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D.L. Moody

Dwight Lyman Moody (1837 - 1899). American evangelist, publisher, and founder of Moody Bible Institute, born in Northfield, Massachusetts, to a poor Unitarian family. Leaving home at 17, he worked as a shoe salesman in Boston, converting to Christianity in 1855 through his Sunday school teacher. Moving to Chicago, he founded a Sunday school for street children, growing it to 1,500 attendees by 1860. Without formal ordination, he preached across the U.S. and Britain, holding campaigns with song leader Ira Sankey, drawing millions, including 130,000 in London in 1875. Moody authored books like Heaven (1880) and founded the Chicago Evangelization Society (1889), now Moody Bible Institute, training thousands of missionaries. Married to Emma Revell in 1862, they had three children. His practical, love-focused sermons bridged denominations, influencing figures like Billy Graham. He established Northfield Conferences, fostering global missions, and raised funds for Chicago’s YMCA. Moody’s tireless work, delivering over 100 sermons annually, transformed 19th-century evangelicalism. His maxim, “If this world is going to be reached, I am convinced it must be done by men and women of average talent with hearts on fire,” drives his enduring legacy.
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Sermon Summary
D.L. Moody emphasizes the necessity of relying on God as our higher source for deliverance, using the example of Moses, who initially failed in his own strength to free the Israelites from Egypt. Moody illustrates that true deliverance comes when we allow God to work through us, as seen in Moses' transformation after years of preparation in the wilderness. He stresses that we must recognize our limitations and seek divine assistance to overcome both internal and external challenges. The sermon encourages believers to trust in God's power rather than their own abilities for true liberation.
A Higher Source
"I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him and honour him" (Ps. 91:15). First, "I will deliver." When God called Moses to go down into Egypt to deliver the children of Israel from the hand of the Egyptians, in all the world there wasn't a man who, humanly speaking, was less qualified than Moses. He had made the attempt once before to deliver the children of Israel, and he began by delivering one man. He failed in that, and killed an Egyptian, and had to run off into the desert, and stay there forty years. He had tried to deliver the Hebrews in his own way, he was working in his own strength and doing it in the energy of the flesh. He had all the wisdom of the Egyptians, but that didn't help him. He had to be taken back into Horeb, and kept there forty years in the school of God, before God could trust him to deliver the children of Israel in God's way. Then God came to him and said, "I have come down to deliver," and when God worked through Moses three million were delivered as easy as I can turn my hand over. God could do it. It was no trouble when God came on the scene. Learn the lesson. If we want to be delivered, from every inward and outward foe, we must look to a higher source than ourselves. We cannot do it in our own strength.
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Dwight Lyman Moody (1837 - 1899). American evangelist, publisher, and founder of Moody Bible Institute, born in Northfield, Massachusetts, to a poor Unitarian family. Leaving home at 17, he worked as a shoe salesman in Boston, converting to Christianity in 1855 through his Sunday school teacher. Moving to Chicago, he founded a Sunday school for street children, growing it to 1,500 attendees by 1860. Without formal ordination, he preached across the U.S. and Britain, holding campaigns with song leader Ira Sankey, drawing millions, including 130,000 in London in 1875. Moody authored books like Heaven (1880) and founded the Chicago Evangelization Society (1889), now Moody Bible Institute, training thousands of missionaries. Married to Emma Revell in 1862, they had three children. His practical, love-focused sermons bridged denominations, influencing figures like Billy Graham. He established Northfield Conferences, fostering global missions, and raised funds for Chicago’s YMCA. Moody’s tireless work, delivering over 100 sermons annually, transformed 19th-century evangelicalism. His maxim, “If this world is going to be reached, I am convinced it must be done by men and women of average talent with hearts on fire,” drives his enduring legacy.