Lennard Darbee

One day, a stranger came to my door asking if I were interested in spiritual things. I said, “You’ve come to the right door. I am an evangelist 

“Oh,” he said, “So, you’re a preacher! Sir, do you preach the kingdom?” 

I said, “Yes, I do. I wonder if you know anything about it.” 

In First Corinthians 4:20, Paul writes that the Kingdom of God is not in word, but in power. I told him truthfully of blind people that had received sight in my meetings. Of cripples that had gotten up and run, etc, etc.. 

He stared at me in open-mouthed amazement. I said, “Does anything like this happen in your services?” 

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“Well,” said he, “The Kingdom of God is a government.”

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I said, “That’s right. That’s right. And my Bible says in the word of a king there is power. Is there any power of any kind in your services 

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He said, “Well, no.” 

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I said, “Let me put it this way.” I said, “When were you born again?” 

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“Well,” he said, “I had not been born again.” 

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I said, “I know that.” 

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He said, “We believe.” 

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I said, “I know what you believe. Let me ask you one pertinent question.” I said, “Do you believe that Jesus Christ was deity incarnate in the flesh?” 

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“Well,” he said, “We’re all sons of God.”

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I said, “You’re not answering me. Was he God incarnate in the flesh 

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He said, “Well, no.” 

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“I said, all right. Over in Zechariah, the 12th chapter, Yahweh is speaking.” I said, “You know, of course there is no word ‘Jehovah’. That’s a polyglot thing we cooked up. But,” I said, “Yahweh is speaking the name of God. And he says, ‘They shall look on me whom they have pierced.’ When was God pierced?” 

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He said, “I can’t talk to you.” And he is running yet. My friends, so long as we live only in the physical and intellectual realm, we limit and bind ourselves.

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But there is a power that transcends the abilities of the intellect and the body. There are faculties that are not part of the active thinking mind, so that what cannot be done in the physical can be done in the spiritual 

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The problem for those with great natural ability is their attempt to get by on natural endowments. And when their lives are also clean, they feel able to produce for God. 

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But natural abilities cannot produce supernatural results. Hence, Jesus said, 

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“Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you all.” Oratory, logic, earnestness, and pulpit craftsmanship have their place, but nothing stirs the soul like the breath of God. Not even obedience to the letter is enough. For Christianity is more than a moral code. It is a deep, penetrating, all-pervading life. One has a new and intimate awareness of Christ as a present reality, not an historical, far off person, but rather a moving, thrilling life Presence within. 

As a little fellow I was very very fortunate in having ga mother who was an outstanding Christian, so that even as a little child I believed the Bible stories. I never had any difficulties with Jonah and the whale, nor the story of Daniel and the lion’s den, nor of Jesus walking on the water, nor His raising Lazarus from the dead. Within my very being, I had the witness that these were facts. But facts bearing little relevancy to the present hour.

“Today as we discuss the matter of faded dreams, our text is found in Ecclesiastes 1:14-15.

¹⁴I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and, behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit.¹⁵That which is crooked cannot be made straight: and that which is wanting cannot be numbered.

Several years ago, we were driving past Crystal Lake Gospel Park on the outskirts of Portland, where I had been the camp meeting speaker for a number of years. Now Raymond T. Richie, the famed deliverance minister was there. I had ministered for him in his church in Houston, so I said to my wife, “Let’s stop and see what that old boy was up to.” We did, and received the disappointment of our lives.

My friend, are you only a ten percent Christian? Now this starts of course, with tithing. But it goes far deeper than that. Years ago, a dear old lady in the church that I pastored came to me all upset. She said our preachers today are preaching the doctrine of tithing. But, she said, it is definitely not a New Testament doctrine. She said tithing was for the Jews.

I pointed out to her that in Hebrews 7:8 the Scripture says, “Here men that die receive tithes..” And this was long after the resurrection. We’re supposed to be the children of faithful Abraham. Well Abraham the father of the faithful paid tithes to Melchizedek. And Jacob imitated this piety of his grandfather when he vowed to the Lord the tithe of all the substance that he would acquire in Mesopotamia.

We turn to Deuteronomy 12, “And thither ye shall bring your burnt offerings and your sacrifices and your tithes and the heave offerings of your hands and your vows and your free will offerings and the firstlings of your herds and of your flocks.” Now that meant 40% of all that they earned.

We turn to Malachi 3, “Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed Me. But ye say, ‘Wherein have we robbed thee?’ In tithes and offerings. Ye are cursed with a curse. For ye have robbed Me, even this whole nation. Bring all of the tithes into the storehouse that there might be meat in Mine house, and prove Me now herewith saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive it.”

Tithes, then, are not for our poor relatives. My wife has a friend who gives her so-called tithes to her poor relatives. No, no, no, no, no! Leviticus 27:30: “All the tithes of the land is holy H-O-L-Y unto the Lord.”

Numbers 18:24 tells us the tithe was given unto the Levites to inherit.