Anthony Campolo - "The Hopeful Gospel" (March 26, 2000)

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-	There is a verse in the book of Romans	0:12
	that has altered the course of history.	0:15
	It's the simple phrase "The just shall live by faith."	0:19
	When Martin Luther studied that verse,	0:24
	he understood the Gospel story in a whole new way.	0:27
	He understood that his salvation was dependent	0:31
	upon trusting in Jesus,	0:36
	that there was no good thing that he could do	0:39
	that would earn enough credit with God	0:41
	to give him eternal life.	0:44
	Instead, he had to trust completely	0:47
	on what Jesus did for him	0:50
	rather than trusting in what he could do for Jesus.	0:52
	I guess the most famous sermon illustration of all time	0:57
	is the story of Blondin, the great tight rope walker.	1:00
	If you don't know that story, you should.	1:06
	He walked across the Niagara Falls,	1:07
	balancing himself on a tightrope.	1:11
	When he got to the Canadian side,	1:15
	10,000 people greeted him and shouted his name.	1:16
	"Blondin, Blondin, Blondin," they yelled.	1:20
	He quieted the crowd, and he said with an air of arrogance,	1:23
	"I am Blondin.	1:27
	"Do you believe in me?"	1:28
	The crowd yelled back, "We believe. We believe. We believe."	1:30
	He silenced the crowd again, and then he said,	1:34
	"Which of you believe	1:38
	"that I can go back across the tightrope	1:40
	"carrying a human being on my shoulder?	1:44
	"Which of you believe that I can do that?"	1:47
	There was silence.	1:50
	Finally one man stepped forward,	1:53
	climbed on Blondin's shoulders,	1:55
	and Blondin did carry him back across the tightrope	1:58
	to the American side of the Falls.	2:02
	10,000 people yelled, "We believe. We believe. We believe."	2:04
	But only one really believed.	2:08
	Only one believed enough to trust himself completely	2:11
	into the hands of the one in whom he said he believed.	2:14
	In a real sense, we are that way.	2:18
	Believing is not just accepting certain propositional truths	2:22
	to be valid.	2:27
	I've got to say, we recite the Apostle's Creed.	2:27
	We believe these things, these truths.	2:31
	We are asked questions.	2:34
	Do you believe in God?	2:36
	Yes.	2:37
	Do you believe that when Jesus died on the cross,	2:38
	He took the punishment for your sins?	2:40
	Yes.	2:42
	Do you believe in some way that is quite mystical	2:43
	and beyond our understanding that because He died there,	2:45
	by trusting in Him, we can have eternal life?	2:49
	"Yes, yes, yes," we say.	2:51
	"But there comes a point," said Martin Luther,	2:53
	"where you recognize that your destiny is in God's hands,	2:56
	"and what Jesus did on the cross for you	3:01
	"is what guarantees you eternal salvation."	3:04
	A friend of mine got to know Ronald Reagan	3:09
	and was at Ronald Reagan's bedside	3:13
	after that horrendous attempt on his life.	3:17
	As he spoke to the former President,	3:23
	he asked the simple question, "Are you ready to die?"	3:25
	President Reagan said, "No, I'm not.	3:30
	"I just started my administration."	3:32
	He said, "No, no, no, I'm not talking about that.	3:34
	"If the bullet had been one millimeter to the left,	3:37
	"it would have torn the artery of your heart,	3:41
	"and you'd be dead now.	3:44
	"Are you ready to meet your Maker?	3:46
	"If you were to face God,	3:47
	"on what basis would He admit you into His Kingdom	3:51
	"forever and ever?"	3:55
	And the President said, "I would tell God	3:58
	"He has to let me in	4:02
	"because all the sins that I ever committed	4:06
	"that would keep me out of this place	4:08
	"were borne by Your Son Jesus on the cross,	4:11
	"and I am freed from them all."	4:14
	That's not a shabby answer for a Republican.	4:18
	(crowd laughs)	4:22
	It's a good answer.	4:24
	It's a valid answer.	4:26
	Jesus took the punishment for our sins.	4:27
	My sins are atoned for, and here's even better news.	4:30
	Jesus not only forgives,	4:34
	but He forgets.	4:37
	That's good news.	4:39
	Would you want to go to Heaven if God remembered?	4:42
	(crowd chuckles)	4:46
	I can just imagine it.	4:47
	Will Willimon.	4:49
	(crowd guffaws)	4:51
	We've been waiting for you.	4:54
	(crowd laughs)	4:56
	"Open the Willimon book," the Lord says, and Peter says,	4:58
	"A book? We've got a library on this guy."	5:01
	(crowd laughs)	5:04
	The good news is if they go to open the Will Willimon book,	5:04
	well, good news, the pages are blank.	5:08
	Your sins are blotted out.	5:11
	They are buried in the deepest sea.	5:12
	They are remembered no more.	5:14
	This is obviously not a Pentecostal group here today.	5:17
	(crowd laughs)	5:20
	This is the good news of the Gospel,	5:23
	and Luther took that verse and said, "That's it.	5:25
	"It's not the good that I do that earns me eternal life.	5:27
	"It's Jesus on the cross atoning for my sin	5:31
	"that guarantees me eternal life.	5:34
	"I trust in Jesus for salvation."	5:35
	But there's more to it than that.	5:38
	Wesley took the same verse,	5:40
	and he came back from America depressed.	5:43
	Many people are that way.	5:46
	(crowd chuckles)	5:48
	And when he got back to England,	5:50
	he was burnt out emotionally.	5:51
	He tried to be a Methodist missionary,	5:53
	but it didn't work for him.	5:56
	Despondent, he wandered through the streets of London,	5:58
	wandered down Aldersgate Street,	6:02
	moved into a little prayer meeting in an Anglican mission,	6:05
	and somebody was reading these words,	6:08
	"The just shall live by faith,"	6:10
	reading from Luther's commentary to the Romans,	6:12
	and it says, "And suddenly," Wesley writes in his journal,	6:15
	"Suddenly my heart was strangely warmed."	6:19
	Ah, this was more than just trusting in Jesus.	6:24
	What Wesley added to the interpretation was	6:28
	in addition to trusting in Jesus, you must yield to Jesus.	6:31
	I have only as of late begun to grasp anything of that.	6:37
	I get up about a half hour before I have to	6:41
	and lie in bed in the morning.	6:44
	Some people fall back to sleep when they do it.	6:46
	I can stay awake.	6:48
	Some people have to get out of bed and get on their knees,	6:50
	but in the morning, in the stillness of the morning,	6:52
	I lie in bed, and I yield to Jesus.	6:54
	I yield to His love.	6:59
	I know this is going to sound a little sentimental	7:00
	to most of you, especially you tough guys,	7:02
	but to lie there and let Jesus love you,	7:07
	to let Jesus invade you, to let Jesus surround you.	7:10
	It's one thing to trust in His death on the cross	7:14
	for the atonement of your sins.	7:18
	It's quite another to say, "Jesus, love me,	7:19
	"invade me, possess me,"	7:24
	and every morning, I carve out time for that.	7:28
	I say the name Jesus over and over again	7:31
	to drive the animals away.	7:34
	You say, "What animals?"	7:35
	The million and one things that you've got to do that day.	7:38
	They come rushing in on you and capture your consciousness.	7:42
	I say the name Jesus to drive them away and to create space,	7:47
	still space, what the Celtic Christians called a thin place.	7:51
	And in the quietude, in the silence,	7:58
	I let Jesus invade me.	8:02
	I have to ask you.	8:03
	You who are so activistic, you who are so busy.	8:06
	You have so many things to do.	8:08
	When was the last time you carved out 15 minutes,	8:11
	10 minutes, for that matter, five minutes,	8:14
	and just allowed yourself to be still with God	8:16
	and to allow His Spirit to embrace you?	8:21
	And here's the word.	8:24
	Everybody's afraid of it.	8:25
	To feel God.	8:27
	To feel God.	8:29
	Isn't that what you want?	8:31
	Not just to believe, not just to accept the doctrine,	8:33
	but to feel God, to feel God embracing you,	8:37
	invading you, possessing you.	8:40
	Don't you want to surrender and yield to God?	8:42
	That's what happened to Wesley.	8:44
	That's what started this whole Methodist movement.	8:46
	A man not only believed in his head,	8:50
	trusted in his consciousness, but surrendered to a presence.	8:53
	When was the last time you yielded to Jesus?	8:57
	No, I'm serious.	8:59
	When was the last time you opened yourself up	9:00
	and let Him connect with you, and like a sponge,	9:03
	absorb out of you the dirt	9:06
	and the darkness of your personhood?	9:08
	You all have a dark side.	9:11
	I have a dark side, and in the stillness of the morning	9:13
	when I yield to Jesus, I let Him touch me,	9:16
	and like a sponge, I let Him absorb the dirt	9:19
	and the darkness, the ugly things of my life,	9:22
	the filthy things that nobody knows about.	9:25
	I let Him absorb them.	9:27
	The Bible says He not only suffered for our sins,	9:28
	but here's what the Scripture says.	9:31
	He who knew no sin on the cross what?	9:32
	Became sin.	9:35
	He becomes every.	9:37
	Why do you think He cried in Gethsemane?	9:39
	Do you think He was afraid of dying?	9:42
	You heard the Scripture.	9:44
	"Destroy this temple.	9:46
	"Three days, I'll come back to life again."	9:47
	He wasn't afraid of dying.	9:49
	He knew He would be raised up again.	9:50
	He wasn't afraid of the pain.	9:53
	Here's what He was afraid of.	9:54
	He knew that on the cross, He would be simultaneous	9:55
	with every human being in history, and He is.	9:58
	Jesus on the cross is simultaneous with you	10:01
	as you sit right now	10:03
	because with God, all things happen now.	10:05
	Time is though at the speed of light is compressed	10:08
	into one instantaneous now, and right now,	10:10
	Jesus from the cross is willing and ready	10:13
	to reach and touch you if you'll surrender to Him,	10:15
	and He will absorb into you everything that is dark.	10:19
	He will absorb into Himself everything that's ugly.	10:21
	He will absorb into Himself everything that's evil	10:24
	about me and about you.	10:26
	Oh, to yield to Jesus!	10:29
	To have faith is not only to believe in your head	10:31
	but to yield, to emotionally yield to Him,	10:33
	to let Him invade you, to let Him possess you,	10:37
	to let Him cleanse you, to let Him possess you.	10:40
	And when that happens,	10:45
	when Jesus not only is someone you trust in,	10:47
	in Luther's sense, but somebody who has invaded you	10:50
	and taken possession of you in Wesley's sense,	10:53
	you're changed.	10:56
	Wesley was changed.	10:58
	Anybody that surrenders to Christ is changed.	11:00
	He changes you into somebody	11:04
	who feels what He feels for other people.	11:08
	J. D. Salinger wrote that wonderful little book	11:12
	many years ago called Franny and Zooey.	11:15
	Many of you have read that.	11:18
	In the book, Franny comes home from a school	11:20
	probably not unlike Duke.	11:24
	She's been blown away	11:27
	by some of the things she's learned in class.	11:28
	She doesn't believe in God anymore.	11:29
	She's confused.	11:30
	Zooey, her brother, tries to get her back to Jesus,	11:32
	and in the conversion conversation, he says,	11:36
	"Franny, before we did our radio show."	11:41
	The Salinger books are autobiographical.	11:44
	He and his family composed a group called The Quiz Kids.	11:47
	It used to be on Sunday afternoons just before The Shadow	11:50
	for those older people who are here.	11:53
	We're the only ones that remember that.	11:55
	He was one of The Quiz Kids, and he always said,	11:58
	"Before we did our radio show,	12:00
	"remember what Seymour, our older brother, said?	12:02
	"He said shine your shoes, straighten your tie.	12:04
	"Do your best.	12:06
	"You're going to be doing it for the fat lady.	12:07
	"What came to your mind?"	12:10
	Franny says, "I always thought of some fat lady	12:13
	"in a small shack in Kansas, all by herself,	12:14
	"50 miles from anyone else.	12:18
	"She's dying of cancer.	12:19
	"She's in pain, and I wanted to be so good,	12:20
	"she would forget my pain, the pain.	12:22
	"She would forget the suffering.	12:26
	"What did you think of?"	12:28
	He said, "It's funny.	12:29
	"I thought of somebody with cancer, too.	12:30
	"I thought of a fat lady in the general hospital.	12:32
	"There's a row of beds.	12:34
	"She's suffering.	12:35
	"Nobody's paying attention to her.	12:36
	"She's hurting.	12:38
	"She's listening to the show, and we're so good,	12:39
	"she forgets that she's suffering."	12:41
	And then Zooey says to Franny, "But Franny,	12:44
	"don't you know who the fat lady is?	12:48
	"Don't you know who the fat lady is?	12:51
	"The fat lady is Jesus.	12:54
	"The fat lady is Jesus."	12:56
	You say, "I don't get it."	12:59
	Well, that's because you haven't read the Bible.	13:01
	Jesus says, "Whatever you do unto the least of these,	13:04
	"my brothers and sisters, you do to Me."	13:08
	The same Jesus who died on the cross,	13:11
	the same Jesus who was resurrected and who is coming again.	13:14
	That same Jesus is spiritually present	13:17
	in every person who hurts, in every person who suffers,	13:20
	and if you want to meet Jesus,	13:24
	you've got to meet Jesus there.	13:25
	If you want a relationship with Jesus,	13:27
	you've got to have a relationship there.	13:29
	Whenever you encounter a person who is in need,	13:32
	you're encountering one who incarnates the presence	13:36
	of Christ's spirit.	13:40
	And to do for that person, to serve that person,	13:43
	to love that person, is to love Jesus Himself.	13:45
	The needs are great.	13:49
	Right now the little missionary organization that I head up,	13:51
	well, it's not so small anymore, I guess.	13:54
	We just opened up a new work in Zimbabwe.	13:56
	You probably know that in Africa,	14:00
	there are 10 million children.	14:02
	10 million children who are orphaned	14:05
	because both mother and father have died of AIDS.	14:09
	Most of them are carrying the HIV virus.	14:12
	Thousands of them already have the disease,	14:16
	and if you were to go to Harare	14:19
	and go out to the townships surrounding the city,	14:21
	you would find hundreds and hundreds of kids,	14:23
	covered with sores, with swelled bellies,	14:25
	who are on the verge of dying, and nobody will touch them.	14:27
	And we've gotten some young people to go over there	14:35
	and establish a hospice with about 100 beds	14:40
	so that these desperate children can come and die	14:45
	with some degree of dignity, with somebody holding a hand,	14:47
	with somebody praying,	14:51
	with somebody wiping the beads of perspiration	14:52
	from the brows, somebody crying with them	14:54
	in their hour of sorrow	14:57
	and comforting them in their hour of fear,	14:59
	and I say to the young people who go and work	15:01
	with those boys and girls who are dying of AIDS,	15:03
	"Inasmuch as you do it unto the least of these,	15:06
	"my brothers and sisters, you're doing it for Jesus."	15:09
	And let me just say,	15:12
	it's more than just figurative language.	15:13
	I really believe that Jesus is sacramentally present	15:16
	in each of those children,	15:21
	that Jesus mystically and marvelously and miraculously	15:22
	somehow comes into that child, and as you touch that child,	15:27
	as you embrace that child, you are embracing Jesus.	15:31
	We have work in Haiti.	15:36
	A quarter of a million children	15:39
	who have been reduced to slavery.	15:40
	We don't call them slaves.	15:42
	They're called restaveks, which basically means live-ins.	15:44
	These are children who come from families that are so poor	15:48
	that their families give them away,	15:50
	and those who take them in reduce them to slavery.	15:52
	You talk about child abuse?	15:55
	You have not seen child abuse	15:56
	until you've seen what's happened to the restaveks.	15:58
	And we run a little education program there.	16:02
	We have 85 schools.	16:04
	We hold our classes from 4:30 to 5:00 in the afternoon	16:06
	'till 10:00 at night because the children	16:09
	have to do their slave labor all day long,	16:11
	but they know if they can learn how to read and write	16:13
	and do arithmetic in a land where there's 85% illiteracy,	16:15
	there's hope for the future.	16:19
	And I say to those who go	16:20
	and work with those boys and girls in those 85 schools,	16:22
	"Whatever you do unto the least of these,	16:25
	"you're gonna do to Jesus,	16:27
	"and the Jesus who is within you	16:29
	"will respond to that sacred presence in the other."	16:31
	The more Jesus changes you,	16:34
	the more Jesus sensitizes you	16:35
	to the awareness that His presence is in other people	16:38
	who are in need, other people who are hurting,	16:41
	other people who are in pain,	16:44
	the more you yield to Jesus,	16:46
	the more by faith you open yourself up	16:49
	and let His Spirit take possession of you,	16:52
	the more you are alive to His presence	16:54
	in those who are around you.	16:58
	The just shall live by faith.	17:03
	It's trusting in Christ for salvation.	17:05
	The just shall live by faith.	17:08
	It's like Wesley said.	17:09
	It's yielding and allowing the Spirit to come in	17:11
	and warm your heart so that, listen to this line,	17:13
	that your heart will be broken	17:16
	by the things that break the heart of Jesus.	17:18
	But then of course it says in Hebrews,	17:22
	the 11th chapter, the first verse,	17:26
	if you really want to know what faith is about,	17:28
	it's not just trusting.	17:30
	It's not just yielding.	17:31
	It's hoping.	17:32
	Faith is the substance of things hoped for,	17:33
	the evidence of things not seen.	17:36
	Hoping.	17:37
	Hoping.	17:39
	I am a prisoner of hope as Zacharias said.	17:40
	I see God at work in the world.	17:44
	You say, "How can you possibly do that?	17:46
	"Look at the world round about you.	17:48
	"There's so much darkness.	17:49
	"There's so much evil out there."	17:50
	Jesus says, "Don't be fooled.	17:51
	"The Kingdom of God is like a certain sower	17:53
	"who goes forth and sows wheat,	17:54
	"and the evil one comes and sows tares,	17:56
	"and the wheat and the tares grow up together	17:59
	"until the harvest.	18:01
	"Then they shall be separated."	18:02
	God is doing good work, but there are dark forces,	18:05
	evil forces, Satanic forces in this world	18:09
	that are doing evil, and they are growing up together.	18:11
	Never become so optimistic about the future	18:16
	that you fail to see that there's darkness in this world.	18:19
	Never get to be so pessimistic	18:21
	that you fail to see God is at work in this world.	18:23
	The church I grew up in was incredibly pessimistic.	18:26
	They were sure that the world was getting worse	18:30
	and worse and worse until it would get so bad	18:31
	that Jesus would have to come back.	18:33
	They were always predicting it.	18:34
	That's funny	18:37
	because Jesus never knew when He was coming back.	18:38
	They asked Him, "When are you gonna come	18:40
	"and set up Your Kingdom?"	18:42
	And His answer was, "I don't know.	18:44
	"You're gonna have to ask an American evangelist	18:46
	"for the answer to that one."	18:48
	(crowd laughs)	18:50
	The truth of the matter is	18:51
	that evil and good are growing up together in this world.	18:54
	I have seen the goodness of God.	18:58
	This year I was in northern Ireland.	18:59
	It was incredible.	19:01
	It was absolutely incredible.	19:02
	I was in Porterstown in the town hall.	19:06
	There were Catholics on one side, Protestants on the other,	19:07
	and one by one, Catholics and Protestants stood	19:11
	and confessed their hatred across the lines and said,	19:13
	"We're never going to do this again."	19:15
	A Catholic man would stand and talk	19:17
	about the terrible things he'd done to Protestants.	19:19
	A Protestant man would stand and talk	19:20
	about the terrible things that he had done to Catholics.	19:22
	Each in turn would say, "Do you forgive me?"	19:24
	And the group on the other side of the room would say,	19:26
	"In the name of Jesus, we forgive you."	19:28
	It went on and on and on and on	19:30
	until we got down to a man in a wheelchair with no legs.	19:31
	He said, "I've hated Protestants	19:35
	"ever since a bomb went off in my car,	19:38
	"blew away my legs and ruined my life.	19:41
	"But when Jesus came in, I learned how to forgive.	19:44
	"When Jesus took possession of me, I learned how to forgive,	19:46
	"and I've forgiven the man who did it."	19:49
	A man on the other side stood and said, "He has.	19:52
	"I'm the one that set the bomb."	19:55
	The man in the wheelchair added, "And when my wife died,	19:58
	"he took me in, and he's cared for me	20:02
	"for the last 22 years as his brother."	20:04
	I have seen God's work in the world.	20:08
	I mean, I see good things happening.	20:11
	We run a mission in inner city situations.	20:12
	One of the cities we're working in is Camden, New Jersey.	20:16
	We took 30 kids out of Camden High School.	20:20
	Camden High School is a school	20:24
	where only 40% of the students graduate,	20:26
	and of the 40% that graduate,	20:29
	half of them graduate as functional illiterates.	20:30
	We took 30 kids, all of whom had these characteristics.	20:33
	They were reading on a fifth grade level.	20:35
	They had flunked all the courses the previous year.	20:37
	It gets worse.	20:40
	They had missed more than half of the days	20:42
	the previous school year.	20:44
	They didn't go to school.	20:46
	They didn't pass any courses.	20:47
	They were reading on a fifth grade level.	20:50
	We put them in small groups of five	20:52
	and took young people such as the students in this school	20:53
	and made them into tutors.	20:56
	We have young people who take a year off	20:58
	and come and work with us,	20:59
	and they tutored them using homeschooling material,	21:02
	giving them loving attention, loving care.	21:05
	At the end of the first year,	21:07
	out of those 30 kids, one had missed one day of school.	21:08
	When I asked the others, "Why do you attend so regularly?"	21:13
	They said, "Every time we miss, they get in the car	21:16
	"and come over and get us."	21:17
	(crowd laughs)	21:19
	Last year we graduated that group.	21:21
	Every single one of them passed	21:24
	the high school equivalency test.	21:26
	Today every single kid in that group	21:29
	is in college or university.	21:32
	One of them got a full ride at Cornell University.	21:35
	This African American young woman got a full ride at Cornell	21:40
	not for any poverty reasons,	21:44
	because she does come from a poor family,	21:46
	but because her SAT scores were 1450.	21:48
	From fifth grade reading level	21:52
	to that kind of achievement in two years?	21:54
	I have seen God doing incredible things in the world.	21:57
	I've seen the Kingdom of God breaking loose in history.	22:00
	I watched a group of young people organize,	22:02
	Christian young people organize in the United Kingdom	22:05
	and pressure their government	22:08
	into canceling third world debts.	22:09
	They've done it in Great Britain.	22:13
	Debts that are owed by third world countries	22:16
	to Great Britain have been canceled.	22:17
	When I went to Ecuador this year, I realized	22:20
	that every time an Ecuadorian pays a dollar in taxes,	22:22
	60 cents doesn't buy food, doesn't buy education,	22:26
	doesn't buy housing, doesn't buy health.	22:30
	It only services the debt.	22:32
	They've got to be canceled.	22:36
	I have seen God's people call upon a government	22:38
	and get that government to respond,	22:41
	and it's time that people in this country	22:43
	who call themselves Christians	22:46
	call upon our government to cancel the debts.	22:47
	This is the work of God, and mine eyes have seen the glory	22:53
	of God at work in our world.	22:56
	Faith is trusting.	23:00
	It's yielding.	23:02
	It's hoping.	23:02
	It's believing that good things are gonna happen	23:04
	because God is at work in the world,	23:06
	but there's one last thing.	23:08
	Faith is acting.	23:10
	In the 11th chapter of Hebrews, we read about Abraham	23:11
	and Noah, who not only believed	23:14
	that God was gonna do certain things in the future	23:16
	but began to prepare and work and participate	23:18
	in what God was attempting to do in history,	23:21
	and that's what I call you to do today, to become actors.	23:23
	You say, "I'm not qualified.	23:27
	"I'm not trained.	23:27
	"I didn't go to Duke Divinity School."	23:28
	Don't be upset.	23:29
	The Apostle Paul would have never been admitted	23:31
	to Duke Divinity School.	23:33
	No reflection, no reflection.	23:34
	Just, will, can you imagine the interview?	23:37
	Now tell us about your call to the ministry.	23:40
	Well, I was walking down a road,	23:42
	and there was this bright light, and I heard a voice.	23:46
	Was anybody with you at the time?	23:52
	(crowd laughs)	23:54
	Yes, but I'm the only one that heard the voice.	23:55
	(crowd chuckles)	23:59
	Well, what's it been like since then?	24:00
	For which one of us?	24:02
	You mean there's more than one of you?	24:04
	Oh yes, there's an old me and a new me.	24:05
	Do they have different names?	24:09
	Yes, the old me's Saul, and the new me's Paul.	24:10
	Saul and Paul, do they get along with each other?	24:14
	(crowd laughs)	24:18
	No, they hate each other.	24:19
	The things that Saul wants to do, Paul doesn't want to do.	24:20
	What Paul wants to do, Saul doesn't want to do.	24:23
	Oh, wretched man that I am,	24:26
	who shall deliver me from all of this?	24:27
	Hey.	24:30
	All I know about Paul	24:32
	is that Jesus took possession of him	24:33
	and used him to do something incredible in history,	24:36
	and I believe that that same God wants to take hold of you	24:41
	and use you to do something incredible in history.	24:45
	I had to be a counselor at a junior high camp.	24:49
	Everybody should do that once.	24:53
	(crowd chuckles)	24:55
	For junior high kids that are here, there is a hell.	24:56
	(crowd guffaws)	24:59
	I have been there.	25:01
	It is junior high camp.	25:03
	It is a place between heaven and hell	25:04
	where people suffer for their sins.	25:06
	(crowd laughs)	25:08
	And there I was, and there was this boy who was spastic,	25:10
	who couldn't walk right, who couldn't talk right.	25:13
	This poor kid would walk across the grounds	25:16
	in his broken manner, and the other boys would line up	25:18
	behind him and imitate him.	25:21
	They thought it was fun to mimic this spastic kid.	25:23
	One day I heard him asking for directions.	25:28
	"Which way is the craft shop?"	25:31
	he said as best he could,	25:35
	and the boy he asked said, "It's over there, Billy,"	25:37
	and laughed at him, but the cruelest,	25:41
	the meanest thing they did was on a Thursday morning.	25:44
	They all voted for Billy to lead morning devotions.	25:46
	When I heard what they had done, I was furious.	25:49
	They wanted to laugh at him one more time,	25:53
	and he came up to the rostrum,	25:54
	and it took him about a minute or two	25:58
	to say these simple words.	26:00
	As the boys snickered at him, he slowly said,	26:05
	"Jesus	26:10
	"loves me.	26:12
	"Jesus	26:15
	"loves me.	26:16
	"I love	26:21
	"Jesus."	26:24
	When he finished, there was dead silence.	26:26
	I looked over my shoulder, and all over the place,	26:28
	there were junior high kids with their heads down.	26:30
	Tears were running down cheeks.	26:31
	A revival broke out.	26:33
	We had tried everything to reach those kids with the Gospel.	26:34
	Nothing had worked.	26:37
	We had brought in baseball players	26:38
	whose batting averages had gone up	26:40
	since they started praying.	26:41
	(crowd laughs)	26:43
	Nothing worked until a spastic kid cried out his heart,	26:46
	and as I travel around the world,	26:50
	I meet young man after young man	26:52
	who is a minister or a missionary and says,	26:54
	"I made my decision to give my life to Christian service	26:56
	"at a camp where you were the counselor,	26:59
	"and you know what did it?"	27:00
	I don't have to ask.	27:01
	I am here to say that faith is a willingness	27:04
	to give yourself to the work of God.	27:07
	To say, "Here am I, Lord.	27:09
	"Use me, take me.	27:10
	"I'm ready to do the things that You would do	27:11
	"if You were in my place."	27:13
	It's trusting.	27:15
	It's yielding.	27:16
	It's hoping.	27:17
	It's acting.	27:17
	It's all of these things and much more.	27:18
	And I call upon you in the name of Jesus	27:22
	to become people of faith.	27:25
	The just shall live by faith.	27:28
	Are you willing to trust in Jesus	27:31
	and say, "Lord, I've messed up my life,	27:33
	"but will You save me?	27:38
	"Will You deliver me?	27:41
	"I trust in Your cross for salvation.	27:43
	"Jesus, will You invade me?	27:45
	"I yield to You now.	27:48
	"Cleanse me and fill me and energize me	27:49
	"and allow my heart to be broken	27:52
	"by the things that break Your heart.	27:53
	"Jesus, I'm going to be that optimistic person	27:56
	"that sees You at work in the world	27:59
	"and will stand up against injustice, against hatred,	28:01
	"against racism and prejudices of all sorts.	28:06
	"Jesus, I'm ready to act.	28:09
	"I am going to live by faith.	28:12
	"I am going to live in Your name from this day forward."	28:16
	You young people who are here,	28:21
	if you want to come and work with us during the summer,	28:25
	in the slums of some of the great cities of our country,	28:27
	working with boys and girls, working with teenagers,	28:30
	working all day long	28:35
	among some of the most beaten down kids of the world	28:36
	because you don't have to go to the third world	28:39
	to go to the third world anymore.	28:41
	You just give me your name and address on a slip of paper	28:42
	as you're going out.	28:44
	For you older types who have money,	28:47
	why don't you give me your name and address?	28:51
	(crowd laughs)	28:53
	I need some financial support to do the work we're doing	28:57
	in Zimbabwe and the work we're doing in Haiti.	28:59
	So don't go out of here	29:04
	without giving me your name and address.	29:05
	I will hug people,	29:09
	and if needs be,	29:11
	I will even kiss on the cheek people who are ready to say,	29:12
	"I'm ready to act in the name of Jesus."	29:16
	But most of all this morning, I ask this.	29:20
	Have you ever really opened yourself up	29:24
	and invited Jesus to invade you	29:29
	and change you	29:33
	and fill you with Himself and make of you a new person?	29:34
	If you haven't, do it today.	29:40

Item Info

Title:

Anthony Campolo - "The Hopeful Gospel" (March 26, 2000)

Description:

Sermon start time: 00:12. Sermon end time: 29:42.
Campolo asks the congregation to give themselves to God and have faith that God will use them to spread love and virtue across the world through good work. (Abstract created by Duke Divinity School staff.)
Key quotation: "I believe that that same God wants to take hold of you and use you to do something incredible in history."

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r44x54x27

Date:

March 26, 2000

Speaker:

Campolo, Anthony

Liturgical Calendar:

Lent

Subject:

Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 CS-1004
ref10165_5f1
uachapelsermaud
duke:321096
dcrau001648
ark:/87924/r44x54x27
88eb9192-fb45-4c48-ada0-dbe18e83218c

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Duke Chapel Recordings

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Duke University Chapel recordings, 1954-2005

Language:

English

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United States
North Carolina
Durham (N.C.)

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The Duke University Chapel Recordings were transferred to the Duke University Archives beginning in 1970.

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