Kennystix's podcast
Use Means, but Trust in God
Would you pray with me? Father, it would be my heart's desire and I know I speak for everyone. If on the day when we are 59, backwards, we could say from the bottom of our heart, I'd rather have Jesus than anything. And so I pray that the effect of that testimony and song and these remaining minutes tonight would be that we cherish Christ more and that we rely more fully upon Him in His name, I pray, amen. George Mueller was born in Germany in 1805 and he died in 1898 in Germany. He was a follow-up specialist for DL Moody and he preached in Spurgeon's Tabernacle and he inspired Hudson Taylor in his missionary dreams and he preached in the same church for 66 years and lived out his life mainly in Bristol, England. When he was 28, he founded what he called the scripture knowledge institute. It had five what he called objects, one was to found schools abroad, two Bible distribution, three missionary support, four track distribution and five the one we know him for best to use his own words, to board and clothe and scripturally educate destitute children who have lost both parents by death. And so he built five orphanages and by the time he had died, he had cared for 10,024 orphans and he did all of this while preaching three times a week and when he turned 70, he fulfilled a dream and became a missionary and for the next 17 years, traveled to 42 countries preaching on an average of once a day to about 3 million people total. And when he was 92, he led a prayer meeting on a Wednesday evening at his church and went home and when they brought him his tea at 7 o'clock in the morning they found him dead on the floor beside his bed. He had read his Bible 200 times from beginning to end. He had prayed in millions of dollars, I had somebody do the calculation for me in today's dollars and they estimated 150 million, prayed it in without asking anybody for money. He never took a salary for the last 68 years of his ministry. He trusted God to put it in people's heart to give him what he needed. He never took out a loan and the orphans and he were never hungry. Now what makes him so relevant for tonight? I think for us here in this room is that his biographer, A.T. Pearson, said, I love this phrase and I hope it lands on you with something you want to be and do, he devised large and liberal things for the cause of Christ. And I think in a room like this, there are probably many people who have or who dream of devising large and liberal things for the cause of Christ. And I want to encourage you in that tonight, I want to strengthen your hand to devise large and liberal things and to keep on going for 95 or 92 years to see them through in spite of the fact that you are keenly aware and I am keenly aware of the perils of power and pretension and pride in this industry and I don't need to belabor it for you. Large liberal, Christ exalting, God-centered, truth-driven vision is what I pray I will strengthen your hand in in these next few minutes. So I want to give you one of the keys from Mueller's life. The reason I told you a little bit about Mueller is because I want to draw out of Mueller a key that most recently has so deeply become a cutting edge in my spiritual quest. It's this. Work really hard, morning till night, be a worker and do not trust in your work, trust in God. Work really hard and don't trust in the work, trust in God. Now let me give you his own words. "This is one of the great secrets in connection with successful service of the Lord, to work as if everything depended upon our diligence and yet not to rest in the least upon our exertions, but upon the blessing of the Lord, who alone can cause your efforts to be made effectual to the benefit of your fellow men or fellow believers." In other words, labor with all you might and do not trust in your labor, trust in God. Plan hard, but don't trust in your plans, trust in God. Speak clearly and creatively, but don't trust in your speaking, trust in God. Sing and don't trust in your singing, trust in God. Create and produce and lead and manage, but don't trust in your creativity and leadership and management and productivity, trust in God. That's the message of George Mueller. I want you to feel the force of tonight. It is one of the simplest lessons you will ever learn and one of the hardest you will ever perform because we are wired. We sinners, we fallen, self-exalting, self-serving sinners are wired for our emotions to be to go up when our plans have savvy and our emotions to go down when our plans look less than they have savvy. At least mine do. Then I don't like it about myself, that my anxiety quotient rises and falls with my insight into how to solve a problem instead of giving it my best shot and trusting God. So Proverbs 21.33, "The horse is made ready for the day of battle, but victory belongs to the Lord." So get the horse ready for the day of battle by all means, but don't trust in the horse, trust in God, or Psalm 20 verse 7. I'm going to give you this one in a four-year-old form. I've got four sons and a daughter and Abraham was four once upon a time and he looked like he was going to be my preacher and he would stand on a platform not quite this high when he was four and he would take Psalm 20 verse 7 and he would say, "Some trust in horses, some trust in chariots, but we trust in the name of a word our God," and he would leap off the platform. So Abraham, get your horses ready and get your chariots ready, but son, don't trust in the horses and don't trust in the chariots, trust in God. Just the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. So build your house, but don't trust in your house, trust in God. Unless the watchman watches over the city, we stay awake in vain, unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. So put out your watchman, be a watchman, but don't trust in the watchman. Trust in God, Mueller really worked hard, morning till night at the orphanage with his wife Mary for 39 years at his side. And then with his wife Susanna after Mary died for 23 years at his side, they really worked. He said that in the morning they would pray together before they went off to the orphanages and then as the day was drawing to a close just before supper in the evening, I'll read you what happened. This is his own words, "In the evening, during the last hour of the stay at the orphanhouses, though her or my work was never so much, it was an habitually understood thing that this hour was for prayer. My beloved wife came to my room and now our prayer and supplication and intercession mingled with thanksgiving, lasted generally 40 or 50 minutes and sometimes the whole hour. And these seasons, we brought perhaps 50 or more different points or persons or circumstances before God." Mueller and his wife did not pray instead of work. They prayed because they didn't trust their work, they trusted God. Prayer isn't something that signifies laziness, it simply signifies what you trust. And I encourage you, trust God, but I want to go farther than Mueller. I want to go farther than Mueller tonight for you because I would like to lift off of you tonight. That is, I would like God to lift off of you tonight, not only the burden of the outcome of your work, but the burden of the origin of your work as well. I want to go beyond Mueller saying to the biblical saying. I want to go beyond Mueller to Philippians 2, 12, "Work out your own salvation for it is God who is at work in you to will and to do his good pleasure." We work outwardly because God is at work inwardly. We trust Him not just for the outcome of our labors, but for the labors themselves. I want to go beyond Mueller to lift off of you the burden of your own labor. I love 1 Corinthians 15-10, "By the grace of God I am what I am and his grace towards me was not in vain, but I labored harder than any of them. Nevertheless it was not I, but the grace of God which was with me." It isn't simply true that you should work hard and then not trust your work, but trust God for the outcome, it's also true that you should work hard and then trust God that He gave you the strength to work hard. And once you learn that, it is a glorious and freeing thing on the front end of your work to obey 1 Peter 4, 11. Let Him who serves serve in the strength that God supplies. I'm going to start over now so that you hear it. This applies to every branch of broadcasting. This applies to every sermon I ever preach, every counseling session I ever have, any conversation. Let Him who serves serve in the strength that God supplies so that in everything God will get the glory through Jesus Christ to whom belongs the dominion and the glory forever. Now did you hear the logic of that verse? Surely. I heard it in the oath that was taken just a moment ago, surely what unites us in this room is a passion to so labor that not we but Christ gets the glory. That verse is the key. Serve in the strength that God supplies so that in everything God gets the glory, meaning the giver gets the glory. Now we must go beyond Mueller. Now I know Mueller loved this point. I'll read you the sentence that proves it. Though I am weak and erring on many points, God will bless me as long as He shall enable me to act according to His will in this matter. It's not that an amazing way to talk. God will bless me as long as He will enable me to do His will and thus qualify for the blessing. For from Him and through Him and therefore back to Him be the glory are all things to Him be glory forever and ever. So I conclude, by all means let us follow George Mueller. O may the members, the attenders at the National Religious Broadcasters work with all your might and then not trust in your work, trust in God. And may you go beyond that Mueller-esque saying and trust God not only for the outcome of your work but for the origin of your work because God means to get the glory for both its origin and its outcome. And when you do, you know what will happen? We will get the glory and you will discover with Mueller that his yoke is easy and his burden is light and when you become old, maybe 92 or 95, you will say with Mueller quote. I am bound to state this and I do it with pleasure. My master has been a kind master to me. I have not served a hard master and that is what I delight to show. Father I pray that you would prove yourself to be a kind master for us and that you would become for us the enabler of the work you call us to do so that both the origin of our labors and the outcome of our labors are found to be a gift and you get all the glory. In Jesus' name I pray. (applause)
All our labors flow from the strength God himself supplies. And whatever we do through him channels glory back to him.