Q & A with Alistair

the following message is made available by truth for life for more information visit us online at truthfortheworld.org so just a brief prayer father hallo this time we pray guard and guide our comments and our questions lest having listened to such careful exposition of James we immediately fall foul of much of the instruction we've received may the words of my mouth our mouths the meditation of our hearts be acceptable in your sight Lord our strength and our Redeemer amen all right so the microphones are here if you put up your hand you have a question or comment to make then someone will bring the microphone to you and we'll go from there if you say your name incidentally and where you're from when you when you speak that would be terrific small and experienced board and we've asked other pastors and haven't gotten the answers and the question is should we be tithing from what we're getting we have no administrative costs so we're just we're wondering if we have money now that's not being used should we be typing all right I think I I think I heard you saying that you've got a small congregation and you've got so much money that you're wondering if as a congregation you should tithe it it's a ministry outside the country to - I'm sorry the ministry is outside the country yes sir and it generates money to America all the money comes to us and a hundred percent of it goes to India but we don't we're just wondering should we be tithing with it we're not no just send it all to India okay [Applause] hi Allister Steve from Charlotte North Carolina you've been in ministry for 30 plus years if you could go back or speak to the 30 year old version of yourself what would you say hmm I'd say slow down don't be so hot a Tory or hortatory I think as you say beware of thinking that you can drive the people as it were and try try and try and lead them by example try and let them know sooner rather than later that you regard it as a great privilege to have been called to do this and that you do actually love them it's possible for you to love them and for them not to know that you do so however you come up with a way to do that I would say to myself make sure you do that a lot sooner than you've ever done that seek out the counsel of men who have impacted your life and whom you respect and trust and ask them to be very honest with you send them a couple of year I would send them a couple of my sermons and and bite my fingernails waiting on their reply those kinds of things commit myself to a more diligent prayer life be more diligent in in study don't be lazy don't hide don't try and get by on your wits all those things actually going all night think about the I wish I had no and then and even when I know them now it's so much of doing them as we saw in James those kinds of things David from Pennsylvania what counsel would you give to a young pastor in the delicate issue of disciple an older men hmm well you know the issue the issue in relationship to that to the age is an interesting question isn't it you know in in in Peter where where he's given that directive to them so I exhort the elders among you as a fellow elder and then he goes on to say all of you clothed yourselves with humility toward one another God opposes the priority gives grace to the humble I you know spiritual maturity is not necessarily tied to age to chronological age and so there there needs to be a measure of humility I think on the part of those of us who are older to take lessons from those who are younger because in in in recognizing the spiritual maturity of some who are younger than us we we realize that we we need them and we benefit from them if we are the younger people giving that advice we have to do it in a way that recognizes that age does have some significance that respect for those who have lived longer is is something that is a matter that we ought to pay attention to both within the culture as a whole and and certainly within the framework of the church often when we're young we we can come across as if we really do know it all and it's a pity that these old codgers have missed the boat for so long and they must be absolutely thrilled that we've now shown up so that we can put put our lives back together again I mean it it does come back to the issue of tone in part doesn't it that we were thinking about earlier so I would say you know how do how do we do it we do it cautiously we do it graciously I would say that we do it manok infrequently but you know remember that Spurgeon was what 20 years old just read just read the opening of knowing God and and that opening section there as you know after Packer says as all clowns yearn to play Hamlet so I have yearned to write a treatise on God and then and then he goes immediately to that great piece by by Spurgeon well Spurgeon could never have passed the church if if he was stumbled by the fact that people were older than him because nearly everybody was older than him so it's a dance isn't it on both sides those of us who are older have to be humble enough to recognize that we have we have people around us who may be more spiritually mature than us and or at least as mature and therefore we're not we are not to deprive ourselves of the benefit that God provides by the gifting he's given to those who are younger than ourselves West Middlesex Pennsylvania oh sorry I've been Department we talked earlier in the breakout session about worship what input do you have in the worship in the music selection of the worship service what Impa do I have yet do you have influence and as much as Ruth allows me I actually have quite a lot more than more than I think many people in my position would have I hope not in a heavy-handed way I hope I hope in a way that recognizes that when we when we study the passage of Scripture as we're going through the week where we have the responsibility of opening up the text I find myself just constantly writing down lyrics along the side of my notes and so I will often pass those on to Ruth and say this is not to restrict in any way your your selection of material but these are the kind of things I have in mind and so I think the honest answer is that the way in which we would frame these services is in a collaborative way and but but we have moved away from the idea of you know the pastor being a guest preacher in his own congregation where the the quotes Minister of worship essentially frames everything and and basically says to the pastor you have you know 27 minutes and as I don't like that and so we don't do that yep Jeremiah from Middletown Maryland my question is I I was recommended by several Anglican friends to read and T write surprised by hope I did so and I came away somewhat confused by his argument connecting the resurrection to the new heaven and new earth from Revelation being this earth here and to get busy in the kingdom of God physically now I didn't read much about substitutionary atonement in that book and I'm wondering was he incorrect or maybe placing an overemphasis on that at the expense of the atonement how does one if you've read it or familiar with it how does one reconcile these things because I felt a great emphasis on Kingdom at the expense of atonement and I'm not so sure maybe I read it wrong but it left me wrestling with that topic mm-hmm I have read that book and it's some time since I've read it and so I don't have that clearly in my mind so that I I can't say oh yes I remember I think that in the stuff that anti right has done both on the resurrection and in terms of of Kingdom work I get the impression that right in those sections is seeking to counteract much of the views of heaven being up there and out there and gone and totally unrelated to anything in terms of what what it will mean for a new Jerusalem to come down out of heaven as a city for God so I think that he is in part but I can't speak for him obviously he's in part reacting to that the absence I would I don't think that he would set notions of his view of the kingdom in juxtaposes to the atonement but as I see I can remember that part of the book I would say that anti right and this his live-streamed I I would say I would say the anti right who is who is clearly brilliant and has ended up as in Andrews University in Scotland of all places should be read with caution and in in terms of historicity in terms of the resurrection in terms of those things I think he's absolutely super I I did read him on the section in Colossians that I was rambling around in yesterday and will continue to ramble for a while in the morning and and and and it was it was very very helpful but as to your specific question really atonement I can give you a better answer I'm sorry yep I'm Dan from Arizona you have been engaged in several conversations with Dennis Prager and with Zuni jasser in Arizona and I'm wondering how you decide how and when to engage in public forums what criteria do you use what is your goal and desire obviously it's a gospel goal but and what type of parameters do you set on those meetings in order to be able to speak the gospel clearly well thank you the honest answer is that you know I'm carried on Salem on Salem stations those events were both organized by Salem communications and they so the initiative came from them I had no control over the parameters in either situation at all and the one in Arizona that perhaps you were more familiar with with the Muslim doctor and and Dennis the the man who moderated that discussion was himself a kind of political gentleman and so the conversation almost inevitably went in that direction and I I mean apart from apart from saying hey wait a minute this is conversation I was a guest and when you're at a guest in that situation you you you don't have the same freedom that you might have if if you have folks around your own table in the in the one most recently at the Reagan Library with Dennis I I found that a much easier situation because Hugh Hewitt was concerned to ask essentially theological questions of us and therefore he paved the way for for me at least to be able to interact on that level and so I suppose I'm saying that the key to it unless you were just left by yourself I mean I wouldn't mind debating somebody like Dennis Prager in a straightforward you know Oxford debate but that's not what happens and so I I tried I tried to take my chances as they came I forgot some things like um my God my God why have you forsaken me I couldn't bring up the Sun in my mind and the heat at the moment and people who were very quick to tell me afterwards so yeah okay we're done oh sorry from Middlefield Ohio yesterday evening you on preaching on Henry we proclaim you mentioned the need to have a reputation of faithfulness to scripture over faithfulness to a doctrinal position and so I'm wondering by what standard do we determine whether we're doing that when we're preaching a text that lends itself to a particular doctrinal position that may be more or less fundamental to the faith like a text on great salvation by grace alone through faith alone or a text that may reference particular atonement okay that's good I think what I think what I was saying was that it is more important to be known for faithfulness to the scriptures than faithfulness to a particular theological perspective I was not saying that a theological perspective is unimportant nor was I trying to deny my own theological perspective but what I was saying was what I was saying and that is I would like I would I the main things are the plain things and the plain things are the main things so there are certain things that are absolutely foundational to us within the within the framework of faith there are there are other things that we may for example a view of eschatology we may have divergent views on we're both agreed were all agreed that Jesus Christ will return in power and in glory once we get to the issues of exactly when and so on and we might go at it in different ways so to your point I think what we do is we preach the text of Scripture we preach the Scriptures as they're given so for example if we're dealing with first Timothy - I think it's force Timothy - now I have well you could check I think its first ability to think that God is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance right so first Peter to second Peter 3:9 I got a look up first Timothy to because I don't know why I have it in my mind no it's not second Timothy 2 2 right hang on he's still there questioner I'm just good I want to make sure what I'm talking about myself it's first Timothy 2:4 who's the brave spark down here this is good and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior who desires all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth if I miss quoted it I apologize but that's the verse that I had in my mind which is force Timothy 2:4 so when we teach first Timothy 2:4 we teach first Timothy 2:4 we don't have to we don't have to squeeze around in it and wriggle around it says what it says and it means what it says right but so what it points up is the difference between the fundamental willingness of God and the universality of the gospel appeal and the secret decree of God whereby in Deuteronomy 29:29 the things that are secret belong to the Lord our God and they have been made known to us the things that he wants us to know we know and in that great mystery there is a mystery some of us want immediately to correct the Bible lest in case somebody thinks that we don't hold to the proper view I don't care if you think I've got the wrong view I'm just gonna teach the text for now and if you teach the Bible eventually as you teach through the Bible unless you and if you teach it with a big F and a small T then you will teach your framework all the time from the text if you teach it with a big T for text and a small F for framework then the text will dictate your exposition and your delivery it doesn't mean that we just a walking contradiction but it does mean that there will be times when people listen to his preach and they'll think I think our pastor had some kind of charismatic experience apart with all the things he's talking about now and I think our pastor is a raving they're just a raving just I think our pastors raving is that enough on that that I can direct confuse the issue with that thank you I did confuse he actually yeah okay successful hi Daniel loves B Maryland so I'm a youth pastor and I have this group of kids that's been coming to my youth group that they just they're in the neighborhood close by and they walk to the youth group but the problem is when they get there they're usually there just to play basketball and they're generally disrespectful to me and my leaders and don't follow the rules anything like that they've become a problem for my other students so my question to you and this is something I've really been wrestling with is when does evangelism stop and protecting my other students start well evangelism never stops and protecting your students shouldn't stop either so we I'd see you have a dilemma what are we going to do I think the Rowdies would beat them with a stick [Applause] yeah and then and then we'll just take it from there no III get it entirely because I as you say that I remember a fascinating evening in my life when I was young was a long time ago now and I was in I was in stockton-on-tees in the in the northeast of England myself and two friends we had a singing group they could sing I was just making up the making up the numbers but when we began to do our presentation in a youth context like that we were into we're into a couple of our songs and the back doors opened and the bunch a bunch of bikers came in and they obviously had seen the cars or something and in through the doors they came and they made their presence felt immediately I remember we had some kind of song that was like I don't know what it was but they didn't like it that much and they began to begin to make a sound like I like the howling of wolves in the middle of it so my friends singing like you know teach me thy way O Lord and they're going and then I thought it was so funny and I was supposed to be concerned I'm like man this this is one of the best nights I've ever had you know and then and then like an idiot I say hey you guys up there if you think you can do better than this why don't you come up here that was not a good thing to say because they came up and they eventually had to call the police to clear the clear the place so I want to take seriously your question when you organize something you have every right to say these this is the framework these are the parameters and I think there is a way to do it I think there is a way to make sure that they feel a genuine sense of welcome and that that but if if we're going to enjoy the activities upfront of basketball and stuff like that then when we get to the point of the talk we can appeal to their Sensibility if it exists and if they can then we can just just tell them you know it's clear it's pretty clear that you're not ready for that for for this talk and you should probably drift off now before I beat you with a stick done that's a jobless yeah Patrick Abbott from Frederick Maryland and my question is also musically related I know from having listened to you for many years that you were a big fan of Paul Simon's and I have also noticed in his recent tour that he has begun to wear a cross and I've wondered if you have ever gotten a chance to meet this man and speak to him no no I haven't I would I truly I truly would love to yeah I haven't I could tell you more along those lines but it would be an embarrassment to my wife and you know how I don't like to do that in in in 19 in 1974 Paul Simon played at the Royal Albert Hall in London with Laura bomba and I was there with a few of my friends from LBC and we decided that we should corner him as he leave as he left and we would choose one of our group two to give him to give him a copy of the gospel and so Mandy the the one of my friends who is now actually at region at Regions college he worked for the BBC for a while a Welsh guy she was she was the prettiest of the group I was second but she and so so we we said to her Mandy you're the best shot we've got you know and he came out of the door and out of the side and and she stepped forward and she said Paul I have here a gospel and and an explanation of the gospel and I would and I would like you to have it and very kindly he took it from her he looked at it he said thank you and I will read it and I guess he did now I was I I was in New Orleans and in Los Angeles for his for his final thing so I yes I am a big fan both of those things were birthday gifts to me as it turns out so you don't think I was violating James again this evening so but here's here's a quick story that you may or may not know David Brooks new book which is just out in which he describes himself now David Brooks the New York columnist he described himself now as a wandering jew and a confused Christian Brooks was introduced to John start by Michael Cromartie who died last year Michael Cromartie said to David Brooks why do you keep using the Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell as your go-to guys when you are referencing evangelicalism Brooks said well who else should I use Cromartie said if evangelicals were to create have a pope the Pope would be John stopped so Brooks then wrote an article I think in 2004 entitled and you can find this in the New York Times entitled who is John Start and he had Ghana and he bought Christian mission to the modern world he bought basic Christianity read about five of starts books and he wrote this column and and I just heard Brooks interviewed in the last few days on the gospel coalition website you can find it and when Colin Hansen pressed him on where he was with things and what what was the genesis of the the turning point for him he traced it to his meeting with subsequent meeting with John Stewart and he said that he was struck not first of all by the brilliance of start but by the kindness of him and by his willingness to entertain his questions now here's the little bit I'm getting into because you're going well that's very interesting but he didn't ask you anything about that this-this-this is to me from dit from michael Cromartie who's who's now gone to heaven Cromartie told me that Paul Simon was in London staying at the Dorchester he gets the New York Times he reads the article written by Brooks about John start he calls back to America and says to his management can you find a way for me to meet this man John start they then created a point of entry this is this is from this is from Simon to Brooks to Cromartie to beg he he then called John Start and invited him to come for dinner - dinner at the Dorchester with him study said no thank you but if you would like to come to my flat you can come to my flat Paul Simon apparently went to the flat start welcomed him in and and study said that he was immediately sort of belligerent he was very he was provocative and so John had said to him you know Paul I don't think this is going to be a profitable conversation why don't we spend the time that we have at our disposal addressing the question is Jesus Christ the person he claimed to be and Paul Simon was then under the tutelage of start in that situation in that time subsequently back in America all that he said was I would like to find other people like that man now he may have a cross around his neck I think he's just covering all his bases but his when he gets to the preaching part of it of his show which he which he darts its save the Wills save the planet because there's nothing else for us we've got to fix the place for the generations to come people said did you enjoy being the thing I said half of me was thrilled and the other half of me wanted to burst into tears because he is a clever wonderful amazing little Jewish man lyricist by his own testimony without God and without hope in the world so yeah if you can arrange for us to meet we'll do it okay sorry yep yeah so my name is God you're down from Harding Pennsylvania thank you for a great conference my question is this how much of your ministry would you say was orchestrated by you and your team and how much of the ministry was orchestrated by God it took you by surprise when you say or your ministry what do you what are you referring to okay well I my understanding of it is that God is that God is providentially at work in in all of these things that a man's heart devises his way but the Lord directs his steps that everything is upheld by his providential hand but God doesn't work God doesn't work in a vacuum you know he works through history and geography and people and circumstances and so almost in in much the same way that in that verse the closing verse of Colossians 1 you know Paul Paul says and and and and I am toiling and I'm struggling with all the energy that God provided so he doesn't the energy that God provides is provide the provision is made within the context of his toiling and his struggling so the two the things are in opposition to one another they're not in opposition to one another I'm not I'm not aware of I'm not aware of being the being the product of clever imagination on the part of our team here and and indeed I think in most instances we've tried always to be in a risk in a responding mode to initiatives rather than being the ones who are create creating an initiative especially when it comes to the advancement of things so that we're we're not cherishing any illusions or bright ideas about you know why we be on the radio you know we didn't we we're on the radio because they asked us to go on the radio and when they asked us at the beginning we said no we shouldn't or we went on one station so hopefully that two things are hopefully we're responding to the to the leading of God certainly I hope I didn't get it wrong because I've been here for 36 years you know that's a long time to be gone from Scotland Hills Michigan in light of today's political climate in which morality is completely disregarded in which freedom religion is restricted and just holding a biblical opinion is even considered violence to express it is it ever appropriate to address politics explicitly from the pulpit is it ever is it ever appropriate to address politics explicitly from the pulpit well I think the answer to that would be yes again if we're going to allow the Scriptures to to direct us if we work our way through Scripture we're going to come up against certain certain things I mean obvious things enrollments or in Timothy where it addresses those things but if you're really asking questions like what are we going to what would our political stance be on on X I'm very very leery of that not because I don't have don't know because I don't have a political view or or think that it might be worthwhile saying but I don't want I don't want to allow a political perspective to become a point of division within my own congregation and so to the X to the extent that we can agree on particularly let's say in certain moral areas the the issue of abortion or whatever it might be I mean that that crosses all party Divine's but there are some pretty fierce views that abound in relationship to the present and I have actually pretty strong views on that so I actually can constrain myself and control myself I mean I'm I'm mad on brexit I mean I just I'm so I've had to adjust every morning when I wake up and go oh I can't believe these people you know and so then I realize now I'm becoming angry and that's that this doesn't work the righteousness of God that's in James as well isn't it I mean I can't get out of this James thing tonight it's just why did you do that one-on-one I might be moral or honest yeah or no not none more honest but maybe more specific yeah okay cool who's fun first hi I'm Kyle from the Youngstown area I'm actually in an apprenticeship program right now a two-year apprenticeship and so I'm wondering if there is any encouragement and challenge that you can give to me during this season of my life oh well it'd probably be along the lines of the first question if I remember it correctly but this are you single you're married okay well I was going to say if you were single and you know you've got more time now than you're ever going to have in your life and so this is an opportunity now to start to to build a library and to and to and to read and I suppose I would just say that you know where you have these pockets of opportunity then to just just seize every every chance you have to come to the basics conference or do something do but really just just use the time read read listen ask yeah I mean I don't have anything specific for you at all quite honestly Manoah are what we read and if you're not a reader then you start being a good reader if you if you are reading then start indexing your books and start a catalogue some way if you're a techie person and get it you know I mean your techie world if you're like bits of paper and files like I am then you just start that you can never start you never start too soon because once you've read three books or in some cases only two books some of us only one book we can't remember where it was and once you get beyond a certain distance you spend a tremendous amount of time in a week I mean I was looking for a quote today that I knew was in the book I went back and through the book three times before I found it and it was because the particular copy of the book that I was using was not a book that I had actually indexed so those kind of things my name is Michael Duncan I'm from Ocean Shores Washington and I may be kind of at the back of the bus on this one but something has come up my church called the hyper grace movement and I was wondering if you're familiar with that and what are your thoughts on the hyper grace movement and how have you dealt with it if you've encountered that I have not encountered that maybe my colleagues have I'm not I'm not I'm not aware I mean I can take a stab at what it probably is but I've read it's based on antinomianism okay all right and so what do you mean it's it's how is it manifesting itself it's coming across as that the the the requirements of the law the the fulfillment of the law is the law is rescinded that you can basically by God's grace accomplish anything in your life do everything you want approach life without any sense of moral obligation to God because you're under grace yeah get-get Sinkler Ferguson's book devoted to God and it will be as helpful as anything along these along these lines because he does he does a masterful job about explaining the way in which although we are no longer under the law as a means of justification the law remains for us in terms of our sanctification and when and God does not justify those whom he does not saying defy and and so you have every reason to be very very concerned about that and not to give anyone who's propounding these things any place of influence in your church and certainly not to allow them to teach classes or anything like that it's all for the well-being of your people we have seven minutes left Wooster Ohio you've spoken in the past about more or less fighting for fully supporting missionaries in my church context less than 150 how do we how do we grow into that or how do we start that if that's what we want to go towards but we just don't have the funds right well I recognize said that the position the well where we started from on it was that kept whom he might have met who's been a career missionary now down in Bolivia for all these years was the youth pastor when I came here he was the youth pastor from I think about 81 til 85 or 86 and when time came for kep to to leave us and to go to his assignment there I don't want to be unkind to any of the elders that are still around but we were about to go into the standard format which is kept and his wife we're now going to have to get a projector and a bunch of slides and start running around the country and looking for money and then it occurred to us we said but wait a minute he was he was a salaried person as our youth pastor I mean if if if he paid a guy to hang around here why wouldn't you support him to go down there and so basically it was easy because we just transferred the resources and that way and then went on from there and then that became that became a pattern for us the simple answer to your question is that a local church can only do what it can do and therefore in your kind of environment they're probably not able to do that and so ideally though what what we what I would encourage you to do is to partner with other congregations who are like-minded rather than just sending off the person to go and find people so better that you call someone that you're in partnership with in terms of gospel ministry and say you know I've got Joe and Mary here they've got a clear call we're able to support them X it would be a wonderful thing if if you would do that too so that it so that there would be that kind of cohesion and so on and and and then just to build it from there it's the same way in terms of church planting I mean our guys that are planted churches are very fortunate in so far as because of God's generosity to us as a congregation we were able to undergird them many fellas are out there in church planting because I meet them in my travels that they've got to go all over the place trying to look for money to try and plant a church so I what I'm concerned about in these things is the primacy of the local church so that the local church is the sending agency and the missionary organization is the conduit so the missionary organization does not dictate to the church the church dictates to the missionary organization I use dictate guardedly in the sense that the missionary organization says now when Joe and Mary come home they're going to be roam in the country for two months we say no they're not they say oh and and so that again that's where money talks if you like see so there are missionaries we sent them we couldn't do what we do apart from you conduit but you can't control them because they were sent sent by God through us so that's the thing it's not it's not just an issue of finances an issue of the philosophy of the sending unit of the church one last question maybe yes I'm from Rochester New York I was wondering if you'd be willing to share perhaps a time you've been in the ministry as a pastor for 36 years that you were really challenged and maybe went through a season of discouragement and how you navigated through that season I know that the Lord is our helper but kind of how you know flesh it out like the details how did you navigate you that thank you okay in terms of relationships or church congregational life I God has protected me I think beyond my deserving and so I'd have to I'd have to search to find a season let me put it that way there have been challenges like I was sharing with my Boswell today that when I decided that the choir should go on vacation for the rest of their lives that that did not go over well and so that was a little bit of a season how did I never gate that with the help of my colleagues mainly Jeff Mills where I said get up there and take care of that Jeff and and and he did a brother I really I don't I don't I don't want to try and invent something God would somebody said there's a such a happy tone in this conference they said to me this evening and I said you know I I think I know why it is it is because of the unanimity of the leadership of this church you know when you when you go into a home you can tell if if the mom and dad are not talking if they if they've gone all wonky with the kids I mean even even if you're a visitor for a meal for the evening you get the vibe you go into another home you can tell these people are in harmony with one another you know you can't fake this stuff when when you bring multitudes of people in here you can you test the waters ask any of these folks press any of my colleagues and try and get them to you know to turn it up in some way that says yeah but or whatever else it is and that's not because they don't think for themselves or and themselves it is because in the goodness of God he's given as a wonderful spirit both on our pastoral team and then the extended team of our lay leadership that actually runs right through look at the servanthood of these people in this place for these days unbelievable you can't you can buy that you can't you can't and so what are the biggest challenges as seasons I've gone through I haven't gone through seasons of deep doubt I've gone through times in my life where I'm really really tired and when you get tired you get really more crotchety than you are usually and then you're a pain in the - your wife and and and everybody else around you i-i-i agonize over my children over their well-being over there over their spiritual welfare nothing keeps me on my knees more than that and cancer you know 12 years ago or whatever it was that's a little bit of a bump on the way but nothing - nothing - no your wheels off now I have to say to you the lines have fallen to me in Pleasant places I wouldn't trade places with anyone anywhere in the entire world that I've ever been to be involved in ministry I come back to this pulpit with a sense of unique privilege and I know that one day when I come back I won't be able to do that Mikey won't open the bathroom door and it will be over hopefully someone will give me the foreknowledge of that so I don't have the embarrassment of it but until that day dawns you know we soldier on and soldier on Father thank you so much for these men how humbling it is for me Lord to stand up here as if I know the answers to the questions Lord Jesus you have all the answers and so we commit ourselves afresh to you this night thank you for your word to us today in all kinds of ways not just from the pulpit here but in interpersonal conversation the smiles the pray the encouragement everything we thank you for it all Lord for all that it represents of the wonderful joyful reality of Christian Fellowship we can only imagine how fantastic it was being with the disciples in Jesus what a shame we've got them all and funny clothes and pictures as if somehow or another they were unreal surely they joked with one another surely they saw the funny side of things surely they sought to encourage each other quiet Peter why are you always asking Philip we're just like that thank you for our wives thank you for the children you give us thank you for the fact that we can work while it is day because the night comes when no man can work bless Lord all who've asked these questions help none of them to be offended by my responses and we look away from ourselves again to you and commit the night to you and the new day when it dawns watch over our loved ones where they are forgive our sins keep us on track for Christ's sake amen this message was brought to you from truth for life where the learning is for living to learn more about truth for life with Alistair beg visit us online at truthfortheworld.org

Channel: Alistair Begg

Views: 29,076

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Keywords: Truth For Life, Pastors, 2019 Basics Conference, Discipleship, Ministry, Pastoral Ministry

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Length: 51min 57sec (3117 seconds)

Published: Wed May 15 2019