Called to the Fellowship of Followership

Called to the Fellowship of Followership

by Willard Ireland

Transcribed from the original recording; may contain errors.

What I say in my talk tonight, I think, will make more abundantly clear what I’m going to try to say right now. There really isn’t any such thing as a speaking leader at a camp. Because we’re all on the same base. We’re all just simply in a camp.

And I have been fed tremendously here. And if you’ve been fed, well, what more could you expect? What did you come for? And it has been a glorious experience for me. I’ll never forget it. And if my human mind tries to, the Holy Spirit will prod me into recollection quite frequently. And let’s just remember that.

We’ve all been fed. And I’m sure this goes for all of us that have either led in singing or played the piano or led a youth group or led in art or writing or even like Brother Jim and I who had the misfortune to be vaccinated with gramophone needles. We just naturally talk. And this is it. You see, we’ve all been fed. And this is the glory of it all. And we’ve all experienced in a new way, just as I have experienced here with you, this business of living within divine love. Isn’t it a tremendous experience? Yes. Amen. Amen. That’s it. That’s the way you’ve learned. One easy lesson, you see. Well, that’s all I want to share with you. Now, will you join and just sing with me or for me, actually, one verse of 200, “Amazing Grace.” You might have suspected it’d be that.

“Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that I see.” Amen. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. Shall we pray? Oh, Father, we’re so glad we’ve come this close to the end of this little period of experience. Because we’ve had just about as much as we can stand. And now we’re going to have the wonderful experience of taking it, taking it out with us as we go on our way. On our way home.

Oh, Father. Thank You for Your understanding, Your patience, Your compassion and Your love for us. Oh, Jesus, You’ve become so much more real to us in these days here. You know, we see You in a different light. But You know, Lord Jesus, we see You more frequently.

Because there’s another about 125 or 145 or 150 of us now, and we can see You in each one of us. Oh, thank You, Lord Jesus, for shining out so clearly, so brightly. Now, blessed Holy Spirit, You just keep our eyes bright and alert. And just keep us always so that we can see our Lord wherever we happen to be.

And for the wonder of this, we give You all thanks and all praise from now until eternity. Amen. Amen. Well, now that you know who we all are, and now that you know where we’re all living, you see, it doesn’t make any difference where your home happens to be. We’re all going to be living in the same kingdom. We’ve all been able to pick up our passport. And we’re on our way. And we’re not just only on our way, wondering what we’re going to do. But we know that one of the things we’re going to do is feed the sheep.

And there’s one little more thing that the Spirit said, tells me I should suggest to you that we’re going to do. But before we get around to that, I want to reconfirm from Holy Scripture some of these wonderful ideas of what we have become.

Now, I don’t think you’ve reached the end of the way at all. It’s become. And in become, there’s becoming. And we’re going to become more and more of these things that we now see, perhaps in miniature, and perhaps in quite good size. But that’s nothing to what we’re going to, going ultimately, to become.

There are four or five that I could think of readily, but I’m only going to use one and expound on it a bit. And the others I’m just going to read to you and leave them with you. And then you can pick them up and… They’d be good things to think about as you’re going on your way back to your homes.

Listen to what Paul wrote to the church in Ephesus. “So He came and proclaimed the good news. Peace to you who were far off. Peace to those who were nearby. For through Him we both alike have access to the Father in the one Spirit. Thus you are no longer aliens in a foreign land, but fellow citizens with God’s people, members of God’s household. You are built upon the foundation laid by the apostles and the prophets, and Christ Jesus Himself is the foundation stone. In Him the whole building is bonded together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In Him you too are being built with all the rest into a spiritual dwelling for God.” Well, that’s who you are. Are you a bit surprised? You hadn’t ought to be. But this is what is going on from this point forward for both you and for me. Now, I think there’s something wonderful about this because this was said for a particular situation. It’s quite obvious that when he’s talking about peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were nearby, Paul had something particular in mind. That was he was challenging and bringing this glorious message of Jesus Christ to the Jew and the Gentile. Now, we don’t have to be concerned about that, but we have to think in terms of someone other than ourselves.

So, let me just suggest a few things what this means. He proclaimed the good news. Peace to you who are Democrats and peace to you who are Republicans. Peace to you who are yellow in the skin and those of you who are brown in the skin or black in the skin or white in the skin. Peace to you. Peace to you who are young, and peace to you who are old. And peace to you who are big, and peace to you who are small. And peace to you who are corpulent, and peace to you who are thin.

And peace to you who have Methodist feet, and peace to you who have Baptist feet. You see, it doesn’t make any difference. It’s just peace to you. Peace to you. Because this is what the good news was intended for all of us. In other words, we can drop all of our labels. Because there aren’t any labels in the kingdom. There aren’t. We’d like to think, you know, that in the kingdom that we love to turn around that verse in John. And of course, we naturally think that the better houses are for those what brand we come from. But we’re going to get awfully surprised in the other kingdom. Don’t be amazed at who you get for a roommate on the other side.

Don’t be a bit surprised who you get for a roommate on the other side. Because it won’t make any difference anyway. Because we will all be in the peace that Jesus Christ came to make available to each one of us. You see, we won’t be living in a foreign land. No one will feel that they’re aliens. How could they? We’ll all be at peace with one another. And we won’t have to look down our nose at anybody. We’ll just have to lift up our eyes and praise God. And that’s going to be a lot more active undertaking than twiddling harps. Although if you want to twiddle a harp on the off side, that’s okay with me. But keep your eyes on the Lord even on the other side. I don’t aim to be busy with the harp. I really don’t. I’m going to have a lot of long conversations with a lot of people I would just plain like to meet. Peter and I think, will spend the first two eons of eternity just discussing things. Because I’ve got a lot of things I want to find out from Peter. And you say, why am I going to get it second hand? Well, I want to find out from him before I start checking with Jesus.

That’s why I want to have these long talks. And I’m glad that eternity is so long. And you’ll have yours that you want to have a long talk with too. You see, we’re no longer aliens in a foreign land. Because heaven isn’t a way off. Heaven’s here. If we wanted to be, and surely to goodness we do, we’ve had a pretty good experience of it now. The sample seemed to be satisfactory. We’re fellow citizens with God’s people, members of God’s household. Now this last part that Paul mentions in writing to the Ephesians, many, many people have perceived this and have said it in their own way. And I want to share one. I don’t know whether you’re familiar with the book or not. If not, become familiar. Thomas Kelly’s Testament of Devotion. If you really want to get a much deeper glimmer than I have even been able to comprehend or pass to you of holy obedience, you read the chapter in Holy Obedience in the Testament of Devotion. And I want to just to remind you in his words of who you are.

“Deep within us all there is an amazing inner sanctuary of the soul, a holy place, a divine center, a speaking voice to which we may continuously return. Eternity is at our hearts, pressing upon our time-torn lives, warming us with intimations of an astounding destiny, calling us home unto itself. Yielding to these persuasions, gladly committing ourselves in body and soul, utterly and completely to the light within, is the beginning of true life.” And that’s what we are, you see, we’re just new creatures, just beginning. “It is a dynamic center, a creative life that presses to birth within us. It is a light within which illumines the face of God and casts new shadows and new glories on the face of man. It is a seed stirring to light, if we do not choke it. It is the Shekinah of the soul, the presence in the midst.” And listen to this glorious sentence. “Here is the slumbering Christ, stirring to be awakened, and to become the soul we clothe in earthly form and action.” Read that to you again. “Here is the slumbering Christ, stirring to be awakened, to become the soul we clothe in earthly form and action.” And He is within us all. And He is within us all. Now, do you see what we’ve become?

This is part of what was written on the passport when we became the new creatures and moved into the kingdom. We are all being built into a spiritual dwelling for God. You see, the image is going to become real. It’s not going to stay out in this area of imagination. But we are being shaped. Remember that one? Shaped to the likeness of the Son. Well, we are also being compacted and builded together into a spiritual dwelling for God. Well, you’ll find that in the second chapter of Ephesians, beginning at the 17th verse. Now, just let me quickly suggest a couple more to you. 2 Corinthians, the sixth chapter, the 16th verse. Colossians 2, 9 and 10. “For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said, I will dwell in them and walk in them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” Same glorious idea. The new creatures, the new citizens, the new kingdom that we have become true citizens of.

Colossians 2, 9 and 10. “For in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and you are complete in Him, which is the head of all principalities and power.” You see, it’s not only a question that we’re no longer aliens, but none of us are half-witted.

No, we’re not. We’ve got all of the wisdom of God. The fullness of the Godhead is ours. Oh, we’ve got a long way to go, some of us to become this, but we’re on our way. And that’s the most important thing. We’re on our way.

And the 16th verse of the 10th chapter of Hebrews, “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord. I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them.” Now, you know, any kingdom has to have some kind of rules and regulations. And I suppose even a republic has a few.

But in the kingdom of heaven, in the kingdom of the Lord, in the new kingdom we’re in, as new creatures, the rules, the laws, the commands have been written on our heart. And you know what they are, don’t you? You know what they are. Those who lived in the period of the first covenant, the covenant of which Abraham and Isaac and Moses were so fully aware, they ended up with ten commandments.

And you know, we’re bound by them too. But Jesus did just a terrific thing with the ten commandments. He didn’t turn them topsy-turvy. He just rewrote them. So that thus, when we moved into the new kingdom, could understand them more simply. And He stated them positively. Because He knew that we just didn’t like being always told, don’t do this, don’t do that, don’t do this, don’t do that. And we don’t. So He turned them around and put them in the do form. And there were in the original ten, the grouping of things that we must not do, insofar as God was concerned. And the things that we must not do, insofar as our fellow man were concerned.

And Jesus just simply turned them around and made them all positive things. And He said, we must love the Lord our God. And He went on, you know. And that’s the Godward side of the ten commandments. And then He said, for the man’s side of the ten commandments, and we must love our neighbors as ourselves. It’s the same law, you see, just recodified, just restated. But it’s exactly the same law. And these commandments, these laws of the new kingdom, into which we are moving, into which we have moved, are there if we but let Him write them on our hearts. But we have to be willing. We have to be willing to let Him write them on our hearts.

And you see, we didn’t move into the new kingdom on our own volition. In some cases. That doesn’t mean that we were pushed into it by our wives. You might be prayed into it. Predict if your wife was supported by a praying clutch of women. It could happen. But we’re drawn into it. We really are. Because, you see, the Christ that was within us that is stirring, stirring to become the soul that we’re going to be clothed in an earthly form, that slumbering Christ is going to create in us desire, yearning.

And God never leaves anything incomplete. That which He creates within us, He certainly makes possible that it shall be met. There is no yearning that does not have its fulfilling. And Jesus Christ, you see, was the fulfillment of this yearning that God puts in our hearts. He is the way. He’s the key. You can call Him, oh, you can just call Him anything, as long as every once in a while you remember He’s wonderful.

But you see, this is what we call grace. And there is one thing that I have up to this point, I think, stressed about grace. And that was that the way of grace is simple, but not easy. And I think some of us have been experiencing that. That it’s simple, but it’s really not easy all the time. And God bless you, if your experience has been that way. And there’s a bit of the, of, oh, the bit of the hurt about the experience. But the other great thing about grace that I must leave with you. We know that grace is a gift. And that, you see, makes it free.

But just as the way is simple, but not easy, so grace, although it is free, is not cheap. And let us never forget that. Grace, though it is free, for it is a gift of God through Jesus Christ, it is not cheap.

Now, if you really want the proof of that, let’s think for a minute from the Godward side. Do you really understand what the gift of grace cost God? Do you remember? Do you remember that this meant He gave up His only begotten Son?

And that He gave Him up, oh, of course there was willingness both on the part of the Father and of the Son. But nevertheless, do you, do you think that this thing we call love of Father and child, or mother and child, is not divine? Do you think we have any sensation or any experiences that God has never experienced? No, it can’t be. So, from the Godward side, this event that we think of as Passion Week, was a costly experience.

And it cost our Lord His life. And, oh yes, He willingly laid down His life for you and for me. But, you know, standing in that hall that Brother Jim told us so wonderfully about, that wasn’t easy. It wasn’t easy not to say not a mumbling word. It really wasn’t easy.

And it wasn’t easy to take a cross and walk up a hill. And it wasn’t easy to die there on that cross. In the presence, yea, remember, even in the presence of His mother. Oh, it wasn’t easy from the Godward side. And consequently, it can’t be easy from our side either. And let’s never try to make it, I shouldn’t say easy, cheap, from our side. Or we can accept it freely.

But there is a price. There is a price. Because, you see, if we think that it’s cheap, we’re really going to denature its effectiveness in each one of our lives. You see, forgiveness is grace. It’s not always. But forgiveness without repentance is cheap.

But repentance that results, or culminates, in forgiveness is costly for you and for me. And life in the kingdom is free and glorious and just simply unbounding, but life without discipline is cheap. And grace involves the gift of discipline too. So it does become, you see, a bit costly to us at times, doesn’t it? At least it’s not cheap. But the discipline is free, and the discipline is in love.

For I’m sure there’s one sister here will never forget who’s holding the shears. You see? And tomorrow morning when we partake of communion, and this communion, you see, is an eternal reminder of, of grace. It’s not just a reminder of an event, you know, it’s a reminder of the consequences of that event.

But you know, communion is free. It’s only us, in our feeble-mindedness, that put, try to put denominational labels on it and say that it’s the Lord’s table for all of those that believe the same way as me. But it’s just plain the Lord’s table, you know. It’s the Lord’s table, and we can freely come to it as we shall be able to freely come to it tomorrow morning.

But you know, communion without confession is cheap. And confession sometimes is costly. Not, but then, you see, it makes of communion great worth. Just as repentance makes of forgiveness great worth. And just as discipline makes of living great worth. Great worth.

So when I ask you to remember that grace is free but not cheap, I’m not trying to emphasize the cost at all. I just want you to be aware of it. Because our Lord Jesus Christ, you know, was a great one at straightening out this business of cost. Christ.

And He gave us one glorious example of His understanding of it. Do you remember when there was someone who loved Him came to Him with a gift of great value, and in the eyes of the world did such a foolish thing?

She broke the bottle of perfume and put it on His feet. And of course there were some worldly people there and said, “Oh my, oh my, what a waste. What a waste. Think of all the people that could have been fed if she’d only sold the jar of perfume.”

And think what a lesson we would have missed if she’d done it. Because you see, she just outpoured, in that one symbolic act, she outpoured love to our Lord. And when those worldly ones who were present pointed this out to them, I’m sure He said, “Oh, think not of the cost. Think not of the cost.” Because, do you see what was happening? They were getting a preview of an even greater outpouring of love that was soon to take place.

They were. Because all she had outpoured was a vial of perfume of great worth. And in a matter of a few, I guess, weeks or months, they all were to see the outpouring of the blood of our Jesus.

The same kind of a thing. And God in heaven said, “Think not of the cost, but accept that which is offered to you.” And I want to suggest that grace is costly in one other way. It’s costly because it, it asks us to

follow. It’s costly because it asks us to follow, but it’s grace because it asks us to follow Jesus Christ. It’s costly because it asks us to follow, but it’s grace because it asks us to follow Jesus Christ. How far we are sometimes getting away from, another one of the great imperatives that our Lord gave to us, how we are becoming hept on leadership, when the great need of the world is followership.

You know, that’s what we’re really called for. That’s what we’re called to. We’re called, and this is a silly way of putting it, but I think you’ll remember it easy. We’re called to the fellowship of followership. That’s what we’re called to. The fellowship of followership.

And just as our Lord said, now, move in and live in the kingdom, and He even gave us some of those clues or keys to kingdom living. And just also as He said, you are to feed my sheep, in a most dramatic form, and believe you me, it is full of drama. He gave us this great command of follow.

And you know, the two are linked right together because He shared this idea, not only with the same person, but right at the same time as He, our Lord, had spoken about feeding the sheep. Because do you remember in that 21st chapter of John, after my friend Peter and my Lord had had this discussion, and these questions, this same question had been three times raised and three times answered, and three times the same commission had been given. Then I suppose almost as a special benediction on Peter, Jesus turned to him and did something that He rarely did. He prophesied for Peter what the future really held for him.

And Jesus, according to the recorded word, did not frequently prophesy. But I can see this as, you know, Peter had been the betrayer, or the denier rather, he’d been the denier, and denial had been expiated in love. And then there was this sort of a benediction of a special revelation.

And my friend Peter, he nearly bumbled that one. You know, he did. Because after our Lord had said this, and explained to indicate the manner of death by which Peter was to glorify God, Jesus added, “Follow me.” And you know, Peter didn’t stay silent thinking. He didn’t go into deep meditation. He was still kind of earthy, like you and like me. And there were other people moving around, just like there are other people moving around on this camp, and we let them be distracted.

And Peter looked over and he saw somebody else. And he got not only his eyes off the Lord, but he also thought his ears closed to what the Lord had said. And do you remember what he said? “Lord, what will happen to him? Lord, what’s going to happen to him?”

He got out of expectancy and back into curiosity. You see? And you know, our Lord, and this was almost His final word, I guess it was practically His final word to Peter. I think Jesus spoke with great emphasis at this point. Real good emphasis. Because He’d certainly been coherent before, and He’d been coherent. And now was the time to push the lesson home. And He looked at Peter and He said, “Peter, what’s it to you?”

Now, I know this isn’t in the way you’ve read the Bible, but it means the same thing. Honest, it does. “What’s it to you? You follow me.” Now, if you want the Orthodox version, what it says here is, “If it should be my will that he wait until I come, what is it to you?” See? What’s it to you? What’s it to you, Peter? “You’re to follow me.”

Who are you curious about? Who are you curious about? And if you keep on being curious, you just take the plugs out of your ears and hear Him say to you, “What’s it to you? You get on with what you’re supposed to be doing. You follow me.”

Because sure as fate, that’s what He’ll be saying to you. Now, this may be puzzling some of you. Because remember, I have tried to share with you this idea about the necessity for great understanding or awareness of need. And this is true. And of our willingness to be great doers, of under the leading of God, to be willing to make a prayer come true. Make a prayer be fulfilled. But you know what our Lord is really giving us here is a concept of divine unconcern. Divine unconcern.

What He’s really trying to say is, look, it is by following me that you will be shaped into the kind of a vessel that may be usable in order to help this soul or this one or that situation.

Or meet this concern. It’s only by following me that you will become usable, malleable in the hands of God. And that’s what we want to be, isn’t it? For it is by following. And you know, this really seems to be so foreign to our nature, doesn’t it?

We all want to be leaders. And even in CFO, you see, there really aren’t any leaders. We’re all followers. And what Jesus, I think, is saying to us in this instance is also this. Remember who you are. And follow me.

You know, we’ve been talking a bit about role-playing. And we sure get this one all turned around, too. You know, most of us have run ahead of the Lord so often, or try to, that isn’t it funny that we have sore spots on our anatomy?

We’ve either fallen flat on our fanny, sometimes out of plain nervous exhaustion of trying to run ahead of them. And sometimes, you know, the experience of running and the foolishness of it has been so real that we’ve fallen on our knees.

And some of us have got that old thing that nobody ever gets now, a housemaid’s knee. But you see, this is what happens if we try to run ahead of them. And we do. Oh, we’re so prone to want to run ahead of them.

And I suppose this comes out of a very human desire. I hope it’s a human one. But I hope it’s transformed into its divine concept. Willingness to be used. But you know, it’s willingness to be used. Not desire to be used. Do you see the difference? Willingness to be used.

Because you know, sometimes God is quite capable of saying, “Look little one, this is not the situation. Even although you’re willing, this is not the situation for you.” He’s just as apt sometimes to say that as He is to say to you, “Now look little one, this is for you. This is your undertaking.” But when we move under His leading, then we move with great power.

We just plain have to be willing. And let God do the deciding as to which one of us is going to be the human vessel, if a human vessel is needed. And that’s hard to learn. It’s simple, but it’s certainly not easy.

I’m sure in the heart of each one of you, there is someone that you are yearning, with a deep and a great yearning, that they may see the light as you have been able to come to see it here.

Keep on with the yearning. Keep on with the yearning. And multiply your willingness to be the one who shall share that experience. And show your experience. Let your light so shine. Let your light so shine. But beyond that point, wait for the leading of the Lord.

For you know, it might be someone else, that the wisdom of God knows, is the real one, who can give that one you love so much, what you so love, and desire him to have, or her to have.

When I think back on my own experience, this is so deeply impressed on me. You know, I’m sure that Gravina, had a great yearning, and a great desire, that she might be the one that would lead me in a full sense to the Lord. As a matter of fact, I bet any of that praying clutch of women were anxious, that they might be able to be the medium, the vessel, the push over thing.

But they weren’t. They were willing, and they were helping, and they were praying. But God knew to me in some mysterious way, that it had to be an old, ignorant convict. Convict. Transformed into a living witness for Jesus Christ, in the bodily form of Starr Daily. Now, if I had been the picking of anybody that was going to do that for me, I wouldn’t even have picked Starr Daily. As you know, I didn’t.

I’d have tried to pick some, and this is why it had been taken so long, I’d have tried to pick some really intelligent professor in a seminary, and I guess I’d been still running the rounds of seminaries looking for one.

You see? You see? Because we are called into this tremendous fellowship of followership. And He keeps telling us, “Follow.” And you know, this concept really makes a great deal of sense to me, and another way too.

Please stop your recorder and turn the cassette over for the continuation of the message on side two.

We like to dwell on, on the only one occasion, I guess, or the, I don’t remember now whether all the gospels have it in or not. But this time when Jesus said, “Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel.”

And of course, when you get to studying Mark, this is the one that the higher critics have a field day with, because that’s just the exact part that they don’t believe belongs in it anyway. So they take it out. And I didn’t get too worried for once in my life about what higher critics have taken out of the word. Because they’ve left more important things in. Because, do you know, before we get to going, as ultimately we do get to going, let’s never forget that Jesus had three calls which are come.

And when we really appreciate the fullness of the three comes, then, beloved ones, we’ll be ready to go. And when we go after we have come three times, or come into the fullness of the meaning of the three calls, then we won’t have to worry about running ahead of them. Or stumbling.

We like to dwell on, on the only one occasion, I guess, or the… I don’t remember now whether all the gospels have it in or not. But this time when Jesus said, “Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel.”

And of course, when you get to studying Mark, this is the one that the higher critics have a field day with. Because that’s just the exact part that they don’t believe belongs in it anyway. So they take it out. And I didn’t get too worried for once in my life about what higher critics have taken out of the word. Because they’ve left more important things in. Because, you know, before we get to going, as ultimately we do get to going, let’s never forget that Jesus had three calls which are come.

And when we really appreciate the fullness of the three comes, then, beloved ones, we’ll be ready to go. And when we go after we have come three times, or come into the fullness of the meaning of the three calls, then we won’t have to worry about running ahead of them, or stumbling, or anything else. Do you remember? The words will come easily to you, I am sure. His first call to the men down by the lake. And I think, I think Brother Jim had a glorious revelation when he heard so many people, at least he mentioned about so many people that heard and didn’t do anything about it. Because there was that great call, and it’s still to be heard. “Come unto me. Come unto me.”

And there was the second one. After He gathered them together, you know. Then, when He began to move off, He said, “Come, follow me.” And that’s the second calling of the comes. And then there is the tremendous third one.

“Come, abide with me.” “Come unto me. Come, follow me. Come, abide with me.” Now we’ve had an experience here this week in abiding. Haven’t we? Yeah. We’ve had an experience in abiding. We have heard, some of us have heard the call to come. And you know, in some cases, we didn’t even know why we were coming to camp.

Least of all, what was going to happen to us here. I just hope there’s nobody who’s coming as sorry as to what’s happened and wish they hadn’t come. But I know that can’t happen. You see, I just know that can’t happen in this kind of kingdom living.

All I hope is when you go home, that those that see you are just as surprised as you are. And there’s a point, you know, when I believe that some of the things we call sin have their, they’re almost their holy equivalent. I hope some of them are, in a holy way, very envious of what you’re showing.

I really do. I hope they get so envious that the envy in the magnitude of God’s love gets turned into great desiring. Now, believe you me, only God could turn water into wine. And only God can turn envy into desiring divine things. But He can do it. He’s able. If He was able to do the one, He can do anything. From my understanding of it. But we’ve had an experience here in abiding.

For what is the ultimate of abiding? Well, the ultimate of abiding is just simply that we have brought ourselves into alignment with God. Into attunement with God. Into atonement with God. Or by atonement, into attunement. Maybe that’s the way of putting it. By atonement, into attunement with God.

We have now had an opportunity to abide in such a way that His words have become very real. I and you. You and me. And I and them. And them and me. And in you. A complete inter… what shall we call it? A complete interaction of a whole group of people. Amongst themselves. Amongst themselves. Oh yes, that’s fellowship. On one level. But an intermingling with Jesus Christ. With the Holy Spirit. And with God the Father.

And on the personal level, we have abided to the point that we recognize that we are only a branch. On the vine. That is rooted in the soil that is God. But let’s wipe out the only a branch.

And replace it with a branch. And in your relationship with Jesus Christ, it even goes from only to a, to the branch. For you are the branch that He purified. You’re the special branch. No one else can be that branch but you.

You’re the only one that can bear the fruit that God wants born on that branch. Oh, we’re important. Yes, we are. But isn’t it kind of humbling? Isn’t it kind of humbling? But this is what abiding does. This is what abiding means.

And perhaps every time before we begin to move out, or go, as the commissioning says, we should just pause for a minute and say now, one, two, three, what is the state of my following? What is the state of my responding? What is the state of my abiding?

Because when we are called to go, there’s no turning back. There’s no turning back. We’re really on the way. But what I’m saying now is not going to be in the way of a warning at all. But it’s, do you see from the experience of the abiding how earnestly He is yearning for us to get going.

To use all that which He has made available. Not to try to store it up in a, in a granary or in a treasure house, but to use it. Because if it isn’t used, if it isn’t used, the world’s not going to be transformed.

It’s just going to stay as it is if we don’t use it. A number of years ago, when the princess, who has now become the queen of our commonwealth, became 21, the family was then traveling in South Africa.

In South Africa. And while through the miracles of radio and television it was possible for us to be linked with her on that particular day. And everybody knew what that young girl was being called to. Now I really don’t think this is too difficult for even, even Republicans to understand. You know, the life of being a queen is, is not exactly what the story of Cinderella would leave us to believe.

There’s a certain amount of golden shoes and horses drawing all kinds of amazing sort of contraptions that only England could devise. But this is true. This is, this is part of it. And of course there’s all sorts of castles and servants and everything else.

But do you ever think of the service that is demanded of a woman? Would you really want to be the queen of England or the king of England? Would you really? Would you want to live in a, in a glass house all the rest of your days?

Would you want to have to try to raise your family in the, the complete strong blare of public curiosity? And yet that young woman was called to serve. She was born into servitude. And somehow, you see, we have to lift with her this, this concept of servitude out of slavery into real service.

And I hope as long as I live I will never forget the pledge she made to us who were her people that day when she was 21. And little did she know how close the crown was to her.

And isn’t it interesting that in, still, despite all that has taken place in the world, that when at that moment she was crowned, remember also that she was anointed. That it just simply wasn’t a question of, of putting something in the temporal sense upon her head.

But in the act of anointing, those who believed, and she would be amongst their number, were aware that by the anointing the grace, the power to do that which she had pledged to do would be given. And what she told us that day, and it’s a number of years ago, she, oh, it was so simple, but it isn’t easy. She said, “Let us all have the high courage to venture beyond the safeties of the past.”

The high courage to venture beyond the safeties of the past. And you know, that’s gloriously true for any group of believers. That’s what we need. And that’s what abiding and grace make it possible for you and for me to do.

The Holy Spirit, the strengthener, will give each one of us the courage to venture beyond the safeties of the past. Some of you have learned to pray in a way that you would never have dreamed of praying seven days ago. And praise God, you’ve moved beyond the safety of the old familiar pattern.

Some of you have certainly learned to sing the doxology in a form that is new, and you’ve learned to move behind the security of a very slow, pedestrian, but glorious statement of fact into a hallelujah chorus. You see?

What have we as a camp learned collectively? Have we learned anything that now makes it possible, with the strengthening of the Holy Spirit in high courage, to move beyond the safeties of the past? The sense of security that familiarity gives, that is temporal only we think it’s permanent.

Into the sense of security that only abiding and following Jesus Christ can really make permanent in our lives. Brother Jim, have you, as I have, learned something this week that’s going to push us out beyond the safeties of what we had called the past? Amen. What about the council ring? Amen. What about the kids? Amen.

Okay, now, old folks, try and equal that. What about you? Amen. Now, come on, what about you, old folks? Amen. That’s better, isn’t it? They keep telling you that the hope of the world is in you. Now you know there’s some hope in them.

Yes, you do. Amen. Yes, you see? But do you see this? This is what we’re called. We’re called to venture out beyond the safeties of the past. We’re called to venture out eternally and be in the present. And we will never know what the contents of the present are, let alone the future. Because God is not only abundant in the things that we need, but He’s sure abundant in the things that surprise.

He is. He is. He’s abundant in everything. And why do we think that there’s nothing in the way of surprises? But we’re called to follow. And you know as well as I do what I’m going to say next, I suspect. That it is only when we abide.

That we really will become fruitful and consequently then will become usable to feed. And we will only know when our fruit is ready for the sustenance of another soul when we are led by Jesus Christ. And when we are led by Him, remember where we are. We’re following.

We’re not ahead of Him. We’re following. Shall we just be still a moment? Father, we praise and glorify Your holy name. We bow down in awe before You. We are almost overwhelmed by Your compassion, by Your wisdom, by Your understanding, by Your patience. And Your patience.

But oh, we are so thankful. And more than anything, Father, we’re so thankful for Your gift of Jesus Christ. Oh, blessed Lord Jesus. God bless you.