Let God Arise - Part 1 — Jackie Pullinger

Not long ago I went to visit Wall City and it's a very strange place. The streets are dark, just two or three feet wide in places, and it's better not to look anyway up because although the houses are built very, very close together, strange things drip out of the windows.

When I first went there was only one toilet for the 50-odd thousand people, everything else went into the open sewers, but I was walking down there some time ago and I trapped a couple of drug pushers down a street, and normally they managed to get away from me.

This time I backed them into a sewer, so I said to them, because we found this is the quickest way of preaching the gospel, can I pray for you? So they said, well, a bit embarrassed really, but all right, so I said, well, you don't have to do any praying, I'm going to pray in Jesus' name.

And so they shut their eyes, I said, will you please open your hands, because he's going to give you things. And I prayed for them both, and I saw the Holy Spirit come upon them both. He's very indiscriminate.

And he came down upon them both, and one of them began to cry, and the other one said, I feel very loose. Old ladies say it too when they get prayed for, because it seems to be that God heals them in their chests, where they've been constricted.

This is the most normal reply after praying for people, I feel loose, I feel set free. And he said, I never would have guessed. I never would have guessed. I'd heard that he loved other people, but I never would have guessed he would come to me.

He knew that it was unfair, because he knew he was pushing drugs. You see, they understand grace. And I said, well, would you like to follow Jesus? You know, he is the Son of God. And one of them said, if he's the true God, who else?

They often reply like that. So I prayed again for them, and then I went up to a little house, up a staircase. And up the staircase, you have to go one by one. I went into a little room there, which is divided up into bed spaces.

Just one room, and they've got sort of cardboard partitions inside. And there was a couple that lived there. One was a butcher, and he lived with an old prostitute. She must have been 65 or so, and still working, because there's nothing you're going to retire on when you can't work anymore.

And she took heroin, so you could see the needle marks in the back of her hands. And he had very bad asthma. And I went into their house, and I was with a friend who used to be a very famous triad fighter.

And they recognized him, and they said, oh, hi, Ah Ping. And I said to them, can I pray for you? And they said, butcher? You know, nearly everyone in the world will let you pray for them. Most people feel that it's kind of flattery, you know, if you ask if you can pray for them, try.

And so they looked awfully pleased that we'd pray for them. And I said, oh, I'm going to pray for you in Jesus' name. And they looked even more pleased, because they'd heard that when people got prayed for in Jesus' name, they got healed and set free.

So I prayed for them. And the man's asthma got healed. And every time we prayed for him, his breathing got completely clear. And he said, I'd heard, I'd heard that he did this for other people. 但我估唔到佢會嚟到我。.

But I never guessed he would come to me. Now it's that easy to preach the gospel. It's no more difficult than that. If it were, Jesus would never have entrusted the task to you and me. And I don't know how he could dare.

I often think what a nerve Jesus had to leave the world at the time he did. In the hands of his disciples. I mean, a really rotten bunch. He trained them Wimber style. They'd done the stuff. They'd been with him.

And they let him down. When he died. They fled. And yet he dared to leave the world to them. Because he trusted his father. And because he promised that they were not to do the job alone. But they were to do this job.

With the Holy Spirit. To keep him company. And that's what the Lord's been saying to us. Tonight. I think he said rather clearly. Go. That's what I'm supposed to be doing. That's what you're supposed to be doing.

And it doesn't seem to be optional. Well, would you long for a time. When you could walk into the streets and see people healed. Would you long for the time when you could squash 60 people. Into a small room like we do.

And wait. And we rarely wait longer than five minutes. Before seeing people come to Jesus. Would you long for a time. Do you long for revival. Well, we heard a little bit about this yesterday. Well, does it just happen.

Is it that it's a special time of God. That these things are happening in Hong Kong. Could it and should it happen. In Essex here. Well, we heard yesterday that various men of God have been praying for this.

And some have prophesied that it would be so. In England, maybe even Essex. Is it going to happen anyway. I believe some of you went to Phil's talk this afternoon. Does it in any way depend on me. And I want to answer a little bit this evening.

How I believe that for some reason we have a part to play. Now, if anybody asks me why these things have happened in Hong Kong. I would immediately say, straight away, with no hesitation. It's God's business.

We don't see miracles because we've been both faithful. No, we have not. We don't see miracles because we've suddenly learnt a secret of how to get revival. I don't know those secrets. I feel that for me, I've been there nearly 23 years now.

I feel actually I was planted, that's all. I was just put in a set up job. The whole thing was fixed. And for me, it's been the greatest privilege of my whole life to be somewhere in God's set up. I believe that completely.

The whole thing was his idea. He's sovereign and he's done it, not because of me, but despite me. And in his mercy, he's let me be somewhere in it. But, he gave me that privilege. And the privilege was of choosing to obey or not.

I believe God wanted to do it anyway. But in his mercy, he let me be in it. And so, this evening, he's offered the same privilege to all of us here. And he said, go. And he said, don't worry, because I'm going to go with you.

And he said, don't worry, I'll never leave you. I'm going to empower you. But I want to tell you something about this privilege of preaching the gospel. It kills you. And I wish that tonight, everything I could share would be only miracles.

I wish everything that I could share would be as simple as how to go out and pray for those in the streets in the name of Jesus and see his spirit come upon them, see them healed and set free. I wish it were that simple.

But I'm sorry, if you want to experience that, if you want to be part of what I believe God is offering this country, I'm afraid there's only one way. And it will kill you. Have you ever listened to somebody challenging you and replied, I couldn't do that.

I could never do that. It would kill me. It's meant to. So the message that we have tonight is this. If you would preach the gospel in the power of the resurrection, you must know death. You must know death in your own life, that you may see life in others.

I want to read you from Hebrews 11. Hebrews 11, 32. And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell you about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and the prophets, who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised.

So we have a list here of men who gained what was promised and a following list of many who gained for others what was promised but died themselves in the gaining. How much part did those men play in God's purpose?

And how much was it a set up? We could look at Samuel's life. So if you have Bibles, turn to 1 Samuel. Because I want to have a quick look at his life to understand the part that we play in God's purpose.

Here we are in 1 Samuel 1, and we read about a lady called Hannah. Verse 6. Because the Lord had closed her womb, her rival kept provoking her in order to irritate her, an unhappy woman. In verse 10. She wept much and prayed to the Lord, while she took it to the right place.

And she made a vow, saying, O Lord God Almighty, if you'll only look upon your servant's misery, and remember me, and not forget your servant, but give her a son, then I'll give him to the Lord for all the days of his life.

So here is Samuel, born as the result of a vow. And Eli the priest, hearing the woman said in verse 17, Go in peace, and may the God of Israel grant you what you've asked of him. And she went away, and her face was no longer downcast.

Verse 20. In the course of time, she conceived and gave birth to a son, and she named him Samuel. Verse 25. She brought the boy to Eli, and said to him, Surely as you live, my Lord, I'm the woman who stood here beside you, praying to the Lord.

I prayed for this child, and the Lord has granted me what I asked of him. It's a pretty set up job so far. Here's a boy Samuel, who was born obviously by the design of the Lord. And in answer to prayer, he's dedicated even before his birth.

And so, in his very early childhood, he grows up ministering to the Lord. Chapter 2. Verse 11. The boy ministered before the Lord under Eli the priest. But we learn in verse 12 that Eli's sons were wicked.

They had no regard for the Lord. And their sin was very great in the Lord's sight. Verse 17. For they were treating the Lord's offering with contempt. So we learn that Samuel was born at a time when men needed the move of God in their land.

For those who should have been ministering to the Lord and ministering the Lord's heart and word to them were treating offerings with contempt and living unholy lives. Verse 18. But Samuel was ministering before the Lord.

A boy wearing a linen ephod. And then we hear that Eli's sons, in verse 22, were doing terrible things. And Eli spoke to them and knew how they slept with the women who served at the entrance to the tent of meeting.

And he said to them, Why do you do such things? I hear from all the people about these wicked deeds of yours. No, my sons, it's not a good report that I hear spreading amongst the Lord's people. If a man sins against another man, God may mediate for him.

But if a man sins against the Lord, who will intercede for him? His sons, however, did not listen to their father's rebuke. For it was the Lord's will to put them to death. And the boy Samuel continued to grow in stature and in favor with the Lord and with men.

Have you got it yet? You see, Samuel's awfully like Jesus. Very similar. Very similar. He continued to grow in stature and in favor with the Lord and with men. So here he is, a man whom God has chosen for a purpose because the land of Israel is filled with unholiness and wickedness.

And the priests of God are living sinful lives. So Samuel's in place and he's being trained even before he knows it. And I want to read quite a lot of chapter three. Chapter three. The boy Samuel ministered before the Lord under Eli.

In those days the word of the Lord was rare. There were not many visions. So it seems that for a long time there'd been silence. Eli'd been a priest but he had not observed what his sons were doing. He had not called them to order and they had not feared the Lord.

And the land was in a mess. It could be fairly similar to our own countries except I believe that there may be many more people sent by God such as Samuel in answer to prayers of their mothers or the saints who've been praying down the ages for this country.

I'll dedicate my son. Lord, send your servants to this country because there's wickedness, there's unholiness, there's bad living even from amongst the people of God. Lord, in your mercy send servants into this land that it might be cleaned up and the people can enjoy your favor.

So Samuel's in place. So Jesus was in place sent by his father into the world to rescue the world from sin because God in his mercy didn't want anyone to perish. And although the priests of God in Jesus' time were busy with the wrong things sadly they were not busy with the hearts of men.

They were not busy with mercy. They were not busy with the love of God. They were busy with law. They were busy with judgment. They were busy with things that condemned other men. So God in his mercy sent a savior.

And now he sends you and me with the same message of freedom, of holiness, of righteousness, of forgiveness, of God's heart for his people. I was five, I think, when I decided to be a missionary. And I didn't know what they were but we had a proper one came to our Sunday school and she was wearing a bun.

And I can remember her. She looked down at us and I've got a twin sister and we were sitting on our baby seats and she pointed at each one of us and said, and could God want you on the mission field? And I can remember thinking, well, the answer to that question can't be no.

I wasn't very happy about it but I thought you couldn't reply negative. I'm sure God wanted everyone on the mission field, whatever the mission field was. And I didn't know what it was. It looked like a rugby pitch in my mind.

So after that I used to go around telling people, I'm going to be a missionary. And except as I grew up I learned this wasn't too smart because people expected you to behave better than other people if you're going to be a missionary.

So I thought this was very unfair and kept quiet. And I learned that in England, you know, speaking about God's like underwear close to you and it's personal. So I had this knowledge about God and the fact that he called me all the way through my childhood.

And I was very much not looking forward to meeting God because I had this picture of him in heaven with a large book in which all my sins were. It looked like the school register. And I knew I'd got a lot of tics in the book and I was not looking forward to having to explain about the tics because we sang a very unfortunate chorus at our Sunday school which went, God has blotted them out.

If you know the old CSSM ones, it was in there. And it went, God's blotted them out, I'm happy and glad and free. God has blotted them out, let's turn to Isaiah and see. Chapter, I can't remember the chapter, 44.

22 and 3. You were brought up proper. He's blotted them out so now I can shout for that means me. Well, unfortunately, when I sang that chorus, we were still using blotting paper at school and I didn't know that blotting out meant that he'd wiped them away and I had a picture of God in heaven with a large piece of blotting paper blotting my sins in.

So I couldn't see why we should rejoice at that and not at all looking forward to seeing him to explaining why my tics were longer than someone else's and I was always about to do the last, you know. God, this will be the last one I ever do.

But my list just got longer. So there I was, called by God, knowing I was sentenced, as I thought, to the mission field and not recognizing Jesus. One night, Eli, whose eyes were becoming so weak that he could barely see, was lying down in his usual place.

The lamp of God had not yet gone out and Samuel was lying down in the temple of the Lord where the ark of God was and then the Lord called Samuel. Samuel answered, here I am and he ran to Eli and said, here I am, you called me.

But Eli said, I didn't call. Go back and lie down. So he went back and lay down. And again the Lord called Samuel and Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, here I am, you called me. My son, Eli said, I didn't call.

Go back and lie down. Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord. The word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him. He'd served him. He was ministering before him since he was a baby. But he didn't yet know him.

The Lord called Samuel a third time and Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, here I am, you called me. And then Eli got the point. He realized that the Lord was calling the boy and so Eli told Samuel, go and lie down.

And if he calls you, say, speak Lord, for your servant is listening. So Samuel went and lay down in his place. I can't tell you how many times the Lord called me and I heard wrong. I went off to the wrong place.

And it was not until I was halfway through my college training in London that I realized who was calling. It was quite a surprise. I remember I was on a train going back from a party one night and I must have looked very dreary.

I used to go to terrible parties. And my school friends saw me on the plane and they nudged one another and said to one another, oh Jackie really needs Jesus. Mercifully they didn't say that to me. They said, oh look, every week in London we have these wonderful coffee parties and this is terribly good looking, cure it.

And so I said, when? And I always say that I went to meet nice men and in his mercy I met Jesus. My motives were all wrong but the desire of my heart was right. And so I never mind people coming to Jesus for the wrong reasons, you know.

He's absolutely indiscriminate, you know. He hooks them in for all kinds of reasons and then they meet him. It's lovely, you know. Just like that crowd of neighbors that ran back with a Samaritan woman after she'd said, come and meet a man who told me all I ever did, you know.

And she'd done a lot. That lady. So they all came and they said to Jesus, we believed because we heard what the woman said. But now we've seen you. We believe for ourselves. So it doesn't matter what your motives are.

God gets you anyway if the desire of your heart is for him. So I found myself in these Bible studies in London and I was surprised by Jesus. It really was a surprise. First of all, I was extremely upset because they read a verse there, you know, from the Bible which I'd read before.

In fact, Billy Graham was around in those days and he used to write it up quite a lot. And it went, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me. Well, I was very upset to find that in the Bible because I thought the Baptists made it up.

And they used to put it outside on a thing called wayside pulpit, you know, when I was running down to the station. So I was very upset to find that Jesus said I am the way and the life and the truth because if he said it, I was going to have to make up my mind about it.

I mean, it was either true or it wasn't. And if he isn't the only way to the Father, he's a liar. So I said to him, Jesus, I don't like this much. Because I was brought up to be very broad-minded. And I think this is very narrow.

But I can see I'm going to have to accept this because I don't think you're telling lies. And that was a terrible prayer to make. What a way to get into heaven. But it was the way in. I was at least honest.

And then I realized that it wasn't a narrow way at all. It was the most generous and wide invitation that anyone's ever made. You may all come into the kingdom of heaven. You may all have life. You may all have forgiveness.

And it's through my son Jesus. He's the way. So it was a surprise for me knowing Jesus. Much as I think it must have been a surprise for Samuel when he ran to Eli. All those times. And then Eli realized, no, it's the Lord calling you.

And what does the Lord say? Each time he says, Samuel, Samuel. And the reason that I've chosen this story today is that I'm absolutely certain that there are four or five people here that God's been calling.

And He's calling you by name. And I don't mind about the other people here. I'm just speaking for you. And He's saying your name. Now, I get into a flap every time I'm going to talk to God. Well, not every time, but quite often, you know.

I still haven't quite got over the idea that He's angry with me, you know. And I'm always getting into a lather. And every time I get into a lather and I come before God, He always says to me, Jackie, calm down.

Just calm down. Jackie, it's all right. I know why I'm expecting Him to tell me off. I'm expecting Him to give me loads of instructions about what I'm to do next. And He always says, calm down. He's always saying calm down to me.

You think I've got the message. Just calm down. Jackie, Jackie. You know what He said to Mary in the garden when she'd lost Him, when she lost His body and in distress. She started speaking to the gardener, said they've taken His body away.

And He said to her, and as He said her name, she recognized who He was. It's that simple. And there are some here now.

I've got that underlined twice in my Bible.

God, you've got a list of things to say sorry for or a list of excuses or you're waiting for a list of instructions. And actually all He's going to say to you is Jill, Bernard, Jocelyn. I think those are your names actually because He cares about you.

That's how we begin. That's how we begin our service. There's no way any of us can preach the gospel whether we're called at five or before birth or even like Jesus sent by His Father. There's no way that we can do that until we practice our relationship with Him.

It's very interesting. One of the first things that most of the men say when they come into the walled city. One of the very first things. I've never quite understood why they say it because nobody's taught them.

But they come into the walled city. They're still on heroin. Someone introduces them to Jesus. They pray. They receive Jesus. They pray in tongues. They've got very little understanding about what's going on.

And the first thing they'll then start to say is I was chosen. I got chosen. And they'll start prophesying. They'll say it was no accident. It was no accident you came here tonight. It was not your design.

It was the plan of God for you were chosen. They've got wonderful theology. They then go out and tell their friends you can get chosen too. Very good. So you see God does have a plan. And in His mercy we play a part.

He gives us the privilege. And we answer the privilege when we hear Him calling our name. It's you. And it's you. And it's you. Oh yes. Everybody's supposed to go out and preach the gospel. Oh yes, Jesus died for everyone.

But actually it's different. And it's you. So today I want to get down to the ones. Because I get terribly muddled at missionary conferences. I've been to a few and I have to confess I get more and more muddled the more I go to.

Because you see I simply don't understand numbers. I can't conceive. I don't understand graphs and percentages and nations and things. I don't understand them at all. But I've begun to understand my Lord's love for me.

And all I can do is try and share that with one other. See I think that's preaching the gospel. Very simple. He died for me. And I have the privilege of telling one other person He died for you too. So here's Samuel.

Recognizing the voice of the Lord. Speak for your servant is listening. Ah, but it's not so nice what he's going to say. Not about Samuel but about the state of the land. Because the Lord says to Samuel in verse 11 See I'm about to do something in Israel that will make the ears of everyone who hears it tingle.

At that time I will carry out against Eli everything I spoke against his family from beginning to end. For I told him that I would judge his family forever because of the sin he knew about. His sons made themselves contemptible and he failed to restrain them.

Therefore I swore to the house of Eli the guilt of Eli's house will never be atoned for by sacrifice or offering. Now this is a bit much. I mean here's the first time Samuel gets to talk to God and he's got this loaded message.

So he lay down till morning and then he opened the doors of the house of the Lord. He was afraid to tell Eli the vision. No wonder. But Eli called him and said Samuel my son. And Samuel answered Here I am.

What was it he said to you? Eli asked. Don't hide it from me. May God deal with you be it ever so severely if you hide from me anything he told you. So Samuel told him everything hiding nothing from him.

And then Eli said He is the Lord. Let him do what is good in his eyes. So what poor Samuel was asked to do as soon as he knew the Lord was what I would call to die. Oh God! Couldn't you have given me a nice you'll be blessed prophecy?

I mean you know something sort of like most people start with like I love you my children. Do I have to start out with one like this? I mean this is really not nice. And he's got to tell their dad. He's the priest of the Lord.

Samuel is only an apprentice. And he has to tell the priest of the Lord that God has given this message about his sons and that they're going to be judged and that sacrifice will not atone for what they have done for they've taken the things of God lightly.

I mean what a way to start. I think Samuel began by having to die. Last night one of the words that we had was take up your cross every day and die. Samuel was afraid of dying. He was afraid of what would happen.

The first time he shares words from God they're of that nature. But he obeyed. He hid nothing. And therefore God blessed him. And a revival was to come to that land. When I was in Canada a few weeks ago people were praying about revival much as you have been.

And God gave someone a picture. They've been getting quite a lot of pictures about waves. I don't know if you've had any yet. But there was a picture of this wave that was going to come. And it was a wave of revival.

And nobody was quite sure when it was coming but it was going to be an enormous sweeping wave of the power of God. Now who in their right senses wants to pray for that? You want revival? You want revival in Essex?

No. Well I don't know what you discussed when you went to the seminar about revival. Was it this morning or this afternoon? But surely he dissuaded you. Surely, surely we don't want revival. Surely not.

You see the problem about a wave of revival is there's two things that can happen with that wave. One is you can ride it and the other is that you'll get crushed by it. That's it. You get killed by it or you ride it.

Now you want revival? So what is going to happen here as a result of Samuel's obedience to the Lord was that holiness would be restored to the nation. But the sons of Eli died. For when revival comes there will not be room for unholiness amongst the people of God.

And those of us who've been coasting by will be crushed. When this person had the picture of the wave they had a picture also of a man watching someone on a surfboard. And he thought, Oh, wonderful. Oh, wish I could surf like that.

Oh, wonderful. Oh, wish I could surf like that. So all he did was to sit on the shore and wish he could surf like that. Such a big wave. He didn't think he could manage that. And the Lord said to him, Yes, you can.

Why not start with the little waves? I'll give you a little board. You can get on the little waves in the shallow end. Practice surfing so that when the wave comes, the big one, you'll be able to ride it.

And there are many of us here and we say, Oh, Lord, move. Oh, Lord, we want to break through. No, no, we can't mean it. For we'd be crushed. Careful what we ask. I'll tell you what we can do. For the wave's surely going to come.

We can practice with our surfboards. We can practice riding the waves. That's going with the Holy Spirit. Okay. And this is what I long for in the people of God. It's what we see very, very rarely anywhere in the world.

It's what we look for in our helpers. It's what we look for in our workers. We find very few. We look for men and women of God who will work for Him in spiritual ways and in practical ways. We look for men and women of God who will pray for miracles.

And we look for men and women of God who will give everything that they've got. You don't need to pray for a miracle, you see, if you haven't given everything that you've got. They would never have been able to feed 5 ,000 if one boy hadn't given his fish sandwiches.

Never. But he gave all that he had. And that was why it was multiplied. You see, we'll never be part of the revival if we haven't learned to part with everything. Of course, what I'm talking about is dying.

So we can practice dying. I want to read you a few scriptures about dying. Preaching the gospel means taking up our cross. Luke 9, it says, If anyone would follow me, he must deny himself. Take up his cross daily and follow me.

Well, we all know about that, don't we? I mean, the day we come to know Jesus, we say, thank you for dying on the cross for me. And for some of us, that's the last time we died. But he says, take up your cross daily.

Now I want to give some practical examples of taking up one's cross. Because I think it's central to preaching the gospel. Taking up one's cross very simply means I die to my way of doing things. And I choose to do things the way of my father.

See, Jesus practiced dying before he died on the cross. That's what it says so in Hebrews 5, 7 -9. During the days of Jesus' life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death.

And he was heard because of his reverent submission. I like that. He was heard by his father because of his reverent submission, but he still had to die. Although he was a son, and in the story we've got to so far, as Samuels were sons, were invited to die.

Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered. And once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him. How did Jesus practice dying? He practiced listening to his father, and he practiced having his own plans overruled.

That's why I like St. Mark's Gospel. You keep looking through St. Mark's Gospel and you see that on Jesus' day off, I mean, he got it awfully well planned. I don't know if he got a file of facts or not, but he sure got a date with the father.

All marked out, and he got to the other side of the lake, and there's a crowd of people, and he said, I'm sorry, I've got a date with the father. No, he didn't. He ministered to the crowd. Amazing. Amazing.

It was always happening to him. He was on his way one place, and there were people there in need. And he didn't say, sorry, I'd plan to go up the mountain and talk to father. He healed the sick. He touched all those who came.

And when his disciples said, oh, come on. One night with the telly at least. Yes, get rid of the kids. He said, no, don't stop them, for if such is the kingdom of heaven, don't prevent them from coming.

He didn't take his comfort, or his day off, or even his prearranged time with the father. No. He laid down his life for the sake of those that he was sent into the world to minister to. And I believe that very few of us have begun to learn how to do that.

We, even in the church, sadly, we've been taught the opposite. We have. A lot of what passes for Christian teaching is not Christian at all. It's very sensible, but it's not Christian. Christian teaching is sell everything that you have and give to the poor.

Christian teaching is lend to those who ask you. I know it's not sensible. Christian teaching is if you've got a coat and a cloak, give one away. Don't expect it back. Christian teaching is you give up all your rights happily until death.

That's Christian. We don't hear much of that. We hear the opposite. We hear guard your day off. You need it. You poor servant of God. Rubbish. You don't need to guard your day off at all. You need to guard your relationship with the Lord.

He knows you need time off. He's very good at arranging it. Jesus had a nap in the boat. He sure got it. I believe many of us we have got our rights as Christians. As a son of God, I deserve this. It's my right to have this.

Even some places they teach it's my right to have the best car or the best house or the best garden or the best school for my children. All this stuff. I don't see that's in scripture. Not my right at all.

I lay down all my rights. If in God's mercy I get any of those things, they're presents. They're not rights. Then I enjoy them. Because I don't insist on having them. They're just things that come my way and God's very generous.

He's always sending things, you see. They're not my rights at all. If anyone had rights, Jesus did. And he laid them down. That's what it says in Philippians. That lovely, lovely chapter. I'll read you some of Philippians 2.

Your attitude should be the same as Christ Jesus, who being in the very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing. Taking the very nature of a servant and being made in human likeness, and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death, even death upon a cross.