Pearls About Adrian Rogers

When Adrian Rogers was a high school student, he'd recently gotten saved, and he was walking across the field on his way home from football practice, and he was praying as he walked. He said, Lord Jesus, I want to get low enough so you can use me. And he stopped walking and knelt down on the field and asked, is this low enough? But then he felt he needed to go lower, so he laid on his stomach on the grass and then asked God, is this low enough? Then a young Adrian Rogers took his thumb and dug a hole in the dirt to where he could press his nose in there.

And as he laid there with his nostrils full of dirt, he said to the Lord, Lord, this is as low as I can go. And God honored that in Adrian Rogers and gifted him with some truly remarkable gifts as a preacher of the gospel. I had the supreme privilege of having Adrian Rogers as my pastor for over 20 years.

And during that time, God seemed pleased to bring us close together toward the end of Dr. Rogers' life. I want to share some of these tidbits about him this evening, friends, because I know some of you pastors out there will benefit from them. I never knew a man that made me think of Jesus more than Adrian Rogers.

Every time I was with him, I truly felt like I was hanging out with Jesus. I'd like to share with you some facets from his life that impacted my own life, and hopefully they will encourage you as well. My relationship with Dr. Rogers deepened when God called me to write the authorized biography of J. Sidlow Baxter.

Dr. Baxter had preached at Bellevue Baptist Church on a number of occasions through the years, and Sid and Adrian were close friends. So when I approached Dr. Rogers to write the foreword to that book, he took it as a great privilege and he took deep interest in the progress of that biography. Every time I would complete a chapter, he wanted me to come by his office and hand it to him so he could read it.

This gave us some opportunities to get to know each other better. I remember one time I was sitting with him in a study and I shared a comment with him that Sidlow Baxter made when he first came to the new Bellevue campus to preach. For those of you unfamiliar with Dr. Rogers Church, it had a membership of 30,000 and a sprawling campus of many big impressive buildings.

And as Sidlow Baxter walked to the front door on his way to see Adrian, he marveled at the size of the campus and leaned over to his wife Iza and said, Adrian must be watchful lest his kingdom get too heavy. When I shared that with Dr. Rogers, his eyes lit up and he told me several Sidlow Baxter stories as well. Well, I want to start this message this evening, friends, with a story.

I was at a private party and Adrian Rogers was there. And of course, everyone wanted to talk to him. And I waited my time until I was the very last guest to approach him.

As I stood facing him, I asked him something about how we met Dr. Baxter. And his reply surprised me. And I commented, I didn't know that.

But then Adrian Rogers put his two big hands on both sides of my face and literally jerked me up off the ground until my face was one inch from his. And in his deep booming voice, he said, there's a lot you don't know, young man. And I reckon he was right.

But he sure shocked me when he squeezed my face like that. Another time when I was with him, I asked him when it was that God gave him a special anointing as a preacher. And Adrian got real quiet and reflective.

And after a while, he said, it was right after the death of my baby boy. I went through a deep time and it was then God put his hand on me. Looking back on his words, it's remarkable how God has touched the lives of his servants who've passed through the deepest waters.

I was sitting with Dr. Rogers in his study one day and I told him I just listened to him on the radio that morning while I was driving in my car. And I had a little notepad in my lap and a pen in my hand. And every time he mentioned the name Jesus in his sermon, I made a hash mark on that notepad.

And when I finally came to a stop, I counted the hash marks and learned that every 60 seconds, Adrian mentioned the name of Jesus 30 times. When I told him that, he smiled because he knew his job as a preacher was to lift up, lift up Jesus for the world to see. My homiletical mentor, Dr. Stephen Olford, had died and his funeral service was held at Bellevue as he was a member there.

And Dr. Rogers, of course, presided over that funeral as he and Stephen Olford were close friends. In the hallway outside the auditorium, I was standing there talking to Adrian Rogers and he got real serious as he crossed his arms across his chest and in a solemn voice, he asked me a question. He said, do you know what concerns me? I replied, no, Dr. Rogers, what concerns you? And he stared intently at me and said, what concerns me is I see God calling up men like Sidlo Baxter and Stephen Olford.

And I look around and I don't see any comeuppers. And he was right. And that's why we're in such a sad state today because of the lack of God called, God anointed preachers.

Well, I'll share a couple more stories with you friends about Adrian. It was a rainy night in Memphis and I had just dropped my family off at the front door of a local restaurant while I went to park the car. It was pouring cats and dogs as I made my way through the parking lot beneath my umbrella.

As soon as I entered the restaurant, there stood a figure in the lobby with his arms outstretched and he hugged me as he greeted me with Ernesto. Adrian called me Ernesto because his son David was a missionary in Spain. As he hugged me, I had the incredible sensation that I had just left earth and I was standing in heaven being hugged by Jesus.

I'm not embellishing that at all, friends. I really felt that way. That's how much Adrian reminded me of Jesus because of his surrendered life.

Too many of us preachers today fall into the category of Sidlow Baxter's observation. How can a man full of himself preach to Christ to empty himself? Well, the last time I saw Adrian Rogers, we were at the dedication of the Ted Rendell Library at Oldford Ministries in Memphis and it was just me and Ted Rendell and Henry Blackaby and Adrian Rogers standing in a room. Dr. Rogers was all eaten up with cancer and he could hardly walk.

His natural force was gone from the chemo, but as we said our goodbyes, he did something that shocked me once again. Somehow, he gathered all his strength and jerked me up off the ground again to where my chin was resting on his shoulder and with his arms around me in a bear hug. He hugged me so hard and so long it became embarrassing in a way.

Finally, he let me down and let me go and we parted. He was dead within two weeks. He knew it was the end and he was hugging me that long to say goodbye.

As I stood over Adrian's casket and looked at his mortal remains for the last time, I couldn't hold back the tears that ran down my face for a man that made me think of Jesus like no other man since.