He is There & He is NOT Silent! pt2

I made it. But what a special couple they are. And they said, please tell the congregation, we really count on their prayers. We really, really count on their prayers. Bill, a year ago, I was there. He weighed 130 pounds. This week, he weighs over 170 pounds. So Bill and Annette, we celebrate you, and we will continue to pray, because we know that there are still some battles and challenges ahead of you, and we love you very much, and we care. Well, last week, I spoke on the topic, he is there, and he is not silent. And I indicated already at that time that that was message number one on that theme. And so I am, in fact, proceeding this morning to enlarge on that topic and to share more. And your enthusiasm following last Sunday was most helpful to me.

It’s good when I learn. I don’t want to pat myself on the back. I just like to know that every once in a while, something gets through. So not that you’re dense, it’s that I. . . Okay, Dave, I’m starting to taste shoe leather here, so we’ll stop. I’m beginning in Genesis chapter 12 in a passage that I’ve spoken on several times here. And it’s the call of Abraham. Now, the Lord said to Abraham, I pause, we don’t know what form that encounter took, whether there was a physical manifestation, in other words, a human being, whether God spoke to him in a dream, because we’re not told, it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter how the Lord spoke to him. But the wording is, spoken.

God spoke to him. God was present with Abraham, who was an ungodly man. He was part of an idolatrous tribe. Their religion was fake, false, and pathetic. But they were committed to it, because generation after generation. You know how that works. Your grandfather voted liberal, so you voted liberal. God bless your pointed head. So, did I hear a political statement?

 I don’t think so. So God spoke to a man that none of us would be excited about. 

I would have chosen somebody differently, perhaps. Somebody who at least was trying to find and seek out the Lord God. But the Lord chose him. I emphasize, God chose him. Abraham did not choose God. Abraham was not seeking God. God pursued him. And this is the way it is with all of us. He pursues you, and he’s still pursuing you. And so God’s voice rang loud and clear. And it shook him, I’m sure. Get out of your country. From your family, and everybody that you’re related to.

From even your father’s house. To a land that I will show you. Abraham, I have an adventure for you. I want you to follow me. The word of God later on tells us in another fashion. He was a man of faith looking for a city whose builder and maker is God. That really speaks of who you and I are this morning. We are seeking one. We are seeking to dwell eternally. Heaven. We’re looking for a city whose builder and maker is God. The Lord God is building for us a house.

Jesus said, in my father’s house, already established, there are many rooms. But there’s not enough. I’m going there to prepare an extra one just for you. And when that room is finished, and when heaven is ready, I will come back for you. And the angel said on the day he departed, you men of Galilee, don’t stand there gazing. Get busy and do what he told you to do. For this same Jesus shall return again, and he’ll take you unto himself. Abraham didn’t have all of that. Abraham did not have all of that. He didn’t have a Jesus who would disciple him and mentor him. I want to put on his sandals for a moment this morning. And tell you how outlandish was the call of God.

Leave everything that you know. He was a wealthy man. There are those who have studied archaeology, have studied history, using the Bible and other means of historical reference. And it’s really believed that he might have, at that time, been the wealthiest man in the world. Move over, Tesla. And God said to forsake it. Let it go. In the words of another person who came after him, who in fact was a descendant of Abraham, that one said, if you want to follow me, you have to deny yourself. Take up your cross. Don’t take up my cross. There’s a cross for you. You take up your cross, and you follow me.

So you and I are also being asked to do a preposterous thing. Trade, family, fame, privilege. Let it all go. Give up all your personal rights. And follow me. As a Christian, we lose all our rights. Did you know that? We lose our rights. We’re bought with a price. We’re owned by him. And we are his subjects. And we are his love slaves.

We’re slaves to him because we choose to follow him. So I want to bring this out to you that Abraham was in the midst of what we would call circumstances. He was wealthy. He was surrounded by people who loved him and respected him. He could have run for mayor. He could have literally turned his property into the 51st state. He was married to a lady whose name was Sarah. And this is part of his circumstance. All of this wealth that he had gathered, he had no one to leave it to. No one that would be his son. And the Lord God says to him, leave everything that you know. Take your decrepit little wife.

Go to another land that I will show you. And she will give birth. And you will become a father in your old age. 

And more than that, if you’re obedient and you take me up on this adventure, you will become the father of a whole nation. And the whole world will bless you. The whole world will know your name. The only people on the planet right now who have never heard of Abraham are people who don’t have the CBC. People in little villages where I’ve gone. In Thailand and in Kenya. In Ethiopia. People who live in mud houses and sleep with fleas at night. They don’t know Abraham.

But anybody who has any civilized education has heard of Abraham. I’m going to make, I’ll give you a great name. So the idea of moving and becoming a pioneer. Moving to a land that he doesn’t know where it is. The Lord just said, you have to follow me. You have to trust me. And I’ll take you to a place that you can call home. Abraham might have said, I have a place to call home. And this is the rub, you see. It’s not out of your sense of need. It’s out of God’s plan and purpose. And we don’t see that.

So we have to follow him when he says, follow me. So now the Lord is introducing him to a new circumstance. Leave the circumstance that you’re in. And embrace the circumstance, the environment that I’m creating for you. And in order to appreciate and embrace and experience the promises I’m giving to you, you have to let go of what you have to get what I’m about to give you. Your hand is in the cookie jar. Give up that cookie and I’ll give you a roast beef dinner. But you have to give up what’s in your hand. You have to deny yourself. You’re going to become a foreigner. And your life is going to be threatened. I don’t know if the Lord told him this, but you may experience famine.

And he did. The disciples are on the boat in the middle of the Galilee. It’s the middle of the night. The storm’s raging. Jesus is asleep in the bottom of the boat. After teaching for hours and hours and hours. And it looks like the boat is going to get swamped. It just so happens I was there. An all-star reporter, and I picked up this conversation while I was there. One of them said to another, as they think they’re going to drown any moment, whose dumb idea was it that we would come out here tonight? And another voice comes up and says, it was Jesus’ idea. So following him is not a promise that you’ll always have an extra loaf of bread.

Following him does not mean you’ll never have difficulty. Following him doesn’t mean it’s going to be a bowl of cherries without the pits. There’s difficulty in the journey. Having left Exodus, and they got out into the wilderness, they started to mourn and complain. Said we’d rather have onions and garlic. At least we knew where we were going. We knew what we were going to do every morning when we woke up. We knew where our next meal was coming from. Moses, you brought us out here to starve and to die of thirst. What kind of a plan is this? It’s difficult in the adventure. But if you will not give up and you will persevere, there’s such a glorious pot of gold at the end.

He did experience famine. A potentate went after his wife. He was responsible for some of that. Because he said, oh, this lovely lady Sarah, this is my sister. Believing that if he’d said she’s my wife, that that potentate would have said to one of his guys, get rid of him, I want his wife. So he said, oh, this is my beautiful sister. Which indeed was implying she’s not married. I’ve got her on the dating service on the internet and she’s not having much luck there. 

And the Pharaoh says, I’ll take her. And now Abraham’s in a terrible spot. The journey became a little challenging at times. Childless, he’s going to become the founder of another nation. And that nation is going to be a blessing to all the nations in the world. Although right now all the nations in the world think that Israel is a curse. They have no right to be there. They shouldn’t even be there. Abraham was the one who went there. How many thousands of years ago. But there are those who claim, no, no, no. He was never there. You have no right to Israel. You have no right to that property. Bottom line is that he had a circumstance that was good in Ur of the Chaldeans. And he did not deny the good and the value of what that was.

If somebody met him and said, how come you’re up here in what you think is the promised land? What was so bad about the place that you were in before? Nothing was wrong with it. It was just fine. But God’s voice spoke to me and I followed the voice. And that’s why I’m here. Are you sure that what you’ve come to is better than what you had? He went to that promised land and experienced famine. Where’s the promise now? Joseph, where’s the promise of that dream that you had that your brothers would bless you and love you? Daniel, where’s the promise now that God would bless you? Here you are about to be devoured by lions.

How do you feel today? Hey, Job, faithful man, lived after God’s heart. Man, here you are. Even your wife says, why don’t you want to go take this option? Curse God and die. He was having a bad day. The journey is not always, it’s not always an easy journey. But we were never promised an easy road. He was listening to a voice. He was listening to the one who is always present and is never silent. He’s never silent. He’s always speaking to each and every one of us.

Those of us who believe and those of us who do not believe. Those who do not believe in him today, he’s talking to them and saying, are you sure? Are you sure you’re not going to take advantage of what I’m offering you? He believed the voice. He took God up on his word. He believed. And because he believed, he had to make a move. He had to forsake everything and follow the voice. He had to embrace the promise. And once he did, his life was revolutionized. Read his story again for yourself, chapter after chapter. It’s absolutely, incredibly amazing.

The omnipotent God, the all-powerful one, became Abraham’s friend. And God spoke of Abraham. This Abraham, he’s my friend. Abraham was known as a friend of God. Because he embraced the promise and he took God up on the adventure. But not only did he experience the adventure, but Sarah experienced the adventure. Had they remained in Ur of the Chaldees, she never would have conceived. They never would have had a son, Isaac. They never would have had a grandson, Jacob. They never would have known about the 12 tribes. They never would have known the day that we’re in today. Sarah got in on the promise.

Because God, you see, spoke to Abraham. We don’t have a record that God spoke to Sarah. He spoke to Abraham, who was the leader of the house. And the insinuation is, when you go, you make sure Sarah goes with you. Because I have a promise, if you will take me up on my offer to you, I will bless her as well. And she will become not only a mother, she’ll become a grandmother. She will be remembered for thousands of years as not just the wife of Abraham, but she’s the mother of a nation. But then there was Lot. He was the son of Abraham’s late brother. And Abraham said to him, the Lord told me to leave my family. 

But he didn’t tell me I couldn’t take you with me. And so Abraham, out of kindness and out of generosity, invited Lot to go along with him. Lot got into his own struggles and his own problems, because he was not truly a man of faith. He was following the money. He was following the opportunity. He was a nephew. But the blessing spilled over, because Sarah did conceive. She did have a baby. And that child grew up, and he had a son. So what happened was that when Abraham accepted the challenge of the journey, it catapulted, it dominoed on and on and on. So what started off as a little pin mark on a chalkboard, a little pin mark, here Abraham says yes to God. And from there, that pin mark begins to expand. And it’s turning now into a large cone going across this platform. It starts from a pinpoint, and it gets broader and broader and broader, because the adventure was passed on as Abraham ensured that his son knew what God said to him.

And then his son’s son, and then all of the sons thereafter, and generation thereafter. The journey is not yet complete. And because Abraham followed God and was obedient, and followed the Lord’s promise, embraced it, embraced it, embraced the new circumstance. You have Jewish people living all over the world today. I’ve traveled to 37 countries. That’s not a brag. It’s just a fact. None of the countries that I went to, could I ever get a historian from that country where I could say, tell me the first person of your nationality. Tell me who was number one. Tell me what it was like on the first day when your nation was being born. We have one nation, one nation on the planet today. Israel.

Who was the first? Abraham. Was he a Jew? No, he was a Gentile. He was a reprobate. But God picked him up, dusted him off, and said, I have a plan for you. Abraham was the first. And you and I are blessed this morning as we sit in this house because a son of Abraham, his name was Jesus, born in Bethlehem. Jesus said to those who were in his audience, who do you think you are? Do you think you’re more than Abraham? And he spoke of Abraham and he said, Abraham rejoiced when he prophetically saw my day approaching. Abraham rejoiced in me.

Yes, I’m greater than Abraham. Before Abraham was, I am. That doesn’t work for our grammar. You don’t say before Abraham was, I am. You would say before Abraham was, I was, or I existed. But that was not the key. I am is one of his names. I am that I am. Moses said, you’ve told me to tell the Jewish people that you’re with me, that you’re with us, that you’re our God. I don’t even know your name. Who shall I say has sent me? Who shall I say is the God who’s going to deliver us?

And the Lord said, tell them the I am is about to give them deliverance. I am that I am. This was the friend of Abraham. He took on the adventure and what was formed was a movement that’s gone all over the world. In order for the journey and the excitement and the propagation going forward of the promise, they had to teach their children. And I haven’t taken just a little bit of time. I’ve spoken extensively of the education of the little Jewish children, even in Jesus’ time, that the schooling for the children was in the local synagogue. And in that synagogue, what they learned was not mathematics and literature or whatever. No, what they learned was the word of God. They learned about the promise in order for the promise to stay alive in their little minds and in their little hearts.

And by the way, when those little children got home, as they were entering the door of their home, what was posted on the doorpost as they entered was the mezuzah. The mezuzah was a little capsule probably made out of, it might have been made out of wood, it might have been made out of leather, but something that would endure. And that little mezuzah was attached to the doorpost. And in the mezuzah was the promises of God, where that family daddy chose the scripture that he wanted to latch onto and say, we’re not giving up, we’re believing. And you could not enter into a Jewish home without passing a mezuzah. It literally is saying, you come into this house, you’ll honor God. 

This is the house of the Lord. God lives here. And you know what? I did some investigation and found out that a real Jewish family who was really counting on the Lord, every doorpost in their house had a mezuzah on it. Every doorpost. The doorpost of the little child’s bedroom if the child had his own. Mommy, what’s that up there? That’s God’s promise that he made to our great-grandfather Abraham.

We were Iraqis. We were living out in Ur of the Chaldees. And God spoke to our grandpa and said, follow me, and I’m gonna take you to a city that I’m building. I’m taking you to a land that you have never seen. It’s gonna be a land that flows with milk and honey. And this is the promise that God is gonna see to it all the way through. There was more. There was more. Because frequently you would see a Jewish person, a man, emerging from his house, and he’d have a leather strap tied around his forehead, and on the front of his forehead was a little package. It was not unlike the mezuzah that was on the doorpost, but this one was called a teflon. And this is a little, perhaps a little wooden box, or it might be made of leather. And inside are the promises of God.

Thy word have I kept in my heart that I might not sin against thee, the promise the psalmist said. But he was also speaking of the way to the heart is through the mind. He would have the word of God posted on his forehead. He’d have to take the time to put that on. And if anybody asks him what that’s all about, that’s the promise of Jehovah-Jireh. The Lord said, I will provide, and I’m living on that promise. I’m enjoying the journey. I’m trusting it with all my heart. So the whole concept was kept alive even among the children. And to this day, the Jewish people still have all of their festivities. You go at a certain time of the year, and if you’re in a Jewish part, we lived in Montreal, there was a Jewish section, and you would see the menorahs burning at night in the windows. I saw this in different parts of Canada and the U.S. if it’s that time of the year, the candelabra, you know, would be burning in their homes.

And there’s a time of the year when if you live in a house, you had your own home, and you had a backyard, you pitched a tent out in the backyard. And the whole family would go out and live in that tent, supposedly. My wife would say, I’m going to go to the Holiday Inn. Dave, you spend the night in the tent. That’s her idea of camping out. But the family, they would put a tent up in the backyard, and they were celebrating the fact that they lived in the wilderness in the tents for 40 years, but at the end of 40 years, they entered into the promised land. They still celebrate that even today. Even today, they celebrate the Passover once a year, and everybody attends to it. It’s huge. This is their way of maintaining their grip on the promise.

But what does that have to do with us today, Pastor Dave? The Lord has extended an invitation to you and I, where the Lord says in Isaiah chapter 55, come all you who are thirsty, come to the water. You who have no money, come, buy and eat. Come, buy wine, milk, and without money and without any cost, the Lord invites us to come and experience his goodness. The Lord invites us to come and experience the forgiveness of sin, where he doesn’t just wipe the slate clean. My daddy, when he went to school, every kid was given a piece of slate and a piece of chalk. That’s how they wrote. He went to school on a horse, if the horse wasn’t lame. Otherwise, he walked in the snow. Now a school bus comes, little wimpy kids. They’d be teaching my daddy and he’d be writing on the chalkboard. At the end of the day, when it was appropriate, I don’t know if they had a little rag for everybody, but you would wipe the slate clean so that tomorrow you had a brand new day.

The Lord says he obliterates the writing that is against us. My sin, my failure, my faults, my disappointments, all of it is wiped clean. I’m no longer guilty of sin. Then the Lord not only wipes the slate clean of my heart, he throws away the slate so that I’m declared justified. Justified, never sin, as though I had never failed God. I am standing before you and you sit before me this morning. You are justified. You feel guilty a little bit because you still fail at times, but the word of God says your name is imprinted in the palm of his hand. By his blood, you are made clean. This is the invitation to you and I now. The Lord says, come and follow me. We’re going on a journey.

I have met people that it costs them everything for the journey. We were coming down the highway passing through Quebec, and as we were going along the big highway south of the river, I kept on saying, oh boy, I’d almost get teary. I said, I remember going to that village. Every little village down there following the St. Lawrence, I preached in every town. God spoke to me. We passed by. It’s about hearing the voice. I got so many things running through my head. I had to eliminate 75% of what I wanted to share with you this morning. We passed a little town called Orono on the 401, just before Highway 15 that goes up to Peterborough, a little town called Orono, and I got all bubbly and I got all excited. I said, April, do you remember?

We were coming from a conference in Ottawa. A friend of mine said, David, why don’t you stop at our little farm? It’s in Orono just before the 401. Come and spend the night with us. We pulled into the yard, and as I pulled in, there before me was a truck 45 feet long. It looked like a moving van. And when I saw that thing sitting in the yard, God spoke to me. It was like Abraham heard a voice, I heard a voice, and I said, April, look at that thing. Look at that thing. I pulled up, and David, who was the owner of this little farm business, it wasn’t a business, a little farm, and he was a preacher just like myself, long story, and he came out and he said, I see you’re excited with my truck. I said, what’s that truck all about? He said, it’s for sale.

He said, I had a dream, and he said, I don’t think I was in the will of God, but he said, I hired a company in downtown Toronto to build a truck for me as a mobile stage. He said, watch this. So he opened a big door, climbed in, and all of a sudden I heard this winding motor, and here comes down a stage. The whole side of a moving van starts coming down. He raced out, opened up a little compartment in the bottom, and out came these steel legs. 

He put all the legs underneath this thing, so the stage came down and rested on the ground. He opened up another package, and there was a great big gasoline generator inside. 

When you look inside, the stage is down inside. The walls were covered with carpet. There were a couple of windows, and there was a lone little cot there built at the front. I said, what’s this thing all about? He said, I had the idea of going out in the streets and preaching, but he said, God’s taking me in another direction.

Do you want to buy it? I said, sold. I traded my car for a 45-foot long truck with a stage, and after a few days we made the trade. I brought the church to London to the little schoolhouse. I was pastoring about 30 people in an old school that leaked when it rained. The furnace couldn’t keep up with the cold. This pathetic little group of people, they loved me. They shouldn’t have done that. And so I came to a board meeting on the following Tuesday night, and I came in late, and here are my three board members, and I can hear them talking in the boardroom. And somebody was saying, well, somebody’s got a lot of gall, parking a big, ugly, white truck in our parking lot. I wonder if Pastor Dave knows anything about this. I’m telling you exactly how I walked in.

They said, Pastor Dave, who parked that truck out there? Do they have your permission? I said, that’s my truck. You’re not quitting on us. Oh, no. What’s the truck for? I said, we’ve got to do evangelism here. How are you going to work a truck to do that? I said, the whole side comes down. It turns into a stage. They said, you’re crazy. I said, yeah, I have a dream.

I’d heard a voice that spoke in my heart. I want you to do this. The Lord, it’s too long a story. A guy that owned a whole fleet of trucks said, bring your truck over, and he helped me. We created a logo on the side. The Good News Caravan was on the front and on both sides. I got young people from all over Ontario, like from way up north, like far, far up north, almost over to Manitoba. When they heard what I was doing, they came. How many were there? Maybe 30, 40 young people. April says, yeah, I cooked for all those kids. I bought her a microwave oven.

Hello? I was pretty sharp. She had to prepare food for these 40 young people. But every day I took those people. I prayed with them, and I preached to them. I said, we’re going into the streets. Jesus said, go into the highways and the byways. I said, I got a dream. There’s a mission. There’s a purpose. We went out in the streets. We started leading people to Christ.

We met a lady that went to the shopping mall, and I was out in the shopping mall parking lot. And this lady, when she came out of the mall, she heard us singing the gospel. She came over, and she stood in the crowd who were listening to us sing and carry on. And then I was preaching. The tears started running down her cheeks. She said she went to that mall for the last thing that she was going to do. She was going to go home and commit suicide. She joined our church and became a member. Suddenly, our church was packed to capacity. Then I had a call from Quebec. Can you bring your truck? I took my truck down to Longue Quebec, and I turned it over to my buddy, Ramal Lemaire. I showed him how to work the stage and whatever. I hired a young guy. This is crazy. God showed me what to do. I hired a young guy from Bible College for his summer. He went down. He became the truck driver. You can go all down the St. Lawrence River and town by town. There’s a church now. They were founded by a good news caravan. I wasn’t even there. I was pastoring a revival in London, but God was using that truck. 

I heard a voice. I followed the voice, and God met me there. I looked for a city whose builder and maker is God. Hallelujah. Somebody said to me the other day, Pastor Dave, is there anybody else who’s 80 years of age and still pastoring in Canada? I said, no, they’ve already been stuffed, and they’re in museums now. I am the only Pentecostal preacher. I’m the only one who’s 80. They said, why? Why are you still doing this? I had a meeting just the other evening with some people from this church.

They said, why are you still doing this? Here’s what I replied. All my friends, they’re the smarties. They’ve retired. Their golf game has never been better. They have a place in Hawaii. They go to Florida. You’ve met them down there. They’re your friends. I hate you. They said to me, Forrest, what are you doing? I don’t bore them with my story.

You’re 80 years of age. What are you doing? It’s exactly, you told your story this morning, Tepper, about how God did something for you. How many years ago now? This is the anniversary of what year? Two. Minus ten years. You’ve got eight years to go. Ten years ago, in October, I was laying in a hospital in Florida, and they said to me, your heart is in terrible shape, and we’ve got things ready. We’ve got to do something to you. We’ve got to go into your heart. And the top guy, it was a hospital that focuses on the heart, and this doctor leaned over to me, and he said very quietly, David, I’m going to do my very best.

Everything is being prepared on another floor, but David, I’ve had people in better shape than you, and I couldn’t save them. You need to know, I can’t promise you’re going to survive this. And a nurse standing nearby said, do you want to say goodbye to your wife? I said no. I’m not going anywhere. They raced me down, took me upstairs, and went into my heart. I have amnesia now. I can’t tell you everything that went on. They said he will experience amnesia. All I know is they did whatever they did. April came in, saw a picture of what they did. They went in the heart, and they did.

The Bible says the Lord said, I’ll give you a new heart. I think that was my moment. And so I woke up. Watch this. It was 20 minutes after 2 in the morning. The room is dark, dimly lit. And as I awoke, there was a little nurse there. She didn’t know I was awake. She was taking my temperature. I don’t know what she was doing. And as I looked at her in the dimly lit room, I could see tears. Tears were running down her cheeks.

And I said, are you okay? Scared her. She didn’t know I was awake. She said, oh, David, you’re awake. Yes. Why are you crying? I’m crying over you. It sounds like a love song, doesn’t it? Cry. Why are you crying over me? And she said, because I’ve never met anyone like you. We haven’t met yet. I said, what do you mean? Well, when I came on the shift tonight, I read your chart. You’re not supposed to be here. This is where I work. This is my life. I’ve never seen a patient like you. What do you mean? They didn’t believe you were going to make it. That’s on your chart. But you’re here. I said, oh, I didn’t know any of this. And she said, but she didn’t know who I was.

They only knew I was David. That’s all I said when I walked in. I said, I got chest pain. In there. Bang, bang, bang, bang. She said, but do you know why you’re still here? And I thought it was a trick question. Do you know why you’re here? I said, I think you want to tell me. 

And she said, because he has a mission for you. There’s something he wants you to do. And she’s still crying. And she said, does this make any sense? And I said, oh, yeah. I’m a preacher. You’re what? I’m a preacher, and what you’re saying makes total sense. She said, oh. I said, where are you from? I don’t know why I asked that. I’m in Florida. She said, I’m from a little community up near Buffalo. It’s called Orchard Park. I said, I know Orchard Park.

What do you know about Orchard Park? I said, there’s a preacher there that’s a good friend of mine. You know my pastor, Pastor Tommy Reed? I said, yes, I do. My daddy is an elder in the church. She got all excited. She’s crying now, tears of joy. She prayed with me that night at 2. 30 in the morning. Why am I still here at the age of 30? Because I have a mission, and I’ve not been released from it. If I die in the pulpit, let it be.

I am on a mission. I heard a voice. David, I have a purpose for you. Eight hours later, a nurse came in. I don’t know what happened during the next eight hours. A nurse came in, and she’s touching me, touching me, and I woke up. And I hear these words, Jesus, Jesus. So I said, excuse me. Oh, you’re awake. Yes. I said, who were you talking to? I was talking to my friend.

His name is Jesus. This is a nurse. I said, oh, I was talking to him about you. Oh, what about? Almost verbatim, I read your chart. You are a miracle. You should not be here. It’s got to be, because there’s a mission for you. There’s only one reason you’re still here. He has something for you to do. I heard a voice. That’s your truck.

I heard a voice. You have a mission. I came back from that situation in Florida, and the next thing I know, somebody from this church calls and says they want to close our church. We’re finished. They told us we’re old. They were told their firewood, wet wood, it won’t even burn. They said, you can go. They told the congregation, you can leave. We’re going to sell this place and put the money where it will do some good. That’s your Pentecostal Semis of Canada. Sorry if you’re listening in. And this little congregation, what was their name?

I said, no, I’m not a pastor anymore. No, no, I can’t do this. And I said, I got to go to Kenya. I went to Kenya and preached at a conference there, a couple of thousand pastors. Then I went from there to Germany, and I went around speaking in German. No, I had an interpreter, and I’m preaching evangelistic meetings. And by the time I got home, Ron Quinn was on the phone. We have to talk. We met in a little place out here called Glendale St. Catherine. He bought me a cup of coffee and said, while you’re away, he said, just in case, we went ahead and had a board meeting. Bill Richards, if you’re listening in, you know exactly how this story went.

We had a board meeting. Then we had a congregational meeting, and we said, do you want day four? They didn’t know me from Mickey Mouse, and they voted yes. And to me, that was a voice. April said, are we going to do this? I said, we are. All 12 of them voted for me. That, to me, was enough. That was God’s voice. I heard a voice in me. God’s not finished with this little church. Some people heard from God 117 years ago. God wanted to do something on this property. It started off as an aircraft hangar. They did what they had to do, and God has blessed his church to this day. God has given you a mandate to be faithful to him. He said, I’m inviting you to come on a journey. Are you on the journey with me? The wagon wheels are turning. 

The sign is lit on the front. We’re heading for heaven. Do you want to go for the ride? I want to run for president. Vote for me.

People on the Internet, you don’t know. There’s 1,000 people here, and they all, well, there’s a handful. They all voted for me right now. Dear God, there’s a journey, and we’re on it together for now, and we’re doing what we can. While we can, with what we have, we’ve heard a voice. You can count on that voice. He’s there. Where? Go like this. He’s as close as the air in your nostrils. Nicholas, that Sunday you came here because a lady said, I need a ride to church. That was a divine appointment with the voice whose name is Jesus.

He was so faithful to his heavenly father, so faithful to the mission, obedient. He went to the cross, rose again from the dead, and you are the reason he did it all. And you’ve heard his voice. You heard his voice that day. I’ve told people, there I was at the end of my sermon. I’d barely met you, and when I concluded, I said, anybody want to give their hands to Jesus? It was like there was a gigantic magnet tied to your hand. Your hand went like this. I thought, whoa, he thinks we’re going to hang out? I don’t know. You responded because God was speaking to you. God bless you, Cheryl, for whatever reason you had for asking me to drive you here.

God was using you that day. He was using you. Have you heard the voice? Have you heard the voice? And if you had, what are you doing about the voice? What are you doing about the call? It’s a journey. It’s a journey. It’s exciting. It’s an adventure. Walking with Jesus today, having a friend who calls you friend, and an eternal home, so you have a great time now and a better time coming. Hallelujah to God.

He’s here right now, and he’s not silent. He’s here right now. Not me. Not my voice. There’s a still, small voice in your heart, and you know so. You’re experiencing something in your person here that you may have never felt ever before in your whole life. You can’t identify this. You’re saying, this guy’s hypnotized me. I’m not smart enough to do that. This is not hypnotism, and it’s not emotional gone wild. This is Jesus, Holy Spirit, who’s saying, come to me and drink of the water. It’s free.

It’s that difficult. Drink of me, he said. Would you bow your heads with me? Heavenly Father, I don’t feel equal to any of this. It’s nothing to do with my age. It’s got to do with the responsibility of presenting the greatest story that’s ever been told. The responsibility of being respectful of every person in this room. Being respectful in that I would not do anything to embarrass not one person. Being respectful in that I would not pressure, I would not push, I would not tug. Because Lord Jesus, only your Holy Spirit can win a person’s love. I’m just your tongue. I’m just your spokesman.

It’s you. It’s your Holy Spirit that says, please accept Jesus. Let Jesus make a difference in your life. So Lord, I’m praying for every person in this room. I don’t know everybody here. And I’m not assuming anything. But Lord, whoever you’re speaking to now, I pray that you will seal the deal with them. I pray that they will have a longing in their heart that they could say, I’ve crossed over. 

Jesus is my friend. Lord, I’m hoping that you will write a new name down in your heavenly book. 

The word clearly says, there’s a book. You keep records.

I’m trusting, Lord, that you might be choosing now to write a new name. As heads are bowed and eyes are closed, I’m in no mood to embarrass you or point you out. I think the Holy Spirit’s already done that maybe. If you don’t know Jesus, and if you say, I don’t even know what that means, well, then already we know the answer. If you don’t know him as your friend, if you have not said, Jesus, I accept you as my personal friend and Savior. If you don’t know if you were to die today that you’d go to heaven, if you don’t know that you know that you know, if you don’t know in your knower that, that’s why I’m here to help you. How would I help you? I would pray for you. I would pray for you in my closing prayer. Who wants to experience that now? I see a hand. God bless you.

Thank you. God bless you. Who would say, David, thank you for sharing your heart with me today? I want to let Jesus be the Lord of my life. Yes. Anyone else? It’s an intelligent decision you have to make. I see your hand. I see another. God bless you. Heavenly Father, I want to identify these people by name. You know them by name.

Their name means something to you. And Lord, they’ve raised their hands this morning signifying not that they want to give their hand to you. Their hand represents their whole life. With that lifting of the hand, they’re saying, I’m not perfect. I’ve made errors because all of us have. And we know that the shape we’re in right now, apparently, we’re probably not ready for heaven. If we knew they were going to die in a half an hour, we’d throw ourselves on the floor and scream, Jesus, please do something. But Lord, that’s not the threat right now. We have a beautiful opportunity in a serene atmosphere just now to say, Jesus, I invite you into my person. Wipe the slate clean. Then throw away the slate and declare me justified. Justified, never committed any failure before you.

Write my name down in that heavenly book called the Lamb’s Book of Life.

Write my name there for my personal insurance.

When my name is called, I will arrive on time.

I pray for those who have raised their hand.

In Jesus’ name, amen.