The Tongue

[00:00:00] Thank you, dear brother. One of the most staggering passages in the entire Bible, at least to me. I don't know about you, brother, how many times you've been through the book. My father gave me the Bible shown many times. I don't know about you, but I was staggered. [00:00:33] As I read to you the first time, this is one of the books that staggered me in such a way that for days I wasn't able to pass and read the next verse. That's how we should read the Bible. You stop and you obey. Then you carry on. and don't carry on until you obey. For this book can become a curse to you. [00:01:06] It's wholly reduced. And these words staggered me in the great and staggering book of James, the brother of the Lord. Where he said in chapter 3 in verse 2 If any man offend not in word, if any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man. [00:01:47] That's in the light he's been given, of course. If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man. And able also, able also to bridle the whole body. If you have victory here, you have victory everywhere. This is the tip of the iceberg. [00:02:19] Fail here, you fail everywhere. on every aspect where the devil comes. This is the tip of the iceberg, God says. The foremost proof of holiness, the right relationship with God, is not the way you dress. That's the last proof. I love modesty, but don't put the cart before the horse. [00:03:01] Men might take you as a member, because you suddenly have a covering. The right length back and every bit of modesty, but to be in God's eyes, rightly related. You can dress like a nun and be a devil. You can put your children through hell. And your husband. You can send them to hell. Just like that, a member of the church because of it. But holiness is not outward things. Holiness is Christ. [00:03:34] Full stop. Anything added is heresy. Of course these things have their place. And hallelujah for modesty. But if you put it before, it should be, you put the cart before the horse, you have heresy and an agony for you and everybody. Christ-likeness is holiness. No, stop. Christ-likeness is the fruit of the Spirit. [00:04:08] the work of the Holy Ghost is to glorify Christ and the great work of the Holy Ghost according to the scriptures is to conform us into the image not physically but the character of Christ Christ likeness is holiness take that away you have an awful religion probably the worst you would ever conceive in the name of Christianity take Christ likeness away and put anything in its place as the priority. [00:04:41] You give people agony to them and to everybody in the earth. But when Christ like this there, oh, if that is the outcome, if holiness is Christ, then these other things are beautiful. Otherwise, they're ugly, obnoxious, and bordering on blasphemy. to say that's Christianity's priorities. It doesn't mean I condemn [00:05:15] modesty, but I condemn a modesty that bypasses the vitals of the scripture as the priorities. So, God now speaks here and says that this is basically the foremost proof that you You have vital reality with God, the foremost proof of Christianity, of holiness with God. It's a man's ability to control this little member, a man's ability to refrain from entering into any conversation whereby he becomes defiled in the sight of God. [00:05:57] And God says this is just the tip of the iceberg because if there's no victory here, there's no victory anywhere. And that's through the scriptures. Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin. The whole Bible cries out to you. Find victory here. You might think that wicked sin in your heart, sir, is what you need to come begging God and groaning for to deal with. No! Seek God for victory and grace. Here's our victory. [00:06:30] Put yourself to God's grace, to seek grace and control, self-control in this issue. And you will find victory everywhere. Over the things you think are the greatest sins. Trust me. Find victory here. If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able to bridle the whole body. [00:07:01] Behold, we put bits in the horse's mouth, that they may obey us, and we turn about their whole body. Behold, also the ships, which though they be so grave, and are driven of fierce winds, yet are they turned about with a very small horn, whithersoever the governor listeth. even so the tongue is a little member and boasts of great things behold our greater matter a little fire kindleth and the tongue is a fire a world of iniquity so is the tongue among our members that it defiles the whole body and says of them fire the course of nature and it is set on fire of hell [00:07:35] for every kind of beasts and of birds and of serpents and of things in the sea is tamed and has been tamed of mankind But the tongue can no man tame. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. There was blessery, God, even the Father, and there was cursory men. Out of the same mouth proceed blessings and cursings. [00:08:08] My brethren, these things ought not so to be. That a fountain send forth of the same place sweet water and bitter. Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olive berries? Are there divine figs? So can no fountain both yield salt water and flesh. In the 47 years I have been saved, I do not know of any sin that has done more harm to the work of God [00:08:40] and cause more hurt to the people of God than the sin of uncleanness. You don't have to go out there and take a knife or a gun to murder somebody, sir. No, you'd lose your testimony doing that, wouldn't you? You just have to say one sentence according to God. You can murder a man more cruelly than a man who took a gun or a knife and stabbed him to death. more evilly [00:09:11] if all it takes is one sentence to destroy a man's honor forever a man's credibility forever a man's usefulness or ministry forever you can bury a man alive with one sentence and that's all the devil needs you to stoop to it's failing here the failure of the tongue It's a terrifying thing, beloved. Years ago, the great Duncan Campbell was used mightily in what we call a revival. [00:09:52] We talk about revival meetings, we organize something, and that's a week of revival meetings. No way. True revival is when meetings aren't organized. But God opens the heavens and comes, and people don't even know why. They're on their faces. That was across the great Hebrides revival. One woman was saved in that revival who shook this world. Her name was Mary Morrison. You might have heard of her, the books. I was saved in revival. Or Harkin, O Daughter. [00:10:24] Oh, she went into Premier's, President's homes and she shared of the great revival as few people. It wasn't Duncan Campbell. Oh, he went around and died. Very soon after the revivals. But that young lady that was saved one night, full of rebellion, when Campbell stood up and said, Mary the Master calleth for thee. Her heart melted. She was saved in such a mighty way. But Mary Morrison went and was greatly used by God as people flocked to hear her in the halls across the western world. [00:11:03] To hear of the great movings. No single person so advocated the true aspects and facets of revival as that woman did and they flocked in their multitudes worldwide to hear her. Mary Morrison was once in Scotland and they of course advertised this one particular group for a ladies meeting and who could they thank God for more than this famous woman who's singing by the way wish she would have been world renowned but she buried it and wouldn't sing from the day she was saved [00:11:36] and sang the song take my voice and let me sing always only for my king she never sang a secular song again in her life She meant it. She didn't just sing to join the crowd. Oh, and her singing was enough to open doors across the poopers and then she shared of the revivals that shook this world to know what we're missing and that we're aiming at things that aren't really what God requires the stepping stones before he comes and visits us in a way that nations turn to God. [00:12:06] Well, there she was. Now she's speaking in this special ladies' meeting. Hail the woman from all over because of all the advertising this lady is very well loved and known and is singing her household name in Scotland on Thursdays. Well, she preached, she shared from the scriptures to all these women and she brought all that God did that she could remember in her own life and others as God led her in that particular meeting. After which the group of women, particularly that had organized this special outreach and special occasion for the town, for the city there in Edinburgh [00:12:45] They asked her to come and join them for a cup of tea in the manse That's the preacher's home beside the great hall there at that particular church And so she joined them, the meeting was gone She had poured her soul out of the gate of Bibles and scriptures of the stepping stones that God waits for his people before he will come to fulfill. Oh, so, now she does what she always does. [00:13:20] She tries to get away from the crowd. So while all the women went into the big kitchen in Scotland, you know the big kitchens and fires always there, the furnace. and it's always big because those days that's where everybody assembled around the fire that's always going there in the store. So, she decided she would go next door and let the ladies make the tea and the cake and she went into the lounge area beside the kitchen. There was the door open and the ladies were all talking and she was praying because it's her custom to get along with God. [00:13:52] A safe thing to do when you preach. Don't worry what men say at the door, whether they bless or curse you. It means nothing. You have to get along with God to hear whether God was pleased, whether their blood's off your hands, whether you played to the gallery, or whether you really obeyed God and spoke his heart. So you need to get along with God, preacher, after you preach as fast as you can. Don't be rude at the door. Greet them, but wait. [00:14:23] Try and get along with Jesus first, otherwise you're an entertainer. You may as well go to the theater and act. If you don't only worry what God says, whether he's pleased, after you've delivered what you asked him to give you. So she was sitting there in the lounge, and she was praying, and being quiet, and committing everything to God. Suddenly she began to listen to these women in the kitchen area. Oh, a good group of them. And she couldn't believe what she heard. [00:14:56] They were venomously scandaling. Do you know what scandal is? Scandaling about some poor woman that took the chance of her life by missing the meeting. They didn't lose the opportunity to pull her to pieces, to strip her character, to say the most outrageous. Oh, these women were professionals when it came to scandaling. they really knew what they were doing they didn't lose it [00:15:26] now she thought to herself my word, I've just come out of the house of God I've just preached the word of God shared from God's word I've just shared in the great revival they walk out of the church and minutes later they're scandaling ripping a person to parts destroying a personality that she's not there to defend herself how could this be? so what does she do? well, she did what you and I perhaps wouldn't do she had a tape recorder and she [00:15:56] put it at the doorway there and he wound it, started it up and these women are just warming up anything to be said that's vicious and ferocious and outrageous and sinful they were going to say about this woman she's not there to defend herself this was their occasion a poor thing that missed the meeting took a chance of her life that crowd, but anyway so she puts it on And oh, she sits back and oh, these women, on and on and on. [00:16:28] Eventually, she rewinds it, the ladies come through with the cups of tea and the cake and everything, oh. And she said, ladies, I know you've listened to a whole meeting, a whole message of mine, but I wonder if you would be willing to listen to a tape recording. Just for a little while, I know God's really going to speak to you through it. Oh, these ladies with spirits, oh yes, no harm, you know, doesn't matter if we sat through an hour or two. [00:17:02] Oh, Mary Morrison's going to play a tape recording and the Lord's going to speak to us, there you are. So they all sit back with their cups of tea, open wide to the voice of God. Suddenly she said, oh. As they began to listen, they were looking around, and suddenly there were sighs, as they heard themselves, they were really sick, and it was like a lightning struck the building, gasping in shock as they listened to themselves. The one woman, I mean if you just said one sentence, of all there was, if you just said one phrase, it was caught on this little man-made machine, in all human limitations, perfectly recorded. [00:17:50] and so there was these gaspings and shame and sure the grief and conviction as they listened to themselves and all their ferociousness so the one woman was so undone that she got up and her cup of tea was just falling all over and she walked over the room saying Oh, can't you wipe it off? Can't you please just wipe it off? So Mary Morrison said, yes, I can wipe it all. [00:18:23] But will God? Will God? His holy book says, every idle word that men shall utter, they shall give account of on the day of judgment. Every, either word that men shall utter they shall give account of on the day of judgment For by thy words thou shalt be justified [00:18:54] And by thy words thou shalt be condemned God says God says It's one thing to sit and listen to great preachers even those who acknowledge us as the greatest orators in true Christianity. Anointing. It's another thing to walk out there and find yourself in a circumstance or a conversation five minutes later that you aren't defying everything God said in this book [00:19:29] without even hesitating. Be ye doers of the word, not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. As you can hear every single page of this book by one of the greatest preachers on God's earth, and within minutes, without any conviction, you can walk out there and defy it. We're so out of touch with God, so many of us. So many of us. So out of touch with God. I remember once being literally and very cruelly attacked from a pulpit. [00:20:22] I was in the meeting like you are. A lot of preachers were in that meeting, but this particular man, knowing I was there, he didn't want to lose his opportunity. It was like he was set to destroy me and that was all he was intent doing. As he lashed out at me, my ministry, me, my character, my motives I mean it was like he said, I just trembled I just shook as I sat there and how could anybody think these things would be How is it possible the devil got this, nothing this man's saying is true [00:20:55] And here he's saying it publicly It wasn't easy, I didn't just shout hallelujah Yeah, it doesn't go like that, brother. And great grief fell on that meeting, because a man destroyed himself. He destroyed himself that night. And the way you don't want to know is by doing that. But I was grieved. I didn't want to speak to people. [00:21:28] I wanted to get along with God. And so, there was a prayer and I got up, tried to get out of all this crowded room. But unfortunately, everybody's eyes opened, the amen, and there I was, and they all reached out to me, the grief. Don't you worry, brother, the one godly man said, he didn't destroy you, he's destroyed himself. And he's ruined this convention. Well, trust me, it wasn't easy, but I still tried to get outside. [00:22:05] Tragically, a couple of men caught me, all preachers, stopped me in their anger at this man doing what he did and as coward as using the pulpit to attack a man personally and destroying the whole convention, that's for sure. They were standing there angry and, you know, I was just about to respond as people all started crowding around. I'm listening to these preachers' anger and indignation at the wrong that this preacher had done against me. And I was just about to speak. I was just about to share my heart and my grief. [00:22:38] Suddenly I heard a voice, a loud voice from my father-in-law. A very, very godly man. Also a preacher. A farmer, but a preacher that didn't go through theological seminar, but boy, he gets the pulpit because he preaches truth. in a way that only a farmer can learn. And so the people flocked to hear him. But he was there in the convention. He was grieving. And he shouted, Case! This is how I was about to react. Case! Everybody looked around. Here he comes, his tall father-in-law of mine. [00:23:10] And he walked up to me. He put his hand here. And there was a little tear here. Listen carefully, my boy. And everybody was listening to him. We're all in the school of God. When you are saved, you are enrolled in God's school. And Keith, we all face exams in different standards. Just like you faced exams at secular school. And you have to write exams, you have to face exams. And if you fail, Keith, you have to go through it all again. [00:23:45] And be careful, boy, because you will face this again. If you fail here, Keith, in the school of God and you face an exam that's a bit more extreme than most people would ever as a preacher This wasn't an easy exam that God's allowing you to face But Keith, if you are not careful to pass the exam in God's eyes and in men's eyes I guarantee you'll go through this again So if you don't want to go through this again, boy Pass the exam now in God's eyes and men's eyes [00:24:18] well that shook me and it shook everybody around me they just disappeared at last I was alone and God gave me wonderful grace because everything just changed the whole perspective of what was happening changed as what my godly father oh I thank God for him I thank God for him what a wonderful man of God he is and how privileged I was to have such a father-in-law that was more of an example than anything else to me in everything yes exam Well I had to face things there that I did pass those exams by the grace of God [00:24:53] as that man was thrust right next to me in a way that I had no option but to sit and I asked God for grace to pass the exam and I did I turned to him and told him I loved him and I'll be praying and I meant it he knew I wasn't facetious or obnoxious in saying I pray for you for God to bless you God gave me the grace You see, no matter what circumstance you are in, when you face an exam, God has a holy obligation to give you all the grace you need to pass that exam fully, or he has no right to ask it of us. [00:25:31] I don't care what you face in life, brother, sister, God would never be so unjust to allow it, or to expect you to pass the exam. This is a set work book in the school of God. The only set work book we have. We have books about the book. Don't neglect the book for books about the book. Because here is a set work book of God. The only one in the school of God. And what you read, be careful. Even when you read Job, be careful. It's not there to tickle our ears. It's there because we're going to face exams. [00:26:04] Everything. In marriage, as children, as parents, toward our enemies. And then you face the exams. It's not there to retrust me. You either fail and you will have to face it through your life until you pass. You see, I was at school. I think you people have homeschooling. My children did too. But we didn't have homeschooling in our particular continent, country. And it was illegal to do anything but send your children to school. [00:26:37] So yeah, we went to school. I was very unsaved and I had a very unsaved father and a very unsaved mother, trust me. But I didn't realize you were at school to learn. That was stupid. I mean, I honestly thought you were there to have fun and especially sports. Oh, I was just, that was like my God. I had to be in everything. I mean, my daddy was called into, they said this boy wants to be in every single sport there is. It's ridiculous. [00:27:07] He's running from one thing to the other and he so puts his heart, we can't say to him, no, you go. Anyway, daddy didn't know what to do with him, but I thought I was there just for sports mainly and for fun. I woke up to a fright when I realized that you needed to study, you know. And I failed. Oh, I failed, but so badly. The shock, you know, you know what was really the shock, the horror that fooled my heart when I failed? The first time I failed. [00:27:40] The horror that gripped me when I suddenly realized that all the boys and girls that started with me who passed were leaving me behind. And I was now with children that were just starting because I failed the exams. And I was left behind. By those now all my friends, all I started with, they left me behind. [00:28:13] Do you know the horror that gripped me? The fear as I looked at the new younger faces. And the horror as I realized, 90% of their time now is not with me. They parted with each other, but they left me behind. That was horror. Oh, there's a verse in the Bible. It says in Hebrews 5.12 When the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again. You failed. You failed. [00:28:46] The first principles of the oracles of God, you've still got to go over the basics. When you have need, you should have been teachers by now. You should have been so advanced. But here you are, you failed so much. I had an uncle. He was a strange man. Very unsaved, okay? So, brace yourself. His name was Moon, Uncle Moon. That, of course, was not his real name, but he had no hair. And he was big. And this big moon, you know, they called him Moonshine Cook. Oh, he's South African champion in his sport, but that means nothing. [00:29:18] But the fact is, Moonshine Cook. Everybody loved Uncle Moon because you just look at him and you start laughing. And all he wanted to do was make people laugh. So, if you ever had an uncle like that, they walk in and they just make people laugh. Oh, you just laugh. laugh sometimes at things he didn't mean you'd love and he ran into the house one day and he used to call himself Trinkletoes, 250 pounds Trinkletoes so he runs and he says Trinkletoes is here but he slipped on the carpet and went up in the air BOW! on his back but we thought the whole building was coming down so he gets up and he says I meant that [00:29:51] well anyway, there you are, that's humiliation dear Uncle Moon we used to love him, of course the children loved him and all the grown-ups, very unsaved We didn't go to church on Sundays, but we as boys did as Sunday school, but not the family. Sunday nights, all the family came to mother. My mother was the center of everything. So all the uncles, aunties, children all came, and Uncle Moon was so funny, as he would share the stories of the war, you know. He went to war, he was a prisoner of war, and he used to make the Germans die nearly of heart failure. [00:30:24] So all they're laughing, he was so funny. anyway, that's Uncle Moon he was just, everybody laughed and he had the most funny, he just opened his mouth and you laughed, everywhere and everybody knew him, you walked down the street in the city and everyone, everywhere oh, he was loved loved by the unsaved anyway well anyway, Uncle Moon, now he would come and all the grown-ups sitting inside the lounge all talking about three things, politics or sport yeah, well anyway, those days that's all you spoke about especially in our country which was so bloodbath going on, coming. [00:30:57] But nonetheless, we as children used to go to the lounge and in the passage we'd say, go to 20 of us, all the cousins, from all the uncles and aunties, we'd say, Uncle Moon! Uncle Moon, come! Come, come to us! Didn't take much to make Uncle Moon want to leave the grown-ups and come to the children, you know. He's up and he walks away and he comes and we all sit at his feet and we tell our stories. I don't know how many of them are true But we used to cry with laughter So of course we brought up this thing about failing at school [00:31:27] One night And Uncle Moon said, oh don't worry if you fail at school, man And he said, Uncle Moon always failed at school I failed and I failed and I failed And all the other boys and girls were little like us And this big Uncle Moon And they forced me up even though I didn't pass They were so embarrassed, they pushed me up. You didn't have to pass. Anyway, he said this strange thing to us. He said, you know, Uncle Moon failed so much that the government had to step in. [00:32:01] Because they didn't know how to work out how to give a child at school a pension. Anyway, ridiculous. Of course, he was lying. But that was Uncle Moon, unsaved. He came to Christ, by the way. in a wonderful way toward the end. Oh, and did he change the humility and the gravity and all the jokes were gone. Oh, he found God. It's amazing how God found that man. But Uncle Moon in those days was just failing. [00:32:34] Now listen carefully. In the school of God we fail. But the foremost failure is this. Because if you fail here, you fail the other way. If you don't fail here by the grace of God, you'll have victory everywhere. God says, strewn through the scriptures, find victory and grace here. And the discipline of obeying and seeking God for that grace to be implemented. And you will find grace to have victory over all that which the devil comes towards, the sensual sins of life. [00:33:08] God says that. And God needs to be taken note of, brother. He doesn't say for nothing. Find victory here because here's where failure comes more than anything else. Anything. Oh my, you know that chapter, Romans 7, the good that I would. I do not. Isn't that amazing? I want to have victory. And I want to do what God says, but the good that I would, I do not. [00:33:39] But the evil, which I would not. that I do isn't that amazing now if I do that I would not there is no more I that do it but sin that dwelleth in me I find then a law that when I would do good evil is present with me for I delight in the law of God after the inward man but I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin [00:34:10] which is in my members O wretched man that I am, who should deliver me from the body of this death? That's all he could think of, this failure. In spite of the will and the longing, there was something of the sinful nature that caused sin, that had to be dealt with by Christ. I was a missionary for many years before they allowed me to preach in many countries. [00:34:41] Across our country in Southern Africa eventually, and then eventually in many countries. But I was put in charge, my wife and I, in one of the provinces, one of your states you'd say. We had workers, young workers, who'd come and overlook us. And I was the district superintendent, my wife and I and our children were there in this house. But we always had to have cars, three cars. I could tell you a whole message. [00:35:11] I want to write a book one day just on cars of missionaries. I don't know about your cars, your missionaries' cars, but boy, you should have come into our mission to know the danger of cars, missionaries' cars. Oh, my! I remember one car, the one dear godly man, as we were getting in the cars, young missionaries, he says, let's pray. And he said, oh, God, this car is dangerous. It's a danger to everybody that they're going to drive past. It's a danger to them. It shouldn't be on the road. [00:35:43] You didn't feel very confident driving in that car after such a prayer, but anyway. That was it. We had cars. I remember one godly missionary. They were coming down a mountain down to Cape Town where I live. There's mountains all over. They were coming down this amazing mountain, this pass. You could see 50 miles. It was so high. And down and down and around, you know. Whoa! Oh, and his dear wife, dear Mrs. Govan, she lived, she could quote the whole book of Romans. She quoted most of the Bible, the New Testament. But anyway, this wonderful soul, who God so used. [00:36:15] She was sitting next to her godly husband, and they're on the way to this big convention where I was going to. And suddenly she sees the wheel of a car. Pow! And all the cars going around, down these cliffs and everything around. that they dug of it, you know, grey drops of a thousand foot, more sometimes. And she says, my darling, look at this, somebody's wheels come off their car. This thing's going pow, pow, over into the mountains. Oh, she says, I hate to tell you this, darling, but it's our wheel. [00:36:49] That's a bit fearful, you see. She says, oh, I think we're going to die, darling. We're going to heaven now. Not if I should help it, he says. Anyway, they somehow got out of that, all right. But we have stories that you wouldn't believe about cars. Nonetheless, we had three cars. My wife and I and our missionary, younger missionaries that we sent out to do all the preparation of the crusades and the outreaches we had all over the country in that area of Africa. And I was, we were in the headquarters of this one part of the country, okay. And the three cars are because I have to have one, [00:37:22] because I have meetings and all things that are disassociated from everybody else many times. And then my wife has to have one because when we're away, she has the children. She can't walk to school in the city or walk to the shopping malls and that. So she had to have one. That's the second car. The third car was for our workers. Now, if you didn't have three cars, you couldn't function as a mission, as a headquarters anyway. So we had to be careful with the monies. Sometimes cars really drained the finances because the old cars were given over 200,000 kilometers sometimes. [00:37:56] and there they're given to the mission. All right. Thank God we had them. Some of them lasted another 200,000. Some of them blew up. Literally, two of my cars had to get up and run. And the next day God got someone who didn't even know about it to phone and say, we have a car for you, brother. Anyway, it wasn't going to all the wonderful goodness of God, but I had 14 cars. They'd be burned to the ground. Nonetheless, here's these three cars. There's this one car I couldn't repair because there was so much other costs and things, maintaining everything and keeping the work going [00:38:30] and I just had to not use the car as much as I could. It was a yellow car, better not tell you the make, but anyway. This car had a real radical problem. One of the problems, but one of the real radical problems was the electricity. The, what do you call it, anyway. The boo-hoo-to, we call it hooter, you would call it a... What is the thing that makes a noise, a beep? Pardon? Horn. Horn! You say that in Africa, they'll think you've got a rhinoceros coming at you. [00:39:03] Nobody will know what you're talking about. We call it a hooter, okay? Nonetheless, the hooter would go off if you didn't press it. Have you ever been in a car like that? Now, it's very unnerving, because you can get people offended. You're driving along a... Now, I didn't want to use this car. I thought to myself, no, no, no. We tried never to touch it because I didn't have the money at that stage to repair this particular electronical problem. And so I had to use it one day. [00:39:34] Now I'd learned my lesson that it's very unnerving and it can really cause life-threatening circumstances. When it goes off, when it shouldn't go off. So I'm going down the street and BAAA! So I look through the corner of my eyes and everybody's looking at me and saying, What's this guy? BAAA! Going down the road. Now I had to go to the centre of town. With the robos, the red lights, whatever you call it, we call it robos. Anyway, now you come. And I thought to myself, now look, if it goes red, I'm going to have to stop behind people who can't go. [00:40:06] Please don't hit it. So I stopped behind this car, and now they can't go. And pop! So I just put my head down. Pop! Looked up, and there was one guy putting his fist around her. You're crazy, I can't go. The one guy got out, and he was really angry, and I said, Roar, I locked the door of the window, and he said, Are you totally off your mind? We can't go! What are you waiting for? You're crazy! Now how do you tell a man, I didn't mean, it's not me. [00:40:39] You know, Bob, it's not me, it's my car. How do you explain when something happens that happens, shouldn't happen, that it's not me? It just happens, and I'm not at fault. I didn't mean it, I didn't want to, you know. How do you do that without causing anger and misjudgment and really becoming something of a genuine disaster in people's eyes? But that is the tongue, when you can't control it. Oh, and what it does in the home. [00:41:12] When you can't control it in the home, oh my, my, my. Forgive me doing this, but I wrote one or two things down that I didn't want to forget. And so I'm going to have to share these things with you. John Wesley. He was a really amazingly anointed man with a great wisdom and a great humility. They stoned him, left him for dead and he got up, climbed up this mountain covered with blood [00:41:47] and Wesley preached to those people who stoned him and left him for dead rather than have him come into the town at what was happening through him. The king of England had to stop them stoning the godly Wesley and his people. But anyway, Wesley led all those people to Christ that stoned him. Amazing how God turned the town that stoned him like that and threw him off the cliff and left him for dead. that was the great Wesley Wesley was once when he was really greatly used and known throughout [00:42:18] England in an amazing way the king of England had never done a man such grace and service to God to his country as John Wesley they buried him with the kings in Westminster Abbey but there was great Wesley now who stopped the bloodbath that was happening in France at the revolution which was coming over to England and instead of the blood The gospel brought forgiveness. Compassion from the rich to the poor. Forgiveness from the poor against the rich. It was amazing healing. 99% of it was through Wesley's preaching. Whitfield came here and would use mightily. It was Wesley who stopped the bloodbath. But the great Wesley now loved, revered. He was preaching one day in London. And a woman walked up to him and said, Mr. Wesley, you are a great stumbling block to the church. [00:43:10] He said, lady, what do you mean? Your dress, sir, is worldly. Worldly? What about my dress is worldly? Well, trust me, you wouldn't believe how they dressed those days, so I don't want to go into it. But it's worldly, yes, sir, your tie. Now, believe it or not, you Amish, Mennonite, you might think ties are artificial. They had a purpose years ago. It started, honestly, to keep together the shirt piece and that. Okay, well, it didn't exactly look like our ties today, you know, like the Gentiles wear. [00:43:44] But anyway, it was a much bigger, but it was a tie, it was the beginning, the evolution of the tie. Let's not go that way. But the whole history is rather remarkable, but it started very different from what you have now, which is just a show, you know, fashion. It doesn't mean anything, it's not necessary. And it's a bother. But anyway, Wesley had this, and he said, what's wrong with my tie? Is my tie worldly? You know, they had to have it or otherwise you'd see his bare chest, which you didn't want in those days. They didn't seem to button all these fruit things that even Wesley wore. [00:44:15] It was just a way that they dressed, even the godly, Whitfield, you name it. Even your Donovan Edwards, it wasn't with a big collar. Anyway, this woman said, no, it's worldly. He said, what is worldly about my tie? She said, the length. You are copying the Welsh fashions. They lengthen it, you lengthen it. They shorten you. You are really a stumbling block to people. Christians who now are following the fashions of the world as they change lengths and sizes. He says, so my tie's length is worldly? Yes. And a stumbling block? Yes. Oh, lady. He said, just wait. He ran. Don't move. And he came back with a big pair of scissors. They didn't have nice little scissors those days, but those big scissors, you know. [00:45:06] And he said, take it, cut my tie to a spiritual length. I don't want a worldly length on my tie. I can't cut your tie. You must. I don't want to be a stumbling block to anybody. This is worldly cut to the spiritual length, woman. Oh, okay. You know, is that spiritual tie now? Yes, that wouldn't cause anybody to stumble. That's how Christians should be. Oh, thank you, lady. [00:45:38] So this is the right length for spiritual Jesus. All right, now, open your mouth and stick out your tongue. He wanted to cut it to the spiritual end. But anyway, that was Wesley's way of dealing with things. Of course, it's laughable. But you didn't play the fool with John Wesley. The tongue needed to be somewhat tame. But you don't deal with a problem by cutting with your tongue, brother. that's not the issue we have a godly man in South Africa [00:46:08] his name is Manfred Stiegen he's a farmer of a very great plantation that has been down 400 years in the farm a German man, very great German communities that were started all his missions and this man used to let me preach to the Lutheran churches all over that area of Zulu land and land of all the Zulus many who loved God but I was able to stay in his home on occasions and he was telling me when I was visiting them I'm going to preach in some of the churches there. And I was staying in this beautiful old house. He was telling me of an astonishing thing that happened. [00:46:40] Did you know the blacks, the natives that grew up with him, they're his closest friends. They all grew up as children. And now they all grow up. His daddy's dead, his grandpa's dead. He's now the owner of the whole plantation and farm. He says, we knew them like brothers and sisters. They were all, you know. And of course he loves God. and mightily saved and preaches the gospel himself in a wonderful way, especially to the Germans and the Zulus. But this man now, he says, one of the ladies that grew up with me, she helped my wife in the house [00:47:11] and that's her basic duty, her husband works on the plantation, but she's like a domestic and helps and assists in the house. That's what she did as she grew up. And one day she said to me, Mr. Stegen, I have something to share with you that's going to grieve you. So he said, what is that? She said, I have been to see the witch doctor. He looked at her and said, no, you couldn't have done that. You know that's evil. That's of the devil. That's not God. [00:47:42] You're a Christian. You don't do that. You profess to know Christ. How could you have gone to a witch doctor? You see, the native often turn to it in their exasperation if they haven't got a vital reality with God. And so, she said, well, I had a terrible problem. My husband and I fight so much that we're destroying our children. And she said, I just see our children want to get out of our home. And they can't bear the fighting and we land up resorting to physical things. [00:48:16] There's a terrible thing that happened because both of us can't control. But it starts here. So I went to the witch doctor and I said, I'm desperate. I'm losing my children, I'm losing my husband because of my tongue. I can't control it, I've got to have my way and I land up lashing out he says if you've got any way you could help me, witch doctor and somehow the arguments will stop and I will have the ability not to answer back and fight because the moment I answer back [00:48:47] I'm in trouble the witch doctor of course looks at her and says yes I've got a medicine that will cure the problem, totally and stop all the fighting totally. You will never have another fight again in your life if you take this medicine. She said, I've got to have this medicine. So, of course, he gave her this bottle, put a prescription how many, what to do. And he said, every time there's any tension in the house and an argument is about to start, run, take this medicine, but do yourself an honor. [00:49:19] You take this much and you put it in your mouth, but don't swallow until the argument's passed. And you'll never have another argument again. So of course he had a sense of humor. This witch doctor had a real sense of humor, what he was saying. So she said, I'll do it. And she said, you know, Mr. Stegen, all the fighting is stopped. That medicine works. I just put it in my mouth and I don't swallow it. And there hasn't been one argument since I've done this. [00:49:51] So of course he looked at her stunned and he thought, how am I going to explain to her this man is just joking. This man's laughing, but it works. I don't think God meant for us to take scissors and cut our tongues off short to bring the spiritual in. I don't think God intended us to fill our mouths with water and walk around until the argument's over. I don't know if that's victory. I remember as a young Christian going to theological seminar, now I had to. We're not all born Mennonites. [00:50:23] We're ready for the mission field, you know. No training required doctrinally or anywhere ethically, but I trust me 90% or 99% or 95% of those who go to theological seminary would cause disaster if they went on the mission field with no knowledge of the scriptures or the ways of God or the ethical code by God's grace through the scriptures alone of what is required of a preacher. so we have to go through otherwise 99% of every mission in Africa and most of the world would never accept you because they know the damage that can be caused by someone who hasn't had [00:50:55] some training and I went to theological seminars now I was through, I knew God had led me there, there's no doubt of that I would defy God not going there trust me I'm not advocating theological seminars or bible schools, colleges most of them would send you would destroy you they're so carnal and so liberal but thank God I went to a deeply godly conservative where they didn't want so much you to pass the exams here but in your life otherwise you're a failure in your eyes oh yes, hallelujah [00:51:27] I was with godly people some of the godliest missionaries that had ever, ever served God across Africa who were our lecturers, it was like one convention, blaze of light and I used to go from the lecture room on my face weeping I was under such deep awareness of the workings of God in my life I went to Bible school thinking that everyone's going to be angels. You know, this will be a few years of being with angels. All that come to Bible school must be angels. Trust me, we found out fast, especially I, that we're not angels. Troubles. [00:51:59] From the first night, I had trouble to the boy that was put into my little room. And we could hardly bear each other. Now, I'm just being honest. Some preachers would never be honest. I have to be honest or leave the pulpit. God told me that long ago. Be true or get out of the pulpit. You're useless unless you're honest. And I am honest. I did fail badly. I found out I had a temper. When things went wrong, [00:52:31] especially when other students did wrong against other students. When they were wrong. And some of these students were so carnal and they particularly took it out on one of these very slow boy, a slow boy, he was a good boy. He backslid into the world in a terrible way, he was so destroyed. But this poor boy, he did things and they would do things against him behind his back and I thought, where is Christianity? You know, and I used to stand there and I used to say to myself, I'm not going to get upset. You know, especially when you have the common room in between all the lectures and all that [00:53:03] and you have tea and cake in there. I stand there and I'm not going to get upset as they were carrying on with this boy doing the most horrible thing. I'm not going to get upset. It was like a bomb, you know. And did I lash out, and then I failed worse than they were failing. Trust me, they all looked at me, everybody looked at me, knowing, boy, there's failure here. I really exploded with temper, and I was saved. I was saved, trust me, no one would doubt that, no one in the world would doubt that, what God saved me from, but here I suddenly realized, oh, and did I try not to. [00:53:36] Oh, the Lent of Quiet Time, everything. crying to God, but I used to explode, not going to get up, in the end I packed my bags, I left, and I thought I'm finished, but I couldn't, you can't run away from God Jonah, oh you're in trouble, and so is everybody that comes near you, so I soon went back, a very godly woman, oh she was godly, She said, oh Keith, they told me you left the Bible school. I asked God to send them here, boy. [00:54:11] So I went to her. She said, sit down and tell me what's wrong. I said, you know, they preach a standard that's not possible. She says, they're not such a standard, Keith, that's the scriptures. It's not possible, Keith. So I don't understand myself. She said, you, have a good sleep, take the Bible, go down to the great Captain Dobby, he was a principal for many years, he was loved across Africa, and sent many missionaries across Africa, that godly old man. [00:54:45] Dead many years, now go down to him and you tell him about it. So I walked to his house, had a big Bible, those days I wanted the biggest Bible in the world, you know, whoa. And as I'm walking down the street, a whole lot of men started laughing at me, because it was a big Bible. And you know what I did, I actually hid the Bible. I didn't want people laughing at me and all these public people sitting there having tea outside of the workplace laughing at me as I was walking down to the great Captain Dobby. What's wrong with me, God, that I want to preach? How can I be ashamed of the Bible? So I pulled it out and I walked like this, angry at myself. [00:55:19] Knocked at the door, Captain Dobby sits down and says, I've lost that godly man. How can you preach a standard that no one can attain? Oh, the joy I had. And I came with such joy. it just flows from me and under your people's ministry and the standard you say is not possible to attain and I just see myself as a failure to leave until God says I have to go back so I'm not back, Mrs. Smith says I should come to you and tell you my problem, you don't believe God [00:55:51] Keith, you believe the devil God says the devil says no it's not possible you believe the devil so you accuse me of preaching wrong though I preach as a script church the standard of God's word when will you believe God boy anyway he said listen I'm not going to let you pray you've got no faith, I'm going to pray for you let's pray [00:56:21] oh Lord help this boy he's reached crisis corner in Christianity and we all reach Lord when we know after we're saved God has to do something radical we're not going to grow out of this when he's reached the place God he has to come to absolute surrender total surrender that we all reach and unless it happens we will become a great hindrance to God [00:56:51] as missionaries, as preachers because what we preach we can't live we know it so something has to happen he needs to be filled with the God, the Holy Spirit which can only happen at absolute surrender a moment of total surrender to God and then God fills him that isn't a cup half filled with another the Holy Spirit is a person, he doesn't dwell half in you it means he takes control but he cannot control you until you totally surrender everything on the altar [00:57:24] as Romans 12 says I beseech you, brethren, I beg you, I implore you, Christians, so if Paul could I were, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, not a dead sacrifice on the altar, but a living, but a sacrifice, a whole life, totally surrender on the altar of God. be not conformed to the world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and perfect and acceptable will of God [00:57:56] this dedication, what you dedicate God concentrates God can't dedicate for you you have to come to a place you dedicate everything, brethren and I beg you to do it before you cannot prove anything through Christianity though you're saved you have to come to let God God take full control. That's all it means. And he can only do that. And that's being filled with the Spirit. Controlled. Which comes there. That doesn't make you absolutely perfect. All it does is place you in a position where God can take you on to perfection. Before that though you're saved it's ups and downs. More downs than ups if you're honest. But there you find a consistent growth. [00:58:38] because you always have to grow. There's no such a thing as perfection. Ultimate perfection comes as you go to heaven until then you grow. That's why you're still alive. God's got more to do in you and through you. So what you do is put yourself into a position where God can take you into growth. Steady, consistent growth which is not in your life. You're just ups and downs and more downs and ups if you have to be honest. Now, God make this man come to the end of himself. Totally. Help him to confess every single failure and look to the blood for cleansing. Then there's much failure in his life. Let him look to the blood to go deeper through and through. Create in me a clean heart, O God. [00:59:23] and renew a right spirit within me, a consistency, a consistent walk with God in the light I'm given that I don't have. Then will I teach transgressors thy ways and sinners shall be converted unto thee but until then I'll probably send more people to hell than heaven because they're watching my life after I've preached and it doesn't work. Now Lord, help him to go, confess, ask thee to take full control, without looking for emotion, without anything, but just a naked faith. [01:00:01] Say, God, take everything. Every aspect and faculty of my being I lay on the altar. Hudson Taylor preached them, Charles Finney, John Wesley, name them. 95% of every of the greatest name on earth that ever moved this world to God testified clearly that after salvation there was a crisis whereby God took the whole. William Booth, Samuel Oman Brangle, you can go through their names and their testimonies. Maybe they had different terminologies of being filled with spirit. [01:00:32] Absolute surrender, Andrew Murray. The heart made clean by blood, William Booth. but it all related to absolute surrender to a place where you gave up this incredible fight in the crisis of what you knew you were a failure especially here well I trusted God then go and get right and ask forgiveness so I did of course you know when you leave the theological seminar with all your bags and you [01:01:03] you got to go back it's quite not easy everybody looks at you coming home now After you left so dramatically. I remember standing there in the common room where normally they would do these things to this poor boy. That was really the thing that got me upset. And before I would stand there and say, I'm not going to get upset. I'm not going to get upset. And then, I would tell them where they're going in a very unkind way. And how terribly ungodly they are. [01:01:35] Nonetheless, here I'm standing there now, and they're doing these things, and I thought to myself, that's strange. I'm not upset. I'm not happy with what they're doing, I'm grieved. But I'm not upset. And you know, after a little while of me not reacting, but I looked at them with love. You know what it is to love your enemies? And not look at them with hatred and say, I love you. as one or two people have done to me. [01:02:08] I love them! But to look at them with love and to know God's love in their heart toward them, that takes the Holy Ghost from us. And eventually they changed under deep conviction of what they saw in me. That I was changed. They started seeking God. I found victory in other aspects that I don't want to share here. [01:02:43] Where I knew failure and couldn't understand. That's just that second look. Why did I look again? I didn't go back to moral decadence, but there was a second look. I'm being honest. Maybe you never confess openly to these things. I'm going to be. Because you need to hear it. Even you boys and girls. Let alone men and fathers. I found victory there. Oh, I felt no emotion, nothing. [01:03:15] With naked faith I gave everything on the altar to God. Went back in obedience and found without any emotion in me that God had done what I had asked of him. At my crisis in total surrender in such a crisis and desperate moment. Desperation corner. Have I ever sinned again? Of course I have. I'd lie, and if you lie, get out of the poop, but you're finished, you're in trouble with God. Be careful he doesn't strike you dead. But I will admit this. [01:03:54] I've had need of the blood since then. But I will not be denied the privilege of saying these words for the glory of God. From that time to this day, I have experienced by the grace of God a victory that I did not believe was possible in this side of heaven. I would never have believed such victory is possible. In circumstances where you would not believe, God allowed to come against me and I revealed Christ. Not because I had anything in me that I can commend, [01:04:24] Other than that God had brought me to a place where his Holy Spirit was able to bring the fruit, the evidence that the Holy Spirit is in control is love. You can love your enemies. You can bless them that curse you. You can do good to them that hate you. You can, brother. Your love suffers long and is kind. You can know it is not a mockery. It's a grace God is obliged to give you. But you have to come to a place where you let the Holy Spirit do it through you. You can never do it in your own capacity. To the day you die, you can struggle to the day you die. You have to come to a place of absolute surrender. [01:04:56] I know you're saved. And I'm not ashamed to stand here and say you need absolute surrender. You need desperately. I don't care about doctrine. I care about you. I care about your walk with God. So don't touch me about what doctrine's being preached here. For God's sake, don't. I care about you walking back there and not failing in your home, brother, sister, boy. [01:05:32] I don't know about appeals in this circumstance. I'm going to dare to make one. Those of you sitting here who are saved, and you know you're saved, but you know God needs to deal, especially with this, which is the main cause for every other failure. And you honest enough to say, God, I need to come to a place of total surrender to God. As best as I can. I'm not looking for sinless perfection. [01:06:02] I'm looking for an absolute surrender where God takes control and gives me grace. Where isolated failures will happen, I will ask for cleansing the blood to the day I die. I have that through my high priest which is there always waiting for me to confess that isolated sin but I don't believe I have to live in this defeat all the time I believe the discipline of the quiet time especially the meditation of the scriptures is vital nothing can replace that for the victory that I need for the future to the degree I soak myself in the scriptures and in prayer there will be [01:06:33] but I have to come to this place and so I'm going to ask every one of you no matter who you are you desperately need God to take your life in a total surrender, a moment of dedicating all on the altar that you may prove what is that good and perfect and acceptable will of God before you die. I'm going to ask those of you who desperately need to require that of God right now. Not for me, not for anybody else, but between you and God, for God's glory. [01:07:11] Those of you that desperately would say everything on the altar now for God to take control of this and of the rest Those of you that would desperately seek God for this saying yes, but desperately yes and need to yes Those of you that need desperately for God to take everything now and to absolutely surrender I want you to stand And I'm going to pray for those that stand. [01:07:45] Can you come forward, everybody that stands? Can you just make something? You haven't got an altar yet, so don't kneel. It's not the kneeling, the outward. It's the heart that bows before God that matters. So don't worry that you can't get in your face. All right, everyone in the front, those of you sitting, you pray for those that are standing because you have the right to pray for them. Because you're living it, otherwise you wouldn't be sitting. and that's not being facetious, I just trust you. Don't condemn them. Don't believe God's turning in anger at this [01:08:17] and saying this is wrong. You really would be coming close to blasphemy there and sacrilege when people seek God. For victory is not blasphemy, sir. So be careful what you think. I don't say every single person that stands here is going to find this victory from now to the day they die. But I believe with my soul, those of you that pray from the heart with me, most of you will, because of the testimonies that have come to me [01:08:48] from preachers across this world and people of God, from all cultures and denominations and movements, who will testify when I stood, sir, and prayed that prayer, my entire life changed and victory came. And so because of all the testimonies and the amazing amount, staggering amount from across this world when I made these appeals and prayed this prayer I have no doubt God wants us of you. So now will we all please close our eyes, bow our heads, everyone [01:09:20] in reverence and respect to those who are seeking God and those who are standing, will you pray aloud with me? And remember this, God does not look at the words that proceed out of the mouth He looketh at the heart from whence they come You might be following me in a prayer but if God sees you doing the best to pray this in your own capacity from your heart and sincerity that's all God can expect from you and don't let the devil deceive you and lie to you and say this can't work it's another man's prayer, that's a stupid lie and it's not to be believed God doesn't mock people who are trying their best [01:09:52] to seek absolute favor with him and reality He doesn't do that He didn't mock me that night and multitudes of others through history many of them the greatest preachers of our history of the church who testified to what we're saying now they did and they found victory not sinless perfection but incredible victory can we all please just pray sentence by sentence as best you can from your heart and God's looking at your heart so don't pray for each other to hear [01:10:28] Please pray very softly for God to hear. Pray it aloud. That means out and out of your mouth even though you're not screaming. O God, I come before thee in shame and grief and great sorrow to all the failures that are in my life, though I'm saved and have no doubt I'm saved. [01:11:03] I ask for forgiveness and cleansing in the blood of Jesus, God's Son, that cleanseth us, that is Christians, from all sin. I come before thee confessing that I have so much that needs to be cleansed. [01:11:37] Please forgive me because of my faith in the blood of Jesus. things I've overlooked in my baseness to confess please God cleanse me from them now let me have a clean plate as a Christian that all sin [01:12:08] all failure every word Everything that grieved God and man will be cleansed by the blood of Christ. Let the blood go deeper. Wash me through and through. And through and through. With the blood of Christ. Create in me a clean heart. Oh God. [01:12:38] and renew a right spirit within me. Work consistent victory and grace in my heart to be obedient to the light I have been given. I lay my all on the altar of God. I absolutely surrender [01:13:09] a total surrender upon the altar of God I dedicate everything every faculty of my being on the altar of God tonight and I ask thee Lord, I ask thee to take my life and let it be consecrated. Lord, to thee I ask thee to fill me with the Holy Spirit. By that I mean, take control of this vessel that I might be [01:14:02] A vessel meet for the Master's use, and able to be used by God. Then will I teach transgressors Thy ways, and sinners shall be converted unto Thee. I know that thou dost not offer sinless perfection, and so I do not seek thee for what God does not offer. [01:14:41] but I seek victory and I believe that as I soak myself in the Bible in meditating the word of God as the greatest priority and discipline of my life daily that I will be renewed day by day and strengthened in the inner man by the Holy Ghost [01:15:15] and given grace to face each day with the grace of God and live in victory. Where there are isolated failures, help me to quickly Bring to that thy notice and to have encounters with God [01:15:48] by confessing immediately and asking for cleansing before that sin could bring others into my life. Above all things Give me the grace to control my lips, this tongue, that the holiness that God says is proof of a man's reality with God and victory will be proven in my life. [01:16:35] by my words and reactions in every circumstance, even when people fail. I want to be Christ-like. I don't seek gifts, but a better way. I seek the love of God. Christ-likeness [01:17:06] to be my spontaneous reaction no matter how trying the circumstances from the next step I take to the day I die. In Jesus the Christ's name for his glory and in faith I ask this of thee, my Father in heaven. Amen. [01:17:40] Our dearly beloved, trust me, I believe most here will find the victory God promises. But only on the condition that you don't ever forget that nothing can substitute the daily meditating of the word of God and prayer. that is essential to Christianity more than anything else this is a moment what lies ahead is the daily equipping [01:18:10] and renewal by the Holy Ghost as you meditate and to the degree you meditate this book you're safe till the day you die as this book is your first choice wherever you can without neglecting the essentials of life. Now, there's only one here that's not saved. [01:18:41] I'm not going to make an appeal for you to stand. Why aren't you saved? Why? Please answer yourself. Now, dearly beloved, we will be gathering here tomorrow at what time, dear brother? Seven in the morning. [01:19:14] Ten. Okay, that's good. Ten o'clock. By the way, mistakes are not failure, John Wesley said. Mistakes are not sin. We all make mistakes, but we're never perfected in all the light. to perfect knowledge we are all going to make mistakes so have mercy on yourself you see give God time to make you fully Christ like which is going to take time but believe me [01:19:44] from tonight if you pray this from your heart people are going to see something of Christ in you they haven't seen to the degree before from the next word you say I believe that with my heart my whole heart so we're going to meet here at 10 did you say 10? good and then I believe a good amount of dear people who came from Canada there was a group that decided to come where's your hands? could you put your hands up? [01:20:16] there you are they're all going to betray us now and leave us tomorrow but there you are you came a long way how many hours did you drive? Five. You have to get home, you have work on Monday. So you're staying for tomorrow morning, is it right? Are you going to eat something, or are they going to send you away starving? Oh, not. Okay. Are you from Stanley? No, no. Windsor, Ontario. Windsor, Ontario. You're all from Windsor, Ontario. Well, some people are from still further back. [01:20:48] How are you, wonderful? and we are so grateful that you did that for the Lord Jesus thank you I am very honoured that you came so far to hear such a very unworthy man preach and we thank God for you and the Lord must love you deeply, pray for this old man okay, the only one thing, don't pray anything more than this God keep him true in the pulpit and out outside of that [01:21:19] prayer, please don't worry to pray for another thing because nothing else matters in Christianity, to me anyway, but if you pray that, there's more hope that I'll survive to the last breath and you will be honoring me just pray that so 10 o'clock we'll see you all by God's grace alone he takes me home, hallelujah you're very good, 120 brother I don't know if you're so kind That's a lovely age, why not? [01:21:52] I was with a lady that's a hundred and something, oh no, sorry, 98, just three days ago in Atlanta. And her mind is as clear, you cannot believe. Oh, she's a blessing. And I said, Lord, if I can live and be like this, let me live to that age. Meaningful to God and his people and kingdom. But if I become a vegetable or something, take me away, Rob, I don't want to be a burden. But if it is 120, goodness me, brother, that would be good. There you are. Lots of more souls to bring to God. [01:22:24] Nonetheless, if God takes me now, I have no argument. I'm ready to go and willing. I have a good in him. And great honor and privilege is that nobody deserves that so unworthy as this man.