Ravi Zacharias in one of his Last Preachings!

some years ago I was flying through New York here to get back to Atlanta and that comes from somewhere overseas I think it was Bangkok and I landed in New York I always say after those long flights the only good news is that you look like a passport picture and the immigration officer recognizes you right away so I'd gone through that and went to the gate where the flight was to leave for Atlanta but it showed a different city and so I tapped the lady on the shoulder sitting at the edge I said excuse me is the flight going to Atlanta or is it going where the marquee says it's going she said oh no is going to Atlanta I said that's good so I turned around to get myself a cup of coffee and I heard the patter of feet behind me and it was the same lady and she tapped me on the shoulder she said excuse me are you Ravi Zacharias I said I'm afraid so she said that's amazing it's absolutely amazing I didn't think you had questions as well that really did happen I don't have an imagination to make up something like that but people have these ideas that just because you're in Christian apologetics you know you don't think things through where you don't ask questions you're like a answering machine you put in the right point and the right answer comes out that's not the way it works I was on a television program this morning and there they were answering asking a question about prayer how come some prayers are answered and some prayers are not answered and you're given about two minutes in which to give the answer that's about unfortunately what happens sometimes a very profound and elaborate questions we like very simple poignant answers and say that checks that one off it doesn't work that way life itself is a pursuit of one question after another from the time we are little children we start asking in fact my mother once said to me where do you come up with all these questions and we've got grandkids now who are asking all kinds of questions life is a process of finding answers both propositional and relational many of the answers are oftentimes not in propositions all the propositional answers have to conform to reality in the way you are raising the questions but relationships often bring the context within which those questions are often uncertain and that's why sometimes even somebody like job who raised question after question after question and he had three horrible friends who came and the best time in that relationship was when they had said absolutely nothing that's why today if you go all over the world chances are you'll never find anybody named Elif as Bildad or Zohar actually I have met one Bildad but I don't know what his mother was thinking when she called him though that but it was fascinating how at the end of it all I know that my redeemer lives and I shall see him in my flesh that relationship that relationship which provided so much more for him than what the three boys were trying to tell him in very very simplistic answers people often ask me a question do you what do you when you get time to read or to think if you fly as often as I do you get a lot of time to read and to think and you are oftentimes on those long hauls pondering a lot of things sometimes those 14 15 hour flights when you feel you should have had a couple of birthdays on route you just think of a lot of things and one day I was thinking one flight I was thinking oh is it possible now this may surprise you is it possible to have a real close walk with God and be totally fulfilled at the same time you may think the answer is readily obvious and it ought to be but on the other hand why then do we wander away from that path if that total fulfillment is already there why do we take off to take off on these boulevards or other exploits they say stolen waters can be sweet or whatever we think there is something on the other side that we have not yet really experienced so the question often is what does a person who truly walks with God really look like I want to help answer that question but first let me answer it in a light-hearted way this little guy wanted a blue bicycle and he didn't know how to really pray for it so he started watching Christian television programs and he watched one of these high church programs and he learned how to pray from that and so what night he went to bed and he said eternal and everlasting father if it is in your perfect plan for me to have a blue and white a silver bicycle may it be delivered to me tomorrow morning world without end amen and the morning he went out and there was no bicycle so he decided he'd watch another Christian program so that night he went to bed and he said Jesus I declare my need for a bicycle and I pray that it be silver and blue and here by 5:30 in the morning and he went out in the morning looked out there was no bicycle again next morning is wandering around the house and he sees a statue of Mary in the house he tucks it under his shirt and he goes outside and hides it in the woods and he comes back and his mother saw him on his knees saying dear Jesus if you want to see your mother again I hope I didn't offend you this may be the last time I'm coming Carter out of that but you know if we form our theology if we form our theology or our worship sometimes by things we watch or things we hear we may do some horrific things and think we're really following God and that's why as wonderful as experiences as powerful as experiences the Word of God reminds us that it is ultimately his word that abides forever Peter Peter had one of the most extraordinary experiences that no human eye had ever contained in fact if you were to ask me if you were to take the biblical story the entire gospel and had one sermon or one experience with Jesus where he was forming his miracles or giving his message which would it be I have a tough time choosing between the walk on the Emmaus Road listening to him connect all the dots of history all the experience of observing the Transfiguration because Peter James and John go up to the mountain and they witness the transfigured body of our Lord in that whitest white glow that the human eye could contain but not just that they all of a sudden see two of the greatest heroes of the faith Moses and Elijah you could imagine for these young Jewish men what an extraordinary sight that was the thundering prophet Elijah who overcame the prophets of Bale or Moses the great deliverer and our Lord Himself so beautifully transfigured Peter comes down and what does he write in his letter we are not following cunningly devised fables but we were eyewitnesses to his majesty and you would do well to pay heed to this as a light in the dark place and then he goes on to say this but now we have the word of the prophets made most certain and that's when he says you would do well to pay heed to this as a light in a dark place this is really that eternal light that transfigured thrill of being of witnessing that was momentary but all of those have a shelf-life all experiences have a shelf-life it doesn't last you forever you always want another one to bring you up to date but the word of the Lord abides forever so I'm going to read for you from the word and point you to a man who I think demonstrates for us how it is you follow God with a whole heart and be completely fulfilled in that walk I'm reading to you from Daniel chapter 2 and my message is entitled marching to a different drummer and here's how it begins I'm sorry I'll try I'll read to you actually from Daniel 1 in the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it and the Lord delivered Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand along with some of the articles from the temple of God there he carried off to the temple of his god in Babylonian and put in the treasure house of his God then the king ordered ashvin as chief of his court officials to bring in some of these relights on the royal family and nobility young men without any physical defect handsome showing aptitude for every kind of learning well-informed quick to understand and qualified to serve in the king's palace notice now please he was to teach them the language and literature of the Babylonians the King assigned him a daily amount of food and wine from the Kings table they were to be trained for three years and after that they were to enter the King's service among these were some from Judah Daniel Hananiah Mishael and Azariah the chief official gave them new names to Daniel the name Belteshazzar to Hananiah Shadrach to misha Elmi Shak and to Azariah Abednego but Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine and he asked the chief official for permission thought to define himself this way first seventeen these four young men God gave knowledge and understanding of all kinds of literature and learning and Daniel could understand visions and dreams of all kinds at the end of the time said by the King to bring them in the chief official presented them to Nebuchadnezzar the King talked with them and he found none equal to Daniel Hananiah Mishael and Azariah so they enter the King's service in every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the King questioned them he found them ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters in his whole kingdom and Daniel remained there until the first year of King Cyrus Daniel Shadrach Meshach and Abednego sons like the earliest Babylonian law firm these guys were actively involved now as captives and they're being treated very differently to the rest of the captives because they are being programmed they're being conditioned as the best and the cream of the crop to be used then to get the exiles to finally turn against the nation from whence they had come in order to become subjects to Nebuchadnezzar Nebuchadnezzar was a very smart man let me say something to you as gently as I can the laws of moving the young from one country to another getting them settled teaching them the language and reprogramming their minds in a different way of thinking has been a common dis in many many a conquering by many many a conquering King and that's exactly what is happening here get these boys softened up give them the best kind of food banqueting at the king's table and so we've got nebuchadnezzar here working his plan his mystique and his will he's a demagogue he's a leader he wants to conquer the known world of his time very seldom does it really follow through and come to fruition because sooner or later somebody stands against a demagogue like that percy bysshe shelley writing years ago says this i met a traveller from an antique land who said two vast and trunkless legs of stone stand in the desert near them on the sand half sunk a shattered visage lies whose frown and wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command tell that the sculptor well those passions read the hand that mocked them and the heart that fed stamped on these lifeless things and on the pedestal these words appear my name is Ozymandias king of kings look on my works ye mighty and despair nothing beside remains round that colossal wreck boundless and bare the lone and level sands stretch far away and you can go to the desert area someday and as you're riding through on a horse or whatever you'll see these broken statues with a frown and wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command that tell the sculptor well those passions read the hand that mocked them and the heart that fed one of the most memorable scenes in our lifetime would be the dictator of Libya out on a lonely road somewhere once upon a time dominating the masses and inflicting pain upon pain upon pain till he himself was literally pleading like a king without a horse asking somehow that he be treated with a respect that he ought to be treated thought he as a king in the ruler that's the kind of man Nebuchadnezzar was in fact Saddam Hussein said he was patterning his leadership going back over these twenty five hundred years to bring back Babylon its glory days and lead once again so he brought these boys and training them in the literature the language and the philosophy of the Babylonians do you notice what he's doing language is indispensable to communication the philosophy and the literature is indispensable to illustration so the language enables you to bring the argument the literature and the philosophy brings to you the story and the windows that opened to let some kind of light in and so what is really happening here is he is trading and reconditioning them both with the power of reasoning and the power of story and illustration that's why the famous political activist once said let me write the songs of a nation I don't care who writes its laws let me write the songs of a nation I don't care who writes its laws because the truth of the matter is through music through story through illustration you can completely enter through the back door of imagination and even overcome the front door of reason and that's precisely what's happening here he's conditioning them in every way and when you look at these men it is amazing to see how it is that they responded the first is this because you know they're marching to a different drum beat they are marching to a different sound they are listening to a different voice these are the countercultural people who are learning how to respond to a culture that is against the grain and against the values of their and may I suggest you ever we are living immersed in a culture that is contrary to biblical values that's contrary to biblical absolutes this is the time we are living through right now all definitions have gone think about it all absolutes have gone relativism reigns supreme and what relativism actually means is that it is only relative to you it's not relative to anybody else justice was always intended for the other person's benefit as well so all we hear is rights rights rights very seldom do hear of what is right but all we focus on is an individual right without thinking of what is absolutely right you will end up in a course where culture is in collision with itself because each person assigns to himself or herself the right that is self-reflective and self-propagating what does Daniel do what is the first thing he does he drew the line of resistance by training his appetite he drew the line of resistance by training his appetite there was nothing wrong with him enjoying the meal at the Kings table it was a luxury it was a beautiful privilege I have a friend who loves to go to the big buffets and he says he gets it from the Bible because Paul says to buffet your body always enjoying all of the varieties all of the nice foods and so on well in a once-in-a way it's great to do that but you do this as a habit you do it as a constant desire and you find you really can't because you can't afford a new tailor every day to get the all the expansion that is taking place within you but more than that it dulls your sensitivities he drew the line of resistance in order to train his appetite ladies and gentlemen appetites need to be trained it doesn't happen overnight how you react in life is a training of the will and a training of the mind that's why Jesus says to let the eye be single because the eye is the lamp of the body and if the light within you becomes darkness how great is the darkness indeed may I suggest you almost every kind of sensual temptation starts with the eye starts with the eye gate and that's why what did Satan do to our Lord Himself showed him all the kingdoms of this world that I power this is Wow this is beautiful this is enchanting I'll give you all of these things if you will bow down and worship me the amazing thing to me is that these young men with strong appetites and suddenly a desire for the best of culinary options said we are not gonna do this because if we do this we will get so softened up that ultimately will be drum watching to his tune and to his drumbeat we lose the purpose for which God has really placed us here you know in any palace even if the monarch is not walking to the drumbeat of God I found it amazing how many times God puts a person in that Palace who's marching to a different drum you've got Joseph you've got Nehemiah and here you've got Daniella they're listening to a different voice marching to a different drum beat this idea of training the iGate and training your will and training your appetite is a very hard thing to do you know I was in a country that I'll leave unnamed and I had just sought a meal to have all by myself and as I sat down quietly all alone for the first time in about three days to have one meal just so I didn't have to use my voice and answer questions sat down and a guy was walking by my table and he kept looking at his cell phone and looking at me I said I know what's I know exactly what's happening here and you almost have that moment feel like this dinner is over I'm heading back to my room and then he comes and he kneels by my side and shows me my picture on his telephone he says this you I said what do you think he said now that I've heard your voice it is you I don't know this guy had no idea who he was he told me which country he came from he wasn't a citizen of a country where I was and then he looked at me and he said mrs. I cries I listen to your podcast I listen to your messages I really want to love the Lord I want to serve him completely but my enslavement to pornography is killing me he was in his twenties and I put my arm around him and started talking but I thought to myself you know what I don't even know this guy just think how painful it must be what he is living through for him to come to a total stranger at least in terms of a face-to-face encounter and the upper most burning question on his mind was can you help me get rid of what I am addicted to I take you back to some years ago where it was late at night and I had received a telephone call it's always wonderful to have my wife with me by the way we don't often travel together they Bank the grandchildren have beaten me to the draw she is they've always got a greater need than I have and she will tell you for Ravi his worldview changes after 9:00 p.m. I don't think anything good comes into my life after 9:00 p.m. so I'm in bed reading I want to be horizontal by that point and probably just look at another dawn I don't want to go into the lateness of the night I am an early riser so any betting phones me after nine o'clock it's either an emergency or they've got the wrong number so I picked it up and it wasn't the wrong number it was somebody who knew me very well he said Rob you awake I said I am now he said I got a problem I want to talk to you about he was a surgeon and he said I've been doing surgery all night and this woman came was brought into surgery she was so badly beaten every bone was broken basically the bigger ones were shattered and when the paramedics wheeled her in they said doc she's gone no point dealing with it she's gone but he said I looked at that broken body and I said there's no way this can happen I had no idea what had gone on so he told the team he was gonna scrub and do whatever he could he put his gloves on everything and he said the only hope was to give her a direct heart massage and see if I could revive her they tried everything else pounding on the chest and all so he cut the rib cage put his hand directly into the chest cavity took the heart in his hand and started to give it an actual direct heart massage and it didn't work he walked away from there and he said whatever happened to her who did this to her so he's washing his hands when the nurse comes and says doc I think you better look at this she brought a bag emptied it out onto the table she was a drug junkie all kinds of used needles and there and as he was looking at all that stuff he noticed in his haste to put his hand into the ribcage he'd nicked his finger and as he looked at that nicked finger slightly bleeding whatever he said I think I made contact with diseased blood I said is it a deep cut he said no it's a paper-thin cut I said now you're telling me a paper-thin cut could put you at risk to destroy your whole immune system if you've made contact with that kind of disease blood he said doesn't take any more than that paper-thin albeit at one point even the gloved hand and I remember when I finished talking to him and he said he'd gone and given some blood for a test and he said a complete comprehensive answer can only come a few days but I'm just hoping that I've not destroyed my body tonight and I put my head back on the pillow and I thought to myself are there people thin cuts to the soul can you make that little slight laceration that makes you vulnerable and exposed to something that can destroy a spiritual immune system so especially to you young men I say to you what are you toying with what do you hold in your hand what do you see on your phone what have you allowed the world to have access into your soul that gives those initial paper-thin cuts that down the years can put your merit marriage and everything else at risk so I had my armor on this young boy in his twenties from another country as his face was just covered with tears and people looking thing what is going on here this guy sitting here having his dinner another fella comes and then it starts talking to him and now he's kneeling beside him and crying his heart out because he knew that he'd got some pretty deep wounds into himself if that's your case tonight should be the night you turn things around that you make that commitment that you turned to God for healing that you turn to God for strength and power as has been so beautifully sung in many of the songs and I say to you draw the line of resistance to train your appetite because whatever you feed into your imagination takes hold and wreaks havoc and in the years to come you find out it didn't happen overnight but a little at a time a little at a time at a little that I'm and you lost your way we traveled all over the globe one of my colleagues is here we travel all over the globe and we listen to stories and that's what we hear again and again and again I made this choice that went there I did this ladies and gentlemen march to the drumbeat of God March to the drumbeat of bad because his word his word abides forever and it is vital that you learn that the world will be there to always tempt and test and God's will for you is always to know how to say no to the things that will lead you astray so that you don't have to look back and say when did this all happen so he drew the line of resistance to train his appetite but number two he drew his line of dependence he drew his line of dependence on going beyond knowledge to wisdom he drew his line of dependence on going beyond knowledge to wisdom you know Nebuchadnezzar had this dream and he'd had this dream of a massive statue with a head of gold a chest of silver a midsection of bronze legs of iron and feet of iron and clay and the stonecutter no man's hand comes and knocks and breaks the statute pieces and he has this great dream repeatedly and he says what on earth is happening it was a culture within which dreams meant an awful lot and still do to this very day and so he's having this dream gold silver bronze iron and iron and clay that is right at the feet and if this stone cutter or no man's hand is knocking this huge statue down and he wants know what this dream means and so he looks at all of his magicians and enchanters and says you guys come and tell me what this dream actually means and they said we'll be happy to tell you if you tell us what the dream was he says aha you're not gonna get away with that if you are so smart you me what the dream was and then you tell me what the interpretation is you know I come from a culture where all kinds of magicians and all kinds of astrologers all kinds of pomace do all kinds of things and they come and tell you all these massive stories my favorite one is when I was a young young guy growing up my mother brought this fellow to read our palms now the pomace read upon reading and astrology was an avocation his actual vocation was selling saris so he would come to the door open up his trunk and then he would offer to read our palms so my mother said all of us kids down one after another told him to please predict our future after reading our palms and he was giving all these glowing reports to my older brother and ever my brothers and sisters and then he looked at my hand and he went like this Ravi Baba bought krob cabaret those of you speak Hindi says Ravi little boy I've got very bad news for you I said what's that he said looking at your palm you're not gonna travel very much in life I don't know what he's doing for a living now but I hope his sorry business is going well or else he's gone into weather reporting which is about the only thing you can keep doing and be dead wrong and still have an audience so there he was Pharma stre and all this kind of stuff that's what's happening here you guys are enchanters your magicians tell me what my dream was and the guy said you know this dictator is looking for a reason to kill us he knows we are not gonna be able to tell him the dream but this is what he's trying to pick a fight with us so the word comes to Danielle what does Daniel do he goes to God in prayer he says God I need your wisdom I don't know how to do this there is no way I'm gonna be able to tell him what his dream is but I need your wisdom and he tells the steward he says look I can't tell us that till this dream I don't have the learning but I need God's wisdom to do it ladies and gentlemen how important it is to seek wisdom and do follow it seeking wisdom is just half of the battle following it is the very important part of that distinguishing where it is that God is really leading you and as you seek that wisdom I tell you how important it is in our time to have wisdom to know how to respond what to say what not to say I find myself on a platform in many parts of the globe and asked a question and halfway through the question I know for sure there is no way I can answer that question without God's wisdom there's no way I can answer that question without God's wisdom so 90% of the time as the question is being asked I am praying for the vine wisdom do you need his wisdom today do you need that wisdom today that wisdom to know what to do and how to do it so critical I want you tonight to just seek the mind of the Lord to reveal to you what he wants from you and the wisdom of what to do and what not to do it is critical that you follow along in that I remember some years ago being with the former Archbishop of Canterbury and we were five of us on a peace mission talking to the leaders from both sides in Jerusalem in in Israel and we'd finished talking to many of them and on the last day we were talking to one of the guys who was a well-known terrorist he had founded one of the leading terrorist organizations so strong guide says spent many many years in in prison as well and he was an angry man he was a flinch fists clenched and he was just shaking and talk in the room was full of tobacco smoke and as he argued for his position and his view I knew we were not gonna get anywhere finally the archbishop looked at the five of us guys and said why don't you all ask him your questions to ask him one question apiece so my turn came and as a private meetings I won't tell you what question I asked but I asked the question and I didn't like the answer so I looked at him and I said Sheikh I really don't like your answer I was already shivering in my shoes I'm wondering if my grave was gonna be in Ramallah well the next morning so I said him I don't like your answer but I just want to say to you a couple of things I said Sheikh not far from me you and I are sitting five thousand years ago a man by the name of Abraham took his son up a hill in order to offer him as a sacrifice to God to demonstrate his faith I said do you remember that story he said yes I said please shake that's not debate which son but Abram took his son up that mountain to offer him as a sacrifice to God so that's right I said as the ax is about to come down God stops that hand he said that's right I said what God say he just looked at me I said God said stop I myself will provide he said that's right I said shake very close to where you and I are sitting 2,000 years ago God kept that promise I said God took his own son up another Hill and this time the axe did not stop he just stared at me as a check until you and I received the son God has offered who will be offering our sons and daughters on the battlefields of this world for position and power and land and prestige he just stared at me the archbishop said ah I think it's time to go now so we're walking down the stairs and the archbishop put his arm around me and he said you know Ravi that was of God I said I sure hope so so we went down but the archbishop was the guest of honor so the Sheikh was assuring him to his car and all of a sudden I heard running behind me and I turned around just in time to see it was the Sheikh coming after me you know I have two titanium rods in my back for clamps it screws bolting me down and if that guy even were gonna hug me it'll be curtains so he just turned me around and he said this to me I said mrs. arias patted me on the face kiss me on both sides of the face he said you're a good man I hope I will see you again someday until we received the Sun God has offered we'll be offering our own sons and daughters on the battlefields of this world for position and power and land and prestige I didn't think that HUP I want you to know it just came at that moment righteous under God I don't know what question to ask him help me and when he answered and I said god I don't like this Unser help me and in that moment God gave me those words you may be in a situation today where you need wisdom to say something right and deal with it in the right way seek his mind seek his wisdom and I tell you what Daniel says to me is with all the knowledge that we have it is not enough we need wisdom look at how much knowledge we have in our time and yet we lack wisdom in so many different ways our whole world is falling apart politically and we desperately longed for wisdom from somewhere hopefully it'll be from God so he drew the line of resistance he drew the line of dependence and lastly he drew the line of confidence he was confident that Nebuchadnezzar Nazareth kingdom would not abide forever it would only be God's kingdom that would abide forever Augustine his conversion was dramatic and as the barbarians were scaling the walls of Rome to destroy it he wept in his home in Carthage and that's when he wrote the City of God there's the City of God and the cities of men as my brother so well said before we took holy communion how he reminded us when he said this world is not our home this is not our home we are renters we rented this place very very temporarily we are here for a while and then we're gone you know my wife's mother is 99 years old and she's lived a very beautiful life but now all of a sudden the mind is beginning to go even this morning she had been with her mother for a week in Toronto and then came here straight from Toronto saw the mother phones and says now what do we talk about when you were here and there's something very important they talked about very important and this is the third time she said Dern what did we talk about when you here suddenly the memory is failing the coherence is failing and one day the heart will beat for the last time I challenge you our life is like a vapor it is here for a moment and it's gone as I stand before you I'm 73 years old I started ministry when I was 26 47 years have gone by they've gone by like that they've gone by like that and all of a sudden you know you're closer to the finishing line then you are to the starting line and I urge you settle it with God whatever needs to be settled and you could be confident absolutely confident that your life is in his hands this morning on the television program they were gracious enough you know television time is expensive though gracious enough to ask a question and one of the hosts said to me you know some presents some present not answered how do you explain that they had three different worldviews being represented mine was the Christian worldview I said in the Christian worldview prayer is not a grocery list of requests before God I said Jesus himself before he went to the cross said if there is any other way but not my will but yours be done I said prayer is not seeking to change the will of God it is communion with the Living God such that he will change you to have the ability to receive what it is he has for you that's exactly what it is it is a relationship I didn't have the time to tell them but you know Robert Browning's poem when I see children ride a cock-horse I find it in my heart to embarrass them and tell them their sticks or more horse and they really are carrying what they say carries them and they get these sticks as little kids hop around thinking the sticks scaring them actually they're carrying the state if you're a praying Christian your faith in God will carry you if you're not a praying Christian you will have to carry your faith and you'll get exhausted trying to carry the infinite and so have the confidence that his will is perfect for you I close with this little quotation and then an illustration I bring this to an end it is this Malcolm Muggeridge said this the world's way of responding to intermissions of decay is to engage equally in idiot hopes an idiot despair on the one hand some new policy or discoveries confidently expected to put everything into the Wrights a new fuel a new drug date and world government on the other hand some disasters as confidently expected to prove our undoing capitalism will break down fuel will run out plutonium will lay us low atomic waste will kill us off overpopulation will suffocate us or alternatively a declining birthrate will put us most surely at the mercy of our enemies in Christian terms such hopes and fears are equally beside the point as Christians we know that we have here no continuing City that crowns will roll in the dust and every earthly Kingdom will sometimes flounder but as we acknowledge a king men did not crown and cannot be thrown as we are citizens of a city of God they did not build and cannot destroy thus the Apostle Paul wrote to the Christians in Rome living in a society as depraved and dissolute as ours their games like our television specialized in spectacles of violence and to sysm Paul exhorted them to be steadfast unmovable always abounding in God's work to concern themselves with the things that are unseen for the things which are seen are temporal but the things which are not seen are eternal it was in the break down of Rome that Christendom was born now in the break down of Christendom there are the same requirements and the same possibilities to askew the fantasy of a disagreed integrating world and to seek the reality of what has not seen the eternal reality of Jesus Christ as I walked through your street for a moment yesterday and my wife and I went out for dinner I had a memory a flashback first time I came here meeting David Wilkerson it was the first book I ever read after my conversion the cross and the Switchblade in India in the mid-60s and I saw David walking in the street and he stopped and recognized me and we chatted the time came where God called him home how did the baton to this lovely couple in Carter and Theresa and the team they lead and the time will come where God move the baton to the next generation we're not here forever we're not here forever God buries his workmen but his work must go on those are the words of Charles Wesley drawing the line of dependent of dependence and drawing the line of confidence but starting with drawing the line of resistance resistance dependence and confidence draw the lines in the right places will you do that today resistance dependence confidence draw them in the right places Charles Wesley wrote this in I've made it my prayer or thou who came us from above pure celestial fire to impart Kindle aflame of sacred love on the mean order of my heart they let it for thy glory burn with inextinguishable blaze and trembling to its source return in humble prayer and fervent praise Jesus confirmed my heart's desire to work and speak and think for thee still let me guard the holy fire and still stir up thy gifts in me ready for all thy perfect will by acts of faith and love repeat till death i endless mercy seal and make my sacrifice complete till death the endless mercy seal and make my sacrifice complete what does a man or a woman of God look like who will follow him and be totally fulfilled look at the life of Daniel and draw the lines in the right places you will see what a person looks like I know there are students here from summoned I couldn't graduate you for studying for what you're doing and how you are doing it you will be carrying the dawn into the future carry it well and make God the Lord Jesus Christ is encouraging us as his people to draw the lines in the right places make the right choices whatever you have to break from break from it now whatever God's Word is leading to you get up and by the strength of God's holy spirit with faith in the promises of God begin to take that journey whatever that journey is I believe that Christ is coming soon and until the day he comes you and I are gonna have to go through some some dark waters it's gonna be difficult in the days ahead but God promises to be our strength he promises to be our life our guidance he says you'll be the light in our eyes he'll be the voice that says this is the way walk in it but it's up to you and I to make the choice how are we going to live where do we need to draw the lines what do we need to get away from where do we need to go this is the second time today you've heard the same message mind you not as articulate this morning but it's still the second time that you've heard it I want to challenge you especially young people here that are here today it's it's going to be you that has to carry the torch now and you have to make right choices or you'll be an irrelevant voice in the days ahead you'd be a powerless argument when God's Spirit is the spirit that's leading you when God's Word is your guide when God's strength becomes your strength when God's wisdom becomes that application of knowledge in your mind you will make a difference your voice will be a voice that has to be reckoned with you will live to see God do things through you that only he can do but you need to make the choice there's a point in every life there was a point in mind and there's appointed yours where you you step out from the crowd and as that song that we sing the old rugged cross don't Unger with me still I will follow I don't need the crowd with me I need to know the God is with me and I'm gonna step out from where I am and I'm going with God and he's going to become my strength for the future there's a lot of young people that are starting to come to this church but coming the church doesn't mean that your life is going to amount to the fullness of what God intends it to be it's you now stepping out from the crowd you and I'm making that choice saying god I want my life to make a difference I I want to be a young person or middle ages or even an older person in this generation that really stands out and becomes a voice becomes a light in this darkened time and so I want to challenge I want to give an altar call we're not gonna rush you out of here today and I'm gonna ask brother Ravi to come back and pray for you in just a moment but I want to just Greg is gonna just lead us in one song or ivory will and if God speaking to in the annex to and the overflow room says well God's speaking to your heart and saying I want to be a part of that generation that makes a difference especially now especially in the season where there's an ideology that wants to take the whole of the culture captive today I want to stand up I want to stand out and I want my voice to count for the kingdom of God if that's you would you just start slipping out wherever you are up in the balcony you can go to either exit the main sanctuary just slip right out and just come on down young people in particular New York that means 50 and under okay you're young but young people in particular and don't forget for the older folks that Jesus does save the best wine for the end of the feast the end of the banquet and the glory of the latter temple is greater than the former so don't yeah don't don't write yourself off don't don't sound too old or my day is past don't fall for that line you'd be amazed what God can do through a surrendered vessel so wherever you are just slip out and make your way down come in close make room for everybody that's coming we'll sing one song then our brothers gonna come back and pray for you that your life really truly will make a difference in the days ahead can I say one more thing so wonderful to see you all up here you've really responded to the invitation of Christ that's what you've come forward for and I'm gonna pause silently for about a minute or so and say this if you have never done this before if you've never really given your life to Christ please come this is your moment don't put it off they're very easy and the hardest touch to say I just weather this moment I'll be fine I'll get out of here without doing it no if you get out of here without doing what God is asking you to do you'll never really get out the hand of heaven will be on your trail and he will follow you because he loves you and he will not let you go so as we're waiting silently view I've never done this before upstairs are on the Annex better please come to the front God has his invitation open field and this may be the moment to see things turn around thank you he waited he's got see some coming from upstairs yet smell wait just a moment thank you that's very important especially if the sir first time for you that you talked to somebody in the church er somebody with a badge somebody who recognized one of the councillors one of the ushers just say I need somebody to pray with me I'm gonna pray for you but be wonderful if somebody prays with you so your sealant as an individual and resolve in your heart not to follow the king's edict but to follow God's will that's what God wants shall we pray but it is my earnest prayer that you will be pleased tonight that you will have in your heart that would you tell us you have when even one comes home that there is rejoicing that they'll be rejoicing in the heavens this hour because those who have been praying for and have struggled have made this walk to surrender to you I pray for those who have never done this before doing it for the first time that like the waiting father you will come and embrace them and welcome them back home because that which was lost has been found father for those who have come because of the tenderness of their hearts they have heard your voice thank you for that sensitive spirit that they take that step courageously to tell others I'm with the Lord I'm following him for those who had to make hard decisions tonight to turn their back upon that which destroys and come to that which heals and restores let it not just be a walk for this hour let it be a walk for the rest of their lives walking with you in lockstep with your will I thank you Lord for this wonderful place where for decades now people have met and worshiped thank you for the music that we've heard thought it thrills me to know that someday we'll all be singing like ivory and have a voice like that or play the instruments as these men and women are playing them because you've promised to put that new song in our heart and that give us a new voice that your benediction rests upon these in the front but indeed upon the whole congregation I thank you for Carter and Teresa their labor of love you alone know the cost but you also know their heart and for the team you have put around them without whom they will never be able to do this bless the leadership bless this ministry for one day Times Square will give way to eternities landscape and we all await that day that your benediction rests upon us thank you for giving me the strength to deliver this message we all honor be yours and evidently Lord you are deigned and such that the same truths will be stated twice today how beautiful is that how beautiful is that you are sovereign and you are gracious dismiss us with your blessing in the name of our Lord and our Savior Jesus Christ

Channel: Isaque Jr

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Length: 60min 41sec (3641 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 25 2019