Pastor Glenn Yoder's Testimony - Glenn Yoder

the bible says laughter do is good like a medicine and sometimes it's okay for us even to look at the lighter side of life i want to tell you a little story about an amishman here an amishman was drilled at the witness stand by the opposing attorney at the scene of the accident did you tell did you not tell the sheriff that you felt perfectly fine yes that is right said the amishman well then the attorney continued how is it that you are now claiming you were seriously injured when my client's car hit your buggy well it was like this when the sheriff arrived he went over to my horse who had a broken leg and shot him then he goes over to rover on the other side of the road my dog who was all banged up and shot him dead at the door nail i was still lying on the pavement when he came to me don't get ahead of my story here when he came to me and asked how i felt i just thought under the circumstance it was wise decision to say i feel perfectly fine but i think of the words of isaiah when he said the spirit of the lord god is upon me because the lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings to the meek to bind up the brokenhearted and the opening of the prisons to them that are bound is that not the calling of all of us as preachers that is our job includes all people i think of a little story the other day a a pastor called me from southern kentucky he said we live in a in a huge amish community and we'd like to minister them and we heard that you have got a tract that maybe might be helpful for us and and so i don't didn't know him but in the course of the conversation brother joe he made this comment he said the amish are such a proud people and i thought wow how's that for a paradox aren't they supposed to be the most humble people but when you consider it if the amish people really think they've got the answer if they got the keys to heaven why wouldn't they talk to their neighbors why wouldn't they witness to all those around him is it not because they look down on him i believe every believer's testimony personal testimony with god is of utmost importance no doubt in my mind that in this room there are powerful testimonies of what god has done in your lives of you how you have been redeemed and how you've been gloriously saved and you have detailed memories that you could give now it would take us a longer time than a couple days to hear everybody's story but of great things that god has done for you the fact is we are commanded to remember our past did you know that david said i remember the days of old i meditate upon all thy works and muse upon the work of thy hands what was david thinking about i think he might have been old and he might have been on a wheelchair with wooden wheels i don't know he might not have been able to walk anymore but he was thinking back when he was painting the flock of sheep a bear came and he killed the bear with his bare hands and the lion they was thinking about goliath of what he what how god did great things i killed the giant least wise we're commanded to remember the past so young people when we talked about when we talk about the good old days we're being totally scriptural the bible says remember the days of old consider the years of many generations how do i do that i can't remember barely one generation i tell you by studying history we wouldn't be in this mess today in america if our legislator is a congressman would study their history or our history of our great country and so god says moses in the only song that moses wrote he one of the verses was this remember remember the days of old consider the years of many generations ask thy father and he will will show thee and thy elders and they will tell thee nothing that older people like to do better than to tell about the stories of the good old days very helpful surely it's important for us to for us to talk about and to rehearse our past does not the bible say let the redeemed of the lord say so by the way you say preach don't you have a text yes i have but uh it's and i psalms chapter 40 if you want to find it but in psalms chapter 4 we'll get to that in a little bit but yes what we think about most is what we want to talk about is that not true the bible says i will meditate also of all that work and talk of thy doings when's the last time that you just sat down and told your children maybe your grandchildren about what god has done in your life we love the the verse and all of us could know it for this is the day the lord had made we will rejoice and be glad in it you know what the verse before says this is the lord's doings it is marvelous in our eyes when's the last time you really marvel at what god is doing and what he has done in your life as you look back what god has done for your life for us as a christian the single most important testimony is is the salvation story your salvation story our text is today deals with a young man who was raised in a godly home he had godly parents of a godly nation god fearing folks but listen to what david said psalms chapter 40 i waited patiently for the lord and he inclined unto me and heard my cry he brought me up also out of a horrible pit and out of the my reclaim and set my feet upon a rock and establish my goings and he has put a new song in my mouth even praise unto our god many shall see it and fear and shall trust in the lord see it what's the it here it's his testimony of salvation testimony and folks i want to submit to you today david we can see how he marveled at god's goodness in in and in psalms 34 he said this poor man cried and the lord heard him and saved him out of all his trouble listen the worst trouble that any person faces in this world is on his way to hell we've got too many preachers today that are making their people comfortable on the way to hell and i submit to you today the religious pits are as deep and as hard to get out of as the sin pits of this world today i hope to magnify the grace of god by sharing my testimony and even as paul said i think of us paul said when he said i'm the least of all the apostles and not me to be called an apostle why because i've persecuted the church of god but listen to this but by the grace of god i am what i am it's all by the grace of god we have nothing to brag about isn't that the truth both my wife and i were born and raised in an amish family our four parents that's what we have between the two of us we had four parents they were born and raised amish our eight grandparents were born raised and when they died they were amish dead we had 16 great-grandparents did you know that you know your names we know most of the names of them all of them born raised amish and died amish wouldn't you say that's a pretty strong amish heritage what are the chances what were the chances for us to be born amish raised amish and died amish died lost oh how i thank god for the glorious life that he shined the gospel life he shined into our lives 38 years ago we were an established amish family we were comfortable with our life we had four and five children at that time we had the feeling of security in belonging what are you talking about folks i'm not saying the amish are occult but they have sure some cultish ways you know how the cults hold their people together by fear by ignorance also uh they hold their people together by magnifying their founders all the cults have got a founder they highly look up to and here's another thing all the cults have got writings that are practically equal to the word of god in their eyes and they promote it as even more important for their their people to know so we had a feeling and that's how they get their people so comfortable in belonging they feel they belong to something special and i felt that we felt that we belonged to some some a special group that was different than everybody else and we gloried in being different and in this group we found protection as a boy i felt so lucky to be born amish i remember asking my dad this question i said the amish way of life being the way to go to heaven why did jesus have to suffer and die on the cross folks i said i tell you that's not a bad question for an amish kid to ask the parents i don't remember what i answer i got on that one but if any amishman would ask that question and follow it to his logical conclusion he would come to the foot of the cross when i was 18 years old i was sprinkled with a handful of water they called it baptism folks that's not baptism bible says being buried in baptism well if you next time you have your dog or even a horse that dies you take him in the backyard and throw a handful of dirt on him and leave him there for six weeks and see what happens is not buried so i remember thinking that day you know if i could just die today i could go straight to heaven because my sins have been washed away listen folks that little handful of water did not wash my sins away and neither would all the waters of the atlantic and the pacific and the amazon and the mississippi river wash anybody's sins away it's only by the precious blood of jesus christ that our sins are washed away now somebody might well ask well what do the what does an amishman believe well you want the short answer or the long answer let me give you the short answer he believes what his parents taught him well what do the parents believe what the church taught them what does the church believe in about a 350-year history of traditions and folks traditions will not cut it it's high time that somebody's asked the question what does god tell us to believe jesus said nay i say unto you i tell you except the man repent he shall likewise everyone shall likewise perish that doesn't repent again jesus told nicodemus who was wanting to talk about the miracles jesus did i i tell you i don't believe nicodemus came to jesus that night to find out about uh about what he teaches otherwise he'd ask he came to talk about the miracles everybody wants to hear about miracles and jesus what do you have when he asked him about the miracles jesus went directly to the point he said accept verily verily i said you accept a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of god the kingdom of heaven he didn't say he might not see he may not see no he cannot see it is by the new birth in acts chapter 16 that wicked jailer ungodly man he was he's the one that whipped the apostle the day before and then that night a glorious thing happened a most unusual earthquake that ever happened in this world i daresay knocked the jail off its foundation all the doors open all the windows open and all the stock somehow the chains fell off each one what an unusual earthquake that would have been and the jailer said oh oh everybody sleep even if one just one got away within his life or his life the next day so he thought he might as well kill himself not that he wanted to die but it was over for him but paul said don't hurt yourself we're still all here you ever wondered why everybody was still there i believe when they were singing songs at midnight and singing those hymns those jailers those jailbirds wonder what this is all about i dare say a lot of them got saved that night and when paul said everybody free stay in your place they all you all did by the way when you get saved you ought to do what the man of god says and so the jailer came said phil before then what must i do to be saved oh the bible says so much about being saved never heard a sermon on being saved before i before i got to a baptist church and so and so if they'd have been amish bishops they would have said well you're going to have to follow indoctrination class for the next six months and then we're going to check and see if your hat is just right you can't it's an abomination for an amishman to wear a cowboy hat so even if they're pushed up a little bit it's discipline time a lot of things have to be checked out and then we might baptize you and when they baptize them nothing is said about being born again now all these said what must i do to be saved believe on the lord jesus christ and thou shalt be saved thank god for the simplicity of the bible i say you better decide what you're going to believe you can choose what you believe because what you believe determines where you're going to spend eternity so it was later now we were married we had children see young people as they're growing up they want to think about uh you know the first it's the stage where they don't want to take a bath then they want to take a bath every day and start thinking about girls and so now wait a minute uh i can't have a girl until i get baptized i can't get married until i get back so baptism is high on the list then to get married now they have several children now they start thinking or asking what is life all about and so i wondered what is life all about and then the lord sent a man with a christian testimony into my life it would forever change my life it would forever change the life of my wife it would forever change the life of my children it would forever change the life of my grandchildren and today i have four great-grandchildren i know you can't believe that as young as i look now don't laugh but i'm saying oh the power of the godly testimony out of this testimony of that man sharing the gospel with us in the course of several years there was nine families they got saved born again got out of the amish and the last time i checked that's 35 years ago the last time i checked all those families are still in bible believing independent baptist churches serving god and their children are scattered all over the world missionaries pastors pastors wives the power of a godly testimony the amish don't believe in driving cars but they sure like to ride in one and they like it even best when you don't charge them for the ride and so how can it be that the car is a defining difference boy a car means the difference of going to heaven or to hell how can it be they can ride with cars well this is how they figured it out they'll pay somebody who's going to hell anyhow to do their sinning for them and that way they get the best of two worlds i told an amishman recently i said you know you live you live richer than we do because all the rich people in this world they don't drive they have got chauffeurs and so did the amish carl hasty carl hasty was a driver for the amish he was different than any other driver that i had ever had and we'd be in we'd be going into in the car we put it just a few miles down the world he said well praise the lord i know i'm going to heaven when i die i said well you can't know that for sure he always had a bible on his dashboard he says sir would you open that take that bible and open up to first john 5 13 and read it to me when you get to it these things have a written unto you that believe on the name of the son of god that you might know that you have eternal life hallelujah i didn't know that was there i had to think about that maybe it was a couple month month or weeks later we were another trip i said i'll get him this time i said i know you have to have good works in order to go to heaven how many do you think he got me not by words of righteousness which we have done but according to his mercy he saved us forever graciously saved through faith in that night of himself it is the gift of god tradition you see was our guideline both in everyday life and in matters of faith we had no running water we had no electricity we had no telephone sometimes i wish i wouldn't have one now something we don't we never had refrigerators and and oh to this very day i opened the refrigerator door and i thank god for having refrigeration you say well so you did everything the old-fashioned way well you could say we did everything the hard way actually with the mindset that you can gain heaven by that it's not that hard i could join the amish today i know exactly what to do and what not to do i could live the rest of my days easily that way yes tradition can be a great blessing but you know what satan is known to turn blessings into a curse matthew chapter 15 the the bible says the pharisees came down to jesus one day in jerusalem where he was teaching and he said master uh why do your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders for they wash not their hands before they eat bread and jesus answered their question by giving them another question he said why do ye transgress the commandment of god by your tradition tradition won't cut it folks the bible says for as much as you know you you were not redeemed with corruptable things such as silver and gold from your vain conversation received by tradition of your fathers but by the precious blood of jesus christ as a land without blemish with our spot as of yesterday i remember asking mr hasty i said this was after after several years of being witness to i said are you saying that all this separated life that i'm living and not having electricity and and working and sweating myself half to death working the field when the neighbors driving up and down with the tractor and doing it the easy way and we do everything are you saying that all these things are for nothing and he looked at me eyeballed the eyeball and he said all for nothing as far as salvation is concerned and then he explained to me what jesus said on the cross it is finished it was not until several days later that it struck me it is finished it's paid for it's all it is for me to receive it the bible says he came to his own but his own received him not but the next verse says but his manners received him to them gave he power to become the sons of god as near as i can tell that's the day that i got saved i wish i would know when that was exactly what day it was i wish sometimes i'm thinking back uh why didn't mr hasty said you need to fall on your knees and you you you repeat after me lord i know i'm a sinner and and now you put it mark in your bible that today you got saved but folks i've decided something i'm going to trust his word over my word uh paul said i'm not ashamed for i know whom i have believed i am persuaded that he is able to keep that which i have committed unto him against that day that day is judgment day folks and paul is not was not afraid of judgment day because the price had been paid speaking of the price there's a heavy price to pay to break away from the amish there's a thing called shunning never again will we speak spend the thanksgiving dinner with the family that's okay for somebody you don't love halfway anyhow but when he's talking about your closest friends the closest family it means something never again would we join the christmas crowd for the celebration once a year to get together all i get together the weddings my wife comes from a family of 14 she was the oldest we didn't get invited to any other weddings after we left and broke away the funerals even the funerals they said when we die don't you come to our funerals well we did anyhow in the year it was 1987 three or four years after three three or four years after we had left and uh one day we was just ready to sit down and eat a meal and the kids have been off to school and i said oh my it's right at 12 o'clock paul harvey's just coming on let's listen to poor harvey's we eat how many of you remember paul harvey you have just let me know how old you are and so i turned paul harvey on and the first thing he said an 18-wheeler from southern indiana near puel indiana ran over a horse and buggy the husband of the rig was thrown clear unhurt but the mother of 11 children is dead i jumped up and i told my wife that my sister's got 11 children she's from philly near purely indiana and oh no it can't be her there's somebody else and sat back down and got back up and paced the floor and finally she said well you used to live in that area years ago you still got phone numbers why don't you call somebody and ask and so i called and sure enough they said you mean you haven't heard we hadn't heard but my sister was instantly killed after hearthstone after semi run over the horse and buggy and by the way it was as a result of the the church made a rule that the amish cannot have an emblem slow moving vehicle sign on their buggies and so the innocent always seemed to pay the life of the perpetrators now i remember the first time we were to a baptist church uh we had getting a postcard on the mail we had been excommunicated for for a couple months we were just meeting together and tried to edify each other and kind of preach to each other and we were and we got this caramel there's going to be an ordination service at the baptist church i said i got to see this because all nations among the armies are so are i mean everybody all the church members get to vote for somebody and somebody who's never preached before somebody's never taught a sunday school lesson done nothing like that and it's just you vote for your best friend and folks that makes for some real dull preaching but uh but uh i said i've got to see this so we went to church oh there was visitors there and we we came in we were all dressed amish and we had uh hired a driver to take us to church and when we got the church we wanted to pay the driver she said oh no i wouldn't charge you to take it take you to church later we found out they were backslidden it was a mother and daughter of that very church they took us to and so they we we didn't so we went in we stood inside the door and we didn't know what to do and nobody came back to us later we found out the pastor the young pastor 27 years old tim stowe was being ordained that day and and and and uh michigan pastor said you got it looks like you got some visitors back there you better go back and and shake their hands he took one look at us he said they look like troublemakers to me he was from texas never seen any amish and he said they're probably here to cause trouble for the ordination uh and so anyhow we find ourselves seized but that day i heard preaching we heard preaching like we never heard preaching before we heard preaching like you heard here before this morning thank you thank you brother uh uh brother uh brother phil yes and and so i knew your name i just didn't want to say it too quick and so uh they asked that they asked that preacher 80 questions in front of everybody he had a bible answer brother phil for every question and so song leader got up the service was over everybody's invited to a potluck dinner we looked at each other all night at our heads let's stay and he said everybody's invited we went over for the potluck dinner and during that meal i must have asked a dozen or two questions to do as preachers and that preacher one was from kansas kansas and he went up to a to um the young passenger said brother you got some people here that are hungering and thirsting for the word of god you better take care of them and brother did he ever the next morning at nine o'clock he was out at our house and arranged to have bible studies every week and my i think back on those days oh what precious memories those those those days are and and uh you know some funny things happened long back in those days too uh we started going to church every sunday and so so they went so they took we had little we had little babies and little boys and girls and most us and joe's rocks and both had little boys under two years old and so they went to the nursery and they said oh what pretty little girls we have here and we ought to put a little bow in their hair and and then they change the diapers he said surprise these are not little girls they're little boys you see in amishville you uh you dress the little girls you dress the little boys in dresses until they get two years old and then you put them and then you put them they start wearing pants and and they they had so much fun out of that they had they got a kick out of that and you know they thought that was really strange i still think it's rather strange to have little girls after they're two years old wear pants but then that after all that's just my idea huh now but uh there's there's one day i heard these guys discussing the the indiana races 500 mile races that indiana is that india yeah yeah um anyhow so he said i said what's what are you talking about oh he said there's a long race track and they race around this track they go 500 miles and i said well my goodness where did they get on where they got they get on if you drive 500 miles they get off the same place i said you're kidding me they drive 500 miles at breakneck speed to get off the same place they got on to if i'm going to drive 500 miles it better be a bit different place than where i got on you know i thought the amish were funny but they're not the only ones who are strange i talked to one person at church about what did you do yesterday it was sunday day before saturday said well we didn't have work so my wife and i just decided to go out and do some cruising i said what cruz we just cruised i said what's cruising we just for a couple hours we just drove drove all over the country driving around without a definite definite a destination i said you mean you were going somewhere without getting anywhere he said yeah you know that's right i shook my head and walked away and thought the amish not the only people that are strange now uh i i was two years old when i had polio i'll hurry up i didn't look at the time so don't blame me if i go over time because i don't know when i started and don't ask sam so i was i was two years old when i had polio polio was a hushed words in the amish homes in northern indiana where i was born it was a scary thing there was no vaccine at that time and my mom one day as i was sitting on a little stool she saw i couldn't raise my right hand and she asked me to raise the left hand i couldn't raise it and she ran out to tell my dad that a little boy i'm afraid he's got polio and so he went to the neighbor hired the neighbor to with his with the car and took me to fort wayne hospital st joseph hospital in fort wayne indiana and that when we got there the rooms were all filled with polio victims and other people and they put me in a hallway until such time that the room opened and the doctors and my parents didn't think i would make because of his peril all my limbs were paralyzed i got some of the back thank god later on but it forever would change my life god i'm so thankful that god will for me to live oh how i thank god for my life the bible says the spirit of god has made me and the breath of the almighty has given me life i thank god for this old crippled body because it's my only ticket to live in this world the the bible says in psalms 139 psalmist said um praise be the praise i will praise god for i am fearfully and wonderfully made marvelous art thy works and that my soul knoweth right well hallelujah i was educated in a one-room schoolhouse i failed the third grade you see preacher why did you fail the third grade because i was too dumb to do fourth grade work that was before it's politically correct to just pass kids on until until you can today we've got we've got after investing thousands and tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars into these kids they graduate not able to read their own diploma that's sick by nature i was an active kid and to be different than all the other kids was very painful as a teen i was worried that never would a girl want to marry me because an amishman's manhood is measured by how much work he can put away in a day's time how strong of muscles he has and i didn't have it now i was convinced that no sane amish girl would ever want to marry me can you imagine the stunning thrill i had when god introduced to me ida you said you mean your wife well she wasn't my wife sayin but she agreed to be mine oh i pray and what a blessing she has been she has been the cherry on my ice cream for all my life um you know there's times when i would brag her up in times like this and one time i was in a big church given a testimony and i said honey come on up here and i want to show you to the folks come up on that i was on the platform then and and she had to tell her the third time before she finally came up i said i smile real big she smiled but it wasn't until i got home i found out it was just a paper smile folks and not only that not only that i got taken to the platform so i won't do that to you today i won't do that again i won't have her come up but i do say this if you want to have her autograph for a nominal fee we'll let you have that after the service but i do say the sun shone brighter the sky was bluer and the grass was greener even the birds sang more cheerfully in the treetops after she became mine but dealing with my handicap in the school days was most perplexing see back then we had all eight grades in one room and in recess we play games of competition that was back in the days when it was okay to celebrate winners and to look down on the losers that was before political correctness said that you have to celebrate losing and so we'd have two captains and the two captains would be the best players in the school and they would choose up from the pool of players until they were all chosen do i have to tell you who was the last one chosen every stinking time sometimes the captains would negotiate you take him we'll let you go to base first by that time i said you know i'm not feeling too good i think i'll just watch the game that'd be a good idea they liked that but i didn't like it i went away feeling sorry for myself and very perplexed and rejection is the most painful thing folks it's the most painful thing i wondered how i would feel to be chosen it would not be till many years later i found a promise from the lord jesus christ himself when he said i have not chose you have not chosen me but i have chosen you entertained you that you should go and bring forth fruit and that your fruit should remain hallelujah another captain the bible calls him in hebrews the captain of your soul another captain from another team i see the heavenly team found me and chose me and i would never be kicked off the team how thankful how it changed my life so today folks i purpose that i want to be content i want to be content with whatever i can do and with content with the lot that god has given me i don't want to fret about the things i can't do there's a lot in life that i can't do and but my eye shall always be on some glorious promises in the bible for we know when this earthly house is dissolved we have a building a heavenly house a building not made with hands eternal in the heavens when this tabernacle were dissolved that's talking about our body and so i'm looking forward to that and i look forward when i can when i can do what you all do and i'll run race with you and i'll win the race and you won't be jealous because jealous is not allowed in heaven revelation chapter 21 god shall wipe all tears away from their eyes there should be no more death neither sorrow neither crying neither shall leave me anymore pain for the former things are passed away okay i can't raise my hands today i love to i even have to sit at a table in order to eat because it's hard for me to raise my hands up here i must say i was ambushed at brother phil when he's preaching here he's making all these emotions i can't even imitate him i think i wish i could preach like that i want to be content with what i can do i say praise the lord while i can't raise my hands by the grace of god i can raise my voice isaiah 58 1 commands us cry aloud spare not lift up your voice like a trumpet and show my people their sins their transgressions in the house of jacob their sin by the grace of god i want to do everything that i can do for the glory of god whatever thy hand find it to do do it with thy might for there is no work there's no device there's no knowledge there's no wisdom in the grave with the two thou goes and folks that's where we're all going and so whatever i can as much as i can wherever i can whenever i can as often as i can as long as ever i can i want to serve god and live for christ i have no excuse for not serving god are you making excuse today for not serving him samuel i'm finished wow what a great testimony huh very powerful testimony you

Channel: hbcofdillsboro

Views: 3,529

Keywords: glenn yoder, pastor glenn yoder, testimony, amish, amish awareness conference, hbcofdillsboro, hope baptist church, hope baptist church dillsboro Indiana

Id: TvEy_IL6ulM

Length: 40min 25sec (2425 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 11 2020