Participants:
Series Code: TDY
Program Code: TDY018100A
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00:01 I want to spend my life
00:07 Mending broken people 00:12 I want to spend my life 00:19 Removing pain 00:24 Lord, let my words 00:30 Heal a heart that hurts 00:34 I want to spend my life 00:40 Mending broken people 00:45 I want to spend my life 00:51 Mending broken people 01:11 Hello, I'm Shelley Quinn, 01:12 and we welcome you once again to 3ABN Today. 01:15 We're so grateful that you're joining us, 01:17 and I just have to tell you 01:18 this is not to feature a ministry today. 01:22 Our interview is a personal testimony. 01:25 And if you want to hear a story that gives God glory 01:31 and that will give you hope 01:33 and inspire you 01:35 for what God can do in your life, 01:37 you want to stay tuned. 01:38 Let me share our scripture 01:40 before I introduce our special guest, 01:42 and it's one of my favorite, Jeremiah 29:11-14. 01:46 And the Lord says, 01:48 "For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, 01:51 says the Lord, 01:52 thoughts of peace and not of evil, 01:55 to give you a future and a hope." 01:58 Isn't that wonderful to know that 02:00 that's what God is thinking? 02:01 But then listen to what He says, 02:04 "Then you will call upon Me." 02:07 When? 02:08 When will we call upon God? 02:10 When we recognize He's the one that's got a plan for our lives 02:14 and it's better than the one that we're living. 02:17 He says, "Then you will call upon Me 02:19 and go and pray to Me, 02:20 and I will listen to you. 02:22 And you will seek Me and you will find Me 02:24 when you seek Me with your whole heart. 02:27 I will be found by you, says the Lord, 02:30 and I will bring you back from your captivity. 02:34 I'll gather you from all the nations 02:37 and from all the places where I've driven you, 02:39 says the Lord, 02:40 and I will bring you to the place 02:42 from which I caused you to be carried away captive." 02:47 I am so excited to have this privilege today 02:50 to introduce and to interview Pastor Stephen Farr. 02:56 And, Pastor Farr, 02:58 I know only because we've just now met 03:02 actually sitting on this set, 03:04 but when we were praying, 03:06 you mentioned that you were thankful to God 03:09 for bringing you from living inside a U-Haul cardboard box 03:15 to this seat today. 03:16 Right. 03:18 I can't wait to hear your story. 03:21 You are a pastor 03:23 with the Upper Colombian Conference 03:25 of Seventh-day Adventist Church. 03:26 Yeah, I'm at the Upper Columbia Conference 03:28 of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, 03:30 went there right after graduating 03:32 from Walla Walla University. 03:35 We'll get to that later. 03:36 But I mean I had the best two-year internship 03:40 before being sent out to where I'm at now, 03:44 at Andrews University at the Pasco Riverview Church 03:48 in the Upper Columbia Conference. 03:49 And I just know that too was a moment 03:52 that God had set up for me 03:54 because it was a church-full of people there 03:57 with the senior pastor, Jared Spano, 04:00 and his wife, Constance, and the rest of the church, 04:03 and the elders all came together, 04:04 and they just loved on me 04:06 and they helped me 04:08 to have a first experience in a church 04:11 as part of a team. 04:12 Praise God. That was just beautiful. 04:14 Praise God. 04:15 And I know we're going to unpack some of... 04:19 You've had a painful past in many ways, 04:22 but God has brought you through it 04:24 because God had a plan for his life. 04:27 Before we unpack his story 04:29 and let him share with us what God has done, 04:32 we know how much you love music, 04:35 and we love the Burchfield Brothers. 04:38 They are incredible musicians, 04:41 and they're going to play for us 04:42 "Be still my soul." 08:07 Oh, we thank the Burchfield Brothers. 08:09 That was beautiful. 08:11 Well, if you're joining us just a moment late, 08:14 our special guest today is Pastor Stephen Farr, 08:17 and he is going to be sharing his personal testimony 08:22 which I have a strong sense, I haven't heard it, 08:27 but that this is going to be very impactful. 08:29 Kind of let's just get started back in the beginning. 08:33 Did you grow up in a Christian home? 08:35 What were the circumstances of your upbringing? 08:39 Well, I think probably 08:41 the most important thing to share 08:42 is when I was a little boy, 08:44 my dad worked as a preacher and evangelist. 08:47 And I remember as a little boy, I had four other siblings. 08:53 There's Aaron, Nathan, Rebecca, Jeremiah, and me, 08:57 I'm the second one. 09:00 I grew up in a Christian home, 09:03 and I just remember as a boy watching my dad preach 09:08 and watching him sit around campfires 09:10 and play guitar 09:11 and seeing all the kids singing the songs, 09:13 and you could see that there was something there 09:16 that was special. 09:18 There was a glow on people's faces 09:19 and in their eyes 09:20 when they would sing about Jesus 09:22 and when they would hear the words of life, 09:24 and they would hear the word that was in the beginning, 09:28 you know, the way the truth and the life just... 09:31 And you'd see the sparkle in their eyes 09:35 of the Holy Spirit's presence. 09:37 And I remember as a little boy, 09:41 six-seven years old thinking to myself, 09:46 "Dad, one day when I grow up, I'm going to be just like you." 09:50 Now was your father a Seventh-day Adventist Pastor 09:53 or a Christian Pastor, what? 09:57 Yeah. 09:58 Well, my dad worked with several ministries 10:02 that are Adventist ministries that are self-supporting. 10:04 Okay. 10:06 And so throughout that process, 10:08 I ended up getting to meet a lot of people 10:09 who are part of the Seventh-day Adventist Church 10:12 throughout my childhood. 10:13 And I remember, you know, 10:15 I remember actually Ty Gibson, James Rafferty, 10:18 some of these guys from when I was a kid. 10:21 And you know, them along with my dad were the people... 10:26 You know, some people have sports posters on their walls. 10:29 When I was a little boy, 10:30 my heroes were the people who were preaching the gospel 10:34 and doing the evangelism. 10:35 I thought that, "Man, you know, 10:37 they have found the words of life 10:39 that give joy and happiness and eternal life to people." 10:42 And that's what I want to do with my life too. 10:44 So did you have a close relationship 10:47 with your father? 10:48 You know, the funny thing is that 10:51 there were times in life, 10:53 my best memories were the moments 10:55 when my dad and I, the relationship was close, 10:59 but I felt like I was just 11:00 one of the spectators many times 11:03 because sometimes as we know in ministry, 11:07 it can get very involved in your traveling, 11:09 in your preaching, and your serving the Lord, 11:11 and sometimes, the family at home 11:14 gets forgotten a little bit. 11:17 So there were definitely times in my life 11:19 where my father connected with me 11:20 and we had a strong bond, 11:22 but there was also a lot of brokenness too in our home 11:25 and a lot of my dad traveling 11:27 and doing ministry and serving God, 11:28 that took him away from me. 11:30 And so it's interesting that you asked that 11:33 and I'm glad you did because, you know, 11:36 just like the other evangelists and preachers in the church 11:38 were posters on my wall 11:39 that I dreamed to aspire to be like. 11:41 I felt too with my dad 11:43 that sometimes I didn't have that close relationship 11:46 I wanted, 11:47 that he was someone I wanted to aspire to be like, 11:50 that wasn't always there. 11:51 Amen. Amen. 11:53 So something obviously, 11:56 just because I know you ended up on the streets, 11:59 there was some kind of break in your life. 12:04 Where do you want to... 12:07 I mean, do you want to go to your video now 12:09 or do you want... 12:10 Let me tell you a little bit leading up to the video. 12:12 Sure. Okay. 12:13 So when I was about 10 years old, 12:17 I had a dream, 12:18 and in the dream God told me, 12:20 "Stephen, you need to warn your mother. 12:23 In two years, your parents are going to divorce." 12:26 And I remember spending the next two years of my life 12:29 hearing my family fighting 12:31 because, you know, sadly, sometimes, we come to Jesus 12:33 and we're telling other people about Jesus 12:36 and we forget that that personal relationship, 12:39 Holy Spirit-driven relationship is important, 12:42 and we can run dry. 12:43 And unfortunately, I lived in a home 12:46 where our faith 12:48 turned into a little bit of legalism even, 12:50 and it became a situation where there was abuse at home, 12:54 there was... 12:56 my parents fighting at night 12:57 while I'm in my room crying and praying 13:00 because I'd had this dream, 13:02 you know, "Stephen, go warn your mother 13:03 that your parents are going to divorce." 13:04 I'll never forget waking up after that dream 13:07 and walking down the hallway and going into the kitchen. 13:11 There's my mom making bread, 13:13 I'll never forget, she had a jean dress on, 13:15 and I tug on it, 13:17 then I looked at my mom and I said, 13:18 "Mom, you need to get ready 13:20 because God just told me in a dream 13:21 in two years, Dad's going to leave. 13:23 And you were 10 years old? 13:24 I was 10 years old, and my mom remembers that day, 13:26 I remember that day, I'll never forget that day. 13:28 I remember the smell of the bread in the room, 13:30 what my mom was wearing, and everything. 13:32 And how did she respond? 13:33 She laughed. 13:36 She laughed and she says, "Oh, no, son, you know, 13:39 I'm sorry about your dad and I, this fighting, and things. 13:41 But don't worry, we're doing counseling, 13:43 everything's going to be fine." 13:45 And I'll never forget, two years later, 13:48 I was at Auburn Adventist Academy 13:50 for camp meeting in the month of June, 13:53 same month I had the dream. 13:56 And I was there with Aunty Dot, 13:57 she was one of those members of the church, 13:59 you know, that adopts the kids, take you to camp meeting, 14:01 you go to all the meetings. 14:04 Some of my best childhood memories 14:05 were at Auburn Adventist Academy 14:07 camp meeting, you know. 14:08 And Aunty Dot would take us 14:10 and we'd stay there in her trailer. 14:12 But one day, I was coming back from the meeting, 14:13 we walked up the steps of that trailer 14:15 into Aunty Dot's trailer, 14:17 and when I got into the trailer, 14:19 I look up and my parents were there. 14:22 And you could tell by the look on their face. 14:23 And I could feel it. 14:25 In the moment I saw them, and the look on their face, 14:28 and looked around the room, 14:30 my memory triggered 14:31 and my heart sunk right through the floor, 14:33 and before they even spoke the words, 14:34 "We're separating and we're filing for divorce," 14:37 I knew what was about to happen. 14:39 Yeah. 14:40 And that was a moment in my life 14:44 that really tried my faith. 14:49 You know, I'm sitting here trying to process 14:50 and I'm sure people at home are as well. 14:53 It's interesting that God would give you that dream. 14:58 It's interesting that you've had that foretelling 15:02 if you would of this, 15:04 but I just want to make a point 15:06 before we go on with your story 15:08 is that what Stephen said 15:11 about people who are in ministry. 15:14 It is so easy to lose balance in our lives, 15:18 you know, ministry is very demanding. 15:20 That's right. 15:21 And to keep that personal relationship, 15:24 and it should always be God first, 15:27 then your family, then your ministry 15:30 because if you can't minister to your own family, 15:35 I mean, if you're not keeping that personal relationship, 15:38 or if you're not ministering to your family, 15:41 you can't be held up as a role model 15:43 and people are going to look at what you do, 15:45 not what you say. 15:47 So here, 15:48 it had a devastating effect on your family. 15:50 Yes. 15:52 And they went through with the divorce. 15:54 How did this impact you? 15:57 Well, I'll tell you that 15:59 going from being a Christian family 16:01 to my dad leaving the faith for a time in his life... 16:05 He left the faith even? 16:07 That the Bible was just a moral book. 16:08 Ooh! 16:10 And you didn't really... 16:11 I mean, you could read the Bible, 16:12 you didn't have to follow it. 16:14 And so for a while, he had gone through 16:16 and gotten a degree. 16:18 He had left the church, he got a master's degree, 16:20 in marriage counseling, 16:21 and drug and alcohol dependency, 16:23 and through this had gotten into spiritualism. 16:27 Ooh! 16:29 And he just went to the opposite extreme. 16:31 And I remember, as a 12-year-old boy 16:35 just feeling like my whole world view, 16:37 I wasn't sure if it was real or not. 16:40 And on top of that now, 16:41 if I had prayed for two years for God 16:43 to save my family and He didn't, 16:45 and if heaven was real 16:46 and my dad was leaving the faith, 16:48 then the one that I wanted to grow up to be like 16:50 wasn't going to be in heaven. 16:52 And I started having questions, 16:54 well, now I'm seeing my brothers and sisters 16:55 are falling away from the faith, 16:57 and the only two that are staying in the faith 16:58 is my mom and me. 17:00 And so if they're falling away from the faith, 17:02 what does that mean? 17:03 And do I want to be a world evangelist 17:05 and be a preacher and follow God 17:06 if I'm going to be in heaven 17:08 and they're not going to be there. 17:09 And these are the things that are very scary 17:11 and confusing for you when you're 12. 17:13 I'm sure, I'm sure. 17:15 Now you were the second to the youngest? 17:18 No, no, no, I was the second oldest. 17:19 You were the second oldest. 17:21 So there was my brother Aaron, and then me, and then Nathan, 17:23 and then Rebecca, and Jeremiah is the youngest. 17:25 So this had a very strong, I mean, the waves, 17:31 it's kind of like when you drop that pebble, 17:33 it just keeps waving out. 17:34 So the pain that this caused, 17:39 a number of people in your family 17:41 were turning from the Lord. 17:43 Did your mother always stay true to God? 17:46 She stayed true to God, and she never remarried, 17:49 she spent her life raising her kids. 17:51 Praise God. 17:52 And you know, I want to say something about my mom. 18:00 She is the best Mom I could have ever had. 18:02 Praise God. 18:03 I remember when we were driving back 18:05 from that camp meeting, 18:06 the divorce had been announced, 18:08 I was riding in the car with my mom, 18:10 and she had remembered that dream I had, 18:12 and she looked into the backseat 18:14 in the rear-view mirror, and she said, "You know, son, 18:15 you are the oddest child that I have," 18:18 and then she followed it up with some words 18:20 that changed something in my heart 18:22 and has stuck with me 18:23 throughout my whole life and testimony, 18:25 and it's been one of the things that helped God hang on to me. 18:27 She said, "You know, son, 18:29 I've been thinking about everything in the Bible, 18:30 and the only person I can think of is Joseph." 18:33 She says, "You must have a Joseph anointing." 18:37 And later on in my story, 18:38 I'll tell you how she brought that back 18:40 and it helped to bring me out of a dark place. 18:44 Okay. 18:46 Joseph went from the pit 18:47 to the prison to the palace, huh? 18:49 He went from the pit to the prison to the palace, 18:51 and God took him the whole way 18:53 and put him in all of those places 18:54 to help develop his character. 18:55 And so we know this is... 18:57 I mean, you know, the good thing, 19:00 we can see him sitting here, 19:01 so it's kind of like 19:02 we've read the back of the book. 19:04 Right, yeah, you've read the last page 19:05 but there's stuff that happens in the middle. 19:07 So why don't we go ahead, 19:09 and do you need to set up this video? 19:10 Let's look at this video 19:12 'cause I want you to have full time 19:13 to tell this story. 19:15 Are we ready to show that now? 19:16 Yeah, let's show this video and I just want to say, 19:18 this video is a video that was produced by ASWWU, 19:22 which is the Associated Students 19:23 of Walla Walla University. 19:24 Okay. 19:26 They do a really amazing ministry 19:27 where they tell students' stories, 19:29 and so this will just be a clip from that video. 19:31 Okay. 19:33 And if you watch it 19:35 and you want to hear how the video ends, 19:37 you can just go on the Internet 19:39 and search The Stephen Farr Story, 19:42 and it'll bring it upon YouTube and in Vimeo, 19:45 and you'll be able to watch that. 19:46 All right. And that's Stephen with a P-H and Farr is F-A-R-R. 19:50 So let's watch this video now. 20:00 Jeremiah 29:11 says, 20:03 "'For I know the plans I have for you,' 20:05 declares the Lord, 20:06 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, 20:09 plans to give you hope and a future.' 20:13 " When I was 12 years old, my parents got divorced. 20:16 I'd been raised in a Christian family, 20:18 and really in reality the thing that mattered to me most 20:22 in life was family. 20:24 It wasn't too long after my dad left 20:26 that I started getting really depressed. 20:30 At 13 years old, I started drinking, 20:32 and started getting into drugs, 20:33 and started hanging out in the wrong crowd. 20:37 I went from being homeschooled to going into public school. 20:41 None of my clothes were cool. I didn't fit in. 20:43 I didn't know how to talk right. 20:46 It wasn't too long after all of this occurred 20:48 that my depression really started getting me down. 20:53 And I remember, one night, we were partying, 20:55 I'd invited all of my friends over, 20:57 and we threw this really big party, 20:59 and I got absolutely belligerently drunk. 21:02 You know, one of the hardest things 21:03 for me in my life was 21:05 when my dad would get upset with us. 21:08 Sometimes, he was really abusive, 21:10 and I'd vowed in my heart that I would never, ever, ever 21:13 hurt one of my brothers and sisters 21:14 because I loved my family 21:15 more than anything in the world. 21:17 But that night, I got in a really big fight 21:19 with my brother. 21:20 I ended up punching him right in the face 21:22 as hard as I could. 21:24 I'll never forget the look on his face. 21:26 He was shocked. 21:28 After I punched him in the face, I left. 21:30 And I remember, I was walking on this graveled driveway, 21:33 I went for like a mile walking in the rain 21:35 with no shoes on my feet. 21:37 When I came back to my house, everybody was gone. 21:41 And I went in the house, and shut the door, 21:43 and then I just started having these thoughts 21:45 about how worthless my life was. 21:48 I went over to the drawer, I opened it, 21:51 I opened another drawer, I opened another drawer, 21:53 I started searching for something in my room 21:55 that I could use to hurt myself. 21:56 Finally, in this one drawer, 21:58 I found an entire set of razor blades. 22:01 I started cutting myself frantically. 22:04 I felt like I just had to do something 22:06 to end my life to get it over with. 22:08 My family was broken, my dad didn't want me. 22:10 I ended up doing the one thing in my life 22:12 I never wanted to do, 22:13 which was hurt somebody that I loved the most. 22:18 Suddenly, I heard a pounding on the door. 22:21 I realized that my sister had showed up and come back. 22:25 She was able to get into the room, 22:27 and she came running over to me, 22:28 and she jumped on me, 22:30 and she pulled away the razor blades from me, 22:33 and she started screaming and sobbing. 22:35 And she was like, "What are you doing? 22:37 What are you doing? 22:39 You're like my dad. 22:40 How could you ever do anything to hurt yourself or leave me?" 22:45 You know, at that moment in my life, 22:46 I really didn't know if God had a plan for my life. 22:49 I didn't even know if I believed in God. 22:51 But I did know 22:53 that seeing how much my sister loved me 22:55 and how much I meant to her made me want to try. 23:00 I want to see the rest of this, so we go to Vimeo.com 23:04 or just Google you. 23:06 Yeah, go on YouTube 23:07 and search The Stephen Farr Story 23:09 or just go on Google, go on in the Internet 23:11 and search The Stephen Farr Story, 23:14 Stephen with a P-H, 23:16 and you can watch it on Vimeo or you can watch it on YouTube. 23:18 Okay. 23:19 So, Stephen, 23:21 you had sunk to a very low level, 23:25 I mean, in the depression 23:26 is likely what you were trying to self-medicate 23:30 with drugs and alcohol. 23:32 And even the cutting is... 23:34 I mean, were you really attempting suicide at there 23:37 or were you just self-medicating with the pain? 23:40 Well, it was definitely a suicide attempt. 23:44 I mean, that was just a breaking moment in my life. 23:46 I had just, you know, assaulted my brother. 23:49 Yeah. You know? 23:50 I had done something violent 23:52 against someone that I love and care about 23:53 and, you know, 23:55 I'd seen how I went from a Christian family 23:57 to going into public school 23:59 to allowing the influences of the world 24:00 to take me down on a road where I was two people. 24:03 I was someone who still believed in God 24:05 but was struggling with my faith 24:06 because, you know, 24:08 I had prayed for my family to be saved 24:09 and the thing that mattered to me most in life 24:11 had fallen apart. 24:12 And so, yeah, I started the self-medicating 24:14 by giving into the peer pressures, 24:15 wanting to fit in. 24:17 Yeah. 24:18 And it led to that moment in my life 24:20 where I just felt like Satan was saying to me, 24:23 "You know, your life is worthless. 24:24 Look. God could never love you. 24:26 You've drunk alcohol, 24:28 you've been involved in all these parties, 24:29 you've done all the things." 24:31 "You've disappointed Him." 24:32 "You've disappointed God, you've done everything wrong, 24:34 and He'll never take you back." 24:35 And so at that point, what's there to live for 24:37 if you're separated from God? 24:38 Yeah. You know? 24:40 So how did you end up... 24:43 I mean, obviously, it wasn't just like, "Woo-hoo! 24:48 okay, I'm rescued," 24:51 because I know you ended up on the street somehow, 24:54 so kind of walk us through, did you seek help? 24:58 Did they put you in the hospital? 25:00 What happened? 25:01 Well, they put me in a halfway house, 25:03 but because I was 19, I didn't have to stay. 25:05 Okay. 25:06 And I discovered that I didn't have to stay 25:09 and I had a car, 25:10 and so I signed myself out and went home 25:13 and got all my stuff in the middle of the night, 25:14 and ran away to the big city. 25:17 And within no time, 25:18 the friends that I ran away with 25:20 disappeared. 25:22 Of course, I was 19, 25:23 so I can move on with my life and be an adult. 25:26 The friends disappeared, the money ran out, 25:28 the gas ran out in the car, the car broke down, 25:30 and the next thing you know, 25:32 here I am in Olympia, Washington, 25:33 homeless on the streets. 25:36 And I'll never forget, 25:37 one day, I was 25:39 downtown Olympia panhandling money for food. 25:43 And somebody saw that I had gotten some money, 25:46 and I decided to get up and go walking through the alleyway 25:48 to go over to the local McDonald's 25:50 or somewhere where I could spend a few dollars 25:52 to get something warm to eat. 25:54 And this person decides to chase me with a knife 25:58 to try to steal my money. 26:01 And as a result of it, 26:02 I ended up running 26:05 as far as I could as fast as I could 26:07 until I got out on the end of this road somewhere, 26:09 and I found a KOA campground. 26:12 Somehow I was able to get my car there, 26:14 and move there, and stay there, 26:15 and I was afraid to go back to Olympia 26:17 because of this experience 26:18 of being almost stabbed over a five-dollar bill, right? 26:24 I was afraid to go back downtown, 26:25 and so I had, luckily, a tent in my trunk, 26:29 and I had just enough money 26:31 that I had been able to scrounge up 26:33 to pay for a campground site. 26:36 And I remember, I get my tent set up, 26:38 and I put everything in there, my car runs out of gas, 26:40 I can't run the heater anymore, and wouldn't you know it, 26:42 in the month of November or October, 26:43 or October, November, it snows. 26:47 And I remember, after it snowed, 26:49 it was like a Berrien Springs snow 26:52 or it was like Washington state snow 26:54 where it snows and melts, 26:55 and that's the worst kind 26:56 'cause then it's just cold and everything's wet. 26:58 It's miserable. 26:59 And for three days, I hadn't had anything to eat. 27:02 All of the stuff in my tent was wet. 27:04 And I remember, being down in the bottom 27:05 of that sleeping bag in that tent, 27:07 the only thing I had left dry, 27:08 and I bowed my head 27:10 and I said the first prayer I'd said in a long time. 27:13 And I'd gone on a long journey that led me from my place 27:16 where I wanted to be a world evangelist to that boy 27:18 that was in the bottom of that sleeping bag. 27:21 And I just said, "God, if you'll save my life, 27:24 I'll give You my life and I'll serve You." 27:27 And I'll never forget this. 27:29 The next thing that happens is 27:30 I have someone tapping on my tent. 27:33 Now at first, I thought it was the wind blowing. 27:35 And being so wet and cold, I was thinking, 27:37 "Now if you come out of the bottom of this sleeping bag 27:39 and you open this tent and there's nobody there, 27:41 you're going to freeze to death." 27:44 But the tapping kept happening. 27:47 And so I open up that door 27:49 and the woman who owned the campground 27:51 is standing there. 27:53 And she says, "Young man, your mother just called me." 27:56 Wow! 27:58 I said, "My mother just called you? 27:59 My mother doesn't know where I am." 28:00 She said, "Your mother just called me 28:02 and she said to me on the phone, 28:04 'Do you have any children?'" 28:07 First words. 28:08 And the woman says, "Well, this is kind of weird, 28:10 I don't know who you are but yes." 28:12 And she says, "Well, my child is the one in the tent 28:14 in your campground. 28:15 Would you allow your child to freeze to death in a tent?" 28:20 And she looked at me and she said, "Come with me." 28:23 And she took me and she put me in this cabin. 28:26 And it was a cabin with bunk beds. 28:29 Wait, back up, hold the phone, hit the pause button, 28:32 how did your mother know you were there? 28:34 You know, to this day, 28:35 my mother swears she never called that place. 28:39 She did not. She didn't know I was there. 28:40 She had no idea where I was. 28:43 Wow! 28:44 So here's a moment in my life where I say a prayer 28:47 and I know that divine intervention happened 28:49 because who called that woman on that phone? 28:52 Wow! 28:53 So here I am, I walk into this cabin, 28:55 and there's a heater, 28:57 but the beds have no mattresses on them. 29:00 It's kind of like prison or jail cell mattresses. 29:03 And so I'm frozen. So I take all my stuff. 29:06 I lay it around this heater, 29:07 and I turn that heater on its full blast 29:09 and I say another prayer. 29:11 I lay face first on the floor, on the wooden floor. 29:14 I'll never forget the feel of that floor 29:16 with that heater blowing. 29:17 It was actually the best feeling in life. 29:18 I've never been so happy 29:20 to be sleeping in on a wood floor. 29:23 And while I'm saying a prayer, I closed my eyes, I said, 29:26 "God, You just got me out of the cold. 29:28 If that was You, 29:30 You got to bring me some food too." 29:34 And while I'm praying, and I'm crying, I fall asleep, 29:38 and I have another dream. 29:40 And this is a dream that changed my whole life 29:43 because in this dream, 29:45 suddenly I'm walking in downtown Seattle, 29:46 I only recognized it 29:48 because I had also been homeless there, 29:50 at 15 and 16 years old, 29:52 I was running around in Seattle 29:53 and Auburn and Federal Way with gangs 29:54 and getting into that lifestyle. 29:58 And I only recognized it in the dream 29:59 because of the Space Needle. 30:01 And in this dream, I'm playing a guitar 30:04 and singing praises to God, 30:06 and I'm looking up to heaven 30:08 and my face is shining 30:09 with the glory of the Holy Spirit. 30:12 And then I start to realize I'm not the only one singing. 30:16 Now a puzzling thing is, Shelley, I didn't own a guitar, 30:19 I didn't play a guitar. 30:22 Yet. Yeah. 30:23 Now in this dream, I'll never forget, 30:25 this guitar has a white strap on it. 30:26 I never forget the white strap 30:28 because it was one of those beautiful cloth 30:29 white strap guitar straps. 30:31 And I turned around 30:33 and there was a whole multitude of people, 30:35 thousands of people singing praises to God, 30:38 looking up to God, their faces are shining, 30:39 and I realize around this whole multitude of people, 30:43 there is a light, 30:45 and all of the people outside of the light are blind, 30:49 all the people in the alleyways and everything, 30:51 they can't see but they can hear the singing. 30:53 Yeah. They can hear the praise. 30:55 How symbolic. 30:57 And so the people start wandering 30:58 towards this shroud of light around all of God's people 31:01 that are praising Him in those streets. 31:03 And as they walk into the light, 31:07 they immediately have their eyes opened, 31:12 they go right in with all of the people 31:13 who are singing, they look up to God, 31:15 and they start singing the songs 31:16 as if they've been singing in their entire life. 31:19 And then all of a sudden, I'm zipped out of my body, 31:22 way up above the world and I see the... 31:23 In your dream? In my dream, yeah. 31:26 And in this dream, I'm way up above the world 31:29 and I see almost like a fire break out over Portland 31:32 like a diamond, or a jewel, 31:34 or like the fire of the Holy Spirit 31:36 is something that I would describe it as now. 31:37 At the time, I didn't know what to make of it. 31:40 And then it happens in Portland, 31:42 in Vancouver, and Seattle, 31:43 and then little teeny dots break out all over the map 31:45 from the north to the south, 31:46 go all the way around the world, 31:48 and when it reaches the West Coast again, 31:50 boom, the world explodes into the Star of David 31:51 and I hear... 31:54 a knocking at the door of my cabin. 31:56 And the knocking was so loud, it woke me up. 31:59 So here, I am on the floor, I mean, 32:01 because I just felt like I was in outer space 32:02 and here I am on the floor and I'm literally... 32:04 I mean, it was so real, I was literally panicking like, 32:06 "Oh, I'm on the floor." 32:08 And I hear the knocking again 32:09 and I go to the door and I open that door, 32:11 the snow is gone and I hear birds singing. 32:13 I look around, nobody's there, 32:14 and then I looked down at my feet, 32:16 and wouldn't you know it, 32:18 there was an entire box of food sitting on that porch. 32:21 Of course. 32:22 And as I bring that box of food in 32:24 and I sit it on the bed and start going through it, 32:26 it wasn't just any food, 32:28 it was all of my favorite things. 32:31 Of course, because God answered your prayer. 32:33 Because God answered, and to this day, 32:35 I don't know who left that box of food. 32:37 It wasn't the lady at the KOA campground. 32:39 And so two times God showed me, 32:42 He removed any human element from it that I wasn't aware of. 32:45 Yes. 32:46 To show me that when you cried out to Me 32:48 just like you said in Jeremiah 29:11 32:49 at the beginning of this program, 32:51 you know, "For I know the plans I have for you." 32:53 "And when you come to the place 32:54 where you recognize that I have a plan for you 32:56 and you cry out to me, I'm going to show up." 32:59 Amen. 33:01 "And I'm going to bring you back 33:02 out of the captivity that you put yourself in." 33:04 You know, Stephen, they're going to be people 33:06 and you probably have had people. 33:08 Sometimes, God communicates with us. 33:13 His number one way 33:14 to communicate with us is right here. 33:16 Amen. The Word. 33:17 That's right. 33:19 And the Holy Spirit will never tell us 33:20 anything different, 33:23 anything that opposes His word. 33:25 So there will not be anything contradictory. 33:28 But I believe, God does... 33:30 I mean, He says in Joel, He says Acts, 33:33 you know, "I'll give them dreams and visions," 33:36 and God can speak to us in a number of ways. 33:40 We can hear that still small voice of the Lord. 33:45 And some people will be looking and thinking, 33:49 "That is so strange. 33:50 I've never heard anything like that before." 33:53 But I know many people 33:56 who God has spoken to them in a dream. 33:59 Doesn't mean that they're prophets, or kings, 34:02 they're just people that God wants to reach. 34:07 And so obviously, He was setting you up. 34:11 That's how I like to say it. Yeah. 34:13 He was setting you up. 34:14 Yeah, and the thing that came to my mind, I think, 34:16 the important thing that I would say to the people 34:20 listening to my story right now 34:21 is that I realized in that moment 34:24 that I had asked God to save my life. 34:26 Amen. 34:27 And how did He save my life? 34:29 He reminded me of the reason for living 34:32 that He gave me when I was a boy. 34:33 Amen. 34:35 You know, so it was the dream that I had, 34:37 the experience that I had, 34:38 the miracle of the woman putting me in the cabin, 34:40 and having a dream, 34:41 and having these things happen... 34:45 I cried out to God, I asked Him to save me, 34:47 and He didn't do anything except for reminding me 34:49 what He had already told me when I was a boy, 34:51 "Stephen, someday you're going to grow up 34:53 and be a world evangelist. 34:55 Someday you're going to be working for Me." 34:57 Amen. 34:59 So here's the crazy thing. 35:01 You would think that after this experience 35:03 that I would have my come-to-Jesus moment 35:05 and I would immediately become a world evangelist, 35:08 right, because in our minds we think of world evangelists 35:10 as people on TV 35:12 or in a stadium speaking to thousands of people, 35:14 and we don't know how they got there. 35:17 And so in our mind, we just see a man up preaching 35:19 and we don't think, "Well, you know, 35:20 maybe he had a life and an experience 35:22 that led to that moment 35:23 or maybe God used him to touch thousands of lives 35:25 and that's why thousands are listening." 35:28 But I didn't give my life to God in that moment. 35:32 I still struggled. 35:33 In fact, I got a call from home 35:35 shortly after that I called my mom, 35:37 I told her what happened, 35:38 and my mom gave me the news 35:40 that my sister had become addicted 35:41 to meth and heroin. 35:44 And so I thought, "Oh, it's a clear sign..." 35:46 This is the sister who said you were like a father to her? 35:48 Yes, this is the same sister who saved my life. 35:51 And so because she had actually saved my life 35:54 by wrapping my arms when I had cut them, 35:57 she took care of me 35:58 when she found me trying to attempt suicide, 36:01 I felt "My sister's in trouble. 36:03 I need to go home." 36:05 And I went home and I tried to help my sister 36:07 and fell back in with the same crowd of friends 36:09 that I had before, and before you knew it, 36:11 I was smoking and drinking again, 36:13 I had forgotten all about the dream, 36:15 and two years of my life went by. 36:18 Until one morning, I woke up, 36:19 I was living in my mother's house again, 36:21 I had failed at helping my sister, 36:23 and fallen into the pit that she was in. 36:26 And I woke up with a hangover, 36:29 I went to the window of the house, 36:30 and all of a sudden, a car pulls into the driveway. 36:34 And I don't recognize the car. 36:36 It was a Geo Metro, turtle green, 36:39 kind of a bluish sea green, 36:41 ugliest car I had ever seen in my life. 36:44 And I'm like, "Who in the world is pulling into my driveway?" 36:48 And so all of a sudden, someone gets out of this car, 36:50 but the windows were kind of foggy, 36:52 the weather was bad outside, I couldn't tell who it was. 36:53 So I go to the door and I open the door, 36:55 and lo and behold, 36:56 the person who walks up onto my porch is my father. 37:01 And I hadn't seen my dad that time in maybe five years. 37:05 Okay. 37:06 And he says, "Son, I've given my life back to God. 37:09 Now before you tell me to get off this porch, 37:11 I know I've lost a right to talk to you in your life 37:13 about God or about spiritual things or anything. 37:16 But last night, 37:17 I was over in Edmonton where I live now, 37:20 I was on my knees next to my bed praying 37:22 and I said, 'God, I've given my life back to you, 37:25 but is there anything that I can do for my son, 37:27 Stephen, to try to help him?'" 37:29 Wow! 37:30 So your dad had walked away completely from God, 37:35 turned his back on God, 37:37 and gotten involved in spiritualism, 37:41 but something brought... 37:42 I mean, you know, it's amazing. 37:45 If you've ever really known the Lord, 37:49 it's like God won't let you go. 37:51 Oh, yeah. He's not going to let you go. 37:53 So your dad had backslidden 37:55 just because he was a very driven person, 38:00 thought he was doing well, 38:01 and we've all got to remember this 38:03 that you can't minister 38:07 unless you've got a personal relationship 38:08 with the Lord when you end up in trouble. 38:10 That's right. Yeah. 38:11 But God brought him to that point 38:13 where he got down on his knees and said, "I need you, Lord." 38:17 Yeah, now I got to tell you the most amazing part. 38:20 He says, "I've lost any right to talk to you about God, 38:22 but when I was on my knees praying next to my bed, 38:27 God told me that this was the way 38:29 that I could make a difference in your life." 38:32 And from behind his back, he pulls out this black case, 38:35 and he hands me this black case, 38:38 and he turns around, walks off that porch, 38:41 gets in his car, and drives away. 38:42 I haven't seen my dad in five years. 38:45 And I'm standing here, 38:46 now mind you, I have a hangover, 38:49 my head's cloudy, 38:50 I feel like, "What in the world just happened?" 38:52 I just saw my dad for the first time 38:54 in five years. 38:55 I'm holding a guitar case. What am I doing here? 38:57 And it's got the white shoulder strap. 39:00 I went to my room, 39:01 I placed it on the floor in the room I was staying in, 39:03 I opened the guitar, 39:05 and in there is the very guitar from my dream 39:07 with the white guitar strap. 39:09 Wow! That's amazing. 39:10 But you know, you said something 39:11 in your comment though 39:13 that I would like to say to the audience 39:16 that's viewing right now. 39:19 If there is anyone out there 39:20 where you've fallen into drugs and alcohol 39:23 or maybe you've been raised in a Christian home 39:25 and you feel like you've done things 39:28 which have caused God not to love you 39:30 or turn His back on you, 39:31 if you're in that place 39:33 where you're even having the enemy give you 39:34 depression and suicidal thoughts 39:37 and he's trying to convince you that your life is worthless, 39:40 I just want you to remember that 39:42 who you are is not dependent on what you do. 39:46 Amen. 39:48 When Jesus died on the cross for you and gave His life 39:50 so that you could be reconciled as a son and daughter, 39:54 He did that while you were still sinning, 39:57 He did that knowing that 39:58 when you were born into this world, 39:59 that you would be a sinner. 40:02 And from the moment you cry out to God 40:07 and you ask Him, you say, 40:08 "God, I'm in this place of depression, 40:09 I'm having suicidal thoughts, I'm in drug addiction, 40:11 I'm cutting, I'm suffering with bulimia, 40:14 or you're doing any of those self-destructive things 40:17 that are caused by a disconnection from God, 40:19 from the moment you cry out to Him, 40:22 the dream that He gave to you when you were a child, 40:25 the stuff that you thought you'd be in the future 40:26 that which you think you've lost 40:28 because of the things you've done, 40:31 God comes immediately to the sound of your voice 40:35 like you're a lamb, like a little lamb 40:36 lost from the sheepfold caught in the thicket, 40:39 He picks you up, He carries you home, 40:41 He restores to you all the things 40:42 that the enemy took from you, 40:44 and with joy in His heart, 40:45 He creates a banqueting table before you 40:47 in the presence of your enemy, which is Satan. 40:50 And so I just want the viewers listening, 40:52 if you're out there and you're feeling depressed, 40:54 if you're having suicidal thoughts, 40:55 if you're thinking that 40:57 you've walked away from God for so many years 40:58 that it's impossible for His plan 41:00 to come true in your life, 41:01 that is a lie from the devil because... 41:03 Amen. 41:05 You know, Shelley, we actually have eternity. 41:09 It says in Titus 1:2, "God, who cannot lie, 41:12 promised us eternity before time began." 41:14 Amen. 41:16 And so that promise, 41:17 from the moment we give our lives to Him 41:20 is yes and amen. 41:21 Amen. 41:22 It doesn't matter how long we've lived in this world, 41:24 I mean, think about the thief on the cross. 41:25 Yes, yes. 41:27 Well, let's fast forward. 41:28 So you get this... 41:32 Again, this is a direct sign from God. 41:37 How did that affect you? 41:39 We've only got about 10 minutes left 41:41 to share this story. 41:42 I want to hear 41:44 how God has taken you through the steps 41:47 to bring you to the point now 41:48 where you're working on your Masters of Divinity, 41:51 you're a pastor, 41:52 you've got a heart for people, young people in particular, 41:57 and for urban ministry. 41:59 Tell us... 42:00 Give us the fast-forward version. 42:03 Well, I went from being that boy 42:04 standing on that porch getting that guitar 42:06 to going on a very long journey. 42:08 It didn't happen overnight. 42:10 And I think that's important to say 42:11 because, sometimes, we think that people come to Jesus 42:13 and then everything in life gets perfect. 42:16 But you know, 2 Corinthians 3:18 says that, 42:17 "As we behold Him, 42:19 we are changed from glory to glory." 42:21 Our relationship with Jesus 42:22 and the ministry of the Holy Spirit in our life 42:24 is something that occurs over a lifetime. 42:26 Amen. 42:28 And so since standing on that porch 42:29 and now it's been a lot of years, 42:31 but God took me on a journey that led me... 42:35 I ended up being homeless again after getting the guitar, 42:37 I struggled, 42:39 I didn't immediately give my life to God, 42:41 I went through a lot more things, 42:42 but in 2005, I got rebaptized at the Hood View Church. 42:48 Pastor Dan George was the pastor there 42:50 at that time. 42:51 From there, I struggled even again 42:54 after getting baptized. 42:55 I thought, "Well, I'm going to get baptized 42:57 and my life will get right, and I'll overcome 42:58 all of my addictions and problems." 43:00 "Satan's going to leave me alone 43:02 now that I'm baptized." 43:03 Yeah. No, it doesn't work like that. 43:05 It's a relationship with Jesus that changes you over time. 43:07 Yeah. 43:09 And I want to zip forward in time 43:12 to the moment where I actually... 43:14 Many years later, decided that 43:15 I was going to leave San Diego, California 43:17 where I had actually ended up homeless again, 43:19 my brother took me in off the streets, 43:21 I had been living with him for a while, 43:22 and I decided I was going to leave there 43:24 and go live with my grandparents. 43:27 And I was going to, finally, after all of these years, 43:29 give my life to God. 43:30 And I was going to go live with my grandma and grandpa, 43:32 and go to church, and go to prayer meeting, 43:34 and try to follow the calling that God had given me. 43:37 And I'll never forget, I move in with my grandparents, 43:40 and shortly after being there, I messed up one more time. 43:43 And I ended up going out, 43:45 I got my first job, I got a paycheck, 43:47 I went and relapsed on alcohol, gambled all my money away, 43:50 and I show up at home, 43:52 my grandma met me at the door, 43:53 she says, "Go to your room and go to sleep, 43:55 we'll talk to your grandpa in the morning." 43:57 And I wake up the next morning and I smell biscuits and gravy. 44:00 Now my grandma's cooking 44:02 is some of the most amazing stuff on planet earth. 44:04 And I come down 44:05 and I'm eating my biscuits and gravy, 44:06 and my grandpa's sitting at the head of the table, 44:08 he never says a word the entire meal. 44:11 And I'm thinking, "Well, I better enjoy this. 44:12 It's my last meal before I get kicked out." 44:16 And I'll never forget, when that meal ended, 44:18 my grandfather looked me right in the eyes 44:21 and he says "Grandson, I know that you're a good man, 44:26 and I know you want to be different, 44:28 and so I'm going to give you another chance." 44:31 Praise God. 44:32 And he got up from that table 44:34 and he walked into his room and shut the door. 44:37 And tears were streaming down my face 44:39 because in that moment, I had experienced God's love. 44:42 Praise. 44:43 I had gotten baptized 44:45 and there I was making all the same mistakes again. 44:47 Here I was, I gotten baptized, 44:49 I thought I was supposed to be good, 44:50 not sin no more, and not mess up 44:52 and everything else, 44:53 and my grandfather showed me that 44:54 even though I kept falling down and skinning my knee 44:58 that God still believed in His purpose for my life, 45:00 and He used my grandpa to speak to me those words, 45:02 "Grandson, I know you want to be a better man, 45:04 I believe that you are a better man. 45:06 I see you through God the Father's eyes, not yours. 45:09 And I know that you're a son of the Father, 45:12 up in heaven." 45:13 And so he spoke those words into my life, 45:15 and from that point, three years later, 45:17 I was volunteer pastoring a church. 45:21 I went to ARISE, 45:23 I got to go through ARISE 45:24 and spend time with David Asscherick. 45:26 Explain for many of our viewers who may not know what ARISE is. 45:30 Well, ARISE is a Bible worker training school, 45:32 it's in Australia and in Jasper, Oregon. 45:35 Ty Gibson, James Rafferty, David Asscherick, 45:37 and a lot more people make that ministry happen. 45:40 And they train people to do door-to-door evangelism, 45:44 to do the entire evangelism cycle, 45:46 how to understand the Bible, how to give Bible studies, 45:48 how to win hearts for Jesus. 45:50 So I got to go to ARISE 45:51 which was one of the best experiences of my life. 45:53 If anyone out there 45:55 is considering going to ARISE, do it. 45:56 It's worth it. 45:59 So yeah. 46:00 And you know, David Asscherick 46:01 also had a big influence in my life too 46:03 because he just continually... 46:06 while I was at ARISE, expressed a belief in me. 46:08 Amen. 46:10 And then also I want to mention too 46:11 that I ended up back at the Hood View Church 46:13 with my grandparents, 46:15 and Jim McMurray at the time was the senior pastor. 46:18 And Jim and Betty McMurray told me, 46:20 "We think you need to go down 46:21 and volunteer this little church, 46:23 Estacada Church." 46:24 It's the first place I got my start in ministry, 46:26 and I just want to say thank you 46:28 to the people of Estacada too because... 46:32 You hadn't been through Walla Walla yet? 46:33 I hadn't been through school or anything. 46:35 I was just lay pastoring a little church, 46:37 25 to 30 people coming on Sabbath. 46:38 And in two years of doing that ministry, 46:41 God took that church from 25 people 46:43 to nearly 100 attending every week. 46:45 Praise the Lord. 46:46 I mean there were Sabbath's where we had just packed out. 46:48 Praise the Lord. 46:50 And so through the influence of people 46:53 like David Asscherick and Jim and Betty McMurray 46:54 who saw calling on my life, 46:56 who knew I'd only been on the streets 46:57 three years previously 46:59 but gave me the opportunity to ministry 47:00 because they saw the Holy Spirit 47:02 moving in my life, were influential. 47:04 And then from going through ARISE for a year, 47:08 I went to four years at Walla Walla University, 47:11 I had the opportunity to start a ministry 47:13 called Win a City there. 47:15 We had prayer ministry... Win a City. 47:17 Yeah, Win a City. Okay. 47:19 With the idea that people are the kingdom of God. 47:22 We become the living stone 47:24 when we give our lives to Jesus, 47:25 built on Him the cornerstone. 47:27 And so through that ministry, 47:29 I started prayer ministries on the campus, 47:30 and Bible reading ministries, 47:32 and we did Truth Link Bible study ministries, 47:34 and small groups, and all these things. 47:36 I went through Walla Walla. 47:37 In my senior year, I had the privilege 47:39 of being the spiritual vice president there. 47:43 And I guess the last thing I'll say 47:44 to kind of sum up the fast forward of my life 47:46 is I'll never forget the day 47:48 when I was about to graduate from Walla Walla University 47:50 when the phone rang, 47:52 and it was the Upper Columbia Conference 47:54 saying, "Stephen, we see a call on your life to ministry." 47:56 Praise the Lord. 47:57 "We want to give you a two-year internship, 47:59 we want to sponsor you." 48:01 That's two-hand. I know, isn't it? 48:03 Yeah. 48:05 "And we want to sponsor you, and," 48:06 you know, all in one breath, 48:07 "we want to sponsor you to the Andrews University, 48:09 we want to affirm you and your call, 48:11 and we want to make this." 48:13 And I hung up from that conversation 48:15 and the first person I called, you can guess. 48:17 Momma. It was Momma. 48:20 And I said to Mom, I said, 48:21 "Mom, I'm not calling you to tell you I'm on drugs, 48:24 I'm not calling you to tell you I'm in jail, 48:26 I'm not calling to tell you I need money. 48:28 I'm calling to tell you that your son 48:31 is going to be the man 48:32 that you always believed he would be." 48:34 Now I want to remind you of that Joseph Anointing. 48:36 Praise. 48:37 Because it was one night 48:39 where I almost gave up on my life, 48:40 I almost attempted suicide a second time, 48:42 and just before I did, my mom called. 48:45 And I got on the phone with her 48:46 and "You and Dad ruined my life, 48:48 and you divorced, and God, this, and everything else." 48:49 And she listens for 20 minutes and when I stopped, 48:51 and she said, "Stephen, 48:52 I'm going to remind you of something. 48:54 You got a Joseph Anointing on your life, 48:57 and you may be in a deep, dark pit right now, 48:59 but one day, God's going to pull you out of that pit. 49:02 And someday, He's going to use you 49:03 to serve Him in places you never dreamed." 49:06 And she hung up that phone. 49:08 And so I just want to look right at the camera 49:10 and I want to say, Mom, thank you for following God 49:15 no matter what brokenness happened in your life. 49:17 Amen. 49:18 And for loving me and seeing me through God the Father's eyes 49:21 and for expressing that belief in me 49:25 and telling me that I had that Joseph Anointing 49:27 because your love for me 49:28 and your support for my whole life 49:31 has brought me to the... 49:33 helped bring me to the place where I gave my life to Jesus 49:36 and to be in the place where I am now. 49:38 And the power of life and death is in the tongue. 49:42 and I just want to encourage all of you mommas out there 49:46 and you daddies and granddaddy's, 49:50 speak God's word into your children's life, 49:54 speak God's word into your grandchildren's life 49:58 because His word does not return void, 50:00 He will accomplish... 50:03 It will accomplish every purpose 50:05 for which He sent it. 50:07 And God knows the end from the beginning. 50:09 So He looks at us 50:13 and He calls things 50:14 that are not as though they already were, 50:16 and that's what your momma was doing. 50:17 Yep. 50:18 And that is powerful because God says 50:20 He watches over His word to perform it. 50:23 So you are now working on your Masters of Divinity. 50:27 Tell us what... 50:29 You share it, we just have a couple of minutes, 50:30 but what is it that you want to do with your life? 50:33 Where's God calling you? 50:35 Well, I know God has called me like in the dream 50:37 He gave me when I was a little boy 50:38 and the dreams that He gave me throughout my life 50:40 to remind me of that dream 50:42 to preach the gospel of Jesus to the world 50:45 and to share that gospel, 50:47 especially with our young people 50:49 because like you were just saying, 50:51 it's so important for our young people to realize 50:54 with all of the garbage out there 50:55 about how the millennial generation is lost 50:57 and they'll never be anything, 50:58 what the Bible says about them? 50:59 Amen. 51:01 You know, my grandfather gave me a little picture frame 51:03 and it says on this picture frame, 51:05 "Teamwork." 51:07 It says, "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, 51:10 committed people can change the world, 51:13 indeed it is the only thing that ever has." 51:17 You know, through getting my Masters of Divinity 51:19 or my degree at Walla Walla University 51:21 and hopefully one day, 51:22 going on to getting the doctoral 51:23 in urban evangelism, 51:26 and working with young people I'm actually with my MDiv, 51:29 taken an emphasis in Youth and Young Adult Ministry. 51:32 I really believe that God just wants us 51:34 to be the door greeters in His church 51:37 that will never turn one of His children away. 51:40 And like my grandfather did for me, 51:41 and my mom did for me, and my dad did for me, 51:43 and God used different people in my life, 51:45 Jim and Betty McMurray, and David Asscherick, 51:47 and all of these people to pour into me 51:49 and to tell me what God saw 51:51 when He looked at me through Jesus, 51:52 through the Holy Spirit, what God saw. 51:55 And I just believe God has given me a Ministry 51:57 of just doing one-to-one ministry 51:59 with people around the world, 52:01 preaching sermons, serving Him, 52:02 going wherever He calls me to go because He promises, 52:04 "I'll put you in the right place 52:06 at the right time 52:07 saying the right thing to the right person." 52:09 Synchronicity is the word I like to use. 52:11 The Holy Spirit puts you where the need is, 52:14 and then God uses you to make a difference. 52:16 Amen. Well, we are going to take a quick break. 52:19 I just love your story. 52:21 We're going to come back for a final thought 52:23 in just a moment, 52:25 but right now, here's our news break. |
Revised 2019-02-04