Tyndale University presents a series of recorded chapel services from Tyndale's very own faculty and guest speakers.
Amen. Good morning, everyone. You may be seated. It is a pleasure for me to be here at Tyndale and to see all of you this morning. And I was welcomed so wonderfully by Geoff and Sam at the back, who are the tech guys and the sound guys, and they just welcomed me this morning. Made me feel so great, and that's a great thing when you come into a place that's not your home, when people make you feel welcome. Then I met George Sweetman, who I've only connected with online, and that was great. And it's just so wonderful to be with you around the corner from where we do ministry at Willowdale PC, and it's so great to worship God. Weren't the singers wonderful this morning? They were just fantastic leading us in worship. Amen. So I'm a Pentecostal so we clap our hands a lot. I'm not averse to having somebody say, Amen, let's try it. Alright, that's good. So that would really encourage me today.
I don't have a huge education. Every edge, every bit of my education, has come the hard way. And before there was internet, before there was computers, before there was just mail. And right now there's a postal strike, and there's not even mail, so that would be tough on me, and so it's wonderful, though, to be in this great place. I've come here for graduations and different things before, and it's always so good to come back. When George first contacted me about sharing today, he said, Just bring something from an emphasis from your ministry that's important to you. Bring something to the faculty and the staff and to the students that is kind of a core value. Import that into our lives and chapel, and that would be great. And so today, I shared this only twice before in my whole ministry this idea. So it's kind of special for you, but I just shared it at a graduation at the Mwanza Christian College in Tanzania in August. And when I got home and I got this invitation from George, I just thought, oh, this would also be good for this day as well. And so would you just join me for a little prayer? I'd like to ask God just to help me communicate what's on his heart to us today. So Lord, you know my inadequacies, and you know how I need your help. And every time we go into your word Lord, we want to rightly divide it. We want you to share what's on your heart with us. So would you help me discern God, what is most important to say and what is least important to say? And would you challenge us by the power of the Spirit of truth, your Holy Spirit today in Jesus name, amen. Well, that was in a Pentecostal amen. Amen, amen. Say Blake, well, we're not Pentecostals. We're a lot of different I know. Just make me feel welcome. It makes me feel good.
So when I was 16 years old, the right of manhood might have been different than what it is today. The right of manhood was to get your license to drive a car. I was raised in St Catharines, Ontario, and I wanted my license from the time I was born. I wanted to drive a car. I thought that would make me a man. I went and did my my my driver's ed. I did that in March break while I was 15, and then I turned 16 in April, and I went to school for the whole March break in the boring in class, just 24 hours of Driver's Ed. How many feel what I'm talking about? You've been through Driver's Ed? Yeah, and, you know? And then on the day of my birthday, I booked my appointment, and I went down to the ministry, and I wrote the test that I'd been studying for. And then as soon as I could, about two weeks later, I took my driving test. It's back before graduated licenses, they would give it to you right away if you passed. I came home the first try, because that was so important to growing up, you know. And I went home and I showed my dad my license, and he looked at it, and he said, Well, son, this is the very thing that I was afraid of. Now that you have received your license, you are more dangerous a driver than ever, and I shocked. I thought my dad would be proud of me. Ever have a moment with your dad where he throws you a curve? So I asked him why. He says, because now you think, now that you have a license, that you really know how to drive, this makes you dangerous for all of the other people who've been driving a long time, including me, to be on the road with you, and I never forgot that reaction.
Today is a day that you are in your semester, you're taking theological studies, you're at the post graduate level, or you're in the undergrad collective, and you're studying theology among other things, and you're going to get a diploma at the end of everything, and a degree that'll hang a diploma that'll hang on your wall, and it'll be a great accomplishment. But the question of your success today that I want to bring to you is, will your success be a result just of the accomplishments of your education, or will it be part of the journey to lead you to what to do next? The title of my talk today is ministry secrets. Will you depend on your education, your diploma? Will that set you up for everything that you will now face in ministry? And by the way, we're all in ministry, even if we go into secular work, we're all in ministry. We all have ministry gifts. We all represent Jesus wherever we go. And we all do some of us do it vocationally. Some of us are counselors. Some of us will be professors. Maybe some of us will be pastors and evangelists and writers and authors. Right Proverbs, chapter 25 verse two says, It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, to search out a matter is the glory of kings. That's the NIV. It's the one I use. I love this verse. It's meant a lot to me my whole life. I'm approaching 42 years consecutively in full time ministry, which is shocking to most of you from that distance, because you think I'm only 29.
God, however, in this verse reveals that there are Kingdom mysteries, that there are secrets that he has, and all through the Bible, he's very consistent, our Father, and then your son, who said, seek me and you'll find me when he's personified in Proverbs, as wisdom as the end the beginning of all wisdom is to fear and seek God. And chapter two in Proverbs just talks about how all those action words about seek, seek, seek, search for, hunt me down, hidden treasure, all of that. There's something about the nature of God that wants to be sought. Kings and priests in the Old Testament were God's leaders. He would have been happy with priests and prophets as leaders, but the people wanted kings, right? And so then he said, All right, you'll have your kings, and you'll live and die by them. But there were several good ones, and mostly not so good ones, right? But First Peter, chapter two, verse nine, says, but you speaking to us, you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood. We're leaders, we're pastors, we're teachers, we're counselors, we're shepherds, we're followers of Jesus and in the New Testament, we're kings and priests. We're a royal priesthood. We believe in the priesthood of all believers, in that we don't need a priest to approach God. We don't need a priest to do something for us to have a relationship with God, because we have the great high priest. We don't need a human priest because we've got Hebrews better high priest, the Son of the living God, the Lamb of God. Peter goes on to say, one died the just for the unjust to bring us to God. We don't need a priest anymore. And then God takes us, because of the blood of Jesus and his righteousness, into his priesthood, where we can boldly access the throne room of God and talk to the Creator God of the whole universe, which blows our minds. That was great. Somebody else want to join that? Amen.
Oh, that's so good. Jesus is our Great High Priest. We're in relationship with Jesus. He sought us out when we sought him out, we found out that when we were seeking for him, he was seeking for us. We found out that when we started to love him, he first loved us, but there's something about him that wants to be sought. And God holds secrets in relationship and held within Jesus, he conceals matters, that's his glory, to conceal matters, the mysteries of the Gospel, the mysteries of life and Christ are kept within the heart of God. For example, how many know when Jesus is coming back? You know, it always strikes me funny that Jesus told his disciples not to worry about that and try to discern the times or the seasons and pick a day only the Father in Heaven knows that day. And we have a whole library of books written on when Jesus is coming back, wonder if that pleases Him, to the blind and to the unengaged many things God holds close to the vast in relationship with us can seem like foolishness. Fairy tales, hyperbola Jesus says to His disciples, the knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom has been given to you. Luke, 18, verse 10, Jesus revealed Kingdom secrets to his disciples, those who would bring the Gospel to the whole world and lead a search. And he said, the keys of the kingdom of heaven, the secret keys that have been given to you. God to his glory, conceals the mysteries of his kingdom, the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God, the kingdom of men's hearts, the kingdom within us, within relationship with him. How many are married here this morning? You'd admit it. It's good. I am too nearly 40 years. How many know a few more secrets after however long you been married than when you proposed or were proposed to? You admit that it's a good thing to admit.
When we're deep in relationship, and the deepest kind of relationship tends to be husband and wife on Earth, you know, and parents and children, and I mean friends, yes, but there's depth in those relationships. I'm an extrovert, maybe you've guessed it, but all my friends are introverts. You know why that is? They need to listen and I need to talk. But all my friends are kind of like introverts who are difficult to get to know, like you got to spend time. And actually, what I have to do is learn, as an extrovert, to listen, and then they're worth knowing. And I married an introvert, of introverts. I mean, she has to have the Sunday afternoon nap. I mean, she physically has to have it. People wear her out. I'm like, all electrified and charged up after Sunday, and she's like, leave me alone. I'll be in the bedroom. I'll see you tomorrow. But she's worth knowing. She and I got a lot of secrets. We've been through a lot of things together, and the more that that relationship unravels and unpacks, the deeper secrets I know from her and she knows mine. And if you'd like to know some of them, too bad. They're kept in the bonds of the deepest relationship and friendship. God has secrets. He wants to be sought. The kingdom mysteries, though, are revealed. God confides in his leaders and his pastors and his counselors, his kings and his priests. Psalm 25 verse 14, says the Lord confides in those who fear Him or serve reverently. Serve him reverently. Your New Testament, kings and priests, so am I, and so to search out a matter is our glory. That's the glory of kings, to discover something secret about God Almighty. Oh, man, there's nothing better than that. That's like getting the prize in the deepest kind of relationship, to think that I could know the heart of the Father in the life of Christ, I can have the mind of Christ. The New Testament tells me. Paul writes, whoa, that's an awesome thing to be trusted to those who seek Him. So as you embark on a life of ministry, whether it's vocational or secular, while you represent Jesus, whether it's preaching, discipling others, whatever you're doing, witnessing, I'm asking you today upon what will you now depend? Are you trusting in your ministry, driver's license from Tyndale? It's a good one. Are you trusting in that or your diploma that you're going to get? Lord willing, if you can just get your marks up a little bit right. Are you trusting that, or are you going to trust in your relationship of a lifetime, seeking the concealer of secrets and the revealer of secrets in relationship with Jesus? Are you going to spend your life searching out the mysteries, the newness that God has for us. You know, I've been in ministry a long time. People say, Blake, you seem to be excited about ministry. Like to just started. And I say you seem to be bummed out for no reason. There is nothing more exciting in our lives than championing the cause of Christ. There is no greater pursuit that we can have than pursuit of Jesus Christ and the Father in heaven, and the secrets that he's concealed from everybody else, but he shares with me because I seek him out. How is that not exciting? There's no better way to live your life. Don't lose your enthusiasm for Jesus amen. Each week, for those of you that become pastors and leaders or writers or authors and will be given occasions, but especially for pastors, each week, somebody will wait to hear something revelational from God's word from you. Sometimes it's one on one, like John chapter three and John chapter four, to the greatest sermons Jesus ever gave to the woman at the well and to Nicodemus. So not everything's over a microphone, but somebody will be waiting for something revelational in relationship with you from God, because you lead them. It can be around a business table that you've dedicated to God. They might not even know it's from the Bible. They might not even know it's God's wisdom, except it'll resonate because you've had a revelation and you're sharing it with them, God will be ready and willing and waiting to confide in you, to share the mysteries of his heart to the people that he does not yet know, or that he just knows a little bit, but only revealing those things to leaders, pastors, counselors, who are not depending on their education, great as it is, but who are pursuing him relentlessly every day, every day, manna was daily, except on Fridays. It was magic. Manna, it's enough for the Sabbath. Jesus is the bread of life. You need Him every day. Jesus said, pick up your cross daily and follow Me. Your enthusiasm, your excitement, will be coming from the secrets every morning, every day, you spend with God when he's revealing his heart to you through you to others for his praise.
Proverbs, chapter three, verse 32 says the Lord takes the upright into his confidence. The great thing about being a follower of Jesus is we don't have to earn his confidence. We get it through grace. We can't be upright in ourselves. We can only be upright through Jesus in the first place. Amen. You know, I was really surprised that George introduced me with a title because I said in my bio, I sent over, just call me Blake, the name my mama gives me. And I said that because in our community, I'm trying to deconstruct the difference between clergy and followers of Jesus, who have excuses for everything in their lives that only clergy do, and I found in our community. Plus, I started out when I was 17 years old and didn't know anything. By the way, I love Geoff and Sam because I started out as a sound man in ministry. So shout out to all the sound people and the audio techs, because that's, you know, so important in church now, right, right. So I have just found in my ministry you might disagree with this, and that's okay you come to a school of learning to test ideas, so here's one for you, and then maybe they'll never invite me back. But I've learned that titles in relationship, build walls and names, build the bridges. So some, really, I mean, our church is filled with 61 last count, different nations. I'm a minority as a white guy in our church. And they come from all kinds of cultures that, you know, the honor cultures, and you have to, you know, have titles. And so they're having, some people have a really hard time getting used to it. And so I, you know, I'm not, I'm not criticizing anybody all the time. I'm just saying I really want to know, be known as Blake follower of Jesus, and I really want to be known that way, so that when I mess up, you can be the church to me. And that day that I sit against you, and I come to you, and I, I, I Matthew 18 the situation, and say, Oh, I didn't know I hurt you. I'm sorry I I was careless. You know, I hate that verse of scripture in Proverbs that says, where there's many words sin is not far. That's a bad one for me, right? Because I like a good joke, and I like, Yeah, that went too far, sorry, right? But I just, I want to have relationship, and I want people to realize that there's not a difference. There's a difference in authority of role. I stand up here because the word of God is anointed and it reaches into your heart, and I prayed about this and and in our role. But you know what? I'm just a follower of Jesus, and Jesus Himself said, you can pray in my name, Jesus. Now we call him Lord and Savior and all and and he says, rightly so. But he says, When you pray, just pray in my name. So that's a little secret that I have. I am so tight with the God of universe, I'm on a first name basis with Jesus amen.
So when you receive revelation from God's Spirit, when God exposes you to his secret, hidden, concealed mysteries in the life that lies before you, stand up in that and deliver what he has confided in you in your quiet time with him every single day, and I promise you when you share those secrets, when it is your pleasure to reveal the concealed wisdom of God with others, lives will be transformed. People will be drawn to Jesus because of you and Jesus, the concealed will be revealed. I'm not discounting all the things that you're learning. Don't hear that, hear this. Don't rely on our own human wisdom and knowledge. Proverbs is full of things like in all your ways, acknowledge him. He'll direct your paths, you know? I'll end with this. I started something when I was 17 years old, because I was a big Charles Haddon Spurgeon fan, and I realized that Finney and Wesley and some other guys did this too. That's before they let women in ministry. So that's a couple 100 years ago, right? So I just loved every you know, Spurgeon started out when he was 17 years old. I had this connection with him, right? And I learned that these great men of God in the 17 and 1800s read because there's 31 days in the in maximum in a month, they read the proverb for the day of the month that it is. And I've tried, I've failed at it, but I've tried most days, and I did it this morning. So today's the 19th. It's my son in law's birthday, but I read Proverbs 19 today. So if you add up all those days, certainly over six or 7000 of them that I've read, I've read about wisdom from God. He's revealing his secrets to me because, you see, I don't know how to lead a church, and I don't know what to preach on, and I don't know how to help somebody who's addicted, and I don't know how to help somebody through tragedy without him, without him, and he says, it's my glory to conceal a matter Blake, but it's your glory to seek it out and reveal it. Amen.
Let's pray, God I thank you for these wonderful people, most of them young. I find Lord, that everywhere I go, most of them are younger than me now, but I thank you for them. I thank you for their lives. I thank you for the faculty. I thank you for the leaders, the administrators, everybody who's pouring into these great people. I pray today that they will just with all that they learn, remember that they must keep seeking you, and every day you'll reveal secrets to them that will transform their lives and their ministries. But better than that, the people with whom they associate, connect with, reach out to I pray this in Jesus' wonderful name. Amen. Thank you for letting me be with you today. It's a pleasure. God bless you.
I was going to say thank you, Pastor Blake, but I'll just say thank you, Blake. Let's hear these goods, good words that were first delivered to the church of Thessalonica, but are also for us today, May our Lord, Jesus, Christ Himself and God, our Father, who loved us and by His grace, gave us eternal encouragement and good hope encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word. Amen, Go in peace.