(Early Anabaptism) Gelassenheit--complete Surrender

Hello, this is Brother Denny. Welcome to Charity Ministries. Our desire is that your life would be blessed and changed by this message.

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These messages are offered to all without charge by the freewill offerings of God's people. A special thank you to all who support this ministry. Well, good evening.

Greetings. In the precious name of the Lord Jesus Christ, it's a joy to be here tonight. It's a joy to sit and hear the testimonies.

Maybe you're here tonight and your heart was touched by the testimony tonight. You know, it's a hurting world. It really is.

Sin and Satan make a lot of hurt in this world. But hallelujah, there's healing in the wings of the Lord Jesus Christ. So I just want to encourage you, if you're sitting here tonight and you're a hurting one, you've been kicked around and this world has dealt you a pretty rough road, come to Jesus.

There's healing in His wings by the blood of the Lamb. I want us to have a prayer before we get into the message tonight. But I wonder, I wonder this evening, has the Lamb that was slain received the reward of His suffering through your life? Has the Lamb that was slain received the reward of His suffering in your life? You know, that's what Jesus died for.

He died that our lives might be transformed by His power. That we might be a testimony that would reward all of His sufferings. Has the Lamb that was slain received the reward of His sufferings in your life? In my life? That's a good question for us to start with this evening as we open our hearts to the Word of God and let the Spirit of God through the Word of God examine us again tonight.

Amen? Let's stand for a word of prayer. Oh Lord, we love You tonight. We do thank You for loving us, God.

I thank You for looking down in mercy upon me, Lord, 35 years ago. Having mercy on this poor sinner, this atheist. God, I thank You.

I can't believe that I'm here, Lord. But I'm here. I'm with Your people, Lord.

Thank You, God. Oh Lord, we pray that You will help us to be faithful this evening. It is required of a steward that a man be found faithful.

Oh God, just let us be found faithful this evening to You and to what You want, Lord, and what You want to be said in this evening's service. Lord, let us be faithful in our responses to that which we hear, God. Lord, we ask You for Your Spirit this evening, but oh God, I ask You for more than Your Spirit.

I ask You for a baptism of obedience to settle down upon us all, dear God. Oh Lord, deliver us from a good feeling by the Holy Ghost and give us obedience, dear God. Baptize us with obedience, Lord.

That's what You want. And I pray that that will settle down upon every one of our hearts tonight. In Jesus Christ's holy name I ask it.

With thanksgiving, Lord, thank You. Amen. You may be seated.

All right, well, we're moving through a bit of a series on Christ in the early Anabaptists. You'll forgive me, my little adjustments here and there. I've done a lot of series in my years as a preacher where you start at point A and finish five or six hours later down at the other end.

But it's always been the same group every day. And in this whole tent meeting setting, you never know who's going to be here and you never know how many are going to be here. So in a sense, some of you just dropped in in the middle.

I trust the Spirit of God can catch you up with where we've been going the last two evenings and where we're going this evening. I want to comment just for a moment on some of what my opening words were in my confession the other evening in the last message. I do believe the foundational doctrines that early Anabaptists believed.

I want you to know that. I do believe those doctrines. But in practice, it seems to me that they are so far ahead of where I am and where I live.

And I think if most of us are honest in this tent this evening, we're all pretty far away from where they were. But oh, that God, by His Spirit, would put a fire of desire in our hearts that somehow we would return, that we would return to the way it was, that we would return to the way they lived, that we would return to the spirit of early Anabaptism, that we would return to the practices and the heartbeat that made those men and women die for their faith. Somehow that God would create such a desire in our heart that we'd want to return to that.

Because I do believe, brothers and sisters, that it is the will of God that we return to that. We stand in danger of being more like the Reformers who claimed to believe right, but lived very differently than what they believed. Amen? We stand in danger of doing the same thing, of somehow finding our confidence and our faith in the fact that we believe the doctrines of the people who lived 500 years ago.

But, my dear brothers and sisters, it is not enough to believe the doctrines of what they believed 500 years ago if there's nothing in reality in our own hearts and lives. We are in bad shape. We're just as bad as those people that sat in those Reformed churches and heard nice doctrines about Jesus Christ.

Dear God, deliver us. Amen? Deliver us from that. I want to give a title to the message this evening.

I keep giving you foreign words, but I think most of you will know this word, because you're of German descent. But the title of the message this evening is GOLOSSANHEIT GOLOSSANHEIT COMPLETE SURRENDER GOLOSSANHEIT If that's a new word to you, it won't be by the end of this message. GOLOSSANHEIT COMPLETE SURRENDER I've chosen to use a word which is often used among the early Anabaptists.

A word with powerful meaning behind it. A word that I'm not even sure if we'll be able to understand the depths of it, even as we're here this evening. I'm not sure if we can grasp the depths of that word.

But we're going to attempt anyway. Oh God, open our eyes and help us. I want to make an attempt to explain this word with words first.

But I must admit, to try to describe this word GOLOSSANHEIT with words is a very feeble attempt. But I want to do it anyway. What does it mean? What are some of the other words that the early Anabaptists used to describe this word GOLOSSANHEIT? They used phrases like this.

A true letting loose of all of my will and desires. A true letting loose. Notice that even in those days, they had to put adjectives in front of the words to kind of shore them up, you know.

It's not just a letting loose. It has to be a true letting loose, brothers and sisters. Amen? Of all my desires and my will.

GOLOSSANHEIT means a total abandonment. That is, to forsake completely and finally as abandoning a sinking ship. Amen.

I like that picture. I mean, brothers and sisters, do you realize that this world is a sinking ship? Have you abandoned it yet? Realizing that it's sinking? That it's a world under judgment? Or do you have one foot in the boat and one foot in the world? Total abandonment. We find them using the words complete surrender.

And that word surrender means to give oneself up to the power and authority of another. I like that one. To give oneself up to the power and authority of another.

And of course, that power and that authority of another is God. I was recently talking to a young man, a drug addict on alcohol. I was giving him my testimony.

And he told me that he went to Teen Challenge for about two weeks to try to get over his drug and drinking problem. And he said to me, they were a bit too radical for me, he said. They were a bit too radical.

And I looked at him and I said very kindly, I looked into the eyes of his heart and I said, but stop and think about it, friend. We're talking about God. And when you start talking about God, there is no such thing as too radical.

Five seconds in the presence of the Almighty God of the universe and every one of us would feel like we are so weak and uncommitted. There is no such thing as too radical when you begin to talk about God. Well, he walked away from that beautiful opportunity that he had to be delivered from his drugs and his drinking.

And he's still in them today. May God help him. Complete surrender.

Golosanite means a total resignation. And that word resignation means to submit oneself in mind and heart without resistance. That means I've given up the fight.

Here's another one that they used. A melting down of my own will. My will.

You think about your will. I think about mine. You think about yours.

You know what our will is like sometimes. How strong it can be. How opinionated.

How clear and direct it can be. A melting down of my will. And lastly, simplicity of heart.

I give up. I give up. I want to read you just a few little phrases here that some of the early Anabaptists wrote about this word Golosanites.

Hans Denk wrote these words. And if I don't pronounce all of these just right, have mercy on me. Okay? He wrote this about Golosanites.

We have but one Lord and Master of our conscience. Jesus Christ is His name whose word, will and commandment and ordinance we obey as willing disciples even as the bride is ready to obey her bridegroom's voice. Amen? Beautiful examples.

Michael Sackler wrote these words. They threatened us with bonds, then with fire and a sword. But in all this, I surrendered myself completely into the will of the Lord together with all my brothers and with my wife and prepared myself to die for His testimony.

Now we're getting closer to understand what Golosanite is. Peter Riedman, I think that's how you say it, said it this way, Sin is the forsaking of obedience to God. For as through obedience all the righteousness of God cometh through Christ, so also cometh all sin and unrighteousness from disobedience to and the forsaking of God's commands.

Hence, the disciple has to learn one thing above all else. The art of self-abandonment. In German it is called Golosanheit.

It is yieldedness or resignation. The man who through yieldedness seeks to follow Christ along the narrow path has to overcome all self-centeredness and has to open his heart to a loving and subsequently, usually, a suffering attitude. That's Golosanheit.

Hans Hofer wrote this from a prison cell in Moravia. He called it A True Soldier of Jesus Christ. I like this.

It's better than C.T. Studds' Chocolate Soldier, if you ever read that article which he wrote about missionaries. Hans wrote these words. Now let us hear what true surrender is.

It is to let go of all things for God's sake and to turn to God so He may lead us. Jesus Christ called it hatred. He who does not hate his father and mother and renounce everything that he has is not worthy of me.

That still stands today, brothers and sisters. Is not worthy of me. True surrender is to put to death the flesh and to be born another time.

The whole world wants to have Christ, but they pass Him by. They do not find Him because they want to have Him only as a gift, only as a giver of grace and a mediator, which He certainly is, but they do not want to have Him in a suffering way. It almost seems like He lives in America, doesn't it? The same Christ who says, all who are heavy laden, come to me and I will refresh you, also says, whosoever will not forsake father and mother cannot be my disciple.

Whoever loves truth must accept the one as well as the other. Whoever wants to have Christ must have Him also in the way of suffering. Do we believe that this evening? It is foolish to say that we believe that Christ has redeemed us, but we do not want to live like He lived.

It is foolish to say that Christ has redeemed us while we do not want to live the way He lived. I'm not sure that we believe some of these statements. They're pretty strong.

May God move us forward. Amen? True surrender involves two things. Enduring persecution and overcoming ourselves.

When they hit us on the one cheek, we are to turn to them the other. In the second place, we must be weaned from the ways of our human nature as a child must be weaned from his mother's breast. We must be willing to forsake wife and children, father and mother, lands and property, our lives and even what God has given to us for Christ's sake.

Beginning to get a little glimpse of what the word Golosanite means. But words are not sufficient to explain this word. However, where words fail, examples prevail powerfully.

And so we want to look at some examples here. Some of you that were here the other evening, we dropped in just for a very short moment into that room where Felix Mons lived and those, oh, I don't know, a dozen or so people that gathered in there and had that discussion about what they're going to do. What do we do from here? Well, I want to drop back into that room again this evening.

Back to those twelve men who came under the pressing grip of the Holy Ghost. The fear of God settled down upon them. What were they doing there on their knees there that night? I'll tell you what they were doing.

It's called Golosanite. That's what it is. Real, clear, practical Golosanite.

As they knelt there on their knees, they saw God in everything that they were facing. They saw God pressing them to go forward in obedience. And they surrendered that night in that place.

Consider the political and religious climate of Europe in those days. The church and the state were the same thing. The brethren knew that they could not baptize babies and they would not allow their babies to be baptized.

They knew that they must preach the Gospel and baptize believers. They must do that. They knew they could not enter into the Mass anymore.

That is, eating the bread and saying it is the actual body of Christ, the flesh of Christ, and drinking the wine and saying it is the actual blood of Christ. They knew that they can no longer do that. And they knew that God wanted a holy, voluntary church.

But they also knew that if they make this decision tonight, persecution will come, imprisonment will come, banishment will come, torture will come, even death will come. And they got down on their knees being pressed in the Spirit as the fear of God settled down upon them and they surrendered all. That's what they did.

With the reality of all this looming over them, they surrendered to Christ that night all their will, all their plans. It was utter abandonment from that moment forward in their hearts, in their lives. That's Golosanite.

I sought for ways that we could relate to this. It's a little hard, you know. We live in America.

Things are pretty nice here. But I sought for ways to relate to this. And I'd just like you to consider this for a moment this evening.

What if in the middle of this service tonight, somebody stood up in the middle of this tent with a gun in their hand and shot three of us dead and disappeared into the night going through the cornfield and got away? How many of you would come back tomorrow night? That's Golosanite. How many of you would come back tomorrow night? Because you sense that the Spirit of God is moving in this place and if somebody stood up with a gun and shot three people dead, it's simply because the devil doesn't like what's happening in this place. How many of you would come back tomorrow night? Oh, American Christianity! How many of you would come back tomorrow night? How many of you would bring your children tomorrow night? That's Golosanite.

Amen? What if tomorrow morning you got the daily newspaper and on the front page of the daily newspaper you saw these words written across there? Cashless Society. All peoples have two months to make the transition to cashless society. Oh, it would be presented so beautifully and so nicely and so wonderfully and so invitingly to all of us that it's so much easier to deal with all the terrorists and all those things if we just went with a cashless society and you don't need a credit card anymore and all you need to do is just get a little mark in your wrist and your hand and maybe one on your forehead and everything's going to be alright.

You've got two months to transit into this cashless society. That's Golosanite. In other words, surrender with meat on it.

That's what those brethren had there as they gathered in that room there at Felix Mons' house. They had surrender with meat on it. They were looking around them.

They realized, I may not live for another week, but bless God, I'm going down on my knees and I'm surrendering my life. It's total abandonment from this day forward for me. I don't care what they do with me.

I don't care if I starve to death. I don't care if I rot in a prison somewhere. I don't care if they cut my head off.

I don't care. That's Golosanite. This was the foundation underneath the early Anabaptists.

We're pretty far away, amen? We're pretty far away from that. Would you surrender? Think about that. Don't answer quickly.

Don't shake your head too quick. Would you surrender? My brother, my sister? Would you come with that simplicity of heart that says I have no will but God's will? Do with me whatever you want. I am willing to lose everything.

I am willing to be hunted down. I am willing to have no food. I am willing to be tortured.

I am willing to die. That's Golosanite. And I think that I'm right in saying that that would be a pretty hard struggle for most of us in this tent tonight.

It might take you a couple of weeks to get to that place. But you know what I believe in my heart? I believe because of the foundation, what is in you and in your heritage that you would get to that place. Because you know, you know you'd get there.

The words of Menno Simons are good for us this evening. It's good for us to ponder because brothers and sisters, the reality of these things is coming to our land. Don't you doubt it.

It's coming to our land and it's coming sooner than what you think. You mark it down. It's coming sooner than what you think.

This is what Menno Simons wrote about the dear persecuted brethren in the Netherlands. He said, those who fear God must bear great persecutions as we witnessed with our own eyes. How many pious children of God have the magistrates deprived them of their homes and possessions? Just mark that one down.

Imagine that one. It would be good for us to go back to our houses and lock the door and walk away from it. Because the day is going to come when you'll do just exactly that.

Deprived them of their homes and their possessions, confiscated their properties and committed the proceeds to the bottomless imperial money chests. How many of the brethren have they driven out of cities and countries and put in the stocks and tortured? The poor orphans were turned out destitute in the streets. That's your children, brothers and sisters, because they no longer have a father and a mother.

Father and mother were killed. And now the children don't know where to go. Those days, they're coming.

They're coming again. May God wake us up. Some they have executed by hanging.

Some they have tortured with inhuman tyranny. And afterwards, choked with cords at the stake. Some they roasted and burned alive.

Some they have killed with a sword and given them to the fowls of the air to devour. Some they have cast to the fishes. Some had their houses destroyed.

Some had their feet cut off. One of whom I have seen and conversed with, Menno is saying. Others wandered about here and there in want, homelessness and affliction, in mountains and in deserts, in holes and caves of the earth, as Paul says, they must flee with their wives and their little children from one country to another, from one city to another.

They are hated, abused, slandered and lied about by all men. And you know what? They didn't give up. They didn't give up.

Golosanite, Lord, I give up my will to You. You can do with me whatever You want. I'm going to be faithful to You, God.

That was the heart of the early Anabaptists. Consider this evening, Golosanite, in the life and death of our Lord Jesus Christ, our brother Raymond so beautifully described to us the other evening in his sermon, Golosanite, in the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is our example of utter, complete, total surrender of a man who walked upon the earth by the power of the Holy Spirit and yielded himself up to his Father and His Father's voice in every situation and ended it all by laying himself down on the cross to die for you and I. Brothers and sisters, He didn't just die there to redeem you and I. He died there to show us how to die.

He did. He always walked in the beautiful obedience of the voice of His Father. He surrendered in the Garden, did He not? He surrendered.

Oh, He wrestled. Yes, He did. And He prayed.

And He wrestled. And He prayed. But when He was done, we know what it was.

It was He surrendered to the cruel mockings of those in the judgment hall. He surrendered to the accusations in the judgment hall. He surrendered to the tortures before His death that our brother Raymond described to us so beautifully the other evening.

And finally, His surrender to death was the grand finale and example to all of us. And brothers and sisters, that is written not just so that we can look back on it and say, my redemption is in that Galatian height, but dear brothers and sisters, my ongoing reality and my own Christian life lies in that Galatian height. It's there.

It's in there. Turn with me to 2 Peter. We just find a few words that Peter had to say about this whole subject so beautifully described by the Apostle Peter.

In 1 Peter 2, starting in verse 19, we'll just read a little bit here. Peter said, for this is thankworthy if a man for conscience toward God endured grief, suffering wrongfully. This is thankworthy.

This is what the Anabaptists did for conscience toward God. For what glory is it if when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? Hey, that's normal. But if when ye do well and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God.

For even hereunto were ye called because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that ye should follow His steps. Look at those words. Follow His steps.

We can hardly grasp what that means because we live in America. But the Anabaptists knew what those words meant. They knew very well what those words meant.

Follow in His steps, who did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth, who when He was reviled, reviled not again. When He suffered, He threatened not, but committed Himself to Him that judges righteously. That's Golosanite, isn't it? Who His own self bear our sins in His own body on the tree that we being dead to sin should live under righteousness by whose stripes ye were healed.

Hallelujah tonight, brothers and sisters. By His stripes we have been healed and we sit here in this meeting tonight with a heart that has been enlightened to the glorious sound of the Gospel. While there are millions upon millions of people who have never heard one time, we sit here this evening, brothers and sisters.

What a privileged group we are. Also in 1 Peter 4, verses 1 and 2, Peter goes on to admonish us this way. He says, For as much then as Christ has suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind.

Why, Peter? For He that has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin. And brothers and sisters, the early Anabaptists believed that verse. They believed it.

And they found it to be true in their lives. As they suffered in the flesh, as they were beaten, as they were chased, as they lived out in the fields, as they went without food for days because there was no food at all, they found themselves ceasing from sin. And they joyed in their suffering.

For He that has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, that He no longer should live the rest of His time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God. There it is again. Golosanite.

A total yieldedness to God. I wonder this evening, brothers and sisters, what does Golosanite mean to you? What does Golosanite look like as you sit here this evening? It's July 2008. We live in America.

What does it look like to you? What comes into your mind as you consider that type of a surrender in your own life? The Anabaptists believe that suffering came on three different levels. Number one, suffering came through persecution, that is physical pain and suffering. Number two, suffering came through temptation, that is temptation to compromise or to sin.

I'm not even sure if we believe in that kind of suffering, but the Bible says that Jesus was made perfect through suffering. Jesus was in all points suffered in temptations like we were, but yet without sin. Jesus suffered temptation.

The Anabaptists also saw temptation that way. I mean, they guarded against temptations. And thirdly, suffering came on a level of grief and sorrow like our Lord Jesus Christ who was a man of sorrow and He was acquainted with grief.

They also recognized that. And they lived many of their days in sorrow and grief. Though they knew joy like I don't even know if we know, they were filled with sorrow and grief.

Two things that brought all this trouble, all this pain and agony upon the early Anabaptists. Two things. Just two as I meditated upon it.

And these are major categories. Number one, they would not compromise. They would not compromise.

And that cost them great sufferings. And number two, they would not stop preaching. They would not compromise and they would not stop preaching.

If they would have quit rocking the boat of the Reformers, everything would have gone very differently. But they could not. They would not.

They could not. The Spirit of God was constraining them not. They would not.

They could not compromise. And they would not. They could not stop speaking the things which they saw and heard.

And that is where all of the trouble came upon them. Brothers and sisters, what about us? It's 2008. What about the issue of compromise? What about the issue of opening up our mouth for God? I wonder what would happen if we could also come to that same place.

I mean, not to go back there, but just right here where I live, 2008. I will not compromise. And I will not keep my mouth shut about the Gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

I wonder what that would do to each one of our lives if those two commitments were made upon our knees this evening. You know, I thought about it in my meditations and my prayers for these messages. I thought about this subject of preaching the Gospel.

You know, sometimes people aren't sure when they first get converted, they're not sure if they can stay in their church or whether they shouldn't stay in their church. And sometimes they want to stay in their church. And I'll tell you how to tell real fast whether you should stay in your church.

And I have no idea what church or who I'm talking to. You just open up your mouth about Jesus Christ. You get excited about the things that God has done for you.

You overflow. You'd be like the psalmist there in Psalm 44. My heart is indicting a good matter concerning the King.

That word indict means my heart is bubbling over. It was like Conrad Gremmel. He says, my belly is overflowing and I cannot help but speak.

You just open up your mouth and start speaking about Jesus in the setting that you're in and you'll find out. You won't have to ask anybody if you're in the right church or not. You'll find out real fast.

Amen? You'll find out! And I would say God give you the courage to give that test to your church. I don't care what church it is. Because if you get in trouble for that, it's time to hit the road, brother.

It's time to hit the road. I don't care how many of your family members are there. I don't care how many relatives are there.

I don't care how many sweet memories you have of the life that you had there. If you cannot open your mouth for the Lord Jesus Christ and testify and tell others what good things God has done for you without receiving persecution in those furrowed eyebrows and all those things that come along with it, it's time to hit the road. Compromise! They would not compromise! And they would not stop preaching about Jesus Christ.

Oh, one dear lady, and I believe it was Michael Sattler's wife. Yes, it was Michael Sattler's wife. You know, they burned him at the stake and they gave her three or four days.

She was such a sweet and an intelligent young lady. And they thought, oh, surely we can talk her out of this nonsense. And some high up female authority, a queen or something like that, came to her cell and began to plead with her.

And you know what she said? She said, look, I can get you out of here. All you've got to do is get rid of all this nonsense that you're going with. And she said, I will not.

I will not. And the queen scratched her head and she thought, I tell you what, I'll get you out of here if you just promise that you won't say anything. I mean, you can go home and have a nice... I mean, can't you hear the devil in those soft, smooth words? I mean, if you'll just be quiet, I'll let you out of here.

And bless God, that little lady, she looked at that queen right in the face and she said, I will not compromise and I cannot help but speak about the things which God has done for me. And besides that, my husband is in heaven today! And I want to go join him! Amen! Praise God! She knew what surrender was all about, didn't she, that dear little lady? They couldn't. They wouldn't.

Because they were compelled by the Spirit of Christ which was in them, they couldn't and they wouldn't. I want to say something about surrender and anointing. Surrender and anointing.

You know how many times I think that we think that, oh, what I need is, I need an anointing, you know, I need God to come on me and then everything's going to be alright. Well, brothers and sisters, that's backwards from the way it was with the early Anabaptists. It was backwards.

It was obedience first. It was surrender first. It was Galatian heights.

And in the midst of their Galatian heights, yes, God falls, His anointing falls, His fire falls on a sacrifice. Amen! And the sacrifice fell on those twelve brethren up there, in that room there in Felix Mons' house. And the sacrifice fell on Michael Sattler.

And the sacrifice fell on thousands and thousands of them because they did so surrender to God, everything locked, stock and barrel, holding nothing back. And the climate was such that they had no choice but to surrender everything. And it was a real surrender, not a superficial good feeling at an altar somewhere.

And because of that, the anointing of God came upon those people. It was very interesting to me, reading down through all their writings and all of that, there's not a whole lot of talk about the Holy Spirit. But you see Him on every page.

You see Him on every page. They weren't looking for Him. They had Him! They weren't praying for Him.

They had Him! Because of their obedience, they had Him! How different it is than modern American Christianity, even our kind. More surrender, more anointing. And they didn't surrender for anointing's sake.

They surrendered out of love and dedication to Christ. And God looked on that and blessed them so beautifully. I wonder this evening, brothers and sisters, what Galatian height looks like for you? I wonder what it looks like for you? Can you ever begin to relate to it? These are your forefathers, you know.

Many of you bear their names. But can we even begin to relate to the surrenders that they made? Romans 12, verses 1 and 2 says these words. And oh, how beautiful the Anabaptists did live out these words.

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, I beg you, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world, but be you transformed by the renewing of your mind. Why? That you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

Oh, those dear brothers and sisters, they did that, didn't they? They did that. I wonder what Galatian height looks like for you. Maybe you're sitting here this evening and you just need to surrender your past.

Maybe you're sitting here and you're one of those hurting ones like our sister was. You know, you don't have to live with all that hurt in your life. You don't have to carry all of that.

But you know, I'll tell you one thing, you do have to do. You have to accept the fact that God allowed it to happen in your life. That you have to do.

Total resignation. Yes, God! You can do anything You want with me. You can turn me upside-downside.

I give up. I give up. It seems almost silly to say these words, but maybe you're still wrestling with blue jeans and tennis shoes tonight.

It seems pretty foolish. But I'm afraid that that's the level of Galatian height for some that are in this tent tonight. You're still wrestling over T-shirts and blue jeans and tennis shoes.

Maybe it's a nice house like our brother said the other evening. The keys. The keys to the house.

Maybe it's a nice house that you want. And everybody gets a nice house in Lancaster County and so you deserve one too. Maybe that's Galatian height for you.

Or maybe it's that nice house that you have and God is saying, I want you to get rid of it. Because it's not a good testimony of Jesus Christ. Maybe it's that covetousness in your life that is ruling you, that consumes you.

There's a lot of covetousness in Lancaster County. There is! A lot of it! It's powerful! So powerful, there's so much of it and it's so powerful that most people live in it and never even realize it. Because it's so much a part of the status quo here that that's just the way it is.

But covetousness is idolatry! And we know from the Scriptures that no covetous man will have a part in the Kingdom of Heaven! Whoa! What do we do with a word like that in Lancaster County? What does Galatian height look like for you? Maybe it's a nice car. Maybe it's your business. Maybe it's your farm.

Maybe you just need to come out of hiding and take your stand for the Lord. That's Galatian height, isn't it? I mean, that's Galatian height with meat on it. Some of you, maybe you're just listening to me and you're not sitting in this tent.

You're sitting there and you're listening and you know, if I take my stand and come out of hiding, I'll lose everything that I have. Yes, my friend! That's Galatian height! That's the spirit of the early Anabaptists! That's what made them such powerful people! Will not anybody stand up like that anymore in this county? Then we shall go on our merry way for another three or four generations if Jesus waits that long. Being the quiet in the land.

Having the tourists come and eat our pies. Dear God, take us beyond that! Maybe you need to come out of hiding and take your stand. Young people, I know I'm stepping on toes tonight.

I know it's... Young people, maybe Galatian height for you is just simply your parents. Your parents. That's Galatian height, isn't it? Okay, Dad.

Anything you want. Dad, here's my heart. Tell me what to do.

Talk to me. Guide me. Direct me.

Go into my room. Check out my music. Look at my clothes.

What do you think, Dad? Maybe that's what Galatian height looks like to you. Let me tell you something. You kick and spit about that, you'll never progress in your Christian life.

I guarantee it. You'll never know what the power and the grace of God is until you get over that hump. And by the way, it's a pretty small one.

Your mom, your dad, they love you. They may not be perfect, but they love you. Galatian height.

Here I am. Anything you can do with me, do it. Whatever you want to put me through, put me through it.

You want to change my job, change it. You want to change my priorities, change them. Yes, Lord, I'll get up in the morning.

Yes, Lord, I'll go to bed at night so I can get up in the morning. Yes, Lord, I'm going to take my Bible and start memorizing those scriptures. Yes, Lord, I'll do that.

Galatian height. Maybe you're in one of those departing Mennonite churches in Lancaster County. Do you know what a departing Mennonite church is? That's one of those churches that just keeps moving and changing and changing and changing.

And they become more and more like the evangelical churches in America every year. Maybe you're in one of those churches. You know what Galatian height is for you? It's a 180 degree turn with a humble heart that says, We have been wrong.

And we overreacted. And now look where we are. You know, in my 26 years here in Lancaster County, it's far and few between that you meet somebody who went that way, who turns around and comes back through repentance and humility.

But you know what? That's Galatian height for you. That's it. Will you do it? Will you do it? Will you take your stand? Will you be the Weird Al in your church? You know what they'll say.

I know what they'll say. Oh boy, isn't he getting holy. Look at her.

Her covering's getting bigger. For we know it, she'll be Amish. Oh, they'll say all kinds of things about you.

But that's peanuts compared to what these brothers and sisters that we look back to and honor and respect, what they went through. Will you not turn this thing around? You know, if this county's going to turn around, it's going to take more than just Amish getting converted brothers and sisters. It's going to take some of those departing Mennonite churches.

Get right with God! Whoa, do I dare say such a thing in a public meeting. Maybe you need to open your mouth and proclaim Christ openly. It may cost you everything to do that.

There are men in this tent this evening that lost their wife and their children because they took their stand for the Lord. That's Galatianites. That dear brother stood there that day and watched all these people come upon his farm and load up all kinds of furniture and load up his children and load up his wife and ride on down the lane.

He wept that night. But you know what? He knows what Galatianites is. And there's grace all over him! The early Anabaptists embraced the pain and the suffering that came from this kind of yieldedness.

They embraced it. They believed in it. They believed that suffering had a sanctifying effect upon them.

They believed that you couldn't make it to glory without it. Do we believe that anymore? They believed you couldn't make it to glory without suffering. And therefore, when the suffering came, they welcomed it.

And thus they developed a theology of suffering and martyrdom. The suffering Christ lived in them longing to live out His sufferings through their very lives. And they were so yielded and given up to Him that He got the opportunity to do it.

To live out His suffering in their lives. To live out His suffering before the lives of a lost and dying world. The suffering Christ lived in them.

And brothers and sisters, He lives also in you and I. I wonder what He would do. I wonder how He would lead us if we would let Him. I wonder what He would put us through if we would yield to Him.

They treasured suffering. It was a blessed necessity. Consider this also, this evening, this kind of deep, heart-searching surrender.

It didn't just happen one time. Now, we just could have been parking on one time here this evening, but it didn't just happen one time. It happened every day.

For many of them, they never knew, perhaps today, perhaps tonight at the meeting, I'll get caught and that'll be it for me. I won't see my wife again and I won't see my children again. That's alright, Lord.

I give my life to You. You've given Your life for me. God, that's okay.

If that's what it's going to cost, then that's fine with me, Lord. And there was Golosanite again that day. And maybe that night, He did get caught, and they threw Him in jail, and He never saw His wife nor His children again.

This deep experience of heart surrender, it didn't happen one time. It wasn't a trip to an altar somewhere where they made those commitments, and then that was it. No, that was a yielding that took place day after day after day in their lives.

And you know what it did? It brought such a powerful anointing down upon those people that they filled all Europe with their doctrine. The doctrine of Jesus Christ. Remember, the political and religious climate of the day in Europe was not very good.

And you could run from one city to the next, and they did that sometimes, but you know, it didn't take long until they found out in that city that you were there, and you were all going through the whole thing again, sneaking out in the woods to have a prayer meeting. And that's just the way life was for them. Menno Simons lived that way for 25 years.

He never knew, is this the day? Is this the day? Maybe tomorrow. Maybe next Sunday, I'll get to die for my faith. And he went like that for 25 years.

And died in his bed in his 60s. 25 years. Imagine the grace.

Imagine the wisdom. Imagine the godly character. Imagine the Christ-likeness of a man like that who lived in such Golisan hut for 25 years.

He was a powerful servant of God, I'll tell you that. Beautiful. I thought a little bit this afternoon as I was praying, where can we find a comparison to this? You know? I mean, how do we get this? Where do you go to get it? I'll have more to say about that later, but I thought to myself, you know, a bush missionary knows what Golisan height is.

They know what it is. Very, very much they do. They know what they're getting into.

They know the difficulties that are coming their way. They know about the malaria. They know about running diarrhea for three months.

If you could imagine that. Three months of running diarrhea. They know that's what they're getting into when they decide to go.

They know they're going to have sleepless nights, but they won't be able to take a nap the next day. They know what it's going to be like to sleep on a concrete floor for a bed. They know what it's going to be like to get bitten by a scorpion whose sting will make a grown man cry.

They know what it's like to have sick babies that are going to die on them. They know what it's like to look down on their wife and wonder if she's going to be alive tomorrow morning. They know what it's like to lay in sweat all night long, tossing and turning and not being able to sleep because it's a hundred degrees in their bedroom.

And the little fan that they have went off because the electric went off in the middle of the night. They know what it's like. But you know what they do? Here, Lord, out of love for God and their fellow man, Golosanite is their heart.

I want to say a little bit more about Anabaptist theology. We mentioned that last evening a bit. I said last evening, or no, not last evening.

See, it's Wednesday, Monday. I said on Monday that some people say that the Anabaptists didn't have any theology and that I disagreed with that. And I'll say that again this evening.

I disagree with that. They did have theology. But they didn't learn their theology in a seminary.

They didn't sit down in a classroom somewhere and say, this is what we believe. Let me show you how they learned their theology. They learned it by experience.

This deep, continual surrender to God and the circumstances of the life that they were surrounded with. They learned it in the midst of all of that. They tasted suffering.

And they tasted the fruit and blessing that comes upon those who suffer. And they developed a theology of suffering. That's where that came from.

They found themselves in the midst of suffering and they surrendered to it. And as they began to suffer, they began to taste the sweet fruit that comes from suffering. So they tasted suffering and they tasted the blessing of suffering.

And out of that, a theology of suffering emerged. Poverty came upon them. Didn't it? Poverty came upon them.

And they tasted the joy and the freedom that poverty brings. And because of that, they developed a theology about their finances, which are very, very different than what we believe in Lancaster County today. They didn't read it in a book.

They found themselves in the midst of poverty. And lo and behold, they found it to be a great blessing. The sweet simplicity of having given up everything and having not set your heart on anything of these world's goods.

They found the blessed sweetness of simplicity and poverty. In their great necessities, they began to care for the suffering brotherhood. And in their caring for the suffering brotherhood, community emerged out of that.

No one sat down and just read it. They were living it. And as they lived it, it developed before their very eyes.

Some of them decided to live community. And they did, eventually, when they could, without persecution, where they were free. But others never did do that.

But either way, whether they did or not, they all understood what community was. Community was laying down your life for your brethren. And my brethren are suffering and they don't have any food to eat.

And this brother just lost his house or it was burned down. And in the midst of those trying circumstances, community, the theology of community, just emerged in their midst. In their desperate need to stand strong in Christ, they cast themselves upon faithful men of faithful brotherhood for discipleship.

And discipleship developed among them. And they saw brotherhood not as just a word that they threw around or a time when they sat around in a circle and decided what to do. No, their brotherhood concept was way deeper than that.

It was, brother, I'm facing temptations. Help me! I want to overcome sin in my life. Will you help me, brother? And in the midst of their desire to overcome sin and in the midst of their desire to overcome their persecutors, brotherhood developed and discipleship became a very real living principle in their lives and thus a theology of discipleship emerged.

Isn't that interesting? They had nowhere to turn for direction. So they turned continually to solo scriptura. Nothing but the Bible.

We don't know what to do in this situation. The Bible has the answers. And in their desperation and their great need to get direction and know that they're doing the right thing and following the right path, they found themselves in the Bible and as time went on they emerged as strong, strict biblicalists.

Christ was in them. They found themselves in such desperate need so many times of direction. They cast themselves upon Christ.

And Christ became a living Savior to them to such a point that they divided the Word into two places. It was the written Word and the living Word. The written Word was the Scriptures.

The living Word was the Spirit of Christ which dwelled within them. And they learned to hear His voice, a voice which we hardly know how to hear anymore, but a voice which was so clearly heard in the book of Acts. You read the book of Acts that way.

They heard the voice of Christ. They found themselves in the midst of two kingdoms in great conflict. They didn't sit down in a theological class somewhere where someone broke to them the teachings of two kingdoms.

They saw two kingdoms very clearly. They found themselves right in the middle of two kingdoms that were in conflict. And you go back to the Word of God in the midst of two kingdoms that are in conflict and you find out real fast which kingdom you're in.

And their two kingdom theology emerged out of that kind of an experience. Do you see how different that is than sitting in a theological classroom somewhere? As their persecutors beat them and attack them, the love of Christ welled up inside their hearts and they couldn't fight back. And they saw that when they didn't fight back, their persecutors were touched powerfully.

And a doctrine of non-resistance emerged out of that which I call suffering love. I'm suffering out of love for that man's soul. And they won many that way.

Yes, they did. I wonder tonight what you'd like to learn. What would you like to learn tonight? Golosanite.

You want God to be your teacher? Golosanite. I know no other way. What doctrine would you like to learn by experience? You know, that's really where they get deep into the heart anyway.

Oh, we can have a lot of them up here, but if you want them down in here where it affects your life powerfully, you must learn them by experience, not just in your head. Amen? I wonder what doctrine you would like to learn tonight. It begins and continues in this utter abandonment.

That's what we've been speaking about tonight. As I was sitting on my chair over here this evening, greatly burdened about the things that I needed to say tonight, God brought back to my memory a story, a testimony that I heard from George Brunk, the evangelist. I thought about him tonight.

You know, there was a day in George Brunk, the evangelist's life, after going to church Sunday after Sunday after Sunday and giving the same old dry sermons to the people and sitting there in the same old dry song service and sitting in that same old dry Sunday school class. One Sunday morning, George Brunk walked out of that church building and went to his house. He went inside the house and he told his wife, I'm going into my closet and I'm not coming out until God changes me.

I'm not coming out. And he didn't. And I don't know how long he was in there, but I know what he was doing in there.

How many of you know what he was doing in there? Golosinite. I don't know what God dealt with him about in there. I don't know what kind of surrenders he made in there.

I know some of them. He sold his chicken house and sold his house and sold all kinds of things and bought a truck and bought a tent and bought a trailer and hit the road. I know some of the things that went on in that closet.

When that man came out of that closet, he had been changed into another man. And everyone knew it. He didn't have to give his testimony to anybody that God changed him.

Everyone knew that God had changed him. The first time he opened his mouth and the power and the anointing of God was upon that man and many souls were converted because of Golosinite in his life. Is God calling you this evening to a deeper, more practical surrender than ever you have done? You can't go on if you resist that.

Remember, God is God. And beside Him there is no other God. If you don't reckon with God and what He's saying in your heart tonight, you're not going anywhere.

You're not going to go anywhere. But if you can reckon with God, with the Spirit of God and what He's speaking to your own heart, if you can reckon with that, God can change your life. And I thought about the unconverted earlier today as I was praying.

I thought about those that may be in this tent this evening that are not converted. And I thought, oh, glory! What a way to begin! Golosinite from day one! What a way to begin your Christian life! You know, that's the way they began back there 500 years ago. Those unconverted stood along the sides of the houses and listened to the Anabaptist fiery preachers preaching about the Kingdom of God under the anointing of the Holy Ghost.

And they thought to themselves, whoa! If I open my heart to what that man is saying, I could lose my head in a week. What a beautiful way to get converted. Makes good converts, amen! If I listen to what that man is saying and open my heart, I may lose my head in a week.

But I can't help it. Because the Spirit of God is dealing with my heart. And I want to be rightly related to God.

I don't care what it costs me. Oh, listen, dear friend, whoever you are, you're here in this tent tonight. You've never been born again.

Let's start the right way. God is calling you. God is calling you this evening.

God is calling many this evening. I know that. There's no question about it in my mind that God has been speaking to the hearts of many of us tonight.

We're going to have an invitation and give you an opportunity to do something about it. And let me just say this. Let me just cool things down for you a little bit.

Don't come up here in emotional hype and pray a prayer. That's not going to do anything. That's not going to do anything.

Look at the facts. Count the cost. And surrender in reality! In real, practical ways.

And God will bless you. That I know. Let's bow our heads for a word of prayer.

And do we have a song? The song leader. What would the song be this evening? Have Thine Own Way. What number is that? 55? So you can get your song books after this prayer.

Lord, we sit before You this evening. We acknowledge You, Lord. We acknowledge that You are sitting on Your throne this evening.

You are looking down upon us. I believe that, Father. And You are here.

In the person of the Holy Spirit. Moving in our midst, thank You, Father. Oh God, in Your great love, would You look down upon us and touch us this evening.

Oh God, would You have mercy upon us, these Anabaptist people, dear God. We have fallen, we have fallen, oh Lord, we have fallen. God, have mercy upon us.

And touch us, God. And give us another chance, Lord. Please, God.

In these last days. I pray, Lord, send conviction upon this tent and the people in this tent. Let a holy hush settle down upon us.

And God, I pray. Oh Lord. I pray for golossan height tonight, Lord.

In the way that I have preached it. In Jesus Christ's name I ask it. Amen.