We're asking you to speak to us on the subject of Christ, speaking to him as a witness. He's a second year medical student at the University of Kansas. His name is John Foreman. I would like to thank the congregations for their vision they have of this program. You may not see some of the blessings that we see, but we do have blessings. I would like to share some of these visions. One area that I would like to share that I have learned through this program is an area of wisdom. I have developed some attitudes in the last few years that I would like to tell you about, some attitudes that I have always. I know that I, I knew that I had Jesus Christ in my heart, and I would see fellow Christians who were dynamic in their witness to other people. And this wasn't evident in my life, and I wondered, and I asked my questions, and I felt the truth of the Lord. This attitude of not being able to communicate people's crimes with others, as other Christians around me did, was a great burden on my heart. And also, in medical school, I came into contact with several fellows who I heard him talking one day about how they were turned off by certain Christians who tried to invade their own spots. I didn't want anybody to be turned off. their relationship with Christ. So it was out of many of the attitudes that I developed that I wanted to share my experience with Jesus Christ. And by making this program, I've learned to dodge the work that is going on. This is a chance that I'm very happy to be a part of this program, and it's how this works. And therefore, it's bringing together tribes. Our first nine members have been out for years, and it's great to be able to be a part of this program. And I just had a great insight into our community, and that's why we're so excited to be working with you. Another thing is that we're in the service of other people. I didn't have a, you know, complacent, I think, in my own life to have these experiences, and I didn't have a desire to want other people to have them, too. This last week, I think it came from an experiment in myself. I came in contact with a man who had a mental disorder called mental health, who was in a very low condition, and... Just the idea, the thought, that we knew that Jesus Christ could convert, could just change this man's life completely and make him a great power for him. Had a great influence on us in letting us have a desire to have this person to be as we are in Jesus Christ. I've also learned a method of witnessing through this program. Often times in med school, I lived in a dorm last year, And several of us would get together for the full sessions and we would talk about certain things and religious things came up. They would ask me about my faith in Jesus Christ and I would explain to them how they would they would get into arguments with me and we would argue things about the validity of the Bible and really what God really was. And they weren't on the same basis as I was. And I learned through this program that you can't bring a person to his need for God, that this person has to be convicted of God for his own need for God. So I've learned and I plan on this year getting these guys into a Bible study, challenging them. They condemn this word that I call the Word of God without even studying it or without even having read very much of it. Well, I'm going to challenge them to get into the Word and to study it. And I know that God will work in our ministry this year. Still, this idea of going out and knocking on doors and things really make me still kind of scared. And I claim the promise in Acts 1-8 that the Great Commission, which He shall receive power, that ye shall receive power with the Holy Ghost, and ye shall have witnesses unto me in Jerusalem, and in Judea, and in Samaria, and under the outermost part of the earth." God really does give power to those who witness for Him. And I know that God works in this way because I've seen Him do it. Thank you very much, John. I happen to know John's thinking in terms of specific individuals back in Kansas City. I don't think they know it yet, but I think they're going to find out about it. One of our objectives here, we've been living together for three weeks, we have one more week to go, and one of our objectives here, again, in letting you in on some of these things, is that you as a congregation would continue to pray for these men as they go out from here. They're going out into the world, they're going out into life, Most of them will be going back to campuses, but they need your prayers and follow through. And this is not just for amazement, this is for education. And as you learn these facts, please keep praying for the men who are sharing them with you. I wish you could hear from all of them, but we've only been able to select a few. We'll be hearing from some others this evening. And the next one that I want to ask to share with you is a second year, also a second year man, he's in a little different school. He's in the second year at the seminary back in Pittsburgh and he's going to be speaking to us about fellowship and about some of the things Christ has been teaching him here on that subject. Mr. Lee Bittner. Lee? Those of you who were here the other evening will see a little bit of a different side of Lee this evening. He was emcee of the talent night last night, and this morning is a little different. Thank you, Roy, very much. When you think of the term fellowship, I think many things probably come to your mind. Church dinners, a church worship service, Just about anything that has the connotation of Christians getting together is fellowship. The definition of fellowship, though, from scripture is extremely difficult, at times, to pinpoint. But oftentimes, it's extremely specific. For instance, we have in Acts 2 the description of the apostles. That is, I should say, the church at Jerusalem continuing in the apostles' teaching, continuing in prayer. continuing in breaking of bread and continuing in fellowship. We find in Galatians 6.2 where Paul says, carry ye one another's load, bury one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. At this training program, I really was impressed with the direct relationship between the training of men and fellowship. For example, one of the features of the training program was that the checkout leaders, that would be namely Roy or Ray Joseph or Barney or Larry, one of the team captains, would call us off the job and simply ask us about what we were getting out of the work, what God was speaking to us from the book of Joshua. And one of the interesting things in fellowship is when you begin to see God speaking to you about the relationship between your attitude and the shoveling of dirt, or your attitude and the planting of ivy, or your attitude and the sweeping of the floors, you begin to have an open fellowship with God. You let God speak to you on these attitudes. And then you have this before you, as God is saying to me this about my attitude, or about myself. And then you relate this to another individual. How can you do this? How can you be so open about your faults with another? We also have what we call man-to-man time for a half an hour in the evening. This is generally aimed at getting to know the other Christians that are here better in the Lord. To know about their relationship with Jesus Christ. Well, you say this is structured. You know, you have to do this. And fellowship is extremely hard to structure. But I found, interestingly enough, that while I was on the job, and many times while I'd be working beside another man, he'd say, well, how's God been dealing with you and through the book of John? putting on your heart? What has he been saying to you? And many interesting conversations about another man's vision of how he can be better used of the Lord have been executed over a dirt pile, for example. But I think in terms of fellowship, though, in an example, my mind immediately runs to the relationship between David and Jonathan. They were able, it seems, to love one another without attempting to push the other one into his own mold. But rather the goal was to push the other one into the mold of Jesus Christ. 1 Samuel 20.17 says, Jonathan also took an oath, up fresh from David, because of his love for him. For he loved him as himself. This is the kind of groundwork, the kind of fertile soil that establishes that kind of fellowship. Now let me be more specific about some of the principles of fellowship that we've experienced here. We came up with a term called abrasive fellowship. This involves just and simply sharpening one another in little things. For example, dinner etiquette at the table. Let me give you an illustration about something that happened to me that I think was most significant. One of my teammates came over to me and he said, you know, Lee, he said, I think you might shave just a little closer in certain areas. Well, this was interesting because here he was telling me about my own personal appearance and that this might be a cause to offense to someone else. And my mind immediately ran to Proverbs 27, 17. You all know it, and I think it really speaks to this point of abrasive fellowship. Iron sharpens iron. And the Berkeley then says, so does one man sharpen the face. This was one of the real beauties of fellowship, sharpening one another in the Lord. An application came to me from Joshua just briefly about fellowship. It was in the eighth chapter. And this is where the king of Ai saw the Israelites coming and, well, it's the same thing. Here they come again. He didn't realize that Joshua was coming in to hit him from the rear. And so he looked at them and said, all right, men, let's gather together. Go out and get them. And he led them right into an ambush. I got to thinking about my relationship with the men downstairs. One of the real beauties of our relationship has been one of a lot of humor and a lot of kidding and good fun. But I got to thinking about the second week that I was beginning, I think, to get a little bit bogged down in my relationship with many of the men because I was taking too much of the kidding. I was giving too much of the kidding. And I found that I really wasn't getting to know some of the men in Christ. What Christ had done for them, what he meant to them, I applaud this verse, the 14th verse, where it says that the king of Ai led his men out into an ambush. Because there can be a point where kidding can draw men into an ambush, particularly a sarcastic kind of kidding. If you want something that'll cut off fellowship with other men quickly, just begin to get sarcastic with them, and it cuts it quickly. And so Satan can use humor sometimes. to draw men into an ambush and he'll knock them off. And so God led me to make an application then of each day talking to another man on the training program specifically about Jesus Christ. Not doing away with the human, we haven't done away with that. But of getting to know that man in Jesus Christ. Let me just finally summarize. the theme that I've been trying to illustrate, that of training men and fellowship. Jesus trained 12 men, but it's interesting that he also had fellowship with 12 men. And I think in John 15, 15, we have perhaps a summation of this. He says, I no longer call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is working out. But I have called you friends, because I have acquainted you with everything I heard from my father. Dr. Blackwood was my boss. He was my commander. But I know that he didn't look upon me as a servant. He looked upon me as a friend. And the key to fellowship is this kind of openness that Jesus had with his men. Everything that I have learned from my father Everything that experience has taught me, everything that the Word has taught me, I commit to you. This is fellowship. And I thank God this morning. And I thank you as a congregation for allowing me and the others to experience this kind of relationship between the training of man and the kind of fellowship in Jesus Christ that sharpens one another. Thank you very much, Lee. I think I've seen pastors, ministers, who kept widening the gap between the poet and the pew as the years went by, for one reason or another. But I don't think Lee will. And Lee, this is one thing I'm going to ask the congregation to keep praying for you on. That this abrasive fellowship between yourself and whatever souls God sends you into contact with, will be close and rich. The next man that I'd like to ask to speak here on the subject of vision is a man for whom we've had some prayer before. He was here with us last year. And yet he goes back to the University of Evansville this next year as a senior. And he'll be president of the InterVarsity Christian Fellowship Group there. A man particularly responsible for the Christian testimony on that campus. And without saying anything more, Barney Ford. Barney, we're glad to have you back, and please give us some things to pray about, too, for you. Thank you very much, Dr. Butler. As Lee sat down, I couldn't help but, when the Arbor and Whisper came, I said, pray for me, because my verse is John 15, 16. And we had not prepared together. And it has been particularly interesting to me to see God speaking to my fellow trainees as well as to Dr. Blackwood in the scriptures. And this has really touched me, the way that he's gotten us together. When you're asked to speak about vision for the campus of the University of Evansville, it's a difficult thing to do over a dirt pile. when you know that the man next to you is going back to Pennsylvania, or into the Air Force, or into the Army, or to Purdue. And you know that men who are in contact and touch with Jesus Christ are going to be all over the United States talking to other men about Jesus Christ. And it's hard for me to focus down on my campus, the University of Evansville, and say, what does God want me to do there? But I think vision, I used to think that vision was what we saw way off in the future, what we dreamed of. But I think vision for me is men. And there are two people going back to Evansville with me this fall. Chet Hollers and Connie Alexander, they're trainees here in the program. And John 15 and 16 says, you have not chosen me, but I have chosen you. I have appointed you. I have planted you. that you might go and bear fruit and keep on bearing, that your fruit may be lasting, that it may remain. So whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. So my vision is not a campus or an area, a geographic location, but it's men, men for Jesus Christ. My vision is to work with Chip and with Common to see other men come to know Jesus Christ in my location, my Jerusalem. To see these men not only come to know Jesus Christ, but to come and grow and walk in Jesus Christ. To that point where they may be able to lead other men to come to know Jesus Christ and train them up so that they will in turn be able to go out. This is an old verse, 2 Timothy 2.2. I'm sure you're all familiar with it. The principle that One man leads another and trains him so that he can lead another to lead another to lead another. But it's a hard thing because we think of it in terms of men, faithful men. We have labels we put on people. But my mind is going to specific individuals at Evansville who I desire to see grow in Jesus Christ. And I think my vision for that campus, in a short range, is to see these men come to grow in Him and come to know Him, the ones that do not. The long-range vision is not to win the entire campus for Jesus Christ, but to maintain a strong witness for Jesus Christ on that campus, and to pull men and women off the University of Evansville campus, to put them in this training program or other training programs like this one, that they can go back to their campus, and then when they graduate, go out into the world and continue to be ministers for Jesus Christ. not necessarily full-time people, but chemical engineers, accounting majors, teachers, and so forth, that these men and these women can go on for Jesus Christ. So it's very difficult for me to keep my vision centered on a campus, at the University of Evansville, because I know the people that we come in contact with, that God brings to us, and that he takes us to them, If these people are going to go out and go on, just like the men and women in this training program are going to go out and go on. So my vision is short range in terms of the men and women there, but long range in terms of what God's going to do through their lives in the future. I really appreciated the fellowship and the prayers of this congregation in the last fall. As a matter of fact, I appreciated it so much that I came back here for a month in December for my Christmas vacation and got together with Dr. Blackwood and some of the men in the congregation to again come into that kind of fellowship and that kind of growth situation that I could go back to my campus and try to follow the commands that my Lord was giving me in a more specific way. Again, I request your prayers very strongly. The amount of the adult world that recognizes the vision The goal on the college campus is minute. People just don't know how to pray for college students, but you do, because you have a vision. And the vision that I have for the campus, God gave me through you. So I would ask you to pray for Connie, for Jeff, for myself, that we can go back to that campus and glorify Jesus Christ. Barney, stand up a minute, and Chet, and Connie, where are you? Stand up a minute, please. These are the three men, excuse me, the two men in the middle. We'll be going back down. All right, be seated. And here again, this is your challenge, to be praying for these three as they go back to the University of Evansville. Now, they aren't the only Christians there. Of course, there are many others. But that God would use them, in the training of the others, in helping these others to grow in the Christian life, that it would be a strong Christian witness on that campus this year. And we're going to be expecting that God will use you, and that many souls will come to know Christ there this winter. And we want to hear from you too, about what's going on down there from time to time. If you can come back up at Christmas time again, do it. I'd be happy to see you. And the same thing goes for you men, and we very much want to hear from you as trainees wherever God's sending you this next year. There'll be others of you who'll be in seminary, and there will be others of you who will be in other schools. Steve will be in the Air Force, Bob will be in the Army, and others going different places. But let us hear from you about how God's using you. We haven't finished, we'll be telling you this again, but I wanted to give you this information in front of the congregation too. Let us worship God now with the morning tithes. First Thessalonians, chapter 4. Last week we were thinking together about the first few verses there, down to verse 9. Verse 4 perhaps summarized many of the things that we read in that section there, that every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honor and not in the lust of concupiscence even as the Gentiles which know not God. And he was speaking about morality there, and morality in the heathen world was morality in the New Testament world insofar as unbelievers were concerned. was a good parallel to the so-called new morality that we have today. In other words, Christ is teaching us in this chapter three things. In the section that we covered first, the first nine verses there, he was speaking to us about the necessity for purity of life. He pulled no punches insofar as referring this directly to sexual purity in a world of immorality. And the world of that day, and we went back into some of the practices you remember at that time, is very similar to what the university student and to what any person for that matter faces in the world around us today. There's nothing new about the old morality. There's nothing new about the morality. It's the old morality just brought up to date. The old immorality, I should say. The second thing that Christ is teaching us about here in verses 9 through 12, has to do with the necessity for work. The third thing that Christ is teaching us here in verses 13 through 18 has to do with the necessity for the return of Jesus Christ. The necessity for purity of life, the necessity for work, and the necessity for the return of Christ. These are the three things that are being dealt with in this chapter. All we're taking up this morning is the necessity for work. We'll read, therefore, beginning in verse 9. But as touching brotherly love, ye need not that I write unto you, for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another. For indeed, ye do it toward all the brethren, which are in all Macedonia. But we beseech you, brethren, that ye increase more and more, and that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commended you. That ye may work honestly, walk honestly, for them which are without, and that ye may have lack of nothing." And then from there on he goes on to speak about them which are asleep in the resurrection, the return of Christ. But the necessity for work and the ministry of work as it comes into the Christian life, and I want to take it up in terms of the text to begin with. Beginning in verse 9 there, and we'll tear apart some of the Greek words as we go along. on the subject of brotherly love. And the word here for brotherly love is Philadelphias, and this is the word from which we get our word Philadelphia, of course, which we always translate the city of brotherly love. But it's not quite right insofar as the Greek's concerned, because it means it's not brotherly love, but it's love of the brethren. And this has to do with the love of Christians. The love that one Christian has for another Christian, Lee was talking about that here this morning. As Jesus Christ allows one person to enter your heart or you to enter the heart of another person, there's a love relationship that's built up there. On the subject of phileo kind of love, phileo is the word Philadelphia, phileo. This is the phileo kind of love though. There are two Greek words for love. at least two that we're concerned with in scripture. One's phileo and the other's agape. And he says on the subject of this phileo kind of love for the brethren, which has been the subject up to this point, a phileo kind of love, which has to do with the purity of life that we live, that we would not take advantage of another person, that we would not kill another person, morally speaking, committing adultery, taking advantage of them. on the subject of this phileo love, you do not need me to write anything more to you. Because you yourselves, that is without any intervention on our part, without anything having to do with us, because you yourselves are taught of God to love one another. This is the way the verse reads there. But there are two different Greek words that are used for love. The first one is phileo, this emotional love, the kind Peter insisted that he had, and of course we have his whole life to back it. Jesus said, do you love me? And Peter said, well you know me, and I love you with this other kind of love. It blows hot and cold. Sometimes I can be pretty hot, and sometimes you know me pretty well, I can be pretty cold. It's a pretty emotional kind of thing. And Jesus said to him again, well, do you agape me with this love of real discernment and understanding and wisdom and stability? And Peter said, well, you know that I have this other kind of love. And so here he's saying to him, well, you don't even need us to write to you about the phileo kind of love because God himself has taught you to love with an agape kind of love. This is a kind of love that Christ teaches. This is the word that's used to describe the love that Christ had when he left heaven and died on the cross. Self-sacrificing kind of love. There's a lot of difference between it and this emotional thing, the low-water cold. The emotional thing is involved in the agape love, but the agape love means self-sacrificing. And he says here, you're taught of God to love in the agape way. And therefore, I really don't need to talk to you very much about this other kind of phileo love. I don't need to dwell in detail on phileo love because you've been taught by the Lord Himself to love one another with an agape kind of love. Verse 10. For indeed, ye do it toward all the brethren which are in Macedonia. That is, you've not only been taught this kind of love, you practice this kind of love, you do it. You do love? How can you do love? You do it to all the Christians with whom you can come into contact all over Macedonia. It's as though they were out looking for people to whom they could do this kind of love, to whom they could live this kind of love. There were other Christians in Macedonia There was the church at Philippi, that's where Paul first landed when he came over into Macedonia, and that was an important place to remember. And then there were those in Thessalonica, to whom he's writing here. And then there were those in Berea, and perhaps there were those in Apollonia and other places throughout Macedonia. By this time probably the Christian message had gone throughout that area and he's saying here, well you people there in Thessalonica are doing this kind of love. Every place that you're looking for others that you can find, every place you can find them, you're doing this kind of love. But, verse 10, we beseech you brethren that you increase more and more. In the first verse he closes by saying Now over here in verse 10, he says, I want you to increase more and more. In other words, throughout the whole chapter here, he's saying this deals with your continuing to grow in the Christian life. No matter how far you go, you can go further. You can still continue to grow in all these areas of life. We may arrive at a cessation point as far as our physical growth is concerned and our mental growth, but spiritually speaking, so long as we live, we can keep on growing. In verse 11, and that she studied to be quiet. Now this is a very interesting word here and I'm intensely interested in it and let me commend it to you for more study because I couldn't do in it what I wanted to do this week. The word is ambitious, actually, and some of the translations have it, the Berkeley has that word, that she studied to be ambition, ambitious, or that she This Greek word for ambition had quite a history and it's in this area that I'd really like to suggest that you study it some more. It originally meant the pursuit of honor or the love of distinction. Now you can see how it would easily pass over into the wrong idea. If a man pursued honor and loved ambition of the wrong kind, it could come to the place where he'd become pretty obnoxious. But on the other hand, to pursue honor, in the right sense of the word, would not be bad, but would be good. And so he's saying here, and study, make the effort. Make the effort. Phillips says it this way, make it your ambition to lead a quiet life. Well, there's this thought to it, and we'll see why in the historical context in a moment. But that's not quite all there is to the thought of it. Phillips hasn't caught all of it. Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life. Study, make the effort to have the right kind of ambition. Do some thinking about the right kind of ambition. And then going on rapidly, and to do your own business. Now that, of course, breaks down into this line phrase, mind your own business. Sometimes we use it in the wrong way. We sort of throw it at people instead of instructing with it. But it has overtones of both things in it. Mind your own business. And to work with your own hands is the very next phrase. And when these two phrases are taken together, mind your own business and work with your own hands, it has within it the idea of creative activity. the right kind of godly ambition will involve a pride in your profession. And this is an exact opposite, is the exact opposite of the human robot, the assembly line existence, which disparages personality and causes, actually it removes the meaning from life. It leaves a man without too much purpose. He just puts on another nut as it comes past him there on the assembly line. And that's the object of William James, the great psychologist, a man who wrote Varieties of Religious Experience. I don't know whether James himself was a Christian or not. He came so close to it. But whether he was or not, I don't know. William James said this, The great use of life is to spend it for something which will outlast it. I like that. The great use of life is to spend it for something which will outlast it. A very prominent sociologist, a man who lives here in Indiana, incidentally, said this, the man who is not enthralled in his work labors only for the money, and then he must use a considerable portion of his money to secure the thrill which the work does not give. Thomas Edison, by way of contrast with this idea, and not the idea, but by way of contrast with the man who had to work that way, described his work, Edison described his work in developing inventions with three little words at the end of his life. They said to him, well what did you think of where he said, it was fun. It was fun. The man who works with his hands in minding his own business. Last Friday evening there was a girl here at the student meeting who apparently had had everything. As far as her life through high school and on into college was concerned and then beyond that she'd become a hostess in one of the leading airlines and she was flying all over the world. And yet she said, I went into this because I had a desire to give myself to people and to serve people. But I really don't find any accomplishment in life. And so she resigned. And now she's looking to see what she could find for life. And the key lies in finding a relationship between profession and profession of faith. So that my own business, the work with my own hands, is directly related to God's given purpose for my whole life. Ambition. God's purpose for my life. Which in turn is related to this agape kind of love which God has given me for others. Then my profession, my profession of faith are one. There's no distinction, there's no conflict. What I do in order to earn money as my service to man, I'm doing, ultimately, as my service to God. No matter what it is that I'm doing. Serving the tables, or on the dirt pile, or sweeping the dishes, or whatever it is. It says nothing more. Then in verse 12, going right on into that. I will be walking honestly. The word honestly again doesn't quite get the meaning out of it. It's decorously. In such a way that it will be attractive to the unbeliever who looks on. And he's impressed with the efficiency and the rightness of the way this thing is done. And he wants to know why in the world are you so careful here? This ministry with your hands and little things. The attention to detail. Why? I don't understand this. Other people become bored or careless. Why is it that you work as you do with your hands? Why is it that you have such a conscientious interest in your own business? Well, it's not just for me, nor is it just for the people who I'm serving. But it's as to the glory of the Lord and that we walk decorously insofar as those who are without are concerned. And then too, I will have lack of nothing. This then is God's poverty program. Then I will have lack of nothing. A man would have a lack of nothing if he studied, made an earnest endeavor to have the right kind of ambition to excel in his profession, to be minding his own business, working with his own hands, caught up in God's purposes insofar as his profession and his carrying out of his profession was concerned. And when Christians are doing that, then they will stop offending those who are without, and they will begin attracting those who are without, and they will have lack of nothing. Apparently, this was the problem insofar as the early Christian community there in Thessalonica was concerned. It's more vividly described in the second letter to the Thessalonians, the second chapter in verse 10, wherein the writer describes those which walk among you disorderly, working not at all, but are busybodies. Those who walk among you working not at all, but as busybodies, teaching, teaching, talking. Apparently they were men of great wealth who had given, there were men of great wealth in that time, who had given in such a way that others didn't need to work. And so relieved of work, relieved of responsibilities, There were those who ran around preaching fanatical doctrines, fantastic doctrines, exciting feverish protest marches, and generally disturbing others. And among the fanatical doctrines, or the fantastic ones, was the idea that the world was coming to an end immediately. This idea was very prominent around the year 1000. At the year 1000, was supposed to begin the sabbatical year period of 1,000 years. In the year 1,000, it was almost universally accepted, as far as the Christian community was concerned, that there had been 5,000 years from Adam to Christ. And then from the Nativity on through to the year 1,000, there was another 1,000, that was 6. But then would begin the year 7, 7,000, the beginning of the 7,000. Well, you know what I'm saying. And again, in the 14th century, they had the same idea. The famines and the plagues and the flagellantes were sure that the end was in sight, that it wouldn't be very long until the end of the world. In Cyprus, they showed us the hillside whereon the citizens of the island had gone out and sat down a week ahead of the end of the world. But they'd given away their possessions. Why keep their possessions? And their land became worth less and less, and their gold and silver became worth less and less. As the day came closer, the less it was worth. And so they gave them away and sat down on the hillside. Hundreds and hundreds of them there inside, waiting for the end of the world. The day came and went, and it didn't come. Meanwhile, many other men had picked up a lot of property at a very cheap rate. but these people were out of all kinds of work. This same thing I would look to be true in the year 2000. As a student of history, you can find these year markers bringing up all kinds of rumors on this subject. I've seen that over and over again, especially in the history of Christian theology. There will be some who will stop their working, working with their hands, having the right kind of pride in their occupation, simply because they do not see the relationship between the ministry of labor and their love for Jesus Christ and their service to Him. If my labor is part of my service to Christ, then why stop it just because He's returning? Nay, this is more of a reason for going on. The labor, the principle of the ministry of labor, the ministry of labor, which Christ is teaching here. Principal Rainey, the old principal of New College in Edinburgh, used to say this, quote, today I must lecture, tomorrow I must attend a committee meeting, on Sunday I must preach, someday I must die. Well then, let us do as well as we can each thing as it comes to us. Each one of the things that we do, we see as being under the Lord. And if we can't see a relationship between the thing that we're doing and our relationship to the Lord, then there's something wrong with the thing or else with us. The thought that Christ will come is not the thing that stops work for the person who loves him. It's the person who spurs that work on. We see it as part of the ministry to him. And all that we do is to the glory of the Lord. It's the ministry of the little things, the ministry of work. There are three applications in closing that I want to suggest to you here. The first is the one we've been talking about. Christ teaching the ministry of little things, the ministry of labor, the ministry of creative activity. Seeing a relationship between the work which is at hand to do, the labor that he's given me to do, and my love for Christ and my service to him. One of the businessmen came in the other day and showed us out of the templates in his engraving business about how there was a relationship between his profession, his profession of faith, the different colors that were brought out in the templates. Another man spoke about the relationship between insurance and his Christian testimony. Dr. Hamburger has shown us again and again is the relationship between his service to Christ and his service to the human body. Paul Kimball and others have talked about their ministry in terms of likeness, their Christian testimony. And there are many others of you men here who have seen a relationship between profession and profession of faith. And your service to man is your service to Christ. These two are not separated. There's no dichotomy here. It requires effort. It requires thought. But if we're seeing these as the ministry of labor, the ministry with our hands, is one of our purposes in asking that we would think about this among the trainees, that no matter how menial the task, we would see a relationship between that and our service to Jesus Christ. Second, Christ explains to us that this is the thing which will keep us from offending the outsider, which will be attractive to him, as He begins saying to us, well, why this attention to detail? Why are you so conscientious here? Is it just your love for men? No, it's something more than that. It's a love for Jesus Christ. And as a matter of fact, it is the love of Jesus Christ showing itself in a practical way through minding our own business with our own hands. The business that He's given to us with our own hands. You see, The unbelieving world very often does not hear the words of the Christian faith, the Christian witness. But the unbelieving world is impressed with lives that are operating, as it were, in the black. A tree is known by its fruits, and a religion is known by the men that it produces. And the Christian faith, therefore, should produce the very best men, the best workmen, the best friends, The best businessmen, the best helpmates, the best mothers, the best housekeepers, the Christian faith issuing and the practical attention to detail should produce the very best. It's not the words, it's the deeds that really count here because it's the deeds that the world sees. And it's all the more important because of that fact. The outside world does not hear the words. it sees the deeds. The third application is simply that the Christian should aim at financial independence, not to be a sponger off charity, which was what the situation was as far as we can see among the Thessalonians. Not making others support them. A businessman here in Indianapolis said to me not long ago that a Christian group had come to him and said, in effect, why, with your money and our brains, we can have a real witness. And sometimes Christians get the impression that because they're Christians, that therefore others have a right to support them, and they have a right to expect it. But I don't find this in here, that you would work with your hands and mind your own business. Carrying out the business. The particular responsibility of the Christian man to have a sense of responsibility here, not to be drawing from the community, but to be putting into the community. On the one hand, and then the other hand, if we dare use that phrase after last night. On the one hand, Christ has described the Christian as a man with a lovely charity, which delights to give. Delights to give, to invest in the lives of others. and on the other hand, a godly independence, which avoids taking so long as he can mind his own business with his own hands and sees a relationship between what he's doing day by day, whether it's in the operating theater or the classroom, or the kitchen, or the office, the home, or society. Whatever's at hand to do, he sees these things as being his ministry to the Lord. There are times when he will verbalize his witness. He'll speak the gospel message to another soul, yes. And I pray we'll never lose that. But there are those many other times when he'll live it. And as men and women see that agape type of love lived in the most practical details of life, then they begin to want to know the Christ who's working through those hands. and who's administering the details of that business, and who has given the godly ambition to excel in that profession, the right kind of pride in them. They want to know that Christ, a living witness of a living Christ in the world today. I'd like to read, just in closing, these same words as we've just thought through them again, beginning in verse 9. but as touching brotherly love, ye need not that I write unto you. For ye yourselves are already taught of God to love one another with an agape kind of love. For indeed, ye do it toward all the brethren which are in all Macedonia. But we beseech you, brethren, that ye increase more and more, and that ye study to be quiet, to have the right kind of ambition, and to do your own business and to work with your own hands as we commanded you, that ye may walk decorously toward them that are without, and that ye may have lack of nothing." Lord, conceal these words and these thoughts to our understanding and grant that when every soul goes out of here, he might know something more of that way in which thou dost choose to use him and his profession. Lord, I don't even know what each person's profession is here. But thou art the one who is the interpreter. Thou art the one who can apply these to every person. Every person who's a student in high school or in college, or every businessman or every woman. Thou art the one who can apply these thoughts to their individual professions. So Lord, do that. in such a way that as they live their lives this week, and for the years ahead, others might see the love of Christ living and working through them, and that others then might want to know that Son of Christ. Now, Lord, any soul here this morning who does not know Thee, grant that they might speak unto Thee that thou wouldst hear them as they would make this prayer. God, I don't know very much about this kind of love that we've been thinking about, but I want to know it. I know there's a difference between your kind of love and the love I've had or known. And I want to know your kind of love. I want to know you. I pray that you'll forgive me for the difference between you and myself. I pray that you would come into my heart now to take away that difference. I want you to be my savior. I want you to live through my life to be Lord of it. I want you to do whatever you will with my whole life, to live your love through it. Lord, hear that prayer for any person who's made it for the first time this morning and bless them as they would share that with someone else before the end of this day. Now again, we thank Thee for the knowledge that Thou hast been with us. In Jesus name we pray.