Participants: Ron Halvorsen
Series Code: OTR
Program Code: OTR000424
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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. |
Revised 2014-12-17