Contrasts that Count — Luke 6

0:00 The title of our little discussion today, that that we're going to have is contrasts that count. Contrast that count. And the passage I like us to look at, it's only... It's a short section. Andy called me, how far are you gonna go?

0:19 How far are you gonna go in Luke six? So it isn't six, but we're gonna go through seven... The 17 to 26. That's it. Here we go on 17 to 26 and I'm not going to exegute.

0:34 Well, we will talk a little bit about this but we will, what is, what is the lord saying? If you wanted to get a parallel passage in the other gospels, it would be Matthew. And this was commonly called the beatitudes. And I was thinking about that name. I was thinking about the Beatitudes.

0:55 You know the Beatitudes? Blessed is the blessed in all these things, right? Well, this one is the in the Beatitudes in Matthew, you don't have the any woes but you do hear. You do hear. You got four blessing.

1:11 Blessed is the four of em and then you've got four woes and they mirror each other. And it's really interesting. It is really interesting. In Matthew, you don't have... You know, you have the beatitudes and they have more.

1:27 But Luke only does four blessed are. Okay? And and then he puts in four woes and and they will mirror each other. That's why I have the the I... The keyword for my little talk this morning is contrast because you're gonna see the contrast.

1:49 You're going to see the contrast between blessed and woe. Blessed and woe and I've linked them together as they are in the passage. I've linked them together as they are in the passage and so, we're going to look at this and, you know, so the lord Jesus Christ, he shows us four contrast and not... Notice what I I I have it written down. Okay.

2:13 So I I have it here. It's called the proposition or the thesis of where I'm going with this. And it goes like this. The lord Jesus Christ shows us four contrasts that we must have in our lives to be effective Christians. You don't have these contrasts in your life.

2:33 It's you're not gonna be effective. Sorry. I mean, it's just not going to. The lord Jesus is talking to us and he's very direct. He's very direct and we're going to look at that because what are these what are these contrast, Chris?

2:48 Well, the lord Jesus Christ shows us the contrast between the poor and the rich. And then we see then verses twenty and twenty four. See, we're going to have to do that. Have to change it up. Okay?

3:02 And then the lord Jesus Christ shows us the contrast between the hungry and the full. And then he shows us the contrast between the weeping and the laughing. And then he shows us a contrast between the hated and the accepted. Now, is an interesting passage and, I normally don't do this, but we're gonna read through this. It's a short little thing.

3:31 If I got like six chapters, we're not gonna we're not gonna read through it, but this is only a few verses. And so we're gonna read it. And I'm reading from the King James version. It might be different in your version if you've got ESV or the NET Bible or whatever translation you have. This is the King James and he said, in verse 20, Luke chapter six, actually, verses 17 through 19 is the really I call it the setup.

4:00 And they were, you know, they wanted to touch him. He was on the hill. In in Matthew, he was in the mount. Mount, the mount passage. Right?

4:10 But he comes down. He comes down into a plane, into a really open area. And I've been to this area and it's really is beautiful. And you can look off and see the Sea Of Galilee, etcetera. And it's it's just really, really pretty, but he comes down into this open area in which he starts to talk and then in verse 20, it says, and he lifted up his eyes on his disciples and said, blessed be the poor.

4:40 Verse 20. Blessed be you, the poor. For yours is the kingdom of god. Blessed are you who hunger now and are and you shall be filled. Blessed are you that weep now.

5:01 For you shall laugh. Blessed are you when men shall hate you and when they shall separate you from their company and shall reproach you and shall cast you out and cast out your name as evil for the son of man's sake. Rejoice in that day. Actually, rejoice you in that day. And leap for joy for behold your reward is great in heaven.

6:06 For you shall hunger. Woe unto you that laugh now. For you shall mourn and weep. Woe unto you. When all men shall speak well of you.

6:18 For so did their fathers to the false prophets. Ain't that a kicker? Contrast. Contrast. In verses twenty and twenty four, we see first of all, the contrast between in the lord Jesus shows us between the poor and the rich and that by the way, this this rich is not something of we see a willful In in verse 20, we see a willful, a willful poor.

6:51 In other words, they're not poor because they just they're down and out and they're living on the street. That's not the poor he's talking about. He's talking about us willfully being poor. For the sake of the gospel. For the sake of the gospel.

7:12 In other words, they're not letting, he's not going to allow or we shouldn't allow the trappings of riches to deviate us from what our task is here on earth. And then we'll see the contrast of that that those guys he he gives the wall that they were. They were doing that and maybe subtly, maybe, you know, they didn't really mean to do it that way but they did but this blessed are you who for the sake of the gospel. In other words, you you take whatever moneys you have, whatever situations you have in terms of how you make your money, and you're using it for the sake of the gospel. Ain't that a kicker?

8:05 That's what he means by blessed are you who are poor. And he noticed what he doesn't say. He doesn't say poor in spirit. So he's not talking about... He's talking about material wealth.

8:19 He's talking about your material issues. In Matthew, he talks about poor in spirit, but he's not meaning that here. This is two separate. I believe two separate things. They're they're similar, but he's talking about this.

8:31 And he's not talking about us being poor in spirit because in the contrast of it, he's not talking about being poor in spirit wealthy wise. You know, in terms of the moneys we have, the contrast of it. And so he is telling us here, he says, you are poor. You are poor. And he's telling us that we're dis...

8:59 We disadvantage ourselves, and we disadvantage ourselves in terms of our monies intentionally to use whatever God has given to us for the advancement of the gospel and for the glory of God. And that's what he means. Blessed are you who are poor. And that's exactly you, you who are poor. And so, I mean, that doesn't mean that you got a lousy job and you don't get $20 an hour like you would at McDonald's if you were in California or you're, you know, this kind of thing.

9:38 He's not talking... What he's talking about, It's the willfulness of the individual to say, I will reduce myself or use whatever god has given me for his glory. And constantly thinking about that. You will be blessed. God will never let you down.

10:08 Ain't that something? That is really something. And then then he says the satisfied rich. Look at verse 24 because now he's giving the woe unto you who are rich in material things. For you have received your consolation, King James says.

10:29 Ray, what is verse 24 say? You have ESV? Receiving your comfort and full. Comfort and full. You're satisfied.

10:37 You got anything you want, you can get. Materially, anything you want, you can get. That's what he means. That's exactly what it means. In other words, you have your consolation.

10:51 You want to have, you know, be blessed on that. Nothing wrong with being rich. It's your attitude as to what you do with what god has provided for you and a lot of people, they they don't even pray about a lot of stuff, right? They don't. Hey, listen.

11:09 When you're poor, you pray about purchases. You do. Lord, can we afford this? Lord, can we do this? Those guys that do that is just not a situation in which I don't have enough money and so I've gotta pray about it.

11:26 What it does is this, being poor and making yourself poor, you have to depend on god. You have to say, god, what do you want me to do with what you've given me? I'll do whatever you want me to do. In other words, your heart is totally his. Not only in terms of your affection but also what you own.

11:54 Also, where you live. Also, everything that is that is part of your life. That is what he is talking about. That is what he is talking about. This is really...

12:06 And then so... But the rich, man, they don't even think about stuff. They just go and get it. You need need... You need...

12:13 We need this, you know. And the satisfaction of this, that's your that's your blessing. How many times have you experienced in your life when you have been, you've made yourself poor and you have said to the lord, will you provide for us? And he does. There's nothing greater than that.

12:41 There's hardly any except leading somebody to Christ. There's nothing greater than having god provide for you and minister to you. You might say, well, god provided me the job. God provided me the salary and that kind of thing. Well, do we pray about what god has provided?

13:00 Do we say, okay, you've given me this much money. What have you want? What do you want me to do with it? I'll do whatever you want me to do with what you have given me. And we know in the scriptures in in Romans that one of the gifts of the one of the gifts of the spirit is giving.

13:49 The guy was a multimillionaire. He lived on 10% and he gave away 90%. Ain't that amazing? That's intentional. That is an intentional thing.

14:06 I know of people who have done very similar items. I knew a guy that flipped houses. He would buy a house, flip it, sell it for a profit, and gave the money to missions. Blessed are those people that intentionally make themselves poor for the sake of the gospel. And those who don't, you have your reward.

14:32 You have your you have your satisfaction. You have it. And it's it's it's not good. I remember hearing a story about George Verwer. George Verwer, how many have ever heard of a guy named George Verwer?

14:49 Okay. Very few. Oh, I'm sorry. George Verwer went to Mexico and he... Can you believe this one?

14:57 He was a student at the Moody Bible Institute, this skinny guy about this tall, and he was intense. He was an intense type of individual. And at the time, the Moody Bible Institute didn't have Culberson Hall, the 16 story men's dormitory. They didn't have that then. So they put them...

15:19 A lot of the guys in Lawson Y. They had a Lawson y MCA, which was down the street on Chicago Avenue. And they would put them in the y. And right? And so these guys, they had a common shower.

15:34 They had common showers like they do at at Moody for the guys. They still do. And he would... You know what he did? He was just...

15:44 The guy was the guy was intense. He would take a map of the world with his friends. He must have read the Haystack Revival because that's exactly what they did with Adonai and Judson and all these. And they took a map of the world, and they put it down. And they would kneel out in the field where all the haystacks were.

16:05 These stacks of hay. That's why they call it the haystack revival. They would kneel and they would pray over the world, over the map, and ask god to send missionaries all over the place And god started answering their prayers and answered their particular prayers and the lord put it on their hearts to put feet on their prayers. That is to say, they went as well. So Verware must have done this.

16:35 Verware must have heard about that going to church history and listening to that kind of that kind of story and that's exactly what he did. He would stay up all night. He would take people and stay up all night, with these other fellow students, and they put a map of the world, and they would pray over the world for lost souls that they would go and send missionaries. You know what he did after he graduated? He, oh, actually, when he was still there, he was sent all the money that he had that was extra and that he would send it to missionaries.

17:12 He was so zealous on this that at the Lawson Y, the common showers, he would walk through the showers and look for little pieces of soap and he would stick them together and that became his soap. And he would take the money that he would spend on the normal dial soap or whatever, and he would send it to missions. He's... When he... Upon graduation, he started praying and asking God.

17:39 He started operation mobilization in which they've they've got two ocean going ocean going ships. The Doolos and I forget the name of the other. What is it? I didn't hear it. Logos.

17:58 Logos. Yes. The logos. The the Dulos and the logos. And these are big ships.

18:04 And I had a friend of mine that was the first mate on one of those. He was from graduated from the Coast Guard Academy. Did his time, and then went into... Actually, merchant marine and went out, and he was the first mate on one of those ships. They went all over the place.

18:22 They went into places they could never... Nobody would ever go or could never get into. And they had jeeps and they had sketch boards and they had and they they went everywhere where nobody else could go. They would pull into ports and they would let the the population come on and they buy books or actually they give em away. They did this for years and years and years and George is with the lord now but what an incredible, incredible thing, willful, willful poorness, willful giving it up, and letting god have it.

19:01 You know, one other story regarding George. George and Bill McDonald were really good friends. Bill McDonald told me this story. They were really good friends. And George...

19:12 They were... George was at Moody Bible Institute when when, Bill McDonald was president of Emmaus in Oak Park, Illinois, not too far. And so Bill took a... You know, he came in... George came in to see him as he was president.

19:30 And, he sat down and he said, you know something? This is... Bill told me this. He said he said, George was so interesting. I don't wanna say weird, but George was just...

19:42 George was so intense. He said, when I see these books, Bill, this is what George said, I see souls. I see souls. In other words, why do you got so many books? Why do you got so many books?

20:00 Now, I understand books are really good and everything and fantastic, and I've got a few myself. But the thing about it is, his whole design, George Verware's design was, blessed be you who are poor. Everything that he had, everything that he had was for this. You know who reminds me of this? Reminds me of this in in current day is Christian Ikeley.

20:34 That guy will take money and give it away. Money intended for him. He gives it away. And I think to myself, that's amazing. So, that's willful poorness and he's the lord Jesus makes this contrast.

20:47 Those of us who are, you know, can afford anything and don't even give it another thought. What should I do with my money? What should I, boy, we've got our satisfaction. We have got our satisfaction. You see where this is going?

21:04 You see what he's doing here? He's making these contrast not to make us feel guilty, but the only reason why we would feel guilty is because maybe we are guilty. And he's asking us what he is really asking us is where in the world is your heart affection? Where is your heart affection? We talk a good game sometimes.

21:31 We might say, yeah, I really love the lord but is it there in terms of doing what god would have us to do? Have we sought about what god would have us to do and are we doing it? And then not only does he talk about, does he talk about the rich, the poor, and the rich but also the lord Jesus shows us the contrast between the hungry and the full. The hungry and the full and again, it's a willful hungri ness. It's the willful hungri ness.

22:28 So, it's a willfulness and not not overdoing it. Not overdoing it and taking whatever resources we have and giving them giving them to for the sake of the gospel. You know, I'm I'm for pantries and all that kind of stuff, you know, food pantries for the homeless. I really mean that. This is specifically for the sake of the gospel.

22:58 It is doing that for the sake of the gospel. In other words, a person is not going to overeat, is not going to overspend, is not going to be gluttonous. In fact, you see that in verse 25, A, 25 A, notice what it says, woe unto you that are full, for you shall hunger. This is really talking about gluttony. It's talking about overdoing it and getting whatever I want to get.

23:29 And eating it. And doing whatever I want. This is talking about food. This is not talking about some spiritual platitude or type of thing. This is a practical action that the lord Jesus wants us to address.

23:43 How are we in this? It's convicting. I mean, look at me. Look like a bowling pin. You know?

23:53 I mean, you know, I got got the waist. I haven't expand. I I joke about it. I have an expanding ministry. You know?

24:01 And I go, yeah, I got an expanding... Hey, where's the cookies? You know, I'm sorry. I'm sure those cookies were good. I was told that they were excellent.

24:11 But it's the willfulness that we do this spending the resources on the sake of the gospel. This is what he is talking about. He said, how do you know he's talking about that? We'll find out in a second. Because he is he is moving us through this way.

24:32 He's moving us down to this. And he says, and then he says, woe to you that are full. You shall be hunger. You shall hunger. Now, all of a sudden, you know, groceries are up 40%.

24:48 You know that. 40%. So, if I spend a buck on avocados, I'm spending a buck 40 on avocados. That kind of thing. Maybe this is god's helping us to be hungry but this is a willful hunger.

25:11 This is a willful hungerness on our part. We make this decision to say, am not... I'm gonna deprive myself. Use that money that I have for the sake of the gospel. I think that's exactly where he's on this.

25:30 Because when I look at the text in the Greek and I look at the text and he's not talking about a hunger for the lord. He's not... He's talking about food. And he's talking about... And when we're poor, it's not poor in spirit.

25:46 He's talking about economically. It's a willful, it's a willfulness and also he's he's chiding. He says, woe to you. Woe to you. You know, it's gluttony.

26:01 Nobody, have you, when's the last time you heard a sermon on gluttony? Yeah. You know, I I mean, really, that's a sin. I mean, it is. It is a sin.

26:14 It's a sin to overeat. And woe to you who do that. You're going to find yourself hungry. You will find yourself hungry. And I'm wondering, you know, this is this is talking about food.

26:30 No questions about it. But I'm wondering that when we finish our life and we will. I want the rapture. I want all that. I want the rapture.

26:42 I want to have that boom, rapture practice, boom, gone. I want that more than anything, especially now. Okay? What will we think when we stand before the judgment seat of Christ and give an account of not only how we live, but how we used our resources, everything that is a part of that. What are we what are we going to do?

27:14 What are we going to say? And will we kick ourselves from the lost opportunities that are all around us in sharing the gospel? Our neighbors, our families, our workmates, all around it. It's all around us. What will we be like?

27:41 What will we feel like? Woe to you, he says. Question. Are we willfully hungry or are we willfully, gluttonously full? So not only does he talk about the poor and I'm so glad you guys...

27:59 I hate this passage quite frankly. I really do. You know, Chris, can you do six? No wonder Tim stopped. You know, he stopped at this in '17.

28:12 I'm going, oh, why I ought to, you know, I hate when somebody does that and here, here, let Chris do it. Let Chris preach this and let Chris chide us and let's do that and I'm wondering if he's going. You know, type of thing. You know, give me the love passage, man. I want everything feeling lovey dovey.

28:35 This is tough love by the lord onto us. This is really what the lord is saying to me and this is what the lord is saying to you and then, look at verse 21. Blessed are you that hunger now, you shall be filled. Blessed are you that weep now, for you shall laugh. Weeping.

29:46 When was the last time we have done that? When was the last time we have just looked at somebody? I mean, it's just the craziest thing. I'm I'm on I'm on Facebook, and I look at these videos about dogs and such, and these people talk about these dogs. And isn't it a shame that people throw out dogs?

30:08 They throw them onto the street, and they got people who go around and look for dogs who are hiding under bricks and under, you know, under the roadway and that kind of stuff. And it's emaciated and you'd say, this is terrible. This is the worst thing going. You wanna take the former owners and give them a thrashing. That's what you wanna do.

30:28 How dare you take your dog and just throw it on, let it starve to death, and let it get eaten by other animals and mangled and all that kind of stuff and then there are people out there who are looking for these kind of dogs and they're called rescuers, and they come in and they rescue these dogs. And I get teared up on it. You know, you look at a dog and it's... I just look like you put a skin of... Over bones and you go, what?

30:56 How can anybody treat an animal like this? And I thought to myself, do I care about the lost like those people care about dogs? That's the weeping he's talking about. That is the weeping. Those who are weep over the lost, those who weep for lost souls and their condition.

31:26 Weeping over the condition of abortion. Weeping over the condition of what some politicians say, you know, well, well, you can have the kid and it will make the kid comfortable. Viable child right there. Make it make it. This is what the governor of Virginia did.

31:43 The former governor of Virginia who is a doctor. We need to call sin sin. And then they said, well, we'll we'll get this child and we'll make him comfortable, then we can discuss it with the mother and the doctor whether we're gonna kill it or not. And yet I weep over dogs. Blessed are you that weep.

32:17 You shall laugh. In Psalm one twenty six five, Psalm one twenty six five, if you want to give a little look at it. Psalm one twenty six five, I don't have it memorized. I should have this memorized like crazy, but I don't because I'm choking right now. Psalm one twenty six five.

32:53 Actually, twenty five and six, they that sow in tears shall reap in joy. He that goeth forth and weeping, bearing precious precious seed shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him. I have to tell you a story about a youth group that came to our seminar in New York City. It was really weird. The guys had pins and safety pins through the ears.

33:34 They had the, you know, they had the pants were low. I call them plumber pants. You know, they had plumber pants, no belts. Hair, always different colors. You you know this this group?

33:50 Okay. And then, it was really weird because I asked I asked I asked my friends to help me teach it. I asked Danny and Kenny to help. These guys are teachers and their master's degrees and all this kind of stuff, and they help me teach this. And there's...

34:04 I'm standing there, and I'm... These guys are all on this. They're on this bench and all around the bench and they're going and they're singing Christian songs and all that kind of stuff. And I I was amazed, you know, and I said, okay, guys. You guys know the culture.

34:20 I said, what what what do you see? And these guys are really good. They're sociologically astute. They looked at... They they see, we'll see this, we see this generation, whatever name they had for it then.

34:35 And then they're going on and on and on, and I said, that's great. I said, what do you see? What else do you see? And then they continued. They could write a master's thesis on this one.

34:44 Right? And then you... And then they just went on and on and on, and I said, what do you... What else do you see? They looked at me, like...

34:51 And they gave me a little bit more. And I said, what else do you see? And they just turned and looked at me. I never forget this. They looked at me.

34:58 What do you see, Chris? I said, I see that they're here. I see that they're here. You know that youth group? It was from here.

35:16 It was from here. It was the Westlake Bible Fellowship youth group. And I said, I see that they're here and they care. And they love the Lord and they're making themselves poor. They could have gone somewhere else.

35:32 They could have done something else during that time. It was for two weeks. They could have done that. They could have gone and and done something else but no, they spent their time. I asked them to take the white hair that one guy had with shocks of blue in it and to get the blue out of there and put a rope around or a belt around him, pull up.

35:57 I said, you don't have a second chance to make a good first impression. And comb your hair, not in the in the socket either. Use a brush. Weeping. You should have seen those guys in the subway doing the three rope trick.

36:15 You should have seen those guys preaching on the street using the sketch board. You should have seen them and some of you had. Some of you did see. And it was outstanding. And I saw that they were here.

36:33 Praise God. That's what he is talking about. That is weeping for the lost and then people are just laughing and the contrast of that, we look at the verse 25. He says, woe unto you that laugh now, this present moment. You shall mourn and weep and I think the mourning and weeping action, the more more mourning, you know, you will you will mourn, you will regret not doing more when we get to heaven.

37:05 You will regret it. I will too. All the lost opportunities that are presented my way all the time. Because I'm not looking for it. I'm not looking for it.

37:57 Blessed are you when men shall hate you and when they shall separate you from their company, excommunicate you and shall reproach you and cast cast out your name as evil for the son of man's sake. Rejoice in that day and you shall leap for joy. For behold, your reward is great in heaven. For in like manner did they... In like manner did their fathers unto the prophets.

38:40 I mean, rejoice. Rejoice. They who live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. That's what Paul writes to Timothy as son in the faith. And this is what the lord Jesus is writing to us.

39:03 Blessed is when people look at you. We have this whole different view of evangelism these days. That if if somebody gets mad at me, I must have blown it. If I preach the gospel and they and I stand for for the word of god, I must have blown it because now they don't accept it. Think about though for a moment what they did to incarnate love, the lord Jesus Christ.

39:29 Think about what they did to him. He who knew no sin. He was sinless but he told the truth and that ruffled feathers big time and they crucified him. They crucified incarnate love and the servant is not greater than his lord. So, if this is going to happen to him, what do you think is going to happen to us?

40:01 They're going to hate us. They're going to despise us. The contrast is people who want to be accepted. So, won't tell the truth. They won't give the gospel out.

40:16 They won't share what is right and what is wrong. They won't stand up. They won't do it but they will mourn and weep. In the end, they will do that because they're going to look at the foolishness of compromise. The foolishness of acceptance or trying to be accepted by the world.

40:47 God looks at our lives and he looks at this world. I mean, we have it in the scriptures. The... We have it in the scriptures if we're listening and if we're looking for it. We can see how God looks at this world.

41:00 It is warfare going on for the souls of men. It is warfare for the souls of men. Men and women, boys and girls, we see this all over the place. And the world is putting out what they're going to tell us is is satisfaction. Barb and I were driving.

41:22 We drive in the morning. We come here. I said to Barb, I can't... There had to be 20 to 25 free weed. Free, you know, all all the...

41:36 I'm sure it's all medical. I'm sure. No, it's not all medical. And then you can get any drug you want. You can get any anything...

41:45 And prescription. I mean, this... Everything's cool. Everything's cool. And then you've got you've got the alcohol and the drugs.

41:53 You've got, you know, the the token on the weed and this is totally accepted. In fact, it's encouraged. It's encouraged. That's what the world thinks. Let's let's pacify these people.

42:09 Let's make them dopers. My sister is a doper. My own sister. Oh, marijuana is innocent. It doesn't hurt.

42:27 Really? The American Medical Association did a white paper on it and says it kills brain cells. How could that be good? How... You know, killing brain cells, is that a good thing?

42:42 How could that do that? Blessed are those who will stand. Blessed are you who men shall hate you and when they shall, you know, they shall separate you from their company and shall reproach you and cast out your name as evil. For the son of man's sake. Rejoice in that day.

43:16 They did in acts, didn't they? I think it's acts four when they went preaching and they were beaten. Right? Do you remember that passage? They were beaten.

43:26 And what did they do? They went home and cried about it. Right? No. They were rejoicing and not counting themselves worthy to suffer even a little bit what the lord Jesus suffered.

43:39 They rejoiced in that suffering. Wow. That's a whole different attitude, isn't it? It's a whole different attitude. You know, I think when Paul when Paul lived, I think he's still doing it now.

44:03 He's thinking with eternity in view, in everything he does with his money, with his body, with his everything that he has. He thinks of eternity in view. The woes are for the temporary. The temporary satisfaction. The temporary, you know, high, the laughing, all all that.

44:50 They have an auditor... They have a platform that's this high. It looks like this, but it's this high. And Barb and I always sat in the first two seats of twenty five twenty five hundred seat auditorium, and Barb and I always sat here and here. I didn't wanna miss it.

45:08 You know? And at Moody Bible Institute, they would... I don't know if I've ever told you this, but they, a lot of times, it's mandatory chapel. So you... A lot of students will sit way in the back underneath the balcony, and they'll do homework while that thing's going on.

45:24 Not at the Moody Institute Bible toot. No way. Really? Yes. And you could hear it.

45:30 There's a din of noise of people turning pages and writing and all that kind. There's a din of noise on this And every Monday was President's Chapel. So doctor George Sweeting would come or he would have somebody else come and take his place and do the chapel. Well, this one, we walked in on a Monday and the organ's going, the the organ, the big pipe organ, and then the big 101 concert piano is going, and and it's all every... All the students are going, what?

46:08 Who's on the stage? Now, we got everybody the famous. I mean, Billy Graham's been there and all these different famous Christians, you know, and you look at this and we're sitting there going, who is that guy? He's dressed in a black suit. He looks like a like like me, a bowling pin type of thing, you know?

46:29 And you're going, wow, who's that? And who's that girl sitting next to him in a black dress, pasty white? And you've got all the dignitaries. Every... All the dignitaries of of Moody Bible Institute, the president, the vice president, dean of education, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.

46:46 Everybody was on there, and the organs are going, we're singing. Everything is fantastic. The place is packed. All the all the, teachers and and professors and all are on this side, and and it's just it's just... We're having...

47:00 It's just wonderful, you know, wonderful. But who's that guy? Goatee, kinda cheesy looking, and just who is this guy? We're going crazy. We found out who that guy was.

47:17 He gets up and speaks. You couldn't hear a pin drop in the back. Nobody was writing. He hadn't written a book, and he didn't teach at some seminary. What was his qualifications for being there and speaking?

47:38 And this pasty white young lady in the black dress is standing right next to him, And he starts to speak in Russian. And she interprets that's his daughter. That's Gorgie Vins. Who's for the sake of the gospel? Went to a gulag for many years.

48:07 He was a pastor of a church in Russia and they took him and put him in a gulag. For years, they released him. He went right back to the church and started preaching from that book and they put him right back into the gulag. And after the pressure of the United States State Department to get him released, they released him and expelled him, and we saw him. He was in our pulpit two weeks later.

48:42 You could hear a pin drop. What was his qualifications? Suffering. Willful suffering for the sake of the gospel. When all men shall revile you.

49:04 I never... I couldn't help it. I only know two words in Russian. One is net. No.

49:11 And the other one is I went up to the platform like this, and I saw him talking with his daughter and some other people that she was translating the conversation. And I said, I couldn't help it. I'm I'm... You know me. I'm weird.

49:27 I went up to that... The the stage, and I just said, Corgi Vins. And he turned. He turned. I said, Slava.

49:42 It means glory. And he lit up like a Christmas tree. Boom. Yes. For the glory of God.

49:57 Hated for the sake of the gospel. We've seen the poor and the rich, the hungry, and the full, the weeping, and the laughing, the hatred, hated, and the accepted. We need to understand these four contrast that the lord Jesus Christ shows us that we must have in our lives to be effective Christians for him. You ready? Sing in the femina.

50:46 Okay, that's it. Wherever he goes, I will follow. Wherever he says, I will obey him. I have decided. I've made up my mind.

50:58 I'll serve the lord. You want to know the will of god for your life? We just read it. Father, help us, we pray. Help us to do your will and to be faithful to you and help us to willingly, willingly do this.

51:28 We pray and ask these things in Jesus's name. Amen.