Moody Center Pastor’s Gathering

Welcome to Leading the Way with Dr. Michael Yusef and a special episode originating from the grounds of the Moody Center in Northfield, Massachusetts. Dr. Yusef was recently a part of a powerful evening event at this historic venue, and he used the opportunity to bring a challenging and incredibly evangelistic message to those who were in attendance personally and also to those who watch the event live all across the world. So up next on Leading the Way Audio, we have a special message focusing on prayer, repentance, and revival. It's one that Dr. Yusef gave the pastors who gathered at an intimate afternoon gathering prior to the evening event. Now, as this year unfolds, Dr. Yusef is passionate about being a part of more events, passionately proclaiming uncompromising truth around the globe through Leading the Way Live.

So be sure to listen for more details right here, or you can always visit the events page at ltw.org slash events. But since you're listening right now, be encouraged by this special presentation from Leading the Way with Dr. Michael Yusef. When I was a young Christian and I would read the life of D.L.

Moody and all the great men of God, and then I would feel so terrible because they all have all these victories and all these great things, and I'm just struggling. And so I learned to read further and to get the whole story. For example, George Mueller, of whom I'm going to tell you a little bit now, you know, the stories are familiar with it. Kids are hungry in an orphanage in Bristol, England, and somebody knocks on the door and says, you know, my milk cart broke down right in front of you, can you use the milk? And he said, sure. And a baker would say, God walked me up early this morning to batch a special bread for your kids, and that was wonderful.

And I said, why am I not getting answers to prayer like this? Then I really started reading and finding out not just the anecdotal stories, but the whole life of people like George Mueller. George Mueller, of course, for those of you who do not know, is a 19th century Christian evangelist. He headed up the Ashley Down orphanage in Bristol, England. He provided home during his lifetime for 10,000 kids, orphans, and he founded 100 schools, Christian schools. He was known as a man of prayer, as I already told you, and he always expected God to answer prayer. And so on November of 1844, just remember that date, November of 1844, he made a commitment to the Lord that he's going to pray for five of his friends to come to the Lord and that he's going to disciple each one of them as the Lord brings them to himself. And that was a commitment that he made, and he prayed daily.

I mean, he did not miss a day, whether we see his home or traveling, whether he was sick or not sick and well. No matter how busy his schedule was, he prayed for these five men to come to the Lord, and he made the commitment to disciple every one of them. And so a year and a half have passed, daily prayer, just think about it, every day, one out of the five came to the Lord.

Well, he did not get discouraged. He just started discipling him and ministering to him, and he grew him up in ministry and then would not be diverted from praying for the rest. George Mueller, like many of us, believed that when a spiritual baby is born, you can't say, well, okay, now go fend for yourself. You have to nurture that baby.

You have to disciple that baby. And so he nurtured this particular first out of the five, then he continued to pray daily for the other four. After five more years, the second one came to the Lord, and so he discipled him and ministered to him. Six more years, the third one came to the Lord, and he discipled him. Now, if you're counting, this is 12 years, 12 years, not missing a single day.

I don't know if I can say that. 12 years, not missing a single day, praying for those people. But two out of the five that he prayed for were not converted. In 1888, he wrote in his diary the following.

I'll read it to you. But I hope in God, praying on and look for answers. They are not converted yet, but they will. Mueller died in March 10, 1898, at the age of 92. They prayed for the salvation of the five, but three came to the Lord in his lifetime and were privileged to be discipled by George Mueller himself. At the time of his death, these two holdouts were actually sons of two of Mueller's friends. Even so, Mueller prayers were answered after he died, and the last two came to Christ. Now, of course, they missed out being discipled by George Mueller himself, but nonetheless, the prayer of the faithful prevails much. Okay, why am I telling you this story? Well, I always tell my congregation I have a method in my madness.

Because in America, we get discouraged so quickly if we don't get an instant result, if we don't see something happening, we just get so discouraged. The discipling of others is a lifelong commitment. It may take you a lifetime. Don't ever give up.

Don't ever give up. This principle of discipling and investing and ministering to others, growing them up so they're multiplying ourselves is delineated in Paul's very last letter, the second letter to Timothy, chapter 2. But I want you to think with me, here he is, the Apostle Paul in this cold dungeon, coming to the end of his life, and yet he writes to his first disciple, whom he discipled, Timothy. And he writes to him in 2 Timothy, chapter 2, verse 2. I want you to say that with me, 2, 2, 2.

And here's what he said. He said, and the things that you have heard me teach in presence of many witnesses, entrust or pass along to other faithful men who are also qualified to teach others. The discipling and the training of others, particularly the next generation, is a lifelong process.

It's a lifelong process. But even after death, as we saw in Mueller's life, God answered prayers. After he's gone to glory. In fact, verse 1, Paul said to Timothy, You then, my son, be strong in the grace of Jesus Christ.

Then he said, in verse 2, The things that you have learned from me pass it on to others, other faithful people, and they will continue the process. How is Timothy going to be strong? How is he going to be strong? Is he going to grit his teeth? Is he going to try to pull himself by his bootstraps? Is he going to say, yes, I can, yes, I can, yes, I can, in this affirmation that some preachers tell you to do? Is it by reading the next book by Reverend Smelfungus on marketing?

No. That strength does not come from within. It comes from intimacy with God. It comes from spending time in the Word of God, first and foremost.

It comes from utterly trusting in God alone. Here's a great paradox in the Scripture. Our mighty, sovereign God, who can do all things, He chooses to entrust His truth to fumbling and stumbling adopted children, like you and me. Listen, we are saved by grace. We are justified by grace. We are sanctified by grace. We live moment by moment by grace. We are empowered by grace to overcome obstacles and opposition, and my dear friends, it is by grace and grace alone, we are to disciple the next generation.

Amen. Give God glory, not me. That's why Paul says, in effect, Timothy, you can only experience the power of the grace of God when you are investing of your life, when you are discipling, when you are passing the torch, when you are passing that treasure that he calls in that epistle, he calls it the treasure to other faithful people. Early on, Paul asked Timothy to guard the gospel. How does he guard the gospel? This man who is timid and fearful, I'm going to tell you in a minute, but even guarding the gospel was not enough because I can tell you truthfully from my personal experience, if you just focus on guarding the gospel, you become a recluse. He said, in guarding of that deposit of truth, you need to pass it on to others. You need to give it away. Listen, when you entrust your retirement or your money to a saving institution or financial institution, you're not expecting them to put it in the safe and lock it, right?

No, you are investing in that financial institution and you're expecting your investment to grow. In a similar way, Paul is saying to Timothy, he said, you should entrust the gospel message to faithful individuals. Why? Because he invests himself in them and the gospel will be expanding and growing as he invested in others. In fact, there's something here that if you read the passage kind of in passing, you could miss it. I don't want you to miss it. I want to explain it to you.

I already told you, Timothy is a very timid guy and if you spend time to just really read what Paul is saying, he was timid, he was a fearful soul, and Paul was saying to him that it is in the investment of the gospel message in others that you would overcome the tendency toward your timidity. If you want to experience victory over your timidity and your anxiety and your fear and your sorrow, invest yourself in somebody else. It is a must. It's not a choice.

It's not an option. It is a must. It's going to give you victory over your timidity. Listen to me, listen. I know all about timidity. I was such a shy boy, the moment I hear guests coming, I run and hide in the back room. I was so introverted that I tell you, if I was not standing here, and that's why I told you God has a sense of humor, I'll be sitting in the back.

That's where I would be, in the very back. It's just that's my nature. I'm an expert on timidity. I know timidity inside out. Timidity can often get me self-absorbed and self-focused. The antidote to any timidity is to become others' focus. The antidote to timidity is discipling and mentoring and passing on the treasure of the gospel and entrusting it to someone who's faithful, who's going to entrust it to the next generation. The antidote to timidity is to be a blessing to somebody else. It's what the business people call win-win. It's win-win.

Why? Because the one who's doing the discipling, the one who's doing the mentoring, is equally, if not really more equally, at least in my experience, blessed than the one who's receiving the mentorship. It's like electricity. I mean, it cannot fully enter you and empower you unless it passes through you. If we fail to pass the truth of the gospel, we're not only depriving the next generation of their greatest blessing, what we miss out on our greatest blessings. Can I get an amen? Please don't miss out on the blessing. Don't miss out on the blessing. I pray that everyone at the sound of my voice would make a decision, if you're not already, to begin to take discipling of others seriously. Entrust this life-changing message to faithful people. I think just about everybody here, I'm not going to ask you to raise your hand, you heard about apostolic succession? Well, let me ask you. Have you not heard about apostolic succession?

Raise your hand. I need to explain something. Apostolic succession said that the pope of Rome, for example, is the successor of the apostle Peter, where I grew up in Egypt as the Coptic church, the Coptic community, roughly about 10 million people, and the Coptic pope, they call him the pope of Alexandria, or the patriarch, he is the successor of the apostle Mark, because Mark was the first one to come to Egypt and founded the church, and the church grew, and it was about 85 to 90 percent of the population were Christians for the first 600 years of Christianity, until the Muslims came, the Arabs came, and invaded the country and basically changed all that. So each one of those orthodox churches, they are supposed to be the successors, the patriarch successors of one of the apostles.

The idea is that the apostles established the church in this particular location. Peter in Rome, Mark in Alexandria, Thomas in India, the idea is that these apostles, when they were around, they zapped somebody, who zapped somebody, who zapped somebody, who zapped somebody, and we ended up with these popes. That's really what's called apostolic succession, but the truth is there's a period of time we don't know who zapped whom.

But they're not going to confuse themselves with the facts, right? But what a lot of believers today don't know, or don't understand, that there is a biblical apostolic succession. The Bible talks about apostolic succession, but it's not succession of popes from apostles, but it is the unbroken series of genuine believers who've guarded the deposit, the treasure of the gospel, and passed it on to others. That is the true apostolic succession. That is the true apostolic succession. And these believers who've entrusted the truth to others, faithful believers, and now it came to us, and we dare not guard the gospel, unmolested, uncompromised, to pass on and be invested in the life of others. According to 2 Timothy 2.2, that is a true biblical succession.

The things that you have heard from me entrust to reliable people who also qualified to pass them to other people. My dear friends, we cannot pass apostolic succession or apostolic power from person to person just by laying on of hands. A dear friend of mine, he was from this part of the world who many years ago have gone to be with the Lord. He used to say, that is laying empty hand on empty head, and you end up with an empty Christianity. We are commanded here by the Word of God that we light the torch of God's truth, and that torch may be lit to another and to another and to another.

That way, the light of God's truth spreads throughout the world, turning the world's darkness into His bright light. I'm going to share with you a story that I shared with my congregation. I'm one of those people who are absolutely blessed of God to sit at the feet of some of the great men.

Some of them you would know, some of them you may not know. And I remember when I was in California in 1977 and 78, I came across a man by the name of J. Edwin Orr. I've always prayed for a revival. Ever since I read Oswald Smith's book, The Revival We Need, I have prayed for a revival. God, in His amazing wisdom at this early age, I was walking by the office of Dr. J. Edwin Orr, the amazing Irishman who's considered to be one of the great authorities on revival and the history of revival.

Every time I pass his office, he's sitting down reading. Finally, I picked up the courage, knocked on his door. I said, Dr. Orr, would you mind if I buy you a hamburger sometime? And just sit at your feet and learn some more about the history of revival. It was an unforgettable six months where we meet on a regular basis, sat at his feet, learned so much.

I always remember a story he told me, and I guess I remembered it because I knew I was going to be here with you in this part of the world, and I want to kind of leave you with that as I conclude. Immediately after the Revolutionary War, he said, the moral fiber and the spiritual condition of America was in a tailspin. Alcoholism was rampant.

Crime was rising. A church attendance plummeted. John Marshall, the Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court at the time, he wrote a letter to James Madison, the father of the Constitution.

He said the following, and I'm quoting. He said, the Christian church in America was too far gone ever to be redeemed. Thomas Paine, who was considered to be the intellectual leader of the American Revolution, predicted that Christianity will be forgotten in 30 years time. A poll of Harvard students' body found there's not a single, listen to this, not a single student on campus believed in Jesus. On the Princeton campus, the vast majority of the students were engaged in what is called back then the filthy speech movement. At William College, students held a mock communion that blasphemed the name of the Lord Jesus. In New Jersey, students burned Bibles in a public bonfire.

Crime was rampant, and women feared to walk out alone. In 1794, as the new American nation was sinking deep into godlessness and depravity, a Connecticut preacher by the name of Isaac Bacchus began holding a prayer meeting in his church. Later, Bacchus informed an alliance with 24 other New England pastors with the goal of praying regularly, daily, for a spiritual awakening throughout America. Back then, they called it the concert of prayer. In 1798, churches throughout the 13 former colonies were holding prayer meetings, confessing sin, pleading with God for revival.

An amazing nationwide revival broke across America, especially on college campuses. How many of you believe that God can do it again? Change can and will happen when God's people repent of their sin and the sin of apathy. Revival will start with repentance on the part of God's people, not the outside world, not the government, not society, but us. When God's people repent of their sin, when pastors preach the uncompromised truth of the word of God, come what it may, you will see God move.

When God's people repent of their sin, turn to him, become fervent in prayer and commitment to discipleship. Then watch out, God is going to move among us afresh. Father, I needed this word more than anybody else, and we constantly need to remind each other that this is what you're looking for. May we be faithful in passing on this treasure of the gospel, regardless of the cost. For we pray this in Jesus' name.

Amen. You're listening to Dr. Michael Youssef passionately proclaiming uncompromising truth on Leading the Way. This episode featured content from an encouraging gathering of pastors and ministry leaders at the historic Moody Center in Northfield, Massachusetts. Hey, be on the lookout for more Leading the Way live events this year, maybe right here in this area or online.

Either way, make plans to join him and be challenged in your faith journey. If you're new to Leading the Way, you may not be aware of the many ways to connect with Dr. Youssef and the solid Bible teaching available right on the radio or in your podcast library, so we want to direct you to ltw.org slash connect. This is an informative page with many practical links. For example, find local radio, television, and digital broadcast so that you can consume more messages from Dr. Youssef. Once again, that site to make note of this, ltw.org slash connect. This program is brought to you by Leading the Way with Dr. Michael Youssef, a worldwide listener-supported media ministry. Connect at ltw.org or give us a call, 866-626-4356. That's 866-626-4356.