Rich Mullins - Wheaton College Chapel Service (Full Concert, 1997)

please be seated as we begin Chapel this morning I'd like to say a word and follow up to last Friday's Chapel I was you can be seated like to say a word in follow-up to last Friday's Chapel a week ago I was out of town attending a chaplains conference in Seattle and I received a number of report received a CLO was very nice there wasn't a drop of rain in four days incredible I received a number of reports about last Friday's uninvited off-campus guests and in addition to remarks that were made in Chapel the gentleman claiming to be a prophet confronted many students and said a lot of unkind things in the name of God and for some students particularly women students his accusations were maligning and hurtful no matter how far off base someone is these kinds of abusive challenges can be unsettling they are especially confusing to people who are spiritually sensitive even the strangest self-proclaimed prophets can influence and intimidate sincere Christians this kind of thing happens as cults lead people into situations like Heaven's Gate or Jonestown this morning I'd like to encourage this morning I'd like to encourage all of us to find our assurance in the scriptures assurance of our salvation in the clear teaching of the Word of God with passages such as psalm 34:20 - that says the Lord redeems his servants no one will be condemned who takes refuge in him Romans 8:1 there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus in Romans 8:15 is God's promise to believers where the Apostle writes for you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear but you received the spirit of adoption and by him we cry Abba Father the Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children this is God's Word to us and may we find comfort and encouragement from the testimony of Holy Scripture in the testimony of the Holy Spirit the testimony of the spirit who says that it is by grace and through faith that we are indeed the children of God let us pray together Laura would you come and lead us in our morning prayer please pray with me dear precious father we come humbly before you we're so thankful for your goodness to us Lord we thank you for your mercy and your grace and for your son's death on the cross God and our busy schedules we so often forget to humble ourselves Lord we just ask forgiveness for that we're so consumed by our schedules and our planners and our agendas and our motives that we forget to look up God I just pray that in this last month of school you may allow us the time to just be in your presence and not necessarily be doing anything and then when we are doing the tasks that you have given us to do god I just pray that we may be focused on you and you may be our goal God at this time we lift up to you the country of North Korea and the famine that's occurring there but we know that you have the power to raise up the means to provide for the physical needs of the people there we just ask for a miracle and that all right I just pray that you will open the doors and your light may come upon those people in North Korea God we also pray for the country of desire and those dying of starvation and disease we pray that you give wisdom to those and United Nations as they seek to airlift the refugees home to Rwanda for the next three months Lord we just pray that you will protect protect those involved from the rebels in that year and that you will just give the grace and the mercy to all those in that country Lord we pray for those living in the Dakotas and Minnesota and they are continually plagued by the floods there where I just give them a patience and give them the eyes to just see as you see and the wisdom to know that you are in control of the situations that are plaguing them but we also lift up to you the gentleman who visited us in Chapel last week Lord we just pray that you will speak truth into his life and you will heal him pray for those who came in contact with him who may have been hurt by his words and his actions I just pray that you will bring people into their lives and just be such a comfort in them and to know that you love us unconditionally no matter what anyone else or what ourselves may tell ourselves Lord we just thank you for Rich Mullins and his servant's heart we thank you that he's able to come on campus and be in our presence we thank you that you have shaped his life in the manner that you have and that you have brought him to this point where he is able to share his talents with us Lord we just pray that you will soft in our hearts to be able to hear what you want us to hear and be upon rich moms this morning and the rest of this week because he blesses us with his presence Lord we thank you for all these things and we lift them up to you and your sons matchless name Steve harvester assistant director of the Student Activities Office we'll introduce our special guests for the past three months I've had the exciting opportunity of being closely acquainted with Rich Mullins mostly this has been in the context of producing his recently written musical canticle of the plains which is a story based on the life of saint francis of assisi this musical is being premiered next Friday evening during part of his concert and it's here in Edmund Chapel I liken my opportunity to get to know rich almost as an opportunity to glimpse through a pinhole toward the extraordinary Land of Oz there's so much color there yet there's only a small scope of time in which you can gather it and ask about the vividness you're peeking at and just as an encounter in Oz leaves you or the visitor unchanged forever a session with rich leaves you with a fresh focus you almost find yourself 4p eating not there's no place like home but there's nothing like holiness my interactions with rich I found that he is funny and serious he's quick to point out his own humanity and he's surprised when you spot something lofty in him undoubtably rich Mullins is infectious Lee off filled about the god he loves laughs writes and sings about please welcome to our chapel program rich Mullins I sing your praise to the Lord never tell you just hopping the song you harder to see when he died it goes on so what's the song so were you on everybody song somebody's time to eat she works for her design to shine everybody it's to me bread oops ooh you the name of the Lord be praised boat for now the name come on everybody could never tell you to summer it is gonna do thank you everyone always says you shouldn't drink milkshakes before you sing and I didn't I just think morning is worse for you than milkshakes so if you have your options I would rather have a be horse because of it milkshake then because of morning you want to know the whole truth about it you Saints and children we've gathered here to hear the sacred story and I'll gladly bring it to you with my best rhyming and rhythm cuz I know that the thirsty listen and down to the water's come the holy king of Israel those we here in America if you listen to my songs I hope you the waterfalling hope you feel the oceans crashing on the coast of North New England and now I said I could be there just to see them two summers past I was and the mole the king of Israel over here in America if I were a painter I do not know which I paint calling of the ancient stars assembling of the saints there's so much beauty around us for just two eyes to see everywhere I go looky once a whim to Appalachian from a father he was born there and I saw the mountains waking with the innocence of children and my soul will it's still there with her so after the songs I've seen by the highways on a million ants and ramps it's two legged memorials to the laws of happenstance waiting for four-wheel messiahs take them home again I'm home anywhere if you are where I am you if you listen to my songs a hoagie he the waterfall hope you feel the oceans crashing on the coast north New England and I wish it I could be there just to see the two summers past I was these fellows me here merica well I have a couple announcements I need to make first of all demands glee club is going to be playing here Saturday night singing here and I have a ticket so there must be some seats left cuz they surely wouldn't give me one if there weren't and also there's going to be a chocolate fest at Traber at eight o'clock uh but they forgot to tell me what day Oh tonight this very night yes so my understanding is this is as close to a kegger as you can have it uh so eat up so it's really this internet thing is really upsetting to me because there's a people right in stuff that I say in concerts and what you know I don't have a computer but I in fact I barely have a phone I can't get a credit card you know because you have to have touch-tone and where I live they don't that we just got touch-tone always before it was that pulse dial thing which takes longer to dial but that's okay because where I live there's not a whole lot to do anyway so you kind of fun to punch a bunch of nines and just see if you can count as they pulse by anyway so you know people I think used to think that that I was real spontaneous and stuff because I come off as if I don't really know what I'm talking about which is I do that to disarm the heathen you know they don't get all defensive if they think that you're just a bumbling idiot and just part of my charm but then you know these people write in the Internet and say what I said and then you know the people the next concert go what wait a minute I I you know he just said that a week ago so you know I wouldn't I had a panic attack actually and decided oh oh wow I've got to come up with you know several different things to say because if I don't everyone will know I'm not really as spontaneous as I appear to be but then I realized that that's why pastors are so boring is because we hear them every week and they're always trying to come up with new material and I think everybody only really has one sermon in them if you want to know the whole truth everybody only has one song in them all songwriters that's the thing that cracks me when people say who all his stuff sounds alike yes duh try to listen to a couple hours of Mozart which I've never gotten is why is it that did a few people in Austria a couple hundred years ago got to decide what was going to be classic okay and what is classic rock and what is alternative music I don't get that either like how can it be alternative is you know the minutes is accepted it's not alternative anymore and Rock can't be classic these are all things that this discussed and disturbed me so yeah but you know I I'm at an academic place so I need to speak highly of serious stuff although I have trouble with serious stuff I have to admit because I just think life's too short to get too heavy about everything and I you know I think there are easier ways to lose money than by farming and I think there are easier ways to become boring than by becoming academic and I think you know the thing everybody really wants to know anyway is is not you know what the theory of relativity is but I think what we all really want to know anyways whether we're loved or not and that's that's why I like you know the scriptures because you get the feeling from reading them that we might be and if we were able to really know that we we wouldn't worry about the rest of the stuff the rest of it would be more fun I think because right now we take it a little so seriously because I think of our basic insecurities about whether we're loved or not and you know I think you should study because your folks have probably sunk a lot of money in this and it would be ungrateful not to but your life doesn't depend on it that's what I loved about being a student in my 40s as opposed to my 20s as I've had the great knowledge that you could live for you know at least half a century and not know a thing and get along pretty well so all that to set up this song which is really not one of my favorites but that's why you work that hard at setting it up there's a wide the same God's mercy I can I find in my own and the keeps fire burning to melt this heart is down it keeps me aching with the yearning keeps me glad have been caught if the reckless raging fury that they call the love of God I've seen the band of angels but I've heard the surger songs love haze over there like a banner love with them and leaves them on to the battle on the journey never gonna stop ever widening them mercy and the fury of his god joy and sorrow are this ocean oh no that's not the words we want okay it is the words joy and sorrow are this ocean to their everything flow now the Lord the door is open did all hell could never close and here up tested they're made worthy tossed about but lift it up in the reckless raging fury that they call the love of God okay I'll do more recent song because I might remember it better it's it's the closest thing to love song I've actually written in the last several years because I don't date anymore so I don't need to write many you know love songs because they never worked very good anyway but uh let's see this is I it always worries me you know listening to Christian radio occasionally you get a little worried about how if if you were really tuned into that stuff all the time you it would warp you and I became alarmed at this lack of good breakup songs on Christian radio you know it's it's as if we were all part of Focus on the Family or something we didn't do that so uh me a bigger decided to write one in and it's really hilarious you know because of this internet stuff you know I get all these letters now from people you know trying to console me over my divorce I thought jeez I haven't even had a date in a decade how can I get a divorce so it's not really a personal story it's you know just it was just an exercise we decided to try to make it hard for the other guy to rhyme and that's how he wrote it anyway they played on radio so it must be ok so it goes I'm having a hard time this morning I'm not a morning person you may not you may not know this but musicians generally tend to be nocturnal and this is the world is set against us so we do our best to adjust but this one goes up it took the hand to God Almighty depart the waters in the sea but it only took one little lie to separate you and me so we are not as strong as we think we are they say the one day Joshua made the Sun stand still in the sky that I can't even keep these thoughts of you passing by so hope you're not as strong and as we think we are we are frail we are fearfully and wonderfully made forged in the fires of human passion choking on the fumes are selfish rage and with these our heads and our heavens so few inches apart we must be awfully small not as strong as we think we are the master said that phages gonna make the mountains move to me I tremble like a hill on a fault light to the thought how I lost you we are not as strong as we think we are we are frail we are fearfully and wonderfully made fortune the fires of human passion choking on the fumes are selfish rage and with these our Hales and I have burns so few inches apart we must be awfully small and not as strong as we think we are but if you make me laugh I know I could make you like me when I laugh I can be a lot of fun if we can't do that I know that it is fried me what I don't know is why I we can't hold on we can't hold on but let's at the hand of God Almighty to part the waters in the sea but it only took one little I separate you and me we are not as strong is Malia when you love you walk on water careful you don't stumble on them waves we all wanna go there's something awful to stand there it takes some grace cuz oh we are not as strong as we think we are though you're not as strong as we think we are well and that's a little grimmer than most most stuff I write but only because the grim stuff doesn't sell well and people often ask when it inspires songs and I know I hate that because you know of all my pagan friends and you tried to talk about the inspiration the scriptures and I think when you you know just throw the word inspired around loosely like that it becomes very confusing to them so I always like to say that I you know my songs are not particularly inspired they're the scriptures were inspired my my songs are provoked and I know you know God gives a lot of people their songs but you know I hear a lot of those and I understand why why he gave him away I've never gotten this this Christian thing of about always blaming God for everything you know everything God told me to do this or do that well gee it's a shame that you're so stupid he had to tell you to do that just seems like a sensible thing for you to do why don't you just do what makes sense and stop waiting for God to tell you to wipe your nose when it's running but there's a lot in the Christian culture thing that I don't I don't think I get and it's made it kind of awkward because I've been you know really pretty successful overall from Christian audiences but I don't know why because I I don't think I get all this stuff and I was you know I think I was raised Christian but once I left home I began to find out how unchristian my family was you know because we I think our big problem was my folks underlined all the wrong passages of Scripture and none of the right ones like the the born-again thing which is a total crack up to me because Jesus only said that the one guy one time and then there was that whole born-again movement you know where everybody said you had to be born again and I was going why am i Nicodemus what happened to the passage that said if you want to follow me give up all you've got and give it to the poor and take up your cross do we all have to do that too the Bible is such an interesting book to me because it says so many things that you can't really follow it all I don't think Kenya so I guess that's why God invented highlighters so we could find the parts we especially like and Mark him up and just follow that because I think if you follow any of it you're doing pretty good except for the part my favorite part did you know the most reiterated command the whole Bible is a command to sing now there must be a reason for that and that's why I sing I don't really enjoy it I think it's I think it's hard worked I like riding but I sing because I figure you find a command that easy to follow you should do it a whole lot because it the rest of them are kind of rough except the first command the one too to be fruitful and multiply most people I know have trouble not keeping that command that's the thing that cracks me up about you know proof texting - that everyone's proof texting this book about Christ and Christ himself said you know you search the scriptures to find life and you're not going to find it there but no one underlined that part not even my folks because we live in a time when we have come to believe that there are answers and I don't know why we believe that and that even more worrisome is I'm not even sure why we ever came to believe the questions are all that important I love when Jesus was you know and Mark in all three of the synoptic Gospels in fact the story of the rich young ruler comes right after the story about Jesus blessing the children and I think that there might be some significance to that and Mark who was briefer than the other writers includes three details and his telling of this story that that the other two guys left out and I in case you're not familiar entirely with the story it goes that Jesus was blessing little kids you know I'm trying to think through this thing I'm going wow how do you bless children I'm because I find them barely tolerable less let alone something that you'd want to bless something at will have right you know I've got all these nieces and nephews and stuff how have I bless them and I the only you know the only thing I could think of is you know you pick them up and you throw them as high in the air as you can and then you catch them right before you a splat or you get down on all fours and you know they ride you and you try to buck them off and that kind of thing so I'm trying to picture Jesus do this and then the disciples they come up and they see Jesus who you know they're good monotheists oh they're really I'm sure struggling with his claims to be equal to God and they see him you know they're kind of going well you know when you put on that really straight academic face of yours and and charge us with a lot of information we can we can kind of buy it then but but here you're acting like an idiot and it's hard enough to believe that smart people are could be the Son of God let alone this this bumbling idiot that's rolling around in the dirt with the children and Jesus says hey guys knock it off you if you want to come into my kingdom you have to come in like one of these you'll have to come in like a child you have to let me throw you up in the air and catch right before you splat you have to ride on my back and let me buck you off we have to wrestle a little we have to play a little and there's this guy who's a great student and probably a politician the rich young ruler and he's standing by waiting for his big photo op because that's what politicians do and he's doing what all students do during the lectures he's trying to think of some great stump the teacher question some question it would be so impressive to all of his peers that they would all go man you're so smart to thought to have asked that so Jesus just gets done saying you have to be a little child or you can't come in my kingdom and then this guy goes up and ask the stupidest and most repeated question in the history of Christianity could master what must I do to have eternal life and Mark then says these three things I find amazing first of all I find it amazing that Jesus had just answered his question before he even asked it and it wasn't about what you do it was about what you are Jesus had just said if you want to come into my kingdom be a child and who doesn't find it easy to be a child what else are we going to be and this guy was so arrogant that he didn't listen to God when God spoke but mark tells us something about God in his telling of this story that I find amazing he says that Jesus looked at the man which says this must be the beginning of the good news that even though we're so arrogant that we don't even listen to God God is so humble that he looks at us that he takes note of us he's not impressed by our questions and by our answers but he's quite taken with us and having looked at the man mark tells us that he loved him which I find amazing because this guy was using Jesus as a photo op and Jesus loved him and after he had looked at him after he'd considered him and after he had loved him then Jesus told him what to do if there was such a thing and the thing that I find it wonderful about what Jesus told this guy was I have a feeling like his security was all wrapped up in his possessions and so he told him to get rid of his possessions something he didn't tell Nicodemus to do I have a feeling maybe Nicodemus was all wrapped up in his religious heritage and in his genes and Jesus told him to forget it and be born again because maybe it's more important that we know Jesus and anything else in the world and maybe all our questions maybe our answers don't amount to a hill of beans but they're fun to ask and it's always impressive to have an answer even though they don't ever amount to much sometimes we think that Christianity will be communicated when we become really intelligent or really articulate Christianity has communicated the same way diseases are it's communicated through touch through breath through life not to information and Christian vitality does not come from having a great head but it comes from being connected to a great God who really is life and that's what I learned anything wanted to say to you this morning so thank you for listening I will play another song now more that rises in the morning than the Sun more that shines in the night than just the moon it's more than just as fire here the keeps me warm in a shelter that is larger than this room loyalty that's deeper than mere sentiments the music I hire them the songs that I can sing stuff of Earth competes for the legions I owe only to the giver of all good till if I stand let me stand on the promise to pull me through five kids let me fall on the grace first brought me to and if I sing let me see with the joy this morning me these so Bob we've let it be as a man who is longing for his home there's more the dances are these prairies and the wind more the pulses in the ocean and the time there's a love that is fiercer than the love between friends progenitor than a mother when there's a baby Addyson that's deeper than mere sentiments and amuse a car than the songs that I can sing stuff of Earth can beats for the allegiance I want it to the giver of all good the past and let me stay on the promise to pull me through if our kids let me fall on the grace first bribed me if I sing let me sing for the joy that is born in me this we've let it be as a man who is longing for his if I bleep let it be as a man who belonging thank you all for listening you're dismissed

Channel: Ragamuffin Archive

Views: 64,931

Keywords: Rich Mullins (Musical Artist), Wheaton College (College/University), Sing Your Praise to the Lord, Here in America, We Are Not As Strong As We Think We Are, If I Stand, The Love of God

Id: yHaCIB5nhBM

Length: 43min 57sec (2637 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 02 2015