The Memorial Service of John Wimber Nov. 21, 1997

coming on the behalf of the Wimber family and on the behalf of the church we want to say welcome to all of you and we're just going to begin with the word of Prayer asking for Lord's presence as we begin tonight father we're so grateful for your goodness to us and we thank you for the gift that you gave us in John and Lord as we look at his life tonight remember who he is plus what he stands for Lord we ask Lord that you would bring encouragement haha to us Lord to be more and more like you Lord Jesus Lord we welcome you here tonight we ask that you would accomplish in all of our hearts Lord as we look at the life of John as we look at the death of John and we're confronted with these realities Lord accomplished in our hearts what it is that you want for each of us long Lord we love you we bless you we honor you Lord and I ask that you would allow this time to have a spirit of worship about it and also Lord that you would teach us through the life of John we pray all this in Jesus name Amen oh let the son of god and fold you with his spirit and his love let him fill your hearts and satisfied Oh Oh [Music] have those things that holy and his speak but we'll descend upon your life and make you [Music] Jesus Oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] you're oh come and sing this song with as your hearts are [Music] sweet [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh come and sing this song with blackness as your heart [Music] you're [Music] sweet sir [Music] [Applause] [Music] give me more Oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] gee oh geez [Music] No [Music] Oh [Music] isn't he beautiful [Music] beautiful Oh [Music] son of God isn't he [Music] oh mighty God [Music] is [Music] buuuut [Music] yes you are [Music] beautiful [Music] yes [Music] yes you are [Music] yes [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] yes [Applause] yes you [Music] [Applause] [Music] yes you [Music] so yes you Lord you are beautiful yes you [Music] yes you yes you this has been quite a year it's been quite a year for the church here at Anaheim it's been quite a year for me it's been a very difficult year for I've lost two of my favorite people this year two of the people I love the most John my son who we named after John my spiritual father and so it's been a hard time for me this week I'm actually putting off my feelings till next week and then I'll fall apart on Monday exactly at 8 o'clock when the night that John was in the hospital dying the Lord reminded me of verse that's on the back of your bulletin 2nd 2nd Timothy 4 6 through 8 I just want to read that he says for I am already being poured out like a drink offering and the time has come for my departure the thing the Lord was speaking to my spirit that night was that John had finished and his time was up and the Lord was taking him home Paul says to Timothy says I fought the good fight and I finished the race and I believe that about John I believe that John did everything that John was supposed to do John finished his work on this earth and now he's going home this is I've kept the faith I believe John was faithful in many ways to the gospel into this book and he's passed it on now to many of us he says now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness I believe John's wearing that crown right now which the Lord the righteous judge will award to me on that day and not only to me but also to all those who have longed for his appearing I believe this passage was true of Paul and it's true of John Wimber when I think of John and I've had some time in the midst of getting ready for all you had come this week to think about John this week I think of a spiritual father I first met John as a young man in my mid-20s I was a pastor of a church right across the street from here on La Palma and I was trying to figure out what ministry was all about and John had really no reason to take an interest in me and so I but I called him up one day and he told me to come down at the time John was so busy he only had 20 minute appointments so he fit me in for 20 minutes and not knowing John never having met him I came in a three-piece suit and I came in there was this man there with these old Birkenstocks on some kind of Hawaiian shirt whatever the Hawaiian shirt of the day was and shorts that looked like he had worn many days and so but somehow even though I had a three-piece suit on he liked me and we became friends and he invited me to come to Canyon High School at that time and as I was leaving his office that day said to me you know come Sunday night and you can see what we do but you know what dress down a little bit I did you know when I think of John I do think of a true spiritual father even when I was getting ready to come back some you don't even know this but I'm here now and when I was getting ready to come back we sat together in a Mexican restaurant which we had done many times over the years John spilling stuff all over his stomach as usual he always had stains you remember you know like all all across his belly there you know I couldn't relate at all you know and being a much more neater eater we sat in the Mexican restaurant together and we were talking about whether or not I should come here and and John begin to look at me and one of those kind of fatherly ways that he did and he started to tell me about myself for about a half an hour he started to speak into me and I'm not gonna say all the things that he said to me but he said Lance this is who I see you to be and by the time I was just kind of a blob inside just kind of staring at him and then he said to me as far as Carol and I are concerned there's a green light for you to come but you need to know if the Lord wants you to come and see I think that's what a true spiritual father does he speaks into his children and I believe everything that is in this church and really as in the vineyard as a whole was was birthed out of him as a spiritual father and the things that he loved you know John loved worship and so this church is loved worship and this movement has learned to love worship John loved the word he always told me every time we were ever together that he wish he was a better teacher and which I just loved about him you know I'd been all over the world teaching the Bible and he always said I want to be a better preacher and someday I want to be good at this and but he was unusual in his love for the word because he not only wanted to know it but he also wanted to experience it and he also actually wanted to intended to do it and I found that's kind of rare in the church unfortunately ajaan also left people and so John structured the church here so that we could practice loving each other in small groups John really believed like not many people since the Reformation in the priesthood of all believers so he released us all to play according to our call and gifting he saw in us many of us what we didn't see ourselves John believed we should give away what God gives us so he taught us to give to the poor and the needy share the good news with the lost and plant churches where they're needed and you know what many of us bought into that that's why we're here John and in his character also I believe was a true spiritual father he was a humble guy I mean for somebody that was known all over the world you know he self still referred to himself as a fat man trying to get to heaven that's why I joined up I figure if fat man could get in I'm going for this yeah John was also an amazingly generous man then you know I was never at a dinner that John didn't pay for never one time I was that fuller doing MC 510 with him and I it was his birthday or something and I said John I have to pay it's your birthday and finally after about a half an hour I'm I he let me pay that was the only time I've ever seen him at a meal not pay Chris you've carried that on that's good anytime you want to take us all out there's a meal afterwards you know Chris is paying now but he was also generous the pastors that would come I remember being back at the Wagner house and and guys would come from all over the world to see what we were doing here at the church and I remembered them all with a happy face walking out with piles of tapes like this out of the office and being all excited that John had given him all this stuff John just love to give and I believe that's one of the reasons God gave him the resources that he did you know that give to get to give to get to give to get that he always talked about he is to like to try to convince us about being committed in terms of tithes and offerings that they I remember he was so excited one Sunday night he is screaming and he's yelling and he's going on he says and commitment is spelled mo any like and then he he kind of caught himself but we were ready to make t-shirts john was a focused man if you ever around him we used to have a sign in the Wagner house thumbs up if John's planned thumbs down if John's not playing because if you play when John's not playing it's not much fun to play but he was focused even to the point I think at times of being obsessed and I think it's why he accomplished what he did in the church and the movement and around the world John to me was an amazingly balanced man in that I've never met a man that was that was spiritual and the way that he was and yet so practical and it was one of the reasons that I was attracted to him is he seemed to know how things work and yet at the same time he seemed to know who God was so I believe overall that John was a man who ran his race and now he's passed the baton to us he's now part of the cloud of witnesses Todd and I had a conversation at lunch yesterday wondering how much those are in heaven can see of what we're doing here and I don't completely know but I know this that he's part of the cloud of witnesses now and he's watching and witnessing and watching us as we carry on and I believe with all my heart of John we're here tonight he'd say to us the way that you can honor my memory is by carrying on my vision and doing the things doing the stuff that I have taught you to do amen [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] see [Music] till tomorrow [Music] seems to me that now [Applause] Jesus behold your [Applause] I can he [Music] [Laughter] [Music] it seems to me the [Applause] Jesus filled all in your [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] to say [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] and you'll never be you know you'll never be [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] the you know I was thinking Lance having been formally gravitationally enhanced myself I think lots of us came in through that door but I was thinking you know he no longer has to say I'm just a fat man with freckles trying to get to heaven that guy made it my thing is he's now got a body like Schwarzenegger I'm gonna be one jealous guy when I get there I'm gonna ask God if I can be a Hulk Hogan or something well I tried my best and you can tell me ten minutes from now whether it was in vain or not to organize thoughts concerning our friend John 18 years worth of thoughts and - as the program says to give tribute to give tribute to somebody means to talk about their Worth or virtue their effectiveness it means to show respect or gratitude or affection and I'm very happy to do that tonight on behalf of John's family and the churches here in the USA when I think of John's worth of course I don't think first of John I think first of God I think of him being God's creation I think of him being a living soul who God created with infinite Worth and we come here tonight to celebrate his life and I think we need to say right away that for most of us we celebrate his life from a ministry point of view but after 18 years of knowing the family we also celebrate John as a husband and as a father and as a friend we celebrate his whole life because his goodness was not tied up in his ministry his essential worth was tied up in him being created by God jesus said do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul rather be afraid of the one who can kill or destroy both your soul and your body in hell jesus said what good would it be a man if he gain the whole world yet forfeited his living eternal essence and I think the worth of John is tied up in that he was a man who knew he was first of all a living soul created by an eternal God and that made him want to be the best husband he could be and the best father he can be and the best minister he could possibly be when I think of John's virtue I think of the kindness and generosity that Lance's already spoke about but I thought of another and that is John being such an incredible God pleaser and I think I will live literally the rest of my days rebuked and constantly challenged and exhorted by John's incredible tenacity as acts 419 said to do the will of God in the face of whatever opposition might come he knew that he had to obey God and not men and he was always willing to selflessly take whatever he came his way some of it deserved some of it undeserved he was always willing to take it in fact it's as if his God the eternal creator God who made him showed him what his life was going to be like in the ministry when his first sermon when the church first started the first day was about the reproach that Mary and Joseph and Jesus bore their whole life because of the circumstances concerning his birth and it's as if John knew that his life would always be marked with that kind of reproach but was always willing to go forward and because of that John was an effective man witness the people in this room and all over the rest of the building witnessed the movement that he's left behind the leaders that have been attracted to him and trained by him and released those who Lance said he is fathered I've read many of the tributes that have come and over the weekend and they almost all speak of John being a father to them giving them hope the ability to dream that they could do it that they could as lance said play that there was room for all of us to have a part in God's kingdom and I think because Lance as Lance said John can now say I've finished the race but I think he can only say I finished the race because he said as Paul did in acts 20 I consider my white my life not my wife my life worth nothing to me oh you come try this Paul said I consider my life worth nothing to me if only I might finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given to me the task of testifying to the gospel of God's grace and because John said that he can now say I finished the race and I believe that's the true mark of effectiveness we can't be John John couldn't have been his predecessor what we can be and do is run the race marked out before us and then I want to pause a little moment here over the aspect of respect because when I think about it that's what is dearest to my heart and that is respecting John as a leader he wasn't my father you know he wasn't a spouse of mine and so I relate most personally and if you'll give me a personal moment I relate most personally to him as a leader and that is that John never pointed the way he always went first and led the way and that my friends is a true leader and he did it out of a heart that wanted to be like Jesus when Jesus said I tell you the truth the son can do nothing by himself hyoni does what he sees the father doing because whatever the father does the son also does and John always had the courage and the strength of principle to do it I'm rebuked as Lance said by him being this incredible combination of a thinker and a spiritual feeler and it is such an incredibly rare combination and he was always willing to go for it to lead the way even to the point of making others uncomfortable if he believed it was for the common good John was I believe as someone said somebody who had the mind of a scholar the heart of a child and the height of a rhinoceros and you don't lead without that either one of them he was a change agent leaders make change John was a man who was after results not popularity and was always willing to go through adversity reminding me often of the the three Hebrew men Shadrach Meshach and Abednego never willing to bow down to any pressure that he thought came against what God had told him to do I think of gratitude I have in my heart I think of his personal generosity to me of teaching me to lead of teaching me to do those two things that we've already celebrated think and pray and pray and think to where I can almost say to you that at this point in my life I don't hardly know how to think without praying and I don't know how to pray without being intelligent about it and strategic and forward-looking and I know that that comes from John and from the model that he said I think John taught and modeled for us all these words of the Apostle Paul when he said now it's required that those of us who have been given a trust those of us in this room who are leaders on one level or another we must prove faithful Paul said and I know John said to me not these exact words with this sentiment many times in private I care very little if I'm judged by you or any human Court indeed John would often say I don't even judge myself Paul said my conscience is clear John would often say my conscience is clear but he always knew these words of Paul too but that doesn't make me innocent I'm just doing the best I can it's the Lord who judges me and then lastly I think of paying tribute to him with affection and as I thought what makes my heart feel the most affectionate towards John I thought of his sense of humor and he was fun to play with and I think of his love for Debbie and my children his constant affirmation especially of Debbie and how much that meant to her and therefore to our family and his confidence in me well I was thinking if John could address us tonight what would he say John's known all over the world as a renewal agent and I thought he might ask us the question what is the state of your renewal and as I thought of that I thought of this quote that has challenged me in almost my whole Christian life and often when I've read it I've I've thought of John it often makes me think and reflect on my own life Leones my own state of renewal and it's that very well-known quote from the Journal of Jim Eliot the missionary of the generation ago who was a college student was doing his daily devotions and it was reading Psalm 104 for the Bible says God makes his menace is a flame of fire and then Jim wrote this question in his journal and I think it's the question that John's life leaves before us that is am i ignitable then he wrote this prayer God deliver me from the dreaded asbestos of other things saturate me he prayed with the oil of the Spirit that I might be a flame then thoughtfully he wrote but flame is transient often short-lived canst thou bear this my soul short life yet he prayed there is in me dwelling the spirit of the great short lived who zeal for God's house consumed him and then he prayed make me thy fuel Oh flame of God I can often and I think for the rest of my life be able to hear John praying make me thy fuel a flame of God saturate me with the oil of your spirit [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] Oh ready [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] to follow [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] John Wimber was my best friend it's hard to say was I should tell John you know with your head in my body we'd go a long way and you'll see in the videos tonight John had a great head I don't know but but he didn't have a good bodies that's what troubled him all his life I sort of feel like Todd how do you reduce 33 years of knowing a person that 10 minutes pay tribute to what God has done at the same time honor the man and so I would like to start back 33 years ago I became a Christian in 1960 and then three years later John and Carol came to Europe into friends church and that's where they accepted Christ as their Savior six months later Carol bought her sister and I married her after she accepted Christ as we were saved as soon as as John had been forgiven of his sin and knowing the love of God he really became a crazy man and he went everywhere telling everybody about the love of God and what Jesus could do for them and even in his work he would just bother people you just talked to people all the time and get in trouble but you know Jesus was very important to John a matter of fact when we pay the tribute to John's life it's all about Jesus you can't think of him Skiba can't think of Jesus without thinking of what John you know desired to live out in his life and the church in Yorba Linda there was a plaque that hung on the wall and is said to live is Christ and to die is gain and I don't know how it happened but through the eldership of that little Quaker Church all of us not just John and Carolyn penny and I but it's like all of us that became Christians there God just put in us a desire to serve Him and so often many people many of you you think of John on stage and ministering the thousands of people but I think of the beginnings what God did to make the man so to speak and the things that he's that he put into him one of the things that happen even though Johnny led hundreds of people to Christ I remember when the man who led the Bible study that John and Corinne when he turned it over to them and John started to become the teacher of a Bible study well sometimes five eight people would show up I remember many nights least I'd hear about this later that only three were there John Carroll and a man named Larry Mikkel and yet I remember every week John was a person who studied and no matter how many came all he wanted to do is talk about Jesus and he wore out the Gospel of John in those days and then after a period of time more and more people started coming but I personally believe that what the scripture says if you're faithful and little God will make you faithful in much because John was faithful to teach week after week to three people one of those being his wife that God put something into John that enabled him to be able to be obedient when he was required to do it with thousands one of the things that we're characteristics of John there's several actually Todd and Lance took a couple but I was just thinking I'm trying to write notes as they were taking my notes that scratching him out putting in there was even though we talked about it they they took my step but one of the things that that I I think of John I think of a person really without much pride in the sense that he he just really wasn't caught up in himself at all and I had gone to Biola University and so I had learned some theology and things and John was a new Christian he was teaching this Bible study and every now and then I would go and and sometimes he'd be teaching these things you know teaching the Bible the people asking questions he would answer their questions and and sometimes he would give the most god-awful answers and and I got to him say John the Bible doesn't say that it says this isn't this he goes uh next week he get out you remember that what I said last week forget that and then he would just go on the teach you know just I mean so he doesn't he went online and over the years when John was wrong he would repent several people asked me since I've been actually following John and leadership for we've been pastoring together twenty eight years and they asked me he said how can you follow a John Wimber what's meant you serve you guys have had difficulties and there were some things to see in his life that periodically you know you guys have had to wrestle through just you know just people just differences I said yeah that's true but the reason I can follow John Wimber is because he knows how to repent and when he people tell him this is wrong and he sees it he's easy to repent and to me is one of the most affordable characteristics that I think a leader should have and John there wasn't any hype those of you know him he the years that I've known him even though he's friend of large crowds he never tried to hype a group up he never exercised bravado John was a very responsible person most people don't think of him as conservative but he was most people think of as a risk-taker he was a risk takers follow as far as following the leading of the Holy Spirit at the same time John was a very conservative man and so when I think of him I think that he's never like tried to find a crowd up and get them excited about something and we're cheering we're gonna go here we're going to do this his Todd said he would teach the Scriptures and he would say you know let's figure out how to live this out and he was the first in line and he would start trying to make it work and when it was a mistakes he would repent of it and say whoops this is the wrong way and then you go back and and he would just continue to go to different directions at times because all he wanted to do is is to be able to live out what he saw in Scripture and that was a ruling Forrest in John's life his Todd mentioned one of the things that is really helpful to me I really don't didn't have don't have the characteristic John had and that is that when he thought God told him to do something he did it and he wasn't looking for the approval of people if no one else wanted to go he was going to go and do it and often he did that and so when I when I think of John Wimber I think now never does the best friend and too many of you I know that John's a father figure or a mentor but to me is like my big brother John loved me you know encouraged me I was very naive you know in many different ways and being with John I learned more what it meant to be a man of God and not really by what he taught but just the way he lived and then when he asked him questions sometimes he couldn't even express to you what it was that he did but he lived it consistently because of that you just found yourself doing things and they were very biblical so when I think of of John's life it's this whole thing of him being a father to so many people and I I think that's probably the statement I've heard this last week John was like a father to me a father also in the sense of a family since many of you are in the vineyard the sense is that John was like our Father and tonight were remembering our daddy and all that he lived and all that he taught so todd and lance and others affectionately call me Uncle Bob I'm not the father figure not a father figure in many ways but I'm Uncle Bob another thing you may not think of a big characteristic but John was a doctor's nightmare see most of the time doctors think they're going to work on a patient that patient wants to get well all John tried to figure out let me go back he had a heart attack I forgive it was in the ten years ago and he when he got out of the hospital he had a conference to do in Europe and so he and Carol were talking about this and and his thought again and again by the way again this isn't bravado it's not hype John just figured felt responsible to do but God told him to do and so there was a conference to be done and people were waiting and John was going to go and the doctors were saying no you can't get on a plane to go and John said well they got body bags there don't they like what's the big deal you know they have body bags in every country of the world I mean if I'm gonna die let me die doing it instead of being a person sitting home trying to make myself live longer he never really saw it to live long he just sought to be obedient in that way let me just take a few minutes just to give you a perception of some things I think that were rudimentary to John's becoming corticoid world figure somewhere I forget when it was but up at the French church camp called Quaker meadow John was teaching at a family camp and a pastor came to him and told him that he had a woman in his church that was very prophetic and that she had a prophecy for him well in those days we didn't understand much about prophecy at all but anyway John went with them the pastor and this woman and she sat down down she starts crying and she cried and cried and cried and then John said would you stop crying and tell me what God is said and she said that's it he said that's it she said yes when are you going to take your place and then she said this you said God has made you a viceroy to the nation's well in those days we weren't real sophisticated we knew that all we knew about Viceroy is that it was a brand on cigarettes [Applause] so it couldn't figure it out of course you know Carol is as she always does she's really a studious person she looks up in the dictionary but the truth is we didn't know what God was going to do and so I have observed you know like as a friend of John but also being a part of the vineyard movement what has taken place in the last 20 years and to me it's a very phenomenal story and I know that that John would say this all day long and sometimes we make more of a man than he does of himself but John would say to you all I was trying to do is read the book and obey it hear from Jesus figure out what Jesus would do and try and do it and so he had this this very practical thinking about it I remember Todd referred to the renewal ministry that started actually in 1981 and we'll go through the whole thing we don't have time tonight I'm actually a minute over but I remember John going different to different nations and and being used of God to really stir the church and a friend of ours actually he's now the National Director for the vineyard in New Zealand avoid rankin I went to one of John's first seminars in New Zealand and his wife said that he was really burned out in ministry and a fatigued person and so he went there and when he came home she the son full of life and vigor and she said Lloyd what happened he said I don't know he said this fat guy in a track suit said come Holy Spirit and next thing I know I'm dissing vigor rated you're not just about to go do it again so he goes out wins a bunch of people to Christ and he started I think I know how many churches now I think twelve or thirteen churches in New Zealand themselves out of their church and I could go out and just tell you many more stories like that but let me just say this even though John received international notoriety his faced on different magazines he was on 60 minutes and whatever because of the vineyard movement John was still John see when he came home he never talked about his exploits he never talked about being great or God's gonna do this with me or whatever he would talk about Carol and the kids he used to say to me Bob the only thing that matters at the end of life he said is is your relationship with your family and and your friends that's it whatever else is God's doing it and it's something that God has done but it's not something that that is really me and sometimes early on with people had asked John and then we've sent a team with him to go and speak someplace and we'd start giggling and he would say do they know who I am you know but like as Todd said he never felt he knew months he always told others were better theologically but you better stupidly better teachers in him and whatever and he was always he always marveled at the fact that these people wanted him to come and do these seminars around the world but probably the most important thing to me was this and I found about how to out about this just happenstance here's John Viceroy to the nation's and know a person that is notorious in one sense and used that term in their Christian circles and yet I met a man that goes here to vineyard Anaheim now the John delet had led to Christ previous to that point and John had found out that he wasn't walking with God and so here in the midst of all the thousands of people around the world John became real concerned about this man he was lived in Corona John drove out there found him talk to him prayed with him and brought him back to following after Jesus and if it's one thing I can say as a tribute to John that story it just you melded something in my heart because the simple fact is that John was not a person who really cared about who people were all he knows he loved Jesus he loved people and he was going to do the things that God put on his heart both the Lanson and Todd referred to a quote I want to correct the quote who is John Wimber actually what he said was I'm a fat saxophone player from Anaheim trying to get to heaven stating I'm a fool for Christ whose fool are you now I want some of you to know that I here tonight that do not know Jesus Christ as your Savior you've heard about the message of salvation you've plaintiff you have heard it from John and yet you've not received Christ as your Savior yet I just want to remind you that Jesus Christ loves you he died for your sin and he wants you to repent of your sin and turn to Him and receive forgiveness and enter into life John's greatest desire is that people would know who Jesus Christ is but also that those people would be able to find forgiveness other sins and they would then have a change life so as far as I'm concerned I know John would say this there's no better time than now there's tonight all you have to do is just tell God that you're sorry forgive me of my sin and asked Jesus Christ to come into your life and change you and he will and Tod Lance myself there's there's many others here that would like to talk to you afterwards because I believe that tinnitus at night for several of you to come into the kingdom of God to salvation a name of Jesus John was a party man John loved a party and one thing the scripture talks about is that every time a person is forgiven of their sins and they come into the kingdom of God through Jesus Christ there's a party in heaven and John is having the time of his life now we're going to have a bit it's it's um now we're gonna have a video of John's ministry here had been the Bible study well we went that first night we went and there was a guy that was his name was Gunnar and he was a welder and I said well a welder he couldn't be too smart so I'll go he was the Bible teacher and we got there and it was just dick and Lynn and my wife and I and this guy named Gunnar and this other guy named Bucky was a nice little group and we sat down and I I wasn't gonna let this guy put anything over on me you know and I said look man before we get started let me just say in front I don't believe all this stuff he said I understand that and I said besides that I don't want to know but I want to know about God I've been trying to find out about God and all you guys do is talk about Jesus now I want to talk about Jesus I want to talk about God he said well that's because you don't understand that Jesus is God I said where does it say that and so he began coming through the Bible and showing me different things in a verse I mean I didn't understand most of what he was saying but he talked and talked and talked and talked and talked and talked and he talking about a half-hour and when he got off for do I I sense the he thought he'd convinced me and I said well that's really interesting and and my friend Nick was sitting there and he suddenly became the interpreter now you can understand I was a musician and I didn't understand I don't know how to talk Christianese you know what I mean I mean there somebody would say praise the Lord or something I remember a few weeks after I was there somebody walked up to me said have you been washed in the blood brother [Applause] what do they make you do that and so I had a hard time with some of the images you know and the concept that they were putting on me and and and so my my friend dick he interpreted for me this guy would talk a long time and then dick would just sort of summarize it you know in some a phrase that made sense to me well that's the way the evening went after about two or three hours I was really getting into it because you got understand I was a night person I was used to be I mean I was really awake at 11:00 12:00 1:00 2:00 or 3:00 that's when I did my best work and so this guy you know he's a waiter he gets up early in the morning so about 11:30 or so you get and I say well you can go out a minute but answer me this and I would ask him another question and then another question and he kept saying boy this guy's hungry I said no I ate before I came tell me what that means well it was the greatest night of my life I went home so excited sleep and I stayed up I read the Bible it was wonderful I finally had some grass with some ideas and some console I finally had someone I could talk to well too it turned out to be Tuesday night Tuesday night became the focal point of my life I would wait all week to be we would drive up and into your Ville and that we lived on the inside earlier we would drive up to your Belinda about two o'clock in the afternoon and just drive around because we thought God lived up there and we just drive around and talk about him you don't read the book we talk and talk and talk about all the things we were learning we were super excited weeks went by we didn't understand all the issues I didn't know that the what the Bible was I didn't know who this was I didn't know what he had done and it took weeks to get the thing I mean you just don't understand I didn't have any grasp of it it wasn't simple for me it was very complex all of these things and over a period of weeks it began to pulled again and finally I got the idea Jesus is the Son of God he died for since I people have said I understood that it made sense I didn't think I had sinned but I understood that other upset and so one night we're all talking on this thing and all of a sudden my wife says I think it's time to do something about this and a God closed his Bible real clear Oh No and he says so do i and my life in here talking and I'm watching him and the next thing I know she's kneeling on the floor and talking to the plaster and she said oh god I'm heartily sorry for my sins I thought what she do you know I mean I know I've known her real I thought she was a pretty good guy not as good as I was but a good guy and so she's talking I'm thinking this is really strange oh she's doing this thing that they've all done and I sitting one two three wait a minute now I've been on a few stages in my life and I knew it was about time for me to do my turn when she finished it was my turn and I was I sit there and I thought oh no ha ha ha they're not gonna get no I'm not him do this and I remember I was sitting there he was in a captain's chair and I had a hold of both handles you know they're not gonna drag me out of this chair and I'm sitting there and the next thing I know I'm on my knees now I don't know to save my life I don't know whether I got out of the chair or was shoved I know theological II that that's very important but I've never been able to figure it out all I know was the next thing when I was on my knees and I was trying to pray this prayer of repentance they kept talking about but I couldn't pray all I could do for hours every seemed like hours at least a half hour my nose is running it's all over my chest you know my eyes are swelling shut I'm sobbing my body is wracked with faith and I'm about twenty minutes into it I'm realizing that I'm making a utter fool of myself and I thought if this doesn't work I'm gonna die if this thing doesn't connect and so the next thing I know I'm here I have a recollection the years before I gotten into a situation where I was out of money came back to Los Angeles when I was a traveling musician and I needed some money and I had a friend that did drugs and he sold them he was a connection and he sold them in Pershing Square you know a great downtown if you haven't been to you missed it you had to be there yeah the visitor wants to understand president Square the notorious Park in center of Los Angeles and so I went down there to find my friend who I knew would ask some money because drug dealers always have money and I need some money I want to borrow some money from and while I was waiting for him it was kind of a miserable day kind of rainy and everything I was waiting for him to come and here comes this guy walking along he's got one of these signs like an eat at Joe's type of sign you know front back and on the front it said I'm a fool for Christ went on the back and said whose fool are you but when I saw it at the time of the arm weird religious weirdo you know he would buy but Here I am all these years later I'm kneeling on my friends living room floor I'm sobbing I'm suddenly realized that I'm making a complete fool of myself and I said and I remember that thing I thought that's it that's it I'm gonna be his fool that's it and I resolved in my heart at that moment that from that point out I was going to do the foolish thing in the eyes of the world I didn't know it was going to be the foolish thing in the eyes of the church to [Applause] dimensions that it's worth all the assets not of an individual not about a layman not of a of a purchaser but of a person who is a pearl merchant I understand there's a difference between a pearl merchant buying a pearl and you and I buy Anna pearl first of all pearl merchants are always looking for pearls they're constantly looking at pearls they have an I prefer that they see things in pearls that we can't see even when they educate us and this merchant found a pearl of such great value sets perfect proportions that he was willing to sell everything he had in order to acquire well in those early years of my conversion experience it seems to me as I look back over them that again and again and again I was being taught fundamental obedience God took me through several steps career changes and various kinds of things and I was always headed up sort of as the as the junior new person that sort of got all the bad jobs and and they didn't obviously see the great value in me but I saw in myself and in every every job that I received over the first few years I always had to kind of work my way up as it were but eventually I was doing fairly well after a few years I had a good income again I became a Salesman and I found out that I was good at talking to people and that no clue at that time that I would ever be in the ministry I was just trying to earn a living for my wife and four kids and try to stay out of trouble and keep enough free time so that I could spend time with with people and win them to Christ because that was really my passion in those early years and those early years were characterized by great moments great great things that happened I mean God was so good to us there were great days because our dependence was on God our refreshing came from him daily we didn't have any money we didn't have many things but we had him we had a relationship with it and again and again and again he taught us obedience obedience obedience obedience to the valued obedience above all things and he wanted a relationship with us and wanted our dependence upon him we'd try to live do you know launch out and do this or that and that would have made us a little bit more independent and he would knock it out from under our feet again and again bringing us back to him now I didn't know in those days that he was making a disciple out of me I didn't know that frustration and failure characterized disciple work all I knew is that I couldn't quit and I couldn't go on and so I I quit every day and I went on every day I couldn't let go I couldn't get ahead I couldn't make God mind me ever tried to make him mind you I couldn't do it but God kept speaking and God kept drawing and God kept blessing finally he filled our house up with people I remember the one at the last night that we met in our house after about three years of it we had 22 babies alone in the bedrooms at over a hundred people in this little house down the hallways in the kitchens and the bathrooms and you know it's shouting loud trying to teach it was great hot always was so hot in the house people didn't care because Jesus was with us and he was changing us he was making us into his image molding us because we had seen the birth that except a corn of wheat be put in the ground and died you can't have many courts you can have many kernels there's the premise that's what the kingdom of God is like you see the kingdom is the kingdom is being confronted with one purl after another and for me the Pearl is always Jesus and his will and he brings us up and he teaches us new things and we learned to be obedient in him and we walk in them when we're diligent in him and we prosper in him and all of a sudden he says given to me I want to give them to somebody else you want to what I want to give to somebody else well whose do you think they are mine oh that's right I forgot that part you see becoming a disciple is not a static thing it's not something that you that you've by the acquisition of a little learning and having a few positive experiences and somebody laying hands on you you you then get to a status place where you no longer have to be a learner you no longer have to be a beginner you know long have to be vulnerable you no longer have to risk losing face and becoming you know while making making a fool of yourself becoming a disciple is committing yourself to being uncomfortable the rest of your life again again I've had to lay it on the line I don't know how many times you have to buy this pearl but my suspicion is you have to pay the payments the rest of your life after all it is a pearl of great price worth everything you had few years went by and God began speaking to me again by now I've grown comfortable I've become a very successful salesman I could work about 15 hours a week and make a good living I spent all the rest of my time teaching Bible studies this was the during a period of time I was teaching eleven a week God came to me said I've got a new charge for you new direction I don't mean that he appeared to me I mean he just spoke to me in my reverie of my understanding I said I want you to go full-time in the ministry I thought I was full-time in the ministry he said that wants to be ordained and so I said all right he said there's one catch it'll cost you everything you have I said well I thought I already did that I said you're gonna do it again here's the pearl do you want it now the pearl in this case was him again in this case it was his favor and it was his provision for the next phase of my life now I had paid the price for the first phase and now it's time to pay a new price and he was bringing it to bear and so I prayed the price and a whole new world opened up to me and for the next few years again started at the bottom and again God gave me favour and blessing much like Joseph in Egypt God just kept giving me opportunity and favor and pretty soon we had one of the largest churches in our denomination and we had much visibility and notoriety and it was a very very nice place to be except then God came again said we've got a new deal the next Pearl is coming up it's time to lay it all down again I said what's the price he says how about everything you've got are you beginning to see the pattern what I've discovered so far is that to follow God is to periodically lay down everything you have and everything you would obtained in any given phase and risk it in order to follow him again I would guess that or in the last 23 years the bottom line for me has been obedience obedience obedience obedience I could have written that down and over every year of my Christian life there really doesn't matter to me who leads as long as he leads and it doesn't matter to me who's right as long as he's right and it doesn't matter to me who wins as long as he wins those the essence and though and they've come as about as a byproduct of laying on our wine year after year after year you see I've been embarrassed lots of times I've made a fool of myself so many times but I've done it for Christ's sake see I'd rather reach out and miss it did not reach out at all you see faith dispelled RI s K the exercise of faith begins and ends with your willingness to be a fool for Jesus so we invite you to come Holy Spirit direct us ministered to us empowers do all those things that you want to do so that you can bless others through us the Lord first do to us what you want to do through us we ask it in Jesus name have mercy Oh God by your spirit come and visit your people by your spirit Oh God come and visit your people come anoint your people raise up champions Oh God raise those that would minister in your authority and power raise up those Oh God that wouldn't it would operate in your name that would be true to you above all things that would be faithful unto you that would be Shepherds after your own heart raise up those Lord that would minister according to your will and according to your Kingdom and not according to their own raise up Lord those that would not be partisan and would not be separatist that would not be elite they would not separate themselves unto man-made things but they would stay faithful to you raise them up Oh God that this nation that this generation would hear the word of the Lord and that the name of Jesus would be exalted in the land raise it up Oh God raise it up in our in our midst the champions that you want to serve you start here Oh God touch these people bless these people that they may be true to you Lord and true to your word and true to your call call them now by your spirit Oh God touch them cause their ears to hear their eyes to see break their hearts O God by letting them feel and know your heart cause them Lord they intercede night and day cause them never to give you rest until they see the praise of the church on earth that the man that men would be out of the way and that Jesus Christ would be exalted over the land that his name would be the praise in every corner that throughout make the power of darkness in this land Oh God and let the Spirit of the Lord of all let the name of Jesus for there move among us Oh God that authority we ask it in Jesus mighty name you've made me proud in your giving it and you're working and I want you to make me proud again I want this for us as a church to once again hold her head up and meet our obligations and do what we need to do even in times when we may have some travail or term well [Applause] now the Weber family is going to come up [Applause] okay they're the roop family is gonna go first who's first I can hear me I guess I tend to be the PR person in this family as we can do all the talking I was a lot like my father I was a lot like my dad I guess just give me a second I'm a little shaky I was thinking when Scott was leading worship earlier that my dad would have loved this but I got a real kick out of this like he wouldn't have liked this so much he would have thought that was kind of goofy but he he would have said what were you thinking there's just a shell I'm not here but we all took to all the kids when I had all the grandkids went ahead and wrote down what they what their feelings were their impressions of a grandpa was and we wanted to go ahead and just real quickly read through them we're not gonna all give a speech we're gonna start I'm gonna start with Jesse here Jesse wrote here this is my impression of grandpa he loved me like he liked me loved me and I loved him he was a great Grampa to me and very sweet once he dreamt I had died and he crept cried a whole lot I am very sad that he died I loved him very much and he was the best grandpa ever had I got Courtney right here who wore a hat against my will the Courtney always has a hat on okay see it says it was very nice I'm very funny too but most of all he was a great grandpa and he loved his grandkids all right I had to write mine down because I knew I wouldn't get through it and I didn't wear my glasses and I didn't know the lights were gonna be this bright no I'm not wearing your glasses it'll change I still I still have a little pride left here okay all right I wish I could turn around they see this way okay all the wonderful things that you loved about my father are what made him such a great dad there's no way in my lifetime that could express deeply enough how I felt about my dad his family was was so important to him and his commitment nurtured and and he continuously nurtured these relationships Danny and I went to him about all of our concerns and he's loved us and helped us grow up I watched him love my children and I also watched my children turn a light on in his eyes when he was not doing well these last few weeks were some of the saddest and some of the sweetest times of our life together he expressed to me over and over again what a joy I've been to him it is a privilege it has been a privilege to have been his daughter and it's a privilege that that the man that you think of his John remember the pastor and that you all love so much that he was my dad and my friend I am extremely honored to have been a part of his life for and of God's plan for this church I am overwhelmed at the responses and that so many of you would fly from all over the world to see a man who I referred to as daddy bear he always seen he was a warm presence in the room whether he was asleep or whether it was awake and he would be painfully missed he was always and always will be the apple of my eye and Evan I'm sorry oh I know I forgot one of my children I have a baby I have a baby at home that doesn't talk yet but we got Evan still okay [Music] my grandpa was one of the greatest human beings I've ever seen it was the most kind loving generous person and he loved all of his grandkids like I loved him he was so nice to us always telling jokes he loved us all so much and I'm very thankful to God for letting me be his grandson in his Bible he had this thing written somebody sent it to him me taped it on the front um do all the good you can by all the means you can in all the ways you can and all the places you can at all the times you can to all the people you can as long as you can and I think he did that also I hope to be just like Jesus just like my grandpa one day [Applause] what do you say I was trying to think of them you know the most important thing that generally was me Azzam I married Sean but knowing him many years before that is uhm I'd have to say his generosity I was thinking um here's a man that could have lived so lavishly but didn't here's a man that that could have hid himself but he didn't he gave everything he gave us everything as a family his time his money everything I'm so grateful and I'm so blessed for everything that he's taught me for believing in me this you know punk kid growing up and and just believing in me and telling me all the you know good things that he saw and me and all the things that he saw that I have Shawn and I in our future and and just believing in me and speaking those things into me and trusting me with so much and I'm so you know honored and and blessed and seen um oh you guys this week and uh I think he's still here I still a part of him is still here because you're all here and I think you know what we're going on we're going on it's not over our church is going on and I'm strong the movements going on and it's all because of you guys go with what we learned I keep thinking I got to grow up it's time to grow up now I'm not a kid anymore it's time to grow up and it's time to start doing all the things that he taught me and all the things that he said to us that we just you know managed or whatever but now I think oh you really knew what he's talking about now I think oh well you're so great you know grateful for everything that he taught us and all the things that he said to us and I think you know what we're going on John I got the message that's what I keep thinking I got the message jonard what you said we're going on [Applause] this is my son tooth and November I'm Nathaniel John member my John member was my grandfather my grandfather was the most loving man I knew I can honestly say that he loved Jesus with all his heart whoever I also knew that he loved his grandkids very much he once took me and my cousin Devon to England and not just then but always gave us more than we deserved after all he only took us there because we turned 10 he was tremendously kind and giving and I now look back at my life and the way he affected it and notice that I wanted to be like him the rest of my life Psalms 116 verse 15 says precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of a saint I believe these kind of verses help not only me but friends and family to realize that my grandpa's death is a celebration not a tragedy my grandpa was a lot men of joy in my life and he will always be a role model to me I've always I'm Christian I was the firstborn so when I was young I would spend nights at his house and I I'd be the one who sort of had this special time for three years ago for three years until he came along so over those years he would give me many things he'd give me gifts he'd give me toys and he'd give me money and stuff and but most of all the reason why I loved him wasn't because of all that is because he loved me too throughout all the time I don't remember one time when I went to his house and he didn't in some way show that he loved me there wasn't a time when he was too busy or was or he was a you know just too tired or anything even at the conferences when he would be a and talking with people who'd come from all the way around the world he'd always have time to talk to me too and I loved him for that this is Katie the five-year-old and her little speeches I love my grandpa he looked like Santa Claus last night I went home and read my Bible my little one year Bible then I try to get through within three years every year and I looked up November 17th cuz that's the day died and I read the song and it was Psalm 116 precious in the sight of the Lord is a death of his Saints I loved him as a father and he loved me as a daughter I'll miss our times of talking to each other and I'll miss the sweet presence of Jesus I felt when I was around him [Applause] basically lance and taught and everybody's told all my material I was gonna try to I was gonna try to work in fat man going to heaven but I'm not gonna try anymore I can remember when I was young that uh I was I was asking my dad I said well dad you know he could have you could have gone on tour with the Beatles you know why why did you do that we could have been rich and and he said he said I probably wouldn't be alive you know he didn't he said he didn't know where he would be and I and in all I think that if you if you kind of look around and I think that this kind of proves that although he wasn't trying to be anybody I don't think that he ever tried to be somebody I think he was just trying to be obedient all I think that a lot of times people kind of confuse my dad's desire to be kind of confused my dad's desire to go out and do the work as somehow being ambitious I don't think he ever was ambitious I don't think he really thought of it that way I think what he was trying to do is just do the best job he could and being from Missouri just worked really hard and he it was in his mind that God gave him this job and that since God told him to do it he was gonna do the best job he could and he always seemed to do that I can't I mean I I obviously I'm going to see him a lot different than a lot of you you saw him at conferences and he looked like Santa Claus and you just wanted to hug him all the time and you know and that's true that's the way he was but another side of him that I'm gonna miss the most is just that he was so he when when I needed him to be honest if he had always told me the truth and he would always tell me things that even were hard for me to listen to you sometimes and yeah he was he was he was always good to feed me and it probably added to uh you know the Weig problem we all have but I am I I guess the when I was picking out the video clips and in the pictures and stuff you'll see in the next one I think that that probably better says that I feel about it this is Devin Wimber and this is my daughter genevieve wonder hello my name is Devin hi my name is shanece and we're cousins we want to tell you about our grandpa John and we love him but when we found out he was dead we our hearts were broken I'm special to my grandpa because I was named after his mom and whenever you looked at me he would think of his mom I know specialist in my grandpa because I was his first granddaughter and he was it was nice talking to you dad [Applause] um Chris wanted me to speak for him he he wanted me to say that he's he's not doing very well right now with this disease and so he wanted me we were talking on the bed the other night and we were reflecting different times and he had me write down a little story that that happened about three weeks ago my dad called and left a very loving 15 minute message on the answering machine about how much he loved me and what I meant to him he was so proud of me - some of you John Wimber was a leader of a movement - some John Wimber was your pastor or teacher for some of you he was a visionary and pioneer but to me he was pops that he would push himself through his own pain and make that phone call means so much to me I just hope the person that got the message appreciated as much as I say I would have because apparently he missed dialed the number so Carol told him about [Laughter] [Applause] but apparently somebody needed that message somebody needed that message our son Sean is gonna now read a poem he he wrote this the day that John died hi I wrote this poem I titled it my thoughts on my grandpa J is for the G Jesus for Jesus that shine in my grandpa's heart o is for the way he was obedient to God H is for the hope he gave to others and is for the he oh he was always nice to people in need I loved my grandpa because he was kind nice and loving and I would like to be like that when I grow up he was special to me because he liked to spend time with me and I like to spend time with him by Sean Christopher lumber [Applause] I'm gonna also read what I wrote like Stephanie like many of you my father was not around much so when I married Chris I didn't have this great expectation of a new father-in-law John Wimber but I was surprised to discover that that he was there for me as a father he accepted me and loved me as one of his own in light of all of his ministry concerns I knew that his love and concern for us as family members was his first priority even though he's gone he has left in me a new security as I seek now to trust my Heavenly Father it has been an honor and a privilege to have known John Wimber as my pastor but most of all as my dad I love you John [Applause] [Laughter] [Applause] I just want to clarify one thing before I even begin it says on the program that all the songs during the actual service were written by John Wimber except nothing but the blood but restore me that misty saying well was not one of John's songs I don't know who wrote it but if you're here it's a beautiful song and John and I loved it and we used to cry I just want to thank misty and Maurice what is um Marv Lisa for coming and singing those Souls and of course Scott and the band and all you guys that came from great distance to be a part of the worship I just don't know if you know how much it means to me your show of respect to John and I appreciate it and Eddie and oh you guys you know you are it's just wonderful that patty ring back and the band and it just means so much to me although now I'm gonna preach absolutely you know as part of the family time I should probably talk about how much I love John and how much he loved me but you know our marriage relationship is pretty notorious actually Lloyd and Vikki and everybody knows how we loved each other although we did fight publicly quite a bit and although John would never let me would never allow have allowed me to compare him to a king or kings he had dibs on the servant roll that's what he was looking at and he used to use a story about the wedding at Cana and how nobody knew what was going on when the water was changed to wine but the servants knew so I mean that was the role that he was after to be a servant and honestly the only ambition that John ever had was to come before the father one day and here well done thou good and faithful servant and what may have looked to certain people that didn't understand as a driving ambition was nothing more than a sense of responsibility he felt that he had something God had given him that belong to the whole church and he didn't want to waste any time I mean that's what drove him it was a responsibility he had a message that he needed to tell people but since John is not here and I can compare him to whoever I want I've always thought of him and I didn't tell him this ever but I've always thought of him like King Hezekiah and King Josiah where it says he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord and he tore down the high places the way I understand the high places concerning him are where those religious spirits dwelt and were worshiped and served like exclusiveness John loved the whole church how did he used to say it from like the bare feet to the low Church the casual church well actually like the vineyard to the high church the liturgical church the bells and the smells he called it he loved the whole church he just he loved he loved he liked it when he went to that snake handling church in the hills of Arkansas I mean he didn't want to get real close but when they asked him to give a message you know he went up to the pulpit with all these snakes curving around and didn't put his hands down but I mean no matter even if it was weird or twisted if there was the expression of the body of Christ there he loved it he loved the Catholic Church and y'all know how he did now he did he did never misunderstand what we were for our part in the thing but he didn't think of the vineyard as anything more than one vegetable in the whole stew and he knew we were obligated and it trusted with something that we needed to give that flavor but nothing more than that he didn't have an inflated or unreal idea that we were it he knew that we were a vine that God had planted and he so appreciated it but he didn't think we were the only vine or even necessarily the best one but he understood that he had to be true to what it was we were and that's what he fought for and that's what he stood for and that's what he was so unwavering about what God had entrusted to him he was true to every day of his life that's why I have never been apologetic for some of the quote trips we have taken to me it's all been wonderful Jim Campbell said once the way we got to experience God every every new aspect of God we got to be there and be a part of it and when it got strained or a little twisted or somebody took it out of you know a lot of the boundary lines then we could lay it down or correct it but I don't regret it how else are we gonna learn you know do we think we're so smart we can do something to not make mistakes you know so it didn't bother him to have to correct the movement and so on and remind us who we are that were the vineyard this is what we this is what God has given us to say and do and be but I love the whole ride the whole ride I was scared you know gritting my teeth most of the time he wasn't I'm so glad I got to go along another high place the hype theatrics pretentiousness of so much of what purports to be the Church of Jesus Christ he just wouldn't have anything to do with it he took the message of Jesus right out of these walls whatever walls we happened to be and sometimes it was just the walls of the tent the canvas and he made us take it out on the street that's what he meant when he said then the meat is in the street when someone would say oh I'm tired of hearing the same messages the milk of the word I want to go somewhere where there's the meat of the word and he'd say the meat is in the street go out and do it he had no greater delight and to come upon some people in a mall or in a grocery store in the office praying for someone he loved it when someone was healed out in the parking lot or had the gospel preached to them at a doctor's waiting room he loved it when a demon was cast out at a restaurant and he didn't mind the big scene in the mess he loved it he loved it I just get a big smile on his face never scared him to hear people screaming and shouting because he knew that there were moments away from freedom from something they want to be wanted to be free of their whole life he loved it when the church broke through the walls in another high place he tore down he ended in our circle at least the monopoly of the Ministry of the Holy Spirit by the pastor priest leader or star up on the stage everybody gets to play he would say everybody gets to play and to prove the point once in front of a bunch of scholars at some conference who are trying to write notes frantically to find out how they could heal he said you don't get it and he looked down and he saw some kids Jesse's age and he asked him to come up and there was this man that was crippled and he said you pray for him kids they pray from Oh what do we say he said just ask Jesus to do what you think needs to be done so these little boys said Jesus heal this man's broken legs or something like that and the man was healed right there so I mean God taught with that single event something that would have taken years to try to understand the scholars the why is the Nobel that the Ministry of the Holy Spirit for anyone any Christian and he won this willing to take the risk or put their hand to what Jesus is doing he was always looking for what Jesus was doing and that was a guideline he went for he never tried to make anything happen never tried to make anything happen he just looked for what Jesus was doing any lent his hand to that and encouraged all of us to do so Ephesians 4:11 twelve said he gave some as apostles of prophets evangelists pastors teachers for the equipping not of the stars on the stage but the believers says equipping of the Saints it just means believers he his delight wasn't where we all got to do what thought it called us to do we all had a part to play in the Ministry of the Holy Spirit where for years it seemed that it was reserved for the special holy men one time he tried to get holy early in the game tried real hard and he told penny and me and some others Laura and some others I'm going up to the mountain to closer myself away and I'm going to fast and pray and seek the Lord for the direction of the for the future so I guess he drove up to the mountains that night about ten o'clock phone rang and it was John and he said he couldn't find a room anywhere up in the mountains and he was in San Bernardino eating Big Macs it was so funny and I said oh honey come on home we've been praying all day you don't have to do that we've all been praying come home get bed but you know he wouldn't grasp in the beginning you know the anointing the power of the Holy Spirit only came on him didn't like it wasn't a big group shot came on John and everybody touched that night at Bible study got healed I mean Gigi's leg grew out of what was it Gigi you're here like an inch and a half or something she had to go home and lengthen the leg of her all over her Levi's and her grandma got saved I think but it came on him but he was troubled all during that couple of weeks because people were lining up and to pray for them because that is not the way he understood it should be they kept reading that verse in Ephesians over and over again for the equipping of the Saints for the service of ministry so a one night at church we were in the gymnasium by then he called everyone forwarded he had been reading in Leviticus about the consecration of the priests for ministry when he took the blood and then the oil and anointed the earlobe I think it was the thumb of the right hand and the toe of the right foot and it had to do with consecration the blood then the oil for ministry so he called all and he did he did we understood something then about its for everybody it's for everybody and it was wonderful the thing is he did read the scripture that night he read Leviticus 1428 the same scripture almost but it was for the cleansing and healing of leprosy God didn't care it worked it read the wrong scripture in a work detail all right in another high place was that false piety you wouldn't have any but any of it you wouldn't let anybody crown a king or put robes on him or call him an apostle not that he ever put down the group's it had you know that kind of a structure when I'd say well gee John you know you think you're an apostle you take care okay niklas been goo I think it was in South Africa planted thousands and thousands of churches if there's an apostle walking around today Tim you look like kind of impatient not irritated but just like you know get real just a fat man on my way to heaven another thing he did that I appreciated it was important to him that people be treated with dignity and respect especially when the manifest presence of God was there because people are very very vulnerable God opens him up just opens him up and he would never ever exploit people's emotions to make anything happen or to cause anything to happen and in fact you know all those of you that had been to the conferences held some of the most intense time for this building there's things building and building and God's presence is so heavy you can hardly stand up he'd call for a coffee break everybody would go out and have coffee then they'd come back still chewing their cookies and he'd quietly say Holy Spirit come and God would break loose I mean it was great no music cold turkey and again it said you don't use worship for anything other than to worship God you don't use emotion people are emotional and that's fine but you don't use anything to cause the Ministry of God you let God be God and he will do it he will and he doesn't need creaturely activity as a Quakers used to call it to accomplish that which brings me to the last thing he taught us at worship was not a vehicle to warm up the congregation for the preacher or to soften people up for an offering worship came from Jesus and goes back to Jesus from us everything Jesus gives to us but worship belongs to him it's not to make stars of the worship leaders it's not for anything but just for him that's what he gets it gives everything else to us that's what he gets back from us our worship I mean he taught us that that was John I mean look at the beautiful fruit you know tonight the beautiful fruit from that whole thing if it had been anything else anything else if there was something else than it called strange fire I wouldn't have anything to do with it there are so many many things I could say about John but as it says in second Kings 220 now the rest of the acts of Hezekiah and all his might and how he made the pool in the conduit and brought water into the city are they not written in the book of The Chronicles of the kings of Judah thank you all for coming it blesses me that you would show that respect to him does he didn't always get a lot of respect Todd mentioned that he had to hide as thick as a rhinoceros well I was reading through his Bible the other day and I saw what was underlined and I know he didn't he just put up with it because he knew it's part of it and I respected him always for keeping on keeping on even when his own heart and body were breaking I respected that man that lived in that body with the privilege to be his wife you god bless you all now we have one more video of John as a man what can wash away [Music] nothing but the blood of Jesus [Music] what can make me [Music] [Applause] [Music] Oh falen nothing [Music] for my pardon this size [Music] [Applause] [Music] nothing can force it [Music] good [Music] Oh preciouses Thanks Oh nothing [Music] because you gave your life pay my price you died for me God's perfect sacrifice [Music] for because you said your blood [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] because you rose again to God's right death could not hold us in the Son of Man [Music] come again but temporized let me do in [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] John taught us a lot about worship and I remember I used to get real self-conscious about weeping before the Lord when I would lead and one day he said you know I said to him John I don't get it I don't know I just can't stop crying whenever I do worship and whenever I'm in worship people are probably think I'm a basket case John said Eddie I'm gonna start worrying about you when you stop the crying so I'm gonna do the best I can and in this time this isn't a performance so feel free to stand or kneel or to lift your hands to the Lord [Music] [Music] Oh [Music] you [Music] [Applause] [Music] we have you're [Music] haha [Music] we have [Music] [Applause] [Music] and me [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] we have [Music] you're [Music] [Music] [Music] consider all he loves digress [Music] sweet [Music] he left his word to God his presence inside [Music] sweet [Music] [Applause] [Music] Oh you [Music] Oh so [Music] Prez [Music] zwei [Music] [Applause] [Music] you Oh [Music] your prayers are very fresh baby star jeez [Music] [Music] long ago even before the law was made sure fools us for your own making us fully in [Music] in [Music] so you [Music] in your and you are your plan [Music] good [Music] in your [Music] [Music] no one but to you Oh no over to both [Music] in this world like you and there isn't any this world like [Music] my [Music] just come home [Music] that's all I want to do just come home to [Music] [Music] I am you are my [Music] we're the father in the sphere [Music] Jesus you [Music] [Applause] you are here [Applause] always [Music] [Applause] [Music] brothers and sisters [Music] your beauty like words [Music] your sweet friend fills my [Music] ah [Music] you're [Music] like [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] vice [Applause] [Music] to [Music] you're [Music] [Music] let's pray together father we thank you for the gift of John Thank You Lord before we was thank you for what he did thank you for those things Lord that that he taught us my prayer lord is that we would become through this example more like you Lord Jesus that we would be more like you and do more like you and that we could honor John's memory Lord by by doing the things that he taught us to do so thank you Lord for this evening to remember him thank you for this evening Lord to bring some sense of closure and thank you Lord that you've not left us that you're still with us that you still will empower us and and give us the grace that's sufficient for us to carry on and to do your bidding until you call us home so thank you Lord for your love for us and your great grace and mercy thought you truly are good you're the giver of every good and perfect gift hello thanks for John we love you amen we're gonna open up the casket again for those of you didn't get to come early and view John's body and if you want you can line up over there if you'd like and we're gonna put back the ropes and God bless you all thank you so much for coming

Channel: Gainesville Vineyard

Views: 4,657

Rating: 4.9540229 out of 5

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Id: 17n5l31wm9Y

Length: 163min 41sec (9821 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 15 2020