Participants: Jim Ayer
Series Code: OTR
Program Code: OTR000950
|
01:00 We've a very special speaker with us this morning,
01:05 a gentleman who works 01:06 with the Adventist world radio, 01:08 one of the vice presidents 01:09 there in Silver Springs, Maryland. 01:11 He has host a TV series called, "Making Waves," 01:16 Making Waves Radio. 01:19 And it's a very powerful TV series 01:22 sharing the testimonies worldwide 01:24 as to what has happened 01:25 with Adventist World Radio. 01:27 He has written books called, "He Shall Lift You Up," 01:30 so you can have victory in these final days, 01:33 "Reclaiming Lost Members." 01:35 Anybody interested in that? 01:37 That's another book. 01:38 So we would like to welcome, 01:39 Jim Ayer to share the word of God with us this morning. 01:43 But before he comes out 01:44 we've a very special selection. 01:54 [Music] 04:56 Amen! Amen! 05:02 Lord I need the every hour that should be the prayer 05:06 of each one of us, they should it? 05:09 Can you hear it this morning? 05:10 Yes. Can you hear it? Yes. 05:12 That's the footsteps of an approaching God. 05:15 Turned on your radio, listen to the news. 05:18 It's the footsteps of an approaching God. 05:20 Read the newspaper, turn on your television set 05:24 you can hear the footsteps of an approaching God. 05:29 Look in the Church, look in the world, 05:31 everybody is running to Rome, 05:33 all these things going on 05:34 you can hear brothers and sisters, 05:36 the footsteps of an approaching God. 05:39 Praise God that ASI is on the cutting edge 05:43 of things you look at the youth for Jesus. 05:45 What an exciting group. 05:47 That means if we can hear the footsteps 05:50 of an approaching God. 05:53 GYC- I mean the list 05:56 could go on and on and on. 05:58 We can hear the footsteps of an approaching God. 06:03 But at the same time as God is preparing His people 06:06 for His soon coming the Devil 06:07 is a roaring lion going around 06:09 and seeking whom be may devoured. 06:13 Do you know I didn't know always believes that? 06:15 I didn't believe in a lot of these things. 06:17 Matter of fact I didn't believe 06:18 in any of these things. 06:19 Now it may be a little difficult 06:21 to look at me this morning. 06:22 You know what, I was gonna say middle-age 06:25 but I can't say that anymore here. 06:26 You know, but look at this fellow up here. 06:30 I didn't always look like this. 06:32 You see I was a drug dealer, 06:34 an alcoholic, and a thief. 06:37 And one day in my life I was sitting in my little room 06:41 and I was smoking away 06:42 in a join and all of a sudden, 06:45 all of a sudden the room just expanded, 06:49 this mighty auditorium 06:50 and there in the bottom floor was guarding the devil. 06:54 I didn't need any introduction. 06:56 They were debating over me. 06:58 Well I couldn't really understand 07:00 the lot of the things they were saying, 07:02 but I can remember that the arguments of Devil 07:04 was using to over me were the same things 07:07 I had used to turn people onto drugs. 07:10 See young people, you've got to understand 07:13 that the Devil hasn't changed his arguments 07:15 since 6000 years. 07:16 "Go ahead Eve try it. 07:18 It'll raise you up to a superior existence. 07:21 It'll be enlightening. It'll be exciting. 07:24 Go ahead, just try, just one bite." 07:28 Sin for the first bite is exciting. 07:33 Sin is exhilarating at the first bite. 07:37 But then you know the rest of the story. 07:41 And there the Devil was debating over me, 07:43 but praise God, the things that God would say 07:47 the Devil would have to be quiet. 07:49 He was just silenced. 07:51 And then a moment would pass by and again 07:54 the Devil would come with another argument 07:55 and God would again say something 07:57 and the Devil would have to be quiet again. 08:00 And soon it was all over and I was back in my room 08:02 stone cold, straight and sober. 08:05 And just like I'm speaking with you this morning 08:07 the voice said Jim, 08:11 Jim you have a short time to decide. 08:16 And I thought this is crazy. 08:17 You know, I've taken all kinds of drugs, 08:21 I've done all kinds of things and I don't understand 08:23 what's going on here. 08:24 I've never had a bad experience. 08:28 And every single day that I would get loaded 08:31 which was every day, the voice say, 08:34 Jim you've a short time to decide. 08:40 Well, I got to the point it just, 08:41 it almost ruined the whole experience for me 08:43 and I finally, I finally quit. 08:46 And I moved back in with my parents 08:49 which was an interesting thing to do at that time. 08:51 I wanted my dog to sit at the dinner table with me. 08:55 You've got to know my mother to understand that one. 08:59 But they loved me so much and they wanted me 09:01 to be a part of the family again so much 09:03 so that they kind of allowed it. 09:06 Now my mother was so fastidious. 09:08 In those days when people would smoke, 09:10 I swear she cleaned out the ash tray 09:11 between flex of ashes. 09:14 But she allowed this. 09:16 And but as time went on, it's like I wanted 09:20 some drugs so badly I couldn't sleep. 09:22 I couldn't do anything. 09:23 I wanted something so much, and after about eight months 09:27 I went to the local bar. 09:29 You know, drinking. That's okay. 09:31 So went to the local bar. 09:32 And at the bar I'm sitting there 09:33 and a fellow walks through the door. 09:34 And the Old Saying, "It takes one to know one." 09:37 I thought this guy is packing. 09:40 Well, he began talking little bit 09:42 and saying he needed a ride to the next town. 09:45 And it's just so happened, 09:46 that's where my girlfriend was, 09:48 the young lady I was going out with, 09:49 that young lady sitting in the front road today, 09:51 39 years of marriage by the way. 09:55 You know, it's get better all the time. Amen. 09:57 You know, if it hadn't been for God 09:59 we couldn't have gotten through a lot of this, 10:01 but praise God stick with it. 10:03 If you're younger it gets better all the time, 10:05 as long as you look to God. 10:08 But this guy hoped in my car that night. 10:10 He rolled as Jim said which was like absolutely. 10:13 I mean, he didn't finished the sentence, 10:15 I didn't finished the sentence. 10:16 I just grabbed the chain and off I went and no voices. 10:20 It was great. 10:22 And I started getting my loved one over here 10:25 in the front seat, I started getting her loaded. 10:27 I used all those same arguments 10:28 to turn on her to drugs. 10:29 She was so sweet. She was so wonderful. 10:31 She had never done anything like that in all her life. 10:34 But all, you know, 10:35 had the canon of the Devil on my side, 10:40 used all those arguments. 10:43 My life went on for while 10:45 and we began having a "good time." 10:50 And then one day I took her down to a river, 10:54 got loaded and I said honey would you, 10:56 would you marry me? 10:59 Kind of an interesting thing you know. 11:01 I had to get her stone before she would say yes. 11:05 But you know, she said yes. 11:09 We got married. 11:11 And we traveled along that pathway for sometime. 11:16 But no voices, no voices at all. 11:19 One day I was down in Sacramento 11:21 and we were partying with some friends, 11:23 and I was so loaded that night 11:25 that Janine had to drive. 11:27 I couldn't drive. We get home. 11:29 She is changing the baby 11:30 on a kitchen table, small house. 11:33 Changing the baby on the kitchen table 11:36 and by now she is loaded too and I'm loaded 11:39 and all of a sudden I walk back into the other room 11:41 and there is the voice, it said Jim, 11:46 tonight is your last night to decide. 11:50 And it was at that moment 11:51 there was the crossroads of the eternity. 11:53 I mean this way led to eternal life 11:55 and this way to damnation. 11:57 And I needed no one to tell me anything else. 12:00 It's like I knew it was there. 12:01 It was laid out right in front of me. 12:05 And I went to the door and I picked up 12:07 all my stuff and I walked into the kitchen, 12:09 I said honey I said, I've got to get rid of all these. 12:13 We got to flush it down the toilet. 12:16 And she just kind of smiled 12:18 and went on changing the baby. 12:20 I walked into the bathroom 12:23 and I poured everything into the toilet. 12:24 Now this was not the only time I poured things 12:27 into the toilet you understand 12:28 because I also have knocked before 12:30 at the door of the police. 12:31 So everything went into the toilet 12:33 as fast as possible. 12:34 But this was different. This was different. 12:37 When I poured everything in there 12:39 and flushed that toilet, all of a sudden it was like 12:42 every care in the world, the weight of the world 12:45 was lifted off of my shoulder. 12:46 A weight, I didn't realized I even had until that moment. 12:50 You see the Devil weighs us down just an ounce 12:53 at a time so we don't realize it. 12:56 We began carrying this huge load 12:59 and pretty soon it feels normal. 13:02 And all of a sudden it was gone. 13:04 And I was holding on to that white porcelain ball 13:07 and the tears were coming down my eyes 13:09 and I turned around. 13:10 There is my sweetheart in the door 13:11 and she is crying too. 13:19 And at that moment I turned to her and I said, 13:22 honey would you join me in a prayer? 13:25 And we got up, we walked out the other room. 13:27 And we put our arms each other and said, 13:29 God I'm sorry it took so long. 13:33 Sorry it took so long. 13:35 And then we, you know, we began thinking, 13:37 well now we're Christians what do we do? 13:40 Well, I guess we should go to a Church. 13:42 And so we began going to the place that 13:44 a fellow that married us. 13:47 But every week it kind of seemed 13:49 like the same thing, every week he repeated 13:52 the same things as I wanted more. 13:56 I wanted more. I begin trying to study the Bible 13:58 and learn little more and soon one day 14:01 I'm sitting back, Sunday afternoon relaxing. 14:06 All of a sudden on television comes this, 14:08 the most glorious story ever told in living color 14:12 in this beautiful set of studies. 14:14 I've forgot exactly how went, 14:16 but I didn't want to tell you the punch line, 14:18 so I'm kind of skipping around what they were called. 14:21 But I ordered them. 14:23 And they finally came, this beautiful 10 volume set. 14:27 And they sat there on a shelf. 14:28 One day I thought, hmm 14:31 may be I have to see what's in this. 14:32 You know, I didn't want my son 14:34 to go through all the things I've gone through 14:35 and so I bought these for him. 14:37 But I thought may be I've to check them out. 14:38 So I open volume one and I began reading. 14:41 Hey, I could understand this. 14:43 This was written for me. 14:46 I just began loving, volume 2 and 3 and 4. 14:50 And everyday I go to work, we had a store at that time, 14:54 a business in town, and everyday I go to work 14:57 and I didn't care to sell anything. 14:59 I just wanted to tell everybody 15:00 about Jesus Christ. 15:02 I began studying my Bible continually. 15:04 I began praying all the time. 15:06 I began doing so much. 15:07 One day I can remember, is it okay 15:09 to tell this honey on you? 15:12 My wife said, wow! I wish I would get it 15:14 between the pages of that book. 15:17 I wouldn't pay any attention to her at all. 15:21 Husbands you got to pay attention your wife. 15:24 Believe me I would study and study and pray 15:28 and it would be 2, 3, 4, 5 O'clock in the morning, 15:31 I go to sleep for couple hours and get up energized, 15:34 ready to go, tell the world about Jesus Christ. 15:36 You see that's the way it is when Jesus comes 15:38 in your life, you can't control it. 15:41 You want to know if someone loves the Lord, 15:43 watch what they do? 15:45 Watch through they tell about Jesus? 15:47 That's how you can tell, 15:48 you can be food inspectors that way. 15:51 Well, I continued long and one day 15:55 I got to this volume and it was just about Easter time 16:01 and I was reading where they sacrifice the lamb, 16:03 confessed their sins over the lamb, 16:06 and I thought I've got to go find the lamb, 16:09 but where can I find the lamb? 16:10 It's not on the... you know, 16:12 the classified section 16:14 usually lambs were sale for slaughter. 16:17 And I thought I can't tell my wife, 16:19 she is going to think I'm absolutely gone crazy, 16:21 she already was beginning to thinking I'm little. 16:23 But I continued to pray and I thought 16:27 if this is what God wants I've got to do it. 16:29 I've got to follow my Lord wherever He guides, 16:32 and wherever He leads. 16:33 But praise the Lord, I got to that volume 16:36 just before Easter that said Jesus Christ is the lamb 16:39 slain from the foundation of the world, 16:41 I thought Hallelujah, I found Jesus. 16:44 Isn't it great how God leads us 16:46 step by step by step to an experience, 16:49 to our relationship, 16:50 to a fellowship with Jesus Christ. 16:54 This is life eternal that they might know 16:57 the only true God in Jesus Christ 16:59 whom thou hast sent, and while I began to study 17:01 even more, even, even with more earnestness. 17:05 And I prayed continually and I could hear. 17:08 I could hear God saying this is the way walk in. 17:13 You know, if you can't hear God speaking to you, 17:17 I would submit you've got a problem 17:19 with a very core of your Christianity 17:21 because God is same yesterday, 17:22 today and forever. 17:24 He spoke to people in the Old Testament, 17:26 He spoke to people in the New Testament, 17:28 and He wants to speak to you. 17:30 But He can only do that 17:31 as we have our relationship with Him, 17:34 as we have a fellowship with Him, 17:36 as we get to know Him intimately and personally. 17:41 All in we have that relationship 17:42 and it was so exciting, 17:44 God led us through pathway after pathway, 17:46 you know, one day I actually became a coal porter. 17:50 I was sitting in that meeting 17:52 and they were complaining about, 17:54 they put out this beautiful ad across the airways, 17:57 had a toll free number and there was only 17:59 one person that responded to that ad. 18:07 Janene and I, we've have been the one that responded. 18:10 Tell me that God doesn't know your address, 18:12 God know your address, God knows your life, 18:15 and He is looking for you. 18:16 He is looking to spend time with you 18:18 to have that friendship with you personally, individually. 18:23 And it just became so exciting as life went on, 18:25 but you know, we had a call into the ministry. 18:28 We went to school, how does school pastor, 18:32 no matter you talk conference called, 18:33 he said Jim we got a brand new church, 18:35 we would like you to pastor. 18:38 Well something that happened in the interim? 18:41 You see I began studying less and praying less 18:46 and when he called I looked at my young family, 18:49 looked at my wife, looked at our business 18:52 that we'd had and we... long story there, 18:54 we had to reclaim it from someone. 18:58 And I said no and at that moment 19:02 I can hear the Holy Spirit trying 19:05 to get through to me, but I didn't wanted, 19:07 I kept backing up and I went into real estate 19:09 and I began becoming very successful. 19:13 I ended up in the top 4 percent of the cold war bank 19:16 or agents in all in North America. 19:19 And I had a radio talk show, when I was on television, 19:22 and I lobbied Congress 19:23 on various things on Capitol Hill. 19:25 I was a player on Capitol Hill, 19:29 doing all these things I looked really good. 19:34 I was extremely successful 19:36 as the world counts success. 19:39 And I was sitting in church, I was still preaching, 19:43 but I was preaching without the power of the Holy Spirit. 19:46 That's the terrible thing to do. 19:54 Sitting in that church pew, ooking fine, paying tithe, 19:59 keeping the Sabbath, 20:00 doing all these things, but I was lost. 20:04 I was absolutely lost 20:08 and then one day God said Jim, 20:12 yes, I hadn't heard that voice for a long time. 20:15 At least that I wanted to pay attention too. 20:19 Jim, the Holy Spirit may be poured out 20:21 all around you and you'll never recognize it. 20:26 Wow! I don't want that to happen. 20:29 I began talking with friend of mine 20:30 an orthopedic surgeon and he was having 20:34 the same troubles, the same trials, 20:36 the same problems. 20:38 He said let's get together on a Friday night. 20:40 Let's at least try and do something, 20:42 let's do something, we didn't know exactly what? 20:46 When he heard about a particular study 20:48 and that Friday night we get together 20:49 and there is about eight people there and he opens 20:53 the back of the book and at the back of the book 20:56 well some very interesting words, 20:58 so I covenant to spend time with God 21:01 every single day in prayer and study. 21:05 I'm too important for that, I can't do that, 21:08 I've got too many people that depend on me, 21:10 I'm making too much money, I'm doing this, 21:12 I'm going here and I'm doing that, 21:13 I just don't have that kind of time, I can't sign this. 21:19 Everybody else in the group signed it, 21:20 everybody else was happy to sign it. 21:24 And I couldn't do it, I closed the book. 21:27 The meeting went on, everybody continued it 21:29 on the whole evening and at the end of that evening 21:32 they plugged in and that time it was a video plugged 21:34 in a video and that preacher was talking directly to me. 21:37 Good thing the lights were off 21:38 because he was talking about you have piled up 21:41 so much garbage in front of the door of your life 21:43 that even if God calls you to service, 21:46 even if you hear it you can't get to the door 21:48 to answer and that's who I was. 21:53 I piled up all these things between God between me. 22:01 Lights were turned back on, 22:03 I got the back cover inside open 22:07 everybody is walking out the door, 22:08 Holy Spirit is saying Jim sign it, sign it, sign it. 22:12 I'm still looking and finally just 22:14 for a walk out the door I signed it. 22:17 And praise God I signed it 22:18 because God changed our life. 22:21 Janene is saying she signed it. 22:22 He spoke to the two of us at the same time 22:25 and our lives were altered completely 22:27 at that very moment and guess what? 22:29 We got home and I found time to study, 22:32 you know, how that happened? 22:33 The first thing the Holy Spirit said 22:35 Jim cut out all premium channels 22:37 out of television and I had the time. 22:41 And it got so exciting, I begin to study 22:43 more and more and more, I began to pray more, 22:46 began to journal. 22:47 If you never tried journaling, 22:48 it's kind of neat, you know you can focus step by step 22:50 on praising God and giving glory to Him. 22:54 Over the years I thought about those 22:58 on the new heavens and new earth 22:59 will just be out there in the fields. 23:01 All of a sudden they will praise God 23:03 and I hadn't had that in my life. 23:06 How could you just spontaneously out 23:08 there in a middle of a field lift your hands up 23:10 and praise God, but soon I began feeling that way. 23:14 It was so exciting, I began knowing Jesus Christ. 23:18 This is life eternal that we might know Him, 23:22 we might know Him. 23:24 While I was sitting in church one day, 23:26 I'm thinking about selling everything 23:28 and going down be Costa Rica, 23:29 that been my plan for sometime. 23:31 My wife, wasn't her plan, but it was my plan, 23:34 you know, we can sell everything 23:35 move down there retire like kings. 23:37 We could have a maid and a servant and a gardener 23:39 and a chef and this and that and kick back 23:42 and have the good life. 23:44 Well, I'm still kind of thinking 23:45 about that in church, you know, 23:46 Lord haven't led me all the way yet. 23:50 And that day, the Lord said, 23:52 Jim you need to do something for me. 23:57 Okay, Lord, well we got to the car and I said honey, 24:03 I said, the Lord said, that we need to do something 24:04 for Him this year. 24:07 Yeah, she said let's go on a Maranatha trip, 24:09 just, I mean, that fast. 24:12 So Don Noble, thank you for Maranatha. 24:15 Just that quick, I said, well, okay, got home, 24:18 Monday morning called up Maranatha said 24:20 where are you going? 24:21 Well, we're going to Varangian 24:22 and we're going to this place, 24:24 we're going to that place, 24:25 I've never heard of Varangian. 24:27 They cost more money anyway so I...Okay, 24:29 we'll go to the other one that's cheaper. 24:33 We get to that, that location 24:34 I never leave block in my life and standing there 24:39 with the block in my hand and the mud 24:41 and it turns out 24:42 one of the vice- presidents of Review 24:44 and Herald was standing right across from me. 24:46 And he said, you know, isn't that wonderful? 24:48 There were the answered to the prayers 24:50 of so many people. 24:52 You know when I guess, I don't know, 24:54 I just trying to tear up easy 24:55 and I had to turn around 24:57 because I looked at these people, 24:59 the people they were there, 25:02 and we were there that answered their prayer. 25:03 I haven't been answered to anybody's prayer 25:05 for long time, for long time. 25:10 We get home in the evening in our little tent. 25:13 We shared the tent by the way 25:14 with someone that I think 25:16 they were about in their 80's. 25:17 And they come in the tent like this. 25:20 And forgive me if you are watching today 25:22 or you are here in the audience, 25:23 but we had to get to sleep right way, 25:26 because they snored so loudly, 25:28 we could never get to sleep, but you know, 25:30 it was an absolute miracle because he would walk out 25:33 in the morning like this, he get to the job site 25:37 and his job was mixing the mud. 25:39 Can you believe it, his job was mixing the mud, 25:41 and he take those five gallon buckets and he hand them up 25:44 to everybody the whole day, all day long. 25:48 And then at the night time, practice. 25:51 I'll tell you, you want to get excited on the job site, 25:54 God will give you an infusion of energy 25:57 to go serve Him. 25:59 He is so wonderful, He will give you power, 26:01 He will give you strength to go out and serve Him. 26:06 Do it and try it. 26:08 Anyway we get to our tent and we'll be so excited, 26:10 say we've got to do more of it, 26:12 this is wonderful stuff. 26:14 Soon as we got home we went 26:15 to the Maranatha office, where are you going? 26:17 We want to go there, we want to lead a team. 26:20 So well, we don't really have anything right now, 26:22 he said, is there anything that, 26:24 that hasn't been completed that we can finish. 26:26 Well, yes, there is one place 26:27 and so they said here it is and we need it 26:30 in the next eight weeks and Wow! 26:31 Raise the whole team in eight weeks. 26:33 Yup! Well, if God wants it done, God will do it. 26:37 And you know, on eight weeks, 26:38 we had a team of 32 people, 26:40 we went to the Island, 26:41 we finished the whole gymnasium 26:42 in the school complex and I got to preach, oh! 26:45 Man and it was so much fun, 26:47 I hadn't really preach 26:48 with the power of Spirit for a long time. 26:51 Let me tell you when you preach 26:52 with the power of the Holy Spirit, its fun, 26:55 it's exciting because its God doing. 26:57 You just kind of get to stand back and say, 26:59 well, Lord, where do you come up with that? 27:01 It's great and this continued on and on and on 27:08 and sorted our prayer time and sorted our study time. 27:11 We began praying continually, 27:13 I began writing in my journal Lord, 27:15 I want to reach the world for you. 27:18 I want to reach the world for you. 27:19 Don't ever pray a prayer unless you really mean it. 27:22 You know, if you want God to do great things 27:25 in your life, pray for them, pray for them 27:27 as you serve God, pray for the great things 27:30 because God is ready, willing, 27:32 and more than able to do it. 27:35 You know, you can do anything God can do, 27:37 if God is living in you, you realize that. 27:41 There is no excuse in this life 27:42 to have a half-baked Christianity 27:45 because God in you is all powerful. 27:49 Do you believe that this morning? 27:51 He is all powerful. 27:53 There is no excuse not to have a powerful, 27:56 vibrant life because He wants 27:58 to rain the Holy Spirit upon you. 28:01 Well, we just continued on, continued praying that prayer 28:05 and it was so phenomenal where God led us, 28:07 I mean, it was just astounding 28:09 step by step by step. 28:11 God led us all the away back from where I denied 28:14 God going in the ministry. 28:15 Let us all the way back to ministry. 28:18 And I've got to take a little pause just for a moment. 28:20 This may sounds crazy to you, 28:22 but I prayed it on a regular basis, Lord, 28:25 show me a little glimpse of heaven, would you? 28:28 Just a little glimpse, I mean, 28:30 you showed your profit. 28:33 It wouldn't be a big deal, 28:34 just give me a little glimpse of heaven 28:35 and I prayed that prayer, 28:37 I think I probably drove God crazy. 28:40 Prayed over and over and over and over, 28:42 one day the Lord said, Jim, you've already seen heaven. 28:47 How is that Lord? 28:49 By all the people, I've given to you, 28:52 already the people you have witnessed, 28:53 to the people you have brought in, 28:55 that's what heaven is all about. 28:58 You want to see a glimpse of heaven? 28:59 Look at all the people that God has touched through you, 29:03 through your ministry, that's heaven. 29:05 You want to have a bigger heaven, 29:07 a better heaven? 29:08 Go share Jesus Christ. 29:10 That's what ASI is all about. 29:11 Having a bigger, better heaven, 29:13 populate with those who have been called by you. 29:17 Oh, praise God! 29:19 What a God we serve. 29:22 I ended up in a tremendous ministry 29:24 here at Adventist World Radio. 29:26 It's exciting because we speak 29:29 in 80 languages around the world. 29:31 The major languages of the world 29:33 are on AM, FM, shortwave, podcasting, internet. 29:36 We are baptizing people in China for the internet. 29:39 God can do marvelous things, 29:42 but I want to share a couple of stories with you 29:43 because I want you to hear this morning, 29:46 the foot steps of our Holy God 29:47 because when I woke up. 29:49 When the Lord says, you may not ever realize 29:53 that the Holy Spirit is being poured out around you. 29:57 It was been poured out, it was been poured out. 30:00 And brothers and sisters, I want to tell you today, 30:02 it is been poured out today right now. 30:07 And if you don't recognize it, I'll say you 30:09 get on your knees right away 30:10 and say God, open my eyes. 30:13 The book of Revelation says, 30:14 he that hasn't an ear, let him hear" 30:17 if you got just want to ear, listen to God saying hear, 30:21 this is the way I walk in, this is what I'm doing. 30:26 In one country that has to go unnamed, 30:29 the Bishop of the church in that country 30:33 wrote to all of his priests and said you need 30:36 to be listening to Adventist World Radio 30:38 because they are preaching the truth. 30:40 In another short time, we've had a 100 priests 30:42 called and say we've been listening to your programs, 30:44 we want to join, we want to join. 30:48 In another areas, people are coming in so rapidly 30:51 that we can't even hardly deal 30:52 with the influx of people. 30:53 I say can you hear the foot steps 30:55 of an approaching God? Oh! 30:58 We serve a marvelous God in this one location, 31:01 so how do we reach these people? 31:03 How do we even get to them? 31:06 Oh! That's God's job. 31:10 This young man had a dream, he was told to go to a city. 31:15 He was outside of Dar es Salaam 31:17 toward the Afar people, not Afar peace, 31:19 but they are Afar people. 31:23 He had never gone to the city in his life, 31:25 but this dream was so strong and, of course, 31:27 everybody in that area is strong Muslims. 31:31 Go to the city, go to the city, finally he said, 31:33 okay, I'll go to the city. 31:34 He's wandering around the city 31:35 and he is wondering why I'm here? 31:38 He had no idea or reason 31:39 to be there just that dream. 31:42 And there one day he sees 31:44 this young lady playing a guitar. 31:45 He had never heard guitar music. 31:48 He was fascinated by it, 31:50 and he began listening some more, 31:51 and soon he began to talking with the young lady 31:53 and said, would you like to come to a meeting? 31:56 We're going to have a lot more guitar music. 31:58 He said, well, yes I would, yes I would. 32:03 So he goes to the meeting and guess what, 32:06 it's a Christian meeting. 32:07 He gives his heart to Jesus Christ. 32:09 He goes back to his village and the very first thing 32:12 the village does is throw him in prison. 32:15 They hate Christians. 32:17 While he is in prison for some reason, 32:19 he gets to keep his cell phone 32:20 and they gave him a radio. 32:23 Kind of interesting in prison, 32:24 but and by the way, cell phone in there, 32:27 they have no electricity in most of his village, 32:31 so someone comes by once a week, 32:32 collects all the phones and charges them up 32:34 and brings them back. 32:35 Interesting thing! 32:37 But God is using technology 32:38 as he is tuning the radio in prison, 32:40 he comes across AWR's program. 32:43 He didn't want AWR, he was trying 32:46 to get the BBC news, but we put our frequencies 32:48 as close as we can to BBC news. 32:53 And he heard and he listened. 32:54 We had just recently begun 32:56 broadcasting in that language. 32:57 Now normally we want to use producers 32:59 who are born and raised in a culture, 33:01 so they can contextualize the message. 33:03 In other words, we use Masai people who were born 33:07 and raised in the culture for Tanzania's. 33:09 We broadcast, we tell them how to take 33:11 a better care of the cattle. 33:12 And then we do a segment on health and family 33:15 and then we do the Biblical segment. 33:17 We do that in all of these countries. 33:19 Well, we couldn't find someone who was Afar, 33:23 but we did find someone who spoke the language, 33:25 so we decided to use them. 33:26 We just started broadcasting when this young man 33:29 was thrown in the jail, tuned his radio 33:32 and he heard the program and he said, wow! 33:34 We have no written language and we have nobody 33:38 that ever has a radio program, 33:40 but all of a sudden, I heard in my language, 33:41 this is good stuff. 33:43 He began listening. He called our producer. 33:47 He said, you know, if you did this and this and this, 33:49 it would help my people, it would reach them better. 33:52 So we twit our program. 33:54 Next week, he called again and say, 33:56 if you do this and this and this 33:57 and this went on for weeks. 33:58 He continually called up and say 34:00 do this and this and this. 34:02 Soon they said, you know, you ought to come, 34:05 if you ever get out of prison, 34:06 you should come to our studio. 34:09 Sure enough, he got out of prison, 34:11 he became our producer. 34:13 He called up about, oh! 34:15 It's been a year and half now. 34:16 He called up my president Dr. Ben Schoun. 34:20 Ben my chief of the village want you to come, 34:24 he would like to meet you. 34:26 Well, this was a little bit interesting 34:28 because you know, these fellows, 34:29 I was just over there in that area, 34:31 they carry AK47 over their shoulders 34:33 and they meet out just as pretty rapidly 34:35 if they don't like you. 34:38 But finally the producer convinced Ben 34:39 that he should come. 34:42 He got over there, he sat on the chief's little hut 34:44 and as he's sitting there, Ben is little nervous. 34:49 The first thing the chief said is I'm listening 34:51 to your program, okay. 34:54 Do you like it? Yes I like it very much. 34:57 Do you people listen to it? 34:58 No my people don't have radios. 35:01 Ben said, if we give you the radios, 35:03 would you give them to your people. 35:04 He said, yes I would, so now get this, 35:08 we have a Muslim chief, 35:09 a tribe of couple thousand people, 35:10 he's provided radios to them to listen 35:13 to Adventist programming, what do you say. 35:15 Amen. We serve our almighty God. 35:18 In Afghanistan, we began broadcasting 35:21 in the Afghan language shortly 35:23 before George Bush went in there. 35:25 And you know that the government, 35:27 they put out leaflets, they drop leaflets 35:29 to every village in the country. 35:31 People look at the leaflets, 35:34 but there was only one problem. 35:37 Most of them can't read, US government, 35:43 I shouldn't have said that. 35:47 And then they came up with a good idea. 35:51 They said let's do something else, they got crank radios, 35:55 solar panels, battery operated, 35:57 and electric four different kinds of power. 35:59 The exact radios that we use and hand up, 36:01 the radios you can see at our booth. 36:02 And they dropped 250,000 of those 36:05 into every village in Afghanistan 36:06 and now God had a way to speak to those people, 36:09 what do you say? Amen. 36:11 Oh, I tell you, you can hear 36:12 the footsteps of an approaching God. 36:14 In one country we're working and very secretly 36:18 we're trying to bring the leaders out of the country, 36:21 sneak them under the radar to train them 36:23 in another country, so to raise up their churches. 36:27 They're going down the jungle pathway, 36:29 sneaking, sneaking, sneaking 36:30 and it opens up into a wide area. 36:33 And all of a sudden, up over the bank 36:35 comes the police and the police have long rifles 36:37 with bayonets attached and they are all, 36:39 there they are, get them. 36:40 And they come running down toward our people 36:42 and our people like deer in the headlines. 36:44 What're they going to do? 36:45 There's no place to run and they just freeze. 36:48 The police come up within about 10 feet 36:50 of them and they are standing there and they said, 36:52 where do they go, where do they go? 36:54 Plain sight, plain sight, and all of the sudden, 36:57 the cops said, there they are going, 36:58 they take off running over this way, 37:00 and leave our fellows to go on their way. 37:03 Well, I tell you, you can hear the footsteps 37:06 of an approaching God. 37:09 I was just recently, we were filming 37:11 for our Making Ways Television Program 37:13 down in Madagascar. 37:15 Wow! Is God doing mighty things there? 37:18 Everywhere people will hear the program one time 37:22 and they say, this is the truth. 37:27 How is it we hear in the United States, 37:28 we do all these things, we go back and forth, 37:31 we say, is this the truth walked, 37:32 this really be correct, is this right? 37:34 They hear it one time and they altered 37:36 and changed their entire lives for Jesus Christ. 37:40 I talked with a lady who had communed with demons 37:42 in her home just like we're talking today. 37:45 Commune with the demons openly for years 37:48 and they wanted to make her witch. 37:49 They took her down to the river, 37:51 they submerged her underneath the water 37:54 for a day and a half. 37:56 Get me don't miss this, underneath the water 37:58 for a day and a half, 37:59 she talked with the demons there. 38:00 They gave her powers 38:02 that over lightening many other things. 38:03 She was famous in her area 38:05 for all the powers that she possessed. 38:07 But then through a series of events, 38:09 God led her step by step she heard the radio programs, 38:12 she said, this is the truth. 38:14 She was delivered from the demons 38:16 by the power of people prayed for her. 38:20 And now as she has been sharing herself, 38:24 she has 100 people that are coming together 38:26 every Sabbath to worship 38:27 the creator God of the Universe. 38:30 Tell me God isn't powerful, 38:32 and God has the same kind of power 38:33 to deliver you whatever your problems are. 38:36 God has the power to change you, 38:39 God has the power to mould you, and make you, 38:41 and shape you into his image 38:43 and he wants to do that very thing. 38:48 He wants to prepare you for His soon coming. 38:51 Oh, mighty, mighty miracles. 38:54 In one country again, I can't disclose the country 38:57 but we tried to sneak someone 39:00 into this particular area for a long time. 39:02 One fellow was shot and killed and another one 39:04 narrowly escaped with his life. 39:06 But we wanted to see what we had heard 39:08 that there was a great work going on through AWR. 39:12 Finally, someone got up into that area. 39:15 He got to this first village, 39:17 I called them villages 39:18 but there are thousand and thousands of people. 39:22 Everybody was a Seventh-day Sabbath Keeper. 39:24 He went to the chief, he said, 39:26 how did this happen. 39:27 The chief said, well, it's like this, 39:29 one day a large man in imposing figure 39:31 of great stature with an aura of light about him, 39:35 came into our village, wanted to see the chief, 39:37 I sat down with him. 39:38 He pulled out a radio. 39:41 He tuned to the dial to our AWR, 39:44 he showed me how to tune, and he said listen to this, 39:46 it will bless you and it will bless your people. 39:50 I took the radio out of his hands, 39:51 I turned to the fellow next to me. 39:54 We talked for just a moment, we turned back 39:55 and he had disappeared. 39:57 We took this as some kind of signs 39:59 and they are anonymous there. 40:00 We took this as some kind of sign that we should do 40:03 what he said, and we all fell in love 40:05 with Jesus Christ. 40:07 Praise God, and our fellow got to a second village, 40:10 many, many miles away, 40:11 they don't travel between villages. 40:14 It's too far away but our fellow 40:15 got to second village, 40:16 guess what he discovered, same thing, 40:18 same story that he said a large man 40:21 in imposing figure of great stature 40:22 with an aura of light about him, came into our village. 40:26 Three villages, four villages, 40:27 five villages, six villages, 40:29 recently we discovered six more villages. 40:31 We believe there is hundred of thousands of people 40:35 in that area, because somebody brought radios 40:39 that had an aura of light about it. 40:42 Can you hear brothers and sisters the footsteps 40:44 of an approaching God? 40:46 Can you hear this morning? 40:48 God is out there, 40:49 He's coming soon to take us home. 40:53 One country were distributing DVDs, 40:55 they all have our name on them, 40:56 we pack them up nicely, we'll put them 40:58 on a little mopeds and go putting down the street. 41:02 But the police don't want us to do it, 41:03 they hate the gospel message. 41:06 Putt down the street away, 41:07 set them on the street corner, 41:09 pretty soon another motorcycle comes up, 41:10 putt, putt, putt, stops picks him up, loads them on. 41:13 Down the street they go little further, 41:15 you know, kind of like a New York drug deal. 41:20 You get caught, I don't know where they came from 41:22 and he has found them on the street. 41:25 Well, one of our fellows the police pointed 41:26 a special task force, they hate 41:29 what we're doing so much. 41:30 This police force only pays attention 41:33 to try and catch our people. 41:35 They threw out whole drag net into this area 41:37 and strewn up, one of our fellows was there. 41:39 He's thinking I'm either dead 41:41 or I'm going to prison forever. 41:42 They are searching every vehicle, every person, 41:45 they get up to him, they open his boxes up, 41:47 they look at every DVD and the name on every DVD, 41:50 they pack them all back up, they send him on his way, 41:53 they never saw a think. 41:55 Oh, I tell you, the footsteps of an approaching God. 42:01 Again we do a lot of sneaking, 42:04 sneaking people out of another place. 42:06 They watch the petrol boats, go by on the river. 42:09 Everybody piles in the boat, 42:10 they put rice straw on top of the boat. 42:12 They start heading out across the river, 42:14 half way out an unexpected petrol boat comes. 42:18 They stop they've got bandits, chukum, chukum, 42:21 chukum down through the boat. 42:23 Our fellows later on said they could feel 42:25 the knife blades in between their legs, 42:28 between touching their skin, never hurt a single one 42:32 the police sent them on their way. 42:34 Oh, yeah. 42:39 I talk with a fellow up in Burma, little bitty guy, 42:45 about this tall, sweet little fellow. 42:50 He said, you know, he said 42:51 the landlord for years owed me money. 42:53 I kept trying over time to get 42:55 the money from the landlord. 42:56 He would not pay me. 42:58 He wouldn't pay me a cent. 42:59 Finally one day I was determined, 43:00 I had to have the money, 43:01 I was going to get it that day. 43:04 He went he ended up killing the landlord. 43:09 They send him to prison. 43:11 While he's in prison, 43:12 he kills the head of all the prisoners, 43:15 this sweet little guy. 43:18 They send him out to an island to die. 43:20 That's where they sent encroachable, out to die, 43:22 but for some reason in four and half years 43:24 they let him go. 43:25 They send him home, 43:27 they don't even tell him why to this day. 43:28 He doesn't know exactly why they let him 43:30 go other then the lord. 43:33 There's soon there is a knock at his door. 43:36 He open's the door into his old house 43:38 where he moved back. 43:39 There's a couple from next door 43:41 and they have got a radio in their hands. 43:43 A sweet Baptist couple, they hand him the radio 43:45 and said you should listen to this program, 43:47 it will change your life, AWR, praise the lord. 43:50 He turned it on and sure enough he fell in love 43:53 with Jesus and his name is translated 43:57 in the English, shining, brightening. 44:00 And certainly he shines bright for Jesus Christ. 44:05 The other day we filmed a story in Kenya. 44:10 The fellow had been raised a Christian, 44:11 young man raised a Christian. 44:14 But he absolutely didn't like the gospel message at all. 44:17 He didn't want anything to do with it. 44:19 And so he just said finally to his family, 44:23 I'm not going to church any more, 44:25 I'm not going to follow any of these 44:27 and he took off and he became a truck driver. 44:30 And he said you know, I did everything 44:32 the truck drivers do. 44:33 He said I drank, I smoked, 44:34 I did all the other illicit things. 44:38 He said my life just went down and down and down. 44:40 He said our job was to haul freight 44:42 from one side of Kenya out to the ocean to the other, 44:45 and we had to drive through Tsavo National Park. 44:48 Now Tsavo T-S-A-V-O, 44:50 is known for its man-eating lions. 44:52 You can Google it and you'll find it. 44:55 Well, they always want him to drive 44:57 through there in the day time 44:58 for that specific reason. 45:00 But this one time they had to drive 45:02 through there at night. 45:04 And so he and his partner were not very happy about it, 45:06 but they decided to do it. 45:08 They are traveling along 45:09 and all of a sudden, guess what? 45:10 In the middle of that park they break down. 45:14 Well, they roll up the windows, 45:15 they call for help, and they are so far away, 45:18 he helpers will be there in the morning. 45:21 So they hunker down for the night, 45:22 he turns on the radio. 45:23 On the radio, there was a preacher 45:26 preaching about Jesus Christ. 45:28 And gives a call you said 45:29 accept Jesus Christ now today. 45:32 He turns off the radio. 45:34 He thinks about it, I don't know, 45:37 his partner isn't very interested 45:39 and in the next second on this side, 45:41 remember drivers are reversed, 45:42 on this side a lion, a big four hundred pound male 45:46 comes up and pokes his head 45:47 against the glass and stares in. 45:50 Now they are little nervous and then he watches 45:53 the lion go out about twenty feet away 45:56 and the lion takes a running dash up, 45:58 breaks through the wind shield, 46:00 they don't have windshield like we do, 46:01 they are like safety glass it just explode. 46:03 That lion grabbed his partner ripped him out 46:06 of the vehicle and began eating him right 46:08 in front of him. 46:09 Now, that's a real come to Jesus moment, 46:14 and he prayed Lord if you save me 46:16 I'll serve you the rest of my life. 46:19 And in just another moment a car drove up 46:22 the opposite direction with the lights on 46:24 and he figured this person is too scared 46:26 to continue on and drive on. 46:29 And as he was there he continued to watch 46:32 and I won't even go into all the details, 46:34 but he sat there and said Lord please help me, 46:37 please help me, please help me. 46:39 And that lion was finished and the lion walked up 46:41 and put his pause on the dash 46:43 and looked in at him and then he backed up again 46:47 just like he had previously. 46:49 And he took a running, flying leap in his pause, 46:52 hit the dash and he went up on top of the vehicle 46:56 where he slept the entire night. 46:59 The next morning the person in the car 47:01 who had the lights on from the other direction 47:03 got out of the car. 47:04 It was a little sweet old lady, she came up to him 47:07 she put her finger up to his chest, 47:09 she said are you a Christian? 47:11 He said, well, I... yes, I guess I'm. 47:16 Listen to this now, she said you need to go home 47:19 and study and pray and she turned around 47:21 and she got in the car and left. 47:23 I don't think that was a person. 47:26 I think that had to be his angel 47:29 that held that lion's mouth that night. 47:32 Why would you ever say such a thing to a person? 47:35 I tell you brothers and sisters though the devil 47:38 is ready to destroy each one of us, 47:41 the devil is ready to destroy you 47:42 at our heart beat and we can be doing the God's work. 47:48 We can be doing everything for God. 47:51 We can be giving all our money to the God. 47:52 We can be giving all of our time to God, 47:54 and we can be lost. 47:57 Because slowly imperceptibly, we say, 48:01 well, I don't have quiet as much time today to study. 48:05 I don't have quiet as much time today 48:07 because the job calls for this and calls for that 48:10 and so just a little less time today. 48:13 And soon there will be less and less and less time. 48:20 And soon you will have 48:22 no relationship with your creator. 48:24 You will no longer know Him because the devil 48:28 will have stolen that completely from you. 48:30 Make no mistake about it, we live in perilous times. 48:34 This is not a time to read good things 48:36 like Readers Digest. 48:37 This is not a time to watch good TV programs 48:40 whatever they may be. 48:43 This is a time to be on our knees in praying. 48:46 This is a time to be on our knees and studying. 48:53 Felix, remember Felix and Drusilla, 48:55 Drusilla was his second wife. 48:58 Felix was a great man now he purchased his freedom. 49:04 He was a ruthless ruler and he had Paul in prison. 49:12 Paul stood before that man one day 49:16 and he began talking with him. 49:19 He laid out judgment, 49:20 he laid out the coming of Christ. 49:23 He laid out the gospel message in all of its beauty, 49:26 but here laid out judgment. 49:30 And he said Felix tremble, God laid out 49:34 before him in panoramic view all the things he had done. 49:38 And he trembled and he said, Paul, 49:43 I'll call you at a more convenient time, 49:48 I'll call you at a more convenient time. 49:52 And then we find in Acts Chapter 26. 49:55 We find Paul before Agrippa, 49:59 oh the great leader Agrippa. 50:06 Wow! Paul you've almost convinced me, 50:11 almost convinced me. 50:17 I've wondered sometimes, I've thought 50:18 about this I had a daymare, you know 50:20 what a daymare is like a nightmare, 50:22 only it's in the middle of the day. 50:25 I came up in the resurrection 50:28 and there this beast standing before me 50:31 with sagging flesh on his jaws. 50:34 And he said I raised you up, we can take that city. 50:42 What a horrible thought, what a horrible thought. 50:46 Paul you have almost convinced me, 50:51 you have almost convinced me. 50:54 And then Philippian Jailer, we talk about 50:58 the Jailhouse Rock. 50:59 Paul prayed and the whole jail shook, 51:01 the whole earth shook, every door, 51:04 every rock split out of its place and the jailor said, 51:07 what must I do to be saved? 51:11 What must I do to be saved three men? 51:14 Oh, three men, different stories. 51:17 They only one with the good ending is the jailor. 51:21 How many of you here have ever played monopoly? 51:23 It's well its probably on live TV 51:25 or what camera you won't want to save? 51:28 Quiet a few of you raise your hands. 51:30 Monopoly, young man he loved to began... 51:33 he started playing with grandma, 51:34 and he just loved to do it. 51:35 He wasn't very good at a chip, 51:36 but he loved to can out the money. 51:37 He left so much, you know, 5s, 10s, 20s 51:41 stick them all on board, roll around and go 51:43 and what do you collect when you go around go? 51:45 Oh, you know. 51:48 He just loved it, but he soon he noticed, 51:51 you know, grandma as things are going on, 51:53 grandma would start buying this property 51:56 and buying that property, and he had to pay rent, 51:58 and he didn't like to pay rent. 52:00 And soon all of his money was gone 52:02 and he, oh, he just hated it. 52:04 The final time grandma wanted to stop 52:06 he said grandma I just hate it. 52:10 Honey, honey, what? 52:12 One day you'll understand. 52:16 Oh! Grandma, he went away that summer, 52:18 he found a friend, he learned to play 52:20 tremendously well. 52:22 He was ready now, I mean, 52:23 he was ready to beat grandma, 52:25 he won every single game all the time. 52:28 He got back to grandma and said let's play grandma. 52:30 He's starts stacking out the money, 52:32 oh, and he's ready and they go round and round 52:34 and round and round and you know how monopoly goes. 52:37 He was having a wonderful time, 52:39 now he's beating, oh, he's getting in soon. 52:42 He's got everything, every hotel, 52:44 every apartment complex, every rail road, 52:47 he's got it all. 52:48 And he grabs the fistful of money 52:49 and he said I beat you grandma. 52:51 She says honey, what? 52:54 One day you'll understand. 52:57 What do you mean grandma one day I'll understand. 53:01 One day honey you will understand. 53:03 Oh, grandma, what do you talking about? 53:06 Honey, honey when the game is over, 53:10 it all goes back in the box. 53:17 I'm glad to hear you got it, because 53:20 it's so important brothers and sisters. 53:23 Everything, everything you've got, 53:24 everything I've got, everything we work for, 53:27 it's gonna be worthless. 53:28 God's paving the city with streets of gold, 53:31 He doesn't need our stuff, He needs you, 53:34 He needs me, He needs a relationship with us. 53:36 This is life eternal if they might know thee 53:39 and I wonder this morning how many of you 53:41 really want to spend time with God. 53:43 Make a new covenant right now. 53:45 God I want to spend time with you. 53:46 Let me see your hands. Praise God. |
Revised 2014-12-17