Address—J. Rule
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Soon, I just wanted to speak on the topic of the mouth, the words that come out of our lips, what we say because they have such an impact on others. You know, though, before I start, it's supposed to be a meeting to young people, addressed to young people. And yet I'm always afraid as I stand up that maybe there's someone here, that if this meeting were to end before we were done, would be left sitting in this seat.
Because their lips.
Had never owned the Lord Jesus as Lord. They had never come to the Lord Jesus and owned that they were a Sinner and received him as Savior. And so before we even start to speak to those who know the Lord Jesus, I just want to address a few remarks to maybe a boy or a girl who's sitting here.
Who's lost? A boy or girl? Who's sitting here? A young person, an adult is on a road that leads to a lost eternity that leads to hell. You know, my wife was talking to somebody the other day.
A boy, a young man, she was driving him home and they had been.
Talking about the Lord Jesus.
She said to him, you're going to have to make a choice.
As to whether to receive the Lord Jesus or not?
He says I have made that choice. There is no God, there is no Lord Jesus Christ and I'm not going to believe in him.
Is that the words of a teenage atheist?
Is that the words of a college student who studied it and decided he was going to reject God? A neo Nazi Skinhead that was going to have nothing to do with the Lord Jesus?
No, that was the words of a little 7 year old boy and he just spit out those words with just the vehemence that I said to them. There is no Lord Jesus Christ, there is no God. I've made my choice and I'm not going to believe in Him.
Maybe you've never said that. Maybe you're a young boy or girl or a teenager sitting here and you've never said anything like that. Wouldn't think of saying anything like that.
But in your hearts you've never said, you've never confessed with your mouth the Lord Jesus. Jesus is Lord, and believed in your heart that God hath raised him from the dead.
That the message was for you, that you're lost and you're here sitting in your seat tonight.
This afternoon and you're on the road to hell.
You know, there's a young man in our assembly where we go in Columbus, OH, and he was there just a few weeks ago, maybe it's a few months ago now. He was a Husky man in his 20s. They called him Blocker, looked like a big Husky youth. He came out with some friends. Some other people had picked him up and brought him to the Gospel meeting. He heard how Jesus loved him.
How he was lost and on the road to hell, but that the Lord Jesus loved them and had a gift of salvation.
Two weeks later we had another special supper where people were invited in. They went to pick up people from that same place where Blocker lived.
Blocker wasn't one of the ones who joined them that night. Some others came, maybe a half a dozen, maybe 10 people from where he lived. But Blocker wasn't with him, he said. Where's Blocker?
He's dead.
Nobody would have thought, including Blocker two weeks before that when he sat in that meeting and heard that the Lord Jesus loved him, that it was going to be the last chance that he would ever have if he had not received the Lord Jesus as his Savior to receive him. Then I don't know whether Blocker had his trust in the Lord Jesus. I don't know as I look around this audience, whether you, young boy or girl or teenager or adult, have ever with your mouth confessed Jesus as Lord. But I would just say if you haven't, the Lord Jesus loves you.
Don't wait until this meeting is over. Don't wait until we're done. But if you are convicted, if you know in your heart you're a lost Sinner.
Maybe you heard Mr. Reeves last night and you think I failed all those 10 commandments.
Don't wait until this meeting is over right now. Just say, Lord Jesus, save me. Lord Jesus, I confess thee is Lord, I want you as my Savior. Do that now.
You know, I want to address my remarks primarily to those of you who know the Lord Jesus.
You know, I must admit, as I stand up here, it's not easy for me to stand up in front of a group. I would rather not stand up in front of a group and talk. I'd be glad to sit down one-on-one and chat with someone for as long as they wanted to talk. But I find it difficult to stand up in front of an audience. When I was at home on Thanksgiving and the phone rang and somebody called me to the phone and they I said, who is it? And they said it's Mr. Enzyme. Mr. Earl Enzyme.
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I thought, I really don't want to speak to Mr. Olenzyn. He's only called me, I think, about twice before in my life.
And both times it was to say, could you have a little word for us or would you speak at something?
And I thought that's probably what he's going to say again. And I really don't want to talk to Mr. Earl Enzyme, but I appreciated that he called enough to give me a chance to really pray about it. And I said, I just want to pray for two or three hours or some time. I just want to have some time and I'll get back with you as to whether I'll talk.
Well, we were just finishing breakfast and afterwards my dad has been his custom ever since. He's been my father. We got together and he said we're going to have a little family reading. They just finished Isaiah. The chapter they were reading in that they had been going through was Jeremiah I.
I'll just read you a couple verses. You don't need to turn to it. But Jeremiah says to the Lord, He says, Oh Lord, God, he says, I can't speak, I'm a child.
The Lord says, Don't say I'm a child, for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee, thou shalt speak. Be not afraid of their faces.
You know, I told Mr. Amazon, I said it's hard for me to call back and say I won't speak. I feel like the Lord Jesus would want me to speak.
I hope he gives me a word, something to say. I hope I'm not afraid of your faces as I lookout. But I recognize as young people and as old people, it's hard to speak, to use our mouth for the Lord Jesus.
It's difficult.
And we sometimes don't do it. I thought of that verse in Timothy. It says be thou an example of the believers in Word.
First thing it says is in words. Sometimes people have said, you know, and it's true. Our lives speak so loud nobody can hear what we say.
That's sometimes true.
But you know, it's also true, I don't believe that you and I can live our life. Just saying I'm going to live for the Lord Jesus and never tell somebody why we're living as we're living.
We've got to speak up and say and tell them what it is that motivates us, what's in our heart.
We need to speak out for the Lord Jesus, and that's difficult for most of us to do. It's difficult for us to talk. Often we talked.
When I shouldn't say things I shouldn't, then I'm quiet when I should be talking.
But the Lord wants each of you, young or old, to speak for him.
You know, I read about a lady just recently, her name was Carol. I don't remember her last name. And she was going to address some ladies. She was going to talk to them.
He's going to have to be speaking to him. And the first piece had gotten up and this person was a very eloquent speaker and had spoken wonderfully. And it was talking about Southeast Asia and the work that was going on there and the suffering people were doing for the Lord Jesus in Southeast, as you told about this one woman.
And some soldiers had come to her house to take away her Bible and everything she had but spoke about the Lord Jesus. She'd hidden it under the cold ashes in the fireplace, thinking they wouldn't find it there, but they'd look for Bibles before they knew where to find them. And they found that Bible under the cold ashes, and they took it out.
And she says, please don't take my Bible, it's the only thing I have that tells me about my Jesus. And they said shut up lady.
She said please don't take my Bible. It's the only thing I have that tells me about my Jesus.
They got angry with that Lady. They took her out. They stripped her of all her clothes.
They put her up on a platform.
And people came by and mocked her and spit on her, and all she had was her Bible as she knelt there on that platform with nothing to cover her, with her head bowed, not in shame, but praying to the Lord Jesus, the one who she valued. After four hours, they took her back down. They took her Bible away. And she says, please don't take my Bible. It's the only thing that I have that tells me about my Jesus.
They got angry with her. They took her hands and they stretched them above her heads like this. They put her down on the ground and they took her hands and with hammers beat them to a pulp.
So even to this day, she can't even hold a piece of food.
The next speaker got up and this lady, her name was Bev. She told about how when she was younger in her life a few years back, how the Lord Jesus she felt was calling she and her husband to go out and serve him. And she said Lord Jesus anytime, anywhere, anything, as they walked with her husband and three children to kind of dedicate themselves to serve the Lord. And two years later, she was in New Guinea, just a hot 2 feet between the walls and the roof service would come in. And she said, Lord, I didn't mean this when I said that.
And she cried and for the next two weeks wanted to go back home. But finally the Lord.
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Allowed her to have victory through that.
They serve the Lord and saw people saved. And then her older son went back home to the United States, and she hated to see him go.
To go back to the United States. And she said, Lord, I can't give up my kids to see them go back and leave us. I didn't mean this when I said anytime, anywhere, anything. But she prayed and the Lord gave her courage. Two years later, she came back home to be reunited. They were back at home in furlough. They got a call in the middle of the night. The phone started ringing. She went to the door and the policeman said there's been a serious accident. We think your son's girlfriend is going to live, but I'm sorry to say your son didn't make it.
And the devil said, is that what you meant when you said any time, anywhere, anything?
But the Lord gave her victory.
She was able to rejoice in it. And then there's Lady Carol was to get up and speak later to these group of women and she thought, listen to what these people have done. I can't do that. I have nothing to say. I'm just an ordinary person. I don't have anything special. My hands haven't been beaten to a pulp. I haven't given up my children or my family. And she said she just felt the Lord was saying in her heart, that's what I want to stand up there, an ordinary person.
You know, as I look around, we're ordinary people. Most of us aren't going to be called to a mission field in North Africa or in Eastern Europe or in South America. If he calls you go tremendous. It's great if that's what he has for you. But most of us here are just ordinary people.
But the Lord wants us to be willing to say anytime, anywhere, anything, when you go to school, whether it's a private school, whether it's an inner city school, whether it's a Christian School that you're involved in, I don't know your high school, your college, your work, whether you're a plumber, electrician, or a doctor or pharmacist.
It doesn't matter. We're ordinary people doing ordinary jobs. And that's what the Lord Jesus wants to call today to serve him, because we have an extraordinary God who loves to work through ordinary people to show his power.
And that's what he wants to do through you and me today.
So that we are willing to speak out for the Lord Jesus Christ and what He's done for us.
But you know what comes out of our mouth? What comes out of my mouth depends a lot on what I've been taken in.
You know, it says out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh.
You know that's true.
You know, if I'm thinking about things, if I'm thinking about a new car and I'm going to get a new car, a new van, then probably when I meet you, I'll ask you what kind of van do you have or what kind of car do you have or what do you think about it? Because that's what I've really been thinking about. There's nothing wrong in that. I have to get a new van periodically to haul my seven kids around.
There's nothing wrong in that. But is that what my focus is? Is that what your focus is? Those things of this life, it's going to make a difference in what I've been thinking about as to what I talk about.
And you know, I realize as I stand here to speak to you young people.
You know, I'm not a young person anymore. I try to be at times. I can't keep up with the kids when we play a basketball game they're getting so that my own kids can beat me and certainly the other kids in the meeting can play a game. So I can't keep up. I don't even understand fully the issues you go through. Some of the temptations today are the very same ones I went through. You know, I appreciate it For young people that came here today, that are here in this meeting today, you had some of you had a choice that was probably hard for you to make.
Ohio State's play Michigan right now.
And I suspect a lot of people, some of the young people, made a choice to watch that game, Go watch it somewhere. That's a difficult choice to make. I admit. That's still a temptation for me today. Right now, those kinds of things are a temptation to want to enjoy the things of this world. Is there something wrong in a football game? No. But the Lord Jesus Christ has something that's a lot better than a football game, a lot better than Michigan beating Ohio State or Ohio State.
Eating Michigan, he has some joy, he has some excitement. He has something to offer us.
That lasts far more than any excitement can ever last out of those kinds of things.
But I'm sometimes afraid to talk about it.
And part of the problem is because I haven't been getting the right stuff inside. You know, I work as a data processing and they say garbage in.
Garbage out. What that means is if you give a program the wrong information, the computer isn't going to mess up. It does its thing and it gives you some garbage out because you didn't put the right input into the computer. That sometimes happens in my life. Does that happen in yours where we haven't spent any time or enough time with the Lord Jesus? I remember, you know, a turning point in my life was when I was 15 years old, I went to a Wheaton conference. Brother Ron Reeves was there and I remember him taking his watch and holding it up and says we're going to have one minute silence. He was talking to us young people.
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And he just held that watch for one minute.
Let us sit there and then he said, you spend 5 minutes in the morning alone with the Lord Jesus. Would you be willing to give just five of those minutes out of the day for him?
You know, my parents had always had a Bible reading. We came up and at 7:00 we knew we had to be at the table at 7:00 because that's when my dad had the Bible reading before he left for work.
But you know, I had never got up myself ahead of that. I read at night and that was fine. I read a chapter at night or it's a few verses at night and prayed before I went to bed. But I never got up and started my day spending a little time with the Lord Jesus. And I remember going home and getting an alarm clock after that said I'm going to get up 15 minutes early.
And I'm going to spend a little time with the Lord Jesus. That was the best decision I ever made.
Those few moments spent with the Lord Jesus talking to him, trying to let him talk to me.
So that I might have something in here. It was an important time for me. I was just going from junior high to high school.
And I've been a pretty lousy.
Pretty lousy testimony.
My junior high.
Probably not many kids knew I was a Christian.
If they did, probably the example I was setting wasn't a very good testimony.
And, you know, I was ready to start to high school and it's a new school, and I thought maybe it's a new chance to kind of ask the Lord to help me do a better job, maybe pick some different friends.
And I really prayed about it that summer. And the Lord Jesus that first day allowed me to meet a Christian on the very first day. I have no idea How I Met him. I can't imagine I said something to him first about the Lord Jesus. But somehow I found out he was a Christian. Bob Romine, the Lord Jesus allowed Bob Romine to be in my class, to be next to me, for me to find out he was a Christian. So I would have somebody to help me, somebody to encourage me, so maybe I would have some courage to speak out for the Lord Jesus.
You know, are you spending anytime? Are you spending even 5 minutes young person with the Lord Jesus at the beginning of the day?
I encourage you to do that. You know, I talked to some people at Red Time Red Pine when I was up there this summer about how I had started to neglect reading and prayer at night. Just this year. I was too busy.
I could maybe argue some of the things I was doing were right, looking after my family or maybe helping some other people that weren't my family. But I got too tired at night for my reading and for my prayer.
So I just hop in bed and think I was going to pray to the Lord when I was in bed lying there and you know, the next thing I knew, the alarm was ringing.
And it made a difference in my life.
You know, outwardly maybe nobody in our assembly knew that. Maybe they didn't notice it. But deep down here I knew something was wrong. I wasn't nearly as happy. I wasn't speaking to people about the Lord Jesus, talking about them. Are you doing that?
Opening your lips for Him. The Lord Jesus wants you to do that. You know, there's a few things I want to look at as we have time too.
Things in which ways we can use our lips for the Lord Jesus. The first one is in prayer.
We might just look at a verse on that and Song of Solomon chapter 2 and verse 14.
Song of Solomon chapter 2 verse 14, about the middle of the verse, says Let me see thy countenance.
Let me hear thy voice. I start out with prayer because that's something you can do quietly yourself. Nobody has to hear you. Maybe it's hard for you to speak out to someone else.
Maybe you can't talk out loud to someone else about the Lord Jesus, but I would tell you just start out talking to the Lord Jesus in prayer. You know, I enjoyed what Tim Cederland said how how neat it was for when that older man that came up to him and said, Tim, I've been praying for you every day for I pray for you every morning and every night. How that encouraged him.
Then I'll bet if you were to ask Tim or me or anyone else and one of you young people came up and said, John, I'm really praying for you. I know it's a tough job raising your kids or I'm just praying for you for whatever reason.
That would be tremendous to know that somebody was praying for me.
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That's something you can do, young person, that is going to make a difference. You know, when I was at Carrollton Conference this year, I briefly mentioned a young man. His name's Tilden. He'd just been saved two days before.
Tilton is an alcoholic.
He's been drinking since he was nine years old. He's now 29.
Children used to do a lot of drug running plus using a lot of drugs.
And Tilden was saved just two days before Carrollton.
In spite of his being involved in Satanism. In spite of his being involved in alcoholism and drugs.
We were saved. Is it going to be all easy for children now? And I remember coming to Wheaton or Chicago conference and Marion Carmichael from Toronto came up to me and she says how's children doing?
She says. I've been praying for him every day since Carrollton. I thought, man, is that ever neat. No wonder children's been able to begin to go on for the Lord Jesus.
Their hands been praying for him. That young person in her prayers. I'm convinced. And there's others too that have prayed for children.
They made a difference.
Is he having a rough time? He's having a very rough time.
But prayers of young people like yourself make a difference.
The Lord Jesus wants to hear your voice.
You know, I love it. Sometimes. My kids will come up, maybe my five year old and Christopher will come up and I'll be sitting in the chair maybe, and he's not supposed to get down from the table, but he does and he comes up behind me and then he puts his arms around his neck and says, Daddy, I love you.
Maybe my 6 year old daughter. Do I love that? You bet I do. I love to have them come up and Justice put his arms around me and say Daddy, I love you.
Do you think I'd like to hear that from my teenagers?
I sure do if they say to me the same words, Daddy.
I love you.
That's special to me. You know, I was just telling my parents. My dad's almost 80 years old.
You think if I go up to him and say Daddy, I love you?
Like Dennis, I'm 80 years old. I've heard that so many times it doesn't mean a thing.
It means a lot to a parent. What about you, young brother? Young sister?
You get up in the morning, just say Lord Jesus, I love you.
You tell them that.
Is that hard to do? That's with our lips. Imagine the joy it brings to the heart of God for you just to lift up your voice and say Lord Jesus.
I love you.
He loves that and what would be really exciting too.
Young brother.
To hear you stand up Sunday morning.
Just stand up, say Lord Jesus, we love you.
I say there's no reverence. I believe God himself would say Amen. He loves to hear that.
Glory brought to his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Have you done that? Have you spoken out with your lips for him?
Quietly in your own room.
Or speak out.
On behalf of us.
In the meeting, the Lord Jesus wants to hear that. He wants to hear our praise. We might look at a verse.
It just says that in Hebrews.
Hebrews 13 and verse 15.
It says by Him, therefore, let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually. That is the fruit of our lips.
Giving thanks to his name, but to do good and to communicate forget not. For with such sacrifices God is well pleased.
The sacrifice of praise. That's not always easy to praise the Lord Jesus, is it? Sometimes you just don't feel like it.
I get my car and it's early in the morning and I'm going to work and maybe it's been hard getting up and maybe it's been hard getting the kids off to school and maybe I've had to discipline one of them.
And I don't feel like praising the Lord.
Maybe it's a sacrifice to do it.
To just start singing some hymn or some song and say praise the Lord Jesus, praise to him. How good is the God we adore? I want to praise you Lord, much more than I do. To sing something to him, to give praise and honor to him with our lips, with your lips. You know, young person that brings joy to the heart of God, what does he lump it with? But to do good and communicate, Forget not, for with such sacrifices you might see someone else doing lots of workouts there. You think for the Lord Jesus, they're working hard, doing good for other people.
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On behalf of the Lord Jesus, communicating, perhaps taking lots of their financial gain and using that for the Lord Jesus.
If you're praising the Lord Jesus in your heart, if you're praising him out loud, he puts all those together and he says with those sacrifices, God looks at the mall as a sacrifice. He is well pleased. He wants the praise of your lips and he wants the praise of my lips. You know, there's a young man that I work with. His name is Greg Rimi. And if you're talking about a football nut, he that's him. He is crazy about football. And I am sure that right now he's in Ohio Stadium screaming his head off for whatever it is half time or the middle of the game or whatever point they are in the game. Greg Remy is there screaming his head off.
When they played Iowa a couple weeks ago, Greg came in and he said, man. He says when Jeff Graham caught that pass right as time was expiring at the end of the first half, he says, I grabbed my Ohio State flag and I ran down the street singing the Ohio State March song all the way up and down the street. And he says at the end of the game, with one second left, when Bobby Olive caught this pass with one second left to score the winning touchdown, he said, I grabbed it again and ran down the street screaming my head off and singing the Ohio State fight song.
He not ashamed of the Ohio State team. Whether they win or lose, he's yelling for them.
But you know me.
I might be singing, maybe in the car and somebody pulls up and I want them to see I'm singing and they'll think something's wrong with me. But they may have their rock music blaring out so loud I can't even hear myself think and jumping up and down and bouncing and singing to it. And we're afraid to praise the Lord Jesus. He wants that praise of your heart. It means a lot to Him, young people, He really values it. Maybe you can't get out there and do something like someone else is, but you can do that. And I guarantee you if you do that.
You'll find some other things that will happen in your life because you'll want to do more.
And he'll want to use you.
Are you willing to speak out for the Lord Jesus, to praise Him, to pray to Him?
And I'd like to look at one other, and that's in Psalms 40 and verse three. I want to tell you what the results of that phrase is.
Psalms 40 and verse three. It says, He hath put a new song in my mouth. Even praise unto our God. Many shall see it in fear, and shall trust in the Lord.
When you start having some joy in the Lord, when you praise Him, when He gives you courage to speak out for Him, others are going to trust in Him.
They're going to turn to the Lord Jesus. You're going to have an opportunity to share with them what Jesus has done for you.
Maybe you can't explain it real well.
You know, we were down just a few weeks ago.
Helping some people that didn't have any place to stay. There was a number of young people down there doing it.
And, you know, these people didn't have any place to go. They didn't have food to eat, and they were helping provide food for them and find them a place to stay.
There was a young girl there, she's 16 years old.
She comes to the Assembly in Columbus. Her name's Rosa.
Now Rose is a beautiful girl on the outside and the inside. A year ago, Rosa was on the receiving end of that. She was a homeless person.
With a rotten life and Rosa put her trust in the Lord Jesus.
And Rosa was down there because she said, I want to go down there where people helped me. And she was with the other young people. And a girl came in that was upset and distraught, a drug problem. And Rosa, she's a Hispanic girl with her big brown eyes. She just looked at her and she said, you know, I was here a year ago and these people helped show me Jesus.
And he's changed my life.
She didn't tell the gospel, she didn't know how to perhaps explain it. But I believe that Roses testimony had an impact. Maybe you don't know how to explain it very well.
Can you bring someone to Jesus? Can you speak up and tell them about Jesus? And I can tell you, if you see someone come to know the Lord Jesus, maybe just because you're there, sitting there being an encouragement to someone else, maybe you don't have courage to speak. Come down and sit with someone else who wants to do it because two of you'll make it easier.
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If you see somebody saved, I've seen the joy in a young person's eyes or a young girl's eyes.
When they said you know what?
I knelt down with Belinda when she prayed and asked Jesus to come into her heart.
She's my best friend now. Why is she your best friend? Because she was there when it happened.
You know it will bring a joy to your heart that surpasses any joy.
That this world has to offer. It was when I was 15 years old and went out to the East Coast.
Was at the tent and heard some of the meetings. I wasn't the one speaking. I was 15. I couldn't talk and stand up there.
But I saw people get saved, come to know the Lord Jesus.
And it did something to my heart. It said there's something exciting there and seeing this happen, to see the Lord Jesus work and change a heart.
And I had trust. In a small measure, it gave me a desire to see hearts changed.
The Lord Jesus wants you to do that, to be there, and if you're praising Him, you're going to see others come to Him.
You know, it's going to be hard for me. It's going to be hard to think, you know, I thought, I think, what if the Lord Jesus comes and that person that works next to me at work?
And I'm gone.
Goodness, I don't think John ever said anything to me about it.
I remember never saying anything about the Lord Jesus.
Do you ever stop and think? Do I ever stop and think about my friends that may end up in hell?
And I've never said anything to them.
The Lord Jesus wants us to speak for Him. He wants us to use our lips.
To speak out in salvation.
You know, I want to say one thing too. I know it's difficult because you're worried about what people will think, your friends at school, maybe your friends in the meeting, how you go about it or whatever. You know, I worry about what people think. And I have to confess to you, before I came in here, I was over in the meeting over there where it says the men's room where they can go in and rest. And I was in there praying, but I was in there also writing down some notes here because I forget where places are in the Bible. I wanted to jot down some things so I would remember where a verse was in the Bible.
And I have my back to the door. I was kneeling there praying, and I'd written some down. And, you know, I heard a couple of people come in. I don't know who they were, some men I assumed to lie down. And you know what I did?
I took this and kind of slid it under the Bible because I was kind of embarrassed thinking somebody's going to think you shouldn't have notes up here.
You shouldn't take notes when you're talking. You know? I'm embarrassed too for what people think instead of justice saying.
I think the Lord Jesus wants me to write something down, so maybe I'll remember it, that I ought to put it down. Sometimes we're too worried about what somebody is going to think. Instead of saying, what does the Lord Jesus think? I just want to serve him. I just want to speak for him. He'll help me.
And then somebody today said, you know, when someone's been saved, we should be able to bring them to the Assembly as a place that they can be encouraged.
Now what a challenge to us.
Is the assembly a place?
We can bring our friends when they're saved.
So they're encouraged.
Is that just for the young people? No, that's for me.
That's that's for my brother, that's for my sisters, that's for all of us.
Like somebody said, are we going to be part of the problem or part of the solution? You know, we can complain and say the assembly isn't a place. Nobody's going to reach out to them or they're not going to understand them. You're there, young people, I don't understand and I can't relate to your friends nearly as well as you can. If somebody brings a friend, I can try to be friendly, I can try to speak to them, but you're going to be able to relate to a young person coming in that a friend brings much better than I can.
Can you speak out? You know, we might just look at a verse in Isaiah.
Isaiah 40. Excuse me, Maybe it's.
Isaiah 50.
Isaiah 50 and verse four. The Lord has given me the tongue of the learned that I should know how to speak a word in season to Him that is weary.
We know how to do that.
We know how to speak to someone else when they come in. You know, the people that have just been saved are going to be weary. Perhaps that's why they turn to the Lord. They're discouraged, they're sad. They were embedded in sin. That's what their whole life has been. They've been wallowing in this swamp for 10 or 20 or 30 or 70 years. They're not going to jump out of that swamp in one day. It's going to be a long road out. Am I going to be there? Are you going to be there again? You young people? When a young person comes in, you can be the one to help them much better than I can.
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Maybe it's just your friends that have been there all their life and they're discouraged.
You know, do you take the time to listen, to be a word of encouragement? You can be an encouragement to all ages.
You know, Mark Ramsey had a great meeting just a few weeks ago and he talked about a car and all the different parts. And he had the kids say, tell me, you know, what do you need to make a car go? And they come up with things like engine and fuel and you need a body on it, windshield wipers so you can see where you're going and lights and the whole bit. And then he took that and he related it to all the things we need in a Christian life so that we can go through life for the Lord Jesus. You know, when he was done, my daughter, one of my younger children said to me, she said, I really like that. That was good. I really followed that. That was I really liked that meeting tonight. I said, did you tell Mark Ramsey?
You might like to hear that. It would be an encouragement to him to know.
You know, sometimes I know some of this older ones, maybe we make comments in the meeting and you can't understand them. Once in a while we might make one that you follow and some that you do understand. Maybe tell us after say, you know, that was really good at that point. I really liked the way you illustrated that. That really helped me. Then that might help someone know that next time I ought to use the same. I understand how they can follow it. You know, you can encourage us.
Just like Marianne Carmichael encouraged me to know she was praying for Tilden.
For a young girl to tell the person that spoke, I really understood that and I really liked that.
That encourages It's not to puff someone up, it's to encourage them because they get discouraged.
Old people, young people, I know you young people get discouraged. You see the difficulties.
Perhaps you see us as part of the difficulties at times and you get discouraged.
You know we all fail.
And the Bible says to confess our faults 1 to another. That's another way we can use our tongue. Admit the faults and the failures. Do we do that?
Or do we try to hide it? Do I try to hide it because I don't want to admit a failure?
Now I came to a meeting just a month ago.
I ask prayer for three people. I ask prayer for children.
Because Tilden had just fallen badly again with his alcohol problem, I asked prayer for someone else that was making, I thought, a mistake in a job decision, and I asked prayer for.
Another person who'd been saved in February.
But had swindled somebody in the meeting out of money and taken it and spent it and got drunk.
And was going off away from the Lord now. Those seemed like 3 nice prayer requests perhaps?
You know what I told the brothers at the Caribbean afterwards?
I said that was the wrong prayer request.
You know what I should have said to you? I'm so discouraged I feel like giving up.
I'm just so discouraged, all these families, some of these people that we thought maybe we could help and everyone of them seems to be making the wrong decisions. And I'm just so tired and discouraged. I just, I feel like what's the point in even trying? I just don't feel like going on and I should have asked prayer for me sounded good what I'd ask prayer for.
But right here, you know I admit that I'm discouraged.
I guess because I was thinking maybe I could help these people. I can't help those people.
The Lord Jesus can help them. His power can help them. He can deliver children from alcohol and drugs, just as he saved his soul.
Is our assembly a place where I can come and say I've got a problem? I'm discouraged.
I've got a problem. My marriage is in a shambles. My wife and I are fighting all the time. I've got a problem with my children.
I've got a problem at work. I've got a problem with this weakness in my life. Brothers and sisters, can you pray for me?
Maybe it doesn't have to be publicly in our assembly. Maybe there needs to be somebody though I can go to it says confess my false one to another.
If I don't confess them when they're little, and I wait until they've grown totally out of proportion, how is there going to be any help?
I've waited, perhaps till it's almost too late. Not too late for the God we serve.
But perhaps too late because I've waited too long. Our assembly should be a place.
Where somebody can come and say I've got a problem. The people that have just been saved have the problems. Are those what we have in the assembly?
Do they hear me say to my brother when I make a mistake, I'm sorry?
I'm sorry, Brother Kuiper. I'm sorry, Brother Mark. I'm sorry Brother Whoever or Sister whoever.
00:40:07
Now, how can we expect a young person to say I'm sorry about something?
They've never heard me say ever admit a failure.
Ever confess a fall?
Have they heard that? Are we really open and real? Oh, the Lord wants us to use our lips for Him.
To speak out in praise. To own our failure when we have it.
To encourage one another when somebody's down, just somebody to listen to.
Many young people, the kind that somebody can come to you if they've got a problem and you'll really listen. Do you care? I know you care for each other. When you listen, try to help encourage them. Encourage us. Show us how to encourage us. You can make a difference for the Lord Jesus. You have the energy, you have the tongue, that powerful thing that can turn for good or for evil.
And the Lord wants you to yield it to Him so he can use it for His honor and glory.
Sometimes that's going to be admitting I made a mistake. Sometimes it's going to be asking for help.
Sometimes it's going to be praising the Lord, sometimes it's going to be speaking for Him.
Oh, I just wish that we could go out of here with the desire to use that tongue for the honor and glory of the Lord Jesus. We can't do it without His help. I can't do it without His help.
But with his help using that tongue.
What a tremendous blessing you can be to your assembly. You can be a help, you can encourage. You can pray.
And you can bring honor and glory to the one who died for you.
It's not very long until we're going to stand in front of them. We're going to see those nail prints in his hands. We're going to see the nail marks in his feet, that spear mark in his side. We'll praise him for all eternity.
Can we use our tongues, our lips, for His honor and glory in this short time now so that we might be able to hear Him say thank you?
Well done in those areas where we used it for him.
What just wasn't prayer?