Address—D. Gorgas
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As our defenders from the Lord.
Our blessed God and Father, it is joy.
For us to look above and see that blessed One on the throne.
God with anticipation to the day when he will have his rightful place.
We thank thee that in thy purposes it's all an accomplished thing.
And we're glad that we have that joy too, to confess his name.
To the wearied heart.
To proclaim this.
The Lamb of God.
What a joy our God that we have to know the reality of these things that we've been singing now.
We do pray that thou will make them ever more precious to her.
Guidance as we open Thy precious word.
What is communicated may be communicated from the risen head in heaven.
Preserve the instrument from that which would be.
Any display of self.
We ask these things our God precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
I'd like to turn to some very familiar scriptures for just a moment.
New Testament.
Chapter 4.
And verse 10.
And I want to read.
Through verse 13.
And I'm going to read it from the J&D translation, because there's some important.
Things I want to call attention to that are clearer there.
Also the print speaker.
He the descendant, is the same who has also ascended up above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.
Each side together and the joy to look above.
Beyond the growth, isn't it, brother? Isn't it a joy to see him on the throne?
And he has given.
Some apostles.
And some profits.
Some evangelists.
And some shepherds and teachers.
For the perfecting of the Saints.
With a view to the work of the ministry, with a view to the edifying of the body of Christ.
Until we all arrive at the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God.
As a full grown man at the measure of the stature of the fullness of the.
I'd like to go over now to the.
12Th chapter.
Acts 11 Chapter Excuse Me of Acts.
Read a few verses there.
Starting with 19.
I believe these verses that we're about to read give us.
An illustration of those gifts that have been laid out.
In Ephesians chapter 4.
They then, who had been scattered abroad through the tribulation that took place on the occasion of Stephen, passed through the country to Phoenicia and the Cypress and Antioch, speaking the word to no one but the Jews alone.
But there were certain of them.
Cyprians and Cyrenians from entering into Antioch spoke to the Greeks also.
Announcing the glad sightings of the Lord Jesus.
In the Lords Hand was wisdom.
And a Gray number believed in turned to the Lord.
And the report concerning them reached the ears of the assembly which was in Jerusalem.
That they sent out Barnabas to go through as far as antagonists.
Having arrived and seeing the grace of God, rejoice.
And exhorted all with purpose of heart to abide with the Lord.
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For he was a good man.
Full of the Holy Spirit and the faith.
And large crowd of people were added to the war, and he went away to Tarsus to seek out Saul.
Having found him.
He brought him to Antioch.
So it was with them that for a whole year.
They were gathered together in the assembly and taught a large crowd and the decision.
In the Antioch.
A wonderful illustration, beloved brethren.
Of what we get in Ephesians.
Now we know that the apostles and prophets spoken of there are foundational gifts.
In the sense of a revelation, we no longer have prophets.
We no longer have someone who receives a new revelation from the Lord.
And communicates it to us. The word of God is complete.
The Apostles had passed off the sea, but there abides these wonderful 3 gifts that God has given.
The Lord Jesus has given.
In Ephesians, those gifts are not abilities, they're the people themselves.
The people themselves are the gift.
He has given some apostles and some prophets, and he's given.
Some evangelists and some shepherds and teachers.
I understand that the thought was shepherds and teachers is it's kind of a compound where shepherds teachers.
I think our experience is that.
Sometimes a brother is born a shepherd and sometimes he's more cheap, but the work goes together, and I think we'll see that in this passage in Chapter 11 of Act.
God uses circumstances to get us moving sometimes.
There's something called inertia. Any of you high school students that have studied about physics, you know about the law of inertia, the tendency of a body in place to stay in place.
Sure, I see Honey smiling. He certainly knows that.
A physics law. The tendency of a body in place to stay in place.
We all suffer from inertia, don't we?
God knows how to get us moving if we are suffering from inertia. What did he use to get these people moving?
Persecution.
Stephen had been persecuted. Then. After Stephen was persecuted, there arose of persecution of the other believers, and they scattered them, not the apostles. There was a reason why they stayed.
But the other believers were scattered.
Now the Lord had told them they were to go into all the world, didn't they? He shall be witnesses unto me.
Sometimes people say the Great Commission isn't for us, and I think in the sense of Matthew perhaps that's so, but in the sense of Acts, chapter one, where the Lord says he shall be my witnesses and he lays out where.
That is for us. That is for us.
We're to be witnesses for the Lord no matter where we go.
So if circumstances take us, a job takes us to a new place.
The education takes us to a new place. We had the pleasure recently of having our brother Matt Cameron come and take up residence in our assembly.
Because he's going to Seton Hall Law School.
That brings him to the Newark, NJ area. Great joy, which is telling his grandfather how glad we are to see him there.
And it doesn't matter where the Lord puts this. We are to be faithful to him.
So what did they do when they went every place?
We better keep quiet about this. We had enough trouble being Christians in Jerusalem. We better be quiet now.
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The Spirit of God moved them to speak about the Lord everywhere they went.
They spoke the word.
Remember Brother Beg calling our attention years ago to the fact that it says Preach the Word, Not preach about the word, preach the Word.
He said the word is what has power.
And they brought the word.
But they were very limited in who they spoke to. Their hearts hadn't ventured out beyond the Jewish community at that point.
Had the Lord told them not to go to the Jews, but not to go to the Gentiles? No, He hadn't told them that. But there was habit and.
A reservation on their part, but I want to call attention to these Cyprians and Cyrenians.
They've got evangelists hearts. They can't. We can't just tell the the.
The Jews about this, This is wonderful. This is for the Gentiles, also for the Greeks. And so they tell them.
They go into Antioch and they speak to the Greeks.
They give the gospel the good news, the glad tidings of the Lord Jesus. By the way, don't ever disconnect the Lord Jesus from the gospel. There is no gospel without the Lord Jesus. People try to do that today. They try to talk about a gospel or a social gospel disconnected from the Lord Jesus.
Paul tells us in Romans chapter one it's the Gospel of God.
Concerning his Son Jesus Christ.
The gospel of God concerning his Son, Jesus Christ. There is no other gospel. There is no gospel without that.
Don't ever disconnect the Lord Jesus from the preaching of the gospel.
Because it's just foolishness. There's no there's no message. It has no content, no meaning.
And I like verse 21. It says the Lord's hand was with.
Doesn't that encourage you?
Did you ever go out on a little work for the Lord and justice, sense the Lord's hands with you? Did that?
How did they know it?
A great number.
Believed and turned to the Lord. A great number doesn't tell us how many, but it was a great work of God blessed by him, and I believe God shows his approval here of evangelistic work.
Without evangelism, there will be no need for shepherds and teachers.
That's why evangelists are mentioned first.
There's an expression preaching to the choir.
Or preaching to people who are already saved, already know things.
Telling people things who really know them already, and I'm not saying one should never preach to people who already know things. That isn't the point. But God's purpose is that an evangelist go out and give the good news to those who don't know.
Somebody go out, for example, to Malawi and reach out to people and give them the gospel of the grace of God.
That's wonderful and it encourages the heart.
I can tell you from the little limited experience we have in going into the jail that I have much more joy preaching the gospel in the jail than I do preaching it in the meeting room.
Does that mean I'm not going to preach in the meeting room? No, of course not.
But the joy comes when you go out to people who don't know.
I remember the first time we had a meeting.
With some Spanish people in the jail.
The administration had asked me, they said, do you know anybody that could give these fellows a Spanish meeting? They said these Spanish fellows have no meeting at all. Nobody's there forgot.
So I'd be glad to do it if you'd like. I said yes, come.
So we had, I expected maybe two or three and there were 23 the first day.
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And none of them had ever had a Bible.
In their possession.
Our way there is to give a Bible to all these prisoners who come to the.
To the meetings.
So they can read it because from reading the Bible is where reading the word of God is where.
Light comes. The word of God is quick and powerful, sharper than any two edged sword.
No words of mine can ever.
Equal what God's word can do?
At the end of that meeting.
I said, Guys, you've gotten this Bible now. I hope you'll take good care of it. By the way, how many of you have ever read the Bible before?
Three fellows raised their hands.
I figured I probably had a largely Roman Catholic audience, and I did.
And it was confirmed to me as they were walking out, they said, would you bless his father?
Had to explain that I wasn't their father.
And that God was willing to bless them on the basis of receiving the Lord Jesus Christ. Many of those men opened their Bibles and read them.
And were blessed in their souls from reading the word.
But I want to encourage.
You to think about evangelizing.
That means preaching the gospel, reaching the souls that don't know the Lord. Tell them about the Lord.
And God was pleased with it. Here his hand was upon them in blessing.
A great number believed.
And they didn't only believe that. They turned to the Lord. That's the working of an evangelist.
That's the work of an evangelist.
Well, a report case.
Of that work.
Isn't it wonderful when we get a report of blessing in the Gospel?
Somebody comes to prayer, meetings, mentions, or you know, Brother Ruben Ruger was down in such and such a place and Rudolph time, and the Lord was pleased to bless that work That warms my heart. Does it warm your earth?
The report concerning them reached the ears of the church.
I sometimes tell people who would like to think of the churches and building a stone building as you ever see one with years.
You ever see one with yours?
God's concept of the church and man's idea of the church is very different.
This was a body of believers, wasn't it?
The body of believers meeting in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ there in Jerusalem.
I don't think.
By any means necessarily did they find a 5000 seat auditorium and together I think they met it smaller groups, but there was only one church. There was.
My heart will come from then.
Blessed time.
The report concerning them reached the years of the Church which was in Jerusalem.
Wow, that's wonderful. Let's just let's try to support that work.
What do they need, these people? They need shepherding. They need shepherding.
Sheep need shepherding, but if you don't preach the gospel, there won't be any sheep to shepherd.
So just be the children that grow up in the meeting and precious children that grow up in the meetings. God bless them. I'm happy for that.
But there's nothing like people coming in off the street.
From the highways and hedges to stir our hearts physically.
Omnibus, you have a you have a gift for that. Would you go down there to Antioch?
I don't think the Church had any authority over Barnabas as a servant of the Lord.
I think there's enough in Scripture that teaches us.
Local assemblies of believers have no authority over sending the Lord's servants around. What do they do? They let them go.
Get that in the 13th chapter.
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They support them.
I don't know how far this went, but I can imagine that some of them said farmers, that you probably don't have much money to make this trip. But, you know, here's a here's a few shekels that Lord has given me. And when you go down and what you're going to eat while you're down there, well, here's a sack of rice you can take with you.
That's what sending forth here, as I understand it means.
Don't you think so?
They sent him forth. Go, brother, here, we're behind you.
I've been the recipient of that kind of encouragement on trips like that many times tonight. It humbles me and I thank the Lord for.
It's so heartwarming.
Comes from surprising places sometimes.
Surprisingly.
All right, I'll go down. You cut down there.
And what did he see? He saw the grace of God. The grace of God? What does that mean? He saw the grace of God. Have you?
Ever seen the grace of God?
Something wonderful.
To see the grace of God, reach out to lost sinners and.
Bring them to salvation. And when he saw that.
What happened? He rejoiced. He rejoiced. Oh, this is wonderful, He said this.
Precious.
Well, dear ones, would you go on with the Lord?
Stick close to him. That's what cleaving means that we have in our standard Bible pleading to the Lord.
With purpose of heart.
Make it your business. You can stick close to the Lord. I believe that's the shepherds ministry.
Some important things about him here. He was, first of all, a good man.
He was a good man.
And he was full of the Holy Ghost.
In a place.
And of faith.
Shepherding the Lord's sheep takes faith.
What happen?
Large crowd of people were added to the war. What does that mean in a practical way? They were brought together as an assembly.
That's so important. When the gospel is preached, God doesn't say, Well, now it goes somewhere and pick out a church and go there.
I remember years ago there used to be billboards up that said go to the Church of your choice. I don't see them so much anymore. Probably they don't care about going anywhere today, but when I was younger I used to see that. I remember brothers calling attention to the fact it's not our choice.
In fact, there's a pamphlet that I use a lot in the gospel that has a major defect. On the last page it says now that you're saved. It says it's important for you to pick out a nice Bible believing, faithful church to go to. I'm referring to all of the questions. I don't know if any of you use it, I like it, but that I always have to when I give it to the fellows. I told him, hey, that's wrong there. You notice they don't have any scripture reference for that. If scripture references for everything else in the whole booklet.
But not for that.
It's not our choice.
Dear Barnabas.
Son of consolation.
Gathers them together.
Gathers them together, Adrienne Roche told me years ago about going down to Kentucky.
To work with Brother Donald Fudge down there. I don't know if any of you remember Brother Donald Fudge but he was an evangelist down in Kentucky and.
Some of those who work.
Engaged with gathering them together afterwards. Probably some of the assemblies down there are fruit of that work, I don't know.
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But.
Adrian told me this, he said when the man gathers sheaves.
He scratches his arm.
The scratches resort.
And I believe that's so A man engaged in the work of gathering together the people of God.
It's going to have scratches on yours. If you don't want scratches on your arms, don't be a shepherd.
Of the Lord's sheep. If you don't want to lie awake, sometimes crying at night because some sheep is going astray, don't be a shepherd. But there's thank God. There's something the Lord has given to the Church. To men. By the way, says those gifts are given to men, not even to the Church. They're given to men for the edifying of the body of Christ.
In the grand sense of Ephesians, those gifts.
Are given universally.
There's no person who is an evangelist who's an evangelist at Eskimos only.
Thank God for every man who is an evangelist who goes and talks to Eskimoser. I guess they have a new name for that. Now excuse me if I offend anybody with not using the new name, but is it Inuit? I think, yeah.
But.
Where an evangelist who lepers or evangelists of children.
That's not how, if you're an evangelist, you're given to men for the edifying of the body of Christ.
And an evangelist on temple tell you this is an evangelist, whether he's in Ottawa, he's in in Malawi or he's in South America.
The dear brother that no people don't know as well, 97 years old, 94 I think he is now. Brother Sheila Adama's in the Dominican Republic. That man is in the soul winning business. You don't see him do anything else. That's his whole life.
Sometimes we go to a place and we're visiting a little bit. Where's Chino? What happened to Brother Chino? There he is, across the street at a store with some men playing dominoes, sitting there with his Bible open and giving them the gospel.
Thank God for men like that.
Those gifts come from the Lord, from the risen Lord.
A shepherd.
I received a letter one time.
Brother Alberto Cerna, who is a very beloved brother, Colombian brother, who has a Dominican wife, he's very precious to us. He's he's got a real shepherd's heart.
And he often would say to me, brother **** let's go see brother so and so.
And one day, he said. Let's go see.
Think of his name now. But he was a blind man.
Line from diabetes.
And he took me to see him. We spent a happy time with him.
Believe we encouraged him. He was a believer.
And a few days later I got a letter from the pastor of the church where he went, he said.
Aren't there other sheep who can worry about than mine?
My heart was broken.
That's the way man have come to think about these at Life Block.
Leave them alone.
I spent four months in prayer before I reentered his letter.
Because I couldn't think of how to answer.
Finally, I said to him, Brother, those sheep belong to Christ.
And he wants us to shepherd them no matter where they are.
They don't belong to anyone of us who are under shepherds.
He's the shepherd, the big great shepherd of the sheep, the wonderful shepherd of the sheep.
What are we if the word is given as that different word?
Under shepherd, that's all.
I use an example.
The Shepherd of Christ is riding on a bus.
He happens to be sitting behind two sisters.
2 ladies who were talking. One of them opens her heart to the other one and says, oh, I'm so distressed about my son who is into this and that. The other thing the other one says I don't really have a good answer for you. Wish I did, but I'll pray for you.
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That man sitting behind, does he have a right to talk to them?
As the sheep of Christ, of course he does.
That they are part of the body of Christ.
These gifts are not local.
By that way, that's another important point. Don't say someday. I'd like to be in the You're not an evangelist. God takes people who are already in that work and sends them where he wants them to go.
Already in that work.
I've been debating. Years ago, even before I was gathered, I went used to go regularly to Jack Watson's Word of life rallies and I remember missionaries would come and they.
Give a stirring word about it being to better somewhere like that is, you know, is there any one of you young people who would be willing to dedicate his life going to that?
I could. I had a hard time sitting in my seat.
But I realized later on, if I'm not willing to go give out traction in South Philadelphia, I was brought up in Philadelphia.
If I'm not willing to give out traction South Philadelphia, if I won't talk to the mailman about the Lord.
If I won't go to the amp and speak to someone about the Lord and the AMP.
Is God going to use me to send me down to China?
No, no.
God help us to understand these things.
But you know, Barnabas is good as he was and effective as he was in shepherding work, he says. These people need something more.
And dear brethren, one of the things I want to point out is that there is a tendency.
Among Christians. And perhaps it spills over. Not perhaps it spills over.
Among us sometimes.
That we get territorial.
That's my work.
That's my word. Leave it alone.
Dear brother Pierre Potter, one time went to a place I won't say where.
But he went to a place and he taught something, Brother said to him late.
Get out of here. That's my work.
You go in your own place and talk about that about a year.
He came back and was indignant, he said. How could anybody say that? Spare one?
It's God's word, Sir.
There was no spirit of.
Envy or jealousy here among these brothers.
It was a spirit of we're on the same team.
We're on the same team.
Years ago, whether Avelino Chavez from Bolivia and Argentina.
And I did a little traveling together.
Navellino was very anxious to get some tracks for the work he was doing.
And he called brother Ron Reeves, who was still in fellowship at that time.
My brother Reeves, he said, could you supply me with some tracks? He said I'll, I'll get it whatever money I can together. Ron gave a beautiful answer. He said, oh, no, brother, he said we're on the same team. I'm just playing the print part of it and you're playing the distribution part of it.
I really respected that answer.
And so did Brother Chavez. He told me about it two or three times on our travels together.
How encouraged he was.
With that kind of an answer.
Yeah, wait a minute. These people don't. They need to teach And I'm not really a teacher.
Yeah, I can shepherd them.
But I don't teach. I know I can't lay out the truth. I know a man who can.
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Saul up there in Tarsus.
Let me go up there.
I don't think it was an easy thing to find, says inversion.
26 having found him.
He brought him to him.
Now do you think he forced him to go? I think Paul makes that very clear that he didn't because he said I begged the police and he said but it wasn't his mind to do it.
All had no authority over a policy.
Barnabas had no authority oversaw, but I imagine it's something like this and he said.
You know.
Other soft God is blessed down there in Antioch.
Great number of come to the Lord through those who were scattered abroad and brought the gospel. They're Greeks, by the way.
Great.
And I.
I've been able to give them some shepherding, but you know they need teaching for. Would you go with me?
Would you go with me, brother Salt?
Well, I don't know if I have the price of that trip. Oh, here. The Saints have given me this. Let me give you this as part of that trip down there. All right, let's go.
And so it was with them.
That for a whole year.
A whole year.
They were gathered together.
In yourself.
See now you won't come and we're going to straight you all out.
That speaks to my own soul, because I believe there's a tendency of those of us who.
Give the whole of our privilege to give the whole of our time to the work of the Lord that we sometimes think we have.
Have it all to say.
Nobody else has anything to say.
I think one of the best conferences I was ever at was meeting up in strong ME.
Were not one full time servant of the Lord made it to those meetings?
We had some blessed ministry, wonderful ministry.
And they just gathered together with the assembly and thought they exercised their gift in teaching.
They did it together.
Isn't that nice in fellowship?
I hate to see and hate to hear about it.
Competition.
In conferences where Brethren.
Complete the talk.
I was very humbled one time we were down at a conference in Dorothy and there was a lot of stepping on one another.
Brother Michelle Fayette. I don't know him. I hope you'll meet him sometime. He works among the French in Canada.
But he's bilingual, perfectly bilingual. And he gave us a word.
And he said, is what we have to say so important that we can't wait to hear what our brothers receive from the Lord?
Wow, that was a singer.
That was his English.
And the Lord sing to me with it.
Another time I was over in.
Bournemouth The only time I ever went to the Bournemouth meetings, I went with my dad.
1984 Baumanns were there and we had a happy time there.
I think I scared Brother Bob to death with my driving. I'm not sure.
Beg your pardon?
Kept you praying, all right.
But as I'm driving on the left side of the road, you know, but we were at the meetings and.
I guess Mother Peer Potter was there. I took a lot of part in the meetings. Perhaps Brother Grauman some too.
And then the intermission brother Bill.
Funny sex.
Came to us and he said.
Would you, Yanks, give us a little chance to talk?
Not beingly.
But in humbleness.
These two gather together with the assembly, and the Lord gave room for their teaching gift to be exercised.
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But you know, sometimes the best teaching involves drawing out of someone else.
Something.
And I can't imagine that this was an exclusive presentation of Paul and Saul and and Barnabas. Do you think it was? I don't think so.
I think together for a whole year they taught those brethren and what was the result? It produced character in them to such a way that they became known as Christians.
But some denomination called Christian No, they were like Christ. They were followers of Christ.
Now, beloved brethren, what is on my heart and what has been on my heart in this little word, is to encourage us.
To understand that God has given gifts.
By the way, they're not titled.
I only recently, and I'm ashamed to confess this, but I only recently, perhaps in the last five years, I became aware that apostle was not even entitled.
We put a big a apostle Paul.
But I've noticed that Paul doesn't say that he says Paul comma Apostle says.
He doesn't say the apostle Paul writing to you.
No. A gift. A name like that is descriptive of what the brother does.
Men loved titles.
Men love titles.
I recently ran across a little quote from Spurgeon.
It had to do with the use of the word reverend and if some of you receive regular postings from me.
On Internet you know that I quoted that it was so moving to me, but Spurgeon said from henceforth I don't want to be known with a name that's robbed from God.
Psalm 111.
For six, I think it is. I don't want to be known by that.
I want to be known as a servant of Christ.
I don't want to be known by the fact that my collar is gotten buttoned in the back or that I wear a special coat.
All that men love those things. They love them. It all hatched back to Judaism.
May the Lord stirs to be evangelists, if that's what God has given you to do.
I had one of the best.
Dear Leonard, pure Plato.
There was a man who, I'm not talking about how he behaved in the assembly or anything like that. I'm talking about his gospel work.
One time we were sitting on the Staten Island Ferry, enjoying the sunshine.
I can tracks in our hands. He slapped me on the lady says. What doest thou here, Elijah?
And we got up and we gave out the tracks.
God has incalled you this. Sit around here, period Evangelist.
I thank God for Brother Bauman means their evangelistic ministry. I've heard a little better from Sue Hadley out of India. What? What the Lord gives out there?
That's a great work. We need to encourage men like that.
I thank God for John Kemp.
I don't put Jelly on Bologna sandwiches like he does, but.
I.
I hope John doesn't do this tape. I'd be in trouble, won't it?
But he does the work of the Lord in the gospel.
He doesn't sit still a moment.
Brother grenade, he said to me. I can't believe this man, he said. Every time I get a letter from him, he's in a different country.
That's the work of an evangelist you don't have to go to. You could just go downtown to the missions or or to the pawn shops or wherever and give out the gospel.
Ha, Ironside tells.
00:45:03
Stirring story.
I think Brother Bill told me he has the book where he tells that story. Reminisces. Is it or random reminisces? He tells a story about a time when he.
Went out to.
One town and he was having some meetings there and they finished the meetings and.
He said to his wife. You go back to Oakland, where they lived.
And he said, the Lord has put on my heart to go to Sacramento.
Because someone in Sacramento had said to him, Brother Aaron said, Would you come here some time to preach the gospel?
So Mr. Ironside got a ticket for Sacramento and his wife left home to Oakland.
And he arrived, and he went to the brother's house, and the brother was away.
On vacation.
I wondered if he had the Lord's mind and going there.
He thought, I'm here to be faithful to the Lord, and so he.
Checked into a cheap hotel?
And he went out and gave out tracks and had meetings as much as he could in the street meetings and such.
Finally, his funds ran out.
And he was pretty discouraged.
We got to check out of the hotel and he took his stuff.
And then he went.
Check this stuff in with a local merchant who is friendly to him.
And.
He went out. He went to the bars and dance halls.
Throughout thousands of tracks.
Find me about 2:00 in the morning. 3:00 in the morning. The bars closed and the dance walls closed. Now where's the brother going to go?
So he found a weeping Willow tree laid down under the Willow tree.
And went to sleep.
That's the kind of a life of an evangelist. I'm not saying you have to do that all the time, but he was willing to do that.
And then the Lord began dealing with him as he lay there.
He said, Why did I come here? The Lord said to him, Well, you know, there's this that's wrong in your life, and this and this and this.
And he said God provided us starving for me.
To bring me to repentance about some of those things.
I'll finish with one more story. My grandfather.
Christopher Knapp.
Went to a place called Staples Minnesota.
Had two weeks of meetings.
And is often the case in those that he saw no blessing at all.
And he went with a heavy heart and went on his way with no blessing.
20 years later.
Came back to Staple to visit the brethren.
And they said.
For the nap, they said.
There was a man here today who told us that his brother had died and that didn't go to any church.
But they admired the Brethren's testimony, and they wondered if we could get someone from the assembly to take the funeral.
And.
They told us that.
When we asked them why they said well we got saved during a two week campaign that a Mr. Knapp had here.
20 years ago.
God gives fruit to the Evangelist.
Sometimes he doesn't give us what will cause us to be proud.
He knows we need encouragement.
But in a coming day in glory, we'll see it all.
But he gives us just enough now to keep us happy and encouraged and going on in that work.
Evangelist.
Shepherds Oh, how important that work is.
Gracious God our Father, we pray that thou wilt stir our hearts to these things.
Are so very needed. Even in these dark days, we know that those gifts are.
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To be in operation until we all come to the unity of the faith.
Full knowledge.
Oh God, we haven't gotten there yet.
Pray this old it was used to be diligent to go wherever we do, wherever we now, to send our feet.
That we might give thy gospel.
Those around.
Then, oh Lord, we pray that they will raise up shepherds how we need them.
The cheaper scattering, the cheaper, discouraged Lord, raise up those who can, with a gentle hand and a faithful heart, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith, that they might help such.
And then we need teaching, and we thank you for the teachers our God.
We pray that.
There may not be any of us that would lift ourselves up over the assembly, but meet with the assembly.
For the blessing of thine own.
So that we might be known as Christian.
We ask it in the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ.