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Voddie Baucham - Bigger Than Life  Paul Washer Honors Voddie Baucham · Voddie Baucham Sermons

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  Speaker 1: It's really hard for me to describe or define my
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  Speaker 1: friendship with Voddie Bauckham. He was indeed a friend, a
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  Speaker 1: true friend, but he was also a brother in Christ.
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  Speaker 1: We had a deep affection and friendship for one another.
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  Speaker 1: Of course, there was unity. in our doctrine, in our practice,
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  Speaker 1: the things that we believe about God, about the gospel,
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  Speaker 1: about the Great Commission. Over the years, well, even from
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  Speaker 1: the beginning, it seemed like our hearts were knit together.
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  Speaker 1: I have to admit it, even though he was younger
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  Speaker 1: than me, he was not just a friend, he was
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  Speaker 1: a hero. He was bigger than life. And when I
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  Speaker 1: think about him, there's a passage in Daniel that really,
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  Speaker 1: really stands out, especially now that he's gone home to
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  Speaker 1: his reward. And it's in Daniel 12. And it says,
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  Speaker 1: Many of those who sleep in the dust of the
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  Speaker 1: ground will awake, these to everlasting life, but the others
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  Speaker 1: to disgrace and everlasting contempt. Those who have insight will
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  Speaker 1: shine brightly like the brightness of the expanse of heaven,
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  Speaker 1: and those who lead the many to righteousness like the
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  Speaker 1: stars forever and ever. For me, and not just for me,
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  Speaker 1: but for my wife and my family, Bodie was like that.
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  Speaker 1: I first met him, I got a phone call from him,
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  Speaker 1: oh gosh, years and years ago, and he wanted me
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  Speaker 1: to come down to Houston and preach. I hadn't been
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  Speaker 1: that long out of the jungle, and I'm more at
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  Speaker 1: home in the jungle and in a tent, and I
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  Speaker 1: go to Bodie's house, and I mean, I saw a
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  Speaker 1: guy who loved Christ, would make any sacrifice for Christ.
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  Speaker 1: but he was also like a Renaissance man. I mean,
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  Speaker 1: he knew everything about everything, and then he delighted in
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  Speaker 1: so many things. I've rarely met a person who had
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  Speaker 1: more passion for Christ, but he had a passion for
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  Speaker 1: everything from literature to politic to science to even cooking.
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  Speaker 1: I would watch him sometimes and just be amazed at
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  Speaker 1: how he could switch from one genre to another, from
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  Speaker 1: one discipline to another, almost seamlessly. Sometimes I wondered, you know,
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  Speaker 1: my wife and I would talk and I would think,
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  Speaker 1: you know, does he just spend his entire life in
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  Speaker 1: a library studying? From the very beginning, I had a
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  Speaker 1: great respect for Vody, as I've already stated. But one
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  Speaker 1: day he calls me and he says, Wash, that's what
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  Speaker 1: he always called me. He goes, hey, Wash. And I go, what?
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  Speaker 1: He goes, God wants me to go to Africa. And
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  Speaker 1: my respect for him increased because when I thought about
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  Speaker 1: the ministry that he had here in the United States,
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  Speaker 1: it was immense. It was international. And then the size
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  Speaker 1: of his family and knowing the difficulties on the mission
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  Speaker 1: field for a man to, even a single man as
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  Speaker 1: I was most of my mission career, but to do
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  Speaker 1: that with a large family, to start all over again,
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  Speaker 1: And we spent a lot of phone calls going back
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  Speaker 1: and forth about missions and about his work in Zambia.
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  Speaker 1: And I knew that when he got over there, God
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  Speaker 1: would use him to leave a mark that would not
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  Speaker 1: be easily erased. And he was over there for about
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  Speaker 1: 10 years. And I have to admit, I was glad
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  Speaker 1: he was there. He was there with a lot of
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  Speaker 1: my friends, Conrad Mbewe and Ronald Kalfungwe. But I missed him.
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  Speaker 1: And we would only see each other maybe once or
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  Speaker 1: twice a year at a conference or back and forth
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  Speaker 1: or a phone call. But I knew that God was
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  Speaker 1: doing a great work through him.
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  Speaker 2: And then.
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  Speaker 1: As the years went by and well, towards the end
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  Speaker 1: of Dr. MacArthur's life, Dr. MacArthur was another one of
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  Speaker 1: my heroes. I began to think, you know, When Dr.
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  Speaker 1: MacArthur goes home to get his reward, what kind of
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  Speaker 1: man could kind of take up the same position? Because Dr. MacArthur,
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  Speaker 1: he could speak to his church, speak to a new believer.
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  Speaker 1: He was a great theologian, a great exegete, a great expositor,
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  Speaker 1: but he could also speak to the nation. He could
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  Speaker 1: speak to almost any matter that would come up that
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  Speaker 1: touched the Christian discipline. And when I thought of a
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  Speaker 1: person like that, it was Vody. And I remember several
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  Speaker 1: months before he came out of Africa to come back
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  Speaker 1: to the States, I walked into my office and the
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  Speaker 1: moment I walked through the threshold of the door of
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  Speaker 1: my office, I just knew that I needed to contact
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  Speaker 1: Vody and share with him my deep conviction that he
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  Speaker 1: was needed back home. And I remember writing him an
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  Speaker 1: email And he didn't answer for about two months. And
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  Speaker 1: then I thought he probably just discarded what I was saying.
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  Speaker 1: But he wrote me and he said, hey, Wash, he goes,
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  Speaker 1: I got your email. And I had the same sense
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  Speaker 1: that I needed to come back to the States, but
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  Speaker 1: God was going to have to do miracle after miracle
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  Speaker 1: to get me back. And well, I want you to
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  Speaker 1: know he's done it and I'm coming home. I rejoiced
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  Speaker 1: in it. But I honestly thought God was going to
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  Speaker 1: bring him home in order to take up the role
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  Speaker 1: I described. And one day after he was back, I
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  Speaker 1: was in the kitchen doing something and my wife, she
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  Speaker 1: came in and she had tears in her eyes because
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  Speaker 1: she really appreciated Vody. She loves it when men act
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  Speaker 1: like men. Those would be her words. But my wife
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  Speaker 1: walked into the kitchen and she was crying. I mean,
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  Speaker 1: really crying. And I said, Chado, what's going on? She said,
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  Speaker 1: Foti's gone. And I said, you know, there's no way.
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  Speaker 1: I said, it's been on the internet three or four
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  Speaker 1: times that I've died. That's probably not true. And so
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  Speaker 1: I immediately started making phone calls and found out that
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  Speaker 1: it was true. You know, when Dr. MacArthur went home
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  Speaker 1: to be with the Lord, it was like, it's time.
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  Speaker 1: We all understand that. You know, one of the greatest
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  Speaker 1: soldiers of the last hundred years, or throughout Christian history, maybe.
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  Speaker 1: But it was time for him to go home to
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  Speaker 1: his reward. But Votie was a shock. And it just
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  Speaker 1: shows us that the providence of God and the wisdom
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  Speaker 1: of God goes far beyond that of men. And now
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  Speaker 1: Vodie's not with us. But here's what I honestly desire,
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  Speaker 1: that although he's gone home to be with the Lord,
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  Speaker 1: that he still speak. I'm really hoping that in time,
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  Speaker 1: there will be a ministry, a website that will not
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  Speaker 1: only have all his sermons, but also maybe the possibility
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  Speaker 1: of bringing people together to translate the countless sermons that
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  Speaker 1: he preached that are not in book form and being
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  Speaker 1: able to get those out to the public because though
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  Speaker 1: he has gone home to the Lord, the message that
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  Speaker 1: he's had throughout his ministerial life is more in need
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  Speaker 1: now than ever. And so, you know, it's funny. I've
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  Speaker 1: had so many people around the world come up to
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  Speaker 1: me and they'll go, Brother Paul, I praise God for
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  Speaker 1: the day that, you know, I learned about your ministry
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  Speaker 1: because it was through your sermons I learned about Votibachum.
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  Speaker 1: And everywhere I've gone in the world, I've seen people
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  Speaker 1: have come up to me and say, you know, they
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  Speaker 1: usually mispronounce his name, but they'd say, do you know Votie?
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  Speaker 1: And I go, yeah, I know Votie. And another thing
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  Speaker 1: I could say about Votie that was so important to
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  Speaker 1: me is that when you watched him as a husband
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  Speaker 1: and as a father, I mean, all those things he
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  Speaker 1: said in his books and his sermons, they were real.
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  Speaker 1: They were real. I also, I loved Bodhi because, well,
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  Speaker 1: both of us in our friendship, we could kind of
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  Speaker 1: let our, I guess, let our hair down, so to speak.
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  Speaker 1: We could really go back and forth at one another.
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  Speaker 1: We were always kidding each other about who could whip
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  Speaker 1: who in a fight. Of course, Vody would have killed me,
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  Speaker 1: but I always told him that I could talk smack
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  Speaker 1: better than he could. And one day, just a funny story.
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  Speaker 1: So I had to do an interview for a conference
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  Speaker 1: that was coming up and also a book interview. And
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  Speaker 1: so they had cameras and things rolling. My son was
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  Speaker 1: little at the time, Evan. He was about six years
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  Speaker 1: old and he was standing off to the side And
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  Speaker 1: after the film was done, I said, you know, this
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  Speaker 1: film was going to be for a conference in Atlanta.
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  Speaker 1: And I knew Vody was going to be there. So
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  Speaker 1: I said, keep the camera rolling. And they did. And
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  Speaker 1: so I looked at the camera and I turned and
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  Speaker 1: I go, Bachem, me, you, Cage Match, Atlanta, I'm coming
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  Speaker 1: after you. And I had that made up because I
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  Speaker 1: wanted to to send it to him. And my son
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  Speaker 1: was listening, Evan, and he really loved Vody. I mean,
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  Speaker 1: everybody loved Vody. Vody was bigger than life. And Evan
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  Speaker 1: came over and goes, he was real serious. And he goes, Dad,
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  Speaker 1: I go, yeah. He goes, you really going to fight Mr. Vody?
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  Speaker 1: And I said, yeah, I'm going to fight him. And
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  Speaker 1: he walked away and I could see him over there
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  Speaker 1: and he was really contemplating something. And so he comes
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  Speaker 1: back and he goes, dad, I mean, you can fight
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  Speaker 1: and everything, but dad Vody, Mr. Vody, he's really big.
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  Speaker 1: You sure you want to fight him? I said, yeah,
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  Speaker 1: I'm going to fight him. And he walked away again
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  Speaker 1: and he's over there thinking. And then he comes back
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  Speaker 1: and he pointed to my abdomen and he goes, dad, Mr.
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  Speaker 1: Vody's big. Before you fight him, you need to get
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  Speaker 1: more bumps down here. And it is just kind of
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  Speaker 1: a story of the way that he and I would
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  Speaker 1: always go back and forth. One time we were in
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  Speaker 1: a big conference. There was like 10,000 people. And there
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  Speaker 1: was no place to sit. So I'm just sitting on
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  Speaker 1: the floor because I didn't want to interrupt the preaching.
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  Speaker 1: And he walks by and he looks at me and
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  Speaker 1: he goes, Wash, man, what are you doing? And I said,
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  Speaker 1: I'm sitting on the floor. He said, sounds like a
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  Speaker 1: good idea to me. And he just sat down and talked.
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  Speaker 1: And again, I'm rambling because he was more than a preacher,
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  Speaker 1: more than an author and an apologist. He was my friend.
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  Speaker 1: And I think there's a lot of people who would
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  Speaker 1: say that when he went home to the Lord, part
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  Speaker 1: of us went with him. And I do look forward
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  Speaker 1: to that day. when I go home and see my Lord,
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  Speaker 1: see Dr. MacArthur, see Vody. And I'd use this time,
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  Speaker 1: especially for you young people. Vody and I, I was
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  Speaker 1: a lot younger when I knew him. He was a
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  Speaker 1: young guy. And time goes by so fast. While you
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  Speaker 1: have strength in you, physical strength, give everything you have
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  Speaker 1: to the Lord. We must work while it is day.
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  Speaker 1: Night comes when no man works. And for you young men,
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  Speaker 1: it comes quicker than what you would think. So, well,
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  Speaker 1: I've rambled enough, but I'll say this. When we lost Vody,
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  Speaker 1: we lost a voice to the nations, and I lost
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  Speaker 1: a friend.
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  Speaker 2: You are going to hear a rumor one day that
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  Speaker 2: Votie Walken is no more. Don't you believe it? Don't
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  Speaker 2: you believe it? Don't you believe it? Because though I die,
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  Speaker 2: I will rise with Christ. It will not be the
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  Speaker 2: end of me because Christ is raised and I too
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  Speaker 2: will be raised with Christ. That is why he is
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  Speaker 2: called the firstborn from the dead. Folks, you don't talk
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  Speaker 2: about a firstborn unless there's others who are born after him.
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  Speaker 2: Don't you pity me. You pity the one who wants
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  Speaker 2: to hold on to Jesus without holding on to the resurrection.
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  Speaker 2: You pity the one who has absolutely no hope because
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  Speaker 2: they have no resurrected Christ. Don't you dare pity the
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  Speaker 2: one who believes in the death, burial, and resurrection of
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  Speaker 2: the only begotten Son of God. Because they are indeed
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  Speaker 2: the only people who have hope. That is hope. Christ
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  Speaker 2: is raised.