Welcome to a firm foundation presented by Princeton Ministries with Dr. Ken Smith. This is Carol Smith; Ken’s wife Please enjoy.

Our God and our father. As we see this portion of scripture, we ask that it might be placed upon our hearts and our minds that we might have that great desire of sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ with people that we meet. Help us. We pray that this text might become a great text in our lives, for we ask it in Jesus name. Amen. Each of our lives is divided into fleeting seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years. And by the time it’s all over, a life has been used. Every one of us has to make a decision how we are going to use that life. What is the greatest priority that motivates us? What are the great desires and goals of our life?

And you, as long as well with me, must each day of our life make judgments that are determined upon that which we are dedicated to. I would ask each of us today, what is our lives dedicated to? It’s interesting that as you study the lives of missionaries, great Christians, you find that so often there is a motivating truth that is at the center of their heart and their mind, that for some reason, in the providence of God, a particular scripture has grabbed hold of their heart, and they are never far from that scripture. What scripture is closest to your heart? What text is motivating you at work, with your family, in your ministry as a Christian?

Today, we’ll look at the life of David Livingstone not as a historical study, but to understand what motivated this man to accomplish for Jesus Christ the great tasks that were left behind in his years of service to Christ. I believe there was a text that constantly beat in the life of Livingstone, that he never got far from the stake of that text. I think most people will agree that David Livingstone, in the past 500 years, was the greatest missionary that the world had ever known. He was a dedicated Christian man. Livingstone had spent some 18 years in Africa and returned from the jungles and the ministry to receive at the University of Glasgow an award for his service to Christ.

Now, as he came, it was the custom of the day for students to harass speakers, and they would routinely come with horns and trumpets and all manner of devices to distract the speaker. And if at a certain point he was not exactly what that assembly wanted, out would come the pea shooters and the trumpets, and eventually the speaker would be driven off the stage. And so, as the custom was, all of the students sat with their noisemakers under wraps, and they were preparing to hear a dull story from a dull missionary. But instead, as Livingstone came across that stage, they noticed a resolute step, a face that had been deeply suntanned from years in Africa, from some 15 years of service. Livingstone now came before this student body, and on his face were the worn marks of fever.

His left arm had been ripped from its joint by an attacking lion, and the socket had been splintered. And as he walked slowly across, dragging, as it were, that arm having walked over 11,000 miles in Africa, the students looked at this man, and they knew that there was something different. And as Livingstone spoke, there was not a noisemaker heard, not a pea shooter to be shot as they sat and looked into the face of David Livingstone. Livingstone, having gone through the great terrors of his years in Africa, then asked the students, shall I tell you what sustained me amidst the toil, the hardship, the loneliness of my exiled life? It was this promise. Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. It was the text taken from the last chapter of the Book of Matthew.

Lo, I am with you even to the end of the age that Jesus Christ had promised that he would be with Livingstone. And for some unexplainable reason, that text so drove Livingstone that he became the subject of newspaper reports, books, throughout his entire lifetime. And perhaps no missionary was so followed, as was the ministry of David Livingstone. It was this text that ignited his heart to service to Jesus Christ. In his diary, Livingstone made a prayer. It was a three fold prayer, and he wrote these words, lord, send me anywhere, only go with me. Lay any burden on me, only sustain me. Sever any ties but the tie that binds me to thy service and to thy heart. And this prayer was prayed while he was in Africa. But never did he know how the Lord would answer that threefold prayer.

And yet he was motivated day after day by the unseen presence of his dearest friend and savior, Jesus, who had promised second by second and minute by minute, hour by hour, year by year. Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Lord, send me anywhere, only go with me, wrote Livingstone. He was raised in a Christian family, and as a boy, he worked in the mill as a spinner. As a young man, he determined that he would become a missionary doctor. And so he studied to become a physician. And having completed his studies, he decided that he would go to China as a missionary. He became a member of the London Missionary Society, and everything was going exactly as planned for David Livingstone, except for a war in China, the opium war that closed China to missions.

And just at the moment when Livingstone was prepared from years of education to go and to take the gospel of Jesus Christ. He was forbidden from going to China. At a chance meeting, heard a speaker, Robert Moffat, who had just returned from years of ministry in South Africa. Moffat spoke about the missionary call of taking the gospel into all the world. And he said, there is a vast plain to the north where I have sometimes seen in the morning sun the smoke of a thousand villages where no missionary has ever been. It was to Robert Moffat that David Livingstone came and said, I will go at once to Africa. He left no time and he immediately made all changes for Africa.

Africa where no missionary had ventured in central and southern portions where only Moffat’s reports were the basis for any insight into the villages and the people who lived in Africa. He arrived at a place called Koleberg and he isolated himself for six months among the natives where he learned the language. He lived among those people and met another tribe called the Bethuana, the crocodile people. And there he began his ministry. It was a ministry that faced great superstitions on the part of the people. They believed that their witch doctor had total power in being able to bring rain. And there, in the midst of a terrible drought, no rain. And the witch doctor was not able to bring that water. And Livingstone came forward and said, I can bring water into your gardens. And what did he do? There was a simple solution.

A stream which flowed not far from the village was irrigated into that village the first time that it had occurred and water was brought into the village. That small act was seen by the village as a new witch doctor has come one who has greater power than our old. And Livingstone grabbed the heart of that tribe of people. And it was from there that a strong gospel ministry occurred. It was through all of those early years that the promise of Jesus Christ, lo, I am with you always. Even to the end of the age, moved the heart of Livingstone. He prayed, lay any burden on me, only sustain me. Life in Africa was not easy.

He believed that he had come to Africa for the purpose of opening the interiors of Africa so that roads and paths might be made into the very heart of Africa. Because it was from that part of the world that slavery was occurring. And it was the belief of Livingstone that if we could bring inroads into Africa, we would begin to break the bonds of slavery. It was his belief that the gospel of Jesus Christ had to be preached to every creature and to all parts of the world. On one trip, Livingstone records the rain poured down, dripping from the trees and soaked through my sleeping bag, my clothes. And soon they became moldy. The rain made the guns rusty and rotted our tent. Often. The only place that Livingstone could keep his wristwatch dry was under his armpit.

The fever was never far from Livingstone. He constantly was battling that illness. And yet the promise lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. He believed that a path from east to west, across Africa must be found, and the gospel shared with every village and every native that he would meet along the way. Livingstone had four children. He married the daughter of Robert Moffat. But the journeys were too great on the family, and finally Livingstone had to turn to his wife and children and ask them to return back to England. Lay any burden on me, only sustain me. The anguish of that separation for Livingstone was tremendous. He wrote to his wife. My dearest Mary, how I miss you and the children.

I see no face now to compare with the sun burnt one which was so often greeted me in its kind looks. Take the children all around you and kiss them for me. Tell them I have left them for the love of Jesus, and they must love him too, and avoid sin, for that displeases Jesus. And through those years of separation, the promise, lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. In 1856, Livingstone rejoined his family. He went back to be with them in England. It was at that time that he went to the university at Glasgow, and not a pea shooter was shot.

But it was also on that visit that he returned to visit his family, his father and mother, who he deeply loved and seldom, because of the impossibility of getting word where Livingstone was in Africa, did he have any reports about their well being? He did not know of the illness of his father. And when he came to that little hut, his mother told him that just previously and weeks past, his father had died. And Livingstone, looking at that empty chair, broke down in tears. Lay any burden on me, Livingstone had prayed, but Jesus had said, lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. In 1862, Livingstone, now back in Africa. No word had been heard for some five years, no reliable words at all for three years, and Livingstone was now alone in Africa.

In April, his wife decided to return to be with him. It was one of the greatest events in his ministry that he was now rejoined with his family, and within a short two months, Mary, his wife, would be taken with the fatal diseases of Africa and she would die. In her death, Livingstone wrote, it is the first heavy stroke I have suffered and quite takes away my strength. I loved her when I married her. And the longer I lived with her, the more I loved her. God, pity the poor children who were all tenderly attached to her. And I’m left alone in the world by one whom I felt to be a part of myself. Sever any ties that bind. Livingstone had brayed, but the tie that binds me to the service of thy heart.

And now his family had been taken away, and Livingstone continued with the sharing of the gospel. He continued to go ever deeper into Africa. And now he had been gone so long that it gathered the interest of all of Europe. Where is Livingstone? The question was asked, and Mr. Bennett of the New York Herald thought that here was a journalistic scoop if he could simply find David Livingstone. And so he hired a man by the name of Henry Morton Stanley. To find Livingstone. Stanley went with a caravan of 35 men and 200 animals, and the search began, and it was followed throughout the world. Where is Livingstone? Is Livingstone alive or dead? And for some ten months, Stanley searched the interior of Africa. One day he came to a village, and he says, as I advanced, I saw Livingstone. I noticed he was pale.

He looked wearied and worn, that he had gray whiskers and mustache. He wore a bluish cloth cap with faded gold band on a red ground about it, and that he had a red sleeved waistcoat and a pair of gray tweed trousers. He walked deliberately up to Livingstone, took off his hat, and said, Dr. Livingstone, I presume? Yes, said Livingstone. He had not seen another white face in five years. Stanley, who lived with Livingstone, records the time that he spent with the great missionary. For four months and four days, I lived with Livingstone in the same house or in the same boat or in the same tent, and I never found fault with him. The man has conquered me. Finally these months, Livingstone converted even me to Christ, wrote Stanley. And then Stanley would encourage Livingstone to come home with him.

But Livingstone said, I must finish my task. And at last they grasped a farewell hand. As they left, Stanley says, from the crest of the ridge, I turned to take a long last look at him. Then, waving a last parting signal, we descended the opposite slope on the home road, and Livingstone was left to finish his task of the commission of Jesus Christ. He would never again see another white face. He would minister only to those who he had come to share the gospel. And he continued ever deeper and deeper into the heart of that land. He wanted now to discover what was the source of the Nile river. And so he went southward. And the rains began to fall, and Livingstone grew weaker and weaker day by day. When he could no longer walk, he was carried.

And when he could no longer be carried, he was dragged in a bed that had no legs by his faithful followers. And finally, one evening, he was taken to the eaves of a hut that had been built for him where he might rest. And David Livingstone called out in the middle of the night, from that darkened hut, how many more days? To the source of the Nile? In the morning, as was the custom, someone came to awaken Livingstone. But Livingstone was not in his bed. He was in a position that he had been seen many times, a position of prayer, with his knees bowed, his head bowed, his arms outstretched on the little cot. And a faithful servant came and shook him. But Livingstone had died. The only man I know to have died on his knees in prayer.

Livingstone remembered even to the very end the great promise of Jesus Christ. Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. And so devoted were those who had been conquered in their hearts by the gospel of Jesus Christ, by the ministry of Livingstone, that they would take Livingstone and carry his body across the fields, over the mountains, through the deserts, thousands of miles, and then finally to the northern coast of Africa, where they met a ship that had been commissioned to take the body of Livingstone back to Westminster Abbey, where he would be buried. And over his grave are the inscriptions brought by faithful hands over land and sea. Here rests David Livingstone.

We say, a man dedicated to sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ, a man who is willing to go anywhere to pay any price to follow the great commission. And what was it, if we could come into the very mind of Livingstone to understand what propelled him? What kept him going day after day? He gave the answer to a group of students at Glasgow. Shall I tell you what keeps me going day after day? It is this promise. Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. As you face financial problems, as you face difficulties at work, as you face the decisions of this life that at times seem so staggering, it is so easy to forget that Jesus Christ has promised that he’s with us.

It’s my prayer that the text of David Livingstone would be the text that would motivate you and me, as each day we live our life for Jesus Christ to accomplish the great commission of sharing the gospel, that we would know that we are never alone, but that Jesus Christ has promised. Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Let us pray. Our God and our father, what a great text that you have promised never to leave us. Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Let us go from this place.

Let us go knowing that whatever you would place upon us, whatever burden that you would be there to encourage us, that whatever difficulty you would be there to lift the load, that whatever cost you would be there to encourage us, that we would hear you whisper into our ear, lo, I am with you always, even till the end of the age. Amen.

Thank you for listening to a firm foundation presented by Princeton ministries. This programming is supported by you, the listener. You may go to our website, princetonministries.org, or send your donation to Princeton Ministries Post Office Box 2171, Princeton, New Jersey 8543. That’s Princeton Ministries post Office Box 2171, Princeton, New Jersey 8543. The Lord bless you and Dr. Smith looks forward to hearing from you. We would like to thank Rones web development company for making this webcast possible. You can find their link at the bottom of our website, princetonministries.org.