I've had occasion a number of times, for whatever reason, recently, to express something that I think is a fairly obvious truth, and I think it's appropriate to think about this morning. That is, that motivation is the name of the game. I have a grandson living with me, just turned nineteen on Christmas Day. Because of very unfortunate circumstances in his life and growing up in Southern California. He failed in high school, but in his four years, but he didn't graduate. Very bright boy. And I think of this in connection with him, and I've talked with him about it, and I think a few more months at Burger King, he'll begin to get the point of the value of education. And obviously, you can't push a kid, you can't make him study if he doesn't want to. But I have the feeling that Burger King and maybe some other kinds of promptings, including from the Lord, will convince him that he needs to get his education, but he's not going to do it until he gets motivated. When he does, I'm convinced that he can make up for a lot of lost time, and he get on with his life, and he'll find out that it is possible to generate enough income to have basically the kind of a lifestyle you want. Right now, he's he's struggling with that. And his younger brother was here for the holidays, grew up in the same situation, the same kind of problems, and he's struggling too. Whereas Lance has had a growth problem and is still trying to catch up on his, on his size, his physical stature. Nathan has spurted and is at at sixteen, is a husky six foot two and an outstanding basketball player, but not playing basketball because he too is having trouble with his grades. I I only reveal this because I I don't think you're going to have enough contact with them that I'm putting them in a bad light, but it it tells you where I'm coming from. I had some real good times with Nathan. Nathan has, uh, professed to be saved. Last summer, um, he went to a basketball camp sponsored by Focus on the Family. It's named in honor of Pete Maravich, who had become a good friend of Dr. Dobson's. He was the, uh, MVP of the camp and came home all fired up, and she was sure that he'd go back to school and be a good testimony. But it kind of fizzled out. Peer pressure is a terrible thing, and the absence of the kind of fellowship and and positive peer group, um, causes, um, good starts to fizzle. And so I've had some long talks with Nathan, again, seeking to get him motivated to get his life in order, because there's so much potential there. But isn't it true that if we, in this new year, are to live Christian lives more significant, more honoring to the Lord, more blessed to other people than past years, we too need to be motivated. Now, there's nothing like Christianity to provide real motivation. Now, I'm going to digress here for a moment. You know, I preach so seldom. That's not a complaint, that I, there's a lot of things I want to get said. But I've thought a lot about something that Jerry brought up last summer as he, uh, began anew his studies in, uh, the Sermon on the Mount, raising the question for our challenge and for our consideration about how much we remember of what we hear from messages primarily. And I think we were all a little ashamed and convicted that we probably don't remember as much as we should. But it occurred to me, and I think this is a very important point, that just because you don't remember what you had to eat last Sunday or Sunday a year ago, you still got nourishment from it. And the point was that you would get nourishment for that day, for the health of your body and for the strength to do the job that you had to do. We all know that the word of God, uh, one of the figures of the word of God is food. And so I'm convinced, and it's certainly been my experience, that even though I may not remember the details and not be able to tell you the verse, or after a while even remember the, the illustrations, that I've gone away from here consistently nurtured to live for God that day and that week. And not only that, food not only provides daily nourishment, but your physical health today is because of the good foundation that was laid in nutritious eating over the years. And what you are as a Christian today, however much you may able to remember specific speakers, specific messages, specific studies. What you are today is a result of that feeding, that nurturing on your own study and what you've heard in preaching and teaching over the years. And while the details may be forgotten, the benefits have been incorporated into your life and what you are today. Now, as I thought about that, and as I've thought about one of the important things that we always come up with at this time of year, and that is reflection. I began to reflect on my own experience as a Christian, and my Christian life began in April of nineteen forty three. That's quite a while ago. There are a few of you that were around then and before then, but more of you that weren't. And I would just like to testify to my own experience of the grace of God that takes a seventeen-year-old sailor and does a kind of a work in him that almost forty-seven years later, however much failure there may have been, he still loves the Lord, still committed to the Lord, still loves the Lord's people, and is involved in the Lord's work. And I say that humbly. But I want to tell you now an experience I've told some of you that is very, very precious to me. I was led to the Lord by a Christian buddy in boot camp. And some of you perhaps probably have never heard of this boot camp because it only lasted, it only existed for four years on the lakes, on the shores of Lake Pend Oreille near Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. It was built, served to train recruits for the, for the years of World War II, and then was dismantled and is now a state park. During that time, they, they processed, they put through, they trained something like two hundred ninety five thousand people. Larry Delbo was a young Christian living in Oakland. I was a young heathen living in Kansas. Church member, but heathen. In the providence of God, and there were some miraculous orders, or there was a miraculous order of events that led to this providence, that we both arrived on the same dark night in early April at Camp Farragut and were buddies in the same, uh, company. Larry, I found out later, knowing for some time when he would go and where he would go, had begun to pray for Christian fellowship. One of the interesting, wonderful ways that God does, does, that God does things. He got his Christian fellowship by leading a couple of fellas to the Lord, and during that six or eight weeks, discipling them. And he did a tremendous job. He still is my model for personal work, for the effective, wise, spiritual way that he presented the truth to me and was patient with me. Because the first time he saw me, I was coming out of the chaplain's office the first Sunday in boot camp, where I'd gone to get a New Testament. I was homesick, and I thought maybe if I just carried a New Testament in my pocket, I wouldn't be quite as homesick. He saw that, and with his eyes lit up, he said, are you a Christian? I said, you know, I hastily surveyed my, my baptism, my church membership, and I said yes. And he was delighted. I was almost floored. I'd never seen anybody get that excited about being a Christian or meeting a Christian. Well, in any case, he led me to the Lord, he nurtured me in the things of the Lord. A few weeks later, we went our ways, I to uh, uh, aviation machinist made school in Norman, Oklahoma, he to uh, medical school to become a Navy corpsman, and later to go out to Guam with the Marines. And we lost touch. Last month, my son, who lives in the LA area in California, after a year or so of an interest that came from somewhere, I know not where, in hunting and fishing, decided that Coeur d'Alene, Idaho would be a nice place to live, and he wanted to go up and spy out the land. He invited me to spend a week with him, which I did. And as the minute he said Coeur d'Alene, I said, wonderful, I'm going to go back to Farragut. And in the back of my mind was just perhaps I can get some kind of a lead that will put me in touch with Larry Delbo. Well, I went up there. As I said, it's a state park now, the whole thing had been dismantled, but in the field house they did have a little, a little museum of mementos, things from, from uh, Camp Farragut, the boot camp. I made three trips up there, still persisting, something in me that that said you got to keep trying. Well, the last day I went, while I was looking at pictures, Dan discovered these books which were for people who visited on occasion to register, and by camp, there were there were five camps in on the base. And sure enough, I went over and started looking at the man who, and there was pages, page after page after page, and I hung in there, and finally I saw on one line written larger than any other name, Lawrence G. Delbo, and the address. I was beside myself with joy. I hollered, the guy came running. I said, hey, this is the guy that led me to the Lord. He looked at me like he wondered, of course. But a few hours later, by calling information, I was able to get Larry Delbo on the phone. Established that he was the guy I wanted to talk to. You know, there's only one Lawrence G. Delbo in the world. It wasn't like Sam Jones or, or Bill Thomas. I said, Mr. Delbo, um, do you remember the names of any of the people that you were with in boot camp at, uh, Camp Farragut years ago? He says, sure. I said, well, name one. He said, well, there was, um, there was a grave. I said, well, I'm the grave, and we had a delightful time. I tell you that because, on reflection, just thinking about the faithfulness of this young man and the providence and the grace of God that led us together, and that he not only led me to the Lord and helped me understand clearly what it means to be saved and how to be saved. Before I left boot camp, I had memorized the, the Navigator's Topical Memory System, the first sixty verses. And there's no question that whatever foundation I've had as a Christian has been largely due to that. And I think of that too in terms of the question that Jerry raised, how much we remember. And by the way, we may very well remember more of what we receive in personal dealings and personal discipling and so on. A couple of years later, backslidden because, according to the teaching I'd had in my church at home, I was lost. I'd sinned. I didn't know, you know, and I, I knew how to be saved, but I didn't know how to be saved again, and I was in a no man's land. And again, in the providence of God, I was taken to a meeting in Oakland, uh, California, where Hyman Appelman, some of you will remember the Jewish evangelist Hyman Appelman. That night he preached, and I can't tell you too much of what he said, but I know this passage, Hebrews two three, how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation? Under deep conviction, when he said, uh, those of you who are interested in being saved, raise your hand. I raised my hand and put it down. I thought that's what he meant. He shook his finger at me, said, sailor, don't play games with God. But I wasn't deterred when the invitation was given, I went forward, and the dear faithful Baptist brother, when I said to him, when he asked me what my problem was, I s- was I saved? I said, well, I was, but I'm not now. He's... if you were ever saved, really saved, you're still saved. And he pointed me to the scriptures. John chapter ten, twenty seven to thirty. My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. The Father who gave them to me is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. I and my Father are one. I've never forgotten that. Another man I'd like to meet. What a profound effect he had in my life, because this has given stability that I never knew before, the truth of eternal security. Then I was sent to the Naval Air Station in Honolulu, got into a Bible study group. And somehow, and I'm not sure, I don't remember how, I got a hold of the book by, uh, Louis Sperry Schaefer. The title was simply Grace. And I would, I would probably have to say that the single book outside the Bible that has most influenced my life was that book, because I knew nothing of grace. Now we know of this, this is the age of grace. We're saved by grace. We live by the grace of God. And so not only messages, but in personal dealing and conversation, but bro- books. God uses things that not only nourish us, but but establish us for all of life to come. And I would like to say this, uh, uh, even though Jerry is not here. Occasionally, someone is the channel of a truth that is, that is really significant. And some of you may remember this. When Jerry was teaching in Philippians and dealing with, with the passage in Philippians two, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, and so on. And he pointed out that, that some of the translations say, who though being in the form of God, like what he did was sort of contrary to what was God-like. And he shows that grammatically that can't be because he was God, because God is like that. Who being in the form of God, thought it not right. God is humble, God is gracious. And I've not forgotten what I learned that day in that message. Sometimes what you remember is be- is not so much the truth, however important it may be, but because of the way it's presented. Quite a few years ago, in fact, it was before I went to Brazil, I was talking with Bill McDonald one day, and he said, uh, he spoke of having heard Kevin Dyer speak recently, and he shared the outline of the message. It was from, uh, Matthew chapter six about laying up treasure in heaven, about not having two masters, about seeking first the kingdom of God. And he said his outline was so simple. Where do you bank? Who is your boss? What is your burden? I'd preached on that, and I thought I had a pretty good outline, but I could never remember it. It was so complicated. I guess this is kind of a word to preachers. Where, where do you bank? Are you laying up treasure in heaven? Who is your boss? You cannot have two masters. And what is your burden? Are you seeking first the kingdom of God and his righteousness? So God, in his goodness, nourishes us day by day, Sunday by Sunday, as we hear the ministry of the word in one way or another, but at times he, he, he, he gives us stuff that sticks, that stick with us forever. Now, in closing, the question of motivation. These things motivate me. I'm sure that even as I've been talking, you have reflected on how you came to the Lord, of different ones that have been a blessing to you, different truths that have been transformed, and you've been inspired, and your motivational level has been raised. But as I said in the beginning, in in Christianity there is, there is the potential, there is the power, there is the substance for true motivation. And I just want to quickly, in closing, use, uh, an an acronym that is familiar in a different context. What is the secret of joy, they ask us? Well, it's put Jesus first, others second, yourself last. Well, I want to say, in terms of motivation, it has to be Jesus first. You see him as a babe in the manger, and you wonder at the grace and the humility. You see him on the cross, and you bow in adoration as you think of how much he loves you. You stand alongside John, and you see that vision of the risen, glorious Lord in Revelation chapter one. And like John, you feel like falling at his feet as dead. And you hear the hosts of heaven in, in Revelation chapter five singing, worthy is the Lamb. You can't help but be motivated to love him and to live for him. Well, what about others? I'm convinced that... that the basic message of the Gospels is that Jesus as a man lived for two things: for the glory of God and the blessing of people. And the love of God has shed- been shed abroad in our hearts, and we love people, and we see them as... as people are going to spend eternity somewhere. And if we can't be motivated by the opportunity to be a channel of blessing to at least a few, help them to come to know the Lord and to enjoy real meaningful Christian living, then we're beyond that. But finally, your own best interests are served by a strong commitment followed by obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ. You'll never be sorry at the judgment seat of Christ for anything you've sacrificed for him. It closes prayer. We thank you, Father, for your love. We thank you that since we are creatures of time, you bring us again and again on a s- in a sort of a cyclical way to the place where we stop and reflect. And then we take the moment, the time to renew our vows to thee. Then we look to the future and anticipate that by your grace and by your working in our lives, by helping us to be faithful, beyond eternal life in heaven as a free gift, there's a possibility of a reward which will bring special pleasure to you and special glory to the Lord Jesus. We thank you for this time together. We thank you for the challenge given us by our brother Victor. We just pray that as we go very soon to enter into a new year and a new decade, that we may be powerfully motivated to live for you and to be a channel of blessing to others. In our Savior's dear name. Amen.