As I mentioned, we have a world-renowned
preacher in our presence. He goes by the name Dr. Stephen
J. Lawson, and he's preached twice
before at GOC, and you guys have heard the thunder of his pulpit,
and tonight I want you guys to meet the man behind the pulpit.
I want you guys to get to know him a little bit because I think
there is unique value in that, in just talking to a man who
has walked with the Lord for so many years, a man who is in
full-time ministry and has dedicated his whole life, including his
vocation to serving the Lord. And I think you guys are going
to be tremendously and uniquely blessed tonight as we do this
Q&A. But I know that some of you guys
don't know him. And so I do want to do a quick
introduction. Let me let you guys know how I first came to
know him. I don't have many friends who
are world renowned preachers, just one or two. So I did not
initiate this relationship. We did not grow up together or
anything like that. I was at Shepherds Conference
a few years ago and I was doing the valet. And so there were
some VIPs who came such as, you know, aforementioned world-renowned
preachers. And, you know, they dump their
car off to me and, you know, throw me their car keys and stuff
like that, you know, and so I park their car for them. It's a fun
job. Dr. Lawson pulls up and, you know,
I'm just trying not to make eye contact, you know, because I'm
just so unworthy. And he gives me his keys, says
some nice words and heads off to preach. And then he comes
back with joy in his eyes, just a fire that I've never seen before. And he looks at me and he says,
are you the UCLA Grace on Campus Shepherd? And I said, well, yeah,
that's me. He said, if I had to live my
life over again, I would be the UCLA Grace on Campus Shepherd. Can I please preach there?" And
I respond, oh, you're so nice. You know,
just flattery, like, oh, yeah, sure, you want to come preach?
Yeah, that's great. Yeah, you know, here's your car. About, you know, I don't think
much of it. I'm just super encouraged by that, that he would even know
who we are. About four months later, he's
back in town, and I randomly see him in the hallway, and I'm
just thinking, is this guy even gonna remember my name? And he
sees me, similar fire in his eyes, Christopher. I don't mean to beg. but can
I please preach at UCLA Grace on Campus? And so then I knew
he was serious and he wasn't just being nice. And so that
started a wonderful friendship, not just between the two of us,
but between him and our ministry. He's preached here twice before
and we're excited to have him back again. That story is just
to show you guys that he has a tremendous heart for not only
college ministry, but for you guys specifically. and he was
involved in some ministry with Crossroads many years ago when
you guys were still in junior high, things like that, and he
developed a huge heart for this specific ministry, and so he's
excited to be here. But for those of you who don't
know him, he was a pastor for 34 years. He recently retired. He's the president and founder
of One Passion Ministries. It's a ministry that you can
look up online, and I think there's two purposes. One is to equip
today's expositors, preachers of God's Word, and secondly,
to have an abundance of resources for anyone who is hungry to learn
the Word of God. And so, if you want more resources
in theology and in the Word of God, I suggest you visit that
website. He's a professor of preaching
at the Master's Seminary and a teaching fellow at Ligonier
Ministries. Some of you guys know R.C. Sproul. Dr. Lawson is good friends with Dr.
Sproul and teaches in his ministry. And as I mentioned, he's a professor
of preaching at the Master's Seminary. I had class with him. I am in the seminary and I had
class with him the past couple of days and I still have goosebumps
at his awesome teaching, how soberly he thinks of God's Word
and the pulpit ministry, and that was just contagious for
me. So we're very excited to have him. Dr. Lawson, come on
up. We will take the two seats up
here. Let's give it up for him. Well, we just want to thank you
for being here. You're so busy. You came here
to teach the classes at the Master's Seminary. Yeah. And you squeezed
us in with, you know, the time that you could have to yourself.
So let me just start off by saying thank you. Oh, listen, this is
the high point for me. It really is. That story's true,
right? That is a true story. And I said,
Christopher, I have always wanted to be able to come and speak
at the UCLA Grace on Campus. And this really goes back 15
years ago when I first started speaking for the college retreat
for Crossroads before there was even a Resolve conference and
we met out at Oxnard. And I remember that first year
there was like, let's say 500 students that came and probably
like half of them were from UCLA. And I just fell in love with
the students from UCLA. And so I came back year by year
and I don't know, it was just kind of a wonderful thing that
the Lord did in my heart. So. 15 years ago. Yeah. A long time ago. I mean, longer
before, long before they were in junior high school. You said
junior high school. I was estimating and I'm bad
at math. So actually some of the freshmen were three years
old. Yeah. I I'm feeling old and no doubt
about it. Yeah. Well, you know, they had
something great in store for them. So we want to get to know
you a little bit. So I don't mean to stalk you,
but I did. Hit up your Instagram, your Twitter,
whatever I could find on you. And asked your permission beforehand
to show some of these pictures. And why don't you just talk us
through some of these pictures? Yeah, sure. Go ahead. So what
pictures are there? OK, so might need to dim the
lights up here so we can see this better. Yeah. So who are
these people? Well, that is my only daughter
on the left. Her name is Grace Sand, and she
went to the Master's College, and she graduated number one
with a perfect 4.0 from Master's College. The apple doesn't fall
far from the tree. And then she worked for John
MacArthur in the television ministry for a couple of years, and she
now works full-time for me at our little ministry, One Passion
Ministries. And I call her sweet girl and
that's what she is. She is a sweet girl. And that's
one of, I have twin boys who are 32 years old and that's one
of my twin sons, James. And he went to the master's college
and played on the golf team and he's just a phenomenal athlete
and he is such a servant for his dad. Where we are, it's worth
noting, we are in the middle of nowhere up in the Smoky Mountains
of North Carolina. And I was married up in Asheville,
North Carolina. And this restaurant is called
Jute Box Junction. And it's like a malt milkshake
hangout place. And so every time we're there,
my in-laws have a house there. My daughter wants me to take
her to Jukebox Junction. So we go down there every like
Saturday night and Friday night and get a milkshake. And there
on the wall are all these portraits of, I mean, posters of like Elvis
and whatever. And there's a jukebox in there
playing old 50s and 60s music. Yeah, for those of you who were
three years old when Dr. Austin Paget-Crossford, a jukebox
is a device that played music. And Elvis Presley was kind of
a big deal. He sang some songs. No, he's
the king. He's the king. He's the king. Yeah. Okay, let's
see the next picture. Yeah. Okay, this is actually
from just a week and a half ago. I am...this is...I have just
preached in the church. I was the founding pastor of
this church, Christ Fellowship Baptist Church, and they have
a brand new pastor. I stepped down a year and a half
ago, and so they asked me to come back and preach the Sunday
before the new pastor would come. So it was kind of like a second...
A farewell goodbye sermon is very tearful and very emotional
for me. And so, that's my wife, Anne,
and that's James, and that's John, and Andrew. So we're into
discipleship, Andrew, James, and John. And my daughter is
Peter. So, not really, not really. So I haven't had them all together
in like six years. At one time, I would preach.
And so when they were little, they would all sit on the front
row with my wife as I would preach. And so they came back, they flew
in, and they all sat down on the front row. Yeah. That's a
great picture. That's the transition away from
the church you'd been at. Yeah, I've got the best kids
and the best wife. All right, more on them later.
Let's keep moving through these pictures. So there they are again. Yeah, that's Christmas morning
at our house. And so for the last, we've lived
in this house for the last 21 years and we're moving next week. So they flew in and they've all
left home and they had to go through their bedrooms and clean
out their bedrooms. and get all their possessions
and we threw away what they didn't want. And so for the last 21
years, every year they sit on this fireplace and we take a
picture of them. So this is the traditional Christmas
picture on Christmas morning in the Lawson household and my
daughter has her dog, Molly, on the far right, it's a black...it's
kind of hard to see, she's hard to see. You see my daughter's
hand on Molly, she's a black lab. And so she lived with us the
whole time that my daughter was at the Master's College. So she's
very close to our hearts. So my boys have got Christmas
lights around their neck. So we turn them on on Sunday
morning. All right, next picture. Yeah,
all right, so here's the golfing, right? Yeah, wow, this was last
summer. And my favorite thing in the
whole world is to play golf with my boys. So I've said if I had
one day to live, I would play golf with my boys, preach a sermon,
kiss my wife and die. So that would be how I would
live my last day if I could plan it out. So. So mostly golf then. Yeah. Time wise. Yeah. And so we're on top of
a mountain in North Carolina. You can't really maybe you can
see some of the mountain range. And this is this is one of the
most posh golf courses. And I had someone get us on. And so we spent this day playing
golf up on top of this mountain up in the clouds in the Smokies
of North Carolina. You can see my son, John, on
the left. He's big. He was a big football player.
And then my son, James, on the right. So that was one special
day. All right. Yeah. Okay, that's
my daughter, obviously, on the left. And she's holding up one
finger because we have a rule at our house, rule number one. which is good things happen when
you're with dad. So we're going to adopt that
into my family. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And then rule
number two is don't forget rule number one. So here on this,
we're flying back from North Carolina. We spend every July
4th in Asheville, North Carolina. And we're flying back from Asheville
and I fly a lot to preach all over the place and I build up
a lot of points within airlines and so they moved me up to first
class. And I didn't know but I ran into
my daughter at the Charlotte airport and I flew from Asheville
to Charlotte and she drove to Charlotte and we, unknown to
me, we got there at the same time. So she has never flown
first class. So I went into the Little Admirals
Club and worked it out that they would move her up to first class. So she got to sit next to me
up there at first class. She was just starry-eyed because
they give you kind of rockstar treatment up there. So she's
so excited, so she did this selfie holding up one finger so her
brothers could see that she's in first class with dad and they're
back home. It's because of rule number one,
when you hang out with dad, good things happen. Yeah, rule number
one, good things happen when you're with dad. All right, let's see
what else we got. Yeah. Who's that child? That's the big man right there.
Big man on campus, okay? The campus kind of tilts in that
direction. Yeah, we call him, his nickname
is Continent, okay? Yeah, he's so big that we show
movies on his back. When he sits around the house,
he sits around the house. He buys underwear, US rubber
goes up three points. He went to the beach the other
day and they actually harpooned him. Yeah, he goes to Dodger Stadium,
people sit next to him so they can be in the shade. Oh yeah,
oh yeah. It just can't get better. I think
we're done. All right. Yo pasta's so fat. All right. That was just amazing how you
pulled those all out. As a child, he could only play
Seek. He wears a yellow shirt, people
come up and they go, taxi. Well, we have about 30 minutes
left, but I think you could fill the whole time. But, yeah, let's
go and just move on. It's too tempting for you. We
gotta get rid of Austin. Okay, here we go. Here we go.
Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Now just pause and
meditate. All right, tell us who this gentleman
is. Well, that is your humble servant right there, number 11. And that's a high school football
game. And I played high school football
in Memphis, Tennessee, many, many years ago. So we're playing
Hamilton High School right there. And I was telling you earlier,
just a little backdrop on this, this was a very, tense time,
and I was thinking about it, it wasn't after, it was just
before this. I'm in Memphis, Tennessee, and Martin Luther
King is assassinated in Memphis. And I went to an all-white high
school, and we're playing an all-African American high school. And we're supposed to play at
7.30 at night at Halley Field. And there is so much tension,
you can just take a knife and cut the air. So we ended up playing
this game in broad daylight at two o'clock in the afternoon
so that we could get our team bus into the stadium and out
of the stadium without bricks and everything being thrown through
the window. So every time I, whenever I see that picture,
I mean, I see it like once every 10 years, I think of the setting
around that and just the social unrest as the city I was in is
about ready to blow up. I remember in front of my house,
the U.S. Reserve, the Army Reserve went
by with like tanks and heavy duty military equipment if needed
to just settle the town down. So, I mean, we played this game
in the middle of the day, 2 o'clock on like a Thursday afternoon,
school got out at noon. And so anyway, I was a passing
quarterback and my coach was incredibly conservative, meaning
we just ran the ball. So I had to become a running
quarterback and I ended up going to Texas Tech and I played football
at Texas Tech on a scholarship, but became a running quarterback
that year. So this huge guy is chasing me
and a great athlete and I'm trying to get away. And so I'm turning
the corner here and picking up some yards. So this is you in
high school. Yeah, that's me in high school.
Developed a passion for football and played football in college. So talk more about your experience
in college. We'd love to hear it as college
students themselves, just what it was like, to be a Christian
in college? What kind of ministry were you
involved in? Talk about the football team for sure, we're interested
in that. Yeah, yeah, no, we had a great football team. We played
in a couple of bowl games. At that time, I mean, I'm a whole guy, this
is 1969 to 1973, or my four years, my senior year was 1972. And
at that time, Texas was the number one team in the nation, the Texas
Longhorns. And the number two team in the
nation was the Arkansas Razorbacks, and they're both in our conference.
So they were number one, number two in the nation. And Texas
had like a 32 game win streak And the last team to beat Texas,
we were the last team to beat them in our stadium. And then
they went on this 32-game win streak. They played Notre Dame
in the Cotton Bowl back-to-back years. Joe Theismann was the
quarterback for Notre Dame. And so that was a pretty fun
experience. experience playing against really
the best teams in the nation at that time. We went to the
Sun Bowl twice. We went eight and three, played
Georgia Tech one year, North Carolina, University of North
Carolina the other year. And then in between, we actually
were the number 10 team in the nation. We were actually even
better that in between year and the first game we went to the
Sugar Bowl and played Tulane and we somehow we lost that game
and we never really kind of gathered our momentum. So, but it was
a wonderful experience playing college football. I mean, you
really learn discipline and dedication and They own you for four years. And it's around the calendar,
the off season is harder than the season, January, February,
March, April, in the weight room, running, agility drills, spring
practice, just on and on. And it was hard to study and
make good grades. But you're talking about ministry.
When I was in college, I started some ministries. When I was in
college, we had the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and I was
on the football team and I was the president of the Fellowship
of Christian Athletes and that's really where I first started
to preach was going to small churches out in West Texas who
wanted a football player to come and do like the Sunday evening
service and I just kept all those for myself since I was the president
and I would go off and I began to preach when I was 19. Really,
I started when I was 18, and 19, and 20, and 21, and then
I started high school ministry out there and the Lord just blessed
it. And I would say this, and I say
this to apply for you, I still think that maybe the greatest
days of ministry for me was when I was in college. I didn't have
committees and people telling me what I couldn't do and tying
me down. I had a Volkswagen bug and I
was just on the go for God and I just was going everywhere teaching
and preaching and telling people about the Lord and I would speak
two or three times a week in the evenings while I'm playing
football and while I'm trying to study. They were wonderful,
wonderful times and God led a lot of people to Christ at that time. So I would even say to you that
while you're in college, because of the time It could be the greatest
years of ministry for you to serve Christ and to be used by
the Lord to reach other people for Christ. And it was only the
grace of God at work in my life, but God truly laid hold of me,
laid hold of my heart while I was in college and began to use me. And I was so overwhelmed at the
thought that God could use me. And I would drive out into little
nowhere towns in West Texas. I preached in one town called
Earth, Texas. And the directions are always
the same, you go to the grain elevator, turn to the left, you
go to the water tower, turn to the right and there's a little
like First Baptist Church and you go in there and I remember
thinking nobody in the world even knows where I am but God
knows where I am as I'm driving out there to... Preach the Word. BINGHAMS Did you have opportunities
to share the gospel with your teammates? What was that dynamic
like in the locker room? LAWSON Oh, yeah. Yeah, because
of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and I was the president
of the FCA and we had the largest FCA chapter in the whole country
of all the football teams in the country and of all the major
universities in the country, we had the largest Fellowship
of Christian Athletes chapter, and so I was over that. And so
everyone knew where I stood. And so I had opportunity, oh
yeah, in the locker room, after practice, athletic dining hall,
yeah, breakfast, you know, before class, after class, weekends,
and just telling people about the Lord. talking about the Lord. So you come up with ways to introduce
in the conversation to talk about Christ and the Lord and ask questions. I mean, where are you? What are
you thinking about spiritual things? And just kind of get
the conversation going. And once you get it going, then
you can steer it to Christ. So you mentioned a couple ways
that you spent your time in college, evangelizing, preaching. One
of the most common prayer requests that I hear from these students
is pertaining to time management, using your time wisely. These
students are busy in this club and that internship. just having
to pile it on for the resume to get into the grad school,
get the job. And at the same time, this could
be the most distracted generation ever with Facebook, Twitter,
smartphones, and all that. What would you say to them in
that regard of using your time wisely in college? Yeah, well,
first of all, Before you come to college, your parents and
living at home, I mean, you kind of had a tight schedule. And
now, all of a sudden, for the first time, you're on your own
and you've got this huge window of time now. How are you going
to use this time for the first time in your life? And I think,
first of all, you know, your job is to go to school. Your
job is to make the best grades that you can within reason. Now
you can't let that become an idol either and become more important
than serving Christ and loving Christ. But you've got to go
to class and you've got to do your homework. And I would also
say this, and I'm the last person to say this about being in college,
but you can't procrastinate and wait till the last second to
start to study. or to do your paper and pull
an all-niner, that kind of thing. You've got to be disciplined
with your time and be out ahead. And it's easier for me to say
that than what I did. I've had to learn this now growing
up. And I would say also, you have
to prioritize your time. And with that, you have to learn
how to say no to things. And that's hard because when
your buddies say, hey, we're going on this weekend deal and
here we go, come on and go. It's so easy to say yes. And
I mean, in fact, sometimes I don't think I can say no, it's too
fun. But you've got that paper that's due. You've got this exam,
huge exam on Monday. And you have to have the discipline
to say no so that you can say yes to the right thing. But in
the midst of all that, I mean, first and foremost, before you're
a student, you're a Christian, you're a believer in the Lord
Jesus Christ and the Lordship of Christ over your life. And
so you have to have time for like Friday night, Grace on Campus.
You've got to have time to be in church on Sunday morning.
You have to have time to try to like be a part of some of
these classes that you're offering. And again, you've got to be able
to say no to some things that you might just be killing a lot
of time, wasting a lot of time. And that takes some maturity.
on that, Chris, so that's just what comes to my mind. That's
extremely helpful, especially as we're starting a new quarter
here and feeling the conviction of last quarter, having procrastinated
and not said no to the right things to say yes to the right
things. I was the world's worst at that,
honestly, and it's just a hard way to go through school. It's
an unnecessarily hard way. You do it to yourself. You bring
it on yourself. You know you've got that paper
due. You know you've got this exam, but you still want to go
to this movie. You still want to go to this
concert. You still want to go hang out with people. And it's
just like, man, you just shot your study time right there.
Yeah, it's no way to live. And it would be so helpful to
weed that bad habit out in college. have a different kind of lifestyle
for the rest of your life, free from the tyranny of that assignment
or whatever. It's good. Well, that's one struggle
that I hear commonly from these students, and as I think about
them being at UCLA, secular ministry, being in the world and being
called to not be of it. What are some pitfalls you see
in college students, certain things to avoid, blind spots
that they have so that they can live their lives more to the
glory of God? Yeah, I think number one, you gotta avoid bad company. You're gonna become like the
people you hang out with. My father used to tell me, Steve,
you will be most influenced and be known by who your friends
are and what you read. And it just kind of drilled into
my head, so I really, looked for, I tried to look for the
people that would be the best influence on my life when I was
in college. So I would say you've got...that's
why a time like this, Friday night, so important, being with
other like-minded Christians. because you can't always be with
all Christians when you're going to school, going to class, especially
in a large, you know, university like this. So you've got to find
a group of believers to be with and maybe it's eating meals with
and maybe it's going to...meeting at the library together and studying
together as well as being in Bible, you know, time like this. That's one huge thing. And then
just being in the Word of God, and if I could just take a second
to share this. I didn't grow up in a church
like Grace Community Church. I grew up in kind of a liberal
church that didn't really preach the Bible. And when I went to
college, all I had was a living Bible. And I don't know that
anyone here even knows what a living Bible is, and all I had was a
New Testament, and I had a New Testament with pictures. It was
a hardback with pictures of like athletes, you know, in between
Romans and 1 Corinthians, you know, and that's all I had. But I carried that Bible with
me like literally everywhere I went. I carried it to class. I'd get to class early. I remember
I'd sit down in the hall, put my back up against the wall in
the hall waiting for that next class to get out. I had little
felt pens and I didn't have a commentary. I didn't have a study Bible or
anything like that, but I just read through the New Testament
constantly, continually. And I had different colored pens
and different colors signified different things. And out in
the margin, I would try to write like a four or five-word summary
of what that cluster of verses was about. until I could go through
the whole New Testament and just almost like stepping stones through
the New Testament, little summary statements out in the margin.
I had yellow highlighter and highlight my favorite verses.
But sometimes I would read through the New Testament like once a
week, once every other and I'm just consuming my Bible. I'd
carry it to football practice, I'd sit in my locker and guys
are getting dressed and I'd read a page and then get my pads on
and head out to the field, practice would be over, I'd come back,
I'd just read another page, carry that thing back to the athletic
dining hall, sit there and be reading in my Bible while I'm
eating, carry that up to the dorm. I mean, I just, I was... I was...and it was God doing
it in my heart, it wasn't me or anything, it was God at work
within me cultivating a hunger for the Word of God and I was
aware I'm reading the Bible not only for me but for other people
so that I know what to say to other people. And that was motivating
me greatly and it's the first time I'd ever like read a lot
of the Bible, you know, other than just being a little isolated
thing. So college for me was a time where I really grew spiritually
because of the Bible and the Word of God and then opportunities
to serve the Lord. If you aren't serving the Lord
in some capacity, if all you're doing is just taking in the Word
but it's not going back out of you, you really just become kind
of a couch potato. metaphorically. I mean, you just
become...you're taking in, but it's not going out. And so you're
just like someone who's eating, eating, eating, eating, but there's
no exercise. So you're just becoming fat spiritually. And so you've got to eat and
take in the Word of God, but then you've also got to exercise
your spiritual muscles and serve other people and tell other people
about Christ and lead a Bible study or go to a Bible study,
just something to serve the Lord, just get some assignment here. It's something like this. So
anyway, to answer your question, I just...for me, as I look back,
it was only... that God laid His hand on me
and was doing something in me. And so I'm so grateful to reflect
on those college years as growth years spiritually. discovering who you are and you
do have quite a bit of time to read your Bible. Did you say
you read the New Testament every week? Not every week, but there
were weeks I would read it once a week. Yeah, only some weeks.
Yeah, only some. Not impressive. Only some weeks,
but I was just like hooked. I was obsessed with the truth
and the Bible and just the joy of discovery because there were
so many parts in there I'd never really read. before, and I wanted
the mind of Christ. So, yeah, no, that's true. Yeah, and you mentioned applying
that word as well, you know, having the mind of Christ so
that you can live like Christ. Absolutely. And, you know, these
students are neck deep in in the world at UCLA, you know,
temptation is around every corner. You've walked with the Lord for
quite a few years. Can you give us some strategies
for fighting sin? You know, just what has been
most helpful to you as many of them are just beginning their
journey of following Christ and beginning to weed out sin from
their lives. What do you personally do to
strategize against sin? I mean, back when I was in college.
You can do both. Yeah, yeah. College, now. Yeah,
no, I remember walking to practice one day with...I was a freshman
and this guy was a senior, he was a wide receiver, and we were
just talking about temptation. And I grew up in a very sheltered
home with a mom and dad. and who just oversaw everything
and all of a sudden I'm on this college campus, you know, like
30, 35,000 students and there's just stuff going on everywhere.
You know, and all of a sudden I get a roommate and it's just
like, who's this? And he's got, you know, what's
this? And, you know, he's got a lifestyle
different than mine. He's coming in pretty late on
Friday night and pretty late on Saturday night. And then you
can imagine a football locker room and just all kinds of language
and guys talking about things and all of a sudden I'm in the
deep end of the pool and I'm in over my head and it's like
when Jesus was tempted in Matthew 4, 40 days and 40 nights in the
wilderness with each temptation, He said, it is written, a man
shall not live by bread alone. It is written, you shall not
put the Lord your God to... A foolish test. So it really...it's
still the Scripture. It's still the Bible that we
use as the sword of the Spirit to resist temptation and have
God's Word hidden in my heart. Listen to Psalm 119 verses 9
and 11. How shall a young man keep his
way pure? How shall a young woman keep
her way pure? By keeping it according to Your
Word. Your Word I have hidden in my
heart that I might not sin against You." So we have to hide God's
Word in our heart long before the temptation comes and long
before the snare and the lure is there in front of us. And
when the devil comes knocking on your door with temptation,
you've got to send Jesus to the door to answer that temptation.
and to answer with the Word of God and to be purposeful that
I will obey the Word of God. And it's the Scripture that makes
us strong in the faith to be able to resist. And, of course,
we have to pray and we've got to be with other believers who
are wanting to pursue holiness and godliness as well because
it's pretty easy to get pulled in a direction. And so I've got
to be with other people who are wanting to help me pursue holiness,
not hinder me from pursuing holiness. So that's what would be off the
top of my head, Chris. Yeah, that's very helpful, you
know, those strategies for fighting sin. The last one you mentioned
was... Yeah, and I just thought of one other thing. Go for it. In my
dorm room, I had this Bible verse that hung right over my bed,
and I was telling Chris, my roommate, played middle linebacker for
the Chicago Bears. I mean, he was the meanest guy
on the team. And I knew no one would mess
with me because my roommate's the meanest guy on the team.
So I was safe from everybody else. But I had right over my
bed, Philippians 4.13, I can do all things through Christ
who strengthens me. And it just gave me such a positive
Christian mindset that by the power of Christ and by His grace,
I could do anything and everything within the will of God, that
whatever God called on me to do. And so, I knew that I could
resist temptation, I could stay on the path of purity through
the power of Christ. So, anyway, that was another
verse that was very strong. JOHN HATHAWAY Yeah, I love that emphasis on
the power of Christ through the Word of God. And another thing
that you mentioned was being in the fellowship with other
Christians who could spur you on. Let's talk about involvement
at church. We are going to start a series
on the church here at GOC this quarter. I've let you guys know
about that. So since you're here, we want
to get your thoughts on the church. Let's talk about Grace Church,
first of all. You don't go to Grace Community Church, but you
kind of go to Grace. We see you quite a bit. Yeah. Yeah, I come out here six, seven
times a year. Right. Yeah. And probably more if you
could, right? Yeah, I would. I'd just be out
here all the time. So just talk about your experience.
I'd have your job right here, right? Like I said, I'm staying. Yeah,
so what's the question? Just so we're clear. Yeah, so
just talk about your experience at Grace Community Church, you
know, your friendship with Pastor John, and talk about our church,
that you've been at this church longer than we have. Yeah, I
first came to Grace Community Church in 1982, so I don't even
know how many years ago that was. I can't even do the math.
But I came out here for a shepherd's conference back when we met in
the chapel. We didn't even meet in the big
sanctuary because there would be like 150 people come, pastors,
and we'd meet in the chapel. And the two things that just
struck me immediately about Grace Community Church, number one,
the power of the Word of God at this place. I mean, John MacArthur
preaching the Word of God, I just was immediately struck, you are
the greatest Bible preacher in the world. You are the greatest
Bible teacher. And when you preach the Bible,
the Bible is just so clear. It just comes alive, and it's
just pounding on my heart and renewing my mind. And the other
people at Grace were just so Bible-oriented. So that was the
first thing. The second thing that struck
me, when I would come out here, I was, you know, I was pastoring
a tiny little Bible church in Arkansas. I mean, we had no money.
And the only way I could come out here was to catch the flyaway
from LAX Airport and you know, get to some place and hop on
another bus and then get to Grace. And I stayed with a family, an
old family. They were, like, 70 years old.
And I stayed with them because I couldn't afford a hotel. And
then they would drive me into church every day and then pick
me up at night. And the reason I mention that
is I was so struck by how loving these people are. They're so
serious about the Bible. but they're so loving towards
one another. And they just were so kind and
gracious to me. They spoke to me, they encouraged
me, they wanted to serve me. And those two things have only
grown over the years. This is the most loving church
and the most loving fellowship that I've ever been a part of.
And some people say, oh, man, they're just so serious about
the Bible, it must be kind of an unloving place, and it's just
the opposite. And John MacArthur has said this,
strong preaching makes for soft hearts, and soft preaching makes
for hardened hearts. And so it's this combination
of strong preaching of the Word that makes for soft, tender,
caring, loving hearts towards one another. So I can't imagine
another church in the world that I would want to go to. And I'll
tell you the impact that it's had on me. You saw my kids. My
daughter's name is Grace for a reason. She's named after Grace
Community Church. And my youngest son is named
John for a reason, the man who stands in the pulpit at Grace
Community Church. And this was long before I started
coming out here preaching at Shepherd's Conference or would
serve on the board of the school or... I just was captured by
what God was doing in this church. And though I couldn't live here
as I named my last two children, I just, as a... I don't know. just a way of honoring what God
had done in my life in this church. And the fact that I would be
like at something like this tonight or today, I've been all week
up at Grace Community Church, and I ate lunch with John MacArthur
today, and if you'd have told me that years ago, I would have
thought that's Star Wars. I mean, that's just crazy. That
would never happen to me. So this is a special place. I'll just say this, for those
of you, I have no idea where you go to church, probably a
lot of you, if not most of you go to Grace Community. I can't
even imagine that you wouldn't be there to take in the Word
of God because for me to come from the other side of the country
to come out here and to be a part of this fellowship was really
just like a little bit of heaven on earth. So I don't know if
that's kind of what you... Yeah, I mean, I think we, many
of us feel very similarly, little slice of heaven. We're very privileged
to be at Grace Community Church. However, I think sometimes as
college students, we do fall into the mindset of, well, I'm
only gonna be here for X amount of years. two more years, one
more year, six more months. And that kind of causes us to
feel like I can attend the church, but I'm not going to really be
a part of it. And at the same time, you know, we got grace
on campus. That's all we need. How does the church fit into
that? So talk about being involved in church, serving at church,
being a part of the body. How can they, as college students
who realistically will only be here for a few more years, You've
got to be all in. I mean, that's like saying, yeah,
I mean, I'm only going to be committed. I'm not going to be
committed to my wife for six months or something. It's like,
are you nuts? Yes. Yes. OK. Yeah. I think it begins by inviting
people to church. And you either bring the Word
of God to people or you bring people to the Word of God. It's
just one of the two. And the easiest thing for you
to do is just bring people to the Word of God. It'd be a little
harder to take the Word of God to people because you have to
talk to them. But you can invite. You can invite and bring people.
Put them in a car. Hey, we'll come pick you up Sunday
morning. And that's one involvement. When
I was in college, my dad then gave me a Volkswagen. a van that
I was able...it was the family van as we flip-flopped cars.
So I just drove around and picked up guys on the football team,
put them in my van and drive them to church. And I thought,
that's something I can do. And then I started picking up
girls and started taking, no, I'm just kidding, picking up
the guys and taking them to church. So that's one thing you can do.
And then you can go to your shepherds and your under shepherd and your
small group leader and just say, hey, what can I do? Give me an
assignment," and it's just like, hey, we need somebody to do this
or that, and no matter what it is. You know what my wife's job
was when we started our church? I showed you the picture there.
I was the founding pastor. My wife's job, and when I met
my wife, she had just finished being the...running the governor's
mansion of South Carolina. She had a pretty high-profile
job. I have pictures of her and Prince Charles, her and Bob Hope,
her and Ronald Reagan, her, etc. She had a pretty nice life until
she met me. And she should have listened
to her mother. But anyway, her job in our church that we
founded was to clean the toilets. And it was just something, we
didn't even want to pay someone to be the janitor. It was just
kind of like this is our church and we want to serve and so we
want to start this church plant. And so my wife said, my job is
going to be to clean the toilets. So she'd go up there like every
whatever day of the week that was and get on her hands and
knees and just scrub, and it's just that there are so many jobs
that need to be done in a church. And you may look at a big church
like Grace and go, wow, there's so many people, they don't need
me. No, it's the opposite. There's so many people, we do
need you. There's so many people, that means there's so many ministries,
there's so many assignments, there's so many responsibilities,
there's so many things that have to happen. And one thing you
can do is just go to one of your shepherds and say, hey, I need
a job. I mean, we're having an unemployment
problem here. at the church. I need to be employed.
I need a job. So what can I do?" And he'll
probably say, we'll get right back with you and what do you
want to do, you know, and here's some possibilities. But you've
got to serve the Lord. That's why He left us here on
the earth after you're saved, is we're saved to serve. All
right. Thank you very much for that.
And we'll talk more about the church, but you kicked us off
just right. You got it started for us. So,
Dr. Lawson, I know you love being
here. I do love being here. Can we
see any more of my football pictures? No, no, I'm kidding, I'm kidding.
That's the only one we found, yeah. We can do more Austin jokes. Yeah,
yeah. That's way too easy. That's way
too easy. Because I have a lot of material
to work with. Material. He has all of his t-shirts
monogrammed XL, so. Yeah, so. I know you love being
here. I just wanted to give you a chance
to say anything else you wanted to say. And if it's more jokes,
go for it. But just as you have grace on campus, you have their
attention. One final word. If you have it, if not, I'll
just close in prayer. Yeah. You know, if I could just say
one thing, the greatest commandment is that you love the Lord your
God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your
mind and with all your strength. So that's the greatest commandment.
That's like first base. And it doesn't matter if you
get to second base or third base if you miss first base. You have
to touch first base before you can advance. And that's the most
important thing in your life. There's nothing that takes precedence
or priority over job number one. That's job number one, is that
you love God in your heart and in your soul. So I would just
encourage you to do what's most important. Don't do what's second
most important until you've done and you're doing what's first
important. And to love someone, you have to get to know them.
And the only way to get to know God is by being in His Word and
then being at places where the Word is taught and preached and
being with other Christians who love God and they're talking
about God and His Son, Christ. So I would just encourage you
to make your priority what is the most important thing in the
whole world is that you have a heart that's on fire for God. I can't think of a better closing
word than that, to love God with all that you are. And at the
same time, I can't think of a higher calling that you could have called
us to. So can I ask you to pray for
us that we would do just that, that we would obey the greatest
commandment? Yeah, no, I would love to. Why
don't we just pray for a moment? And as I do, God is right here
in this room with us, and God hears this prayer, and God answers
prayer. So this isn't just a way to wrap
this up, this is really a way to ask God to do something in
our heart. So, let's pray. Father, we come
to You the only way we can approach You, and that is through Your
Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And You've told us that we can
come with bold confidence before Your throne of grace knowing
we have acceptance with You through Christ. And so, as we come in
the name of Christ, I ask for my brothers and sisters in Christ
here at UCLA that You would enlarge their heart so that they may
run after You. I pray that You would deepen
and enlarge their capacity to know You. and to have affections
for you and to be loyal to you and to have an allegiance to
you. And your son has said, if you
love me, you will keep my commandments. And so I pray for these young
men and women that they would give evidence of their love for
you by obeying you. and seeking to please You in
all that they do. Give them the grace to resist
temptation. Give them the grace to say no
even to good things so that they can do the best things. And I
pray that they will grow spiritually. into the image yet more and more
of the Lord Jesus Christ. So right now, crown them with
Your grace. Enlarge the outflow of Your grace
into their lives. Give them grace upon grace. Multiply
grace in their life. In Jesus' name. Amen.