outreach now he's on staff there with Campus Outreach kind of a Mexican director there and and now I me and my family were about to go with a cross-cultural project to Mexico for the summer so I keep on talking you right before I go to Mexico so yeah so yeah so yeah that's a little bit of the background so so anyways yeah some people know more about you than than other summer so anyways just but with these different questions we have for you yeah I'd love for them to get to know your life a little bit your testimony your wife's testimony and then we have so anyways there's about ten questions worth and so uh there might be uh I don't know how much we can cram in an hour but uh but anyways that's that's the deal but before we get started you have to have any questions for us no no it's great to see all of you and especially how many are students all of our students at University Illinois most Wow yeah I've been I've been there several times back when I was in college it's one of the coldest places on the planet in the winter but no do they still have it's a pizza place called Papa Del's oh yeah what there we go I hate you that was you know how you you always you hear hype about some restaurant or some pizza place and I'd heard all this hype and I finally went to it one time when I went up there during my college years and I thought oh my goodness this is not a lie it was it was wonderful I actually had someone years later bring me one frozen where I was but they brought it to me several hundred miles away Papa Del's a great spot so yeah good good deal thanks a lot brother preciate your time and well yeah before we get started would you mind praying for us sure sure although I thank you for this great privilege to be here Lord to meet with with these young people and I pray Lord that you would guide us with your grace that you would give us insight into your word and that we would do that which is pleasing most pleasing to you and your son and your spirit in Jesus name Amen amen yeah first question just real quick just how's your health well the heart situation seems to be under control I have a good cardiologist and the the brain is still coming coming along they said it would take about four years but you know when they actually went out you know and told my wife I was pronounced dead like three times and my brain went without oxygen for so long that they told my wife that I would be institutionalized if I survived that I would never speak or be able to talk or just anything respond and that's what was so funny when I came up out of the coma and the doctors you know they said do you know who you are and I said yes and told them my name they started calling doctors from everywhere and I didn't know why I didn't know what had happened really and I said you know why are all of you here and and this one doctor from I think he was from China he looked at me and he goes you don't understand you died three times and I wish I had said something spiritual but I quoted buck from Ice Age I died but then I lived so uh yeah and it's been a long journey it's been very hard the mind is a very complex thing but I've also suffered since I was in college with chronic pain so I go on Monday for an experimental they're gonna see if I qualify for an experimental surgery on my spine where they're going to remove actually a few discs and replace it with titanium so we'll say so you pray for me on Monday oh thanks for filling us in yeah so did Jack would happen to show you the the questions that were wanting to go through yeah I looked at him briefly but I usually don't look at questions even when it's a conference I like to kind of fly off the cuff so so yeah just knowing we have various questions so I guess probably more on the brief and of answers maybe the I don't know we'll see yeah um but anyways I'd love for you to briefly share with us your testimony okay sure she ate and then a little bit more like missionary journeys and you got married anyways I uh I was converted at the University of Texas when when I was nine years old at a church in Illinois I had this quite amazing experience and thought I was converted but you know there was no discipleship no one even talked to me before baptism I don't think and uh and I wasn't truly converted that demonstrated itself and that quickly you know I I departed and had no care for the things that and then when I was 17 my father and I were working on the farming and he yelled and I started to fall and I caught him and he died in my arms and I was a very ungodly teenager but and it didn't change me in any way but it got me to start thinking I really respected my father and he was a quite amazing man and I realized he was dead that it didn't matter how wealthy you are you're going to die he was very intelligent but you're gonna die you fall in love you're gonna die and I I drank quite a bit and just because I kind of lived life as an absurdity you know there's no reason the only place I found reason was in the classroom in the sense of just trying to make straight A's and I didn't even know why and I went off to college to Murray State University and then the University of Texas and it was there that I was miserable just miserable one night and I was into weightlifting really heavy and I was in steroids really heavy and there's about 1 o'clock in the morning and I kept saying to myself sitting on the side of the bed I'm so miserable I'm just miserable I wish I could take these steroids and they would kill me but you know that's not the way steroids kill you and and someone knocked at the door and it was a little freshman I opened the door and he was a you know about 5 foot 7 and really nervous and I thought someone had maybe tried to rob him or something I didn't know what was going on and I said yeah and he goes you're probably going to hit me because I was I was really kind of aggressive and I said well it's 1 o'clock in the morning you're probably right and I said why are you knocking on my door and he said he said for two weeks God has been telling me to come and talk to you but I've been afraid and I can't stand it anymore and I kind of laughed and I thought oh man this guy you know he's hearing God you know and I so i laughingly said so what does God what God's message for me and he said you're miserable and you're gonna remain miserable until you surrender your life to Jesus Christ and he was with Campus Crusade which now is known as Cru I think and he talked to me like 4:00 in the morning we just walked around campus and he told me something you know I used all the typical excuses like part of my family's Catholic part of my family's Protestant I don't want any part to do with any of that and he stopped me and he said he said that's an excuse he said I've not mentioned Catholicism or Protestantism or a church I've only talked to you about the person of Jesus of Nazareth and he goes you can't escape this you have to decide who is he and a few weeks later guys kept visiting me and I kept trying to avoid them or I try to be nice but and then one day in the library we were running off some oil surveys I was going to be an oil and gas lawyer and that's what I wanted to be and this girl asked me to a party and I said no and I had gotten to the point where I didn't party I just would sit in a bar like with old people and just drink by myself and uh and I said I'm not going to your party and she said why and at that moment I don't even know why I said this I just said because I'm gonna follow Jesus Christ and my friends turned around and they looked at me like man that was cold even for you you know even for you that was you know that was beyond the bounds cuz it was a time when people still you know respected God's name and and it was like have you seen what those cartoons where a light bulb just turns on and that's the way it was it was like and it wasn't like my deep sinfulness you know even though I knew I was a sinner it wasn't like broken over it was just literally I felt like I was I don't know literally flooded with the love of God how God loved me and I knew that it was because Jesus died for me and I ran out of there and I realized I'm different I mean in a second it was like it was like I changed and I ran back to the apartment complex and found that guy and I said you gotta help me I said I'm scared and he said what's wrong I said all I know is I'm not the same person who walked in that library something has happened to me I am believing in Jesus and and the love of God is so great that I just feel like I'm I don't know like I'm gonna run out of my mind or something and there was this big texan who was the resident dorm resident guy and he was a little bit older than us and he was a stronger Christian he was with crew and we knocked on his door and he looked out he towered over me and I'm six-two and he got he goes what's up and my friend goes Paul needs to tell you something and he said what and I said I don't know all I know is I've been changed and I'm believing in Jesus and that big texan goes buddy you just got born again and that's and I said what is that you know I was scared to death and and what was great was and this is so important for you college students a lot of people were amazed in the next year how much I grew like I grew like a weed I mean but it wasn't because there was something spiritual or unique about me there was a group of guys on campus and they took me in there Worth Christian Brothers on campus and they took me in I mean they had me live with them and in the house I went with them everywhere and they were such a powerful influence on my life and I never forgot you know we grow in the context of of other people we don't grow because we're some prophet who spends his time on a mountaintop somewhere we grow you know if you're in college I'm so glad I bothered me so much I love all the college ministries that preach the gospel but it bothers me that so many of them are so separated from a local church you need a local church and you need you need young people and you need old people you need people like you and people not like you and you need to grow in that kind of context unfortunately that's what was given to me as a gift I guess the Lord knew I was so weak he just inundated me with wonderful wonderful Saints and that's how that's how I was converted and then I got out for a year and went back to this little Church in Illinois without my chrysalis or metropolis the home of Superman and uh and there was a little church out in the middle of a cornfield and this pastor a very simple and kind man Jack Russell and he just took me in as a friend I mean like a father and I was with him for a year and then I went on to seminary and my last few weeks at seminary it became clear the Lord wanted me to go to Peru and a missionary and old what was called faith Baptist missionary invited me to go and I served for almost 11 years in Peru and during that time started heart cry and then heart cry grew and I had to come back to the states in order to you know kind of directed so that's how it happened Wow sure you could spend hours telling us about time brew that's for sure oh I've got more stories than you guys have time to listen to God is he is enduring in his faithfulness that's what you need to understand there are no great men or great women of God a lot of times you'll read missionary biographies and you'll think I can't live up to this the fact is no one can live up to any of that and if you see an exceptional person or you see a person do something exceptional at a certain time it's the grace of God working through that person and and I am so aware of that I mean I know things that the Lord has allowed me to do that I look back on now and I realize almost with fear how did I do that I couldn't do that it's not possible knowing my weaknesses knowing my fears and what I want you to know is that if you're in the will of God every circumstance he will strengthen you - to overcome he will help you and at the times when he doesn't help you that's necessary too because those times he don't help you and you fall on your face are reminders to you that even in my greatest moments this wasn't me it was the grace of God working through me you know many of you have probably thought you know if there's persecution one day will I stand will I be able to bear with it and the answer is yes you will not because you have an exceptional character but because God will strengthen his people and help them to overcome and in those times when it doesn't seem like they're strengthening he has another purpose but it's still a good purpose I think that that some of my failures have helped me in the long run far more than my victories as long as every failure you in every failure that you don't listen to the devil when you fail the devil will tell you God doesn't love you go away that's never God's voice when you fail God's always saying returned returned to me come to me depend on me again and that's how we discern God's voice really God will rebuke you and he will rebuke you with very very hard language but it will always be followed up with return I love you return if you ever hear a rebuke and it's basically followed with go away God doesn't love you anymore or go sit in the penalty box for a few days and then think about coming back that's not God it's never God thank you now when you said like yeah if you could touch it just briefly it's kind of on my last questions but you talked about persecution like just in brief what would you say like trajectory wise in the u.s. just when it comes to the persecution of Christians just thought you have yeah well I have to be in a conference at the end of the summer with dr. MacArthur and others in in England about this very issue it's getting so close in England that uh and what it is going to be as just a silencing of the church you see being very careful with our interpretation of the book of Revelation you know there were two witnesses and although we surely can't identify those witnesses with certainty it does at least give us an application with regard to the church you know how the fire comes out of their mouths you know and I think more the idea there is that when God has a witness on the earth in one way it it is like constantly adverse to the earth you know everybody in the world is okay with everything and then the church comes along and says no you're wrong you're wrong it's like fire coming out of our mouth if you think about the Christian Church is the only entity on the whole planet that actually stands against immorality it points out and says no we're wrong you're wrong I'm wrong we need a Savior and it afflicts the earth and the one thing that the devil and the world desires is to silence that message and they will silence it through deception or through intimidation and everything that happens on this planet is done either for or against the church everything the church is the only organization God has on the planet not a missionary agency noting in the church and everything that's happening right now in America and Western Europe has to do with the silencing of the church and the silencing of the church's testimony against the evil of mankind you see and so a way has been discovered you know it's called tolerance it's called hate speech tolerance is a very good word and hate speech is a really bad thing the only problem is when you have authorities that go ahead and define what intolerance is and authorities that go and define what hate speech is so that one day when you're arrested you won't be arrested as Christians you'll be arrested as right-wing fundamentalists who take a literal interpretation of the Bible and who are full of hate the world's not going to have a problem with their redefinition of Christian a Christian is a person who believes that Jesus is a savior and who teaches people to love you're going to say Jesus is not a savior he is the Savior and that's going to cause people to hate you and that's what happened in the Roman Empire the Roman Empire had all kinds of gods multiple gods I'm thousands of gods and they traded gods like baseball cards no one had a problem no one said anything about anybody else's God and then Christianity shows up and says all your gods are false you see I would be on all the talk shows in America tomorrow and be greatly loved if I would just change an indefinite article to an indefinite article if I stood up and said Jesus Christ is a savior and Jesus Christ saved me and Jesus Christ died on the cross everyone would love me but it's when I say Jesus Christ is the savior to the exclusion of all other saviors that it causes people to hate yeah would you mind speaking into the know this this could be a whole conference anyways but the we've at least briefly touch on kind of the LGBTQ community like how are we to respond to them and also just how are we to think about I mean it's very connected to politics but just how would we despite you know cqv faithful Christians now should we think about politics and well with regard to politics please first of all realize that that there is no golden age of morality in our country please understand I mean I I respect the flag I'm an American citizen I'm going to obey the laws to the best of my conscience and and all these things but there's only one enduring an incorruptible country and people and King that's Jesus Christ and my loyalty is to the people of God in Africa and Nepal the United States Brazil all throughout the world that's where my loyalty is and so I'm going to make every one of my political decisions not based on you know who do I think is going to save us because no one's gonna save us no political party is going to save us and no political party is incorruptible or without corruption I vote based on this primarily abortion is my number one issue we have seen witnessed the murder of 61 million babies and now outside of the womb and it will get worse old people it should you know it doesn't stop because when abortion started the promise was made it would just be you know and at the moment just a few you know days after pregnancy and things like that and each decade more and more and more too now you can just kill a baby outside of the womb and so I vote with regard to abortion who's going to stand against abortion I vote also with regard to who is going to give the most freedom to the church in that but but even those I vote for I have no hope in it's just those are my two biggest issues who is going to allow for the church to have freedom to proclaim and who is going to be against the murder of babies with regard to you know the the gay community I can I give you an illustration from my own life one of the first if not the first case in the Midwest of AIDS was a guy by the name of Ron and I actually knew him I knew him and I don't know if I don't remember if I was in Illinois living at the time before I went to seminary or if it was after I came was in seminary but came back for break Ron was homosexual everybody knew it you know and it was it was my goodness in the 80s early 80s or whatever mid 80s and I knew him friends of mine knew him he worked at a clothing store he was a he'd see him in bars things like that well I came back and found out that he had this terrible disease that people were terrified of and he was in the hospital in Paducah Kentucky and no one would visit him no one doctors were wearing you know like not hazmat suits but close to it to go in because no one knew what was going on all his uh his lovers is whatever had abandoned him were terrified everything and I went over to the hospital and they didn't know how contagious all this was they didn't know anything all I knew is that Ron I knew Ron and Ron needed Jesus and so I talked to the doctors they cautioned me I think they even had me sign a paper then they put this big suit on me and a mask and head thing and I went in there and I met with Ron like three different times it it was you know he always took care of himself you know he always dressed really nice and and everything but when I went in there it looked like a skeleton that had been wrapped in wet tissue paper with just horrible gigantic sores all over his body and he couldn't speak but he could move his finger and for three days I talked to him about sin about Christ's death about God's total and complete forgiveness and restoration and on the last day I said Ron Ron you know where are you you've heard me you know I've preached and preached and preached you and I said Ron do you recognize that you're a sinner and his I said you know if yes move your finger and he just went and I said do you now see what it means for Jesus Christ to have died on that cross you know are you repenting of your sin have you repented of your sin are you trusting and what Christ did for you wrong Ron do you have the hope of heaven you see that's the Christian response problem is now laws are being passed so that we can't even do that but you know no one at that time I mean doctors nurses I remember saying you're crazy for going in there got to do some crazy things but we got to do those crazy things in love we need to be very very wise and we also you know here's the thing you could say something to me right now you the leader there and I don't know you that well and and I could easily misinterpret it because I don't know you and I think that is oftentimes what goes on I mean never forget the devil is a whisperer let me give you an example if you get out of church or you go to church on Sunday and you get out of your car and the pastor's walking across the parking lot and you say hello pastor and he looks up at you with a very stern look on his face doesn't wave and then goes into the building you don't hear somebody whispering in your ear saying you know maybe the pastor is going through a real trial or maybe he's got to counsel someone who's really struggling that's not what's whispered in your ear what's whispered in your ear is your pastors rude he doesn't love you he doesn't like you did you see the way he just treated you there is a devil and he's alive and well on planet Earth and so you know you hear a lot of a lot of gay people think that we are out to have them killed or put them in concentration camps and then there are a lot of Christians who think that the gays are out there wanting to kill them and put them in concentration camps and that as a way of breaking down communication and what you have to understand the less that you are in a Christian country and we're not in a Christian country the more you have to build a relationship and the more you have to show people with your life who you really are and there are people on this planet who know that I disagree with them but that I would take a bullet for them and defend them you know now I'm not going to defend their sin but I will defend them as a person and the image of God that remains within them and not just that we ought to genuinely care for people and so politics is not the way to solve this problem you know I love that one poster that I saw if you think the problem is really bad wait till you see the government solution thanks for sharing yeah if you can if you could share with us which you know we can always watch a 20 minute video on on YouTube about shadows converging yeah pleasure became a Christian well was really shocking to me personally was you know 2003 in the summer after my freshman year I heard this message on test a true belief I also think like biblical courtship or something like that vocal manhood womanhood and then in the fall he was a hardened Baptist Church you know I'm very state and spoke and you said I want you to praise God with me my wife became a Christian two weeks ago yeah then you're like did you not hear me I was like my wife became a Christian praise God with me already so stunning what happened did you say oh my goodness you know and I just anyways for me personally I just became like dude I don't know if I'm really Christian what I mean even though I've hurt you like a few months before hey I am a Christian yes here that's like crappin paul Washer was deceived he married his own you know anyway so you got married after you were a missionary for yeah and this is really it turns out to be a testimony completely different than what it teaches us many truths that people would think just the opposite you know like well you know paul paul Washer is so hardcore that his wife was probably converted but living with him she probably thought she wasn't because paul Washer doesn't eat or sleep he just fasts all the time and he prays and and everything else and and it really helps you understand this hold that idea of proving your salvation through a chain you know the life that you now have and when i met my wife she was young and you know we we ministered to street kids in the middle of the war I'm talking about bombs blowing up I'm talking about you'd come back with lice in your hair everything and here was this beautiful girl who would do these kinds of things I mean and she loved the Lord and her parents really weren't positive on her being a Christian and she without being rebellious she stood and in all sorts of things I mean a devoted devoted devoted person and I fell in love with her and I fell in love with that and and I really you know counseled and prayer and everything it was everything flew in that direction of marrying her and I did marry her but after we were married and and this is very important I started noticing some things but I didn't say anything because you have to be very very careful about the way you use Authority and sometimes it's better just to keep your mouth shut after I married her everything I believed about her was true I mean she went to places in the jungle where most I had men go with me on the same trips and they broke down crime and she would like you know shut up quit acting like a and I remember she told a group of college students if college guys she said if you could keep complaining I'm gonna shoot every one of you I mean she she could she could do it boy she could do it in the jungles the mountains she could eat stuff a billy goat would puke I mean she did it because she wanted to be a missionary she wanted to be a missionary she wanted to be godly she wanted to be Amy Carmichael she wanted and but after a few years I started noticing something just this her Christian life was discipline discipline and in time if it's just discipline it starts becoming slavery and then almost a bondage of just constantly fighting and striving to be devoted in this constant kind of performance type thing and I would just pray and pray and and realize now I'm talking about a person who you know we were in heavy terraced area war going on bombs blowing up machine guns you know and she was right there by my side so can't fault her on any of that but I just it just seemed like everything was a work of discipline and it was wearing her out wearing her out and we came back to the States for a break and I went to preach in San Antonio in a tent right beside a crack house I'll never forget that and it was a lot of people on the street and everything and I was preaching and I I preached on the evidences of conversion one night and she says she was so miserable and she got in the car and left with the pastor's wife because we had to stay back in council people and she said she was miserable and she got in the car with the pastor's wife and the first thing the pastor's wife said was so Chardo tell me your testimony and so Charles said the whole time I'm telling her my testimony getting saved when I was 12 God was just telling me it's a lie because she went to one of these Christian schools where you know even the preachers would say things like this well all your friends have made their decision you know all your friends have prayed and she prayed that prayer and they confirmed her as saved and that was it and so she was I noticed when I got home she was kind of strange and we went to bed and we drove back to Austin Texas the next day from San Antone and we were about probably half an hour or so away from arriving at the place where we were staying and she looked at me and she said do you believe that I am a Christian and I said chato I have no authority at all to tell you you are a Christian are to tell you you're not a Christian I have authority to tell you what the gospel is and to share with you from the Scriptures the evidences of conversion that's all I said the Holy Spirit you know and she said I have great doubts and I said well here's what we need to do I'm gonna we're gonna go home it was by that time getting later and I said I'm gonna put our two little boys to bed and then I'm going to bed I said you've heard enough sermons out of me from so many other people I said you don't need my counsel I said just get alone with God just and I said but the one thing I would tell you is are you working or are you resting are you working to please God or are you resting and the ever pleasing sacrifice of his son I went to bed and about 1:30 in the morning she woke me up and she was she was just glowing I mean and not you know I don't want to be like some kind of mystical or emotional but the she was glowing because the burden was gone she was no longer working no longer trying to prove no longer trying to live up to a standard she was resting in the finished work of Christ and that's what genuine conversion and a mature understanding of conversion will do that yes our life has changed and will continue to change but those changes they're not the grounds for our resting we're resting in the person of Christ yeah thanks for sharing that leads me to another another question here is just one thing that for me personally has some things that you said in the past well one specific things bothered me just so when it when someone has doubts or just kind of and even in a you know the gospel booklet here you know everything is really awesome but one thing that kind of throws me off is a if a person realizes that they're not a Christian but they desire salvation I just look for you to clarify some things you talked about like continue to cry out to God and seek Him in his word until he's brought a change in your heart how is which obviously I know for sure you know it's like salvations by you know in that you preach you know salvation is by faith and faith alone in Christ and it's not our works obviously but how kit for me it feels like like I can misinterpret some of that can be like instead of just hate those who call on the name of the Lord will be saved or it's like genuine faith in Jesus hey I realize I'm lost it's like God saved me I trust in you but for me in my past it's kind of like man cry out to God's Lake how do I know when I'm crying I'm nothing I'm working hard you know just kind of like God I don't know that have you saved me have you not saved me it's like huh kind of this exhausting thing where I feel like you know we can feel like we're working our way to God and it's killing that's not thing it's more like or anyways just how would you clarify some of that well first of all thank you for that question and you know I'll bring that up to even more editor Joel Becky who had Nicki edited it here's the thing that's so important you know the things that I teach are not things that that were born with me if they are then they're wrong you know it's when we interpret the scripture then we go back through church history and if if no one agrees with our interpretation and everyone else is in agreement about theirs then we're probably wrong and so the things that are in that book are historical and affirmed by history and yet I've seen people take some of the things that even the Puritans have said and it's kind of like if you put a knife in the hands of a surgeon surgeon he can save somebody's life you put the same knife in the hands of an inexperienced person and they'll rip a person to pieces and kill them and it seems like we're never in the center we see easy believe ISM on one hand you know you prayed that prayer you're saved on the other hand I've seen people where they make it so hard I mean no one could get saved they require a perfect repentance and a perfect faith you know before you can have assurance and both faith and repentance or evangelical Grace's and Christian virtues which we grow in so and are never perfect so let me is saying that let me explain I will sit down and tell someone that the Bible commands us in order to be recipients of salvation to repent and believe then I will ask them are you repenting and I make it very very clear I'm going to show you in the scriptures what scriptures say repentance is but I always give this caveat I'm going to give you a description of biblical repentance that comes out of the Scriptures and therefore is is pure is perfect and not even my repentance adds up to that so what I just want you to be able to see from the scriptures is is what is happening to you genuine repentance okay now so I tell them that they must repent I say have you repented and they say well I'm not sure well then let's look at Scripture and they say well there's really not any brokenness over sin I mean I I mean I see what you're saying but I don't see my sin as that is bad at all okay and so the question is what do you do with a person like that that they're actually seeking God and yet they admit themselves no I'm gonna continue on in my sin I mean I'd like to be saved but I really don't see it's that bad you really can't do anything with them you can manipulate them you can do all kinds of things or you can just simply say let's go back through the gospel again and if you really are seeking God and then you really want to be saved than do this keep reading through the gospel and the gospel promises and ask God to show you to reveal to you your sin and and and that's really what we're getting at here when you take somebody through and you tell them the gospel and say you know would you like to be saved yes believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you show them John 3:16 believe do you believe this and I've had countless people tell me well I see what you're saying and I really think that's true but is that it I mean see it's true and I said but but is it true for you is it a reality is that bringing you joy are you resting in it well not really but I see it's true well I can't tell somebody great your converted upon that kind of testimony what I will tell them is let's keep seeking God let's keep crying out to God let's keep going through the scriptures because faith comes by hearing and hearing the word of Christ and so it's what it is is just keep counseling the person in gospel truth until they can actually say you know I'm I dating they're not crying they're not broken they're not ripping their clothes off but they're going you know what I see this I I I see my sin I see I can't save myself and I'm trusting in what Christ did for me you know here's the thing that's real important that I bring up in my testimony is that I'm a guy who preaches a lot on repentance and yet when you hear my testimony even though I was a great sinner you don't see me just falling on the ground and you know ripping at my shirt and beating my chest because of my sin and and I think if you look at Ichabod Spencer's pastoral sketches and just the history of conversions and testimonies you find out that in order to be saved a person must repent acknowledge their sin and and in a real way they see it but the manifestation of that is so different I've met people who I have preached the gospel to and they have literally I thought they were going to collapse under the weight of their sin they were so broken it's like they had murdered a thousand people I've met other people who I believe genuinely repented and yet it wasn't manifested that way they were swallowed up in in the love and grace of God they knew they were a sinner but they were just overcome with joy immediately and so you have to be very very very careful when you're dealing with souls there will always be repentance there will always be faith but it will manifest itself in different ways okay and so here's let me say it this way in superficial evangelism someone will share the gospel and basically say this do you want to go to heaven yes pray this prayer they pray the prayer alright right now welcome into the family of God and the person is trusting in a prayer the other way is take him take them through everything about biblical repentance and if they don't meet up to that perfectly tell them God's not working or take them through biblical faith and if they don't meet up to that perfectly tell them God's not working both those extremes are wrong the thing that I keep doing is just let's go through the scriptures again let's go through the promises again and then what's happening to you tell me is there do you have a tell me about your sin and and you know that's I've sometimes and that this is what's so hard I may I may work with a person over a period of weeks like I helped campus outreach at Virginia Tech I love I mean I'll be there tonight you know in many of the students who come to know Christ they hear the gospel the first time and they like oh you know I never heard that's great and that's wonderful but it may be six weeks eight weeks two months a semester two semesters of going through the gospel with them and then finally one of them you know Wow you know the other night I was reading through this again and it became just real to me I know Jesus is my Savior okay wonderful you know what we want to avoid is superficial evangelism and we also want to avoid a almost a legalism I knew a girl one time I came upon a girl at a conference and she was probably 20 and I think she had read more of the Puritans than I had she was miserable and she had basically memorized just great passages and things on biblical repentance and she says this is not a reality and I looked at her I said darlin that's not a reality in my life you've set before yourself perfection and you've turned grace into works you know a mustard seed so I hope that clears it up a bit yeah that's really really did you guys did you hear the story about me and the guy from Alaska oh no all right this is this will this will clear it up for you so I'm getting ready to preach in Alaska and the grizzly bear population outnumbered the people population in that in that town I'm not kidding so I'm in this little church and there's about 20 people and I'm getting ready to preach and all of a sudden the back doors opened up and a mountain of a man came through those back doors I mean he was priced 65 and he could whipped every one of you sitting there in that meeting today he was I mean you could tell this guy you know he beat up grizzly bears for fun he was a man saddest looking human being I've ever seen he walked up and sat on the front row and I just start preaching the gospel and afterwards I got done I went right to him I said sir what's wrong he looked at me I said you you without a doubt have the saddest countenance of any human being I've ever seen and he pulled out a manila envelope you know like they give you at the doctor's office and he pulled out these x-rays and it was showed his bones and had all these black spots on him and he said I just got this from the doctor they say I'm gonna die in like six weeks I'm gonna die and he said I've never been afraid of anything in my life but I'm afraid and he said I lived all my life out in the bush on a cattle ranch you could even get to his place except by a float plane or rafting or something and he said he said I've never been afraid of anything he said but I believe there's a god and one time I heard some fella talking about this man named Jesus all I know is I'm gonna meet God and I know that I'm not prepared and I said well you heard my message he said yeah I said did you understand it he said well anybody could have understood that and he's and then he said is that it I'm okay now because I understood what you said is that it and I said no sir and then he said um are you guys there desert okay and then he said this he said well what what do I need to do and I said well the Bible says repent and believe the gospel and he goes will how do I make myself do that he goes I believe what you said but it's just in my head I I'm not against it but so I'm supposed to die with hope just because you told me that and I think it's probably right and I said sir here's what we'll do I said I have to fly back tomorrow I'll cancel my plane flight back and I'll stay with you until one of two things happen you get saved are you dying go to hell and he was that kind of man that's the way you needed to talk to him he was a straightforward man he said fair enough so I sat down and I said hmm faith comes by hearing faith comes by hearing the Word of God and I said so I'm gonna take you through all the promises that I can find in the Old and New Testament about God and his power and desire to save and forgive so we went through promises in the old and new Testament for about an hour and and then I said so tell me sir has anything happened to you you know and I don't need a you know I'm not talking about an emotional response I'm not talking about a vision from heaven I'm just talking about the assurance that you believe that that God has done this for you in Christ and he said no he said I think you're a really good guy and I think that what you're telling me is true but no I don't have any peace I'm gonna die I said okay let's go through the promises again and this is this is probably the most beautiful ministry moment of my life he had his he had my Bible on his knees as we were sitting there in that pew and I remember seeing his I can still see his hands they were huge I mean you know her and he had his hands on my Bible and I turned him to John 3:16 again and I said sir let's just read through John 3:16 again he goes well he goes we've done that and I said I know I said but faith comes by hearing I just want you let's pray and then you just read that and so we prayed and and I'm not exaggerating he okay Allah I'll read it and he goes like this he goes his hands were on the Bible and he goes for God so loved the world that he and like this he goes he gave he cook he gave His only Son that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life and then he goes I'm saved all my sins are gone Jesus died for me I've saved I'm saved and I said how do you know that and he said haven't you ever read this verse before do you see what happened the Spirit of God showed him the truth of that verse and he trusted in it and he said you must visit me tomorrow in my house you must come tell my wife this glorious story and I go there the next day to his house and he's just glowing tell her tell her about John 3:16 tell her I'm going to heaven I'm going that you see now most a lot of evangelists would have just prayed a prayer with that man souls are too precious to do that don't manipulate people don't coerce people people are not numbers you may have to deal with one student for four years on and off and after that you may never see any fruit but fruit may come the fact the matter is share the gospel with them and then trust you know and don't put things on them that the Scriptures don't put you know John 3:16 is what God used to save that man did did that text necessarily talk a lot about repentance no not at all but did that man recognize his sin he recognized it enough to throw himself on Christ and Christ alone you see yeah cheering that's very clarifying um briefly would you mind sharing just what some of the scripture references are that you would bring someone through kind of go to for you with at that point yeah when talking about repentance you see it's not enough to tell someone what you need to repent you need to explain to them what it means biblically and in that little book you have I think I talked about Saul of Tarsus and when I talk about repentance I go to the Damascus Road because they asked me what is repentance and it's an it's a change of mind and then I know what they're thinking you know well that's kind of superficial and I said no not really I said the Bible in the Bible the mind is the control center of everything you are okay now you're all seated there very calmly right now because you think that that building is not engulfed in flames so your your blood pressure has been determined by what you think your actions your emotions everything but if your thinking changed it would change every other aspect of you your emotions your will change you physically if you thought that that building was engulfed in flames your blood pressure would rise up you'd start trembling you would jump up out of your seat you would run out of the building you see so the in the Bible the mind is a big deal so the Apostle Paul R Saul of Tarsus thought that Jesus was the greatest false prophet in the history of Israel and he thought that Christians were an enemy to the people of God and he thought that and so he was on his way to Damascus to imprison and possibly kill Christians in all the while he blaspheme the name of Christ he gets somewhere on the road to Damascus and what happened to him his mind changed it was a matrix like you know Copernicus moment he he realized Paul realized at that moment he was wrong about everything he was wrong about everything that truly mattered he thought Jesus was a false prophet only to find out he's the Son of God he thought Christians were enemies of Israel only to discover they're the people of God and he was killing them he realized he was wrong about everything and what did he do he changed his mind or his mind was changed for him we could say and he goes to Damascus and he begins to proclaim the faith he once sought to destroy now think about this is a girl in college okay and she's really good-looking she's like super model and she knows it and she lives most of her life in front of a mirror she just cares about clothes and pop culture and her girlfriends and her boyfriends and how she looks and his in she is she in style and and she is just vain vain vain and every day she goes to class she sees this girl sitting there that's really plain and before class the girl has her Bible maybe sometimes she reads it and so this really knockout girl in her little Posse find it a enjoyable thing to make fun of this girl to laugh at her behind her back sometimes to her face could care less about her think she's an absolute failure a zero but one day when the posses not with her this girl walks over to the plain girl and sits down and says so what's that book all about and she notices the kindness and the sincerity and a beauty on that girl that she can't figure out and she hears the gospel and God begins to work and that vain girl finds out what it she's no different than the Apostle Paul she discovers right there her mind changes she realizes she is wrong about everything her pop culture her looks her clothes her friends her status she realizes that in everything that's important she is totally and completely wrong and her mind changes and then so does everything else that has been the best illustration I can use to describe biblical repentance a businessman goes by a street preacher every day before he goes into the skyscraper he owns he hates the God because he you know he tries to be classy and posh and everything and here's this guy in front of his building but one day listens to him and he discovers that all this wealth is prestige the respect he has it's all worthless and his whole life is wrong now that doesn't mean the pretty girl stops being pretty and it doesn't mean the businessman stops being a businessman but it means that every direction of those gifts changes you see and then there's faith faith please do not ever tell a college student that faith is a you know soaring kirkegaard leap in the dark faith is not a leap in the dark it's a leap out of the dark into the light of God's Word faith is believing the promises of God resting on those promises and that's what Hebrews 11 is about you know the substance of things hoped for you if you take Hebrews 11:1 by itself you can do some pretty ridiculous things you know think about it I hope to fly I think I can fly I've never seen a man fly but I have assurance I have conviction according to Hebrews 111 one that I can do it so I'll climb on top of a building jump off and die Hebrews 11:1 will lead you into heresy unless you realize it's in the context of God's inerrant promises and and one of the best illustrations that I use when I'm witnessing to someone about faith is in Romans 4 and I use the definition of faith in 11:1 and show why it's necessitous esse T to know the promises of God and then listen to what it says in Roman or without becoming weak in faith Abraham contemplated his own body now as good as dead he was about a hundred years old and the deadness of Sarah's womb he looked at the physical possibility of him and Sarah having a baby in it zero we have to look at our works our goodness our religion and everything and recognize it's there's zero possibility of us being saved or right before God through those things then it says yet with respect to the promise of God now we need to know a promise we need to know at least one promise maybe John 3:16 with respect to the promise of God he did not waver in unbelief and it says being fully assured okay that what God had promised he was able also to perform so when I talk to someone about faith I go as you look at that passage John 3:16 are you assured that what God has promised here he has performed in you do you have eternal life is that are you trusting you see and now with regard to the death of Christ there's something I always do and I almost never hear anybody do this even in modern evangelicalism among the best of preachers I rarely hear this and yet if you were to read from Spurgeon on back through the 15th century all the way to agustin you would find this in every sermon and it's not mentioned any more when I talk to people I will say this do you do you want to know what the gospel is all about I mean really all about why Christ died everything and most of the time they'll say well sin you know they know enough to say sin and I go whoa you know sin is not the primary problem and they go what do you mean and I say well let me give you this way if if a mafioso was arrested and was being taken to court but as he's going to court he's laughing and as he's sitting in court he's laughing why is he laughing because he knows the judge that's going to judge him is just as corrupt as he is but everything changes for that mafioso when he looks up and they quickly removed that judge and put a just and righteous judge in the place I said man's greatest problem is not their sin their sin would not be a problem if God was unholy our greatest problem is God is holy and righteous and were not and then I always go to this you see here's here's the question what does a really good and loving God do with people like us what do you mean well we're not good we're not loving so what does he do with us and see the the greatest theological problem in the Bible is this if God is good he cannot forgive you if God is good he cannot forgive you any more than a good judge can forgive a criminal a good judge a man a judge who forgives a criminal is not good he's corrupt you see the question according to Roman's 3 is how can God be just and yet justify or declare righteous sinners and the answer is found in this the cross of Christ that's what the cross is all about it's about the harmony of God's attributes God cannot show mercy at the expense of his justice he must show mercy in harmony with his justice and he does that on the cross in his justice he becomes a man goes to the cross and bears the punishment of divine justice in our place and he pays for every bit of our debt when he said it is finished he paid for everything now God can be just and the justifier of the wicked because he paid the price with his own life you see and that's what I really center around constantly is that idea the old writers would call it the harmony of the attributes of God I've heard evangelist say this instead of being just with you God was loving that's really sad because you're saying God's love is unjust God must be just and loving and he does that through the cross you see that's why the cross is the greatest manifestation of the glory of God because it is the great moment when God's attributes are revealed in perfect harmony when he when he judged Sodom and Gomorrah his attributes weren't perfectly revealed his justice was but not his mercy when he showed mercy to Adam his attributes were not perfectly revealed because he reverted he he revealed mercy but not justice on the cross and his son bearing our sin and taking the wrath that was due us he manifests his righteousness and his mercy in perfect harmony and that's very important there just to clarify is that what you're saying that a lot of modern evangelicals don't reach yea they don't preach it I've gone all around this world and I can't tell you if I had a dime for every time a person's come up to me and said this after hearing that I mean with tears they've said this I've been a Christian for thirty years I trusted in the fact that Jesus died for my sins on Calvary I'm a Christian but I never really understood how him dying on a cross could actually pay for my sins until you explained that he was crushed under the wrath of God in my place you see and that's what this is all about everything is about the revelation of the fullness of God's attributes and that needs to be put forward in our evangelism you see is really beautiful when you think about what he did I mean the multicolored multifaceted glory of God in the cross of Christ which is I guess clarifying he didn't die just his word the main purpose isn't because of our sin but the main purpose is to glorify God to glorify God and and yet God's glory is most revealed in our salvation and in what it took for our salvation I'm I've written several books on the gospel and and things like that but I've been working on a book for 25 years that no one's ever seen it's a couple of thousand pages it is it is just on the cross and it probably won't be done until I'm somewhere in my 80s as a matter fact when the doctors told my wife I was dead she said all of a sudden in her heart it was like someone spoke to her and said he's not dead he hasn't finished his book and so she told me never finished that book but what it does is I take every verse in the Bible that deals with the pre-existence of Christ in glory his incarnation suffering death resurrection ascension and to the right hand of God explained everything in Greek and Hebrew and then go from the second century all the way up to modern scholars and take the best of everything and put it before God's people so that someone who can't spend ten hours a day in a library can read the best of what what happened and right now for example I'm just working I'm back to the first book there's like six books I'm redoing the first book again and it's explaining the motivation why God did all this and one is his glory which I've already dealt with that in the book and the other is his love to express his love and that's an amazing thing that the eternal love of the triune God of the Father Son and Holy Spirit this perfect match 'less infinite love the church is being invited into that and will one day know that fully as the father has loved the son so he loves the church that when you start thinking about that but God also saved the third motivation for joy for joy and it's not that without us his joy would be limited but his joy his his joy is in the great work of redemption that he has brought about in us the changes he makes in us the the the love that we will return to him but what you need to understand is that the terminology that's used especially in the Old Testament is like when it says shouts of joy that he will he will shout with joy over his people it is a joy it says he will be quieted in his love and then he will shout with joy it is a love that that brings silence into the heart of God that is so deep but it can't remain that way all of a sudden then it explodes with a shout of love and that what you have to understand is that God is more joyful in you then you will ever be in him he is more joyful to see you than you are to see him he's more happy with pardoning you than you are with receiving pardon I mean is that not an encouragement because something's always whispering in your ear he's just sick of you you know and and and as such it's it's a damnable lie he you know in the book of Solomon it talks about you know with one glance of your eyes you know the groom is is excited and in it it's overwhelming my young brothers and sisters in Christ you know someone came to our church and listened to me preached for about three weeks I usually don't preach in the church and after about you know hearing me on three Wednesdays or something they went up to one of our elders and said it has has Paul compromised and that elder laughed he said he knew what he was going to say he said what do you mean they go well we've been here for three weeks and all he's preached about is the love of God for his people the unconditional love of God and my and one of the elder said no what you're seeing for the first time is the real paul Washer instead of all those youtube things where he yells at everybody you see the whole point that you've got to see is this if your heart has been regenerated the greatest motivation your greatest need is to understand the love of God toward you and the more you understand that love of God the more you will fight against sin the more you will stand against persecution but most importantly the happier you will be I mean you have no idea you guys don't I mean I'm so much older than you and I've studied so much more than you let me tell you something you don't have an idea even how much he loves you I've been doing this for 35 years and I haven't even scratched the surface of how much he loves you you you almost want to do like Peter you know when Peter saw dia you know the miracle of the fish being pulled in and he said he fell down said Lord depart from me I'm a sinful man it's almost like Peter was saying to Jesus look this is wrong this is wrong you should never allow someone as wicked as me to see something so marvelous and when you start understanding the love of God my dear brothers and sisters that's the way you're going to be you're gonna go this is just wrong I mean this is too good don't you realize what I am don't you realize how much I fail don't and and if you belong to him I'm gonna tell you something that love that's what you need to get to know and it will not lead you to sin it will not lead you to being careless it will lead you to wanting to be holy but not in a slavery sorta way it will fill you with so much life and so much Kurt encouragement that even when you fail you get back up again not because you think sin is a light thing but because you realize his love is so much bigger than your sin than anything I just wish I just wish that I hope that you guys outgrow me in one thing your knowledge of the love of God in Christ because that's what will make you triumphant Christians knowing how much God loves you and it's all in the cross it's it's all there and what he has in store for you but the new heaven and the new earth you see that new heaven and new earth it's not you know a lot of times we look at our life you're young you don't do this yet but you will you look at your life and you look back and go you know so many missed opportunities and the way I should have loved my wife love to my brothers and sisters in Christ and I'm getting older death is coming there's so much I wish I could have done so much I used to say this I wish I'm envious of the patriarchs because they lived eight hundred nine hundred years and me I only get seventy seventy five and I'm not gonna ever study physics or astronomy or all the you know things that I wanted because we somehow think it's gonna come to an end and then we're gonna inherit a completely different existence that's not true God is creating a new heaven and a new earth it's this earth it's that body of yours but it's new not just back in the garden it's better than the garden but it's like this it's just perfect and incorruptible and perfect union with God you see if one of you guys is a runner and you love to run you love to run you love it we are here yeah but when you run sometimes you have to be careful because you sit there and go is my running competitive with my love for God am i running too much do I think about running too much let's see there come a day when you will run in a new heaven and new earth you'll run like you've never run before but this is it that running will in no way you'll love running more than you did you do now but it will in no way be a competition to your love for God it will just make you more aware of your love for God it will it will be an expression of your love for God and you'll watch you run he will delight in you you see it's so much is waiting for you live here live here on this planet live here work here try to make everybody around you closer to Christ more conformed to Christ love serve because your life when it ends it begins nothing will be lost your relationship with your wife or your husband will not be lost it will change but it won't be worse it'll be better you see everything so heightened so beautiful and the love you have for me it's the outdoors I have to be careful does this stream compete with God forests compete with my love for God but there it'll all just return to God and praise you see and that all these types of think when you start realizing what he has for you it's gonna make you so joyful and the joy of the Lord will be your strength when you realize that his love is immutable oh gosh what that will do for you it won't make you complacent it'll drive you Paul said the love of Christ compels me not his love for Christ but his knowledge of Christ love for him you see you got so much ahead of you and that's a wonderful thing thanks for your speaking so much hope and truth to our lives with a love body well we've stolen about 30 more minutes of your time than we agreed to now down to keep on going if you love God I'm fine just keep going all right hey well huh thank you all right well my my friend Austin over here yeah here's a question for you so this question is is it this one this one that's one you our works judged in a person that is accepted Christ since we know that our works are not what reconciles us to God you're talking about the final judgment um I think there's more like I guess yes yeah we can say you know I don't know I really struggled with that issue and for me I hold that in attention something like I do other doctrines you see there there are many things we don't fully understand and so we need to hold them in attention for example I know that God is one and I know that there are three persons distinct and real persons that are God now I don't know how that works I really don't I know that we are saved by grace alone that is it I mean plus nothing plus nothing I know that there is some degree there there is a sense though that we will stand before God and we will be judged and that adds a note of solemnity to me but it doesn't cause despair why because although I'm gonna hold on to that that I will stand before God that my life will in some way what I've done will pass through the fire I am aware that there are eternal rewards and eternal losses I'm aware of all that but I am aware of my complete and perfect standing in the person of Jesus Christ I am also aware that those things that I have achieved I'm not the author of God achieved them by His grace through me and so I can't answer all those questions but for me it it is a motivation although not the chief but it is a motivation as it was in Paul's life according to 2nd Corinthians chapter 5 Christ tells us not to lay our have our rewards on this earth but lay up you know treasures in heaven all those things are held firmly in place like a setting in a ring but they're set within the realm of salvation that is a 100% grace and so I just hold those in attention and I wish I could give you a greater answer it's a very difficult question but hold those hold what we do know in attention and also know this God did not send his son to die on a cross so that the first thing you would see when you entered into a heaven was a scowl on the face of God because of all your failure I sometimes wonder you know the Bible talks about Paul talks about in Romans a greater weight of glory and then Jesus talks about Authority someone will be set over many cities and you know I know men that and women that reflect even now in this life they seem to have a greater capacity of the glory of God and they seem to reflect it to a greater degree than I do I have you ever met someone like that well you know what I don't envy them and it doesn't make me feel sad about me I just marvel in in that reflection and the grace of God in them okay and then I know people men particularly I could mention a couple that have such spiritual authority that if if me and a whole bunch of guys that are pretty well known are all in a room together talking I know one man who if he walks through the door without demanding anything everybody gets quiet just looks at him and waits for him to speak he has a spiritual authority do you see that I don't have and I'm not envious of that I marvel in the grace of God and I know that whatever you know when I see Charles Spurgeon or I see you know somebody like that in heaven and and maybe they have a greater weight of glory than me and greater authority or whatever it's not going to be a cause for jealousy or a cause to be sad about my own condition because all that's gone I think mostly it will cause me to marvel in the grace of God so I keep that in in kinda in that context and I'm sure if someone sees this video they'll try to tear that part apart but I just don't understand very much about that yeah feel free at any point they'd shut down the conversation I do I'm going if anyone needs to eat roller we feel free but I'm done in another question is uh can you share a story you wrote this one - oh yeah can you share story with us of a moment in your life where you really struggled to enjoy Jesus and maybe what was it that brought you back to anoint Christ and what prices did you cling to that just became sweet yeah every struggle in my life comes back is is eventually overcome and healed by a greater knowledge of the love of God in Christ and the perfect work of Christ on our behalf I have nothing I would have no security no hope no comfort no anything apart from the power of the Cross but I was raised kind of a thing where my father was really demanding if you made a 95 on a test why didn't you make a hundred if you scored 20 points why didn't you score more there were five shots you could have taken and I was never really in the inward circle you know of cool guys or this or that always wanted to be and it kind of that hung out with me I know it's really immature and carnal but it was like this thing where all right I'm gonna make it into God's inner circle okay I'm not going to be outside I'm gonna be one of his top guys you know and when I was in Peru and to be first probably three and a half years four years man I can honestly tell you I I did a lot of probably wrong things I was so immature but man I worked 16 hours a day 18 hours a day I risked my life I made sacrifices I and it was all even though I wouldn't have said it in the back of my head it was all just to be God's guy you know to be kind of that you know I didn't want Jim Elliot to outrun me I didn't want you know I wanted to be in that circle and one day I collapsed I just kept getting more and more miserable and I remember where it was is on the third floor this old building we rented and I just kind of collapsed there on the stairs and I actually said this I mean God has mercy I said god I fear you I don't want to die and go to hell I don't want to die and go to heaven and see your disappointment in me you know just I didn't live up to what I want it to be I can't go anymore I can't work any harder this wasn't about salvation it was just about something else and you can call it pride I don't care what you call it it's just a matter of fact it's just the way it was in my life and and you know I didn't have a vision or something but just Bible verses you know that I'd read about the love of God especially Romans 8 things like that just kind of started coming to memory and I realized that that the love of God is just absolutely perfect that everything is in Christ that he he doesn't just legally forensic ly accept me now that is the basis all right it is a legal forensic righteousness in but it's not just I'm in some impersonal covenant God really doesn't like me but you know he made an agreement but a genuine real love of a father to a son founded upon the perfect work of an elder brother and I realized at that moment I did not have to move a half inch to my left or a half inch to my right to gain some greater love of God and that's what I would want for all of you young believer system is to see that that I mean look there's this girl in my church and she's a lovely lovely kind of college-age girl she struggles with assurance and she doesn't anymore but she did and when she would come to me I'd always look at her and say dear you're forgetting what I told you there's only one hero in this story and it's Jesus our elder brother and that's what we rest on and and that was a defining moment for me you know God didn't look around the earth and say oh there's a Spurgeon wonderful I found him you know not find a Spurgeon he created a Spurgeon God didn't find an apostle paul he made one and he made you you and I might not be as if you know we might not be apostles or the prints of preachers like Spurgeon we might not be a a Jim Elliot who lays down his life but he he's making us he has a plan for us just like the exact we fit in his ring in the same way the Spurgeon does in the same way that all those other guys do and and that's what you need to hold on to that you right now will not be more loved in heaven than you are right now and you will not be more right with God in heaven than you are right now now you will be transformed and glorified and no longer have to deal with sin but as far as your position before God it's perfect now and that's why even when he has to discipline you he disciplines you not out of anger or wrath or judgment he disciplines you out of love you see nothing can change that your sin is not stronger than the redemptive work of God in the person of Jesus Christ that's a wonderful thing you question I have is so this is actually a reading day it's a they have you were preparing for finals and then they're about to go under you know summer break and uh you know me and David over here we're going to Mexico and you know but anyways a couple going to summer project like this in general you might be going home or just what advice would you have you know counsel of pursuing odd knowing him it's just you know from temptation and yeah well go to sleep for a while that'd be the first thing you know when you go home if you go home to your home where your parents are especially if they're unbelievers or you feel like they're not quite where they ought to be and you've grown a lot of college submit yourself to them love them and listen more than you speak pray for them honor them bless them the other thing is is look you need to develop not just for the summer but you know 365 days a week you need to develop life practices life disciplines and those two that you need to develop most importantly you need to work on this summer and that is your daily reading of Scripture and your daily communion with God in prayer now look I've got books all behind me I got them piled on my desk everywhere if a messy desk is the sign of a genius well they're nine Stein's an idiot compared to me but let me share with you something no amount of books none of them take the place of the book and I have met people that have really good theology but as they're talking to me I realized that they got the really good theology just from books and not from the book you can really tell a lot of times Anna so I want you to develop a the daily life discipline of reading scripture and I want you to do that not sporadically I mean if you were to start war in peace in chapter 13 I would think something was wrong with you you know read through the Bible Genesis to Revelation if you've never read the Bible at all start in Matthew and read through to the book of Revelation then start in Genesis and read all the way through to Revelation and then make that a practice and you know your capacity for example some people have the capacity to read 10 chapters a day I do not five I do not I've settled on with my daily reading even though it's my job to study the scriptures and I'm a I'm a study 12 hours that does not take the place of daily reading and so I sit down read through the Bible and that was one of the Puritans strengths I mean when someone asks us a question about the Holy Spirit we go to John 16 they went to some obscure texts in the Minor Prophets because they knew the Bible you see and so now here's something very important there's reading and praying with your boots on and your boots off okay this is very important to learn this reading with your boots on that's reading the Bible and it's work that's when I'm studying for example for a sermon or right now dealing with a Hebrew noun that I'm having to deal with and try to figure out what on earth it really means that's hard work and if that's all I did with the Scriptures is dissected pretty soon you burn out that that's reading the Bible with your boots on working struggling makes your brain really tired I need reading the Bible with my boots off so that means getting up in the morning cup of coffee you know ain't ya awake now pour it on my head and then add two cups I pour one on my head and then shrink one the in just reading I don't have to understand everything I don't have to dissect everything I just want to read it to enjoy it just like I would read a letter from my wife if she was a long way away I want to read it if some big question comes up I'm a jot it down but I'm not gonna go to the library and try to now this is just to meet with God and read his word now it's the same way with prayer many people go man prayer is hard work and I go well it depends on what you're talking about intercession is hard work it's warfare nothing I'm sorry I don't find much fun in it interceding for Nations for the end of abortion interceding for all these different things interceding for my friends that are hurting or struggling with sin or interceding for myself or my family or it's hard if that's all your prayer life is pretty soon you're going to burn out but while you're reading the word commune with God and then when you finish reading those three chapters or I'm sure you guys are a lot more spiritual 30 chapters as you're reading through that when you know talk to God maybe even some of the things you find talk to him about them rejoice in him walk with Him I don't want to be irreverent I hate this irreverent flippant attitude people have today but just sitting down with him the old guys called it at risk you know a meeting with God I love to walk in the woods and things and sometimes I'll just walk down our Lane and talk to the Lord about all sorts of things enjoy him communing with you I have found that that usually women are for some reason are a lot more given to this art but you men need to really struggle and and get to the point where you know you're just opening your heart to God and you're seeing thing you know I enjoy things I enjoy talking to him about things and so you need both those things boots on boots off and you need work on that this some you know there's two things well if we want to really let's let's put three things out here cultivate the mind of Christ cultivate a relationship with Christ and then cultivate a relationship with the people of God with God's people you know I love that word I love the word cultivate in the Book of Psalms I think 37 in the new American Standard its cultivate faithfulness I love that because it is you know the Bible talks about you reap what you sow you know you're you're plowing you're sowing you're reaping and hopefully it's good fruit so that's a word that you need to remember cultivate man and guys enjoy yourself and enjoy yourself in you know enjoying God after I became a Christian I praise God that I worked really hard and I was serious but I missed a lot of wonderful opportunities at relationships with people that if I could go back I would have probably been more relational especially when you're in college it's such a unique time you have so many people around you and and it's a great opportunity it's a great opportunity see I'm not near as mean as you thought I was

Channel: HeartCry Missionary Society

Views: 130,092

Rating: 4.9154615 out of 5

Keywords: paul washer, heartcry

Id: yEFDRlPe2bY

Length: 105min 4sec (6304 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 11 2019