Address—James Ferguson
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Yeah, thanks everybody for quieting down. Let's start with him from our Little Flock hymn book.
Let's sing #52 in the appendix.
The reason I choose this one is because I like it and.
Singing the verses, it's really just shows what the Christian life is all about, the Lamb of God.
On the cross, so #52 in the back.
Behold, behold the Lamb of God.
So I hope to touch on a few things tonight that have already been brought up in the few days that I've been here at camp. We're going to pray in a moment. But in this song here that we sang says that Jesus tasted death for me on the cross. And we heard Mark Allen speak last night.
Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man that trusts in him.
And so we have the privilege of tasting to see that the Lord is good because the Lord Jesus tasted death for us, didn't He, on the cross? And if we accept, if we can accept that for ourselves, believe it, thank Him for it. We've tasted of his goodness. And we know there's a lot more in store for those of us who trust in him. So let's start with the word of prayer.
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Our God and our Father, we just give thanks for another opportunity tonight to be together.
Some of your own with our Bibles in front of us and we just pray for blessing our God and fathers. We would open them up and we just pray for listening ears, pray for help for myself that the message would be delivered clearly and simply. We just pray for each in the audience. Our Father, we think of how much you care about each one you we think of difficulties in the pathway.
And we just pray for encouragement and blessing tonight.
And just give thanks for the nice time that we could have here at the camp. And so we just give thanks in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen. So First off.
I just want to say this is just my point of view, so I haven't talked to Tim and Elaine, but to me it's just been wonderful to see walk around and just see so many helping out in different ways.
And just think of Nehemiah chapter three, OK, there's all these people that came and they were building the wall at Jerusalem. And it might seem like a boring chapter because it just gives a name and it says this person built the wall. And I don't know if anyones ever been around some stone Masons. I would imagine that's what they were doing. OK, it, I mean, it doesn't look real exciting. I've seen them do it a lot. You know, they got their trowel, some cement brick.
Tap it level next, brick, right, brick by brick. That's how the wall is made. But they're all recorded here in the Word of God because they did their work cheerfully for the Lord with a joyful heart. And I just, you know, meander around the camp and I see Curtis just flattening the cardboard box. Or is Jason, sorry, flattening the cardboard boxes quietly one afternoon, I stepped into the kitchen for a moment, and you could say Caroline was working in the kitchen with Ron.
Cider with Saul beside her and all these things you could say can be recorded. The Lord appreciates all this work that's done. And Tim and Elaine, Dave and Bakke, I, I know there's just a tremendous amount of work that you guys have gone through as well. And so on behalf of myself, it's so much appreciated. And it's great to see everybody labor together. I think that's so important. I mean, we have a lot of fun together.
And that's really important too. But I find it's good for an assembly and for believers to labor together for the Lord. And just want to read a verse, Psalm 133 and verse one. And I'm just going to add something in brackets at the end. And I hope that you'll allow me to. But behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity at camp and.
I feel like that's been the case from my point of view here, So that's wonderful. OK, so getting on to what I would like to talk about tonight, if I was to title this talk, I would call it a spiritual checkup, OK? And now there's a doctor in the room right here and.
I'm not a doctor and I can assure you that.
I think I've met my family doctor one time only.
Because I'm a male under the age of 50, so unless something goes really wrong I tend to stay away from there. But I would imagine that if I went in for a checkup I would be examined by him. And I don't know for sure, but often in these types of cases a checklist is used.
OK, and that way you can tick off the boxes and make sure that everything is looking good and proper. So I want to go back to something that was brought up already, but First Corinthians 11 and verse 28. And I know my own failure in this, but I just want to concentrate on the 1St phrase there it says, but let a man or a woman examine himself.
OK.
When I think of that word examine, I think of taking a good, long, hard look inside of us, a look at our hearts as to where we're at. OK, And I'm not very good at this examining isn't just just a quick glance good enough and carry on, but it's a real careful close look to make sure that.
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Everything's going OK and I think I just want to bring that out.
That myself included, and I want to challenge each of us to examine ourselves. And so I'm going to go through this spiritual checkup that I have here. And by no means is it, it's not even close to just a comprehensive list, but just that just a few little thoughts that I put together to be able to just kind of judge where we're at.
And entitling this as well.
So this is a checklist. So I hope that if you can remember this talk and maybe if you remember spiritual checkup, then you can remember. Oh yeah, checklist. And then when we go for a checkup, right, it, it ends in the word up. And that's what we want. All of us in our lives. We want to be going up, not down, OK. And we're going to be moving One Direction or another. We'll either be.
Growing spiritual growth. I know Bernie has mentioned that and that that's what we're talking about tonight, spiritual growth.
So we're either going to be growing from year to year or we're not. Maybe we're heading the other direction, OK, But it's not often that we just stay the exact same. So let's just remember that. So check up, let's make sure we're headed up and look up too because.
Who is on high in the glory, who we sang about. It's the Lamb of God, who I can say tasted death for me and for you too.
So going back to checklist.
When you are driving a commercial vehicle, I believe and maybe dealing with some sorts of equipment, often there's a a daily checklist that we need to look at. OK, so we're going to talk about some things that we.
Should be doing daily. And then just a couple thoughts because when we're driving these vehicles, sometimes there's some things that they want you to maybe check once a month, OK? So we're going to talk about just a couple things or sorry, before we get to monthly. There's some weekly things, OK, that we should be thinking about that we should be doing on a weekly basis and then there's some monthly things.
And I think it's probably a good idea to.
Maybe have a couple things on our annual checklist you could say to make sure that we're headed in the right direction. But let's start with daily. So, OK, these are basic principles, but reading the word of God, OK, So on a daily basis, OK, And when I'm talking about checklist, by no means do I just want to dumb it down really simply to say read a few verses, check the box, carry on, you know, we've done.
Duty OK, but I know with some of us and sometimes I'm in that place, OK, Sometimes you get to a day and you read a few verses and it's almost like you're you're checking the box. Maybe you don't get a lot out of it. OK and you know what the Christian life, you know, it's not always on a high. Everything isn't going super wonderful and sometimes we just got to dig deep and carry on, don't we OK and so.
Times really all we have the strength to do is to open our Bible, read a few verses and we have to run out the door for whatever reason. And if that's where you're at, I encourage you to press on and continue doing that, OK Don't give up because you feel that what you're doing is inadequate. OK just keep it up, OK. The daily reading of God's word is very important. So let's just look at.
Mark mentioned mana. Let's flip to that for a moment. Exodus 16.
So Exodus 16 verse Let's read verse 20 and 21 Says, notwithstanding, they hearken not unto Moses, but some of them left of it until the morning, and it bred worms and stank, and Moses was wroth with them, and they gathered it every morning, every man according to his eating.
And when the sun wax hot, it melted and it came to pass it on the 6th day, they gathered twice as much bread, 2 omers for one man. And all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses, OK, so most of us know here that the word of God, that is our spiritual food, right? And our spiritual food is so important for us to have good spiritual health. If I stop eating for a while and then I went for my physical checkup.
Say the results wouldn't come back very well, I'd be.
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Skin and bones and I think the doctor would say you need to get some good food into you. OK, And if we don't read our Bibles every day, maybe we just read it once a week. Maybe when we come to meeting. OK, then we're we're starving ourselves spiritually. So just like the mana, they had to gather it every morning and they couldn't just gather it say Tuesday.
And decide I'm going to just take a lot on Tuesday. I'm just going to load up on Tuesday.
And you know what, I'll be good for Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and you know, I'll save myself the time and maybe I'll go out to go out next week again, OK? Because if they left the mana for one day, then it bred worms and it was no good anymore. And so we just need to keep reading the word every day. So instead of reading a whole bunch and feeling like we're good to go for the week, now let's just keep at it line upon line, precept upon preset.
Here a little there, a little OK, and read. How does the song go? Read your Bible, pray every day and you'll grow, grow, grow, right. I want to flip to one other portion, using it as an application for reading each day. Luke 14.
16 to 20 So Luke 1416 to 20 then said he on to him a certain man made a great supper, and bade many.
And sent his servant at supper time to say to them that were bid and come, for all things are now ready. And they all with one consent begin to make excuse. The first sent on to him. I bought a piece of ground, and I must need to go and see it. I pray thee have me excused. And another said I have bought 5 yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them, I pray thee have me excused. And another said.
I have married a wife and therefore.
I cannot come. So here is a great supper that's being served and when there's a great supper being served, it usually means that somebody has gone to a lot of work and expense to make sure that there's. If you go to a supper, you would expect to see food on the table, right? And usually plenty for everybody if it's a great supper and.
You're just invited to come because the supper is ready, OK. And so the Lord Jesus in his word, he's.
Done everything to provide us with a great supper. And I know that this story is used in the gospel, and that's wonderful, but I'm just going to apply it to just our daily reading of the Bible. OK? So every day He's given us a great supper, a great meal for us to enjoy. He's invited us to come and enjoy it with him. Now we can be like these three people.
And they weren't able to make it to the supper OK because they were busy.
Right. And we're busy too. Is that not right? We have busy lives and so let's see what they were busy with. So the first one, he was he said I have bought a piece of ground and he needs to go and see it. So he bought some land, some property you could say and he needed to go and check it out. And maybe we're not old enough to have a piece of property. OK, but I'm sure that.
Pretty much all of us in this room own something. We can understand that.
OK. And the more things that we own, the more time it takes for us to make sure that the things that we own, that it's working the way it should, that it's put away in its right spot, that it's getting used the way that we meant to. OK. So we'll just say that the first excuse is property or things, OK. And I'm sure that many of us, you know, we haven't been able to read our Bible one day because we were just too busy just trying to.
Look after some of the things that we own, right? So we had an excuse, not a very good one, but the second person here, another said I have bought 5 yoke of oxen and I go to prove them. So he bought a bunch of oxen. So you could say the oxen, something he owned once again. But you know what he's going to do with his oxen, He's going to plow his field and he's going to.
Grow some vegetables in it or whatever he wants to and he's going to sell them and he's going to.
Make a living off of that, right? So this oxen is helping him with his living. And so many of us who are past school age, we have to go out and we have to make a living. And so sometimes we work some long days, right? We can be tired. And I know for myself, sometimes I can be so tired that I don't get up early enough to read, read the Bible. I come home, I'm still tired.
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Other things happened OK, and it just doesn't quite get done.
By daily checklist, you could see the daily thing that God desires from us wasn't able to do because it was prioritizing my job. And don't get me wrong, OK, we all need to make a living. We all need to work hard, but let's not do it at the expense of neglecting the word of God. And the third reason, I have married a wife and therefore I cannot come. So let's call that one family.
OK. And sometimes we have family obligations and sometimes that can get in the way too, of reading the word of God. You know, this was a poor excuse because this what? This person was invited to a supper. And you know what? I'm sure he could have asked. I have a wife. Do you mind if I bring her along too? And from continuing on in the story, it sounds like pretty much everybody was invited. Just come and eat. Sure, your wife can come. We'd love for her to come, right? But.
This man used that as an excuse, used family as an excuse to say sorry, I can't make it. OK, so reading the word of God. So that's something that I think should be on each of our daily checklist. And let's just say, let's aim for quality and not necessarily quantity. And so you know what? It's not a race as to getting through the Bible.
In a certain number of days that could, I'm sure, be beneficial. But let's try to read.
Understand, realize who it's talking about, the Lamb of God on the cross and seek to grow in our relationship with him. So of course, what goes along so well with reading the word prayer right on our daily checklist. We need to pray. Let's turn to Psalm 86 and verse three. The the title of this Psalm is a prayer of David.
He says in verse three, Be merciful unto me, O Lord.
For I cry unto thee daily, and how much we need daily dependence on the Lord through prayer. Let's look at Daniel chapter 6. Daniel was a man of prayer daily praying three times, right? That's how the song goes.
Daniel chapter 6 and verse 10 it says now when Daniel.
Knew that the right writing was signed. He went into his house and his windows being opened in his chamber toward Jerusalem. He kneeled upon his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God as he did a four time, three times a day.
Daniel prayed. You know what? He puts me to shame. He got down on his knees three times a day. OK, and?
Let's use Daniel as our example to remind us how we need to pray daily strength for the day. Pray for those around us, those that we love, those who are we know are hurting. Give thanks to God for all that He's done, for His work on the cross, for what He's going to do in the future.
OK, there's no lack of things to bring before.
God's throne of grace. It's just a matter of our diligence in being able to do them. And I know that we don't always feel like praying, but if we can be disciplined enough to make sure that it's a part of our daily routine, I think that we'll find that our spiritual health improves. So another thing that was mentioned in one of the.
Him sing talks in Luke Chapter 9. Let's read that.
Luke 9 and verse 23 And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily and follow me. So what does it mean to take up his cross daily? Well, when the Lord Jesus.
Was carrying that cross up the hill to Calvary. There it was, I believe, a walk of rejection in this world. He was being rejected as the king of the Jews and as the Son of God. And if we're willing to take up his cross, I think it means that we're willing to associate ourselves with him.
In his rejection and so if we.
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Get up each day and we read and pray and we pick up that cross. I think it means that we've made a conscious effort for the day to associate ourselves with the Lord Jesus and with his cross. And so come what may, that day if we can be reminded of that each morning.
If people are laughing at a bad joke, ET was mentioning that if they're ridiculing Christianity, I would hope that those who know us well know what we stand for and maybe they poke fun at us. That's OK Accept it, take it, it's fine. Because that's the way that they treated our Savior and we should expect no different treatment. So if we're truly living for the Lord.
OK, we should expect some of this now. I don't think we should go looking for it.
But if it comes, that's OK, and let's encourage ourselves in the Lord.
But notice how it says here that we need to take up this cross daily. So just like reading the word and prayer, okay? Because we decided yesterday we were going to take up His cross and today's a new day. So you know what? Let's make a conscious effort to pick it up again today. Every day. Take up His cross and follow me, it says.
So are we? Do we consider ourselves to be a disciple?
Of the Lord Jesus, if we do, we need to follow him right and his path led up that hill to Calvary where he tasted death for me. And let's go over to Hebrews chapter 4 and verse seven part way through it says today if you will hear his voice.
Harden not your hearts, and just because we believe in the Lord Jesus.
OK, that doesn't mean that our hearts can't grow hard. OK, if we decide to take some time off from some of these things that should be on our daily checklist, it won't be long for our heart to get fairly hard and we just have less of a care for the Lord and for his things. And so if you will hear his voice. So if you.
Would want to listen to the Lord's voice in your life.
OK, let's not allow our hearts to get hard, soft hearts, tender hearted. That's what the Lord needs. That's what He can use. So I just brought that up because it has today in it and every day, OK, we need to be ready to listen to the Lord through prayer, through the reading of His Word. And the last thing that I just want to bring up with just things that we could be doing daily.
Joshua 24 I believe it is and it's a well known verse, but I enjoy it. Am I in the right chapter where it's choose you this day verse 15. Thank you. There we go. So Joshua 24 verse 15 so we wake up to a new day. Remember that verse. This is the day that the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it. OK, roll out of bed.
OK, let's think about this verse. Choose you this day, whom ye will serve. And then often when we see this on somebody'd wall, it doesn't mention the gods of the Amorites, but it continues on later in the verse. But As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord, so we roll out of bed.
Choose you this day, right? Not who we served yesterday. I mean, I hope that you were serving the Lord yesterday, but I just want to say that each day that we wake up.
OK, we're given another choice, right? Are we going to serve ourselves? Or As for me, some of us can say, As for me, I will serve the Lord. Maybe some of us have a family. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. What an important choice to make each day.
Whether we're going to follow our own will or whether we're going to serve the Lord.
OK. So daily checklist by number means there could be I'm sure many other things that we could talk about.
But we'll move on to the weekly checklist, OK?
And let's go to Luke 17. So our daily checklist is so important because if we look after these daily things.
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You know, the weekly things fall into place things on our monthly checklist just fall into place our annual checklist. You could say things are working out because if we live for the Lord, if we decide 365 days a year that As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord, I think there's going to be some spiritual growth there, right? So.
Luke 17 Story of the 10 Lepers, verse 11 So it says. And it came to pass, as he went to Jerusalem, that he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee, and as he entered into a certain village, there met him ten men that were lepers.
Which did a fire off, And they lifted up their voices, and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. And when he saw them, he said unto them, Go show yourselves unto the priests. And it came to pass that as they went, they were cleansed. And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God, and fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks.
And he was a Samaritan. And Jesus answering said, were there not ten cleansed? But where are the 9?
There are not found that returned to give glory to God, save this stranger. And he said unto him, Arise.
Go thy way, thy face hath made thee hold. So I just bring this portion up because.
Of course leprosy is a picture of sin, but to be honest, sin is far worse than leprosy is. And Jesus was able to heal these ten men who had this awful disease, but it was that as they went to the priest, they were healed. Now how many returned to give thanks and glorify God out of the 10?
Who knows, David?
Just one, right? And can you picture in a sense the sadness in the Lord's voice in verse 17?
Sadness, I would say, maybe mingled a little bit with joy, because you know what? He'd be sad were there not ten cleansed. But where are the 9K10 people got healed? Nine of them carried on.
One return, you know, the Lord would be so happy that one returned to give thanks. OK, I just want to mention that you know on says in Acts chapter 20 that on the first day of the week, the disciples came together to break bread. And it's something that the Lord has asked us to do if we are his disciples. Follow me, OK, if you love me, keep my commandments. I don't want to say this is a commandment because.
Makes it sound a little wrong in my mind, but it's just something that the Lord asks us to do for him. OK. And so in Christianity you could say 10 people are saved, but only a few return back on a weekly basis to remember the Lord. And so I feel like there's a little bit of sadness when the Lord asks where are the others?
And so on our weekly checklist. It would be wonderful.
And I don't want to, I don't want to try to convince tonight somebody to break bread if you're not ready. But I just want to say that in normal Christianity, if we believe in the Lord Jesus, we're happy that he saved us from our sins. He wants us to remember him in his death. So from week to week, we have the privilege of doing that for him now.
Also, many of us, we have our home assemblies and.
There are some other weekly meetings that happen, prayer meeting and a reading meeting. And so I just want to give you two sides of it that come into my mind. OK, so we have a prayer meeting on Tuesday nights. And sometimes it feels like when you go week after week after week, I think to myself, oh, it's another Tuesday. You know, I got, I'm pretty busy at work here and I'd like to wrap up this project and.
I get home, I'm going to be pretty tired and go to prayer meeting every week and I could sure just take a night off tonight. I could really go for that tonight. And so that thought comes into my mind and it makes sense to me at times I can justify that, right. This happens every week like I could take a week off that would be no problem. OK, but then let's look at the other side of the coin. So there's.
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Seven days in the week, I put in eight or nine hours at work already.
I know that there's a prayer meeting on Tuesday night. I can plan around that schedule and that's one hour.
In 7 * 24, whatever that math works out to be, OK, one hour where I can get together with my brethren to pray, there's the Lord's side. OK. And he's asking, is that is that too much to ask? He's asking me and I'm thinking of myself and I'm saying, yeah, that's a little too much to ask. But I don't think so when we think of it from his point of view.
OK, same goes for the reading meeting. So let's not, let's not take away from the Lord's things and pretend that we, we own ourselves, OK? We've been bought with a price, so we're not our own anymore. And let's just remember that. And I know that we might drag ourselves into prayer meeting or reading meeting at times kind of dragging our feet. Well, here we are, OK. And you know what? It's, it's good to see you there if that's how.
OK, we're, I think everybody could say that they're happy that you're there and so keep it up, OK, and the Lord will reward you for it. So don't want to go too much longer, but we'll just touch on just a monthly checklist and this, I don't know of anything scriptural that I'm really going to pull out, but I'm just going to speak for my own experience, so.
Once a month.
In Rideau Ferry we have an open meeting, OK. And that's an opportunity for myself to think a little bit as to what have I been reading recently? What has the Lord taught me and do I have anything to share? And even if I don't, if I at least put a little bit of work into the exercise of.
Thinking about it, OK, that's fruit for the Lord. And so just challenging ourselves.
In that way, it's good for us and it makes us grow spiritually if we're willing to do that. And so maybe if you don't have an open meeting, but maybe if once a month, if you just thought up maybe a topic and you just dug into it a little deeper, maybe maybe typed out a few notes on that topic, OK, once a month. I think that would be beneficial to our overall spiritual growth and.
Once a month too often, we have.
Fellowship lunch as well at the meeting room and that's important to have fellowship together to eat a meal for people to serve one another.
And so maybe you do that and that's wonderful and maybe you don't, but if you have a home, the Lord asked us to be hospitable to one another. And so maybe we don't really like inviting people into our home. But I wonder if.
We could try once a month or maybe once every two months if we invited somebody into our home for supper and we're able to converse with them, learn about one another. I think that could be really beneficial. So there can be, these are just my own thoughts. So there could be many other things that you, I'm sure you could think of that could go on your weekly or monthly checklist, whatever the case. But then let's move along to our to annually.
So.
Earlier in this Joshua 24, and there's many other portions in the Bible, they go back and they recount some of the history as to what the people of Israel went through. And whatever the case is, whoever speaking, whether it's Moses or whether it's Joshua or any of any of the other leaders, they go back and they say, don't you remember how you were?
Captive in the land of Egypt and how you ran for the Red Sea.
And how you thought you were caught and then the Lord delivered you through a great deliverance. And then you went into the land and there were giants in the land. And you said, Oh no, what are we going to do? And of course the story goes on and on. Steven says it again and in Acts. And so I think for spiritual growth, we can use certain times, like our birthdays, for instance, and just look back on the last.
Here and just take some time. I mean, we should always be giving thanks to the Lord, but just thanking the Lord. So maybe if it's our birthday that rolls around or I find when a new year comes in, that's a good time on New Year's Eve to maybe sit down with the family and just recount a few memories from the past year and just thank the Lord, you know, if we're still alive, alive and.
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We're there, and through the Lord's goodness.
He's given us another year, you know, he deserves the honor and the Thanksgiving for that. And so just on our annual checklist, maybe we could remember that. I won't turn to it, but it's been mentioned a few times in Rio Ferry that Samuels mother Hannah makes him a new coat every year and brings it up to the temple now.
She could have made him a new coat because he wore out the other one.
But I think she probably made him a new coat because he was growing every year and the old coat probably wasn't going to fit him anymore. And so the question gets asked as to if it was a spiritual coat, Kay, would last year's spiritual coat still fit us? Or would we be like Samuel and could we need a new one each year? And I hope that if we can keep on top of our daily checklist and our weekly checklist when we look back at the last year.
We'd be able to see some growth in ourselves and think that, OK, I think I'm heading heading upward, not downward. And so I pray that that would be the case for each one here.
Just spiritual growth in our lives and giving thanks to the Lord. So that's a spiritual checkup once again, I did. I hope that we don't just tick the boxes per SE, but we do need to.
Own our responsibility to dig deep. We don't always feel like it, OK, but the Lord is worthy.
Let's keep reading the Word of God, remembering the promises that He's given to us. Remember that if God be for us, who can be against us and press on?