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[Music] Anyone for the parade? A message presented by Dr. Bruce W. Thielman to the 72nd Missionary Conference held in New Wilmington, Pennsylvania. [Music]

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Let us pray. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. It's been 28 years since I came to my first Missionary Conference, and across those 28 years, I have accumulated many wonderful memories. This place and this time has come to hold a very important part of my heart. Some things change. There are some people whom I came to know, and love, and respect here, who have now gone on to the Kingdom of Heaven,

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and know the glorious victory which is rightfully theirs. But there are new faces, and as I look at those new faces, I find myself captured by their hope, and their enthusiasm, and their potential. And so my love for this conference, and what it means, continues and is buoyed up by all that is yet to be. Of course, there are some aspects of the conference that never change.

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Ed Fairman never changes. [Laughter] All the rest of us get older. Ed Fairman gets no older. May Bourne and Martha Pollack still keep the machinery going. It always rains at conference, that never changes. And then of course there's the chatter, and sex, love, and romance. [Laughter]

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I've only been here a couple of hours this week, but that hasn't changed. [Laughter] I remember, for example, the first date I ever had at conference. It was a blind date. Not quite blind enough. [Laughter] I mean, you've heard the expression, "Her face would stop a clock." [Laughter] Well, this girl's face would stop a sundial. [Laughter]

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It's really hard to know what to say to a girl whose face would stop a clock. I walked up to her and I said, "Dear, when I look at you, time stands still." [Laughter] Of course, it was very easy to pick her out of the crowd. Everyone around her had turned to stone. [Laughter] But let's be very frank about it. She wasn't getting very much either.

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It was the year that the chatter voted me the boy with the most melancholy face. [Laughter] They said I had a head like a melon and a face like a collie. [Laughter] Ever since those years, my face has been getting longer. [Laughter] You know, they say if you're bald in the back, that means you're a great thinker.

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And if you're bald in the front, that means you're very sexy. And if you're bald in both the front and the back, that just means you think you're sexy. [Laughter] She got back at me. We went to a square dance up in old 77. And we were dancing around. I could tell she was trying to think of something to say.

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Finally, she came out with it. She looked at me and she said, "You know, you sweat less than any other fat boy I've ever danced with." [Laughter] So love and romance at conference doesn't change. [Laughter] Of course, the most important thing about conference for me has been the promises that I've made here. The promises I've had the chance to make and then to remake.

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You see, it was through this conference that I got off the curb and into the parade. I use that figure because of a chorus that I came across in the rock musical Jesus Christ Superstar. The scene is Palm Sunday. Jesus is walking past the crowd and as he walks past them, they sing this song. "Christ, you know I love you. Did you see me wave? I believe in you and God, so tell me that I'm saved."

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"Christ, you know I love you. Did you see me wave? I believe in you and God, so tell me that I'm saved." And Jesus never answers the crowd. It isn't enough, you see, to stand up and wave. It's not enough to be involved in some kind of commotion on the curb.

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You have to be in the parade. Flip Wilson, the television comic, was asked once what his religion was. He said he was a Jehovah's Bystander. [Laughter] He didn't want to get involved.

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It's not enough, you see, to be a bystander. You have to be out in the parade. It's not enough just to wave. It's inadequate to sing here or to pray here or to study here or to take notes here or to play ball here

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or to testify in the say-so meetings here if that's all there is. Because all of this happens, you see, on the curb. And there's a world of difference between being on the curb and striding shoulder to shoulder with Jesus Christ through the events of life.

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The Board of Trustees of the American Bible Society were meeting, and one of the questions they were considering was how they should bind a new edition of the Bible which they were issuing. Some said they should bind it in leather. Some said that they should bind it in paper.

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Some said that they should bind it in cloth. One man got up and said, "I move that we bind this edition of the Bible in shoe leather and that we then walk it into every event in our lives." Now there was one, you see, who was part of the parade.

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And what a parade it is, this parade of the servants of Christ. As was read in your hearing just a few minutes ago, all those noble souls, Abel, Enoch, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Jephthah, Rahab, the prophets, Samson, on and on the list goes, and then this stirring conclusion, "The world wasn't good enough for them."

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That affirmation comes through like ten brass bands all playing at once. These were people, you see, who decided under the influence of God's Spirit, who decided for God. That's what it means in the passage when it says, "They laid aside every weight." They put aside the sin which beset them and got into the march.

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It's a great thing to decide. There's a psychiatrist by the name of William Gruber who earlier this year was addressing the International Psychiatric Convention which was held in Paris, France. And he was presenting a paper in which he was analyzing the reasons that many people had

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in becoming part of the anti-Vietnam War movement. Now the interesting thing about his paper was that as he isolated the things that led people to become involved in that anti-war movement, he discovered that all of his original guesses turned out to be wrong.

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He thought, for example, that the people would all be of the same political stripe. They weren't. He thought that they might all be from the same political party. They were not.

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He thought that they would all be caught up in a kind of anti-establishment mood. That was not so. What he discovered, and the only thing he discovered, was this. That these people elected to become part of this movement, and remember that becoming part of that movement

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was a costly thing to do. It puts you in the very face of the vast majority of the society. It was a new mood, a new mode of thinking, utterly different than anything we had ever known in this country before.

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These people were led to take that stand simply because they decided to do so. Just to give you one illustration, there was one fellow who was standing in a drugstore one day looking through a paperback book, and he read a couple of paragraphs as he was reading, and he put the book back on the shelf, and he left.

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Those paragraphs concerned the war, and in that instant he decided that he would oppose that war. Now, I'm not speaking necessarily in favor or against those who took this position. All I'm trying to say now is that an act of the will is a tremendously significant thing. It is awesomely important to decide.

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And the people who are part of the parade led by Jesus Christ are those who have, led by God's Spirit, decided to become his disciples. They have joined the armies of God, and that's quite an army to belong to. Roll O'Mea, the psychiatrist, has said that the reason so many teenagers go steady is

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that they're trying to find something to belong to, a relationship which will be continuing. It has been argued that the reason many people are becoming interested in astrology today is that they want to be connected with something permanent, and the cosmic connection being related somehow, mysteriously or not, with a star or a planet,

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well, that gives you a sense of permanence. You all know how "After Roots" was shown on television. Thousands and tens and hundreds of thousands of people went out and began to trace their family trees, to make lists of their ancestors.

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It put them, you see, in a stream that continued. They got a sense of permanence from this. Well, tonight, in the name of Jesus Christ, I offer you a greater ancestry, and roots, the like of which are beyond your imagining.

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You can decide to become a part of the army of God. You can get off the curb and into the parade. One night about 18 years ago, I think now, I was standing right over there. I was an usher, and one of the people ushering with me was Dr. Richard Graves,

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and his name will strike a responsive note in the hearts of many of you. He was often at conference, and he now has gone on to his reward with Christ in heaven. Now, in those days, they didn't have the grass trimmed as neatly as they do now, and I was standing there, and as I stood there, Dr. Graves bent over and plucked a little pink blossom

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that was growing there. They were about, they were almost like a weed, but of course attractive in a pale kind of way. He was very much into botany and things. He gave me the name of the plant.

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I don't remember it, but he said its nickname was soapwort, and he pointed out that it was a hearty little plant that would grow through sidewalks and where cinders were and in the places where nothing else would grow, it would grow, and he said they call it soapwort because, and he proceeded to tear it into pieces

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and then to rub it between his palms, and it gave a lather. He said it's great when you're on a camping trip, and if a porcupine needs the soap, you can always use soapwort. I've never forgotten it.

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The soapwort, you see, is something that grows and is beautiful where ugliness is, and it's something that cleanses the dirt of the world. Now, Jesus Christ grew up like a root out of dry ground. He was the rose of Sharon.

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He was the lily of the valley, and what did he do? He brought beauty where ugliness was. He brought cleansing with his own blood, and we have the opportunity by an act of decision to become one with him

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in bringing loveliness where the hideous is and in bringing cleansing where there is naught but that which is unclean. I was coming down the elevator in the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles, and on the elevator was Don Sutton, the pitcher for the Dodgers.

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I'd learned just a week before he was a Christian, so I introduced myself, and I said, "We're brothers in Christ," and he replied, "His is the only team to be on." And you can, you see, by deciding to become a part of the parade, become a part of that team, become one with Don Sutton and Dr. Richard Graves

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and Enoch and Abel and Abraham and all of the prophets, those of whom it can be said the world is not good enough for them. You can be on the team. Now notice this about those who are on the team.

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They're all given over to a dream. They lay aside that which besets them. They lay aside every weight, and in an act of decision, become part of God's squad, and having made that decision, they then fix their eyes upon Jesus.

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It's one of the key verses in this passage. They fix their eyes upon Jesus. Their dream becomes to serve Jesus. And what magnificent things are being done by the parade in the service of Jesus Christ today. Did you know, for example, that there are 87,000 new Christians every day?

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Did you know that never in 2,000 years has the church been growing as rapidly as it is growing today? Did you know that you can take any other two faith groups in the world and add them together, and their adherence combined will not equal those who bow the knee to Jesus Christ? Did you know that there are more missionaries out in the world today than ever before in history?

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Never so many carrying the banner of Christ so high. A national news magazine took a survey on college campuses to see what topics were talked about the most. They discovered that the topic talked the most about was sex. Considering the nature of the beast, that's understandable.

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Do you know what the second topic was? The second topic was faith. There are more students in religion classes on campuses across this country today than ever before in history. Last year, during Christmas vacation, now note that,

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during Christmas vacation, 18,000 American college students went on their own time and utilizing their own money over the holidays to Urbana, to the great mission conference there. And literally thousands of them offered themselves to the parade as mission servants of Jesus Christ. But let's not just talk about numbers.

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Let me advance some examples in terms of individuals. I think of a medical doctor who in his state had a fabulous practice. And he came to me one day and he said, "I'm serving Christ through my practice, but I want to do more. I think I'm going to become involved in state health services for children."

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Today that man is responsible for the whole southern half of the state of California. He directs all of the welfare services for the poor, the deprived children of that area. And he does it all as a disciple of Jesus Christ. I think of a young man who was graduated from our college, Grove City, just two years ago.

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He went down and became a science teacher in a high school just outside of Pittsburgh. Now in this particular high school, they're having financial difficulties. They're cutting back on staff. But even though he has no seniority, he is not being dropped.

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Why? Because since he's been there, he has brought an excellence to his teaching which is admirable. He has formed Bible study groups for students. He has formed a Bible study group for faculty in the high school.

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And now he is beginning a ministry to athletes. He is very athletically gifted. He is using this in the service of Jesus Christ. I think of a woman who has an incurable disease.

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She's not a shut-in, but she spends the vast majority of her time at home. When I left California and came back to the east here, I was about to discontinue the ministry of taped sermons which I had. And she came to me and she said, "I would like to take on that tape ministry.

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I will make all of the tapes here in my bedroom. I'll process them and I'll send them out." She has done this to the place where we now have those tapes in 27 countries overseas and every one of the states.

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I got a letter just yesterday from a young man who was driving to a gambling establishment in Las Vegas, Nevada. And when he turned on the radio, the voice of his old college chaplain came speaking to him out of the blue. I didn't know it, but this lady now has me on the radio reaching Mormons in Utah and Nevada. She reads and writes five different languages and she corresponds with the people who get the tapes.

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And she's now taking up Greek in order that she can check on my preaching. She is doing all of this, you see. She's part of the parade. Here's a businessman in Pittsburgh who is very prominent and very active in Christian affairs.

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I don't mean just the prominent ones, but also the little things. He's involved in a ministry to men who have come out of prison, all kinds of things. But this man is very successful. He makes money like trees make leaves.

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So what has he done now? His latest adventure is to rent signboards all over the city of Pittsburgh. I'm sure some of you have seen them. They're signed "Eudikes."

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And Eudikes is this businessman, and on these signboards he's announcing the gospel of Jesus Christ. Now these are people, you see, who are captured by the dream. They have their eyes fixed on their Savior. And they're giving themselves to His service.

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Why? Because they know what it is to be forgiven. You know what it is to be forgiven. You know, there's a man and a wife, and they get into some terrible fight, and he's wrong,

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and he comes in and apologizes. And she says to him, "I forgive you." That's fine. But suppose every morning when he comes downstairs, the first thing she says to him is,

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"Darling, I forgive you." And when he comes home at night, she greets him at the door and says, "Remember, I forgive you." And she fixes just what he wants for dinner, and as she serves it, she says, "You are forgiven." And she has his slippers by the chair and the television set tuned right to his favorite channel,

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and when he sits down, she says, "I forgive you." Is he going to feel forgiven? Not for one moment. It will not happen until everything gets back to normal,

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till the old promises are assumed to be faithful promises, till the agreements and the bargains that were made are continued, till the responsibilities are picked up. It will become real the night she says to him, as she hands him the tea towel,

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"Okay, Buster, it's your turn to dry." That's when it becomes real. You see, forgiveness is not something which makes you happy about the past. Forgiveness is that which gives to you the future.

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And that's what's happened to these people. Having decided for Christ and become members of the team, and knowing what it is to be forgiven, they have received by virtue of their forgiveness all of the future.

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And in that future, they pursue the dream of serving Jesus Christ. And for them, it's not enough to stand on the curve and cry out, "Hey, Jesus, did you see me wave?" Oh, no.

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It's, "I'll go where you want me to go." On the team, with the dream. Now, notice this. That each one of these people who are out there in the parade

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are doing different things. And they're doing different things in terms of the particular gifts that they had. Abraham was a great leader of men. Rahab was a prostitute.

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All she could do was to help some people escape from a village. The prophets had particular talents. Each person in that list that was read in the Scripture, each person had certain talents and gifts.

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And they used their talents and their gifts. And that's precisely what we are to do as team members. Use the particular skills which are ours. For notice these verses.

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They're very important verses in the chapter. The passage reads, "These," that is, all of these heroes of the faith, these people in the parade, "These all gained God's approval by their faith,

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though none of them received what he promised. For God had resolved upon something better, something better for us, that they," that is, the heroes,

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"might not reach the fulfillment of their hopes, except with us." Now, what's being said here is simply this. The parade's still going.

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The parade is still on. Well, these people, these heroes of the faith, had their great moments. Their moments when they heard the banners of the kingdom snapping in the breeze. They had their times, yes.

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But they passed away and were received and rewarded by God before the parade was over. They never got to see the grand finale. To put it in the parlance of the campus,

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they got an incomplete for the course. Not because they had failed. Not because they had fallen short. Not at all.

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They did what they were called upon to do and were rewarded for it. But God, the passage said, had a better idea. He resolved that the parade would not come to an end until we had been included,

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until we had become part of it. That means, you see, that we have the opportunity to bring the particular talents that are ours into God's service in the parade.

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Put it this way. If you're on the team with the dream, you bring your scheme. You bring your talents.

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I had to stretch a bit for that, but it fits. Those people that I named just a moment ago. The doctor is using his medical skills to serve Christ. The young teacher is using his teaching skills

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and his athletic ability to serve Christ. The shut-in lady who has a gift of languages and a gift of organizations is using her talents in the service of Jesus Christ.

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The businessman who has the gift of making money is involved in using that money to the service of Jesus Christ. One plays the drum. One blows the trumpet.

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One blows up balloons. One blows a whistle. One spins a baton. But they're all in the parade.

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One of the names that is used to conjure with here at this conference is that of Addison Leach. He's another former conferee who now is in the kingdom of heaven marching with Jesus.

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He was a remarkable man. He was a terrific athlete. I'm not athletically inclined. Well, as a matter of fact,

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when I went to the Arthur Murray Dance Studio, I had to write a book report to pass. I'm not very coordinated. And he was a tremendous athlete

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and also a magnificent mind. He used to walk across the campus humming a crossword puzzle. One of the smartest people I ever met in all my life. Well, he was driving down Route 19 one day,

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and he passed a bus. It was a school bus, and it was full of nuns. And on the side of the bus were the words,

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"Sisters of Divine Providence." Now, you know that word "providence." It refers to the plan of God. These were the sisters of the plan of God.

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And then as the bus pulled past him, he noticed at the back a side door which said, "Emergency exit." If you think about that for a moment

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and you're as smart as Addison Leach, you'll get it. Who wants to have an emergency exit from the providence of God?

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He's got the best plan of all. Who can possibly improve upon it? What I'm saying is that when you're working your scheme, when you are becoming part of the scheme,

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you are fitting in to God's plan exactly as he prepared you to fit into it. And you know, the thing that disturbs me about young people the most today is this,

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that when I say to them, "What are you going to do with your life?" "Well, it would be easier to nail Jell-O to a tree than to get an answer."

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[laughter and applause] They're not engaged in the process of discovering how God is going to use them in the scheme which is his. This is the reason I'm so much behind Christian colleges.

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See, most colleges aim in one of two directions. They try to build the whole college around the students. That's one group. I never met a group of students that were smart enough

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to build a whole college around it. You know the reason a college is a seat of knowledge? The students come in, think they know everything. They go out convinced they know nothing,

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and everything that's left off in between is what makes a college a seat of knowledge. Now, when you fashion everything in the college to suit the students, you get nowhere.

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In other schools, they establish a fixed curriculum, some magnificent construct of courses, and they take every student, whether he's square or not, and try to fit him into their round holes.

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Now, you see, any school that aims at the student principally or that aims at the curriculum principally is going to bend and twist people. I support Christian colleges,

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and I don't mean colleges that just have the name Christian or colleges that are just attached to a church in some memorialistic way. I'm talking about colleges that honor God

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and who aim at God and who try to bring the students into relationship with God and who try to bring the curriculum into relationship with God.

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It's when you see things from the Godward perspective that you begin to discover what your part in the plan is. There's only three steps to doing that. The first thing you have to do is get off the curb.

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It never happens if you're just standing on the sidelines yelling, "Hey, Jesus, did you see me wave?" You have to get out into the stream of things. Please turn your cassette to the other side.

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The second thing you have to do is you have to discover what your gifts are, your intellectual gifts, your emotional gifts, your physical gifts, your spiritual gifts.

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I mean, if you are not emotionally strong, there are certain things you're not going to be able to undertake. If you are not physically healthy, there are certain dimensions of God's service

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that cannot possibly be yours. You've got to discover your gifts. Now, how do you best discover your gifts? Through the study of the Scriptures

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in company with other Christians. And that's the third step, to be in company and in fellowship with other Christians. Look at the New Testament.

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Paul didn't decide to go off somewhere by himself. The church sent him. The church sent Silas. The church sent Mark.

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The church sent Barnabas. The church, the fellowship of believers, looks at you and helps you wrestle with discovering what particular gifts and talents God has given you.

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And if you're off the curb, if you're in the stream, if you're on the team, if you have the dream,

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if you want to find a scheme, then people, Christ's people, can influence your life in His name. And you become part of the drama of the service of God.

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On Thursday night in conference last year, and I shall always be specially grateful to God for this, but on Thursday night in conference last year, I walked over here for the evening meeting

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with Don McClure. And I sat with Don right over there, and we talked, and then we talked after the service a while too.

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It's a very precious time as I now look back upon it. And one of the things he said to me that night, I want to share with you right now. Those of us who are in Christian colleges

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are deeply concerned that we put out not just scientists, but God's scientists. Not just philosophers, but Christian philosophers. Not just businessmen,

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but businessmen who are committed to Jesus Christ. But we are interested, not only in putting Christians into every vocation that is imaginable, and some which are unimaginable.

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We are especially interested in turning out those who will serve Jesus Christ in full-time church occupation. And Don McClure said to me, sitting over there,

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"You know, there was a time when people came out of school, and they went off and did what they wanted to do, and they said they would go to the mission field

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if they got a special call, but only if they got a special call. It took a special call to go into mission. It was automatically assumed that you did something else.

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It was only when you got the special call that you went into mission. Now," he said, "the opportunities on the mission field are so great,

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the demand so high, the call so overwhelming, that every young person, every Christian young person,

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who comes out of school, should automatically assume that he is called to the mission field. That should be the common call.

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And you don't enter into some other area of service unless you have a special call to that. So clear, so obvious in our time, is the need for team members

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to go into the world for Jesus Christ. In 1 Corinthians 11, it says that every Christian has gifts. That means that you have gifts.

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And what I'm saying tonight is your part of the scheme is to develop those gifts and to use them to the glory of Christ.

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First of all in church occupation, and then after that in every other area of service where you can lift up his name with honor. You know, we have an expression we use very commonly today,

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and I think a lot of people think it's a new expression, and it's not. It's the expression, "Do your own thing." That expression was first written

00:34:04.800 - 00:34:15.800

by the New England transcendentalist Ralph Waldo Emerson in 1841 in an essay called "Self-Reliance." And he wrote,

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"Do your own thing, and I will know you." Which is to say, when you do your thing, when you use the gifts, the talents

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that God has invested in you, then, then you will be the one God wants you to be. Then you will be

00:34:37.800 - 00:34:54.800

all the tremendous potential and possibility that he's hidden inside of you. And I have one last word I want to share. In a church up in New England

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a couple of years ago, they decided to put on a Christmas pageant. Now, I like children, but not in Christmas pageants.

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This was one of those pageants where a few of them came out and gave recitations. Some of them were bad, and some of them were even worse.

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And then came the nativity scene, and first of all, a kind of a purple spotlight wandered around the center of the stage

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and settled down. Then a janitor sneaked out and put a box of straw on the floor. And then out came three Virgin Marys.

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There were three, because this particular church had three Virgin Mary costumes, so there were three Virgin Marys.

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And then out came Joseph, and he was wearing his bathrobe and picking his nose. And then behind him came the angels,

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and they all were wearing very full robes and great big white diaphanous wings. And they stood in various places across the stage.

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And then out came the shepherds, and they were wearing burlap bags and carrying cardboard crooks. Now, the director of the show,

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in an attempt to make the scene aesthetically and artistically pleasing, had given the angels certain places to stand and the shepherds certain places to stand.

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And he had marked on the floor X's and O's. The shepherds were to stand on the X's, and the angels were to stand on the O's.

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Now that was a very good idea. Where he made his mistake was that he had the children rehearse the play, finding their spots and standing on them

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in their street clothes. But when these angels got on their great big robes that hung out far from their sides and walked out on the stage,

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they not only covered their spots, they covered all the other spots as well. So when the shepherds came out, they couldn't find their X's.

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And they started to push the angels around. [laughter and applause] And of course, the youngsters being young, they proceeded to push the shepherds around.

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And it was in the midst of this melee that one of the youngsters turned and yelled to the wings where the director was standing

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in a voice that could be heard bouncing off the back wall of the room, "These darned angels are covering up all the crosses!" [laughter]

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An angel is a messenger of God. And any messenger of God who covers up the cross is a darned angel.

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It would be less than honest of me if I left this pulpit tonight without saying to you that if you become part of the parade,

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you will encounter the cross. Do you remember what the passage said? They were tortured. They were mocked.

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They were whipped. They were chained. They were imprisoned. They were stoned.

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They were sawn in two. They were killed by the sword. They wandered like refugees. They lived in caves.

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They were persecuted. They were mistreated. This is what happens to those who are in the parade.

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This is what happens to those of whom it is said in Holy Scripture the earth is not good enough for them. When you get off the curb

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and into the parade, you pay a price. You see, saving the world is very hard. Some people have tried to save it with education

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and they have failed. And some people have tried to save it with armies and they have failed. And some people have tried to save it with psychology

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and they have failed. And some people have tried to save it with preaching and they have failed. Only one thing wins the world

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and that is sacrifice. And sacrifice costs. Sacrifice is the cross. Those who go into Tokyo slums,

00:39:29.800 - 00:39:39.800

those who go into New York ghettos, those who go into frigid Alaska, those who go into icy suburbs, Father Damien who becomes a leper

00:39:39.800 - 00:39:50.800

to minister to lepers, Vincent de Paul who sells himself into slavery to reach slaves, all those, the McCluers and the Kurtzes,

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and you go on and list the names, all those who are part of the parade win in the world for Jesus Christ because they climb the same cross that he climbed.

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They complete within themselves the sufferings of Jesus. So when you get out into the parade, you have to look beyond the cross.

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You have to see the gleam of glory, the conquest beyond the conflict, the victory beyond the battle, the praise that will be yours from Christ

00:40:33.800 - 00:40:47.800

when he says, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant." And our model in this is Christ, Jesus, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame,

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and now sits at the right hand of the throne of God, and we can sit right beside him, the honored, royal priesthood, children of God,

00:41:01.800 - 00:41:14.800

but it's after the cross. After the cross. Some years ago, Edward VIII, the king of England,

00:41:14.800 - 00:41:29.800

was about to abdicate his throne. The speech of abdication which he made was the first broadcast ever beamed across the Atlantic Ocean.

00:41:29.800 - 00:41:40.800

It was a historic event. People all across America were sitting by their radio sets waiting to hear the words of the king

00:41:40.800 - 00:42:00.800

at the very moment that he spoke. And then, two minutes before the king began his address, a single wire in the key radio receiving station in New York City broke,

00:42:00.800 - 00:42:14.800

and there was no way it could be repaired in time to carry the broadcast. There was a man working in that station whose name was Walter Vivian,

00:42:14.800 - 00:42:33.800

and Walter Vivian was determined that the king's word would be heard. And so he took one end of the broken wire in his one hand, and the other end of the broken wire in his other hand,

00:42:33.800 - 00:42:52.800

and when the power was turned on, not enough to kill him, but enough to give him awesome pain, it went through his very body. But the king's words were heard.

00:42:52.800 - 00:43:15.800

When you take the hand of Christ in the parade, and when you reach out and take the hand of another in service, you will know inevitably and surely the pain of the cross. But the king's word will be heard.

00:43:15.800 - 00:43:38.800

You are on the team with the dream, part of the scheme, following the gleam of glory that is yours after your service.

00:43:38.800 - 00:43:57.800

In February, I got sick, and it hit me hard in March, and they put me in the cardiac care unit of the hospital, and there were a few days there when we didn't know

00:43:57.800 - 00:44:12.800

what was going to happen. That was the dark night of my soul. I bear witness to you tonight that in the moments of that dark night,

00:44:12.800 - 00:44:29.800

that which meant the most to me were the times I could remember when I was part of the parade. Not the bankbooks.

00:44:29.800 - 00:44:43.800

Not the degrees, either academic or honorary. Not finally the friendships, but the friendships in Christ,

00:44:43.800 - 00:45:02.800

the friendships made in the parade. I hope you don't have to wait for a dark night of the soul to discover that. Bob Latta's on this platform tonight with me

00:45:02.800 - 00:45:14.800

because he's a good friend for many years. We've traveled together a lot. Once we were in Switzerland at a place called Zermatt.

00:45:14.800 - 00:45:25.800

That's where the Matterhorn is, that great finger of stone that points right toward the heart of God. At the foot of the Matterhorn,

00:45:25.800 - 00:45:39.800

there's a cemetery in which they bury only those who have lost their lives on the mountain. Seven more were killed there just two weeks ago. Bob and I walked up the lanes of that quiet cemetery.

00:45:39.800 - 00:45:50.800

The ropes and the picks and the climbing equipment of the alpine climbers is left right on the graves. It's been laying there sometimes for decades and decades

00:45:50.800 - 00:46:03.800

and no one ever moves it. And we read the epitaphs on many of the stones. And there was one epitaph we read which we've never forgotten.

00:46:03.800 - 00:46:16.800

It was put on the stone of three young men from Oxford University who died on the Matterhorn in 1934. Their parents erected the stone

00:46:16.800 - 00:46:35.800

and this is what it said. "They scorned the lesser peaks." That's my desire for you. That you scorn the lesser peaks.

00:46:35.800 - 00:46:53.800

That you turn your backs on anything that will call you to less than your uttermost for Jesus Christ. I call you tonight in His name to scale the Matterhorns of the Spirit of God.

00:46:53.800 - 00:47:11.800

To press on toward the high mark of the calling of God in Christ Jesus. Not to cry out, "Hey Jesus, did you see me wave?"

00:47:11.800 - 00:47:28.800

But Christ of the upward wave, my guide divine, where thou hast set thy foot, I will place mine.

00:47:28.800 - 00:47:44.800

And to that Christ, that Master of the March, that Lord of Lords and King of Kings, to Him be the honor and the glory

00:47:44.800 - 00:48:00.800

and the dominion and the power in this world and beyond this world forever and forever. Amen.

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[applause] (projector buzzing)