My Soul’s Needs and Biblical Keys For Growth: Paul Washer (Transcript)

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But I also have to ask my wife to forgive me, and sometimes I’m just tired. And everything that you go through, at least for me, I’m right there with you, brother. I’m right there with you.

And so, you know, I hear statements like, “Trust God.” But what does that mean? I hear statements like, “Look to Christ. I’m looking unto Jesus.” But okay, but how? I mean, what are you talking about?

The Struggle for Understanding

Contemplate or meditate upon the Gospel. Relish or savor the Gospel. But again, boy, that sounds pretty. And I really like the way it was put in that poem. But how do you do that? I find that so many people who are sitting in the pew hear these things almost as though they’re wonderful mysteries.

“The joy of the Lord is our strength.” Have you ever heard that one? You’re downcast. You’re broken. And some believer walks in and says, “But the joy of the Lord is your strength.” And you want to give them a high five in the face with a chair. It’s like, “I’m hurting. What do you mean? Can I giggle my way out of this? What are you talking about?”

Seeking Authentic Spirituality

Walk in the Spirit. I went to hear Brother Ravenhill preach. I was a young man many times, but I went this one particular time and someone preached before he did. And they had just cleared off a spot and pitched a fit for about an hour and a half. It was a young man. And sometimes we try to be the mature man. We’re not. We try to imitate, but we’re not that. We don’t have that reality.

And he was going on and he was really ripping into all of us about the need to walk in the Spirit. And I was in total agreement. But I was a young Christian and I always had this question. That everyone who told me to walk in the Spirit, I’d ask them this question: “What does that mean?” And no one could seem to answer me.

A Journey of Growth and Understanding

I remember going up to the preacher afterward and saying, “I totally agree. And I want so much to walk in the Spirit. But what does it mean? How do you do it?” And he got very angry with me as though I was attacking his sermon. And I didn’t really know what to do. I was a brand new believer. But fortunately, there was an older believer behind me in the line. And he put his hand on my shoulder and he said, “Son, move over.”

And he walked up and he said, “Preacher, you didn’t answer the boy’s question. Because I don’t even think you know how to answer the boy’s question. You were up there stomping around telling us all to do something that I’m not even sure you know how to do.” I’ll never forget that. I don’t know who that man was. But I like him.

Personal Reflections on Growth

So, I started looking at things. I mean, how do I really grow? Not as a preacher, but as someone just so much like you, it would shock you. You know, when I preach on family like I did, I called my wife yesterday and we talked about it. And we always go through the same thing. It’s about, she goes, “It’s a high standard, isn’t it? And neither you and I have arrived, have we?” No, we haven’t.

And I always want to be careful doing that because when you’re up here preaching about how to be a wonderful husband, all the wives are looking at their husbands going, “Why can’t you be like him?” That’s why I almost never want to teach that unless my wife is here, so that my wife afterward can come up and say, “A lot of you women are saying, ‘Why can’t you be like him?’ And I’m saying, ‘Why can’t he be like him?'”

Now, I do sincerely strive towards the mark, and those are biblical principles, and we do seek to apply them. But I just want you to know, again, it’s three steps forward, two steps back. It’s, “Alright, we need to press on, men. We need to be more than what we are.” But don’t think that…

Overcoming Misconceptions

Here’s another thing. I always thought that people who read the Word a lot, and people who prayed a lot, and people who loved their wives a lot, and people who had joy a lot, that there was just something special about them. That they were removed from me. That maybe it was easy for them. That was their gift. Do you see? Do you know what was one of the most powerful truths I ever learned? Was that people who read the Bible a lot, it’s hard for them to read the Bible a lot.

And people who pray a lot, their struggles to pray a lot are the same as mine. When I learned that people who were actually doing these wonderful things struggled and fought, even for joy, as John Piper says, it really opened up a whole world for me. And it took away all my excuses. I couldn’t say, “Well, they do that because they’re particularly gifted.” I found out that everyone striving toward godliness is in a battle. And we can advance. Don’t think we can’t.

I’ve seen people, both men and women, who have made extraordinary strides in being like Christ. But don’t let them be like a source of just introspection leading to death for you. Just keep going forward. So, I sat down for a few days one time and I thought, “Okay, how do I really grow?”

The Foundation of Joy

And I want to talk to you about four different things. The first one is knowledge, Biblical knowledge. The second is faith. The third is joy, joy which comes forth from faith in knowledge, and then obedience that is energized by joy.

You see, so many people say they don’t have any joy because they haven’t been obedient. And I’m saying they put the cart before the horse. My joy is not in my obedience. My joy is in my knowledge of God. And if you believe that everything God says about Himself and says about you as His child, if you believe it’s true, you’re going to have joy. And then joy is what energizes obedience. It’s not the other way around.

So, let’s look for a minute and get out your pencils and paper, or write this on your husband’s forehead. Whatever, but let’s get going. First of all, knowledge. Just listen for a moment.

The Importance of Knowing God

What is the most important knowledge? “Thus says the Lord, let not the wise man boast of his wisdom. Let not the mighty man boast of his might. Let not the rich man boast of his riches, but let him who boasts boast of this: that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord who exercises loving kindness, justice, and righteousness on earth. For I delight in these things,” declares the Lord.

What is the greatest knowledge that you can possess? The absolute, fundamental, essential knowledge. And that is the character, the attributes of God. I want you to know this, and especially you ladies, you can’t bypass this step. If a dear friend of mine from Peru by the name of Paco, who I served with for many years, he was so faithful, such a faithful friend. If he ran in here right now and said, “Throw me the keys to your jeep,” I would throw him the keys to my jeep.

And you say, “Well, why did you give him the keys to your jeep? You don’t know what he’s going to do.” I don’t need to know what he’s going to do, because I know who he is.

Trusting in God’s Character

I hear people trying to hold God hostage, especially during the coronavirus. “I’m not going to have peace. I need to know what God is doing. I need to know what God is doing.” It’s almost as though you’re saying, “God, I’m not going to have peace until You tell me what’s going on.” And God doesn’t work that way. You don’t need to know what’s going on if you know who He is. Because if you know who He is, you know whatever is going on, He’s in control of it, and He knows exactly what He’s going to do, and it’s all going to be good.

So see, it starts out, if you don’t know the character of God, if you can’t explain to me, not in big theological terminology, but in correct biblical terminology, if you can’t explain to me what it means that He’s holy, or what it means that He is love, or what it means that He’s just or merciful, then if you don’t have that, you have no foundation and your whole tower, no matter what you build upon it, is going to fall. So please, you must understand that.

And there are good systematics and there are good things like that, but nothing replaces the Bible. And know this, that you don’t have to jump into a systematic, you know, the knowledge of the holy, different smaller books about who is God. Get to know who God is through our study of the Scripture.

Knowing God’s Decrees

Also, what has God decreed? Now, I want you just to think about that for a moment. Do you know who He is? His righteousness, His holiness, His love, His mercy, His grace, His kindness, His beauty, His omnipotence, His sovereignty. Do you know any of that? Do you know what He’s decreed? Do you have any idea what He’s decreed with regard to creation? What He’s going to do with it? How He’s going to make a new heaven and new earth? Do you have any idea what He’s decreed regarding you?

Well, then how could you ever have any joy? You don’t know where we’re going. You don’t know what’s going to happen to you. Let me just give you a quick kind of common illustration. Let’s say the richest man in the world is coming under some bad press. Everyone says he’s miserly and isn’t kind. So he decides he’s going to give an example to the entire world of how generous and kind he is, how gracious he is.

The Generosity of God

Do you know what he decides to do? He searches around and he picks out you. And he says, “I am going to heap all the wealth of everything I am, all my kindnesses, everything I’ve ever made. I’m going to just give it to this person.” And then throughout the rest of their life, every day, I’m just going to increase it, increase it. Then I’m going to call everybody in the world to look at this one person that’s going to be the example of my absolute kindness and generosity. Wouldn’t that be neat? I mean, I wouldn’t turn that down.

Well, Ephesians basically is telling us that. That God throughout all eternity is going to use you to demonstrate to all creation, to angels, to principalities, to powers. He is going to spend all eternity revealing Himself to all of creation. And how’s He going to do it? By the kindness He heaps on you. Ever-increasing manifestations of His kindness heaped upon you and calling everybody and basically saying, “Do you want to know how kind I am? Look right there. I took the lowliest and I made them the object of My affections.”

Joy in Knowing God’s Plan

See, how can you have joy if you don’t know all this? You wonder why sometimes preachers and missionaries just seem to go wild. They seem to almost lose their mind in the pulpit with just joy. But it’s not because they’re special. It’s because they know some of this. And the more they know it, well, it changes everything. I have an idea who I’m going to. And I have a really good idea of what it’s going to look like. And other than the ministry and my children, take me home now.

So, knowledge of decrees. Look, Romans 8:21, “the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.” Wow! That’s what He’s decreed. Jeremiah 29:11, “For I know the plans that I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.”

Every dream you’ve ever had, sanctified and inflated beyond anything you can imagine and fulfilled by Him. Every desire of your heart that will never be met, will be met there. Every loneliness that no one else knows about but you, will be dissipated like the darkness when the sun comes over the mountain. Perfect peace. Unable to sin. Every desire fulfilled, because every desire is pure and God-ward. If you don’t know these things, how can you get to joy that energizes?

The Encouragement of Scripture

Look at what God has done. Look at this, Romans 15:4, “For whatever was written in earlier times was written for us.” For us. For you. “for our instruction so that through perseverance and encouragement of the Scriptures, we might have hope.” Why do I love, literally love, studying the history books, the historical books in the Bible? Because you see who He is, what He does, the way He works.

And then you realize, what He does, the way He works. And then you realize, hey, He’s telling you in these last days, “I recorded all that for your benefit so that you would see Me and trust Me.” That you see. It’s like He looks at you and says, “Have I ever failed? No. Have I ever failed even my sinful people? No. Can you find one flaw in Me? Look, I’ll let you look down through the annals of history, thousands and thousands of years, millions and millions of different options and choices. Did I one time fail? No.”

Look what He’s done in history. And if you believe it, your joy is increased. Look at who He is. And if you believe it, your joy is increased. Look at what He has decreed. If you believe it, if you know it and believe it, you can’t help but have joy. Look at what He’s done throughout all human history, knowing that that’s your God. And if you believe that’s what He’s really done, you can’t help but have joy.

The Unseen Glory Prepared for Us

Look what God will do in the future. Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, and which have not entered the heart of man, all that God has prepared for those who love Him. Your mind… One of the laments of a preacher, of a Bible student, is that he cannot comprehend the smallest part of the glory that is in that text, in the Gospel, in Christ, and God. And then, even what he knows, he can’t express truly.

There are things I know that every time I try to express them, I just want to weep. I just want to shut up. I hate words. They’re useless. And so he’s saying here, listen, I don’t care what kind of mind. I don’t care IQ to the IQ. You are not even going to be able to begin to understand what’s coming.

And young people, it is not a 24-7 church service. It’s a garden filled with the glory of God. The light of Christ radiating. Perfect people, able to perfectly render worship to God.

The Joy of Eternal Fellowship

Unflawed knowledge of Him. Not perfect knowledge, because He’s too big to be grasped by us. But all the knowledge we have will be perfect. The relationships. I have stayed up almost every night till like 1, 1:30. Why? Because I’m so faithful? No, because I was having such a good time. Talking to people I don’t even know. I don’t want to go to bed.

It’s like, there’s a brother I never met. Well, there’s a sister over there where there’s family. Family, you’re going to leave here today. And there’s going to be a tinge of real sadness. There will be for me. Because it’s like, because we’re not just people who know each other. We are one. And to think, I’m going to be running around glory. Talking to everybody. You ought to know by now, that is what I will be doing. “Oh Lord, here comes Brother Paul again.” Maybe I won’t be so talkative.

The Necessity of Biblical Knowledge for Faith

All right, so I want you to look at something. You can’t have faith without knowledge. Without biblical knowledge. So you can’t believe how wonderful your God is, if you don’t know what He has said about Himself. You can’t believe the wonderful future that has been decreed for you, unless you know about it from Scripture. You can’t believe the Gospel, unless the Gospel is made known to you through the Scripture. You can’t believe about your future, if you don’t know what the Scriptures say about it.

So everything begins with a right understanding of this: The knowledge of God. Now, preachers. For those of you who are preachers. One of my favorite, and I don’t have time to go there, one of my favorite chapters in the Bible is Job 28. I call it the minister’s study.

And what he’s describing is a miner who is willing to go down into the very depths of the earth to cut himself off from people, to swing precariously over deep channels in the middle of the earth, and chip at rock all day long. Even he knows the jewels that are there are so great, Job says they’ll literally turn over a mountain. That is the preacher’s study. And one of the reasons for the weakness of the church is the weakness of the preaching. Not in eloquence. Not in emotion. But the weakness of the preaching in this sense.

The preacher no longer sees himself as the miner who goes in there to harvest jewels, to bring them out and show them to the Bride of Christ. He no longer sees himself as one who prepares food as the good steward in order to feed the Bride of Christ. Our job is like that servant who went to get a bride. Our job. Abraham’s servant. I’m sure when he was bringing back that bride to Abraham’s son, maybe she was like, “Well, I wonder if he has teeth. I wonder if he’s good looking or not. I wonder this or that.”

And maybe every time he saw, I doubt, in her face, he looked back and he pulled out his bag. Another gold bracelet. “Here, this is from your beloved. Get ready. This bracelet’s nothing compared to the man that’s walking toward you in that field right there. Bride, don’t be afraid. The one given this gift, my master, is far greater than the gifts he’s given you. Just don’t be afraid. Don’t turn your camel around. Keep going. Do you see? Do you see?”

Understanding True Faith

Now, I want to talk about faith. Faith, according to, you know, I’ve always heard the Kantian faith is a leap into the dark. And then faith is a leap into the light. Some contradict Kant. No, it’s a leap into the light. And all that’s good, but what does it mean?

Well, let’s look at it. Hebrews 11:1. “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Now, if I pull that out of context, I can turn that into an absurdity. Let me show you. Assurance. Faith is the assurance of things hoped for. All my life, I have hoped to fly unaided by a machine. I mean, who wouldn’t want to be Superman, right? I mean, it’s like the ultimate in cool, isn’t it? You can fly around.

So, I’ve always hoped to fly. And you know what? I have to tell you, this morning, I woke up with the assurance that I could. And so, I’m going to dismiss myself right now. And I’m going to climb up to the top of this building. I’m going to throw myself off. You say, “That’s absurd.” No, that’s exactly what this text is saying. I hope I can fly. I really do. And this morning, I’m assured of it. What’s going to happen when I jump off the building? Yeah, that ain’t going to be pretty.

All right, the conviction of things not seen. I’ve never seen a human fly. But I have the conviction this morning that they can do it. So, I’m going to go up and I’m going to throw myself off. Do a Peter Pan right off the pinnacle of this building. What’s going to happen? But I’m doing exactly what this verse says. But out of context.

You see, there’s two ways to sin. There’s the sin of unbelief. And that’s where most of us are. Where we don’t believe the promises that are there. The other is the sin of presumption. When we believe promises that aren’t there.

The Pitfalls of Misplaced Faith

Let me give you an example. Pastor, there’s a lady in the church. She’s been abandoned by her husband. Terribly abandoned. She’s having a struggle with children. She feels so just lost and forgotten and no longer beautiful. And he’s treated her in such a way and left her. And she’s worried about her children and she’s broken. And every day it’s a struggle when she comes to church. It’s a struggle.

The pastor talks to her and talks to her. But it just seems she’s going further and further down into depression. And then one day she shows up to the church and she’s full of joy. The pastor says, “What happened?” She said, “Last night, a friend of mine came over to the house and said that she had a dream that she saw my husband in my kitchen and he was full of joy. And the Lord’s going to bring my husband back. And that’s why you see this change in me.” Is that faith? No, no, it’s not.

Transforming Faith Through God’s Word

But let’s change the scenario. She comes in one Sunday and she has joy, real joy and real peace. And the pastor says, “What’s going on?” And she said, “Well, you know, pastor, last night I was reading through the Bible and I saw that text you’ve shown me so many times, but this time I saw it. That God was the husband to the widow and the father to the orphan. I don’t know what’s going to happen to me. There may be a long road of suffering ahead. I may be alone for the rest of my life and I don’t want to be. But pastor, God in His Word tells me He will be with me as a husband. He will care for my children.” That’s faith. Do you see the difference?

Now, I do believe what happened. That pastor shared with her that verse many times and she never saw it. And I do believe there was an illuminating work of the Spirit. There was the Spirit’s help and the Spirit’s application. I do believe that because she had read it many, many times for months. But nevertheless, it’s the Word of God. It’s the promises of God.

Abraham: A Model of Faith

Abraham. Now look at this. Without becoming weak in faith, he contemplated his own body now good as dead since he was about a hundred years old and the deadness of Sarah’s womb. Yet with respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief, but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully assured that what God had promised, He was able also to perform.

Now, as Hebrews 11:1 is the greatest definition of faith, here we have the greatest concise illustration of faith in a package. Now, why do I say greatest concise? Because this is not the greatest illustration of faith. The greatest illustration of faith is Jesus Christ going through Gethsemane and the cross. I can assure you, the greatest man of faith who ever walked this planet is Messiah. But it is the most concise for us. He had reasons to become naturally weak. Why? His body is as good as dead. He’s about a hundred years old. And his wife, the deadness of her womb, she’s an old woman.

The Basis of True Faith

So he looks around him and there’s no reason to believe. There is absolutely nothing to sustain his faith. Nothing. No physical thing to look at and say, this could happen. So if he believes it, he believes it only because of the character of God. There’s no other reason to believe it. There’s nothing to support his faith. Everything is the contrary. Yet with respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief, but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God.

This is absolutely impossible apart from two things. His knowledge of the character of God and his knowledge of a real promise that came from the mouth of God. And being fully assured that what God had promised, He was able also to perform. Now look at this. He could not have been fully assured of what God had promised if he didn’t know what God had promised.

The Riches of God’s Promises

You know, Spurgeon wrote, I’ve seen titles in his sermons and small books that today when I read those titles, I cringe like “God’s Checkbook.” I kind of cringe. Why? It was entirely appropriate for him to write that, but because we’re surrounded by so many heretical prosperity preachers and self-help preachers and stuff that use titles like that, that we’ve gotten where we can’t use language that does pertain to us as children of Zion.

To hear “God’s Checkbook” or something, you’re like, “Oh, that sounds like it came from a TV evangelist.” But what Spurgeon is saying there is that there are promises, not merely promises with regard to salvation or with sanctification, but promises regarding everything that you could come into conflict with. And that believers are like living in poverty. Why? Because they don’t have faith. But it’s not because they’ve got to screw themselves up and get more faith.

The problem is, of course, they don’t have faith because they don’t even know what God’s promised them in that given scenario. And so we need to know — I mean, wouldn’t you want to know everything? You see, when you have promises, when God’s promised something, is He going to do it? Yes. But you have not because you ask not. You ask not because I’m going to turn it around a little because you don’t even know what to ask.

The Importance of Scripture in Faith

Or you’ll ask something and you don’t even know if He’ll do it because it’s not founded on something He revealed in His Scriptures. Do you see how important the Scriptures are? Now, I used an illustration last night that I actually heard, I think it was from the late Jay Adams. I was one of those guys, but it’s really a good illustration.

So let’s say I’m counseling a man on the third floor of a building and there’s a big picture window and I’m counseling him. All of a sudden, he looks at the open door into my office. He starts screaming, jumps up, jumps right out the window through the plate glass, falls three stories and breaks both legs. So I’ve always asked guys I was teaching, younger ministers, “Okay, what’s your conclusion here?”

“Well, he’s crazy.” Okay, let’s change the scenario. He’s in the hospital now and I asked him, “Why did you jump up out of the chair screaming and throw yourself through a plate glass window and fall three stories?” Well, he says because there was an eight-foot tarantula coming through the door with fangs that were about one foot long with poison dripping out of them. I asked the students, “So what is your diagnosis?” “He’s crazy.” No, he’s not.

Actually, what he did was very rational. If I saw an eight-foot tarantula coming through the door with fangs this big with poison dripping out of them, what would I do? I would throw myself out a window.

Faith and Reality

I’ve been in places where tarantulas are only this big and you want to throw yourself out the window. A native one time, you know, I come flying out of a toilet as fast as a rocket one time. And he said, “What happened?” “There’s a spider in there as big as a horse. It jujitsu’d me.” And he goes, “Brother Paul, those spiders can’t hurt you.” I said, “No, but they can sure make you hurt yourself.” I mean, if I saw a tarantula coming through the door eight feet tall, I’m going through the window. And probably so are you. And it’s very rational. You stand a chance at least of just breaking a few bones. But that tarantula, it’s over.

So that was rational. The problem is his view of reality. That’s where he’s wrong. There was no tarantula there. And I say, “What does this have to do with faith and what you’re talking about?” Absolutely everything. You have a wrong view of reality. Brother Mike was talking last night, you know, you don’t understand that it really is all of grace. You don’t understand that He’s accomplished everything. Not only did He die under the penalties to put an end to them, He lived the perfect life in order to clothe you in His righteousness. He accomplished everything. It’s grace. But if you don’t believe that, if you think it’s 99% Jesus and 1% you, congratulations, you’re going out the window.

You’re just like the person who sees a tarantula, eight-foot-tall tarantula. Your perception, you have a worldview that is not true. You’re not living according to reality. The reality is the moment you trusted in Christ, you were legally declared righteous before God. And here’s the word everyone leaves out and they shouldn’t. Because you’re declared righteous, you’re now treated by God as righteous.

Jesus was legally declared unrighteous on that tree. And treated as unrighteous, the wrath of God was poured out upon Him so that you can now be legally declared righteous and treated as righteous. “I see no flaw in thee, my bride.” If He saw one sin in you, you go back to start or whatever. Go and, you know, you got to start all over again. One sin, but you don’t have one. He paid for them all. You will not be more legally righteous in heaven than you are right now. Do you see?

But if you don’t have that view of reality, you start doing crazy things. Do you see that? It is such a good illustration. I sometimes marvel at it.

The Foundation of True Faith

If your view of your relationship with God is not biblical, it is going to literally destroy you. And that’s why faith must be based upon the revelation of God’s Word with regard to God’s character, God’s promises, God’s decrees, God’s works. And preacher, listen. There is a reason why God gave evangelists, pastors, and teachers to the church. Because wherever the church is weak, either these three men are absent or they’re weak. It’s our job to see that they know who God is. But how can you give them God, preacher, if you’re just a busy boy? And you never sit alone, hours, study, prayer, reading.

And the goal is not so that you can be smart. Not our only goal is to feed the bride. I tell men, they go, “Well, you know, I don’t study.” I said, “So you don’t study for yourself? No.” “Well, can you study for your wife? Can you study for your children? If you don’t do it for you, can you do it for your wife? She needs you to. Can you do it for your children? They need you to. But more importantly, can you do it for God? He doesn’t need you to, but He’s deserving of it.”

The Joy of Faith

So faith. Now, if you know all these magnificent things about God and who He is and what He’s done for you and His disposition toward you and what He’s planned for you and everything, if you actually believe it, I’m sorry, folks, you can’t help but have joy. You can’t help but have joy. So if you don’t have joy, you’re either looking in the wrong place or you don’t understand what you’re looking at. If you don’t have joy, it’s because you’re looking at yourself or you’re looking at God, but you don’t know Him very well.

Faith produces joy. Assurance, confidence, hope, leading to gladness of heart. Gladness of heart. When all that God is, when all that God has done, and when all that God will do for you is apprehended, it will produce a joy independent of everything but God. Did you get that last part? A joy that is not dependent upon anything except the revelation God has given you in His Word about Himself, His decrees, His disposition toward you, His plans for you. And those are immutable and can’t change. If your joy is based on anything else, it’s mutable, it’s changing, it’s imperfect, it never measures up.

Anchoring Joy in God’s Performance

Now, Nehemiah 8:10, “Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.” Joy that comes from union with God and faith in His person, works, and promises. Now, I want to say this over and over, and I want to read it. If our joy is the result of faith and precedes obedience, which comes before obedience, then our joy will not be based on our performance, but God’s performance. My joy must be based on God’s performance, not mine.

Unless you are really self-righteous, because the only way you could have joy in your performance would be you’re misjudging your performance, or you’re misjudging the standard by which your performance is going to be judged. Do you see that? It is so very important. If our joy is the result of faith and precedes obedience, then our joy will not be based on our performance, but upon God’s.

Let me give you another thing. You know, Paul says that the love of Christ constrains me. People say, “Yeah, Paul loves Christ so much that that motivated him.” No, that’s not what Paul’s saying at all. Listen, he comes from the same stock we come from, Adam. Paul had the same battles with flesh we have. Paul’s love for Christ was nothing to boast about.

You say, “How dare you say that?” Because it’s true. An angel’s love for Christ is not equal to what Christ deserves. Christ is beyond anything. Especially a man though redeemed, yet still struggling. Do you see that? So it wasn’t Paul’s great love for Christ which was changing and mutable that constantly drove him. That’s not what it says. It was Christ’s love for Paul. Unchanging, perfect love, unfathomable love was what motivated Paul. Do you see that?

The Path to Loving God More

When I talk to people about how do I love God more? Everyone has a real sense that they ought to love God more. We all do. We should. And they all think that they’re going to go to some conference and get all wound up like a toy soldier. And maybe they are, man. During that conference, they are like on fire. But what always happens? Those toy soldiers wind down, don’t they?

Three days later, you’re back where you started from. Now, that isn’t to say that we shouldn’t look for special works of God and ask for God for special visitations. No, that doesn’t. It’s not what I’m saying. But what I’m saying is this. If you see a man who really loves his wife, I mean, serves her, loves her, treats her like a queen. I mean a queen. And all the ladies said, “Amen.” Treats her like a queen. What, you humanists, what do you automatically say? “Man, what a wonderful man, don’t you?” When you see a man love a woman, “Man, what a man. What a wonderful man. Want to be like that man. He’s wonderful.”

You are so messed up in your head. You’re always thinking wrong. I just say things like that because then you listen. People are looking down like this and they’re like half asleep. “What do you mean I’m twisted?” I’m not really mean. I just know how to keep you awake. But we always think what a wonderful man. Maybe he’s not a wonderful man at all. Maybe he has a wonderful wife.

Maybe his wife is so virtuous, so beautiful in her inward spirit, so such a magnificent person that it takes this basically big, dull, half brainless man who really isn’t that passionate at all. And her beauty, I mean, inward beauty, her virtue, takes this man and draws out his affections. She’s the cause of his great love for her. Because that’s the same way it is with God. People say, “Brother Paul, how can I love God more?” I always give them this illustration.

The Analogy of Faith and Reality

Okay, so imagine I’m laying on the floor on my back here in the pulpit. Okay? Wrist right here. I’m just laying and you walk in and I’ve got both hands on my belt like this and I’m going, I’m laying on my back and I’m going… You walk over and you go, “Brother Paul, what are you doing?” “I’ve always heard you were kind of outside the box, but what are you doing?” And I’m going, “Well, I’m trying to get up.”

“Brother Paul, did you ever study physics? I mean, in physics 101. If you’re going to get up that way, you have to be acted upon by an external force. Something outside of you must pull you up. You cannot pull yourself up by your own bootstraps or your own belt. Something outside of you must get you up, must pull on you. Have you ever studied the tide and the moon? It is amazing. If the moon goes away, we’re all in a whole lot of trouble. Does every night that the waters, just by its own force, reaches up to the moon? Is that what they do? No. The moon pulls the water.”

Now, how do we grow in our love for God? That’s not where you should be looking. You grow in your knowledge, both biblical, factual, and experimental, knowledge of God’s attributes. But let me say it in a different way, of God’s beauty, of God’s virtue. You see, if your heart is unregenerate, the more you know about God, the more you will hate Him. That’s just a fact. Okay?

Now, let me give you another fact. Not 90%. No. Fact 100%. Always. If your heart is genuinely regenerate, the more you know about God’s virtue, His beauty, His splendor, His glory, His disposition, the manifestation of His love in the Gospel, the more you know that, the more your heart, like the ocean, is going to be pulled toward Him.

So, if you’re trying to screw yourself up and wind yourself up, or fire yourself up, that’s just no. No, it doesn’t work. You know it doesn’t work. So, what is going to cure this? It is not you going and reading [Burke Hall]. Now, I love [Burke Hall], don’t get me wrong. But we’re not just talking about learning how to properly define things and memorizing attributes. We’re talking about studying the Scriptures and reading books about the attributes of God.

But it’s more than… You see, knowing God is not less than factual knowledge from the Bible about who we are. It’s not less than that. But it is more than that. It’s crying out, “God, show me.” Like that lady who had read the passage the pastor gave her countless times and it meant nothing, and then one day it just woke up to her and she saw it.

Now, here’s another thing. And you listen to me very carefully. I go to prayer meetings, I go to prayer meetings, and I’ll hear people lament the fact that they don’t have anguish. Or, how else do I put it? I have heard this, that the church began agonizing in the upper room. I don’t see them agonizing in the upper room. Why would they agonize? There’s nothing to be in agony about. Their master gave them promises. They just needed to calmly and joyfully believe.

A Lesson in Sincerity

Be very, very careful. I was praying with a brother from Lebanon and then this really fired up evangelist guy one time who was, he was something. And we’re in this hotel room late at night. And the brother from Lebanon prayed, a man who had suffered for Christ and everything, and, you know, just prayed. And we, prior to that, immediately prior to that prayer time, we were having a lovely conversation, very joyful, very light. And the brother from Lebanon said, “Let’s pray.” And he prayed. It was a beautiful prayer.

And then I thought, well, evangelist. And all of a sudden, “Oh God!” And started, he went on the floor. I thought, should I grab his tongue? What in the world is going on? Is he having a fit? And I mean, he went wild. Weeping and doing this. And I thought, goodness gracious, how do you follow that? I’m like, what happened to him? And I didn’t know what to do. I was a lot younger. And when he finished praying, that old man from Lebanon poked him right in the chest like that and said, “Don’t you ever do that again.” And I was like, yeah, “Don’t you ever do that again.” What he said.

My friend, listen to me. When I sing a hymn about the resurrection from the grave, he wrote, you see, man, yes. “Oh, when it’s sacred head now wounded with grief and shame weighed down.” No. That’s my Savior. There’s no time for clapping. Same way in prayer. There’s a time for agony. But I see so many people, the moment they go into prayer mode, it’s agony mode.

A Lesson from a Child

God, think about this. You know, think about this, especially young people. What if every time my daughter, you know, my little five year old, every time she was hungry, she came up and she did this. ‘Oh, Dad, I’m so hungry. And I know that I’m not worthy to eat at the table, but.'” But that’s what you do. I’ve seen you do it here this week. Yeah. I just wanted to bring the point home.

But really, what about. “Lord, I’m hungry again. You’ve been faithful in the proper time to feed me, but I’m just going to lift this up to You. I’m hungry again.” My favorite prayer, I’m going to let you in to my little secret world. I’m a very fearful man. And things scare me, all the things that heart cry and all the things that we have to do. And you know what?

My most powerful weapon is. I get out of bed. The middle of the night. There was this window right in our cabin. We had an old cabin. And I get down my knees, I look out that window. And I would just say. “You, you know. You know, Lord.” And then go back to bed. He knows.

Trusting in God’s Goodness

And yes, there is a time for anguish. And there is a time, but we’re talking about a Father who has given you all things. I find the older I get, the more I go before Him just with. “I’m so happy. Get that door open. I’m coming through. Heaven will never be the same father.” Just so much. He’s so good.

And here’s the thing. When you pray, tell Him what you need, but then don’t tell Him how to answer it. He doesn’t need your directions. He also doesn’t need you to go into a thorough theological explanation of why your prayer is correct. He doesn’t even need to know all the details because He knows them better than you do, and He knew them better than you do like a gazillion years ago. If I say often eternity, all the little kids don’t understand it, but they understand gazillion years ago. Do you see?

Finding Peace in God’s Promises

So when you know this God and you believe His promises, there’s peace. There’s love. Not always, because you know what God will do? If you say, “man, that guy rambles a lot.” Just remember, my doctors told my wife that she’d be lucky if I was in an institution after the heart attack, so I’m doing pretty well.

I want you to look at something. Isaiah 50. Verse 10. This is in the Servant song. “Who is among you that fears the Lord, that obeys the voice of His servant?” Man, you are in a right relationship with God if this is you. You fear the Lord that obeys the voice of His servant.” That’s the Son. “You’ve obeyed the voice of the Son when He said, rise and live. “That walks in darkness and has no light.”

Hold it. Michael is teaching that the true Christian is the one that the true Christian walks in the light. That’s exactly what John says. That’s exactly what John says. Walks in the revelation of God. Walks in the light of God. Yes, the purity of God. So what is he saying? He’s talking about believers when God in His grace… Remember how Abraham had nothing to look at to hold up his faith except the promise in God’s character?

Here’s what God’s going to do you believers. You’re going to be crying out, “I want to feel something. I want to feel something. I want to see something.” And there are times when things like that, a sense of the presence of God are entirely appropriate, wonderful, and needful. But when you really start getting into the more difficult classes in God’s teaching, He will leave you at times in utter darkness. Leave you without anything to sustain your hope or your faith except your knowledge of His character.

And if God promised to hold the hand of Messiah when He walked on the earth, you can be sure that He holds the hands of the Messiah’s disciples. So, let him trust in the name of the Lord and rely on His God. Let him do that. Not trust in what he can see. God will take away your feelings. He will even take away the sense of His love from you. He will sometimes leave you and it seems completely barren.

The Purpose of Trials

Why is He doing it? That you learn to trust in the nature, the character, the Word of your God. And then He goes on, “Behold, all of you who kindle a fire, who encircle yourself with firebrands, walk in the light of your fire. And among the brands you have set ablaze, this you will have from My hand. You will lie down in torment.” These are people who say, “No, Your character is not enough. Your Word is not enough. I need to see something. I need to feel something.”

And so they go out there and they acquire strange fire. They’ve got to have some experience. They’ve got to have something. Because just trusting in the nature of God. And so many believers will come to me and they’ll go, “I’m believing. But it’s almost as though I see nothing. I feel nothing. There is nothing to support me at all.” And I’m going, “Oh, child.”

And yet you find yourself believing. And yet you find yourself going forward. Or I’ll tell them something like this, “Good enough. Seems quite hopeless in your case.” Did you drink and party before you became a Christian? “Oh, yes, I did.” “Well, go back to it. If I was you, let’s eat and drink. For tomorrow we die.” “I can’t do that.” “No, no, really, go. Open door. I’ll look up some in the Yellow Pages or get on the Internet for you. Go out and have a bang up time.” “I can’t do that.” “Why?” “Why? Because of my God.”

God’s Spectacle of Faith

Sounds to me like God is making you a spectacle at this moment. And He’s very happy. Because He has left you with nothing. He’s drawn from you everything. And yet at the same time in heaven, He’s boasting of you. “Look at My servant who walks in darkness and has no light, but trusts in My name.” Do you see? Now, so many of you can identify with that. And you’re going, “What I thought was a desert because of my sin is actually God getting greater glory from me than He would have if I had all kinds of things around me supporting up my faith.” Do you see?

So now I want to go quickly. I want to talk about how joy energizes. Now, again, most people are like this, “I’m going to, if I obey God, I will have joy. But my obedience is always so weak. I have so little joy. If all I had to do was look in the mirror, I would have very little joy.” But if it’s the God of all creation has shown His love toward me by sending His own Son to die, and then He says, “If He will do that, will He not also give me all things? And I’m perfectly righteous before Him, and I am secure, and I am… Do you see now?”

Finding Joy Beyond Obedience

Where’s that joy coming from? I haven’t even got to obedience. I’m not even thinking about me. You maybe think about you too much. Brother Paul, when I look in the mirror, I just see, “Well, why on earth would you look in the mirror?” The Puritans would say for every inward look, ten glances to Christ, ten long gazes upon Christ. Do you see? So all this now gives you joy. Hebrews 12:2, “fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

Believers, you are often told that you must walk the way of Calvary. That’s true. But Calvary is not the end. It’s not the end. The end goes up and up and up and up until you’re seated at the right hand of Him. Do you see that? And that should bring you joy. He’s not getting glory for Himself because He saved the most capable people on the planet. He’s getting glory for Himself because He saved the weakest and the smallest and those who were not in the base and those who never are. Not that we just were not. I’m not now.

My greatest moments of piety would only earn me death. If one fraction of this was based on us, there would be no hope. But it’s not. It’s the perfect work of Christ who accomplished. I love that word. The older I get. Accomplished, accomplished, accomplished. He accomplished it. It’s a done deal. You see? And therefore, having joy. Derek Kidner writes, “joy is invigorating. Biblical joy is invigorating. Joy is not escapist.” We can run headlong into the battle knowing we’ll make it out. We can go into the darkest tunnel knowing this too will pass.

I want to read from Charles Simeon just really quick. Charles Simeon, if you’re a preacher, a pastor, expositor, all of it from Charles Simeon. All his preaching commentary on the Bible. It’s one of the richest. I read Simeon almost as much as Spurgeon. He’s a phenomenal expositor. He says, “Joy disposes for action. Fear and sorrow depress and overwhelm the soul.” Can you identify with that? Yeah, but you don’t know me. I have a reason to. Yeah, you do have a reason to. I agree with you. But you’re not the reason.

Encouragement and Joy

I have a reason to be sorrowful and depressed and cast down when I look at myself, but I’m not supposed to be looking at myself. What am I supposed to be looking at? Who am I supposed to be looking at? God, Christ, the accomplished work. “Joy disposes for action. Fear and sorrow depress and overwhelm the soul.” They innervate and benumb all our faculties. They keep us from attending to any encouraging considerations. They disable us from extending relief to others. They indispose us for the most necessary duties. We cannot pray or speak or do anything with pleasure. On the contrary, a joyous frame exhilarates the soul.

David well knew the effect it would produce and everyone may safely adopt his resolution. “I will run the way of thy commandments when thou shalt enlarge my heart.” Isn’t this amazing? I can be walking through the office and just hear what I think. They keep a lot from me. Hear the brothers talking about someone else has made a film against Paul or someone is attacking Paul. And I think, I mean, in that second, I just stop thinking about missions. I feel horrible not to go in my office to pray.

The day, the writing, everything I was going to do. And then they come out and say, “Hey, Paul, what’s up? What were you talking about?” “Oh, you remember that thing that happened like 20 years ago?” “Oh, something new didn’t happen?” “No. Oh, great. Let’s talk about missions.”

How can you see that? You identify with that, don’t you? Yeah, the news could have changed, but my God didn’t change. Why am I so weak? You see? And how often do we sit there and lament and are afraid of something that doesn’t even exist? Like an eight-foot tarantula. He goes on to write, “Joy qualifies for suffering. When the spirit is oppressed, the smallest trial is a burden. In those seasons, we are apt to fret and murmur both against God and man. We consider our trials as the effects.” Now listen, “we consider our trials as the effects of divine wrath or overlooking God.”

“We vent our indignation against the instruments He uses. But when the soul is joyous, afflictions appear light. How little did Paul and Silas regard their imprisonment. How willing was Paul to lay down his very life for Christ. This accords with the experience of every true Christian.” And brothers, let me say this. If there is one area where very serious people about the Lord, sometimes we fail. I know I fail. I fail in this with my children. I fail in this with my wife. I fail in this with my brethren. And that is encouragement. How many times does that word appear? Encourage. Encourage. Encourage. Instill courage. Instill hope. Instill.

The Importance of Encouragement

How many times — your child could be out mowing the yard and you realize, “Oh my gosh, he’s 17. He’s out there mowing the yard.” And what’s the big deal about that? Well, he’s obediently mowing the yard. He’s rather tall. He pushes that stronger than his dad can. And walk out in the yard and say, “Son, stop for a moment. I’m about to cry. I just, you’re amazing. You just, thank you.” Walk in. Tell your wife, “It’s a good meal. Oh, that’s nice.” But what if you just sat down and said, “Honey, sit down for a second. I just want you to know that this doesn’t go unnoticed. You know, you prepare things from scratch. You do this, you cook. It just doesn’t go unnoticed. I just want to encourage you in that.”

Encouragement. Encouragement. Encouragement. And you sit there and you’re like me, guys. You would do this if you would remember it. Right? Please say right. “Right. I would do this.” Say right. Your wife is looking at you. You want to say right right now. Maybe you should just, I don’t know, paint it on your wall at work or something. But this is with the whole Christian life. We need encouragement.

And what encouragement can do. I heard a testimony last night, dear sister from India. I mean, it’s 11 o’clock. I’m really tired. And we’re standing there for 40 minutes. It’s the most encouraging thing I think I have heard in so long. Everything she shared with me about what God had done in her life just made me sit there and go, “Oh, it’s going to be OK. It’s going to be OK. God did that with her. Yeah, he’s alive. Yeah, he’s alive. Yeah, you can’t write that one off. That’s amazing.”

Do you see that? And that’s one of the things I told Mac that I love about this conference. Even though I want to preach like 14 hours a day. And I’m probably on hour 14 this morning. I’ll preach like I said, Mac. I said, “I think one of the most amazing things about this conference is the time that you men have wisely allowed for people just to be with one another. Because it’s just beautiful. I mean, I just talk and talk and talk and talk with so many people. Hear so many stories.

Understanding Obedience

OK, let’s get to obedience real quick. Obedience is founded upon faith. I want you to see that. A lot of times the word is used interchangeably in a way. You say, “What do I mean? Don’t look at. Obey. I want to do it or disobey because I don’t want to do it.” Look at something else here, and this is what I always tell my children this a lot.

OK. Who loves you more than you love you? God. Who’s wiser than you? God. So why do we obey His commands? Because God loves us more than we love ourselves and is wiser than we are. He wants more for us than we want for ourselves. He wants better for us than we want for ourselves. And He has shown us the way to do it when we don’t know how. That’s obedience.

Obedience is born out of faith. That this God — so young person, you’ve got this decision. There is this you feel alone, you feel lonely. Maybe you’re an older person and you desire a mate. And someone comes into your life, they’re handsome or very pretty, not a Christian or not spiritual, not mature. And now you’ve got to make a decision. You really want to be in a relationship. You really want to. There’s nothing wrong with that. That’s wonderful.

But now you’ve got to say, “God tells me to do something else. God isn’t saying you can’t be with this person. What He’s saying is you can’t be with him now. And maybe it will be you can’t be with him ever.” And you’ve got to sit there and go, “OK, God’s telling me, no, does God love me or is He just trying? Or maybe does God love me or not? Yes, He loves me more than I could ever. Does He love me more than I love me? And boy, that would be difficult. Yeah, He loves you more than you love you. And He loves you in the right way where you and I don’t love ourselves in the right way.

So He loves me. OK, is He smarter than me? Yeah, He’s smarter than me. Does He know what’s best for me when sometimes I don’t know what’s best for me? My wife says, ‘Look, you don’t know what’s best for you. I know what’s best for you.’ And she does. Most of the time, she knows what’s best for me, especially with regard to eating broccoli. She knows what’s best for me. So certainly, God knows what’s best for me. So if He says no, it’s because He loves me more than I could ever know. And He’s right about this. It will lead to my harm and not be good for me.

The Perspective on Obedience

Do you see how obedience changes when you look at it that way? Do you see how everything changes now? Isn’t it amazing that when the book of James talks about temptation, probably the most important passage in the Bible about temptation in James chapter 1, that immediately, immediately people go, I hear preachers say this. Now James is going to change. Let’s just look real quick. Look at James 1. I want to show you something that will really help you with obedience.

So James 1, I’m not going to read the whole thing, but you know what 13 through 15 is all about, right? It’s about temptation. It’s about temptation. “Don’t give in to temptation. Don’t give in to temptation. Temptation gives birth to something that gives birth to something. You die. Do not give in to temptation.”

And then people get to verse 17 and they go, “Now James is going to change the theme.” No, he doesn’t. No, he doesn’t. Do not separate verse 17 from the temptation passage. Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting of shadow. What is he saying? This temptation is no good. It contradicts the will of God. And how do we know it’s no good? Because every good and perfect gift comes from God. And if this isn’t from God, it’s not good and it’s not perfect.

So when you look at that young man or that young lady and they come outside of the context of who you can consider as a biblical mate, you look at that and the devil’s going ‘now, now, now fulfill the need now, now, now.’ And you go, ‘Well, let’s see how we can fight this. God loves me infinitely and perfectly. God’s wisdom is the greatest. And God’s wisdom wants the best for me. And this contradicts God’s wisdom.’ ‘Yeah, but now, now, now.’ So what I’m being told is take this secondary, faulty perversion of God’s will because we don’t want to wait for the good and perfect gift that God is going to give.

Do you see that? So how do you come over temptation? By realizing this is bad. This is counterfeit. This is a substitute. And if I take this, I might miss this other thing, every good and perfect gift. So see, obedience is, well, I want the good and perfect gift. And that changes the way we think about obedience.

Also, obedience is energized by joy. Also, obedience is not a burden. Obedience is the way of security and peace. You want to see a child who is nervous and scared and becomes angry? I’ll show you a child that was never given parameters. The child doesn’t know how to live. They do not know what’s right, what’s wrong. They have no standard by which to judge. Their conscience runs wild. Do you see that?

Navigating Life with Obedience

So how can I have security? Because God has given us specific commands so we might know how to live. Let me give you an example. Let’s say that I’m right here, back here. And the enemy is coming through this door. And I’ve got to make it across this room and out the other side. And you say, ‘Well, I say, what should I do?’ You say, ‘Well, run.’ You say, ‘In what direction?’ Well, straight out the door. Sounds simple enough.

But now let’s look at it this way. It’s true. Enemies coming through here. If I don’t get out of here, I’m going to die. And there’s the door. But the entire floor underneath it has hidden landmines everywhere. And if I step in the wrong place, I’m going to die. Now I’m paralyzed with fear. I am literally paralyzed with fear. I’m going to die from what’s coming through the door. But I can’t navigate my way to where I need to be. Because I can’t see around the corner. I can’t see under the carpet. I don’t know how to walk.

But if I’m here, and I have a book, a map, and it says ‘two steps forward. Now, one step to the left, OK, five steps forward.’ I can navigate myself through all the dangers of this life, even though I cannot see, even though I walk in darkness. I can navigate my way through the course of this life by the commandments and wisdom of God.

Now, gentlemen, do you want to cast off your children out of your house without having taught them the wisdom of God? God has given us specific commands so that we do not have to fear that we are wandering aimlessly. I believe that by the Spirit, we are taught how to love. But I believe also the Spirit uses the Word of God to teach us how to love. Remember what I said? When someone says, ‘I love my wife.’ Remember what we did the other day? We went to 1 Corinthians and said, ‘well, that means you’re patient with your wife. That means this. That means this. That means this.’

The Foundation of Love

See, you don’t know how to love refinedly apart from the Word of God. Conclusion, what is the source of this knowledge and faith that leads to joy and obedience? Renewing our mind in the Word of God. Renewing our mind. There is a word that I love in the English translations in Psalms 37. It’s “cultivate.” Cultivate faithfulness. That word “cultivate,” me as a farm boy, means a lot. Cultivate the mind of Christ.

And how do you do that? Saturation in the Word. Now, think about this. Your child is conscious, is awake about 16 hours a day. So they get up and they go off oftentimes to public school, where for eight hours, five days a week, they are indoctrinated with everything that opposes your faith. Then there’s all the other kids. “He who walks with wise men will be wise, but a companion of fools.” Now, most of your children, they do this. Their companions are other children just like them. They’re not around men or women.

OK. They come home from school and maybe you let them watch a little bit of select DVDs. Or let’s say now it’s just a normal child. They come home and they watch TV, Internet, or video games until they go to bed. Then they go to Sunday school and they paint a picture of Noah’s Ark, paying particular attention to the stripes of the zebra. And then you wonder why children cannot stand. And then think about you, gentlemen, ladies, 16 hours a day, bombarded constantly. And then you’re going to pick up a little devotional and read it for 10 minutes a day. That’s what you’re going to do. Really?

The Importance of Wisdom and Submission

We’re behind enemy lines. Where ignorance is a very deadly thing, extremely deadly. You know, I’ve been in a lot of really, really bad places, really bad and really horrific situations. In jungles, middle of war, horrible, dangerous city streets. And I survived. Do you want to know why? I’m a farm boy from Illinois. I’m not Indiana Jones. I’m not a military man. I don’t know how to survive in the jungle. But I did.

Do you know how? I submitted myself to those who did know how to survive in the jungle. The Agua Dunas. When I was with the Agua Dunas going through the jungle, I was like the shadow. I mean, if they told me to move, I moved. If they said, “Don’t sit there,” I didn’t sit there. I did everything they told me to do.

When I would go into the inner city of Lima, very, very dangerous. I would go there with a friend of mine, Rogelio Acea from Cuba or from Carlos Antesana. Both of them who had been on the streets all their life and then were converted. They were still known by the gangs. I could go in there. If I went in there by myself, I’d be dead. If I could go in there all day long, why? Because I was with them.

Now, young person, I know I’m going on. But now I want to shift gears for just a second. I want to take this and I want to apply this to you. I was teaching the Chinese several years ago. And the Chinese are some brilliant musicians in this church. And this one girl, Mike knows her. She plays the piano like just, you know, it’s like a concert pianist for me. So she played the piano and I got up to preach.

While I was giving this illustration, I said, “Now, I want to show you what I’m talking about.” I went over to the piano, put up the thing. I pulled up like a man. They thought, “Man, Brother Paul’s a renaissance man. He plays the piano.” And then I just started going. And banging and everything and making noise in the Chinese. They think I’m crazy anyways, but they laughed.

And then I got up and I said, “What’s the difference between me and your pianist?” Submission. You see, you think submission hampers your life and limits it. That’s what you think. It’s the very opposite. All right, could you imagine me, Michael Durham, and Mack Tomlinson wandering through the very center of Amazonia and Mike in his suit with a tie even. Can you imagine how long would we last? Not very long. But if all three of us in there with the Agua Duna men that I know, we could stand there forever and preach all over the place if we submit to everything they tell us to do.

Using us three again as examples, we don’t exactly look like gangsters, do we? So us going into the inner city of Lima where there are gangs and everything else. Now, it’s just not going to go well. But if we’re there with Rogelio Acea and Carlos Antesana, we’re in. We’re okay. Why? Those men know exactly what they’re doing, but we have to submit to them.

That girl could run all over that piano. I mean, just freedom. Do you realize I had no freedom? She had freedom. Wham, wham, just back and forth. I had no freedom. Why? I didn’t know the rules, nor had I trained myself to submit to them. Do you see the difference? Submitting yourself to the wisdom of God and the law of God does not limit your life.

People have come up to me and they said, “You know, man, you’ve been able to do so many things and all of it is an Illinois. Mike knows where I live. A simple Illinois farm boy from a town of a thousand people who literally. Sometimes I’m in the kitchen like this with my blue bathrobe, but I’m in the kitchen and then I forget why I’m in there, especially after my heart attack. I’m like looking and my wife will be sitting in the living room and she goes, ‘Hey, Dory, you found Nemo yet?’ I have no hope.

But so many things, even the things I know, many of the things I know are the fact that I hung around with so many godly men and listened to them. Do you see what I’m saying? All right, then, if you see what I’m saying, then I guess I’ve said enough. Renew your mind in the study of Scripture and renew your mind sitting under godly preaching. Renew your mind in godly fellowship of a local church.

I want to tell you that this has been a beautiful. I’m like the Queen of Sheba. Maybe that’s not a good illustration. I’m like her husband. He was probably tagging along when she said, ‘You know, the half has not been told.’ I was always told that this was a wonderful place to be. But it really has been for me this week. I’m physically tired, but I’m completely renewed. So God bless you. All right.

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