[Darris McNeely] A few months ago, on a very
cold, bright and clear December afternoon, Debbie and I were standing on a plot of English
soil in front of four grave sites that we had to squint and look very carefully to make
out the names of the people who were on these four untended, neglected graves. On a plot of land off a place called Smug
Oak Lane in a village in England called Bricket Wood. It was the spot where for 14 years from 1960
to 1974, the Worldwide Church of God held and conducted a campus called Bricket Wood,
one of the three Ambassador College campuses from that period. And Bricket Wood was a campus there that began
in 1960. It had really an interesting story. I had to go and look up the autobiography
how it all began and refresh my memory of that after we came back off of that trip in
December. Mr. Herbert Armstrong had gone to England
to look for a larger office space. The fledgling United Kingdom Office that they
had there had outgrown itself and they needed more space. So he started looking around London for more
office, he couldn't find anything suitable. The estate agent that they had said, "Well,
I've got, you know, something a little bit bigger, maybe it'll work out for you." And so he took them north of London outside
in what I think was called the Green Belt at that time, onto a manor property that had
been neglected and rundown. It was one of those English manor houses,
not quite as big as Downton Abbey. But nonetheless, a piece of property that
in its day had been owned and built up by a man named David Yule. David Yule, when he died, I believe in 1928
was listed as the richest man in England. And he had built this estate but over the
years as with a lot of English estates, it had been neglected, gone into decay. The heirs and the family kind of died off
and had gone on the market. And here was Mr. Armstrong and a group of
others kind of running around this piece of property looking for an office and all of
a sudden they got the idea, "Well we could start a college." And they did, 1960. It was kind of the way things were done back
in those days. You go looking for a piece of office, you
know, just a small office space and before you know it you got a campus, college campus. We don't do it that way today but that's the
way it was done back at that time. And so for 14 years, people came from all
over the world. From Australia, from Africa, from America,
from Canada, from Europe, and students turned out through the years. And it was an Ambassador College campus until
it closed in 1974. And interestingly, I was thinking about it,
that work of that campus is still bearing fruit today. Still bearing fruit. Victor Kubik was a graduate of Ambassador
College, Bricket Wood. Gary Antioch was a graduate of that college. Bill Bradford, one of our ministers in Australia,
Bob Dick still serving, all of these men and others. But it's still bearing fruit, I thought that's
a remarkable thing all these years later because you know, there's a scripture where God talks
about His Spirit that goes out and it doesn't come back empty. The work where that Spirit is done doesn't
return empty, it continues to bear fruit and always will throughout eternity when you really
put it all together. But last December we were standing before
these four graves. Who were they? As I said, you had to appear very closely
to see the names because the years have taken those names and began to wear them off. One bore the remains of a lady named Virile
Hunting. Her husband was a minister and a faculty member
at the college. I believe she died in early 1973. I knew two of her children, I didn't really
know the lady very well but by all accounts, she was a very gracious lady. Another lady that lay there her name was Barbara
Silcox. She died sometime in the late 1960s. Her husband was the estate gardener of Bricket
Wood, which was a very well respected profession throughout England to someone who was the
gardener for a large estate. And he was responsible for bringing that property
up to the standards that it did have during that time. The third grave was a man named Dr. Benjamin
Ray. He was a minister in the Church and also a
faculty member, well remembered and well-respected there. And the fourth individual was a man by the
name of Leo Joseph Beaudin Chick. I believe he was the music director of the
college at that time. He was the Kenny Shoemaker of the day. So all four of these individuals were given
a plot of land or a plot for their burial through their families at that time. And as I said they were untended and neglected. And when Debbie and I were there last December,
we watched workers putting up fencing around the buildings. And they said that the following week they
were going to tearing down the old gymnasium, that had been built by the college. And they were going to begin building housing,
new housing. Some company had bought it out. It's gone through several hands over the years. And by this time, I'm sure that gymnasium
is down. In time probably all the buildings that we
put up there through the years will be torn down. The historic buildings that go back to the
Yule family will have to be kept by law and they will remain but then there will be other
housing that will go up in that area at that point, every vestige of what was, Ambassador
College, will disappear. But as I said, the fruit still continues on. Those four people, they represent a generation
that pioneered our time in the Church of God and the experience that we have had. And they speak to us today. They spoke to me in a sense that day as I
looked upon those graves, I didn't know that they were there. I was actually looking for the Mausoleum of
Sir David Yule. I remember that one from a previous trip and
I didn't realize these others had been honored with a burial place there. But their lives bear witness to us today with
a call, a call to another generation. And that's what I'd like to speak about today,
the call to the next generation. Today we speak to the graduating class of
2019 here at ABC who will graduate tomorrow, of course, I'm as well speaking to ABC alumni,
friends and family and other members who are gathered here for this occasion this weekend. All of us fellow members of the household
of God. And as the years go by we do recognize that
another generation is passing. And we should consider today for a few minutes
the call to the next generation. In Matthew 16, Jesus Christ said about His
Church. He said, "I will build My Church and the gates
of the grave, the gates of hell will not prevail against it." He said, and he has been true to His promise
and to His statement. The Church of God has endured through the
generations. From the beginning on that day of Pentecost
we read about Acts 2, Christ said that He would build His Church and He is. It's a progressive, present tense, present
active effort that has not yet ended. He's building it this very minutes. It is being built, it is His body, He is the
head of the Church. And Christ promised that He would always be
with the Church. So we need not fear or worry about the future
of the Church, Christ has it securely in His hands. And when you look at that scripture in Matthew
16:18 where Christ said, "I will build My church, and the gates of hell will not prevail
against it.” He's really saying that the Church will be
on the offensive throughout its years and generations battering down the gates of hell
and being prepared as a Body, as a Bride for Jesus Christ. And that is going on and we have a part in
that today. And it's a great opportunity and a wonderful
blessing that we have. Today at ABC, at Ambassador Bible College,
we teach the truths of God to the next generation. Young adults who decide to take a year out
of their lives and come to this institution and learn the Word of God. That's what they learn. That is what is taught here, we don't teach
physics, we don't teach mathematics, we teach the Word of God. We pass on the truths of God to those who
come, young and old every year and we take them through the Word of God and we explained
as best we can. That word, we explain our teachings and the
fundamental beliefs of the United Church of God and why we believe what we do. And through all of this experience, they not
only produce very wonderful music every year, they knit themselves together in tremendous
relationships that long past the time when they will finally go out the doors of this
building back into their lives and go on. Those relationships are very important to
the classes that have gone previously before all of this. So the question to the class of 2019, to those
of you that are alumni that have already been through the experience and to all of us, again,
as members of the household of God, here's the question, and especially to the younger
set. Will you accept the call that God has put
before you? This is your time and this is your church. Will you accept that call that God has given
to your generation that will take the reins and we'll take the opportunity going forward? I'd like to take a moment here to turn us
to a scripture in the book of Jeremiah and consider another time of transition between
the generations and look at what we might learn and no, we're not going to run with
the horses today. But we're going to another part of Jeremiah
to understand something for us all. Beginning in chapter 1, let's look at Jeremiah
1, as God began to call Jeremiah in his youth. Some of the scholars try to reckon the chronology
when Jeremiah was born, very likely during the reign of king Josiah of Judah. And by the time we see him being called by
God, the guesstimate is 18 or 19 years of age. The age of a lot of our kids who come to ABC,
we had a younger class this year. And Jeremiah was less than 20 very likely
when God said these words to him here. Beginning in verse 4, let's begin there. Where it says, "The word of the Lord came
to me, saying: 'Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; before you were born I sanctified
you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations.'" This is a heady call. This was big and when you read the book of
Jeremiah, you see that God exactly did that. Jeremiah had prophecies to many of the nations,
most of the nations of his day. He uttered pronouncements that found their
way into their courts and into their city squares that they heard. God did send His message to them as well as
to His own people, Judah in their demise, in their last years. And God said, "I've ordained you a prophet
in this way." And when He's done, Jeremiah had a claim on
his life by God, from the womb of his mother. Now when we read through the book of Jeremiah
and begin to piece together his biography and we really have probably more information
about Jeremiah than any of the other prophets, it becomes very clear that Jeremiah probably
really didn't want to be a prophet. That wasn't his choice but God called him
to that and he accepted that responsibility. He very likely did not marry. We have no record of that. He did the job for more than 40 years, I guess
a great deal of opposition. And it was a very challenging job. There are times you can read that he probably,
he went into what we used to call the ministry in the Church, a non-career status. He kind of semi-retired, went someplace else
for a while because he just got tired of pronouncing the judgments of God and dealing with the
hostility of people or lack of response and other problems. But then he always went back. He never really left it, he stayed at his
responsibility. It was a difficult time for his nation and
for the times. Jeremiah lived during a time of international
crisis and historical transition. When you piece it all together it's what some
historians call a hinge moment in history. Changes were taking place in his world that
actually were beginning to shape the modern world hundreds of years later and still are
in effect in our world today. Egypt was on the decline, Assyria, Media was
going down and the rising nation was Babylon. Babylon was the nation that Jeremiah had to
deal with. The old was passing away and new power blocks
were on the horizon. So it was a very significant time. Had there been the internet and 24/7 cable
news channels, they would have been very, very busy trying to figure it all out and
what it meant just as it seems like today. So many of our news pundits and analysts are
trying to figure out even our own time and the international changes that are taking
place and the power balances that are shifting and changing on our world scene. So there are some very strong striking parallels
with our time and the time of Jeremiah. But to focus in on what God was doing with
Jeremiah, He was calling him to the work. And I use that phrase very carefully because
you will find that at the end of Acts 15 when Barnabas and Paul began to deal with the beginnings
of their second trip and they are talking about John Mark who had left them on their
first journey and it says that he “left them as they went to the work.” To the work. It's a phrase that we have kind of molded
and adapted into our own time as well, the work of God and a calling to the work. And we've gone to the work and generations
in our own time have gone to the work and so is Jeremiah. So as we look here, beginning in verse 7 of
Jeremiah, let's not look at Jeremiah and the message here, what God is saying to him as
a message to this prophet, which he was. And as I said, he did go to nations and he
did some big things. But let's look at it as it applies to us because
the same calling is to us and that is a calling to do the work of God. In a different way, we're not prophets, we're
not going to stand before kings and nations like Jeremiah did. But each of us has a calling, a calling by
God to truth, to salvation, to be firstfruits to the plan of God. And that is a very real calling. It's just as real as the calling to Jeremiah. So let us look at it as it applies to us as
to what we can learn and especially for the next generation and the call that is to the
next generation. In verse 7 of Jeremiah 1, "But the Lord said
to me: 'Do not say, “I am a youth.”'" Because that's what he had said back in verse
6. "Ah, Lord! I can't speak. I can't do this. I'm a youth." And as I said, he was probably a late teenager,
18 or 19 years of age when this took place. "I'm just a youth. I haven't been around. I haven't finished my education. I don't have the knowledge in the Psalms and
the books of Moses as he would have said in the law. I'm not well versed in it as I should." What other excuses do you think he might have
used? I don't know but they were probably there. But God said to him in verse 7, "Don't say
‘I'm a youth,’ for you shall go to whom I send you, and whatever I command you, you
shall speak." So God is saying that He had a claim on Jeremiah's
life just as He has a claim on ours. These words were to a prophet at one time
but they're part of the inspired Word of God and they're words to us as well. Youth is not an excuse to avoid the calling
of God. Youth is not an excuse to avoid responsibility. Youth is a time to lay the foundation for
adulthood and for maturity. That's what youth is all about, as well as
something for those of us that get a few years older to wish that we had back, again a few
more years to go back and relive a few things and maybe just a dozen or more years we might
like back from our youth. But it is a time to take up responsibility
and to lay the foundation towards adulthood and towards maturity. And I would say to our youth today, take it,
accept the challenge. Don't in a sense, say like Jeremiah that you're
too young. Although you may have already said that and
you may have already felt that but don't let that be the determining factor as to what
you then begin to do when it comes to that calling when it comes to the truth of God. Don't be dismissed because of your youth. You know, my time I became a minister very
early, a trainee and then a minister and a pastor. And I was still very young. We don't do it quite like that today but that
was the way it was done back then. I get acutely feel my youth so much so that
when I was called “Sonny” one time in a Sears department store by one of the clerks,
I said, "I'm not a youth." Or you know, “Sonny” and whatever. So I went home and grew a mustache. Just to put on a few extra years appearance-wise
and wore that mustache just to have a little bit more appearance of maturity. I still had a long way to go to mature and
fill out some ways but that's inevitable. But I would say, don't worry about that. You know what? Here's the dirty little secret that young
people need to understand. Some may think, well, you're too young. You know what? Ignore it. When you're middle-aged, there's going to
be somebody that's going to be thinking you're too young. And you know what? When you get as old as I am, there’s still
going to be somebody somewhere that doesn't think you're old enough. Trust me, I've experienced it and you'll be
dismissed. You know what you should do, ignore them all
and accept the calling of God. Young, middle-aged or old, know your strengths,
know your talents, know your weaknesses as well. As Dirty Harry said, "Man's got to know his
limitations." But ignore the critics, ignore those that
may seek to just ignore you or hold you back or whatever because of something, youth, inexperience
or whatever, don't worry about it. Don't let that be a debilitating factor. Jeremiah couldn't afford that and he didn't. And God said, "Don't let them despise your
youth." Don't let anybody despise you as a person
and your abilities that you have to do and accept that calling that God has given to
you. In verse 8, God said something else. He said, "Do not be afraid of their faces." I looked this up in several other translations
and virtually everyone I found, they exclude or they leave out "their faces." And I think the King James and the New King
James, they have it right here. When it says here, "Don't be afraid of their
faces. Look them in the eye. Don't let anyone's gaze intimidate you. Don't let anyone's scowl cause you to fear
that you can't do the job. Don't be afraid of their faces." God says, "I am with you. I am with you." Once you understand that, nothing can stop
us. That is a confidence multiplier to know that
God is with us, “‘to deliver you,’ says the Lord.” There'll be times that we have to demonstrate
courage. There'll be times when you'll have to demonstrate
resilience. Something will hit you and wallop you and
you got to get back up and keep going. You won't get the job. You will not get the promotion. You may not get the guy. You may not get the girl. You got to be resilient. You got to keep asking. I did. I tell the story my wife turned me down the
first time I asked her out for a date. Took me over a year to work up the courage
to do it again. You got to be resilient. You got to keep going. You have to have fortitude. You know to another generation, back in Joshua
1, God said, "Be strong. Be of good courage. Don't be afraid of the people that you're
going around in this new land that I'm going to give you. They may be tall, they may look powerful but
they're going to fall before you.” Because He said to that generation, "I am
with you." God says to you and I today, “do not be
afraid of the world that we live in today." Don't be afraid of it. Don't be afraid of any institution, any political
power, any occupation, any job, any place, any opportunity that might knock on your door. Seize it. Take it. One of the things I tell students is to say
yes to an adventure. An adventure can be a hike up Machu Picchu
or an adventure can be a job offer that goes on for a long, long time. I am very, very glad that the day that I received
a phone call from the President of the United Church of God, Dennis Luker where he offered
me the opportunity to come over here and work full-time in media and teach at ABC, that
my wife and I accepted it and said yes. And we entered into an adventure because these
last seven or eight years have just been an adventure one after another. And you know what the most satisfying part
of the adventure has been? The people we've been able to work with, the
people that we've been able to teach, the students that have come through ABC, probably
right up there at the top of the list to teach the words of God, the truths of God, to teach,
to show the Bible and to explain to them all that is taking place. That has been the great blessing and the great
opportunity and the great adventure that my wife and I have been on for a long, long time
and it's been great. Say yes to an adventure. Don't be afraid of any opportunity. God says they might look strong, they might
look intimidating, they might look powerful, they might look attractive and invincible
but they're not. They're not. The world today in many ways is quite hollow
and weak. For all the technology, for all the wizardry
and it will fall in some ways when it is pushed. Two weeks ago in the Wall Street Journal,
Peggy Noonan, who I like to read every week, had a very prescient column about our culture
and what's taking place politically, economically and especially culturally right now in America. Peggy Noonan was a speechwriter for President
Reagan, the first President Bush. And she's someone I read just to kind of get
what's going on with her life and her take on things. And midway through the article, she said,
"America needs help right now and Americans know it. It has been enduring for many years a continuing
cultural catastrophe, illegitimacy, the decline of faith, low family formation, child abuse
and neglect, drugs and inadequate public education. All of this exists alongside an entertainment
culture on which the poor and neglected are dependent and which is devoted to violence
and sex and nihilism. And as a people, we're constantly bitterly
pitted against each other and force-fed the idea of America as an illegitimate, ugly,
racist and misogynist nation. Even honest love of country isn't allowed
to hold us together anymore. We are a beautiful and great nation," she
wrote, "but a needy torn up nation, one in need of repair. And at the same time, we are very powerful,
we are very rich and we are very glamorous." But don't be afraid of it. Don't be intimidated by the world we live
in today because God has given us His truths. We are in the midst of a very interesting
generation and we must understand that. We are hunted, Christians, the elect of God. I think Satan has sent out his black riders
to hunt us down and to destroy us and we should understand that but we should not be fearful
of anybody's face, anyone's demeanor, not even the world in which we live. Let's go back to verse 9. "Then the Lord," it says, "put out His hand
and touched my mouth, and the Lord said: 'Behold, I have put My words in your mouth.''' “Behold, I have put My words in your mouth.” What part of you has God touched? Your mouth? The ability to teach with the ability to articulate
the truth of God? Has He touched your mind? The ability to comprehend eternity? Why you were born? Has He touched your heart to give you compassion
and empathy for others in a special way? Gifted then to serve. We spent quite a bit of time this past week,
my wife and I in a hospital with my wife's mother who broke her hip last weekend. And on into the late hours of a Sunday night
in the emergency room and then into the hospital room we were just amazed by the care of the
nursing staff, the hospital where she wound up and the tender care that people took to
help my 90-year-old mother-in-law and the pain she had from her broken hip. Those people are gifted. Those people have talents. God gives gifts to us. And when that is there, we should acknowledge
that. The words that Jeremiah here is talking about
we certainly relate to the Bible. And the Word of God is very sharp and is very
powerful. They are Spirit and they are life. And it's God's Word and God's truth that holds
us together and that knits us together in a spiritual body. And it's the real knitting of life that we
hold to. The Ambassador Bible College course of study
is an awesome opportunity. You know, when you realize it, I haven't counted
up all the pictures that we have out of here on the wall and all the classes, how many
people have gone through. I'm sure that Dr. Dunkle has that just on
the tip of his tongue right there to know that he could tell me, maybe Mr. Myers could,
but a lot. We put through a lot of people through the
years but in one sense it's not the entire church. It's not everybody that is, you know, part
of our church. So it's a tremendous opportunity. Not everybody can because of work and other
commitments and not everybody can come. But for those that do, it's a tremendous opportunity
to be here and the classes that have rolled through every year, I wish that I could take
Ambassador Bible College and sit and go through the classes. I've tried, but I have a day job and I have
other things to do. I tried a couple of years ago starting, I
said I'm going to sit through Dr. Dunkle class and on the Pentateuch and I lasted I think
two sessions and then I had to go back and get into other things and I just didn't get
back to it. I don't have time to sit, I just have time
to teach what I teach and it's a narrow part of it. But I would love to set through the Pentateuch,
the prophets. Mr. Myers… I’m jealous of Steve Myers. He gets to teach what some consider the crown
jewel of the class, the Epistles of Paul. At least it was in my day when I went through
Ambassador College. And I'd love to sit through the whole curriculum. I haven't been able to, and I'm right here. For anyone wanting to, thinking and hoping
that they can, come and do it. It's hard and it gets tedious at times and
you have to be courageous. You got to be resilient, you got to keep going,
but it's worth it. You know, every year the classes come and
go and this year the class asked me, "What do you think of our class?" And know you're being set up when that happens. I haven't worked with every class that's come
through here but with the last seven or eight, I've worked with. You know, to the class of 2019, I will say,
you have certainly been interesting. In fact, you've been more than interesting. I would say you've been very interesting,
very interesting. You know, every year on the awards night,
two nights ago we have a banquet and the class gives gifts of appreciation to everybody that's
worked with and the faculty and the staff here. And they're always appreciated. I will tell the class of 2019, you're the
first class where I had to buy myself a gift to remind myself of you. True story. Few weeks ago when Debbie and I were in California
for Alex and Lynette's wedding, we took a day and went down to San Juan Capistrano. I've never been there and we were walking
through some of the shops. I walked into a place and I saw something
in this artist studio and I said, "I want that. That's going to remind me of the class of
2019." Would you like to see it? Very careful with it here. It's a starfish. It's a glass-blown hand-blown starfish. And I picked this one out and I said, "I'm
going to take that back and I'm going to put that in my office. And every time I look at it, I'm going to
remember this class.” I'll remember some from other classes too
but how many of you know the starfish story? Oh, I got to tell you a story then. It goes back several years. One morning a man was out very early on a
beach and he was walking along. And up ahead he saw this young boy who was
throwing starfish back into the sea. And there were hundreds if not thousands of
starfish that had washed up on the beach overnight with the high tide. And he walks up to the boy and he says, "What
are you doing? And he said, "Well, I'm throwing starfish
back in." The man says, "There's thousands of them here. You can't possibly get them all back into
the water." He says, "Well, I have to try because the
tide's going back out, the sun's coming up and they'll die here if I don't get them back." He said, "You'll not get them all back." He said, "It won't happen." And the little boy just listened politely. And he turned and he picked up another starfish
and he threw that one back into the ocean and he said, "It made a difference to that
one, didn't it?" You know, when people come into our lives,
we have an opportunity to make a difference with them and to help and we do. Students come through here, we teach them
the Word of God. The faculty and staff we spend hours listening,
talking, sometimes with counselings, with baptism or other matters that they just come
in and they want to talk about it. And do we make a difference with everybody? No. But we seek to make a difference with those
that we can, who are in front of us at any given moment in time. So my starfish is going to remind me of this
year's class. And as I said, you're the first class that
I had to buy myself a gift to remember you by. Will you make a difference? Will you answer the call that God has given
to you? Let's go back to verse 10 of Jeremiah. God says, "See, I have set this day… I have set you over the nations and over the
kingdoms, to root out and to pull down, to destroy and to throw down." The ABC course prepares you to answer this
calling of God, which is not to root out and pull down and destroy nations, which Jeremiah's
time, he was actively involved in that. No, that's not our job but we are to advance
the Kingdom of God in our time, the work of that kingdom. It's not here yet, we know that but we are
to advance it as it has come into our lives, as we understand it and as we preach its truths
in this end of the age period. And the Church of God as Christ said is to
tear down the gates of the grave, the gates of hell, and to wage spiritual battle against
that kingdom. The kingdom we wage war against is the kingdom
of Satan and it's a spiritual war. We know that but we're to uproot and to tear
down and to destroy and overthrow that kingdom. And Paul in Ephesians 6 gives us all the spiritual
armor that we need to do that job. The shield of faith, the helmet of salvation. You know all of those components of that armor,
that battlement that we have available to us to wage that spiritual battle, that spiritual
war, to root out, to tear down, to pull down and to throw down. For all of us, for you that are younger, this
generation that's coming on, what will the world be like that you inherit? Think about that. I can tell you that it's going to be an increasingly
hostile world to God, to the Bible, to truth. We're seeing that building momentum like on
a regular basis in our culture today. As I read from Ms. Noonan's column, she says,
"We are in the midst of a cultural catastrophe." Her words, not ours, “a cultural catastrophe.” Our world is about to take a turn toward the
Babylon of Revelation 18. We should understand that. A global Disneyland at some point on the horizon
will arrive and it's going to offer to this world, in a moment of crisis, it is going
to offer to this world the hope of universal everything. The hope of universal everything, universal
healthcare, universal wealth. You won't have to work, guaranteed income. There will be universal institutions yet to
be created that will promise a universe of unicorns and rainbows for everybody. But those who are grounded in the Bible will
see through it. The elect of God will see through it. They'll also find themselves on the outside. Because it's a universal power it will be
hard to escape. And to be honest, your generation, class of
2019 and those of you that are young adults and the younger generation, let's say, your
generation may have to deal directly with some of the scenes that we see in prophecy. Will you be ready? Will you be able to discern the time? Most importantly, will you respond to the
call? And not wilt and melt and run from it. You will need to understand how the world
got to that point. You will know that if you've been diligent
but you will know it because God has put His Word in your mouth. If you have built and planted a church on
the foundation given to you by my generation, then you will have the garments of righteousness
that will allow you to escape the destruction God will bring on this Babylon to come. Back in Jeremiah 10:10 again, let's go back
and note one more thing that God says to him, "You're going to build and plant. Not only will you just tear down but you will
build and plant." We are to build and to plant the seeds of
the Kingdom of God to continue the sowing of those seeds. That will be your job. That will be the calling that is before you. It's been sown in our lives, sown in yours. You will have to keep that going. This is what I responded to so many years
ago in my youth. It's what my mother's generation responded
to. My mother was inspired essentially to sell
all and to go and buy what she bought in terms of the knowledge of the Kingdom of God. In those days we all kind of went to work
on what was really an ark-like project for us. We went to the work. We accepted that calling. I have recently come to the conclusion that
my generation, call them the Boomers if you will, will finish the work that was begun
in our parents' generation. And our generation very likely will pass from
the scene. This is the work that although has carried
us this far and I have no question, no doubt, no worries, no qualms that the work will go
on. Christ promises that it will. But when we pass, it will be yours to carry
on. There'll be inevitable changes but the core
doctrine, the core truth will remain. The Church of God will endure, the mission
and the vision will be the same because it's from God's Word. But here's something you should understand. We ain't dead yet. My generation is not dead yet. We will disciple you. I ask you to allow us to do that. I ask you to get the mindset of a disciple. Let me ask you two questions right now. Here's number one. How will you avoid making the same mistakes
that my generation made? How will you avoid making those mistakes? How will you avoid the splits? How will you avoid some of the politics and
some of the problems? Here's the answer. Here's how you'll do it. Be disciples. Learn to be a disciple, which is what Christ
called, which is what Christ taught, who he taught for three and a half years. It is in the very mission that we have, go
and make disciples and care for those disciples. Learn to be a disciple instead of a leader. When somebody says, "Let's have a leadership
weekend. Let's learn about leadership." You'd be the one to say, "Why don't we have
a discipleship weekend?" Why don't we open Matthew 5 and go through
the Sermon on the Mount and learn what it means to be a disciple? Why don't we turn to Christ's statement where
He said, "Those who will be great among you let them be your servant." And plumb the depths of that and the next
session that you have, whether it's a weekend, a retreat or just your own private discussions. The leadership manual of the Church of God
is Scripture. It's Scripture. Not some leadership manual. I've spoken a lot about this and I always
have to give a disclaimer. I'm not against leadership, I just like to
turn leadership into a verb, not a noun. The object is to be a disciple and that's
a whole different perspective. That just flips it, 180. When we take on a disciple if my generation
had been taught to be a disciple maybe just maybe we would have avoided some of the problems
that have plagued us. If you determine to be a disciple, you will
avoid some of those problems and that's the only way that I can see scripturally that
you will. The leadership manual, if you will of the
Church of God is the Bible. Take all the other leadership books of which
there are some good ones out there but put them under the Bible and scrutinize their
values or teachings in light of the Bible. The value and the worth of all the others
have to be set against the standard of the Word of God. How will you avoid making the mistakes? That's question number one, be a disciple. Here's question number two. How will you replicate our successes? Because we've had some good successes. We're still here, the name Ambassador still
lives. We still teach the same values. And you know, I appreciate what Gary Antion
did through the years that he was the director of ABC and he sought to put as much of that
essence of what we had into ABC as he could for a one year program right down to Elgar's
Pomp and Circumstance, which I graduated from Ambassador College too. I appreciate that. We've done what we can do. We've had a lot of successes. How will you replicate our successes? Here's the answer, be a disciple. It's not rocket science. It's just hard, be a disciple. Those that have endured in the Church, in
the faith, they are where the culture of being a disciple has been embedded in a congregation
of people who show up every week, no matter where the location might be. In some of our congregations, they have to
kind of wait until Friday afternoon maybe to find out where they're going to meet because
they rotate between two or three places. But they show up, they set up the sound, they
clean up, they're there, they put out the coffee, they shake the hands, they hug, they
greet and they just stay there till the lights go out. And they are the real leaders. They are the real disciples. They are the ones that make it worth the two,
three, four-hour drives that some of our ministers have to make to get to a Sabbath service knowing
that when they walk in that door, there's going to be God's people there. Friendly, eager to learn and that makes the
drive worthwhile. That makes the job worthwhile. Where you've come from and where many of you
will be going in our congregations, we have had people who have been successes because
they have learned to be a disciple and to do the job that has to be done. And the stories are there of those whom we
serve and whom we love and who have been with us through all these years. We read about them, we go out, we meet with
them. Meeting with so many members over the last
few years in some of the travels that Debbie and I have been able to make, that's part
of the adventure too that we said yes to not knowing where it would really go but we've
been able to meet a lot of people all over the world. And to see God's Spirit working, drawing people
to conversion, fruit being born, the truth being lived and people doing what it takes
to make the church. And whether they realize it or not, they are
being discipled and they're being cared for because that's embedded in our mission. And that along with so many other things that
I could enumerate are part of our successes. We hope and encourage you to replicate our
successes and to keep them going. Don't make the mistakes. The answer to both of those is to be a disciple,
be a lifelong learner, and to recognize that it is the journey. It's not the arrival, it's the journey that's
important. It's the people you meet, the experiences
that you have. We're always disciples. We're always learning. And I truly mean it. I wish I could set through ABC and just study
the Word of God. We had a State Department official come through
here a few years ago. A gentleman that Vic met through his Rotary
club. He'd been the Clerk of Court here in Clermont
County for a few years and he went to work for the State Department. When he heard about ABC, he came, he lectured
to the students. And when he found out what it was all about,
he was amazed. And was, you know, kind of dumbstruck that
students would take a year out of their life, nine months, come here just to learn the Bible. He's a believer, he's a Christian. And he was amazed at that and he complimented
that particular class. You need to be complimented in that way. And all of us in that we love God's Word,
we love God's truth. But that's part of the success story that
we have had. So where do we take it from here? Will you answer the call to the next generation? Let me conclude here today by trying to give
voice to those people that I saw in those neglected and untended graves in Bricket Wood,
England. I don't know what will happen to those graves
when the bulldozers go through. I hope that they are kept, I hope someone
will tend them and be able to place flowers on them periodically and that they will be
respected in that way. But I don't know since they're not part of
the historic property. But let me give voice if I can because I was
really moved just by seeing those untended graves. And so I wrote a poem. I don't do this every day. I can't write music like Micah but I have
a little bit of a way with words. And so I wrote a poem and let me read that
as a conclusion and attempt to give a voice there for us to think about as we conclude
this sermon today. I've entitled it "The Call." Who are we? We who lie in England soil. We are those who once heard the call. We are those who went. We are those who sold all. Who are you? You who stand at these untended neglected
graves. What brings you here this cold December day? Is it the call? The call we once heard? The call to which we gave our all. How fairs the work? Does it still sound clear? Do young and old lay down their burden? Do poor and rich put hand to plow and fix
their gaze straight and clear? And you who strain to read our names, do you
stand faithful, true and firm? And those we knew and loved, those who laid
us here, where are they? Where did they go? The years have passed. Unknown horizons bring new times. Do they still hear the call? Do they still follow the words past to their
hearts? Leave us, get onto the work, be strong to
build, to plant. We sleep and wait and will rise at our time
of hope. Answer and finish the call to your generation.
