God's Kind of Servant — Alan Redpath

Turn with me to the Word of God. The Gospel of Luke and chapter 6. Found the place? Luke chapter 6. It used to be possible to ask a congregation to read the Bible together, audibly. But if you ask them to do that now, you'd think we're all speaking in tongues.

Because there's so many different versions and paraphrases. I won't tell you the version from which I'm reading. Maybe you'll recognize it. Luke chapter 6 and verse 12. Luke 6 and verse 12. In these days he went out into the hills to pray.

And all night he continued in prayer to God. And when it was day he called his disciples and chose from them twelve whom he named apostles. Simon whom he named Peter. And Andrew his brother. And James and John and Philip and Bartholomew.

And Matthew and Thomas and James the son of Alphaeus. And Simon who was called the zealot. And Judas the son of James. And Judas Iscariot who became a traitor. Verse 20. And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples and said, blessed are you poor for yours is the kingdom of God.

Blessed are you that hunger now for you shall be satisfied. Blessed are you that weep now for you shall laugh. Blessed are you when men hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and cast out your name as evil on account of the Son of Man.

Rejoice in that day and leap for joy for behold your reward is great in heaven for so their fathers did to the Prophet. But woe to you that are rich for you have received your consolation. Woe to you that are full now for you shall hunger.

Woe to you that laugh now for you shall mourn and weep. Woe to you when all men speak well of you for so their fathers did to the Prophet. But I say to you that here love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you.

Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who abuse you. To him who strikes you on the cheek offer the other also. And from him who takes away your cloak do not withhold your coat as well. Give to everyone who begs from you and of him who takes away your goods do not ask them again.

And as you wish that men would do to you do so to them. If you love those who love you what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you what credit is that to you?

For even as sinners do the same. And if you lend to those from whom you hope to receive what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners to receive as much again. But love your enemies and do good and lend expecting nothing in return.

And your reward will be great and you will be sons of the Most High. For he is kind to the ungrateful and the selfish. Be merciful even as your father is merciful. Now just let us look to the Lord of the Word a moment.

Can I ask you to echo in your heart the prayer which I offer on your behalf and my own. Speak Lord for thy servant heareth. Speak just now some message to meet my need which thou only dost know. Speak now through thy Holy Word and make me see some wonderful truth thou hast to show to me.

For Jesus sake Amen. I had a deep conviction as I listened today and throughout this conference that the time maybe has come for us to have a practical meditation upon the kind of person that God wants in the ministry.

By ministry I mean mission field of course. Everyone here is either a missionary or a mission field. I don't need to remind you of that fact. You don't become a missionary because you get a visa and go to South America.

You're a missionary where you are. What kind of man does God want in his service today? What kind of fellow, what kind of girl is he looking for? That in these days in which the situations everywhere worldwide are so intensely critical.

That man, that girl may be able to stand their ground because their faith is rooted in Christ himself. Too many people get into the ministry without asking that question. What sort of person does Jesus want?

You notice in this portion that I read to you how carefully and prayerfully he made the choice. He went up into a mountain alone isolated away from the crowd and he prayed all night to God. And then he came down and chose his disciples.

Therefore though I may it seem to be boring in to young people. I suggest you tonight, today that this is a subject which concerns every one of us. The type of person that God wants me to be. The one thing I dread in old age.

That I should serve him in terms of a commission that's gone stale. Lord save me from a relationship with you that dried up. Keep me fresh and keep me vital. Keep me in the firing line right to the very end.

Now what sort of a person is God looking for if he's going to be that? Let me suggest to you, it will be very practical and I trust the Holy Spirit may, may, may wing his way right into our hearts about this subject.

First and foremost you must be a called person. Verse 10 of this chapter says Jesus, sorry verse 13, and when it was day he called his disciples. Let me ask you students, why, why on earth did you come to Prairie Bible Institute?

Why did you decide to go into training? Why? Why not be a lawyer, a farmer, a teacher, a secretary, a nurse, a doctor? Was it because some friends suggested it to you? Was it because you have, or you think you had, the gift of speech?

Or maybe because you thought being in the, in the mission field anywhere would be a satisfying sort of life? Or because people you admire have succeeded in it? Or because, God forbid, because you failed in other things and you thought the ministry of one kind to another would be easier?

None of these reasons are adequate. The only justification for you and I being where we are right now, at this moment, on this day of April 1973, is because we are called there. God has put us there. Of course how am I to know that?

The answer to that question is not altogether easy. God spoke to Moses out of a bush. He spoke to Balaam through the mouth of an ass. And to pardon me saying so, he's used many an ass since. God spoke to Gideon by a fleece.

But I can't wait for that kind of thing neither can you, before I know I'm called of God. I believe a call comes by a sense of inner conviction, of divine urgency, from which there's no escape. Let me just ask you to glance with me a moment at Acts chapter 16.

Here's the gospel getting into Europe, in verse 6. They went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden, notice this, forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. And when they had come opposite Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithynia, but the spirit of Jesus did not allow them.

A good paraphrase I read once, put that this way, the Holy Spirit put his foot down and said no. So passing by Mysia, the same paraphrase puts it this way, plodding through Mysia. I like that. They came down to Troy and a vision appeared to Paul in the night.

A man of Macedonia was standing beseeching him and saying come over to Macedonia and help us. And when he had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.

Concluding, assuredly gathering. You see guidance came by closed doors, not open ones. God shut one door after another. And by hindering, God led. By putting blocks in the way, God guided. Often God shuts the door of apparent opportunity to reveal his true way.

I'm very skeptical of people who say, you know everything was so beautiful, every door opened wide and I just could walk right in. Watch it, watch it, the devil can open many a door to lead you right out of God's will.

I find when every door in life is tight shut, slammed in my face, there's a kink open of light and I press through to discover God's will. God's got to see that I'm determined to follow him, wheresoever he may lead me.

And that sense of divine urgency. I cannot reason against it, I cannot silence his voice. I know in my heart a deep sense of conviction. Putting two and two together, assuredly gathering by doors he shut and by a little kink of light left open, that this is the will of God.

Now I can test myself on that. Very practical test. Let me ask you one or several questions about this. And may the Holy Spirit just probe into our heart. Tell me, tell me, is there evidence of fruit from your testimony now?

I don't mean have you had money conversion, that's not success. But can you accumulate evidence that God's hand is upon your life in blessing? I mean, do you love Jesus more than you used to? Let me test you.

In my church in London some years ago, there was a choir over here and a girl sat in the front row, soprano. And one Sunday morning I came into church and during the opening hymn, I did what most preachers do I imagine, look around to see who was there, or who wasn't there.

And I found an empty space in the front row of the choir. And I thought to myself, where's Audrey this morning I wonder. And I looked around the church and there she was right over here, with her boyfriend.

And I said to myself, that's interesting. The next Sunday morning I didn't trouble to look there, I looked straight there, there she was. And this time they were holding hands. And I thought to myself, that's very interesting.

And you know when the service was over and I pronounced the benediction, they shot out of the door. And about 20 minutes later I caught them up and went past them in my little car. And they were lost to the world, with a sheer joy of being together.

Previously they'd hung around and talked to their friends, but now they didn't. The sheer delight to be in each other's company was an intimate sign that they were in love. You love Jesus? How long have you been with him today, alone?

How long is it since you spent 30 minutes alone on your knees with God? A week? A month? A year? Never. Don't come and tell me you love him. An evidence of the call of God to the ministry of any kind, is that you increasingly love the Lord.

And you love people. A compassion, a passion in your heart. How do people affect you? How do crowds affect you? The Lord Jesus, when he saw a multitude, had compassion on the crowd. That word is a medical term.

It suggests an inward pain, an inward agony. Oh he concerned, he felt the agony of people who were without Christ. Is there a growing concern in your heart for people? Let me ask you another question.

Are you quite clear that the message of the gospel is adequate for today? I mean are you certain of it? If you've any doubt in your answer, you're defeated before you begin. Sometime in your Bible reading, I have no time now, look and read through Acts chapter 13.

In the last few verses over and over again, the word of God, the word of God, the word of God, the word of God. Four times in about 12 verses, there it is, that the early church was, was on fire, it had caught fire, and it burnt in their hearts, the word of God.

There was no uncertainty about the adequacy of the message. Remember Jeremiah, who through suffering decided he would keep quiet, wouldn't speak again, and he said the word was like a fire in my bone.

I could not keep quiet. Are you sure that the word of God is adequate for today? Again, what's your attitude towards sin? Is it total warfare against it? Or are there shady areas of compromise? Your attitude towards sin will govern your attitude toward repentance, and to regeneration, and redemption.

Shallow views of sin will mean shallow views of salvation. What's your attitude towards sin? Have you declared total uncompromising war against it? Have you taken a hundred percent side with God against sin?

Or ninety percent? Let me ask you something else. What's your attitude toward people? You're going to spend your life with people, so do I. We all do. And our reactions to people will largely make or break us.

Remember Solomon's prayer in 1st Kings chapter 3? And he had a dream. The Lord said, you must, put I shall give you. That's a blank check on the bank of heaven. Solomon said, as he reminded the Lord that his father David had become a great man through the mercy of God.

He said, Lord I'm just a little child, and I know not how to go out or how to come in. He lived to be in some ways a great man, but he was never greater than what he said. I'm a little child, just a little child.

I don't know how to go out, how to come in. And I'm in the midst of this great people. You are people. Lord give me a heart that understands, a heart that cares, a heart that loves. What's your attitude toward a people?

Are you easily hurt? Are you easily resentful? I must be careful here, Mr. Randall, but you know as well as I do, that the country of Scotland has a very interesting national motto. And the motto is a thistle, prickly, prickly thistle.

And surrounding it are these words written in Latin, nemo me impune lecacit. Nobody touches me with impunity. Thank the Lord for Scotsmen. That's why Scottish troops in World War One and Two went into battle first.

Before you get a Scotsman heckled up, you've got something on your hands. But listen, that's a trait not confined to Scotsmen. It's with us all. Am I easily hurt? Touchy. Nobody touches me with impunity.

I'll give back as good as I get. How do I react to people? What's my attitude to my fellow worker? Can I be trusted with leadership? Mark 10, 45, even the Son of Man is come not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life for ransom for many.

My friend, if you imagine, if you and I imagine that we're the brains or the boss around here or around there, wherever we are, our throne will soon totter. Other people lose their confidence in us. And what about our reactions to a people, to a people who oppose us, to difficult people?

Perhaps you haven't got any in your church. If so, I'm a first candidate for membership, because I've never struck a church or a fellowship or a mission field or a mission station in which there are no difficult people.

Remember when I was at Moody Church, one time I'm a minister there. One of our pillars of the church used to come in every Sunday morning at 1 minute to 11 to the room from which I went to the pulpit and said to me, just look round the door, and he said, hopeless pastor, church is half empty today.

He went up. That does something to a minister right in here. Fortunately, another man come in about half a minute later and said, pastor, he came right into the room, put his arms round my shoulder and he said, pastor, it's wonderful, churches are full today.

Both of them were saying exactly the same thing. I mean the place seated 4 ,000, 2 ,000 was a bad, wasn't a bad congregation. But out of every empty seat when I got to the pulpit, the little devil used to jump and sneer at me.

I didn't need this fellow to come along and tell me that. Listen friend, which of those two men was it easier for me to love? I don't need to answer that question. Now the actions to the first man were entirely negative, entirely unspiritual.

Lord, get him out of here. Send him to some other fundamental church where he can do his thing. But please Lord, get rid of him. We can't expect blessing in our church when people like that are around.

So the only answer is to write him a blistering letter, which I proceeded to do. And the letter, I tell you, it blistered. But I left it open on my study desk and my wife saw it. I um, yeah, I um, no I don't want to be saying too much, but I, I'm a man who has every cause to thank God that I have a wife who many and many a time has saved me in moments like this.

And she said to me, darling, before that letter goes, don't you think it would be well if you and I prayed together about it? So I said, sure. And there and then we knelt down and prayed. And something happened.

That letter was never sent. I discovered personally in the depths of my heart a truth that I had preached for years to other people. You can't pray for someone against whom you hold resentment. And if you have a resentment against some other person, you cannot pray for them.

Either your resentment dies out or your prayer life is shattered. And as we knelt together and wept together, the Lord broke me. I found myself, don't ask me why, I found myself loving this man. I never liked him.

I don't like him. Never have liked him. But there's all the difference in the world between liking and loving. Jesus said, love your enemies. Do good to them which despitefully use you. You see my friend, listen, I don't receive God's forgiveness in a cup to hold it to myself.

I receive it in the pipeline to pass it through. That love might get through my heart to life. The people I don't like. That man didn't change a great deal. But the Lord has done something in my heart.

Matter of fact, first time we went back to Moody Church, when we left it, about a year later, who should meet us both on the doorstep but this man. And you know, he came up to my wife, he hugged her and he kissed her.

I didn't mind that. And then when he, when he'd finished with her, he turned to me and hugged me and said, oh pastor we do miss you. I felt like saying, what a pity I didn't say that a few years ago. Then I didn't.

See what I'm getting at? A test of a call is. Has God made you love someone you don't like? Mission fields, mission stations, everywhere are simply shattered by lack of this one thing. Of course it's the application of the cross in our life.

Let me ask you another question. What's your attitude to people of other races? Superior? May I say this? Perhaps, um, in this company. Before you go into any Christian work, or if you're in it now, I trust that God delivers you from the most awful thing that has been everywhere in the mission field.

And that is the superiority of the white race. The imagined superiority of the white race. Get rid of it friend. It just isn't true. And if I could take you, and some of these missionaries could take you to countries like Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand, Malaysia, you'd know it.

What's your attitude to people of other colors, other races? Has God knocked out of you forever the sense that you are better than they are? Henceforth I know no man according to the flesh, 2nd Corinthians 5 16.

I won't allow my likes and dislikes to be governed by man's color, background, or race. By the grace of God I'll love everybody. You know, you know, I was introduced in Zaheer, the country of Zaheer, Congo some little time ago.

I went into a pilgrim tribe, a pygmy tribe. A pygmy tribe, and I met the chief. And he shook hands with me. I could just reach him down here. And he just reached up to me. And the missionary who was interpreting said, my that's wonderful.

I said, what do you mean it's wonderful? He said, you both said exactly the same thing. What did we say? Good morning brother. Brother? Well, he was three feet. I'm six feet too. He was black. I was white.

He had his birthday suit on. I had a suit of clothes on. I cannot imagine two individuals less like each other than we were. But brother, see, both of us in love by the Holy Ghost. Both of us sharing the life of Jesus.

Therefore, brothers, that is the Church. See, both of us in love by the Holy Ghost. Both of us sharing the life of Jesus. Therefore, brothers, that is the Church. And if we really believed it and acted upon it, I say to you, we wouldn't treat each other as we do.

Fight, indulge in the luxury of a civil war because we don't believe on the program of eschatology. The only one who gets a laugh out of it is the devil. United, sharing together the life of Jesus. And everyone within that group who so love him and are born of his Spirit or engulfed by his Spirit, I may disagree with him about the program of our Lord's return.

But I'm not going to quarrel with him. One day he'll know I'm right, but I won't discuss it with him now. Leave it and we'll get to heaven. We'll have all sorts of disagreements about lots of things, but we'll stand on this ground of our fellowship in Jesus Christ our Lord because we're members of his body.

One more question. What is your attitude to rich people? Would you lower your standards to win their favor? May I remind you that fine houses, fine clothes, big bank account, do not soften God's demand for repentance.

Of course I shouldn't discriminate against them, but I should never keep them a gospel to win their favor. Would you, would you apply some of those questions to your present situation now and check the list?

Ask your call. You must be a call man. Then I would say this, in Christian work, in Christian service, whatever you call it, missionary work, anything, ministry, you must be a choice man. Jesus said, Matthew 22, 14, Many are called, but few are chosen, or choice, as the word is.

Remember that incident, find it in the 2nd Kings chapter 4 and verse 9, where the Shunammite woman said to her husband, concerning Elisha, whom they'd fed in their home for some time, as he walked by the window, behold, I see a holy man of God continually passes by, a holy man of God continually.

Brethren and sisters, I find that being in the ministry is like swimming in a goldfish bowl. Everybody's watching, all you do all the time. It's like living in a new house that's open for inspection. And a minister, if he's going to do anything, or any servant of the Lord on the mission field, he'll open his house all the time to people.

Hasn't any private life. And then they'll come in all sorts of hours, and you don't want them, but they'll come in. And let me tell you, there's none of us who are exempt from the temptation of evil and sin.

The experience of temptation and battle is necessary to overcome, to grow in grace. And a pastor, a minister, a preacher, an evangelist, a missionary, isn't somehow mysteriously exempt from this principle, just because they're in full-time service.

There can be no yawning gap between precept and principle. Do you remember how Paul simply hammered this home? You who say, Romans 2 21, you who say you shall not steal, do you steal? You who say you shall not commit adultery, do you commit adultery?

The name of our God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you. My beloved friend, an outward profession of faith must be backed by an inward practice of holiness. Of course, I'm not, we're not expected to be paragons of virtue, but we are expected to be consistent.

And that which touches other people is the feeling they have that when they meet you and they meet me, they meet someone who is what he's supposed to be, that he's real, he isn't a phony. There is no more telling advertisement to the gospel, for the gospel, than a life which is transparently good by the grace of God.

Let's therefore be honest with God today, deal with the shabby corners in our lives, and remember that the greatest factor for witness to Jesus is personal holiness of life. And if I may say so, the two greatest dangers which face anyone in full-time service are money and sex.

And Satan will be on your track with both of these all the time. And by the grace of God, I must be beyond reproach. I don't like telling you this, but I'm just feel I should. I was taking an open-air service in Southampton in England some years ago.

About 3 ,000 men who were building pips, and they're having lunch, sitting on the grass. I was using a loudspeaker, and I was getting very badly heckled by one section of the crowd. So I said, be quiet for a few minutes till I finish, then come and talk to me.

Turned up the volume. The end of the meeting, after 10 minutes, one section of the crowd rushed at me. My few helpers disappeared. And I couldn't reach the loud speaking equipment and turn it off, but the following conversation went right over the whole lot.

And one man who wasn't drunk, but he'd been drinking, he was about 50 years of age, came up to me and he said, you're a dirty coward. I said, I beg your pardon? He said, you're a dirty coward. I said, what do you mean?

Oh, he said, cut it out. You're no use. You don't know what to tell them. I said, supposing you were behind this, Mike, what would you tell them? I would tell them, he said, that there are a lot of sinners going to hell, and they can only be saved by the blood of Jesus.

I said, who told you that? Oh, he said, cut it out. Cut it out. I've been in your game, and there's nothing in it. It's a washout. I said, excuse me, sir. You said I was a coward, and you've been in this game, and you call it, and you've quit, and I'm in this game, and I'm still in it.

Who's a coward? You or me? And then he lost his temper, and he took both his fists, spat at me, and aimed a blow at my, at my head. I was very grateful that I'd been trained in the arts of rugby football, and tackling.

I knew how to bring that man to be down, to be sure he got the worst of it, and I went, got him by the ankles, and pushed him on the ground. I fell down too, but I got on top of him, and the crowd roared, oh!

And we got up, and I said, Jim, now my friend, you get back your work. You're the one who needs to be saved by the blood of Jesus. Do you know, I was so interested, because after all, that sort of thing doesn't happen to you in life every day, that I checked up on the history of that man.

Do you know what I found? He'd been a missionary in India for 25 years, 25 years! And at one stage, his wife said to him, I've got to go home. I've got to have the kids educated in Britain, they can't stand it here, I've got to go home.

And he said, no, no, you can't do that, don't leave me alone, I can't take it without you. No, she said, I've got to go, and she went. In six months' time, another woman, a ruined home, a mission station, closed, and years later, drunk at Southampton.

I am not standing here in judgment on that brother. I shall meet him one day in heaven if he's saved. I don't know anything about it, nothing about the circumstances, and God only knows what happened to me personally in similar circumstances.

But I tell you that because I'm saying this, that if you are going into full-time missionary work of any kind, you're going to be a first-class target for hell, and only Jesus is stronger than Satan and sin.

And Satan to Jesus must bow. You and I have to be, by God's grace, a choice. And a man reveals his choiceness in all sorts of ordinary ways. I'll tell you how, one way, his choice of a wife. He will always choose a girl with the same goals, the same desire, the same ambition, the same love for the Lord, the same sense of divine urgency upon a heart.

And he'll turn his back upon every other flirtation. Choice man, you'll know him by the way he conducts family worship. This will be his priority until his dying day. He will never allow Christian work to interfere with a family altar.

Do you know, I was down in Devon in England a bit ago. I was staying with a doctor. Well, he came one night, the night before, arrived late. After a long journey, went straight to bed, dead tired. Next morning, seven o 'clock, a bell rang, alarm bell.

I heard a scurrying of feet. I thought I'd better join in the rush. So I went downstairs, and I found myself in a room with scads of kids. I don't know how many, I never got to count them. I was only there one day.

There were at least 10, may have been 12. And they all were sitting around a tennis table, table, the only table large enough to accommodate the whole family. And daddy was at one end, and mommy was at the other.

These kids would intrigue me. They all had funny sort of electric looking sort of roller things in their hair. And some were dressed and partially dressed, and some were unshaven, partly shaven, various stages of this, but they're all there.

And daddy read a chapter from the Word of God, a whole chapter. Then he gave every one of those children from age, I understand, from four to 24, a missionary for them to pray. And we knelt down against our chair.

And when it came to my turn to pray, I tell you my friend, I found it desperately hard. For I'd got emotionally involved in the situation. Even that little kid of four knew exactly where the missionary she'd been asked to pray for lived, what she was doing, what her need was.

Why the whole proceedings took at least 30 minutes. That man was a practicing doctor. In half an hour, he had his first surgery of the day. Easy to drop all that prayer for the pressure of business, and getting on the rat race, and making money.

But he didn't. He kept his priorities right. And that doesn't guarantee a family growing up to love the Lord, but it helps a man who is a choice man. You find him, you'll find him in a home. I know that it takes God's grace and power to preach the gospel.

But I'm telling you my friend, with all my heart, and I do not say this to be dramatic, with all my heart I tell him, Lord, far more than that, Lord make me a father, a husband, like Jesus would have me to be.

You'll find a choice man by his toilet and dress. The girl will understand that beauty is not applied from the drugstore, but imparted from within. And in their dress they'll be. I wish, I mustn't get off on this, but I wish we could start a Christian fashion.

Fashion for Christians, not way out, either way, or way up. But, but a fashion that would honor Jesus. And a choice man, you'd know him by, I'll tell you, most of all perhaps, by his lack of gossip. He's never, never passing on a second or third hand something he's heard about somebody else.

There's, the, the, the line stops when it comes to him. Oh, we were having a terrible time at Moody Church once about this, and it all arose as, are you, are you not for Billy Graham? Absurd, nonsense, as if that was the basis of anybody's fellowship of unity.

Are you against or for him? Well, I was absolutely for him. And you know, there was all sorts of things going around about Moody Church in the hands of a liberal pastor, you see, etc., all this. Oh yes.

So I tell you what I did. I got a blackboard, great big board, up beside our platform, and I wrote in it, T-H-I-N-K. Think, letters perpendicular, T-H-I-N-K. And I asked everybody to join a mutual encouragement fellowship.

And the condition of Johnny, it was that they were able to subscribe to this word, T-H-I-N-K. What's it mean? Before I speak, I'll think, is it true? Will it help? Is it inspiring? Is it necessary?

Is it kind? If not, I'll shut my stupid mouth. Think, before I talk about a colleague, before I talk about a friend, before I talk about anybody, is it true? Will it help? Is it inspiring? Is it necessary?

Is it kind? A choice man. He's the end of the road to gossip. Now, one last word. Finally, brethren. So I remind you that when Paul wrote to the church in Philippi, when he got to the beginning of the third chapter, halfway through, he said, finally brethren.

And then became the father of all men who indicate when they say that, they've got the second wind. But I won't be doing that. I'll be promising. If I go on a minute, minute more than four, you can all walk out.

But look, listen, I must get this home to you. A man, a man who is in Christian service, any Christian who's going to be used of God, has to be a chaste man. I hasten to emphasize that that word is spelled C-H-A-S-T-E.

Excuse me. You're very quick today. You're not asleep. That's good. A chaste man. That means a disciplined man. You and I are facing danger on the road and we need strengthening against them. And the dangers that a Christian in full-time service has to face, is the danger of laziness, self-indulgence, intemperance.

It's far more easy to be disciplined when you're in business than we're in Christian life, Christian work. I know that because I've been in both. In an office, you have certain hours and that's it. And they're made for you.

But a Christian who's in Christian work, he's got the work with him from the day he, from the moment he wakes up, till the moment he goes to bed at night. Indeed, long afterwards. It's with him all the time.

And, and, and, if he doesn't discipline his life, he's lost. And the secret of this is communion with God. In every arena of battle, there must be an altar of worship. Oh, how often I've had to drive myself to pray, because I'd put love for the Lord's work, before love for the Lord Himself.

I can recall days when to go into my study and see neglected prayer lists was painful. That's the testing point, when you're on the mission field, or when you're in the ministry, or when you're any Christian service.

I tell you, if you win there, win the battle, and you maintain, you maintain the altar of worship, then heaven opens upon you in blessing. If you're defeated there, life becomes a dreary round of drudgery.

God's judgment on a prayerless life. No use waiting for a sense of urge to pray. Pray when you don't feel like it. There's no short cut to a training sainthood. And that means communion with God, and it means care of my body.

You remember these words, verses in 1 Corinthians chapter 9? I'm giving it in Philip's rendering. I am no shadow boxer. I do not beat the air. I buffet my body. I deal it blow upon blow. Lest, lest I should reclaim the rules to other people, and then find I'm disqualified.