Participants: Dwight K. Nelson
Series Code: NP
Program Code: NP171028A
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00:11 >> Please pray with me. 00:14 Dear Heavenly Father, 00:15 You who are so loving and kind, we are here to praise and 00:19 worship Your name. But we just ask that you send 00:23 your angels as we join in a melodious chorus lifting up 00:26 Your name. Please open our hearts and our 00:29 minds as we worship. Amen. 00:32 [ "Healer" plays ] [ Performers sings ] 01:12 >> ♪ Lord, I trust in You ♪ 01:35 ♪ I believe ♪ 02:32 ♪ Lord, I trust in You ♪ 02:55 ♪ I believe ♪ 04:25 ♪ I believe ♪ 05:01 [ "Revelation Song" plays ] 05:10 Please stand. 07:49 ♪ Ooh-ooh, oooh ♪ 07:55 ♪ Oooooh, ooh-ooh, oooh ♪ 09:37 [ Flute plays ] 09:48 [ Orchestra plays ] ♪♪ 10:00 ♪♪ ♪♪ 10:20 ♪♪ ♪♪ 10:40 ♪♪ ♪♪ 10:54 [ Tempo increases ] ♪♪ 11:08 ♪♪ ♪♪ 11:28 ♪♪ [ Fanfare plays ] 11:40 ♪♪ ♪♪ 12:00 ♪♪ ♪♪ 12:20 [ Music crescendos, decrescendos ] 12:27 [ Tempo increases ] ♪♪ 12:40 [ Flute solo playing ] ♪♪ 12:54 [ Solo ends, music crescendos ] ♪♪ 13:07 ♪♪ ♪♪ 13:27 ♪♪ ♪♪ 13:41 [ Tempo increases, music crescendos ] 13:46 ♪♪ ♪♪ 14:06 ♪♪ ♪♪ 14:26 [ Fanfare plays ] ♪♪ 14:37 [ Song ends ] 14:41 >> Let's pray. Oh, God, a mighty, mighty, mighty fortress are You for us. 14:50 For the old Reformation. And, oh, Lord, we are praying for the New Reformation. 14:58 Be that fortress. Mighty to the end. Through Jesus Christ our Lord, 15:07 Amen. Amen. 15:11 Before we plunge into the story, the last story, Martin Luther, 15:17 I want to flip it over. I want to start at the end and 15:20 move to the front. I want to think about the 15:22 New Reformation. I want to share with you a 15:27 dynamite -- now, you just have to brood over this very quickly. 15:31 A dynamite ending that the English historian Derek Wilson 15:35 gave to his biography of Luther. Just a paragraph. 15:38 You could miss it. But it is so explosive for you 15:42 and me and this New Reformation we're talking about. 15:46 And so without any further ado, I'm gonna put Derek Wilson 15:50 on the screen. Take a look at these words. 15:53 "Whatever else it was" -- So, this is from his book 15:56 Luther, "Out of the Storm," all right? 15:59 Great biography. Got it from the James White 16:01 Library right here on campus. 16:21 Let's check them off. Number one -- the primacy of 16:23 Scripture. Oh, we covered that. 16:26 Number two, the centrality of the cross. 16:28 We covered that. And finally, number three, 16:31 the necessity of personal conversion. 16:34 We got it. But I want you to hold on now. 16:38 Watch what he does next. So this is just one little 16:41 paragraph. We're splitting it up. 16:43 But here comes this next line. Provocative. 16:46 Provocative, it was, for me. "Luther died" -- 16:48 Did you know this? I never knew it. 16:50 I found it now in two of his biographers. 17:03 It never got traction. It just never worked. It fizzled. 17:10 "He was right," Wilson goes on. 17:26 "German Pietism" -- that would be Nikolaus von Zinzedorf -- 17:28 "the Methodist Revival in Britain" -- that would be 17:30 John Wesley -- "America's Great Awakening" -- that would 17:33 be Charles Finney -- "the later movements associated with the 17:36 names of Dwight Moody, William Booth," who founded the 17:38 Salvation Army, "Billy Graham, and others -- they all 17:42 eventually reached and passed their sell-by dates." 17:49 That's British English for what we would say here in the States, expiration dates. 17:53 They all passed them. It's over. Now, that's good news 17:58 and bad news. Because the truth is, you never can measure the fruit 18:04 of your own life. Now, listen to me carefully. To all outward appearances for 18:09 some of you here -- maybe for a whole bunch of us -- it feels like it's washed up. 18:17 It just never got the traction that I thought it was gonna get, my life. 18:24 But there is a God in this universe who is never in a rush and who often moves quietly 18:32 way behind the scenes in your own life, let alone someone else's. 18:39 It may look like your sell-by date has expired, but because God is who God is, 18:49 don't you ever give up on yourself. He's not. 18:57 Now, Derek Wilson, he's not talking about you and me. He's talking about movements. 19:00 I'm thinking of this faith community you and I belong to. And he goes on one more 19:06 line or two. Here it is on the screen. "Inevitably" -- what happens to 19:10 churches like ours? "Inevitably zeal wanes, vision fades, and vibrant 19:16 churches become institutions." Keep reading. "The old adage always holds 19:22 good" -- and this is dynamite. "'A mission becomes a movement, a movement becomes a machine, 19:30 a machine becomes a monument, and a monument becomes a museum' -- until" -- 19:37 Now, notice how it ends. "...until woken up by the next revival." 19:42 There it is. I'm thinking of our faith community that I love and serve, 19:46 and that you love. Has that happened to us? Vibrant mission in the 19:53 beginning, then this movement, then it turns into machinery, and then the machinery calcifies 20:04 into rock, a monument, and finally a museum. We got a church on this campus 20:12 called Pioneer Memorial Church. Because the action is all behind us. 20:19 "Ooh, boy! Dwight, tell me, please, it's not that true, is it?" 20:23 I'm hoping it's not. But what's that line? "Until woken up" -- 20:29 oh, I love this. "Until woken up by the next revival." 20:32 Ladies and gentlemen, the Reformation is over. This little three-parter comes 20:38 to an end right now. No more history. We've had enough history. 20:43 There's something beyond history. There is the possibility of the 20:48 next revival. There is a possibility of a New Reformation. 20:52 That's the only reason we went to these three Sabbaths. Come on. 20:55 You could do Luther in 20 minutes. But I'm banking, I'm praying, 21:03 that there's something yet to come. The New Reformation. 21:08 All right. Here we go. Before we walk out of here, three stories of Luther that 21:13 are the defining stories. We've saved the best till last. All three of these take place 21:21 in places that begin with the letter "W" -- Wittenberg, Worms, and Wartburg. 21:30 It's October 31. It's called Hallowed Eve. Rightfully called Hallowed Eve, 21:36 because November 1, everybody knows, is All Saints Day. It's 1517, and it's a cloudy, 21:42 cold autumn morning. As the young professor and pastor, his countenance with 21:50 anger as he blows the autumn leaves in his stride to get to the university bulletin board. 21:57 The bulletin board is a door. It's the door of the university castle, church. 22:04 Today is October 31, and Luther knows that tomorrow his parishioners will be lining up 22:11 to come through these doors to pay to see what Elector Frederick of Saxony 22:18 is boasting as the finest collection of relics anywhere in the land. 22:24 Tomorrow, when the doors open, you'll be able to gaze on a jagged thorn from Christ's 22:28 plated crown of thorns. You'll be able to look at a torn fragment from the Baby Jesus' 22:33 diapers. You'll be able to see a faded strand of Mother Mary's hair. 22:39 A hundred other relics. And here's the deal. If you will pay to see these, 22:44 if you will buy what they're calling a plenary indulgence, you could knock off up to 22:51 2 million years in purgatory for yourself or for somebody you love, just for buying the piece 22:58 of paper. Luther is incensed. Pulls out his hammer, pounding 23:07 the thumbtacks, which are nails, into that board. 95 theses. 23:13 95 challenges to the Church in Rome. Luther thinks it's just gonna be 23:17 a little academic debate. He has no idea that after he walks away, somebody -- maybe in 23:25 the night, somebody tears the 95 -- handwritten by Luther, 95 challenges, takes them to a 23:33 printer, and because of Gutenberg's discovery 70, 80 years earlier, that moveable 23:39 type will be set, and before weeks have gone by, the entire continent of Europe 23:48 writhes in this fomenting Saxon challenge to the hegemony, to the dominance of the 23:55 Church in Rome. 95 theses. Take a look at this. 24:01 You're not gonna believe this, but thanks to my friend Jim Ford, who is 24:05 Associate Director of the Center for Adventist Research... These are not the 95. 24:11 I'm sure they exist somewhere on this planet. They got to be worth millions. 24:14 But this is what Luther wrote. This is actually 1518. So this is that old. 24:23 And don't worry, Jim Ford, we have plainclothesmen all around, and Jim Ford is in the 24:27 second row saying, "Dwight, don't you screw this up." I'm gonna show you. 24:33 I want to get a camera on this. Can we get a side shot on this? Take a look at this. 24:37 This is actual German. This is 1522. This is Luther. Now, let's see, what page did I 24:42 happen to open to? Okay. 27. Okay, you see this? It looks like it says "Con 27." 24:47 Okay, that's thesis number 27. Okay? So that's just a short -- 24:53 the big print there. And then he writes underneath -- he writes in German his 24:58 explanation for that thesis. My son Kirk came home from Ruth Murdock one day when he was 25:07 going to school here, and he was so excited. He said, "Daddy, Daddy, you're 25:10 not gonna believe this. They taught us about Martin Luther today, and how he 25:13 nailed up the 95 species." [ Laughter ] This is not species. 25:17 This is theses. These are challenges. Take a look at those challenges. 25:22 This is from 1518. L.E. Froom, in that classic series of four volumes, 25:31 "Prophetic Faith of our Fathers," he writes -- 25:34 Put his words on the screen, please. 25:35 "Seeing the corrupting influence of these indulgences among his 25:38 own parishioners" -- See, that's what makes him so mad. 25:41 He's a pastor. "...Luther tried to stem the 25:44 tide, and refused to absolve those" who show up to Luther 25:47 with this little piece of paper that they bought and say, 25:49 "Hey, guess what? I'm not going to purgatory. 25:51 I got out of it." Get-out-of-jail-free card. 25:53 Look at this. I bought it." "Luther tried to stem the tide, 26:01 and refused to absolve those from their sins who produced 26:04 an indulgence purchased from Tezel." 26:06 Who's Tezel? He's a little Dominican friar. 26:09 Tezel had a little jingle, a great marketing jingle. It went like this. 26:12 This is Tezel. He used to sing this as he's calling people to step up. 26:15 "As soon as the coin in the coffer rings, the soul from purgatory springs." 26:20 "Your mother's in purgatory. Your father's in purgatory. How about a -- 26:23 Don't you have the money to get them out? You can if you buy this piece of 26:27 paper right now. Who will be next?" And he's hawking it. 26:30 That's Tezel. 26:31 "Therefore," Froom goes on. 26:49 Isn't that something? God bless the thousand of faithful pastors, men and women, 26:55 on every continent of Earth who, like Luther, shepherd God's people with humble courage 27:02 borne of Christ's spirit. 27:03 Lookit, lookit. "Great Controversy" 27:05 on the screen. One line. 27:13 Martin was called to be a shepherd. One more quotation. 27:17 This is from Timothy Lull and Derek Nelson's biography "Resilient Reformer." 27:24 They conclude the biography by noting all the titles that have been accrued by Luther through 27:28 history. He was a prophet, he was a hymn writer, he as a musician, he was 27:32 a leader, he was a Bible scholar, he was a professor. 27:36 But they end with this, and I'll put their words on the screen. 27:51 "On the most momentous day in his turbulent life" -- 27:54 we're going to Worms in just a moment here. 27:56 On that day, "the day of his examination at the 27:58 Diet of Worms -- Luther rose early so that he could hear the 28:01 confession of several people with heavy hearts... 28:04 He did not want to be right about doctrine for the sake of 28:07 being right, but for being helpful to troubled consciences. 28:23 Isn't that good? German shepherd. He was a shepherd. 28:28 And so at the risk of alienating others, I want to say now to some behind 28:34 me or in front of me, it is indeed possible that Christ 28:41 is calling you, too, to walk in His steps as a shepherd, as a pastor. 28:53 I can assure you that, if He is calling you, whether you are a young man or a young woman or 28:59 not so young, it doesn't matter. If you say yes to Him, you are in for the most high-seas 29:07 adventure a human being can have as you spend your life focusing on the souls of human beings. 29:15 Not their bodies, their souls. Is He calling you? If He is, then you must say yes. 29:28 Is he calling you? If you're not sure, call me up. I want to talk to you. 29:34 All right? Call me up. So, that's Wittenberg. Three W's. Worms. 29:40 Oh, it's late afternoon, April 21, 1521. The German city of Worms, the 29:45 diet, or the parliament of the Holy Roman Empire has been convened all day, and the 29:50 business is dragging slow. Martin Luther nervously waits to be re-ushered before the 29:56 assemblage of the most powerful human personages on the planet at that time. 30:02 I have a picture in my study. I look at this picture every 30:04 single day, and I'm gonna show it to you now. 30:06 Put it on the screen, please. This is the painting of 30:09 Anton von Werner. Look at that. 30:14 You see the young Charles V, the Emperor. 30:17 You see all the prelates of the Church in Rome. 30:22 And there he is, tonsured, that little crazy haircutted 30:26 monk and priest and pastor, Martin Luther. 30:31 Luther knows -- Keep that picture up. 30:33 Luther knows that he will likely be given the death sentence and 30:36 summarily executed. You see, yesterday -- 30:40 You may not know this, but yesterday he appeared before 30:43 this august body, but for something akin to stage fright, 30:48 which caught him off guard, and he was not prepared for the two 30:51 stunning questions of the prosecutor. 30:53 "Martin, are these your books? And will you recant them?" 30:58 And in barely a whisper, he pleads with the court, 31:02 "I need some time to consider my response." 31:06 He's had weeks. Luther hurries back to his 31:12 quarters, his mind and heart in the clutches of cold fear and 31:16 panic -- and some of you know what that feels like. 31:18 Through the night, he's wrestling with God, in desperate 31:21 need before the Almighty. 31:22 This sentence appears in "Great Controversy." 31:24 No wonder. Put it on the screen. 31:30 I want to tell you something, folks. If we're ever gonna have a 31:33 reformation again, if there will be a New Reformation, it will also come from the secret 31:38 place of prayer. Nowhere else. And it was that night of prayer 31:45 that revived Martin's heart and soul with the assurance God is our refuge and strength, a very 31:49 present help in trouble, therefore will not we fear. So, Luther was supposed to be 31:55 brought before the diet at 4:00 in the afternoon, but like I say, the business is really 32:00 grinding slowly, and it's not until 6:00 that the guards come for him. 32:04 "Martin, it's your turn." By now, the land has grown dark. The crowd has enlarged from 32:11 yesterday. They're trying to pack it into the original quarters. 32:15 They can't. They have to choose the Episcopal Hall next to the 32:17 Romanesque Cathedral. And it's dark. And so candles have to be lit 32:23 around the crowded Episcopal quarters. One of the commentators remarked 32:32 that the presence of candles lent a sanctity to the ensuing hearing. 32:38 And the poor prosecutor, frustrated and unhappy with the apparent delaying tactics of 32:43 Martin, starts all over again. "All right, Martin. Let's ask them again. 32:47 Here they are. Number one, are these your books? 32:50 And number two, do you recant them?" 32:53 And now, with a voice that rings out with a confidence borne from 32:57 God himself, Luther acknowledges, 33:02 "Yes, these are my books. And as for that question, do I 33:06 recant them," and not taking a breath and giving the prosecutor 33:09 an opportunity to interrupt, Luther begins to explain that 33:12 these books actually represent three categories of books. 33:15 "And I need to explain to you what this category is." 33:18 Anybody who wanted Luther terminated is praying he will not say anything but yes or no. 33:24 But Luther launches into a defense of his writings. "And in this particular book, 33:27 this is why I wrote this. And in this particular book..." And the poor prosecutor can say 33:31 nothing until he's through. And when Luther is through, "Martin, I ask you, do you 33:37 recant these books?" And now, in words that have been memorized in children in church 33:44 schools all over the world in the last 500 years, come these words on the screen. 33:50 Martin's reply. 34:30 There was no resounding amen in that hall. 34:34 Nobody found that a beautiful terminus to this grand and 34:37 eloquent defense. 34:41 But the Spirit of God had outsmarted the strategies of darkness. 34:46 By the way, Roland Bainton, the most beloved of Luther's biographers, writes, "Luther had 34:52 spoken in German," okay? "He was now asked to repeat it all" -- Repeat it all, Martin -- 34:56 "in Latin, the language of the church. He was sweating. 34:59 A friend called out" -- I'm reading Bainton now. "'If you can't do it, Doctor, 35:02 you've done enough. Don't worry.' Luther again made the 35:05 affirmation, his defense, in Latin, then threw up his arms in the gesture of a victorious 35:11 knight and slipped out of the darkened hall." "Here I stand. 35:22 I can do no other." Man, there's gonna be a generation -- there's gonna be a 35:27 generation one day that will say the same by the way they live, that will say the same by the 35:33 way they confess their love of the Lord Jesus Christ. Wittenberg, Worms, and finally 35:44 Wartburg. 1521. As Luther is quietly slipping away -- because the 35:51 Emperor promised him safe passage home. After that, all bets are off. 35:54 And Luther knows he's marked now for the rest of his life. As he's slipping out, 35:58 a day goes by. He is with some companions. A little horse and a cart. 36:03 Then, out of the dark forest, masked warriors grab the Reformer, hood him, bind him up, 36:11 ride off with him, and nobody sees Luther again. Turns out Elector Frederick of 36:20 Saxony has high regard for this citizen who teaches in the new University of Wittenberg, and 36:27 has faked the kidnapping to remove Martin Luther from the scene. 36:34 Not a peep. I've been to that castle. I'm gonna show it to you 36:38 right now. Oh, I tell you what. Look at the location of it. 36:42 It really is on a rocky outcropping, and that is solid forest as far as 36:47 the eye can see. You would never find him. You could never follow a track. 36:52 In that castle, for 11 months ensconced, there is Martin Luther. 36:58 Now, you're not gonna believe this. Because we think that either 37:02 Wittenberg or Worms would be just the pinnacle ' of Luther's career. 37:05 No, no, no, no, no. Scholars are saying what happened in that building, in 37:11 that rocky fortress, is the seminal moment in the Protestant Reformation. 37:16 Let me read James Reston Jr. 37:19 He begins his book on Luther's 11 months in the Wartburg castle 37:22 this way. Words on the screen. 37:46 "Indeed, without any books to refer to during this period, 37:50 he would succeed in changing the German language forever, 37:55 as he would transform a rebellion against Rome into a 37:58 lasting alternate religion" called Protestantism. 38:01 "Hounded into the Wartburg, he emerged" 11 months later 38:04 "with strength and stature to face his persecutors -- 38:07 and to triumph over them." 38:10 Wow. Just when you think that you're in this obscure 38:17 nowhere, nothing happening, little village in Michigan, and your life is just dwindling 38:27 away, just when you think it's all over, God, whose eye is on the 38:35 sparrow, locks in on you and says, "No, girl. [ Chuckles ] You don't know this, but this 38:41 will turn out to be the most important time you have ever lived. 38:46 Stay with me. I know what you can't know. Boy, I know what you can't know. 38:52 You stay with me. You don't run. You don't write your biography 38:56 or autobiography. Let me write the story. I'll determine what's worthy 39:02 and what's waste." 11 months later, the Protestant Reformation has 39:11 been sealed, carved in rock, and it cannot be broken. Oh! 39:18 Get me to preaching here if we keep up with this. Let me show you something else. 39:23 Oh, be careful. All right. Boy, isn't that something? James White Library. 39:28 You're not gonna believe what they have in that lower-temperature cooler. 39:35 I went in there yesterday. Thank you, Jim Ford, again. Guys, you're not gonna 39:39 believe this. So, Luther goes into Wartburg, 1521. 39:43 He comes out 1522. 11 months later. 1523. 39:48 Because he translate the German New Testament in the castle. He got that done. 39:52 Old Testament's gonna take time. One year later, the first five Books of Moses. 39:58 The Pentateuch has been translated, with great European wood cuts. 40:03 See if I can find one with a picture. Nah. 40:08 I'm just gonna hold it up. So, this is it. In German. 40:14 Do you understand that the Bible was purposely kept in Latin because only the Church can 40:18 interpret it, and only certain people in the Church can understand it, "and the rest of 40:21 you, just take our word for it. This is what it says." And Luther comes along and says, 40:27 "No more taking anybody's word. I'm gonna write it in the language of the people 40:31 They will study, and let them decide." And here it is in German. 40:40 Wow. [ Scoffs ] And you and I, 40:47 we'll toss the Bible, just toss it on our bed, throw it up on a shelf. 40:52 No big deal to us. I got 20 more where that one came from. 40:57 Not to worry." And he gave his life just to get it in the language 41:07 of his people. Wittenberg, Worms, Wartburg. 500 years later, okay? 41:17 I want to end with this. 500 years later, I have a question for you. 41:20 I need you to answer this. I need you to answer it in your mind. 41:23 500 years later, what is left to reform? Come on. 41:28 I mean, what is left to reform? Is there anything left at all? 41:33 If you had a little piece of paper and it had this sentence 41:36 on it -- let's put it on the screen. 41:37 It had this little sentence on it, how would you 41:39 fill in the blank? Can you see that sentence in the 41:41 monitors above you, orchestra? "Dear God, we really need a 41:46 reformation in..." blank. What would you put 41:50 in that blank? "Dear God, we really need a 41:52 reformation in..." blank. 41:54 We really need a reformation in our church. That's what it is. 41:57 We really need a reformation in this university. That's what I'm thinking of. 42:00 We really need a reformation in our home. In my marriage, God, 42:03 I really need a reformation. We really need a reformation in our theology. 42:06 How about our ecclesiology? We need a reformation. "What are all these -ologies? 42:10 I don't know." But we need it. We really need a reformation. 42:15 I need a reformation with my walk with Jesus. I need a Reformation 42:19 in my heart. Oh, God, the world needs a reformation. 42:22 What would you put in that blank? "Dear God, we really need a 42:27 reformation in..." Do you know what? If God were sitting in the pew 42:30 today -- better yet, if He were in the pulpit and I'm sitting in the pew with you, 42:33 what would God say? Could it be that God would say this -- "Children, 42:36 children, children, children, great, great. Wonderful answers. 42:39 I love them all. I love them all. I accept all of them as valid. 42:43 In fact, let's do them all." Oh, God, you can't do all of these reformations, 42:49 all of these and just -- psh. "Oh, yes, I can. I have a gift. 42:54 I have a gift. I'm gonna give you a gift. And when you get that gift," 43:00 hold on, now. Hold on to your pew. "When you get that gift, 43:02 you will have every other gift in the universe that I possess. 43:08 In this one gift, I'm giving them all to you. With one gift, there'll be 43:14 reformation in every quarter, in every heart, for every life. I have one gift." 43:21 You say, "God, give me that gift. Give me that gift." 43:27 He says, "All right. Ask and you will receive. Seek and you will," how's it go? 43:38 "...you will find. 43:39 Knock..." [Knocking] "...and it will be..."? 43:43 "...open to you." The words of Jesus. 43:44 Red-letter words. Put them on the screen. Luke 11. 43:47 "If you who are evil know how to give good gifts to your 43:51 children, how much more will your Father in heaven -- 43:55 how much more will your Father give the Holy Spirit to 43:57 those who continually day after day after day ask for Him?" 44:03 How much more? One gift. Come on. 44:06 Can you prove that one-gift thing? Okay. Let's put it up. 44:09 Put it up now. "Thoughts from the 44:10 Mount of Blessing." One line. 44:18 God says, "Ask me for the Spirit." 44:20 "Hey! [Snaps] You! Ask me every day for the Spirit. Girl, you ask me every day 44:29 for the Spirit. And if you ask me, I will give it to you. 44:33 Because your parents, they were evil. Oh, they did their best. 44:37 But they gave you good gifts. How much more will I, your heavenly parent, give you the 44:41 Holy Spirit if you ask for Him? I don't give to you unless you want Him. 44:46 You ask, I'll give it to you." Wow. 44:51 "That's just some little New Testament twist." 44:53 No, no, no. Come on, put up the 44:54 Old Testament. Isaiah 43:19, God says, 44:56 "Behold," I'm gonna do a new thing." 44:58 What are you talking about, God? 45:00 44, verse 3. "I will pour water on those 45:04 who are thirsty and floods on the dry ground. 45:06 I will pour My Spirit on your descendants and My blessing 45:10 on your offspring. 45:11 You ask me, and I will give you the one gift that will bring every other gift 45:15 in the universe. And you want a New Reformation? I'll give you a New Reformation 45:18 now. But you ask. You don't want it, 45:23 you're not getting it." You have to want this gift. Some gifts you get from me, 45:29 you toss them aside. 'There, now, that's nothing.' This gift, you have to ask for. 45:35 You ask me, day by day continually ask me, how much more will I give than 45:41 what your parents gave? I mean, lookit, it's a big deal to God. 45:45 You know why we know? Because when God came here and became us, human -- watch this. 45:51 One sentence on the screen. "Morning by morning, Jesus 45:54 communicated with His Father in heaven, receiving from 45:58 Him daily a fresh," what? A fresh what? 46:01 What's the word? A fresh what? "...a fresh baptism 46:05 of the Holy Spirit." Do you know of any other way 46:09 to ignite a New Reformation? Tell me one other way a 46:12 New Reformation will be ignited. Can you think of one? 46:15 No, you can't. You cannot. There is no other way. 46:18 One gift. Okay. I'll sit down. 46:22 But not before making an invitation. 46:27 I'm not gonna let this baptism of the Holy Spirit thing just kind of slip away, slip out of 46:30 our consciousness, get off the radar screen. Got a new series starting in two 46:34 weeks called "You Turn my Mourning into Dancing." But I'm not just backing away 46:44 from this, say, "Well, we've had that. What's the new theme?" 46:46 No, this is staying with us till Jesus comes. By the way, a little girl named 46:51 Sarah Hill, she's gonna be preaching this Friday night at Proximity, the vespers. 46:57 She didn't know that we've been talking a lot about the baptism of the 47:00 Holy Spirit around here, and the Holy Spirit laid on her and said, "Girl, you're gonna 47:03 preach on the baptism of the Holy Spirit." She let me know, 'cause she 47:07 heard about what we're doing here. Said, "I'm gonna preach on the 47:09 baptism, Dwight, of the Holy Spirit, and I need some help. 47:12 I'm gonna call students to come forward. I'm gonna call students to come 47:16 forward in this moment, and I'm gonna ask them, 'Do you want to be anointed with oil for the 47:22 Holy Spirit?' If you come forward," she says, "I've talked to the pastors. 47:27 I've talked to the elders. They'll all be here. Right here. Friday night, 7:30. 47:31 They'll all be here. And they will anoint you with oil because you have a longing." 47:37 Let me tell you something in advance. There's no magic in the oil. 47:40 It's nothing. It's just a symbol of the Holy Spirit. 47:44 The very next morning, you're gonna have to be on your knees, no oil, and you're gonna say, 47:48 "Lord Jesus, fill me again today. Fill me again today. 47:52 Baptize me." I'm sitting down. But first reminding you that 48:00 when Luther died -- You remember this? When Luther died... 48:06 What was it? February, 1546. Only 62 years old, but he was an old man. 48:11 Worn out. Worn out from this battle. When he died, his two boys were 48:16 with him, and some friends. They took his heavy coat -- 'cause it's winter in Germany, 48:21 and like here in February. They took his coat off and they went through his pockets. 48:27 You know, you'd do that. They went through his pockets. "Did Dad leave anything?" 48:31 They find a piece of paper that's folded tucked in one of the pockets. 48:35 They open the paper up. It's Luther's handwriting. It's written in Latin and 48:38 German. And here's the sentence. Hoc es verum. 48:45 That means "This is true" in Latin. Now here comes the German. 48:49 Wir sind alle bettler. 48:52 "We are all beggars." We are all beggars. 49:01 We are all beggars. That's why God says -- He's right. 49:11 "You ask me. You beg me. You beg me, and I'll give you the 49:20 Holy Spirit every day until Jesus comes. I'll will baptize you afresh." 49:23 There's no fireworks. There's no handwriting on the wall. 49:26 You will just know it in your heart. "I asked, He promised, 49:29 I got it." And you will move through this community as a 49:33 baptized-by-the-Holy Spirit young adult, as a baptized-by-the-Holy Spirit 49:37 senior citizen or something in between. "You ask me every morning, 49:42 and I'll give it to you every single day. Every day." 49:45 We're all beggars. We are. So I say let's start begging, 49:53 'cause God is ready for a brand-new reformation that will carry the human race in much 50:01 faster progression to the end of time. I'm gonna pray with you. 50:12 Oh, God... [ Sighs ] All this trouble to get a Bible to us? 50:20 You serious? The man's willing to die so that the Word of God 50:28 can be ours? And we have five Bibles and one on our phone? 50:37 All of this for a New Reformation 500 years later? Oh, Father, 50:47 good and perfect, loving Father, we need one more gift. The one that brings 50:54 every other gift with it. Please raise up 100 people on this campus 51:03 100 pleaders, 100 beggars every morning, asking for a fresh baptism of the Holy Spirit 51:13 for that day, for today. The New Reformation, You promised it. 51:22 We believe it. And now, by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, 51:28 bring it on. In His name we pray, amen. Amen. 51:41 I want to go to this hymn. We've been hearing it, we've been hearing it, 51:45 we've been hearing it. I think we've got it memorized now. 51:50 I want to go to this hymn, "A Mighty Fortress is Our God." I want us to stand. 51:53 And now we're gonna sing the words. We're gonna sing the words 51:55 together. Okay? So just stand up. We don't have a long 51:58 introduction to this hymn. The great battle hymn of the Reformation, 52:02 the New Reformation. Let's sing it together. [ Organ plays ] 52:17 ♪♪ ♪♪ 52:31 [ Congregation sings ] 55:18 [ Instrumental music plays ] ♪♪ 56:38 Amen. And now may the love of our Lord Jesus 56:45 and the grace of God our Father and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you. 56:52 Amen. ♪♪ 57:09 >> Thank you for taking the time to join us in worship today. 57:12 I'd like to spent another moment with you here at the end of our 57:14 program to share with you a gift of hope. 57:17 In these uncertain times, this little book, "The Great Hope," will help you 57:21 understand what God has planned for your future. And not just your future, 57:23 but for the future of the human race. In this 500th anniversary 57:27 of the Great Reformation, we recognize that Luther had a mighty work to do. 57:31 But the truth is, he didn't recognize all the light of Holy Scripture. 57:34 How could he have? He's just one life. New light has been continually 57:38 shining since his time, and new truths have been constantly unfolding. 57:42 This book, "The Great Hope," is a story of that continuing 57:45 Reformation. So grab your phone, 57:47 dial our toll-free number, 877-HIS-WILL -- 57:50 Remember the two words. 877-HIS-WILL -- 57:53 and we'll get a copy to you right away. 57:56 Until the next time we meet, may the peace of our Lord Jesus 57:59 be with you. 58:03 ♪♪ ♪♪ 58:23 ♪♪ |
Revised 2017-11-03