Before the service, various people spoke and expressed their thanks and gratitude to God for the lives of these three. Others testified how they found the Lord Jesus through them and could look to them as mothers and fathers in the faith for guidance and counsel. All three of them found the Lord Jesus in their youth and God has kept them faithful and made them a blessing all these years till today. In stead of their love towards the Lord growing cold over the years, it has increased and matured. Their passion for souls has also grown and even now in their old age they are preaching the Gospel to such an extent that the younger generations can hardly keep up. We thank God for their bright and shining example that we can follow.

Mrs Hilda Dube said:

I thank God for this day. It is only possible through His strength.

May each one present today be determined to follow God. We have no more time to play around. The world is changing very rapidly, insomuch that many things around us is happening for the very first time. The day that you gave your life to God you declared war on the devil.

There is simply no turning back. We have to go forward to follow our Lord and Saviour.

I also remember with fondness the days when we were young and preached the Gospel together. I also thank God for those days.

Mrs Alida Stegen:

1John 3:1, "Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God!"

I have experienced this love of God in my life, which was not always pleasing to Him. But He worked and made His Love known to me. He has given me a good godly husband and brethren black and white to whom we are very close. He's also given me a passion for lost souls. I thank God for all of this.

God has also raised the work of KwaSizabantu where many tired souls can come and rest.

I also thank God for giving us children who decided to follow the Lord with all their hearts and are spoiling us in our old age.

Rev Friedel Stegen:

It has been on my heart to thank the Lord for keeping the three of us until this day. It is a miracle to me that God has saved me and spared me until this day.

I also thank the congregation for turning their backs on the world and the things of the world and dedicating their lives to the Lord Jesus. That is also why I had the desire that we should give thanks to God as a congregation.

As I looked at the school choir of young people I had the fervent desire to lead each one of you personally to our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. You don't know what you are missing if you do not have the Lord Jesus, for I have experienced Him personally.

God promised in Isa 46:4, "Even to your old age I am He; and even to gray hair will I carry you. I have made, and I will bear; even I will carry, and will deliver you." I thank God that I could experience this.

Often the thought comes to me, "What will the future hold? Will I be able to serve the Lord as in my youth?" But when I get a word such as this from the Lord I forget that I am old. And the one cry of my heart is that the future will be brighter and that I may serve Him better than before.

Ps 71:18, "Now also when I am old and grayheaded, O God, forsake me not; until I have showed Your strength unto this generation, and Your power to every one that is to come." This is my prayer for the three of us - that we might shake the world with the Gospel of Jesus Christ even to the ends of the world.

Sermon by Rev Erlo Stegen:

I also thank God for these three co-workers in the service of God with me. God has given them strength to be a great example to all of us.

You started serving the Lord already at a young age and in stead of a dwindling love for the Lord, your love has increased more and more as the Bible says, "as your days so shall your strength be" (Deut 33:25).

Moses wrote in Ps 90 that the years of a man shall be 70 and by strength 80; but Moses started his ministry when he was 80 and he completed it when he was 120.

John 15:26 - 16:4

George Campbell Morgan (1863 - 1945, see this link for a short biography) preached his first sermon when he was 13. When he was over 70 years of age, he said "it is a curse amongst Christians that they try to liberalise and broaded the way of God as much as possible. They should rather narrow the way of the Lord, for the Lord said that the way to heaven is narrow."

One sees it amongst Christians, that they try to imitate the world in their fashions. We must rather imitate men of God, such as Campbell Morgan, whose life shows that he grew in God's grace until his old age.

He also had four sons, all four of whom preached the Gospel.

A certain Jew said to him, "if I believe what you believe I would not rest until everyone has heard the Gospel." We Christians cannot live a selfish, comfortable life while those around us are heading for hell. We must rescue them!

Unless God's fire burn within you to save those that are lost you must be on your way to hell with them.

There are children of Christians who cannot wait to leave home to go to the city. The world is written all over them, from head to toe. They love the world and do not love the Lord. They stretch the limits, trying to push the boarders in the way that they walk, talk and dress.

If God's Holy Spirit is within you, He will teach you the way of God and our text will be true in your life. But if you are a child of hell in sheep's clothing then it is understandable that you love the world and the things of the world. 1John 2:15, "Do not love the world or the things of the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him" and James 4:4b, "Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God."

“And these things I did not say to you at the beginning, because I was with you.” (John 16:4)

It is wonderful when a person becomes a Christian and is fully immersed in Him. It is wonderful when Jesus can say of you, “you have been with Me from the beginning”. Consider whether this is true of your life, or have you backslided since meeting Jesus and visited prostititutes, got angry, been jealous and committed slander against your brethren?

It is damnable when someone starts their Christian journey in the Spirit but ends in the flesh and its desires.

Jesus said to Peter, "Most assuredly, I say to you, when you were younger, you girded yourself and walked where you wished; but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will gird you and carry you where you do not wish." But we as Christians must take up our cross daily, die to ourselves and follow Jesus, "not my will but Thine be done".

"The time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service." (John 16:1)

When you are on fire for God, those who are lukewarm and live according to mere tradition become uncomfortable, for they do not know the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. If they had known Him in the past they had left their first love. Those who desert God's way, become the fiercest critics and enemies of God's work. For they must try and justify themselves. But they will receive their reward. May the Lord forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.

It is amazing that those who criticize God's work do not themselves spread the Gospel. It is as if their calling in life has become to resist God's work and do it as much damage as they can.

But remember what God has spoken to you when you started with Him at your conversion. If you have lost your way, recall His Word and may it bring you to your senses.

Never forget what God has told you in the past. Grab hold of it with both hands.

A certain adventerous man wanted to catch an extremely beautiful and rare bird. These birds made their nests in the sides of cliffs. So he devised a plan. He went to the top of the percipice and lowered himself with a long rope. As he lowered himself he noticed that the cliff slanted inwards. Before long he was hanging some distance from the side of the cliff and 300m above the sea and rocks below. But then he saw a nest of these birds together with their young. He started to swing himself from side to side and eventually took a great leap and landed on the ledge where the nest was. The birds got a fright and flew away, but they left their young behind. Suddenly he realised that the rope had slipped out of his hands and was now dangling from side to side. With each swing it was going further away from his reach. He forgot all about the birds. He realised that he had to jump immediately or be left stranded on the ledge to die. With a great cry he leapt for the rope as it approached him the third time and he clung onto it for dear life. He pulled himself up and thanked God for saving his life.

In like manner you must cling to what God had spoken to you in the past and be faithful to His Word.

 

Photos
Rev Friedel Stegen		Mrs Hilda Dube		Mrs Alida Stegen
			Brass Band