In this sermon, the speaker shares a touching story about meeting an elderly woman named Virginia Johnson at a convention. Despite her age, Virginia had traveled a long way to attend the event, accompanied by her missionary son. The speaker reflects on the brevity and challenges of life, quoting verses from the book of Job and Proverbs. He emphasizes that everyone will face troubles in life, but God has given us a spirit that can sustain us through these difficulties. The sermon also mentions the speaker's upcoming task of editing over a thousand messages for various websites. Additionally, the speaker recounts a heartbreaking conversation with Virginia's son, who reveals that her mental decline was caused by the distress caused by her children.

The last thing you will ever do as a preacher is want to watch yourself. I'll never forget preaching in Scotland, oh, 1986 in Edinburgh, in D.L. Moody's church that he built, Carrabba's Close, where the great revivals of D.L. Moody took place, and we were blessed to have that pulpit. But upstairs was my children, and so after I preached, Stephen Alford was the main preacher, I wasn't the main preacher, I was young, but they asked me to preach in between, well, with him, but that was a great preacher, that man. But anyway, I went upstairs with my wife to find our little children, and there was a big screen for all the mothers and babies and children, and they were replaying the message, and I thought to myself in horror, who is this preacher screaming like that? You know, it was just very annoying. So I looked up, and I realized it was me. And then I felt a bit scared to ever look at myself again. I've never sat through one message I've preached and looked. I've looked at minutes, sometimes seconds, and then thought, that's enough. So, I have to, by the way, they're asking me to edit over a thousand messages where the masses have been kept over the years for all these websites. So I'm going to have to sit and age, as I watch myself leave the pulpit and can't hear myself. OK? There you are. I'd just like to mention that we put out a newsletter. It's not much in comparison with some of the newsletters we see in America, etc. Beautifully done. But this is sent to many thousands of people across the world every time it's posted. And if you'd like to receive it, there are extra copies of the last newsletter of December. If you'd like to just take a copy and pray, this is something of our work, every two months we send out the itinerary so that people in many parts of the world will know exactly where we are. If you'd like to do that and pray for us, put your name and address down on a little piece of paper I've put back there. Just, if you'd like to pray for us, please don't put your name and address down, if it'll become junk mail to you in no time, only if you know what it is to groan on your knees for souls, not to groan on your knees just for yourself, otherwise you've never groaned on your knees and never will in your life. But if you do for souls, I'll be very grateful if you put your name and address down, because you will be used by God to protect our ministry, so you'll be very welcome to put your name and address down. Father in mercy on all of us here this morning, please protect us from Satan, demons and disturbance that in any way will keep us from hearing God's voice. By the Holy Spirit, visit us. Each heart, we're so desperately wicked, left alone, that we honestly just look to Thee and cry out, help God, or we walk out the building the same as we came in, we may as well not have come. So we put our expectations in God's compassion and grace and mercy and long-suffering and patience upon all of us. I especially in my weakness and baseness ask for compassion and help, Lord, that I can concentrate and have liberty, because of the blood of Christ's cleansing and the Holy Spirit's anointing and the mercy of God on all of our hearts. In Jesus the Christ's name, Amen. Man that is born of woman is of few days. Man that is born of woman is of few days. If you don't know that yet, you're in for a shock any moment now. The greatest shock you're going to have in life is how short it is. Man that is born of woman is of few days and full of trouble, God says. Full of trouble, God says. Job 14 verse 1. A man born of woman, a man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward. Job 5 verse 7. Then Proverbs 18 verse 14 says these staggering words. The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity, his weaknesses, will carry him through the troubles. God gave you something in your spirit that protects you to survive the sparks, the troubles that you will all face. None of you will escape, none of you will escape in this world. It's like the immune system, physically. God says the spirit of a man, he's made your spirit that you will survive. The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity, but, now here's the tragic part, a wounded spirit, even God asks this question now. Who can bear? How will you survive if the devil can get that to happen? If that which God has given you that will enable you to survive is wounded somehow by Satan and life, how are you going to survive then if the survival kit is broken down? A wounded spirit. Who can bear? I was deeply sorrowed a while ago at the news of a family that I'd known for many years, the tragic news that came through of this family that we had known for many years. You see, the mother of that home committed suicide in the most gruesome way, but our sorrows were worsened a hundredfold at the funeral where her eldest teenage son in that funeral publicly broke down, sobbing uncontrollably and shouted at his father in the funeral, in the service, You killed my mother, Daddy. You killed my mother. You've always found fault. You've always undermined her. You've always condemned her. You've always criticized her. No matter how hard she tried, Daddy, you know, Daddy, she tried so hard, but you just undermined her, condemned her, found fault with her. She lost the will to live, Daddy. You killed our mother, Daddy. I'd like to address this fearful question in this meeting that perhaps you'll never ever be asked to address again when we must accept responsibility for the destruction of someone's life. When we must accept the responsibility of the destruction of someone's life. My wife and I met a man many years ago now who startled us because his wife was so mentally retarded that it was unnerving. He had to bathe her. He had to clothe her. He had to spoon feed her, his wife. She couldn't pick up a spoon. She was like a baby. Open your mouth now. He had to lead her from the room to the bathroom. She couldn't find her way or somehow mentally be able to even know how to get there. And he had to watch her all the time. We watched him always concerned because a minute of not watching her she was running like a child always for the streets and would be killed instantly. And our hearts broke for this man. And my wife one night looked at him and compassionately asked him, What happened to your wife, sir? Obviously he would never have married a woman in this condition. What happened to her? He put his head down and after a while he said it was her children. The children did this to her. They caused her so much distress. So much distress in their rebellion and their lack of respect toward her and her convictions for the home. One night she was so distressed that she broke down sobbing uncontrollably. And as she did, she just crumbled physically on the floor. Sobbing. And something happened to her mind as she lay there. Her mind just collapsed. We took her to psychiatrists, therapy, mental institutions, homes. Anything that was advised. Christian psychologists. Anywhere. Anything. But she just deteriorated her mind until she became like this. Like a vegetable. Unable to function as a human. We sat in silence and after a while I said, Did she profess to know Christ as her Saviour when this happened to her? Did she profess to be saved? Oh yes. For many years. For many years. And then I said, Did her children profess to be saved when this happened? Oh yes. Yes. But they will never forgive themselves. Whenever their mother comes near them, they hang their heads in shame and sorrow as they look at what they did to her. When we must accept responsibility for the destruction of someone's life, you say that's extreme, young man. That'll never happen to your mother. Won't it? Won't it, young lady? That'll never happen to my wife. Won't it, sir? You sure of that, sir? Your children won't cry at the funeral, you killed her. When we must accept responsibility, it's not easy. If that ever happens. But it can happen. It can happen. And I want you to consider it today. We had a preacher in our country. A very loved and revered preacher. It was so uncompromising and so fearless in the pulpit that he was revered across the land. And then he fell into terrible sin. He left his godly wife. Oh, she was godly. I stayed in their home. On occasions when I preached in their pulpits, large pulpits as they ministered across the country, he left his godly wife with this young woman, young enough to be his daughter. And, of course, the shame and the shock that went across my land at him. Not just a preacher, but this man. The stumbling block he was in our nation at what he did. And, oh, a life of standing up fearlessly and paying a great price. To be fearless like that and uncompromising. Everything was buried for the disrespect that was shown towards him. He was ostracized. Not able to preach again. Not allowed in the pulpits. And everywhere he went, with his face showing, the people just looked at him. This man who was once so respected in total despair and disdain that he could have left such a godly, beautiful woman and his children and his ministry that God had so honored. In one moment, threw everything away. For a young woman, I remember seeing his wife in a very large gathering. And after this place where I preached, I went into this hall where they had tea and serving refreshments. And there she sat with a whole lot of preacher's wives surrounding her. And I walked slowly up to her. And I expressed to her my shame at what he had done to her. My sorrow and my grief for her. And the shame he had brought on Christ's name across our land. But I said, Lady, you are still loved and revered as never before, no matter what he did. Tears welled up in her eyes. And everybody else just put their heads down as I spoke to her. Looked away from me. And then she said, Come here, Keith. So I walked towards her. I knelt on the floor in front of her because there was no seat. Listen carefully to me, my boy. I need to tell somebody this. I've told nobody. But I need to tell somebody. I've had much time to reflect since he left me for this woman and brought all this shame on us and on the Church of Christ in this land. I've had much time to reflect on everything. And Keith, I want to be honest. It wasn't altogether his fault, Keith. You see, I... I suppose in weariness of life, I don't know. I had become very negative to him for a long time, Keith. And given him no love. In my negative frame of mind, I criticized him all the time I found fault. And this was a long time. He had no warmth. Just me criticizing and condemning and not giving him the love a man needed. I became so weary in life and my mind so negative. And I just took it out on him, Keith. And I suppose when this woman looked at him, this young woman, looked at an old man and was attracted to him, I suppose the warmth and the love she wanted, it was so much for him to say no to because he hadn't received it from me for a long, long time, Keith. I'm not excusing his sin. What he did was shameful. What he did was wrong and evil. I don't excuse a sin. But I don't want you to think it was just... I don't know if he would have ever done that. Because he didn't go out looking for sin, Keith, when he went to that woman whose husband had forsaken her for another woman. He didn't realize when he sat with her that he was suddenly going to be alone because that's something he had never done. He didn't know a circumstance would be created where this woman was broken and smashed and crushed and in a moment something just happened between them when he tried to show her compassion. He wasn't looking. I know that. But he found something. It's a very costly thing for us to be honest when the world condemns our husband. And we know. Perhaps we had a lot to do with his destruction spiritually, morally, or our wives. When we put it all together, his fault, when we must accept responsibility for the destruction of someone's life, it's not going to be easy. It's not easy. I was in a very godly home. I have been in a few thousand of the godliest homes in our lifetime, in this generation, across the world. I have no doubt of that. For some reason it was the godliest of the godliest of the godliest of God's people who invited me to their towns, their pulpits, and who attended. The bulk were the godliest. The cream of the conservative, deep children of God. That's been my privilege. But in this one home, I noticed that the children, large family, were so godly in a very natural way that your heart was just lifted up at the beauty of these children's character and the godliness of this family. All the children of this large family. And I commended the mother. The father wasn't at the table. Not every Christian home can have all these children all serving God like this, the way these children love Christ. And then this mother, whose husband was a preacher, she said, Keith, this isn't all my children. The ones you've never met won't go to the meetings, don't want God. And then she said these words, When I was a young Christian, I wasn't submissive to my husband. I refused to be in subjection to him. I stood up against him and argued in front of the children. I wanted my way. I wasn't willing to be what God asks of a woman. Subjection. Be in submission. And I watched how it broke down that home. I watched how those children were being affected and I watched how my husband was crumbling as a priest of the house just ahead of them. And in fear, I began to seek God and I sought God so earnestly for grace to be in submission. Now Keith, from the time I was in subjection to my husband in obedience to God's word, every child that came in this house loves Christ. But until that, though I was saved, and though he was a preacher, the children before I was willing to be in submission do not want God. Do not go to your meetings, Keith. And we have suffered through them. You see, it's easy to say, all my children are godly, but those who aren't godly, it's their choice. But tell me, when we must accept responsibility for the destruction of people's lives, that costs. That is courageous. And accept and tell others of. In America, about two years ago, I met an old lady, 90 years of age. And she hobbled into this convention, large conference that I preach every year. My wife also speaks to the ladies. Her name was Virginia Johnson. What a lovely soul. What a radiant, beautiful face at her age. And she said how her husband, when he was alive, used to drag her across the country whenever I used to preach in the beginning of the tours I had of America. And he's dead now, but her son said he would bring her. So they travelled a long way to get to this convention that she hadn't heard or been to for many years since her husband's death. So there was her son, and I said, to her son, what does he do? He was a missionary in Korea or somewhere. And then I said, how many children do you have? She said, nine, all boys. That's something. Everyone is a missionary. They did nothing else from their schooling. They went into the mission field, and they stayed there now all these years. Every one of my children is on the mission field across the world. I said, lady, not many Christian homes worldwide can say that every one of their children chose to serve Christ. From schooling, from boys, from young age, and stayed on the mission field. You must have done something right as a mother, as a Christian mother, that that happened to all your children, all nine. She looked at me, she said, you know, I have made many mistakes in life, but I did one thing right. I was in subjection to my husband. When I read in the Bible what God asked of me, I asked God for the grace. I never ever stood up against his authority. In front of those children, he made mistakes, but he loved God. She said, I'm not saying a godless man wanting the children to do devilish things. I said, just being subjective, no, no way. But my husband was a Christian. But he wasn't perfect, and he made mistakes. And there were times I used to think, I used to say something, but I asked God for grace. No, I'm not going to stand up in front of the children and stand against his authority and stand with the children against their daddy. Not once. And I never did once. I asked God for grace daily, and he gave me the grace I needed to obey his commandments to every woman who professes to know Jesus Christ as their Savior. But then I noticed something. I noticed preacher's children rebelling, fighting, becoming the shame of the whole churches, the shame and the undoing of their father's ministry. Again and again. And I would sit down with the wife at some point and ask them, are you in subjection? I'd read the scriptures. Are you in submission? And everyone, where there was rebellion, children destroying their lives, the testimony of their own, everyone said, no. No, I haven't found the grace to do that. I fight and get my way. And then I found something else, where all the children followed God in preacher's homes over my lifetime, in Christian's homes. I asked them the same question, did you find the grace as I have found and asked God to give me daily as a wife to be in submission and not to be the authority of the home and fight him? And every single home where the children followed God with all their hearts, children, wife, said, yes. When we must accept the responsibility for the destruction of our children's lives and not just blame them, that costs. That costs. I was at the bedside of a man who was dying, who I was deeply fond of, a very godly man. And he was weeping and I, he said, Keith, my son just left before you came. A godly boy. And he said to me, Daddy, I know this is not the right time to tell this to Daddy, but I have to tell you. My wife has betrayed me with another man. Daddy. And I only found out now. What am I going to do, Daddy? I need Daddy to tell me what to do. Daddy, I waited all the years praying for God to keep me for the woman that He wanted, that He chose for me. And Daddy, even you, Daddy, believed it was God's choice. You were so godly. I kept myself, Daddy. I waited. I believed. It was God's will. She loved God. She was clean and pure. And Daddy, she's been with another man. How am I going to stay with her? How am I going to love her? What am I going to do, Daddy? Oh, Keith, this is the last thing I needed in my life, at this moment of my life. To hear from my son, who never once gave us troubles, never once hurt us. To hear it from him. I said, my boy, forgive her. Completely. Ask God from your soul for the grace to utterly forgive her in such a way you will never, ever remind her to the day she dies of this. Tell her you forgive her. Tell her you ask God for grace. And let her know you utterly forgive her. And then love her as never before. But Daddy, what about my feelings? What about me? Don't I matter? No, you don't. You don't matter. Your feelings don't matter. When you're a child of God, all that matters is God. What God wants. My boy, you leave her. You divorce her. Do you think you'll be happy? Do you think you'll find happiness with someone else, as a Christian? Do you think she will? Do you think she'll have hope to ever get up again and look the world in the eyes of the Christian? Oh, selfish man. You will have to seek God to forgive her, my boy. And he will give you that grace and you will love her. It's God that matters, my boy. It's what God wants, not what you want. Your feelings do not matter right now. Sorry, my boy. It's what God wants now in this circumstance. Now you go. And you seek God and then you go to her and you tell her and then you love her and you never, ever remind her of this till the day she dies. You just love her. And one more thing. Stop leaving her. Stop leaving her the way you do for your work, for your ambition. Oh, you're prospering and you're wealthy as a young man shouldn't be. You're losing. You're losing the most wonderful thing in life. Stop leaving her in pursuit of your ambition. Stop leaving her the way you do because you one day will lose her forever if you do. And you will weep daily till you die when you really do lose her, my boy. Stop neglecting your wife from this day till you die even if you lose your wealth. When suddenly we must accept responsibility for the destruction of someone else who when it turns on us like Nathan with David when suddenly we must accept responsibility. Stop leaving her. I don't know how many preachers I know whose wives and children hated them before they died. Why? Because they left their wife and children for the Lord's work. I know two preachers whose wives took gun. And when I stood with those men both of them almost said word perfect Keith, if I could start again I would never leave her. I would never leave the children the way I did for the gospel. I would serve God with all my heart but I wouldn't leave them forsake them the way I did it destroyed them. You know one of the most famous preachers in the world I won't name his name his daughter once stood with me and said my daddy was never home my daddy so hurt us that if he had committed adultery with another woman and forsaken my mother and us for another woman it wouldn't have hurt us more and it hurt us that he left us to preach to the world and forsook us. Oh be careful preachers be careful what can happen. I just a few months ago was shaken when I prayed with a woman who had been brought to me with other godly women who were caring for whose life was so destroyed her children so destroyed and her husband was always away totally destroyed I had to pray for them then they contacted me this one lady and said do you remember her the lady you prayed with and talked to her husband said to her and the children I've destroyed this home in my pursuit of my career I've neglected you I've just pursued money wealth and position and I've neglected you I'm giving up everything today I'm retiring I'm getting out of the business world I'm getting out of all the responsibilities I'm resigning from my position and I'm going to be the father you need and I'm going to be the husband you need when he died the next day do you think you can somewhere along the line suddenly make up brother it's too late it was too late for that man to become a father and a husband he destroyed them and when he was thinks now it's time to do something about it I remember being introduced to a man who was so intelligent he would be what we would call a genius now on theology doctrine there's nothing you could tell him he could quote Luther Calvin Zwingli write down he could tell you church history he could tell you the doctrines the evolving of the doctrines of the Calvinist versus the Arminist he could give everything he knew everything about everything and so he was so good that he couldn't bear listening to anybody preach there's no one could teach him a thing but his life was a disaster his marriage his children his home he was a negative self-destructive just a mess of a human that went into this dark depression and you couldn't tell him a thing because he knew everything so they brought him to this convention explained things to me they said he was the first preacher in I don't know seven years he's been willing to even come in here and he sat there in the meeting and started crying now he wanted to speak to me so we went up to some little rooms spent a long time with this man prayed with him talked to him really had to talk to him and pray well he died just under a month later he wasn't sickly and then his family said to me for the first time we looked at him and realized this is what a Christian should be all the years of knowing everything he had never reached here until this last couple of weeks if only he had known this from the beginning then I heard about the funeral and I spoke to his sister and said what happened to him that he was like he was you see there's always a broader picture there's no such a thing as a humanist like that for no reason self-destructive every bit of knowledge he could have conquered the world for God but what destroyed him don't tell me nothing happened what happened that made him what he was your sister she was shocked she turned in a half circle her eyes were up it was my mother she destroyed him why? no one knows but she hated him she loved the other children she was everything when my father lay dying he said he thinks because the child labor when she gave birth to him caused her so much suffering and so long she just couldn't love him whatever the reason she rejected him rejected his love and didn't want him hated him and no one ever could get it out of her why she so hated him one night she was saying something loving and he thought she was speaking to him and he stood up a teenage boy I'll never forget it she said and his whole face lit up and his mother she said not you stupid not you and he crumbled physically on the ground just he sobbed for days through the night through the day sobbing nothing could stop him sobbing and from that time he was the most negative self-destructive like a destroyed soul right through to a month before he died you know there's a verse in the bible that says he that hateth his brother is a murderer you see God sees the beginning of Cain you don't have to go and throw a stone at his head or knife through him you're a murderer in God's eyes if you hate your brother I want to broaden it and I don't think it's doing wrong you hate your son tell me are you a murderer you don't have to kill somebody you know with a gun to murder them you can murder your son you can be a murderer in God's eyes two boys came to a convention fifteen years ago two, ten years ago Satanists Mohawk hairstyle big metal things black brothers and one collapses on the floor like an animal frothing I was scared so I prayed for them when I left them when they left me that day I turned to their friend that had brought them this young boy I'd known through the years who's now a preacher and I said to him you know them tell me who did this to them don't tell me they chose to be this don't tell me they chose Satan worshipers just to be evil who did this to them tell me their life somebody made them what they are somebody destroyed them tears rolled up in his eyes and he just looked at me it was their father he wouldn't love them no one knows why he just rejected their love when their mother died he told them to get out of the house and they were boys, get out by the way sir he was a preacher the father preachers it doesn't mean you won't murder your children's souls they need love they need time they need undivided attention the time you give to them as a father there's no such a thing as a calling of God that says forsake your responsibilities to your wife to your children oh those boys did so try to go through with God didn't they Jenny he murdered them that preacher be careful be careful for whatever reason you have in your heart as to why you love this certain child and not the other why you will encourage the one and have no time to encourage the other just have an undermining, maybe they failed sometimes, maybe they did something to cause you hurt maybe, but listen carefully you murdered them if you don't find grace by God to love the one as much as the other even if the one is a perfect human and the other is a disaster you will bury them if you don't love them both the same encourage them as such oh you know, Jacob did something terrible when he chose to make Joseph the one who gets the special cloth he made his children murderers he made them murderers who, you think they're wicked no, I think Jacob was wrong you're wrong if one child senses the other the others you love, but not him equally you watch the end of the negativeness that which a child needs to not be destroyed is his mother and father's trust and love equal never one more than the other you look at him and say he's a mess were you the cause? because you weren't the mother you should have been the father you should have been you know, I do not believe God commands us when he says, husbands love your wives I don't believe there's any commandment there I believe it's a compassionate cry for monk you know, God doesn't love by the way God is love his harshest cry in this book of condemnation throbs with love for you for souls no matter what he said I don't believe God commands I believe he cries compassionately knowing what you will do to your wife if you don't if you don't to your husband I believe it's a compassionate cry concerning your children's husbands love your wives be not bitter against them don't let that happen don't destroy them don't break their spirit don't have your child standing up at the funeral crying out, you killed her don't you wives, you're being subjection to your husbands don't have your children all serving the devil because you couldn't be what God said they needed to see to want the God of their father and mother you fathers and mothers concerning your children fathers, you love your children you see don't break their spirit God says you can as a father bring them up in the nurture and the fear of the Lord, you know what that means literally the closest in its context that is not literal Greek I believe God says let me bring them up to you child that they know Christianity is what they need by the way you bring them up by the way you love them respect them God I believe commands us as fathers provoke not your children to anger, why does God say he never speaks to the unsaved have you noticed that with the commandments the unsaved we reach, until then the commandments are to God's people, all the New Testament fathers provoke not your children, you can do this or God wouldn't ask this to anger lest they be discouraged literally don't break their spirit by your failure by the way you discipline that isn't Godly, that isn't Christ like by your judgement of them by your reaction to their failures when you forget how many years God took in patience and mercy to make you what you are, you want them to be that now or they will die, oh yes you have no patience with them do you, when it took God long to make you what you are ye fathers provoke not your children to wrath, you can make them so angry that they fester in anger against your Christianity because you are what Christianity represents, you bring them up in the nurture, the admonition of the Lord let God bring them up to you, children obey your parents in the Lord this is right honour thy father and mother, you have to you have to, these things you have to do as a child I don't know how many parents who don't think it's always the parents fault what about the Elis you think the ark was the reason he was killed, why he died no, his sons murdered him you want to know what the calamity, the literal Hebrew the destruction of the father wicked children the heaviness of a mother, a mother that should have in her godliness known joy all she knew was heaviness to a godless child, to a child who rebelled until some even go for the destruction a wicked son is the destruction, is the calamity of his father, and in its context in Proverbs he's speaking always of a godly father, destroyed by wicked children and a godly mother who can be destroyed, who can go through life with so brokenness and such heaviness to a child, oh yes we all can destroy, even godly I know one of the greatest preachers in the world who walked from his pulpit and wouldn't go back and when they made me come and sit with him in a restaurant he had gone back to work in his little working clothes and he had left he had one of the greatest pulpits in the world revered by preachers across America and the world who would go to hear him and say this is the greatest pulpit in America, my preacher has had pulpit many times, but he's gone, gone, gone back to work he won't preach again, why? his children, and I said sir, but the other children love Christ, just because your two oldest boys aren't right in doing this, doesn't mean you are a failure, they have the free will, there's a moment in life, it doesn't mean you have to leave the ministry just because all, look at some some of them serve god, you can't walk away from this pulpit, the people were leaving, the church is in mess the ministers were leaving all the people in ministry, that church was lying in ruins he said Keith I understand but I could never stand up and defy God, I lose the right to preach if my children serve Satan probably the greatest pulpit on earth of the evangelical conservative church worldwide, the man left the pulpit because they destroyed their father like Eli's children destroyed their father, they were so wicked he died to their evil maybe he had failed in certain ways bringing him up, but they killed him you want to do that to you you want to break your mother's spirit you want to break your father's spirit, so they asked me to pray for that man by the way before he left, so I said God do anything it doesn't matter what it costs to make these children stop that this man can go back to the pulpit suddenly they found out his wife was riddled with cancer and as she was dying those boys repented and didn't want their mother to die broken hearted through this and they repented what costs for God to answer prayers to do anything to make children repent that they bother he went back in the pulpit alone now without his darling wife because God knew that was the only thing that would make those boys stop destroying their parents and their fathers ministry and life Christianity, fathers wives husbands, children what is it all about let me shock you now provoke them not to anger but provoke them not to wrath don't break their spirit, the Greek you can do that because a Christian father is a preacher you can have satan worship as you destroyed you made them go and find love wherever they could and the first place the devil led them was to satan worship and then they become this mess because they couldn't find it in the home you did it fathers bring them up in the nurture holiness be holy God says for I am holy what does God mean, what is holiness let's ask every one of you in the next hour to stand up and define holiness you would be stunned at the interpretations each one would give of what separation from the world holiness careful listen now is Christ full stop at anything it's heresy I don't care who you are I don't care what you say holiness is Christ likeness full stop if it's anything else, run you with heretics you think this modesty that's holiness, no oh no no no of course I want a woman to be modest and a man, and a boy to dress like you know these people are ruled by the world's fashions of course you look for it and you wonder if it's not there eventually you grieve over it but that's not holiness you can dress like a nun lady and be a devil you can send your children and husband through hell and to hell even if you dress, that doesn't make you holy these things have their place, but that's not holiness is Christ likeness full stop nothing more to add anything more is heresy Christ likeness the fruit of the spirit, what is the fruit of the spirit? love, joy, long suffering no the evidence the Holy Spirit is in you the fruit, the evidence, that's the word that you are controlled by the spirit to the degree you're controlled is Christ you see, the whole purpose of the Holy Spirit's work is not to glory, he will not speak of himself his whole purpose in work is to bring you back to Christ likeness to be conformed back to the image of God of what was lost you're predestined to be conformed to the image of his son the whole thing in God's heart was to bring back what was taken at the fall to sin Christianity makes you Christ like or you are obnoxious Christianity is obnoxious Christianity is blasphemous if it doesn't produce Christ likeness beginning in the home it's not a set of rules thou shalt not, thou shalt not thou shalt not, thou shalt not try and live by your own strength no, the only religion on earth that demands this is possible Christianity is not this keeping rules and learning them off by heart Christianity you yield you don't do in your own strength you yield, you surrender and God the Holy Ghost takes you and fills you which means controlled when you allow him and there you fulfill the fruit of Christ likeness love, the fruit the evidence Christ is seen in your reactions to your children to your wife, to your husband like Jesus Christ likeness take that out of Christianity and you are lived with a blasphemous take Christ likeness as the only thing that matters when you are saved out of your profession of salvation and you are left with blasphemy and you destroy everyone near you that comes near you and is affected by you to the degree you yield to God totally surrender to God as a Christian to that degree God will reveal Christ through you, no matter how trying the circumstances, not your efforts but God by his grace spontaneously living through you that's Christianity if that isn't your life young person toward your father and your mother toward your children, toward your wife, toward your husband your Christianity is obnoxious blasphemy sorry, I don't know what better words in truth to give you about your Christianity being filled with the Spirit is the most confusing doctrine on earth today I wouldn't say it's done as much damage as gifts as the evidence or rather doctrines that divide everything can spoil the life I would say it is so be filled with the Spirit it has to be the beginning it's a present continuous tense, we all know that continually yielding as you need to and oh you need to again and again Andrew Murray, who I believe was the greatest theologian in South Africa's history and turned the history of South Africa we would never have been what we were without that man's ministry he said be filled be filled with the Spirit does not mean you're half empty you've got to let the other half of the Holy Spirit now come and you know the Spirit is a person if he's in you, when you're saved he's in you fully, but he's not in control what God is saying is to yield yourself to his control total surrender absolute surrender and this is something that your will in desperation is conscious you need by the will God's given you as a Christian to do with all your heart soul and might God will bring you fast to that conclusion once you're saved when God fills you at total surrender absolute surrender is the word Andrew Murray loves and I love it too, like Jacob at Peniel before double dealer usurper, supplanter after a man of God after Peniel he totally surrendered absolutely surrendered, would not let God go until God had his way totally, and stopped all the shame through his, oh he was saved don't doubt that, but that moment of absolute that moment is needed desperately Andrew Murray says in your life, because if it doesn't happen to you as a Christian, you will bring shame on God and you will fail and destroy beginning with your family anything God could do through you to influence this world eventually you have to be fooled, you have to absolutely surrender as a Christian absolute surrender being controlled suddenly he's in control, that's all does not make you sinlessly perfected does not mean that's it, no that's not, you've arrived, let me tell you something that just places you in a position where God can take you on to perfection, until then it's ups and downs, more downs than ups but from then it's a consistent growth being continually conformed more and more into the eminence as you soak yourself in the Bible and prayer, and more light comes and continual yielding, but that original yielding and surrenders is needed but from then you will react like Jesus by the Holy Spirit controlling you who is going to conform you to the image of his Son God's Son, that was lost at the fall, not physical image but oh you see Jesus as someone who's totally surrendered, and you see them when things go wrong, you see Jesus, that's how real you are in Christianity, when things go wrong are you like Jesus when things aren't perfect and so you don't destroy everything around you beginning in the home by the way you react you make them want Christ also, let me ask something of you those of you who sit here today conscious you're saved, but conscious you desperately need to absolutely surrender before you face the sorrows you've heard of today that are possible those of you that desperately need that, I can't tell you how many have walked up to me in malls have contacted me on phone, SMS's, e-mails letters across continents to come look me in the eyes and say, Sir I responded to that message of yours and from that day my destroyed marriage was healed, and through these years I've lived what you said I can it works I don't know how many preachers said I found liberty to preach from the time I prayed when you made that appeal because for the first time I could live what I was preaching and I couldn't before I want to ask every one of you sitting here today I don't care if you're a little child, a little girl a boy, a man, a father a wife, a husband those of you that desperately need to say to God Lord I know I'm saved but I know today my desperate need is absolute surrender total surrender and to seek Thee to fill me, to take control to make me like Jesus, I don't want gifts that's not the evidence of the Holy Spirit if you read 1 Corinthians 12 13 and 14 together that's the last thing you look for, it's the fruit with all the gifts but not love always beginning with love suffering long and showing kindness that you come oh I want the fruit I want every single person sitting here today who needs to say God forgive me forgive me for all my failures to all my loved ones though I'm saved but I'm not going on Lord I'm dealing with it today wash me in the blood from all my failures and there's been so many even though I'm saved so much defiance of the known will of God and the commandments of God for my family to me that I defied though I'm saved and I've got such misery doing it I want forgiveness, I want cleansing but I want Lord to not stop there I want to yield to absolutely surrender and I want Thee to fill me with the Holy Spirit I don't want gifts I want the fruit to be there because I've totally surrendered and to the degree you surrender and yield in Christianity to God to that degree you reveal Christ by the Holy Spirit who controls you to the degree you surrender I want to ask every one of you not to come to sinless perfection but to come to a place where you can reveal Christ and go on to perfection become more and more like Jesus I want every one of you who desperately, desperately need to seek God for that forgiveness for all your failures and defiance in spite of the known will towards your own loved ones and who desperately need to say God it stops today, I want Thee to take me and fill me with the Holy Spirit and reveal Christ in me through me I want those of you who desperately need to ask God that today not just shallow desperate God I'm desperate I'm desperate for this God I want those of you who need desperately to ask and seek God for this today to stand right now please to stand and say to God I need this God to confess my failures and to absolutely surrender and to seek Thee to fill me with the Holy Spirit it'll cost won't it but oh what it's going to cost if you say no because God might never confront you again about this or you're saved so I'm asking you once more would you stand those who desperately need God to fill them here today with the Holy Spirit that's your answer I'm not forcing anyone I'm just waiting because it's quite a thing to say publicly I need this, though I'm saved those standing, will you come forward please this will cost but come forward please those sitting, you have the right to pray for these who are coming forward so I want you to pray that what you have, they'll find otherwise you wouldn't be sitting can we all bow our heads please can those standing in the front just pray aloud with me oh God I ask Thee for forgiveness for every failure in my life especially the failures of the home toward my loved ones and I ask Thee for cleansing with the blood of Jesus Christ from all these failures and these griefs I have given Thee and my loved ones cleanse me with the blood of Jesus Christ God's Son that Thou hast promised cleanseth us from all sin and let the blood go deeper wash me through and through and through and through create in me a clean heart oh God and renew a right spirit within me a consistent steadfast obedience to live the commandments of God in consistency beginning in my home because if it doesn't work in the home it doesn't work at all I absolutely surrender I lay my life totally on the altar of God not a dead sacrifice but a living sacrifice longing to be holy that I may prove what is that perfect and acceptable will of God in Christianity take my life and let it be consecrated Lord to Thee fill me with the Holy Spirit take control of me of my yielded surrendered life and I ask not for gifts but for the fruit the evidence that God is in control of a surrendered life that that fruit will be seen in my life spontaneously no matter how trying the circumstances help me from this day to never neglect the quiet time the meditating of the word of God to be renewed day by day because no experience can substitute what is needed and found in the quiet time daily but I know that I will never have to seek Thee again as I do today in absolute surrender to be filled if I never neglect Thy word again I will grow consistently more and more into the image of Jesus which is all I want to be like Jesus live out Thy life through me O Jesus for anything less is worthless in Christianity to me to this world and to God I want to be like Jesus to my family that they recognize Thee as they look at me and watch my reactions and my disciplines help my loved ones to forgive me where I have failed and to give me another chance to prove that my Christianity is not a profession it is revealing Jesus Christ apart from which I have no right to profess the Lord Jesus with my lips in Jesus Christ's name with all my heart I ask this of Thee Amen now beloved can we all stand I trust that if you are not saved and you are sitting through this message you will never recover to the day you die by what God told you Christianity is, should be if you sought Him so it wasn't just to the Christians we spoke and I trust that every one of you will be stunned as you leave this building and go through life as this message comes back to you with such a vengeance as you look at what is happening through you to others beginning with those in your home every one of you now we are going to break up and have lunch very shortly after which there will be meetings with the lady, the girls where my wife will speak and brother I believe books were sent to you, is that right? how many books do you have? all of Jenny's books ok, 15 books ladies you go and try and get it I don't know what you are charging but from what I hear last night or yesterday you don't seem to be making any profit you should actually, you've got to stay alive but anyway the books will be out there, Jenny's poems that sold all, much of the world you can't believe the homes that have turned to God I know a man that takes about a thousand copies at a time he goes out, he phones me and says I've given them out this godless man took it home he read it before he gave it to his wife he got saved his wife got saved, his children got saved his marriage is saved just through poems of Jenny's that have astonished many people in the most wonderful way God's used those poems so please, they are putting another book out now of the addresses he gives to ladies, all these conferences all over she goes to they are publishing that now too but I would be very grateful if you took one of the 15 books, I don't all run that would be very wrong but you go and get that book and you read from page one and give it to your husband and your children those poems have been used to bring many souls to God across the world and many Christians to write relationships with God after the meeting this afternoon we have one more gathering tonight and then tomorrow one more gathering I know that I preach things that you don't normally hear that's because I think I see things and don't bury my head in the sand and say it doesn't happen in Christianity I preach what I see happening in ministers' homes to ministers' children I see what happens and I preach it so it doesn't happen to you if it does God warned you through the basis of men but you didn't listen if it does happen to you or do you think it won't?