Hello, and welcome to Folly's End Podcast, a
podcast created to plant the Word of God into
your heart, giving you the tools you need to
lead a life full of the abundance Jesus said
he came to give us all. That's John 10, verse
10. I'm Gareth Cox, and today we're going into
the Folly's End archive, and are revisiting part
two of the message from our founder, David Marquis,
on the subject of worship. This teaching was
first recorded live back in 2010 at the Lost
Glory School of Ministry. Let's continue to listen
now. Jesus took a lot of chances as he reached
out to people. He put himself in the most awkward
situations, allowed himself to go into sinners
and tax collectors' houses, you know, and eat
with them. Gosh, I mean, that was absolutely
forbidden, verboten. in Israel at that time.
And he just absolutely cut across the whole blooming
thing. Why? Because he loved people and he wanted
to reach them. Christianity is not about living
safely and taking no risks. Okay, it's not about
that. If that's what you wanted to do, forget
it, become something else. Christianity is about
divinity, the spirit of God. becoming flesh in
us. When Jesus came as a little baby, he took
on our sinful nature. And he allowed himself
to come here to this planet, to live amongst
sinners, even though he was divine and pure.
He became defiled like no other human being had
ever been defiled before by the sin of the world
on the cross. He became so filthy in God's sight
and God's eyes that God removed his presence,
which is why he said, why have you forsaken me
on the cross? Christianity is not, holiness is
not about being squeaky clean and living righteous
and never taking any chances. Holiness is about
hanging on a cross for somebody else. Taking
that risk, putting yourself on the line for somebody
else. Why? So that it could rescue us. Somebody
once said, we put far too much emphasis on Satan's
ability to deceive us and not enough on God's
ability to lead us into new things. God's more
powerful, no question about that. Satan, yes,
he'll try and mess it up, okay. You don't always
see what he's doing. When you do, then you just
change your mind and walk the other way, okay?
If you suddenly realize that you've been in a
bit of a battle, well, praise the Lord. At least
you know it. Some people walk about there in
the street. I mean, I saw two of them tonight.
They have the clue that they're being got at
all the time. Not clue. So we're fortunate because
we do realize, even though sometimes it's painful
to realize that, and it's not because you're
a bad person. that that happens to you, it's
just because we're in a battle. And the enemy
is no respect for persons and he takes his opportunity
wherever he can. Maybe we should just try and
move. Well, I think the church needs to move
its lines back a little bit. What's acceptable
and what's not. Thankfully, we don't have too
much of a problem here, but don't let's... Pat
ourselves on the back too soon because we've
all got a bit of religion. My favorite definition
of balance comes from the picture of a tightrope
walker in the circus or the man crossing Niagara
Falls. The balance comes from walking a tight
line but embracing as far out as you can. It's
the ability to embrace all valid extremes. Key
word being valid. The ability to embrace all
valid extremes. Okay? That's a good definition
of balance. In other words, there's nothing that
is forbidden to us unless it leads us into trouble.
Some people can handle the most sinful situations,
and because of the presence of the Lord, they
can keep themselves pure in that situation. Okay?
That for them is a valid extreme. But many Christians
say, oh, you can't go to a strip club and you
can't do this, you can't, bloody, bloody, bloody.
Some Christians I know have got a ministry to
strip clubs. You know? That's a valid extreme.
The more you're able to embrace these extremes,
the valid extremes, the more balanced you are
as a person. Just to let you know, in the couple
of hundred years ago when we actually invented
universities, what we didn't actually, it was
the Czech people. Discovery in this nation was
all the new things, the new things where people
took risks to discover New things in medicine
and engineering and art and you know all the
rest of it all this new stuff chemistry Medicine
they took huge risks to do that and they did
it Because originally the universities I mean
Newton for instance was I believe is at Cambridge
They were originally Formed for the children
of very rich parents And what happened was that
they'd gone, my mummy and daddy had said, we
want you to be a lawyer or a doctor or something.
When they got to the university, if you remember
the universities like in a quadrangle, there'd
be a chapel, a library, dormitory, and an eating
place. And for the very first year, every one
of these students, they were refused entry into
the library. They could not study. They had to
spend their time in the chapel or in the dorms
or eating. And worship became the part of their
life so that they got so infused with the spirit
of God that God was able to then talk to them
about their destiny. And it's from there that
a lot of people changed their studies to do what
they were really made for. Now that's been a
system that has been totally lost in the nations.
But that was a wonderful, wonderful thing and
it was out of those sort of things that things
like gravity and penicillin and all the rest
of it were all, you know, in fact because they
had revelation from the Lord. They'd been built
up so much to be able to receive revelation from
the Lord. Isn't that wonderful? Whereas today
you go to university, I mean, look at it. I mean,
for goodness sake, it's a big drinking sex club
in many ways, in many areas. It really is. It
just totally ruins the kid. It's also anti -faith.
I've known a lot of students that have gone there
and actually lost their faith. They've gone there
as Christians and actually lost their faith.
Unity in diversity is what God wants. That's
where the name university came from. Unity in
diversity. The greatest thing we can do to promote
that sense of unity amongst us, knowing that
we're all different. knowing that we all have
different gifts, we all have different abilities.
Now, there was a... This is all about worship,
by the way. That's a worshipful attitude. Let
me just talk a little bit about inner healing
that we talk about a lot. When you come into
the kingdom, your mind is pretty carnal. Okay,
it thinks on worldly patterns. And the Bible
urges us to be renewed in the spirit of our minds
so that we can tell what's good and bad. You
know, when somebody's gentler and gentled down
and learned a little bit of wisdom and all the
rest of it. There could still be fiery people
because that's their personality, but it makes
people a lot easier to get on with the more we...
In fact, the Mennonites, which was a very powerful
bunch of Christians in Europe said the inner
healing makes some leaders easier to follow.
Okay. Let's talk about your time during the week,
Monday through Saturday. You know what happens
here on a Sunday? But if you own the biblical
fact, that we're a priesthood of all believers.
And doesn't mean to say you walk about with a
dog collar. Give me a break. But you're a priest.
The priesthood of all believers were all called
as Christians to belong to a worldwide body of
priesthood. And if you own that biblical truth
in your life, that makes your occupation a ministry.
If you own that biblical truth of the priesthood
of all believers, it makes your occupation a
ministry, not just a job. I don't believe a Christian
can ever have a secular job. It's a ministry.
You're there for God and for others. My spiritual
dad, John Sanford, said this. He said, those
people who find rest in the Father's love can
be used by him to work healing throughout the
nations by one of the most effective forms of
prayer. That is burden bearing, okay? Burden
bearing intercession. I know John carried tremendous
burdens for America. And as a, as a Kree Indian,
he gets into his cultural deal and he'll, he'll
woken, holler and dance about and be, oh, he
got all of that business. But he's, he's interceding
in his, this is cultural and he does intercede
for America. He's had some remarkable, remarkable
answers to prayer. Imagine what could happen,
he says, in every region, every church and every
country if the Lord were to raise up an elite
core of adept burden barriers, intercessory prayer
warriors. This is worship. How much misery could
be eased? What changes would take place? among
religious, political and ethnic groups, how much
healing of the nations might result from people.
And where does it start? It starts with worship.
Here you have the key, the open heaven, the key.
And so I would encourage you to think a little
bit more perhaps about this. How can I bless
the Lord on a Sunday? Instead of looking forward
to coming to church because I'm seeing my mate,
there's nothing wrong with that at all and it's
lovely and God wants you to love your mate. That's
what he says. He says, love each other as I've
loved you. How do I know I'm loving you God?
Well, you're loving me by loving that person.
That's how you love me. But if we come to church
with the idea that we're gonna bring ourselves
to God as a holy and fragrant offering. That's
the start of our worship. And it goes throughout
the week. It really does, it just does finish.
Can you separate prayer from worship? Well, not
in the Bible you can't. They go hand in hand,
but they're separated in many of our churches.
Many of our congregations, I've talked about
hours in this nation. Worship comes before everything.
It's our primary purpose. Luther said, it's not
theology that makes God happy. It's your worship
that makes him happy. I mean, for instance, do
you think God's got anything out of this talk
from me tonight? No. Think he knows a little
bit more about about it than I do you bet But
he gets a lot out of out of me worshipping him
and living this all alone How can we pray without
being worshipful how can we worship without praying
we can't He who sings prays twice There was a
huge revival in Toronto in 1994. And a theologian
said to the leader of that congregation, he said,
gosh, you must have prayed a lot for this. He
said, we haven't prayed at all. He said, oh,
yes, you have. He said, you've been singing your
intercession before the Lord. What's the problem?
Problem is probably a lack of passion. Passion
being the number one missing component. Why don't
more people come to church? Because they've been
once, somewhere. And it's flipping boring. They're
boring and they're irrelevant. We do not address
issues. Why would you want to go back there?
Our meetings in many places in this nation are
passionless and graceless. Where does that passion
come from? It comes from the ability to forgive.
It comes from receiving the Lord's forgiveness
for me so that I can pass that on to you. He
who has been forgiven much loves much, the Bible
says. So if you know you've been forgiven a lot,
that is gonna produce a lot of love in you. He
who has been forgiven a lot loves a lot. Where
does the compassion come from? When Jesus prayed
for healing He prayed with compassion for the
person. What's compassion? It's the ability to
see from the other person's perspective. The
ability to see from the other person's perspective.
Jesus never put them down. He always tried to
find a way to reach that person. For instance
some people I've been Christians a long time.
They've been they were brought up. I was talking
to David today about my youngest daughter who's
never known a time when she was living In an
ungodly household Ever since being born she was
born into a Christian family. She was the only
one of my daughters actually that had that privilege
well if you ask her whether she's kept yourself
together, you'd probably see that by our life.
But then if you ask her if she's had a lot to
be forgiven of, she would say yes. Yes, I have.
Not necessarily what I've done. You know, it's
probably some of my attitudes. If you haven't
had a dramatic, some people here have had a dramatic
conversion to the Lord. I did. But if I hadn't
have done, how can I gain this compassion? Well,
go and get involved in somebody else's reality.
Somebody who's worse off than you are. Get involved
with somebody else's bad reality, okay? You'll
soon learn. We are told to come to God as a child.
That doesn't mean to say childish, because we're
grown -ups. But as a child, what does a child
do? What's the thing that a child does before
it gets messed about with? It trusts. That child
trusts is the number one attribute of a youngster.
They trust you for everything they've got to.
And that openness to learn, the openness to see,
the openness to experience and the openness to
trust is what God is talking about when He says
to you and me, come as a child, come as a child.
God is more capable of leading us into truth
than the devil is of leading us into error. So
don't worry about that. Just keep your focus
on the Lord. and it'll be okay.