We are midway through the seven-week sermon series where we are looking at our history as a Methodist Church. We have been using Adam Hamilton’s book Revival: Faith as Wesley Lived It. John Wesley was the founder of Methodism, though he never intended to start a new denomination. He gave his heart completely to the Lord and God used him in mighty ways.

The Great Revival of England, that carried over to America, was in big part because of God working through Wesley. So hopefully by studying Wesley’s life we can learn ways to draw closer to God and revive the faith of our church, community, nation and the world.

Allow me to share just a few of the many quotes from John Wesley, which demonstrate his faith and dependence on God. You will recognize the first one that we have recently put on the new church T-shirts, and I’m sure others will be familiar to you. I know these have touched me deeply and I pray that they will impact your life. My suggestion is that you pick one or two of these, which are meaningful to you, and that you spend some time focusing on what God may be saying to you.

• “Do all the good you can.
  By all the means you can.
  In all the ways you can.
  In all the places you can.
  At all the times you can.
  To all the people you can.
  As long as ever you can.”
• “We should be rigorous in judging ourselves and gracious in judging others.”
• “What one generation tolerates, the next generation will embrace.”
• “Unless God has raised you up for this very thing, you will be worn out by the opposition of men and devils. But if God be for you, who can be against you? Are all of them together stronger than God? O be not weary of well doing!”
• “Do you not know that God entrusted you with that money (all above what buys necessities for your families) to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, to help the stranger, the widow, the fatherless; and, indeed, as far as it will go, to relieve the wants of all mankind? How can you, how dare you, defraud the Lord, by applying it to any other purpose?”
• “Though we cannot think alike, may we not love alike? May we not be of one heart, though we are not of one opinion? Without all doubt, we may. Herein all the children of God may unite, notwithstanding these smaller differences.”
• “Earn all you can.
  Give all you can.
  Save all you can.”
• “When a man becomes a Christian, he becomes industrious, trustworthy and prosperous. Now, if that man when he gets all he can and saves all he can, does not give all he can, I have more hope for Judas Iscariot than for that man.”
• “Thanksgiving is inseparable from true prayer; it is almost essentially connected with it. One who always prays is ever giving praise, whether in ease or pain, both for prosperity and for the greatest adversity. He blesses God for all things, looks on them as coming from Him, and receives them for His sake- not choosing nor refusing, liking or disliking, anything, but only as it is agreeable or disagreeable to His perfect will.”
• “Not, how much of my money will I give to God, but, how much of God’s money will I keep for myself?”
• “You have one business on earth — to save souls.”

Blessings and Peace be with you,

Dr. Keva Green
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