D. Dillon Holt - "Created to Become" (June 13, 1971)
Loading the media player...
Transcript
Transcripts may contain inaccuracies.
(melodic music) | 0:23 | |
(bright music) | 1:39 | |
- | Let us now go to the heavenly Father in prayer. | 4:47 |
Almighty God, since you already know about our sins, | 4:52 | |
it is time that we acknowledged them in your presence, | 4:58 | |
and make a full confession of our selfish state, | 5:02 | |
asking your forgiveness and praying for grace | 5:06 | |
to live unselfishly from now on. | 5:11 | |
So we admit that we have been seriously inconsistent. | 5:15 | |
We have loudly insisted that we were speaking softly. | 5:20 | |
We have angrily argued that we were not contentious. | 5:25 | |
We have betrayed our miserable immaturity | 5:31 | |
by the way we have claimed to be mature. | 5:35 | |
We have shown our irresponsibility by the devices | 5:40 | |
we have used to get ourselves accepted as being responsible. | 5:43 | |
At times we have all been arrogant, rude, irreverent, | 5:51 | |
impious, self-centered, lustful, | 5:57 | |
unloving, deceitful, lacking in faith, lacking in hope. | 6:05 | |
Forgive us these specific sins, O God, | 6:16 | |
and pardon us for having a simple attitude in general. | 6:19 | |
We pray you to restore us to the household of faith, | 6:24 | |
as only you by your grace can do, | 6:28 | |
through Jesus Christ our Lord, amen. | 6:33 | |
Beloved, the holy scriptures have words of comfort | 6:40 | |
and assurance for those who sincerely are sorry | 6:43 | |
for their sins, who acknowledged them, | 6:48 | |
and ask to be forgiven. | 6:51 | |
The Bible says, as far as the east is from the west, | 6:55 | |
so far has he removed our transgressions from us. | 7:01 | |
That is good news. That is the gospel. | 7:08 | |
Because of this good news, | 7:13 | |
we are made glad and are thankful. | 7:15 | |
May we now express the gratitude of our hearts | 7:20 | |
in our unison prayer of thanksgiving. | 7:24 | |
Let us pray. | 7:28 | |
Almighty God, our heavenly Father, | 7:30 | |
we bless and magnify thy Holy name for the gift | 7:34 | |
of thy most dearly beloved son, Jesus Christ our Redeemer, | 7:38 | |
and for all his apostles, prophets, markers, evangelists, | 7:44 | |
teachers, and pastors, | 7:49 | |
whom you have sent abroad into the world. | 7:51 | |
For thy holy church universal, the ministry of the laity, | 7:54 | |
and the ministry of the ordain, | 7:59 | |
we do give thee hardy thanks for the privilege | 8:02 | |
which each one of us has of bearing witness | 8:05 | |
to the saving grace of our Lord. | 8:08 | |
We express our gratitude. | 8:11 | |
We thank thee for life, for a measure of health, | 8:14 | |
for friends, for food, for clothing, | 8:18 | |
and for all the purposes of Christ, | 8:22 | |
which give meaning to these earthly goods. | 8:24 | |
We make our prayer of thanks in Jesus name, amen. | 8:27 | |
(bright music) | 9:21 | |
(melodic music) | 9:59 | |
- | The scripture lesson is from the letter of Paul | 12:22 |
to the Romans, | 12:24 | |
Chapter 12, verses one through eight. | 12:27 | |
"Therefore my brothers, I implore you by God's mercy | 12:32 | |
to offer your various selves to him, a living sacrifice, | 12:38 | |
dedicated and fit for his acceptance. | 12:44 | |
The worship offered by mind and heart. | 12:47 | |
Adapt yourselves no longer to the pattern | 12:52 | |
of this present world, but let your mind be remade | 12:55 | |
and your whole nature, thus transformed. | 13:00 | |
Then you will be able to discern the will of God | 13:05 | |
and to know what is good, acceptable, and perfect. | 13:08 | |
In virtue of the gift that God in his grace | 13:15 | |
has given me, I say to everyone among you, | 13:18 | |
do not be conceited or think too highly of yourself, | 13:23 | |
but think your way to a sober estimate, | 13:28 | |
based on the measure of faith that God has dealt | 13:32 | |
to each of you. | 13:36 | |
For just as in a single human body there are many limbs | 13:38 | |
and organs all with different functions, | 13:42 | |
so all of us united with Christ form one body, | 13:46 | |
serving individually as limbs and organs to one another. | 13:52 | |
The gifts we possess differ as they are allotted to us | 13:58 | |
by God's grace and must be exercised accordingly. | 14:02 | |
The gift of inspired utterance, for example, | 14:07 | |
in proportion to a man's faith or the gift | 14:10 | |
of administration in administration. | 14:14 | |
A teacher should employ his gift of teaching. | 14:18 | |
And one who has the gift of stirring speech | 14:21 | |
should use it to stir his heroes. | 14:25 | |
If you give to charity, give with all your heart. | 14:28 | |
If you are a leader, exert yourself to lead. | 14:33 | |
If you are helping others in distress, do it cheerfully." | 14:38 | |
That's end of the reading of the scripture | 14:43 | |
and the ending of the lesson. | 14:46 | |
(bright music) | 14:51 | |
- | The Lord be with you. | 15:36 |
Let us pray. | 15:40 | |
God of our fathers, we have come to you in worship, | 15:49 | |
to ask for the fulfillment of our needs. | 15:55 | |
Be to us what our fathers and forefathers have said | 16:00 | |
you were to them. | 16:04 | |
We too are a generation tossed about by the storms | 16:07 | |
and uncertainties of life. | 16:12 | |
We need a basic security. | 16:16 | |
We long for justice, for order, brotherhood and peace. | 16:19 | |
We need the strength to endure. | 16:25 | |
Our forefathers have said that you were to them | 16:29 | |
a pillar of cloud by day and of fire by night. | 16:33 | |
That you led them. | 16:38 | |
That your word was a lamp under their feet | 16:40 | |
and a light unto their path. | 16:42 | |
Be that to us, we too are pilgrims and pioneers, | 16:46 | |
not able to predict the end of our journey, | 16:53 | |
not knowing what we shall encounter along the way. | 16:56 | |
O God of the pilgrims and pioneers, | 17:00 | |
lead us in the paths of righteousness for your name's sake. | 17:03 | |
Lead us in the paths of progress and of sane order of peace. | 17:09 | |
Our forefathers have said that you were their friend, | 17:18 | |
their unseen companion in the journey, | 17:22 | |
in whom they could confide. | 17:25 | |
Be that to us. | 17:30 | |
We do need friendship, | 17:32 | |
while we bless your name for earthly friends | 17:36 | |
who buy their care add beauty to our lives, | 17:39 | |
yet we find that O God, | 17:43 | |
a need to know a friendship beyond the earthly. | 17:45 | |
To feel the everlasting arms beneath us, | 17:49 | |
and even to speak onto you as a man speaks with a friend. | 17:52 | |
We need the light, love, fairness. | 17:59 | |
And as we ponder the unrest and the riots in our own land, | 18:03 | |
we pray for those who incite riots by their hot words. | 18:08 | |
For those who incite riots by their cold attitudes. | 18:15 | |
Those who incite riots by flame speech. | 18:20 | |
Those who incite riots by their greedy unconcern | 18:24 | |
for their fellow men. | 18:28 | |
Help us, O God, to change all of this, | 18:31 | |
at every point where it can be changed. | 18:35 | |
Help us temporarily to accept what cannot be changed. | 18:38 | |
Give us the wisdom to know the difference. | 18:43 | |
O God, as we think of our sick, our bereaved, our confused, | 18:48 | |
our poor, our lonely, our orphans, | 18:55 | |
we remember the testimony of our forefathers | 19:00 | |
that you were to them, a friend, a savior, | 19:03 | |
a great physician, a heavenly father, a comforter, | 19:07 | |
be that to us. | 19:15 | |
And now as our savior Jesus Christ has taught us, | 19:19 | |
we humbly pray together saying, | 19:23 | |
our Father who art in heaven, | 19:26 | |
hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come. | 19:28 | |
Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. | 19:33 | |
Give us this day our daily bread | 19:37 | |
and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive | 19:40 | |
those who trespass against us, | 19:43 | |
and lead us not into temptation, | 19:46 | |
but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom | 19:49 | |
and the power and the glory forever, amen. | 19:53 | |
- | Now this is a very high privilege this morning | 20:19 |
to be selected as the speaker for the alumni weekend. | 20:21 | |
And I'm privileged to be associated | 20:29 | |
with Dr. Howard C Wilkinson and Mr. John Pormann, | 20:31 | |
both of whom are a little later | 20:37 | |
than my contemporary student days, | 20:40 | |
but are my friends through the years. | 20:43 | |
I am a little surprised that they would select | 20:47 | |
for this occasion, a college president, | 20:50 | |
to do this hours service, which is restricted in time. | 20:54 | |
And to make it even more difficult, | 21:01 | |
they tell me we are also on radio, | 21:04 | |
and they will cut us off at noon, | 21:09 | |
whether we are through or not. | 21:12 | |
College presidents have a sort of a reputation | 21:14 | |
of speaking too long sometimes. | 21:17 | |
I heard the story of a man who came late | 21:19 | |
to the morning service and no seats in the rear. | 21:23 | |
And he finally found one on the front pew and he scrounged | 21:26 | |
in between two hefty women. | 21:31 | |
And the speaker was going and he did not know who he was. | 21:33 | |
12 o'clock came, he was still going strong. | 21:37 | |
12:30 came, he was still going strong. | 21:40 | |
And about 12:45, he stopped. | 21:43 | |
And he looked up at one of the women and he said, | 21:47 | |
"The (indistinct) I'd never heard anybody talks along | 21:49 | |
and say as little in my life." | 21:52 | |
And she said, "Sir, do you know who he is?" | 21:55 | |
And he said, "No, I do not." | 21:58 | |
She said, "He is a college president and I'm his wife." | 22:00 | |
And he said, "Lady, do you know who I am?" | 22:06 | |
And she said, "No, I do not," indignantly. | 22:09 | |
And he said, "Thank God." | 22:12 | |
I want to consider a thing this morning that has concerned | 22:22 | |
me for some time now. | 22:25 | |
And I'm becoming more and more convinced of the truth | 22:29 | |
of this, whether I convey it to you or not this morning. | 22:32 | |
And the topic I've chosen is created to become. | 22:38 | |
It could just as well be seeking to find the will | 22:43 | |
of God in life. | 22:46 | |
It could just as well be the supreme purpose of life, | 22:49 | |
which is to grow. | 22:53 | |
But I should like to think with you concerning, | 22:56 | |
created to dream, created to aspire, created to choose, | 22:59 | |
created to resolve, created to grow, | 23:08 | |
created to become world citizens, | 23:13 | |
created to become responsible person. | 23:17 | |
Now I think the last is the thing I should like to emphasize | 23:21 | |
this morning, for man is created not only | 23:25 | |
with his capacity, but with his responsibility. | 23:30 | |
He is the only creation we know anything about, | 23:35 | |
that has the fact about him. | 23:38 | |
That I am, I can, I ought, I will. | 23:43 | |
And I think these are the divine aspects of men. | 23:48 | |
They're not to be found anywhere else in creation. | 23:52 | |
And these aspects find their expression through outreach | 23:56 | |
and individuation and participation | 24:00 | |
and creative activity, the bringing of the new into life, | 24:04 | |
and through struggle and through up reach, | 24:11 | |
and the decisive responsible choices. | 24:15 | |
Now the theologians have made a big thing of creation, | 24:23 | |
and rightly so. | 24:27 | |
At conception did he positive what you may be? | 24:30 | |
Is put there. | 24:35 | |
The potential or the intended self. | 24:37 | |
And I think we could very well say that this is the will | 24:41 | |
of God in creation for you. | 24:45 | |
Now it does not mean that you will achieve the will of God | 24:50 | |
in creation for you, | 24:53 | |
because a lot of things are going to happen to you | 24:56 | |
on the way. | 24:58 | |
At conception you were microscopic, | 25:01 | |
but with only the capacity to become, | 25:03 | |
but you were never intended to remain microscopic. | 25:09 | |
At conception you had only the capacity to develop | 25:15 | |
a rational consciousness, | 25:19 | |
but you were created and intended to develop | 25:23 | |
in to the rational phase of life, | 25:26 | |
and not to remain in the capacity stage. | 25:30 | |
At conception, even at birth, | 25:35 | |
you were totally egocentric, they tell us. | 25:38 | |
And there is nothing wrong with being egocentric. | 25:42 | |
The theologians have made a bad thing about it, | 25:47 | |
they've made it bad and fallen. | 25:50 | |
And you begin to feel that if you're egocentric, | 25:52 | |
you're fallen or there's something bad with you. | 25:55 | |
I have become convinced that this is not necessarily so. | 25:59 | |
But to stay that way is your greatest misfortune, | 26:04 | |
for you're intended to grow out of that egocentricity. | 26:10 | |
And to stay that way you defeat the basic purpose | 26:16 | |
of your creation, which is to become something beyond. | 26:20 | |
Now whenever one gets out of this, | 26:26 | |
it will be because of the grace of God | 26:27 | |
through the growth process, it will not be accidental. | 26:29 | |
Harry Overstreet says the human being is born ignorant, | 26:35 | |
irresponsible, inarticulate, self-centered, | 26:40 | |
and born into a world of isolated particulars. | 26:44 | |
But to stay that way, of course, is tragic. | 26:49 | |
Now many things will influence this becoming creation. | 26:54 | |
The times in which one lives, | 26:58 | |
the environmental factors and forces, | 27:01 | |
many of which over what you will have no control whatever. | 27:04 | |
What one experiences, what one reads and sees and believes | 27:08 | |
and trusts, which become his thing, | 27:13 | |
and really determined his choices and actions and reactions, | 27:17 | |
and maybe his destiny, motivations up or down. | 27:21 | |
And this is very important. It's important in education. | 27:26 | |
It's important in life. | 27:29 | |
The I will is as important in education as the IQ. | 27:32 | |
Now the deep purpose of life, it seems to me, | 27:40 | |
is to grow, to become. | 27:42 | |
This is what creation is all about. | 27:47 | |
Now the deep purpose of education is to guide the process | 27:51 | |
of growth, of becoming, so that oral life may be brought | 27:54 | |
to it to created, intended fullness. | 28:01 | |
I think there are at least three possible outcomes | 28:06 | |
for this business of life. | 28:09 | |
One is the intended self, and this is bound up in creation. | 28:11 | |
I think you could say this is God's will in creation. | 28:15 | |
The other is the circumstantial self, | 28:19 | |
which will be molded by the circumstances of your life. | 28:22 | |
And the third would be the ultimate self, | 28:26 | |
the final result of all the circumstances | 28:29 | |
and all the choices and all the commitments | 28:32 | |
that you've made. | 28:37 | |
And all the reactions to all the things | 28:38 | |
that have happened to you outside and inside. | 28:41 | |
Now life is finally and ultimately decided | 28:46 | |
by the individual, one's choices become pivotal | 28:50 | |
on which life turned. | 28:55 | |
And here is the point at which most of us | 28:57 | |
will be most solely tested. | 29:00 | |
Responsible choices become life's first priority. | 29:04 | |
And I think that is exactly what the scripture, | 29:09 | |
which you heard this morning is talking about. | 29:12 | |
It's what I'm trying to emphasize. | 29:15 | |
It's what Jesus said. | 29:18 | |
If you abide in me and my word abides in you, | 29:19 | |
you shall know the truth about your creation and be set free | 29:22 | |
to achieve full mature manhood. | 29:27 | |
This is what it seems to me the Christian religion | 29:31 | |
is always trying to say to us. | 29:35 | |
Now we've developed all kinds of escape mechanisms | 29:38 | |
and really encouragement to help us avoid | 29:42 | |
making responsible choices and becoming responsible persons | 29:46 | |
for which we were created to become. | 29:51 | |
The theologians say that man is falling in Adam, | 29:55 | |
and therefore totally depraved | 29:58 | |
and there's nothing you can do about it. | 30:00 | |
And I've heard this all my life. | 30:02 | |
I still hear it preached, | 30:05 | |
and I still have to reckon with it. | 30:08 | |
The psychologist then came with Freud, | 30:12 | |
especially with his depth psychology verified | 30:15 | |
the conclusions of the theologians and added that man | 30:17 | |
is as such driven animal, | 30:20 | |
helpless before his deeply depraved nature or egocentricity. | 30:23 | |
And the sociologists tell us that lacking | 30:30 | |
tender, love and care in childhood, one develops weaknesses | 30:34 | |
for which he is not responsible and has no responsibility. | 30:39 | |
Now all of these are irresponsible approaches and tend | 30:45 | |
to produce a rationale for irresponsibility. | 30:50 | |
I was trained under Mike Dougal and Ryan | 30:57 | |
at this great institution, | 31:01 | |
in some of the techniques and psychology counseling. | 31:04 | |
And in my ministry, I've listened for thousands of hours, | 31:09 | |
and literally to thousands of people. | 31:12 | |
To words and woes and complaining and despair of people | 31:16 | |
who are caught in some hell trap of life. | 31:21 | |
But with no single exception it seems to be, | 31:26 | |
with every case that I can recall right now, | 31:31 | |
what each person that I remember counseling needed, | 31:34 | |
in every case was the decision to become | 31:39 | |
a responsible person. | 31:43 | |
Lacking this, they were caught up in the hell traps | 31:45 | |
and the hell situations of life and were helpless. | 31:51 | |
With this they could have been made capable, creative, | 31:56 | |
responsible people. | 32:04 | |
Now the 60s, you're caught up now in times between | 32:09 | |
the 60s and the 70s. | 32:13 | |
This has been the decade of paradox. | 32:17 | |
You know all of my life I've never seen a decade | 32:20 | |
so paradoxical. | 32:23 | |
The 60s was a decade of confrontation | 32:26 | |
between nations and between peoples and classes | 32:30 | |
within the nation. | 32:32 | |
A time of declining civility, mounting instability, | 32:35 | |
wars abroad, and violence at home, student revolution, | 32:42 | |
drugs and the flower generation, the new sex morality, | 32:49 | |
the generation gap, which became a generation castle, | 32:56 | |
and tie whatever is established, poverty, urbanization, | 33:02 | |
pollution, popullution, you name it and we've had it. | 33:09 | |
Well now you have to contrast this in this very same decade. | 33:15 | |
In America, it's a decade of the greatest achievements, | 33:21 | |
in all the history of the world. | 33:25 | |
We have developed a trillion dollar economy. | 33:29 | |
People have never had more than necessities of life, food, | 33:34 | |
clothing, shelter, income. | 33:38 | |
There's a great desire for peace. | 33:42 | |
We have the technical know how now to produce | 33:45 | |
the necessities of life for the population many, | 33:48 | |
many times larger than the present population. | 33:51 | |
With few exceptions there is international goodwill | 33:55 | |
and sincere efforts are being made | 33:58 | |
toward cooperation everywhere. | 34:01 | |
It is not a perfect situation, | 34:04 | |
but never in my lifetime have all the people been given | 34:07 | |
the opportunity to share in all the good things of life | 34:11 | |
as today. | 34:14 | |
The changes in the last 20 years are incredible. | 34:16 | |
And these have been the years since I left the university. | 34:21 | |
20 years ago, North Carolina Indians could not enter | 34:25 | |
the University of North Carolina, | 34:28 | |
today they can without discrimination. | 34:30 | |
Black people could not enter Duke University, | 34:35 | |
today they can and do with financial | 34:37 | |
and academic concessions I never knew | 34:40 | |
when I was a student here. | 34:42 | |
I remember working 15 years ago in an office | 34:45 | |
by now the Bishop James Thomas. | 34:49 | |
He was a black man. I was a white man. | 34:53 | |
We flew into Nashville one day, into Memphis one day, | 34:56 | |
and we were there for two hours and we had to have lunch. | 35:00 | |
I could go in the dining room and eat, | 35:04 | |
Dr. Thomas could not. | 35:08 | |
There's no place anywhere now where that situation exists. | 35:11 | |
And we must not look at the problem, always, | 35:16 | |
we ought to be looking now at some of the progress made | 35:20 | |
and see to it that this progress keep moving | 35:25 | |
in the right direction. | 35:28 | |
In this decade, technology and disciplined character | 35:30 | |
came to the level of greatest achievement | 35:33 | |
when man landed on the moon. | 35:35 | |
Now this was not accidental. | 35:38 | |
It was not achieved by happenstance nor indolence, | 35:41 | |
nor the oozing love of the hippie. | 35:45 | |
Nor by riding disruptive practices | 35:48 | |
of a small minority of you, both of whom ignore | 35:50 | |
the value of, and the necessity for discipline | 35:53 | |
and responsible living. | 35:56 | |
This was achieved as the result of technology | 35:59 | |
and disciplined character at their best. | 36:04 | |
And it was not accidental. | 36:09 | |
Now this is true and necessary | 36:13 | |
in every worthwhile achievement. | 36:15 | |
That is the importance therefore of discipline. | 36:19 | |
And we've almost forgotten this, it's almost a nasty word. | 36:22 | |
You're just, don't say it in polite society. | 36:27 | |
But man is created for the disciplined life. | 36:31 | |
The universe is disciplined and dependable. | 36:35 | |
There is integrity in every atom. | 36:40 | |
There is fidelity in every wavelength. | 36:43 | |
The brutal hard facts of the law of gravity | 36:48 | |
and the persistent facts of the law of the harvest, | 36:51 | |
we disregarded our own peril. | 36:54 | |
We've lived long enough now to test the validity of, | 36:57 | |
and the necessity for discipline | 37:01 | |
if we want to achieve the best. | 37:03 | |
We know now that premarital sexual promiscuity | 37:07 | |
can never lay the foundation for a secure home | 37:11 | |
nor produce happy marriage. | 37:15 | |
We know that poor study habits | 37:18 | |
can never produce great scholars. | 37:20 | |
We know that erratic half hearted practice | 37:23 | |
never produces great musician. | 37:26 | |
Many great musicians were born, | 37:30 | |
probably who never became great musicians | 37:32 | |
because of a lack of practice and discipline. | 37:35 | |
Maybe the will of God was for them to be a great musician | 37:39 | |
but they never developed it. | 37:43 | |
I heard the story and the saw Arthur Rubinstein | 37:46 | |
not too long ago in a radio pro, in a television program | 37:49 | |
with a story of his life. | 37:53 | |
He had a handicap when he was a young fellow in music, | 37:56 | |
his fingers were big, too big to get down | 38:00 | |
between the black keys. | 38:03 | |
And Arthur Rubinstein had to overcome this handicap, | 38:06 | |
but he did. | 38:10 | |
And with that overcoming he developed a discipline | 38:12 | |
which made him one of the world's great. | 38:15 | |
And near the end of that story he said, | 38:19 | |
"The secret of my achievement is, I have lived all my life | 38:23 | |
humbly on my knees before music. | 38:30 | |
That's the secret." | 38:36 | |
Now whatever the realm, one does not have to have a lot, | 38:40 | |
but he has to completely commit what he has if he's going | 38:46 | |
to achieve what he ought. | 38:52 | |
Now will you let me, I'm supposed to have three points | 38:56 | |
to a sermon, I was taught that a long time ago. | 38:59 | |
And I'm going to mention the point, but not to dwell on it. | 39:03 | |
Will you let me mention the third? | 39:07 | |
And that's the importance in all of this business | 39:09 | |
of becoming, of making the commitment | 39:12 | |
of whatever you have to the highest you know, | 39:17 | |
and giving your total self to him. | 39:24 | |
Now this is where you come in personally. | 39:29 | |
No one can bet your commitment for you, | 39:32 | |
nor finally determine your loyalty. | 39:35 | |
But I would say this morning that the most important thing | 39:38 | |
for all of us is, that week commit our lives to Christ | 39:42 | |
and his purposes. | 39:48 | |
And that this commitment is sufficiently honest | 39:50 | |
and total to sustain us in all life situations | 39:55 | |
where the lines are drawn. | 40:02 | |
It is possible that you have been caught up | 40:04 | |
in a humanitarian activism, which agitates | 40:07 | |
but does not deepen your commitment, | 40:12 | |
which excites for the moment but does not motivate | 40:15 | |
nor sustain you in the crisis. | 40:18 | |
The most tragic thing I've seen in my lifetime | 40:22 | |
is the person who goes before he's come. | 40:27 | |
Who goes without the resources to bind him up. | 40:31 | |
And in that beautiful prayer this morning, | 40:36 | |
we not only need to know that God is our friend, | 40:39 | |
but we need to know that underneath us | 40:42 | |
and all we are striving to do | 40:46 | |
are the everlasting resources of God, | 40:49 | |
and they're hours because we've committed our lives to him. | 40:54 | |
Now the most important matter then is to have you vote, | 40:59 | |
vote rationally and sincerely, brought your life to Christ | 41:07 | |
and kept it there in an integrity, | 41:11 | |
constant integrity relationship until his integrity | 41:14 | |
and his strength possesses your life. | 41:19 | |
If this is true, you may go into the confidence | 41:23 | |
and the strength which will hold you steady | 41:27 | |
in every life or death situation. | 41:29 | |
If it is not true, you're going maybe a tragic path, | 41:32 | |
how feudal to go before you come to him and remained there | 41:39 | |
until you have his nature and his power, | 41:44 | |
and you're aware of the fact that you were doing his work | 41:48 | |
and that you must have his power? | 41:51 | |
There's a song which we sing sometimes, | 41:53 | |
which raises this question. | 41:56 | |
Are you able said the master to be crucified with me? | 41:58 | |
Now there's a prior question that must be asked, | 42:02 | |
and that is, are you willing to be made able? | 42:06 | |
Maybe you're nodding, but are you willing to be made able? | 42:14 | |
I believe the whole creation of God, | 42:22 | |
and this includes us as individuals | 42:25 | |
and it includes all the creation of God. | 42:27 | |
I believe all of this creation is moving toward something | 42:29 | |
beyond our imagination even. | 42:35 | |
And Malcolm had said it in a good word | 42:39 | |
when he says three things must man possess | 42:43 | |
if his soul would live and no life perfect, good. | 42:47 | |
Three things would the all supplying father give, | 42:51 | |
bread, beauty and brother. | 42:56 | |
And it said of Jesus, and he increased in wisdom | 43:03 | |
and in stature, and in favor with God and man. | 43:07 | |
And that same thing ought to be said about every one of us, | 43:14 | |
every day of our life. | 43:20 | |
Amen. | 43:25 | |
(bright music) | 43:33 | |
(melodic music) | 47:49 | |
(bright music) | 51:14 | |
- | Almighty God, we stand here now in thy presence, | 52:32 |
to dedicate this offering and our lives, | 52:36 | |
to making this world what it is you would have it to be. | 52:40 | |
That this money and these lives may help society | 52:46 | |
to become what Christ died for. | 52:50 | |
We ask in his name. | 52:54 | |
Now may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with us all. | 53:00 | |
(Bright music) | 53:10 | |
(indistinct) | 55:18 |
Item Info
The preservation of the Duke University Libraries Digital Collections and the Duke Digital Repository programs are supported in part by the Lowell and Eileen Aptman Digital Preservation Fund