'A Shepherd's Heart'--Bill Wilson

 

Bill Wilson is tonight’s guest speaker. Bill is the founder and senior pastor of one of the world’s largest ministry organizations in New York, Metro Ministries in Brooklyn.

Before Bill came to speak, the Momentum choir sang, there were testimonies from the We Care outings and temple trips. Sarah Knepper and Stacie Fay talked about the value of discipleship and Ben Willhite told students about “On Track Devotions”. “On Track Devotions” are materials to help students get started in the Word.

Students came, read Scripture and prayed.

In their bold style, the Fee Band led students in singing “How Great Thou Art”, “Are You Washed in the Blood of the Lamb”, “Never Let Go”, and other worship songs.

After the music died down, Bill Wilson came to the platform. He told a story about “an old guy” who said Bill had a shepherd’s heart. The man didn’t know Bill. He had only heard Bill speak. So Bill couldn’t figure out what connected with the man until he came across Amos 3:12. “This is what the LORD says: ‘As a shepherd saves from the lion's mouth only two leg bones or a piece of an ear, so will the Israelites be saved, those who sit in Samaria on the edge of their beds and in Damascus on their couches.’"

“What is it that puts people in a place where 2:8 Nation becomes more than a banner?” asked Bill. “Why is it that some folks don’t just talk but become world changes?”

In Amos, the shepherd sees a lamb caught in the jaws of a lion. The man has two choices. He could say that he has never been trained, not called by God, hasn’t gone to lamb-saving seminary, and just walk away.

But in this case, it’s instinctive that the shepherd moves.

Bill told the story of his mom leaving him on the street corner when he was 12. She told him to stay where he was and she’d be back. After 3 days, one person stopped. It just happened to be a Christian. The man asked Bill, “Are you OK?” Bill told him his mother was gone and he hadn’t eaten in 3 days. Immediately the man got his wife and they brought him food and water. Five hours later, Bill was in a van on his way to a church youth camp.

When Bill decided to go to Brooklyn, New York, to work with kids people said he would die there.

The shepherd grabs the lamb by the leg and that’s all he gets. The shepherd tried so he might be apt to give up. But he goes back a second time even though it looks like it’s hopeless.

Bill went to Brooklyn where everyone said the kids were hopeless. Bill said, “They are not hopeless, they just don’t have any hope.”

Pictures of kids with aids and deformities were placed on the screen as Bill told stories of parents who would leave the kids at the hospitals. Bill talked about these kids not having any hope until he helped them.

“The need is the call. God never called me into the ministry,” said Bill. “God didn’t have to.”

The shepherd tries again and pulls off the second leg. If he goes back the third time, it could mean a personal sacrifice. Bill said he could show students the scars and x-rays, but he can’t show the scars in his heart. In a last effort the man pulls off a piece of the ear. Why did the man go back a third time? Because he had a shepherd’s heart.

Why? Because when it’s in your heart, you can’t walk away.

Bill told the story of David Livingston, missionary to Africa. After David died the Africans cut out his heart and buried it near a village before they sent his body back to England. How did they know to do that? “Because when you have a shepherd’s heart,” Bill said, “people just know it.”

For the call to commitment, Bill said he was going to count to 3. When he hit the number 3, he wanted everyone who wanted to make a difference in the world to come forward.

Bill counted to 3 and students came forward to have Bill pray for them to make a difference in the world.