Eric Ludy Sermon Podcast: Church at Ellerslie

WARNING: This message contains forthright and unabashed answers to very uncomfortable questions and in no way is politically correct. This month is Breast Cancer Awareness month, and thusly our country is lacquered in pink and laced with pink ribbons. There is every corporate and political advantage to "pink-wash" your product or campaign. How should a Christian deal with this issue? Should we leverage this cause to our advantage? Should we be marked with pink, race for the cure, and seek the united power of human compassion? Or should we be marked by something greater?

There is a strange paranoia in the modern church regarding the idea of spiritual "work." To lift a finger in spiritual labor has been classified as "legalism" by many, and of course, none of us wish to be legalists. The key to removing the paranoia is to clearly define "God's work" as contrasted with “the believer's work." For the problem of legalism arises when believers attempt to do God's work instead of their work as assigned clearly by God for them to be doing. So the question is, “What is God's work and what is the believer's work?” The answer to that simple question may very well set you free.

To join God's armed forces, God asks of his soldiers that everything precious to them be left behind—father, mother, wife, and even children. Everything must be counted loss. And the recruit must realize that sorrow and sufferings are guaranteed companions in the ensuing enlistment period. With such an extreme and high cost, why is it that countless multitudes of fighting men and women have counted it the highest privilege to serve this King in battle and gladly die for His fame to be spread? What is God giving His soldiers to cause them to forsake their bodies and blood for Him with such loving abandon? The answer to that question is the essence of the Gospel.

When we think of Jesus as a rock, most of us imagine a big lump of granite. But not all rock is created equal. And our God is no ordinary rock; He is the Rock of rocks. In Scripture, there is an amazing term utilized: “adamant.” This fascinating word is a wonderful invitation into a majestically expanded understanding of the strength and power of our almighty God.

Over and over again throughout Christian history, mighty men and women of God have singled out one very specific spiritual action as the "Christian secret" to their personal triumph and effectiveness in the kingdom of Heaven. Hudson Taylor, Leonard Ravenhill, A.W. Tozer, D.L. Moody, Oswald Chambers, John Bunyan, C.T. Studd, Amy Carmichael, Ian Thomas, and countless more all point to the very same thing. So, what is it?

Plain and simple: God builds heroes. He doesn't build self-centered egotists nor self-obsessed circus clowns—He builds men and women who have wholly forgotten themselves and are ready to spend and be spent for the glory of almighty God. And He calls such a masterpiece a "Christian."

The historic concept of "praying through" has gone missing in our modern- day version of Christianity. But "praying through" was the essence of the George Muller, Rees Howells, John Hyde, Hudson Taylor, William Booth, Leonard Ravenhill, C.T. Studd model for effectual fervent praying. How do we get this powerful, wrestling, persistent prayer back to the center of Christian life in our day?

We have a dorm wing on our Ellerslie Campus that we know as "The Etceteras Wing." It's a strange name, yes, but it has deep significance among us. In the early 1900's, the great missionary, C.T. Studd, coined the phrase "The Etceteras" when referring to the men and women called to give up their lives as death-defying missionaries. And to be quite frank, Studd's description of what makes up an "Etcetera" is something that each and every one of us on the Ellerslie campus longs to see formed within our souls. It is our hope that we might brush off the dust from the term "The Etceteras" and give this hallowed title a fresh run in this modern day.

The Old Ground is the place where lame walk and blind see. It's the place where the poor and the least are seen as royalty. It's the place where a handful of fish and bread feed a multitude of hungry. It's the place where helpless little lambs gain the faces of lions and march victoriously on the gates of hell. It's the place of God's presence in a flame of fire. It's holy ground. The Old Ground is the ancient message of the Gospel, and oh, how dearly it is needed in our day.

The Irish Elk once roamed the forests of Eurasia, boasting a head over ten feet in height and a rack of antlers that sprawled twelve feet in width. Even the thought of such a creature elicits awe and admiration. But the Irish Elk is no more. It is extinct. And its grandeur is merely a thing of legend and its rack of glory is now only an entry in the fossil record. And like the Irish Elk, a brawny, lionhearted, outrageously triumphant form of Christianity once roamed planet earth. But as of today, it's become only a thing of legend and its rack of glory has been isolated to merely the pages of Scriptural text. It’s time this rack of glory returns!