Ravi Zacharias: Sermon on the Wall of Jerusalem-Through Nehemiah

[Music] thank you I'm only hoping that the dream doesn't become a nightmare after I leave but I also want to assure you that we too are praying for evangelism at the Super Bowl and all of our defensive team have got verses in their hands as soon as they tackle Brady they'll leave a scripture verse [Music] [Applause] you know the Falcons out and I think they've been there once what some years ago and that was truly a nightmare and but we hope you know these this have been a year of unpredictables all kinds of things have happened so it could again my son is a great Falcons fan I just stay in touch for academic interest because I mean meet up with some of these players and my journeys and so I have to tell them you did a great job you know we hope that we can always tell our team that but it's amazing for a city like Atlanta we've not done very well with many of our sporting teams two hockey teams came and went and they are elsewhere now I don't know where they are but you're all getting one here in Vegas switches so maybe we'll come and see a hockey game here a big hockey fan yeah thank you so much and Derek really an honor to be here or joking aside it's my first visit to this city and I think we need to be here a little more often [Applause] thank you I told my wife on the phone today I wish you'd been here it's been remarkable just to see what life means out here you know all kinds of things you witness and you don't want to see it too often but at least but at least you know it's a mission field and we hope to come back I also want to thank Kay for being here [Applause] over the years we've been together many many times one advantage of turning gray is that people think you don't change you know it's been like this for years now so everybody tells me boy you look the same and that's been for about 40 years now looking the same but kale you look the same do you look just gorgeous and lovely nice to team up with you once more my two colleagues are here in Sanj and Thomas they travel with me and we are going on to Arizona State University I'll be doing an open forum there last time we were there we had about 7,000 in the audience and so I expect we'll have several thousand again and it'll be a long evening my colleague Vince Vitale with whom I have teamed up to write the book Jesus among secular gods he will be speaking with me so we look forward to a wonderful evening it'll be a tough evening but we'll be there and also my colleague Bob Grinnell is here he's on his way back tonight to Atlanta we have our opening of our new office there tomorrow and that's why my wife is not with me as I said so he'll be heading back and hopefully as they have a time of prayer and dedication tomorrow we won't be there but it'll be a new beginning for us and planting some new seeds across the world I want to read for you a passage of Scripture and it may be taken the wrong way because of the metaphor I'm gonna talk to you about a builder of walls but I'm not talking about the walls that you all will be thinking about so please shift gears I'm talking about a civil engineer by the name of Nehemiah who city lay in ruins because of his love for his beloved city Jerusalem which was destroyed and lying in ruins and he is now in a palace set palatial setting and his brother comes to visit with him and I want us to want to read the conversation and that is this chapter 1 of the book of Nehemiah the words of Nehemiah son of Hokulea and the month of Kislev and the 20th year while I was in the city of Susa and any one of my brothers came from Judah with some other men and I questioned them about the Jewish remnant that survived the exile and also about Jerusalem they said to me those who survived the exile and are back in the province are in great trouble and disgrace the wall of Jerusalem is broken down and its gates have been burned with fire when I heard these things I sat down and wept for some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven then I said and he goes on to pray and a remarkable prayer you began in chapter 2 in the month of Nisan that's four months later four months after this conversation of this brother in the 20th year of King Artaxerxes when wine was brought before him I took the wine and gave it to the king I had not been sad in his presence before so the king asked me why does your face look so sad when you're not ill this can be nothing but sadness of heart I was very much afraid but I said to the king may the King live forever why should God my face not look sad when the city where my fathers are buried lies and ruins and its gates have been destroyed by fire the king said to me what is it you want that I prayed to the God of heaven and I answered the king if it pleases the king and if your servant has found favor in his sight let him send me to the city in Judah where my father's are buried so that I can rebuild it then the king with the Queen sitting beside him asked me how long will your journey take and when will you get back he pleased the king to send me and so at a time when you look at all the building of walls that we talk about in our time very few leaders actually talk about the moral walls that have been broken down the boundaries that God had set for our existence we think of every other kind of structure and edifice and yet the internal rot that has set in and the redefinition of so many things in our cultural existence the America of today viewer to compare it to some decades ago is a dramatically different culture and in many many ways it is reflecting many other parts of the world it was Malcolm Muggeridge who was probably one of the leading commentators of the cultural rot in the 1970s who said this I had the privilege of being with Muggeridge seven months before he died it was a dream for me to be with him I think the most articulate and poignant journal English journalist of the 20th century it is a toss-up between him and GK Chesterton Muggeridge is books are so remarkable if you haven't read some of his writings here was a man who knew how to turn a phrase and he once said if he ever stood before God and God would give him a moment or two to ask for forgiveness one of the things he would ask for forgiveness for was for being so fatally fluent he was editor of punch magazine and a great writer and Muggeridge said a couple of things that were so I think prophetic that I want to read at least one of them for you and begin my message by pointing out how fascinating it is what he said forty or fifty years ago first he said this it is difficult to resist the conclusion that 20th century man has decided to abolish himself tired of the struggle to be himself he has created boredom out of his own impotence out of his own erotomania and vulnerability out of his own strength he himself blows the trumpet that brings the walls of his own cities crashing down until at last having educated himself into imbecility having drugged and polluted himself into stupefaction he keels over a weary battered old brontosaurus and becomes extinct writing in the 70s created you know boredom out of our own affluence impotence out of our own erotomania one vulnerability out of our own strength we blow the trumpet that brings the walls of our own cities crashing down until at last having educated himself into imbecility and drugged himself into stupefaction you see there's nothing so vulgar left in the human experience for which you cannot bring in some Ivy League professor from somewhere to justify it and writing in the 40s it was Aldous Huxley the humanist who reminded us we are living today not in the delicious intoxication of the early successes of science rather in the grisly morning-after where it has become quite apparent that what science may have actually done is to introduce us to improved means in order to obtain hitherto unimproved or rather deteriorated ends what science may have done is to introduce us to improve means in order to obtain hitherto unimproved or rather deteriorated ends so when a humanist points it out like that and when a cultural critic like Muggeridge points that out and then we read these words from Muggeridge which i think are so powerful because writing in that latter part of the 20th century he was at that time chaplain of edinburgh university and that the famed st. giles and scotland when he offered in his resignation and left the university scene he left it because of decisions that were being made in higher education that he thought were going to be destructive and decimating ultimately of young one of the things they had made decisions at that point was to hand out contraception to university students and so on as a gesture that this is the kind of lifestyle will lead anyway so he may as well support you in this fashion and in his last message out of the famed pulpit where knocks two had thundered forth he said this so dear Edinboro students this may well be the last time I address you and this is what I want to say to you and I don't really care whether it means anything to you or not and whether you think there is anything in it or not I want you to believe that this Rao I have had with your elected officers has nothing to do with any puritanical attitudes on my part I have no belief in abstinence or abstinence --is own sake no wish under any circumstances to check any fulfillment of your life and being but I have to say to you this that whatever life is or is not about it is not to be expect expressed in terms of drugs to perfection and casual sexual relations however else we may venture into the unknown it is not it is not I assure you on the plastic wings of Playboy magazine or psychedelic fantasies however we were venture forth into the future it is not going to be on the plastic wings of Playboy magazine or psychedelic fancies fascinating that he as a journalist was talking in those terms and the famed theologian Karl F Henry I had the privilege of studying under him in my days at Trinity he made this comment in one of his books biblical truth transcultural as it is has an indispensable message for contemporary culture it addresses modern learning modern ethics modern political economic concerns and all the idolatries of a polytheistic society it proclaims the gospel to a generation that is intellectually uncapped morally unzip 'red and volitionally curbed those who consider the latest fads permanently in will of course dismissed the Christian message as the last hurrah of an antiquated outlook they revealed their sickness of soul by derogating terms like morality piety family work patriotism born-again and evangelical theology Christmas Christianity they dismiss as a kind of middle class hedonism declaring it to be intellectually inadmissible they meanwhile a spy's a life that neither reason or conscience or spirit can support or condone repression of sensuality and of self gratification they call psychotically abnormal subordinate of the phallus of ordination of the flesh they leave to medieval monks or consigned to the future resurrection affirming sexual pleasure to be the supreme good of a life of unending revelry they waste away into ethical ghosts and skeletons how much more graphic can intellectual solid thinkers get than that intellectually uncapped and morally unzipping we are wasting away into ethical ghosts and skeletons the body which is intended to be the temple of God has now become the oil the object of idolatry in the perverse sense of the term and we measure everything in life by the gratification that this can bring to us and lost our way on the sacredness for which this was intended into this arena into this kind of a situation you and I are called as missionaries to take the message wherever it is that God has placed you and is calling you to minister I've always an often time told my colleagues as why we travel around that this is the most difficult time in 40 years of evangelism that I have sense in terms of a counterculture but it is the most opportune moment no matter where we go no matter where we go at university campuses the audiences are packed the capacity generally with standing-room-only crowds they realize they don't have the answers anymore they are struggling to find where and they should turn in which direction they should move and turn their lives into the hands of what person or what belief or what ideology Chesterton's little statement is so true the problem with christianity is not that it has been tried and found wanting but that it has been found difficult and left untried if you take the gospel message it is so unique so unique contrast it with any other worldview no worldview even comes close let me take just two simple truths from the gospel that stand gigantically over all the others if you were to talk to a Hindu or a Muslim or a Buddhist they will all have one thing in common that the pathway to Nirvana or the pathway to moksha which is release is through your own effort to build your righteousness up for the for the hindu it is karma the karmic law has to work out if you ask any Muslim how do you attain paradise his answer if he is honest Muslim and a truthful Muslim will say to you your good deeds will have to outweigh your bad deeds and your deeds will be made on that final judgment day by goodness you will have to outweigh all of the badness in your life and you ask a Christian how do you know you're gonna go to heaven and the answer is very simple it is by the grace and the mercy of God not by any righteousness stark difference and then the centerpiece of the cross in our message some years ago I was talking to her doing a forum with a leading Shiite cleric in Syria Sheikh Hussain we had an audience and we agreed to the terms I would ask him one question he would answer it he would ask me one question so he's a real gentleman very courteous very cordial and so I expect I agreed to dialogue and then as he would hear there was an interpreter between us he would always address me as professor very respectful and I would call him Sheikh Hussein and then finally as we are coming to an end he leaned over and said through the interpreter please tell the professor I have come to one conclusion after this dialogue it is about time that we Muslims stop asking if Jesus died on the cross and start asking why and I said to the shake do I have your permission to quote you sir he said you do see the centerpiece of the gospel and the gift of grace now here we go back to 440 or so before Christ we've got a man who's in a palace and he meets his brother who comes to visit him and he asks the brother how is the city of our fathers he says lying in ruins the walls are broken the city is destroyed and you're gonna be sorry you even asked for months later the King looks at him and says what are you so upset about you see to them the symbol of Jerusalem security that it would be unmold by enemies that somehow wear the temple of the Lord stood they would preserve that sacredness or Jerusalem if I ever should forget they let my right hand cunning you forget its cunning I have engraven the upon the palms of my hands your walls are ever before me says the Lord it was a symbol to them of the trust that God had given and the protection but leadership one after another particularly three in a row in a row Solomon Jeroboam Andrea Borman the untamed passions of a gifted man the wanton power of a weak man and the unteachable temperament of a privileged man untamed passions of a gifted person wanton power of a weak person and the unteachable temperament of a privileged person the leaders led them astray one after another on almost any movement in culture and country when you see a city in moral decay look towards the leadership and see what kind of leadership have we had what has brought us to this point where we no longer can differentiate between right and wrong so he sees those walls as a symbol of the ravaging that had taken place and the plundering that had taken place would had gone how does he deal with it the first thing is he realizes he has a responsibility he wants to play a role he believed he could have a part and I always think of these words of Richard in Richard soomi's book nehemiah God's builder and he quotes Richards at Richard Ellsworth day in this comment it would be no surprise if a study of secret causes were undertaken to find that every golden era in human history proceeds from the devotion and righteous passion of some single individual this not does not set aside the sovereignty of God it's simply it indicates the instrument through which he uniformly works there are really no bona fide mass movements it may look that way at the center of the column there is always a person who knows his or her God and knows where God is going at the center of the column is a person like the Ezekiel he looked for a person to stand in the gap here he's looking for a builder of walls and I say to you the biggest mistake we often make in life in the task to which God has called us is to assume that we really can't do very much that we can't do it you know God has used children God has used little ones to look into the eyes of the parent and ask a question and turn their life of that parent around he's used ordinary people I think it was Charles Wesley who was led to Christ by the maid in the household this is the great writer of hymns and the great writer of music if I'm not mistaken I think that's the way it actually happened with Charles Wesley what I'm saying to you is don't underestimate what God can do through you don't underestimate that it's not because who you are but because of how he has hardwired you and how you are not replicable what is it Charles Wesley said God buries his workmen but his work goes on that work goes on through you and through me when Billy Graham was asked by a Press reporter I've heard many preachers better than you mr. Graham why is God chosen you to be the Evangelist of the world with his shy retiring smile dr. Graham said when I get to heaven that is going to be my first question hmm but I get to heaven that is going to be my first question who would have ever thought an ordinary man like that in ordinary man like that when he was a younger man preaching the Tory Johnson one of the founders of Youth for Christ tells the story that he'd been invited to speak at a high school and he couldn't go so he called Billy Graham and said will you go for me and Billy said okay so he formed the school and said I can't come but I'm sending a young evangelist by the name of Billy Graham they're severe you know who he is we don't want him if you're not coming we're gonna cancel and Tori Johnson said please have him you will not regret it they said no we don't know him Tory said have him so they had him and Billy came back and Tory called him and said how'd it go he said not very well Tory but one person did respond to the Gospel message I gave said did you write down his name so you can pray for him he said yes he said what's his name his name was Warren where's me can you imagine that can you imagine that an ordinary person who was not known goes and preaches as a replacement and the hosts are not too delighted about having him and one man by the name of Warren where he gives his life to the Lord who later on became the pastor at Moody Church and one of the great expositors in recent memory don't underestimate what God can do through you the last chapter is not written yet Nehemiah was simply and plainly a civil engineer that's who he was but think of where God positioned him here he is in an enemy's palace but he has the most sacred trust of all of them he would taste the food before the king would eat it that's the kind of integrity Nehemiah had that's the kind of trust Nehemiah had he earned the right of respect and so the king when he spoke to him knew when he asked him a question he would get a true and honest answer there arose a person to help build that wall you are an individual that comes from the Latin which means you are indivisible you cannot be broken up or fragmented or reconstituted you are an individual of unique capacity God can use you maybe with a statement maybe with a word maybe with a gift and only heaven will reveal ultimately how God has used some of the unsung heroes of our time because they were totally submitted to him I look at it this way my dad was a highly educated man he'd studied at the University of Nottingham and Industrial Relations highly placed in the Indian government when ambassadors and when prime ministers and presidents came when the Queen of England came he was always in the host committee I remember as a little boy even meeting many of them when Khrushchev came and whoever the Crown Prince of Leo's my dad was always at the head of the committee and president or prime minister signed him that role and my dad left India and after when we migrated to Canada the front page story told about his departure from that country my dad was an impressive man in power my mother was the real backbone of the family and nobody knew much about her it was she who was by my bedside when I'd attempted to take my own life it was she that sat by the bedside of every child sometimes on there hanging between life and death it was she who gave me one liners to help me move into the future when she knew I was moving into preaching she said I have just one word of advice for you once you've cut off a person's nose there's no point giving them a rose to smell I said what's that got to do with my calling bomb she said don't be a rude speaker hmm don't be a rude speaker if you have cut off a person's nose he cannot get the aroma of the of the Rose itself and if today my brothers and sisters were to stand before you they would tell you she was the backbone of the home in her own simple way not very fluent in English never went overseas to study but she had that that humility and that dedication of heart God will use you he uses a person but here's the second thing while he had the pith hose for his people in Nehemiah what did he do he prioritized his mission by prayer he prioritized his mission by prayer 11 times in 13 chapters it says so I prayed to the God of heaven so I prayed to the God of heaven so I prayed to the God of heaven I was speaking to 300 French evangelists in Vichy France last week and I told them if you want me to have an idea of your spiritual life I have only one question for you tell me about your prayer life tell me about your prayer life and I will tell you where your spiritual life is and what is the center point of this you see in preaching in writing and so many public displays the ego can get in the way in prayer you're alone with God there is no showing off there is absolutely no room for some extraordinary self aggrandizing display you are with your head bowed and your heart humbled before him if our Lord had to get away from the crowds to find a place of Prayer if our Lord taught us to pray and to call upon him in the most critical moments of his earthly ministry he took time away to be alone with his Heavenly Father and to seek for wisdom prayer does three things in your life minimally three things number one when you pray and begin your prayer with Heavenly Father a holy father or however you do it that opening phrase recognizes the sovereignty of God you know immediately as soon as you begin that you cannot ultimately depend upon your strength the reason you are bowed before him is because he is sovereign over the universe in my on my 50th birthday my wife said to me what would you like for your birthday and the truth of the matter is you know there's nothing really that most of us need everything is sort of like the whipped cream on the strawberry shortcake you know you've got the food already and I said honey I really don't need anything I'm a foodie guy you know and so at Christmas they all give me gift certificates to the restaurants and in Atlanta and and I like it they all know which restaurants I go there before my 50th birthday she said no tell me what you want I said I'll tell you what I want but don't break her back over finding it I said I regret the wasted years when my family used to attend an Anglican Church and all I did was mock the preacher and mock the service when I would see people kneeling at their pews I just think what ignoramuses they really think somebody's up there listening to them I said I missed those days of kneeling before God in prayer I wished I had done better than that I said I would love to have an Anglican Prevage if you can find me one from somewhere I'll put it in my study my wife's a sleuth she does she knows where to find these things and she got this antique had to be some crossed over gift between the English and the French because of the two symbols on it and she got me this Anglican prayer bench and it is in my study and on that sits the Holy Scriptures and a little cushion where I can kneel and an open hymn book that I keep out there it is my morning appointment of God and when I travel apart from my family what I miss most is that prevent because you begin each day by recognizing you are just a small entity in and of yourself only God has made you somebody special and so you bow before him with the words Holy Father Heavenly Father it recognizes the sovereignty of God but there's a second thing it does it enables you to see your heart as it really is it enables you to see your heart as it really is remember when jacob is wanting to see Esau and he's sending he saw all these gifts that's a good Eastern trait when you're in trouble keeps sending gifts you know keep sending gifts wise men always come gift bearing gifts with them and so he he's sending all these gifts but he's terrified because he saw his bigger than he is and it betrayed him and he'd stolen the blessing and so he is saying to God at one point I'm not going to leave you until you bless me if you don't bless me I'm not gonna let you go of all the questions God could have asked him this omniscient God who knows everything looks at Jacob and says what's your name what what's your name one of my colleagues from India Prakash is Saudi and who's now passed away he was one of our my earliest colleagues very suddenly passed away three years ago he one day said this to me said Ravi I've come to the conclusion I know why God asked him for his name I said why he said because when he stole the blessing he lied about who he was he pretended to be he saw now he was before an all-seeing God asking to be blessed and God said who are you you got me Lord you got me he said I'm Jacob God says because you have admitted who you are I will make a great nation out of you you see you bow before a sovereign God and you see your own unworthiness prayer reminds you of what the true difference should be between false humility and genuine humility we are vessel we are in earthly vessels bearing precious treasures don't ever get to cocksure about yourself you are an earthen vessel and God has chosen to make you somebody out of this life and so you recognize God's sovereignty you see your own weakness and the third thing that happens in prayer is God weaves the grand design in your life because in prayer it's not so much what you ask of him but what he does in you as a result it's not so much what you ask of him but what he does in you dennis prager that jewish commentator he and I've taped teamed up a few times fascinating man brilliant guy he was debating Jonathan Glover an atheist from Oxford and Jonathan Glover was just mocking the whole thing about the fact that we make so much about the fact that Christianity has changed the world and he all rubbish kind of thing so Prager looked at him and he said professor Glover I have a question for you you're in my country now if you're in a desolate part of Los Angeles you're driving your car and your car breaks down at the dead of night and all of a sudden you hear individuals walking towards you and you see four burly guys coming towards you at the dead of night would it make a difference to you or not if you found out they were just coming out of a Bible study [Applause] what do you think Glover said you've made your point that you've made your point see God works his design in you when you open yourself up to his word and to his will see us Lewis and his book letters to Malcolm chiefly on prayer no modern publisher would have accepted such a title led us to Malcolm chiefly on prayer and he says this at one point he said you know I get mocked about prayer people say to me in debates you just imagine God's hearing it all it is a Auto suggestion you're just talking to yourself and you psych yourself up into believing somebody else has heard your prayer and Lewis says this they tell me Lord that when I pray only one voice is heard that I'm dreaming you are not there this whole thing is absurd maybe they're right Lord maybe they're right that I'm dreaming that's the whole thing is a dream but if it is a dream I'm not the dreamer you are the dreamer and I am your dream maybe they're right Lord that only one voice is heard but I'm not doing the dreaming you are doing the dreaming and I every our dream the Grand Weaver the grand design works out recognized the sovereignty of God sees your own duplicity makes you to be sensitive mind of God as he works out your path of passion it wasn't it Robert Browning who wrote that little piece of poetry how'd it go when I write a call course something to the effect that people are actually mocking me and saying that the I think the hoarder that more courses when I where I'm writing at this that either the stick is scaring me he says that's not real the fact of the matter is I am carrying the stick when I see children ride a cock-horse I find it in my heart to embarrass them and tell them they stick some more course and they really are carrying what they say carry them got it when I see children ride a cock-horse I find it in my heart to embarrass them and tell them their sticks a more coarse and they really are carrying what they say carries them 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're gonna get exhausted carrying it the prayer Christine the praying Christian is carried by God the praying Christian is borne by God so he gets a passion for his people prioritized his mission by prayer thirdly he pondered in proximity he went close to the situation I have to admit being the first time in Las Vegas to walk past those casinos or something or whatever you call them and watching people especially last night on a Saturday night watching the hundreds of them and while all the liquid refreshment is flowing to give them less and less in control of their emotions and their will and I say to myself I lost can we be lost can we be some years ago a man right here committed suicide in one of the hotels I remember reading about it and he left just one line in his hotel room out here there are no answers out here there are no answers no there's no answers here nor as there are their answers in Washington or in any other city the real answers when you come on your knees before God and as God calls you he takes you close to where people are lost we have shied away from the arenas you know the biggest criticism I have ever taken in there in my ministry is for being in places that people never wanted me to be I say what is the matter with you you think I enjoy going there I remember chuck Colson phoning me when I went to one place for which I was taking so many hits because they were going to supposedly use me for their purposes chuck phoned me and he said Ravi go and I want to tell you it'll be a very cold winter so pull the shutters down you're gonna go after you they're gonna attack you there and then he says to me what do they think you are you are an apologist you have to be in places of counter perspectives where people disagree with you we are called to go into such places one of my favorite spots that I visited over the years is in the island of Molokai in Hawaii a man by the name of Joseph Damian went to Molokai II one of most beautiful islands in the Hawaiian Islands but the tallest Sikh lifts in the world he went because his brother was supposed to go but his brother suddenly passed away and asked Joseph if he would go in his stead why did he go to Molokai because all of the people with leprosy in the Hawaiian Islands were sent to Molokai and he was to go and minister to them so he arrives in Molokai and sees this pathetic stage works with them loved them embraced them ministered to them tried to find a cure for them and one day as he was pouring a cup of boiling water from a kettle into the cup it swirled out of the cup and fell on his bare foot it took him a moment to realize he didn't feel what happened boiling water on a bare foot he looked at picked up that kettle and out of sheer shock poured some more he didn't feel it that morning he spoke to them he always began his message by saying my fellow believers they didn't realize why he changed the line that morning by the words my fellow lepers when he died the people in Molokai he were burying him and the Belgian government said no he's one of our heroes send him back the Hawaiian people with leprosy said but this is where he came to us he was a missionary to us we want him here the government wouldn't let him go when I'd buy that they wanted him back so finally they made a deal with the Belgian government said can we cut off that right hand of his and bury that in Molokai he because that's the hand that touched us when you go to Molokai today there's a grave marker for Joseph Damien but all that's buried there is that right hand you must get close you must get close you must reach out in your office in your school in your place of work to those of you who are young people whether you're in high school or junior high or you're a university student reach out and touch lives let them see the beauty of Jesus in you and your strong commitment to uphold his truth and his honor and his dignity and when the years go by they will remember you even if they mock you now I get telephone calls from people who were in junior high with me now some in senior high they will call the office and say is this the same Ravi Zacharias who went to school in Delhi and they'll just get on the phone with me and say what happened here I've had precisely that question one of them who was my neighbor flew to Toronto to spec he works in Washington now and he was working in the White House he flew to Toronto to spend time with my sister and said what happened to your brother what happened to your brother and she told him the story of the transforming power of Jesus Christ get close get close to people so you have that passion you prioritize by prayer you ponder in proximity and get close you go through the process of preparation you must prepare you must prepare if you want to be a missionary somewhere totally committed you will have to take time to study to learn to prepare to work hard to train this mind to think how best to communicate within the context in which you are going to be you see you never know you never know when that moment is going to come where you will have to rise beyond all of your studies to wisdom it's both preparation and wisdom that are needed I love to give this illustration you may have heard me give it on the air but it's one that happens so dramatically in my life that I will never forget it we were meeting with one of the founders of Hamas in Ramallah the the terror group and with the former Archbishop of Canterbury I was there with five others to dialogue with the Israeli and the Palestinian leadership meeting with all of the best on the highest place to them and one of the most vociferous argumentative and intensely passionate one was this particular Sheikh was whoever the founder of Hamas he was so loud and so obnoxious wouldn't want even to listen to anything and then as we'd had lunch with him and everything began to calm down a bit the archbishop looked at the warehouse accompanied him and said could each one of you ask him one question since it was a private meeting I cannot what the question I asked was but I can tell you what I said to him in response to his answer when he gave the answer I said I don't like your answer sir I really don't like your answer thousands are dying because of the answer you have just given I said I want to tell you something shake you may not want to see me again but I want to tell you something I said five thousand years ago on a mountain not far from her here a man you respect and I respect by the name of Abraham took his son up that mountain to offer him as a sacrifice do you remember that story he said yes I said please let's not debate right now which son it was but we just know that he took his son up that mountain and as the axe is about to come down from Abraham to his son God stops that arm he said that's right I said what did God say he was silent I said God said stop I myself were provided he said that's right I said very close to a you and I are sitting shake 2,000 years ago God kept that promise he took his own son up a hill and this style the ax did not stop he just kept staring at me the room was filled with tobacco smoke and then I said to him shake until you and I received the son God has provided for us we will be offering our own sons on the battlefields of this world for position and power and land and prestige he just stared at me and there was silence the archbishop said I think it's time to go now and we were walking away and the archbishop put his arm around me and he said Robbie that was of God I said I should hope so so we went down the stairs and the archbishop was the guest of honor and the shape was assuring him we were walking to our own vehicle and I heard running feet behind me and as I turned around it was Shane the shake and he twirled me around and he grabbed me by the shoulders a strong guy spent many years in prison and all that and he looked at me and he said mr. Zacharias and he patted me on both sides of the face and he kissed me he said you're a good man a good man I hope some day I will see you again and as I was driving at my car traveling associate was with me there and I was in a daze I said Lord where did that come from how did I even think of sring that thought with him with such audacity but such realism for him you know Paul was put away for three years to be prepared we don't know what all was happening in the life of our Lord till the moment of his baptism came we know Moses was there on the backside of the desert for four decades God always prepares his instrument you have to be ready to be praying the price of God is calling you into some real form of ministry pay the price of study pay the price of discipline as I said to an audience last night you cannot set a tepid Christianity beside the scorching paganism you've got to be armed in truth you've got to be ready and then I say this to you quickly avoid the paralysis of pessimism avoid the paralysis of pessimism people will tell you it's hopeless it's been never going to change it's never going to make a difference I'll tell you I have seen lives change that I never ever dreamed would ever changed I've got a colleague here if he gave his testimony to you you'd be stunned at the degree of change that came in his life I was writing an email just this morning to my colleague Michael Ramsden because he just left Manila in the Philippines I'll give you this illustration and close with my final thought which I promise you'll be brief some years ago three four years ago I think Lewis Lewis context my wife says whenever Ravi says recently it means because he doesn't remember when it so I was in Manila I just spoken three times that day and a businessman had said he was gonna take me out for dinner and my assistant said you know he has spoken three times so when you're saying dinner it you mean dinner right not a Q&A session or anything like that because there's no free lunch you know so he said no I'm taking out for dinner so we arrived so I'm sitting in the car and we are driving and I text the man my colleague sitting next to me I said I have a terrible feeling this is a speaking engagement we arrive in this beautiful hotel and there's 45 businessmen sitting around tables and he says to them today's my birthday and I've invited you and my gift to you is to bring my friend to speak to you I said I don't believe this I agree I wanted to cry I really wanted to try so and so they're all feasting enjoying this and I'm speaking on man's search for meaning and then at the end he said since we've already punished him enough let's punish him a little more do you have any questions and thus tall handsome guy stands up and he puts out his arms louder wide wingspan and he says to me meaning I don't have meaning I've tried to take my life a couple of times I don't know what you're talking about meaning and I looked at him and I said oh you're such a handsome guy it looked like you're made for the movies I didn't know he was a film actor I said you look like you're made for the movies I said you're shedding tears and it's running down you of everybody in the room knew who he was I said I'd rather talk to you privately would you be willing to talk to me said yes I will so after it's over they're all standing in the corner watching this conversation he says Ravi I'm a medical doctor and I'm a film actor I'm known all over this country but I messed up my life and he told me of the sordid reality of how he was living in private so sensually erotic and erratic that he was making a mess of his life there are some of his friends had taken some of the videos that he had made of himself in these horrible things and put them on YouTube they called him up before Parliament because he was a medical doctor they poured water over his head and he moved from being the most adored man in the Philippines to being the most hated man in the Philippines we had the privilege of seeing him come to Jesus Christ the press interviewed me when I came back some time later one year after that moment we want to talk to you about Hayden what's happened to him his testimony is all over the land and the impact he's made and today Michael Ramsden was just left Manila my colleague was telling me of the impact of Hayden Cole in that country and I said Michael who would have ever known when you're preaching at a place where you don't even wanted to be and you didn't know you were going to be and God takes a man like that and is having a huge impact all over the country with his testimony don't be pessimistic he can take the most painful moments of your life and find out that he used it for the greatest glory his story my friends return avoid the paralysis of pessimism I was at one University with a leading atheist got a whole group of students to mock my coming at the end of that week and he started thing about his study fascinating absolutely fascinating lastly he brought peace for his people if you believe the gospel is the truth and Jesus the way the truth and the life prioritize your mission by prayer but get close take the preparation avoid the paralysis of pessimism you will bring peace to many a person and peace into many a situation I urge you to take your missionary call seriously God has called every one of us to be a missionary you may not realize it it could change history John Wesley was five or seven years old when he was caught in a burning house his parents thought they had brought him down they didn't they brought them so many children they didn't know who all they brought down and John was I think five or seven at the window the house was burning and the neighbor comes over and they said you have a ladder he says no but the house has now engulfed so the neighbor said to the man next to him stand on my shoulder they formed a human ladder and took John out of that window that's why his biography is called a brand plucked out of the burning not one of them knew that one day they would be standing on his shoulders as he changed the course of history don't underestimate what God can do through you and I want to leave you with this prayer as a closing petition before God Charles Wesley wrote this just hear it and then I will pray he said this or thou who came us from above the pure celestial fire to impart Kindle the flame of sacred love on the mean altar of my heart there let it for thy glory burn with inextinguishable blaze and trembling to its source return in humble prayer 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 that gifts in me ready for all thy perfect will my acts of faith and love repeat till death die endless mercy seal and make my sacrifice complete to work and speak and think for the still let me guard the holy fire and still stir up thy gifts in me ready for all thy perfect will my acts of faith and love repeat till death die endless mercy seal and make my sacrifice complete you know ask you to pray with me father you have used people like engineers like tent makers like tax collectors you have used Shepherds fishermen you've used a young carpenter it is amazing across this landscape of history how you have accomplished your purpose this is our moment Lord we need you a city with no moral walls needs you a world without boundaries needs you we need you for more than ever I pray for our leaders we are a nation in turmoil so much I hate that we see is troubling us Lord we cannot see two feet ahead of us what's gonna happen in a new day we live in uncertainty accept accept you break through and we are confident you will attain your perfect will out of this audience please find men and women who will serve you and say here am i Lord take my life and let it be consecrated Lord to thee here's what I'm gonna do if God has spoken to you during these two days through the messages through the music and tonight you're wanting to say Ravi I want on the inside to say to my Lord take me I will be a cause I will be a person for your cause wherever you place me and I will be a light in a dark world maybe you don't even know him and you want to find him tonight but if you do know him say I want to be an instrument of his peace and his message if that's your response why don't you just stand to your feet I would like to pray for you and closing your eyes do you think so many of you don't do it if you don't mean it just do it do it with the voice of God in your heart instead let me pray for you father we've got this whole audience standing at its feet how wonderful it would be if everyone here is really reaching out to you and saying use me thank you my dear sister in Christ for Kay Arthur how many trials she has blazed I think of Jeremy and his music along with his precious wife Adrienne and others Brian and all who have contributed a music tonight so beautifully rendered I thank you for Derek and his team here in a city that needs so much of light then they have taken a stand for you with a name of a very hill because of its history was changed I pray your benediction upon the leadership here and the people may their best days be ahead expand their walls but let the walls of their moral reasoning and their deep convictions ever be held firmly rooted in the foundation of your truth thank you for giving me the privilege of speaking the honor of representing you I'm not worthy of it I stand with them to say take my life and let it be consecrated Lord to me let this be a missions conference that will change the course of many lives we ask this in Jesus name [Music]

Channel: Stephen's Bible Reading and Writing Ministries

Views: 1,897

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Id: Azxtx_pza04

Length: 61min 46sec (3706 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 03 2020