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Thank you, gentlemen. Ezra chapter
4 this morning, Ezra chapter number 4. Brother Hooks, who preached in
chapel on Monday, I was so glad that he was able to come. His
message on submission, you may sit there and think, well, yeah,
you probably really like that for us students. I want you to
know I was helped by it as well. And he told me before the service,
he said, you know, I was tempted to buy you a girl's bicycle helmet
and present it to you so that you wouldn't hurt your head anymore.
And that's what true friends will do for you right there.
And I'm glad that he didn't do anything. I had another pastor
I just saw this last weekend, and he was prepared to do something
similar, but he said he just didn't know how I felt. So I
was glad that... I assume, though, I'll probably
get some helmets in the future. And so if you see the guy in
the hallway with the helmet, you know who it is. But I appreciate
your prayers. People ask how I'm doing. Probably
the biggest thing that I have right now is no sense of smell
whatsoever. Now, that can be a blessing, but it also is a little bit different.
My wife, the other day, she was cooking something in a crock
pot. My son, Jared, he walked in and he said, man alive, that
smells great. And I said, really? I said, I
don't smell anything. And so I went over to the crockpot,
and I lifted the lid, and I didn't smell anything, but I burned
my face really good. So anyway, I'm going to let my
curiosity wane, and hopefully it'll reoccur. The doctor told
me the next four to six weeks, hopefully some of these things
will return back to normal and sometimes even takes months,
but that's the biggest thing that we deal with now and so
just glad to be able to be back in several hours a day, be able
to mix and mingle with you, teach an evangelist class and get back
to preaching, not just preaching in chapel, but hearing the chapel
messages and they're just a great thing. You don't realize sometimes
what you have until you miss it and I've enjoyed getting back
into the flow of things. Ezra chapter 4 this morning,
a different type of message. One that my goal is, is in your
four years here at Ambassador, you'll at least hear it four
times. It's called building the walls of Ambassador. Now, I want
to emphasize a couple of different things this time around for some
of you that say, well, I've heard this thing twice already and
some way that things are changing in Christian school landscapes
and such. But let me make a couple of disclaimers before I read
our text and we begin. Number one, I know that there
are other schools out there that do things differently than we
do. And by preaching this message, I'm just saying this is what
we are. My goal is not to stack you up against other schools
and say we're number one and they're trash. However, you know,
other schools put their stakes in the ground about such things
as accreditation. And they're given that privilege.
And I think we ought to be given the privilege to explain why
we're not. There are schools that show there are certain distinctives
and such, and there's nothing wrong with that. And that's what
this message mainly does. And like Brother Comfort said,
and I echo his sentiments from years ago, if there was a school-like
ambassador already there, this school would have never been
started. And if there was a school-like ambassador today, I wouldn't
be very interested in just duplicating somebody else's efforts. And
so today I want to explain to you some philosophical things
for you freshmen. Some of this you've heard in
freshman orientation, others of it you haven't. For those
of you that are upperclassmen, listen, I think a message like
this also bears some great importance in teaching you a philosophy.
And I want you to look this way. There's a younger generation
today that does not think twice about going into a ministry and
taking it into an opposite direction than what it was founded upon.
And that's dishonest. That's not just a doctrinal and
philosophical problem, that's a character issue. And it's important
to me, not just for the sake of Brother Comfort starting the
school, but what I believe God founded this place to be, for
it to continue in the way that it has been for the last 26 years. And young people, when you go
into a ministry, listen, if you're different Your philosophy is
different, then don't stay there and try to change it and undermine.
The best thing you can do is go to a place that's like you.
Go to a place that has that same burden. And there's a lot of
that that takes place, and I hope that as you're dreaming now of
what God would have you do in the future, I hope that you will
determine, hey, God calls me to a place, that's a place where
I fit philosophically, and boy, we're going to row in the same
direction. That's the way it needs to be, and I thank God
for our faculty and staff that exhibits that in their lives
and ministries. All right, Ezra chapter 4, verse number 12, different
kind of message this morning. The Bible says, "...be it known
unto the king that the Jews which came up from thee to us are coming
to Jerusalem, building the rebellious and bad city, and have set up
the walls thereof and joined the foundations." All you have
to do is read those words, the rebellious and bad city, and
you know that these people are not friends of the Jews that
are writing. What has happened is the Jews have begun to rebuild
the walls of Jerusalem. The foundations are there, they're
building the walls and they're connecting them together. And
somebody is upset about it and they write the royalty and they
say, listen, if they do this, if they build upon these foundations,
and they build these walls." In the very next verse, verse
13, "...be it known now unto the king that if this city be
built, and the walls be set up again, then they will not pay
toll, tribute, and custom, and so shalt thou endamage the revenue
of the kings." And what they had done is they had just taken
a very pragmatic argument and said, listen, if they rebuild
these walls, if they build these walls upon the foundations, then
they're not going to pay you taxes and you're going to lose
money. They were pulling every card they could to try to persuade
the king for this effort to be squashed. Now, that's the context
of the message. It's the idea of the Jews rebuilding
a wall. Now, I explained that to you,
understanding that the context in which we're talking about
in Israel is not identical to what I'm mentioning today. But
you know as well as I do, for walls to be built, a foundation
has to be laid. And that's what happened in Israel
today. And young people, let me tell you, in the years preceding
1989 and for the first 20 years of Brother Comfort's time at
Ambassador, a foundation was laid at Ambassador. He preached
a message, Foundations of Ambassador, almost every year in which he
would articulate many of the things that I'm going to articulate
to you this morning. And I'll tell you what that message
did. That message cemented some things in my own heart and soul.
And I had no idea until just a couple, two or three years
prior that one day I would be doing what he would do. But you
see, I believe that we're at this stage in the ministry here
at Ambassador. The foundation has been laid.
What is the next thing to do? I'll tell you what it is. It's
to build the walls. I'm not interested in just maintaining something.
There are some people that are just in maintain mode. Listen,
I believe that God wants us to continue to advance here. I believe
that some of the best years of this place, and God is the one
who determines that, but some of the best years of this place
could very well be ahead. But in order to build the walls
of this place, it just doesn't start with me. I want you to
know it continues with you. Every week I hear from our alumni
and they talk about things that they're seeing and trends that
they're seeing, and they talk about the training that they
receive. But now listen, the foundations
are very important. And we're going to explain to
you some of those foundations. The Bible gives us several verses
that tell us about the importance of foundations. Psalm 11, verse
number 3. If the foundations be destroyed,
what can the righteous do? 1 Corinthians 3, 11. For other
foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which is
Jesus Christ. Now, it mentions a foundation,
but we're going to talk about building the walls, and walls
carry great importance. Back in Israel's day, walls were
for the sake of defense and protection. Walls are not a bad thing. They
were also for sake of identification. Somebody from a distance could
look and see the walls of a city and immediately identify which
one that it was. And so before I go through some
of these aspects this morning, I want to just tell you a little
bit about how I even came to play to come as a student and
ambassador. Saved around the age of 12 off
of a bus route at the age of 15. It was in a neighborhood
Bible time rally, and the preacher, a young college student, was
preaching. He said, man, you need to give your life to God.
You need to be willing to do whatever God wants you to do.
And as a public school kid, I waved the white flag that day. I said,
all right, Lord, I have no idea, but whatever you want, that's
what I want. At the age of 17, in a Wednesday morning revival
service, I came forward and surrendered for the ministry. God had been
dealing in my heart. And then all of a sudden, it
was now what? My dad had passed away when I was 15 years old.
I helped my mom financially, and it came to the point where
during my senior year of high school that my pastor brought
me down to a place called Ambassador Baptist College. It was located
at 900 South Post Road, Shelby, North Carolina. Now I believe
the Pinnacle Charter School is there. I remember going there. I'd never met Brother Comfort
before. He was not there when I came for my visit, but I can
still remember sitting in Brother Child's class. I can still remember
sitting in chapel, hearing Dr. King, Dr. Charles King, preach
a message entitled, Saying a Good Word. I'll never forget it. He preached a message about how
that when Saul and Jonathan were killed, he talked about what
David said about Saul. And when many of us would have
said, that sorry backstabbing, javelin-throwing buzzard, David said they were lovely.
I remember walking out of there and I thought, man, this is great. And before we headed out the
driveway, I knew that Ambassador was the place that I needed to
be. However, I didn't realize some of the harder things that
would come after that. Telling your mom who was widowed, who
lived on a social security pension that you're going to college,
and she was totally supportive of it, but I knew what was going
to happen. All of a sudden, her only child being taken away,
it was rough for her, it was rough for me. I remember coming
to school and mom crying as she left, and I'm sitting in a hallway
with a school bill wondering, what in the world is 16 hours
of classes? You know, that first semester,
there was a lot of growing in my life. I'm going to mention
some of it along the way. I'm telling you, I was far from
perfect. By the way, I still am not and won't be until I get
to heaven. But I'll tell you what, I remember
all those things coming into my life. I mean, it was baptism
by fire. I was raised in public school.
It was wonderful to sit in a class and just talk about the Bible
the whole time. That was great. Some of you that were in public
school, you can understand the same thing. But I began to learn
from the very first day that I was a student some of the things
that made this a special place, and I want to reiterate them
to you, and I want you to see that some of these things need
to translate into your local church ministry. Now, I realize
in college and church it's not an identical thing, but I want
to talk to you now about some things that, listen, they're
important, they're what make this school, and when any of
them are stripped away, Ambassador ceases to be what it's supposed
to be. All right, number one is that
it's a school with a single focus, and that's the ministry. A single
focus. You know, through the years,
schools have broadened their curriculums and such for various
reasons. But listen, we do one thing well.
What is that? Teach the Bible and train people
for the ministry. That's what we do well. That's
what we are called to do. Schools experience financial
pressure. We've had financial pressure
for 26 years. And you experience that and you
think, well, if we can just offer more programs, we can get more
people in. But this place has a specific
focus, and that's for the ministry. The Bible says in 1 Timothy 1,
verse 12, Paul said, And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath
enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into
the ministry. Listen, this ought to be a place
where guys in the dorm daydream about pastoring churches. It's
okay. You know, one of the benefits
that I had in the dormitory... Now, I'm a sports fan, and you
know, when I get around Tar Heel fans like Brother Surrett, you
know, we can talk about the different things, and we can enjoy how
well our team is doing, or we can groan together at how poorly
they're doing. But the same camaraderie and
even more so ought to be found among our students in talking
about the ministry. Guys, we're going to be evangelists.
Well, it's okay to talk to other guys about doing the work of
an evangelist. Young ladies, talking about serving
the Lord, having that common bond, that's not in every Christian
college. You know, we want you to think
about the pastorate, evangelism, missions, youth pastorate, whatever
it may be. Whatever God has called you to
do that program, we want you to dream about that. We want
you to talk about that. But now there's a dangerous philosophy
that I think is being taught in a number of places. Now, I'm
not going to be totally exclusive about this. I realize that there
may be people who go into third world countries who need another
trade in order to get into that country to give the gospel. All
right, I'm not going to be unreasonable. But there's a philosophy that
is peddled by many well-meaning people that say, well, if you're
going to go in the ministry, it's good for you to have something
to fall back on. I don't know of another profession
that really promotes that. Do you? You know, if you're going
to be a doctor, but you can't cut it, I'll tell you what, just
take some plumbing classes too. You know, when somebody goes
in to be a lawyer, listen, they go in whole hog. I realize that
once they get through their undergrad, they go at it. But there is nothing
wrong with throwing yourself unreservedly at training for
the ministry. And while the world may rationalize,
listen, I believe in large part, hey, throw yourself into what
God has called you to do and give it 100% and don't look back. And I think sometimes in liberal
arts settings, that's exactly what happens. One of the reasons
Brother Comfort started Ambassadors, he got tired of taking people
on internships who were going to Christian college and they
would go on ministry internships and they would end up an accountant. Some of you say, well, hey, you
know, people like Brother Burris count money. That's a that's
that's a needful thing. You're exactly right. But if
God's called you to preach and don't do anything else. And so
having a focus on the ministry, now there are some of you in
here that are One Year Bible students. You're here for a One Year Bible
program and you say, you know, I have no idea what God wants
me to do. I'm just here. And sometimes I'll hear One Year
Bible students say, you know, I just don't like turning in
an outline. Or, by the way, if you're a One Year Bible student,
you may be teaching Sunday school sometime. It'll help you out
a little bit. But you're here and you're just trying to sort
things out. Listen, you're not a second-rate citizen. I'll tell
you what, you just be willing to do whatever God wants you
to do. And I'm amazed to see the direction that God has given
our one-year Bible students through the years. Somebody's quick to say, well,
not everybody's called to the ministry. I realize that, but
everybody ought to be willing to go. And so a single focus. So I'm
telling you, the day we broaden it, the day we go outside and
say, you know what? We need to delve in other things
besides ministry. Show up on my doorstep and let
me have it. You'll be right behind Brother
Comfort. I told him, I said, you're the chancellor of this
place. I said, you have a right to come to me and express that
opinion and express and tell me that those kind of things.
But we have a single focus, the ministry. Number two, a strong
Bible curriculum. You do a lot of reading, don't
you, in college? I'll make a confession, I was
so burned out on reading, it took me two years to regain my
love for reading casual things. You know, after you've read every
work Dwight Pentecost has made, memorize things to come, You know, by the time you get
finished with that, it's just, I don't care how much you love to read,
it's a little taxing. But a couple of years later,
I regained my love. But I'll tell you one thing that
I'll never forget was sitting in Acts class. And Brother Childs,
I think at that time I had to read Acts six times. I'm a little
bit bitter because in Pentateuch, he made us read it three times.
And then later on, he cut back to two. I just said, that's not
fair. Everybody ought to read Leviticus three times in the
course of the semester. But I'm going to tell you right
now what's happening to you. Have you ever reached a point
when you've done that reading and you've just read and you've
read and you've read and you've read and you've read and you're
like, I mean, I'm talking about your Bible reading for class
and you get this constant reading, this constant pouring and you
say, boy, boy, you know, sometimes I wonder if this works. I'm going
to tell you on this side of the spectrum, you'll be amazed at
how that suddenly works in your life. The Word of God will not return
void. And you're getting this constant, constant thing. See,
there's a difference. I want to explain to you there's
a difference between a Christian college and a Bible college. You can say that every Bible
college is a Christian college, but you can't say that every
Christian college is a Bible college. And herein lies the
distinction. When you take a liberal arts
program, by the way, Christian colleges, advertising, very much
so, because that's what they are. We are a liberal arts college. That's what they think they need
to do, and that's alright. But here's where the problem
falls. They give their Bible majors
30 hours of Bible. And not all that 30 hours is
really strictly a Bible curriculum. You come to a Bible college where
it's not a liberal arts education, and you're unable to have over
60 hours of Bible. Now why is that important? I'm
going to tell you why it's important. Because young people, you're
stepping into a day and time right now that questions things
like human sexuality. Listen, you go to Charlotte here
in a year and there may be transgendered bathrooms. We're sitting in just a few months
watching our Supreme Court make one of the biggest moral mistakes
that it has ever made. And I'm going to tell you something,
biology is not going to change this nation. It's going to be the Bible. I'm
going to tell you, you might as a preacher be able to spit
out the periodic table, but if you're not grounded in the Word,
the winds are only going to get worse and you need every anchor
you can get. And that's why I stand before
you this morning. I don't care what the world says.
The world may look at a place like this and say, you need a
better rounded education. And I'm just looking, listen,
we need more preachers, more servants of the Lord with a fire
in their soul and an anchor to the Word of God to go do the
work of God. That's where we're at here. You know, you're teachers. You
get in a classroom. I want a teacher to teach you
in a way that supports the Bible and is sourced from the Bible
and one who disparages it. Listen, there are institutions
today that are very interested in telling you all of the errors
in this book. That's very sad. And we wonder
why we have raised a skeptical younger generation. I want you to sit in a place
where you can have confidence, where you know the Word of God,
listen, as it does that work in your life. And not only does
it need to do a work in your life in the classroom, but even
more importantly, listen, it needs to do a work in your life,
in your everyday living, in your everyday time with God. Wherewithal
shall a young man cleanse his way by taking heed thereto according
to thy Word? You're going to go, you are in
a world right now that is growing more and more an enemy of the
cross, and you need all the Bible you can get. Yet we live in a
day in which Christian education sometimes says that we need a
lot of other things. And again, other institutions
are invited to do whatever, but I'll tell you, I'd just soon
take somebody who's a graduate of this school, who would be
anchored in the Word of God, do the work of God, and have
a good firm foundation. We want to take you from Genesis
to Revelation, book by book, in the classroom. So, number
one, You have a school with a single focus. Number two, you have a
strong Bible curriculum. By the way, if you ever get in
a classroom and you have a teacher, and I don't think this would
happen, but I just say this, who tears the Bible apart, I
want to be the first one to know. Because this book is our foundation. But then number three, an experienced
faculty. You know what makes this place? I know we don't have a lot of
amenities here in Lattimore. We do have a sheep farm. You
tell me any other Christian college that has a sheep farm within
throwing distance, rock distance, huh? You tell me what other Christian
college place has a coffee roast in place right on the other corner,
even though I can't smell it right now. We don't have a lot of amenities. You know, right now we have a
lot of road construction. It makes it hard. If you get the ambassador,
it's on purpose right now, you know. We're off the beaten path. When Brother Comfort started
the school, he looked at major, major areas like places that
had large populations and God put him in Shelby. And he thought
Shelby was small. And God pointed up the road and
said, eight miles west, that's where you're going to be. Yeah,
that old public school facility that's run down, that's where
you're going to be. We don't have a lot of amenities.
You know, we have a foosball table, ping pong. We have a coffee
shop. That's a lot. I'm telling you,
it was a lot better than when I was in school. When I was in
school, we had a room filled with donated furniture, and that
was a dating parlor, but no, that was about it, and it was
very blah. But you know what's happening
today in our world, I'm afraid, especially with the younger generation,
we're wooing them with all kinds of amenities. I would have to say this honestly,
probably the best thing that I could offer to you here at
a school, an ambassador, is not our amenities, but I'll tell
you, I think one of our greatest treasures, that's our faculty. Diverse, from different sections
of the world, from different colleges, backgrounds.
The thing I love is to talk to a guy who went to Bob Jones,
here's another one who was from Maranatha, and we're sitting
all in the same room, and they graduate in whatever year, and
I mean identical, on the same page. I love that. You know, the experience that
God has given them. Young people, I'm going to tell
you, who's teaching you is probably one of the most important considerations
in a college education when it comes to preparing for the ministry.
Brother Comfort, whenever he started the school, he wanted
experienced people, training people for the ministry. You
know, every month I get applications, contacts from people, and to
be honest, some of the resumes are like this. I couldn't cut
it on the mission field, I couldn't cut it in the pastorate, but
I think I can teach in Bible college. That scares me to death. I feel like a guy saying, you
know, I couldn't do plumbing worth anything, but I think I
can teach you how to do it. You know, there's a Bible pattern.
It's Elijah's training Elisha's, it's Paul's training Timothy's.
Being taught by people who have been there and done that, who
have been in the work, that is very, very, very important. And every
one of our classes, they're taught by a veteran in the ministry,
and we're going to keep it that way. You know, you go to some
places and they're taught by graduate assistants. I remember talking to a young
man several years ago in the state of Virginia, and I was
talking to him. He was a Bible college student. I said, hey,
what's God called you to do? He said, I'm here to be a missionary.
God's called me to be a missionary. I said, well, that's great. I
said, where do you go to school? And he told me, and I said, hey,
I said, who's your missions professor there? He mentioned the name.
I said, man, I don't know him. I said, what mission field did
he serve on? And I'll never forget his response.
This is somebody paying just as much tuition as you are. He
said, well, he's actually never been on the mission field. But
he's going to go one day. Now, I don't doubt the sincerity
of that young man who was teaching those missions classes. I don't
doubt his love for the Lord. But I'm going to tell you something,
there was something sadly missing in that young man's education
in the classroom as he's being taught by somebody who's never
done it before. Imagine being Timothy traveling
with Paul. There's a big difference being Timothy traveling with
Paul than Timothy traveling with a freshman. You'd say, yeah, Timothy would
have to keep the freshman in line. But that's a trend that happens
in education. Many times it's a financial consideration. They
get somebody who's fresh out of school, and sometimes it's
not a matter of experience, but the more degrees they have, the
more qualified they are to teach. Now, here's my question. Where's
that in the Bible? By the way, I'm not against education. That's
why I'm here. Part of the reason we're here is to educate you.
But there are some places they say, you know what, if a guy's
got a doctorate and he's wet behind the ears, he's more qualified
to teach people in the ministry than a man who's been 20 years
faithful through thick and thin and been a student of the Word
more than you could ever imagine. And so our faculty, you know,
an open door policy. There's certain faculty members
that you gravitate towards more so than others. There's some
of you, you say, Brother Dylan's tests, they throw me off. I have
a hard time relating with him. If you'd study, it'd help you
a little bit, you know. And then there are others of
you, you say, I just, Brother Camp, I tell you, I like this, bam,
he's just right up front. I need him to come and just smack
me, just tell me what I need to hear. Everybody in here's
nature differently. You gravitate towards different
professors and such. But listen, they're to pour their
lives into you both in and out of the classroom. And that's
what we want. So an experienced faculty. You
know, another distinctive is local church. Without a doubt,
one of the most misunderstood aspects of our ministry. Tell you what, I could go to
local church pastors and if somebody came up to them and said, listen,
we don't think ambassador teaches their students much about the
local church and that's not a major part. I know some pastors that
drop whatever they're doing and say those are fighting words. Because they've been able to
pour their lives into our students. Young people, you have to understand
when you come to this school, you have that first six weeks
or whatever the case, and you choose a local church in the
area. There are some of you, I believe
right now, are perhaps learning more about the local church than
you did back home because you've been kicked out of the nest.
Not because you weren't taught, but because you've been brought
into an environment. Now you're looking at things
from this side than just the pew. I told the guys and preacher
boys yesterday, I said, you know what, right now in your church,
you ought to know what special meetings are coming up, and you ought
to be praying for those, and you ought to be helping any way
you can. I don't want our guys to just sit on the sideline,
and by the way, ladies too, had I been in Christian womanhood,
I would have told you the same thing. Maybe a little bit softer. But I want you to be a help.
I don't want you to sit there on the sidelines. I want you
to dive in, hey, in this aspect of the church. And you know,
there's several advantages to the way that we do it. I know
that we don't have a church here on campus, but I'll tell you
what, many of you, if not all of you, have a greater opportunity
to have personal contact with your pastor than a lot of people
in other colleges. You can sit down with them. They
can talk with you. The wife can talk with you. You
have an opportunity to be involved in a lot of different ministries. You know, if somebody is a junior
or senior and you're not really up to your elbows in ministry,
I question where you're at. I'm not saying just because you're
a junior or senior, you ought to be there, because some of
you, maybe you're just not ready for that. But listen, you're
missing it. If you're not up to your elbows in church ministry,
the farther you go, listen, you're missing the whole reason you're
here. You know, the sizes of the churches
are varied. Some people like to get lost
in a crowd. Other people, you come from a church of 50 or 20
or 100 or whatever the case. You've got a variety that's here
in this area. But the local church. That's something that's very,
very important. Let's continue on. Got to hurry because there's
a couple of things I want to touch on. It'll take me a little
while to do it. Another thing is a family atmosphere. Now I
don't think, I told the guys and preacher boys this, I don't
think something has to be small in order to be spiritual. And
I realize there are schools that are smaller than us, there are
schools that are larger than us, and wherever God puts us
in that whole spectrum, one thing I always want to be true is to
have a family atmosphere. I had a guy yesterday, he asked
me, he said, what do I call you? Do I call you doctor, mister,
all this other stuff? I said, how about brother? I
like that. You know, the ground is level at the foot of the cross. We live in a day and time, again,
I told the fellows this and preacher boys, man worship is so preeminent,
more so, it's more than it needs to be, it needs to be at a total
zero, but I'm afraid that we come to a place where we treat
preachers like rock stars. Now, I believe you ought to respect
preachers. You know what, I've talked to some people and they
would call a preacher by his first name just to spite him.
I'll tell you, now that's lack of submission. That's a lack
of respect. I know some people, they do it
just to spite somebody, and that's wrong. But you understand that
when it comes to the professors, when it comes to preachers, yes,
there ought to be a level of respect, but we put our coats
on just like you do, one arm at a time. And it ought to be a family atmosphere,
not one of these things where there's just such a, boy, I'll
tell you what, this so-and-so, he's the only one that can teach
and talk about the ministry. That is fostered in our circles.
We've got to beware of that man-centered philosophy. Our faculty members
are accessible. We want them to be in and among
you. We don't want there to be some throne mentality. Wanted to be a place where you
can bear one another's burdens. I know, I remember one time when
I was in college, we had a particular fellow, his dad committed suicide.
All of our guys in the dorm got together and took up the money
for him to have that ticket to go home. Why? Because we were all part of the
family. And so having a family atmosphere, and even here in
the Dean of Students Office, having that family atmosphere.
You know, sometimes in a family you get disciplined, don't you?
Some of you are like, I don't know. No, you did probably more
than likely. And that discipline, you know,
it's administered in several ways. And, you know, here we
have said through the years, Brother Comfort has made a statement
that the student is more important than the rule. That doesn't mean
that students run the school. But that means when the rule
is broken, rather than just putting a postage stamp on you and mailing
you home. It's how can we fix this? What's
going on in your heart, in your life? And being the size that
we are, we can do that. We can add that personal touch.
All right, let's talk about a couple of other things. Music. Conservative. Non worldly. Christian music. Now, in freshman orientation,
we talk about music, and you've heard messages about music. My
purpose this morning is not to give you all the biblical background
and reasons. That's done in various other
places. But let me tell you some things that mark our music philosophy. Did you know music's very important
in church ministry? As a matter of fact, behind preaching,
it's the most visible aspect of the service. Now here, and we'll talk more
about preaching a little bit later, but music is a very important
aspect of the service. A guy gets up and he waves his
hands. Or you go in some churches, he just stands there with a hymn
on his hand. Somebody gets up and sings a solo. Ladies get
up and sing a trio. Music. Music's very important.
But young people, I'm going to tell you something. In the last
five years, the world has crept into so-called Christian music
more than I've seen in my lifetime, in our circles. You can't mix the holy and the
profane and get something that's good. Just ask the priests in
Ezekiel's day. God firmly declared in Ezekiel
22, you can't mix the holy and the profane, but there is a synthesis
that is taking place and it is being accepted in which you take
the rock type of music and you put it to supposedly good words
and it's validated in the eyes of some people. You've got to
make up your mind where you stand in music. Now, I know there's
some of you, you say, well, I'll tell you what, it's music at
Ambassador. It is just of a really, really
like super high standard. You're right, it is. Now, there's
some of you that do misinformation and you say at Ambassador, you
don't believe if it wasn't written, if it was only music written
before eighteen hundred, it can be used in churches. I know probably some of you have
joked about that. You've said whatever. But you
know, we draw a high standard and we do it unapologetically.
Let me tell you why. You leave this place and you
drop under it. We're not we're not worried about it. You'll
be all right. There's a principle that Dr. Comfort taught me, and
I want every one of you to write this down if you don't have it
somewhere. Here's the principle he taught
me, and I've seen it over and over again. What you do in moderation,
The next generation will do in excess. That's been stamped in my soul.
What you do in moderation, the next generation will do in excess. I can illustrate that with my
own kids. You know, I could take a firecracker
with a short fuse. And you know what? I could light
that firecracker and throw it just fine. I mean, I'm an adult. You'd be amazed what adults can
do. They can cut off thumbs, they can bang their head, they
can do all kinds of things. But if I'm sitting out on the
front porch and I'm lighting those firecrackers with short fuses
and I'm throwing them out and then a little eight-year-old
boy named Andrew looks up at me and says, Daddy, I want to try
that. It's not going to work so well for him. And what has
happened is, I'm afraid people are taking their standards all
across the board and just lowering them as close to the world as
they can. And it's a sad thing, and I'll
tell you what, in ten years we're going to see more contemporary
churches. Because that standard has been
lowered. When it comes to music, you're right, we have a high
standard. We have set it up here. You say, well, if somebody listens
to something here, they're not right with God. Grow up. Please. But I'll tell you what,
if our standard is here, guess what happens? You get down in
the murk and the muck and it's bad news. Right now, there's
a big discussion, big debate that takes place about associations
in music. You know, there's a lot of music. There's some music out there
today. While the music is questionable, sometimes the lyrics are stronger
than some of the words you'll find in a hymnal. The devil, he knows how to work.
And so people have begun to say, well, you know, is this song
right? Let me tell you what we do at Ambassador and why. Here
at Ambassador, we consider association important. Now, immediately some
of you say, well, then let's go through our hymnals and rip
out Faith of Our Fathers. It was written by Roman Catholic.
Well, hear me out what I say about association. I'm the first
one to acknowledge that we sing songs in that hymnal. They were
not independent Baptists. I hate to tell you Fannie Crosby
was not an independent Baptist. But you know what? When you sing
Saved by Grace, you don't have to worry about somebody going
to YouTube and making a track to Calvinism. Unless it's a really weird thing. But you know, there's a lot of
modern day association that can be very detrimental. You're not going to hear songs
by contemporary Christian groups in this chapel service, even
cleaned up versions. Number one, because we don't
believe in using Christian rock and that's a misnomer. Number
two, even if it is cleaned up, it is traced back to an active
source that pushes against the very things that we believe.
Listen, there are people right now that are listening to CCM
and independent Baptist churches and using music in which the
very people that perform it and authored it and promote it actively
today are steeped and supportive of homosexuality. Do you want
that influence in your congregation? You know, there's a very well
respected man. He told me, he said, well, you
know, even Elvis Presley sang Amazing Grace. He said, does
that mean we don't sing Amazing Grace? And I said, respectfully,
sir, that's apples with oranges. You know, there are modern day
entities that are steeped in Calvinism who have expressed
that one of the purposes of their music is to usher a generation
into reformed theology. Is that where you want your church
ended up? If so, you're at the wrong school. You know, there are associations.
And by the way, let me tell you this. In our preaching, we're
careful about associations, aren't we? If I stood up here and I
said, you know, I was reading a book by John Piper. And John
Piper said the sky is blue. You know what I would rather
say, Jordan Mann said the sky is blue than than than Piper. You know why? Because he and
I are on the same page. But you know why I would do that?
Because I wouldn't want you to pick up things about support
for pedo-baptism, having rock music in your services. You know,
I don't care. There's people out there that
maybe they say the greatest thing, but they have such sway and influence. I'm not going to set that for
my people or any people. Now, it's funny, there's preachers
today that'll guard their pulpit from that garbage, but yet they'll
let whatever music from CCM flow through the platform. There's
a double standard. Now, I'm not God's policeman,
and I'm glad I'm not. I'm not even a deputy. But I
know when it comes to this place, I know what we do and why we
do it, and I want you to understand why. Stay away from the edge. The world's teaching you to live
closer and closer to the edge. And if you're not careful, those
who follow you will pay for it and pay greatly. Another thing
is the subject of accreditation. No accreditation. That's a hot subject today. Do
you know at one time every Christian educational institution in our
circles was non-accredited and unapologetic about it? If not
all, most of them, and now that has greatly changed. There are
some schools that have sought regional accreditation, Christian
colleges. These are men that are my friends,
men that I have talked with about it, but let me tell you why Ambassador
doesn't do it. We don't do it because of 2 Corinthians
chapter 6. We're not going to yoke up with
unbelievers, even in an educational setting. Christian college. By the way,
Christian colleges, when they're attached directly to local churches,
I really don't understand how that can function, because you're
yoking yourself up. But that's why we don't do it.
We're training people for the ministry. I don't need the help
of the world. And then there are others that
have sought national accreditation through Christian organizations.
You say, well, that sounds good. Why don't you do it? Because
I don't want to be yoked up with Nazarenes. You say, well, Nazarenes
are going to heaven, too. Well, if they are saved, they
will. And when they get there, they'll learn they should have
been Baptists. All right. You know, I say that tongue in
cheek, I got a feeling I'm going to learn a few things, too. I don't want
to be yoked up with church of God. I don't want to be yoked
up with those that that are not where we're at. Indoctrinal disobedience. Now, if you came to me after
service and you said, well, so-and-so is accredited and so-and-so is
accredited, and what do you think about that? I'd say to you, I
think people do whatever they think they need to do. I know
it's not the answer you're looking for. But here at Ambassador,
we're not going to do it because we're not going to yoke up with
disobedient brethren and we're not going to yoke up with the
unsaved. You know, some places, not all, I will give some credit
that have moved into the accrediting realm where they have refused
public financing. I'd at least say they've exercised
a matter of discernment there. You're a lot better off learning
to live by faith than to live by the government. There's not going to be a Pell
Grant for you when you take your first church and you're in that
building program and the commode needs to be fixed. And I really
feel that one of your preparations through here is depending on
God. And by the way, that used to
be a strong argument against accreditation years ago. What's happened is, is sometimes
if we're not careful, we could say, well, you know what? The
easiest thing for us to do would just be to fly the doors open and
get accredited and let you get that government loan. And guess
what? There goes our summer deficit because you'll pay on time thanks
to the government. But you know what's expedient for me? It's
not always right. But accreditation, some people
say accreditation is a sign of quality. Ask the University of
North Carolina, I pull for their Tar Heels, but when you be a
basketball player and you can take classes that didn't exist. That happened in an accredited
institution. Some might say, well, you know, there are bad
unaccredited institutions, I would say you're exactly right, but
accreditation and equality are not equal. Somebody comes to me and says,
I believe to prepare for the ministry, you need an accredited
degree. How many of your pastors had accredited degrees when they
graduated from college? They must have been grossly unprepared,
weren't they? You know, I think instead of
checking with maybe an accrediting agency, we'd do well to look
at Timothy, 1 and 2 Timothy. Brother Syrett has said this,
listen, if local churches affirm what we're doing and they support
what we're doing, that's all we need. That's that's the accreditation
right there. Some people say, well, an unaccredited education
is, you know, you'll have a hard time if you do master's work.
Well, you know, if you're going to study something totally in
the liberal arts realm, I'll admit. You have a problem, but
I'm going to tell you, there have been guys who graduated
from here, gone to seminary and got an advanced standing because
of what they got in the classroom at an unaccredited institution.
No joke by regionally accredited institution. They even recognize it. Young
people, when it comes to accreditation, we're not trying to be a stick
in the mud. We're not trying to, you know, we talk about old
paths and sometimes old paths are good and other times people
talk about old paths and it's just simply tradition. But we're
not trying to be a stick in the mud. We're trying to give you
the best education that we can and we're going to do it in a
way in which we don't compromise. So understand that. And then
the last thing that I leave you with and we're done, it's called
preaching. There's other things I could talk about. I could talk
about no intercollegiate sports program. Somebody's like, why
does an ambassador have an intercollegiate sports program? All you got to
do is watch a set of league games and you understand why. You know how many other teams
we'd have to pay for the injuries that our guys caused to them? I'm glad. I'm glad we can play
basketball. I'm glad we can play volleyball. I'm glad we can play
whatever. And we need that. It's a healthy
outlet, but it's not the main thing here and it doesn't need
to be. But preaching. Young people, listen, I hope
when you leave this place that you have a love for Bible preaching. You know, in some churches, they'll
have Christian school teachers who they labor all week and they
don't want to go to church on Wednesday night. They say, I've
been here all week, why should I have to come back on Wednesday
night? I want our people here, I want you to love preaching.
Listen, a hot chapel platform, listen, you pay attention, you
take notes, you listen, opening revivals, missions conference,
Bible conference, daily chapels, the most important part of the
day, preaching. It won't hurt you. You ought
to sit down and calculate how much preaching you hear over
the course of four years. and you're still normal. The shaping that takes place,
times that God rings your bell. I don't know how many times I've
talked to alumni and they say, I will never forget this day
in chapel. Because on this particular day, I was ready to quit. This
particular day, I was so fed up I could kill somebody. And
they'd say, God rung my bell. You know, in chapel, I want you
to have a freedom to respond to the Lord. Formal invitation
or not, you ought to be able to come. You ought to be able
to kneel and let those messages impact your life. There's a lot
of other things I could tell you. I could tell you about the
gift of the evangelist, a place where we want to promote that.
There's just a lot of other different things, but those are some main
things. A little bit about the heartbeat. If you have a question,
you can ask me about it. If you have a question, you can
ask a faculty or staff member. That is where we're at. And that's
by God's grace where we intend to be the rest of our existence
till Jesus comes. If you're here and you don't
want to be here, we don't want you here either
if you're not supposed to be here. But when I came to school,
let me tell you, I didn't have all these things together. Let's
talk about music for a minute. You know, when I came to Ambassador,
I sat down at a, we used to have a Thanksgiving concert, and with
this I'll be done. And Bob Regal, Gage Gilbert,
you know Brother Regal. Robert Regal sang, and it was
more of an opera style thing. You remember, I'm from Yadkinville,
North Carolina. The whole semester, I'd struggled
mightily with chapel music. They didn't sing the same songs
we sang growing up. Of course, we only sang 20 or
30. And I mean, I'm hearing these things. I'm like, oh, please.
People getting up in chapel and they're singing songs. I'm like,
I've never heard of that before. And I remember after a Thanksgiving
concert, I looked at my girlfriend, who would later be my wife, and
I told her this. I said, I can't stand this opera
music. Yuck. And I was every bit as
emphatic about it. But it didn't take me long till
maybe in the following semester I'd sit in chapel and for the
first time in my life hearing, my faith has found a resting
place. Old song in a hymnal. And I said, that's pretty good.
And a lot of other areas I had to grow up that I'm not going
to share with you. Unless you want to tell me all your stories. But that's how God brought me
to this place. You know, I'm sure that when I get to heaven,
I'll find out some areas I know that I'll be like, boy, you know,
I wish I would have done this here. Boy, I could have done
this here. But ambassador, this is what we are. And my prayer
is that you'll learn to embrace it during your four years, not
only understand what we do, but why we do it and that God would
use you in a great and a mighty way.
Building the Walls of Ambassador
Series Spring Semester 2015
| Sermon ID | 8172153316461 |
| Duration | 51:34 |
| Date | |
| Category | Chapel Service |
| Bible Text | Ezra 4:12-13 |
| Language | English |
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