Participants:
Series Code: OTR
Program Code: OTR001047A
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01:01 So it's good to be with you, it's exciting to be here.
01:04 Hopefully this, this day I'm going to share 01:07 a lot of things with you. 01:08 Sorry, I couldn't have been here last night. 01:11 But it seems like a few things that went on 01:13 God wanted me to wait until today. 01:16 So as they say some time 01:18 I'm going to dump the whole load on you today 01:20 over, over a few hours, the next session, 01:22 and then in this afternoon too. 01:24 If it's okay with you, I'll kind of combine 01:26 a couple of, a couple of meetings into one 01:30 but make a little bit shorter for you also. 01:33 And then my brother over here, he was kind enough to give, 01:36 even give me a pair of shoes so I didn't wear my tennis shoes 01:38 on the stage, you know, so it-- 01:41 And normal I would wear a pink 01:44 kind of a pinky soaring shirt. 01:48 What colors is it? Salmon. 01:50 Salmon, there you go, there it takes a lady to tell me 01:52 what color my shirt is. 01:54 And so, you know, kind of the salmon color 01:57 I wouldn't normally do that but it was the only shirt 01:59 I knew that I had that was wrinkle free 02:01 and I could jam it up in my little carry on bag. 02:04 Because I didn't know, as some of you know 02:06 I didn't know if I was going to make connect 02:09 with my luggage in Atlanta but praise God I did. 02:11 So it's there, been crushed up 02:13 for a couple days so I'll take a peek at it tomorrow. 02:17 But it is good to be with you, it's exciting to be with you 02:20 because we live in exciting times, don't we? 02:24 I believe with all of my heart that God is coming soon. 02:26 There is no doubt. 02:28 You can't pick up the newspaper, 02:30 you can't turn on television you can't look around the world 02:34 and say that something is happening. 02:37 Even people who don't believe it all and God say, 02:39 "There is something going on here." 02:42 And it's kind of amazing but, you know, 02:43 I didn't always believe like that at all. 02:46 Matter of fact, I didn't believe in God at all. 02:50 I could care less, in high school, you know, 02:53 in high school I was a pretty good kid, 02:55 matter of fact, I got A's and B's I graduated with honors. 03:00 And I worked a lot. 03:02 I had a full time job, matter of fact, 03:03 I had one of the hottest cars and in the school. 03:06 Everybody thought certainly, my parents 03:08 were the ones that must have been giving me a lot of money. 03:11 No, my parents used to borrow some money 03:13 from me but I worked all the time. 03:17 But then while I was working doing this wonderful job, 03:21 it was for PepsiCo bottling company 03:23 and, you know, I drink a couple of six packs of soda a day, 03:27 it's amazing and I can even have a tooth in my head today. 03:30 A couple of six packs of soda, but then they also had a beer 03:34 and wine distributorship 03:36 and there's where I kind of started going astray. 03:40 I used to sneak a lot of beer and wine all the time. 03:45 And then after a while that wasn't enough 03:47 and I started into drugs and boy, 03:50 I really enjoyed the drugs. 03:52 One night, I was sitting in a tiny room, 03:54 my little-- this room wasn't any bigger 03:56 than a spot right up here. 03:58 Sitting in that room, lit up a joint and woof, 04:02 all of a sudden the whole room expanded 04:05 in this huge auditorium. 04:07 It was a basketball size auditorium 04:09 and there was God and the devil sitting down at the bottom 04:12 and I didn't need any introduction. 04:14 I knew who they were. 04:15 I was sitting clear up on the top of the bleachers 04:17 and I was listening to them. 04:18 And all the arguments that the devil would use to, 04:22 to tell God that I was his, 04:25 well, they were the same arguments that I had used 04:27 to turn everybody on to drugs. 04:29 You know, come on it'll, it'll make you like God, 04:32 you know, it will lift you up to higher existence 04:34 and you, you need to do this. 04:36 I heard a lot of these interesting things. 04:39 But God would say something 04:40 and the devil would have to shut up, immediately silenced. 04:44 I could never hear what God was saying but he'd have to. 04:49 And then another argument. 04:51 God would say something, silence again. 04:54 This went back and forth, back and forth 04:56 and finally it was over wham, 04:58 I'm back in my little tiny postage stamp bedroom 05:02 and no, everybody's gone. 05:05 It's just me and I'm stone cold sober 05:07 and straight and I'm going. 05:09 What just happened, I prided myself 05:11 I could handle any kind of drug, 05:12 I could take anything. 05:14 Some of my friends they may flip out, 05:15 they may go crazy no, no, no, no not me. 05:18 Man, I could handle it all. I could handle it all. 05:21 And just the way I'm talking with you right now, 05:24 all of a sudden in a moment there's a voice. 05:26 This voice said "Jim, you have a short time to decide." 05:31 Decide what? I had no idea. 05:33 But every time I would get loaded, 05:35 every single time, which was every day, 05:38 voice said, "Jim you have a short time-- 05:41 short time to decide." 05:42 Why? It started driving me crazy. 05:44 It bothered me so much 05:46 I couldn't have any fun anymore. 05:48 I finally quit. 05:50 Well, what do I do now? 05:53 Maybe I'll call up my parents, I hadn't called up my folks 05:55 in long time, didn't want to talk to them. 05:57 Call them up said, 05:59 "Hey, do you mind if I come home for a little while?" 06:00 I thought that's cheaper rent, right? 06:03 Free rent and my mom said, "Sure." 06:07 They love me so much, they said, 06:08 "Yeah, come, come on home, come on home." 06:11 Now I had, I had kind of 06:12 a qualification to me coming home. 06:15 You see, I wanted my dog. 06:17 Well, let me, let me tell you something 06:19 before I tell you what I want to my dog to do. 06:21 My mother was such a fastidious lady 06:24 that if somebody would flick an ash on the ashtray 06:27 I swear she would clean it out 06:29 between the flick and the ashtray. 06:31 That's how, that's how she was with, 06:33 meticulous and all of her cleaning. 06:35 And I wanted my dog to come with me 06:37 and come home and had to eat at the dinner table with me. 06:42 You know, my folks love me so much they said, 06:44 "Yeah, it's okay." 06:47 It was amazing. 06:49 Well, I went home I moved in for a while 06:51 and, you know, I said, I wasn't going to do any more drugs 06:55 but after a few months went by it just started tearing me up. 06:59 I wanted something so badly 07:01 and you see, that's the way it is in life. 07:03 Without the power of God, you have no willpower, 07:09 you have no real anchor to stop you from doing anything 07:12 because the devil will drag you deeper and deeper and deeper. 07:19 Well, I thought. It's okay to go to the bar. 07:22 So I took off to the bar. 07:24 That the bar guy walks into the bar 07:26 and the old saying says, it takes one to know one. 07:29 Guy walks in and said he's packing. 07:31 He's packing. 07:33 He says, "I need a ride to the next town." 07:34 I said, "Hey, I'll take you." 07:36 We went out the car, got in the car, 07:38 he pulls out a joint out of his pocket said, 07:39 "Would you like a joint?" 07:41 I had it out of his hand and in my mouth 07:42 so fast he didn't even have time to say anything. 07:45 And no voice, no voice. Well, man, this was great. 07:50 I just started getting loaded all the time again. 07:55 And then I met a nice young lady. 07:59 She was so sweet, she was so kind, 08:03 and she would never do anything like that until she met me. 08:08 Until she met somebody that had all the arguments of the death 08:13 and again, she was not a Christian. 08:16 Christians are the only ones that could be anchored 08:18 in the power of Jesus Christ to keep you 08:21 from doing things that the devil 08:22 whispers in your ear to do. 08:26 We begin getting loaded all the time. 08:29 And pretty soon we got married. We had a child. 08:33 One night I was in Sacramento, California. 08:35 And partying up with all my buddies, 08:38 I got so loaded, my wife had to drive home. 08:41 I couldn't even drive home, we get home. 08:44 She's changing the baby on the kitchen table, 08:47 it's small house, small house. 08:50 And I walked into the other room 08:52 and all of a sudden there's the voice, 08:55 "Jim, you need to make up your mind now 09:00 tonight is your last night to decide." 09:04 Wow, now I want to put a little hiatus in here, 09:09 a little break for just a moment 09:10 and explain something to you. 09:13 From the time that the voice said, 09:14 "Jim, you have a short time to decide." 09:17 Now if I told you that, what would you think? 09:20 You've got a short time to decide. 09:21 Well, you might think. 09:22 Well, of a day or two and a week, 09:25 outside maybe a couple weeks, right? 09:29 But this was-- I didn't even realize this 09:32 and never even thought about until 09:34 I was writing a book called "Second Chance," 09:35 which is kind of a life story. 09:37 It was two years, it was a two year timeframe 09:41 before God said this is your last night to decide. 09:44 We do serve an amazing loving God who loves us so much. 09:47 He wants to call us. 09:49 He continues to call, and nurture, 09:51 and woo us to His side. 09:53 He gives us a lot of time. 09:55 But don't think that that time is just, 09:58 you know, you can continue to do 10:01 something for ever and ever because at that night. 10:04 there was a crossroads of eternity. 10:06 This way lead to eternal damnation 10:08 and this way lead to eternal life. 10:10 It was very plain, it was very simple. 10:13 I walked into the bedroom, I grabbed 10:16 all my drugs out of the drawer, 10:18 I came back walked into the kitchen said, 10:20 "Honey, I got to get rid of all this." 10:22 Well, by this time she's loaded. 10:23 She just kind of smiles, said okay. 10:26 And I walked in the bathroom 10:28 and I flushed everything down the toilet. 10:31 Now let me tell you something 10:32 I'd flush stuff down the toilet before. 10:34 But it was what I thought the cops 10:36 were knocking at the door. 10:37 This was different. 10:39 The moment I flushed the handle, 10:41 it was like this huge weight was lifted off my shoulders 10:44 a weight, I wasn't aware I even had. 10:49 Let me tell you something this is the way 10:50 it is with the devil, you make no mistake about it. 10:54 It-- wherever you're viewing this 10:55 or where you're watching today make no mistake about this. 10:57 The devil takes sin and he puts it on just one little grain, 11:01 one little grain of sand one little green a sin 11:04 at a time and pretty soon, you know, 11:06 you're walking around like this. 11:08 And all of a sudden, this is normal life. 11:11 You think, oh, man, I've got such a good life, 11:13 you know, this is just a wonderful life 11:16 and that's just what the devil does. 11:21 But all of a sudden when that happened it was like this 11:24 monster weight was lifted off my shoulders. 11:28 And I was down there, 11:29 grabbing hold of that cold white porcelain toilet bowl 11:32 just crying my eyes out. 11:35 It was so wonderful and I turned 11:36 and there was Janine standing in the doorway. 11:39 She was crying too. 11:40 God had touched her at the same time. 11:43 I got up and I said, "Honey, would you join me in a prayer." 11:48 And we walked down in the other room and it was really simple. 11:52 I just said, "God, I'm sorry it took so long. 11:57 I'm sorry it took so long." 11:58 But for God, I believe the angels 12:00 were rejoicing over that moment, over that prayer. 12:03 God will rejoice in your life 12:05 when you give your heart fully and completely to God. 12:08 That's what He's calling each one of you too, 12:10 is to turn your life fully and completely over to Him. 12:15 Well, we've kind of around home for a week or two, 12:19 you know, and say, "Well, now what do we do?" 12:23 Well, I guess we're Christians. Maybe we ought to go to church. 12:26 So we said, "Well, with the guy that married us, 12:29 we'll go to his church and I'm not going to share 12:31 with you what church that was 12:32 because you'll see in a minute why. 12:35 But we begin going to his church and week after, 12:38 week after, week after, week, he said the same thing. 12:42 There was nothing anything ever anything new. 12:44 I wanted something that'll sink my teeth into. 12:46 The Holy Spirit was working in my life and I was, 12:48 I was wanting something to grab a hold of. 12:50 And nothing, always the same. 12:52 About ready to quit church, 12:54 and they invited us to go to dinner with them. 12:57 Now I know this going to sound crazy to you guys 12:59 but man, I thought this is like going out to dinner with God. 13:04 We got so excited, you know, 13:05 we went out to dinner with them. 13:07 Now everybody's still drinking a little wine and things 13:09 are so they're ordering another bottle of wine, 13:11 and another bottle, and another bottle. 13:13 And after a little bit, the wife starts 13:15 using four letter words. 13:18 Well, now my wife and I hadn't been married too long 13:20 but we already had the non-verbal communication going. 13:23 And for those you're married, you know, what that is. 13:25 I looked at my wife, my wife looked at me 13:27 and we thought, this is not the way a Christian talks. 13:31 And about that moment I got up, 13:33 went to the bar with the fellow, 13:35 he said, "Tell me." 13:37 I said, "What does the Bible talk about marijuana?" 13:41 Oh, Jim, Jim, said, 13:42 "Everything, everything is done in moderation." 13:46 That was it. That was the last moment. 13:48 I knew there's no such thing as moderation. 13:51 In the United States right now, you can see what's happening 13:54 these states that are making marijuana legal. 13:57 Let me tell you it's the do nothing drug. 13:59 It's the do nothing drug 14:00 because when I used to be a type Triple A personality 14:04 and engaged in all these things, 14:06 and for years it just took me right down 14:08 to all I wanted to do is get loaded. 14:11 Nothing else. 14:13 And they're starting to see these kind of things happen 14:15 more and more and more. 14:17 But it's the devil's counterfeit 14:19 to the tree of life. 14:21 Don't, don't get involved in any of these things. 14:24 God's way is so amazing, it's so wonderful. 14:30 Well, I was trying to study the Bible a little bit. 14:34 It was starting to make some sense to me now. 14:36 One day I'm sitting home, and I see on television, 14:39 here comes this big beautiful ad, 14:41 "The Bible unfolded in living color. 14:44 Your children will love this multi-volume set." 14:46 They went on and on and on I picked up the phone 14:48 and called and said I want to order it. 14:51 And after a couple weeks it came 14:52 and I put it up on the bookshelf. 14:54 And this was cool. 14:55 This was great you know, I didn't want my son going 14:58 through all the stuff I'd gone through. 15:01 And a couple weeks later I thought 15:02 maybe I'd open one of these and just see what it's like. 15:05 So I opened one. 15:07 Wow, this was good stuff it was written for children 15:10 and that's exactly what my experience was right then. 15:13 It was written on my level. 15:15 And I was eating it up and I was studying the Bible 15:17 and I had these open I'm going back and forth and. 15:20 And I'm still looking for a church 15:22 and I'm still church hunting. 15:24 Well, I ended up in one particular church on, 15:26 on a prayer meeting night. 15:28 And they believe that you're going to burn forever in hell 15:31 if you don't follow God. 15:32 So I'm asking the members tell me, 15:34 "Come on now, come on, show me, show me from God's word, 15:37 where does it say you're going to burn 15:38 in hell forever and ever?" 15:41 They ignored me. 15:42 Somebody else, come on, come on now 15:43 tell me I'm not the one to be denied. 15:45 I said, "Come on show me from God's word. 15:47 Somebody in this room, where is it that say, 15:50 'You're going to burn forever and ever in hell?'" 15:52 I broke up prayer meeting. 15:54 Everybody quit early and left. That was their answer. 15:59 Went to the pastor's house next morning. 16:00 "Pastor, everybody in church, 16:02 they couldn't answer my question. 16:03 Please answer my question. Show me from God's word alone." 16:06 "Jim, Jim, Jim, Jim, look, look, look. 16:10 God gave me a vision. 16:11 On the side were all those are burning in hell forever 16:14 and on this side were all the saved for eternity. 16:17 You just ought to go find another church." 16:20 That was his answer. He kicked me out of church. 16:24 Oh, man, I'm going, okay. 16:27 Well, I'm feeling really kind of down 16:29 about all this now, you know, 16:30 and the next day I had a really bad toothache. 16:33 Called up the dentist right across the street 16:35 because I heard he was a real religious nut. 16:39 "Can you get me in?" "Yeah, I can get you in." 16:41 Went over and I kind of made a mistake because you know, 16:44 you ask a dentist a question. 16:46 I don't know if there's any dentist in here today 16:47 but dentist, I like dentists if I'm just friends with them 16:50 but I don't like to be anywhere around them 16:53 if they're practicing on me. 16:55 But I said, "Tell me doctor, everybody in town says 16:58 you're religious nut. 16:59 What do you believe? 17:00 Man, shuts everything in there for 45 minutes, 17:04 he's talking and talking and of course, 17:06 he asked questions too. 17:07 How do you ever answer when you can't talk. 17:10 Never understood that. 17:12 But the thing this man is saying it's amazing. 17:14 It's absolutely amazing. He's going on and on. 17:17 It's like he's got a checklist of every question 17:19 I had in my mind. 17:21 When he's done. 17:22 I said, "Doctor, what church do you go to?" 17:25 Oh, he says, "I'm a Seventh-day Adventist." 17:26 Oh, I've heard of these crazy people before. 17:29 I want nothing to do with them. 17:32 Well, I guess you could see the look on my face, 17:34 I didn't hide it too well. 17:36 And, hence, "Yeah, if you get an opportunity," 17:38 he said, "Come some time." 17:39 He said we meet on Saturday. 17:42 Saturday. Saturday. 17:45 Yeah, he said this Saturday, the seventh day of the week. 17:49 Now my wife and I had just been arguing 17:52 over what day was the seventh day Sabbath 17:55 and what day we should keep. 17:57 And I knew my wife couldn't be right 17:59 because she said all I got to do is look at the calendar 18:02 and the seventh day of the week 18:03 and that's the day we should keep 18:04 and I knew she was crazy. 18:07 I can say that she's you know, 18:09 about 10,000 miles away right now. 18:12 No, I say it to her. I share it with her. 18:14 But, well, this is strange. 18:17 Now we had a business at the time 18:18 it's called Jungle Gems. 18:19 We sold exotic animals all over the Western United States, 18:22 wolves and cougars and Malayan sun bears 18:25 and the Agoutis and grisons and cockatoos. 18:27 And all these, all these goodies. 18:30 And so I said one day, 18:31 "Honey, would you run the store? 18:33 I want to go to check out this church." 18:35 "Sure." 18:36 Took my notepad I figured, I proved every other 18:39 preacher wrong, I'm going to get this one too. 18:42 And I kind of went there a little arrogantly 18:44 and sat down and guess what, this guy, his message, 18:48 "The seventh day Sabbath." 18:51 I took lots of notes. 18:53 Soon as it was done, I went to library. 18:54 I started studying everything 18:56 I could find on the on the change of the, the, you know, 18:59 the calendar, the sun, the moon, the stars. 19:02 I mean, I looked up, everything I possibly could. 19:04 And I can prove him wrong. I went back the next week. 19:07 Still a pencil and paper and guess what, 19:09 part two of the Sabbath. 19:12 I took more notes. I couldn't prove him wrong. 19:16 I went the next week and the next week finally my wife said, 19:18 "Aren't you going to invite me to that church?" 19:20 And well, to be honest with you, 19:23 by this time I'm feeling kind of like this is my church. 19:25 But I feeling little bit bad about it 19:27 because the, the paint is peeling off the walls, 19:31 the tiles are popping off, off the floor 19:33 and I mean, place was a dump. 19:36 It was a dump. 19:37 So I really built up the bad stuff to my wife, 19:39 you know, in a pretty good salesman. 19:40 I built up all the really bad stuff to my wife 19:43 and then took her and it wasn't quite as bad, 19:46 you know, so she felt a little better about it 19:47 but she leans over to me service times says, 19:49 "Yeah, I see what you're saying." 19:53 And a couple weeks we said, 19:55 "Well, why don't we do something about it?" 19:57 So we decided soon a service was over one day. 20:00 I paced off the bill and I've got a pretty good 20:02 three foot pace, so I guess would be a-- 20:05 do you-- metric system here or metric, okay. 20:08 Well, I don't have quite that pace, same pace maybe. 20:13 But and I took really good notes. 20:16 We went home and at the lumberyard, 20:18 that week, they had a sale. 20:20 Now this is really going to date me 20:21 some of you won't even know what I'm talking about. 20:24 But they had four by eight sheets 20:26 a really nice wood paneling for sale. 20:30 And I bought enough wood paneling 20:32 for that whole sanctuary. 20:34 And then I had a friend of mine. 20:35 You've seen him in Star Wars 20:37 and some other things he's a little person. 20:39 He is a good friend, I got him on Friday night after sundown, 20:44 total darkness, we snuck out to the church. 20:47 And we piled all that paneling 20:49 in front of the big old double doors. 20:51 And then a put a hammer a nail there too 20:52 and then I typed the message, "My dear children. 20:55 I have grown this wood in my forest. 20:57 Adorn the walls of my sanctuary. 20:59 Please place it there with loving care." 21:01 Signed, "Your savior Jesus." 21:02 And I signed it. And I pinned it on the door. 21:07 And then we made sure we came a little late on Sabbath. 21:10 Nobody said a word. All the paneling on the side. 21:13 Next week, nobody says a word. Next week, nobody says a word. 21:16 Finally I can stand it. I asked the elder. 21:18 "Where did all this paneling come from? 21:20 He says, "We don't know but he says, 21:21 "I'll tell you, little old Bessy, 21:23 who was the pillar of the church, 21:24 every church as a pillar, right. 21:26 Little old Bessy was so mad that somebody dare 21:29 put the name of Jesus Christ. 21:31 And sign it, "The Jesus." 21:34 You know, she died before I ever got to tell her 21:35 who actually did that. 21:37 Well, I tell her in Heaven, right. 21:39 But finally, I said, 21:42 "Well, aren't you going to do something with it?" 21:44 He said, "Well, how about will make you 21:46 head of the building committee." 21:48 We weren't even church members. I said, yeah, sounds good. 21:50 And, you know, God blessed 21:52 I don't have time this morning to share with you 21:53 a lot of that but God blessed so much it was amazing. 21:56 Somebody moved in said 21:57 God is impressed us to put a new carpet. 21:59 Somebody else, we want to help with a light, 22:01 somebody else with all the drapes. 22:03 And in no time we had the most gorgeous looking sanctuary. 22:07 God will do those kind of things, you know, for you, 22:10 for your family, for your church 22:11 as you step out for Him. 22:13 As you go and do for Him. 22:16 Well, I felt a call to ministry 22:19 and after, after about three years 22:22 I felt really call to ministry. 22:24 And at that time I thought everybody 22:26 within the church is sowing their ascension robe. 22:28 Now I don't know if you know what that means here 22:30 but, you know, the-- they, they thought I just thought 22:33 everybody walked on water 22:34 who came into the Seventh-day Adventist Church. 22:38 You know, I've grown up a little since then. 22:40 But unfortunately, it should be true but it's not always true. 22:45 Your, your name on the church rolls 22:47 does not mean your name is on the rolls of heaven. 22:50 This fellow by, I handed him the keys 22:53 to my business to a beautiful three story home on five acres. 22:58 I said send me the money when it closes. 23:00 And we took off to school. 23:03 While we're at school the Lord blessed greatly 23:04 I even got an A in Greek. 23:06 It was amazing. 23:07 It was only God because the first day 23:08 I sat in that class with tears coming down eyes, 23:11 I thought what am I doing here. 23:12 What am I doing here? 23:14 But anyway we ended up needing to go home 23:16 and rescue our business, rescue the whole thing. 23:21 And an interesting thing had occurred. 23:24 See all this time for the several years, 23:27 I was studying God's word all the time, 23:29 I mean, I was deeply in study, a great deal of the time. 23:32 I would get up at five o'clock in the morning 23:34 and go out in the woods and sit out there and pray 23:37 and talk with the Lord 23:38 for an hour or two hours sometimes. 23:41 And, and I really, you may think it sounds funny 23:44 but I could hear the voice of the Lord. 23:47 I would submit to you today if you can't hear the voice 23:50 of Jesus Christ saying 23:51 "This is the way walk ye in it." 23:54 Then you've got a problem 23:55 with the very core of your Christianity 23:57 because Jesus said, "My sheep, hear my voice." 24:01 Right, if you can hear God's voice in your life, 24:03 then you've got a problem. 24:05 And I begin having a problem 24:06 because I went to school to become a pastor 24:09 and I quit studying. 24:11 Oh, sure, I studied for, for the exams 24:13 and that kind of thing. 24:14 I quit praying to God and when I got home 24:17 I had a call from the Conference president, 24:19 he said, "Jim, we'd like you to pastor 24:21 the brand new church we just built." 24:22 It was in a ski area, I love skiing. 24:25 It was wonderful. 24:26 And I looked at my, by this time 24:28 my two children my wife, myself and I said no. 24:32 The very call, I'd had of my life and I said no. 24:39 The next day a guy came into the office 24:41 and he was in real estate said, 24:43 "Jim, I'd like you to start with me in real estate. 24:45 I'm starting a brand new real estate office." 24:47 I said, sure. 24:49 My wife worked our other business 24:50 I went into real estate. 24:51 I became so successful in real estate, it was unreal. 24:55 Houses and lands and everything was going amazingly. 24:59 I was-- ended up in the top four percent 25:01 of all the Coldwell banker agents 25:02 in all the North America. 25:04 That's pretty high up in, in things-- I was having. 25:08 I was having 100 listings at a time. 25:12 And on and on and on and on. I had my own radio talk show. 25:16 I lobbied on Capitol Hill in Washington D.C. 25:19 rubbing shoulders with the Congressman and the Senators. 25:22 I was a power player. 25:24 I was on television doing those things. 25:26 I wrote a column for a newspaper. 25:29 My wife had another company also. 25:32 As the world looks at success, 25:35 we were extremely successful, extremely successful. 25:40 One day sitting in the church, looking cool, paying tithe, 25:44 doing all the right things. 25:46 Matter of fact, still going out and preaching. 25:47 But I'll tell you preaching 25:49 without the power of the Holy Spirit 25:50 and there's a huge difference. 25:53 Jim, the Holy Spirit may be poured out all around you, 25:58 you're never going to recognize it or receive it. 26:02 And I realize at that moment 26:04 and had God decided to come at that time 26:06 I was lost, eternally lost. 26:09 And that's what I've shared with you, you know, 26:11 you can be sitting in this church 26:12 and unless you have a friendship and relationship 26:15 with Jesus Christ, you can be lost. 26:18 You can do a lost. 26:19 I went to a friend and said, "Man, got to do something." 26:23 He said, "Yeah, I'm feeling the same way." 26:25 Well, we ended up, we started a study 26:29 and in this study the first night 26:30 I got there, you had to sign. 26:33 You had the sign and commit 45 minutes a day in prayer 26:36 and study with God. 26:38 Forty five minutes a day. I'm too important for that. 26:41 I don't have time for that. 26:43 I've got this to do, I got that to do, 26:44 I got to earn this, I got go do that. 26:47 I can't do it. Everybody else sign not me. 26:50 We continue on as the evening goes on. 26:52 It's all times almost up they plug in a video, 26:55 turn off the lights that preachers preaching just to me, 26:58 "You Jim, you piled up so much stuff 27:00 in the front of your door, 27:02 if God calls you to go on mission for Him, 27:03 you can't even get to the door to answer." 27:07 Tears coming down my eyes 27:09 hurry and wipe them out they turn on the lights again. 27:12 Everybody else walking on 27:13 and I'm still look in that book. 27:15 And finally I signed it. 27:18 Let me tell you, that was my second 27:19 toilet bowl experience. 27:21 It was all of a sudden I realize 27:23 same thing had happened over time. 27:25 In a new direction. 27:27 I wasn't a drug dealer any longer 27:28 but I was a dealer, a dealer of power and money 27:30 and all these things. 27:32 And the devil just dropped stuff on my shoulders again. 27:34 Here I was, going around thinking 27:37 life was grand life was wonderful, 27:39 the world thought I was good 27:41 and all of sudden when I signed 27:43 that God just lifted all that off my shoulders again. 27:47 And I went home and guess what I had the time. 27:50 I found the time to spend that 45 minutes a day in prayer 27:53 and study and more. 27:54 Because the first thing I did, is went home and I got rid off 27:56 all the premium four letter word channels on television. 28:01 And some of your probably know what I'm talking about. 28:03 And I began having that time in God's Word that time of study. 28:08 And it got so exciting, it was so wonderful, 28:10 I would wake up in the mornings and I'd pray and study 28:13 and I look and I would say 28:14 "God, I want to reach the world for You. 28:17 Lord, please help me reach the world for You." 28:21 I had no idea how God would even answer that prayer. 28:26 Well, we're sitting in church one Sabbath 28:29 as we're having this wonderful experience with the Lord 28:31 now and I mean, I wasn't totally grown up. 28:34 I was on the way and I'm sitting there thinking, 28:36 you know, if we sell everything we've got, 28:38 man, we can move down the Costa Rica. 28:41 We can have a maiden, a servant, 28:42 a gardener and a chef and, you know, 28:45 on and on and on we can live in style. 28:47 About that moment Lord said, 28:49 "Jim, you need to do something for me this year." 28:53 Oh, I got out the car. 28:57 Told my wife what was going on, she said, 28:58 "Yeah, Lord was telling me the same thing." 29:00 I just praise God that God was able to speak to both of us 29:03 at the same time. 29:04 And reaches together and said, "Well, what do we do?" 29:10 Well, Janine said, "Well, let's go to Maranatha trip." 29:12 Now, we have never been on the Maranatha trip before. 29:13 We had no idea. But what called them up. 29:17 Where are you going? 29:18 Well, we're going to Irian Jaya we're going to South America. 29:24 Irian Jaya. 29:25 I had no idea where Irian Jaya I was and that's probably too 29:28 expensive a plane ticket anyway. 29:29 So we went to South America. 29:31 And it was such an amazing experience. 29:34 I'm laying block I'd never laid block in my life, 29:36 I'm laying block. 29:38 And the guy on the other side says, 29:39 "Jim, isn't amazing? 29:41 We're the answer to so many prayers." 29:44 And I thought, you know, I haven't been the answer 29:47 to anybody's prayers in years. 29:50 And it just tears again started, started flowing, 29:53 thinking, God, thank you so much. 29:55 My wife and I began finding such excitement in all of this, 29:58 it was amazing. 29:59 We got back home, we said, 30:01 we went to Maranatha headquarters 30:02 and said we want to put together own teams. 30:04 We began doing our own teams 30:05 doing more and more pretty soon we, we helped them. 30:08 They'd never really put together 30:09 medical, and dental and eye teams 30:11 and did evangelism and build the building 30:13 and all the same time. 30:14 We go in and just going to blitz a place. 30:16 Man, by the time we're done, 30:18 everybody knew who Seventh-day Adventists 30:20 were in a community, it was exciting. 30:22 It was exciting. 30:24 One day Maranatha called me and said, 30:26 "Jim, can you help us in Bangladesh with a project?" 30:29 We went over there and my wife and I are living 30:32 at the orphanage, thousand kids there, thousand kids 30:35 at the school in orphanage. 30:37 And this one little girl my wife befriended, Binika. 30:40 Binika was sweet little 9-year-old girl 30:42 we are buying her good cute clothes 30:44 and everything else she was so nice. 30:47 I come home one day and my wife's in tears. 30:49 "Honey, what's wrong?" 30:51 "They're going to sell Binika." 30:53 Sell Binika? 30:54 Yeah, she turned 10-years-old today 30:57 and the parents can't afford to keep her. 30:58 They're going to sellers as prostitute or as a slave. 31:03 I tell you dinner that night was not too exciting 31:06 and as we're sitting around the dinner table, 31:09 we had one friend that we've done a lot of work with. 31:12 Lot of mission projects said, "Why don't you buy her?" 31:16 Never thought about buying a person before. 31:20 Well, we ended up buying that little girl for 10 US dollars, 31:25 $10 we bought this little girl 31:27 and then we helped the family out too. 31:29 So they didn't have to sell and more of their children. 31:31 And here the other day that's been years ago, 31:33 the other day, this little girl, I forgot 31:36 she no longer a little girl 31:38 but she Skyped her Facebook to my wife. 31:40 And they began talking. 31:41 She's in Bangladesh, she is doing wonderfully. 31:43 A wonderful exciting time. 31:47 They wanted us to go to, to Nepal. 31:51 While we're working in the Nepal, 31:53 the nurses come to us and the nurses are telling us. 31:57 You know, this little fellow took poison one day. 31:59 He no longer wanted to live. 32:01 His two sons brought him here to the hospital. 32:03 We're actually building a tiger fence. 32:05 A tiger fence to keep the tigers away from, 32:09 you know, the people at the hospital 32:11 and doing some other things. 32:13 And they said, "We just can't keep doing this 32:15 we, we put a tube down and we bagged him for two days. 32:19 We can't do it any more can you guys help?" 32:22 Well, I hate hospitals too, I don't like dentist 32:24 and I hate hospitals, you know, it's not actually 32:27 a fall you don't, you know write me letters. 32:30 And I thought well, what are you going to do? 32:34 I said, okay. 32:36 Next day I get there I labored with God that night 32:38 about even going to the hospital 32:39 but the next day I get there. 32:42 This my training, okay, you take this little thing 32:44 you squeeze your watches chest raise and lower 32:46 you squeeze, squeeze, squeeze that's it, 32:50 did that for about five minutes and the nurse leaves 32:52 she said, "Your relief will be here and a half an hour." 32:55 Oh, man, by ten minutes 32:57 I thought my hands were going to die, 32:59 they're killing me, 15-20 minutes, 33:01 then I thought this is crazy, where's my relief. 33:04 Thirty minutes finally somebody showed up and I mean, 33:06 I just, aw, it was hurting and had to come the next day. 33:10 Well, next day now I'm a little better, 33:11 a little cooler about this you know. 33:13 Got in and squeezing him. 33:15 He is pretty good, you know, 33:16 I could actually get them squeezing with one hand. 33:18 I could put my hand on his head 33:20 and look at his little black eyes, 33:21 his little black Hindu eyes looking up at me 33:24 and I tell him about Jesus, how much Jesus loved him. 33:27 And, you know, I kept on squeezing half hour went by. 33:30 Nobody showed up, 33:31 an hour went by nobody showed up. 33:33 But- any hands, it didn't get tired. 33:34 And I kept telling him about how much Jesus loved him 33:37 and how special he was to Jesus. 33:38 Two hours, two and a half hours, 33:41 all of a sudden his chest starts getting huge. 33:44 I start yelling for somebody 33:45 and all of a sudden people come from everywhere 33:47 it's like the movie ER or something 33:50 and there's holes in his chest there's blood going everywhere. 33:52 And nobody says a word to me. 33:54 I'm still there, sitting there squeezing, watching his chest. 33:57 Finally, they wipe him all up 33:58 and they all leave nobody says anything to me 34:00 and I'm still squeezing. 34:02 I start talking to him again and praying for him 34:04 and telling him how sweet he is and Jesus loves him, 34:07 three and a half hours finally four hours somebody came. 34:10 My hands never got tired. 34:13 Three weeks later, the nurse has emailed me and said, 34:15 "You know, that little fellow you're helping, 34:17 he walked out of here today under his own power. 34:20 And he wants to know who these people were 34:22 because he wants to find out about their God." 34:25 Now that's a good part of the story 34:27 but the story is even better 34:29 because here about six weeks ago 34:31 some friends that we were in the Nepal 34:33 with all those years ago said, 34:35 "You remember this little fellow?" 34:36 I said, Yeah. 34:38 Well, he is now working, he's a Seventh-day Adventist 34:40 and he's working at Scheer Memorial Hospital. 34:42 And go, praise God, you know, praise God. 34:47 Another project, I was starting to get so excited 34:50 about evangelism pretty soon 34:52 as we're doing Maranatha projects. 34:54 I kind of wanted to just leave the project 34:56 alone and just do evangelism. 34:58 I'm doing evangelism in India. 35:00 At a time when evangelism 35:01 and wasn't a popular thing in India 35:04 and this particular meeting, it was coming up to the time 35:08 when it was going to be the Sabbath topic. 35:11 And the pastor who was helping now said, 35:13 "Beware the devil's going to do something." 35:15 Yeah, okay, I got it covered right I've got to, 35:18 I've got an extra light bulb for the projector 35:21 and if the projector totally goes and the computer goes, 35:24 I've got enough notes and things like I can cover it. 35:27 I'm ready, I'm in about five minutes 35:30 all of a sudden over here in the Telugu language, 35:33 this lady screaming help me, help me, help me. 35:35 And everybody around her 35:37 is wailing and hollering it is so loud 35:38 that couple thousand people I had to stop. 35:42 I motioned to her to come alongside 35:43 and then she comes over here. 35:45 Everybody who sees this kid in her arms draped upside down, 35:48 eyes rolled back and they start screaming. 35:52 We have her moved over the side over here 35:54 where a doctor friend of mine 35:55 was and he begins examining the kid, 35:57 while everybody over there is wailing. 35:59 And I'm thinking, what do I do? 36:01 I tell everybody well let's take it to God in prayer 36:04 because I thought, I can't do anything else. 36:06 And did that sound wrong? 36:09 I can't do anything else so let's take it to God. 36:12 I have nothing else to do so let's go ahead and pray. 36:15 Do you ever find yourself in that situation? 36:18 Well, I did. 36:20 And as I would pray, interpreter would pray 36:22 and as he would pray, I'd look over to Jim, 36:24 thumbs up, thumbs down. 36:25 Thumbs down and pray. Thumbs down pray, thumbs down. 36:28 So went back and forth and back and forth. 36:30 And all of sudden, thumbs up. 36:32 And I thank the Creator, God of the universe. 36:35 And it went throughout that whole city. 36:36 That this God that of these meetings 36:39 had raised that child from the dead. 36:43 I went and asked Jim, I said, Jim, was that that kid dead? 36:48 Pause, well, there was no pulse. 36:52 Jim, you're the doctor. 36:53 Was that kid dead? Well, there was no pulse. 36:58 Thought isn't it interesting for us 37:00 especially in "civilized" world. 37:03 You know, civilized countries that we can't expect 37:07 and think that God can do mighty miracles, 37:11 mighty miracles. 37:14 I look at Peter, walked up the temple steps 37:18 and a beggar's there and he sees a paralytic. 37:20 He'd been there for years probably 37:22 and he anybody who comes the temple 37:24 they got an offering to give at the temple. 37:26 So he gets a little excited puts out of cup for Peter 37:29 and Peter checks out says, let's see, 37:31 I don't have any silver, I don't have any gold 37:35 but what I've got, I give to you, rise and walk. 37:40 Man's up. 37:41 Now here in Australia and in America what do we have? 37:46 Silver, gold? What Peter had? 37:52 He didn't have any silver, he didn't have any gold. 37:55 What did he have? Holy Spirit. 37:57 What don't we have? Yeah, Holy Spirit, Holy Spirit. 38:04 God is looking to do mighty things in our lives. 38:07 Brothers and Sisters, 38:08 when I was sitting in that church 38:09 the Lord said the Holy Spirit 38:11 maybe poured out all around you. 38:12 You're never going to recognize it or receive it. 38:15 What I've discovered over these years, 38:17 that's absolutely the truth. 38:19 I didn't recognize it. 38:21 It is beginning to be poured out around the world. 38:23 God is doing mighty things, tremendous things. 38:26 This afternoon I'm going to share 38:27 a lot of stories with you, it may blow your socks off. 38:30 Stories you can't hardly imagine. 38:32 But it's from a God, Who is active 38:34 in the world today, Who is doing incredible things. 38:37 And I want to ask you today, is God active in your life? 38:40 Because you see, God can't just trust anybody 38:44 with the latter rain. 38:46 He can only-- because it's too powerful. 38:48 He can only trust people who committed 100% to Him. 38:53 And if you see it, it was popular in the US, 38:55 maybe it was here too, you see a bumper sticker 38:58 on the back of a car going down the road, 38:59 "Jesus is my co-pilot." 39:00 Anybody ever? Not one here. 39:03 And let me tell you if that's the case, 39:04 He's in the wrong seat. He's sitting in the wrong seat. 39:08 God wants to be the pilot in your life. 39:10 He doesn't want to be in your life in an advisory capacity. 39:14 God steps in and out of time, He's got your life mapped out. 39:17 He knows everything about your life 39:19 and He wants to take your life 39:20 and bless you in an incredible way. 39:23 He's got so much for you. 39:25 I never realized and believe 39:27 the things that God would do for us. 39:29 And now I look back and think, what? 39:32 If I'd been sitting in that church pew like you are today, 39:34 if I had been sitting there 39:37 and I had not answered that call when God called me. 39:41 What would have happened to little Binika? 39:44 What would have happen to our little Hindu friend? 39:49 What would have happened to that dead child? 39:52 And I mean, the list I could go on and on and on 39:55 about the things that God is done through our life. 39:57 God wants to do those things in your life too. 40:01 The key is will you allow Him and will you create 40:04 a friendship and relationship with Him, 40:06 above everything else, by getting into His word 40:09 studying His Word and talking with Him? 40:11 If you do that I want to, I want to see your hand today, 40:15 amen, amen. 40:17 Let's have prayer. 40:19 Father, thank You so much for Your incredible love. 40:21 Fill us this day in Jesus' name, amen. |
Revised 2015-12-17