Hello friends. Welcome to this special edition, a special Thanksgiving edition of Open Line. One person I'm especially thankful for throughout my life has been Doctor George Sweeting. He went to be with the Lord on September 10th, 2024, just shy of being 100 years old. He has served as a pastor. As an evangelist, he was the president of Moody Bible Institute and also the Chancellor and then Chancellor Emeritus.
When I think of him, I always think of him as the president of Moody when I was a student. In fact, what he did is he went out of his way to befriend me, to be kind to me, to actually look out for me. I was a fairly new follower of Jesus when I came to Moody, and Doctor Sweeting invited me up to his office, gave me a great deal of encouragement, and always looked out for
me the whole time. I was a moody student and then stayed my friend through the years as I was in ministry on the East Coast going to school, different things I was doing came back to teach at Moody. He was always there. I always said that Doc Sweeting was my role model when I grew up. I said, and I still say I'd like to be like George Sweeting. I heard him do a teaching when he was about 94 years old, about how God's Word had led him
his entire life. I thought it would be really good fitting tribute to Doctor Sweeting to play the interview I did with him afterwards, where I asked him about how God's Word guided him in making decisions. And that's what we're going to play now. So don't call this week. We'll answer your questions again next week. Today, just sit back. Listen to Doctor George Sweeting as he explains how the Word of God led him every step of the way.
I grew up in a wonderful Christian home, mother and father emigrated from Scotland in 1923. I was born in Haledon, new Jersey in 1924, and so that's how it all started, you know?
That same year, my mom was born. Oh, that's kind of surprising. I never realized that. But anyway, you came to the Lord. What age?
Uh, my salvation experience was not dramatic. I grew up in a Christian home, so I was surrounded by hearing the gospel. My father came to know the Lord in Scotland, and he came to know the Lord through ministries that were the result of moody crusades in Edinburgh, Glasgow and all of Scotland. And so he was determined to have a Christian home and to to the best of his ability, leaders in the ways of the Lord. So it was a strong Christian home. Dad was the head of the home,
no doubt about it. Mom was the heart of the home. No doubt about it. Both Scottish, both loving the Lord. Both loving the memory of Dale Moody.
And Dale Moody. Because of them coming to faith through extensions of of of Mr. Moody's ministries in Scotland. Is that what? Yes.
My father had been in World War one fighting in the Belgium area, and when the armistice was declared, he came home. But he was very unhappy, disillusioned with life. Three and a half years of trench warfare. And he was immediately rehired by his old firm. They sent him out to a town called Carstairs Junction, right outside of Edinburgh, to build a bridge. And so that's how he got to Carstairs. And there my mother, who had been led to the Lord by a convert of D.L. Moody in
his crusades, led my mother to the Lord. My mother, in turn, witnessed to him, and he had never heard anything quite.
To your dad, she witness. Yeah.
She shared. Christ. She brought the workers some cold water every noon. And then after giving them the cold water, she'd say, I want you to listen as I tell you how I came to know the Lord. Wow. And so she'd witness to all of the men. He had never met anyone quite like that and said, where can I hear more? She said, well, you go to Glasgow on the weekends. They lived in Carstairs Junction during the week.
And when you're home, either go to a building that is called the Tent Hall, seated about 2400 people, and they served serve breakfast every morning, had evangelism every day. And it was an evangelistic center named after Dale Moody's tent. So they called it Tent Hall. And then there was another one called Bridgeton Chapel and Moody that was a result of new converts from Moody's meeting. And it was a Bible center, and they were red hot in evangelism and sharing God's Word. Wow.
And so that's how your folks, uh, their connection with D.L. Moody, your dad came to the Lord. They moved here. You're born here. You become to know the Lord. I think you've mentioned to me that when you were 15, that's when something dramatic happened.
Yeah. Uh, as a child, first, though, the first verse I memorized was, uh, Psalm 27 one. The Lord is my light and my Salvation. And he says, whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid? Now I was just a young boy when I memorized that, but that became my guiding verse. And I would say, Lord, I can't do this myself. But you're my strength. Be my strength.
You're the strength of my life. Psalm 27 one says, and then he also goes on in that Psalm, and he talks about the Lord being the strength of his people. He says, the Lord is my strength and my shield, but the Lord is the strength of his people, a fortress of salvation for his anointed one. And the idea was placed in my mind and heart that if I were going to do anything in life, whatever it was, I thought I'd be an artist. Uh, that the Lord had to help me. He was my strength and I
clung to that verse. Whether it was sports and I played a lot of sports in grade school and high school or whatever I was doing, the Lord was my strength, and if he was my strength, then there's very little that I couldn't do. And so that guarded me and guided me. And that was the first verse that made a great impact on my life.
Psalm 27 that that was one of the first verses in my walk with the Lord. That really helped me, because there were a lot of when I came to faith, there were some people wanting to intimidate me from believing, and I, I kept reading that verse over and over, and it was a real encouragement to me.
Yeah, we can't do it. But he can. He can. God is able.
Yeah. Okay, so now what happened when you were 15?
Well, like so many in a Christian home, We had family devotions every night. My father was really the spiritual head of the home. Mother was the heart of the home, and dad was an old fashioned disciplinarian. Mother was a happy, loving, joyful woman who, no matter what her situation was, she could find joy in it. She lived all that my dad professed. My dad did, too, for the most part. But my mother was a we used to say she
was the greatest preacher in our family. Now, the reason I say that I had two brothers, they both became pastors. I served as a pastor. I think between us, we had over 160 years of ministry between the three of us. But it was all because of a godly mother and a godly father who trained us in the things of the Lord.
Wow. And so when did you decide that you're going to go into ministry? I mean.
My father was very concerned about where we went to church. We went to a wonderful church, a church that eventually I became the pastor of the church, then ministered to people. There were wonderful people, but they weren't as conscious as they should be of training the children and the young people. And there was a new work called the Hawthorne Gospel Church in Hawthorne, new Jersey, and it was born out of the throes of the Billy Sunday Crusade in 1924.
And these people were youth centered. They wanted to have a program for children, for teenagers. They wanted to evangelize. It was a come Sunday, stay all day kind of church where there was one meeting after another. And that's where my dad decided we should go. So he wanted to expose us to the Christian life and what we could do if we were yielded to the Lord. Well, they had different speakers in every week from July 1st through Labor Day. Oh, uh, great Bible teachers from all
over the United States and Europe. Uh, evangelists, prophetic teachers. We heard prophecy. We heard about Israel. Uh, Lewis Paul Bauman would come and teach archaeology. Uh, evangelists would come. Billy Graham, before he was known, would come and preach at our church. We heard all the evangelists, all the great musicians. And so we were surrounded by what we could do if we yielded ourselves to Christ and would
give ourselves to him. And one night, Davis Otis Fuller from Grand Rapids was doing the preaching, and he preached on James chapter one. And he set down in verse 22 where it says, be doers of the word, and not hearers only. Well, the Holy Spirit applied that to my mind and heart, and I realized that I needed to get with it. And that night I said, Lord, with your help I'll be a doer, not just a hearer. Up to that time, I could give you the way of salvation. I could even lead a person to Christ.
But really, I was half hearted. I wasn't doing what I should be doing. And I said, Lord, from tonight on, I'm going to be a doer of the Word of God. I remember waiting until everyone left. I didn't want to show my emotions, and I spoke to the pastor and he was so kind and loving. We knelt down by the front row and he committed me to the Lord and to his will. I remember taking a bus for a few miles and then walking another two miles to
get home. A mother didn't ever go to bed until all six children were in, and as soon as I walked in, she knew intuitively that God had spoken to me that night. And she said, now what happened? And I told her. And again we both knelt in the little room outside the living room, and she committed me to the Lord, and that was that. I wrote my first goals. I wrote first, I'm going to bring glory to God. Secondly, I'm going to cultivate the inner life, not the outer life, but the inner life. I want
to be what I ought to be. I want to be real. And thirdly, I want to disciple others. And fourthly, I want to win as many to Christ as humanly possible. And that was a momentous night when I yielded myself to do the will of God.
15 years old and you became a doer of the word, committed to being a doer of the word. What a phenomenal night and what a phenomenal decision. We're going to come back and talk about God's leading in your life some more. In just a moment. You're listening to Open Line with Michael Redlick, my guest today, Doctor George Sweeting, former president, a retired president, then chancellor, then chancellor emeritus of Moody Bible Institute. Don't go away. We're going to
talk about some really important stuff coming up. Stay with us. Are you looking to deepen your grasp of Paul's powerful epistles, the Moody Bible commentary on Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians is your key to unlocking these treasured books with clear explanations and practical insights. This resource illuminates Paul's teachings on grace, unity, joy, and the supremacy of the Lord Jesus. Request your copy
of this Moody Bible Commentary excerpt. When you give to open line, call And one, two, two or visit open line radio.org. Welcome back to Open Line with me Michael Ray Jelinek, my guest this hour, Doctor George Sweeting. We're talking really about how God's Word has guided him throughout his life and how it can guide us as well. I think that by application, that's that's so important to realize that this is not a unique experience for you, doc, is it?
No, no, this is what the Lord does with men and women.
Exactly. Last segment, we were talking and we were. You mentioned this really momentous time when you were 15 years old. You committed to being a doer of the word. And then not too long after that, you ended up going to Moody Bible Institute. How does a kid from northern north North Jersey end up in the Midwest in Chicago?
Well, that decision to be a doer of the word really altered my lifestyle. I wasn't that I lived a careless life before, but I started to focus on what I was to do. And I read a little booklet by George Cutting called safety, Certainty and Enjoyment, and I read about being fully surrendered to Christ, and that I was to be a witness. I was to share my faith. So the next day I went to high school and I sat next to a fellow named Paul Pratt, and I said, Paul, are you a Christian? And he'd say, well,
I go to a Christian church. I said, yeah, that's good. I said, but do you know the Lord is your personal savior? He said, I don't think so. I said, well, would you like to come to my home after school today? And I'll open the Bible and show you how to come to the Lord, how to know the Lord as your personal Savior. He said, yeah, I'd love to come. So he came to the home and I took my oath. Scofield Bible and I showed them Romans 323 all have
sinned and come short of the glory of God. I said, Paul, that means me. I've sinned. I said, that means Paul Pratt. You've sinned, and we are sinners in the sight of a holy God. I said in the Bible says in Romans six, the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God, the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. And then I said, so here in John 316 it says, if you, Paul Pratt, believe you should not perish, but you'll have everlasting life.
I said, do you believe the Bible? He said, yes. I said, do you think if you asked the Lord to become your personal savior. He would. He said, yes, I said, and it says if you believe in him, you won't perish, but you'll have everlasting life. Do you believe that too? He said yes. I said, then why don't we just get on our knees now and pray? And you, in your own language, say, Lord, I need you. I'm sinful, I want forgiveness, I want to put my faith in you, my trust in you. I want to
become a child of God. He said, okay. So we knelt down and I helped him pray. And then I prayed. And when we got off of our knees, he gave me the best smile I'd ever seen. Wow. He said it's real. He said, I believe it. He said, I even feel different. He said, I feel like. Like I've been washed. I feel like I'm a new person. I said, well, you know, the Bible says when you believe in Christ, you become a new person, a new creature, old things pass away and all things become new. He said, oh,
it's wonderful. He said, I'm glad. And then I gave him instructions on how to go on in the Lord. And I'm so thrilled to say he did go on in the.
Was that the first person you ever led to faith?
First person.
Wow, what a great thing. And so, I mean, obviously you've led many people to the Lord, but that was that was just and you were 15 or 16 when that happened.
15 and that was the beginning of about 40 that came to the Lord in our high school. And it was pretty much the same style, though usually it took place at school rather than at my home. But I would carry choice booklets that the church provided for us and I would say, here, read this and tomorrow tell me what you think about it. Wow. And I especially use the one by George cutting safety, certainty and enjoyment. And so they had a 30 page booklet to guide them after they'd received the Lord.
Now, so you ended up at Moody when you were 18?
I was 17, and my older brother had enrolled at the Moody Bible Institute, and he was felt called to be a pastor. And so I, I had a real dilemma there, because I was gifted as an artist, and I had a four year scholarship to Cooper Union, which is supposedly the best art school arts place in New York City. Yeah. And I turned it down to go to the Moody Bible Institute, where I'd have to even though you didn't pay tuition, you paid room and board.
But that's what I knew I was to do. I was to go to the Moody Bible Institute.
Did. God. Uh, how did you know that?
Well, uh, I knew it because so many people in our church, we had 40 kids from our church going to Moody at the same time. And, uh, so some took up a whole floor.
Some.
Some would go to Wheaton and some would go to Moody. But that's the the ones that went to Moody went out as missionaries, evangelists, pastors all over the world.
Now, uh, your wife Margaret went to Moody as well.
Well, yes, but she was younger. Uh, I. So you weren't married students? I met her when she was 13, and, uh, she came out of the German brethren, and they wanted a program that was geared to youth, and her parents wanted that. And, uh, I saw her, and I thought, oh, my, I think I like that girl. And our dating consisted of church. You know, we went to church to meetings and we didn't have any other dates other than church related things, apparently.
Listen, I heard a rumor that you would skip school to go see her sometimes.
Well, she went to a high school called East Side High School in Paterson, new Jersey, and I went to Central High in Paterson, new Jersey. There were about a mile apart, but I had a free seventh period, so I'd walk over there, see her, and as a result, didn't get back for my eighth period class and flunked
the class. The teacher gave me a 69 and I think I deserved that, but but also I had cartooned the teacher on the class board one day, and the kids all got a charge out of it, and it wasn't a flattering picture that I made and I was ashamed of myself, but that's what I did.
I see. And so. Okay, so you dated through high school. You went off to Moody. How did you know to marry her?
Well, she, uh, she stayed at home for two years and then decided when she finished high school, she would come to the Moody Bible Institute as well. Well, you know, they had their rules on that day, and you could sit in the same room together. But you better not be touching elbows in those days. And, uh. But we loved it. We loved the teachers. We loved the fellowship. We grew in grace. Uh, it was a wonderful experience being students at the Moody Bible Institute.
And so when you graduated, is that when you got married?
Well, when, uh, she took a shorter course. I took the three year try. Semester, three semesters a year, one month off every summer and she took a two year course. So I waited an extra year. And while I waited, I went to the Art Institute of Chicago and studied art there. Still struggling with the gifts of art, not knowing how the Lord would unite them. But at that stage I started illustrating messages and I built myself an easel, uh,
started drawing different pictures. And then I would share, I would speak, I preach, and eventually, well, it started when I was 15. I would go to missions all over New York City, all over North Jersey, jails, anywhere. They asked me little churches, I would paint a picture and then preach. I was about 15 at the time, even spoke in our home church. Uh, I'm sure I wasn't prepared as well as I should have been, but I was saying what I knew was so in my own life.
And the Lord had done a work of grace in my life. So while at Moody, it was youth for Christ. Days in every city of any size had a youth rally. And so because I was young, they wanted a young person. I would go and I would draw and then preach and would travel as far away as Cleveland, uh, up to Grand Rapids, up to, uh, Sioux Falls.
When you would draw the picture, what would you use? Chalk. Is that what.
Chalk? No, I would draw and have a musical background, and I would end singing, and then I would, uh, move into the message. And usually people came forward to receive Christ as savior. Some small meetings, some were fairly large meetings. But from Cincinnati to Saint Louis to, uh, to to the far west. I travel every weekend. In fact, I didn't have to have a practical Christian work assignment.
James Harrison said, you don't need this. He said, we'd like you to be free to take meetings every weekend if you wanted. So I kept my equipment down by Crowell Hall desk, and I'd take it. Go out on a Saturday night, uh, preach somewhere. Saturday night, Sunday morning. Somewhere. Sunday night somewhere. Came back late at night and into class on Monday morning.
Well, I still want to hear how you decided how God led you to ask Margaret to marry you. Uh, but we're going to take a little break here. And when we come back, I just love hearing how God led you. Uh, thus far. We're going to hear more. I'm sure everyone wants to hear how God continued to lead you into service for him. Uh, and how the Lord Jesus has always been the one you've been serving. So stay with us. We're going to talk more with
Doctor George Sweeting. This is Michael Rolnick on Open Line. Open line is designed to take your questions and provide you with straightforward, honest answers from Scripture about the things that matter most. When you join our team of Kitchen Table Partners, your monthly gift will help us stay on the air to continue to share the truth of the Bible with those who need to hear it, become a kitchen table partner by calling us at (888) 644-7122, or sign
up online at Open Line radio.org. We're so glad that Febc partners with Open Line with Doctor Michael Rolnick, bringing the Febc mailbag every week. Learn how Far East Broadcasting Company is taking Christ to the world at febc. Org on their weekly podcast. Until all have heard with Ed Cannon, you'll hear stories of lives changed by Messiah all across the globe. Again. You can hear the podcast when you visit febc. Dawg, that's Phoebe Dawg. Welcome back to the
special Thanksgiving edition of Open Line. We're playing a previously recorded from 2019 interview with Doctor George Sweeting, who went to be with the Lord September 10th, 2020 for just shy of his hundredth birthday. He was the former president of Moody Bible Institute. Great influence in my life. I interviewed him about God's guidance in his life and we were talking about his marriage to Hilda. They were married
for 70 some years. Amazing couple. Just about three weeks after Doctor Sweeting went to to be with the Lord, his wife, just shy of her 98th birthday, also went to be with the Lord. She loved him so much. He loved her so much. She was also especially kind to me all the time. Well, I asked doc in this interview, uh, how was it that having met this beautiful young girl when they were both in youth group in high school, how was it that he knew she was the one?
I met this beautiful girl in our church. She must have been 13. I was a little bit older than that, and right away I. I was impressed with her. I knew her mom and dad. Her mother's name was Martha. My mother's name was Mary. They were the best of friends. They'd visit together and I thought, here her folks immigrated from Germany. Mine immigrated from Scotland. We have that in common. We both love the Lord. She's beautiful. I thought she's
the one. And then one day I asked her about a verse and she gave me this verse from Proverbs chapter three verse five. Trust in the Lord with all your heart. That's positive. Negative. Lean not on your own understanding. Then it's positive again in all your ways. Submit to him and then it says he will make your paths straight. I read that verse and I thought, what a verse that's for me. And she shared it with me. And I thought, that's going to become very important to me.
And I think it was love at first sight. But we went to Star Lake on Labor Day, and I got her in a rowboat, and I rode my shoulders off trying to show her how good I could row that day. But that's how it all started. And, uh, our dates consisted of church and church activities, and it grew. And then I told her I felt called to the Lord's work, and she was excited about that, although she had two years of high school to finish, and soon I was off to the Moody Bible Institute, but I
never dated anyone else. Wow. The fellows at school all tried to get me to date and I said, I don't have time to date. I know who I'm going to marry. It's all set. I said, so I have to be about my father's business. And so I was working on spiritual things.
And so, I mean, you've been together a long time.
Long time.
That's amazing. And I can see I actually I love it when I see you guys, if I go out and speak at your congregation or things like that. I love how you guys look at each other. You probably don't even know it, but I can see it even now. It's it's, uh.
She can read my mind, and I can read hers. Nearly. That's good. That's so great.
Uh, okay. So you finished Moody? You went to the Art Institute. Did you go right into evangelism, or did you become a pastor right away?
No.
I went right into evangelism and Had all the meetings I could ever handle because it was quite unique to illustrate something, I would sing while I would draw, and then I would preach the message. And I was young and there were these youth meetings all over the place. And so it was just the right time to be there. And the Lord blessed, and people came to the Lord, and others were revived, and one thing led to another.
So when we were students, I have to say that one of the highlights every year seemed to be when you would do a chalk talk in chapel.
Well, I did it quite often. I didn't do it every year, but I did it occasionally and they seemed to enjoy it.
I loved it.
I enjoyed doing it for them.
I liked it because it was the only time we saw you without your suit jacket.
Well, I'd take my jacket.
Off and hands were dirty, but the heart was clean.
And. Yeah.
And I'd go to work.
It's fun. Yeah.
Well, then. So how did you shift from evangelism to the pastorate? Because really, most people think of you. If they don't think of you as the president, they think of you as the pastor of Moody Church. So how did you move to the pastorate?
It was.
A struggle. I knew ultimately that I was to be a pastor teacher, and different opportunities came my way. I was closely associated with Jack Wertz, and the word of life. And Jack meant so much in my life, learned so much through him, spoke there every year, started when I was 20 years of age and for 50 years in a row spoke there. But that helped me think through different things. What would I do? And I decided by God's grace, I wanted to be a teacher, preacher, to
share God's Word. How I didn't know how, but I remember I was called early on to be a pastor, and I wanted to be a pastor, and I specifically chose that so that I would know what a pastor faces and I could be a better evangelist if I knew what he faced week after week. And so I decided I took a church and I said, Now I'll only be here for two years. So I said, you might not want me. They said, no, we'd like you to come. I said, but then I'm going to travel as an event.
In North Jersey.
That's where this church was.
Uh, was Grace Church in Passaic, new Jersey, new Jersey. And I had told them when I came, I said, I'll only be here two years. I said, and then I'm going to take the next step, which I think will be an evangelist. And so they said, well, we want you to come. And I came and in two years started as an evangelist. And the meetings just came without any organization whatsoever. And I was busy all all
50 states, Canada and parts of Mexico. And by that time we decided the children were coming along, we were married and children came along. Four sons, they said I would never have children. And then I decided to go back into the pastorate so I'd be nearer my teenage boys while they were going through challenges.
And so when you went to church in the North Jersey, how was it that you knew to come to Moody Church in Chicago? I mean, they called.
You as that was.
Interesting. I took this church called the Madison Avenue Baptist Church in Paterson. It had been a great church of about a thousand, but the city started to suffer and it went down to about 150. So they asked if I would come and be pastor, and I said it would fit into what we think we need right now. we need a regular, faithful diet with our boys. We don't want to win everybody else's boys and lose our own boys. And so we stayed in our same home.
I pastored the church. Uh, we bought up, uh, all the homes around us, took their yards and made them in a parking lots. And, uh, the mayor was a dear friend. And I shared with him many times. Uh, and he came and he said, oh, he said the whole area of Paterson, new Jersey is changed because of the Madison Avenue Baptist Church. Well, we said, thank God. Well, somehow Moody Church heard about this and a pulpit committee came out and they they told me they were a
pulpit committee. Would I consider coming there? I said, no, I said, I'm an Easterner. I love the ocean. Ridiculous excuses. You know.
I said.
I'm going to stay in new Jersey till I die. Family's here. We're here to stay. We're not going anywhere. But they didn't hear me for that. Soon I got an invitation to preach at Founder's Week in 1965. And again, the Moody elders met with me, and they said, what would you do if you were a pastor here? And I gave about 30 things, and they said, would you ever consider. I said, no. They said, well, would you come and preach for us once? I said, well, I'll come once.
And they were.
Dangling you.
There. They were bringing you along.
I was getting nervous. She thought we were going to go to Chicago. And sure enough, as time went on, we took a sheet of paper, put reasons for going. Reasons for not going. And in no time the reasons for going prevailed. And we said, you know what? We have to do this whether we want it or not. This is what the Lord wants us to do.
We're going to be right back in just a moment. You're listening to Doctor George Sweeting talking about how God led him to Moody Church. We're going to finish up that story and how he came to Moody Bible Institute in just a moment. This is open line with Michael Redlich. Some claim Paul is the key person who took the message of the Jewish Messiah. Jesus made it into something Gentile. But Paul is also the one who wrote, brethren, my heart's desire for Israel is for their salvation. Romans ten
one chosen people ministries. One of our underwriters wants us all to learn what drove Paul's passion for his own people. They're offering the book The Heart of the Apostle by Rich Freeman, free to all open line listeners. To get this exposition of Romans nine through 11, just go to our website, openline. radio.org. Scroll down to the link that says A free gift from Chosen People Ministries. Click on that and you'll be taken to a page where you can sign up for your very own free copy of
The Heart of the Apostle. Welcome back to Open Line. I'm Michael Ray Dominic. I'm so glad you're listening in with me today. We're having a wonderful conversation with Doctor George Sweeting, uh, the sixth president of Moody, the chancellor emeritus of Moody Bible Institute. And my dear friend, one of my favorite people in the world. Thank you. Thank you, doc,
for being with me. Before we went to break, we were talking about you made a list whether to go to Moody Church or not to go, and you looked at it, you decided to go. And what happened when you when you got to Moody Church?
Oh, you know, three verses have guided me and held all of our life. One is Psalm 115. One not to us, Lord, not to us, but to your name be the glory because of your love and your faithfulness. And the other one is Isaiah 40 28I am the Lord, that is my name and my glory. I will not give to another. And the other verse was Second Corinthians, chapter four, verse seven. We have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the glory will not be of ourselves but
of the Lord. And those three verses kind of came before we did anything else, and we wanted him to get the credit. We wanted him to get the glory. And so those three verses became all important in every decision that we made. We came to Moody Church August 1st, 1965. The first six months I preached on the love of God. I knew that was D.L. Moody theme. Yes. And I knew it had to be my theme. And I thought of that verse in Jude, keep yourself in the love
of God. And I ask that the Lord would make the place a house of love again, like it was under D.L. Moody. And the Lord honored that prayer, and it became a house of love. And soon people started coming from all around. At first there were maybe 4 or 500 people coming in that auditorium that seats 4200 and has 365 doors. Wow. I tend to be a detailed person. And so I walked all around and surmised the looked over the situation and and I said, yes,
we'll come up with a plan. I wrote out a plan for the church, and the elders and deacons agreed to the plan. One, as I said, in my first two months, I'm going to have Jack Watson come in. I've talked to him and we're going to have Friday night rallies. And they said, well, we haven't used the balcony for years. I said, well, we will. They said, who's going to clean them? I said, the people, they're going to dust them off when they sit in the chairs.
And so we contacted Harry Saulnier and a few other people in the Chicago area, and we said, we want you to get the word out. Jack's going to be here every Friday night for six Friday nights, and we're going to fill the place every seat and see hundreds come to Christ. And they said, you think that'll happen? And that is exactly what happened. The first night we just about filled it and maybe a hundred professions of faith.
The next night it was packed with overflow and every night was filled when we saw maybe 500 new converts come to Christ and the church grew. And soon we saw that God was going to do some great things.
He did great.
Things. Just real briefly, how was it that you're in this thriving, burgeoning church? I mean, it was it was revived and you left it to go to Moody Bible Institute. How did that crash into your life?
Well, that was.
Another interesting thing. I started Moody Bible Institute as a student August 2nd of 1942. Doctor Culbertson came as the dean of education the same day he came from Philadelphia. I came from northern new Jersey in 1969, I became a trustee of the Moody Bible Institute. Before I became president. Little did I realize that Doctor Culbertson would want me
to succeed him. He took me to the Union League club, and we were sitting at a certain table and he said, you know, I sat here many years ago with Will Holton and Will Holton before the conversation was over, said, uh, uh, Doctor Culbertson, I feel you ought to succeed me here at Moody Bible Institute. And I thought, oh, no. And Doctor Culbertson said, so I'm going to ask you the same thing. I said, well, uh, you'll have to give me time to pray about it, and I'll have to.
He's having much time. You need. I said, I need at least six months. I said, I'm going to write down reasons why and reasons why not, and we'll see what the Lord has. He said we're willing to wait. At the end of that time. I said, I'm not ready yet. I don't know, I don't feel I don't feel equal to it. I don't feel I'm a doctor, Culbertson. I don't feel I'm a I don't feel I have all the gifts that I ought to have. He said, well,
no one does. And so anyway, eventually, though, after much prayer, I said, yes, Lord willing, God help me, I'll give it a try.
You know, I.
Don't think anyone's adequate, but the Lord makes us adequate.
Yeah, we're not adequate.
We're not.
Adequate.
I think it's woefully.
Inadequate.
When we.
We get into trouble, when we think we are adequate.
Don't you think?
Not unto us, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory. That's what it.
Is. That's true. Wow.
Doc, I so appreciate what you said about God's leading you in life. But he's still leading you. And one of the things that I know is a passion of your heart and passion of your life is to end well. So I was wondering if you could kind of tell us a little bit about that and your perspective about that.
You know, Doctor Culbertson used to always say, I want to end well, and I never expected him to pass away when he did. But the day the Lord took him home, he was 65 years of age, had never been a smoker, but he had lung cancer and he didn't expect to die that day because there were some meetings he had scheduled. And I said, would you like me to take those meetings for you? He said, no. He said, once I get out of the hospital, he said, I'll take those meetings. Well, that night he passed away.
That night he quoted a verse from revelation. Hallelujah, the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. Close his eyes and died 65 years of age. He wanted to end well, and he did end well. Someone asked me about ending well, and I said we finished life well, by the grace of God. That's how we start the Christian race. That's what keeps us in the Christian race. And that's what takes us
to the end of the Christian race. And then I wrote this sentence when everything is said and done, God's grace is the only explanation for why any of us make it.
Well, Doctor George Sweeting did indeed end well. I'm sure the first words he heard when he passed into the presence of the Lord was well done, good and faithful servant. He literally wrote the book on how to end well. He wrote the book How to Finish the Christian Life and he ended so well, faithful serving to the very end. I'm so grateful to God for his life, for his ministry, for the impact he's had not just on me, but on so many. What a great, great role model. Well,
we'll be back next week with your questions. You can call then and we can talk about the Bible together. Keep in touch with us till then by going to our website openline. radio.org has all the links that you're looking for and all that you'll need. Keep reading the Bible. We'll talk about it next week. Open line is a production of Moody Radio, a ministry of Moody Bible Institute.
And to God be the glory. Great things he has done.