Thank you, Dr. Jones. Now, can we take our Bibles and turn away to the first book of Samuel, chapter eighteen? And in our scripture reading, we are moving a little deeper into this great story in David's life. One Samuel, chapter eighteen, verse one. And it came to pass When David had made an end of speaking unto Saul, that the soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul. And Saul took him that day and would let him go no more home to his father's house. Then Jonathan and David made a covenant because he loved him as his own soul. Jonathan stripped himself. of the robe that was upon him and gave it to David, and his garments, even to his sword, and to his bow, and to his girdle. David went out with us, however, Saul sent him and behaved himself wisely. Saul set him over the men of war, and he was accepted in the sight of all the people, and also in the sight of Saul's servants. Verse twenty-eight as the chapter closes. And Saul saw and knew that the Lord was with David, and that Michael, Saul's daughter, loved David. Saul was yet the more afraid of David, and Saul became David's enemy continually. Then the princes of the Philistines went forth, and it came to pass after they went forth that David behaved himself more wise given all the servants of Saul. so that his name was much set by. I pause there and just point out that the word set by, the margin in my Bible tells me that the Hebrew word is precious. And it should read or could read much pressure. Well, you know that that's not good English. So we've got to change the word much to very And the chapter closes with these words so that David's name was very precious. Now chapter nineteen verse one. And Saul said to Jonathan his son and to all his servants that they should kill David. But Jonathan's son delighted much in David. And Jonathan told David, saying, Saul my father seeketh to kill thee. Now therefore I pray thee take heed to thyself until the morning and abide in a secret place and hide thyself. Now my dear friends I want you and I want myself to put our own lives right into this old, old story. And as we picture Jonathan and David and the deepening of their love story, I want you again and again to see yourself in relationship to your Lord Jesus, the lover of your soul, David's greatest son. And as we move into the story, I want you to test your heart. Has my love story moved forward, deepening? Am I writing a love story that will be worth telling by and by? These two men never dreamt that here at Southern Hedges, we would be going over their story thousands of years afterwards. And I don't think many of us have grasped yet that we are writing a love story down in this old world that's going to be told and retold around the campfires in the hills of glory in the great future. We shall look back to a little planet called the world where we were born in sin, into Adam's race. And a great lover of souls came down to battle our foes and win our salvation, and make his great proposal, give me thy heart, and he captured our lives. And most of you, I hope, We'll be able to say, yes, I can start with the awakening of love. Chapter one, I can look back to the happy day when I fell in love with Jesus and view him as my Savior. And I've entered into the covenant of love. Chapter two, I'm not my own. I'm a bloodbought man. I'm a bloodbought woman. I just can't live selfishly. I can't just live as I like. I belong to the Lord Jesus. Now it's our task today to forge chapters three and four. And so I'm turning you to the fourth verse of chapter eighteen, and I want you to catch this picture. And Jonathan stripped himself of the road that was upon him and gave it to David, and his garments even to his sword and to his bow and to his girdle. What an amazing picture. The prince, perhaps over thirty years of age, the shepherd boy still in his teens or perhaps the boy in his early twenties, and as they look into each other's faces with deep love that's knitting them together, Jonathan instinctively, he can't explain it, begins to strip himself and off comes his robe and then his garment and then his sword and then his bow and then his inner girdle down onto a pile of the feet of David. And of course we are going to call this the sacrifice of love. Love is always lavish and it wants to give to the loved one. In fact as a definition of sacrifice I have put down these words which mean much to me. Sacrifice is the joy of giving the best you have to the one you love the most. And if you will meet Christians around the world and you will say to them, Dr. So and so in the Congo, young lady in the Amazon jungle, Wickless translator in the heart of Peru. What a sacrifice your life is. They will smile and say, oh, no, don't use the word sacrifice. I've just laid my resources and what I have at the loved one's feet. I wouldn't exchange it for anything. Oh, the privilege of being able to lay something at the feet of the one I love. You know, Jim Elliott, the precious young life that was killed by Alka Spears, wrote in his diary those words that have come historic. He said, He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose. And any life and any resources laid at the feet of the Lord Jesus. What a wonderful privilege it is. But we are going to call this chapter, rightly or wrongly, the sacrifice of love. Now let's look at the things that Jonathan laid at the feet of David. First of all, his robe. And never forget, it was a princely robe. He was born in the palace. He was the king's son. And this royal robe was on his shoulders. And he takes the royal robe off and lays it at the shepherd's boy's seat. Now, may I suggest that the robe, the outer garment, speaks of our position. I don't want to be silly or funny, but we may all wear the same underclothes and no one knows who we are. But when it comes to the outer garment, you can very often tell the status of a man or a woman their position by the outer garment. For instance, I'm going along the road and all of a sudden I see a car sliding alongside and I'm sort of tyrant into the curb and I look round and I see by the outer road that it's a police officer. And immediately I say, what have I done? I don't ask who he is and who employs him, he's outer John. Speak to me and I know he's the representative of the law. He's a police officer. I see a precious girl going along the street and I look at her and I see she's dressed in white and she's got the nurse in uniform and there's no need to go up to her and ask what her job is. She's a busy little nurse tending the sick. And largely in life it is the outer robe that portrays our position. Now it's a challenging question. Have you ever laid your position at the feet of Jesus? Have you ever taken the robe of your life, that position that you have gained and hold in life and gladly in surrender and sacrifice laid it at his feet? Oh, I tell you, it's one of the throwing things around the world to meet Christians who've done this. Let me pick out one or two illustrations. I was talking about a police officer. Some years ago, I had the great joy of meeting for the first time Captain Jensen, New York City police officer. And I hadn't met him for half an hour without realizing that here was a man who had climbed up to a position in the police, but he had laid his robe at the feet of Jesus. Gladly. I remember meeting at Boca Raton, Ronnie Avalon, a great Italian singer who used to sing in opera and on the stage and When he was a bit down on his luck, he went out to sell. And as he tramped through New York City, he happened to pass by a house, and he saw a man doing his shade. The summer was coming up. And Ronnie was selling shades, and he said, Do you want these shades? And the man looked down. He said, No, he said, Mine are in good condition. I'm just getting them right for the hot weather. Oh, he said, I see. And they began to talk. And Captain Jensen said to him, as he looked with a coveting eye upon that Italian singer, he didn't know he had this great voice at the moment. And he said to him, Look here, would you like to sit here and have a cup of coffee with me? The Mrs. is making one just now. And as they got him in the house and around a cup of coffee, Captain Jensen led... Ronnie Avalon to Jesus Christ the Savior. And he went back home and he told his little wife, his charming little wife the story, and she was mad to think that he had gone fanatical that way, but thank God very, very soon she bowed to me to the same precious Savior, a living Savior, and to hear Ronnie and his little wife singing the great gospel message together is one of the experiences that lives in my memory. a police officer who laid his robe at the feet of Jesus. His position. I talked about a nurse just now, and there comes to mind a precious nurse in Jamaica, Nurse Buchanan, a surgical nurse working with a surgeon in Montego Bay Hospital, and a lovely Christian girl. We were having a campaign in that city of Montego Bay and night after night, Nurse Buchanan was dating the other nurses and actually engaging a taxi to pick them up at the nurses' home and bring them up to the meetings. And one night we went to bed and about two in the morning we heard a tremendous noise and an awful crash and a great big flare and one of these great jets. A Colombian jet crashed on our Montego Bay airport with great loss of life. People burned to death. And we went out in the morning and there was Nurse Buchanan working with the doctors, tangling the flesh, sorting out all sorts of stuff that they found in the refuge. And I said to my wife, I don't think we'll see Nurse Buchanan tonight at the meeting. Right up to midday she was there doing her gruesome work, her necessary work. And that night I got up to speak, gave out the hymn and prayer and hymn, and just as we were getting to our second hymn of this service, I saw a taxi come round the corner, and I saw Nurse Buchanan climb out. And then five nurses piled out after her, and they all came and sat in the meeting. And at the end, as we gave the invitation, I said, how many here tonight really want to get right with God? Would you like to stay and settle it? Two of those nurses stayed, and my wife had the joy of leaving one to Christ, and another sister led another to Christ. And as I went out of the door, I met Nurse Buchanan, and there was tiredness written all over her face, and I said, I didn't expect you at the meeting tonight. I know what an awfully busy early morning you had, and right through to midday. And a smile came to her face and she said, Oh, but isn't it worth it? And she looked back into the building and saw her two nursing companions being led to Christ. This is what it means to lay your position at the feet of Jesus. Just what you are. That position as a mother, a grandmother, a lady in the neighborhood, a businessman, a schoolmaster, a surgeon. Wherever God has put you in life, you gladly take the robe and lay it at the loved one's feet. You've never done that. It's a tremendous thing. I wonder if you would do it. I remember in one of the North Carolina towns, a lady came to me some years ago after a meeting, and she said, Mr. Wiley, I've got nothing I could give to Jesus. I don't seem to have any gifts. And I looked at her, a very precious little Tristan woman, and I said, have you got a family? She said, yes. I said, have you got a home? She said, yes. Have you ever thought of laying your home at the feet of Jesus? The chairs and the rug and the cushions and the lovely lounge. He said, what do you mean? Well, I said I was talking with a good brother just now, and he said that in the growing city there are suburbs teeming with children, and they play on the streets, and they have nowhere to go, and not much to do. And he said, Oh, he wished that there were homes open where children could gather. And I just wondered if you would ever let the Lord have your home and lay at his feet and say, Lord, it's a lovely home. I would love to use it for thy glory. Could you make him use of it? She said, but do you think the Lord could use my home? I said, I don't see why not. It's the right hour in the afternoon when the children are coming from school, the right hour when they are free. And I said, whether it's a Saturday morning or an evening at four thirty or just when it is, you could gather them in and have some lovely choruses. They love to learn choruses. And you could have some pictures and you could tell some Bible stories. And there are many servants of God who would love to come and help you. You know, two years afterwards I went back and an excited person came and touched me on the arm and she said, Would you come to our home and speak to the children? And I went and I saw what you don't know about. We call it in Jamaica and England a squash. Not enough seats to seat the people and the children were on cushions and sitting on the rug. And she didn't mind if they brought the little dirt onto her lovely carpet. And she didn't mind a bit if her cushions were crumpled. You see, she had laid at the feet of the stage her position as a housewife, a home builder. And the Lord was checking out his arms and lifting up little children in her home and bringing them to himself. This is the sacrifice of love. Now look at the next thing that went down on the pile. It was the garment. We are not told whether it was a coat or a shirt or what garments went, but one by one he took off his garments and he threw them on the pile. Now I wonder what that could speak of to our hearts. Garments. I wonder how many of you have noticed this, that whenever Paul is writing to his churches, his converts, let's pick out just one case, Colossians. He's writing to the church at Colossae. And in chapter two is it, or chapter three, he uses chapter three, these words. There's in verse one, if you're risen with Christ, seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set not your love, your affections. Set your affections on things above and not on things on the earth. For ye are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God. He goes on to verse eight. But now he also put off. Shift yourself and put off certain things. Now what is it? Anger, raw, malice, blasphemy, filthy communications out at your mouth. Lie not one to another. Put off the old man with his deeds. Then comes the alternative. Put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him. Whether it's neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor as the elect of God, holy and beloved, a heart of compassion, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long suffering." So he goes on with a list of things he had put off. Now the picture is just this. He says, you were born into the kingdom of darkness, you were born with Adam's nature, and Adam's nature had a wardrobe, your conduct, your behavior as a Christian. Now he said, put off the wardrobe of the flesh, and because you've been converted and your heart is passionate that I put on the garment of salvation, put on the wardrobe that will display Christ in his life. And again and again he's rubbing this in, put off, put off. Now I know you will forgive me, but the first time I had the joy of coming up from Jamaica to America, I went to Georgia. And in one of the big cities of Georgia, I was invited and came to a lovely home, one of the old colonial homes of Georgia. And the very gracious, lovable Christian man who welcomed us, he took us in and he said, now he said, make yourself a home. This is your home while you're here. And he said, this will be your room or your street. He said, you'll find a cupboard there where you can hang things up. He said, there's some hangers in there. At least I think there's some room in there. And he said, hang your things up and make yourself a toast. Well, we were unpacking bags. And I took out my one little extra coat, you know. You travel with two coats, the suits you're in. And the next to one, in case you get set it up or need it for another occasion, And I pulled back the drawers, and I looked aghast at a wardrobe. Now, I'm not criticizing, don't you think this? I should think there were at least twenty-five or thirty lovely suits there, from heavy ones to light topical ones. Oh, there were windbreakers and sports shirts, and it was just one great big mass of clothing. It was staggering to a poor missionary from the West Indies. to see the lavishness of the apparel enjoyed by prosperous America. Now, let's be frank about this. The garments of the flesh are all around you. You can see them everywhere. The conduct, the behavior of the old Adam, But if I've been born again and my heart is captured and I can say I love Christ and belong to Christ, I shall want to lay my garment at his feet. And my garment speak of my conduct, my behavior. Now do you know I find that young people who come to talk about their problems, they have many problems these days, I would say one out of every three come and they ask this question, Mr. Wildish, could you help? Now, is there any harm in doing this? Is there anything wrong in going there? And they're talking about their behavior, their conduct. And again and again, I find it's no use saying it's right or it's wrong. The only thing to do is to look into their faces and say to them, now look, have you laid the whole of your conduct, your behavior of the young Christian at the feet of the Lord? And you said, Lord, I want you so act. I want you so behave that you'll be pleased. I lay it at your feet. I wish I had a long time to develop this with you. But again and again I take them to three scriptures. I'll show you the scriptures I bring to the young people. Would you like to turn to one Corinthians? I found again and again it helps them. One Corinthians chapter six. You'll notice here two things, and then we'll move just one page to find the third. One Corinthians chapter six. Verse eleven. Such were some of you, but ye are washed. Ye are sanctified. Ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. Now, young person. All things are loyal unto me, and God's free men. But all things are not expedient. Is it expedient? I don't know what your margin says, but my margin gives a change of worth there. The word profitable. Young person, is it profitable? Life is all too short, the hours are all too few. Is it really profitable to go here, to do this? In your behavior and your conduct, can you look into his face and say, Lord, is it profitable? And I said, if you will bring that touchstone again and again, you will find your answer. If you look into his face, Lord, there are far more things, there are far better places, more profitable to me in every way than this or that. And I said, you will be able to decide with the Lord whether those things right or wrong. Now go on to the next verse. He says in verse twelve, all things are lawful unto me, but I will not be brought under the power of any. Well, what does this mean? Has it got power over me? It's lawful. I have a right to do it. No one has a right to dictate to me and say you must or mustn't. But is it something that could have power over me? What hurt my Christian life and testimony is spiritual growth. Now turn a page to chapter ten and verse twenty-three. And in one Corinthians ten verse twenty-three he adds something. He says, all things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient, profitable. That's the same. All things are lawful unto me, but all things edify not. Margin, all things build me not up. Does it build me up in the Christian faith? Does it make me a better Christian? And if you bring these three simple touchstones to all your conduct and behavior, you can't really go wrong. Are they profitable to me? Are they powerful over me? Are they edifying to me and to others around me? And very quickly in the Lord's presence, he shows us whether it's good or not. Now I would bear my heart to you this morning. I wonder if you would let me. Frankly, I see no reason why a Christian shouldn't read a good novel. But I remember the day in my life, looking back over the years, when I, who loved to read its touching book, with much imagination in them, something that trips you, had to face the fact. that novel reading was not profitable to me. It could rob me of a great deal of time, and it could not really help my spiritual life. I looked into his face and said, Lord, novel reading, that is the pure invention of a mind and exciting story with no real background of real truth or biography or anything like that, a mere novel. is something more that I'm going to verify. I'm going to blame others. They may read it, but I'm good. Now for the second one, has it got power over me? And I remember a day when I found that joke telling was having a power over me You know, my dearest friend down there in Jamaica is an American from Kansas City. Whenever we got together for missionary workers' conferences and at other times, he would have a joke. And all my instinct was to find a joke to cap it. And we would go on for half an hour with jokes, hooking with laughter, until I found I was toering up jokes and writing them out and trying to remember all the details. One day the Lord said, you know, honestly, that thing can have a power over you isn't really helpful to your spiritual life. Today I never try to remember a joke. I never try to tell a joke just to catch somebody else's. I love a joke. I will tell one if it comes to my mind in the right setting, but I don't want it to have time. When it comes to the third thing, are these things edifying to me and others one of the biggest temptations I've had in your loved America coming up here and serving God is at the end of a busy day to go to a hotel room tired and weary and just a little knob you can turn and you can be into a new world of television and course in your country you can change from channel to channel searching for something good or nice or decent or respectable but believe me the trash and the filth and the exaggeration and the falseness of life that pours out of that picture again and again I've had to after five or ten minutes turn it off and say this is not Eddie fine to me and I've had to let it be I'm not against these things. A good novel may do you good. A good joke may be wonderful. Television may give you many happy hours. All things are lawful, but every one of us have got to look into his face and say, my conduct, I let it like it. And I'm going to ask law, you to sanction it, to share it with me. No, I can't resist to tell you this story. It always catches my imagination. that there was a dear old couple many, many, many years ago named Mr. and Mrs. Lacks. And they were the parents of a Methodist minister, Lacks of Poplar, who did a great work in one of the teeming suburbs of England. And in one of his books, he tells in a humorous style about his old father and mother, godly old Methodist, who lived in the north of England, retired, went to Blackpool to live by the sea. One day they took the news sheet, the local news sheet, and they found out that there was going to be a wonderful thrilling happening in their town. Moving pictures were coming to the town hall. Now this makes you laugh. They had never seen anything moving. It was the old, teal, black and white pictures. We've got so used to our modern world that we can't think of people who've never seen moving pictures. But listen, cats and dogs would move. Men would go on bicycles along the street. Men would climb ladders. This was a fully new invention. Dear old Mr. Mrs. Bassett, oh, we must go down to the town hall and see it. It's only going to cost six pence, six cents. So that night they dressed up in their Sunday go-to meeting bed. And they went down and paid their six pence. And they walked in and took their seats to see this amazing advancement. And instinctively, dear Mrs. Lacks, took her seat and bowed in prayer. To ask God's blessing upon the evening that it might be happy and useful and the Lord would be with them in this wonderful new experience. And as she bowed in prayer, her husband, by her side, thanks her. My dear, you don't do that here. This isn't church. And she stiffened her old Victorian time. And she looked around and she said, John, have you brought me to a place where I can't ask the Lord to be with me and to bless this evening? John, if that's so, it's no place for us. I'm going home. And she got up and went up. with old John stalking after her. And they never saw the moving pictures. Not because there was anything wrong in moving pictures. Thank God for sermons from science. Thank God for visionary films. Thank God for many of the great portrayals on the screen. Nothing wrong in them. Here was an old-fashioned Christian who touched tone of life while in all her conduct and behavior. I want to share it with you. I want you to share it with me. I couldn't go to a place without you. I couldn't do this unless you sanction it. And she had laid her garment at the feet of her Lord. Now notice the third thing that went down was the sword. Jonathan's sword, a soldier's sword, and think of all it meant. She had taken the sword as a little boy and crossed swords. He had learned to defend himself. He had learned to attack. You can't make a swordsman in five minutes. It's skill. Yes, skill. The robe, your position, the garment, your conduct, the sword, your skill. Have you ever laid your still at the Lord's feet? You can't make a musician in five minutes. You can't make an organist in five minutes. You can't make a soloist in five minutes. You can't make a secretary in five minutes. You can't make a writer in five minutes. You can't even make a shuffleball champion in five minutes. Whatever realm your still has, Is it something that you could lay at the feet of the Lord Jesus and say, Lord, it's yours? Oh, I've seen this happen. I shall never forget, somewhere near Grand Rapids meeting one night, a man who was a great basketball player, a fine young Christian, known by thousands of high school youngsters, their hero, because again and again he led his team to victory. But as he stood and opened the word of God, and I looked around at a midweek meeting, and I saw as many as twenty or thirty teenagers with their Bibles, I said to a good brother, lovely to see these youngsters here. And he said, yes, it's all because this dear man has laid his skill at the feet of his. And his influence on the ball field and amongst the young teenagers is being used to capture them and bring them under the sound of the gospel. And frankly, I don't know of any realm of skill that you couldn't lay at the feet of the Lord. Even cooking sea bone steaks on the grill outside in the garden. Your skills are that it could be used for the glory of the Lord. There's no skill that you couldn't lay at the Lord's feet and say, Lord, my Lord, here it is. Oh, the tremendous possibility is that sacrificial service as we look with love into the face of our love alone. Now look at the next thing on the list, it was his bow. Now the bow is so different to the sword, you know the sword is for in fighting the skill of defending yourself and seeking a place in the other man's deface to pierce. But with a bow, why, you can put an arrow in the bowstring and pull it back and you can let the old arrow fly a hundred yards to strike a blow. And I think this speaks about influence. The influence of every man and woman goes out wider and wider extending. You've got a sphere of influence that I can't touch. I've got a sphere of influence down in Jamaica that perhaps you will never get near. Every mother, every neighborhood woman, every school teacher, Every Sunday school leader, every businessman had his fit of influence. Or I tell you, I don't want to begin even to tell the names of men, outstanding men of God, women of God, all over your country, who've laid at the feet of the Lord Jesus their influence. Some are able to touch millions. Some are able to touch Sarah. Some are able to touch just the family circle or a little neighbor. Have we laid at his feet our bow? You know, when we came to Jamaica from South America, it was dear Ray Clark of Peru who gave me the name of his sister. He said, when you get to Jamaica, I want you to meet my sister. I want you to get to know Charlie Lord, a Francis wife. And we got to Jamaica and very soon we met Mr. and Mrs. Lord and they became our dearest, dearest friends. Now one day it was a terrible day in our lives. Mrs. Charlie Lord died. I won't go into any details, but the loss to her husband and the loss to a wide circle of Christians in Jamaica was tremendous. I would never call, she's in heaven now, she's got the beauty of the Lord in his presence, but I would never have called her a beautiful woman. But the beauty of the Lord was upon her eyes. I would never for one moment say to look at her figure or her form that it would attract anybody. But somehow the magnificent Christ was seen wherever she went. And do you know on those hills of Manchester and around the teeming city of Kingston the influence of that woman? When she died, I remember her husband Oscar came to me and he said, you know what we found in Charlotte's Bible? I said, no, Oscar, what? He said, we found some lines. I just don't know really where they came from. He said, but I treasure them and he read them to me and I treasure them ever since and I'll read them. They found these words in her Bible. When I am dying, how glad I shall be, that the lamp of my life has been blazed out for thee. I shall not mind in whatever I gave labor or money one sinner to save. I shall not mind that the way has been rough, that thy dear feet led the way was enough. When I am dying, how glad I shall be. But the lamp of my life has been blazed out for me. Yes, today you can meet precious women, builders of home, leaders. And you say, when were you saved? Oh, they said, you know, it was Charlie Lord that led me to Christ as a schoolgirl when I was thirteen in one of the camps she ran on her estate. And you could meet big strong men as I met them in Singapore. Harry Terence the Irishman, a soldier who cares for San Soldiers' home in the big city. And he said, I think one of the biggest influence in my life that ever affected me is the life of Charlemagne. Simply she had laid at the feet of the Lord Jesus her bow, her influence. And it went out wider and wider. And now there's one more thing. He takes off his girdle. Now, don't get this wrong. A girdle, of course, is just the inner belt that a man would wear, and that speaks of his responses, his treasure. There was no National Bank of America around the corner there, and there was no bank here and bank there to keep their jewels and their important papers, and they kept it right near to their middle, in their girdle. Right there, this inner belt. Not only a protection in time of war, but the precious papers, the precious gems. Some treasure was there. He takes off that girdle and throws it on the pile. As much as to say, all my resources are laid at thy feet. I wonder if we've ever done that. It would be challenging, you know, when you ask the question, has your bank balance ever been laid at the feet of Jesus? Your property, your investments? You're assaulted in life. Have you ever laid them at the feet of the Lord? And to close with a story, we haven't gone too far this morning, but never mind, if we've only coined one chapter this morning, and we've coined it fairly well, that's better than hastening along. One story, you know, down on the South American coast, we were planning for the Bible societies to get the... gospels and the Bibles up the river, the lonely Essequibo, the Demerara, the Burbese, the Pomerone, and in committee there was a lovely group of people in the city planning the going forth of the word of God. And in our committee there was an English lady, a titled lady. She was the wife, I believe, of the colonial secretary in the country of British Guyana, a lovely Anglican Christian woman. And one day at the committee meeting, she looked round up, she said, I wonder if you'd like to hear a story. And the story she told us that day, I'm going to tell to you, it has its own lesson. She said, you know, we have a father who's reached the age of eighties. And she said that we thought as a big family circle over there in England, we would like to give him a very worthwhile eighties birthday present. And instead of giving him a lot of little things that he might not want, we thought we would club all our assorties together and buy him one good lovely gift. She said, we put the hat round the family. You know what that means, don't you, for a collection. And she said, we got eight hundred pounds. That's two thousand four hundred dollars. Isn't that a wonderful birthday present? It's almost worth getting to eighty to get that. And when they got the money, they didn't know how to spend it. Hard to buy an old man of A.T. anything. If he's ever wanted a car, he'll have had one long ago. If he wants it, he had it. Most people of A.T. have got what they want for the last two years of life. So they came to him and they said, Look, Granddad, Dad, we are really puzzled. We've got a sum of money. It's quite big. We want to buy you an A.T. is firstly a present. What's the thing you would like most in the world? That dear old man so obviously a devoted Christian... He thought for a long time and then he said, this is awfully kind of you all. But he said, the thing I would love more than anything else is for the word of God, the precious Bible that I love to go to some tribe in the world who's never had the Bible before. well they said we'll see what we can do and they went to the Bible Society and they put the proposition before the Bible Society and the big man at the Bible Society looked into their faces and he said well this is very striking he said you know the missionaries have been working for a long time in a certain region in the heart of Africa on a tribal dialect and he said at last we have got the accumulation of all the whole of the scriptures in that tribal town and we are awaiting now the first printing the first edition. And they said, well, how much would that cost? Well, he said it will cost about three to four thousand dollars. I'm speaking in your money, not in the English money, he quoted. And they said, now look, will you book that for us? Will you make that out? We will pay that for the first edition. And they went back and they put the hat down the family and they made up the sum. and they bought the first edition of it. And the birthday came and an old English woman sat by his fireside on a winter's day, and his birthday present was the Bible to a tribe that had never had it before. Well, the pretties are busy now, and the carpenters are busy now, and the boxes of bibles are being loaded onto a ship, and it leaves London and goes across the Bay of Biscay and down the Atlantic. It comes to a little port and unloads them, and they're put on a river steamer, and up the river they go, and then they're put on a lorry, a truck, and they go deeper into the great jungle, and now they're breaking them down and taking them into patches, and you can see Africans running with bundles of bibles. running through the long grass, running through the pygmy forest. And around the mush pot in the heart of Africa, you can see the sons of Africa for the first time turning the pages of this book in their own language. And it is the interruptible seed of the Word of God that brings life. And Africans have been born again by the entrance of the Word of God, making Jesus real in their heart. And an old Englishman sits toasting his toes by the fire and drinking his cup of tea. And he's eighty-two now. And at eighty-two his birthday present is swimming told in the heart of that. Now would you let my imagination in a closing moment before you go out to the sunshine, the shuffle ball, the swim pool, the ice cream, the lunch? Would you let my imagination run right just for a moment? I take you to the better land, the hills of glory. And I see an old Englishman, oh, no, not now. English, not now, conform to the image of God's Son, in the likeness of the risen Christ, on the hills of glory, coer with Christ. And his meeting folk, oh, won't it be a gathering of the ransomed in the happy land of love? Whether people are red or yellow, black or white, I don't know up there. They're going to be like him, don't forget. Pregmentation won't meet me much there. And I can see him meeting our brother in Christ. And whether they greet with a holy kiss or a grip's hand or a big old pat on the back, I don't know. But up there I can see them meeting. Oh, brother, it's wonderful to meet you up here. Isn't he a wonderful Lord? Hallelujah, what a savior. And at least did you live down in that old world? And where did the Savior come and meet you and save you and capture your heart? Oh, I was born in the Congo. Oh, you were in the Congo. Well, I was interested in that. The Congo, yes. And what language did you speak down there? Such and such a tribal tongue. What? My birthday, sir. This is a big illustration of our Lord's words when he said, Make to yourselves, friends, by means of the manner of unrighteousness that when it fails, then the friends you've made shall receive you into everlasting habitation. Investment for God, the resources laid at the Savior's feet. And of course, Jonathan and David face to face. David picked them up and said, Thank you, Jonathan. You've given me all. And I take it. It's mine, but I hand it back to you. It's yours. You're entrusted with it. And so we've reached the third chapter only of this story, the sacrifice of love. Shall we pray? Loving Father, looking into our face, the missionary apostle cries, I beseech you, therefore. Brethren, because of the mercies of God that you present your bodies, a living sacrifice wholly acceptable unto God, which is your intelligence service, and be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God. And we believe that it is thy will that we should lay at thy feet this precious bundle, our position, our conduct, our skill, our influence, our authority, at thy disposal, and thou would hand them back to us and entrust them with these things to use for thy glory. So by thy spirit write these things upon our hearts, and as we go out from the Bible hour, May we meditate these things and may they become better.