Introduction: Welcome to Calvary Albuquerque. We pursue the God who is passionately pursuing
a lost world; we do this with one another, through worship, by the Word, to the world. Narrator: Victor Marx had a troubled childhood. His biological father preferred pimping and
dealing drugs to child rearing. His four stepfathers were criminals and alcoholics. He attended 14 schools and lived in 17 houses
by the time he graduated from high school. The U.S. Marines gave some structure to his
crazy life, and martial arts became a means to vent his anger. Victor's story is the saga of a life damaged
beyond human hope and the power of a mighty God to fully deliver and restore him through
the forgiveness and love of Jesus Christ. Today Victor is the founder and president
of All Things Possible a national faith-based organization, and he's been working with troubled
youth for two decades. Please give a warm welcome to our guest speaker
Victor Marx. Victor Marx: Father, we thank you, Lord, so
much for today. And, God, I thank you for each person that
you've brought out, Lord, those who are walking strong with you and enduring the warfare and
furthering your kingdom. And, Lord, I pray for those who they may be
struggling a little bit with doubts and challenges and fears that have overcome them. I pray that you'd set them free this morning. Lord, I pray for those who came here today
and they just flat did not want to, but someone, somebody got them here. Lord, bless them, would you surprise them
big time. And we give you all the glory. And we do pray, Lord, you'd encamp your warring
angels around this sanctuary, a seamless canopy of your blood. Keep the wicked one far from us as we receive. We ask, Lord, that you would rebuke the enemy
and every one of his minions, in Jesus' name we pray, amen. Amen. We'll be looking at Second Timothy chapter
1 verse 7. For those of you while I was praying saw that
my eyes were open, why were your eyes open? [laughter] You were suppose . . . . No. We spend a lot of our time—our ministry
was based to focus on America's troubled and abused youth. That's why we formed the ministry called All
Things Possible. And so we spend a lot of time in the juvenile
prisons, so I don't close my eyes when I pray. [laughter] Just being for reals. [laughter] You feel me? [laughter] Now the first juvenile facility
I spoke at somebody goes, "You ought to come share your story." Because I'm a late bloomer, I got saved around
20. I didn't really start telling all my testimony,
like I'm going to do this morning, till I was in my late 30s. I had a little testimony with a little bow
on it, because the Lord did a good work in me. Because, you know, he does require return
for his investment on us. Do you all know that? It's like anything. So I agreed to go and speak at a juvenile—I
was nervous though. He was like, "Come and talk." I said, "Well, who's going to be there?" He said, "Well, kids who've been arrested. They're locked up." I'm like, "Uh, for what?" He said, "You know, drugs, thugging, gang
banging, stealing, raping, murdering." I'm like, "Why don't you go talk to them?" [laughter] I came from that lifestyle. I don't want none." He says, "Come on." So I did and I was nervous and he could tell
I was nervous. So he said, "Victor, why don't you do your
martial arts thing?" because I have a background in martial arts. And so I tried to do this nunchaku deal, you
know, two sticks, Bruce Lee made it popular. Whaazaaa! [laughter] And I had this guy hold something in his hands
and then something in his mouth. And my shoulder was messed up, so I probably
shouldn't have done it. But I swung and knocked the first thing out
of one hand, second thing out, and when I went to swing for his mouth, ahem, I missed. [laughter] Yeah, I hit him pretty good. Split him open on his chin. He leaned forward and was bleeding everywhere
right in front of everybody. I was like . . . I mean, I never hit anybody
accidentally [laughter] with those things. And I remember going, "God, really?" In that split second as I'm drenched in sweat
and thinking, "You want me to come evangelize and I'm-I'm taking people down. [laughter] What is this, Lord? You messed up." Isn't that funny how we blame God for everything,
good and bad. "Oh, praise the Lord! Oh, yeah, I won the lottery." Things go bad: "What's wrong with you, Lord?" Man, but you know, and God can redeem even
the worst, right? Man, I hope you go away with that, 'cause
this was—when I walked into that juvenile facility, maximum security—max-—there
were 75 kids like this. I mean, they're like, "You better bring it,
white wonder bread." [laughter] Ugh! You know, flashing gang . . . and that was
just the girls. And I'm like, uh, [laughter] I'm like "Man,
the chicas are rough today." [laughter] So I'm like, "Gosh, uh, uh." But, you know it's crazy, all those kids sitting
there like this. After I hit that guy and he's bleeding, I
turn around, I look at all of them, and they're like this. [laughter] This dude crazy, man!" And then I felt a surge of power from God
on high. I was swinging them and I said, "Somebody's
gonna get saved today, I'll tell you right now." [laughter] Tactically creative evangelism,
oohrah? Aaah, God can redeem anything. Most of the time though, we're just Christians. We're just too fearful to step out. Why did it get quiet? [laughter] Because it's true; am I right? The enemy uses fear in our life. Look at this Scripture, Second Timothy 1:7,
Paul exhorting his little mentee Timothy and he says, "Timothy, listen, God has not given
us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and a sound mind." Can you imagine? It's like right before a play goes on or right
before, in military terms, you're about to engage contact with the enemy or law enforcement,
you're about to breach the door, "Take 'em . . . . "God's not given us a spirit of fear,
but of power, love, and a sound mind." Let's do this thing. Let's do this. Mnh? And the enemy uses fear, yeah, he uses fear
any way he can to stop us. Even when we started this ministry, you know,
it was the same thing. Actually, we were suffering for the Lord over
in Hawaii, and you know we had—[laughter] somebody gotta reach them natives. So, you know. No. We lived in a rain forest. I had ownership in a construction company,
two martial art skills, we had a TV show. We did well by the world's standards. I worked about eight hours a week. We enjoyed life. I really did. And then the Lord said, "Hey, come follow
me." I was like, "But I do, Lord. I love you. I followed you here, [laughter] the islands." And he said, "Oh, you talk discipleship, time
to live it in a greater way." "Okay." And we obeyed the Lord. And it wasn't pretty, I'll tell you right
now. You know those footprints in the sand? Mine were like heel marks in the sand. I felt like the Lord was dragging me to the
mainland. But we did leave. We obeyed. We came over and our first position was with
a ministry called Focus on the Family. And I had the privilege to be an assistant
to Dr. James Dobson, which was wonderful and also showed me how messed up I was. So, but God did a work in my life and that's
how it all led us going into that facility. And people say, "How to you really know God's
told you to start reaching troubled and abused youth?" Well, three months before we go into the facility,
I'm there with my wife, we go out on a date, a date night. How many of you wives like dates? Yeah, see that, men? They still like being dated, okay, not a roommate,
but dated. We need to woo our women all the time—flowers,
and looking at them and saying ummm. [laughter] Am I right, ladies? Am I right? Come on! [cheers and applause] Sometimes you
women just have to help the guys out. We, you know, we get so focused on providing,
protecting, we forget to romance. You know, so, look, grab your little peanut
jar, try to open them like, "Honey, can you . . ." watch what your man does. "Stand back, babe." [laughter] See, that's
how we are. Men need something to battle for, fight for. Hey, ladies, your husbands will slay dragons
for you; make sure you encourage him to, and then let him know you affirm him for doing
it. Because every day he goes out, he's slaying
dragons spiritually and even sometimes physically in this world. Does that make sense? Because there's wickedness out there. Affirm your men. There should be nobody closer than your spouse
to you. There should be no other best friends. It should be your spouse. And, ladies, you need to war for your man
and be ready at all times. Can he come and trust you? Does his heart safely rest in you? You know, one time I spoke at an event that
I didn't realize till later, but it was people that had sexual addictions and whatnot, but
I didn't know until I got there. And after I spoke, I was like, whoa, that
was pretty heavy. And then I remember going home and then I
started getting crazy, wicked, vile, demonic thoughts, lustful, cra—I mean, and I battled
with it. I mean, I was like, "O Lord, help me!" And it just wouldn't break. After about three days of this, three days
of this, I said, "Dear God, I can't take this anymore. "I mean, I can just see my life being blown
apart, marriage, ministry. I mean, make it stop!" He goes, "Do you really want to be free?" "Yes!" "Tell your wife." "Lord, is there a plan ‘B’? Is there?" [laughter] My wife's a second-degree black
belt; you really want me to tell her I'm struggling with lustful thoughts?" He said, "Not only tell her, have her pray
for you and anoint you with oil. Do it." And I was like, "All right." I was that desperate. And I went and found my wife and said, "Honey,
I need you to pray for me right now." And you know, she's doing something, you know,
life-giver, house. I said, "No, honey, I need you to pray for
me right now. God said pray for me and anoint me with oil." And she's like, "Oh, well, sit down. What's going on?" I said, "I've been struggling three days of
evil, vile, lustful, wicked thoughts." She goes, "Ohhh. Anoint you? I'll be right back." [laughter] She went downstairs. I thought she was going to get the little
Israeli oil, anoint. Mamma mia brings back a full-on, I don't know,
it was Crisco oil or something, olive oil. And she does this. [laughter] It's dripping over my head. I'm scared. And then she prays, "In the name of Jesus
I command every demonic force that's been assigned to my husband to break loose. You cannot have this man. He's mine. He's a child of God. He's a warrior." And she just boom, boom, boom, boom, boom,
boom! I was like, I was scared, I knew the demons
had to be scared. [laughter] And after she prayed it was peace,
peace. It left, never came back. [applause] Wives, I'm just telling y'all,
we need you. Do you understand? No matter how grrrr we act, we need you. We need your affirmation. We need you to peanut-butter-jar us all that
type of stuff. "God's not given us a spirit of fear, but
of power, love, and a sound mind." The fact that my wife and I have been married
25 years with five children and never cheated or been cheated on is a miracle. It's a miracle. [applause] Why? Because I'm the third—I mean three generations
in my family, I'm the only one that's done this. And you think it's just because of will power? No, there's no way. I don't have the mental fortitude to stand
against the wiles of the wicked one. Do you understand? That would be nothing but continuing the cycle
of a crazy life that's so dysfunctional from my—well, we didn't even function, that's
how bad it was. And you know what? What God has done for me, he can absolutely
do for you, regardless of what stage of life you're in. It doesn't matter if you're single, married,
on your eighth marriage—it doesn't matter, God can stop a cycle and arrest craziness
and bring peace and order into the chaotic life that you live right now. It's a promise. And the fact that you may not even believe
it, doesn't even—it's still true. "God's not given us a spirit of fear, but
of power, love, and a sound mind." Why did I fear so much? Why was I driven by fear? It's because the way I was raised and the
worldview that developed from my mind. See, my mother and dad, when she got pregnant
from me, that night he put a pistol to her head and shoved rosary beads down her throat. That's how I was conceived, both coming from
opposite stories. My mother came from an abusive background. She just continued the cycle of craziness,
thinking if she married a messed up man, she could fix him, and somehow fix that little
girl in her that suffered. My dad's biological dad died in a mental hospital. My own dad had to go to the same mental hospital. I just thought it was part of our legacy,
like a timeshare or something. I'm afraid I'm gonna go there one day. Is our name on the wall? My mother would marry six times and horribly
drag us kids through craziness and instability. And then when she was pregnant from me, my
dad said, "That ain't mine." So I knew rejection from the beginning. And, y'all, don't kid yourself, rejection
is a wound that will tear you alive until it's dealt with and healed. Because if you've been rejected, you'll always
look for affirmation, you'll always look for someone to accept you. And you'll do it in the wrong ways just to
get it. Single gals, can I talk to y'all? So often times because of the lack of fathering
or love or nurturing, you feel that rejection and that wound, and therefore you set out
to be accepted. And you will do about anything to get accepted,
including compromise what you even know is wrong, what you even feel shame for. I'm here to tell you, gals, purity, you're
worth it and don't sleep with any guy. I don't care how much he says, "Ohh," and
"Umm, you know I love you. [laughter] Hay, mamasita, chula!"[laughter]
For you Irish people, [laughter] if he loves you, you're worth this. If you're good enough for sex, you're good
enough for this. And you'll never experience real, genuine
intimacy until it's this, and when you can pray and say, "Lord, please bless our time." And you're worth waiting for. And, guys, some of you just drank a cup of
Haterade. I can see it in your face. [laughter] Don't be mad at me, it's what the
Word of God says. It's one of the big Ten Commandments. Because you know what? If everybody waited the way God designed things,
you know how much our world would be different? There wouldn't be the abortions. There wouldn't be the STDs. There wouldn't be the kids who feel rejected. And every troubled youth who's been abused
in craziness, he would be at home with a dad who loves him. And a five-year-old boy would have never been
sexually assaulted and left in a commercial cooler for dead—that was me. I don't speak out of some ivory tower, I speak
out of pain that God has entered into and helped me and shown me that I'm loved and
I'm valued, just like you are, every one of you. He came to set the captives free. And so many times the enemy just builds the
cage, but we step into it, and shut the door because we believe his lies. And Jesus says, "Come on, I've got better
for you." You can trust and obey him. The fear messed me up most of my life. Why? I was dunked in a tub till I passed out, only
to have my stepfather—I woke up to him breathing in my mouth on that cold bathroom floor, dripping
wet and him saying, "Boy, don't you ever forget, I'm the one who gives you life." Or the fact that I hold the world record for
the fastest gun disarm. You can see it on YouTube. There's millions of views. It's what got me before amazing warriors to
train and befriend from SEAL Team operators or Delta Force, to CIA, to Force Recon. Somebody puts a pistol to my head, pulls the
hammer back, and their finger on the trigger. With my hands down I can snatch the weapon,
pull the magazine out, and point it back at them in 8/10 of a second. I just had a Delta Force guy e-mail me and
say, "Victor, I had to rewind that thing, because I blinked." But you know what's greater than doing it? It's to let you know the reason why. What drove me to that? A stepfather when I was seven years old put
a pistol to my head, hammer back, finger on the trigger, and I could see the rounds. And he would tap me to the side of my head
and say, "Boy, if you ever tell anybody what I've done, I'll blow your brains out and tell
the police you shot yourself accidentally." Those are the lies that I call lies based
on reality, and those are the hardest ones to dig out. H'm? And people say—you know, the hardest question,
because, you know, they say, "If your parents were messed up . . . ." Any stepfather who did all the craziness—he
went to prison, and then he escaped. And he fled the country and they never caught
him. He was on the NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw. We were like, "Hey, there's our daddy." [laughter] Eighth grade was the best three
years of my life. [laughter] Oh what about my other stepfather? At fifteen years old I find out—and I'm
insecure as all, get out, but I'm going to stand up against him, because he's the next
"guy" in the house. And he saw I had crazy eyes like . . . so
he opened the back door to the trailer. He said, "Boy, get in my face again, I'll
take you outside, I'll beat you like a man. You want to be a man? I'll beat you." And I was so angry. I knew I couldn't whoop him, but I knew I'm
going to hit him one time. Maybe we're walking down the steps . . . and
then I'll take my shellacking. And some of you know exactly what I'm talking
about, that the beating is worth getting a hit in. It's a horrible lifestyle to have that much
of your heart sealed off and hard. God never designed us for that. You know what I tell young men and young ladies? There's a difference between being tough and
hard. I just told a Ranger today, I said, "Man,
when you're deployed," I said, "You don't have to hate the enemy to kill him." That's a heavy concept, but for those who
have to take a target out that would kill innocent people, it's something they need
to hear. I speak to—I speak to vets all over the
country in active military. Don't let hate make you hard. It's not how God designed you. He designed you to be loving, peaceful. Does that make sense? I'm gonna tell you something right now, the
things that God has shown me in the area of forgiveness has been the biggest—I'll say
"weapon" in my arsenal. Because being able to forgive has set me free
in ways I can't even begin to explain, but it took seeing God's hand and his faithfulness. But, you know, one of the hardest questions
I ever asked God, and it was a counselor that asked me. Yeah, I see a counselor. I've seen a counselor. I've seen one 123 times. I've been on all them drugs: Depakote Depakene,
Prozac, Zoloft, lithium, Busbar, some more. I started doing drugs in the sixth grade. It's funny when you hear a psychiatrist say,
"Young man, your brain will never fully function because of the acute trauma you've experienced." And in my smart alecky self I said, "Well,
my brain never functioned anyway." Keep paying your student loans, Doctor. I'm so glad that there is this, that when
man says it's impossible, God says, "Not with me. Not with me!" [applause] Romans 12 says, "Don't be conformed
to this world any longer, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind." It's a daily thing for me. And I don't mind being on a short lease, because
it keeps me close to the Lord. But he hasn't given me a spirit of fear, but
of power, love, and a sound mind. And one of the things that—one of the hardest
questions I ever asked God, that counselor asked me, he said, "Well, hey, Victor, if
God is so good and he loves all the little children of the world, why did he let you
get hurt so bad?" And I told him, "Shut up." I mean-I mean started getting uncomfortable. I said, "Shut your mouth, right now." And he said, "Why don't you ask him?" I says, "I—you know, listen here, God does
love the little children. It's just the ones in Ethiopia that he was
attending to. So what if I got beat or electrocuted or whatever,
I survived. There's other . . . ." He said, "I don't think
that's the truth, Vic. Why didn't he help you? Where was he?" He said, "Ask him, he may just tell you." It took me two years to have the courage to
ask God, "Where were you?" And when I did, it changed my perspective,
it changed my thinking about God. In the particular instance that God showed
me, I remember seeing it so clear. I was in the room with my stepfather laying
on the bed, degraded by it, just laying there in my underwear with my arms stretched out. And he pulled out a belt and he got a beer
and he's gonna whoop me for no good reason. And the way he would hit us—he would hit
you bam! And he'd wait, he'd wait for all those tight
muscles—as a kid you're anticipating the next hit. He'd wait for you to relax and then he'd hit
you again. And you'd tense up, and he'd wait, because
all he wanted to do was break your mind. I said, "God, where were you? Lord, where were you?" And I saw the room, and I saw me, and I saw
my stepfather holding that beer, every—all the senses and sights—I could see it. I saw the green shag carpet, that's traumatic
enough right there. [laughter] I saw the window, the bathroom,
the closet. I said, "Where were, Lord?" And then I saw an image of the Lord appear
right between me and my stepfather and my heart jumped with joy. I said, "Yes! Touch his heart now. Blow his heart out and make him die before
he hits me." But if that would have happened, that would
not have been truth; that would have been my own fantasy. What happened next was truth. As my stepfather ran back to hit me, Jesus
stepped in between us, facing me I saw him kneel gently and he placed his body on top
of mine, and his body meshed into me right before I got hit. And every hit I got Jesus took the hardest
part and gave me the leftovers. That's love, when God Almighty will enter
into our pain. That's what really happened. God never causes evil to happen to little
kids. Allowing man to have his free will is one
thing, causing is different. And Jesus even steps into that pain with you. You are not alone. And God's heart broke for you, just like it
broke for me. Don't blame God, you blame the wickedness
of man, on the father of evil, the father of lies. One of the things I know that keep people
from really coming to the relationship with God, and them saying, "I'm not going to forgive,"
because real forgiveness is giving up your right to hurt someone for hurting you. And look, gals, one in three girls will be
sexually molested by the time she's 18—one in three, and one in five boys. It is an epidemic. You can trace so much of addictions and divorce
and violence back to that, and that's why I'm out to help stop it. [applause] Evil does exist, and I know a lot
of men who say, "I'm never going to forgive that person who done wrong or done my loved
one wrong. Matter of fact, if I can get to them, I'll
crack them." But I'm here to show you right now, no evil
deed ever goes unpunished. And if a person doesn't respond to the goodness
of God through the cross of Jesus Christ, they will stand before him in judgment and
receive the penalty due of their wickedness—every person. It is the cross alone that makes us justified
from our sin because of Jesus Christ's blood that was shed. So you can trust God's exact, perfect judgment
that is eternal on those who have done you wrong or those you love. A friend of mine is a special operator and
one of the best man hunters I know. We watched my film together and he started
snot crying. I was like, "What's up?" He said, "Man, I never told anybody this." He said, "I never told anybody this, but,"
he goes, "I was horribly abused, lived in foster care homes, and," he said, "man, I'm
just . . . ." He said, "But I did allow God to take my drivenness
for revenge and turn it to protecting the innocent." And he said, "Vic, you've been a friend." He said some nice things to me. But he said, "I want you to have this." I said, "Have what?" He said, "Let me get it." He went down in the basement. I was like, "Basement?" That makes me nervous right there. [laughter] And he brought this back. And he put this tile on the table and he said,
"I want you to have this." I said, "Thank you. [laughter] This is a tile." And he laughed, he said, "Yeah, but," he said,
"I took it out of Osama bin Laden's headquarters in Afghanistan after we bombed it, and I want
you to have it." And then he showed me a picture of him and
his riot gear, all suited up, smiling and holding it. I said, "This is mine." [laughter] You know, I jokingly said, you know, I told
him, "Man, I'm honored. Thank you, brother." And I said, "Well, if the ministry gets low
on money, I know I can put that on eBay." [laughter] And then he said, "You'll never
hear the drone hit your car." [laughter] "What? What?" He said, "Nothing." God will get exact justice. You can trust him. But he calls us to forgive. And I'll tell you, I'm going to close with
this, and I said it last service and I'll tell you now, I don't like telling my story. I honestly don't. There's a whole lot of things I could be doing
easier. I could be in the corporate world. I could be strictly working, speaking at corporate
events. I had somebody fly me out. They said, "We'll fly you on a private jet
and pay you $15,000 to speak for 20 minutes." I said, "Hey, you can't buy me. I'm not about the money, I'm about the message. What time do y'all want me there?" [laughter] Hey, I gotta get money for the
ministry somehow. Them juvenile prisons ain't paying us. [laughter] And we got another mission and
I will ask y'all for prayer before I close with this story, but please pray for us. We've been invited and asked at the highest
levels you can imagine to go into a Muslim country and reach their abused kids on a large
scale, and actually do a documentary film exposing the abuses of children and the effects
of trauma in the Muslim world. And [applause] yeah, right now we've even
got it lined up, I don't know if it'll work, but we've got it lined up to interview a known
terrorist who is with an organization to explain why he turned violent because of abuse from
his childhood, to show the connection. It's heavy. I mean, it's so heavy that I just, I've gotta—we're
working on security detail with some former Delta Force operators to get me in and out
like a military operation in search and extraction, protection, get out. And we don't even know the blowback once that
film hits. I do know this: the Lord asked me, "Are you
willing to give up your life for the gospel?" And I worked through it, and believe me, there
ain't nothing super saint about me. I was, uh, huh, huh, mmm. But I said, "All right, Lord, if that's . . . ." It's
just, "Are you willing?" And I was, "Yeah! I'm willing," because I need to be willing
before I go over there. I can't operate in fear. And I had to talk to my wife and I said, "Honey,
are you willing to become a widow for the gospel, if it comes to that?" And my dear bride started crying for about
30 seconds, [laughter] and she wiped her tears and said—this is exact words, "Well, how
long are we here on earth anyway, babe?" I was like, "Wow, that was pretty heavy." [laughter] Sparta! She's like, "Come back with your shield or
on it, babe, but go advance the kingdom of God." [applause] I know I'm a few minutes over,
and I'll close with this, and, boy, I just, boy, I just—I don't like telling this part,
but it's important. Ugh! God called me and told me—he didn't call
me, I mean. Oh, I got a text rather. No. You read his word, it's like getting text
from God, amen? You're like he he. [laughter] but he said, "You need to find
your stepfather, the one that abused you, and you need to forgive him to his face." He had gone to prison. He's the one that escaped. He actually turned himself in. He did all of his time, and I did find him. And I—oh my gosh. And he tried to intimidate me as a man. Because the last he'd seen of us, I mean as
kids, we escaped through a window of the house, because he had a gun. We were hiding in the closet. And here I am facing him and he tries to intimidate
me. I said, "That ain't gonna work. I'm a full-grown man, I ain't no kid in a
closet. I'm a marine. I'm a master of martial arts. I can see you just had open heart surgery. I see your fresh scar. I can unzip you." [laughter] Sorry. Oh, like you never have Old Testament thoughts,
come on. [laughter] It ain't all New Testament around
here. But God gave me the opportunity to be with
him as he was dying. I actually brought him to the hospital. He was dying. He was dying fast. The doctor said, "He don't have long." And I told him, he was laying in bed, I said,
"Now, you know you're dying. I don't know how many days you have, but,"
I said, "but when you die, you are going to hell. You've rejected Jesus Christ all your life,
but he still loves you enough to send me to tell you that." I said, "Can I read Scripture to you?" He said, "You go ahead, if you want, boy." And I'd come in every day, my wife, we'd—and
I'd read Scriptures to him about Jesus and the cross and forgiveness. And he'd never say nothing. And then the last night before I'd never see
him anymore, I woke up about four in the morning, and I can't explain it outside to say it's
supernatural, and I started praying for his salvation. Really praying, interceding, beyond me. And I got down on my knees and I started weeping,
begging God to save that man's soul, because his body was gone. My wife prayed with me, and I couldn't believe
it, because I know me. And I went in the next day. He had a new nurse and he's laying there in
bed, he could barely talk. And he said, "Hey, nurse, hey, this is my
son. This is my boy." He said, "I'm proud of him." I never heard them words in my life. He said, "He became a preacher man." He said, "The only one out of any of us, he
he he." He said, "He been worried about my eternity,
but he don't have to worry no more." He said, "I made it right with God last night." [applause] It was such a holy moment. The nurse walked out of the room graciously,
and I said, "Well, God certainly it's all happened. I can see now why you brought me back into
this man's life. What do you want me to say, because I'm done." And it's very simple, the Lord said, "Tell
him you love him." I said, "Dad, I love you." He looked up at me, he said, "Boy, I love
you too." It felt good, I'm not going to lie to y'all,
it felt good. I never heard them words from him. Even though he was a stepdad, to me was the
only dad I knew as a kid, because any biological dad had abandoned us. You know, nobody else was in the room and
he said that, so I figured it was done. So I grabbed the pillow and I just—[laughter]
No, I didn't do that. I did not do that. I didn't, that's wrong. You don't want to do that after somebody gets
saved. They're going to go to heaven anyway. You don't have to rush the process. Not only did he get free, I got free too,
and so can you. And you know what? Remember that dad that rejected me, he was
actually the one that wrote me a letter when I was 20 in the Marine Corps saying he was
sorry for never being a dad, my biological dad. And he told me he got born again. He got saved. God touched his life. [applause] And when I got married, he was
my best man in the wedding. Only God can do that. What can he not do in your life? Let's pray. Father, I thank you, Lord, so much for today
and each person. And, Lord, I know through my story that you've
given me, Lord, that there are so many still wondering why were they put in the family? Why did bad things happen? And, God, I pray in this closing prayer, Lord,
that this poem would touch people's hearts. Please listen this poem by Russell Kelfer:
"You are who you are for a reason. You're part of an intricate plan. You're a precious and perfect unique design,
called God's special woman or man. You look like you look for a reason. Our God made no mistake. He knit you together within the womb, just
what he wanted to make. The parents you had were the ones he chose,
and no matter how you may feel, they are custom designed with God's plan in mind, and they
bear the Master's seal. No, the trauma you faced wasn't easy. And God wept that it hurt you so; but it was
allowed to shape your heart, so that into his likeness you'd grow. You are who you are for a reason, you've been
formed by the Master's rod. You are who you are, beloved, because there
is a God!" Closing: What binds us together is devotion
to worshiping our heavenly Father, dedication to studying his Word, and determination to
proclaim our eternal hope in Jesus Christ. For more teachings from Calvary Albuquerque
and Skip Heitzig visit calvaryabq.org.
