Derek Prince - The Beauty Of Diversity In The Church
This is an excerpt from: You Can Come Through Victorious
So let me just recapitulate and we’re going to close. The three purposes of God with which I believe we need to align ourselves: Number one, the coming of His kingdom on earth. Number two, the proclaiming of the gospel to all nations, peoples, tribes and tongues. And number three, preparing a people for the kingdom. God’s own special people.
Now I’ll just close with what I consider to be Paul’s response to this challenge. These are words that have become very, very real to me just recently. Second Timothy 2:10. It starts with a 'therefore'. And some of you have heard me say, when you find a 'therefore' in the Bible, you need to find out what it’s there for. You can read back and find, we’re not going to look at it. He says: Therefore I endure all things for the sake of the elect, the chosen ones, that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. I believe that’s a motivation that will take you through the pressures, the trials, the disappointments, the persecutions. Whatever it takes, you have to have a vision. That’s my vision, I got it from Paul. I endure all things, whatever it takes, for the sake of God’s chosen ones. That they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory.
You see, I have a vision. I don’t see it with my eye, but I see in every tribe, people, nation and tongue, God has got those whom He has chosen from eternity. And the age will not close till every one of those is in the kingdom of God. So, I’m motivated to go where people haven’t gone. You know, the motto of our ministry is reaching the unreached and teaching the untaught. We go to some strange places. The stranger the place the more exciting. I tell you frankly, I’m never really excited about a congregation that’s all the same race. I like to see people mixed up, different colors, different languages, different customs - that’s where I’m happiest. Our church in Fort Lauderdale now is a multi-ethnic church. I think they have twenty-two different nations on the members roll. That’s just a beginning, that’s where I like to be.
I was brought up a Brit. My family were all empire builders in India. And although they were good people, they were white and the Indians were not white. That made a difference. I remember, as a boy of about twelve, sitting at the table saying, I don’t understand why we couldn’t invite an Indian to lunch. And there was a deathly silence. I’d said the wrong thing. Because I was the apple of everybody’s eye, because I was the only son. They didn’t squish me, but I realized they don’t think the way I think at age twelve. That’s the way I’ve thought ever since.
I tell people, I don’t know if there are any of you here, after I’d been five years in East Africa with African students, I concluded one thing: black is beautiful. I say that sincerely, I love to see black people. The other race I really love is the Jews. And think how I felt when we were invited by the Ethiopian Jews to go minister to them. Think what I got! Jews and black people in one package! Now you may not have the same feeling. But let God enlarge your heart. As Scott said, begin to pray for some nation. And after you’ve been praying for a while, you’ll get so burdened, you just won’t be able to sleep at night until something begins to happen with that nation. So the Lord bless every one of you. We’re going to go, with God’s help, to wrap this up tomorrow morning with a message of which the title is not announced. It’s top secret!