Jack Buskey: What I'd like to share with you tonight I've had the privilege of walking with the Lord for a long time.
Jack Buskey: I came to know the Lord on May 24th 1952.
Jack Buskey: I was a call-in to the ministry and came into the baptism of the Holy Spirit in 1953.
Jack Buskey: And came into the baptism of the Holy Spirit in 1953.
Jack Buskey: I want to share with you two fundamental principles that have sustained me through my life.
Jack Buskey: And, like I used to tell the boys and I don't know if Ronnie remembers this or not, pay attention because I'm only going to say it once.
Jack Buskey: Ronnie remembers this or not, pay attention because I'm only going to say it once I was born in 1932, born again in 1952, and, as I mentioned, baptized with the Holy Spirit in 1953, called into the ministry, married my wife, who was from Lexington because I was a student in Asbury.
Jack Buskey: We got married in 1954 and have three tremendous boys and I'm very proud of them and I'm very proud of Ronnie and Jerry.
Jack Buskey: I had my first pastorate appointment in 1953, retired from full-time ministry in 2022, and I two things have carried me not only through the mountaintop but through the valleys and we've gone through a number of valleys and any pastor will know, as Chris will say, you go through tremendous valleys.
Jack Buskey: I heard about they shared about Luther's depression.
Jack Buskey: There's times that pastors go through tremendous depression.
Jack Buskey: Being a pastor in the Methodist Church, I didn't have a board of elders.
Jack Buskey: I had to walk through that pretty much with the strength of my wife and a few people that I knew praying for me.
Jack Buskey: But we had tremendous victories.
Jack Buskey: One of them, of course, was being married, graduating from college and seminary, appointed to pastor a church, then having the opportunity of getting an advanced degree.
Jack Buskey: We also went through the process of an 18-year-old grandson being hit by a train and killed, a son at his 48th birthday dying of a terminal disease and then, of course, my wife going to be with the Lord after 68 years of life together.
Jack Buskey: So I've known both the tremendous valleys and tremendous mountaintops, but I want to share the two things, two things that have carried me through that.
Jack Buskey: One of them is found in Matthew and you'll recognize this from the Sermon on the Mount, when Jesus said I tell you, do not resist the evil person.
Jack Buskey: If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also.
Jack Buskey: This sounds like a tremendous passive response.
Jack Buskey: They were just a lay down and let the world run over us.
Jack Buskey: They were just a lay dead.
Jack Buskey: But I've discovered that that is the most proactive, one of the most proactive verses in the whole Bible.
Jack Buskey: Let me begin with an illustration and then elaborate on it.
Jack Buskey: There were two guys that worked in New York City and they lived in New Jersey, and so they rode the same train, they worked in the same office building and so they rode the same train every morning.
Jack Buskey: And every morning they got off the train and walked to the office and on the way to the office they stopped at a newsstand the same newsstand, same person every morning.
Jack Buskey: And that guy at the newsstand was absolutely grumpy.
Jack Buskey: I mean, he's just miserable.
Jack Buskey: And one of the guys would always say good morning, have a good day, and would give him a tip.
Jack Buskey: And he did that morning after morning, after morning, and the other guy said I don't get it.
Jack Buskey: He said what?
Jack Buskey: Morning after morning?
Jack Buskey: And the other guy said I don't get it.
Jack Buskey: I said what he said he's the most grumpy person.
Jack Buskey: Every single morning you say have a good day.
Jack Buskey: Every single morning you give him a tip.
Jack Buskey: Why do you do that?
Jack Buskey: Are you ready for this?
Jack Buskey: He said why should I let him control my life?
Jack Buskey: He said Jesus never wants us to be a victim.
Jack Buskey: He never wants us to be a victim of circumstances.
Jack Buskey: He never wants us to be a victim of what we experience.
Jack Buskey: He never wants us to be a victim when life slaps us on the cheek.
Jack Buskey: See, the minute you respond, you become a victim.
Jack Buskey: I don't care if it's someone who cuts you off in traffic.
Jack Buskey: The minute you respond, you become a victim.
Jack Buskey: I don't care if it's someone who cuts you off in traffic.
Jack Buskey: The minute you respond, you become a victim.
Jack Buskey: The minute you respond, it controls your attitude.
Jack Buskey: It controls the joy of your life.
Jack Buskey: It will control the agenda of your life.
Jack Buskey: It will control the purpose of your life.
Jack Buskey: The minute we respond to any circumstance, we have become a victim.
Jack Buskey: It will control who we are.
Jack Buskey: It will control how we feel.
Jack Buskey: It may even control the purpose of our life if it's to get even or have a revenge.
Jack Buskey: We see examples of this.
Jack Buskey: Think about it.
Jack Buskey: Black lives matter.
Jack Buskey: You think they're not victims.
Jack Buskey: Have you ever seen one happy?
Jack Buskey: Have you ever seen one smile?
Jack Buskey: They're angry, they're frustrated, they're mean, and it controls their life.
Jack Buskey: It controls the agenda of their life and it controls who they are.
Jack Buskey: I'm going to get in trouble with a couple of other examples.
Jack Buskey: I saw a clip on television the other night with Michelle Obama.
Jack Buskey: She said I'm angry.
Jack Buskey: She was born angry.
Jack Buskey: I had never seen her, even when she was the first lady not be angry.
Jack Buskey: She's a victim.
Jack Buskey: It controls who she is, it controls her attitude, it controls her countenance, it controls the agenda of her life.
Jack Buskey: Let's look at some examples of those who have turned the other cheek.
Jack Buskey: Martin Luther King Jr you remember when Bull Connor no, you kids don't remember that when Bull Connor was hosing and turned the dogs on to those that were protesting in Alabama and they did not respond at all.
Jack Buskey: They did not react.
Jack Buskey: They did not let them control them.
Jack Buskey: They just remained who they were and because of that, that led to the country having sympathy for the civil rights movement and it became the foundation of the, the civil rights movement, and it became the foundation of the whole civil rights legislation.
Jack Buskey: Gandhi Gandhi never turned the other cheek, but he brought the whole English Empire to its knees and led to the independence of India.
Jack Buskey: Jesus never wants you and I to ever be a victim.
Jack Buskey: He wants us to always be in control.
Jack Buskey: And if I turn the other cheek or you turn the other cheek, no matter what life and how it slaps us, it does not control how we feel, it does not control our attitude, it does not steal our joy, it does not define who we are and when I forget that and begin to respond, I talk to myself.
Jack Buskey: Well, speak, good grief.
Jack Buskey: You know better than that.
Jack Buskey: Turning the other cheek is very proactive.
Jack Buskey: It means that we will always be who we are.
Jack Buskey: Now, if I put these glasses on, I can go to the second point, the second principle I take from Ephesians 5.20 always giving thanks to God, the Father, for everything, in the name of our Lord, jesus Christ.
Jack Buskey: I first had this principle kind of unpacked to me, revealed to me, when I read Merrill Carruthers' book on prison.
Jack Buskey: To praise Anyone here ever heard of it.
Jack Buskey: He shares in that book that he was seeking the baptism of the Holy Spirit and People were praying for him and he began to thank the Lord that Jesus died for him on the cross, ever thanked him for that.
Jack Buskey: He began to thank the Lord and praise God that Jesus died for him on the cross.
Jack Buskey: And all of a sudden they forget him.
Jack Buskey: That's sick, I mean.
Jack Buskey: Think about it.
Jack Buskey: Jesus is hanging on the cross right, Giving nails in his hands, in his feet.
Jack Buskey: He's bleeding to death, he's suffering, he's in agony and we're around the base of the cross.
Jack Buskey: Yay, that's sick, he said.
Jack Buskey: I felt like a little boy who gave the wrong answer in school.
Jack Buskey: He said, and I even felt worse than that, how could I be happy for that?
Jack Buskey: And then he said the Holy Spirit spoke to me and said I want you to thank me for that.
Jack Buskey: This verse doesn't say thank him.
Jack Buskey: This says thank him for everything.
Jack Buskey: You see, that's the basis.
Jack Buskey: Nothing that we experience, no circumstance, no loss, no problem, no situation is ever worse than Jesus dying on the cross.
Jack Buskey: And you see, when we get that perspective, so that, no matter what comes to us, if we can thank God that Jesus died on the cross, we can thank God for everything, not in spite of, we can thank him for everything, him for everything.
Jack Buskey: When that happens, nothing, nothing can take away our victory, always giving thanks to God, the Father, for everything in our Lord Jesus Christ, not in spite of or not to get me out of it, but, lord, I thank you for this.
Jack Buskey: Do we really believe Romans 8, 28?
Jack Buskey: For everything works together for good to those who love God.
Jack Buskey: Where everything works together for good to those who love God.
Jack Buskey: I was amazed at the hymn Blessed Assurance, the second verse.
Jack Buskey: The second verse says Visions of rapture now burst on my sight.
Jack Buskey: Fanny Crosby was totally blind.
Jack Buskey: Think about it Every time I sing that I think of this blind lady who had perfect vision.
Jack Buskey: Oh Lord, I wish I could see.
Jack Buskey: If I could just see once.
Jack Buskey: Why have I been?
Jack Buskey: Why do I have to go through life blind?
Jack Buskey: No visions of rapture now burst on my sight.
Jack Buskey: These two principles turning the other cheek, praising God in every situation of life has carried me these 72 years through mountaintop and grief, and I submit to you for your life.
Jack Buskey: Thank you, applause, applause, applause, applause, applause, applause.
Jack Buskey: Thank you brother.