In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of humility and obedience in carrying out God's orders. He shares a story of a humble man who mowed a white lady's lawn for two dollars, despite being a famous professor. The speaker also discusses his own experience of sharing his testimony and witnessing a conversion through the power of God's word. He highlights the need for genuine conversions and mentions the low percentage of people who continue in their faith after large evangelistic crusades. The sermon concludes with a reference to the conversion of Saul of Tarsus and the idea that God ordains his arrows against persecutors.

We're 18 million people in the country. But the congregation I'll be working with, they have 150 people, and my friend indicated that most of these are, they're missionaries, but they don't call themselves that. They're working in Afghanistan in various jobs, and they're soul women on the side. And they're very anxious to have this kind of ministry. So, just so you keep this in mind, that India, possibly Afghanistan, possibly the Philippine Islands, possibly two and a half months of ministry altogether. And I'm a little scared. One little Canadian among 500 million Indian people. And it's the first time I've gone into overseas ministry by myself. My wife's always gone with me. And she's three quarters of the brains, you know. I mean, she remembers everything and thinks of all the things that have to be done, and I don't. And I can see myself leaving my hat here and my umbrella there and my rubber somewhere else, my Bible somewhere else, and this kind of thing, unless you people pray, and then the Lord will pick up the slant, I know. When I went to South America the first time, several years ago, and when I got back, I met a number of people who told us that God had given them a great burden to pray, such a great burden to pray that some of these people told us, particularly housewives, that they used to walk around the house by the hour just praying for South America and for our ministry. And then when I heard that, I understood why God did some of the things he did. And maybe God will do the same thing for some of you people. It would be wonderful for you to be a team behind me in prayer. I'd appreciate that very, very much. And then something some of you, of course, will know, most of you will know who Bernard Palmer is, the editor of the Danny Orlis series. And I saw a picture of him recently, and they had all the various books he's authored standing on the floor beside him, and the pile of books was about ten feet high. Something about Bernard Palmer would be a challenge, I think, and a blessing to your heart. I just read this recently, and the Lord brought it to my mind so clearly to share with you. He was telling how that some years ago, he and his wife, they sat down and figured out how many unconverted relatives they had. And I think it was 38 or something like this. Some of these were close members of their family. Others were not so close. Uncles and aunts and cousins and so on. 36 or 38 that were not converted. And they got concerned. Now, some of these people were so opposed to the Christian gospel that Mr. Palmer said, we could not even talk to them. They would not listen to anything we had to say. So he and his wife, they decided to make a prayer list, to put all these names in the prayer list, and then to pray daily for these people, believing that God would touch them. And at the end of six years, 28 of them were saved. That's wonderful. Well, if God did that for Mr. and Mrs. Palmer, won't he do it for us as well? I'm sure he will. If we do what they did, get concerned, make a list, pray daily, trust God and believe the Lord, we'll see the same things happening. Quotient 311 for a text again. It's that simple statement that Christ is all and in all. And this afternoon I want to talk about the totality, or Christ is all in the totality of the Christian life. Christ wants to be all. Will we let him be all? For example, now Christ is all in the conversion experience. Did you ever stop to think about the conversion of the Apostle Paul? How it happened? Did some Christian philosopher get a hold of this well-educated Pharisee and sit down and dialogue with him or debate with him for some days or weeks to get him converted? No. Paul, this is not how it happened. We know he'd heard the gospel because he had been in Jerusalem and certainly he had probably heard some of the other Apostles preach the message of life in Jesus. But that isn't what did it. Paul was not converted until he had a meeting with the living Christ. Somebody said, Paul never met a doctrine walking down the road by Damascus. He met a person. You know, sometimes ladies will come and they'll say, please pray for my husband that he'll go to church. And I say, why? Well, so he'll be converted. Well, can't God convert him outside of the church? Well, I guess he can. But would he? When I think of my family, I don't know if any of us, well, my oldest brother, I guess, was converted in the church. The rest of us were not converted in the church. We were converted when we met Christ. One of my brothers who's now with the Lord in glory, he met the Lord. He wakened up one night. He was under such awful conviction of sin. He thought he was going to drop into hell right away. He shook so badly in bed. He woke up my older brother with whom he was sleeping and my older brother who was a Christian led him to Jesus. Now, omnipotence has servants everywhere. It is not necessary that these people get to church in order to get converted. They need to meet Christ. And sometimes we've overlooked this when it comes to conversion. Jesus said, behold, I stand at the door and knock. And sometimes we've let doctrines in but not Jesus and that's why it doesn't last. I mean, we've decided the Christian gospel is true and that somehow we received the John 3, 3, 5, 7 and so on and we believe we have to be born again and we receive that doctrine into our heart and we believe it. I mean, it doesn't work out. And it explains why, I think, we have sad reports like this. A friend of mine who was chairman of a large citywide evangelistic crusade and his church got a hundred and seventy-five decision cards out of the crusade and out of a hundred and seventy-five exactly two worked out. Just two out of a hundred and seventy-five. That's not unusual. That's very common. They're talking now about three percent of people going on with God who profess the Christian faith in large evangelistic crusades. Three percent. That doesn't sound like Acts chapter 2 where it says that the disciples continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship and in breaking of bread and in prayers. Now that's how it was then. Why is it so different today? I think because we've left Christ out of the conversion experience. People need to meet him. Years ago I remember when I was with the shantyman's mission I got into a little place called East Braintree, Manitoba. You have never heard of it. I'm sure. It's so small. There isn't a store. There isn't a restaurant. I was visiting house to house a few little shacks and shanties and I came to the last shanty along the line and I was getting hungry and I didn't know where to spend the night and I got to this place. They invited me in for supper. They invited me to stay the night. I was quite happy. I didn't want to sleep under a tree but I was prepared if I had to and then I began talking about the Lord and it was very embarrassing because they wouldn't talk. They wouldn't say yes. They wouldn't say no. They wouldn't say scat. They wouldn't say go. They didn't say anything. I could ask them a question. They never said a thing. Just sat there with eyes like owl's eyes and they didn't say a thing. So finally I went to bed. Had breakfast with them in the morning and took off. Never saw them again. But a year later or two years later Leonard Dick and if someone in this meeting knows who Leonard Dick is he followed me in the shanty mission work in Manitoba and he happened to call up the same house not knowing I had ever been there and when he told them he was a shantyman they said oh come on in. Bill McLeod was here a couple of years ago and we got saved when he was here and then I knew why they couldn't talk. They couldn't talk because Jesus was talking to them. See it wasn't me at all and I was so stupid I didn't realize that the Lord was there and the Lord was talking to them and he converted them. Now I'll tell you something if Jesus doesn't convert you you'll never be converted. He's the one that has to do it. One man said that Jesus met Saul and unhorsed him. Do you understand the phrase? He got him off his high horse flat on his face. And only Jesus can do that so when you're thinking about people being converted remember what they need to do is to meet Christ. And if we pray the Lord Jesus will work circumstances around and he'll move into their life at the right time. Behold I stand at the door and knock not a doctrine but a person. If any man hear my voice and open the door I will come into him. And some people have accepted ideas but not received Christ. And that's why it doesn't work out and it's a reproach on the name of the Lord and the power of the gospel. So we need to put Christ back in the saddle or in the driver's seat in the preaching of the gospel and the work of the Lord Jesus. Christ is all in conversion and I have a brother who when he got married he and his wife when they were alone they shook hands and they promised each other they would never become Christians. Well so much for that he's an evangelist today. And I know a lady went into a barn and got down on her knees she was under such awful condition and she said, Lord whatever you do don't save me. And the next day she got converted. So much for that. So when people are praying and believing God you have to let the Lord do it in his way and he will confront them and he will show them what you and I can't show them. You can persuade and persuade and persuade. I remember one time a desperate, desperate sinner. Matter of fact when some people found out that a couple was going to call on this man they said you better wear your bulletproof vest. So we went there sort of in fear and trembling that's not all that bad because Paul said I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling and I began I began by giving him my testimony which didn't mean a thing. I've often told people you know that if I give my testimony it will take four minutes and two minutes will be wasted. You know I didn't rob a bank and I was not an adult and I never got drunk in my life and I never took drugs and I never did any of these things you have to do to be an effective witness and so I gave my testimony such as it was nothing happened. He sat with his feet up on a chair and looked out the window he wasn't even looking at us it was quite difficult to maintain you know the attack under these circumstances and I prayed and said Lord what in the world do I do? I said well why don't you try me? Try my word. So I began talking from the Bible I just linked up to God and faith in that moment and the Lord just began talking through me and the guy's feet came down on the floor and in ten minutes we were on our knees and he received the Lord as his savior and I'll tell you we had a shelter time but it was the Lord Jesus that did it it was nothing I did I just happened to be there so in the conversion experience if we want to see genuine conversions the Lord Jesus has to do it and he will do it in his own time and way if we'll let him like maybe you heard about the lady she had a son it was a true story when she had a son it was very wayward so she was praying not because she was concerned about the glory of God or the name of God but because she was concerned about the family name you know he might get drunk he might do something terrible and bring awful reproach in the family name that's really what she was concerned about but she thought she was concerned about the Lord and so she was praying God don't let him get into problems God look after my son please Lord don't let him get into an accident when he's drunk and all these things you know well God might want to get him into an accident so he can take his strength away and talk to him who knows so we can't tell God how to do it when to do it and all these things like she was trying to do well God dealt with her about this and she really saw how sinfully she had been praying and so she told her son she said I'm not praying for you the way I used to pray and he knew how his mother prayed he'd actually heard her praying and he used to kind of lean on his mother's prayers because he knew she walked with God and he thought well God will take care of me nothing's going to happen this bad even though I'm a little bit wild but she said I'm not praying for you the way I used to pray and he said how do you pray now mom he said she said I'm praying God you get him dead or alive and he was saved in one week boy he didn't want to run that kind of a risk alright dear people when we believe the Lord and let God do it in his time and his way you know something maybe you've heard this before you probably have because I don't have anything new to say but to stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance which Peter was doing as well you know when we believe God you put somebody into God's hands and you take your hands off you know what may happen right away the situation may get three times as bad as it was before ever notice that if you know what that means that means that God's picked it up and God's accelerating the thing and God's going to do something so don't panic when you commit and things immediately get worse you know the way that Joe put it he said you hunt me like a fierce lion and then again he said you show yourself marvelous unto me thou hast lifted me up and cast me down let God do what he wants to do but let him do it in his own way and don't panic when the thing is bad Christ in the conversion experience we want the Lord Jesus to do it so it won't have to be done the second time or the third time or the tenth time as happens in some cases where you know I've had people come to me and say I went forward in a meeting and I knelt down and I did what the counselor said tell me am I a Christian? I've actually had people ask me the question I'm supposed to be God I'm supposed to tell them whether they're a Christian or not and then when you get talking to them you find out that the way they were dealt with I mean the Lord really wasn't in it at all and sometimes there's strictly an emotional response and you can get that I was asked to preach once at a children's rally and there was about 800 children at this rally and they said preach the gospel and then give an invitation and we'll have workers in the room at the back so I preached the gospel message for 15 minutes which is about their attention span and then I gave an invitation and there must have been hundreds of kids stampeding down the aisle so I stopped them all and sent them back to their seats and then they said now don't you dare come down that aisle don't you dare stay out of your seat unless you want to receive Jesus Christ into your heart as your personal Savior and I made it as difficult as I could just look me to God in every word I said God you say it to them and they gave a very low key invitation 27 children came forward and the workers said about 25 of them gave evidence of being under conviction alright Christ and the conversion experience Christ met Saul of Tarsus and turned the church's great persecutor into a great evangelist and one day God showed me something in the Old Testament that I'd never seen before on a planet to Saul of Tarsus God ordains his arrows against the persecutors so when people are persecuting God's people God is firing arrows into their hearts that's a wonderful thing alright Christ is all in the totality of the Christian experience beginning with conversion and after conversion on the other side of the coin is what we call sanctification you might call it by a different name but sanctification is a good Bible name sometimes people say well in our church we don't believe in sanctification I say alright you don't believe in the Bible? oh yes we believe in the Bible but we don't believe in sanctification but that's taught in the Bible like people sometimes say you know I don't believe in predestination they say you don't believe in the Bible oh yes we believe in the Bible you don't believe in predestination? well is that taught in the Bible? yes it is well what you believe about it might be different from what I believe about it but sanctification is taught in the Bible well what kind of sanctification? it's the other side of the coin and it's sanctification by the power of Jesus Christ you know in Acts chapter 20 it says that God loved the church and he purchased the church with his own blood God did that why? the answer to that question we get in Ephesians 5 where it says that Christ loved the church and gave himself for it that he might sanctify that he might sanctify the church with the washing of water by the word and he cried to God his father in John 17 sanctify them through thy truth thy word is truth but Christ gave himself for the church that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word now in order to do that here's what he does going over to Ephesians chapter 4 it talks about the one who ascended and descended and then it says that Jesus Christ gave gifts unto man and then it says in the same context that he then gave those gifted men to the church why? and he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints unto the work of the ministry for the edifying of the body of Christ till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the son of God unto a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ now then, Jesus Christ is sanctifying and cleansing the church because he wants to present it to himself a glorious church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that it should be holy and without blemish before him in love and he's doing it by giving gifts to men and then giving those gifted men to the church and some people are too proud to listen to anybody else teach the word of God they think they know it all I've met Christians here and I've met Christians there they've got all the answers they don't believe in the church they don't need the church they get it all from God they tell me and I notice that people like that usually are limping in both feet you need what God has to say to you to a Sunday school teacher in your church or a deacon or an elder or a pastor or an evangelist or a missionary somebody else you need what God has to say to you and if you're too proud to listen to what God is going to say through some other humble Christian you'll never make it my brother or sister you'll never make it I mean in a Christian life you may make it to heaven but you'll never be useful to God you and I have got to get to a place where we're willing to learn from a child one time I was sitting under a tree the Lord and I were talking and all of a sudden a godly colored insect about yea long came spiraling down it was dead and had been in the tree and I think a little gust of wind had loosened it was godly colored and it just came spiraling down like this and it landed right at my feet I don't know what it was but I was looking at it and all of a sudden out of nowhere a large black ant showed up and he found this thing and man he went wild and then he ran all over it he grabbed it by one of the wings he began to pull it this way and pull it that way and pull it the other way and he couldn't make any progress he tried from this direction tried from that could have helped him out but I didn't know where he wanted to go so I couldn't really help him out but I let him I just watched him and finally he just gave up he walked away and a little while later now three minutes later a tiny red ant showed up and he found this thing man he crawled over it and he zoomed away and he came back with about 500 ants and he just walked it away I thought man great what a lesson I mean the lord taught me from that the bible says speak to the earth and it shall teach thee and I learned something from a dead insect and from some ants that day go to the ant thou sluggard consider her ways and be wise listen we need the fellowship of God's people you can't live or act independently of God's people or you're like that big black ant you don't get anywhere you can't do anything what I can't do by myself two people perhaps can do remember what it says one of you shall chase a thousand and two of you will put how many to flight how many ten thousand not double the power if my arithmetic is correct I never was great at that five times the power the church he loved the church and gave himself for it that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word so he gifts men and gives those gifted men to the church apostles and prophets and evangelists and pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints unto the work of the ministry to the edifying of the body of Christ now that's what God is doing Jesus Christ is sanctifying the church he saved it now he's sanctifying it and you know even when it comes we talk about being crucified with Christ which really is just part of the sanctification process you know that's something that the Lord Jesus Christ has to do I remember someone telling me one time with a shining face they said I struggled for years trying to be crucified then I asked Jesus to do it and he did it and he did it and that's what we need you can't do it I tried to stay on that cross when I was first converted somebody, a friend of mine a missionary in South America now he sent me this book by Mr. Maxwell from Prairie the book called Born Crucified so I read the book and I saw the doctrine brother I tried I mean I really tried to get up on that cross I climbed that cross I don't know how many times and nailed myself there and always fell off like Uticus fell out the window I could never stay there until finally I was so sick and tired of that way of living I asked God to do it and I said Lord from this moment I'm believing you I will never doubt it again because your word says knowing this that our old man is crucified with him that the body of sin might be destroyed that henceforth we should not serve sin for he that is dead is freed from sin I took my stand on that in Colossians 3 3 that says you are dead it doesn't say you're trying to die it says you're dead and your life is hid with Christ and God and then he says because you're dead now die see verse 3 says you are dead and verse 5 says therefore mortified one translation says so once and for all put to death because you're dead now die is what it says and really it says the same thing in Romans 6 when he says knowing this that our old man is crucified with him that the body of sin might be destroyed then in the 10th verse he picks the theme up again and he says in that he, Jesus, died he died unto sin once and that Greek word there means once and for all never to be repeated but in that he lives he lives unto God and the first word of the next verse is likewise which means after this fashion or in this manner you reckon yourself also to be dead indeed unto sin but alive unto God which is the other side of that coin and sometimes you know we get crucified but we don't get resurrected alright by faith the Lord made a verse in 1st Corinthians 6 a tremendous blessing and God came in on the wings of that verse and just hit my heart one time a verse that says this he that is joined to the Lord is one spirit now that's enough to keep you chewing and thinking for a thousand years he that is joined to the Lord is one spirit and you and I as Christian believers have become one with Jesus Christ you know that ought to end all the struggling as I realize what Jesus Christ has done for me crucified me he's buried me his power has resurrected me and I walk with him in newness of life and now I can say I can do all things to Christ who strengthens me through Christ and I want to say only through Christ well that's the crucifixion experience that's part of sanctification I think perhaps we've had maybe too heavy an emphasis on the crucifixion aspect and too light an emphasis on the resurrection at least I get that from the literature from listening, from my own preaching and I'm trying to correct that because we die it says he kills and then he makes alive who kills? God kills he kills and then he makes alive he wounds then his hands make whole he does it that ought to end the struggling I can't, I tried so hard and it didn't work and then when I give up then he took over when I asked him to and did it for me alright I am crucified with Christ nevertheless I live yet not I but Christ lives in me what's the rest of the verse? and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me you and I, we need Jesus Christ every moment of every hour of every day and we'll need him all through eternity Christ and the Holy Spirit experience you know a marvelous study is just to go to John 14, 15, 16 and see how all the promises concerning the coming of the Holy Spirit sometimes they're called the Comforter are linked to Jesus he said I will pray the Father and He will give you another Comforter the Comforter came because Jesus prayed then he said in another one of these verses the Comforter which is the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name in my name in much of today's literature and preaching there's almost a total divorce between Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit and people have they want to have what they call a Holy Spirit experience you cannot have a Holy Spirit experience apart from a Jesus Christ experience you know in Galatians 4, 6 and here's another verse you know Spurgeon once said that sometimes truths, old truths they leap out of the Bible like a lion out of a thicket this one leapt out of me one day Galatians 4, 6 and because you are sons God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts and it just hit me this way that the Holy Spirit that God has sent into my heart is the Spirit of God's Son you can't divorce Jesus from the Holy Spirit He's the Spirit of God's Son sent into my heart and it's not by accident that in the same chapter with sort of a prayer of Paul's the 19th verse my little children of whom I prevail in birth again until Christ be formed in you did you ever notice in the book of Zechariah what talks about the Lord stretching out the heavens like a curtain then laying the foundations of the earth those are great mighty works of God what's the next thing and He forms the Spirit of Man within Him you know the creating in the Christian life of the likeness of Jesus is likened in that context in Zechariah to God stretching out the universe and laying the foundations of the earth people, it's a mighty mighty thing when the hand of God forms the image of Jesus in you and in me how long are we going to prevent God from doing this how long are we going to hold on to some rotten corner of a rotten self and prevent God from showing Jesus to us conforming us as it says in Romans 8 we are predestinated not to be carried to heaven in an armchair but we were predestinated to be conformed to the image of God's Son that's what God had in mind and we often stand in God's way you want to be filled with the Holy Spirit then you want to be filled with Jesus Christ you want to live a life controlled by Jesus Christ that's what you want or else you don't want anything it's not a feeling or an experience it's Christ to me Paul said to live is Christ and nothing else but Christ being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ unto the glory and praise of God and every forward step a Christian takes he takes by the power of Jesus Christ in his life every victory glory must go to him he's the one that does it all the Holy Spirit just study, I say again, John 14, 15, 16 it's all through Christ and then historically following those little prophecies in John then in Acts chapter 2 we read this this Jesus has God raised up who offer all our witnesses therefore being by the right hand of God exalted and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit he, Jesus, has shed forth this which you now see and hear Jesus did it I say again Pentecost was a Jesus happening it was something that Christ did and any revival that comes it's Christ that's doing it it's Christ breathing on the church the first year I was out preaching we had an evangelist come and over 70 people professed salvation in a week of meetings some of them are missionaries in the foreign field today I think it was the first or the second meeting and things like this very, very rarely happen in my experience and maybe I shouldn't even share it but it was the first or second meeting when I saw the Lord standing over the congregation with his arms out in the attitude of blessing and it was so real I got to my feet to tell the evangelist that Jesus had come I didn't, I sat down again but he has to do it all the Holy Spirit do you remember what Paul said thinking about service, Christian service in the book of Colossians chapter 1 striving according to his working which works in me mightily so then be you not unwise but understanding what the will of the Lord is the Holy Spirit, the Lord Jesus Christ lives in your heart and he inspires us and moves us out in Christian work to share to comfort to console, to rebuke faithful are the wounds of a friend the kisses of an enemy are deceitful and so we strive according to his working which works in me mightily and remember in Galatians Paul said this he that wrought effectually in Peter to the apostleship of the circumcision the same was mighty in me towards the Gentiles Christ was in Peter and Christ was in Paul and Christ was working mightily, powerfully through Peter to bring Jews to Christ and mightily in the same way through Paul to bring Gentiles to Christ and Paul talked about that in Romans 15 he said I will not dare to speak of any of those things which Christ has not wrought by me to make the Gentiles obedient by word and deed mighty signs and wonders by the power of the Spirit of God so that from Jerusalem and round about him to Elyricum I have fully preached the gospel of Christ but what did he say? the things that Christ has wrought by me Paul knew it was Jesus that was doing it it wasn't he and so in Christian work you teach a Sunday school class you have a little family altar in your home remember it's the Lord Jesus doing it and sometimes we say poor little me I can't do anything right that's false humility so much of the time if you were really a poor little me God could use you we're too big for God to use that's the big problem have you ever read the story of Dr. Washington Carver he's with the Lord now but he was an American black scientist and he was a very very humble man you know he became so famous that the Russian government they offered him the head agricultural post for the whole of Russia they knew he was a Christian it's incredible but he was so successful in research in this area he developed from the sweet potato 150 different commodities and from the lowly peanut 350 or 60 commodities silk stockings and anything you can name almost he made them out of peanuts and sweet potatoes but he said that when he began he said Lord I want to do research of this kind so I'm going to start with a pumpkin and God said the pumpkin's too big you know that's too big for you start with a peanut that's about your size and so he accepted that he used to go out in the bush four o'clock in the morning at the Tuskegee Institute sit on a stump with his Bible on his knees and say okay God what are my orders for today he'd get the orders from God and then he'd spend the whole day carrying out God's orders I'll tell you something he was a very humble man one time he was walking down the street in his village and there was a white lady out there and she says hey come here so he came over and she said if you don't mow my lawn I'll give you two dollars alright so he mowed her lawn this famous professor research scientist he mowed her lawn she paid him the two dollars and he thanked her and he went on and the lady came over and said do you realize who that was she said no who was it Dr. Washington what he mowed my lawn but he was just that kind of a person he was humble enough that God could use him did you ever wonder why God used Samson when Samson was kind of a little bit off in some areas of his life he used him because he was humble and how do we know he was humble we know he was humble because the Bible says he slew a lion with his bare hands and never told his father or his mother he was a very very humble person and later on when he found the bees in the carcass of the lion and he filled his hands with honey and went out to his parents he still never told them where he got the honey lest they should ask him something about the lion and he'd be tempted to tell them where he killed the lion with his bare hands he still didn't tell them so because he didn't tell them God wrote it in the Bible so millions could read it that Samson killed the lion with his bare hands but if he had told about it it wouldn't have been in the Bible God loves humility but God can't bless a proud person alright so the work of God that is carried on by the Lord Jesus Christ working mightily in our hearts and we just move along with him we try to do things independently of Jesus and that's where we run out of gas and steam and get ulcers and all the other kind of problems that sometimes Christians get but if we move with Jesus we don't have those problems and then last of all we call it the consummation when Jesus comes sometimes people say what do you believe about the second coming and I say the second coming what? Trudeau to Saskatoon? they look at you no the second coming of the Lord why didn't you say that? because you know what I think that to some extent in evangelical circles we think in terms of the second coming but we think of it in terms like the Jehovah's Witnesses do J.W. told me one time he said the kingdom of God is going to be wonderful and have a couple of yachts and a couple of cars and a couple of airplanes and a big castle to live in and no bills to pay and leisure time forever and ever and that's what some of you think it's not the second coming of Jesus Christ it's just the second coming when you're going to be relieved of all your problems and have you know drink of the river of God's pleasures forever and ever no it's the second coming of Jesus Christ and it's going to radically alter this globe as a matter of fact the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up all these things will be dissolved and completely vanish away and the Bible says seeing them that all these things shall be dissolved what manner of persons you ought to be in all holy conduct and godliness looking for and hastening unto the coming of the day of God now the Lord alone shall be exalted in that coming day you know something the kingdom of Jesus Christ is already here in a certain way it says in Colossians chapter 1 that we're translated into the kingdom of God's dear Son so the kingdom of Jesus Christ in some way is already here and I remember reading something over in Matthew chapter 13 it says when the Lord comes he's going to send his angels with the sound of a trumpet they're going to gather out of his kingdom all things that offend all things that cause sin and those who commit iniquity they're going to be cast into a furnace of fire and then it says this then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father and I remember one time when we in our church years and years ago we made a map of the world and we drilled holes I got a fellow from my church and we got little light bulbs and we drilled holes in various countries of the world where we had missionaries our particular conference of churches and we put the bulbs in and hooked them all up and then there was just a map there then we flipped the little toggle switch and the whole world came alive there was light shining everywhere and that's how it's going to be when Jesus Christ comes back the righteous will shine forth like the sun in the kingdom of Jesus Christ the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ and He shall reign forever and ever and the weak will delight themselves in the abundance of peace but I'll tell you something in the kingdom of God Jesus Christ will be the center of everything and it isn't going to be a question you know of having cars and airplanes and all this garbage some people think the kingdom of God is going to be just like it is now except there won't be any mosquitoes and there won't be any winters and there won't be any storms there won't be hail you know I don't think too much about what the kingdom is going to be like what I'm really concerned about my dear friend is just to see Jesus then and to be with Him He'll be the center of everything that's heaven heaven is where Jesus is and God's presence is fullness of joy not apart from God and He isn't going to stick us in the world and forget about us He'll be the kingdom of Christ and He will reign forever and ever and so here's what Peter says you know we think sometimes of the second coming of Jesus being something imposed on us sort of from the outside a great cataclysmic event which of course it will be but there's some beautiful insights in the Bible he says for example in Romans 8 I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us not to us in us and in 2 Thessalonians 1 I quoted that the other day to you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power when He shall come to be glorified in His saints and to be admired in all that believe from the inside out and 2 Peter 1 makes it clear still it says we have also a more sure word of prophecy or the word of prophecy made more sure where unto you do well that you take heed is unto a light that shines in a dark place until the day dawn and the day star that's Jesus arise in your heart from the inside out it's going to happen when Jesus comes back in a moment in the twinkling of an eye at the last trump for the trumpet shall sound and the dead shall be raised incorruptible and we shall be changed from the inside out by the power of God that's in us now Jesus lives within us and when we shall see Him we shall be like Him we'll see Him as He is and to me it's one of the most marvelous truths in all the Bible I want to close with Colossians 3 if you then now if there has the sense of since because in chapter 2 He said we are risen with Christ buried with Him in baptism when also we are risen with Him through faith in the working of God that raised Him from the dead that's in Colossians 2 so in Colossians 3 verse 1 if if you then be risen with Christ seek those things which are above where Christ sits on the right hand of God set your affection on things above not on things on the earth for you are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God when Christ who is our life when Christ actually it literally says when Christ our life shall appear shall be manifested then shall you also be manifested with Him in glory at the same time Christ appears we Christians are going to shine like the sun clean around the world we'll be like Him not equal to Him but like Him we call it the consummation and if these things are true oh what manner of people we ought to be on earth now to live as Christ to die as gain Christ in the conversion process sanctification to Holy Spirit Christian service and the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asks the reason of the hope that's in you with meekness and fear