We're going to have a good talk today. A good
heart -to -heart talk. We're just talking about
something that concerns every blessed one of
us. I said to someone the other day, at the close
of a busy day, and it was just spontaneous. You
know, I said, it's the strangest thing just when
a person gets ready to leave this old world.
you realize that you're starting to learn how
to live. I'd give anything in the world if right
now I could impart all the knowledge about living
that I have had to learn and have had to learn
through bitter experiences and hard knocks. To
everybody that I know. If I could only help you.
That you would not have to go through some of
the things that I have gone through. If I could
save you. Some of those tears that you're going
to have to shed. Some of those heartaches. Some
of those heartbreaks. Here I am. I've spent years
living. And when I stop and take inventory, it's
only during the past five, six, or seven years
that I can honestly say that I've started to
learn how to live. What's the most important
thing that you and I can do in this life? This
is the answer. The most important thing is to
learn how to live. Life on Earth. is a very precious
possession. And the thing is, it doesn't last
very long. Not really. Not even for the man or
the woman who lives to be 80, 83, 85, 87. Kind
of a precious gentleman. A very precious gentleman
in Los Angeles who celebrated his 100th... I
dare say if you would talk to him, he would say
that even a hundred years on this earth seems
very short. No, beloved. It doesn't last very
long. And life on earth is a precious, a very
precious possession. And why do we have it? Our
great privilege is to do the best we can with
it. I don't admire anyone who does not want to
do the best he can with his life here on Earth.
I don't think he has the admiration of anyone.
A strange thing about life is that everybody
has to live it for himself. You simply cannot
hand it down to... Someone else. You can't do
it. You simply cannot. Parents live. They acquire
wisdom. They try to hand this wisdom down to
their children, and then what happens? The children
may take some of it, but some of it they neglect
or turn aside from. And so they make the same
old mistakes that their parents made. And then
they get burnt and hurt just as their parents
did. And when they get to be parents, their children
do the same thing. They had the same experience.
You can't do it. You simply cannot give somebody
else the wisdom that you have received. You can
try. That's one thing I've had to learn. It's
been a hard lesson for me to learn. I try to
live somebody else's life for them. I try to
save them from the pitfalls. I try to give them
the wisdom that I have learned from these pitfalls.
But you can go just so far and no further. You
can give advice. You can talk with folk, but
they have got to learn for themselves. It's just
like that. It's seen that the wisdom the human
race runs out with every generation for each
person has to acquire for himself. The success
or the failure of your life depends upon how
much of it you get. Some people never know how
to live. They never learn how to live. They never
learn no matter how old they get. They know as
little about it when they finish as when they
start. It's a sad fact. And they are the ones
who mess up their own lives. And when we consider...
most of us bring all of our troubles on ourselves.
Right now I'm talking to somebody who's right
in the middle of a mess. How do I know? I know
from the prayer requests you send in to me. I
know all about you because you've told me. You
buried your soul, your life, in those prayer
requests. And when I analyze most, of your troubles,
perhaps so close to you, you don't realize it,
but for someone who's further from them, you'll
have to admit you've gotten yourself into the
mess that you're in. You brought your trouble
on yourself to the lack of wisdom, or perhaps
from the lack of knowledge, but mostly from the
ability of not knowing how to live. Now the secret
of life is not in books. It's not in a thought
pattern. The secret of how to live is in the
identification of oneself with a person. The
one person of all people who really knew How
to live. And that one is Jesus Christ. I can
go to him and get the answer as to how to live.
You don't get it out of books. Do you want to
know how I know that you can't get it out of
books? Because here's the author. He's written
a masterpiece on how to live. Oh, it sounds good
on paper. It sounds so logical, and you say,
I found the answer. But you know, if you start
digging down into the author's life, you'll find
out that that which he has written is only on
paper. Own life is such a mess. But there's one.
There is one, my friend, who has the answer.
That one is Jesus Christ. And the secret of how
to live is in the identification of oneself with
a person. Jesus. Now, who is Jesus? Is he a misty
figure? To lots of people he is. To a lot of
folk, Jesus is only a misty figure. Away out
someplace they're not quite sure where. They
see him in stained glass windows where he's...
given a kind of ethereal look. And he seems to
them to be so remote, so far away from human
people today. Jesus is the Son of God. Jesus
is the Savior of mankind. But he is even more
than that. How could he be more than that? He
is. I promise you he is. He is even more than
the very son of the living God. He is more than
a religious figure, as important as that is.
Jesus is the personification of that tremendous
thing that's called the life force, the universal
mind, out of which we come, part of which we
are. in which we find life in its fullness. And
when you get aboard the life force and the life
force gets into you, then you really learn how
to live. And that's the answer. I always thrill
to something. The words of Paul when he's standing
there on Mars Hill. It's recorded over here in
the 17th chapter of Acts. I read a portion. God
that made the world and all things therein, seeing
that he is the Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth
not in temples made with hands, neither is worship
with men's hands as though he needed anything,
seeing he giveth to all life and breath and all
things. And it's made of... one blood all nations
of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth
and hath determined the times before appointed
and the bounds of their habitation that they
should seek the lord if haply they might feel
after him and find him though he be not far from
every one of us and then it comes for in him
We live and move and have our being. For in him
we live and move. He is the mighty creator. He
is the one who gives life. We live through his
mercy. But few, comparatively few, had their
being. in him is practical. There's a young man
that I know who works for one of the finest engineering
companies here in the city of Pittsburgh. Something
happened the other day that was very thrilling
to me. He received the highest award possible.
because of his great sales ability. In fact,
he was such a genius at selling that his company,
which is internationally known, sent a psychiatrist
from New York City to study him, to be with him,
to see just what was the secret The psychiatrist
stayed with Jess for several days. And then,
before going back to New York, he had to write
out his report. And turning to Jess, he said,
Just what is your secret? And Jess smiled and
said, Just this innocent little child. Jesus
Christ. He said, what? Yeah. Jesus Christ? He
said to Jess, what actually did the man put on
his report, the psychiatrist? When he went back
to New York, he said, I saw the report, and on
it was written, religious convictions. But what
was it? Jess had learned the secret. Not only,
beloved, to live, to have life in Christ Jesus.
Not only dependent on him for physical existence,
but he had found the secret of having his Being
in a person. The very son of the living God.
And the secret of how to live is in the identification
of oneself with a person. The one person. Jesus
Christ. The very son of God.