(1986 Prairie Series) 1 - Sent, Went, Put — Major Ian Thomas

Thank you so much for that kindly welcome. It's certainly my very special delight to have this further opportunity of being among you. It's always a sheer delight to be here in Prairie, to be among so many in whose hearts the Lord Jesus has been given the place of preeminence, and whose supreme delight is to serve him.

So I thank you again tonight for the very real privilege that is mine to share these days with. It's been said of the early believers in the early church that they were incorrigibly happy, utterly unafraid, and nearly always in trouble.

And that was a pretty accurate description of those who were there then entrusted with the good news of the gospel. They were men who knew what they believed, they believed what they knew, they acted on the assumption that it was true, and they let God prove it.

The Acts of Jesus Through His Church

And of course he always did, and still does. So it's always refreshing to turn sometimes to the book that records those activities that characterized the early believers. And in the first chapter of the book of the Acts, the former treaties have I made O Theophilus of all that Jesus began both to do and to teach.

And by dint of this introduction of course the author under God of the book of the Acts is indicating that this is a second treaties or book that he has written. The book in itself as all of us know in a sense is a misnomer.

And this Luke of course points out very clearly in that very first verse. Not the Acts of the Apostles. This said Luke is the second of the books that I am writing. Having in the first told you what the Lord Jesus began to do and began to teach in this book, I'm going to tell you what he continued to do and continue to teach.

The only essential difference is the humanity with which he on earth clothed his divine activity. A different body, but the same Lord Jesus Christ in action. What he continued to do and continue to teach in that new body, the second that the father gave him on the day of Pentecost, the birth of the church.

When having accomplished the redemptive act, precipitating that regenerative purpose that restores the life of God to forgiven sinners. The father God in heaven gave him the second body, the church which is his body.

An organic entity made up of boys, girls, men and women out of every kindred, nation, tribe and tongue and race and creed and class and color, who cleansed in his precious blood. Having become the recipients of his Holy Spirit, sharing his life on earth had been added in particular to his corporate body.

That's the fantastic privilege that God still today gives to you and to me. To be his hands, to work with feet, to walk with lips, to speak with eyes, to see with ears, to hear with a mind to think with and hearts to love.

The church which is his body. So we read here of the continued activities of the Lord Jesus continuing to do and continuing to teach the things that he once began to do and began to teach, but in the new body.

This is clearly indicated if you turn to the fifth chapter in the twelfth verse, by the hands of the apostles were many signs and wonders wrought among the people. Twelfth verse of that fifth chapter, by the hands of the apostles.

It was their hands. But the one who motivated their hands, the Lord Jesus. Theirs his to work with, as theirs were his feet to walk with. Theirs were his lips to make articulate the good news of the gospel.

By the hands of the apostles and believers, we're told in the fourteenth verse with a more beautiful expression that's used more than once in God's word, added to the Lord. That's why they got excited when a boy accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as savior or young lady or a man or a woman.

They got excited because, you see, they knew exactly what had happened. This boy, girl, man or woman had been added to the Lord. They said the Lord Jesus got another pair of hands. He's got two more feet to walk with, another pair of lips to speak with and two more eyes to see with, ears to hear the cry of the needy world.

He's been added to the Lord. And that's what it is, of course, to be a Christian. Somebody who in their redeemed humanity now clothes the divine activity of Jesus Christ. That's why a Christian is somebody who cannot happen apart from Jesus Christ.

Added to the Lord. They didn't get excited because this boy, that girl, man or woman had been added to them. They didn't present the proposition that if you're one of us, you're one of his. They were unshatterably convinced that if they were one of his, they had become one of theirs.

Added with them as members in particular of that new body corporate, recognizing the total headship of Jesus Christ and caught up into the timeless purpose of an eternal God. Added to the Lord. Not like the kid who turned to his friend and said, why doesn't your dad go to the church my dad goes to?

His friend replied, well, he belongs to a different abomination. Well, the abominations are going to be with us like the poor until the Lord Jesus comes. And we've got to learn to live with them. And it's my happy privilege almost every week of my life to move from one abomination to another.

And among them all, I find the sweetest of those who know and love my Lord Jesus and share with me his life that he shares with us. Added to the Lord. And of the rest, it says in the verse that I deliberately omitted to read, the 13th there of the rest, durst, no man joined himself to them.

In other words, the crowd around hadn't got the courage to identify themselves with these who so demonstrably had become the property of Jesus Christ because they knew fully what was implicated. They knew perfectly well by the message that they then heard that to receive Christ as Redeemer was to recognize his total headship and being the recipients of his divine indwelling were prepared to yield to his sovereignty in their lives.

And from that moment, they became expendable. Little wonder that of the rest, durst, no man joined himself to them. Nobody in those days dared to say, I'm a Christian, unless they were prepared to accept the implications of being totally sold out to Jesus Christ.

Twenty-four hours a day. Would to God it was as dangerous in the eyes of the world to become a Christian in terms of total involvement with our Lord Jesus than it was then. Though they didn't have the courage to identify themselves in true repentance toward God and in receiving Christ as their Redeemer with the then church, it says, the people magnified them.

In other words, they couldn't help but recognize the sheer transparent genuineness of these who claimed to be Christians, redeemed sinners. They held them in the highest possible regard. They magnified them.

Though they themselves were not prepared to accept the implications of discipleship. And for that reason, of course, there weren't too many people in those days who played church. Prepared to say that they were Christians without recognizing what would be involved.

There weren't too many prepared to stick their necks out because they knew that they would immediately be exposed for the phonies that they were. There were one or two exceptions. And a couple of those exceptions are mentioned in the earlier part of this fifth chapter of the book of the Acts.

Ananias, Sapphira, and the Cost of Hypocrisy

In the first verse, a certain man named Ananas with Sapphira, his wife, sold a possession. A possession. It was carefully selected to impose a little hardship upon himself and his wife. And they kept back part of the price.

Having selected already something that they would least miss, even then they weren't prepared to yield all that they realized upon its sale. But put something under the floorboards for a rainy day. They kept back part of the price, his wife being privy to it.

That means to say the whole thing was a conspiracy and she was in the conspiracy. And they brought a certain part and laid it at the apostle's feet. Now, the whole thing was a piece of theatricals. They were making out, wearing a mask, and it was very carefully engineered.

For you see, he was to go in first with what they purported should be their total dedication completely given over to God and in the service of his son. He was to go in first. And then an hour or two later, she was to go in and take the encore.

See when he came in, they'd gaze at him in wonder, love and praise and his sheer dedication. And then she was to come and bask in his limelight. It's very carefully engineered. But when Ananias came, said Peter to him, who are you kidding?

I mean, it doesn't say that in King James, but that's exactly what he meant. Peter said in verse 3, Ananias, why has Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost and to keep back part of the price?

Whilst it remains, said he, was it not in thine own power? Did I come knocking on your door and telling you that you should give this or that to the church or the service of the Lord Jesus Christ or invested in missions?

Said he to him, that isn't within my jurisdiction. Because if you dare to say that you're a Christian, then you've been added to the Lord and you recognize solely his headship. And even when you'd sold it and realized its value, was it not in thine own power?

Couldn't you have invested it as you pleased or purchased some other property, some other piece of land? That's not my controversy. Why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart? Thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God.

And he dropped dead. It was really quite exciting going to church in those days. And in ours, hearing these words, verse five, fell down, gave up the ghost, and great fear came on all them that heard these things.

If it weren't quite so sad, it would really be quite funny. In the sixth verse, just three lines, didn't take too long. The young man arose, wound him up, carried him out and buried him with great expedition.

And then Peter said, we'll sing hymn number 239 and proceeded with the message. And it was about the space of three hours after. And they must have had long services in those days. When his wife, not knowing what was done, she didn't even know that her husband was dead and buried, came in for the second part of the act.

And when she arrived, Peter answered and said, tell me whether you sold the land for so much. And with a sweet evangelical smile on her face, she said, yes. Isn't it lovely to be given over to God, to be wholly dedicated, sold out for Jesus?

And said Peter to her, how is it that you have agreed together to tempt the spirit of the Lord? Behold, the feet of them which have buried thy husband at the dawn will carry you out. And she dropped dead.

And the young man came in, found her dead, carrying her forth, buried her by her husband. You see, in those days, they didn't just have ushers to show you to your seat and stewards, you know, to take the offering.

They had always a little squad of men on duty to bury the dead. I can think of nothing more salutary, nor anything that would do more good to the Church of Jesus Christ, certainly in my own country, the British Isles or the United States or here in Canada, if say 10 minutes after the announcement of the first hymn, all the phonies would have dropped dead.

Wouldn't that be fantastic? I don't mean the strangers. I don't mean the visitors. I don't mean those off the street and those who demonstrably were unconverted, but are coming with a hungry heart to hear what God has to say.

I mean the folks, you know, who've been playing church for years, making out. Mind you, we wouldn't have such large congregations. And it might well be that if you knew that was going to happen, you'd go fishing.

The Apostles' Witness in the Face of Religious Opposition

That was the stamp of the early believer. Reality, genuineness. Then the high priest, verse 17 in that chapter, Rosa, and all they that were with him, which is of the sect of the Sadducees, and they were filled with indignation, a word which more accurately means envy.

Because you see, these were the theological leaders of Christ's day. These were those of the ecclesiastical hierarchy in all the sterility of an apostate form of Christianity that they had established on the basis of their investigation of God's word, priding themselves on their scholarship.

But a Bible they studied without revelation. As the Lord Jesus himself reprimanded them, as recorded for us in the 5th of John 39, he said, you search the scriptures. In them you think you have eternal life, but they are they that testify of me, and you will not come to me, but you might have life.

And if you search the Bible without that divine illumination that only God the Holy Spirit can give of the book he authored, and fail to recognize the one of whom the scriptures testify, and will not come to him that you might have life, then all you've got is a dead Bible.

And these were they who were utterly indignant, full of envy, when they saw a bunch of untutored, ignorant individuals, what today would be called laymen, fanatical street preachers, proclaiming a message, but which transparently was transforming the lives of boys and girls, and men and women.

And they were filled with envy. This was bad for business, because this was taking place without going through the normal channels. And it had to be stamped out at all costs. So they laid their hands on the apostles and put them in the common prison.

They went unduly dismayed at that fact, because they were reasonably accustomed to that kind of accommodation. And they went only in jail. Sometimes they were put into the innermost part, that means the most unsavory part of all.

On that occasion, you remember, when Silas was with Paul in jail, they sang so loud, they kept the other prisoners awake. And I imagine that between their songs, Silas would say to Paul, what do you think God has in mind?

And Paul would say, it must be important, otherwise he wouldn't stick us in a place like this. This stings. And it did, if ever you had been to the innermost part of a jail in those days. But it's going to be exciting.

Isn't it fantastic, Silas, that you and I have been given the privilege of being expendable for our Lord Jesus, so that he can accomplish in his own way, in his own time, for his own purposes, anything he pleases.

Let's have another song. So they had another song, and they woke up the prisoners once again, and halfway through the song, for good measure, God added an earthquake. The ceiling fell in, the walls fell out, and as they stood there rubbing their eyes, waiting for the dust to settle, there was a man in the inquiry room.

Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they led him to Christ, and later all his family. That was New Testament evangelism, earthquake and all. But the angel of the Lord, by night, opened the prison, and brought them forth.

All the Words of This Life

By God's direct and divine intervention, they were set free. And the angel said to them, in verse 20 there, the fifth of Acts, go stand, speak in the temple, to the people, all the words of this life.

What a lovely description of the gospel. All the words of this life. Not the life to come. They went to go out and tell boys, girls, men and women, how they could get out of hell and into heaven. Marvelous as that is, and profoundly thankful as you and I should be, that through his atoning and substitutionary work upon the cross, whereby he incurred in his person the judgment that had already fallen upon man, and had occurred in Adam and his fallen seed, we may be profoundly thankful for his dear sake, we can be accepted in the beloved, and know that our home is in heaven.

But that isn't why the Lord Jesus came into this world. He said, I'm come that you might have life. I've come to raise the dead. I've come to make it possible. On the grounds of redemption, for my father God to restore to you, without doing violence to his own righteousness, that life that was lost in Adam in the day that man fell.

Which was the day that man died. So the angel told the apostles to go stand, speak all the words of this life. Go, said the angel to them. Go tell boys, girls and men and women that they can come alive.

That if only they'll recognize their lost condition, that they were born spiritually alienated from the life of God, and dead in trespasses and sins. If only they will repent and recognize their lost condition, humbly admit it, and turn to Christ, and claim from him the forgiveness they don't deserve, but God delights to give, something very wonderful will happen.

They'll receive as God's gift in the person of the Holy Spirit, the life of their risen Lord, and they'll come alive. Raised from the dead. Go and tell them, tell boys, tell girls, men and women, they can come alive.

Tell them all the words of this life. Not the life to come, not in the then and there, but in the here and now. That he, the risen Lord, wants to invade their humanity, so they can become that body on earth, through which he'll continue to do, and continue to teach, the things that he began to do, and began to teach, so many years ago.

Go stand and speak in the temple to the people, all the words of this life. In other words, said the angel to the apostles, go where you're sent, stay where you're put, and give what you got. You see, if you're sent, when you're put.

Going Where God Sends and Staying Where He Puts

And if you know who sent you, you know who put you. And if it's God who sent you, then it's God who put you. And if it's God who put you, nothing can frighten you. And these were men who learned what it meant to be sent, and to be numbered amongst those who went, and to know that they'd been put.

Are you put? I mean, if I were to say to you, if you're a businessman, why are you in that particular business? You'd say to me, if you're a genuine Christian, with a grin on your face, put. I'd say, what do you mean, put?

And you'd say, oh, I was sent when? You see, I'm a Christian. I wouldn't dream of embarking upon any business enterprise, if I weren't utterly convinced in my heart, that that is the place where he put me.

Because, you see, I'm a Christian, and he's the head of that body, to which I have been added as a member in particular. I'm put. The Lord Jesus said, where I am, there will my servant be. We often are exhorted to be busy for Jesus, and we get the idea we've got to rush around, and when we get involved, and maybe the situation is getting a bit beyond our capacity, then we call upon the Lord and ask for his help.

We say, I'm over here, I need you. And he's not interested. Because, you see, he doesn't go where we are. We are to be where he is. Where I am, said the Lord Jesus, there will my servant be. I mean, when you got up this morning, where did you expect your hands, and feet, and teeth, and ears, and nose to be?

I mean, did you have to rush around the house, and try to gather them together? Shout for the thumb, and say, it's eight o 'clock, and I told you to be here. Get on time! How would you get on with a body like that?

That expected you to be where it was, instead of it being where you are? And that's the body that the Lord Jesus Christ, of course, has to contend with on earth. The only evidence that you and I have been added to the Lord, is that we have become living members of his body, by virtue of the fact that being cleansed through his precious blood, we've been reconciled to God, and he's come to take up residence within our humanity.

Alive. And as a member of his body, being alive, I've got to be where he is. During the war, I had a finger shot off. It's an unfriendly German tank. I said, just a minute. And he didn't wait. It doesn't embarrass me.

Little kids love it. They won't want to like it. It took place near Lake Trasimene in Italy. That's where my remains are buried. I've never been back to visit my remains. But if it did embarrass me, I'm sure I could find somebody, somewhere, who'd manufacture for me an artificial limb, and stick it on, and make it look exactly like a finger.

Make it twiddle like the other one. And nobody would know the difference. But would it be a member of my body? Well, of course not. I could take it off and leave it on the kitchen table. And when I got up in the morning, I wouldn't expect it to be where I am.

I'd have to go where it was. Just a rubber dummy. You could stand on it all day. I wouldn't complain. But if you trot on my little finger, I'd say, pardon me. You're treading on me. And you might say, no, I'm not.

I'm not treading on you. I'm just treading on your little finger. And I'd say, I couldn't care less whether you're treading on my little finger or my face. Get off! And if you didn't get off, I'd mobilize the other members of my body.

And give you some assistance. Well, now you know what it means to be a member of the body of Christ. You possess his life. You're subject to his headship. Where he is, you are. You're sent, went, and put.

You don't expect your hands to get into committee each morning under the joint chairmanship of the thumbs and decide what they're going to do in your best interest for the rest of the day. How would you get on?

Half past 10 in the morning, you want to blow your nose. And in committee, they've already decided to scratch your back. How would you get on with a body like that? Now, laugh your heads off because most of you are laughing at yourselves.

Are you put? Why do you live in the home where you live? Well, you say, if you're a genuine Christian. Put. You see, I recognize that my home is where Jesus Christ lives. I don't have the right simply to select a nice location, either far away from or next to my mother-in-law.

That isn't a factor that comes into my calculations. Only that I'm in the place where the Lord Jesus has the absolute right to entertain anybody beneath that roof because it's his. I'm sent. And when?

And put. Excuse me, Paul, why are you in the ministry? And Paul would say, put. What do you mean, put? Oh, I was sent. And when? And put in the ministry. Did you ever read that in the Bible? You'll find in the first of Paul's two epistles to Timothy.

Paul's Calling, Mercy, and Heavenly Vision

In the first chapter, in the 13th verse, he bears his testimony to the kind of man that he once had been. Not insincere. He was a fanatical religionist. Everything he did, he did genuinely believing that he was serving God.

But in spite of the fact, he has to admit, verse 13, I was before a blasphemer. I considered the Lord Jesus Christ to be a fanatical street preacher. I considered him together with my theological colleagues to be the illegitimate child of a faithless, lying, ignorant, Galilean peasant girl.

I was a blasphemer. And I was a persecutor. I tried to destroy the early church. I wanted to stamp out those who were called men of the way. And in so doing, I thought I was defending the Christ, my Messiah.

And I was injurious. In other words, people got hurt when I was around. I stood by consenting to the death of Stephen. I saw his blood run in the gutter. I heard his bones snap as he was stoned to death.

A believing woman seeing me come down the road would go white as a sheet and rush home and hide her believing husband in the linen cupboard. Little kids would scatter at my presence. But I obtained mercy.

I obtained mercy. Because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. When I persecuted the early church with my theological background as a Pharisee of the Pharisees, one who was the blue-eyed boy of my class, promoted above many my equals in the Jews' religion, I thought I was serving God.

But I learned one day that I was simply advertising my ignorance. For on the road to Damascus with letters of authority from the high priest to throw into jail any who dared to say that Jesus was the Messiah, there was a light brighter than the sun at noonday.

And I was flung sightless to the earth. And I heard a voice from heaven in the Hebrew tongue from Jesus saying, Soul, soul, why persecutest thou me? I said, who are you, Lord? I'm Jesus. In your estimate, the illegitimate child of a lying, faithless, ignorant Galilean peasant girl.

An imposter, fanatical street preacher, an incorrigible scrounger who had nowhere to lay his head. Jesus, whom thou persecuted. I capitulated. For indeed, I had, as he then said, been kicking against the pricks.

For the face of Stephen had never left me. I knew deep down in my heart that he was right. And I was wrong. God had mercy. I did it ignorantly in my unbelief. And verse 12, I thank Christ Jesus, our Lord, who hath enabled me for that he counted me faithful, putting me, putting me into the ministry.

If you want to know why I'm in the ministry, I was put. Put. Because I was sinned. And I went. In the 26th chapter of the book of the Acts, where again he bears his testimony, he says at midday, O King, verse 13, I saw in the way a light from heaven above the brightness of the sun shining round about me and them which journeyed with me.

And when we were all fallen to the earth, I heard a voice speaking unto me and saying in the Hebrew tongue, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? It's hard for thee to kick against the prince. And I said, who art thou, Lord?

And he said, I'm Jesus whom thou persecutest. But rise, stand upon my feet, for I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make thee a minister and a witness both of these things which thou hast seen and of those things in them which I will yet appear unto thee, delivering thee from the people and from the Gentiles under whom now I send you.

You've been sent to open their eyes, to turn them from darkness to light, from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me.

Whereupon, O King Agrippa, before whom he stood on trial for his life, whereupon, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient under the heavenly vision. I was sent and I went, and I'm put. And I know, King Agrippa, who sent me.

And I know, King Agrippa, who put me. That's why you do not frighten me. Put. Are you really the Apostle Paul? Well, yes. I mean, the missionary statesman, the one who pioneered and established the church in Philippi and Ephesus and Colossae and Thessalonica and Corinth?

Well, yes. I mean, the one who called of God by inspiration of the Holy Spirit has given us so much of our New Testament in instruction for the early church? Well, yes. I mean, the great Apostle Paul?

Yes. Not so great. Just the chief of sinners and the least of all saints. But my name is Paul, an Apostle. Then what are you doing in that basket? Do you remember the occasion? In the city of Samaria, warned by God, the believers learned that assassins were waiting for him at the gate to murder him.

And God said, put him over the wall. And so they took the great missionary statesman and sat him in a basket and stuck him over the wall. And there he was halfway between top and bottom, sitting in a basket, like a dozen eggs.

What are you doing there? And you know, with a grin from ear to ear, Paul would say, put. And he said, I couldn't care less where I am so long as I know that God sent me and I went and he put me. Storm raged.

Mountainous waves threatened to send the boat to the bottom. They'd already jettisoned the cargo. They were now throwing out the tackling and all hope that they might be saved was gone. And then in their panic, somebody remembered the apostle Paul is on board.

He was a prisoner on his way to Rome. They said the apostle Paul's on board. He could help. Maybe he could ask God to do something. Where is he? And they couldn't find him anywhere. And finally, somebody, after they had searched everywhere, came up breathlessly from down below and he said he's in the hole.

So down they went and there he was. What do you think he was doing? Eating his packed lunch. I imagine. They said the ship is sinking. And in so many words, I imagine, Paul said, so what? Well, they said if the ship sinks, we'll sink, you'll sink, we'll all sink.

Oh no, said Paul. I'm put. What do you mean put? Oh, I was sent when? I mean the ship may sink, you may sink, but I can't sink. You see, I'm the unsinkable sink. God said that I was going to preach the gospel in Rome.

So the ship may sink, you may sink, everybody may sink, but I won't. Because I'm going to preach the gospel in Rome. And the ship did sink. And Paul preached the gospel in Rome. That's why you have the epistle to the Romans.

Christ Sent to the Cross

You can't sink an unsinkable sink. When he's been sent and went and put. Are you Jesus Christ? Yes. No, what I mean is, are you the seed of Abraham in whom all the families of the earth should be blessed?

Well, yes. Pardon me for asking, but I mean, are you co-equal in deity with the Father and the Holy Spirit? The word who was in the beginning with God was God and by whom all things were made. I mean the creative deity.

Well, yes. Yes, that's right. You mean co-equal with the Father and the Holy Spirit in the triune Godhead? The maker of the universe? The creator of all things? Well, yes, that's right. Then what are you doing on that cross?

That's a Roman gallows. I mean, why the nails for your hands and feet? Why that crown of thorns on your head? Why the blood and spittle trickling down your cheeks? And why that spear wound in your side?

Becoming Fully Available to Christ

What are you doing there? What do you mean put? Oh, I was sent and went. My father sent me. Oh, by the way, as my father sent me, so send I you. Any questions? Any questions? Let's pray. Lord Jesus, in the light of that cross, where is the incarnate Son of God in all your sinlessness, you died that we might be forgiven.

You didn't deserve to die without sin. Of whom alone of all men on earth since Adam fell, the Father God in heaven could say, this is my beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased. How then in the light of that cross, upon which you were made sin for us, who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God?

How could there be any questions? We realize, Lord Jesus, now there are no questions to ask, only instructions to obey. As those cleansed in your blood, indwelt by your spirit added to the Lord, members of your body to be wholly expendable, utterly available to the uttermost ends of the earth.

But in our redeemed humanity, as those in whom you've come to take up residence, to clothe your divine activity with our flesh and blood, that in us and through us you might continue to do and continue to teach the things that once you began to do, and began to teach.

The incredible privilege of being your lips to speak, with hands to work with, and our feet yours to walk. Lord Jesus, no questions. Not because we deserve the incredible privilege that you've made available to us, but because as our creator redeemer, you do.

So claiming our inheritance in you, we want you to have your inheritance in us. The right, every moment of every day, to be God. So that we may step out into the dawn of every new day and know it's true.

As we say, to me to live is Christ. And because of who you are living where you do, the almighty God clothing yourself with us on earth, living in our hearts, in the measure of our availability, every new day that dawns, wherever you may wish to put us, will be as big as God.

Your own dear, purest, and precious name.

You've been listening to a sermon by Major Ian Thomas. If you've been blessed by this sermon, you can find more sermons by him and additional resources on this subject at www .PathToPrayer .com. Again, if you've been blessed by this sermon, you can find more sermons by Major Ian Thomas at www .PathToPrayer .com as well as other resources.