TBN Praise the Lord January 25, 1990

from coast-to-coast live via satellite it's time to praise the Lord [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] brings the load covers to major Christian events in America around the world covering over 500 million souls at the good news of you life in Jesus Christ now from the core rates Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale Florida will fight for you to be a part of the world's largest parents gallery [Applause] [Music] [Applause] whether that's on praise the Lord is senior editor the girl raised Presbyterian Church dr. and mrs. James Kennedy I'm the pastor of the Box ion Missionary Baptist Church in Los Angeles California dr. V Hill administration by the music is Dean Mary Brown [Music] and Kris Carr way you take your oath [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] hello everybody welcome to one of America's great and historic churches Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church Fort Lauderdale Florida what a joy to be here tonight and to find out that you all shout a lot more than I thought you did around here this is wonderful it's good to be here we have been made to feel so wonderfully welcome and we just couldn't be happier how many by the way do call Coral Ridge home church give me a big love wave out there thank you thank you thank you for opening the doors of this beautiful church to all of our great TV and family and making us feel so very much at home let me read a little Tom and then Jan is going to give you a word of greeting and then we'll have a special welcome from our host pastor dr. James Kennedy and his good wife and sing a new song to the Lord sing it everywhere around the world sing out his praises bless His name each day tells someone that he saves publish this glorious act throughout the earth tell everyone about the amazing things our God does for the Lord is great beyond description and greatly to be praised worship only him among the gods for the gods of the other nations are merely idols but our God made the heavens honor and Majesty surround him strength and beauty are in his temple all nations of the world confess that God alone is glorious and strong give him the glory he deserves bring your offerings and come to worship Him worship the Lord with the beauty of holy lives let the earth tremble before him let the nations tell the nations that Jehovah reigns he rules the world his power can never be overthrown he will judge all nations fairly let the heavens be glad that the earth rejoice let the vastness of the roaring seas demonstrate his glory praise him for the growing field for they display his greatness but the trees of the forest rustle with praise for the Lord is coming to judge the earth he will judge the nations fairly and with his truth let's say thank you to the Lord for his word tonight and may he had his blessings to all of us praise the Lord praise them as I said a moment ago I think I have the prettiest little grandma in the whole world with me here tonight hello Jan say hello to these good folks such a joy to be here we have loved dr. James Kennedy for so many years and it is such an honor to be invited to this church it's just wonderful dr. Kennedy you have to understand I'm a little Pentecostal preachers girl from Columbus Georgia and this is quite an honor and I thank you for this I am really really honored you know I guess the thing that was on my heart today is I receive so many letters from so many people that when I say to people on the air I love you and Jesus loves you so many times it's the only time that they hear those words and that's almost unbelievable to me but the letters say it's true and tonight I thought if nothing else the one thing that I could say to you is that I do love you but let's see if there isn't somebody maybe right here in this building maybe there in your home that hasn't heard those words today or maybe yesterday or the day before are like one little lady said to me in a letter I hadn't heard those words for 10 years until I heard you say it over the air I love you so if you just do one thing before we start tonight if you would turn to the person on your left and turn to the person on your right right here and just say to them I love you and Jesus loves you and those of you in your home turn to somebody there and tell them I love you and Jesus loves you and that is a wonderful word of encouragement tonight and remember that we do love you and Jesus does love you and it's a joy to be here - oh praise God remain standing for just a moment and I'd like for our host pastor dr. Kennedy and his good wife Ann to come and join us let's tell them thank you on behalf of all of the TVN family and dr. Kennedy I have to say I I do not really feel strange in this church at all Jan and I join you quite often in your worship services you come Sunday afternoons at in our homes in California and so we kind of feel like we're home tonight well thank you very much Paul we're delighted to have you and Jan and praise the Lord and Trinity Broadcasting Network here in our church today I told Jan a few minutes ago that I wanted her to feel perfectly at home and we had prepared a special role for her to where we they're sewing the sequins on it right now a moment ago Paul you announced to the congregation here that this program is going to be semi live tonight I hope that was not because it's in a Presbyterian Church [Laughter] well it has been my pleasure to know Jan and Paul for the last decade or more and we're happy to have the courage our that airs every week on their network as well as two other programs which emanate from this church the joy of music with our organist Diane bish and also Gloria with art Linkletter and I praise God for what you and Trinity have done in taking the gospel all across this nation and now all across this world and I would like to have you meet not a grandmother but the loveliest mother I know I'd like to have you say hello to my wife and I welcome you all here to we're so glad to have you and I hope you'll have an excuse to come back to see us again thank you for being here thank you Pastor Hill he'll be preaching second tonight so we thought we'd have him come and say hello to you and maybe tell us where to get our Bibles open and well it's just a joy to be back in Fort Lauderdale and it's a jar to be back here called Ridge it's been some years but our thing and it's a joy indeed to be here with dr. Kennedy I called him the Apostle Paul of our times it's great he's a great preacher prophet of our days and if you get him stirred up brother you got something on your hands here he'll dig every text in the book out and throw ammonia and he may not shout but when he gets through preaching I'm shouting what a joy it is to be in Florida Lord is one of the great states just about every other letter I get from Florida including those who ask for rent is from Florida I'm glad to be here I love Florida love you people thank God for Paul and thank God for Jan and Trinity with just one family now let us pray our Father now God we lift this entire experience up to you thank you for this place thank you for being invited here thank you for the people who have caused us to come the pastor and people who opened the doors thank you for Paul and Jan and Trinity as we've now come together as one family and we have come to fellowship to enjoy you and to enjoy you in the spirit and to point you as the only Savior to men who are lost and we pray right here tonight that your Holy Spirit will bless us anew and cause men and women boys and girls to say yes to Jesus Christ thank you Lord and we expect with great anticipation what you're going to do tonight bless every time bless everyone who tickle the ribs of the instrument bless everyone who's here let us let go and let God abide in this place tonight for we ask it in Jesus name and all of the people say amen Thank You pastor Hill you may be seated among other things tonight we are praying that our coming together from many different denominations and traditions across America will make a powerful statement to the world and to the body of Christ that we really are one in the spirit and one in the Lord and as I said a little earlier may these old walls of denominational and traditional division crumble just like the Berlin Wall did a few weeks ago and may the world finally truly see that we are his disciples because we do have love one for another in Jesus name and then of course most of all let us be in agreement and in prayer together tonight that some soul outside the Ark of safety will come to know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior through our efforts tonight those of you watching across America by television prayer partners are on the line there's a number on your screen it's never an interruption for you to phone that number we want to hear from you will receive your prayer requests and your reports of salvation so that we may rejoice together praise God Dean and Mary Brown are here tonight to make this great church ring with the praises of God joyful joyful sing with them [Applause] joyful joy behar Oh [Music] the rise was son now [Music] why God [Music] like this [Music] all my works with Joyce around the beaver and by race stars on Jessie [Music] Oh [Applause] well spring [Music] [Applause] [Music] Oh heeey [Music] [Applause] [Music] Oh Oh Oh [Music] the door Oh [Music] Oh [Music] Oh [Music] [Applause] 20 more says here is the Lord's and the fullness thereof the world and they that dwell therein where he had founded it upon the Seas and established it upon the trucks who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord or who shall stand in his holy place he that had cane hands and a pure heart the soul at the vanity nor sworn deceitfully he shall receive the blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the god of his salvation which you worship with us to see me worship His Majesty you see oh Jesus be on board [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] from his goal [Music] [Applause] [Music] Oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] bah [Music] Jesus who died Oh [Applause] to see lift up your head open gates and be ye lifted up ye everlasting doors who Lord strong mighty the Lord mighty lift up your head [Music] King of course [Music] so [Applause] ah [Music] [Applause] [Music] my [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] take [Music] Oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] he's very Brown now we love them how they bless us with their great songs that magnify the name of the Lord you know one of the great things about having a great Network every time we sign a new station on we get acquainted with that area and lo and behold there's usually a great talent in some cases many find new talents that we discover and are able to incorporate into the programming of Trinity Broadcasting Network by the way let me just tell you quickly parenthetically in case you hadn't heard the FCC approved Atlanta Georgia big coal power broadcast station we've already gone to work and we're laying the foundation and the poor this year is over God willing and the creek don't rise as we say down in Missouri we will have this big full power station on the air one of the great metropolitan areas of the United States that we have not really had a television presence in until now so pray for us as we build yet another big full power station a couple of years ago a big full power one of our educational stations signed on the air down in Houston Texas hello Houston they're watching on channel 14 down there tonight and one of the young men that dropped by and we got acquainted with is Chris Holloway he is here with us tonight he is a professional opera singer sings with the Houston Grand Opera has sung with Placido Domingo the most famous opera star in Spain and Europe and he brings his beautiful talent here to Coral Ridge tonight I think you'll think as I do that he fits in real well in this great cathedral tonight let's tell Chris Holloway welcome tonight from Houston Texas a grand old hymn it is well with my soul [Applause] [Music] like [Music] with a slow like see Oh Oh [Music] Oh [Music] my [Music] my [Music] Oh my [Music] [Applause] [Music] please today when and Oh [Music] Oh Oh [Music] Oh [Music] oh it is my swore [Music] [Applause] [Music] thank you crazy hallway just a lot of our TPN family is here with us tonight and I'm sure many of you been blessed these past several months since he's done what two or three series now honey Dino cart sonatas how many are watching the Dino program once in a while on Kennedy broadcasting his beautiful wife Cheryl is with him here tonight and she has brought a beautiful new touch and dimension mercy dancing on Christian television can you believe it but I'll tell you we're beginning to realize that Satan robbed us of the dance and we should have kept it all along in fact dr. Kennedy I understand you at one time were quite famous for your dance yes I believe in his younger Wilder days he was what an Arthur Murray instructor so they all danced here and you should you know I mean [Applause] the but we're realizing that the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof and they that dwell therein and there's a lot of stuff that we let Satan steal from us but we're taking it back in Jesus name including the airwaves many of you will remember Dino as he traveled some years ago with the late Kathryn Kuhlman and I can always remember how Kathryn introduced him Jan would have to do this as she would let her in she's sort of danced in you remember when she came in to make her entrance and she would say and now here's Dino and Dino would come in and of course bless us and thrill us with his tremendous talent at the piano he is now doing a regular television program for your TV in its scene Wednesdays at 5:30 at the 830 here in the South Florida area he's been recognized as one of the world's greatest sacred pianist he is the six-time winner of gospel music's Dove Award and has over 20 albums to his credit let's welcome Dino and Cheryl carts anarchists as they come give us a little word of greeting check Dino thank you see you dr. this is Kennedy it's a pleasure to be here once again Coral Ridge I played her two or three times and always have had a wonderful wonderful evening here at Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church this church is known to have some incredible musicians come here as their concert series and a lot of classical music has been played right from this platform some of the greatest composers have been performed here and I thought it'd be kind of nice to play maybe a medley of classical music right now I need appropriate don't you would you like to hear that okay this is a classical medley [Music] [Applause] you you [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] you [Music] thank you so I am feeling so good tonight you people are wonderful and you know the joy of the Lord is in this place here this evening yes you know I really feel through classical music we can praise the Lord but talent came from the Lord you know one day when all this music was written I am NOT a composer and sometimes I ask the Lord why Lord did you help me write some some wonderful music about my musical career but I guess I'm supposed to be just a pianist and communicate songs that other people write but just recently I got inspired to write a melody melody that inspired me when Sheryl and I went to Communist China was noir lamb and I watched that lady's ministry has really blessed me and now I understand a major movie who'll be coming out I am so excited I can't wait to see I understand it's it's completed as far as the filming and now they're in an editing room but here's a theme that I wrote and I title it Dorothy tell me if you like it if you don't don't tell me Norris team [Music] you [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] I [Music] [Applause] [Music] you [Music] [Applause] Oh [Music] my wife Cheryl come on up here honey give her a big hand mixer please my wife I want Cheryl just a share with a little bit if you watch our television show the Dino show Cheryl's on it and I get so much mail I'm telling it's incredible the people that keep saying it Cheryl's not on enough will say why wasn't Cheryl on and people loved her everywhere and I appreciate her support and her love for me and this ministry and I thought it'd be kind of nice would you like to hear her say a few words I think I nice here to do that tonight thank you so much it's such a beautiful evening already there's been there been so many different types of worship shared here already dino and and you played a few pieces that were totally pretty much unrelated but you know everything that's done here tonight is related through the power of the Lord Jesus Christ because we know the reason and reminds me of a little story my my father used to tell in his ministry and it seems somehow totally unrelated but you'll figure it out at the end there was a young man named Jim kind of a disheveled tattered young man went to school in one room in a one-room schoolhouse and each day he wore the same old faded jacket and the kids kind of made fun of him you know like kids can do without really meaning to and one day someone's lunch was missing and of course the teacher immediately said Jim did you take the lunch and he said well yes teacher I ate the lunch but you see I was so very hungry and she said well that's no excuse and you have to be punished and then she turned to the class and she said um you you say what you decide the punishment should be tell me and they called out various types of punishment and then she listened to them and she turned to Tom and she said Tom it was your lunch that was eaten stolen you set the punishment and he said without any delay 15 stripes without that jacket on and jim began to cry he said oh please ma'am please ma'am I'll take 30 licks just please don't make me take off my jacket and she said I'm sorry but the the judgment is in and she took the jacket off and ripped it off his back and there he stood a skinny frail malnutritioned little boy with no shirt and at that point he could have heard a pin drop in that classroom and Tom the one who'd laid his judgment out stepped forward and he said old teacher please let me take the stripes for him I'll take his punishment let let Jim go free and you know we're all guilty from one time to another and there was someone who walked Calvary's Hill and he said father let me take their place I'll take the punishment let them go free and here we are tonight with a friend that sticketh closer than a brother and we are free we are free to rejoice here tonight we're free to do whatever we feel pleases God and to share in various ways reminds me of a song that my father's Church used to sing jesus paid it all all to him I owe sin had left a crimson stain but he washed it white as snow he's washed you white as snow tonight if you desire it it's done all you have to do is receive [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] you [Music] you [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] you [Music] [Applause] Thank You Tino Thank You Terrell for that beautiful are you all having a good time tonight praising the Lord one of America's great in historic churches if you've just flipped by and joined us tonight our praise the Lord program comes to you tonight from Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church Fort Lauderdale Florida and I'm going to introduce our very special guest and speaker tonight he's never been introduced in his own church quite this way I'm sure in fact dr. Kennedy and I were privileged to be together a few days ago in Washington DC and we got to meet our president President George Bush in the Oval Office would you believe and we were talking on the elevator yes George and I are getting to know one another a little bit we have a wonderful president by the way we really do he's a great man and doing a good job and I think he should have gotten Noriega yeah anyhow how do I get onto that we were talking in the elevator and I was mentioning you sir my friends this was dr. Kennedy and he chided me a little bit and he said please Paul you can call me Jim so one knows they have arrived in this club when you can refer to the pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church as Jim I've made it I have made it you see I was taught as a youth that I should respect my elders and my peers but I suddenly realized I have grown up along with the rest these good people and I've gotten a little old myself so it's just a joy to be here today and to get acquainted with many more of our dear friends here in South Florida and to get to be with dr. James Kennedy here in this great historic Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church so would you give your pastor a great praise the Lord welcome tonight Jim aggressive thank you thank you Paul for those kind words I'm only sorry that my father wasn't here to hear that he would have appreciated it my mother would have believed it I asked Paul just how old he was I asked him when was his birthday and he said April 12 I said what year he said every year well we are delighted to have Trinity Broadcasting Network and praise the Lord with us today why we've got so much enthusiasm here tonight we might even unthaw God's frozen Chosin here I have already been blessed I thought the music tonight was exceptionally good I I just praise God for all of these wonderful talents that we've heard tonight Dean and Mary and Chris and Dino sherry wonderful wonderful talents isn't it amazing how how music can conjure up so many pictures and so many emotions in the mind and heart who did not see Eric little running a few moments ago with his head gone up lifted up to heaven and I was thinking about his words God made me and God made me fast and he felt that he must run for the Lord and when Chris was singing one of my favorite hymns it is well with my soul there welled up within my soul an emotion that always seems to come when I when I hear that song it's such an incredible song you know it's written by a man who had just lost his whole family and a shipwreck and and I can never hear that without thinking of a young American boy Air Force pilot Second World War nineteen years old grew up in a Christian home back somewhere in the central part of America he was flying his plane over the South Pacific and it came right out of the Sun eleven o'clock high he never saw it until it was practically on him it was a Japanese zero he whipped his plane over into a roll dome for the ocean but the pilot was on his tail and he was expert and he no matter what he did turn and flip and everything else he couldn't get away he headed high finally the machineguns of the Japanese plane hit their target and the plane began to spin down out of control and crashed into the jungles of some small sparsely populated island in the middle of the South Pacific the boy was badly injured he managed to crawl away from his plane a few yards and there he lay halfway around the world from his home back in America severely injured bleeding profusely he was surely going to die what thoughts would fill the mind of a person dying in those hopeless helpless circumstances when they found his body a few weeks later they pried open one hand and they found a crumpled piece of paper on which he had written these few words when peace like a river when peace like a river attendeth my soul thou hath taught me to sing it is well with my soul how marvelous it is that the wondrous grace of God can bring such peace and joy even in the midst of situations like that well that's not what I'm preaching about tonight but I just couldn't help but think of that and every time I hear that I can't help but feel when you hear that you're gonna think about that young man and the peace that God can break bring to a human soul I preached a message on television of course it was carried by Trinity Broadcasting as well just recently and I received a note from someone who said you mentioned in your sermon recently a number of times the term grace but you never told us what it means tonight I'd like to talk about that glorious concept that central truth of the Christian faith Amazing Grace just what is it I don't know what your favorite passage of Scripture is it is but one of mine is certainly the second chapter of Ephesians this is a passage with such texts as if you've ever wondered why would God have done such a thing as give his son for us I discovered the reason in there in that passage many and many a year ago that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of His grace and his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus as if if biblical passages could be likened unto mountains these would be the Himalayas and one text stands out above them all rising high into the sky snow clad surrounded with clouds of mystery it is I think the very pinnacle of biblical revelation and it shares with us that great truth that one central truth that God wants us to know and that is by grace ye are saved you know grace is the most important concept in the world it's the most important concept in the Bible now I know some of you are saying did not the Apostle Paul say that the greatest was loved no he didn't what he actually said was that now there abideth these three faith hope and love and the greatest of these Islam and what a glorious concept that is yes but if grace had entered into the lists love would have had to step into the shadows for grace is greater than love it is not however a concept that abides in the vast panorama of eternity grace has appeared and will have appeared only for a very brief period of time for our sojourn here on this earth before that tragic event at Eden there was no grace and when we arrived at last in heaven and eternity opens up before us in all of its glorious vistas there will be no grace there will be no grace for those in hell who will be beyond its reach and there will be no grace for those just men made perfect now living with all holy angels in paradise above for there will be no need for grace grace does not abide but during this time when it is the day of grace it shines more brilliantly even than love because it is love raised by many powers above in fact it seems that Paul as a master chemists took test tubes and beakers of liquids of various hues reds and purples and Crimson's and greens and poured them together to some great chemical apparatus and when they'd run through all of that vast apparatus at last there was distilled one pure crystalline drop great and it is by grief that we are saved therefore my friend if we do not know what grace is we cannot be saved and I would ask you today what what is Grace what is this text by grace you're saved that rises like some Everest even above the rest of the Himalayas I hope that today we might take a climb up that mountain to examine something of its glories I for one feel ill-equipped to leave that Trek you stand lame of foot and feeble when you look up into the heights of the grace of God but let us at least see how far we can ascend many in many a year ago I remember reading a story that deeply touched me and says something I be I believe about the meaning of grace we would have to go back a hundred and twenty-five years or so to the middle the last century in Czarist Russia out in the hinterlands and there as you look over the vast panorama of the steeps of Russia frozen and white as you focus in you can see traveling across those vast expanses of ice a dogsled and if you get close enough you will descry there on a Russian nobleman and that his side his faithful servant of many and many a year they've been traveling far for several hundreds of miles and now it lasts their destination which is home is only about 20 miles ahead they are rejoicing at the prospect of a warm bed and hot food and the servant is examining the horizons on each side and he looks behind him and there is a sight which freezes his blood about a mile or so behind them he sees a large dark mass and as he peers closer he sees that it is a horde of wolves who have caught their scent and now are inexorably closing upon the dog's leg they give the reins to the dogs and snap the width and cry whatever the Russian equivalent of much is and the dogs lean into the harness to make as much speed as they can and yet still there herd of wolves pack of wolves draws closer now there were a half a mile a quarter a mile a few hundred yards 50 yards 10-5 they're right behind them you can hear their heavy breathing their red eyes seem like red-hot coals on the very pit of hell you can see their yellow fangs now dripping with saliva at the thought of their next meal there is no place to hide there's no place to go they can't outrun them their situation is hopeless and then suddenly unexpectedly this old servant throws himself backward off of the dogs land with predictable results the pack stops converges and his master is spared and I said to myself then that is great but on more mature reflection I realize that that is but the foothills of grace it does at least bring out one aspect as they were to look in one facet of this precious diamond of grace that grace involves a great sacrifice even the sacrifice of one's own life and yet this does not yet come close to the shining pinnacle the snow clad peak of the Everest of grace it would have come closer if the master had given himself for the servant but let's go on I became a Christian 35 years ago and just about that time there was a story that made the newspapers across this country it even made the cover of Life magazine some of you folks as old as Paul and I may remember it was a picture of a whole platoon of Marines with their arms ready wading through a river and some of them were carrying on their shoulders in body bags the corpses of five American missionaries that had left their colleges and gone down to Ecuador and the depths of the jungles of that nation they had sought to bring the gospel to the most primitive savage people on the face of the earth the alka indians they had prepared themselves well they thought they'd even devised a method whereby their plane could circle in a tight circle high above with a rope several thousand feet long that they could lower down with all sorts of gifts in a basket and it would just hover in one place and they could take them out they did this for weeks at a time because you see they'd had no contact with the outside world these out cuts they killed every living person of any kind that entered their jungle and so at last they felt comfortable to land their plane on the beach of the river at first a couple of women came out and then a young man and then some more and for several days they reported in each day that things were going well they had gained their confidence and their friendship and they hope that soon they would be able to proclaim the gospel to them and these were outstanding young men some of you will remember them Jim Elliot his wife Elizabeth has written such glorious books about their exploits through gates of splendor Nate st. in fact these men were valedictorians of their colleges champion of the wrestling team poets in fact Jim Elliot in his senior year in college less than a year before had written some words in a diary and I recall reading those and being awestruck that any college senior could write words like these words that that to me seemed almost on a parable of that soliloquy of Hamlet to be or not to be he was meditating upon a biblical text in his senior year in college and he was looking at the text that said he makes his ministers a flame of fire and these were his musings recorded in his diary am i ignitable deliver me O Lord from the dread asbestos of other things that I may be a flame but flame is short-lived canst thou bear this on my soul short life yet in me there dwells the spirit of the great short lived whose zeal for his father's house consumed me consumed him make me thy fuel o flame of God less than a year later that fuel was consumed out of the bushes they came a whole horde of these alkanes with eight-foot Spears and they plunged and through their bodies the Marines were set in to bring out the bodies sometime later at a hotel over here on Pompano Beach I heard the father of one of these men speak he was a great Hulk of a man I would say was about six foot four two hundred forty or fifty pounds he looked like a linebacker for the Dolphins and I'll never forget what he said he said when I found out what they had done to my only son I got on a plane in Minneapolis and I flew to Miami and then I flew to Quito Ecuador and I went on a train and I got a safari and I got a group of people and we went right into that jungle into their village and I found the savage that had killed my son and he said I went to him and I put my arms around him and I said in the name of Jesus I love you and I about melted right under the table and I said that is crazy but I was wrong it's getting closer but it is not yet the full quintessence the distillation of what the grace of God the amazing grace of God really means yes you see this brings us to the fact of a greater sacrifice even than laying down one's life the sacrifice of giving one's own son but there is more much more to the grace of God that grace by which we are saved and without which no man may be saved it was the 1920s Oklahoma his name was John Griffith and he dreamt of travel he was a young man in his early 20s he just married they had an infant son and he dreamt of faraway places with strange-sounding names that he'd read about them and studied about them and he was going to be a world traveler and then came 1929 and in the great crash of American economy and in the howling winds Oklahoma was turned into a desolate and hopeless state and with that crash went all his dreams and he packed up all of his few belongings and his wife and his little son Greg in an old bottle a and they headed east and they made their way to Missouri until the edge of the Mississippi River and there he found a job a job tending one of the great railroad bridges that spans the mighty Mississippi and it was his job day by day to sit in the great control house and to take these huge gears and open this massive bridge to let the barges and the ships go by and then close it again for the trains to roar across the river and he used to think and contemplate where these ships were going and what wonderful places they would see it was in 1937 that for the first time he brought his now eight-year-old son Greg Griffith to work with him and his son was wide-eyed as he saw his father press a lever and saw this huge bridge rise or come down again at his father's will surely his father was the greatest man in the world he controlled magnificent bridge and when lunchtime came they took their lunch box and he put the the bridge up in the air to allow some boats that were scheduled to come by to pass and and he went with his son out into the river over a catwalk out to an observation deck there was about 50 feet out in the river and there they could see the boats as they passed by they opened their lunch and they ate and his father was telling his son wonderful stories about these wonderful places and time passed and he was about in the midst of telling him about the time that the river overflowed with tragic results and right in the middle of that he was suddenly awakened out of his reverie by the shriek of the whistle of a train and he looked at his watch quickly and saw that the 107 the Memphis Express was due in just a couple of minutes he didn't panic he told his son to stay where he was he leaped in speed and quickly jumped on to the cat work walk ran back climb the steel ladder into the control house looked up the river to see that no ships were coming down again and then according to custom he looked under the bridge to see that there was nothing there and there came to his eyes a sight that made his heart leap into his throat as he looked down into this huge massive room this gear box as it was called where there were tons of gears that booths gigantic bridge in there between the teeth of the two main cogs of that gearbox was his son Greg who had tried to follow his father back and fallen off the catwalk down into this huge room full of gears below he was conscious but his leg was trapped between the teeth of the gear if he were to lower the bridge he would most certainly kill his son what could he do immediately he formed a plan he would take the rope it was coiled over there he would climb down the ladder run out the catwalk tie off the rope go down free his son bring him back up come back climb the ladder and throw down the lever and put the bridge down for the Train and no sooner had he thought it that he knew that he didn't have half enough time for that what would he do his mind was panicked his blood was frozen what could he do there were four hundred people on the train there was roaring toward that bridge which was sitting like this soon it would come out of the trees at tremendous speed but this this was his son this was his only child his son her mother his mother waited at home he was a father that this was his boy and he knew what he had to do so he buried his head in his left arm and plunged the lever forward and just as the bridge settled into place the Memphis Express with 400 passengers roared out of the trees and across the river and John Griffith John Griffith lifted up his tear-stained face and he looked right into the windows of the passing train and there was a businessman reading the morning paper and a uniformed conductor looking at his large vest pocket watch and there were ladies sipping coffee in the dining car and a little child pushing a long spoon into a deep dish of ice cream but no one looked at him no one looked at the control house no one looked down into the gear room with the Massey gears and the mangled remains of all of his hopes and dreams and he pounded on the glass and he said what's the matter with you people don't you care don't you know I sacrificed my son for you what's wrong with no one answered no one heeded no one looked no one cared and the train roared out of sight across the river and when I read that account I said that that is great but it's not oh we're above the tree line now we're at the base of the ice and the snow that forever surrounds that mountain to see the meaning of that that astounding that astonishing at amazing grace of God I said once at a living room one night sharing the gospel with some people and they were telling me as so many people have how their hopes and expectations of entering heaven were based upon the fact that they had lived reasonably decent and good sort of lives in fact only last night I had some people telling me that again and I told these people a story which I hope would pierce through the hardness of their hearts and would enlighten their minds I said suppose that right now suddenly your front door was kicked open then a half a dozen policemen with drawn guns rushed into the room threw me onto the floor put my hands behind me handcuffed me picked me up and hauled me out of your house and you said what what are you doing what this is this is a minister in church here and the policeman says you you just think this is a minister a church here this man is a complete phony he is wanted in seven states for multiple murders and bank robberies you are lucky that we got here in time you probably would not have survived the night and you read and watch carefully the news of my trial and of my conviction and of my sentencing that I am sentenced to die in Florida's electric chair and you say to your wife well we have said that we we believe in the golden rule to do unto others and that we love other people than we should try to go down and do something for him and you go down to the judge and you say we want to help him we'll do anything at all what can we do and you even go so far to say I will lay down my life for him and the judge says no that that that would not suffice you see this man killed many people robbed many banks however we we would accept the author of a child and you go home and think about that where you have but one child 12 year old girl and you pray and you talk and you agonize and finally you decide to do it and you come back and you bring your daughter Maryanne the judge says however you must be the one to do it you see it was not a Centurion that inflicted that penalty upon Christ to pay for the sins of the world it was his own father that poured out an infinite wrath upon him and so you shave her head and place her in the chair and put the bands on her wrists and ankles and while she cries daddy daddy why have you forsaken me you pull the switch until she is dead several days later you're sitting in a restaurant the funeral was just that morning you have no desire to prepare food or even to eat it you're sitting in the booth talking to each other the warden has instructed the guards to go to my cell inform me of what you had done and to tell me that because of that sacrifice I am free to go and so I have been released from prison and I walk into that restaurant and sit in the booth next to you you see me but I don't see you and my friend says to me Kennedy I read in the paper that you were guilty they were going to cook your goose what happened and you overhear me say to him what you see it was all a big mistake there are many people I didn't kill there are many banks I never robbed the feck I even put some money into one or two and so they look at my character in my life and they decided that I that I was really a pretty nice person and on the basis of my character and morality they decided to let me go and you're sitting in the next booth and do you know that the only reason that I am walking around alive is because of a small grave on the west side of town with a name of Marianne now that is Grace not quite to reach the peak we would have to change the story I wasn't just a visitor in your home no I was one that had come into your home several weeks before when you were away and I had raped and killed your wife and now you give your daughter to die for me Jesus didn't die for friends like the friend of the nobleman Jesus didn't die for strangers like those on the train Jesus didn't die for nice people like a visiting pastor in your home no Jesus died for his enemies while we were yet at enmity with God Christ died for us that my friends is the meaning of grace and it is by grace totally unmerited favor to those who deserve positive disfavor is the meaning of grace to the undeserving to the ill deserving to the hell deserving God offers eternal life not because of anything that we have done dear friend if you have never received that grace I urge you to do it even now if you're here in this sanctuary if you're watching across the nation I urge you to do it right now you don't have to plead your virtues you don't have to plead what great accomplishments you've made you see there's only one thing that you can add there's only one thing that you do add to your salvation and that is you provide you provide the sin for which Christ died by God's grace he changes our hearts by His grace he brings us to repentance and faith not because of anything that we are or that we have done but in spite of everything that we have done most people try to claim their virtues and to minimize their sins but if you want to be accepted by God maximize your sins don't extenuate them you say my sins are bad enough I should maximize them my friend you don't know 100 of the sin that clings to your soul so if you were to maximize it 10 times over you would still be extenuating your own sin grant to God all of your sins admit them all and His grace will come and flow and cleanse your life like a sparkling river and you can say it as well it is well with my soul that grace comes through a conduit that conduit however is not round like a pipe it's shaped like a cross and it's only there at Calvary that there is the outlet for the grace of God that pure crystalline River of God's grace flows through that cross to all that will turn from their sins admit their guilt and place their trust in him you can know assuredly that you have eternal life you can know that you are forgiven because the great God of heaven has given his only begotten Son to die for his enemies including me that you and I might have eternal life would you like to receive that gift would you like to know invite Jesus Christ to come with His grace into your life to cleanse it to transform it to cause it to blossom and bloom like the rules and to put a song in your heart forever more that you can forever sing amazing grace how sweet the song the sound that saved a wretch like me I once was lost but now I'm found was blind but now I see come come to the cross of Christ and receive that amazing grace may we pray father right now throughout this nation there are those who have heard for the first time the wonder of your grace that astonishing grace that no human being would ever have conceived of Lord I pray that your spirit will touch their hearts cause him to see their sin that they have sinned against one who has loved them with a love that no human being could ever understand we can never scale its heights or plumb its depths or understand its infinite meaning Lord may they say right now oh Christ I have no virtue I have no goodness I am stained with sin within and without but oh Christ I kneel at the cross and may the river the river of your grace pour into me and flood my soul I accept you Lord Jesus I cling to that cross I rejoice in that grace and I will until the day I die on which day I too may say peace like a river attendeth my soul in Jesus name Amen [Music] Oh [Applause] [Music] like a master Paynter dr. Kennedy is painted on a canvas a portrait of grace that we will never forget thank you dr. Kennedy I don't think I truly understood what God's grace was as well as I understand it tonight how about you the scripture says to as many as received him to them gave he power to become sons of God even to them that believe on his name prayer partners are standing by right now to take your call and your confession of the faith who would not wish to know a God who has this kind of grace sing it one more time and those of you that haven't received him even in this room you can do it even now as we sing it one more time from our hearts [Music] [Music] [Music] how many in this room tonight have experienced that amazing grace of God in your life lift your hand as a testimony of that marvelous grace of God Oh blessed be his wonderful name laverna needeth tripp sing a song that says the grace of God a little differently but just as eloquently a grand old hymn that will bless you as they come no one ever cared for me like Jesus I would lie to tell you what I see oh Jesus for I found in him all he supreme so strong and he's true [Music] he came and he changed my life come [Music] that no other friend could ever do [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] just my you [Applause] [Music] [Music] oh my was read but when she me [Music] and [Music] what school [Music] and maybe that's the way you feel tonight but this is what Jesus will do he won't come and he'll slip his lovely [Music] in the way that he should go with this [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] for you just like cheese [Music] lord Oh [Music] [Applause] and darkness [Music] well nobody knows the grace of God any more than I do I'm so grateful for His grace and I don't think I've ever heard it explained more beautiful than tonight and it's so real tonight I ran from God for such a long time and maybe some of you here have ran from him my reason was I never felt like I was good enough to receive what he was offering to me and I realize now I wouldn't but he did it anyway and oh how precious that is I knew the Lord called me to be a minister a new call me to be evangelist as a little boy but I never thought I could live a good enough life I know now I can't but I know if I will yield my will to him that he can through me and will but we just have to continue to surrender and maybe you've grown hard and cold and selfish and indifferent let the grace of God tonight deliver you and set you free storms hit all of us no matter what walk we come from it may be financial storms or physical storms or spiritual storms but the good news and all of it is Jesus always comes in the midst of that storm he sees where you are tonight our family is not exempt from them just because we're in the ministry and just because we're on TV we're not exempt from them it was 15 years ago that I rededicated my life what a storm I was in I was so bound by alcohol and other drugs I was so bound by selfishness and pride I never thought there was any way I'd ever have life because I didn't seem it didn't seem that I could reach that place of freedom but through His grace and only His grace because all I said was Lord will you forgive me I knew I'd lied I knew how to sieved I knew had rebelled and the only way I know to describe but it was like chains had me bound they just broke it was like a weight was on my chest it just lifted and I knew that the grace of God had been extended to me and every sin I had committed had been forgiven not because I gave anything not because I did anything that's just the way God is God is a good God and he's no respecter of person I committed that day Lord I'll follow you and I've continued to do so though there been times I have stumbled and failed though there been times like Peter I stepped out of the boat and was walking on the water my eyes on Jesus but then I began to see the storm in the wind and I started sinking but every time I started sinking I just said Lord save me and he reached out his hand and picked me up and letting it back to the boat back to safety and I know tonight that many of you watching that's where you are maybe many of you in this room you have forgotten it was His grace thinking it was your works and you know you have failed and if you'll be honest you know that accept that grace again accept that cleansing Jesus sees you haulin and rolling and struggling in that condition that you're in because of the storm that is hits you but he's passing by and in the Gospel of Mark the sixth chapter is where the Lord gave me this song jesus told his disciples to get into a boat and to go to the other side of the lake they got in the boat started across the lake and when they got out in the middle of that lake a storm hit him they began the toil and roll trying to get to the shore and the Bible says the whole time they were tolling and rowing Jesus was standing watching them about three or four o'clock in the morning he came walking on the water and they saw him and they cried out and he stepped on board that ship and he said to those men peace and he turned to that storm and he said be still and immediately the storm stopped and they were safely on the other server right this very moment God Almighty sees you tolling and rowing in that storm but Jesus is passing by you speak his name you call on him because whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved and he will step on board your ship and He will give you peace and you will make it safely to the other Shore because he always comes in the midst of the storm [Applause] [Music] when you reach out for help and you find no one there and the darkness moves in all each side just remember that God is always watching in love and in his loving arms you can always have 14 the miss star the stone to deliver this children from harm with that storm gets sold he will save you know when he cut it - love the star [Music] to deal and the member from sand he has power to stop that trouble song twin brother something too hard or the save your to I reach out to him for he's reaching down [Music] [Applause] but it's your soul to deliver his children when that star is so [Music] siga when he comes in the midst of your skull [Music] Oh [Music] the mid start Jesus comes inside the store Thank You Laverne and Edith oh my I feel like I've been to church already how about you and now in just a little bit dr. hill is going to come and bless us with another great word from the Lord before he does that will our usher brother and come right now please those of you prepared your offering we want to cover all of the expenses of this wonderful two nights here at Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church and many of you have already prepared your offering those of you across America if you enjoy seeing the holy Beamer roll to great places like Coral Ridge and other places across America we need to hear from you too so just address your love gifts in your letters to t be NPO box a santa ana california 92711 if you're making out a cheque just make it out to TV in and we'll see that it's used to meet the expenses we want to be sure and cover all of our needs and expenses of this crusade here at Coral Ridge and then if there's any leftover as I said I promise we'll use every penny to keep your channel 45 on the air here in the Gold Coast of South Florida god bless you father we thank you for the privilege of giving to keep your great gospel going out across America and around the world thank you Lord for this word about your glorious grace tonight that has touched so many thousands of lives across this land we praise you for the grace of God that we too have experienced and received bless us now as we give to you that this gospel may continue to be preached in all the world for a witness for we know that you're coming draws nigh is even at the door bless us as we give now in Jesus name Amen [Music] they're cold and lonely souls on the streets tonight where's the light where's the light [Music] and that long so I toss and turn all night where's the life where's the line hapax it my peers a chair that what I just heard [Applause] of the light [Music] [Applause] a lie you show up you let my actions show that Jesus at me makes things running was after the money you Oh with the mom and a little would be all right but where's the light like - that huh [Music] [Applause] would pay claims right where's buh-bye where's the love [Music] I've been said what I just learned be right out the light [Music] the life so I give my actions show the keys esand me makes things right without the light the blood not get up and go solar my action Jesus in me right things ah the love [Music] the love [Music] trip family thank you thank you thank you where in the world but on Christian television could you have dr. James Kennedy and Evy Hill all in the same night dear Lord NBC ABC CBS eat your heart out do you have anything like we've got tonight here at Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church and when you get a great church like this all mixed up with lights and cameras and a TV transmitter and a satellite and a holy Beamer it spells one thing the devil's in big trouble he is in big trouble now Evy Hill doesn't need me to introduce him tonight I have only one problem with Pastor Hills preaching it isn't long enough that's the only problem I had Pastor Hill we've saved the whole last hour for you so you just take your liberty in the Lord from South Central Los Angeles pastor of another great historic church Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Church give Pastor thank you so much Thank You Sara let us pray and our gracious and Heavenly Father we would pray that I would please permit us to preach your word not for fame nor reputation but to the end that you would use it to save tonight cause men and women boys and girls throughout the world to say yes to Jesus Christ cause those who are listening to us who have said yes but lestrade to get up right now and come home tonight thank you Lord for we ask it in Jesus name Amen Wow as some things I there's some things I asked the Lord to let my mama see she's in glory now and so is my wife but I hope you'll let them see me at coal-rich today I was reared in a very poor community and lived in a two-room log cabin I finished high school out of a two room log cabin with a little kitchen attached to it and I've been trying to see how far is it from here back to that okay and it's a long way so to all of you all in sweet home hello out there I met Coleridge I don't know where I'll be next week but I'm here today I've been fortunate to have been here before and I want to thank pastor Kennedy for his continuing ministry of the word and I want to thank my brother and sister Paul and Jan I've been traveling for the last nine days down in Texas and Tennessee and everywhere I go they say you are Paul and Jan's friend and I said yes I am boy y'all have made me popular I tell you it all in the airport everybody I was on a freeway in Houston and a lady cut in front of us and then we cut around then she came up beside us and glue and wave maybe we on a freeway I don't do that in Los Angeles and out in Los Angeles if you're on a freeway if you're not a Dodger you will be an angel and so finally we got off the freeway and she got off the freeway and we stopped at the red light and she pulled right in front of us and jumped out and said you Evie Hill with Paul and Jan give me your autograph so you all take it easy so what a joy it is to be here tonight and bring you greetings from all of the friends all over the country when dr. Kennedy got through I said to someone dr. hill needs to leave now as a preacher of the gospel I want to talk about three of my motivations for accepting Jesus Christ as my personal Savior I have accepted him as my personal Savior I did it when I was 11 years old I have not been lost since I have been saved since I was 11 years old I was born in the family in such a way that he could never put me out I'm just in that good bad and what have you but I'm in there whippings and everything else but I'm in there like mama he take the Board of Education and he hid my seat of consciousness I'm still in there I've accepted Jesus Christ as my personal Savior and did when I was 11 years old I had a real moving experience when I was 17 that even in a greater way confirmed my faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and I've come tonight to ask somebody who's here in this auditorium somebody here tonight in this auditorium and then the thousands and millions of people who are listening to us I've come to ask you to plead with you to beseech you to beg of you to do the greatest thing that you have could ever do and that is to accept Jesus Christ as your personal Savior not to increase the membership role of the Christian churches not to increase the role of the Mount Zion Church or the coal Ridge Church but to accept him in order that you will be saved that's our motivation that's our reason is accepting him I have led many people to Christ who I have not led to become members of the church I pastor so I want everybody saved but there's some folk I don't particularly want a pastor so I get them saved and then recommend the church down the street if they're cold Archy I recommend them down the street and if they if they don't like to stay in church long I don't like for them to stay at Mount Zion we stay we take up at 10:45 we get out at 2:15 now if that's a little long for you there's one right down the street get out in 30 minutes right down don't disturb my peace at the church where I pass because I'm getting old night I don't rush but I do have three well let's deal with three maybe for personal reasons why I'm glad and I did accept Jesus Christ as my savior the first one is I don't want to go to hell and my mama taught me that hell is a place she didn't have a degree in science and she didn't know nothing about the earth and all of the workings of the earth but mama told me that the Bible said that there is a place not a state of mind and not a bad thought not a dream after you've had some cabbage but but a place called Hale and the old preacher talked about Hale so first of all he said ain't nobody invited you to hell if you go you're going without an invitation devil hadn't invited you to come to hell Jesus says come to heaven but yet invited you that's wrong little place where you haven't been invited to stay out of it and the old preachers used to preach about Hell so fun instant one preacher I think was the pastor green when I was a boy he preached all about Hell and he described living a sinful and a sinner life he says it's like swinging across hell holding on to a spider well when I needed something better than that if you don't have but a spider web chance you better get something better than that he said it's just like swinging across hell blazing fire and I know that it is not the latest and the most intellectual thing to discuss I know that some of you might be intimidated or even insulted by me suggesting to you that there is an eternal hell but I want to tell you it is there's some fire somewhere down there it meant every time these bright boys come up with ain't no fire then a mountain blows up and the five eight miles into the sky it's some fire somewhere down there they claim a new finder where the lava starts coming up it's some fire somewhere down there and I find the only thing that I'd read about him but there's some fire down there and I don't want to go to hell my momma told me and the Bible says that hell is a place it is a place now it is logical to me because if heaven is a place where all of those who want to be with God then God should have a place he would he's only just to have a place where those who don't want to be with him can have somewhere to go man I want to make an announcement right here on the ad right here on television right here called rich I want to make an announcement to everybody who's listening to me there'll be nobody in heaven saying I didn't want to come up here in the first place you won't be in heaven till my momma just drugged me on up here mama can't drag you into heaven now she can drag and has drugged you many place but she can't drag you into heaven if you go to heaven it will be a conscious decision on your part to accept God's provision for those who would go to heaven you can't even say well you know I heard my girlfriend was up here so I decide cuz it won't work out that way you may have John Coleridge because your girlfriend was in thank God for that maybe you got saved in the mean time but you will not go to heaven because your girlfriend is that you'll go to heaven because you have consciously you have willingly you have openly and without chain said I want to be saved and you have accepted God's provision for salvation at a neighbor one way and that's through Jesus Christ Psalms 9 says the wicked shall be turned into hell Psalms under 35 says though I make my dead inhale all of the Gospels put together says don't fear those that can just cast your body but fear those who can cast your body and soul and so hell is a place now before you decide and before you turn me off let's discuss this idea that it is a place it is a place where number 1 there is no love of God now I don't want to go there I don't want to be anyway one of the marvels of his grace doing this age is that the love of God is shared abroad on the just and the unjust that the love of God God God God is so wonderful and wise the love of God is reigning right here in Fort Lauderdale upon the just and the unjust the saved and the unsaved and that's one of the confusing things about this church age where God's message is just being poured out God's grace is just abounding on us that is some people who have not accepted Christ but who enjoy the Grace and the goodness of Christ sometimes don't see the need of accepting Christ because to be very truthful with you sometimes their arthritis is not as bad as ours sometimes they own the building where Christians rip sometimes church folk are catching buses and sinners are driving by in limousines and you kind of wonder here you know who's in control I mean whose metering out all these blessings look like they got it all mixed up hey I'm Christian over here this is God's world and the drug dealer which is confusing a whole lot of young people will pass by in a limousine and you are minimum wage and you love God and many of them don't care for him at all and so sometime it kind of gets confused you know if I were God I'd have this thing so that you couldn't enjoy him my goodness and not serve me oh yeah I'd have this house full every day prayer give you the whooping cough if you didn't come then God wonderful give me my aivalis you wake up on Sunday morning and start looking at a baseball game I put a pain in the back of your head you'd be at church in the next five minutes but I ain't God thing I'd get my own sense of trouble I'd hit myself what's like that and forget I'm God but anyway but God's not like that he reigns during this period with Frederick's a person calls the parentheses in eternity he's reigning with goodness and mercy Oh No and he's standing though he's gone he's standing through those whom he hath chosen and said pleading then come to me but they'll come a time when those who do not accept Jesus Christ will only know the wrath of God just every 9 then he kind of lets us in on how he could be he's holding back his hand right now he just he just every night then he just taps us just said why don't you write he wasn't trying to shake up the East Coast with Hugo he just tap it just said get right I think Hugo's stood over some parts of South Carolina 39 minutes and the devastation was more than we could even imagine I suppose he decided to get rough until Hugo swing back there and stand there five hours up in San Francisco he wasn't trying to be rough with us he just left that earth shake for 21 seconds suppose he got mad and said go back there and stomp angels for three hours just jump up and down for three hours that's all on earthquake is just bunch of angels out there jumping up and down and suppose he said jump up and down for three hours if what happened in 20 seconds devastated us and almost ruined the economy and added taxes on to Californians and whatever what would have happened if God had said shake for three hours and he can do it the governor the next morning called in his consultants his engineers and said what happened and then they voted too high a million dollar consulting firm to see what happened because the bridges were not supposed to fire he said we have built them with the understanding that they were found and they compared a million dollars well consultancy and I'm just a country Baptist preacher I'll do nothing I've never had engineering but I'll tell you what happened you just came with stand god that's what happened build it on up to ten Hill sender 12 building up to a trail he'll send the protein your arms are too short to box with God God won't you he can get you go ahead go on fly to the islands and he'll send powder he'll go down there to bring you on back when God wants you he can get you but hell is a place where there is no love of God I don't want to go there I don't want to go no place where I cannot feel the love of God sinner listen to me tonight you may not have accepted Christ but you even live in a community where the love of God is all around you your parents and your friends have shared the love of God where you work you have experienced the love of God if you've ever been down and somebody helped you up that was the love of God the motivation of welfare is the love of God the motivation of charity movements is the love of God but what about a world where that yields no I don't want to go to hell when I heard Jesus Saves from hell I heard about everything else he does has a lot of people that are being warned today by all kinds of principles and what-have-you even out of Lausanne he makes you rich he pays your bills he gives you a mercedes-benz and all that and fine I am met him on that order yet but I know one thing he saves he turns around your destiny he had sure Bound for Glory and ain't that good news all Janos I had real problems when the Lord took baby from man until he came in the room and explained through his spirit that she's on the streets of glory that's when I gave him I had preached it a long time you can creat your whole hearts a long time and don't hear what you say but he came through my room one night when my heart was broke and when I was bloody and bleeding and he assured me that she's on the streets of glory and then Christmas night I walked out the back yard and looked up in the sky and it was prettier than his ever band and the stars were bright and twinkling and I looked up and I said well you rascal your first Christmas in glory that is the place I don't want to go because there's no love of God I don't want to go because there's there will be the continual wrath of God I've had my share of sorrow and problems and what-have-you but thank God it's not continuous because I live in a world where God's mercy gives me a little rest and gives me a little comfort then we've all had our problems if it's not one thing it's another I have a face that's quite bumpy you can't see it because of my natural color but they don't have put powder on me you don't just put me up but I have a bumpy face and better I might get one half and this is all smooth another one will break out here I get this one all smooth and another one will come out on the end this one and another one come on one thing after another we are children of tribulations in this world the world unlike us now if the world doesn't happen to know that you are Christian they ain't bothering you but you better not ever show up and you better not ever give any evidence that you love Jesus because if they hated him they hate up I don't I don't want to go to hell I don't want to go to hell I don't want to go to hell because the second third reason why there are no exits you can't take a weekend inhale to see how you like it if you fool around and go to heaven Jack hi Oh dr. Jack hi pastor the First Baptist Church in Hammond Indiana you all know brother hi Lee sends his buses down here on sunny Moore and pick up some school students up in Hammond Indiana Jack Howell is it's quite a fella I think they have about 20,000 in Sunday school and I think they baptized about a hundred a week and it's just a winning soul-winning soul winning so on him we were up in Michigan preaching together and I said Jack I won't let me in on why you just so caught up in soul-winning soul-winning when he hires the secretary he doesn't ask that I'm in word she can type how many souls do you win when he has a janitor hit her name asked him do you know how to mop how many souls do you win just soul winning soul winning I say you y'all look fanatic I said now what's behind he said well edit is a story I said please tell it to me one night early in the morning I was sleeping all of a sudden I'm awakened by this piercing scream from my sister and so I ran upstairs to her bedroom and as she was sweating and in hysterics and just screaming and I shook her and I couldn't get then I had to just stop her and she said when she came on Jack Jack Jack she said he said what's wrong you had a dream no no dream he had a nightmare no no nightmares real what what happened she said Jack I just got back from hell what a nightmare wasn't a dream it's real she said you can almost feel the warmth of my flesh and he said well tell me about it she's a tall jack after the few miles of the glitter and the light and all of that which deceives mankind there is nothing but desolation as you proceed towards hell it is a bummed out situation it's nothing but desolation and hopelessness as you walk towards the gates of Hell knowing that you will never again see no good thing and she said Jack I got to the gate of hell and the end keeper said hold it and I stood outside of the gate of hell and I saw people whose faces were twisted and tongues were thick and I has bulging and hands thick and split and dropping blood and I said sir please let some air come in and he said no no air inhale and she said I saw them just screaming and this vexation of all kinds and she said well then kind sir let them have a drink of water no no water inhale he said well then she said well please let him die just let him just let them and he said no no death in hell and she said oh my god well then how long will they there be the knowing and the gashing and the bleeding and fire unbearable and no water and no and how long he said forever and ever for hell has no exit and there is no death and she said jack just as I turned he told me go back and tell the story and just as I turned I saw daddy and Jack said yet my daddy is in hell because he never got around to doing the most important thing he schooled us he fed us he housed us but he never got around to personally saying yes to Jesus Christ and he said so hi win souls every day so that nobody else's daddy has to go to hell I don't want to go to hell I don't want to be in a place where there are no exits I have claustrophobia I don't want to be in a place where there is agony a body and spirit where there is pain and suffering the wrath of God no love of God I don't want it you can have it I'm going where the wicked cease from troubling and the weary or address to praise where there is no more sickness and cancer and diabetus and all of the other problems I'm going where we'll never grow you see there's a home prepared where the state survived just over in the glory land I don't want to go to hell and I beg if you don't go to hell please don't please don't you won't like it you won't like your neighbors there'll be devils and demons and fallen angels and false prophets don't go to hell no but preacher I have a retirement so it's gonna run out even before you die don't go to hell welcome the major matter there is a comfort that I have I appreciate the house I have but it can be taken from me I appreciate the pulpit that I preach out of and the wonderful people all over this land who give me a fit but it can disappear you can be way up on the pole one morning and looking for a job next but going to hell hey would you do what I have them to do in my line turn around shake somebody's hand right quick saying going to hell man amen amen amen but there's another motive now first of all and I I wish I didn't have I wish I wouldn't preach on but that's just that motivation I don't want to go to head that's enough to preach 40 years old don't go to hell Jonah said repent for a long time so I could preach just don't go to hell my wife you know I would call her every night and I had preached that night on you can go to hell that's what I pray that's one of your possibilities and so she said how was the message at night I said the Lord blessed she said what did you preach about you can go to hell she said I beg your pardon and somebody in the television audience or somebody in this auditorium the spirit won't let me move on so I must say again don't go to hell God has made it possible for you to have everlasting life you're gonna live everlasting list somewhere so get all these crazy notions out of your head that because when life gets tough what I just go out and kill myself and it's all over with no just begun after death judge man yeah I'm done nothing by killing yourself but rushed yourself into action and so don't don't do it because even when you get to hell you'll find yourself alive and won't it be bad to have all this hell on earth and then end up alive in hell save yourselves from this untoward generation but then I have a second reason a second motivation that I share with you something I have lived a life where I have known limitations I'm enjoying a few things right now but they're even limited I have known my background comes out of extreme poverty I could look through the flow and count ants and I could look through the ceiling and count birds have come up out of extreme poverty and extreme extreme discrimination and segregation I know what it is to get a death notice at midnight from the Klu Klux Klan I know what it is to get a death notice at noonday from the Black Panther Party so I've had it in black and white look like everybody won't meet that and I'm talking to somebody right now that you know what it is to be limited you have not enjoyed the fullness of your own potentiality I haven't treated you that way for one reason or the other your stars have not twinkled your moon has not shine your Sun has gone down too fast somebody that I'm talking to right now maybe in a living room you don't have nothing but due bills and overdrawn account you ought to accept Jesus as it you're accepting because your plight might be you might leave here just like that I know we have a whole lot of folk on television saying when you accept Jesus you automatically become an old nicer Center but I'm talking to a whole lot of folk even in this building here you have you met wood and tote that water and chop that road and life there's no bundle of roses you know what it is to try to struggle to keep breakfast on the table Church where I passed them we have one rule no woman leaves our church with only a dollar bill if you down to your last dollar come see the pastor and a couple y'all deacons stay here with me so if it over draws me I'll have some resources and one night as I began to said the benediction I stopped in the middle of the benediction and said all of y'all about to leave here with not a dollar and you don't know where you are fine breakfast raise your hand and twelve raise the hand I said come down here and stay here and I went on gave the benediction and one girl came up I said what's your problem she said pastor I don't know how you I just don't know how you knew but I I came to church on fumes I don't have no gas I didn't have nothin I left home I I just prayed that the fumes would bring me on to church and she said in doing Church I've just been praying lord please don't let it run out on the freeway because I don't have nothing but fumes and I went in my pocket I said well how about a tank of gas she's no nothing but limitations another one came up in tears and eyes and said pastor how did you know I spent the whole worship just trying to think of something in my house to fix for breakfast well five children in the morning and I said well here's $75 go out and get something for because there are those of us who love God those of you who've had houses and land silver and oh you know we love God we serve God we don't have a whole lot of will have no most skeletons in our closet you have in yours and why God issues it out the way he does it I don't understand it but I have accepted Jesus Christ because he tells me that if I walk the wax of him that sent me that he's going to come one day and reward [Applause] aquatic to their work and I've come to tell you baby hole [Applause] 37.4 nothing God's got something funny I hope he give you a little bit before you die but don't worry about it whatever God has obliged that you've done for him pity something and the thing I like about him he has enough he has enough ego run out he's going to reward us according to the riches of His grace and His glory [Applause] alright but y'all ain't got enough down here y'all got four or five houses I might live in but when I get the help that's gonna be mansion after mansion that glory after glorious world without it and forever and ever and ever I serve them and I invite you to say we can talk about the riches of Christians in the context of America and Europe but when you get into the ferret world and to India and Africa where evangelists don't even get five dollars a month you will see the necessity of heaven I said well I got mine right down here and that's what Jesus is gonna tell you you had yours right now but he's gonna turn to others and he's gonna say come you blessed of my father and I serve him because he don't give me something amen he's gonna reward and it's gonna be according to my works and you lazy rascal you better get on up and start doing something because nothing times nothing equals nothing but wait a minute that's not that's not the fullness of my motivation Paul gives me more hair in Philippians that third chapter the other reason I've accepted and I follow him is that I met my father for the first time when I was 16 and I hated my father for from 16 but all of my life until I was 21 I had no role model as a father I had no defense when the boys would jump on you and so I accepted Jesus that I may know him and to become one with him and to know the power of his resurrection after I show my final point is Romans gives it to us I'm serving and following Jesus that I may reign with him that I may enjoy glory that he has for I man I join a behold right now I want to give you an illustration I'm through in 1982 I received a telephone call from a friend of mine Jesse Jackson we're very close and I said he said to me he said add I want you to go to Middle East with I said what do you mean he said I'm going over to visit Jerusalem and John I said on one trip he said yes is no I'm not going and go get me killed stay and go over and get killed if you wanna stay here and pray for you he said that's exactly why I'm asking you to go with me I want you to pray for me he said now I have doctor I mean I have journalist and I have lawyers and I have Council of Churches and everybody else going but I need a prayer partner and I said well just say we are our prayer partners a lot of people don't know Jessie prays but it's quite a prep I know whenever Negro runs president Stacy prays and I said no I'm not going I'm not going and he said we'll pray about it then in two days I had two reasons I made up my mind I don't have time to tell anybody but when we got when we got to Jerusalem the first encounter over a hundred cameras a newsman surrounded the plane and I got disconnected from Jesse and they were pushing me back back back and Jesse turned around and said hey he's with me and they opened up and they let me come on in and then when we got that night the mayor of Jerusalem gave us a banquet and I didn't have no tickets and I was at the DOE trying to get in and the Jews didn't know me but Jesse saw Matt to go and he said hey he's with me and the man said oh please honored guests come on in and yes it stood up and said you must give the Palestinians that right to a homeland and everybody frowned in that building and enroute in route back to the hotel they stoned by bus and I was on the floor with Jesse I said man you could have written that and sent it over here you didn't have come over and say all that and the next day we went to the West Bank where the Palestinians were and when the bus rolled up ten thousand Palestinians surrounded until my Jesse Jesse and they picked him up physically and they were packing him on upstairs and Jesse proud of his back said that big one is with me and they grabbed me and took me on upstairs and when we got in the Assembly of the Palestinian mayor and these youngsters 13 and 14 years old with machine guns our automatic pistols all around the wall and Jesse got up and said you must let the Jew have a right to live at peace and everybody cocked their guns and I stood up and said I want to explain what this is trying to tell y'all and then we went on to job and when we cross John Oh bless his name when we cross job King Hussein had nine Mercedes Benz limousines waiting on us to carry us to Monge on and naturally been with just how walked up to the biggest and the best one and I attempted to get in and the guard says no and I I said Jessie and he said he's with me and the man said please when we got the job and we went to the palace and that palace was so elaborate until every chair had a widow not every table but a waiter / Jack and I went in and attempted to sit down up near the Crown Prince and the man said who are you you not to sit here and Jesse said he's with me and the man said please and then the Crown Prince said you can buy nothing in jogging whatever you need in Jordan is yours as a gift and I went home and I thought about eating something because I just had a few little hors d'oeuvres and I looked at the price I said well I can't eat here but then in a cart of it I'm guests of the King and I've got me feeling me on and I sent out my clothes and I got the telephone and talked over how and a half to my wife I'm gas of the key and then Jessa and I posit and I came on back and he went wherever II was but then it began to come to that that one glad morning when this life is over and when I get to the gate and when justice will stand there and won't let me in Jesus is gonna side with [Music] [Applause] is your you are dead [Applause] [Music] yeah you may have never you may have never been welcome to the famous house you may have never been welcome to the governor's house you may have never had an invitation like Paul and like pasta to come to the Oval Office and that may never be your lot you may never rise in this world no higher socially than your honor but if you accept Jesus one of these days you you you little miss nobody on the television that's where you thank you Jesus is gonna say and he's gonna point you out specifically my mama who never who never did anything but scrubbed why are these days Jesus has gone says she's with me I wasn't in garden but three days living like a king but heaven will be forever your heads bowed and there's somebody here tonight you have not you have not done it you have not done it and there's somebody listening to me and particularly those friends of mine you fellows in prison that I hear from and you write me you lot to here on earth may not change but right in prison you can become guest of the king and so if you have not prayed that pray all over this building bow your head and the pastor has already told us magnify and maximize your sin tell the Lord your son and that you've said that's what sons do and tell him save me Lord save me all over bill and save me Lord save me now and then those of you who have experienced the salvation but you have wandered away from home say forgive me and write tonight I feel led of the Spirit on television and here who will just stand and say save me long save me Lord I see you standing who'll just stand and say I need to pray that prayer save me Lord Jesus yes yes yes yes come on here come on come on here come here come home to me come home save me save me save me Lord workers and counselors will need you because I believe God is going to call you from the balcony and wherever you are just without chain without shame come down here and say preacher in need of salvation I died a night I'd go to hell I want to be safe and then somebody get on up and said preacher I am saved but I have backsliding I'm cold I'm indifferent I'm not faithful no where where I'm working come on here now come on here now wherever you are as the pianist and others come to sing that come home come home where's another where's another come on yes yes yes yes if somebody asks you later why did you go down that just say get thee behind me Satan just come on home come on home come on home tonight earnestly come on come on you who own television wherever you are there is a number on the screen get right down before that television and says save me Lord give the Lord watch the Lord give me another opportunity and come on hold and call that number and write a letter let us help you why not multitude stand and say I'm coming home I'm rededicated I'm giving myself to Jesus we're gonna play for you in just a moment come and get in the prayer line Thank You pastor Hill the scripture says that if thou shalt believe in thine heart confess with thy mouth Jesus Christ thou shalt be saved for with the heart man believes unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation jesus also said if you will confess me before men I will Ken confess you before my father and all the Holy Angels I'm proud of you for coming down tonight and publicly confessing your new faith in Jesus Christ if there's even one other soul please come even as I lead you in a little prayer and settle it now and forever that Jesus Christ is your Savior after the two great words we've heard tonight about the grace of God and then the warning that's been given by Pastor Dean there should not be one soul under the sound of our voice that would leave not knowing or confessing Christ as Savior will you follow me in a little prayer right now just say this prayer at home or in this room let's pray it all together and it will help these who perhaps are praying it for the first time just say this prayer with me out loud Oh God I'm a sinner I need a Savior I do believe Jesus died for me I believe he shed his precious blood to forgive all my sin come into my heart Lord Jesus be my Savior now and forever oh man you prayed that little prayer and meant it oh I see tears of joy flowing right now people are knowing Christ as Savior Church this is the best news that could be proclaimed across the land people are coming to Christ tonight will you welcome another whole group into the family of God you at home call that number on your screen please call that number there's a prayer partner there to talk to you love you and pray with you in Jesus name would you do the next thing just turn to your neighbor right now and just tell them I'm saved that confession of the mountain is so important I'm saying I'm saying tomorrow night another great night here at Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church pastor Hill warned us about Hell told us about heaven how Lindsay will be here tomorrow night to tell us when it's all going to happen it'll be a wonderful night and I hope you'll come back and be with us for another great night of blessing here with live praise the Lord Dean and Mary I think we can sing a part of it as we say goodnight in song a great song of praise tell him to drop the last spot give me one more minute and let's sing this tremendous hymn of the church with Dean and Mary Brown as we say goodnight holy holy holy in the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord High on a throne high and lifted up in the Train of his robe filled the temple above him stood Seraphim each having six wings with two he covered his face and with two he covered his feet and with two he flew and one cried to another and said holy holy holy is the Lord of hosts the whole earth is full of his glory [Music] Oh whee [Music] Oh [Music] go [Music] our song shall rise [Applause] [Music] [Music] she go [Music] [Applause] we're so glad you told us for praise the Lord if you'd like to 98% of today's program please write master program number zero 125 - money at zero 125 - 90 the page should be sent to you for your love gift to the praise the Lord program TBN has a worldwide ministry and we need your luck is larger small to help keep the gospel of Jesus Christ going all around the world so write today to praise the Lord Piko box a santa ana california 92711 or in canada right to t be NPO box - 4 - 1 5 appeal 26 B 7 B 1 Y 2 if you would like to contact guests or musicians for the tapes poker albums please write to us at EVN it will be more than glad to forward the correspondence and if you have a - Christ into your life go our prayer partners right now and pray for a save Jesus as your Lord and Savior now until next time remember to keep on praising the Lord [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] this program was brought to you by the prayers and contributions of our faithful partners throughout North America and the world

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Id: WkTwK33KChY

Length: 179min 48sec (10788 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 10 2020