I Praise you, Jesus. Sit down if you can. Two times lately, two times I’ve mentioned how in a church in the 1970s, the place was packed to capacity. Something special began to happen in that service. I gave an invitation for people who had never experienced Jesus in their heart to come. And 23 people lined up across the front. It was absolutely amazing. I related to you the story. I’m repeating it now because not everyone here was here the last two times.
So I took the opportunity to go and visit one family of five adults, mom, dad, two daughters, and a son, all adults. And in that visit with them, they were elated. They were just overjoyed. They had discovered the reality of Jesus. They had known about him in times past and had gone to church, but they never experienced his love, never experienced his person. But suddenly they had a relationship.
They posed a question to me. They said this had been a major topic since Sunday. They said, how do you go about putting an aroma in the auditorium? I said, what are you talking about? Well, we all sensed a beautiful fragrance and the daughters were very much into makeup and smells, but we have perfumes, fragrances. And so they said, we know stuff. We don’t know that fragrance. Bottom line, I said, that wasn’t manufactured.
I don’t know. The husband said, we were thinking that maybe you pumped it through the circular system, the air system. And I said, no, nothing of the kind. And then the mother said, dear Lord, we were thinking about this. We sensed the fragrance of his presence, didn’t we? And I said, that’s your story. I can’t confirm that. I won’t deny it. And I warned them, please don’t go around telling everybody that if you want to smell something nice, go to the church. That might be the Sunday that Nick takes off his shoes.
So, so I said, you know, don’t spread it around. We don’t want to be known as the church that has strange odors. Okay. Whatever. That was very touching. And, you know, I’ve told it in a couple of other churches many times, and you could just see the glaze go over people and they’re thinking, yeah, okay, right. But since I told that story, someone else in this church has related to me a story and he doesn’t know while he’s catching on right now. This man, a few Sundays ago, sensed the presence of Jesus. We all do at times, but he sensed something else.
What was that, Brian? This man’s a reputable fellow. He’s on our board of trustees and he’s a very reputable fellow. So he’s not crackers.
His wife thinks he is, but I can tell you he’s okay. What did you sense in that service or what kind of an experience did you have? Yeah, well, I kept it to myself for most of the time, but during the worship, I surrendered all, just was, yes, that was what was happening in the worship. And I had a vision of gold dust falling in the sanctuary and I was just overwhelmed.
I couldn’t, I couldn’t sing. I couldn’t do anything, but that’s what I encountered. Gold in the Bible, not only the color, but actually the mineral gold is a clear indication of deity. Deity. Why would there be, I said, nobody saw gold dust falling here. We’re not saying there was. He’s indicating that he sensed that in his, and he saw something in his, not in his imagination, but in his mind, he sensed this. And I will tell you, I wish there was, I wish that Marnie was here today. Marnie Birdman, she would probably be able to confirm this, but a mutual friend that was at Brayside Camp, the last time I preached there would be, I’m guessing seven or eight years ago.
And this dear lady, June, came running after me. The service was complete. We had a glorious altar call. It was an incredible thing where people just stayed and stayed and stayed. People got the baptism that night. It was glorious. And so she caught me as I’m, she waited and waited until I was completely alone and she was able to not interrupt me. And she said, pastor, she said, during that altar time, she said, I saw four angels, one on each corner of the sanctuary. And she said their wings were outstretched.
She said that was one of the most powerful services I’ve ever been in. And I said, do you think you actually saw angels? She said, pastor, I’m telling you what, what I saw in the word of God, it talks about visions. And since we related the story I did about the fragrance, there’s a lady here.
I won’t embarrass her. I don’t think it would embarrass her. But a lady told me, she said in that service recently, she said there was no air moving.
See, we’re not running any fans, but she said in that service, she felt a gentle breeze going over her. She actually turned to her friend and said, is there a fan running? No, there’s no fan. She felt a breeze. Lily, when she was in the hospital in Grimsby, she told us that while we were praying and holding, because she was dying, she was on her way. COVID had just wiped her out and they could hardly do anything for her. And she laid there in the hospital and suddenly she said there were no doors open. There were no windows open. The room was closed. She started to weep.
And she told me, she said, I felt a gentle breeze just flowing over me. And she said it actually cooled me because she was in a sweat from the virus or whatever was attacking her. She said, pastor, please believe me. She said, I know that it was, it was the Lord. It was the Lord’s presence. Somebody said to me recently, we’re on the brink of something here. There’s something going on here. And I’ll just say, praise God. Are we looking for gold dust? No.
Are we looking for angels’ wings? No. Are we looking for a smell like you’ve never smelled before? Of all the smells, smells that you smelled, we’re not looking for a fresh smell. We’re not looking for, we’re looking for Jesus, just his reality. You don’t have to see something. You don’t have to know something. You don’t have to feel something. These things are all extreme things. I’ve never felt the wind. I’ve never seen an angel appear. I’ve never heard God’s audible voice. Okay. Never been there.
I’ve had some extraordinary experiences that don’t match that kind of thing. Some things that happened to me in Africa that are actually negative or the enemy attacked me, but I’ve never had an extraordinary experience like that. Just to let you know, things are happening all over the world.
They are. Do you know how many young people are swarming now into, this is a worldwide phenomenon. Churches are being filled with young people, teenagers and young adults, young people who are studying in universities and being taught all kinds of stuff that is so off the wall.
They’re coming into the house of the Lord and they’re saying, I want to know the truth and I want to understand reality. All over the world, there’s a gathering of people. People are being healed.
People are coming to know Jesus as Savior. If you doubt that there’s such a thing as healing, I’ve told this story so many times. A doctor chased me down in Vancouver and asked how April was doing.
Something happened in 1969. This lady was dying of cancer and this doctor wanted to tell me, this was after 203, 204. This was around 2005. He was an elderly fellow. He was on the brink of moving on himself. He said, I’m a Presbyterian, but I believe in miracles. He said, I want you to know I’m a doctor. He said, I have all the records. Your wife is a walking miracle. She never should have survived that cancer. He said, in fact, she’s probably the only person in all of history that survived from that cancer. You can’t tell me that God doesn’t heal people.
This lady right here, this lady right here, right here, right here. Somebody said, I bet it’s in remission. Yeah, from 1970 until now. Can you do the math? Yeah, it’s been in remission for 50 years. Hello, give me a break. He’s alive. And that’s my message this morning. Are we already on the internet? We’re already on. Well, welcome to those of you who are chiming in from wherever you are. And if somebody is watching us from Ottawa, I’m not going to let you down. I’m going to say some things that really tick you off. I want to preach this morning on the signs of the time.
We’re nearing the end of human history as we’ve known it. History as we’ve known it. You and I have never seen a third world war. We saw COVID. We were scared to death. Somebody got the idea it was going to wipe everybody out.They were over the top and they were saying some pretty dumb thing. But we’ve seen some very, very difficult things in our time. Some of us are old enough that we saw the Twin Tower thing, the attack. I never saw it. I was in Uganda at the time, but I got word when I was in Uganda, the whole world is on fire. And I had no way of checking out.
I didn’t know if I was coming home to a family or a country that no longer existed. We’ve all gone through some challenging times, but I tell you, it’s nothing like the world’s going to go through coming up. Pastor Dave, you’re trying to scare us. I’m not trying to do anything. I haven’t been reading the newspaper lately. I just read this. This is non-biased news. Hello? This is non-biased news. I read the Bible and I’m telling you what the Bible says.
Signs of the times. Where does that come from? It comes from the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 24 and verse 3. Would you care to read this out loud with me? This is what the Bible says. Now, as Jesus sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately saying, tell us when will these things be and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age? Two questions.
When will these things happen and what will be the signs of your coming and returning? There was a reason that they were asking these questions because in the chapter before 24, chapter 23, Jesus took on the Pharisees and I read it again last night. I read it early, this morning. Woe is you Pharisees.
Woe, woe, woe. Now the Pharisees were the King Kongs of the Jewish religion of the day in Jesus’ time as he walked among them. And so when Jesus attacks the Pharisees, it’s like he’s devastating the Pontiff’s home in Rome. He’s tearing it all to shreds. The religion is finished. It’s woe to you. You’re blind leaders of the blind. My goodness, he got honest and he got uptight. His speech in Matthew 23, if we were to chime in and talk to an MP, Pastor, don’t get political.
I can’t help it. This is what politics is doing to us right now. A liberal MP and Chair of the Standing Committee of Justice and Human Rights. If you were to read publicly anything like what Jesus said in Matthew 23, you’d be arrested because this man claims, have you seen it? Just this week, this man claims that the Bible contains a lot of hate speech and he wants to abolish the Bible. I feel like Clint Eastwood, whoever you are, wherever you’re at, go ahead, sir, and make my day. You take on the church in Canada, you are looking for some kind of war and you ain’t gonna win.
Hello? I got about five amens. I think we’re okay. All right. Signs of the times. When will these things be? It frightened the disciples to hear Jesus say, the temple is going to be no more. It’s going to be torn down and woe to the religious leaders of the day. So they were thinking, Jesus, you’re here to salvage Israel. You’re here to make it all good. You’re going to deal with the Romans. See, they were looking for a Roman conqueror. But here’s Jesus saying, I’m not after the Romans. I’m after the religious people who have kept you in bondage.
And I’m after that temple that you hold in such high regard while you dismiss God and his righteous holy ways. So this upsets them and they’re wondering, so when you’ve torn down the religious society of the day and made the church of no effect, tear down the temple, what’s left for us? When will these things be and when will you be coming back? So when you read the rest of that chapter of Matthew 24, it’s really a message, not to you and I, but to the Jewish people. After the tribulation, during the tribulation, Matthew 24 is going to be a very important chapter for all Jews in the world.
Will they read it? You bet your little green apples they will read it because they’re looking for something that will make sense. So I want to say that if you read Matthew 24, Jesus predicts a lot of things that are going to start to happen, such things that I’m about to share with you this morning, things that they’re to look forward to. And it’s like this, it’s like this.
Why would we read Matthew 24 if we’re not going to be here for it? If we’re going to be gone because Jesus is coming for his church, what effect should Matthew 24 have on us? And I, this might be crude, but this is the best way I can come up with it this morning. We’re expecting a baby. We see the pregnancy. We see what’s going on. A baby’s coming. So we start getting ready the nursery, but the baby has not arrived yet.
You know that a baby’s coming when you see the signs. So why would we read Matthew 24? Because when the things that Jesus says are going to happen around the world, when he says they’re going to happen, they don’t happen within a five minute jerk, but they will begin to happen and increase and increase and increase. So Matthew 24 is very important. I choose now not to read for you, read with you Matthew 24. You have that option for yourself. One of the things that is, that is prophecy was that Israel, after 2,000 years not existing, was born Israel as a nation.
It’s never happened in history. A nation was born within 24 hours. And we’re having trouble with projecting for you and to you the pictures that I have organized. We’ve been struggling with this all morning and we knew that this was happening. So I’m going to be explaining without the help, I guess, of pictorialism, but I have a picture of the Palestine post and it says the state of Israel is born. And that was a prediction of the word of God.
In fact, a prophet way back, at least a thousand years before 1948, a prophet starts talking like the people would be talking when it happens, saying, can it be a whole nation is born in one day and the children of that nation are suddenly being looked after in such an incredible fashion? How can this be? It can be when God looks at, that’s one of the signs that Jesus is coming soon. 1948, Israel was born. Why is Israel being attacked now? Because the devil doesn’t want it to exist. And even our own country right now is starting to rub Israel with sandpaper and we should be embarrassed about that. And the mayor of Toronto declared this past week that Israel was assassinating all those poor people that are Hamas terrorists. And she’s paying very, very dearly for that.
The word of God is being mocked. The word of God is being mocked and what God is doing in the world today, what God’s doing is being mocked, but the smile is going to be on somebody else’s face. Israel, the word of God says, God, when he raised up Abraham, Abraham was the first Jew. And when God called out Abraham and said, I’m going to make a nation out of you, he said, and Abraham, you are going to bless all the nations. And I have gone to great extent in sharing with you how Israel has been a blessing to all of the nations. So many of the medical breakthroughs that we are experiencing today have come as a result of the sciences of Israel.
Israel has taken to the nth degree the possibility, it’s not a possibility, it’s working now. They’re taking the salt water out of the Mediterranean and they’re turning it into what they call potable water. In fact, 80% of the water being used in Israel today, 80% of it’s coming out of the Mediterranean and it’s drinkable. Hello, that’s Israel for you. They’re the guys that have manufactured robots to help with robotic surgery. It’s endless, it’s absolutely endless what Israel is blessing us with.
And the greatest way that Israel’s blessing the entire world is we got this book, we got the word of God because of them. Without Israel, we don’t have a Bible. Without Abraham and the people that followed him, we are a blessed people, the whole world, more about that.
And by the way, I prepared far more than I can share with you today. We need to have a bell ring or whatever when I should quit because I could go till five, and I won’t do that to you. Okay, a prediction in Ezekiel and in Zechariah is that a king in the north, now the word of God is always focusing on Israel as the focal point of the world.
There’s a reason for that, I won’t go into it. So when the word of God says, look north, there’s a king going to arise, it means north of Jerusalem. North of Jerusalem is Moscow. A king will rise up, he will form a confederate, a confederation, and he will attack Israel. Look out for Mr. Putin. And if he gets picked off, somebody worse than him, they’re gonna, they’re gonna do it. They’re going to put together a league of nations, and they’re going to attack Israel. That’ll be a very bad day for them because that will usher in the moment when Jesus will come and he’ll say, that’s enough. And the Bible says every eye will see him, but we won’t be here for that.
We’re going up. I’m going up on the first load. I don’t know if we’re going in 747s or spacecraft, but I’ve got my reservations in. I’m going up on the first load. Some of you think that we’re going to go up mid-tribulation. Send me a postcard, just mark it heaven, Dave’s place. Let me know how it’s going. No, beloved, I’m going up in the first load. But Russia is building her arms now.
She’s building her arms and she’s looking at Israel. And I went over this with you. Why is Russia looking at Israel? Because Israel, because the Russians don’t have a warm ocean port. And if they’re going to try and attack Europe and all the rest of it, they need a port where they can park their big aircraft carriers and their bombers and they’re looking at Israel. Plus they want the minerals that are buried at the bottom of the dead sea. The dead sea is coming alive.
That’s another prophecy. Can you believe the dead sea is coming alive? There’s fish, there’s little creatures living in the dead sea in the dead. It’s a live sea now and Russia wants it. Israel has a huge reserve of oil. Israel has a huge reserve of gas. Russia wants it. They’re going to attack. That’s a prophecy. Russia is arising out of the dust. It’s going to attack Israel. I’m now going to divert away from the long list of the signs. I’m going to focus on one major sign.
To me this is the most important sign that Jesus is coming soon. Are you ready for this one? This is the gospel now according to Dave. This to me is the greatest sign that Jesus is at the door. Jesus said in that passage in Matthew, he said, and this gospel, the word gospel means good news. This good news of his kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations and then I’m coming. The whole world is going to hear about Christ.
Do you know what’s happening in the world right now? Buckle your seat belt. In January the first 1900, Charles Parham was in a Bible college and in the year 1900, so that’s over 100 years ago, the power of the Holy Spirit fell in that college and it started that moment, that day in that college started a worldwide church movement. We know it as the Pentecostal movement, that’s what our church is called, and it’s also known as the charismatic movement.
So the Pentecostal movement, that’s denominational. It’s in its own frame and since I was a young preacher I always heard, it’s us four and no more. I remember a district superintendent, I won’t go down the line on this, you wouldn’t be inspired, but he as much as said, well those people, those Baptists and whatever, you know, it’s kind of like, we got it, they haven’t got it, and I thought, man are you off base, but you don’t tell a guy who’s your boss that, but the charismatic movement is not about us, it’s about the Catholics, it’s about the Presbyterians, it’s about the Lutherans, it’s about everybody else, and this outpouring, as it’s called, of the Holy Spirit, it’s a revival, it’s causing people to get saved.
That moment on, and it’s really believed that this was the kickoff of this now Pentecostal charismatic movement that’s going on today. It’s not the beginning, the beginning, the beginning, the beginning was Acts chapter two, but this is the current wave of the Holy Spirit that’s reaching around the world and it’s almost unspeakable, and that thing that happened in that classroom in Topeka, Kansas, within no time leaped across the ocean, and the next place you hear that’s a hotbed for what God’s doing is the country of India. I’ve been to India, it’s an incredible thing what God is doing there, it’s glorious, it’s wonderful.
Six years after that Topeka, Kansas thing happened, the Azusa Street revival broke out. So many of you know all about that. The revival broke out, and that revival fire in that little church, and that little church was predominantly black people, originally from Africa, many of them probably from the Caribbean, and they were considered kind of like, well, you know, the people who are poor and don’t know what they’re doing, and the little preacher that was preaching, he was blind in one eye and couldn’t see out of the other.
He had strange eccentric things that he would do. Before he would preach, he had an orange crate. You should be glad I don’t have one. He’d have an orange crate, and while the people were singing, he’s on the floor, and his head is inside the orange crate, and he’s not coming out till he’s heard from God. They got to sing forever, and all of a sudden, he’d stand up, he’d have a word from the Lord. Revival broke out.
Revival broke out, and you know what was affected by that? There were people from that, people in Canada heard about it, and they made their way down by train. They came back, and that revival started striking in Manitoba. That revival started striking up in Ottawa, and I’ve read some articles that came out of Ottawa as they were writing out, they named the people who experienced divine healing in the meetings in the city of Ottawa, but the little fire started burning everywhere, and that fellow from Topeka, Kansas, he either came on a camel or by train.
I don’t know how he could have gone anywhere in Canada. Where did he go to? He came to the little town of Jordan, and there was a tent meeting that went on in Jordan, and that’s where this church was birthed in a tent meeting. So that thing that happened in Topeka, Kansas has had an effect upon us.
It happened all over the place. There’s more. There were revivals then started breaking out in 1904. The Welsh revival. A young evangelist full of vinegar started preaching, and when he preached, people came by the thousands. The bars shut down.
People stopped drinking. People stopped their cussing. The crime rate went through the floor. It was an incredible thing, and the Welsh revival started spreading all across Europe. The record is that in the meetings when this man was preaching, there would be weeping, there would be shouting, there’d be joy. Most of you right now, if we started weeping, shouting, and dancing for joy, you’d be asking, where does this exit take me? You’d be running for cover.
Hello? You would. You would. You would. Come on now. Come on. You’d say, I’ve never seen anything like that. You listen to David. I’ve been there. I have seen some of those things happening. I’ve traveled to 37 countries. I’ve been in Presbyterian churches in Ethiopia that would make our worship service this morning look like a Mickey Mouse review. Presbyterians, hands up. Thousands there singing and worshiping God. Who was the preacher? I was. You don’t have to. You can’t function in a Presbyterian. I can function in a Baptist. I’m welcomed by the Baptists.
I’m welcomed by the Mennonites. I’m welcomed by all of them because I have a fresh message from God. Jesus is coming soon. We are being welcomed everywhere. God is doing some marvelous, marvelous things. Hold on to your seat. Amy Semple McPherson was somebody who rose out of that revival, and she was running services down in Los Angeles, California. You know the people who were often going to her church? Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Jean Harlow, Anthony Quinn, and Milton Burrell. That is on record.
Anthony Quinn, the thought of her as an angel. He was inviting everybody from Hollywood, come and see my favorite preacher. It began in a prayer meeting in a Bible college. Hello? Then there was a woman by the name of Myrtle Beal. I never met Myrtle, Myrtle, Myrtle, but I became good friends for one week’s time with her son, who ascended to take over her leadership in a church in Detroit, Michigan. Some Sunday, I’ll tell you the story of how she got baptized in the Holy Spirit, and it’s an incredible story.
And the women of her prayer group started doing exactly what she did. At seven o’clock every morning, they got up, put wood in the fire, left the door open, put a chair in front of the door, opened the Bible, started reading Acts chapter two, because they wanted to get what Myrtle had. The revival that broke out in a church that they started calling Bethesda in the city of Detroit soon was drawing thousands of people.
They had to build a brand new building to hold the many people, and on the day that they had the ribbon cutting and the celebration, they turned away more people than could get in. They turned away thousands of people. Why? Because people are hungering to know God. They don’t want to hear. I was talking to a lady who was raised Catholic this week, and I dared to say, “What’s the difference between my church and yours? I said, you don’t want to know that, Sherry. She said, I want to know right now.
I said, well, let me tell you. I said, when we sing, it comes out of the heart. Passion flows out of us. I said, we love to sing. She said, what about our church? I said, I know your favorite song in your church. My mother makes better cookies than your mother.
And she laughed. She said, I think I want to come to your church sometime. I said, if you do, I said, park your car at the school down the way, because my people fill the parking lot. I said, you got to park down the road. I said, if you don’t park down the road, you won’t get into our parking lot. I said, and I told another man that I met at the ReStore. I don’t think, are you here? I met you at the ReStore. He called me yesterday. I said, I’m coming to your church.
I said, don’t try and park in the lot. I said, my people rush in to get the spot. You got to park at the school down there. Look for a white van. It’ll pick you up. But this Myrtle Beal had such an experience with God, and she soon was pastoring thousands of people in that church in Detroit.
Just a little side light. The Pentecostal movement that we’re a part of has never been perfect. It’s always had wrinkles and dust and whatever. And when that revival broke out in Detroit, Michigan, the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada that we’re a part of basically spit on it. And they threatened any pastor that was known to go to the Detroit revival were going to lose their credentials. David, is that true? I went and visited Bill Mallory up north of Peterborough in a beautiful little church.
And he told me the story. He said, they came with a document and said, sign here. You’ll have nothing to do with the Myrtle Beal. He said, I refused to sign it, and I lost my credentials. And his church was flying high. He was a man so excited and so blessed by God. And the story came out, he died in the pulpit. I told somebody just recently, that might be the way I’ll go. If just suddenly, oh, there I go. If you see me drop, just say, hallelujah, he’s gone. All right. The 1940s and the 1950s, wait.
In the 1940s and the 1950s, healing broke out. The word of God says, you’ll pray for the sick and they’ll recover. Pauline Mallory came and prayed over this lady who was dying of cancer.I’d prayed over her many times. And the more I prayed, the worse she got. I realized, stop praying for her and let God do something. It was this lady who came, took two bus rides to get to her and prayed for her. The word of God says, by his stripes, we are healed. And there were certain people who rose up in the 1940s and 1950s, and their whole ministry was the ministry of healing.
Oral Roberts. I don’t care what you think about him. Yes, he had gold taps in his house. What’s your problem? You probably have some things that if we knew about you, we would look down our nose at you too. Come on, come on, come on. I don’t care about his gold tap. And I don’t care that Richard sang, please release me, let me go. And he really wanted to get rid of his wife. I don’t care about any of that.
Oral Roberts, I was in his meetings years ago and I saw the miracles that took place. You’re looking at an old guy, been there, done that. There was the William Branham revival that took place mostly out in the West.Down around these parts, it was A.A. Allen who ministered all down through the United States. People got healed. His 10 meetings were filled to capacity.
There was a man by the name of Jack Coe. There was T.L. Osborne. Then there was Kathryn Kuhlman.
I’ve told you the story how I sat in Kathryn Kuhlman’s meeting. I was as close to Kathryn as I am to my wife right now. And I saw a lady in a wheelchair. She was curled up like, like a dead spider. I don’t know how to describe her. She was just all scrunched up like this. Her hands were backwards. Her wrists were swollen. She hadn’t walked in years. She was brought in a wheelchair. And I saw, I saw with my eyes, right in front of me, I saw her hands unfold like this. I saw her arms.
I saw her legs. There was a lady there that had been looking after her in the wheelchair for 25 or 30 years. That lady started to weep. The place went crazy. And before it was all done, her caregiver was pushing her all over the platform in a wheelchair. I was there. I was there. You can tell me you don’t believe anything. You can’t deal with my personal testimony. I’m here, I’m 80 years of age. I’m gonna face God soon. I have no business telling lies, especially from this sacred desk.
I’m telling you the honest truth. In 1949, a revival broke out in the Hebrides. It was a prayer revival and an emphasis on holiness. Then in 1971, a fellow rose up out of obscurity. His name was Chuck Smith. He started ministering to all the young people, the flower children with flowers in their hair. They wore, you know, long dresses with funny colors. They all lived in extended Volkswagen vans. They were called the flower children or whatever.
And he recognized that God spoke to his heart. And you know what broke out there? I went down and visited that revival. I’ve always been a, I’ve been, I don’t chase ambulances, but I chased the revival. I flew down to take in Chuck Smith’s meeting. I was there on a Tuesday night and his auditorium was packed and he’s sitting on a chair. He wasn’t calm. He was calm and collected, not a nutcase like I am. He sat there. Do you know how that thing has grown? It’s called Calvary Chapel. And there’s a guy on television now by the name of Jack Hibbs. Jack Hibbs was raised in that church. If you like Jack, that’s how come.
And there it is. Time Magazine got excited about this whole thing. And don’t you remember, you’re old enough, the cover of Time Magazine was about the Jesus revolution. I’m telling you, this thing is so powerful and it’s moving. You can get scared. You can get nervous. You can get anything you want. You can’t deny it. There were pictures. There were pictures in the big magazines and the newspapers all across America. Thousands of young people going down into the ocean and being baptized in water. No other church would have anything to do with them.
The church that my mom and dad attended, I won’t tell you about the city because it would bring some repercussions. You’re going to figure it out anyway. The pastor had a cross Canada television ministry. Don’t try and guess. And he started a thing across the road from the church. I forget what they called it, the inn or something, whatever. And he was inviting these young people to come and they were coming. They were coming to meetings in that place. They were leading to the Lord. And those young people started showing up to that church, but they were wearing open, they were wearing sandals, right? Some of them maybe even kicked off their shoes and came in their bare feet. They were chased away. If you’re going to come here, you have to look like us.
You got to look proper. Pharisees, I tell you, we chased them out of the house of the Lord. Hello? So we’re not the perfect group. And then Life magazine carried that. It all began with a prayer meeting in 1901, January 1. There’s more. Look at this picture. That, no, it’s not there. It’s a coliseum. It looks like there’s a million people in it. I’m sorry you can’t see it. We’ve got a technical challenge. It’s a glorious thing. Young people seeking God. And that’s the thing that’s happening right now. Have you heard about the Super Bowl? You don’t care about the Super Bowl, but they have this program in the middle of it, you know, halfway through the game and they call it the Super Bowl Entertainment or whatever.
You know, they tried to silence, help me, Charlie Kirk. They tried to stifle him. They said it was a political hit. I don’t know. I wasn’t there, but they tried to stop his mouth. They didn’t want to hear the gospel of Jesus. They made a big mistake. Millions of young people are rising up. They’ve got t-shirts now. I am Charlie Kirk. I am Charlie Kirk. You can’t stop them.
And now they’re going to have a Super Bowl mid-game extravaganza. Everybody’s supposed to watch television and watch these rockers coming from who knows where. I don’t know who they are. It’s a great big thing. All the who’s who put on the show. There’s another show going to go on. It’s a Christian show. Half-time presentation. You know who will be there? The young people of the world. They’re now soliciting young people from all over the world, all over Europe. Are you going to watch the Super Bowl? Are you going to watch the program? That’s going to be one of the most powerful. Jesus said the gospel be preached in all the nations.
What’s going to come across from that Super Bowl mid-time is the gospel of Jesus Christ. Charlie’s wife is going to be there. And some of the who’s who, people who are celebrities in gospel singing and elsewise, they’re going to be there. And they’re going to be saying, we serve Jesus. We serve Jesus. My time is gone. Then came the Jesus movement. It was spontaneous. I took bus loads down to Toronto to a place called the Catacombs.
Did you ever hear about that? It was in the 1970s. I took bus loads down there. I can tell you that Benny Hinn was there. He was in leotards. He was a ballet dancer. Hello. He had a wonderful, I’m telling you the truth. He was there. But we would go there and it was young people who was in charge. The Holy Spirit was in charge. You could look around and say, who’s running the show here? There wasn’t anybody in particular. It was a move of the Holy Spirit.
It was a move of the Holy Spirit, unorganized. It was a spiritual awakening among young people. And they say that there were millions of conversions as a result of that move of God. Then David Wilkerson arose in 1958. He was reading an article about seven young people who were accused of murder. And there wasn’t any doubt that they were guilty. And he sat in his little parsonage down somewhere in Pennsylvania and he broke down and wept. This is how God moves us. Somebody spoke to me this morning and told me how they’re learning how to listen to the voice of God. And they were praying, Lord, what do you want me? I love this. People who are attending this church pray in the morning and say, Lord, what shall I do for you today? And the Lord prompted them to call somebody. And before they could call that person who lives at least an hour away from before they could call him, her phone rang and it was that very person calling.
You talk about confirmation. So here’s David Wilkerson sitting and he starts to cry and he says, who’s reaching out to these young people? Why would seven young men commit murder? He made his way into New York City and with his Bible, he walked the streets. They threatened to kill the gangs, and hated him.
Nicky Cruz pulled out a knife and said, said, Wilkerson, I’m going to carve you up into a hundred pieces. And David Wilkerson said, go ahead because 100 pieces will cry out. Jesus loves you.
Nicky Cruz on the street right there, dropped on his knees and he got saved. It’s a movement called Teen Challenge and Teen Challenge is all over the world. A church was established because of David Wilkerson’s ministry.
April and I visited that church. We had to phone call ahead and get reservations to be able to sit in his church. It’s packed umpteen times on a Sunday morning. There’s a revival going on. Jesus said, my message will be preached in the whole world. What else do you, this has never happened in history before. It’s undeniable. The Brownsville revival. I visited that too.
I went there for an evening service. I sat there through a two hour song service, worship service. The worship service was great. Then they took a break for about 20 minutes. Then they started up the service with a preaching. When it came to the end of the preaching, the preacher stood on the platform and said, you need Jesus. Come to this altar. There was not less than 200 people went to that altar that night. They say that millions of people got saved through the revival that took place in Brownsville.
And there was more than just the calling of people out to accept Jesus. Miracles took place. People were being healed. Deaf ears were open. Blind eyes were opening. And the Lord was doing wonderful things in that revival. I sat and had lunch some years ago with an evangelist by the name of Reinhard Bonnke. Bonnke and I had something in common. We were both ministering in Africa. Him in a big way and the Pentecostal Semites of Canada wanted me to join up with him. And they arranged for a luncheon for Bonnke and I to meet. And he was known as the Billy Graham of Africa.
He saw multiplied millions of people come to Jesus in Africa. Africa’s pretty near almost completely saved. Did you know that? And yet there were wars and rumors of wars that are going on over there. Then there was the charismatic revival. David, you got one minute left. The charismatic revival, it was an emphasis on spiritual gifts. And I went to some of their meetings. In fact, I almost got bumped out of Bible college when I heard about this revival. I went with my friend down to Washington, D.C. I had to take this thing in.
I didn’t ask for permission. I thought it would be easier to get forgiveness when I came back. I didn’t tell anybody. I just jumped in the car with my buddy. We went to Washington and I met some of the who’s who of the current charismatic revival that’s even going now. I saw things that absolutely blew my mind away. There was such a talk about all over Africa. There’s a move of God happening. It’s like there’s pregnancy. The baby hasn’t been born. Jesus has shown us in Matthew, this is what’s going to happen to Israel. And you say, what’s that got to do with us? The signs are coming now.
What’s going to happen to Israel, the difficulties they’re going to go through. It doesn’t happen in a moment. The signs are all there. I got so much more to share with you. I’ve got to stop. It’s 15 after 12. And the people who are watching this have already ordered, you know, skip the dishes. Like they’re already ordering in their lunch. This guy is going to go on until five.
No, he’s not. He’s 80 years of age. And if he doesn’t quit, he’s going to vaporize in about 10 seconds. I’ve, you know, you hear about the, they’re going to turn into a pumpkin by midnight. Every once in a while, I feel something growing out of my ear. So I think my, my time is finished here. The Lord bless you. He’s coming for those who look for him. That’s something that needs to hit you like thunder.
Listen to David. Listen, listen, listen. Are you watching for Jesus to come? Are you anticipating his soon return? If you’re not, then he’s not coming for you. It’s that simple. If you ordered a taxi, you’re watching out the window for the taxi to arrive. If it arrives and you’re not watching out the window, he’ll drive off because he’s got other, he’s got other issues.
You show up at a hotel without reservations. Like I did on our honeymoon night. You won’t get a room. You got to call. True. We got to a hotel. I said, no, we’re full. Every hotel was full. It was a long weekend, Labor Day weekend, September the 3rd. I got there. Couldn’t get a room. Why? I hadn’t made reservations. Heaven, heaven. I say this with dignity and sincerity. Heaven is a spiritual hotel.
You don’t get to stay in that hotel without calling ahead and making your reservation. David, do you know that’s true? The word of God says that when you call and you make reservations with him, your name is entered into a book called the lamb’s book of life. You want to be afraid of something.
Don’t be afraid of the third world war. Don’t be afraid of famine. Don’t be afraid of what our prime minister is doing to our economy. Be afraid of this. The books will be opened and whosever name is not found in the book will be tossed aside. Actually, it says to be cast into the lake of fire. Pastor, you’re scaring me. It’s what the word of God says. It’s what it says.
So heavenly father, I pray for all those who are here. There’s young and there’s old and everything in between. Heavenly father, this preacher has been ranting for 45 minutes, maybe speaking too fast and hitting the mountaintops and not going down into the depths of the valleys. But Lord, I believe that I’ve spoken truth this morning out of God’s word and all these things that are happening all over the world today is the fulfillment of Bible prophecy. All these things are happening because you said they would and the astounding thing you said was he’s coming in a moment in the twinkling of an eye. It won’t be announced ahead.
Suddenly this church will have no membership on this planet. We’re going up. Oh Lord Jesus, come soon. Rescue us from this dark hour upon the planet. Lord, if there’s anybody in this house this morning who’s afraid because of the things that have been spoken, I pray Lord that they’ll turn that they’ll turn from that idea of fear. It just might be the Lord speaking to their heart and saying, I’ve been waiting before I’m waiting again.
Will you let me into your life? I pray that they’ll pray a prayer, not unlike this dear Jesus. I know I’m a failure like everybody else on the planet. I acknowledge that the cross was really about your love for me. I accept what you accomplished on the cross. You took the punishment for my failures, for my sin. Dear Jesus, come into my heart right now.
Forgive me, forgive me, forgive me and walk with me and write my name down in the Lamb’s book of life. I’m going to be watching for you Jesus. Amen and amen.
If you prayed that prayer in any way, shape or form, you need to tell somebody before the lights go out at your house tonight. Bible says, if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be rescued. You’ll be saved.
God bless you. Thank you for hearing my rantings.
