Beware Getting Older and Wiser

By Lee Perry

This is written and outlined to be taught. Fill in your own story.

Let is never forget what brought us to the Lord. – Expand

Let us never forget our foundations upon which our faith is built. -Expand

Introduction

1. My foundations

My testimony at the altar of Salvation: I jumped off a cliff as they do at Acapulco knowing I would never go back (unlike Bugs Bunny falling of a cliff)

a. Why I came to Jesus. I was Catholic
b. My confession / forgiveness
Salvation was Rhema to my soul – A nugget of Gold in my heart / Manna from Heaven

2. Then I departed from the basics (Christ and Him Crucified)

I became obsessed with Gods Word and I wanted to learn its deep dark secrets and solve its mysteries.
A friend told me I was a good teacher and that I should concentrate on teaching the basics. It was a compliment but I was disappointed.
I overheard another say to someone else “he’s become too important now, he has no time for me.” WOW!

3. How God pruned me to get me back in line. I gave up everything.

- Resigned as a Deacon
- Stopped Counseling
- Gave up Home-group
- Gave up fostering (we fostered over 30 children)
- Lost my job
- Was burned badly by some Churches and preachers.
- Did not go back to church regularly until now.

4. How did I get back?

I Shelved all I was taught. (Much by many excellent teacher like: Judson Cornwall, Derek Prince, Norville Hayes, etc. etc.)
I Re-read the Bible in different translations
I Read some Apocryphal books and other manuals about the Bible including the book of Enoch and Jasher
I Read Books on Church History
I Read books about some of the great scientists and how they were persecuted by the church (Copernicus, Galileo, Newton, etc.)
I Read: Francis Schaeffer, Chuck Colson, CS Lewis, and other similar books

But through all of this I never backslid or denied the Lord. This was a God-thing. I wanted to learn from the Holy Spirit, not from men / preachers. I wanted to be like Peter in Matthew 16:15, 17, 17

“He saith unto them, But who say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, ‘Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God’. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father who is in heaven.”

Note the revelation. Peter did not hear from any Prophet, Preacher or Teacher; he heard from the Father. That’s where I wanted to be.

I reacquainted myself with the basics – my foundation in the Kingdom.

If all these things were really true I should be able to find out for myself. I have, and it continues to this day.

5. Here are some lessons learned. Regardless of how old you are in the Lord:

1. Never forget what brought you to Him. Your testimony is your testimony. No one can take that from you and no one can preach that but you.
2. Never forget about Jesus and Him Crucified.
3. Keep this always before you.
4. Seek first the Kingdom – even if you get sidetracked like me and feel that you need to give everything up and start over.
5. This is the work of the Potter taking a lump of clay and slapping it down on the wheel again. When Jesus came to earth He brought the Kingdom of God with Him.
6. When we confess our sins and follow Him we belong to the Kingdom of God.
7. In addition this opens the gates of the Kingdom of Heaven to us.
8. Look at the Lords Prayer: “…Thy Kingdom Come Thy Will be Done…”

Karen wrote a note to our Granddaughter who is graduating and the Lord spoke in the letter saying basically:

“When we go to school, the world teaches us to make a living.
But God says, No. “Seek first the Kingdom… and then all these things…”
God teaches us first to make a life.
That’s how we make a living. it comes after we make a life.

6. Scriptures support this:

Prov. 22.6 Train a child in the way he should go.
- Matt. 7:24 to 27 “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who builds his house on the rock…”
- 1 Cor. 3:22 “For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ”.
- Psalm. 11:3 “If the foundations are destroyed what can the righteous do:”

6. Conclusion

You see, I had gotten Older and Wiser but it got out of hand.
Today I continue to keep these basics before me.
Recently I read a short autobiography of J. Hudson Taylor that grabbed my attention again. This is a must read about getting wiser that many miss.

“Not many months after my conversion, having a leisure afternoon, I retired to my own chamber to spend it largely in communion with God. Well do I remember that occasion. How in the gladness of my heart I poured out my soul before God; and again and again confessing my grateful love to Him who had done everything for me—who had saved me when I had given up all hope and even desire for salvation—I besought Him to give me some work to do for Him, as an outlet for love and gratitude; some self-denying service, no matter what it might be, however trying or however trivial; something with which He would be pleased, and that I might do for Him who had done so much for me. Well do I remember, as in unreserved consecration I put myself, my life, my friends, my all, upon the altar, the deep solemnity that came over my soul with the assurance that my offering was accepted. The presence of God became unutterably real and blessed; and though but a child under sixteen, I remember stretching myself on the ground, and lying there silent before Him with unspeakable awe and unspeakable joy.

For what service I was accepted I knew not; but a deep consciousness that I was no longer my own took possession of me, which has never since been effaced. It has been a very practical consciousness. Two or three years later propositions of an unusually favorable nature were made to me with regard to medical study, on the condition of my becoming apprenticed to the medical man who was my friend and teacher. But I felt I dared not accept any binding engagement such as was suggested. I was not my own to give myself away; for I knew not when or how He whose alone I was, and for whose disposal I felt I must ever keep myself free, might call for service.

Within a few months of this time of consecration the impression was wrought into my soul that it was in China the Lord wanted me. It seemed to me highly probable that the work to which I was thus called might cost my life; for China was not then open as it is now. But few missionary societies had at that time workers in China, and but few books on the subject of China missions were accessible to me. I learned, however, that the Congregational minister of my native town possessed a copy of Medhurst’s China, and I called upon him to ask a loan of the book. This he kindly granted, asking me why I wished to read it. I told him that God had called me to spend my life in missionary service in that land. “And how do you propose to go there?” he inquired. I answered that I did not at all know; that it seemed to me probable that I should need to do as the Twelve and the Seventy had done in Judea go without purse or script, relying on Him who had called me to supply all my need. Kindly placing his hand upon my shoulder, the minister replied, “Ah, my boy, as you grow older you will get wiser than that. Such an idea would do very well in the days when Christ Himself was on earth, but not now.” Really!

I have grown older since then, but not much wiser. I am more than ever convinced that if we were to take directions from our Master that He gave to His first disciples as our guide, we should find them to be just as suited to our times as to those in which they were originally given.

I too have grown older but hopefully only wiser in the Lord.

Ephesians 2: 19 – 22 reads:

“So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.”

Never forget our foundation. – it is built on THE CROSS – That is – Jesus Christ and Him Crucified.

Enough Said

Thy Words were found, and I did eat them; and Thy Word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart: for I am called by Thy name, O LORD God of hosts. (Jeremiah 15:16)