3ABN On the Road

From Gangs To God

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

Program transcript

Participants: Ron Halvorsen

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Series Code: OTR

Program Code: OTR000424


01:01 I pray, Father, in a very name of Christ,
01:03 so we might come before You here.
01:06 I don't know who these people are,
01:08 you know them by name.
01:09 You know the very hairs on their head.
01:11 You know their needs.
01:12 You know their burdens that they carry.
01:15 You know, where they are in a spiritual journey.
01:17 You know where they are
01:19 in the prison house of their own sin.
01:21 We pray tonight that You will speak
01:23 through Your word that in this testimony
01:24 that they might realize that God saves
01:27 from the 'guttermost to the uttermost.'
01:30 And that we might all find tonight hope
01:34 in the age of hopelessness.
01:36 I ask these favors in the name of Christ our Lord.
01:40 Amen, and amen.
01:42 I've been asked tonight to give
01:44 and share with you my testimony of how I came to know God.
01:48 It's call from 'Gangs to God,' the story of a young man.
01:51 In the backstreets of New York a gang leader
01:54 in the Brooklyn Streets who found Jesus Christ.
01:56 And so I want to share that testimony.
01:59 I want to share with you tonight
02:00 because I believe it will help you to know Him.
02:03 And not only know him, but to free in Jesus Christ.
02:07 You know, there's a growing tendency
02:10 in our era in the 21st century,
02:12 especially even now
02:13 and the western world toward agnosticism.
02:16 Everywhere I go traveling around the world,
02:18 speaking for God, I find many women that doubt.
02:24 They question the existence and the reality of God.
02:30 They ask me in many ways and different ways,
02:32 prove to me there is a God.
02:35 And I hear from others who say
02:36 that they don't even believe
02:39 in existence of God in his atheism.
02:42 And if one word could sum up
02:44 the attitude present in our generation
02:46 is no other time in all history.
02:48 It's that one word and that word is 'doubt',
02:52 the word, 'doubt.'
02:55 I mean we hear this word again
02:58 and again and again everywhere.
02:59 We're reaping the results by the way of this doubt.
03:05 A concentrated effort of materialism
03:06 and humanism so called intellectual
03:09 denial of the existence and reality of God.
03:12 If any belief in God today, its kind of a vague belief.
03:15 You know, the golfer,
03:16 the great golf course up in heaven,
03:18 and you know, God is kind of a absentee landlord
03:21 or God is a kind of Santa Claus
03:23 that if we do so many good things
03:25 that He's gonna give us good gifts.
03:26 And if He doesn't give us good gifts,
03:28 we question His existence.
03:29 I mean it's a vague idea
03:31 that there is some Supreme Being,
03:32 some kind of power.
03:34 But in most ways, He's impersonal being,
03:36 He's an impersonal God.
03:39 Men like Robert Ingersoll and other infidels
03:42 try to dismiss God
03:43 and the arguments were on nonexistence.
03:46 And so they argued until the day they died
03:48 that there was no God
03:49 and they went darkness into the grave.
03:54 A Russian cosmonaut some decades ago
03:57 flew round the outskirts of God's heaven.
03:59 And they came back with the message
04:00 to the world the western world and all the world
04:03 that they didn't encounter angels.
04:04 Therefore, there is no God
04:06 and so their message was
04:08 they never saw a God even in the heavens.
04:13 We forgot that God is found in peculiar places
04:17 like in a crib and on a cross
04:22 and in a heart of a dieing thief.
04:25 We've listen to the cries of radical theologians
04:28 even that said since God really has no meaning
04:30 to this generation really doesn't speak clearly
04:33 to our mind and to our needs
04:35 that since He does not have a burden of touch our needs.
04:40 He doesn't really exist, but if He exists He's dead.
04:45 And so the radical theologians cried that God was dead.
04:48 Well the agnostics cried that God we don't know we doubt
04:52 and the atheist says there is no God.
04:55 If God does not speak to the needs of man,
04:57 then he is relevant.
04:58 And if he is not relevant, we don't need Him,
05:00 and so humanism raised its ugly head
05:03 and it came even into our public school systems,
05:05 and for three decades we brainwashed
05:08 our this generation to disbelief.
05:12 We've dismissed God from the classroom.
05:14 We've dismissed the Bible
05:15 from the classroom and from society.
05:17 And now we're reaping the results of this.
05:19 We've taken the Ten Commandments
05:21 not only off the walls,
05:22 but we've taken the Ten Commandments out of our hearts.
05:24 And we're seeing a generation
05:26 doomed damned and bound for hell.
05:32 It was David the Psalmist looking down the scan of time
05:34 and seeing the western world in the 21st Century
05:37 and he was moved to say with these words,
05:39 "The fool has said in his heart there is no God."
05:42 And we hear from our lot of fools today.
05:46 But tonight I wanted to clear that God is alive.
05:50 I wanted to clear that God lives
05:52 and that God loves and that God saves
05:54 and the Christ in spite of Robert Ingersoll
05:56 and other infidels, God is alive.
05:58 And in spite of Marx's atheism God is alive.
06:01 In spite of liberal theologians,
06:03 He is not dead, He's alive.
06:06 In spite of humanistic, materialistic,
06:07 and godless system of education,
06:10 God lives and God loves and God saves.
06:12 The Christ, who lived 1,900 years ago in Judea,
06:16 lives now and walks through His spirit
06:18 through the streets of Spokane, Washington.
06:22 And the Christ who touched lives then touches lives now
06:25 even the lives of young men on the streets
06:28 of the great cities of America,
06:29 and the great cities of the world.
06:34 The footsteps of Jesus are reckoning
06:35 across this great nation
06:37 and reckoning across the great cities.
06:39 I heard the footsteps of my Lord
06:40 in the asphalt jungle of New York.
06:43 I felt the hand reach out and touch the heart
06:45 and the heart of the young men
06:46 gone berserk living in the world of hell.
06:49 A young man with no hope
06:50 and no future, no direction.
06:52 I can't prove God.
06:53 I can't prove God by mathematical equation
06:56 or putting God into a test tube.
06:58 How can you put something so majestic
07:00 and something so mighty
07:02 and something so lofty in a test tube?
07:04 If your God can be put in your test tube
07:07 your God is too small.
07:11 Your God is too small.
07:15 But I know God exists because He exists within me.
07:18 I believe it, because I felt His touch.
07:20 I mean I heard His voice.
07:21 I felt His changing transforming power.
07:24 And I was free at last.
07:28 And by the power of grace, the power of God's grace,
07:32 I found a way to life.
07:34 By the way that's called in the Bible
07:36 and scripture it's called belief,
07:37 it's called rebirth, it's called conversion.
07:40 And by the way you said you must be born again.
07:42 If you're gonna see the kingdom of God
07:44 something has to be born within your heart.
07:47 Something has to be born in your mind
07:48 and it's the power of grace that changes the life.
07:51 And you know, man can explain it
07:53 outside of the existence of God.
07:57 How do you explain a young man that live by the gun?
08:00 How do you explain a young man who lived by the switch blade?
08:02 How do you explain to the young man
08:04 who lives in a world of hate and violence,
08:06 was touched by His grace
08:08 and was changed to become a child of God?
08:10 How do you explain that but the existence of God?
08:13 Psychologists can't explain it you with psychology.
08:15 Sociologists don't know how to explain.
08:18 How a man living on the street,
08:19 living without hope
08:20 and then coming in contact with the Judean.
08:22 Coming in contact with the Man who lived 1,900 years ago
08:26 and was resurrected.
08:27 How He could resurrect the new hope in your heart,
08:29 a new future for their lives.
08:31 They can't explain it outside the word of God.
08:38 That this power is available to everyone.
08:41 Saul was on road to Damascus.
08:44 Everywhere you look, you find conversions.
08:46 Saul was on the road to Damascus,
08:48 he was a rebel without a cause.
08:49 He was working in the street.
08:51 I mean he was there to bring the Christians
08:52 bound to Jerusalem to persecute them,
08:55 to snuff out their life as if he could kill them.
08:57 As if he could imprison them.
08:59 And when he came upon that road,
09:00 there was a light from heaven and it fell on his face Saul.
09:03 And the word of God says, Jesus said,
09:05 'Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?'
09:08 It happened for him on the roadway.
09:10 There on the roadway to Damascus.
09:13 Everywhere you read it.
09:15 There was Peter by the turquoise
09:17 blue waters of Galilee
09:18 and there was a shadow of Christ.
09:19 And Peter looked into the face of Christ
09:21 and He said, Peter follow me,
09:23 I will make you become a fisher of men,
09:25 and that drunken brawling fighting fisherman,
09:30 that tough stinking fighting fisherman,
09:32 his life was changed.
09:34 And he began to follow Christ,
09:36 little did he know where it would lead him.
09:39 It would lead him to a cross,
09:40 and he said I am not worthy to die like my Lord.
09:43 Crucify me upside down,
09:44 and so they turned him upside down
09:46 then his world was right side up.
09:51 There was a thief dying on the cross for his crimes.
09:56 Three thieves on the cross,
09:57 two thieves on the cross and the Savior.
10:00 And one lifts himself up on the cross
10:02 and says, if you're the Son of God,
10:04 take us down from the cross and we'll believe you.
10:06 He says, if you can take away my pain
10:08 and take away my suffering
10:10 and take away my fear, then I will believe you.
10:13 And the other thief lifts himself on the cross
10:15 and he says, Lord remember me
10:17 when you come in your kingdom.
10:18 And he says, friend with every drop
10:20 of blood I'll remember you.
10:21 You will be with me in the kingdom.
10:24 But you know wonderfully,
10:25 their lives were dramatically changed.
10:27 It happened for Peter by the turquoise
10:29 blue waters of Galilee.
10:31 It happened for Saul on the road to Damascus.
10:34 It happened for thieves,
10:36 it happened for thieves
10:37 on a cross outside Jerusalem's walls.
10:40 It happened for me in Brooklyn New York.
10:43 It happened to me in the great city of New York.
10:45 How many of you been in New York.
10:46 Let me see your hands.
10:48 Well some of you have lived.
10:52 Lot of people said me you are from New York,
10:54 you are from Brooklyn, that's a good place to be from.
10:59 But I was born in New York
11:00 and New York is a fascinating city.
11:02 By the way I have been in the great cities of the world.
11:03 I've traveled on every continent in the world.
11:05 And been in to the great cities
11:06 and preached in these great cities
11:08 and worked in the inner cities,
11:09 the great cities of this country in this world.
11:12 And let me tell you it is an exciting city,
11:14 I mean bright lights and skyscrapers
11:16 and I mean we go higher up than you go out.
11:22 And people are fascinated by New York.
11:24 They come to the bright lights
11:25 and the hunky tongs and fete is in,
11:27 the strip joints and they come to universities
11:30 and the museums, but there is another side of the city.
11:33 There is a dark side of the city,
11:35 not in the bright lights of the neon signs,
11:37 but behind the bright lights
11:38 in the shadow of the skyscrapers
11:40 there in the back alleys of that city,
11:42 there is another world.
11:43 Even as there is in even a city behind the bright lights
11:46 and behind the suburban homes.
11:48 There's another story, there's another life,
11:51 there's another type of living.
11:52 I mean it was where death rated in my city.
11:57 A knife in the ribs that was my world,
12:01 you see, a needle in the vein that was my world.
12:07 You see a bullet in the brain that was--
12:09 I was born in that city.
12:10 And by the grace of God,
12:11 I will be born again in that city.
12:13 You see there in Coney Island,
12:15 I was brought up in the section of Brooklyn
12:16 called Coney Island.
12:17 It was the amusement centre.
12:22 But it was also the crime centre.
12:23 By the way murder incorporated function there.
12:26 You heard of the Galloway Boys, the mafia the godfather.
12:30 It was there in Coney Island,
12:31 that murder incorporated in for so much money,
12:33 you got someone murdered in my neighborhood.
12:35 As a child growing up and as young boy growing up
12:38 many times I would see the cop come around
12:41 and the corner of the door opened
12:42 and some dead body thrown out in the street.
12:48 One day I was going to school little child
12:50 and there laying in the gutter was a man in newspapers.
12:53 And the newspaper blew away
12:54 and there was hatchet in his head.
12:56 Someone have taken revenge on him.
13:00 And everyday, and every week
13:02 in that neighborhood someone,
13:03 someone was shot or stabbed
13:05 or murdered that was my neighbor,
13:06 that was my world that was world of violence,
13:08 it was the world of crime.
13:09 Murder incorporated function, crime in the organized level.
13:14 By the way the largest still in America was that.
13:19 The head witness against murder incorporate was thrown
13:21 in Half Moon Hotel in Connie Island.
13:23 So that he couldn't witness against the mafia,
13:24 the godfather.
13:27 And as children growing up,
13:28 we knew the mafia we knew the godfather.
13:30 We knew and we respect we looked at them
13:32 and said wow I had like to be like that.
13:35 Our model would not the models
13:37 that you may have in your Christian church
13:39 or models that you may have in your own home.
13:40 Not like us not in our neighborhoods,
13:42 they were all models.
13:45 I was brought up in the tenement
13:47 Brooklyn Connie Island.
13:49 I can't describe it I mean,
13:50 in fact my tenement was so ugly
13:53 and so bad that even in the ghetto
13:55 they put it behind all the other tenements hidden,
13:58 they were ashamed of it.
14:00 When my dad and I
14:01 and family moved first into they've not,
14:03 they've no sheetrock on the walls.
14:06 My mamma kind of hung up blankets,
14:08 so that they separate so you had rooms from rooms.
14:13 And all the time I'm growing up,
14:14 I'm hating this. I am blaming my parents.
14:19 I see everybody else having things
14:21 and I have nothing, and so I want
14:22 and I can't have and I'm told
14:24 that I can't have and I don't understand that.
14:26 And I am rebelling against my parents
14:28 and I blame my parents for the poverty.
14:30 I blamed my parents for all the things
14:32 that were happening and then I,
14:34 then I started to blame my teachers
14:35 once I got in the school.
14:36 Blame the teachers and blame my parents
14:38 and then I blamed the law
14:40 when I go get in trouble and put away.
14:42 I kept blaming the law.
14:43 They were the reason for where I was.
14:47 And the blink big blame augment.
14:52 Blaming everyone, but myself
14:55 and there I was turning further away deeper
14:59 and deeper in the darkness into that abyss.
15:03 The hatred grew in my heart.
15:06 I was what sociologists called sadistic.
15:11 I got pleasure out of sticking someone with a switchblade.
15:13 I got pleasure to bring someone down
15:15 the brick wall face down a brick wall
15:16 stomping him into the pavement.
15:18 I got pleasure at hurting.
15:23 Growing up in a neighborhood,
15:24 my dad was a professional fighter.
15:26 He is a professional boxer.
15:27 He had nine fights he won eight, drew one.
15:29 My mother said quit the ring or else.
15:31 He had five boys.
15:32 Mamma said quit the ring or else, so he quit the ring.
15:34 But like every father who wants to be someone,
15:37 they get their children to be someone, so my dad said.
15:41 One of my boys are gonna be professional fighter.
15:43 Once gonna be a light heavyweight
15:44 champion of the world.
15:45 And so since I was born big and ugly,
15:50 my dad said you're gonna be the fighter
15:52 and so as soon as I could wear sneakers
15:55 and he had me running.
15:56 And we had a big bag down in the tenement in the basement
15:59 and I hit the big bag and hit the light bag
16:01 and my dad was training me.
16:03 I was to be light heavyweight champion in the world
16:05 that became my consuming desire.
16:09 During those years in Brooklyn,
16:11 New York and Manhattan, and the five boroughs
16:14 they had boxing clubs all over the city.
16:18 And so I joined the Ocean Avenue Boxing Club.
16:20 By the way great fighters have come out of there.
16:22 Floyd Patterson world heavyweight champion
16:24 came out of my boxing club there in Brooklyn, New York.
16:29 Murray Glacier, one of the great middleweights
16:31 came about of the same boxing club.
16:33 And so I began to train three hours a night,
16:35 five nights a week.
16:36 I started in the P.V. Boxing Club
16:39 and then I went further and further
16:40 and further into boxing.
16:42 And I was really wanting to get into it,
16:43 and I want to really make a name for myself.
16:47 I remember I kept bugging my coach,
16:49 I got to get in the ring man.
16:50 I got to make something, so I got a,
16:52 you know, I got to fight in.
16:54 You see the police thought
16:55 if you could only get boxing clubs all over the city,
16:57 we could get the kids in the boxing clubs,
16:59 and they stop fighting in the streets.
17:02 Little did they know the better you were in a ring,
17:03 the better you were in the street.
17:07 So I was in Ocean Avenue Boxing Club.
17:08 It wasn't a-- we weren't a rich boxing club.
17:11 I mean, I remember when I was a little kid
17:13 I was wanting to fight
17:15 and get my first tournament fighting.
17:16 All the boxing clubs would come once a year
17:19 to Coney Island for the great arena
17:20 there in Coney Island
17:21 and they would fight to see
17:22 which boxing club was the toughest
17:24 boxing club in New York.
17:27 And I was--by then I was a light heavyweight.
17:29 I was under 16-years-old
17:32 when I first fought my first amateur fight.
17:34 In fact I was too young to fight
17:36 in the golden gloves my first amateur fight.
17:41 And I stepped into the ring,
17:42 I remember even now I stepped in the ring.
17:44 And by the way my ring name was get this.
17:47 New York News, New York Mirror,
17:48 New York Times called me in the sports section
17:51 up and coming Killer Halvorsen.
17:54 That's hard to believe this pretty face,
17:58 Killer Halvorsen.
18:00 I remember my first tournament fight
18:03 and you know it wasn't very rich boxing club.
18:04 We didn't have this fancy boxing shoes
18:06 and boxing trunks and you know
18:08 I had kind of a bathing suit on.
18:10 We have one mouthpiece in our boxing club.
18:17 Someone get knocked out, they drew,
18:18 doom out and dipped in alcohol and you're next.
18:22 I remember I stood in a ring first time
18:24 and in that ring
18:25 and I was fighting a boy from CYO,
18:27 the Catholic Youth Organization.
18:28 A wonderful boxing club in New York.
18:30 And he got down in the corner,
18:31 he said a little prayer you know,
18:33 I knew he had something going for him
18:34 than I had going for me,
18:35 because I didn't believe in God.
18:39 And the bell rang and I came out
18:40 and here I'm growing up in the Brooklyn streets.
18:42 I had not thought for God, I had no thought for anyone.
18:45 I have no thought for any person.
18:46 I just want to hurt
18:49 and I come out the first round,
18:51 I felt like Paul the apostle fight.
18:53 You ever read about him in the Bible,
18:54 he says he beat at the air.
18:57 Well, that's what I fought,
18:58 because here I was beating the air,
19:01 he was beating up on my head.
19:04 Finally the bell rang
19:05 and I found my way to the corner sat on,
19:07 my manager he was a great optimistic,
19:08 he looked and he said, hey man you're doing great.
19:11 I said no, you're looking at the wrong man
19:14 he is in the purple trunks.
19:16 He is looking great, I am looking bad.
19:19 By then my eyes swollen up
19:21 and I'm hurting in places I didn't even know I had.
19:24 Second round I went out and I'm looking
19:26 and I'm fighting like Paul the apostle fighting.
19:28 He hit me with the left, left hooker,
19:30 doesn't matter when you're hit you're hit.
19:32 I mean, one leg goes one way the other way
19:35 and you're going the other way
19:36 and everything is turning around
19:38 and I'm flat on my back, Killer Halvorsen.
19:41 Then this guy one.
19:46 You know you talk about the fast count,
19:47 I never had a fast count.
19:50 Two almost as long as Brother Philips holds his nose.
19:57 Whooo. I ran out of breathe
20:00 almost fainted back in the back stage.
20:05 So here I'm Killer Halvorsen, nine bell rang.
20:10 Now in those days they called it
20:11 saved by the bell.
20:14 I didn't want to get saved, believe me.
20:16 I mean I want to get home
20:18 but they lifted me up brought me to corner
20:20 took out the smelling salts, waved it under my nose
20:23 and then he asked the dump questions.
20:24 How many fingers on my hand.
20:26 Guy I had ten fingers on one hand.
20:31 I remember he said this.
20:34 He said, you want me to throw in the towel.
20:38 You know what that means.
20:40 You want to give up.
20:42 Hey I said no man, I'm bleeding in my mouth.
20:44 I said no man, I've taken enough punishment from him.
20:47 I'm not gonna give up, don't throw in the towel.
20:49 Went out the third round knocked him through the ropes.
20:51 I became a light heavyweight champion
20:53 in the city of New York, 1952, 1953.
20:57 I knocked out the Eastern Golden Glove Champion.
20:58 I was 15-years-old.
20:59 I couldn't fight the Golden Gloves
21:01 he was 27-years-old because you fight by weight not by age.
21:07 And everywhere you would read in a sports page
21:09 in that day Ron Halvorsen, Killer Halvorsen.
21:12 And so I'm making a name for myself in the ring.
21:14 And I'm making a name for myself in the street,
21:16 but you see a person,
21:17 but you know I learned a lesson there.
21:19 And I tell young people wherever I go.
21:21 You know, sometimes you're knock down.
21:22 Satan knocks you down and I mean you're flat out,
21:25 you think well, I might as well give up.
21:26 What's use being a Christian
21:28 and then the manager comes through the ropes
21:29 lifts you up, that's Christ.
21:31 He puts you in the corner
21:32 takes out the smelling salts, that's grace.
21:34 And he revives you. I tell you never give up.
21:38 Could you say amen, I don't know,
21:40 you're strange to me yeah.
21:41 So you say out amen.
21:42 I mean never give up.
21:44 You may be in hell today,
21:46 but you can be in heaven tomorrow.
21:47 Hey, listen to me, you may be down today,
21:49 but you can be up tomorrow,
21:51 because His grace is sufficient for a soul.
21:53 He sang about that tonight.
21:58 There I was Killer Halvorsen in the ring
21:59 made my name in hour
22:00 but a person that had really achieved in my neighborhood,
22:02 they will become a member of the gang.
22:05 Now I'm not talking about a bunch of boys
22:06 staying out at street corners looking for trouble.
22:08 They were organized gangs in New York.
22:12 They were over 200 fighting gangs.
22:16 Upwards to 400 fighting members in one gang.
22:20 They were organized, they had a president,
22:22 vice president, light up man,
22:23 he took care of the weapons.
22:26 There was council of war
22:27 and there was the council of war
22:28 and there was a treasure of the gang.
22:30 And every time you would go against the other gang
22:33 the council of war and the weaponry expert,
22:37 they would go and they would set the rules for the rumble.
22:42 And so being Killer Halvorsen
22:43 and hating law and hating myself
22:45 and hating my parents and hating everything.
22:48 Man I wanted to show that hate.
22:49 I wanted to bring that hate out and violence.
22:51 I want to be cool man. I want to be in the gang.
22:57 Now you don't just join the gang.
22:59 You're initiated into the gang.
23:01 And since we lived on the beaches at Coney Island,
23:03 they took me down the Coney Island
23:05 ripped off my t-shirt rolled me in the saltwater
23:07 in the sand tied me to a piling
23:09 took out the big garrison belt with the buckle.
23:11 And was whipping me
23:12 and there was a soldier on one side.
23:13 They called them soldiers
23:14 on the other side with switchblade out,
23:16 if you cried they'd come up under your arm pit
23:18 or they carve a seal on your forehead, in your back.
23:23 And so I was beaten in the submission,
23:25 I would not cry out.
23:26 And I was initiated into the Beachcombers.
23:28 By the way there were many gangs
23:31 there in Brooklyn New York,
23:32 the Mau Maus, the Bishops the Swords,
23:33 the Gay Blades.
23:35 There was the gang called the Chaplains.
23:37 They were 800 strong,
23:39 the largest gang in the city.
23:40 And don't let Chaplains fool you.
23:42 They were notorious.
23:44 But I was initiated in Beachcombers.
23:46 And by the way every gang flew its colors up
23:48 what they called flying their colors
23:50 in black leather jacket and skull
23:52 in blood dripping over the skull.
23:56 And it read letters Beachcombers
23:58 and I was brought in
23:59 as a soldier into the Beachcombers.
24:00 And I fought my way up, I began vice president.
24:05 I was vice president for one of the most notorious gangs
24:07 in the city of New York.
24:09 We saw the Mau Maus coming, we fought the Mau Maus,
24:12 they buried them in the sands of Coney Island.
24:15 I can't describe for you
24:16 when 400 guys go to war in a great open lot,
24:20 or come together in an athletic field.
24:22 And they come together with baseball bat steel
24:24 filled with led with steel led blades
24:26 pushbutton blade come out go through
24:27 three quarter inch of piece of plywood.
24:29 I made my first zip gun when I was 14-years-old.
24:33 I was breaking entering by the time I was 15.
24:35 I was stealing cars,
24:36 ripping off cars by the time I was 15.
24:39 I committed almost every crime
24:40 except rape and murder by the time I was 16.
24:47 And I was now vice president of the Beachcombers.
24:49 We went to rumble, we went to war.
24:51 And my best friend one night in the rumble
24:52 he has his head blown off his shoulders,
24:54 he died in the pool of blood with the shot of shotgun.
24:57 And I was running away,
24:58 I said Johnny, it was good knowing to Johnny he's gone.
25:00 He's blown away, he's no more.
25:04 They found my friends in trunks with eyes blown out.
25:07 They crossed the other gang and when the Mau Maus came,
25:10 you saw them with their blazers,
25:13 athletic blazer or red blazer
25:15 and they're on the back 2 m's in gold the Mau Maus.
25:17 And they carried a cane and they pull apart the cane
25:19 there was eighteen inch blade.
25:21 So every time we saw a Mau Maus,
25:22 he lifted his cane we smashed him,
25:24 struck him, struck him, struck him on his head,
25:27 pushed them into the street.
25:30 Seeing young boys with their stomach slit open
25:32 crying for their mothers in the Brooklyn Street.
25:34 Seeing young boys, their eyes shut out,
25:36 listen to me, slit open and their stomach slit open
25:39 feeling a switchblade in your back
25:41 as I did one night there in the Brooklyn street.
25:43 There was no hope from there I was lost.
25:50 With every scar, with every hate,
25:52 with every fight, I became more hateful.
25:57 I went through a high school by the way
25:59 they wrote the book called "The Blackboard Jungle"
26:01 that's a school I went to, it was a jungle
26:02 went up the upside up down staircase
26:05 and you will find young men
26:07 with switchblades stuck in their stomach,
26:08 someone robbed them for their cookie money.
26:10 Well they stay overdose.
26:12 By the way there's no honor among drug addicts.
26:14 They're overdosing and they take him up
26:16 on the roof of the school.
26:17 And they take his, the best clothes they could get,
26:19 so they could sell it,
26:20 and throw his body off into the yard.
26:28 On every card of that school, the Blackboard Jungle,
26:30 William E Grady Vocational High School,
26:32 Brooklyn, New York.
26:33 Every corner there was policemen stationed.
26:35 We went on strike for a minimal for lunch.
26:38 Thousand boys would go out stand stomping around.
26:41 When I played basketball for William E Grady
26:43 and the other teams came in,
26:45 their cheerleaders came in the whole 60th Precinct
26:49 would be standing in a row blocking
26:52 the cheerleaders to protect them.
26:55 One day the first day at school in high school
26:57 I took the teacher on the fifth floor hung him out
26:59 from the window, the fifth floor.
27:01 His head towards the concrete
27:02 I said we gonna have no homework this year.
27:04 And we had no homework.
27:11 I was 17-years-old and I couldn't read or write,
27:13 I was going through high school.
27:18 But God began to move in my neighborhood
27:21 and there was Beachcomber fighting the Mau Maus,
27:24 and the Swords and the Bishops.
27:27 Losing my friends to prison,
27:28 losing my friends to the street.
27:31 Losing my friends to drugs.
27:34 And here is Ron Halvorsen,
27:37 he is lost, hopeless.
27:41 My mother had given up on me,
27:42 I mean the teachers had given up
27:44 and the cops had given up on me.
27:46 I mean all they wanted to do is lock me up, get rid of me.
27:51 I remember one day, my mother called in the principal's office
27:54 and I came in, and there was black leather jacket
27:56 skull blood, switchblade in my pocket.
28:01 And he said Mrs. Halvorsen, your boy's a bump.
28:03 He's no good, he'd never amount to anything.
28:07 And on the way home my mother cried.
28:08 She said "Ronnie, I don't know what I am gonna do with you."
28:11 And I didn't know anything then
28:12 I said "Well mom, just don't worry about it, man. Be cool."
28:17 Hey, listen to me, my mother couldn't help me.
28:19 The law couldn't help me. The teachers couldn't help me.
28:23 Only Jesus Christ could help me, but I didn't know that.
28:27 God began to move in my neighborhood,
28:28 His spirit moved in my neighborhood.
28:32 One young teenage boy was converted to Christ.
28:36 He received Christ into his life personally, as a Savior.
28:41 And right away when he received Christ,
28:42 he wanted to share Christ.
28:44 He wanted to tell others about Christ.
28:45 Have you met people like that? Are you like that?
28:49 You can't help it to tell others about Jesus Christ.
28:51 And so I remember he had a Bible in his hand
28:54 and there I was standing in street corner looking cool man.
28:56 You think the finals was cool, he wasn't cool, I was cool.
29:02 And he came up says "Hey, Ron."
29:05 I said to him, "Hey man, we gonna steal this car.
29:07 Why don't you come we gonna for joyride down Bell Parkway.
29:09 We're gonna up into the Bishop's clubhouse.
29:13 We gonna throw a fire bomb
29:14 and hey man, we gonna have fun."
29:16 He looked at me strange,
29:18 he says, "No, I am a Christian now."
29:20 I laughed at him.
29:21 I said you? Remember last week, you know,
29:26 it's wonderful to know tonight that God forgets last week.
29:31 You know God has a shortest memory
29:34 when it comes to our sin.
29:37 And the longest memory when it comes to our need.
29:44 And I said, man, I don't believe in God,
29:47 I mean religion is for old people.
29:50 You have one foot in the casket,
29:52 the other on the banana peel,
29:53 that's when you get religion. But I wanna live it up,
29:56 forgetting someday I have to live it down.
30:02 I played hooky. I don't know if they call it hooky out here,
30:04 that's when you're supposed to be in school or not.
30:06 I played hooky so much I had my own trune officer.
30:10 My mother spent more time in high school than I did.
30:14 And one day I was playing hooky,
30:16 I was going down the path,
30:17 I got as close to the front door school
30:19 and I turned around started back
30:20 and I noticed a friend of mine Richard Kelly,
30:24 just coming down the street towards school.
30:25 I said, "Hey, Rich, where have you been?"
30:27 He was up at reform school just got out.
30:29 He's breathing the fresh air.
30:31 It's fresh in Brooklyn when you've been in from school.
30:35 So he says, hey, man I'm going to school.
30:36 I said you don't wanna go to school same teachers.
30:39 I said let's play hooky.
30:41 He said no man. He says, they catch me, I'm in trouble.
30:44 They know where we go into the board walk
30:45 we go down shoot dice. We go down the pool hall.
30:48 I mean and just then I thought about this Christian
30:51 who was sharing faith and trying to witness for Christ
30:53 because you see this young man left the high school.
30:56 He went out to a Christian school
30:57 and he was going to Christian high school in Queens
31:00 and I thought about him.
31:02 And I said hey man, we used to call him,
31:04 we used to call him Isaiah.
31:07 I used to laugh at that little
31:08 did I know when I got converted they called me Jeremiah.
31:13 And whether we say I said remember
31:15 Isaiah, he said yeah, man.
31:16 I said lets' go out to that school the Christian school.
31:18 Who will look for you and me? Richard Kelly,
31:20 who would look for you and me in a Christian school?
31:22 And that was logic even for Richard.
31:24 Now in Brooklyn, New York,
31:25 the subway becomes an elevated train in lower Brooklyn.
31:30 And what we used to do,
31:32 we used to kind of climb up over the stairs
31:33 and run up over the third rail jump over the tracks
31:35 you couldn't hit third rail you fly
31:37 you run between a train you get crushed
31:38 and save fifteen cents in those days token.
31:42 And then I got to this Christian school
31:44 can you imagine, Richard, just at reform school
31:46 there I was black leather jackets
31:47 skull blood dripping, scars on my hands, in my heart.
31:54 And I walk into the school looking cool.
32:00 And it seems so quite man, I wasn't used to a school,
32:02 I mean I'm telling this school was bad.
32:06 I mean they will be shooting out
32:07 with the cops from the rooftops.
32:09 I mean that school,
32:11 all of sudden, the police would surround the class
32:12 and come in drag someone off,
32:14 wouldn't see him six months or year.
32:17 Overdosing and dying on a hallways of the school
32:21 and this was my school and now I come in here
32:23 it's quite say, hey, I turned to my friend
32:24 I laughed I said this can't be a school this is a morgue.
32:27 It's too quite.
32:29 Just then a woman teacher came down the center
32:31 and she says, "Can I help you!
32:34 You're having trouble with kids in neighborhood?"
32:36 I said yeah, man.
32:37 Now we knew the difference, but that was cool.
32:40 I said yeah man, we're looking for Isaiah, I mean Jim Landers.
32:45 He go to school here. She said, "Yes, he's up in chapel."
32:47 I've never been in the chapel in my life,
32:50 or what a chapel was. I looked at her strange
32:52 She says, "Well that's like assembly in public school."
32:55 But in a Christian school they call it chapel.
32:57 So she said would you like to go up?
32:58 I said yeah, don't wanna go out.
33:03 As I put my hand on the door to a chapel.
33:05 Listen to this, never before in a chapel.
33:07 I mean here I hate God if there was a God.
33:12 And she said this, I'll never forget, I even remember now.
33:16 She said, oh, by the way it's week of prayer.
33:20 I mean I broke out I just I mean I collapsed.
33:24 I laughed, I mean I turned to my friend
33:25 I said, Richard, man, I can't pray ten seconds.
33:27 How will they pray for a whole week?
33:32 And that was my first encounter with God.
33:36 I went to this chapel and sat in the last row in last seat.
33:39 Black leather jacket looking cool man.
33:41 Blood dripping over the skull, Beachcombers.
33:47 Ron Halvorsen.
33:49 Light heavyweight champion in the city of New York.
33:51 Ron Halvorsen, vice president of the Beachcombers,
33:53 Ron Halvorsen, lived with a switchblade.
33:55 Lived by the order of the gun.
33:59 And there is a preacher upfront talking about God.
34:04 So I kind of slipped my seat forgot, you know,
34:06 I mean looking cool, looking at the chicks.
34:12 Hey, don't ever slide down in your seat when I am here.
34:15 I will send the Holy Spirit after you, you hear me.
34:18 Yeah, I'll send the Holy Spirit after you.
34:20 I kind of slide down in this preach, I didn't hear a word.
34:23 That afternoon we stole a boat.
34:27 My brother and I, my friend we want to go fishing,
34:29 I love fishing even now.
34:30 My wife every time I come home from fishing, says catch any?
34:33 I said no honey I went fishing, catching is another sport.
34:38 But I stole this boat and my brother
34:41 and my friend, we rode out in the Gravesend Bay.
34:43 If you ever go to Brooklyn, New York
34:44 and you come from Jersey.
34:46 You come on over the Stat mountain,
34:47 go over the Verizontal Bridge,
34:48 you go through right that's Coney Island.
34:50 Now they have big tall,
34:51 they have these big tall apartment buildings.
34:53 It was old tenement buildings when I grew up
34:55 and I mean that's Coney Island
34:57 and one time it was an island, now it's a peninsula,
34:59 it kind of covered up in.
35:01 But we stole a boat, we rode out--they call Gravesend Bay,
35:04 and that's where East river and Hudson River
35:06 come together narrows and in rush out along the beach
35:09 and then out into the Atlantic Ocean.
35:11 We're out their fishing, and the storm came up,
35:13 and by the way the storm was getting fearsome.
35:15 My brother said, hey, man you row in. Lets get going.
35:17 The water is coming over the boat.
35:19 No, no first you see, you bail and I would row.
35:21 I said okay, man, you row and I will bail in.
35:24 So I took off my motorcycle boot
35:25 I am trying to get the water out of the boat.
35:27 The boat is filling up.
35:28 Hey, by the way there's no atheist in sinking boats.
35:33 Do you hear me? Baling this boat out,
35:38 and the water is coming over faster in the boat.
35:41 Hey, man,
35:42 and then my brother says, hey, you're not baling.
35:43 I said, yeah I'm baling, you bail in, I will row in.
35:46 Then the tide changed, two feet forward six feet back.
35:52 Prayed my first prayer in a stolen boat
35:54 in Brooklyn, New York.
35:56 By the way you don't have to be good to pray.
35:58 If that's the case no one would pray.
36:01 Now some of you think you're good,
36:02 but I mean--
36:07 I fell on my knees and I said God.
36:10 Yeah, interesting I didn't believe in God
36:11 till that moment.
36:12 God, get me in and I will be good.
36:17 Yeah, yeah, come on,
36:24 get me in and I will be good.
36:31 You know, God hears the prayers of bad people.
36:38 God hears the prayers of down and out people.
36:43 God hears their prayers.
36:44 There was a rift in the cloud, have you ever been in a storm
36:46 and kind of the clouds are rift apart
36:48 and sun comes through right on that boat.
36:50 Listen, I don't know why you're here
36:52 but I know why I am here.
36:55 A speedboat is coming by hooked up took us in
36:58 I got my feet on the ground I forgot to pray.
37:01 Have you ever done that?
37:03 Come on, have you ever done that?
37:05 Doctor comes in serious, it looks bad.
37:08 Oh, Lord, I'll be good, please heal me get me well
37:11 I will be-- Hey come on,
37:14 hey you, the Lord's almost on your case
37:16 and you said oh, God get me out of this and I will be good
37:18 I will turn a leaf on. Come on now, God understands that.
37:24 Next day, I played hooky. I went out to this chapel.
37:28 Preacher was there talking about God.
37:31 God, I didn't believe in. God, I didn't believe in.
37:35 That evening we were gonna have a block party.
37:37 Hey man, we used to have great block parties in Brooklyn.
37:40 What we do we take the ash barrels
37:41 and would put it across the road here,
37:43 so the street here. So, no cars could come in there.
37:45 Then we put it off this corner of the street.
37:48 Cars couldn't come in here.
37:49 We get the ghetto blaster to blast in away
37:51 and then we have cool party.
37:52 I mean chicks would be there.
37:53 You know rock n roll. I use to rock n roll.
37:57 I mean, all the chick,
38:01 I mean we're gonna have a good party.
38:03 And the president of gang, listen the president.
38:05 You see, the president of gang,
38:06 he would give us a slip of paper say.
38:07 This is what you're going to bring to the party.
38:10 I had no money, I was taking all those things around
38:12 good for you now but be good for you in heaven.
38:14 Eclairs, Lemon Meringue pies, I mean cakes, pies, pastries.
38:20 And so I broke in the Brighton Beach Bakery,
38:24 Second Street, Neptune Avenue and I got a white pie.
38:28 You know those boxes, bakery boxes in New York
38:30 you know, they kind of put over these cream pestle,
38:32 this good thing. Hey, someone said,
38:34 hey, you can have an apple tree in heaven.
38:36 I am gonna have a éclair tree.
38:40 I am going to have a éclair tree.
38:43 But anyway I break in, I fill up all these boxes man,
38:47 we gonna have a great party tonight.
38:48 And if I go out the backdoor I go out the front door,
38:50 so I breakout the front door.
38:52 I get out on Neptune Avenue Second Street Brighton.
38:54 And all of sudden a police car 60th Precinct,
38:58 six blocks up comes around on the avenue
39:00 and there I am and right away you see we're all theological.
39:05 We're all theological. We're all spiritual.
39:10 I dropped the creampuffs and started to run.
39:14 Come on, that's in your nature, isn't it?
39:16 Come on, you're cool with the boys, man.
39:20 Shove it down, you know, get rid of it.
39:23 In your car, all of a sudden lights go on
39:25 and you got something in that car,
39:26 you don't want, hey, come on.
39:29 I know what the fear is.
39:32 I know what it is when you hear the door slam behind you.
39:35 The bars, so looking cool man.
39:42 I have a cool top too much I started run,
39:45 you--it's hard to get traction in creampuffs.
39:47 I mean, so I'm running down in Neptune Avenue
39:49 and I ducked down in alleyway in all the other streets
39:52 of these alleyways between the tenements.
39:53 And I am running down, I mean I have run, they knew me.
39:57 And they knew how fast I was.
39:59 I had to be fast to survive
40:00 and I'm running down this alleyway.
40:02 I think I get to a end, there'd be a big fence.
40:04 I'll be up over it man, I am gone you will never find me.
40:06 I come to end its dead end boom,
40:08 another building, at the back of the building.
40:12 So being a theologian,
40:14 I tried to get away from my sin, my crime.
40:16 Now I'm gonna to try to rationalize.
40:18 Well, officer I was walking around Neptune Avenue
40:22 and stepped in these creampuffs.
40:25 Just then I looked in there was a fire escape.
40:27 You've ever seen the fire escapes on the buildings.
40:29 Ah, you see those fire escapes,
40:31 they don't know if I'm here.
40:32 These are fire escapes, so I jumped up
40:34 pulled the ladder down started up the fire escape.
40:36 I am running fast I could run.
40:37 I mean, our neighborhood was so bad
40:40 that the police even today walk in threes.
40:44 They were taught in my day don't you leave your patrol car
40:47 because what we used to do get them to chase us.
40:50 Get out in there patrol car chase us then two or three
40:52 of our gang members jump in the patrol car
40:54 drive it off the blockade into ocean.
40:56 They were losing patrol cars.
40:57 We get them up the coming up to stairs
40:59 we throw ash barrels of the cover or we would shoot
41:01 at them from the top of the roof.
41:02 I mean this was bad place and I'm running down,
41:07 and as figuring when they're gonna come in this alley,
41:09 and I'm running up the stair.
41:10 I mean, I'm going up you can't go
41:11 up the fire escape quietly.
41:15 Got to roof by then the police got in there
41:17 and they said, stop or I will shoot man.
41:19 Hey, I was running so fast would outran his bullet.
41:23 Up over the building up over the next building,
41:25 next building man, whole that night, I am gone.
41:29 Next day, I play hooky I'm out of that school.
41:33 He talked about God, how hooked this infinite
41:35 God in order to touch man
41:36 this God had to come into this world.
41:40 He had to enter this world
41:41 and so he talks about this God coming down
41:43 as a seed in a womb of a virgin.
41:45 I can't believe this man.
41:47 What I'm hearing here.
41:49 So that he could close to us.
41:51 So that we might see love close to up.
41:54 He's talking about this and it's going over my head
41:58 and yet these things are hitting me on.
42:00 Trying to figure this thing out.
42:03 That evening I was broken man, I needed money bad.
42:05 By the way, sometimes when I need money
42:07 bad I snatch pocketbooks.
42:10 What I do is I'll hide in alleyway
42:11 and between the Van Siclen station
42:14 and the Brighton Beach projects and some old lady come by
42:16 and I run out and grab the pocketbook
42:18 and she yelled out that kind of knock it down and run,
42:21 that's what sin does to you.
42:23 So I need the money bad that night and so I waited in,
42:26 she was walking along this little lady,
42:28 I ran out grab the pocketbook but she held on.
42:32 She was hanging on.
42:34 Now in the past I all do is boom, knock it down.
42:39 But all of a sudden something came over my heart.
42:45 I mean I started to cry.
42:47 Hey, man I never cried
42:48 and in fact my dad said boys don't cry.
42:51 I didn't learn until later that,
42:53 men cry not boys.
42:57 I started crying and I let go with the pocketbook
42:59 and I started running down the streets
43:01 and up over the alleyway mid the ash barrels,
43:03 I sat there all night and I cried.
43:04 I didn't know what it was then, but I know what it is now,
43:06 was the Holy Spirit. How do you explain it?
43:11 Kid that lived by the switchblade,
43:14 lived by the law of hurting and killing.
43:16 We're not killing but hurting so bad, leaving that law.
43:22 How do you explain it? Next day I went out
43:25 and listened to this preacher, he talked about
43:27 this Christ who was crucified down on the cross.
43:34 I thought well that evening I was supposed to steal a car
43:38 we already cased it, we knew what,
43:40 it was Cadillac there in Brighton Beach in 4th street.
43:43 My brother Billy was going and my other friend,
43:45 another friend so it was getting dark
43:48 and that's when we gonna go out
43:49 and I was just about ready to go out the door,
43:51 my brother and my friend there was a knock on the door
43:52 next to this boy, Isaiah, this Christian.
43:55 He came with his Bible in his hand he said,
43:57 I come to study the Bible with you.
43:58 And I said all right I want to know something about God.
44:02 My brother laughed at me my friend.
44:04 They went out that night.
44:06 Hey, by the way that night my brother was caught
44:09 and my friend was caught they were send away to prison.
44:12 If I would have gone out with them that night,
44:13 I'd have been sent away to prison.
44:14 Who knows where I would be today?
44:19 Hey, listen the majority of my friends
44:20 growing up in that neighborhood,
44:22 70, 65 to 70 percent of them spend their time in prison.
44:28 The other percent are dead.
44:31 And very few have come out even alive.
44:35 And here I'm a boy knocking at my door Bible in his hand.
44:38 I heard about Christ for the first time
44:40 that night and God could accept in my heart
44:45 Next day I would play hooky my friend
44:47 Richard Kelly came with me.
44:48 Now I told you about by Richard, he's coming with me.
44:51 Hey, listen to me carefully forget everything
44:54 I say listen to me tonight.
44:58 The preacher talked about Christ dying on the cross
45:00 for the salvation and there's a thief on the cross
45:01 and he says, I'll remember you in paradise.
45:04 I thought to myself if God could die
45:05 for a thief at a Jerusalem war,
45:08 why couldn't He die for a thief in a Brooklyn Street.
45:14 For the first time in my life hope,
45:17 for the first time in my life,
45:20 light broke into my dark heart.
45:23 I stood up to give my life to Christ.
45:24 I turned to my friend Richard listen carefully.
45:26 I said Richard come on man he said no man
45:29 I can't he says its right, but I can't.
45:31 It cost too much to be a Christian.
45:36 And by the way
45:38 Richard spends his life in prison for murder
45:41 and I traveled around the world,
45:46 the Bible in my hand, the love of God in my heart,
45:51 sharing the good news of salvation.
45:53 Can you say amen here in this place?
45:56 That day I gave my life fully to Christ.
45:59 I was a little teenager.
46:02 He took a switchblade and gun out of my pocket.
46:06 He took a bottle out of my mouth.
46:13 And by the way I said, I got to know more about him,
46:15 so I have to learn to read.
46:17 Seventeen-years-old I couldn't read or write.
46:20 I went to public high, I went to the public library
46:23 and got these little books, you know, about
46:25 spark running in hide them into my black leather jacket
46:28 and came home and trying one day my mother saw me,
46:30 she says what's wrong son you can't read.
46:33 I said, no momma would you help me.
46:35 So she helped me read my Bible.
46:37 And by the way the first person
46:38 I led to Christ was my mother.
46:42 Now you should say amen.
46:44 The first person I ever led to Christ was my mother.
46:47 I tell you I learned something there,
46:49 I learned it's more wonderful
46:50 to serve Christ than to serve this world.
46:52 I discovered there's more joy in Jesus and than in Jazz.
46:55 Hey, listen I found out that life has meaning.
46:57 That there is purpose for every human being
47:02 and by the way there's normally
47:03 purpose for every human being.
47:04 There is hope for every human being
47:07 and that hope is in Jesus Christ.
47:11 Father, which ought in heaven, I thank you tonight
47:12 that I could bear my testimony from gangs to God.
47:18 I don't know who these people are.
47:21 I wish I could get to know each of them
47:23 bit better but you know them.
47:29 And Lord, you know every hair on their head.
47:32 You know, every tattoo on their body.
47:34 You know everything about them,
47:36 the good things and the bad things.
47:42 But the greatest thing of all to know
47:43 is that You love them every one of them.
47:48 You don't love them, because they're good.
47:49 You love them, because they're your children.
47:53 God tonight I pray for them.
47:57 There may be men and women here,
47:58 there may be children here young people here tonight.
48:00 Mothers and fathers, husbands, wives,
48:05 that have bitterness in their heart,
48:07 that have loneliness, I mean they're suffering with pain.
48:12 I mean the pain that hurt. Some Father may be fighting out
48:17 at you right now but I pray like Saul of Damascus
48:20 that you will touch them
48:21 and those change will make him a poem.
48:25 With every head bowed and every eye closed
48:27 to here tonight I wonder if it's not someone here
48:32 that may be You've gone through this with yourself.
48:37 And you wanna say God I need help.
48:43 Will you help me? Would you just lift up your hand quietly
48:46 and let me pray for you, you say God I need help.
48:48 He'll know what it is.
48:50 I don't have to know what it is.
48:51 God bless you, God bless you.
48:52 Just hold your hand up, don't be ashamed of Him.
48:54 He is not of you.
48:55 Hold up your hand and say, hey God
48:57 I do need help with this.
48:59 And God bless you and God bless you there
49:01 and God bless you there.
49:03 They are obviously here.
49:05 Father, hey if Jesus speaking your heart
49:07 through the Holy Spirit. He wants to help you now.
49:09 You say I can't straighten my life.
49:10 No don't straighten it up.
49:11 Let God just take you and touch you now.
49:15 Would you just lift up your hand and show him
49:16 and that say Lord I need it.
49:17 God bless you young man. God bless you there.
49:20 Hands here hold it up keep it up, don't be ashamed
49:23 I want to keep you in this prayer, God bless you
49:25 and God bless you there all over this auditorium.
49:29 Lord touch with their need.
49:32 Satisfy them with their need and give them the gift
49:36 we pray of eternal life in Christ name, amen.
49:41 I am gonna ask the ushers to come.
49:43 And I am gonna ask my dear brother Philips,
49:48 to come, Wintley.
49:50 I want you to pass this out quickly.
49:52 Man, I want you to be down the isles quick.
49:53 We don't want to take time here.
49:54 By the way you should keep it right there
49:57 in the front row, so you can pass it, I want.
49:59 This is a prayer request card.
50:00 I want every person to have it because I believe in power
50:03 Prayer, all right now listen to this, I want you
50:05 take it, it says I would like to have
50:06 the assurance of eternal life.
50:08 When you like to go home tonight
50:09 and have assurance of eternal life.
50:12 The Bible says that you can have that assurance
50:14 and we can share that with you.
50:15 How you may have the assurance of eternal life.
50:17 If that's your Desire, pray for me
50:19 that I might have assurance in eternal life just check that.
50:22 And when I bring you before God
50:23 I am gonna bring this name before God.
50:25 I'm going to, by the way I pray over every name.
50:27 I have already told the leaders here,
50:29 I said I want you to put it in,
50:30 I want you to get in a computer.
50:32 I want you to make me a printout
50:33 and I am going to take it home.
50:34 I have thousands of prayer warriors.
50:35 We gonna keep you in prayer before God.
50:39 I would like to give my heart completely to Jesus Christ,
50:41 may be even playing the game of religion.
50:43 But you need to give your life completely to him.
50:45 Just check that.
50:47 I like to be baptized soon, some of you need to be baptized
50:50 by emersion. You haven't been born again.
50:51 You haven't been born with the spirit, born of the water.
50:54 The Bible says unless you're born of the water
50:55 and the spirit, you cannot see the kingdom of God.
50:58 So that's important. You say Ron pray for me
51:00 that God will provide a way for me
51:01 I might be baptized with the water
51:03 and baptized with the spirit right there.
51:05 And then it says, l like to know more about God's will
51:08 for my life by receiving Bible study.
51:10 By the way at every table along this wall,
51:12 there are Bible studies that you can
51:14 get involved and they're free.
51:15 They're absolutely Free, no cost obligation.
51:17 One is a beginning Bible course, the other is advance,
51:20 It's on prophecy. Don't fail to stop there
51:23 at those tables as you got out.
51:25 So I want you to fill this out, put your name,
51:27 your address. And now Brother
51:29 Wintley, if you'll lead us to the throne of grace.
51:31 And then I'm gonna ask the ushers to come back
51:33 and they will pass it through and you will put that in there
51:35 so I can get the card in prayer, right.
51:37 God bless you, so nice to have you here tonight.
51:40 Tomorrow night, I'm gonna speak on Jesus unique Son of God.
51:43 We're gonna have micro card with us tomorrow
51:45 Night, you want to be here for that.
51:46 Wonderful concert and wonderful message from God's holy word.
51:50 God bless you now and God will bless you
51:53 I know as He always has.
52:03 This song will tell you now what's really important.
52:08 Praise his name.
52:18 Day in and day out
52:22 Working hard and learning how to
52:29 Play the ruthless games
52:33 All the while your heart becomes
52:37 so cold
52:42 You're sailing on your soul
52:48 Reaching for
52:50 a temporary goal
52:55 But when you reach
52:59 that final sunset
53:02 And you look into his eyes
53:08 Will the feeling in your heart be joy?
53:12 Or will it be your last goodbye.
53:17 It would be the greatest tragedy
53:24 If you never realize
53:29 That all you own and not compare
53:36 To eternal life
53:48 So you finally arrived
53:54 Making love serve money
53:57 But there's
53:59 emptiness inside
54:03 Spending more
54:05 your time
54:10 Trying to own the very best
54:16 As if somehow the rest
54:19 will fall in prayers
54:24 But when you reach
54:28 that final sunset
54:30 And you look into his eyes
54:35 Will the feeling in your heart be joy?
54:41 Or will it be your last goodbye
54:46 It would be the greatest tragedy
54:51 if you never realize
54:56 That all you own
54:59 cannot compare
55:04 But when you reach
55:08 that final sunset
55:11 And you look into his eyes.
55:16 Will the feeling in your heart be joy?
55:21 Or will it be your last goodbye
55:26 It would be the greatest tragedy
55:31 If you never realize
55:37 That all you own
55:40 cannot compare
55:44 To eternal life
55:56 To eternal life
56:05 To eternal
56:08 life
56:14 Praise the Lord.
56:20 Oh come
56:21 let us adore him
56:27 Oh come
56:29 let us adore him
56:35 Oh come
56:38 let us
56:40 adore him
56:47 Christ
56:50 the Lord
56:54 For He alone
56:58 is worthy
57:02 For He alone
57:07 is worthy
57:12 For He alone
57:16 is worthy
57:21 Christ
57:25 the Lord
57:26 We'll give him all the glory
57:29 We'll give him
57:32 all the glory
57:38 We'll give him
57:41 all the glory
57:47 We'll give him
57:51 all the glory
57:58 Christ
58:04 the Lord
58:10 Amen.


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Revised 2014-12-17