In this sermon, the preacher shares a story about a mission compound during an epidemic. A man named Tommy Titcom seeks guidance from the Lord on how to help, and he is instructed to use drums to communicate a message. The message states that anyone who moves into the mission compound will be protected from the disease. People from different places start walking to the compound, some even traveling overnight to be there. The preacher emphasizes the power and love of Jesus in solving the problems and tragedies faced by the families in the compound. The sermon concludes with a prayer to turn our eyes upon Jesus and seek His help. The preacher references John chapter 17 in the Bible.

There's nothing too hard for thee, dear Lord. There's nothing too hard for thee. With thee is all the power and love. There's nothing too hard for thee. Thy name is El Shaddai, the God who is enough. Every home here at this family camp has somewhere in it or related to it a tragedy, a need so enormous that only someone who made the world is powerful enough. Someone that died for lost men is loving enough. Someone that conquered sin and death and hell is victorious enough to solve the problems that are represented by us here tonight. And so we're asking that our eyes will be turned away from all else and fixed upon the Lord Jesus. We hear that little song, turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in his wonderful face and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace. May we see no man save Jesus only. In his name and for his sake we ask it. Amen. Turn please to John chapter 17. John chapter 17, most important scripture. When I was at the tabernacle in New York the first year, I was led to the Lord to bring a series of messages on the prayers of the New Testament. There are seven Pauline prayers and I was then proposed to relate the seven prayers of Paul to John chapter 17 and advised the congregation that I would be bringing four messages from John chapter 17. That seemed like a good number, a safe number. Message 37, I was down to verse 23. And I received an anonymous letter from one of the men of the church who had written to me with his name addressed and the typewriter still had that bad key in which this anonymous letter said, Dear Pastor, don't you think there is some other place of blessing for us than in John 17? Well, I had to agree that 37 messages on that first 23 verses was going a little far. But I still find it extremely difficult to begin anywhere in this other than with the first verse and then to just talk about it. But I'm going to tonight take a chance. Bear with me. Verse 18, and I want to conclude with verse 23. As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth. Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word, that they all may be one. As thou, Father, art in me and I in thee, that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that thou hast sent me, and the glory which thou gavest me I have given them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect and one, and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them as thou hast loved me. Now, it's the two words that I want you to see initially are in 23 first and 21 thereafter. That the world may know, that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. Earlier today I left a drink of water on my hands, a little warm, but adequate. Back in 1952, I was at Mercado Baptist Church in Macon, Georgia for a missionary conference, and the pastor invited ten of the Southern Baptist pastors from Georgia with whom I had conferences scheduled for the next ten, twelve months to come so that we could have a day of seminar on how to prepare for a missionary conference. Well, these pastors had arrived at about 9.30, we'd gone into session, they'd served lunch to us there in the church, and it was now approaching three when I had promised that they would be free to go back to their churches. And I said, now, are there any other questions that you'd like to ask before we close? And one of the brethren said, yes, brother, he did. Here we are, eleven Southern Baptist churches taking on the support of faith missionary missionaries and getting a personalized view of missions and the local church supporting missionaries. This could become a movement. Tell us, this is 19, the year happened to be, excuse me, 1950, not 1952. This is 1950, and here we are starting in. What's going to happen in the next fifty years? Suppose this catches on like a prairie fire. What's going to take place in missions in the next fifty years? And I said, I don't know, and I don't think anybody else knows, because I don't know that the question has ever been asked before, and obviously if it's never been asked, oh boy, there you go, that's a quick return on a suggestion. Thank you, brother. I'll have to use it, I can't see anything. And it's a big glass, too, with a windmill that runs by water, apparently. Some folks come by slow freight. So I did what every busy executive does. When I got back to the office, I asked my secretary to do the research for me. I said, I want you to take four questions, world population in 1850, and then find out the world population for each ten years to 1950. And then I want to know the number of Christians in the non-Christian world. And then I want to know the number of missionaries, and I want to know the amount of money spent for missions from 1850 to 1950, because all we know about the future is what we've learned from the past. And I told her she could use as much time as she thought she needed, she could go to New York if she thought that was necessary, she could telephone, she could write for material. I had to have an answer by late September in order that there could be this, be prepared for the meeting. Well, I went to the meeting, and I must say she had done an excellent job. She gave me a graph, as near as we could get the information, from 1850 to 1950, and then we used the highest ten-year period as the average, projecting out from 1950 to the year 2000. And do you know what we discovered? When I went back to that group of pastors, do you know what I had to tell them, if I was to be honest with what I'd learned? That the half-century from 1950 to the year 2000 was going to be statistically the half-century of greatest failure in the history of evangelism in the history of the Church. There would be nearly twice as many that had never heard the name of Jesus Christ by the year 2000 than there were in 1950. Now we were going to have to run to stay in place, that the amount of money for missions, as compared to the increase in giving related to the increase in worldwide inflation, would cross by 1970, so that we would never have more money for the missionary task than we had in 1970. Actually, we were wrong on that. That year was 1967. Ever since then, the increase in giving has not kept pace with the increased worldwide inflation spiral. So we have less money to use now than we did then, even though the amount is larger. Because of the enormous inflation value and devaluation together, we'll never have more money for missions than we had in the year 1967. The volume of dollars will be greater, but the buying power will be less. And I had to confront them with that, offer it to them. You can imagine that they felt as heavy as you felt and as I felt. And it drove me back to the Word, before the meeting and ever since the meeting. And I finally had to conclude that even in spite of our having such marvelous means of communication and transportation as we now have, with all of the means of radio and with geostationary satellites and so on, you know, however much you broadcast to a country, it doesn't make any difference at all if it's not in the language that people understand and if they don't have some means of receiving it. And so the consequence of it is that I had to say in spite of all of the tools that are ours that did not belong to our fathers, this is the case. As I say, it drove me back to the Word. And to ask God to guide me and direct me and lead me where, Father, in thy Word is the answer to this problem? And I have read the answer to you. You've heard it. This is the high priestly prayer of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is praying to us, telling us here what he is praying for us today. There's only, do you realize that this prayer that John has recorded in his gospel was uttered the night, the eve of his crucifixion? I'm sure you realize that. But it wasn't recorded, they didn't have a tape recorder then. It was prayed either in the upper room or in the garden and John did not record this gospel until at the earliest, 85 A.D. and possibly as late as 95 A.D. and our Lord Jesus ascended into heaven, according to our calendar, in 30 A.D. That means that it was 55 years after the prayer was prayed, minimally, or as much as 65 years after the prayer was prayed, that it was included in this gospel. How did he have a good memory? We've had prayer offered here tonight. Is there anyone here that would indicate you're willing to give us a verbatim record of the prayer that was prayed before the meal this evening or in this service? No, of course not. We don't memorize prayers. Neither did John. How did he get here? Our Lord said, when he, the spirit of truth, is come, he will bring to your remembrance all things whatsoever I have said unto you. Why was it to wait until John recorded it? Mark's gospel was first. Possibly because, if it had been included in the gospel of Mark or Matthew or Luke, someone would have said, well, that was just for the early church. Well, now 65 years have gone by, two generations have passed, and it's included. And I believe there's a very real reason. The Lord Jesus Christ wanted you and me to know what he is praying for us tonight. This is his prayer. This is what he's praying. You see, he has an unchangeable priesthood that continues ever. And this is what he's praying. And the reason it's included, so that you can know what your Lord is praying for you. Now, it's important to understand that. He said, Father, neither pray I for these, in whose presence the prayer was offered, alone, but for them which also which shall believe on me through their word, for the family camp at Camp Perkins. On the 30th of July, 1988. He's praying for you. This is what he's praying for you. And the result of this prayer being answered, is that the world will know that the Father sent the Son. And the world will be able to believe that the Father sent the Son. Do you see the importance of it? Everything else has failed. And yet we still have the commandment demanding from our Lord, preach the gospel to every creature. However, tonight there are more creatures to be preached to than there have ever been before in the history of our planet. And we have to run to stay in place. And our brother and sister have laid upon our hearts tremendous burden that the Lord of the harvest will thrust forth laborers into the harvest field. Well, I think then, in the light of these facts, that it's extremely important for us to go back again and find out exactly what it is that our Lord is praying for us tonight, and to start praying with Him. You know, as the word says, if we ask anything according to the will of God, He hears us. And we know that if He hears us, we have that for which we pray. What could be more perfectly the will of God than that which your Lord is praying for you tonight? Doesn't that make sense? If that's what He's praying for you, and you start to pray with exactly what He's praying, isn't that perfectly the will of God? How could it be other? Now what is His prayer? Father, that they all may be in union, they all may be one. Oh, how our liberal brethren have loved to seize on that. And to say, now there is our mandate for a horizontal amalgamation to bring all Christians together in one great hodgepodge, which, and they don't go that far, say, we can run. But you know, and I know, that when people are anxious for that kind of an amalgamation, they've got ambitions for leadership in it. And they'd like to see them all come together because they don't like the idea of a hand with fingers on it, each one of which has a different task to perform. They'd like to see all those fingers grow together so they'd have a club. Now that's not what we're talking about. We're not talking about horizontal amalgamation at all because that's not what the Lord talked about. We're talking about what He talked about. And He's very explicit. He explains it. He said, Father, that they all may be in union, as I am in union with thee, and thou art in union with me. It's not a horizontal amalgamation. It's a reciprocal indwelling. He said, he that has seen me has seen the Father. I am the Father of what? He is living in the Father, and the Father is living in him. And He is saying, Now, Father, in the very same way that I have lived in you, and you have lived in me, I want them to live in me, and I want to live in them. And when that happens, the world will know that you sent me, and the world will be able to believe that you sent me. And the whole function of the pastorate, of the evangelist, pastor, and teacher, apostles, prophet, evangelist, pastors, and teachers, is the perfecting of this maturing of the saints into the work of the ministry until we all come into the unity of the faith under the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ under a mature man. It's the very thing Christ is praying for here. Then He's saying, Father, if they will just live in me the way I lived in you, and you will live in, and I can live in them the way you lived in me, then it's going to happen, and the world will know, and the world will be able to believe. Now, I began reading with verse 18. As thou hast sent me into the world, in his lexicon, Thayer's, gives us the meaning of the little Greek word, kathos, translated here, as. Here are some of the renditions. Just as, accordingly as, in the same manner, in identically the same way. How do you like that? Well, take your choice, or put them together. In just exactly the very identical same way that the Father lived in the Son, and the Son lived in the Father. The Son wants to live in us, and us to live in Him. And He prefaced it all by saying, in just exactly the very same way that you sent me into the world, Father, I have sent them into the world. Now, how was the Lord Jesus sent into the world? Well, you know what it was, don't you? One Mary, the chosen vessel, one cell in her body, was quickened, made alive, by divine life, by the Holy Ghost, not by male sperm. And that being which was born of her was Emmanuel, God come in the flesh. And we are told, in the Scripture, that in Him dwelt the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Now that means that in the babe Jesus was the Father and the Holy Spirit, that He is the Son, the inseparable Trinity. If He is God come in the flesh, then so the Father is there, the Holy Spirit is there, in His nature. Now He's joined to humankind, He's very man of very man, said the council of Nicaea, very God of very God. In dwelt by the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And yet, at the age of 30, before beginning His ministry, our Lord Jesus down on Jericho's banks is baptized. Baptism to us is the picture of death and burial and resurrection. With us, it's death to sin and the right to rule. Reckoning ourselves to be dead indeed unto sin. But with the Lord Jesus there was no sin. To what could He die? Only one thing, the right, oh listen, I'm glad it's on tape, I won't be misquoted. The right to act in His essential deity as Son. He did not die to His Sonship. He died to the right to act in His deity as Son. And He accepted the limitations of His humanity. And at Jordan He presented His body to the Father. And John said, I saw the Holy Ghost come upon Him. And at Nazareth He said, The Spirit of the Lord is ebbing upon me. He didn't say He's in me because He's been in Him from conception and birth. He said, He's upon me. This was a closing. Why? F.B. Meyer, in a book that every pastor ought to have and every thoughtful layman ought to have, my judgment, that Christ's life was a self-life. It's the record of the messages delivered at Carnegie Hall in New York City in 1887, which was the year that Dr. Simpson left 13th Street Presbyterian Church. He was in support of the ministry of Dr. Meyer. They were friends. And on page 87 in this little volume, as I recall its page, F.B. Meyer says this, We must remember that everything done by Christ in the three years of His public ministry was done by the Father through the Holy Spirit. It was not done by Him as the Eternal Son. Because He could have done it as Son, but if He had done it as Son, He never could have said, As the Father sent me, I sent you. And so He accepted the limitation of His humanity, presented His body to the Father, and everything He did in His ministry was done by the Father through the Spirit. How about us? We too are born of the Spirit, indwelled by the Spirit. If we are His, for we are not the Spirit of Christ, we are not of His. And we are to experience the fullness of Christ taking up His lasting dwelling places, the place in our hearts through faith. And He wants to cover and clothe and immerse and submerge our blood-cleansed personality so that He has the same freedom to live in us and through us that He gave to the Father to live in Him and through Him. He presented His personality, His body to the Father, and the Spirit of God clothed Him. And He said, as you recall, over and over again, 47 times, we are told, I have encountered the Myself in the Gospel of John in one way, form, or another. I do not speak of Myself. I speak as I received commandment of the Father. I do not do the works. The Father that dwelleth in me, He doeth the works. I can do nothing except say that which I see my Father do. He accepted the limitation of His humanity. And now His prayer is, O Father, in the very same way that I lived in You and You lived in me, I want them to live in me and I to live in them that the world may know that the Father sent me. And the world may be able to believe that the Father sent me. Oh, what happens? I told you last evening about my friend Tommy Titcome was the Lord. But I didn't tell you about the time that a smallpox epidemic broke out in the Yoruba tribe. And Tommy went to the Lord and said, Lord, what am I going to do? The elders are asking me what you're going to do to help in this. And the Lord Jesus, by the Holy Spirit, said, You get the drums. Send the message out. Because they tell you that was the communication system. They didn't have telephone. They had drums. You have the drums. Send the message out that anyone that moves in on the mission compound will not get smallpox. Now, how do you like that? If you don't think that's show and tell, I'd like to know what is. Huh? And that night the drums carried the message out. The little field man of Egbe says that his God has told him that anybody that moves in on his mission compound and lives there and stays there until the epidemic is over will not get the disease. And so it was that the people came until there was hardly room for another family to put up a little grass shelter for them to stay there. But do you know something? Even though they'd been exposed, even though the contagion was spread, there wasn't one person that moved onto the compound and stayed on the compound that got smallpox. Is it any wonder that hundreds of thousands of the Yoruba people came to O'Brien? There was a great drought among the Yoruba people. They planted when the early rains came. And it sprouted and then it was dry and it died. When the rains came, second rains came, they planted, sprouted, it died. They only had a little seed left. They couldn't plant once more until they were sure. And it was dry and dry and drier. Finally the elders came and said, what are we going to do? The people are saying, doesn't God care? Doesn't God know that we're going to starve? Isn't He interested in us? And we told them, yes, He's interested, but we don't know what He wants to do. But He implied to me, we do think that it is time for you to ask God to send rain. And Tommy said, what promise do you have from the Lord that He would send? What do you have from God? And one of the elders said, why Elijah, a man of like passions, prayed, and it didn't rain, and then he prayed, and it rained. And we're sinners saved by grace washed in the blood of God's dear Son. We'll pray. And they did. So the drums carried it out, the message. The Muslims have prayed to their God for rain and no rain. The pagans have sacrificed to their gods and no rain. Now the Christians are going to ask their Jesus for rain. We'll see whose God is the Lord. Well, went to prayer meeting that night. Went to the timing, set a meeting, there it all comes to church. By this time, they had a church that seated about 3,000 people there. And just a kind of a harbor with a big tin roof over it. Every one of those people came with their rain hats. Along the wall was piled high with rain hats. This was a big hat let the rain run off. And it was woven grass that let the rain off the back so they could put this on and go covered around the shoulders and they wouldn't get wet. And here the walls were piled high with rain hats. They went to prayer. They went to prayer. About a half an hour after they started to pray. They didn't ask anymore. They already asked. They were thanking God. They were clapping, if you please, but they were doing it with words. Just thanking the Lord that His rain was coming. And Tommy said, one of the brethren was praying and he heard, boink, one drop hit the tin roof. And then he heard, blink, blink. And he said, in less than 30 seconds, the thunder of the rain on the roof was such that they couldn't hear themselves pray much less hear or hear themselves sing. They just stood there and every one of them praised the Lord and worshipped the Lord and rejoiced in the Lord. It rained all night. And it rained all the next day. And it rained all the next night. And it rained into the afternoon of the second day. And here came the elders trudging up. And they said, we thought of that other part of that about Elijah. He prayed and the rain stopped. Don't you think every time we ask the Lord to stop it, in like this it could go on forever? And so they asked the Lord to stop it until they needed more. Is it any wonder? Is it any wonder? Well, Tommy was 83. He was with me for missionary conference. And he was going back home, back home to Yorba Land for his last visit. He talked to me about it every day, how hard it was going to be to go and how hard it was going to be to leave. And he kind of hoped that while he was there the Lord could take him home so he could be buried for the people he loved. Well, he went back and he ministered in all their large churches and their areas. Came the final Sunday and he was going to speak in the town of Egbe where he'd come that first time with a pack on his back. Now there was a church building that seated between four and five thousand, I was told. A company of people. What Tommy didn't know was that as he preached that morning there weren't being services being held all over the rest of Yorba Land. You see, the word had gone out. Come in. The Yimgo Egbe's leaving. We'll never see him again. Let's be there. Some started way off on Saturday morning, walked all day Saturday and Saturday night to get there. Others had their service and walked in the closer one. Tommy was at the missionary's house. Had dinner. Had fellowship. Had prayer. He told about the old days. And unknown to him they had quietly pushed a truck up to the back door and they put a sofa, a chair on the back of the truck. Now the people had all been told make no noise. The Yimgo Egbe doesn't know that we're here. He came out from the house and there he saw all that could gather into the area around. He saw them down the street. There were over nearly 30,000 believers that had gathered. Here was one of the men that had been the warrior calling for his death those 12 days they'd been in the hut. Here was one of the people who had been with him inside praying and waiting on the Lord. He came out. The African men picked him up. Set him down in the chair. They didn't start the motor. They put some ropes on the front. There was Yemen on the side. And they just slowly drew the truck. And then upon seemed to be spontaneous maybe there was a queue. Nearly 30,000 voices in unison sang in the Yoruba All hail power of Jesus' name. Let angels prostrate for him. Bring forth the royal flag and crown him Lord of all. That's what the Lord Jesus is praying for. That's what he's asking for. And he can live in you the way the Father lived in him and you'll live in him the way he lived in the Father. And if that happens the world will know. And the world will be able to believe. And one day that company of those that have been redeemed will perform the Lamb upon the throne saying all hail the power of Jesus' name. Why can't we try it his way? We've tried everything else. Everything else. You're the key. You're going to have to say Lord Jesus I don't understand all the implications of this. But I present my body and my brain and my heart and my life. And I want you to live in me the way the Father lived in you and I want to live in you the way you lived in the Father so that the world will know and the world will be able to believe. Here's my blood ransomed life. Use it any way you want. And then whatever like the servants at Cana whatever he sayeth unto you do it. Do it. Let's pray. Father Jesus this family called the Christian Missionary Alliance has the world upon its heart. The founder of this little movement said there isn't ever missions without revival and there's never revival without missions. They're handmades linked to each other and where goes one must go the other. And so Father Jesus we're crying out to Thee tonight that Thy Spirit will take this pure simple clear word of Thy dear Son His prayer plant it in our hearts and move us to permit Him to live in us in every way He chooses and pleases that the world may know and the world may be able to believe. Oh our lives may not be like Tommy Tidcombe's but if you can take a Tommy Tidcombe and do it you can take us and use us in a greater fuller way than we've ever known before. And what we're asking Father is that out of these blood ransomed lives the greatest possible glory to the Lord Jesus Christ will come. We ask it in His name and for His sake. Amen.