The Normal Christian Life: Living By Faith

The Normal Christian Life: Living By Faith

by Bob Hillock

Transcribed from the original recording; may contain errors.

We’re talking these days about the normal Christian life. Right? I’m talking about it. Luke’s talking about it. You’ve been talking about it in your prayer groups and in your sharing with one another. The normal Christian life. In the areas of your life that you have not felt normal in, you have been saying, “Pray for me. I’m abnormal at this point or that point.” Right? “I’ve got a problem.” That’s what we do in our prayer group. Someone says, “Look, this doesn’t feel right.” Or, “That situation doesn’t seem right.” Or, “This member of my family is not feeling good.” Or, something along that line. Something’s abnormal someplace. “Would you please pray with me?” Because we want it to be normal. Oh, what has happened to the normal Christian life? It has slipped a long way in the lives of a lot of people. And so we want to talk about it and take a look at it. Because it could be that when we see something that we’re not involved in doing, we may ask ourselves, “How come, Lord? What have I been doing? Where have I lost sight of that? I want to be there, Lord. I want to be involved that way, Lord. I want to be involved in the ministry of reconciliation.”

I want to be out there touching the people. Do you know… Here I am already straying from my notes. You know what? In 2 Corinthians 5:17, it says, “If any man be in Christ, he becomes a new creature. All things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new.” I want to ask you today, what things are new in your life? What things are new today in your life that were not there, that were not part of your normal, old life before?

You don’t have to answer out loud. If any man be in Christ, he’s a new creature or a new creation. All things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new. Now, all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ, and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. Now, who does that include? Is that just the preachers? Pardon? No. Do you really believe that? Is that just the preachers? No. Is it the professionals? No. No. That’s us, isn’t it? That’s you and me in my house and your house and where you live and wherever you work. God has given to us the ministry of reconciliation. He couldn’t give it to the old creatures. He could only give it to the new creatures. And tonight you might be saying, “What do you mean, Bob, by a new creature in Christ? Does that come after having been at CFO about eight or ten times?” How do you become a new creature in Christ? You become a new creature in Christ by faith in Jesus Christ. Do you know, most of the things that happen to you in Christ, I would dare say, all the things that happen to you in Christ happen to you by faith.

I just heard a voice crying in the weather. Are we out of tape back there, brother? Are we still spinning? Everything that happens in your life, every good thing that happens in your life, happens by faith. Do you know that without faith, it is impossible to please God? Oh, we have forgotten that, folks. We have got it worked up in our minds somehow that there are other ways we can please God other than by faith.

We figured out that if we do certain things, certain ways, we’ll please God. Why, if we’ll be faithful and we’ll get up every morning of the week at six o’clock and we’ll get on our knees before God, that will please God.

And if we’ll speak in certain ways, that will please God. If we’ll control our temper, that will please God. If we’ll do certain things, we will please God. And then before we know it, we’re into the idea that we’re actually earning brownie points with God if we do these things. And then before you know it, we figured out that we’re just a little bit better than the other guy because we’re doing these following things. Why, if you want to check on how good I am, check with me. I’ve got my diary right here and I’ll show you all the things I do for God.

Sickening, isn’t it? Sickening. But that’s exactly what Slewfoot would have us think in the direction that he would have us move, that if we will just get ourselves doing certain things, certain ways, we’ll begin to please God. And of course, that will please us. And we’ll begin to get arthritis from patting ourselves on the back. And other people will say, “Yuck, you make me sick.”

“You’re beginning to look like a religious person. Go away.” It’s only by faith that we please God. And we need to keep coming back and coming back and coming back and coming back to it and saying, “Lord, I’m taking another inventory. What is it that I’m doing in my life that I am not doing by faith in You?”

None of this is written down, folks. I haven’t come to that yet. In Mark chapter 2, we read how Jesus came back to Capernaum several days afterward, it says here. So if you want to know about after what, you go back to chapter 1. But that not being important at the moment, we’ll just move along. “And many were gathered together so that there was no longer room even near the door.” Don’t you love it? I remember meetings like that, don’t you, Brother Clyde? They couldn’t get them all in the room. “And Jesus was speaking the word to them.” I could stop right here and preach the whole message on that. And share from my own personal experiences on that. He preached the word to them. And that’s why they packed the house. It is so easy to preach everything else but the word. Okay. But you know, I just read a funny little illustration and I got to share it with you. Somebody said that if we were to preach anything else other than the word, the pastor might as well just go out and buy… If he has a hundred members, he might as well go out and buy a hundred commentaries and give them to each of his members and send them home.

And say, “Here, you figure it out.” Okay. If we preach the word, and if we live by the word of God, we’ll need to do it by faith. And people will come gathering around to find out what’s going on and why it’s going on. Because the word of God is not only the living word, but the written word and it’s powerful. “And I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ,” said Paul, “for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes.” For here was Jesus preaching the word. And they came bringing to Him a sick man, a paralytic, carried by four men. Now, you know the rest of the story. These guys couldn’t get in the door because the church was too… or the room was too full, so up on the roof they went, tore it apart. I’ve been looking at this roof.

I have been wondering ever since I got to camp about this roof. I wondered whether they have torn it up and let down the sick man from the roof. Either that or that roof was built by a committee.

Right? All the boards are close together on this side and far apart on this side. I can just imagine when those guys… Right? They got together on a committee and they figured it out. They forgot to pray about it. They started at the top and they worked their way down. And when they got to the end over this side, these guys were hauling over to these guys for more boards. And these guys had lots left over. Right?

Oh. Isn’t it humorous the way we live our lives sometimes? If we don’t have a sense of humor, we’re in trouble. Down came this man in the middle of that crowd in front of Jesus and they said, by their actions, “Jesus, You can do something about this situation because we can’t. We’ve tried the doctors. They haven’t been able to do anything. He’s our friend and he’s dying, Lord. He’s our friend and he can’t play baseball with us on Saturday afternoons, Lord, because he’s a paralytic. He used to be able to, Lord, but he can’t do it anymore and we love him. And we don’t like it the way it is, Jesus. So we want it to be different. And could You make it different? Because we can’t.”

What did Jesus do? He did something that they couldn’t do. Just like He always does. He always does something different that we can’t do. Right? You couldn’t save yourself, could you? You couldn’t give yourself the assurance of eternal life in your heart, could you? So you came to Jesus and by faith you accepted Him as your personal Savior. And tonight you have assurance in your heart that if you were to die tonight, you’re going to heaven. Amen? If you can’t say amen, you talk to somebody right after. And don’t necessarily talk to me because anybody in this place who said amen can tell you how you can have the assurance in your life that you’re on your way to heaven tonight. Anybody in this room who said amen, from the youngest to the oldest, Jesus can lead you to Jesus tonight. Amen? Oh, it’s so good to hear that. You know, a lot of people think you have to have a degree to be a soul winner. You have to take an eight-week course and learn the one, two, threes. You have to be a pro to be a soul winner. Satan would love to have us think that way. He’d love to have people talk that way and preachers plan it that way. So that if he can get you thinking that it’s only the pros that can lead people to Christ, only the pros that can pray for people, then you won’t bother doing it. Right? Have we got enough preachers in this world to run around and preach the gospel to everybody and win everybody one by one where you work and I work? Is that possible? No. That’s why He has you and me working where we are and living where we are and sharing Christ with our neighbors.

My brother and sister-in-law used to live in Toronto and my wife and I used to go down and visit with them. And we were driving around to the city of Toronto one night and Diane and I had been praying for Bill and Roe for a long time and they got married one day after we got married. And ten years ago this September. Second marriage for them as well as for us. And so we feel just because of the things that they went through and we went through just a new closeness. And pain does that to you, you know. Somebody else suffers like you’ve suffered, you have an identity with them. And so we went down to visit them and they showed us around Toronto and Diane hadn’t been there before and it was just really neat. And Roe was talking about her great books she was reading by Ayn Rand and how they just had her philosophy of life. And, of course, we sitting in the back seat were trying to think of something religious to say, you know. Instead of praying and shutting up, we were trying to think of some way to witness, you know, and put in a word. And so I blurted out a couple of things and she said, “Oh, I don’t believe in any of that religious stuff and that Christian stuff.

“I don’t need that stuff because I’ve got this kind of philosophy and it’s all I need.” And so we sort of shrugged our shoulders and agreed with one another to pray and just left it and were quiet and enjoyed the rest of the visit with them and tried not to disturb things. And rocked the boat. We went home and kept praying and the next year I went to CFO camp and this big tall fellow with glasses came to camp. His name was Roy Hamlin and I said to Roy partway through the camp, “Roy, you remind me so much of my brother. Just the way you walk, the way you talk.” I said, “The next time we have prayer together, would you sit in and proxy for my brother just because you remind me of him. And we’ll pray that my brother would find the Lord.” In this case, really come back to the Lord after many years of being away. And he said, “Sure, I’d be glad to do that.” So we prayed and then we just kept on praying for a few years after that. And before too many years, Bill and Roe got a transfer to Edmonton. And we thought, “Oh, this is super. They’re going to be close and they’re only a hundred miles or so away.”

A hundred and fifty miles to be able to get up and have a visit occasionally. And so, you know how it goes when people are closer. You even contact them less, eh? So we phoned the odd time and got to see them a few times. But one day Bill phoned and he said, “We went to church last Sunday.” I said, “Oh, isn’t that neat? Which church did you go to?” He said, “The Moravian church, just across the street.” And I said, “Oh,” of course, you know, my mind. I don’t know anything about the Moravian. So my theology went and started to go click. And I thought, “Too bad we went to the Moravian church.” And then the Lord gave me a little boot, you know. And He said, “What do you mean it’s too bad? They went to church.”

I said, “I’m sorry, Lord.” I had it all worked out how they were to go to church and where and everything, you know. Right. I said, “That’s really neat, Bill. How did you get to know anything about that church?” “Well, we moved in here and didn’t know a soul. And we were just in here a day and the neighbor down the street brought a casserole up and said, ‘You guys got so much work to do. Well, here’s dinner.’ And we thought, ‘Boy, that’s Western hospitality.’ But the next day, another neighbor came up with a cake and said, ‘Why don’t you have this and enjoy it? And it’s great to have you in the neighborhood.’ And we thought, ‘Boy, this is Western hospitality. You’ve been telling us about this and we haven’t believed it. But here it is.’” But he said, “You know, then along came some cookies and an invitation to church on Sunday. And then something started to happen in my mind. And I said to myself, ‘Hey, this is the old wise as a serpent and harmless as a dove trick, you know?’” God is working through His people to love somebody into the kingdom. Oh, we were just praying like mad at home. Next thing, a month or so later, Bill phones and he says, “You wouldn’t believe it, but they put me on the building committee.”

I said, “The building committee of what?” “The church.” “You mean you’re still going to…” “Yeah, right. Now we’re on the building committee.” “You’re on the…” “Yeah, something to do with the building.” I said, “That’s super.” Well, it progressed. Before I knew it, he was asked if he wanted to… or he was pushing the pastor to have a little bit of Bible study for adults on Sunday morning. And then they had their summer holidays and we said, “Look, why don’t you drop into CFO?” Happens to be the same time. So they came in for two days, I think it was. And Tim Ruthven and Millard Beede were there. And they just had their hearts warmed and spoiled and just given that little extra. And they went back to the Moravian Church. And I have nothing bad to say about the Moravian Church at all. But Bill said, “I just feel like I need something a little bit more than what I’m getting where I am at this moment. At this moment. So we’re going over here to this Baptist Church.” Now, Rowena is now the secretary in the Baptist Church. Bill’s the treasurer. She’s teaching 20 ladies in Bible study. They’re the treasurer of CFO in Alberta. And praising the Lord. And all that happened because somebody looked at the new folks moving in down the street and said, “We better get a committee together and ask the pastor if he’d go and drop in and have a call.”

No, they didn’t. One lady said, “I’m going to cook a casserole.” Because God told her to. And somebody else said, “How about chocolate cake?” Because God told them to. And now those two people are in the kingdom and they’re praying for their kids. And I believe one day they’ll all be walking with the Lord. Because somebody caught the vision and did something concrete about it. It’s something Diane and I couldn’t do. We weren’t living next door at the time. And it wouldn’t have worked anyway. They would have thought, “Here comes those religious relatives of ours, probably going to invite us to church.” Okay? But God knows how to work things out. Anyway, here’s this sick man laying in front of Jesus. He says something about… To the scribes and Pharisees. He always said, first of all, “My son, your sins are forgiven.” Okay, that really disturbed the scribes and the Pharisees who were in there. And He said, “Why are you reasoning among yourselves about these things in your hearts? Which is easier to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Arise, take up your pallet and walk’? But in order that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins, I say to you, rise up, take up your pallet, and go on home.”

Well, up he got. Rolled up and headed home and was joyful, of course, and weeping. And praising God. And what were the rest of the people doing? Well, I think the four friends were going home and playing a baseball game with this fellow now. He was well and could play. And the other folks were standing around amazed. Absolutely amazed. And they said, “We have never seen anything like this.”

Yeah, of course, thank you, sister. The Pharisees got caught because he was carrying his pallet, his bed, on the Sabbath. Hey? Off he goes down the street rejoicing, leaping, and praising God. And they’re mad because he’s breaking the rules, right? And I ask you, how many times have you been upset when somebody broke your rules, but were at the same time giving praise to God? Don’t you have trouble with it? Hey? The person who says, “Oh, well, God has delivered me from smoking. Praise the Lord.” And he’s testifying to somebody. And the fellow says, “That’s really nice. That’s really nice.” And he says, “I love the Lord too, but you got a light?”

“Oh, no, I don’t smoke.” Get that smug little look on his face, you know? “God has delivered me from that horrible sin.” Hey? And I’m just, I got one more tassel on my robe. I’m part way to be a Pharisee. Huh?

We’ve got it figured out before too long, which rules you follow to make yourself a Christian, or to be a better Christian, or et cetera, et cetera, right? That is because that’s the human thing to do. And that’s, after all, what we are as human beings. And so we have figured it out that Christians are just, they just live certain ways. And when we come to CFO, it blows the sides off our box, right? We had gone all set like this, right? I did too. I came to CFO and I thought Christians, all Christians were Nazarenes. It reminds me of a little story about the holy gate and the people coming in and getting into heaven and all rejoicing. And this fellow arrived at the gate and St. Peter said, “Come on with me and we’re going to just show you around heaven.” And they walked down and here was everybody just praising the Lord and rejoicing. And he says, “Come with me, I’ll show you over here.” And he says, “Now look, Pete, real quiet. Real quiet here.” He says, “Climb up in this chair and peek through that hole, that little window way up high.” And so he got up there and he peeked in there and here was this little group of people over there just praising the Lord.

And he said, “Who are they?” He says, “Well, they’re the Pentecostals and they think they’re the only one here.” I’m sorry, I shouldn’t waste tape. And I don’t mean to say that about Pentecostals because they don’t think that, but I just had to pick on somebody. And there’s usually several of those around. Might have been Lutherans, I don’t know. Might have been Methodists, eh? Anyway… I can’t hear you, sister.

So they said, “We’ve never seen anything like this before.” Those who really had their eyes open were amazed. Those who were caught up in the rules, nothing got through. Okay? So if one time or another you’re in a service, you’re in a situation where people are getting right with God, and people are getting healed and people are rejoicing and you feel like a dead clam, check it out. It could be that it’s not happening within your theological framework and you’re having a little difficulty. Okay? God is not hinged in and boxed in by a theological framework. God does His thing His way. And I just want to get in on it wherever it’s happening, don’t you? Right. Praise the Lord. They were all amazed. Do you know, Jesus was guilty of going about doing good. No. I take that back. Jesus was loved because He went about doing good. Everywhere He went, He went about doing good. And everybody loved Him. And we’ve got to get it into our minds that Jesus was not crucified because He went about doing good. He wasn’t. And you will not be crucified for going about doing good.

Let me see if I can put that into terms because some of you might be saying, “Now that’s not fair. I think I’m doing some good things and some people hate me for it.” Let me tell you what they crucified Jesus for. They crucified Jesus because He said He was God. Okay? And if you’re having difficulty with the fact that Jesus is God, get into your Bible and read it because there is no other explanation on earth. Either Jesus is God, either Jesus is God, or He’s the greatest liar that ever lived. He is not just a good man. He is not just a prophet. He is not just a teacher. Don’t tell me Jesus was a good man and that’s all He was. Because good men don’t lie.

And if you say He was just a good man, then He was a liar because He said He was God. Okay? And you and I… Jesus was crucified because He said He was God. And you and I will be crucified by those around us when we want to line ourselves up with God. Not by saying we’re God, but by saying that Jesus Christ is Lord. Jesus Christ is God. And when we go about telling people and showing people that our Jesus is God, we’ll get crucified. We’ll get crucified. You know, it’s an awful thing when people think, “I’m going to talk about this tomorrow morning, but maybe I’ll talk about it tonight, and I’ll talk about this tomorrow morning.”

It’s an awful thing when people start thinking that things have got to be done and have got to be set up just in a certain way. When… Now, by saying that, I went and lost my train of thought. You can edit that, brother, right out of the tape. Jesus was crucified because He said He was God. You and I will be crucified by those around us just like He was crucified. He said they’ll hate you. They will hate you. They will hate you. When they come to understand that you are in love with God, they won’t like you. Okay? We have got it figured out in this world we’re living in that we can run like silent submarines sometimes. Okay? We’re all there, but nobody knows it. Okay? Nobody knows it. We’ve got to trust God and understand that He wants us to stand up for the issues that are around to stand up for. That He wants us to speak out when we need to speak out. That we need to stand in the gap when somebody’s in trouble, even though others have forsaken them.

One day in this church that I was speaking about earlier, and I want to apologize. I wish I could go back and erase one thing in that tape that I gave in my testimony, and that was the name of the church. I didn’t actually give you the name, I gave you the town, and I wish I could wipe that out. So when you take it home with you, just don’t send it to anybody north of the border. Okay?

We were sitting in church one Sunday morning. My wife had a great burden for a young couple that were just about to get married. The pastor wouldn’t marry them because she had been divorced and had since come to the Lord and was a beautiful, vibrant Christian. And he was a young single man, and he wouldn’t marry them because of that situation. And I’m not going to make any comments about that because that’s up to his particular conscience. But anyway, he wouldn’t marry them. So I found them another pastor and he counseled with them and married them. And then the church accepted them back in now that they’re married.

Okay? And now they came back into church and they’re still there today. And for that I praise the Lord, they’re walking with Jesus. Okay, but Diane got a great burden on her heart to throw a shower for this young couple that were going to get married. And so she went up to the social convener in the church and she said, “When are they going to have the shower?” Well, the social convener taking on the attitude of the leader of the church turned around and said, “Look, we don’t believe that they should get married, therefore no shower. And don’t get involved.” Well, my wife being a very loving, sensitive person hurt, not for her, but for the young couple. And so she broke down in tears. And after the service was just sitting there for a few moments reflecting on this and tears were streaming down her face. The leader of the church came up and said, “You know what, you’re a troublemaker. And I want you to stay out of this kind of thing. If we want to have a shower, we’ll have one. And it’s not for you to say.”

And needless to say, it wasn’t that long before we had made a decision to leave the church. Because we had to take a stand and we were told, “No stands here.” So we said, “That’s fine, we’ll stand somewhere else then.” Okay? But we’ll stand for Jesus. Okay? We’ll stand for Jesus, we’ll stand for His love. And we weren’t very popular and because of it had still lost some quote unquote friends. But someday, we believe God will bring things back together again. Okay? Because we believe that we have a great big wonderful God who’s going to shape that situation until it comes up right. Do you believe that? God is in the business of making things right. Restoring things, bringing them back to the way they should be. And if you want to get involved in something that is not right and not loving and not of Jesus, look out because it won’t be too long before you’ll be so shook. Okay? That your life will be very upset and it will take you a while to get it back together again. And the only way you’ll get it back together again is by getting your feet on the solid rock Christ Jesus and living by the truth. And living in His love. Praise God. Praise God.

So there are going to be times when you’re going to get crucified and badly hurt because you’re going to stand up for the love of God in situations. And it’s not going to be fun. And anybody who’s preaching from the pulpit today that when you become a Christian, everything’s going to begin to go just great. And everywhere you go, why God just going to pave the way. I went riding in the National Park the other day with my brother down in Kananaskis Park. Oh folks, that’s where the 1988 Olympic skiing is going to be and you ought to do yourself a favor. That is gorgeous country. Come on up and see. Anyway, here they have paved a bicycle pathway for miles through the most gorgeous country you’ve ever imagined. Okay? And I’m riding down this thing almost feeling guilty saying to myself, “This is ridiculous. Out here in the wilds of Alberta riding on pavement.” Okay? It felt strange. There are people who think that God, once you become a Christian, begins to pave the way. Okay? Over the rough spots. Banging them all down. Making them all nice and smooth so you won’t stub your toe and ever get hurt. I want to warn you right now. When you begin to serve God by faith, look out.

Okay? Because you’re going to need to walk in faith. You’re going to really… God is going to say, “You want to live by faith? Praise God. Come, walk with Me. And we’ll just keep on walking and walking and you will be required to walk in more faith and more faith and more faith.” That’s called growing. How many want to grow? I want to grow too. But I tell you something, there are growing pains. And some of us have not grown up and we’ve been in the kingdom too long and we haven’t grown up in some areas. Some of us are still sucking our proverbial thumbs in some areas of our lives. Do you know that? Now you look at me like I’m off my rocker. Do you know you can walk with Jesus for 20 years, 30 years, 40 years and still be a babe in Christ?

It’s because you have refused to deal with a problem that is in your life that is cutting short your ministry of reconciliation. One of the main truths that God wants to get across to the world today is that He loves them. He loves them. How is He going to get it across if you don’t tell them? How is a neighbor next door going to know that you love them if you don’t tell them? How is he going to know God loves them if you don’t tell them?

Oh, we get so teary-eyed over going across the ocean to tell the heathen about Jesus. Okay? I used to get so frustrated when I was in the denominational situation and they’d be sending people over… sending them to go to Quebec to learn French, to send them overseas someplace where they needed to preach in French. But meanwhile, Quebec is going to hell. Sadly lacking in strong evangelical works. Strongly lacking in mission work. But send them to Quebec to learn French and get them overseas someplace. What about Jerusalem? What about where we are right here? Let’s win Jerusalem for the Lord. And then, I’m not saying we shouldn’t go overseas, but let’s balance the thing. Let’s look after those who are next door. It’s so easy to send money and people overseas to win the heathens and let the people next door go to hell. And our only task is to love them into the kingdom. Is that too hard? I want you to know that I find it hard. So I’m going to be honest. And I don’t mean to be telling you that it’s really easy. I sometimes say to my kids, “Come on, guys, out the door to school and live for Jesus today. Love those kids.” And then I say to myself, “You old hypocrites.

“Get in your study and get on your knees. You’ve been working with a guy for quite a while and you’ve never once shared Jesus with him. You have been chicken.” Okay? Satan would make us think that it’s hard to love people for Jesus. And the whole world is out there like a great big sponge. And we are all caught up in some of our little hang-ups. While we think it’s just alright to do it this way. I want to get up in the morning and be grouchy. It’s my right to get up in the morning and be grouchy. I’ve been doing it now for 20 years and don’t tell me I can’t do it different now.

Sure I’m a Christian, but don’t tell me I’m a Christian until after I’ve had my cup of coffee. Before that, stay away from it. And I can justify it too. You want to squeeze me? Make sure it’s between the hours of 10 and 5, because after that I’m grouchy.

Every time you squeeze an orange, folks, you get orange juice out of it. But every time you squeeze a Christian, you don’t get love. Not every time. Not in some lives. Because some people have cornered a little area off there, they’ve said, “This is mine, Jesus, and You don’t have any right in here. Stay out. That’s my sour puss area.” Okay? My family’s learned to respect it. Isn’t it wonderful?

You don’t know how many times I’ve said to my teenagers, almost on my knees and almost in tears, not quite on my knees, but in tears, “I am sore. I’m really sore. Because I’ve been asking you to do something that I haven’t been doing myself.” One of my kids said to me the other day, “I’m going to say something about that bratty little brother.” I said, “Why didn’t you discipline him?” And she said to me, “Why don’t you?” And she’s 17, this young lady that said that. And I said, “You know, I don’t know whether I appreciate your tone of voice.” And she said, “Well, you know what I mean, Dad. You said to us that any time these little brothers of ours did something wrong, we could come to you and tell you, and you would make it right. And the other day, I went out with my little brother and I told him, ‘Okay, I’m going to work now. You go home.’ And he wouldn’t go home and I had to take him all the way home. And I was so mad and I was late for work. And I told you, Dad, and you didn’t do anything.”

And I said, “Deb, you’re right. And I’m really sore. And I have no right to ask you to spank your little brother. It’s not really fair. When I can do it. And I can make sure he respects your authority. And I’m really sorry.”

But I was this close to saying, “Don’t let me like that. I’m your father. I’m 45 years of age and I, you know. Choo. Choo.” But you know what? You and I, many of us, have a little corner in our life where we think, if anybody invades there, I just pull out my Zorro sword and I go… Choo.

In that area, you don’t belong. I want you to know that if you haven’t grown up beyond that point, you’re still a spiritual dwarf in that area. In the love of God and the blood of Jesus Christ, my Bible says, cleanses us from all sin. So if you’re harboring an area of sin in your life, and you don’t want to get rid of it because you think it’s too painful or you don’t want to confess it to God, you don’t want to tell anybody else about it because you don’t know if you can trust anybody, I tell you, get moving. I’m not telling you to fall on your face on the floor in a heap and give up. I’m telling you, get moving in your Christian life. Get off your butt and get moving because nobody’s going to make you grow, but Jesus is going to beckon you and say, “Come on, the water is deeper over here and you’re going to like it better. So come on, get out of those shallow waters where all the rocks are and come on out here in the deep stuff. We can have fun out here by faith.” We’re saved by faith. We’re cleaned up by faith. We’re kept clean by faith. We grow by faith.

But we have got to take some initiative. It’s us that has to say, “Time for devotions. You know? Time to read your Bible now. Get on your knees, Bob. Come on. You’ve blown it for the last three days. You haven’t been there. Be ashamed of yourself. Give yourself a little, you know, and get on your knees.”

My wife, who loves me more than anybody else on this earth, says to me every once in a while, “If you’re going to preach it, practice it.” And I hate it when she says that. I don’t hate her when she says that. I hate it. You know what I mean?

Because it hurts, and she’s right. Some of us have given up on each other. And I’m going to tell you that if God tells you to tell somebody something, only if God tells you, and only if you’re a husband or wife or you’re really close, then speak up. Speak up to somebody and help your brother or sister, help your husband or wife grow in the Lord. If you get direction, and you’re going to do it gently, and you’re going to do it in love, Diane doesn’t scream at me when she says that. She knows how to say it. Okay? She knows the difference between encouraging me and a little chastisement and crushing me. Okay? And you do too, in the right people’s lives. And if you don’t, shut your mouth. Okay? It’s not your job to be the Holy Spirit.

There are some things you’ve got to leave for Him to do. Jesus went about doing good because Jesus is God. We go about doing good because Jesus is Lord of our lives. And because of it, there’s going to be times when we’re not going to be liked because the good that we do is not going to be appreciated by somebody else. Okay? It’s like the Boy Scouts who helped a little old lady across the street that took eight of them because she didn’t want to go. You know? There are times we’re going to do some good for somebody and they’re not going to appreciate it. Okay?

You know, we’ve made a lot to do in our Christian circle sometimes about what we call signs and wonders. We’ve often made a big thing out of signs and wonders. And perhaps rightly so. And what I want to say now, I want to say carefully and I want you to hear me carefully. One of the problems with being a preacher is that sometimes what you say is not what’s heard. Okay? So I want to give you freedom in this. That if I say something that you think I’m off track or you disagree with, please, for Jesus’ sake, tell me when we get outside. Okay? I mean that. And you know something? I’m going to tell you something else. If your preacher says something you don’t agree with… Right, Harry? Right. If your preacher says…

Right, Carl? If your preacher says something that you don’t agree with and you don’t think it’s based on the word, you be sure to tell him. In love, you go to him and you say, “Pastor, I think this time you went too far. I don’t think you can back up what you said by Scripture.” I can’t tell you how many times I wish I’d done that.

I can tell you that many times I’m thankful that I had… And when I said a little old lady, I did not mean that in any kind of a demeaning way. Some of these ladies here are little and old and they know it and they’ll tell you. Okay?

Older than me, so they’re old. Okay? I had a couple of quote-unquote little old ladies in my congregation when I was a young whippersnapper, 26, 27, 28, who came to me on more than one occasion and said, “Pastor, we think that you better look back at the Scripture. We’re not sure you were on the beam there.” Okay? And it was humbling, but it was good for me. Okay? I want to say something about signs and wonders and gifts. Maybe I’ll just end up touching on it because I see it’s quarter to nine.

There’s been a lot of problems in the church and a lot of splits and a lot of disagreements and that kind of thing over things like signs and wonders and gifts. Hasn’t there? You know it. I know it. Now, I also know that the Holy Spirit came into this world, was sent into this world to empower us, to unify us, to lead us, to guide us, to do all the things that we need right in our lives. Right? So what do we do? We fight over Him.

We split over Him. Right? Why? There’s the Methodists and the Free Methodists and the Wesley Methodists and the United Methodists. Okay? But the United Methodists are not united with the Free Methodists. And, okay, I’m saying that because I’m on their holy ground here and they may not feed me. Okay? And then there’s the Baptists. Now, you talk about a bunch of splits. I mean, that thing has split 90 hundred ways. Okay? There are Baptists that don’t agree with Baptists who don’t agree with Baptists who don’t agree with Baptists, right? I mean, it doesn’t do any good to say I’m a Baptist. They’ll say, “What kind? Which one?” I’m an author in which conference, right? Oh, isn’t it something? We’re split all over the place. And a lot of the splits that have happened today and a lot of the disagreements that have happened over the Holy Spirit who came into the world to unify us and bring us together. Okay? Now, I’m not going to be moaned. And I’m not saying… and I want… okay, I’ll correct myself here. I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with all these denominations. I have a feeling there’s a lot right about the fact that there are different denominations. Because when I go into an Anglican church, I love the… the Episcopalian church. I love the awe-inspiring architecture.

And I love the pipe organ. And I love the prayer book. And I love the kneeling bench. Oh, it just is beautiful. Okay? After I go there for one service and two services, I say to myself, “I love this, but I don’t want a steady diet of this.” Okay? That’s me. It’s not anything wrong with… it’s just me. Bob Hillock doesn’t want to be… I was a choir boy for a whole year. I wore a high starched collar and I had 88 buttons on my… I came in to the choir new, so I got one of the old robes. I had to do up all those buttons. The other choir boys who were newer, they got a zipper. Okay? And they said, “Come on, Bob, hurry up and let’s get going.” Okay? I was a number 22, 23, 24. And I went there and I really enjoyed it for a whole year. And then I quit and I went back to the United Church. The United Church pastors in Canada tell us, “Look, when we get to heaven, we’re all going to be united.”

And I say, sick joke. But there’s something right about denominations and there’s something right about all the different churches. We wouldn’t want to all worship in one big church. Come all get in. So it’s right that we would have different places of worship. But that’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about the itty-bitty little things we fight over. And that we bring down and bring down to the level of the world the kingdom of God by fighting over insignificant things. Or things that are not as important in the kingdom as what we like to make them. Okay? I mean, can you imagine great long debates going on in church groups and amongst people fighting over tongues? Okay? While the church is fighting over tongues, the world goes to hell. Right? And they say, “I don’t know what they’re talking about up there. Everything is in tongues, I hear, up there because they’re fighting and I don’t know what they’re talking about. It’s all gibberish to me.” Okay? That’s what the world says. But Christians are all excited about whether you get it. When you get filled with the Holy Spirit or when you get tongues after the Holy Spirit or when you get them at all. Okay?

Now you expect me to come up with a position, don’t you? I’m a CFO speaker. I’m not going to tell you what I think is the right position. What I am going to tell you is that everybody in this place and everybody in this country needs to be baptized in the Holy Spirit because the Bible said so. Okay? If you get the gift of tongues when you get baptized with the Holy Spirit, use it to praise the Lord. Okay? If you don’t happen to get the gift of tongues but you know you’re filled and baptized with the Holy Spirit, you praise the Lord too. Okay? And then you wrap your arms around the other person and tell them you love them. Right? And get on with the ministry of reconciliation, which is what we’re here for. Not to try to figure out all the theological little beliefs and get them all down straight and fight over them. Isn’t Satan sneaky? Anything he can do to slow down the ministry of reconciliation, he’ll do it. He’ll use all the right tools. He knows he can’t get us fighting over whether we ought to…

Yeah, he’s even got churches fighting over that now. I can’t believe it. He’s been able to convince some churches to get so worldly that you might as well go and join the Quarrens. There’s no more to it than that. Okay? But the church should not be fighting over things like pornography and whether we should allow it or not. Or whether we should have it in our homes or in the rack at the back of the church. Okay? That’d be a silly thing. We’d fight over whether we ought to bring Playboy into the Sunday school. Right? No. But we’ll spend a long time fighting over whether we’re post-millennialist or pre-millennialist. Okay? Oh, we’ll spend a long time. And we won’t fellowship with those people over there because they believe that Jesus is coming back before the millennium. So we can’t go and fellowship over there. We can’t go and fellowship with that group over there because they believe that God is healing people today and we don’t believe that so we won’t go in there. Whew! Isn’t that something? Hey? But I’ll tell you what, when one of those folk over in that church get really deathly sick.

And they turn on their TV and Jimmy Swaggart says, “God is in the healing business.” They turn up the TV. They won’t go down to that church where it’s happening down there because they might get labeled as being one of those folks, but they’ll sit at home and turn the TV. It’s wacky. And what’s happening is that anything Satan can do to divide us and keep us divided and stop us from winning the world to God, that’s all he cares. That’s all he cares. And anything he can do in your family and in my family to get us from talking about issues and dealing with one another so that we can come closer and closer and closer together, he’ll do it. Okay, let’s bring it down to a family level. Let’s bring it down to where you and I live. Let’s bring it down to a husband and wife situation. Are there some things that you don’t agree with your husband or wife? Are there some things that you don’t agree with so much that you’ve just shelved them? Okay. You say, “Well, we’re not going to talk about that anymore. Every time it comes up, we fight.” So we just park it. Okay? Does it make a difference in your relationship? Is it today like it was five years ago, ten years ago? Is it better? Is it worse?

If your relationship with your husband or wife is not better today, could it be because you’re not working on it? Could it be because you’re not praying about it like you did five or ten years ago? Could it be because you don’t have the faith that God could make it beautiful and better than it ever was? Okay? That’s what I’m talking about. Anything Satan can do to sidetrack us off on issues and get us so busy. One of my best friends in Alberta, a young man who I knelt at the altar with when he was 17 and prayed and asked… and prayed for him while he asked Christ into his heart, went into the ministry and ended up living 50 miles from where we were in Alberta and pastored there for 11 years.

He and his wife went in there with great expectations. “Praise God. We’re gonna win this town for the Lord.” She said, “I’ll get a job because we just don’t have enough money. They can’t afford to pay us enough money. I’ll get a job and I’ll go and nurse that night, two or three or four nights a week. And I’ll help supplement the wages while you get out there and you get working with the folks.” Okay? And of course, in that particular denomination, he was still thinking that if the church was to grow, he was gonna do it. You know? That’s what they were pretty much taught in that denomination.

So, time went on and the kids came along and the church didn’t grow and the church didn’t grow and he got more and more discouraged and more and more depressed and the thing went downhill a little bit farther. And she was getting sick of working and they stopped talking to each other and they stopped praying together. And all of a sudden, one day, he threw up his hands and he said, “I’m getting out of the ministry. I can’t take it anymore.” We went off down and bought a little business and a couple of years later went broke. And then we discovered that while this breaking down and worrying down was happening, he was falling in love with, quote, unquote, falling in love with, what a sad statement when it’s wrongly used, allowing himself to get involved with one of his wife’s best friends who happened to be the Sunday School superintendent. Okay? And you know, you’ve seen that kind of thing happen before. Why does that happen?

It happens because we don’t deal with the issues that are wrong in our lives when they’re wrong and when they’re clear and when they’re right there in front of us. We don’t deal with them. We don’t believe that God is still in the business of doing signs and miracles and that kind of thing in our life. We grow cold and we say, “Maybe tomorrow I’ll deal with a thing.”

What about it in our lives tonight? Are there areas in our life that we have been just lacking in faith and lacking in obedience and not working with and not dealing with? We’ve got to take an honest look. We’ve got to get that spiritual mirror up in front and say, “Jesus, I want to be growing. I’m going to check myself out. Lord, I’m an inch taller than last year. Thank You, Lord. I’m growing. I’m going someplace with You, Lord. Last year I had trouble loving that other guy. Last year I had trouble talking to my dad. Last year I had trouble being obedient to my mom. But this year I’ve got that part licked. Now what’s next, Lord?”

Or instead, do you find yourself saying, “Oh man, I didn’t work on that thing. Jesus told me about it. I shelved it. Look at it now. It’s worse.” Or maybe it’s an area of faith when it comes to healing. “I prayed about it once. Nothing happened.” Got mad at God. “Guess He doesn’t want to touch me. Guess He doesn’t want to do anything in my life. I won’t ask Him again.”

What about it? What’s happening in there in your walk with Jesus? I’m going to put aside until tomorrow morning, I’m going to talk a little bit more about this area of gifts and signs and wonders. Because it’s an area that I really want to touch on. I think we really need to deal with it. But you know, folks, we can get so sidetracked into some of those areas of events and things in our lives. And we can begin to feel so lifted up and religious. Or not lifted up, but religious. Because we’ve got this gift or that gift. Or because this is happening or that’s happening. So we can get sidetracked from the real issue. And the real issue is, how is my relationship with Jesus doing? How am I really doing? “Jesus, do I enjoy You as much today as I did yesterday? Last year. Do I enjoy my times with You today?

“Like I once did. And if I didn’t, Jesus, I want to get on my knees with You. I want to talk to You. I want to fall back in love with You.” I want to go back to my wife or my husband. I want to say, “Honey, it’s time you and I got down on our knees together and we talked.

“And we got the thing cleared up. And got on moving. Listen, you know, I love you, honey, but this one area has kind of stilted our relationship. So let’s get on with it.” Praise the Lord. Okay? I think one of the most beautiful things about CFO is that every time I come, I get reminded to get on with my Christian life. I get revived. Okay? There’s nothing wrong with that. Do you know how many times Jesus got revived?

I would read my Bible and say, “Why did He leave them?” He just gets up and going there and He gets a healing service going and people are rejoicing and He gets in a boat and goes across the water. Why, if He’d stayed there, He could have had another 5,000 fed. Right? Moved them out and moved in another five. Why, He just could have kept on going and had a revival service and would have lasted six months right there. Why did He leave? He left because He needed reviving. He left because He needed to get away.

Jesus was truly human when He was here on earth, just like you and I. Truly human. He needed a personal CFO experience. And so He took two or three of His disciples and up on the mountain they went to pray. Okay? And you and I think we can go 360 days of the year just to sail along. Taking on the world, knocking it here and there and everywhere, loving the world, just giving ourselves out and giving ourselves out. And we can wait all the way until next year to have a CFO meeting again. What a bunch of belongs. And we wonder why about October we begin to get down on our, you know, feel like our feet are worn down to our ankles. Hey? Remember I told you I love those CFO counseling meetings? Because we had CFO once a month. And you need to have CFOs. You need to have those times with God where you’re getting revived. And if you’re here tonight and you’re saying, “Bob, if there’s anything I need, it’s to get going on a personal revival. That’s what I need. Some things need stirring up and moving ahead.” Then let’s talk about it. Let’s pray about it. If you want to come down here and do it, wonderful. Praise God.

If there’s something you should have been praying about for six months and tonight you say, “Look, you’ve inspired me. I’m getting on my feet. We’re going to get praying about that thing.” Then come on down and pray about it. Or wait until tomorrow until you’re praying. Whatever you want to do. Okay? Whatever God is telling you to do. But I want to encourage you. Don’t stay where you are in the situation in which you’re in unless God says you’re right on track. Okay? Amen. Let’s pray. Father, we thank You that tonight You have been so faithful to us once again, in sharing truth from Your word. Father, I am so quick to recognize tonight that if anything is ever to be accomplished in my heart or any heart that is here tonight, it is only because the Holy Spirit has taken truth from Your word and applied it.

That it will have been that I can do nothing and none of us can really do anything to make anybody grow. But Father, You put that desire in our hearts and then You give us the truth and then You shower us with Your love and Your encouragement and You gently lead us forward.

And so, Father, I pray that if there is anyone tonight who says, “Bob, tonight is when I want to pray about this thing,” I pray that You just give them the courage to get on with it. Thank You tonight again, Father, for Your wonderful faithfulness.

In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen. Amen.