The Burdened Watchman

a. Abandonement to God and to His service.

b. An utter yieldedness which brings a consciousness of entire inward cleansing in our spiritual heart and life.

c. So many today in the church are crippled and they need the physician to heal them spiritually.

Secondly, there must be an acquired Information.

a. Too often facts are not faced.

b. The facts too often are excused.

c. The facts are glossed over.

d. They are explained away.

e. We blame people for not coming and then we show no concern.

f. Concerning the Church of Jesus Christ.

ƒÞ There is worldiness that has crept in.

ƒÞ Modernism has taken the place of God¡¦s Word

ƒÞ In many places you will find smug satisfaction

ƒÞ There is a lostness of spiritual power.

ƒÞ A Great need of Spiritual Revival ¡V and it¡¦s doom without it.

ƒÞ No amount of education and refinement can make up for lost spiritual power.

g. There is also a problem of the corrupt condition of our present civilization.

h. The tragedy of it¡¦s fall in morals.

i. The lack of morals has come to be accepted by the church as inevitable, therefore, the church doesn¡¦t bother to confront it.

j. And what about the lost condition of the heathen world.

ƒÞ It is said that every time the clock ticks, a lost soul passes into eternity without God.

ƒÞ Without Christ ¡V

ƒÞ Without Hope.

ƒÞ Matthew 9:35-36 ¡§He went about all the cities and villages, teaching ¡Kpreaching ¡Khealing ¡Kbut when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd.¡¨

ƒÞ Friends, this suggests to me that you can teach.

ƒÞ That you can preach.

ƒÞ You can care for the sick.

ƒÞ You can pray for healing.

ƒÞ And you can do it tenderly

ƒÞ You can do it without a soul passion.

ƒÞ Actually you can do it without a real relation-ship with God.

ƒÞ No realization of a soul¡¦s deeper needs in Christ.

ƒÞ But if we do it Jesus¡¦ way ¡V we¡¦ll carry a burden of compassion.

ƒÞ We¡¦ll weep over the lost and the hurting, the needy.

5. Thirdly, THERE MUST FURTHER BE SOME PERSONAL INVESTMENT.

a. Something of our own must be put into it.

b. Something that means a lot to us.

c. Something that will cost us.

d. Interest only comes with investment in more sense than one.

How much are you and I willing to give to put into the business of seeing boys and girls, moms and dads, men and women get saved from a Christless eternity?

Conclusion:

1. Allow me ask tonight a very serious question to those in this room.

2. In what sense does this Vision become a Passion?

ƒÞ It is not and will not be a continual emotion.

ƒÞ It is rather a settle principle which dedicates itself to a Supreme Calling ¡V a Supreme Task ¡V

ƒÞ That of doing the Divine Will of God.

ƒÞ Jesus said, ¡§I must work ¡K. While it is day, for the night comes ¡K¡¨

3. There are a lot of other things that are important, even necessary, but this is Supreme.

4. An all compelling Burden must drive our souls on and on and on until pain is sweet ¡V until the sacrifice is a delight.

5. Until the old rugged cross of Calvary¡¦s road becomes so ablazed with dazzling glory that to leave it would be a great sacrifice than to remain on it.

6. A commitment and a consecration that would be easier to die than to quit.