Participants: Jim Gilley
Series Code: WOFP
Program Code: WOFP000003
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00:23 Welcome to the 3ABN worship center here in beautiful
00:26 downtown Thompsonville, Illinois where 3ABN is 00:30 broadcasting our annual Week of Prayer. 00:32 There may be a lot of you out there that would like to send in 00:36 prayer requests, because this is a Week of Prayer. 00:38 And you may also have questions. 00:40 And we have an e-mail address. 00:43 It's prayer@3abn. org. 00:46 And you can send those questions in. 00:48 You can e-mail your prayer requests, and we will respond 00:52 to those at the Pastoral Department as soon as possible. 00:55 Also, we have a staff pastor at the Production Center tonight. 01:01 If you would like to call in for prayer that pastor, Pastor Jim, 01:05 will be there and he will be glad to pray with you. 01:08 The number is 627-4651. 01:12 And when the recording comes on just press 1, and it will take 01:17 you directly to the Pastoral Department, and a pastor 01:22 will pray with you there. 01:23 We have an exciting message tonight; an exciting speaker. 01:28 My friend, Pastor Elder Jim Gilley, President of 3ABN is 01:32 our speaker for tonight. 01:33 And his sermon title is, Heart and Soil, What Are You Made Of? 01:37 But first Week of Prayer, what would it be if we did not pray? 01:43 So what I've been asked to pray for here tonight is first the 01:48 hurricane that's ravaged the Caribbean, and also the northeast 01:51 and also the northeast United States; claiming so far 01:55 at least 84 precious lives. 01:58 Also prayer for the possibility of a new storm, a nor'easter 02:03 hitting the same northeastern states this coming Wednesday. 02:07 Next we want to pray for the unity, and the leading of the 02:12 Holy Spirit in tomorrow's elections. 02:16 Will you join me as I pray, all over the world? 02:20 Father, we pray for all those who lost loved ones and family 02:25 during this devastating storm, and all that were 02:29 injured as a result. 02:30 Lord we ask for divine intervention in their lives. 02:34 We ask for electrical power and gas services to be 02:38 restored expediently. 02:39 Sir, we ask that the result of this natural storm will be a 02:44 spiritual awakening for all of us in America. 02:47 Because Your word says in Psalm 148:8, A storm of wind 02:52 fulfilling His word. 02:53 So Father, fulfill Your word in every life as You watch over 03:00 and protect Your people through this upcoming nor'easter, 03:04 and also the clean-up process. 03:08 Now Father, we come before Your throne in prayer for 03:13 tomorrow's elections. 03:15 We lay before You our country, America, the land of the free, 03:22 and the home of the brave. 03:23 We thank You that America is a Christian nation. 03:28 And Your word declares, Blessed is the nation 03:31 whose God is the Lord. 03:32 However, Father, there are a lot of people that have not 03:37 taken their responsibility for this great nation 03:39 of America seriously. 03:41 And it is us, mostly Christians, Your church. 03:47 2 Chronicles 7:14 says, If My people, who are called by My 03:52 name, will humble themselves, and pray, and seek My face, 03:56 and turn from their wicked ways; then I will hear from heaven, 04:01 and will forgive their sins, and heal their land. 04:05 So many countless e-mail jokes have been sent out when we 04:10 could have been, and should have been praying. 04:14 Lord God please hear from heaven. 04:16 Please forgive us of our sins. 04:20 Please forgive us for a lack of prayer. 04:22 And please heal America. 04:25 In Jesus' name. And everybody said, Amen. 04:31 It's truly an honor to introduce our president and my friend, 04:36 Jim Gilley, tonight. 04:39 I love to hear Jim Gilley preach. 04:41 One of the reasons is because to me he's the 04:44 Bob Ross of preachers. 04:46 For those of you who don't know who Bob Ross was, 04:50 he was an American landscape artist, painter. 04:53 And Bob Ross had a thirty minute television program called, 04:57 The Joy of Painting. 04:58 And in just thirty minutes on that program he would paint 05:03 the most beautiful pictures of mountains, and trees, and lakes, 05:08 and pictures of flowing streams, and walk paths beside them. 05:12 And many times he would paint an old abandoned cabin sitting 05:17 off somewhere in a meadow. 05:20 But Bob Ross had another God given gift 05:23 he used as he painted. 05:24 He talked to you and told you stories. 05:28 He made every painting your own little world. 05:35 Before you even knew it, Bob Ross had painted you 05:38 into the landscape. 05:39 And in your minds eye you were walking by that stream, 05:42 or you were dangling your feet in the cool mountain water 05:45 in your own little world. 05:48 You may have been sitting on that old cabin porch, because he 05:53 made that painting so real. 05:55 Being an unashamed Christian, he always ended his 06:01 program with, God bless! 06:04 Jim Gilley has that same gift. 06:06 He's a painter. He doesn't paint landscapes with oil or acrylics. 06:12 He paints portraits. 06:15 And like Bob Ross maybe he should have a program called, 06:19 The Joy of Preaching. 06:21 Jim Gilley paints with the brush of God's word, and his portrait 06:25 is always the same portrait. 06:28 It's always a picture of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. 06:32 As Jim paints that beautiful picture he tells stories. 06:36 I love Jim's stories of Jesus, His love, His mercy, 06:41 and His grace that will become so real that as you listen 06:45 that before you realize it your heart has been painted 06:51 into that image of Jesus Christ. 06:54 And you find yourself walking, and talking with Him 06:58 in your own little world; just you and your Lord, 07:05 and your personal Savior, Jesus Christ. 07:10 So tonight all of you that are watching, all of you that are 07:14 here, all over the world, please allow God to dip the brush of 07:19 His word into your heart, and paint you into that portrait 07:24 of Jesus as Jim Gilley ministers. 07:29 Before Jim comes Melody Firestone will bless us with a 07:35 song from the 3ABN Pillars Hymns project that was recorded live 07:40 right here on this stage. 07:42 And the title of her song is, Near To The Heart Of God. 07:48 God bless! 12:16 Thank you, Melody. 12:18 I really love that song, and it's one that many of us have 12:23 known through the years. 12:25 If you ever listened to the old Voice of Prophecy program, 12:30 you would have heard that song being sung, 12:36 but mainly you would hear H. M. S. Richards, Sr. as he 12:41 would repeat those words, Near To The Heart Of God, 12:46 just before they had their prayer. 12:49 Often the prayer was brought by his father, H. M. J. Richards, 12:55 who was H. M. Richards father. 12:58 And those were days when in reaching out through the media 13:05 was in its infancy. 13:07 Elder Richards had, as a young man, seen a crystal radio, 13:13 and he had thought to himself, This is the way to preach 13:17 the gospel; to get the gospel out. 13:20 Later on there were a couple of television programs that 13:26 came into existence. 13:27 But not until 1984 did a real television network, 13:34 Adventist network come into existence, when God gave 13:40 Danny Shelton the dream to move forward and go around the world; 13:46 planting this seed of truth all over, 13:51 to every continent of the world, and reaching out into places 13:58 where individuals cannot go with the gospel of Jesus Christ. 14:04 Oh what a wonderful day we live in! What a time! 14:11 And, you know, the Lord is talking about this, 14:14 in my way of thinking, when He is talking about 14:18 the parable of the sower. 14:20 We read about it in the 13th chapter of Matthew, 14:24 and beginning with verse 3, it says: Then He spoke many 14:28 things to them in parables saying, Behold, a sower went out 14:34 to sow; and as he sowed, some seed fell by the wayside, 14:38 and the birds came and devoured them. 14:41 And some fell on stony places, where they did not have much 14:46 earth, and they immediately sprang up, because they had no 14:50 depth of earth, but when the sun was up they were scorched; 14:55 and because they had no root they withered away. 14:59 And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprang up, 15:03 and choked them: but others fell on good ground, 15:07 and yielded a crop, some a hundredfold, 15:13 and some sixty, and some thirty. 15:16 He who has an ear, let him hear. 15:20 Now Jesus had not been speaking a lot in parables before 15:24 we get to this time. 15:26 He had had some, but mostly He had spoken directly. 15:31 But all of a sudden He begins to teach in parables. 15:35 And the disciples say, Why are you doing this? 15:38 Now parables were popular at that time. 15:41 I did a study in a class once on parables, and the parables were 15:47 sort of like stage plays for a lot of people. 15:51 There were those Rabbi's who traveled around who were not 15:54 really necessarily religious, but they were teachers who 15:58 taught different ideas, and they used parables in doing so. 16:02 But Jesus was using the parables for a different reason. 16:08 Would He have been speaking to directly, the Pharisees, 16:12 and the spy's, and the Scribes, and all those that were there 16:15 trying to get evidence against Him? 16:17 They were writing these things down that He was saying. 16:20 But now He decided to veil these things with parables, 16:27 so that those that the Holy Spirit was leading might 16:31 understand, but those that were there to spy, their eyes were 16:36 really closed to the truths that Christ was teaching. 16:42 The parable of the sower is really a parable of the sower, 16:48 but it's also the parable of the soil. 16:51 And last night Shelley Quinn mentioned about the soil. 16:55 And in this whole Week of Prayer we're hoping to build on 16:59 this spiritual idea. 17:00 And this Week of Prayer is something that we're working 17:04 with the General Conference on. 17:05 And with Elder Ted Wilson, who has been advocating, 17:10 and promoting, and encouraging revival and reformation. 17:14 Now the Devil is doing everything he can to keep 17:17 that from happening. 17:18 He's trying to bring up controversy on this subject, 17:22 and controversy on that subject, to divide us. 17:25 Because the Devil is really upset that the church has been 17:30 uniting in revival and reformation. 17:33 And he's going to do everything he can to divide the church. 17:37 Now I want to tell you something. 17:39 Mission unites, but oftentimes theology or 17:48 teachings will divide, and particularly if they are not 17:53 necessarily teachings that the church has been following, 17:57 or the church has been advocating, or that the church 18:00 has gone along with, or that has been accepted 18:03 on a worldwide basis. 18:04 If ever there was a time that we need to pray 18:09 for unity it is now, because the Devil is trying to divide, 18:15 even on some good issues. 18:17 It's not that there's bad issues, and other issues that 18:21 are necessarily good, they can be good issues. 18:25 But if we're divided, even over good things, then we are not 18:32 being able to be used by the Lord for our mission: 18:36 Go ye into all the world. 18:38 Go ye everywhere in the world and proclaim the gospel. 18:43 And that is the mission of 3ABN; to proclaim the 18:50 gospel of Jesus Christ. 18:52 Now I'm actually very intrigued with farming. 18:57 I want you to know that. 18:59 I have been for many, many years. 19:02 I have tremendous admiration for the American farmer 19:07 who raises so much. 19:09 And the way they handle the fields, 19:13 the way the whole thing is done. 19:15 I'm just amazed at some of the new technology, where in the old 19:19 days they used to just plow up those fields, and all that top 19:22 soil would blow all over the place, and now it's very rare 19:27 that you see a field that's actually plowed. 19:29 They come in and just scrape the crop off, you might say, 19:33 and plant another one right on top of it. 19:35 And it's just amazing. 19:37 But this way they're not losing that precious 19:40 topsoil by doing that. 19:42 Now I bought some property from Danny Shelton, who's sitting in 19:48 the back of this auditorium right now, feeling guilty for 19:52 selling me this property. 19:55 That land is not... It's poor soil. 20:03 Because it's been over grazed. 20:06 I asked Charlie Clark. 20:08 I said, Charlie, come over and look at my property. 20:11 Charlie Clark is a master farmer. 20:13 This is a man who has a big farm up in Nebraska, 20:18 and northern part of the country. 20:20 And this is a master farmer. 20:23 He knows farming. He knows soil. 20:27 And he looked at that soil. 20:30 And Charlie is a man of few words. 20:33 But he said a few words right then. 20:38 And he said, This soil is totally depleted. 20:44 He said, You need to take these horses off of it. 20:47 You need, and he began to tell me all that it needed. 20:51 And he told me, he said, It is depleted of nitrogen. 20:55 It needs nitrogen. And he said, It is depleted of lime. 21:01 It needs some lime. 21:02 It needs some phosphoric acid. 21:05 It needs potash. It needs everything, he said. 21:08 Because this soil is poor soil. 21:14 Now you see, the Bible talks about soil. 21:17 It talks about the places where the sower went, and some of that 21:24 seed ends up out there in thorns. 21:27 It ends up out there in the rocky spots. 21:29 It ends up in poor soil. 21:31 But then some of it ends up in the good soil. 21:35 That's what's exciting to me is the good soil. 21:40 And do you want me to tell you something? 21:42 Now Charlie can look at soil and tell if it's good or not, 21:45 but I can't, and probably you can't. 21:51 And we cannot always tell when God has good soil that 21:59 that seed's going into. 22:00 You know, when we hold an evangelistic meeting 22:03 I've had so many people say, The day of evangelism is over. 22:07 You can't hold evangelistic meetings anymore. 22:10 And what are they saying? 22:11 And why are they saying this? 22:13 Because they don't see massive crowds coming. 22:18 But you know something, when we used to get massive crowds years 22:22 ago, way back in evangelism; prior to my birth, 22:26 I can tell you that, they had few decisions. 22:29 People just didn't have anything else to do, so they would go out 22:32 and watch, but they did not baptize, actually, as many 22:35 people as we baptize now. 22:36 And I can prove that statistically by all of the 22:41 different stats from the different conferences. 22:44 They're baptizing more people now than they have 22:48 ever done in history. 22:52 And we say, Well, but the day of evangelism is over. 22:55 And what do we emphasize? 22:58 What do we think about? 22:59 We think about the ones that didn't make a decision. 23:04 We think about those that didn't come to the meetings. 23:08 We think about that poor ground, that stony ground, 23:13 that rocky ground. 23:15 We're looking at that! 23:16 We forget that there's some good ground. 23:19 And when it hits the good ground, the seed, Wow! 23:26 Look what it does! 23:28 You don't have to hit many if you're going to hit something 23:30 like that because it gives back a hundred fold, 23:33 and thirty fold, and sixty fold. 23:35 It gives back a lot more than was planted. 23:39 You see, that is the secret of the sower and the reaper. 23:46 The soil, you know, again we talk about the soil. 23:51 How do you predict what is good soil and what isn't? 23:54 Now you and I, who have been born again, 23:57 we need to be building our soil. 23:58 No question about that. 24:01 We're in a different situation than those who've never 24:05 accepted Christ before. 24:06 And we need to work on our soil. 24:08 We need to be studying the word, we need to be watering it, 24:12 we need to be taking care of those things that cause us 24:15 to grow spiritually. 24:17 But let's look at the other soil. 24:19 Who would have thought that a man living in a cave, 24:25 who, according to his book, was using drugs, sometimes running 24:34 around naked, eating out of garbage cans, 24:38 and living in a cave; who would have thought that was good soil? 24:44 I wouldn't, would you? 24:47 But God did, and He called Doug Batchelor out of 24:55 that kind of thing. 24:57 You see, we don't know. 24:58 We think we can judge soil. 25:00 We can't. God can judge soil. 25:03 But He wants us putting that seed out there. 25:06 You see somebody planted the seed. 25:09 And when that seed was planted it took root. 25:16 I have seen this over and over again. 25:20 And it is amazing to me, because the way this sowing thing works. 25:24 It is so unbelievable the multiplying 25:29 factor that takes place. 25:31 It's just amazing! 25:32 There's a man up in Mount Vernon, right up here, 25:39 up the road, he shares the gospel with a man named Olen. 25:46 Olen shares the gospel with a lady named Goldie, a relative. 25:56 Goldie listens to it, but she doesn't act on it for two years; 26:02 until she gets polio. 26:05 And then she promises the Lord, You heal me and I'll follow You. 26:12 I'll give up singing in country music nightclubs, 26:16 and I'll give my whole life, talent, 26:19 and everything I've got to Jesus. 26:21 And He heals her from polio. 26:24 Now she has some children. 26:28 One of those... And I was just looking through a 26:30 picture today of a book. 26:33 It had a picture of their family, 26:34 and I noticed three boys that were pretty well behaved, 26:39 and one of them that was cutting up. 26:40 She had her hand on top of his head trying to control him 26:43 so they could take a picture. 26:45 And that one's name was Danny. 26:48 And the Lord gave him a dream to begin a television ministry. 26:57 And my friend, you see where that seed... 27:01 You see what happened? 27:02 One man up here in Mount Vernon; the seed is planted. 27:08 He turns around and plants that seed with another person, 27:12 and that person plants it with Goldie. 27:17 She plants it with her children. 27:21 And one of those... All of them are involved in ministry, 27:25 but one of them particularly. 27:27 One of them that God uses him to proclaim this 27:34 message around the world. 27:36 Can you play that back in your mind? 27:40 Back to the original planting of that seed? 27:45 Can you see how delicate it is sometime? the sowing and the 27:49 reaping, how close it is? 27:51 And you say to yourself, What if? 27:55 And you don't even want to think that way. 27:58 But then you see that when God finds that soil, and He plants 28:06 that seed, the fruitage that comes forward, the crops that 28:11 come forward, it's unbelievable what God does! 28:16 And this is what excites me about proclaiming the gospel, 28:20 because, you see, the Lord Jesus has told us that He is the Word. 28:25 He says to us in John 5:24, Most assuredly, I say to you, 28:32 he who hears My word, and believes in Him who sent Me, 28:38 has everlasting life, and shall not come unto judgment; 28:46 but has passed from death unto life. 28:52 That's the proclamation of the word. 28:55 This is the seed: Christ Jesus Himself! 29:00 He's the sower, but He's also the seed. 29:03 And He's asked us to sow that same seed. 29:07 We go over to John 6:63. 29:10 It is the Spirit who gives life. 29:13 The flesh profits nothing. 29:16 The words, He said, that I speak to you are Spirit, 29:20 and they are life. 29:23 And then we look at chapter 7, and verse 37. 29:29 It says, If anyone thirst, let him come to Me and drink. 29:33 And verse 8:38 says, He who believes in Me, as the Scripture 29:39 has said, Out of his heart will flow rivers of living waters: 29:46 Our Lord, Our Savior, Our God. 29:51 The seed planted, the word planted, and what happens 29:57 as that word is taken in to good soil? 30:03 You know, we've seen so many times these meetings happen, 30:07 or something take place, we see it and we say, 30:10 Well, how did that happen? 30:15 It happens because the Holy Spirit is leading 30:19 in the sowing of the seed 30:22 I just recently, two weeks ago, had the funeral of a man, 30:28 and in that funeral, I had looked at his life story 30:34 prior to that funeral. 30:35 This was a man that when he was very young his father 30:41 abandoned the entire family. 30:43 Now this was during the depression. They had nothing. 30:47 They were left in Oklahoma with absolutely nothing. 30:51 And then the mother, who's been left alone gets sick. 30:56 And there's a nurse. 30:57 She can't afford a doctor. 30:59 But she hears about a nurse. 31:00 And she goes to the house of the nurse. 31:03 And the nurse helps her to get well. 31:09 The nurse also shares with her some Biblical truth. 31:14 She shares with her the truth about the Sabbath. 31:20 Now this lady was a Catholic, and she loved 31:24 the Catholic Church. 31:26 She loved her priest. 31:27 And she started studying about the Sabbath. 31:29 And one day she said, I've got to know if this is true or not. 31:34 And she put all those kids in a borrowed car, and got someone 31:38 to drive her to the church. 31:40 And she went in and she asked the priest, Did the Catholic 31:47 Church change the day of worship from Saturday to Sunday? 31:52 And he said, Yes. And she said, Thank you very much. 31:57 She walked out, got into the car, and announced in the car, 32:01 I'm going to become a Seventh-day Adventist. 32:04 She did. Put those three kids in church school. 32:08 They had a rough time, but they were in that church school. 32:11 And then this man committed his life. 32:15 He was one of the three, and he committed his life to becoming 32:20 a minister of the gospel. 32:22 Now this, he was a very talented guy. 32:24 After church school there was no academy around, so he went 32:28 to high school, and he was an All State baseball player. 32:31 He was offered a contract with the major league team, 32:34 and then he was also offered a scholarship to the University of 32:38 Oklahoma, but he decided at a youth congress to give his life 32:44 fully to the ministry. 32:46 And he went to Southwestern and became later a minister. 32:53 So this man's name was Cyril Miller. 32:55 Now you say, Yes, he became a minister. 32:58 So what? So he became a minister. 33:01 But think about the progress of how God used that seed. 33:05 I can tell you life after life that he touched. 33:09 I'm one of those that he encouraged and that he touched. 33:13 But also he had an imaginative mind. 33:18 And he decided that even though he loved the Voice of Prophecy, 33:22 he said, You know, that's not for everybody. 33:25 There needs to be a program that's hard-hitting, 33:27 that doesn't have music in it, and doesn't necessarily even 33:31 begin with a prayer, doesn't sound like a religious program. 33:35 It needs to sound more like a hard-hitting type news program. 33:39 And so he came up with a concept of Amazing Facts. 33:43 He didn't have a speaker. 33:45 He called Joe Crews, and he knew Joe well. 33:50 Joe turned him down at first, and then finally he kept after 33:53 Joe and Joe said, I'll come for six months. 33:56 And after six months he was still going, and he stayed with 34:03 Amazing Facts until Joe went to sleep in Jesus. 34:09 And then remember this, that Cyril, after that, is the one 34:13 that called Doug, or suggested that Doug come. 34:16 Because he had started Doug in ministry when he was in 34:19 the Texas Conference; Doug Batchelor. 34:22 So you see how these things begin to connect together. 34:26 The sowing of the seed; it's amazing folks. 34:30 It's why we cannot stop sowing. 34:33 You see we can't! You're not going to reap if you don't sow. 34:38 And if you're out there sowing, it may not always turn out 34:43 the way you think it's going to turn out. 34:45 You may have an evangelistic meeting that appears 34:48 to be unsuccessful. 34:49 A friend of mine, Marion Kidder, held a meeting like that. 34:53 He only baptized one person in that meeting. 34:58 And I'm sure that the conference looked at it and said, Wow! 35:04 We put a couple thousand dollars into that. 35:08 They didn't put much, but they put a little bit. 35:10 And he only baptized one! 35:11 But that one was Mark Finley. 35:17 And how God has used Mark! 35:19 There was a lady down in Australia, and this lady went 35:24 to an evangelistic meeting. 35:26 And they didn't baptize very many people. 35:28 But they baptized this lady, and she drug her son along with her. 35:32 And eventually John Carter became an evangelist. 35:39 Starting with a meeting that people would have said 35:43 that was a mediocre meeting at best. 35:45 It was not even really all that successful. 35:49 And yet God reached out. 35:52 He saw some soil, and He got that seed into that soil, 35:56 and how it has continued. 35:59 I'm giving you some stories of people you know because, 36:04 my friend, you can see that we must continue 36:07 proclaiming the gospel. 36:09 And the best way that I honestly know of today to proclaim the 36:12 gospel is by television. 36:14 We are sowing the seed constantly. 36:16 The other day Brother C. A. Murray and I were talking 36:22 about New York City. 36:24 New York City, you know there's so many people there 36:29 that even in public evangelism you can get some out. 36:34 And you've got to keep doing public evangelism. 36:36 You don't ever stop doing it, even in New York City. 36:39 But when this day and age, with the Lord coming soon, 36:45 television and radio are the real ways to get back in, 36:50 to behind those doors, in to those houses, 36:54 in to those hearts. It's the way. 36:58 We must continue sowing the seed, and allowing the Lord 37:05 to be the One that finds that good soil that He puts it in. 37:11 I think of another boy up there in Oklahoma. 37:14 There was a man by the name of Henry Morris that liked 37:21 to go door to door. 37:22 And he would give out pamphlets, and he would talk to people 37:28 about the Sabbath, and about Bible truth. 37:33 Well, he went to a lady's house named Mrs. Morgan. 37:36 Mrs. Morgan didn't care a thing about him. 37:41 She took the pamphlet just to get rid of him. 37:44 And she stuck it in the Sears and Roebuck catalog. 37:50 And there was a lady living close by. 37:53 Her name was Laura. 37:55 And she needed to order something from the Sears and 37:58 Roebuck catalog, but she didn't have one. 38:00 So she went next door and said, Mrs. Morgan, do you have a 38:04 Sears and Roebuck catalog? 38:05 She said, Yes, I do. Here, take it! 38:07 She said, Well, I'll bring it back. 38:09 She said, Please do; bring it back. 38:11 And so she took it. 38:13 When she opened it up she found that pamphlet. 38:16 She started reading that pamphlet. 38:19 Now remember, you're planting the seed. 38:22 Henry Morris had planted the seed. 38:26 And Miss Laura began reading it, and she was amazed. 38:31 She ran out into the field and she said to her husband, 38:35 Otto, Otto, let me read this to you. 38:39 And she started reading it to him. 38:42 And her son was standing there, and he was listening to it, 38:48 and he was intrigued. 38:50 She took that pamphlet back to Mrs. Morgan and said, 38:56 Here, this was in the book. 38:57 She said, Oh, you can have that. 38:58 I don't care a thing about it. 39:00 I've read it and I don't care a thing about it. 39:02 Laura said, Oh, this is the most exciting thing 39:05 that's happened to us. 39:06 Is there anybody around that actually 39:08 teaches what this teaches? 39:10 She said, This man came by and she described this gentleman. 39:14 She said, Well, if he comes back tell him to come into our house. 39:18 We'd like to talk to him. 39:19 And he came back. And he began. 39:24 When he found out she wanted to talk he went there, 39:27 and he started Bible studies. 39:30 And the little boy was so interested. 39:35 And he sat and he just hung on every word; 39:39 intrigued with the Bible, even when he was young. 39:42 And Kenneth Cox accepted the message. 39:48 And it happened by somebody handing out a pamphlet. 39:55 You know, 375,000 pamphlets were requested the other 40:06 night from that program. 40:07 And I think there will still be a whole lot more that come in. 40:10 You see what a pamphlet can do in spreading the seed, 40:16 putting the gospel out. 40:18 I tell you if you will take those pamphlets, 40:21 After the Storm, and you put them out, I guarantee you 40:26 there will be those in the kingdom of God as a result 40:32 of their reading those pamphlets. 40:35 Sowing the seed: good ground, bad ground. 40:39 You see, the problem is we want to emphasize the bad ground. 40:42 Oh, we held that meeting and nobody came. 40:45 And we held that meeting and only one person came. 40:47 Or we held that meeting and it really wasn't all 40:50 that big a success. 40:51 You don't know what a success is. 40:54 We'll never know until after Christ comes. 40:59 I think during the millennium we'll be able to look over 41:01 some of these things and be able to say, This was a success. 41:07 We never knew that it was. 41:10 But it was God's way of reaching a certain individual, 41:16 a certain person. You see, we don't know what God's going to 41:24 do when we plant the seed. 41:26 I don't know how many of you ever knew Henry Firerobbin. 41:29 He was an evangelist up in Canada; wonderful man. 41:32 I got to know him. 41:33 In fact, the first time I met Henry Firerobbin was in Jericho. 41:38 I was leading a group. 41:40 He was leading a group. 41:42 And when we were standing there, I was with my group, 41:45 he was with his group. 41:47 And somebody said, one of the guides said, You know, that's a 41:50 Seventh-day Adventist group, too. 41:51 And so Henry and I got together. 41:53 And that's where I met Henry Firerobbin. 41:56 By that time he was holding a lot of meetings, and he was in 42:01 charge of It Is Written, Canada. 42:03 And so he was holding a meeting in one city, and there was a 42:09 young man that came. 42:10 Now if you were to count up the number of people that Henry 42:15 Firerobbin baptized in that city, it was not all 42:19 that big a number. 42:20 But that young man was just, he just loved this message. 42:28 The seed was planted, and Shawn Boonstra gave his life to Jesus. 42:35 And how God has multiplied, and multiplied his ministry. 42:42 In fact all of those... I'm mentioning these because, 42:44 you see, in every single case that has been almost a miracle 42:51 in the way that God reached them. 42:54 But there was somebody out there holding a meeting, somebody out 42:58 there putting out a pamphlet, somebody out there encouraging 43:03 someone to watch a television program, 43:05 or listen to a radio program. 43:07 They were planting the seed, and they were sowing the word, 43:14 and God was reaching through the Holy Spirit, 43:18 reaching out to their hearts. 43:21 It, to me, is such a beautiful, beautiful thing. 43:26 Jesus talks about, and He gives the explanation of the parable. 43:32 He says, Therefore hear the parable of the sower. 43:35 When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not 43:38 understand it, then the wicked one comes and snatches away 43:42 that which was sown in his heart. 43:45 And this is he who receives seed by the wayside. 43:49 Remember He said that some was by the wayside. 43:52 But he who received the seed on stony places, this is he who 43:56 hears the word and immediately receives it with joy. 44:00 Yet he has no root in himself, but endures only for a while. 44:05 And for when tribulation, or persecution arises because of 44:10 the word, immediately he stumbles. 44:13 Now he who receives seed among the thorns is he who hears 44:17 the word, and the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of 44:23 riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful. 44:27 But he who receives seed on the good ground is he who hears 44:34 the word, understands it, who indeed bears fruit and produces 44:41 some a hundred fold, some sixty, and some thirty. 44:47 It multiplies! You see, that good ground is what, 44:53 to me, is so exciting. 44:55 We were talking about New York City. 44:57 Years ago I was, a friend of mine and I were 45:04 in Fort Worth, Texas. 45:06 And R. Allan Anderson, the great old evangelist and head of the 45:12 ministerial department of the General Conference was there 45:15 speaking at the camp meeting. 45:17 I knew the connection that my friend had with him, 45:21 and so I encouraged him. 45:23 I said, Let's go down and talk to R. Alan Anderson, 45:25 and you tell him your story. 45:27 And he said, Oh, he won't want to hear it. 45:30 I said, Yes, he will. 45:32 Now R. Allan Anderson went to New York City back in the 50's. 45:37 He held a big crusade in Carnegie Hall. 45:41 It was the most expensive crusade in the history of the 45:45 church at that time. 45:47 It was called a complete failure. 45:52 There were, now there were some people that were baptized, 45:57 because they were like children that they'd been getting ready, 46:00 and so forth, that they would have baptized anyway. 46:03 Some of those were baptized. 46:04 But they could only find two actual new interests that came 46:11 from the advertising, and were involved with that meeting. 46:14 I remembered hearing about that meeting, because the music 46:18 director at the academy and college where I went to school, 46:22 Harold Lickey, had been singing with the 46:26 Faith For Today quartet. 46:27 And they were part of the music for that. 46:30 And he had told me what a difficult meeting that was 46:35 in New York City; a very difficult place. 46:38 Two ladies, grandmothers, gave their hearts to the Lord. 46:44 But you know something? 46:46 The General Conference, local conferences, and all felt like 46:51 that meeting was a complete failure. 46:53 All the money they spent; they expected to crack open 46:57 New York City, but they didn't. 47:00 They felt, This is a total failure. 47:03 So when we went to talk with him, this friend of mine said 47:10 to him, You brought me into the church in New York City. 47:15 Brother Anderson shook his head. 47:18 He said, No, I know who we baptized in New York City. 47:24 And he said, We only baptized two elderly ladies. 47:29 And this fellow smiled and he said, But one of those ladies 47:34 went home and she won her grandson. 47:38 Her grandson, His name was Jim. 47:41 He said, Jim came and shared the gospel with me. 47:47 And we gave our hearts. 47:50 And both of us went into the ministry. 47:53 Jim's name was Jim Londess. 47:55 And the person I was with was Ron Halverson. 47:59 And, you know, how God has blessed Ron's ministry. 48:08 Hundredfold, sixty fold, and this is true with every one 48:13 of these that we've talked about. 48:14 But if you've noticed, every single one of them was 48:18 a miracle, a miracle! 48:21 A miracle of planting the seed, sowing the seed. 48:28 Don't stop sowing the seed. 48:30 Remember when we stop sowing the seed, 48:33 the soul we may have missed could be another Ron, 48:40 another Danny, another Doug, another Kenneth, another Mark, 48:46 another Shawn, another Cyril. 48:50 Cyril who was so creative. 48:54 I started to tell you a little bit about him. 48:56 But he also started the Revelation Seminar organization, 49:00 as well as getting Amazing Facts started. 49:04 And over and over encouraging people out into ministry. 49:09 You see how God uses the seed, how it is planted, 49:16 and how it is used. 49:19 A young man with some friends, goes into a health food store. 49:24 He's eating his sprouts. Amen! 49:31 And somehow the subject of religion comes up. 49:34 He is not that interested in religion, but he begins to talk, 49:40 based first of all on the fact that he and his friends ate 49:45 at this place, and the lady who ran it understood 49:49 the three angels' messages. 49:51 And David Asscherick becomes a Seventh-day Adventist 49:58 Christian; starting in that way, but continuing to study. 50:04 The seed planted. Camille and I just got back from Ukraine, 50:09 and we were just amazed at some of the things that have taken 50:15 place there over the last few years. 50:18 We went there in 1991. 50:21 We went to a place called Dnipropetrovsk. 50:25 There were thirty Seventh-day Adventists meeting 50:31 in a converted house. 50:32 I'll never forget that first night that we were there, 50:37 the first meal that we ate, because they would eat there 50:41 then change things around, change the seats around, 50:44 and that's where they had church. 50:46 The Pastor lived in one room in the back, and his family. 50:51 And this is, this was it: thirty members, 50:54 two and a half million people there. 50:56 We went there and began to hold a meeting. 51:02 Now it was an amazing meeting. 51:07 We began to see people come. 51:12 Then we had to go to two sessions. 51:14 And it began to grow, and the interest was so big, so strong. 51:20 I remembered that when we started I went over to the 51:23 auditorium on the Friday before we started, and I was pointing 51:28 out to the manager that some of the seats were 51:30 broken in the back. 51:31 And he said, You won't need these. 51:34 I said, What do you mean? 51:36 He said, Nobody ever has filled this place. 51:39 He said, You're not going to fill this 51:41 with a religious meeting. No way! 51:44 We won't need to fix these. 51:46 I said, Sir, I believe that God's going to fill this. 51:51 And he looked at me and he said, I'll tell you what. 51:53 If this place fills, I will occupy one of 51:57 these seats myself. 51:58 That's how sure I am it won't fill. 52:01 Not only was every seat taken, every isle was full, 52:08 every wall was lined, every available square foot somebody 52:16 was there on that opening night and throughout. 52:20 We had to go to two sessions. 52:21 We got down to the end; we were only there three weeks, 52:27 and we were very selective in our baptisms. 52:31 We had a Bible class. 52:33 We had everything written out in the Russian language. 52:35 We went through it; we went over it several times, 52:38 so everybody understood what they were going to do. 52:41 And it was a tradition there in that country to even have the 52:45 baptisms on Sunday. 52:46 I wouldn't have the baptism on Sunday. 52:48 I said, No, it's going to be on Sabbath. 52:50 They said, Well, this is too much work to do on the Sabbath. 52:54 I said, I believe this work is acceptable for the Sabbath. 52:58 But I want everybody to know they're being baptized in to 53:01 a Seventh-day Adventist church. 53:03 And we baptized 465 that first time. 53:08 That was the largest baptism in the history of the 53:12 Ukraine at that time. 53:13 And it was amazing what happened! 53:17 And when it was over, I remember that Elder Perlinski, 53:22 who was the old secretary of the Union, 53:26 he leaned over to a translator. 53:29 He said to me, Now the dream has been fulfilled. 53:33 I said, What do you mean the dream? 53:35 I felt there must be something here I don't know about. 53:39 And then he began to tell me. 53:41 And the translator began to say, I've heard this all my life. 53:45 He said that in 1946 they had just about killed, 46 and 47, 53:55 just about destroyed and killed every pastor of the 54:00 Seventh-day Adventist church, or had sent them to Siberia. 54:03 They took sixty of them up there at one time from Ukraine, 54:08 our pastors. They never saw them again. 54:11 Into these hard work camps in Siberia. 54:15 The membership of that church was down now. 54:19 They'd taken their building away. 54:21 But they were down to six little members. 54:25 They would meet in each other's little apartments, and whisper 54:32 those songs, and pray together, knowing that this was just about 54:39 the end for the church. 54:41 Now Dnipropetrousk was a closed city. 54:44 It was a place where the intercontinental ballistic 54:47 missiles were manufactured. 54:48 And they still manufacture this type of thing there. 54:51 This was a city that you could not go into if you were not a 54:57 citizen of the Soviet Union. 54:58 If you were a citizen of the Soviet Union, this is a gated 55:02 city; only three gates into it. 55:06 And if you were a citizen you could only get a three day pass. 55:11 You could not preach the gospel at all. 55:15 You could not baptize. 55:18 They would put you in jail for baptizing somebody. 55:21 There was no way that an American 55:25 could come there at all. 55:26 But one Sabbath morning a lady by the name of Doria came 55:30 to that meeting and she said, last night I had a dream. 55:34 I dreamed that someday a man from America is going to 55:38 come here to our city. 55:40 He's going to preach this message. 55:42 Thousands of people are going to come, 55:44 and hundreds are going to be baptized. 55:46 And while she's saying this, another lady who actually had 55:50 the same name, the same first name, a different last name, 55:53 her name was Doria as well. 55:54 She said, I had the same dream! 55:57 And as they compared notes they said, This has to be from God! 56:02 It has to be from Him. 56:04 And so they encouraged each other with that message. 56:10 And quietly they kept sowing the seed, very quietly. 56:16 But the work in Ukraine never stopped. 56:19 They kept sowing the seed. 56:21 So when we came we didn't know that we were a 56:26 fulfillment of that prophecy. 56:28 We had no idea that that was happening. 56:32 And this one lady was still alive. 56:35 And every night they would take her a recording on a recorder 56:40 that we had provided. 56:42 We brought some recorders. 56:43 Nobody had recorders there. 56:44 We were recording the message, and they would take it home 56:48 and she would listen to it. 56:49 With the translator, I'd be preaching, and the translator's 56:52 translating, and she would hear it, 56:54 and tears flowing down her cheeks. 56:57 But she knew that the seed had been planted, 57:02 and the harvest was there. 57:05 And hundreds, because of the faithfulness of those that had 57:09 continued to be there, the harvest had come forward. 57:14 Someday Jesus is coming again. 57:17 There are going to be millions of people waiting to see Him, 57:20 because you have planted the seed. 57:26 Praise God for His word! Praise God! |
Revised 2017-03-29