Participants: Jim Ayer
Series Code: OTR
Program Code: OTR001049A
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00:01 Music playing...
00:12 more music... 00:22 some more music... 00:24 music... 01:01 Well, good afternoon everyone. 01:02 Good afternoon. 01:04 I see you're getting better, that's pretty good, 01:06 all right, all right. 01:07 I want to ask you a really critical question today, 01:10 and that's, "How big is your God?" 01:14 How big is your God? 01:17 The Bible talks about how mighty God is, 01:22 the all mighty God, 01:24 really ask, "Is there anything God can't do?" 01:28 Well, there may be one thing and that is... 01:32 God can't go against your will, He can't go against your will, 01:36 can't and won't go against your choice 01:40 to not serve Him. 01:41 Unfortunately, in some ways, but you think about it, 01:44 God is not... 01:45 doesn't want us to be automatons, 01:47 He doesn't want us to just worship Him 01:49 because He's going to kill us, no... that's not God at all, 01:53 as a matter of fact, God died that we might live, 01:56 that's the kind of God we serve and this God is all powerful. 02:01 Now, I have the opportunity 02:02 of being in 70 Countries of the world, 02:05 many of those countries, many times... 02:07 I've had the wonderful opportunity to talk with people 02:11 in many locations around the world 02:14 and hear their stories of conversion, 02:16 amazing stories, 02:18 now, in the United States, especially 02:21 maybe here in Australia, you may not hear many stories, 02:25 you kind of wonder why sometimes, 02:28 well those stories are happening 02:30 but not with quite the same frequency 02:33 it seems... for whatever reason 02:35 and maybe it's because, I talked to you earlier about 02:37 we have all the gold and we have all the silver 02:39 that we just don't seek after God 02:41 the way that people in other countries do. 02:44 They believe more strongly, 02:46 once they come to Christ, they believe more strongly. 02:48 Let me give you a little story that's kind of interesting, 02:52 it happened down in Sao Paolo, Brazil. 02:54 In Sao Paolo, Brazil, this husband and wife, 02:57 they're driving along merrily in the afternoon, 02:59 and all of a sudden, the wife says, "Stop! stop!" 03:01 Now, I don't know guys 03:04 if your wife ever does that to you, 03:05 my wife's done that to me, scares me half to death, 03:08 this guy slammed on the brakes, pulls over the sidewalk, 03:10 "What is it, what is it" 03:12 she doesn't say a word, she jumps out of the car 03:14 runs out in the field and she comes back 03:16 and she's got a book in her hands. 03:17 "Honey, honey" she says, 03:19 "What?" 03:21 "Do you see any wind?" 03:23 "No, I don't see any wind" 03:25 She says, "Honey, in the field, this book that I found, 03:28 the pages were blowing this way 03:30 and then the pages were turning and blowing this way, 03:32 I just had to see what this book was. " 03:35 Well, they read this book and it was incredible, 03:39 it was amazing, 03:40 but there was not a single bit of advertising in it 03:43 to direct them to anybody who had any more information. 03:46 One afternoon, the husband is on his motorcycle 03:51 in downtown, Sao Paolo, he comes up to a stop 03:55 in the traffic light and... 03:56 and there's a car in front of him with a bumper sticker 03:58 and the bumper sticker has an insignia 04:00 that looks like what was in that book, 04:03 he pulls up alongside the guy 04:05 and the window is down a little bit in the car 04:07 and he starts talking to the guy in the car, 04:09 now in downtown, Sao Paolo, Brazil, 04:11 that's not necessarily a good thing 04:13 when somebody pulls up alongside you 04:14 in the motorcycle and starts talking to you. 04:16 The driver rolls up his window 04:18 as soon as the light changes, he takes off, 04:20 the guy in the motorcycle... he's not going to be deterred, 04:22 he whips in around, he's following this guy 04:24 down every street, around every corner, 04:26 and pretty soon... the guy is in the next stop light 04:29 now, he pulls up alongside him, he starts yelling, 04:32 scares the guy so bad 04:34 the guy runs the red light, takes off, 04:35 the motorcycle is riding behind him 04:37 he's following him everywhere 04:38 and he's just zipping all over the place, 04:40 pretty soon the guy gets caught in a whole big traffic jam 04:43 and the motorcycle pulls up alongside him 04:46 the guys starts yelling, 04:47 "Great Controversy, Great Controversy" 04:49 the guy in the car, 04:52 he was a Seventh-day Adventist Church Elder, 04:53 he cracks his window just a little bit, 04:56 and the guy begins telling him about the book, 04:59 "The Great Controversy" they ended up... 05:02 about a year ago now, they had Bible Studies together 05:05 and they were both baptized because of a book 05:08 out in a field where there was no wind 05:10 with the pages blowing back and forth 05:13 first one way and then the other... 05:15 I ask you, "How big is your God, 05:18 how big is your God?" 05:20 I was down in the Dominican Republic 05:24 and I was doing Evangelistic Meetings down there, 05:27 as a matter of fact, I want to share a story with you 05:30 because, I think it's very germane 05:32 to our churches and to our lives 05:35 and then I'll go back to the other part of that story, 05:38 but while I was there, I was living with a Pastor, 05:41 I was there for about a month, and so I was eating his food 05:44 and having the shelter of the roof and everything else, 05:47 he was very nice to me, he came home one afternoon, 05:50 he said, "Jim, this old man died... " 05:53 and he had said, "we need to do a funeral, 05:55 would you mind doing the funeral for me?" 05:56 Well, that's not on the top of my list... to do funerals, 06:00 but, like I said, he'd been really nice to me 06:04 I said, "Okay, all right" 06:06 so, it was going to be the next day, 06:07 and this was kind of late in the evening 06:09 so I went to bed, the next day I get up 06:10 I say, "Pastor, tell me," I said, 06:12 "this guy was probably a Seventh-day Adventist" 06:13 "No," 06:15 I said, "Well, he was a Christian?" 06:17 "No," as a matter of fact, 06:19 the pastor said he hated Christians. 06:21 Now, I knew why he palmed this funeral off on me 06:24 and I'm going, 06:27 "Oh great, what am I going to do, 06:29 you know, what am I going to do for this guy?" 06:32 And I had no idea, I'm just laboring over this 06:35 and by the time, we're walking up the street 06:38 with my interpreter, we're going toward the house, 06:40 it's time for the funeral and we get up there 06:42 and man, it's a typical... you know... 06:44 Latin American funeral, 06:46 there are people pouring out all over the street, 06:47 there are people everywhere, 06:49 and as soon as I get there, they grab me and say, 06:51 "It's time Pastor, come in" 06:52 and they zip me right in, and put me right... 06:55 there's a wall right here and there's the casket, 06:58 and it's an open casket, 07:00 the guy is looking up right at me, 07:01 and I'm still thinking, "What am I going to do?" 07:04 And finally, I thought, "Well, God, I'm just going to 07:08 I'm just going to preach on the second coming, 07:10 I'll preach my heart out" and that's exactly what I did, 07:12 I preached and I preached on the second coming of Christ 07:15 and I invited everybody there 07:16 to come into my meetings in the evening 07:18 and a lot of people did, 07:19 now, do you know what that old man there in the casket 07:24 had to say about it, who hated Christians? 07:26 Nothing... Yeah, nothing... why? 07:31 He's dead, he's deader than a doornail. 07:34 Paul says... what? "I die daily" 07:38 If we in the church would die daily 07:42 and we would die more often, 07:43 we wouldn't be fighting with our pastors, 07:45 we wouldn't be fighting over the color of the carpet, 07:47 we wouldn't be hurt 07:49 when somebody says something in church, 07:51 because we'd be dead, just a thought. 07:54 Amen. 07:57 Well, while I was doing these meetings, 08:00 one night a lady came up to me, 08:01 and said, "Can you come see me?" I said, "Sure, happy to" 08:06 so the next day, 08:07 the interpreter and I went to see her... to her house... 08:09 and I mean, it was... not much of a house, 08:12 you could see... just boards and then 08:14 big air spaces in between the boards, 08:17 we get into her home, it's just a dirt floor, 08:19 she invites us to sit down, 08:20 and we sit down on this old couch 08:22 that we almost sat from the couch 08:23 all the way down to the floor, 08:25 and the dust kind of... came up out of it, 08:27 you know, there's a light shining through the walls, 08:30 you can see the dust is boiling up as we sit down on the couch, 08:33 and we talked with her little bit 08:35 little bit of small talk, and then I said, 08:39 "Well, how come you invited us here?" 08:41 "Well," she says, "when I go to bed at night, 08:44 the moment I close the door of the bedroom, 08:47 there's a little man that opens the door, 08:49 jumps up on my bed and tries to choke me at night. " 08:52 I said, "Well, what do you think that is?" 08:55 She says, "I think it's the devil" 08:57 I said, "I would agree with you" 08:59 now, I don't know exactly why but God, over the years, 09:02 has led me into a lot of very interesting situations, 09:06 demon possession and demon harassment and everything 09:10 and I want to put a little note right here 09:12 at this moment, while I talk about these things 09:15 you shouldn't see a demon around every corner 09:18 because sometimes it can be 09:19 the pizza you shouldn't have eaten at night 09:22 or you brought on something yourself in life, 09:24 so, that isn't always the case, 09:26 but there are real situations, 09:28 if you believe in God, you've got to believe that 09:30 there's a real devil too and the devil hates us 09:32 and he'll try and do various things 09:34 or if you just open up your life to him, 09:37 he's going to come in, it's an open invitation. 09:39 "Well," I said, "why don't we get together and pray?" 09:44 She said, "I've never prayed" 09:46 I said, "Well, let's kneel right here 09:48 and then... you just repeat after me" 09:50 so we knelt there on that little dusty area, 09:53 we got together and she was right here 09:55 and the Interpreter was here 09:57 and so I prayed and then it went to the Interpreter 09:59 then to her, and the first thing I said, 10:01 is, "Lord, I just want to thank you so much for who you are" 10:05 went around... just fine... 10:07 and then I knew from past experience 10:10 I figured this would... if there is any demonic situation, 10:13 this would really cure it 10:15 I prayed, "Lord, may your blood flow over me and cleanse me 10:19 from all the filthiness and unrighteousness" 10:21 went to the Interpreter to her, 10:23 as soon as she got the words out of her mouth, 10:25 slam... she bounces on the floor and she's grabbing her neck 10:29 as she's choking on the floor, 10:31 I reached over and grabbed a hold of her 10:33 and demanded the demons to come out in the name of Christ 10:35 and this went on for 10:37 30 to 40 seconds or so 10:39 and then all of a sudden, she kind of sat up, 10:43 she wipes her eyes, 10:44 she kind of still has this feeling in her throat, 10:46 I thought, "Something isn't right yet" 10:48 and so I said, "How're you feeling?" 10:50 she said, "Okay," 10:51 that night, at the meetings I said, "Are you all right?" 10:54 she said, "Yeah, I'm fine" 10:55 the next day, I asked, "How're you doing today?" 10:58 she said, "I'm doing good," 11:00 the next day, she said, "Can you come again to my house" 11:02 I said, "Sure," went back to the house... 11:05 same scenario again, same scenario... 11:08 now, what I found over the years, 11:10 when you have someone that's got a problem like this 11:14 with something going on, 11:15 and you can't get rid of the demon 11:17 somewhere or somehow or other, 11:19 the person has invited 11:20 the demons to stay in the home, 11:22 and when I really begin to realize some of these things 11:26 in my own life... I used to keep a hookah, 11:28 I don't know how many of you know what a hookah is 11:30 but a hookah is like a water pipe, you know, 11:34 you got the cooling water that you smoke your dope in, 11:38 I used to just keep one of those 11:40 as a memento, I threw that out, 11:42 I used to collect voodoo masks from around the world, 11:46 man! I want the... they're pretty, 11:49 I want the voodoo masks, 11:50 well, I've discovered that the devil can seek entrance 11:54 on some of these various things in your home and in your life, 11:57 and so I began asking this woman questions 12:00 because the every same thing happened again, 12:02 we had to repeat the same scenario, over again. 12:05 As I questioned her, 12:07 seemed like there was nothing in her home, 12:09 nothing in her life, and then she tells me... 12:11 "Well," she says, "by the way, my husband, 12:13 who is not really my husband, 12:15 takes everybody here 12:17 to the witch doctor for healing including me," 12:21 ah, well, we kind of worked out a scenario, 12:25 as she really wanted to be baptized, 12:27 but... to get her married too... so we kind of worked on that, 12:31 well, the husband who wanted to get married "supposedly" 12:34 he kind of missed the day of the wedding, 12:37 but he apologized, he was going to make it again, 12:40 on the final night... my final Saturday night, 12:43 during the meetings, 12:44 I had a call for everybody to accept Christ 12:46 to come forward, there were some more people 12:48 and then the pastor over here 12:50 was baptizing people at the end, 12:52 and he made a final call, 12:54 well, we weren't baptizing her yet 12:57 because she needed to do all these things, 12:58 but she came forward, and then he had a prayer, 13:01 and as he had a prayer, 13:03 there's beautiful tile floor in their church, 13:05 as she had her prayer, 13:06 she was virtually lifted straight up like this... flat 13:09 and slapped down on the floor, 13:11 now for the Elders in the church, 13:13 this isn't anything big and new to them, 13:15 they deal with these kinds of things 13:17 in many of these countries all the time, 13:19 they walk up and they close the drape that was between there 13:22 they dismiss everybody as she's bouncing up and down 13:25 and grabbing her throat and everything, 13:26 we all walk over, they each grab an arm and a leg, 13:30 and I reach up behind her head 13:32 and grab her hair so she's not slamming on the tile floor, 13:35 and she's looking the other way though 13:38 and as I'm demanding the demons to come out, 13:40 all of a sudden, I felt impressed and I said, 13:42 "Demons, I demand you to turn over and look at me" 13:45 wham... I mean it was just instantaneous 13:48 and it was like two black holes, 13:50 there was nothing in her eyes except these two black pits, 13:53 and as I... even telling you today... 13:55 a chill ran up my spine, 13:58 it was like looking in the depths of hell, 14:01 and I continued to demand 14:03 that the demons come out in the name of Jesus Christ 14:05 from a child of God, finally she sighed and sat up 14:10 moved her hair back again, 14:13 I said, "Are you okay?" She said, "Yeah. " 14:14 I had to leave the next day, 14:17 two weeks later, I got message from the Pastor, 14:20 the Pastor says, "Praise God, God got the victory today, 14:23 the devil tried to drown her in the baptismal tank 14:25 but Jesus won. " Amen... 14:28 Sometimes the devil doesn't give up these struggles too easily 14:31 he wants to hang on to his victims, 14:34 you remember how, when Jesus cast out demons 14:37 sometimes... like out of the child... 14:38 it rent and tore at the child before it finally left? 14:41 But the thing you have to understand is, 14:44 God always wins. 14:46 How big is your God? Our God always wins, 14:51 the devil is a defeated foe, 14:52 he may try and do things down here on Planet Earth 14:55 but he is a defeated foe. 14:58 I was up in Ethiopia, 15:01 traveled clear up in the mountains for some hours 15:04 to get up there, and I found this fellow 15:06 who had been a witch doctor, 15:08 a practicing witch doctor for 48 years, 15:11 and man! a witch doctor... they've got lots of power, 15:14 you know, if I tell you to do something 15:17 and you don't do it, you could die 15:19 and if this person dies, 15:21 the first thing the witch doctor says is, 15:22 "That's because they didn't listen to me" 15:24 lots of power... and then... 15:27 as soon as they tell your fortune, 15:29 they want a cow or a pig or a goat or something like this 15:31 so they're also the richest person in the whole village. 15:35 So they got lots of influence, lots of power, 15:37 lots of money and everything, 15:39 but this guy, one day, heard about Jesus Christ 15:43 and all of a sudden he said, 15:45 "I want nothing else to do with this ever again" 15:47 turned his life totally in a new direction, 15:50 and at the same time, 15:51 there was somebody else in the village 15:53 it happened in their lives too, 15:54 and a guy in prison from this village, 15:57 it happened to him too, and he says, 16:00 "I can't wait to go to get home to tell everybody 16:02 in my village about Jesus Christ" 16:03 he got home and he started telling them 16:05 only to find out that there were many people 16:07 whom God had touched in that village 16:09 and they started worshipping together, 16:10 and then they began to say, 16:13 "Well, we need to find a place to worship" 16:15 as they're doing their worship hunting, 16:17 the ex-fortune-teller's wife dies, 16:20 now the lady... she wanted nothing to do with Christianity 16:25 because it was a lucrative business 16:27 she had power, she had, you know, 16:29 prestige in the village and all of the stuff, 16:31 nothing to do with it, but she died, 16:33 and on that particular day, you'll appreciate this, 16:36 I had three cameras rolling, and I had five guys lined up 16:40 and I asked the first guy, I said, "This woman was dead?" 16:44 he said, "Oh yeah" 16:45 second guy said that she was dead for three days, 16:47 I asked the third guy, 16:49 "Three days, she was really dead for three days?" 16:51 He said, "Oh yeah," 16:53 fourth guy said, "but we prayed for her" 16:55 and the fifth guy said, 16:57 "And God raised her from the dead" 16:59 and that woman, brothers and sisters, 17:01 was standing there with us that day. 17:03 How big is your God? How big is your God... 17:08 We serve a mighty God 17:10 who is capable of doing anything and everything. 17:12 He's an amazing God. 17:17 In the United States, I met this fellow, 17:21 he had been in the Merchant... 17:22 not Merchant Marine... but in the Coast Guard, 17:24 he had been in the Coast Guard, he was up in Greenland 17:26 and his tour of duty was over 17:28 and he did not want to take a Cruiser home 17:32 and spend all that time just across the ocean, 17:35 he knew a guy who was going to fly, 17:37 so he went to the guy's house, 17:39 he goes to the guy's house and he starts to knock at his door 17:42 only... there is a problem... 17:44 his hand will not contact the door, 17:47 he swings harder and harder 17:50 and his hand will not make a bit of noise, 17:52 now he's a Seventh-day Adventist Christian, 17:55 he said, "I know there's something funny here" 17:57 and he goes home, 17:58 he said, "I got on my knees and I opened my Bible," 18:02 he said, "I normally didn't do this but I just opened my Bible 18:05 and it fell open to Isaiah 52," he said, 18:09 "My eyes went down and I looked at verse 12, 18:12 'You shall not go out in haste or by flight'" 18:14 he said, "Okay God, I got it" 18:18 he decided to not go back to the guy's house. 18:23 The next day, one of the Captains 18:26 of one of the Cruisers said, "Hey, we're going to the States 18:28 today, do you want to come with us?" 18:29 He said, "Yeah, I'll go with you" 18:31 he gets in the ship, they were heading out the harbor 18:35 the plane that he was going to on... flies up 18:37 he thinks, "Man! they're going to be home days ahead of me" 18:40 they got there several days later, 18:43 and they discovered... that plane and all 12 passengers 18:45 aboard had crashed and were killed. 18:48 God sees the end from the beginning, 18:51 God wants to have you in the palm of His hands, 18:55 will you let Him, will you allow Him? 18:58 No, sure, there are times that things happen 19:00 as a matter of fact, 19:02 "Have you considered my servant, Job?" 19:04 Things happen, right? 19:07 God trusts you with an even greater example of His glory 19:12 and draws you closer and closer to Him. 19:15 As a matter of fact, sometimes things that happen... 19:19 I just had a friend two days ago... 19:22 a pastor that called me and said, "Jim" 19:24 he was hysterical, 19:26 I couldn't even hardly understand, 19:27 "Jim, my daughter hung herself 19:31 in the garage and killed herself. " 19:34 Why do some of these things happen? 19:36 I had a friend that I did mission trips with him all over, 19:40 at 49 years old, he contracted Cancer 19:43 and he died by age 52, 19:44 he asked me a question before he passed away, 19:47 he said, "Jim, I've done everything, 19:48 I've followed God's Word, I've loved... I eat right, 19:52 I've done all these things, why, why, why?" 19:56 Well, it's simple, we live in a sinful world. 20:00 We are here on the Devil's playground 20:03 and it is a world of sin, and so, until Jesus comes, 20:07 we're going to have pain, we're going to have heartache, 20:09 we're going to have suffering, 20:10 but our God is able to help get us through, 20:14 our God is able to lift us up 20:16 that we might live... above these things, 20:18 and there are times that God allows certain things 20:21 to happen in our lives 20:23 simply to draw us closer to Him, because, remember, 20:26 remember... the biggest thing in this life, 20:30 is getting us to the next, which is the eternal kingdom, 20:34 the eternal life. 20:35 Down in San Francisco, one time, 20:38 we were filming a little piece and I went and picked up 20:40 a little pinch of sand and put it in my palm 20:44 and then I tried to separate out one grain of sand, 20:47 now think about all the sand on all the beaches of the world, 20:52 all the sand under the waters on planet earth 20:56 and then you take that one single grain 20:59 and that represents our life, here on earth, 21:01 now one little brief, miniscule moment 21:04 and all the rest, the beginning of eternity. 21:07 Did God create us for eternity, He didn't create us for time, 21:13 understand, he wants us to spend eternity with Him 21:16 and so the things that happened in this world, 21:20 Ellen White, at one time, got up there 21:22 in a vision to heaven to see her friends 21:24 and they said, "What's the worst thing that 21:26 happened to you while you were on earth?" 21:28 And she thought and she thought and she thought, 21:29 and then she just exclaimed, 21:31 "Praise God, heaven is cheap enough" 21:33 heaven is cheap enough, brother and sister, 21:36 we've got to keep our eyes fixed on heaven 21:39 fixed upon God and the eternal weight of glory 21:43 because this world is just a speck in eternity. 21:46 A speck in eternity. 21:49 At Andrews University, not long ago, 21:52 one of my friends shared this story, 21:55 his wife was there in an intensive course 21:58 and there was a group of people together and they were... 22:01 they were being taught by this fellow, 22:04 it was a one-week course, like I said, 22:06 full day, every day, very intensive, 22:08 and at the end of that time there the custom is... 22:12 you buy the professor something as a little "thank you gift" 22:15 one lady said, "We shouldn't buy him anything, 22:20 we need to pray for him," you see, he was in a wheelchair 22:24 and he had contracted some type of disease 22:27 that a year earlier left him totally paralyzed. 22:30 Everybody said, 22:32 "Oh, no, no, no, no we need to get him a gift" 22:35 "No!" she was so intense, "we have to pray for this man," 22:39 finally, they said, "All right, all right" 22:41 so the next day they called together, 22:43 they got him in, they called him together 22:45 and this woman got down, and she said, 22:47 and she said... 22:49 she's never heard a prayer like this in her life, 22:50 and then she prayed for this man... 22:52 she began massaging his feet, and continued to pray for him, 22:56 and pretty soon when the prayer was done, 22:58 the man said, "I can actually feel... 22:59 I can feel something in my feet," 23:02 the next day... he walked into the classroom 23:06 some of the other professors said, 23:08 "Let us tell you the back story to this 23:10 because we've been trying to buy him a van fitted with things 23:14 for a person of his problems, 23:18 with the gear shifts and everything else 23:19 the gas up in the hands... so that he could drive, 23:22 they said, every time we tried to get this project together, 23:25 it never happened, we had just kept falling apart 23:29 now we know why, now we know why... " 23:32 How big is your God? 23:34 In North Carolina, this couple was studying 23:40 God had touched their hearts so they were studying, 23:43 now on Tuesdays, brother, 23:44 they were studying with a Seventh-day Adventist 23:46 and on Thursdays, 23:47 they were studying with somebody else, 23:49 and on Tuesdays, the guy said, 23:55 "Brothers and Sisters, you're here... 23:57 you've got to keep God's Commandments, 23:59 you've got to follow the Sabbath day" 24:01 and listed out all these other things 24:03 and then on Thursdays, the guy would come in and say, 24:05 "You don't need to do that, that's all done away with, 24:07 that's the old law" and on and on and on... 24:09 well, one day, they asked him about the 24:12 Seventh-day Sabbath specifically and, of course, 24:15 the Seventh-day Adventist said, 24:17 "Absolutely, it's at the center of God's Decalogue, 24:19 it's the center of God's law, 24:20 it's immortal, it's right there, it's the fourth commandment, 24:23 all the others kind of center around that," 24:25 the other guy on Thursday said, 24:28 "No, no, no, no, you know, God did away with all that stuff 24:31 it's just grace now, we can do anything we want," 24:35 well, they were perplexed 24:37 and when everybody left, 24:39 they said, "Let's get on our knees and let's pray" 24:40 they begin praying, and just as they're praying, 24:43 you know it was kind of a funny situation, 24:46 and as they were praying, they smell smoke, 24:50 they get up and they start sending the family 24:53 to different parts of the house, 24:54 and they're checking things out, and all of a sudden 24:56 as they're trying to find where the smoke is coming from, 24:58 there's loud thunder and rain begins to pour, 25:01 and at the... I mean... in the front door, 25:04 it is just gushing under... 25:05 it's like somebody has got a fire hose 25:07 blowing water up underneath the front door, 25:09 and the wife, she's yelling, "Please," to the kids... 25:11 "get some towels, get some towels... " 25:13 and she's throwing towels in front of this thing... 25:15 now, one of the boys was at the back door, 25:19 he was still out there and he's looking at the back door, 25:23 and funny thing is as he's looking, 25:25 there is no rain at the back door, 25:28 he calls the rest of the family 25:31 after they kind of got the emergency plugged 25:32 at the front door, called all the family, 25:35 the family looks at the back door, 25:36 they peak out and it's clear sky at the back door, 25:40 they get back to the front door, and finally the rain stops, 25:45 the wife clears up all the water and everything, 25:47 mops up everything, and opens the front door 25:49 bam... out falls this package that burned quite a ways through 25:55 she picks it up and she looks, 25:58 it's the book, "Bible Readings for the Home" 26:01 and it's burned all the way down to the part, 26:05 "What day is the Sabbath day?" 26:07 She called the Seventh-day Adventist, 26:11 who they had been studying with 26:12 and asked, "What does this mean?" 26:14 He said, "Well, it's the great controversy, 26:15 God sent you the truth, the devil tried to destroy it, 26:18 it happened right here at your front door," 26:19 then she calls her brother, 26:22 the brother was a Seventh-day Adventist, 26:24 and she begins to tell him and the brother said, 26:28 "You're kidding, I sent that book to you three months ago, 26:32 and you just got it today?" 26:34 How big is your God... how big is your God? 26:40 Akimotu was a young man in Papua New Guinea, 26:47 and maybe some of you might even know that story here, 26:52 Akimotu is about 14 years old, 26:54 and he came to the Secondary School there 26:57 and nobody really knew him that well, 26:59 but he signed up for class, 27:02 he's sitting in the class everyday 27:05 and everybody is a little nervous of him 27:07 because he comes from kind of a... warring tribe 27:10 apparently, and one day, 27:12 the Professor asked a question, Akimoto answered it, 27:16 and I tell you, 27:17 the class just thought it was a stupid answer, 27:21 and a boy in the back really started making fun of Akimotu 27:25 now that got Akimotu so mad his little pygmy-frame, 27:28 he jumped up on top of the desk 27:30 running across the tops of the desk 27:32 out from his tribal gown he pulls out a machete, 27:35 and he's ready to decapitate this kid 27:36 when the rest the class tackles him 27:38 and wrestles the sword away, 27:39 now, needless to say, everybody is scared of Akimotu, 27:43 the season progresses, 27:46 classes go on, 27:48 and the professor notices... you know 27:50 there seems like the Holy Spirit is working in his life, 27:53 he sees changes, his facial features change 27:56 as a matter of fact, you realize 27:58 that that's what happens with the Holy Spirit, 28:01 when the Spirit begins to come into your life, 28:03 you change, you can even glow for God, 28:06 remember Moses, coming down the mountain? 28:08 The closer he got to God the more he glowed for God. 28:11 You want to glow for God? That's the way to do it, 28:14 get closer to Him, and people ask you, 28:17 "How come you look different, how come you act different, 28:19 why are you different?" 28:21 And then you can begin sharing the joys of Jesus Christ. 28:23 Well, summertime came, 28:27 and the pastor always traveled out to another area 28:31 to evangelize in another area, 28:33 but in this particular situation, 28:35 this area that he had picked, 28:36 he found out that they only spoke a particular dialect 28:39 of Pidgin English which nobody knew except Akimotu 28:43 and he really didn't want to take him 28:46 but he finally said, "Okay, all right... " 28:48 So, he invited Akimotu who was happy to do it. 28:51 They head up to this place, 28:54 and everybody... when they get to the village, 28:56 everybody accepts the men with open arms 28:57 they give them a place of esteem... 29:00 the pig house to sleep in, 29:02 Akimoto curls up, he's asleep in the pig house, 29:05 Bill has kind of got his body in there but he's got his head out 29:07 so that he can get a breath of fresh air once in a while... 29:09 and all of a sudden, in the middle of the night 29:12 the jungle air is broken up by, "You Seventh-day, 29:14 come a quick house, come a quick house... " 29:16 which is, "You Seventh-day Adventist, 29:18 you're needed at the witch doctor's house come quickly" 29:21 they jump up, they run, 29:23 and they run, they get there, 29:24 and apparently, they're too late, 29:26 because everybody is standing around this place, 29:28 the Pastor peeks under the little door, 29:31 and everybody inside is crying, 29:32 and a lady is holding a little baby in her arms. 29:36 "Well," he's thinking... "I need to pastor up, I guess, 29:39 I need to say something, I need to do something," 29:42 and just about the time he's ready to duck under the door, 29:45 little Akimoto runs past him shoves him aside, 29:47 runs in there and grabs the baby 29:48 from the mother's arms, and everybody was... 29:51 "What's going on?" and the Pastor is going, 29:54 "I've never seen anything like this" 29:55 and Akimotu holds that baby up, 29:58 "Papa, you gave life to this baby, 30:01 Papa, you took life from this baby, 30:04 now you give life back and we'll give you the glory" 30:06 you could hear a pin drop in that place 30:10 and all of a sudden, a finger moves, 30:13 a toe moves, and the baby begins screaming, 30:17 Akimotu hands the baby back to the mother who was in shock, 30:20 the chief comes to the Pastor and says, 30:26 "What kind of spirits do you have, 30:29 we've never seen anything like this with our spirits" 30:32 the Pastor and Akimoto talked all night with the chief 30:36 all through the next day 30:37 and now there's a Seventh-day Adventist church there, 30:39 because of a young man's faith... 30:41 of God working in the heart of that young man. 30:46 We've been training some people in a Country 30:51 I can't mention to you, 30:54 we'd sneaked them out of the Country 30:55 into another country and trained them up on how to 30:58 raise up their churches, 31:00 the guys are walking along the jungle pathway, 31:02 kind of sneaking across the path, 31:04 just about ready to come over the bank, 31:06 and up the other side of the bank comes a police, 31:09 the police said, "There they are, get them" 31:11 our guys were like deer in the headlights, 31:13 you guys have deer around here? 31:14 Some deer maybe? Yeah... not much... 31:17 well deer... you know, 31:19 when you hit them with the headlights 31:20 they just kind of... their eyes go big, 31:22 they don't know what to do, they just freeze, 31:23 and that's what these guys were, there's no place to run, 31:26 it's a wide open area in the jungle, 31:28 and they just freeze, 31:30 the cops come running right up to them, 31:32 they got their bayonets affixed and they run up 31:35 I'm told they were five to ten feet from them, 31:37 they were looking right at them, 31:39 saying, "Where did they go, where did they go?" 31:41 all of a sudden one of the cops said, "There they go, that way" 31:44 and they took off running that way, 31:46 they left our guys to come to our meetings, 31:48 they never saw them, never saw them... 31:52 I was talking with... some time ago 31:56 one of our Radio Producers in North Africa, 31:59 this particular city, 32:01 Muslims were killing a lot of Christians, 32:03 one of our pastors gets a call from that city, 32:07 "Would you please come visit me?" 32:08 He was a little nervous about that but he's a pastor 32:11 so he said, "Okay" he heads down to the city, 32:15 knocks on the door, a man opens the door, 32:19 he's invited in, on the way in, the fellow says, 32:21 "I'm a Muslim Imam" 32:23 now he figures, "I'm a dead man" 32:25 he walks around the corner and in the living room 32:28 there were 30 bearded men sitting in the living room, 32:31 now he knows for sure... "I'm a goner," 32:32 while he's standing there kind of quaking in his boots, 32:36 the Imam says, "We brought you here today 32:39 because we want you to secretly baptize us. " 32:42 Wow! now while he's kind of pastoring up, 32:46 he said, "Well, I need to study with you all" 32:50 "No," the Imam said, "there is no reason 32:54 because God has sent his angel 32:56 to study with me in person, every day, 32:58 and I've shared with these men for a long time now. " 33:02 The pastor 33:04 shared and talked with these guys, 33:06 studied the Bible with them the rest of the day, 33:08 they knew the Bible as well as he did. 33:09 He baptized them all. 33:11 Brothers and Sisters, how big is your God? 33:14 In this one area, this one country, 33:19 we were broadcasting into... 33:21 we knew there were a lot of things happening, 33:23 a lot of exciting things happening 33:25 but we couldn't get in there, 33:26 one of our guys, at one point... was killed, 33:27 another one narrowly escaped in the jungle with his wife, 33:30 but finally, later, we got somebody in there... 33:33 to this village, 33:35 I say "village" but they're huge, 33:37 thousands of people, they got there 33:39 and everybody... everybody in that village 33:41 was a Seventh-day Adventist Christian, 33:43 he went to the Chief, he said, "How did this happen?" 33:45 The Chief said, listen to this, 33:48 "One day, a large man, 33:50 an imposing figure of great stature 33:52 with an aura of light about him... " 33:53 you guys, do you have anybody here in Sydney 33:56 with an aura of light about them? 33:57 "came into our village, he wanted to see the Chief, 34:01 I sat down with him right here, 34:02 he pulled a radio out of his clothes 34:05 he tuned it to the Seventh-day Adventist Station, 34:09 and he said, 'Here, listen to this, 34:10 it will bless you and your people'" 34:12 I took it, I looked at it with the fellow next to me 34:14 we turned back and he had vanished, 34:16 and we took it as a sign "we should do as he says," 34:19 see, these guys are Animists, 34:20 you know they worship the rocks and the trees and the sky 34:23 they worship the creation, nor the Creator, 34:25 but he said, "We all fell in love with Jesus Christ" 34:29 now this was good, this was exciting 34:31 but he got to a second village, 34:32 they're so far away, they don't visit one another, 34:34 they got to a second village, same thing, 34:36 the Chief had the same story, 34:38 "Large man, imposing figure, great stature, 34:40 with an aura of light about him, carrying a radio" 34:42 three, four, five, six villages, later on... another six, 34:47 later on... another dozen, 34:48 we believe in that area of the world 34:51 because of... whoever this... I almost said, "Angel" 34:56 carrying radios with an aura of light about them 35:00 there are 300,000 to 400,000 thousand believers, 35:03 Seventh-day Adventists just in this one area alone, 35:06 though they're not on the Church books, 35:08 but I can almost guarantee you, they're in the books of heaven. 35:11 We serve an amazing God, a mighty God, 35:15 who is all powerful, who is a tremendous God. 35:19 I got a little bit of time left, I want to share a story of Max. 35:23 I don't know if you've heard the story of Max, 35:25 Max was the kind of guy... if you saw Max coming, 35:28 you'd want to get on the other side of the street 35:30 he just shouldn't shoot you or look at you, 35:34 one day the police caught up to Max 35:36 and they threw him in prison, 35:38 now, while Max was in prison, 35:40 he notices there's a group of people who worship on Sunday 35:43 and they don't have to work if they go to church on Sunday, 35:46 all this is pretty good, so Max goes to church on Sunday, 35:50 then he sees another group 35:52 and this other group... they go to church on Saturday 35:55 and guess what, if you go to church on Saturday, 35:58 you don't have to work on Saturday, 36:00 and so, he goes to church on Saturday 36:03 and he goes to church on Sunday, 36:04 but now it doesn't... 36:07 he doesn't stick around long enough 36:09 to really get into it because in about 3 or 4 weeks, 36:12 he breaks out of prison with two other guys 36:14 and they head up in the mountains, they're gone, 36:16 when they get up in the mountains, they said, 36:18 "You know, we've got to come up with a really good reason 36:21 if the police catch up to us that our lives are different, 36:24 maybe they'll let us go," then they said, 36:26 "Well, if we are of this denomination, 36:28 that's meaningless, because everybody is that... " 36:31 but then they said, 36:33 "You know, if we say we're Seventh-day Adventists, 36:35 they'll believe that, 36:36 because nobody here likes Seventh-day Adventists. " 36:38 So they said, "Okay, we're Seventh-day Adventists" 36:40 and they go on and they chop all this lumber 36:43 and they build a Seventh-day Adventist church 36:45 on the top of this little mountain, 36:47 it's kind of a criminal's no-man's land, 36:49 they put Seventh-day Adventist on it, 36:51 and then, on top of it, they dig a big old tunnel 36:55 all the way out, put a trap door, 36:57 and that area is a good place for an escape route 36:59 in case the police come, 37:00 and it's also a good place to keep his AK-47 37:03 and all his other assault weapons. 37:05 For Sabbath, they're sitting in church, 37:07 they sit there and they say, "Hmmm... 37:10 well, something's not right" so they go out 37:13 and they come back and they've stolen 37:15 three ties and three Bibles so that they can do church, 37:17 okay, so, they're sitting there, 37:22 and now, let's see... there's three of us so... 37:24 "Okay, you do Youth Services and you do Sabbath School 37:26 and I'll do church" others said, "Okay" 37:28 Now, down in the city, 37:30 there's a big school down there 37:33 not an Adventist school because there just wasn't... 37:35 hardly any Adventists around, but there were quite a few 37:38 Seventh-day Adventist young people going to that school, 37:41 and these young people hear about this 37:43 Seventh-day Adventist church, 37:45 there are no other churches around 37:46 except the Seventh-day Adventist Church 37:48 up on the mountain, so the next Sabbath 37:49 they say to everybody, "Let's go up" 37:51 zoom, they all head up the mountain, 37:52 they knock on the door because the door is locked 37:54 they never heard of a church being locked on Sabbath 37:56 but the door is locked, scares Max half to death, 37:59 he knows it's the cops, 38:00 he just barely peeks out the window 38:02 and sees all these young people, what's he going to do? 38:05 He opens the door and says, "What do you want?" 38:06 They say, "We've come to do church with you," 38:08 "Well, okay," he invites them in they come in, sit down, 38:13 then he's saying, "What am I going to do, 38:15 what am I going to do, we don't know how to do church," 38:17 says "Well, you're the visitors, why don't you hold church?" 38:19 They say, "Okay," so they hold church, 38:21 they kind of liked it, 38:22 Max and his buddies kind of enjoyed it, 38:24 and they did that for several Sabbaths, 38:26 then one Sabbath, guess what? 38:27 They don't show up, the young people don't show up, 38:30 finally Max figures out 38:31 the Principal of the school down there 38:34 chained the school gates and won't let them come up, 38:36 he grabs his AK-47, he's heading down the mountain 38:39 he is so mad, he's shooting banana clubs, 38:42 whirrrrrr, whirrrrr... whirrr... he gets down there, 38:44 he blows off the padlock off the gate, 38:46 he opens the gate and says, "Where are you?" 38:47 He's looking for that Principal, 38:49 that Principal... man! he's hiding behind the desk. 38:51 Max comes up, shoves the gun in his chest 38:56 he says, "Where's my congregation?" 38:57 and then he says, I don't know where he got this, 39:01 "I don't know if you believe this or not 39:03 but I'm going to send you to hell 39:05 and I'm going to meet you shortly there afterwards. " 39:07 Needless to say, the congregation was released. 39:10 Then one day, the young people... 39:12 as they're continuing having church, 39:14 said, "Max, let's do an Evangelistic Meeting" 39:16 Max said, "Well, okay, what's an Evangelistic Meeting?" 39:19 They finally go along with this, 39:23 they call the Mission President way down the mountain, 39:26 he doesn't want to come up 39:27 but they finally guarantee him, 39:29 saying, "No, it will be safe because Max and his buddies 39:30 are going to do guard duty for them at the meetings" 39:33 They ended up... they held the meetings 39:37 and the final night, 39:38 Max and his two buddies were baptized. 39:41 Someone asked him, 39:42 "Max, why did you wait till the very last meeting?" 39:44 because people were being baptized all along, 39:46 he said, "You know, I didn't think it was right 39:49 if I had to shoot somebody while I was baptized. " 39:52 Now, the Union President... he tells me that 39:57 Max and his buddies are responsible 39:59 for ten Branch Sabbath Schools and two churches. 40:02 Brothers and Sisters, how big is your God? 40:05 The God of the Bible is all powerful, 40:09 He is a mighty God and He wants to work in your life, 40:12 He wants to work in mine, 40:13 He wants to work in the life of the church, 40:15 isn't it time that we let him 40:17 and allow Him to open our hearts to Him and say, 40:21 "Lord, come in and live in my life, change me, mold me, 40:25 make me and shape me into your image. " 40:28 Will you do that today, will you say that to the Lord? 40:32 And there's no doubt in my mind that God is coming soon 40:35 He is looking for a people that He can fully trust, 40:39 looking for a people that will do anything 40:43 and go wherever the Lord leads, let's pray, shall we? 40:46 "Father, we just want to thank you so much 40:49 for your incredible love, thank you for your power, 40:52 Lord, I know you're working around the world 40:55 you're doing so much today I pray that you fill 40:57 each and every listener here with your Holy Spirit 41:00 in Jesus' name, amen. " |
Revised 2016-02-15