Participants: Ron Halvorsen
Series Code: OTR
Program Code: OTR000863
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01:00 Our Father, which art in heaven,
01:07 and here on earth, in heaven and in our hearts, 01:14 we humbly bound your presence to thank you 01:16 for your great love. You have loved us even 01:22 when we've been unlovable. You've soothed us 01:28 and loved us even when we were acting like 01:31 children. We pray as we open your word tonight 01:37 that we might see you high and lift it up, 01:41 the Lord of glory. We speak through your word 01:46 that we might leave this place different men, 01:48 different women, different preacher. 01:52 For I ask in the name of Christ, amen. 01:59 This is the age of the half-read page; 02:03 the quick hash; and the mad dash; 02:07 the bright night with nerves tight; 02:10 the plane hop and the brief stop. 02:12 And the lamp tan and a brief span; 02:14 and the big shot in the right spot; 02:17 and the brain strain and the heart pain; 02:19 and the cat naps till the spring snaps, 02:21 and the fun's done. Amen. 02:25 I don't know if that's good poetry, 02:26 but I believe it describes the age in which you 02:27 and I live. I mean this is the age of dry eyes, 02:33 hard noses, cold feet. It follows the wind, 02:38 it loves the vacuum, that's our age. 02:42 It is the attitude of blessed almighty, 02:44 for they shall make money, that's our age. 02:49 Blessed are the smooth for they shall never 02:52 get wrinkled, or blessed are the cool for they 02:58 shall never sweat, that's our age. 03:03 It's an age that sits around bragging about 03:05 its accomplishments, look, see what we've done. 03:08 I mean look split atoms, split nations, 03:12 split homes, and split personalities, 03:15 that's our age. We sent tons of tin into 03:19 outer space, and we don't have the foggiest idea 03:24 of what to do with the space we already have. 03:28 We walk in space, but we're afraid to walk 03:31 in some neighborhoods, that's our age. 03:35 I mean what an age, we talk about brotherhood 03:37 yet we know down in our hearts, 03:38 there are more hoods than there are brothers. 03:43 That's the twenty first century, 03:45 the first decade of it, and that's our age. 03:51 And if you don't believe that while you're 03:54 trying to decide on what kind of TV dinner 03:57 to pop into the microwave, twenty new corpses 04:00 show up on American streets. 04:04 I mean for no better reason and someone took 04:06 the wrong turn in the neighborhood, 04:10 or a bunch of unemployed kids are fighting 04:12 for a little more turf, trying to get little more 04:13 territory, or someone has tried to fulfill his 04:18 fantasy of a frill kill, and for no reason at all 04:22 to shoot a man down in cold blood, what an age. 04:26 I mean it over eats, it over drinks, 04:28 it over spends, it over plays, an age we walk 04:31 delicately, we think slovenly, we live dolly and 04:34 we sleep poorly. We take a pill to go to sleep 04:40 at night, and a pill to get up, 04:43 and make it through the day. We talk about 04:45 overpasses, and underpasses, 04:47 and bypasses, that's our age. 04:51 We know more about the bomb than we do 04:52 about the Bible, what an age. Grown men wrapped 04:55 in intellectual clothes, or swaddling clothes 04:58 of intellectualism, long sentences, long words, 05:01 short on meaning. Its above all an age 05:07 of gadget filled paradise suspended in the 05:10 hell of insecurity, that's our age. 05:12 Its above all an age of unexamined concept, 05:15 limp images, and limber lips. It knows everything 05:17 about sex but nothing about love, 05:20 that's our age. Some girls on TV slobbering 05:28 all over some stranger, going the limit because 05:31 they think they maybe a millionaire, what an age. 05:36 Kids living together today, well you have a red car, 05:40 I notice I have a red car. We have something 05:42 in common, lets have a relationship, 05:44 give me a break. Reality show, 05:52 that is a joke, reality, its fantasy. 05:57 Its above all an age of fast buck, listen, 05:59 the goof off, the fixed price, 06:01 the half done job. Its above all an age 06:03 of smooth of the interethnic and smooth 06:06 cliche and bottomless relativism, 06:08 and a new morality which we know is nothing 06:10 but immorality uncovered. Like Israel of old 06:16 it says of the age, though the word of Lord 06:18 was rare in those days, and there was no 06:22 frequent vision, and added to all of this confusion. 06:30 It's an age that wonders about in an a stupor, 06:31 and wonders what's wrong with us. 06:35 We have everything but the real thing. 06:39 He knows so much and understands so little, 06:41 that's our age. He is fearful and frustrated 06:44 by the emptiness of his heart, 06:45 asking a thousand questions that have no 06:47 substance and no purpose, fulfilling the prophetic 06:50 word of God, because when they knew God, 06:52 they glorified him, not as God, gave thanks, 06:55 nor gave thanks, but became vain in their 06:57 reasoning, and their foolish heart was 07:00 darkened, professing themselves wise, 07:02 they became foolish. Post modern man 07:07 is asking the wrong questions, therefore he 07:12 is getting the wrong answers. 07:14 What is our responsibility to this age? 07:18 What is the church's responsibility to this 07:20 post modern age? I mean it is to be Christian 07:23 I think, it's to act as Christian. 07:28 In fact Jesus commanded us that we are to be the 07:30 salt of the earth, we are to be the light of the 07:33 world, and salt preserves the truth, and 07:35 light shares the truth. To answer the question, 07:39 to provide the solution for post modernism 07:41 is found in the gospel of Jesus Christ. 07:43 It's found in his word. God has a solution. 07:47 God speaks and he does not stutter. 07:55 The problem with our world is this. 07:58 It has a mind but it lacks a soul. You see, 08:05 it knows facts, but it lacks faith. 08:10 It lacks above all things hope for the future. 08:13 I mean it is a lack of the soul that puts guns 08:15 in our hands, and bombs in our planes, 08:17 and hate in our heart. It is our job as Christians, 08:21 as believers, as Adventist believers to help our 08:24 culture, to discover its soul. I read the story 08:31 about a German poet. He wrote the story and 08:35 told about a sculptor, of course its one of those 08:39 stores like the Rich man and Lazarus, but 08:41 it's a story like brother O'Ffill likes to tell 08:45 in the morning, so I can tell it in the evening. 08:52 It has no substance, but it has a message. 08:55 He talked about a sculptor who is so skilled 08:57 with his hands. He could make anything that his 09:02 mind conceived of. One day he determined to make 09:06 a man, I mean he went into the studio. 09:10 He assembled the needed materials and began 09:12 his work. He fashioned the body, magnificent body, 09:21 something like this. Well, I got one amen on that. 09:34 A magnificent body, he placed in a finely 09:39 featured head, and when he almost completed it, 09:52 the spirit, the creature spoke to him. Master, 10:00 give me a soul. It frightened the artist. 10:06 He ran from the studio, he slammed the door, 10:08 but the creature followed him saying you made 10:10 me a magnificent body, now give me a soul. 10:14 You see that is the dilemma of humanity. 10:16 They're running to-and-fro across 10:17 the face of the earth, and they're crying out 10:19 desperately from within, give me a soul. 10:28 That has been the problem with man ever since 10:29 the fall. Mankind has a magnificent body, 10:35 an intelligent mind, but he lacks a soul, lopsided 10:41 intellect, and that's why he asks questions 10:45 which he is incapable of answering. 10:47 I mean questions that he cannot answer. 10:49 I traveled the world, and I discovered that 10:52 there's basically three questions that twenty first 10:56 century man is asking. Three questions that 10:58 post modernism is asking us. 11:00 Three questions that need to be answered, 11:02 the most important questions. 11:04 Create problem when we share faith, 11:06 we have our agenda. It's now time we listen 11:09 to the agenda of those who we are seeking 11:11 to save that which is lost, and they have three 11:16 basics questions. I talked to them on university 11:19 campuses, I talked to them in the cities, 11:23 I've talked to them in places, mansions on 11:26 Central Park West, I've talked to them in LA 11:28 and in Florida, and all across the world, 11:34 the streets of London, and in Oslo, Norway, 11:38 and Australia, in Sydney and I can go on and 11:41 on and on. I've talked to men and women, 11:42 tens of thousands of them, and there are 11:44 three basic questions of the human soul. 11:47 Three basic question, where is God? Who am I? 11:53 And what must I do? And those three questions 11:58 are asked by the religious and the irreligious. 12:01 It's asked by the intelligent and the 12:03 ignorant. They are asked by different ways, 12:05 and different times, but nevertheless they are 12:08 the questions asked, and because everyone, 12:10 everywhere is in desperate search 12:12 of his or her soul. For alone gives us meaning, 12:20 why, because all mankind desperately is searching 12:25 for purpose. For it alone gives us purpose, 12:30 it alone give us meaning, and it alone gives us 12:33 that purpose. Now the first question is essential. 12:36 Where is God? You see at 9/11, 12:38 after 9/11 that fateful morning, 12:41 when America's asked the question where is God. 12:43 In fact the most asked question of the people, 12:46 of the families of those who had gone through 12:48 that terrible experience, was where was God? 12:53 Or where is God? Sometimes it was asked 12:56 anxiously, the survivors, the families, 12:59 by the fort leaders and even by the clergy, 13:03 where is God? There were numerous answers, 13:06 some wild eyed fanatic fundamentalist said 13:09 he was there helping the terrorists accomplish 13:12 the ugly deed, can you imagine? 13:17 Tragically many religious leaders made a mockery 13:19 of God by their sick insipid interpretation 13:22 of the God of the Bible. Whatever we must admit 13:24 the question was raised because in the heart 13:27 of everyone there is a desire to know where 13:29 is God? And whether it's in times of trouble, 13:32 or times of peace. Some of us have found 13:35 your answer. He is in the rubble, 13:40 searching and seeking and comforting. 13:44 In 9/11 some proof that God does not exist 13:48 they said. But I found it to be proof that 13:50 God did exist. Where was God in 9/11? 13:53 He was running up the stairs, 13:55 he was running up the stairs to try to help the 13:58 people who were there perishing. 14:00 He was those brave men, and those brave women 14:03 that were willing to sacrifice their lives 14:05 in order to reach those who had imprisoned 14:08 by the flames. Where was God? 14:19 Some argue the point that no one has seen God, 14:23 and so he denies his existence. 14:25 He wants to believe in things seen, 14:27 or things touched, or things that are easily 14:29 explained, forgetting that there are things 14:31 we do not know. There are things we do 14:34 not fully understand. And I don't care who 14:36 you are here tonight. There are some things 14:38 you do not know. It's hard to measure 14:45 the horizon with a yardstick. 14:50 A university professor once said to his students, 14:53 I have swept the heavens with my telescope, 14:56 and I find no God. What a fool. 15:03 If we could put God into a little piece of glass, 15:07 what kind of God would that be. 15:11 A God that could be defined by words of creed 15:14 could not be God, and outlined in twenty seven 15:17 fundamental beliefs could not be God; 15:20 he is too big for that. If we could get our minds 15:27 clear around God, we would have to begin 15:31 immediately to doubt. For a God who could 15:35 create the galaxies of galaxies, 15:37 and yet whose spirit prevails all living things, 15:39 he's hardly the God that we can read in the 15:41 little book, or encompass it little box of brains. 15:45 It is hard to bother with a God who is no bigger 15:48 than our own grasp. Where is God? 15:51 In our human weakness we must answer them 15:53 by saying he is in history God. 15:57 And so I say to post modernism, 15:59 I say to those living in this age, 16:01 I say where is God? He is in history. 16:04 I tell you, there are dim reflections of him, 16:06 you cannot go to any civilization or uncivilized 16:10 nation, and go into the deepest jungles without 16:13 finding the story about this almighty God. 16:19 Shadows in a misty mirror, look at creation 16:22 and we find God, think of it, here we are frail 16:25 creatures of living dust on a small out 16:28 of the way planet who must be enveloped 16:30 by atmosphere and hemmed in by rigid limits 16:32 of protection. If we are to live at all, 16:36 we walk in narrow path between extremities. 16:38 We can't stand too much high. 16:41 We can't stand too much low. 16:44 We can't stand too much heat, 16:47 and some of you out there can't stand too 16:49 much cold, get the drift. If our body temperature 16:59 goes up ten degrees in most cases we're dead. 17:03 If our body temperature goes down ten degrees 17:06 in most cases we are dead. God is merciful, 17:10 we see it for he has revealed himself in 17:12 history past. A creation of world came into 17:14 being when the heart beat of man began 17:17 and all the world that was a garden. 17:18 Where is God? He was in history past. 17:21 He was in Adam, sweet son of his sinlessness, 17:23 made in his own image. He was with Eve, 17:26 sweet daughter of his sinlessness. 17:28 He put man to sleep and then took wounded 17:31 the side of Adam, brought forth the bride, 17:34 this was the prime rib. Some of you will get that 17:43 on Thursday. Made in his own image. 17:55 He was in history past this God, 17:58 when no other boat built, he was with Abraham 18:00 the pioneer, he was with Isaac, 18:01 Jacob and the sons of Jacob, he was in history 18:04 past every page of biblical history with Moses 18:07 liberate of God's people and with Isaiah master 18:10 writer and prophet. He was history past. 18:12 He was at Bethlehem swaddling clothes, 18:14 and cover his shameful nakedness. 18:17 He was from Genesis to Jesus, 18:18 and Jesus to John. Ancient history that tumbles out 18:21 from every civilization, that tumbles out 18:24 from every page of every holy writ of all religions, 18:28 this God who impacts us to his creation. 18:31 God speaks and the green grass sprouts 18:33 and the little flowers blossom and pine tree 18:36 pointed his finger to the sky and oaks spread 18:38 out its arms and lakes curtailed down in the 18:41 hollows of the Glen and rivers ran down 18:43 to the sea. Amen. Where is God? 18:49 Every time I walk upon the fervent green grass 18:52 of the meadow, I sense his presence. 18:57 Every time I look up at the stars that spangle 18:59 the night, I sense his presence. Every time 19:03 I touch and hold my grand kids in my arms, 19:07 I sense, it's God who was in history. 19:16 He was with Luther at Wittenberg. 19:18 I mean he was with Huss and Jerome with 19:19 the Stake, he was with Christopher Columbus 19:21 when he stumbled on America. 19:23 I mean he was in South Africa and Bosnia, 19:26 and Middle East taking no sides. 19:28 He is not a Republican, and he is not a Democrat. 19:33 Thank God for that. I hope they recorded it, 19:39 some things come through inspiration. 19:43 He was behind the wall and he was there 19:46 when the wall came tumbling down. 19:48 I mean he is the author of history. 19:50 He is the first down in history and he is 19:53 the omega of history. He cast his face across 19:56 the page of history. There is no history written, 19:59 spoken where he is not mentioned somehow, 20:02 in someway. We have to tell post modernism 20:05 you need a soul, and God fills the soul, amen. 20:11 Where is God? He is in the torn tattered pages 20:16 of history, and man has not escaped him. 20:20 I fled him down the nights and down the days. 20:24 I fled him down the arches of the years. 20:28 I fled him down the libertine ways of my 20:30 own mind in the midst of tears. 20:32 I hid from him and I'm the running laughter 20:35 for those strong feet that followed, 20:38 followed after, you cannot run far enough, 20:42 so surrender now, turn around and open 20:45 your arms. Amen. Where is God? 20:51 History past has not escaped him. 20:55 For he is the God of history, he was in history, 21:00 but he was in Christ. Listen to me, post modern, 21:04 you want to know Christ. You want to know God, 21:07 look at Christ. He was in Christ, 21:10 you say God in Christ. He is the Emmanuel, 21:12 God with us; the story of the Bible is a search, 21:16 God in pursuit of us, God after us, God capturing us. 21:21 We are not going to find God, he has found us. 21:26 How many times in testimony, done it myself, 21:29 when I found God. No God was waiting in the 21:31 alleyways for me to turn around, 21:33 God was there that day at the academy when 21:35 I played hooky. God was there in the stolen boat. 21:38 God was there when all hell broke loose 21:41 in my house and all hell broke loose in my mind. 21:46 God was there to touch me, 21:47 to calm this little peace that passionate 21:49 understanding, amen. Where is God? 21:55 He was in Christ, and that's why there's 21:59 such an assault on Christ today. 22:02 That's why they're trying, Hollywood is trying, 22:04 you see why Hollywood hates him because he 22:06 teaches moral principles. You see why politicians 22:10 hate him because he teaches justice. 22:14 Every one that hates God, because they have broken 22:17 the laws of God, they have transgressed 22:20 the commands of God, and therefore they do 22:22 not want that, so they created God. 22:25 That has not been true only of this generation 22:27 it's been true of every generation, 22:29 when they wanted to drink and party as and go wild, 22:35 they created a God called Bacchus, 22:37 and he drank with them, and so they celebrated 22:41 God. Then they wanted unbridled passion, 22:45 when they wanted unbridled sex, 22:48 they created Aphrodite. And when they want 22:50 to go to war and hate and kill, they created Zeus 22:53 and Mars and created Gods in their own mind 22:56 and in their own human being, 22:57 but this Jesus impacted us as the divine 23:00 human being. Amen. He was the creator, 23:06 and a sustainer, and he was a savior, 23:08 and to say that about him is to say a lot. 23:13 Not far away from us is God as near as sunlight, 23:20 to the sod, so near to the human heart is God. 23:29 Just as Christ is real and was a living testimony 23:32 to a living God, so show them Christ, 23:38 and you will show them God. 23:39 For if ye have seen me, ye have seen God. 23:46 And God set out to perform the highest act 23:48 of history, he didn't come to the world to amid 23:50 the fanfare of overwhelming majesty, 23:53 to beat men to their knees, and drive them 23:55 to his way. He came into loneliness, 23:57 to draw men by the magnetism of grace, 24:00 and to draw them by the magnetism of love. 24:04 I was sent to Grenage Village to preach one time. 24:07 I told you the Brethren went off to the 24:09 Philippines, they sent me to Grenage Village. 24:13 By the way Grenage Village is not the easiest place 24:15 to preach. The east village at the time were 24:19 full of heroin addicts, the west village were 24:21 the homosexuals. I remember my wife 24:25 and I and my son and my daughter, 24:27 and the preacher and his wife, 24:28 and his son were giving out our hand bills 24:30 to get people to come to meeting, 24:31 of course it was lay activity, so the church 24:33 was laying down somewhere sleeping, 24:35 lay activities. And they would come by, 24:38 and I remember when someone came by 24:40 and said are you gay? I said, no, I'm happy, 24:41 so he kept going. And that night when that little 24:52 church on West 11th Street, 24:57 I stood up to preach, the saints of course 25:01 they knew it, so they'd have to come but 25:02 there were quite a few sinners there. 25:07 And as I stood up to preach, four young men 25:09 came into the back door, they were flying 25:12 their colors, gangs fly colors or what they do 25:15 is wear certain things, to distinguish the gangs. 25:21 And so I noticed right away they were the 25:23 Social Sevens from Mount Haven, South Bronx, 25:29 Social Sevens and they approached and sat 25:33 in the front row, four young men 19, 20, 21, 25:35 22 years old. And so I stood up to preach and 25:40 I tell you I get such enthusiastic power when 25:44 I know there are sinners in the audience. 25:45 It's so hard with all your saints to get excited. 25:53 And it's so hard for you saints to get excited, 25:59 and so I stood up and I saw the young men 26:01 and I preached and God filled me with his spirit 26:04 and I preached as if there were only four there 26:06 that night. And when I finished, we stood to sing, 26:13 and when I stood to sing they started out 26:14 and I didn't want to lose them. 26:18 And so I ran off the side of platform, 26:19 this little door out into the alleyway. 26:24 Churches between tenements and little 26:26 alleyway and I jumped over the ash barrels 26:28 and ran as fast as I could and came around 26:31 and just then those Social Sevens, 26:33 heroin addicts, mainline heroin addicts 26:37 we're coming down the front steps 26:41 and they saw me. Man, you're the preacher, 26:52 you're in there and I said no I'm out here. 26:58 They said but why are you out here? 27:00 I said because you're out here. 27:05 I told them that God loved them. 27:11 I shared the love of God with them, 27:14 and then I said let me pray for you. 27:15 They said out here, yeah we don't want to go 27:16 back in the church to pray, and you know 27:20 New York is, I just kind of bowed there 27:22 and they were walking around us and over us 27:24 and I gave those boys a big hug and send them off. 27:30 But you know with addicts, they give you 27:32 a lot of promises and so I couldn't sleep that night, 27:34 I prayed all night I said God please bring 27:37 those four boys back. Next night, 27:41 just before I stood up to preach, 27:44 they came in and sat in the front row, 27:47 and night after night. Amen. And 27:49 so finally I said I'm coming to visit you. 27:52 By the way is there any pastor here, 27:55 there is no such thing as office hours 27:58 in the New Testament. If you can show me then 28:01 fine. He never said I'll see you between ten and two. 28:15 And so I found out they were living on Falk 28:18 Street, by the way Falk Street in South Bronx 28:24 had more mainline heroin addicts on that 28:27 one street then any other street in the world. 28:30 When I went down to Falk Street I put five bucks 28:32 in my sock, and two bucks in my pocket, 28:37 because if they mug me or they're going to rob me, 28:39 I gave them, this is all, I pull my pocket, 28:41 I never carried my wallet. 28:44 My wife says what happens if you are, 28:46 I walk home, I mean if I'm still alive. 28:49 I used to carry my Bible because 28:53 if they shot me they have to go through Genesis, 28:55 Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, 28:58 I mean that's how bad the place was. 29:06 So I ran up the stairs and down the hall 29:07 it's called the shooting gallery, 29:08 they take over vacant building, 29:10 and there is no doors flinging in the hallway 29:13 and I can't describe it for you. 29:17 I wish every kid that ever gonna wants 29:19 to experiment in drugs, let me take them 29:21 to Falk Street. I wish I could take them to 29:26 shooting gallery, I wish I could show them. 29:27 You know I sometimes get so upset with 29:31 the church, because to us all we're thinking 29:35 about nowadays is our own health. 29:38 We're counting soy beans and six hundred 29:40 and fifty thousand babies are being born 29:42 addicted to drugs from the very womb in America. 29:47 What have we done? We'll live seven years 29:51 longer but those kids won't live past thirty. 30:01 I found them in the corner, sat down and I shared 30:09 Christ. You want to know what I talk about day 30:11 and night, Jesus Christ, amen. 30:14 That is doctrine 1, doctrine 2, 30:16 doctrine 10, 12, 17, 27. Amen. 30:31 And I led them to Christ. By the way you can, 30:34 you don't have to take twenty seven weeks 30:36 to lead them to Christ, amen. 30:41 You lead them to Christ and they'll go anywhere. 30:43 Do you understand that? We're trying to get 30:46 them cleaned up before we bring them to Christ, 30:50 that's an impossible thing to do, bring him 30:52 to Christ and God cleans them up, amen. 30:58 I took the heroin and flushed it, okay. 31:03 We're baptized, three of those four young men 31:09 are Seventh-day Adventist preachers today, amen. 31:12 Did you amen, come on, did you hear that, amen. 31:16 And the only reason the fourth boy carried 31:18 his Bible around the neighborhood, 31:20 but drugs have blown his mind so bad 31:22 we couldn't put his mind back. 31:27 I just visited two other boys in California 31:32 and I asked how is my little friend doing 31:35 and they said well he is still in the institution. 31:43 I wish I had gotten to him sooner, 31:48 I wish I had gotten to him sooner. 31:53 Did not win them with rules and regulation, 31:55 you win them with love, amen. 32:00 He is the author and finisher of our faith. 32:02 He is reconciling the world unto himself. 32:04 History describes the blood flowing from the 32:07 Euphrates to Jordan, from Sinai to Calvary, 32:10 from the crib to the coming. I appreciated so much 32:17 what Pastor O'Ffill said this morning about the 32:20 fruits of the spirit; talk a lot about just like you 32:24 said was worth coming. We talk a lot about 32:28 the gifts but a little bit of the fruit. 32:32 Fruit of the spirit is brotherly love one 32:35 to another, amen. Peace and joy, 32:41 I mean the blood flowed from Calvary, 32:44 I mean from Sinai to Calvary from the crib 32:46 to the coming. This holy book I hold in my hands 32:48 I hold it in my head, and I hold it my heart, 32:51 you see speaks of that. Jesus God man and 32:56 that brought us out of bondage. 32:59 This holy book in my hand suggests, 33:01 no not suggests, it declares that it was Jesus, 33:07 the God man that kept us from the penalty and 33:10 the power of sin, I mean where is he? Jesus, 33:13 he is in this very room. Amen. An atheist and 33:17 Christian were in the foxhole on the battlefield, 33:20 and you know atheists love to use that against us, 33:23 as if God started the war, isn't that amazing, 33:29 as if God started the war. Hey, let me tell you, 33:33 God didn't start this war in Iraq, Bush did. 33:37 I'll get off it. But the atheist and Christian were 33:41 in the same foxhole, and there were the battered 33:44 bodies laying on dead man's land. Bombs, 33:48 mortars flying over him, some laying their 33:52 twisted bodes and others just half alive crying 33:55 out and the atheist elbows the Christian says 33:58 where is God on that battlefield, 34:01 I don't see him just then through the smoke 34:04 and through the explosions around, 34:08 there were two medics running with a stretcher 34:12 to a fallen comrade, picking him up, bullets 34:16 flying everywhere and the Christian elbowed 34:18 the atheist and oh there goes God right now, 34:23 amen. In the battlefield of life, listen to me, 34:25 when we are battered, and when we are bruised 34:28 and when we are broken Jesus enters into our 34:30 lives. God is in Christ. I never knew God 34:38 until I found Christ. God is in Christ. 34:43 God is in the church, no mystery here. 34:49 The church become God's ark of safety, 34:51 I don't know why, especially some of the churches 34:54 I pastored, I don't know why? 34:57 Because God built it and on this rock I built my 35:00 church and the gates of hell shall not prevail 35:03 against it, Matthew 16 and verse 18. 35:07 Paul said, Christ loved the church, 35:08 and gave himself for it. Ephesians 5 and verse 25, 35:12 the church is the body of Christ, God, 35:14 where is God. He is in the church, amen. 35:20 Church is the bride of Christ. 35:22 Some of you people think you're too good 35:24 for the church. The church is the bride of Christ. 35:29 Jesus Christ is married to the church; 35:31 the church is the building of Christ. 35:33 God is the eternal builder. It is the Ecclesia of God, 35:37 distinguish in fellowship and service and 35:39 proclamation, it is Koinonia, it is Diakonia, 35:42 it is Kerygma, its brothering, 35:44 and helping and shepherding and preaching, 35:48 that's what the church is. Amen. 35:52 And the church is everywhere. 35:55 We believers we make it up, and we are everywhere. 35:59 God comes to us out of the ruins of 9/11, 36:01 he came to us to minister, once we find God, 36:04 we'll find out who we are, and the second question, 36:07 who am I? You can't ask that question till you 36:11 find out who God is? Great problem with us today 36:15 is we're saying who we are, trying to find out 36:18 who I am and not finding who he is. 36:24 Once you find him, you'll find the true you, 36:28 come on now, once you find him you will find 36:34 the true you. Following World War Two, 36:38 there were more than two hundred Frenchmen 36:41 who returned to Paris suffering from amnesia, 36:45 in fact they had been in Japanese prison camps 36:48 and had suffered through the horrible ordeal 36:50 of probation and torture. These men had been so 36:53 psychologically devastated by their imprisonment 36:55 that they had lost their conscious awareness 36:58 of who they were and where they came from, 37:02 can you imagine? Coming back, 37:04 knowing not who you are? Now, 37:07 in most cases identities were quickly established 37:11 from the Red Cross records with the help of other 37:14 prisoners, but thirty two men whose identity 37:19 seemed impossible to ascertain, 37:22 the doctors realized that they would never 37:24 recover without understanding 37:25 who they were. And by the way this culture 37:28 will never recover until it understands who it is, 37:33 and where God is. And so someone suggested 37:39 publishing photographs of men on the front page 37:43 of the newspaper and so they sent it throughout 37:46 the country and they gave a date and a time 37:50 when anyone having information about any of 37:52 these amnesia victims would come to Paris 37:55 Opera House and helped them to distinguish 38:00 who those people were? And so the place was 38:05 packed and the first amnesia victim walked 38:10 in onto the stage the audience, 38:12 over the audience it was dark, 38:16 but there was one bright light on the stage 38:20 and the first amnesia victim came in and stood 38:22 under the light and turned to the audience 38:25 and said does anyone out there know 38:27 who I am? Does anyone out there know 38:35 who I am? And that is the question mankind, 38:44 does anyone out there know who I am and 38:47 I want to say with a resounding yes, 38:50 the Lord Jesus Christ knows you by name. 38:54 Amen. He knows who you are? 38:58 And by the way he knows your potential, 39:02 your wife doesn't know it, your husband 39:04 doesn't know it, you sons and daughters, 39:06 your parents don't know it, Jesus Christ alone 39:09 knows it. When Christ came to a gang banger 39:13 in Brooklyn 16 years old, could not read 39:15 or write, he knew the potential, 39:24 I walked in the church black leather jacket, 39:26 skull blood dripping over the skull. 39:29 Like I told you the other night first suit 39:31 I ever had was Dockers, I'm a dead man, 39:35 I hung it in the closet the arms folded, 39:40 the shoes I have on my feet, the suit I wear, 39:43 this tie, I owe it all to the glory of God. 39:47 An illiterate, when I went off to Atlantic 39:50 Union College, studied forty hours that first sermon, 39:54 I mean I preached with all that I had, 39:57 I mean I practiced in front of the mirror 39:58 in my little apartment until the mirror 40:01 got converted, baptized it three days later. 40:08 Preached in that class and the pastor, 40:09 the teacher said would you please stay by Ron, 40:12 and so I stayed by, and I thought he was going 40:14 to compliment me and he says you got to 40:16 study more, you got to practice, practice, 40:23 I want to introduce him to my mirror. 40:28 Yes, but I want you to practice when there 40:30 is no one around. Can you imagine your 40:32 Homiletics teacher tell you preach but preach 40:34 to no one. So across from fair hall, 40:39 Atlantic Union College was an Indian cemetery, 40:42 I took my notes and I went out into that 40:44 Indian cemetery and I practiced, 40:48 every chance I got I practiced, and boy, 40:51 there's nothing more discouraging than 40:53 preaching in a cemetery, or some dead churches 40:57 I've preached to. In a cemetery, 41:03 I mean you take up a collection who gives, 41:08 you make a call who responds, but 41:14 God sees the potential. Everyone of you have 41:17 a great potential. Does anyone out there know 41:22 who you are, I want to say with confidence 41:25 tonight that the Lord Jesus Christ knows who 41:27 you are. What is man that though has made 41:32 him a little less than the divine, 41:34 Psalms 8 verse 4 and 5 morphed translation. 41:38 He knows who you are? He knows you're someone 41:40 special. He knows that you are a man and woman 41:43 made in the image of God after his spiritual 41:45 and moral likeness, and although sin has crushed 41:47 the image in the mud of moral misbehavior, 41:50 and although sin has weakened our minds, 41:52 it's captured our imagination, 41:53 it has not totally destroyed the image 41:56 of God in us, that is why there's the best 41:58 and the worst of us, and there is the worst 42:00 in the best of us. You are not just the link 42:06 in an evolutionary chain. You are not a neat man 42:10 in a two piece suit. My origin was not a primeval 42:16 swamp, but a perfect garden, and so was yours. 42:22 My destiny is some four by seven piece of ground 42:26 in a memorial park, it's spacious mansion 42:28 in a place called heaven and so is yours, who am I? 42:32 I'm a responsible man and so are you, 42:34 you are a responsible woman. 42:39 Every moral decision you make must be made 42:42 in the context of who you are. 42:45 My family life must be lived in the context of 42:48 who I am and my work life must be lived in the 42:51 context of who I am, my citizenship must be 42:55 lived in the context of who I am, 42:57 and specific moral issues which always dogged 43:00 the feet of moral man, my social life, 43:03 my spiritual life is lived in the context 43:05 of who I am. I am a man of God. Amen. 43:13 You are a man of God then live like it. 43:18 You are a woman of God then live like it. 43:23 Do you think Jesus would treat other 43:25 members like you who have treated them. 43:29 Do you think Jesus would sit there in Sabbath school 43:32 as if he had a superiority over the others, 43:35 as if he know more because he knew more 43:37 quotes. I'm a Christian man, that's who I am, 43:52 made in the image of God. But then comes the 43:56 question the question is this, what shall we do. 44:07 You see here comes the challenge to you and me, 44:08 the challenge to the church, 44:10 I mean it is the challenge to this Conference, 44:14 Oklahoma. To every minister, to every person, 44:18 to every teacher, to every doctor, 44:19 to every nurse, to every working man, 44:21 to every working woman, to those retirees, 44:26 go ye into all the world, go ye into the world. 44:33 See, we are not in a position to ask what shall 44:35 we do until first we have asked where is God, 44:37 and discovered who we are. George MacLeod 44:41 said this and I loved it. I am recovering 44:44 the claim that Jesus Christ was not crucified 44:47 in a Cathedral between two candles, 44:52 but on a cross between two thieves; 44:55 in a town's garbage heap; at a crossroad so 44:59 cosmopolitan, they had to write his title in 45:02 Hebrew and in Latin and in Greek at a time 45:05 and a place where cynics talk smut and thieves 45:08 cursed, and soldiers gambled, because 45:11 that is where he died. And that is what 45:13 he died about. And that is where churchmen 45:16 should be, and that's what 45:18 we should be about. I like that. 45:29 I was preaching in Lincoln, Nebraska, 45:32 and I was holding an evangelistic crusade 45:33 it was in the summer, they told me you 45:34 can't hold meetings in the summer in Nebraska. 45:37 And when I go other place, they say you can't 45:39 hold in the winter, you can't hold in the spring, 45:40 you can't hold in the fall, I don't know what 45:41 other season there is. But it was summer 45:46 in Lincoln, and they said the farmers are farming 45:47 and University is gone. So we rented a theater 45:51 and we held a meeting in spite of it. 45:55 And it was amazing, usually it doesn't happen 45:58 this way but we had double season through 46:00 the whole meeting every night. Amen. 46:02 4th of July they said maybe we should close it 46:04 down on 4th of July, we had such a crowd, 46:07 I mean and after that meeting I baptized four 46:14 young men who became ministers, 46:15 and two of them from the University in Nebraska, 46:18 summer school, amen. But anyway I baptized 46:21 a family, the Jacksons, and it was the husband, 46:26 the wife, their married daughter, her husband, 46:32 the single son and the other son and 46:35 a daughter, there were seven in that family. 46:37 I love families like that come to the meetings, 46:40 don't you, I love families like that. 46:42 I baptized, it was beautiful baptism and kind 46:45 of country folk and cowboy type folk. 46:49 Few months later I came back to the church, 46:51 because I was a member there at that church 46:52 but I was always on the road, and I came back 46:54 to Lincoln and I ran into the Jacksons just 46:56 before Thanksgiving, she said would you, 46:59 she said pastor I want to ask you a favor. 47:00 I said oh yeah. She said would you come 47:02 and spend Thanksgiving with our family. 47:06 She said, but before you answer, 47:07 I got to tell you, I said no I will come, 47:09 she said no, but before I answer, 47:10 she says we have it at my brother's bar and grill, 47:15 it's one of these Goatropers Bar and Grill, 47:17 you don't have a mechanical bow, 47:19 you have to be drunk to want to do that. 47:20 I mean you know, I mean come on. 47:23 So I said fine, we'll come, and she says my 47:26 brother is not a Christian and I want to someway 47:29 influence him, and will you come in. 47:31 I said we'll come, and my family will come 47:33 and so I waited for my family to get home. 47:36 My son was the first to come in, 47:37 he was by then he was a ministerial student 47:40 at Lincoln, he came in. I said son we're 47:44 going to the Jacksons for Thanksgiving. 47:46 He says oh that's great and I named it the 47:49 Goatroper Bar and Grill. He says dad I've never 47:51 been in a bar you know, good Adventist boy. 47:55 I said good, because if you're going to be in one, 47:57 I want you to be with me. He says well dad 48:01 you know how we eat, yeah and we train 48:04 them that way. I said son, don't worry about it, 48:07 eat under it, eat over it, eat around it. 48:16 And then my daughter came back, 48:17 she was a spiritual Vice President of our academy, 48:18 and I said we're going to Jacksons, 48:21 her eyes lit up because they had a nice looking 48:22 boy about her age and she says oh I'm looking 48:25 forward to that Thanksgiving. 48:27 I said honey but we're going to the Goatroper 48:28 Bar and Grill. She says well daddy I've never 48:31 been in a bar. I said I know if you're gonna 48:32 be there, I want you to be with me. 48:36 She went daddy, they went through the same 48:37 Adventist thing you know. Well daddy you know 48:40 yeah we eat up around and over it and through it, 48:44 whatever. So we drove to the Goatroper Bar 48:50 and Grill Thanksgiving, I drove in the parking lot 48:53 and looked both ways, hoped no deacons 48:55 were going by. Hustled my family into the 49:00 Goatroper Bar and Grill, you know well you 49:03 don't know but let me just clue you they always 49:05 keep it dark in the bar, they don't want you 49:08 to see what a fool you are, 49:10 I mean that's the whole, that's the point. 49:14 I don't like these dark churches, I like light. 49:16 Jesus is the light of the world, 49:18 I like this lit up place, but anyway I settled 49:22 them in and the food came, 49:25 and my son looked at me, my daughter said 49:27 just eat, over it. I notice standing at the bar 49:35 one of these Goatropers cowboy hat on you know 49:38 looking very intelligent. When I first went south 49:45 I go visiting and I come home with all the freckles 49:48 all over my face, and I didn't realize what it was, 49:51 and I was downwind and so I finally learned 49:54 how to be up wind when I made visits in 49:56 certain areas, so I kind of got upwind at the 49:59 bar and moseyed up to the bar and said 50:03 I'll have a Sarsaparilla and barkeep said who 50:11 are you? I said I'm Ron Halvorsen. 50:15 He said who is Ron Halvorsen? 50:16 I said I'm the evangelist you know that 50:18 there's your sweet sister over there and so 50:21 would you baptize her, oh you're him, 50:24 oh you're him, I don't like preachers. 50:26 I said good because there was a time 50:28 I didn't like preachers. He said what? 50:31 You're a preacher. I said yeah, 50:32 but there was a time I didn't like preachers, 50:36 would you like me to tell you. He said yeah, 50:40 I had him. By the way two strongest tools 50:46 you have is your testimony and your prayer life, 50:53 two things. And so he said yeah and I shared 50:58 Jesus Christ that changed my life. 51:01 My son was eating around, and under it, 51:03 and over it, and I shared faith. I led him to 51:09 Christ there at the bar. I said would you like 51:12 to pray the sinner's prayer. He said in a bar. 51:17 You don't have to tell him it's wrong, 51:18 the Holy Spirit does that? 51:19 You see the great problem with the church 51:22 you don't want to catch fish, you want to clean 51:24 them. Oh come on now, you don't want to 51:29 catch them, you want to clean them. 51:32 Let the Holy Spirit do the cleaning, 51:33 you do the catching, alright. 51:35 But anyway led him to Jesus sinner's prayer. 51:39 Two weeks later he sold the bar, amen, 51:45 sold the, that's what we should be about, 51:49 what shall we do? Listen to what we shall do; 51:53 we shall renew our vows to God. 51:59 We shall not forsake the assembling of ourselves 52:01 together as a matter of some, what shall we do? 52:04 We shall be stewards of all that God has given us 52:06 and not complain about it. Church always 52:09 asking for money, don't you understand the 52:12 principle, the more you give the more 52:15 he gives back, amen. We shall preach the gospel 52:20 and not play cheap politics. We shall not winch 52:26 against the scandal of the Cross, 52:28 we shall be swimmers against the tide. 52:30 We shall die for the cause of Christ, 52:33 if that's what it takes to usher in the 52:35 Kingdom of God. We shall uplift the Cross, amen, 52:42 the Savior and he shall chase away the darkness 52:52 of social ill, divorce abortion on demand, 52:57 violence, crime, immorality. It's amazing, we get 53:03 so anxious about the Sabbath and Sunday law 53:09 when millions of babies are being aborted, 53:12 killed before they're even born. 53:15 The Church remains silent almost. 53:21 We shall set up a Cross on the main street 53:23 in every city in Oklahoma. For he shall chase away 53:28 the darkness of legalism that stifles the Church 53:30 or antinomianism that kills the spirit and humanism 53:35 that kills the body and communism and all 53:37 other isms. What shall we do church? 53:40 We shall work together unselfishly, 53:42 in humility for the good of the laws. 53:44 We shall proclaim with reason for which we exist. 53:47 We shall be a light in a dark world. 53:49 We shall be the soul to the red meat 53:51 of the word of Godless, the maggots and vermin 53:54 infested and ruining it. We shall stand in the 54:00 word of God. We showered here to the word 54:04 of God, and we shall live according to the word 54:08 of God. What shall we do, we shall support God 54:15 in our prayer life, in our Bible study, 54:17 in our worship, in our witness, 54:19 I mean in evangelism, we shall put away our 54:21 pettiness and we shall work together 54:22 for the good of lost men and women. 54:25 We shall, I tell you we shall get out of our 54:27 churches, out into the streets and the prisons, 54:29 and the nursing homes in the neighborhood, 54:30 and we shall feed the hungry, 54:32 care for the dying and heal the broken heart 54:34 and set at liberty is what kept them, 54:36 we shall stop singing far away from the noise 54:40 of strife upon my ear is falling. 54:45 We shall stop singing, safe am I within the 54:49 castle of God's word retreating. And 54:52 we shall start singing rescue the perishing, 54:56 care for the dying, snatch them in pity from 55:00 sitting from the grave, telling in song, 55:03 and in word and in deed that God lives and God 55:07 is coming again in power, amen. What 55:10 shall we do, we shall raise again the cross 55:13 on mainstream. For this is where God is, 55:16 and this is who we are, and this is what we 55:19 must do. We are waiting for the crowds 55:22 to come to our church. Give up on that. 55:27 Its time for the church to go to the crowd. 55:32 I was always praying you know they send me 55:35 to difficult places I told you that, 55:37 I just keep reminding you. But I was always 55:41 praying that God will send me in a nice place 55:44 O'Ffill I was praying, God please send me 55:46 to a nice place. One day I got a telephone call 55:49 and a friend of mine, Lynn Martel calls me up 55:52 and he says I'm president over here in Hawaii 55:54 would you like to come and hold a crusade 55:56 in Hawaii. I said let me pray about it, 55:58 thank you Jesus. I mean that was one of those 56:03 instant answers you know to come. 56:07 I said honey, start packing we're going to Hawaii. 56:09 Yes, after much prayer, thank you, we will come. 56:17 I've written a book on prayer warfare and by 56:19 that time I was deep into prayer walking 56:21 and teaching principle study, 56:23 at least I was beginning to grasp the true 56:25 meaning of taking cities back for God according 56:28 to Joshua motto. And so flying across, 56:31 I was reading about it and praying, 56:32 reading the story of Joshua, 56:34 and landed in Hawaii, and get ready for the 56:37 meeting, and my wife said honey, 56:39 can we go shopping? She is from Venus, 56:41 and I'm from Mars. Could we go shopping 56:43 in the International Mall down in Waikiki, 56:46 and it's a nice place really, from the islands 56:49 they make it all these nice things you know, 56:51 so I sent my wife and I said well I'm going 56:55 to try these principles, I'm going to use these 56:57 principles of walking and praying. 57:01 And so I was walking the street and I noticed 57:03 on every corner a prostitute, 57:06 and by the way you look at prostitutes different, 57:09 when you become a Christian you don't see 57:12 a piece of merchandise, you should see 57:14 someone's daughter, it could be your daughter 57:17 say for the grace of God. 57:20 So my heart was broken as I thought about 57:21 these little girls, and I said Jesus, 57:23 I said I'm walking now, you said where ever 57:26 the souls of my feet touch you'll give me that, 57:29 and I prayed to God I said I want you to 57:30 touch the heart of a street walker here 57:33 on that avenues, I can't even pronounce it. 57:40 So every Thursday I said honey, 57:41 don't you want to go to shopping? 57:43 She was amazed, so I sent her shopping, 57:48 get little things for the kids, grand kids, 57:52 and I walked the street and I prayed. 57:54 I said God before this meeting is over 57:55 I want you to touch some street walker here 57:59 and save her like you did Mary Magdalene, 58:02 and I quoted scripture and did what you do 58:04 when you're on a prayer walk, 58:06 I walked the perimeters. Came the meeting 58:09 time we are preaching and at the end 58:11 of that meeting we baptized over two hundred 58:13 in that church in Waihou. And after the meeting 58:19 that last night, a woman came up to me 58:21 and says, pastor can I speak to you? 58:23 I said yes, I love to talk to you. 58:25 We sat down and she said you know 58:26 I was in the baptism. I said I know you were 58:28 in my class, and my baptism class. 58:31 It's beautiful to see you now as a child of God. 58:34 She says pastor I wanted to let you know 58:35 before these meetings started I was a 58:37 street walker. Amen. And I said where? 58:46 And she named the very street where 58:51 I had been walking. Amen. Sunshine. 58:55 I got a letter from Sunshine about 58:57 six months later, a year later, said, 59:01 dear pastor Halvorsen. I'm stronger in faith. 59:05 My little child is in church school, 59:08 and I just met and married a beautiful 59:10 Christian man, and I am so happy 59:15 and I'm so happy. I'm so happy. |
Revised 2014-12-17