Church Life 8 – Ministry of the Word #5

[00:00:00] Speaker A: We'll go straight away to asking different ones if they will be ready to give a word on or other of the scriptures that have been given to you. Can you give us some ways in which Satan will try either to deter us completely from preaching or to cause us to make a mess of it whilst preaching? Well, of course, I think the answer to that question is that there are really multitudinous ways in which the enemy will seek to deter us completely from preaching. Let's divide it into two. I think it's always by the grace of God that any person really ministers the word of God. Really. It would be impossible to go through all the different ways that the evil one seeks to deter us. I suppose one of the most common ways of deterring us from preaching completely is to make our first time a faux par. And this he often does and the Lord allows him to do it because if we really on the first occasion make a terrible mess, then our pride receives such a mortal wound that unless the Lord really comes in, we'll never again minister in our lives. And I think everything then depends upon whether a person can move forward in. [00:01:41] Speaker B: Faith. [00:01:44] Speaker A: When they've made such mistakes. So I would say that even if the enemy does deter us in once or seeks to deter us, if we look to the Lord, those ways and devices of the enemy will be overcome. Spurgeon once said something very interesting. He said if a man feels that he doesn't need to preach, he shouldn't preach. In other words, what he was saying was that if it's not as a fire in the man's bones, which is almost compulsive in a right way, not just from self centeredness and so on, well, then, if he hasn't got that kind of fire, there's not much point in him preaching because he'll bore people stiff in the end. So I would say, yes, there are many, many ways in which Satan will try to deter us from preaching. The most common is this making a really big faux par at the beginning. Another way, of course, is through sheer self condemnation. We feel that we are nothing. We feel that we haven't got anything. We may be able to speak and we may feel that we have some ability there, but we might feel spiritually unworthy and therefore we feel that we couldn't possibly. What could we give those people anyway? This is another device by which the enemy seeks to deter us from ever preaching that, a sense of unworthiness. Well, I don't think that anyone who is going to be used of God in any way will ever be able to minister unless he is absolutely 100% clear as to justification. If he's not clear as to his foundation, his standing before God, and his righteousness before God, and the ground upon which God will bless him and use him, that man will be knocked out, if not at the very beginning, certainly not long afterward, he has begun. Now, the second part of this. There were many other ways, of course, in which Satan is. But those are two ways that I think are very, very common. Firstly, to get you to make a complete mess of it the very first time, you feel you'll never open your mouth again. The second is to give us such a sense of unworthiness and condemnation that we feel at what is the point of us ministering. Then we get into a frame of mind where we will wait for anything up to 30 years for God to do a work in us. And by the time finally the work is done, we are just about ready for translation to higher service. When we're young, we're full of zeal and we're ready to jump in, and there's not too much of the Lord in it. When we've got much more of the Lord and the Lord's done a work, then often, like Moses, we're quite content to be in the backside of the desert keeping sheep. So I think that's one thing, or to cause us ways in which Satan will try to cause us to make a mess of it whilst preaching. Again, there are many, many ways. For instance, it is amazing sometimes if you are a sensitive person and a person who has an eye, that you see things, you notice things. Of course, your worst enemy is the congregation. There's absolutely no doubt about it. One of the congregation, one of the folks in here may quite unconsciously be doing something, but of course the enemy will tell you that they're fed up with you, or they think it's ridiculous what you're saying, or something, someone might. [00:05:50] Speaker C: Just go sort of. [00:05:53] Speaker A: And of course you feel, oh, my goodness, they're right against it. And they say that this is rubbish. And it's amazing, actually, when you're speaking. [00:06:06] Speaker C: How. [00:06:09] Speaker A: A quite insignificant person can throw you completely off your guard. It is quite extraordinary, I mean, not some great weighty authority that you would feel naturally frightened to death, but sometimes some slip of a girl will sort of go, and then you collapse in a heap, and the poor girls probably nearly swallowed a moth, or some spider suddenly crawled under the chair or something other. It may be nothing to do with the preacher at all, but I think that if you are the kind of person who's sensitive and you notice what's going on, these things are, I find, the greatest single cause of collapsing in the giving of a word. Therefore, just as you have to trust the Lord to open your mouth at the very beginning, you must trust the Lord to give the whole word and to overcome all the problems. When you see people obviously steadfastly looking at the ground, don't feel they may be completely disapproving. For instance, sometimes a person's praying. Now, I've seen people sort of, and you feel, oh, my goodness, they're suffering so greatly. They're praying, really, that you may be helped or delivered or changed or something, and they may not be doing that at all. They may be absolutely enthralled. Now, I've actually found this, that I've noticed one or two people doing something and thought, oh, awful. They're sort of not getting through. Am I wrong? Have I perhaps not got something from the Lord? And then afterwards, the very same people shake, oh, what a blessing this evening was. The Lord has met me. And you think, utterly amazing. So be very careful of taking too much note of people's faces. And then, of course, there are the cases who are sermon insomniacs. I mean, they're the kinds that always have a glazed eye. They look at you with a completely glazed, unfeeling, unemotional, unplugmatic eye while you're preaching. And you have the others who have got sermon sleepy sickness, and it doesn't matter, even if it was spurgeon or the apostle Paul or the Lord himself, they would definitely go to sleep after the first ten minutes. Now, these folks are again a great problem to the preacher, because you see someone going and you just feel there must be something wrong, that if there was a power of God was upon you, such people would wake up. But really, and truthfully, I do believe such people would sleep through the sermon on the mount or some of the other great discourses. It is sometimes a matter that is in a person. There are certain people who do, they just can't somehow keep awake. So I would say that's one of the big causes for going off the rails whilst you're speaking. Another point, I think, too, is that you can get too self conscious, and this is bound to it. That's why I think Brother Watchmani's book, Ministry of the Word, is so interesting, such an important book, because it deals with facets of ministry which I've never seen dealt with in any other book. And that one point is the question of self consciousness. If your spirit and your soul get mixed up in a wrong way whilst you're speaking, that the enemy has got the victory. In other words, you see, you can start by seeing somebody. Then you become immediately self conscious. Then you become inhibited. And then you begin to lose the confidence you had in the Lord as to the word he's given you. And then slowly the strain that's in you takes over and comes over into your spirit. And there is an atmosphere of strain and tension. Which makes it very difficult for the spirit of God to flow through you. So self consciousness is a very real problem. And the Lord's people will not help you to be free from self consciousness. I can tell you that here and now. It's not that they have blessed them. They don't mean to. They all really have prayed. Some, many pray for you, but they don't help in the matter of really being free. And many other things, I think, could come into this category of what can cause us to make a mess. May I just say this? It's something which has only come to me more in more recent years. But you can turn to the Lord in your spirit whilst preaching. And this is a very great help, I found. This is the thing that brother knee takes up again, which I find a tremendous help. That whilst you're preaching, when you've become conscious that you are becoming inhibited or bound or in some way put off by something. You must just inwardly turn to the Lord in your spirit whilst you're speaking and say, now, lord, I'm turning to you in my spirit and you will find a release. Then it's as if the Lord touches something and you'll find a release. It's very, very important in the word to learn how to overcome these things that can inhibit and so on. Another question. Any advice about the preacher arriving well in advance to absorb the feel of a place if he does not know it? I think that when you're used to preaching in all kinds of places, even though you are very sensitive to atmospheres and so on, you will get a way in which you can trust the Lord, whether you're preaching in a barn, a cathedral or a home. Nevertheless, may I say this? I do think it is vitally important if you're ever asked to speak, to see that you are at least a quarter of an hour of early. Personally, I think you ought to be half an hour, even three quarters of an hour. Now, there are some places don't even open up so long before. But I think that you should always be at a place half an hour before. Not just to absorb the feel of the place, but for your sake and their sake. There's nothing, I think, more terrible than a late preacher, an impunctual preacher. I remember a dreadful occasion some years ago when a certain company sent over one of their more authoritative gentlemen to minister the word. And he swept in. And we weren't asked if we wanted any hymns or anything else. He had all the hymns, he had the reading, he had everything else. And then suddenly, at about two minutes to 11:00 this was the Lord's table. On Sunday morning, he decided he wished to go to pay a visit and wash his hands, and out he went back. This was when we were downstairs and the whole company had to wait whilst he was out there. And of course, being also near proximity, we could hear various things being pulled and so on. And then finally the brother came in at about seven minutes past eleven. In a way, there's something offensive about that. Unfortunately, it's a thing that's done very much in christian circles. Everything depends on the preacher. The whole thing circles around the preacher. He's the big man, he's the sort of star turn. And everything is really dependent on him. I would say if you have been asked to go psalm to preach, be very careful on these matters. Because it's not just what the message God has given you. It's also the spiritual character with which you come. This can be a very great help to people. Genuine humility, genuine modesty, a genuine spirit of fellowship. These things can bless people as much as the word that you have to give. And I think to get there in at least half an hour before time is not only a mark of respect to the Lord and the ministry he's given you, but it's also a mark of respect to that company of God's children. That you're not just treating them as a kind of platform upon which you're going to exhibit your ministry or inflict your sermon and shear them with the collection. But you are in fact, there to serve them in the Lord and you have some respect for them as your brothers and sisters. Well, I think that's an important point on the question of absorbing the feeling of a place. This must depend very much on the person, the type of person you are. And if you have got a soft voice or a voice that doesn't carry too far, it might be important for you to get just there a little early. I personally do like to see the place I'm going to speak in if I can, but on many, many occasions I never see it. No one bothers to show us or anything, and you leave it to the end. But if I can see it, I prefer just to see it, just to get the idea in one's mind. Well, one other question here. Any advice to those who have to lead or chair meetings? Now, this is a good question, and it might be good if we have another occasion. I bring it up again. For the sake of those who are not here. There are one or two things about chairing meeting. One thing again is to see that the meeting is punctual. If you possibly there are times when you cannot help it being late, but as far as is possible, always see that the meeting is on time. It seems to me it reveals a spirit. If you think you can keep a whole company of people waiting, it's wrong. It reveals a kind of the big brother attitude. It doesn't seem right to me if the times, at such and such time, you ought to be there as well as everybody else. That's one point when you're leading a gathering, or depending very much on the type of gathering it is. Again, remember the need to be free. Now, there are those who've got a real gift in leading a meeting. They seem to be able to be free. And because they are free and easy, everyone else is free and easy in the right way. It's amazing how we can impose upon people our own problem, whatever it is. And in leading, particularly, I think we ought above everything else, to seek to honor the Lord, to remember that we are not just an unnecessary preliminary, but the leading of a gathering is vitally important. And anyone who preaches and really preaches in a living way knows whether a meeting has been led rightly. Because when you come to preach, very much has depended upon the way the gathering has been led. This, I think, is quite an important point. I believe in evangelism. We've got to steer a line between two extremes. Buoyant exhibitionism on the one hand, and of course, terribly stereotyped, rigid, almost sort of formal type of leading. I think it's in between those two things. Now, if you want two or three wildly different types of people who I think are very gifted in leading a meeting. For those of you who know these brethren, I give you one or two examples. I think Peter Lyon has an extraordinary gift in leading a meeting. He just seems to be able. He is not actually so free and easy, but he has the most wonderful gift. With his earnestness, you forget him, and yet he really leads the meeting. Then another one who's wildly different is Barney Coo. Tremendous humor, down to earth, full of fun. And yet you feel the Lord is present. And he's got a very loose limbed way of approaching the leading of a gathering. But when he leads it, it flows. There's this great sense of a flowing. It's a gift there. And then, of course, one that many of you will know, of course, is Cliff Barrows. I think he has a real gift in leading evangelistic meeting. In the way that he lifts everything. He's got a lovely, warm and happy spirit. And yet you feel everything's under control. It's a strong leadership. Well, there are three posse things that I think three people that you can think of in the matter of leading. Of course, obviously, the character of a gathering will very much determine the way it's led. But if you can just remember what we've said about preaching also governs the way we lead a meeting. It's the same, for instance, if you're self conscious and you allow that self conscious to inhibit you, then your leading will be inhibited. And this will bring strain upon the gathering. So you have to be just as much looking to the Lord on the matter of self consciousness as at any other time when you're preaching. There are many other things we can say. But maybe that's a question we ought to ask again at another time, if we have another time. Now, the scriptures are psalm 23, psalm 27, psalm 118. Isn't that right? And psalm 46, psalm 23, psalm 27, psalm 146, and psalm 118. Now the first. Now, Douglas, have you got something? Yes. Come on. Yes, and I think you should be the first. [00:21:16] Speaker C: Give them something to do. I expect a double blessing from this. Because this is the second time I've been through it. So Daniel only went through the lion's den once, but I'm going through twice. Psalm 23. If you will turn to psalm 23. Really just a few thoughts. Verse one says, the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want David, of course, being the shepherd, being in the desert with the sheep for a number of years, obviously has written this psalm out of experience. It's not just something that suddenly he thought up one day, well, it's a jolly good thing, the Lord will be my shepherd. This was obviously something that came out of experience. And I think that's tremendous for a start, that it comes out of experience. And I think so much in these days, what we share with other people has got to come from experience. It's so easy just to take something from the word. And if you've got the gift of the gap, you can talk on it for hours and hours. But to share from experience, people receive much more because it's something that's real to you, that has happened to you, and as you share it, it's tremendous. Other people know that it's real. They know there's something there. And just one thought really out of many that came to me with regard to the fact of the shepherd. And David was looking at this relationship between the shepherd and the sheep. He saw many, many different angles, as you can see if you look through the whole psalm. But the one that came home to me was the absolute trust and dependence of the sheep upon the shepherd. If they didn't trust the shepherd, they would soon get lost. I mean, sheep, as you know, are silly creatures. I did tell the story once when we were driving through Dartmoor. And of all the green that those sheep can sit upon, they always sit right on the edge of the road where they're in the most danger and causing the most problems. And I often think that that's the way we act towards the Lord, always giving him the most problems, but the absolute trust and dependence that the sheep need to have for the shepherd. And I think this comes out through the psalm, because to me it seems that David is bringing out different ways of guidance and the trust that the sheep need to have for the shepherd as they move through different situations. There are a number of different situations here. I just want to look at two. The first one is he makes me to lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside quiet waters. He restores my soul. He guides me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. There we have a lovely, serene picture. Everything's at peace. Everything is very nice, as it were. Everything is blessings coming and we're really moving on with the Lord. It's a beautiful picture and it's so easy in some ways to trust the Lord there. But have we ever really come to this place of true rest in the Lord? You know, we strive and we struggle as human beings and yet the Lord wants to lead us to a rest arrest from our works, from our energies, from what we are, and just arrest into what he is, that what comes through us is not us. All the time we've got to fight, we've got to produce this, but it's. [00:25:05] Speaker D: The Lord working through us. [00:25:06] Speaker C: I think this comes back again to this whole matter of experience the Lord has worked in. Let the Lord work out with fear and trembling. Work out your own salvation. I don't think that means with our works, with our effort. It means, let the Lord work it out through you. Let his life come through. And I think we've really got to learn this lesson, first of all. Before we can learn the second lesson, the harder lesson which we'll come on to. We've got to learn this lesson of peace, of rest. We read of it in hebrews four. The rest of the Lord really coming in to that rest of him. Rest from our works. And really knowing the life of the Lord coming through us. And the second one really starts from verse four. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for thou art with me. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. Thou doest prepare a table before me in the presence of mine enemies. Thou hast anointed my head with oil, and my cup overflows. You see, the first lesson has been learned. He's come to rest. David can know the Lord leading him into rest. And then he can go through the difficult places. Then he can walk through the valley of the shadow of death and fear no evil. But if, when things have been, as it were, going our way, going well, we haven't really had that dependence and trust on the Lord. Do you really think we'll have it when we get to the difficult times? I don't. I don't believe that it's possible. We've got to learn it first of all in the peace and the rest. [00:26:45] Speaker A: And know that in the Lord. [00:26:47] Speaker C: And then we can move through the difficult times. Whether it's the valley of the shadow of death. Or whether it's brother Shaw's famous table in the midst of his enemies. But that has always spoken to me in the presence of mine enemies. He's now not far away. They're not miles away, but right in the middle. [00:27:07] Speaker A: Now God has led us there. [00:27:09] Speaker C: God led David there. He didn't haphazardly find himself there. God had led him into the presence of his enemies. And there he prepared that table. He had prepared the table, and he was right there in the midst of his enemies. Well, may we be able to enjoy that table in the midst of the enemies. Because we know this trust and this dependence upon the Lord. [00:27:43] Speaker E: Turn with me to psalm 23, please. I'll be reading from the new american stance version. I'll read the whole psalm through. And then I'll come to the passage which I would like to speak on. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside quiet waters. He restores my soul. He guides me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for thou art with me. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. Thou doest prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. Thou hast anointed my head with oil. My cup overflows. Surely goodness and lovingkindness will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. I would like to come back to verse one. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. We have here a lovely picture of the relationship of a shepherd to his sheep and which speaks very dearly to our hearts of the Lord as David's shepherd. The psalmist, from personal experience as the shepherd in his earlier days knew both the nature of his sheep and the crucial need of a shepherd. We might ask here, what is the need of a shepherd if the very nature of his charges do not require him to answer the question? We must look at the character of the sheep first. Sheep are always led. If you've seen a flock of sheep being led, they are never driven along by the shepherd. Their nature to stray from the flock is summed up very appropriately by Peter in his first epistles, chapter two, verses 25. You turn with me to that's for you were continually straying like sheep. Repeater stresses, they're like sheep. He brings in sheep. And further, without a shepherd they will all be scattered, as we see in Matthew 26, verse 31, where he said that he will strike the shepherd and all the sheep will scatter. Therefore, sheep are in essence very dependent upon their shepherd, and this dependence is further stressed when we come to see the role of the shepherd. John gives us a classic description in his gospel, chapter ten of Jesus as the good shepherd. If do you like to turn to John? Chapter ten, I'll go through the verses with you. Verse three to him, the doorkeeper opens and the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out, illustrating here the shepherd's personal care and attention to each of his sheep. On verse four, when he puts forth all his own, he goes before them and the sheep follow him because they know his voice, showing us his leadership and his headship in leading the sheep. Now if you go on to verses 14 and 15, I am the good shepherd and I know my own, and my own know me, even as the father knows me, and I know the father, and I lay down my life for the sheep. Here he is the sheep's protector and would sacrifice his own life for his sheep. Now, if you would turn back to psalm 23. I would go on to the second portion of verse one. I shall not want. The hebrew word for want is shasa, which is to lack. Now, this same word is used in psalm 34, verse ten. You need not turn to it, and I'll just mention it here. They who seek the Lord shall not be in want of any good. Thing is not to lack. Now, this psalm as a whole reveals to us the shepherd's ability to care for us in every way. Not by being passive ourselves, of course, but we need to cooperate with him as his sheep. I want to ask, do we believe that it is his province to lead, feed, protect and heal us? If we are his true sheep and know and love and follow him, then we know that because of who he is, he is able to supply all our needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus. Having seen the reality of this first verse, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. The rest of the psalm flows from. [00:34:29] Speaker A: It. Diction. [00:34:37] Speaker F: Very good. [00:34:41] Speaker A: Addiction is excellent. [00:34:44] Speaker C: When he was reading, his voice tends to. [00:34:46] Speaker A: Yes, you dropped your voice. And that's partly because you look down too much. I think you might find it easier sometimes to hold up when you're reading. Because when you're preaching, you tend to only have notes and you are speaking out. But when you're reading, you spoke down, and that's when we couldn't. It is true once or twice. Yes. That is a very marked thing with you, Gerald. You got better and better. Which is probably much more blessed than to get worse and worse. Having begun as a point of blessing to go downhill. But I think this is partly because to begin with, I think you gave us an impression of something a little artificial. Too studded, too slow. Yes, and too. A little artificial. A little more than artificial. I think you've got to watch that. [00:35:43] Speaker E: It was as if you were thinking aloud. [00:35:45] Speaker A: And then after a while, you began to speak to us. Yes. When you got to I shall not want. I have a feeling that your first point on the Lord's my shepherd was a little bit needed. A little bit. What did someone say over there? Well, I wouldn't have said woolly. I think that there. Yes. May I just say this? It would help you very greatly if you had begun by stating this phrase. Stating a statement clearly. The Lord's my shepherd. And to have said, now the psalmist says that the Lord is his shepherd. Then you could have said something about the relationship of shepherd to sheep and then we wouldn't have been quite. We were a little bit at sea. I think that would have been a great help if you could have just made this clear statement and have said that the psalmist here has made a great discovery that the Lord is his shepherd and so on. Yes, but when you got to. I shall not want. Then we began to get something. Then we began to get some real values. [00:37:03] Speaker D: Yes. [00:37:04] Speaker A: Other points. [00:37:08] Speaker C: Just two small points. [00:37:09] Speaker A: One. [00:37:09] Speaker C: But he could have repeated that reference in Peter. He said it in a rather a funny way. I noticed one or two people didn't quite know which. [00:37:17] Speaker A: No, I didn't know where it was. No. I turned to Peter but didn't know the chapter of her Peter and it was 25 somewhere. [00:37:25] Speaker C: The other thing I found, this rocking movie tend to go back. [00:37:32] Speaker A: Yeah. So that's probably, again, no nerves, but you've got to watch. Yes, it was your beginning that was the problem, and your nerves and so on. When you came toward the end, it was very good. [00:37:47] Speaker C: Yes. [00:37:48] Speaker A: I thought it was a little bit unnatural to start. Yes. It was too studied. Perfect diction and. Yes, and a little bit too studied. And therefore a feeling of artificiality. Yes. Even so, it was well prepared. [00:38:12] Speaker D: Yes. [00:38:18] Speaker A: How many pages of notes did you have? [00:38:21] Speaker E: Eight. [00:38:21] Speaker A: Eight. Did you read what you had to say? Yes. But that was fairly well coped with as well. Yes, that was good, because we wouldn't really be so conscious that you were reading it. The only thing is that to begin with, it was, as I say, rather studied. [00:38:39] Speaker E: If you'd have been taller with that. [00:38:41] Speaker A: Lectern, you'd have been. But it was good. But you must ask the Lord to help you in this matter because if you've got nerves in this way, this is where you've got to get this freedom from the self consciousness which can inhibit you. I certainly think it's a point that he should lift his Bible up to when he's reading. Yes. Because he was sort of reading down then sort of looking up to see where everybody was following. He could have so easily lose his place. Yes, I think probably Gerald would benefit by taking a more informal approach. Yes, I think it tends to be a little formal. Yes, I think that is putting it really in a nutshell. You see, this sense of giving up a rather studied performance is because you're perhaps a little too formal. So if you can look to the Lord to help you just to be a little more outgoing and a little more natural, informal, I think it would help you greatly. Yes. Remember this, it's a very important point. If a preacher gives just himself, as some do, then it's awful. All we get is them full stop. But it can be just as terrible when a preacher. So due generally to a view of personality, a view of our constitution, they don't give anything of themselves. They believe that it all must be suppressed. Then they become a spiritual machine. The idea being that heaven flows through you see, you're just like a drain pipe. Heaven flows through to all the others. You are nothing. Now this can be just as trying as well. And the wonderful thing about the Bible is that we have the two things together. We have the person and we have the Lord. And it is divinely inspired scripture. And yet we can tell Isaiah from Jeremiah and Jeremiah from Ezekiel, and we can tell Paul from James, and Paul from Peter, and Paul from John and John from Peter. They're quite different, yet it's inspired scripture. So if they were just channels, only one would expect there to be a sameness about all this material. But instead we have the human vessel coming to us. And again, brother Nee helps us very greatly in this book on ministry of the word about the giving of your spirit so that there's something really it is rightly yourself that's released in the right way. So think about this, Gerald. Well, now let us move on. Who shall we seize upon now as an international evening? Kai, what about you? Have you? [00:41:48] Speaker D: Yes, unfortunately, I have psalm 23 too. [00:41:59] Speaker A: That's all I get. [00:42:05] Speaker D: I have the living bible, so I read straight through psalm 23. Because the Lord is my shepherd, I have everything I need. He lets me rest in the meadow grass and leads me beside the quiet dreams. He restores my feeling health. He helps me do what honors him the most. Even when walking through the dark valley of death. I will not be afraid, for you are close beside me, guarding, guiding all the way. You provide delicious food for me in the presence of my enemies. You have welcomed me as you guests. Blessings overflow. Your goodness and unfailing kindness will be with me all of my life. And afterwards I will live with you in your home forever. Sorry, I read on the last verse. Your goodness and unfailing kindness will be with me all of my life. And afterwards I will live with you forever in your home. We know that this is a fantastic, wonderful psalm. And I just have three very great, wonderful points in this psalm. And I got this point little bit unusual when I did my english exams and we came to the matter of the stress of the language, how we can stress one sentence and get out different meanings of the sentence. And you can do that with this psalm and you can get out quite different meanings. And it is just three different meanings I will look at tonight. And if we begin from the, from verse one, I can read like this first, because the Lord is my shepherd, the lord who is great, who is mighty, the lord who is king of king and lord of lord. He is my shepherd, he's your shepherd, the lord. Think of that and we can read it like this. Because the lord is my shepherd. I have everything I need, my shepherd, my own shepherd. It reminds me about a little boy in a big family. He had many brothers and sisters. And one day it came a guest in and visited this family. And the guest turned to the boy and said to him, pointed to his daddy and said, whose daddy is this? And the boy looked at him very anxious and little bit angry, and he. [00:45:16] Speaker A: Said, it is my daddy. [00:45:19] Speaker D: He said, just as he should say, don't say that this is somebody else daddy. It is my daddy and my own daddy. And of course the other brothers, brothers, his brothers and sisters could say exactly the same, it is my daddy, it is my own daddy, and it is the same with the Lord. He's my daddy, he's my father, he's you father, he's our father. Because the Lord is my shepherd, I have everything I need. The third point is, you can read this through these points I say in brackets, you can read this through again and again that because, for example, the Lord, it says first, and then it says he, he all the way through and my it changes with I and so on. And the third point is, because the Lord is my shepherd, I have everything I need. Here we come to the point, what the Lord is and what he is doing for us. He is my shepherd and because of that I have everything I need. He lets me rest in the meadow grass and leads me beside the quiet dreams. In the Swedish Bible, it adds little there after streams. And it says like this, he leads me to the streams where I have rest. It's wonderful that we don't need to search for the streams. The Lord leads us to the streams. And another thing also. There we have rest. Why? Because we satisfy or thirst by the streams and we have rest there. And we don't have just a rest. We have rest there by the streams. And he restores my feeling health. He is our doctor, our perfect surgeon. Praise the Lord. He helps us to live a righteous life. He helps us to live for God. How many times we experience this time. And time again, how difficult it is to really live for God. But here we have it. He helps me to do what honors him the most. We come to this dark valley of death, this valley of darkness, which we maybe not have experienced so much here I saw brothers and sisters in the communist countries and other countries that they've really experienced this dark valley, this valley of death. But they experience also how the Lord guards them and guides them. And I'm sure we will experience the same this really dark valley. When we be persecuted in this country, in the western world, as our brothers and sisters are today in the eastern world. So let us be prepared for this, and let us even today, experience how the Lord leads us, and how the Lord provide for us delicious food in the midst of our enemies. I thought about this table, but how important isn't it that we sit down and we begin to eat? If we don't eat of this table, he provide for us what use that we have a great nice table with many fine dishes there before us, if we don't eat and enjoy our meal, when that men enemies are around us, and when we do that, we are guest with the Lord, we are his guest and his blessing overflow in our lives. And at the end he says that he himself, with his goodness, with his unfailing kindness, all with us, shall be with us to the end. And he ends with this wonderful promise that he has prepared a room for us in heaven. I think that this psalm give us an idea of walking with the Lord from the beginning to the end, all through the life. We can recognize ourselves here in the christian life, all through, from the beginning to end. I have recognized myself and I'm sure you will recognize you, sir. You also there. God bless you. Ama. [00:50:17] Speaker A: What about that? Very much improved. A year ago we wouldn't have understood a third of it. Improved. Your English has greatly improved. There was a tendency to know his voice. He starts up quite, then he tends to go down, so you couldn't hear so well. Now you must watch that, you see, because folks who've got some deafness, who are very good guide to us as to how good we are in speaking his English has improved. I think it might have been better, though, if he read from a normal version, because with his difficulty in English, I didn't get quite some of the. Maybe not. Although I think that what he had to say was rather tied to this particular version, to the version he used also. I must say I got something particular in that reading. It may just be the other version. So much after the other contributions to have new light on it. Yes, and I think we must just divide something here because otherwise I think we'll go astray. We're not actually here to judge Kai or anyone else's English. We must take it for granted that it was perfect. Otherwise we shall go on to another level. We're talking about actual ministry of the word and I think that's rather important. We must think of Kai speaking in Swedish and therefore he would be quite perfect. And I think, I mean, the point is that he felt that version on his heart. And I think we should say that if that was the version God. We've talked about discretion of versions. If God gives you a particular word and it's based on a particular rendering of the scripture, we've got to allow that. Yes. [00:52:25] Speaker C: I found it a little confusing. He said, we've got three points. [00:52:29] Speaker A: He finished those three points. [00:52:31] Speaker C: Then we went right the way through the psalm. [00:52:35] Speaker A: You must watch yourself on that. It was the last point where that wasn't clear to us because you start as a shepherd. Aha. Now that wasn't over clear. That I must say. I think we got the three points and they were good, very good, and we got them. But the last part of what you said appeared somehow be disjointed from not in with everything else that had been said. Yes. If there'd been just a little greater, there'd been just that little more clarity as to how those came out of the last point of being our shepherd. I liked his directness and his involvement. Yes, he meant what he said. Yes, it was good. The ending was a bit weak. That may have been connected with the third point. Sort of got slightly lost at the end. Yes, of course, we have to remember the english problem here. But I must say, when you said and he ends with a promise, I couldn't quite see that, because in psalm 23 the last verse is not a promise, is it? Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. What was the promise? Was what you said later. He has gone to prepare a place for us. Yes, well, that would need a little bit of explanation. I think that the Lord has promised us a place in his house or in his home and then quote the promise. Yeah. Anything else? When you're going through the valley of. [00:54:42] Speaker B: The shadow of death, it is presence. [00:54:47] Speaker A: Guidance. [00:54:49] Speaker D: Yes. [00:54:50] Speaker A: There was just one point here which might be a helpful point for everybody. That was the one thing I've personally felt was the weakness in what Kai said was that he carved that particular verse out of the psalm. As far as we were concerned, everything else had much to do with us. But he said that he spoke with the people in communist countries and other countries and then said, maybe one day we shall go through this and we'll prove the Lord. And I think that would have been a good point to make. But I think it would have been even more wonderful if you'd said to us, of course there are other ways in which we can go in the valley of the shadow and thus give us back the psalm, do you understand? So that it came home to us. It was a valid point you made, but it's something that can leave us high and dry. Does this mean that if we go through the valley of shadow, for instance, there are many folks we know here in the company all going through the valley of the shadow of death? Yes, well, of course you didn't have much time to explain all that. But you see, when you have little time and you make a point like that it's a sense in which a part of the word is taken away from us. The valley of the shadow of death is not just a physical thing, it can be a spiritual thing. And this would be a great help to us if we'd understood that not only was it that, but there are many, perhaps of your people you're speaking to are in a valley of the shadow of death. Anyway, that's just a point. I don't know if it's a fair. [00:56:46] Speaker E: Being, fair, but I would get the sense. [00:56:48] Speaker A: Not just now, but maybe I say. [00:56:50] Speaker E: It being a bit unfair. There's other things that if Kai was. [00:56:54] Speaker A: Absolutely clear, the main thing Lord was trying to say contribution, it would help. [00:56:59] Speaker E: I often feel getting a series of points. [00:57:01] Speaker A: I'm not saying they're not related, no, but somehow if you were conscious of. [00:57:07] Speaker E: The main thing because often you had. [00:57:09] Speaker A: Something really on your heart and you. [00:57:10] Speaker E: Said that in one sense, you forgot. [00:57:12] Speaker A: The other thing, I think it may have helped. This is a point for everybody again, coming back. We're all the time coming back to certain things that have been said earlier. How do we know when we've got something from the Lord? We should be able to say it in a sentence. The burden. The burden. And we cannot overstress this enough. The whole problem with this practical training time is that we listen to things and then just carry on. We don't allow them to really sink in. And this matter is so important in ministry to be able to say in a sentence what is the burden that's on one's heart. And then to make sure that the points we have are really expressing from different aspects that burden, that's the way to know it. Otherwise you will get always a sense of disjointedness. It's very important for the speaker to be absolutely clear as to what is the burden. Otherwise it can all be lost in a great volume of words and points and facts and figures. But still kaidit was good. The three points you had were very good. They were clear and it was good. Well, now let's ask. Who shall we ask now again, Brian, have you done anything? Yes, if you would like to. [00:58:40] Speaker G: You like to turn to psalm 27. Psalm 27, verse four. One thing have I asked of the Lord that will I seek after that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life? To behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple. [00:59:11] Speaker E: The. [00:59:11] Speaker G: Thing that the verse says to me, the one word that sums it up, I think, is single mindedness. Single mindedness which comes out of purpose. It's a psalm of David, as we know. And I think that probably single mindedness and this verse sum up David's life. One thing have I sought after, that's to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life. We read in Matthew six, verse 22. If you'd like to turn to that. Matthew six, verse 22, about having a single eye. The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore thine eye be single, the whole body shall be full of light. David had this single purpose and therefore he was full of light. He fell many times. I find David's life an encouragement because I think he was as human as. [01:00:44] Speaker B: Most of us are. [01:00:46] Speaker G: He fell perhaps in the deepest way with Bathsheba. And yet the Lord lifts him up and I think it's because he had this single purpose to dwell in the house of the Lord. It was a thing that fired him and put him on his way. The contrast to single mindedness we read in James. If you'd like to turn to James and chapter one, verse 80. A double minded man is unstable in all his ways. So the opposite of single minded would be double minded. Someone who's unsure, well, we don't find that of David. Although he was someone who fell, he had this single purpose and therefore the Lord took him on. Looking down further in the psalm, I feel that this attitude of single mindedness created faith. [01:01:58] Speaker F: If you look at. [01:02:00] Speaker G: Verse 13, I somehow feel that coming out of that verse four, this verse 13, I had fainted unless I believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living, that somehow there's a connection between his single mindedness and this expecting to see the Lord blessing and doing good in the land of the living. It's as if his faith and his single mindedness had made a way for the Lord to do the goodness that is spoken of in the land of the living. [01:02:44] Speaker B: Well, don't get away with psalm 27 for too long. So I'd like you to turn back to psalm 23. And to stick to David's two verses. I'd like to read just the first and last verse. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. And surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. And I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. When I was thinking of something to say, I began to look at these verses, verses five and six. And I thought I'd say something about the Lord's goodness and mercy. Well, since then, several people have told us what they thought about the Lord's goodness and mercy. And I was looking especially at verse six and it was the ending. And I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. That struck me. Keep saying earn. I wanted to start with why David came to the conclusion that surely and goodness and mercy would follow him all the days of his life. And I thought it came out of verse one where he says, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. There was absolutely nothing that the Lord wasn't going to provide for him. And there was nothing he was going to lack. And in fact, the whole psalm speaks to me of provision of the Lord leading by green pastures and by still waters. And I was thinking, well, if I was just being born again and I read this psalm, I would get perhaps the wrong impression of the christian life, that the Lord being my shepherd and I'd have nothing to want. And I'd be lying down in green pastures and beside still waters and along paths of righteousness. And of course, it's only until when you get to verse four that you get any mention of, well, there's the. [01:05:14] Speaker G: Valley of shadow of death or the. [01:05:16] Speaker B: Valley of deep darkness, as Paul mentioned to me. And of course, in verse five where you've got the presence of the enemy. But apart from that, the whole psalm speaks of the Lord's goodness. And this is to me why David said, well, surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. But I still couldn't quite see where the last sentence. And I shall dwell in the house of the Lord where it fitted in. And I began to just sort of dwell on the fact, I shouldn't say dwell on the fact, began to think about the word dwell in the house of the Lord. And I looked through the rest of the psalm and it was all a leading. There's the picture of the Lord as a shepherd and us following as sheep, and we're going along paths. He's leading us down beside green pastures and alongside still waters, and he's leading us down paths of righteousness. And I began to see that, well, this is a progression. We're being led and we're walking along a path. And it's not until the end we get this idea of a dwelling where it's not a movement. There's a dwelling in the house of the Lord. And I thought, well, this surely is David's purpose. It's not that he may just have goodness and mercy following him, but it was that his aim, his purpose was to dwell in the house of the Lord. And I thought, well, all paths, they go somewhere, and anybody walking along a path, they're walking along there for a specific reason. If I want to go home, I take certain paths because I know they're going to lead me to my home. And here I felt, well, this is David. He's not going along these paths. He's not following the Lord just so that he may experience goodness and mercy and all the Lord's, the joy and the peace that's in the Lord, but that he was going along this path through life because he knew he was going to dwell in the house of the Lord forever. And that gave me, I don't know, it gave me sense of assurance that I'm born again, I'm a Christian, and I can go through life not just to enjoy life, not just to know that God's goodness and his mercy, but he's a real purpose for me, that I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. And that gave me, I don't know, it gave me something. It blessed me, anyway. And of course should be our aim and purpose. And it speaks, of course, in the New Testament about us as living stones and that we are the house of the Lord. And whether that was a most prophecy on David's part, I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever as much as he, as a living stone, was going to be in the house. I thought, well, that's wonderful. Not just to know goodness and mercy, but to know our aim and our purpose, to dwell in the house of. [01:08:23] Speaker F: The Lord. [01:08:30] Speaker A: By. [01:08:35] Speaker F: Turn, to psalm 27, please. Verse four. One thing have I desired of the Lord that will I seek after that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple. I think I have a problem here. I'm trying to dissect David's experience, and it's a bit of a problem because it all speaks of the Lord. Of course, the whole psalm speaks of a deep rooted experience in David's life. And here we are. What I would like to say is seeking in the house of the Lord. And one thing that he desired was to seek. Seek the Lord. And it wasn't a laxadaisical thing. He wanted to seek, and he stepped forward. He stepped forward. Now, if I can bring this down to ordinary terms, where do we find that we get into close contact with people, those whom we love and those whom we cherish. And that's in a home. We get to know all our shortcomings and what we are like. That's where all our natures come with more or less in the intimacy of a home. And that's where we will find the Lord, and Lord will find us in all our failings and shortcomings. But the thing that struck me is, in this home, although it's so near, and we can come and go in this home, we can take each other for granted. Sometimes we do take the Lord for granted. But the thing that struck me was stepping forward to go about seeking the Lord in his home. And sometimes I do wish that I would step forward more often myself in a positive way. So I do wish that we would all step forward every day of our life and in a positive way, so that the Lord can, in his home, can show us what needs to be done in our lives and what needs to be polished up, and to see him in all his glory and to get to know him better. This has been my thought. [01:12:19] Speaker A: Make our mistakes. For them to be torn to pieces, put together again, and for everyone to learn from them lessons about ministry, and particularly to get it into us by the Holy Spirit to get into us. What is our particular need? Now, it could be that you've been listening to one other and you see your need, because sometimes you can see yourself. Sometimes, not always, many people don't see themselves, but sometimes you do see yourself. Now, there are times when we need help. Sometimes we need the ministry of the church. In these things, you see, there are inhibitions which bind us, which paralyze us, which need the ministry of the church. Special prayer in the name of the Lord. Sometimes there are things which go back. Perhaps they're not exactly so much an inhibition, but they are things which can be greatly helped by the finger of God as it were being put on them. So that we then begin to understand for the first time. Now, this is my problem. And when we begin to understand our particular problem, it's halfway. We're halfway to victory. Now, every preacher has a problem. I don't think it's always just the congregation, Mr. Harris. The fact of the matter is that every preacher has got a problem. It's within himself. And often he, at the beginning, is not always aware of his problem. Indeed, it is amazing when we begin, we often think that our problems are all kinds of things that it is not. This is where it's a great help to have fellowship in this way and to know in openness and love. We may not put our finger upon it, but the Holy Spirit can. And we become aware that there is a particular need in our life. Now, I'm just saying this so that we are not downcast or thing. This is what sometimes happens out of one of these times. We feel, oh, well, now I've said my little piece. It's been torn to pieces. And I've got this and this and this and this and this. That's not much good. And, oh, dear. You see. Or the other side is, of course, I've not been called upon anyway. And therefore, this is definitely divine guidance that I have not got a ministry and should sort of take a backseat and shut up. But this is not so at all. All part of this all. We apologize to the listener. But the end of side two is missing from the master tape.