Miracles

[00:00:00] This audio sermon is provided by AnabaptistSermons.com and may be freely copied and distributed. You may not sell or edit this sermon. Our prayer is that you would be blessed by this ministry. I'm willing to stay down there, but the man in charge said go up to the top. So you boys will be able to see. It's going to be so hard. It's so good to see so many of you out. In Jeremiah 32, 27, it says, [00:00:38] Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh. Is there anything too hard for me? And that's a good verse to meditate on it. There is nothing, because he said in 32, 27, That's in 32, 27. 32, 17 Our Lord God, behold, thou hast made the heavens and the earth by thy great power and stretched out and and there's nothing too hard for thee and when we really meditate on those verses you say, wow [00:01:11] you know, what a God we have in 2nd Chronicles 16, 9 the eyes of the Lord run to and fro upon the whole earth to show himself strong in behalf of those whose hearts are perfect towards him. The sad thing is the new translations like NIV and New American Standard say the eyes of the Lord run to and fro to strengthen those whose hearts are perfect towards him. No, he isn't doing this to strengthen us, to show himself strong. [00:01:49] Because we are weak. And so they've taken the bite out of that verse and almost ruined my message with the text, changing the text. In my experience, when we came back from the mission field, I went to a second-hand store, kind of a junk shop. It was in Huntington, West Virginia. We didn't have money for new stuff so we just gathered things and I met a man in the proprietor there and he recognized me and I said yes well I've seen you before. [00:02:34] He said, it's at that Christian school there, that Baptist Christian school. You have your children going there? I said, yes. Well, my son goes there. And I said, and he's the blind boy? He said, yeah, he's almost blind. And my children have told me about him. And he said, I said, and so you sent him to the Christian school? He says, yes, that's where he wants to go, to learn to preach. [00:03:08] Well, you don't learn that in a Christian school, but you get ready for it, I suppose. And I said, well, then you are a Christian. He says, no, I'm not. He is. That's strange. And he says, he's got a lot of faith. He's going to be a blind preacher someday. and I said, oh my, and I said, well, we'll pray for him and he said, no, he's willing to be a prime preacher [00:03:42] he's got a lot of faith he believes God he says, God does miracles for him and he doesn't do miracles for you he said, well, I don't ask for miracles I don't pray But he says, for instance, this past Easter, they take him to church. This man from this church comes by and picks him up and takes him to church. [00:04:15] He says, sometimes I take him, but I never know when they're going to get out over in that place, how long they go. So they bring him home. And he says, apparently the preacher man up there told him, asked how many could bring some Easter eggs for the Easter egg hunt of the children. And he says, how many here could, let's say, how many could bring at least three dozen eggs? Would you put up your hands? And this little boy sitting on the front row, the poor boy, put up his hand. [00:04:48] and a preacher said, told somebody to write down the names and he says, little boy, do you have three dozen? He says, I've got six dozen eggs. All right, put his name down. And so the man that brought him home came to pick up the eggs at the same time because that week they were going to have the Easter egg hunt. And he gave him three dozen eggs out of the fridge. What he didn't know was that one other box of a dozen eggs was empty. [00:05:27] His father and mother, I don't know, they apparently didn't know about it or they didn't want to fess up to the fact that they had emptied them. But somebody had put an empty box in there. So really all he had left now was two dozen eggs. But he felt real bad and cried a little bit. But then he thought, well, two dozen eggs, that's enough for just mom and dad and me. I guess it is for Easter morning. And so, that's the way it went. [00:05:58] His mother said, okay, on Wednesday, I'm off work. And so, we're going to prepare the eggs, we're going to paint them, but first we have to boil them. And so, we're going to boil them first, and then we're going to paint them the different colors. And he said, oh mom, I'll help you. He was all excited. And so he was going to help his mom and his mom wasn't quite ready yet. She wasn't in the kitchen yet. And so he thought he'd help mom out and get that pot boiling. And he put those ice cold eggs into the hot pot, which was already boiling. And you know what happens, they cracked open. [00:06:40] and he felt awfully bad he said I only have two dozen and here these eggs are all busted and the white came oozing out and filled the whole pot and he didn't know what to do and he started crying but then he thought of what he'd heard there in that Sunday school and he started praying Lord heal my eggs now I don't know if God has ever had a request like that before Have any of your children ever prayed, Lord, heal my eggs? [00:07:13] I've never found anybody that prayed that. And I don't know, possibly God gets excited when he gets a new request. And can you imagine the angel saying, God, why don't you do it like Mueller when they were out of bread and they had the bread truck broke down in front of the orphanage and they just carried all the bread in. Ah, can you imagine God saying, no, no, that's not what the boy asked. [00:07:44] He asked if I would heal him. And so the suggestions of the angels probably wasn't any good. And so the boy stands there in tears and crying. And the father and mother both came in. The father told me this story. Later I confirmed it with his wife, the mother. And he said, yeah, they were, he said, son, there's something you've learned now. You never put cold eggs into hot water. [00:08:15] All right, you bring it on slow, put them in first and with cold water and then boil them. And they went back out. Now, the father and mother didn't say, ah, son, that's all right. We'll go and buy some more eggs. They were poor folk. And so they probably couldn't afford any more. and so they'd have to do with what they had. Sometimes it's a great blessing to be poor and to have the privilege of relying on God rather than men. [00:08:48] Isn't it? Say that in the word of God. It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man. And so he stands crying. The father and mother went back out and he counted them. Hey, it was a fortunate thing. And he only had a small pot. He didn't get a whole dozen in there. He only got, I don't know, six or eight in there, half of them in there. And the others were still on the counter in the box. So don't always complain when your pot isn't as big as you'd like it to be. God can do more miracles for you if your pot is small. [00:09:26] Anyway, he stood there by the eggs and they were boiling away and he got this spoon and got them out Man, they were bad shaped, there was all the white floating around the pot and then he threw the whole water out and then he got some cold water and put the rest of the eggs in the cold water and boiled them Alright, but he had prayed, God, heal my eggs What do you think God does? [00:10:00] That's a pretty way out prayer request, isn't it? It almost makes you think of Elijah when he was on Mount Carmel and he says, pour the water on the fire, on the wood and on the sacrifice and he said, go and get some more water and he got more barrels of water Probably from the Mediterranean Sea, there were Mount Carmel's right there on the sea. It hadn't rained for so many months, three and a half years. [00:10:31] And so they poured more until the whole ditch around the altar was full of water. Was Elijah a fool? What do you think? He's making it hard for God. Do you ever make things hard for God? Do you ever have very little money and you need to find somebody else that needs it more and you do and you give the last of your money away and trust God and now you really need him? I know people that have done that. [00:11:03] And Elijah made things hard for God but he believed and then he starts praying, Oh God, send the fire on this sopping wet sacrifice and wood on this altar. Well, you know the story. I can imagine God saying, Elijah, back up a little bit, get away from that altar because it's going to have to take some heat to do this. And so, all of a sudden, he prayed and that fire came down and it was so hot that it melted the sacrifice and it melted the wood [00:11:37] and it just kind of melted or destroyed the altar and the water in the ditch around it all just totally evaporated and they had one big fire. And you remember how the priest of Baal had tried to light their fire and there was nothing happening. Don't you think God enjoyed this? If we don't ask Him for miracles, God doesn't enjoy sending answers, does He? [00:12:10] And God's got all the power. Do you believe that? God's got all the knowledge and all the wisdom and he can do anything he wants to do and he can make a wet altar sacrifice just turn so dry that it just burned up, disintegrated. If you had all that power and all that wisdom and all that strength wouldn't you like to use it sometime? But nobody's asking and we're God's people. I trust most of you are, all of you are. But we ask for very few miracles and so we see very few miracles and so the church is so weak because when we see miracles our hearts are revived and we see the power of God and it stirs our hearts and encourages our lives. [00:13:07] This is our God. This is the one we worship. But if he don't, so Elijah gave God a tremendous opportunity to show himself strong. It says, the eyes of the Lord run to and fro upon the earth to show himself strong in behalf of his people. And Elijah must have read that verse and did that. And the people all shouted, God, he is the God. God, he is the God. in other words they had to choose between Baal and God [00:13:40] and God showed them who God was and so God enjoys the impossible alright then there was the other story that I was going to talk about it's also about fire it was the three Hebrew children that were thrown into the fire remember by the wicked king and they walked around in the fire with the fourth man there [00:14:10] and that was either the angel of God or the Lord himself, we don't know for sure but they're walking around the fire and the king said, didn't we throw three men well, before they, when they said, no we will not bow down to your image and the king said in his hatred, well stoke that fire how many times hotter? Seven times hotter. Probably couldn't do much more because the whole thing would blow up probably. But, and maybe God held the thing together to make this thing really work. [00:14:46] But the fire was so hot and then he threw those men in and the guys that threw them in, the soldiers, died at the rim of the fire. I mean, the heat was so great. And here these guys are walking around in the fire and God is up there saying, I wonder how they're going to react to this one. And you know the answer. Didn't I throw three men in the fire? There's four. And one looks like an angel of God. And then he's getting scared. [00:15:21] And he shouts. He gets as close as he dares. He shouts. He said, Daniel. Oh no, it was Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Come out of the fire. And they started walking out. And there was no burn. Their hairs hadn't even burned. Their clothes didn't even smell like being burnt. They came out. And you know what? This king started to praise God. The God of these men. He is God indeed. [00:15:53] And God can show himself strong and convince men that he's God. And it's wonderful that there's occasions in the Word of God when we see that. God wasn't troubled when the boy in Huntington, West Virginia, asked for healing of the eggs. He said, oh, that's simple. He made eggs in the first place, didn't he? He put them together. He can recreate them. He can do anything he'd like. And so, all of a sudden the boy lets out one big yell and hoop and cheer and jumps up and down [00:16:31] And his father and mother came in again and wondered what the boy is cheering about when everything is bad When his ears, when his eyes, his eggs were busted And he, God healed my eggs mom, God healed my eggs No he didn't, yes he did, look at the pot and they're all good eggs and the water's boiling around them and the father thought well he changed them he probably put the other ones in and he went to the counter and he touched the other eggs and they were still all cold from the fridge [00:17:05] they'd never been in the pot he says how did it happen? he says I prayed to God and he healed my eggs now what effect did that have on that man and that woman? and he says well how did he do it? Jesus, just like the white came oozing out at first, so it oozed right back in. They marked those eggs, and on Easter morning, you better believe they all three went for the ones with the marks on them. And the father says, I hit one, and I didn't see any cracks, and I peeled the thing off, and that film, that skin inside the eggshell, [00:17:49] was all right neatly around the eggs. And I cut it over, opened it, and the yellow was right in dead center, in the middle. He said, they're perfect eggs. We ate them. I could hardly eat them. He said, this is a miracle. They did this to all the ones that had been in the pot that had been busted. He says, God not only healed the eggs, he healed the shells too. At first he said, well, we can't paint them because paint will get in through the cracks. No paint got in through the cracks. The shells were... When God heals something, he can do a good job. And so they stood there and I said, praise God to the man. He says, you mean you believe the story I told you? I said, yes. He said, how could you believe that, preacher? I gave my pineapples to God at one time. [00:18:50] And I got more bigger pineapples than I ever had before. God can do more with anything you give him. And your boy gave two dozen eggs away. He'll never run out of eggs the rest of his life. I hope he likes eggs because he's... In other words, when we give, the Lord provides for us. and that's a true principle of scripture and he says I can't believe it and then I later I went to his wife and I said [00:19:21] did your husband tell me the truth I don't want to start using this as an illustration in my messages preaching and he says yeah I can't believe that he told you he never tells anything like that to anybody he told you that this happened I said yes now what about you he says it happened I ate some of those eggs too and so God is the God of the impossible. We had the Amenda confrontation. [00:19:52] I mentioned it a little bit this morning when we talked about that message of willing to die for Christ. This was a Samenda village and they had one of my teachers there but the enemies, the other religion came in and I had told I had told Paulus was his name the teacher's name I said if they give you any problem send a school boy and I'll come and stand with you I now wish I hadn't said that because I could hear the drumming through the jungle there was oh a thousand warriors from all [00:20:30] All the eastern side there, all these obvious people coming to close our school and to, I don't know what, all they were going to do. And they came with a force of strength. And I got to the, we could hear them drumming, they were getting nearer. Now, the Aboy men, my Aboy Christians, they said to one, we'll fight for you. I said, oh no, oh no, we're not going to fight at all. God will have to fight for us, there's no way we can beat that throng of people [00:21:05] Leave your spears and arrows at home, you're going to get us all killed I said, I'm not asking you to come, I'll go alone Oh, but they never want to miss a good fight, and so they all came But what I found out later is that their boys and girls, their kids were carrying the spears and arrows and bow A little further back, just out of my sight, so I couldn't see them. So here these guys are muttering, you're going to get us all killed, and oh man. [00:21:36] And we neared the village, and we heard the drumming. We hadn't, we went through the far end of the village to where the teacher, Paulus, lived. He has his wife and a couple of children, little children. And I said, Paulus, we've got to pray. I don't know whether that man did a whole lot of praying He used to be a policeman And he was a tough guy And he did everything by his own power More than the Lord's power [00:22:08] But he closed his eyes and he prayed Oh God, there's no hope We have no hope against this army This is too big There was a thousand warriors Filled the whole middle of that village They were all there, all shouting and yelling, and we're standing there praying. And one shouted, take your slates and your books out of that school, and get out of here and never come back, otherwise you'll all be dead. And I said, we're not going to do that. [00:22:39] We're going to see what God's going to do. And I thought maybe I'd die that day, I didn't know. and because if I was dead they would, Paulus would give in to them and move out. And so I said no. And they hollered and threatened and they didn't start shooting because our side had no weapons. The people from Hawaii had come with me and the people of Mendai told them keep your weapons in your house, don't you bring them out here, we're not going to fight. [00:23:15] Oh, we want to see a good fight. No, we're not going to fight. And so, this side had no weapons. How can this side start a war when the other side is not armed? They had never been in a situation like this before. And they didn't know what to do. And so it went on. They were shouting. And our people said to one, you're going to get us all killed. I said, go home. You know, you don't need to see a fight here. Well, that's why we came. [00:23:49] And first thing you know, I had told the Amenda people, I said, now that schoolhouse that was on the far end of the village, we passed it as we came in. It's just a pole building, wooden building, and they had school in there, and we had church in there too. And I said, now I want some of you men stay right around those posts so they can't cut them down. The government always says, if you don't have property, you have no right to be here. So, I said, stand near the post so they can't cut them down. [00:24:21] Don't leave them. Well, these guys, they left their posts to see what was going on over on the other end of the village where the fight was going to be. And first thing you know, that guru, that one teacher, Catholic teacher, he ran, we didn't know it, he ran back around through there and he got to the schoolhouse where the guys had left it and with a sharp machete and being a strong man he started cutting those posts and he was chopping the posts down [00:24:52] and the government would say if you don't have property you have no right to be here so that it was about to topple over and he yelled at me, he said, Tuan, they're cutting your school, your church building down and I thought, you dummies, you left your posts, you didn't stay there And I said, I yelled at them, get at your job, get at your post. But my language wasn't good and in my excitement they understood, get at that man and let him have it. [00:25:23] Get at him. And all of a sudden those men, the guys, were armed. The kids and the wives threw the machetes out and threw the bows and arrows down and off they went. Men yelled at them. And I said, no, no, no, no, that's not what I meant. There's no stopping them once they get going. There's no stopping them. And so I just, oh man, everything's going to be lost. Our whole mission will be kicked out of the country and so on. And so, this guru, this Catholic guy, saw him coming. [00:25:59] They were there coming towards him and yelling and yelling and he was alone. And he took off into the jungle. He wasn't going to face them. And the guys came to a screeching halt there at the school and saw the damage which had been done. And the strangest thing happened now. The whole business over here was quiet because the fight was going away from them rather than towards them. And they had never experienced that before. [00:26:30] and so they all looked at the next big leader of all these villages and he didn't want the responsibility so he walks off into the jungle behind the other teacher and they look at the third one and he did the same thing in the fourth one and nobody wanted the responsibility of taking on because this was such an unusual situation and first thing you know all these teachers, Catholic teachers walked out and then their henchmen walked out, the Tuangamas they called them, and then the chiefs of the villages walked out in single file, and then the lesser chiefs walked out, and then the family heads walked out, and it took forever for all of them in single file to go into the swamp, into the path back to home. [00:27:18] and my people complained to no end. Two on, don't let them go. We haven't fought yet. I said, God's already done it. And we just waited until they all went. That guru never came back to that village again. The people after that, they said, let's throw that Catholic church down and school down and his house down and everything and they built a new school for us and we had Paulus now moving into the new school teaching the people. [00:27:56] Hey, God loved it, don't you think? And here I thought I was going to die that day. I mean, I was scared, I don't know, but I tried to hold myself brave in front of Paulus and his wife and children. And they looked, God did it. They experienced God. and they never came back they have a school there as a matter of fact that church grew so big and that school grew so big that they couldn't hold them all in one building anymore and now they have [00:28:27] they went over to the next river the Sorokio River and I found a new church and school over there about as big as the Amanda one it turned into two good schools and churches praise the Lord God is able to God is able to show himself mighty. In our ministry there, we saw all kinds of sign gifts. Now this is going to bother some of you because sign gifts are more like what the charismatics use. [00:29:00] But God can do anything he wants. We had tongues, people heard spoken tongues and proclaimed the gospel. Well that isn't bad, that happened at Pentecost, you can't say much to that one. Alright, visions. Oh my. There was an old man, Honey, and he came to know the Lord there in that same Amenda village. He was old and not long afterwards, a couple of weeks afterwards, he died. But he had really trusted the Lord. and I.O. his son was in Capey two days walk through the swamp away [00:29:34] and the night Honi died I.O. was sleeping at the government post and sees a vision you know what the vision was? the face of his father he says son I'm going to Suriga now to the heaven that the missionary talks about and he's very happy and smiling at him I'm going there and I want you to go back to Aboy Village and tell that missionary that you want to go there too. I want to see you again and you take the hand of the missionary and start believing in Jesus. [00:30:09] That's what the vision said. So he woke up all the other guys that were there with him and he says we've got to go back. My father died and he told me to go back to tell the missionary that we've got to follow the gospel of Jesus. Man, what a message. That sure helped me out. Can you imagine that? And he came and he grabbed my hand and he says, I'm going to take the hand of Jesus. I'm going to walk with him to where my father told me to. And I was led to Christ and I was in their church and others came to know the Lord in that place. [00:30:46] All right, so we had visions and we had tongues and voices. Some heard voices which told them to believe in Jesus. Charismatics would love this, wouldn't it? But it's possible, isn't it? Yeah, absolutely. And judgments, oh, people that withstood Christ and the gospel, the work of the gospel. Whoa, they'd be dead. I mean, amazing. They just keel over. [00:31:18] Oh, God's people will be fearful. You know, these judgments on sinners that withstood God and the church of God. There was healings. Well, you believe that. We have healings here, don't we? But we had unusual healings where just a man who was so sick would just get well. Just right away and start walking around. Unbelievable. Raising of the dead. Oh, now I'm going to be in trouble, aren't I? [00:31:51] Yeah, there was a man named Sotobi, and he was so sick back in the jungle, far away, they couldn't bring him to the clinic. And this fellow Baida was one of the worst killers in the village. He was a bad guy. He and his two wives came back, and he says, Tuan, I want to be a Christian now. I said, you want to be a Christian? We'd never prayed for him, folks. Nobody had ever prayed for him. [00:32:23] You don't waste good prayers on a guy that bad, do you? You pray for the ones that are likely to respond. But, man, Sotheby died. He says, yeah, he told us before he died. He said he died. And we all stand, you know, how we do it, mourning and so on. And he stands, he says, and we were mourning and all of a sudden he sits, he sort of sits right back up on his grass mat and he's alive again. [00:32:54] And he's saying, don't mourn for me, it's so beautiful up there, it's so light, it's so bright up there. And he tells his wife, get some water, bring soap if you have it, and bathe me, wash me because I'm so dirty, I'm so filthy, and they're so clean and so bright and so nice up there. and so she scrubbed him down and then he told her, go get some more water, some more clean water and bathe me again and he did and she did. [00:33:27] And whilst he was gone for the water, he's saying to the men, he says, everything Tuanconi, they couldn't say Koning, everything Tuanconi has ever said is true. I had told them that many, many times. I'm telling you the truth. No, you're the best liar that ever was. We enjoy your lies so much. We know, we know you're lying, but you're so good a liar because you believe it yourself. That's what they said. [00:33:58] And no matter what I said, I told them that the men, our men walked on the moon, you know, when the first astronauts walked on the moon. And they said, no. Oh, they said, we looked at the moon last night, we couldn't see them. I said, well, they still walked on the moon. Who would think of a lie like that? And when they shot President Kennedy back in the early 60s, I said, the radio said that our president has been killed. [00:34:30] They shot him. They said, they did? I thought, they thought all white people were Christians. That's the only ones they had, met. I said, no, not quite all of them, are they? And I said, they killed my chief. So they always came to church to hear what the radio said. They wanted news. They had no other news. And so I'd tell them what the radio had said or what happened here or there. And then I'd preach to them. And that's how I got the gospel to them, by giving them a newsflash. [00:35:06] Maybe we're going to have to start doing that here. Although here everybody's got radios and they got TVs and everything else. But advantage when they don't have much. So they said, they always said you're such a good liar. I almost got to be chief because I was the best liar in the place. Tell us some more lies. And now Sotheby had a vision of heaven. And his wife is getting more water to clean him up. [00:35:39] He said, they're so happy up there. They're smiling. Kane, Kane the lady, died in childbirth. She isn't crippled anymore. Now that's significant. He recognized her. She's got a new body. Isn't crippled anymore. Tara, the boy that died. Oh, I felt so bad. They left him behind and he was a dying boy [00:36:10] and I didn't know the language yet at that time and I said, just, Taha, say, Yesus, Yesus. Hey, that's the name by which we shall be saved. And I thought, what else can I do? And he said, Yesus, and he grabbed my hand and when he said it, he'd squeeze my hand and his squeeze got weaker and weaker and he dies. I often wondered, did he get in? I'd ask God once, are any of my people getting in? Do you have any of them up there? [00:36:42] It would sure encourage me to know that. What do you think I expected? God sending me an email or a telephone? How is he going to send? We ask some funny things, but God is not troubled by our requests. and so he had this Sotheby guy have a glimpse of heaven, come back, told me the names of Taha and Moto and Kane and he said others but by the guy that brought him that he couldn't remember them all. [00:37:20] He said some other names too that are up there. And I thank the Lord that he's given me a messenger from up there to tell me that we're doing some good. And that encouraged us a lot. And so, so to be had, his wife bathed him again. And he says, now, what I want all of you to do. And he looked, he says, he looked at me and my wife and my other wife. He looked at all of us. And he looked at the children and he looked at his own wife and he says, I want you to follow Jesus. [00:37:56] Go back to Aboy Village to Tuankoni and tell him that he's never lied, as if I didn't know that. And tell him that he's told the truth. We know it now because so to be said so, he was up there and came back. and all of you follow Jesus and he told his wife I want you in heaven with me so you make sure you take his hand and shake his hand and says I'm taking the hand of Jesus [00:38:27] and I'm going to walk with him and then he looks at the his son his son was about the age of my oldest son and they were playmates and he says I want you to follow Jesus. I want you in heaven with me. It's so beautiful you'll want to be there. And he told the same thing to his daughter. Ahiro, the boy, became one of the leaders of the Abhoi church when I was born. [00:38:59] Because he'd gone to school and knew the Indonesian language and knew how to read and write. And so that was encouraging. And they all said, yes, we will do that. to be all-promising. And these people all came back to our boy and said, we want to be Christians now. So to be told us that we should be Christians. And Baida was the first one back with his two wives. He says, Tuan, show me how to be a Christian. [00:39:30] And show Daya, too. Now, Daya was his second wife, his favorite. And show her, too. I said, what about Emmerhon, the other wife? Ah, he says, Tuan, let her go to the fire you said heaven was a long time I don't want her around that long so now here's a man that wants to be a Christian and he doesn't love his wife enough well that was his first wife, he loved the second one he says save her so I led him and Daya, his favorite wife, to the Lord [00:40:03] and later on, well then I told him I said now Vida, you've got children by Amahon Your other wife, your first wife. And if Emmerholm doesn't follow Jesus, then her kids will not likely follow because they sleep around her fire. I said, so you've got to bring her. And he did. He later brought her too. And I was able to lead her to the Lord. And then those two women just were able to work together and they'd go out gathering food together and babysit for each other. [00:40:34] And I mean, they became like sisters in the Lord. Okay. So, that's the way it was. It started the church and all, there was 20 people came back. And every one of them wanted to be a Christian. And that became the nucleus of our Aboy Church. That's how it started. There's a whole lot more to the story, but I think you got the point of that. So, there was all kinds of, then there was another guy that was raised from it. [00:41:06] Oh, this is something. I went to the village of Hashima, and they were mourning like crazy, they were all mourning around this house, and all the people in the house were all, they get real close to him, they breathe in his face, you know, they suffocate him really, and the place was so hot, and all these bodies falling over each other, laying there around him, I could hardly see who it was that was, who was dying. [00:41:37] And I asked them, I said, who is this that is dying? And they said, Kudabu. Now, Kudabu was a nice guy. I liked the guy. Potential Christian, later, and so on. But he was a nice guy. He was a chief of a large family, had several wives, and had many children and grandchildren. And Kudabu, he's lying. And I said, let me at him. Let me see if I can give him some medicine. I always carried some stuff. Carol's the nurse, but she would pack me up some things and taught me the best I could, the best she could, to treat people. [00:42:16] And I'm out there in the villages doing the best I can with that. And as I said this morning, she took the powerful codeine and stuff out that I could kill them with and send me out there with the malaria pills and the aspirin and so on. Well, I said, let me add to it, he died this morning, and this was about 11 o'clock, they died early this morning, and so I said, let me near him, let him, and finally I squeezed in between these bodies, and there was his arm, and there was a slight pulse still there, and I said, he isn't dead yet, he died this morning, he isn't dead yet. [00:43:04] and I couldn't convince him and I jumped off the house and there was the chief of the village I said, chief, get those people off of him he's not dead yet he died this morning, he's dead I said, no, he's not dead yet and he argued with me and I said, well, I'll raise him from the dead come on, let me at it he says, you'll raise him from the dead? he said, yeah he went in there and says get off of him, get away from him He's going to raise them from the dead. [00:43:37] And I did. So now they all believe that I raised people from the dead. But, you know, there was still a slight pulse. God did a miracle all right because he was pretty bad off. And I told him to fan and we fanned fresh air into this house and so on. And I gave him water to drink and stayed with him and did everything I could to make him comfortable, to get that fever down. And the first thing you know, here he opens his eyes. [00:44:10] He said, Kudabu, I'm glad to see that you're back. Where have you been? He says, Ah, Tuon, I'm so glad you came to help me. Because he wasn't really that old yet. And so I raised him from the dead. Anyway, these are the miracles that God enables us missionaries to do in primitive situations like that. I heard a story from a missionary, a crippled Ethiopian. [00:44:42] You remember that one, Carol? They said he was a crippled man. And the missionary had had quite a bit of success and had many converts. But then he stood up one year, they came together for the annual conference in a certain month every year, and he said, now I can't keep going to all the villages, you guys will have to go to the villages, those ones south of the ranges. [00:45:13] Oh, they dreaded that because the South of the Ranges were these wicked guys that killed everybody who came their way. And so, they thought of him, but nobody had gone. And he says, now you guys got to go. I can't go everywhere. I came here to you. Now you're believers. And so, he really told them. And finally, he said, how many of you are willing to stand to your feet and come up here? And there was 20 young men stood up. [00:45:48] They would go to different parts of that, these tribes south of the ranges to bring the gospel. They were willing to die for Christ. They knew that this was, they had to climb across these ranges. And then the 21st one came down the aisle and he was a hopeless crippled. He was so bad that he had a stick and shoved it into the ground. And then he pulled himself towards, kind of jump and pull towards the stick about eight inches at the time. [00:46:21] Then he'd plant the stick again. That's how he came out. Now, what do you think? God's looking at this whole situation. He says, I like this. I like that last one that came. He can't even run away from the warriors. Right? He's going to need me bad. That's what I like. I want to show myself strong. And so, they said, oh no, you can't go, you can't go. I mean, you'll get on top of those mountains, you won't be able to get across quickly, [00:46:51] you'll freeze in the cold up there, you won't find enough to eat. And he says, if they come after you, you won't be able to run. There's no way. Okay, that's man's way of looking at it. Alright, so they sent those other 20 out. Alright, and this man was so, he felt that God was telling him he should go to bring the gospel And so one night he slipped out of camp, he got a little string bag around his neck with some food in it [00:47:24] And he had his knife so he could cut some roots or something, whatever And he slipped out at night while the others were sleeping and got far enough away and followed a stream where they couldn't see the stick marks. Otherwise, they could just find him so quick. And the next morning, they didn't know where he'd gone. After several days, they started wondering and looking for him, but he was gone. And he prayed all the way, Oh God, let me win a tribe south of the mountains for you. [00:47:57] And he got on top of the mountain and he was cold and weak. and he prayed to God for warmth and he prayed to God for food and he kept going and got across those mountains, ran out of food so Lord would show him something but he was getting real skinny and real weak but he kept going, he was on the top, now he had to go down which was easier and he all the way into that first tribe there, that wicked tribe and there were some people hunting out there on the foothills and they found him [00:48:30] and he was almost too weak to go on and these guys showed kindness to him and they gave him food and they gave him water to drink and they helped him down to their village and they brought him to the house of the chief. This poor man had a pretty good mind on him and he started learning the language of those people and he started talking about Jesus and he went from one chief's house to another chief's house [00:49:03] the chiefs all took care of him and he preached to them and he taught them and they wanted to know more about Jesus and it was this crippled man that did it and then we found out later that the reason they listened to him because in that tribe they honored cripples Somehow a crippled man had saved them from the enemy, had found, or from the famine and found some root that saved them, their lives. [00:49:36] And so now they always said crippled men, they're good, they're the ones we follow. And he was the worst cripple they'd ever saw. So they thought, he's got to be chief, he's got to be the big chief, because he's such a big cripple. And he became their leader. He taught them. He taught them about Jesus. He taught them the songs of the church and so on. After a whole year, the conference was on again. He says, now we've got to go to the conference. All the Christians are gathering. Now we should go. [00:50:12] And they carried him most of the way back. And they were all following him. And now when they got close to the conference, he said, sit me down. I'm going before you and they were singing the hymns of the church and the conference was saying there's no other Christians who is this singing hymns coming down the mountains and he couldn't believe it and then he saw the crippled man coming ahead of him and he says it's his flock 200 Christians were with him [00:50:43] singing the gospel behind him and hey, God enjoyed the impossible, don't you think? That's the kind of thing God enjoys. So, I don't know what you can do to give God an impossible situation but maybe you know of an impossible situation. But ask God to do it for you and may people be converted. All right, that whole tribe finally was converted through the crippled man. [00:51:17] Alright, we had a crippled man in New Guinea, his name was Bill Cutts, he was there with the Christian and Missionary Alliance, maybe some of you heard of that church somewhere and he was sent there and well, he went to New York, that's where the headquarters were and they were looking for missionaries and they were having a prayer meeting, all the leaders of the Alliance churches and they were praying and he knocks on the door he could hardly knock because his fingers were so crooked [00:51:50] and his feet were crooked he had a humpback and he only had one eye that he could see with he just was one bad specimen never grew very big a wretched individual, Bill Cutts and he knocked on that door and they asked him what he wanted He says, God is telling me to be a missionary to the place where you, to New Guinea, that's where we were, that's where he came. [00:52:21] And they said, no, Bill, sorry, you serve Jesus here at home, we can't use you on the mission field the way you are. And he was discouraged, went back all the way to Alabama. And he prayed again and God kept saying, New Guinea, you've got to go. and so a couple of years later he comes again to the conference there in New York and he knocks on the door again and says God told me to go to be a missionary so please send me [00:52:53] and they said oh no and finally he talked them into it after several times more they were praying for new recruits and Bill Cutts came finally he said God are you trying to say that we should send this man and that was it. And he became one tremendous missionary. He was in the highlands of New Guinea. We'd hear him on the radio. We have a Missavia radio where we talk to all the other missionaries and whatever [00:53:24] and he would talk to the nationals, his national converts. He knew the language so well that you couldn't tell his voice from the nationals answering him. That's how good he was. What the mission didn't know, they knew he had a wretched body, but they didn't know he had one of the sharpest minds that ever was, that was linguistically inclined. He could hear things and repeat them and remember them. And so he learned that language quickly and effectively. And he brought people to Christ. [00:53:56] He was no threat to the people because he was so wretched. These money people, they were cannibals. They ate people. But man, he looked so bad, they didn't, the cannibals didn't even look at him. You know, anyone else, they would have eaten him up, but not this guy. And so he stayed there, and he won the whole Mone tribe. It was fantastic. Nobody believed that this could be possible, that God could choose that man. But God knows what he's doing, folks. [00:54:28] You may not be very smart or very talented, but God can use you in some way to reach people for Christ. And, well, I've got to get out, Bill Cutts, we can't go too much longer, I know. I know you're dying to eat, aren't you? But this is some spiritual food I'm giving you. Okay? Now, all right. You leaders, did you hear that? You heard that preacher? [00:55:02] Alright, there was a man named Ken Gaub. Have you ever heard of the evangelist Ken Gaub? He came from Yakima, Washington, a town in Washington State, way over in the West Coast. Do you know where that is, Yakima? Do I say it right? And he was driving through Ohio. He was between meetings. He had his family with him. He was discouraged. Apparently things hadn't gone too good in the ministry or maybe there was not much money coming in and he didn't know what to do. [00:55:37] But he was discouraged and about ready to quit. And they came to Dayton, Ohio. Now, down 75 from Toledo. And came to Dayton and somebody said, well, why don't we get something to eat and we'll all feel better. And so he says, okay. And so he pulled in one of the exits of Dayton, Ohio. He didn't pull very far off I-75 and there was a corner there, there was a stoplight. [00:56:10] And he said, well, there's a restaurant there. He pulled in there first. He says, why don't you all go and get something to eat? I just, I just have to have some time alone. I'm going to go for a walk. I'm going to try to meet God and ask him what I'm to do in this situation. And so he did and the man, the missionary, walked down to that stoplight and on the corner by the stoplight there was a payphone. [00:56:43] So this has been some time ago. It was a payphone and the payphone was ringing and it irritated him. He said, why doesn't somebody answer that phone? and when he went by it, the wind seemed to switch and the ringing still came at him from behind and finally he thought, well maybe this might be something urgent and so he goes in that payphone, into that phone booth and he picks up the receiver and says, hello [00:57:15] and they said, there was a lady on the phone there was a, do you know anybody by the name of Ken Gaub? that was him and he said yes I do well please call him this lady is a desperate situation she needs to talk to Ken Gaub she said Ken would have answers for her you know he looks around and says man what is this candid camera or something you know what and [00:57:45] first thing you know this lady was on the phone is that Ken Gaub He says, yes, this is me. Oh, Ken, I'm so glad you took my call. I knew you were someplace down in West Coast, California. No, he says, I'm in Washington. He says, oh, are you in your office in Washington now? He says, no. Well, where are you, Mr. Gough? I'm someplace in Ohio here. I'm in a phone booth. [00:58:17] He says, what are you doing there? I'm taking your call. Now, phone booths don't have the numbers listed. They never used to have the numbers listed on there. And so she said, Mr. Goub, I saw you on TV at one time. You were talking about Jesus and about what he did for certain people. And that's my problem. I'm very bad off and I'm going to die. [00:58:49] And I wanted to talk to you for you to give me advice and help me or pray for me or something. And so he says, well, how did you know my number? He didn't know the number himself, the phone he was on. And she says, well, she says, I was praying. Now, here's an unsaved person, desperate, praying. They do pray. All right. And she says, I was praying. I said, God, would you help me find Ken Goub? [00:59:28] Well, you know, there's a lot of phone numbers in the United States. And would you help me find him? And he, God seemed to tell her, OK, dial this number. He gave her a series of numbers. People who played a lottery would love to have this kind of thing. But God doesn't help them, so don't even try it. That was ten numbers, a long distance number from Washington on the west coast. [01:00:02] And she wrote it down on this piece of paper. She thought, wouldn't it be something if that was Ken Gaub's number? And as Ken Gaub was walking by the phone booth, And as the wind changed, the Holy Spirit told her, call the number, call the number. She dialed that number and got Ken Gov. Now, to us, you say, that can't be possible. [01:00:33] To God, all things are possible. And he can do the impossible. And so God enjoyed this one, connecting up the right lines to the right two people. And he led her to Christ and showed her the way she should live. Got her address to send her some literature. And he was delighted. He went for a walk. He was discouraged. And now he's on top of the world. I mean, this is amazing. [01:01:04] Look what God did. When you experience a miracle, it lifts you right out of the doldrums, folks. And that's why we need miracles so much. But when you keep all your bases covered and get everything insured and all, looking to men for everything, there's not much room for God to do miracles for you. You're looking to man. And that's not, it says, don't trust in man, but trust in God. And so, he got off the phone and his face was just beaming. And he walked into that restaurant. [01:01:36] He never went for his walk. And they said, what happened to you? His children and his wife said, what happened to you? Because he was just shining with joy. And he said, I met God in the phone booth. You can meet him anywhere, can't you? And told him the story. And so now he went on to his next meetings. God can do anything he wants to do. Do you believe it? Absolutely. Absolutely. But we look to man. We've got to look to God first. It'll save you money too. But if it costs you money, hey, God can give you the money back again. [01:02:19] There was a missionary from Ecuador and he told me two stories. I'm going to tell you one of them because you don't need both of them to believe. He, this missionary was traveling with his wife and children across the Andes Mountains to Quito to the, you from there? Okay, well, he was traveling that way and he had an old, this was back in the 50s, I heard this a while back, and he said he had this 1938 Buick. [01:02:57] I don't know how that Buick ever got to Ecuador, but it did. He was driving it. And he says on top of that one of the highest peaks in the Andes, the brakes on one of his wheels just started smoking and was overheated. And they pulled over to the side and he and his kids all around that thing. And they pulled it off and the pieces of the brake shoes, the drum, whatever it was, just started falling off. [01:03:33] It was so bad. And he says, oh my. And they started praying, oh God, we need a new brake drum here. We need new brake calipers or whatever it is in there. And the kids are praying with him. Hey, that's a wonderful thing. We have the kids praying with you. I think we, as churches, ought to send the adults down to the basement to play with the crayons [01:04:04] and bring the kids up to do the praying. Because they've got more faith than we have. They believe what they pray. Anyway, he didn't know what to do in their standing there, but it was on a bad spot in a corner, a turn in the road, and the dangers and he told the kids to get off the road off the side and the kids started playing down the hill, you know, in the woods there and steep grade going down and so on. [01:04:36] And a man stopped and he said, do you have any brake parts for a 1938 Buick? And the guy just laughed at him. What do you think? I carry brake parts for every make of car that America ever sent here. and so he says, but you've got to get your car off the road, off this corner. These big trucks come around here and man, they'll wipe you out. Put the wheel back on and ease it down the mountain to another spot, to another spot where it's a little wider, where they can see you. [01:05:11] So that's what he did. And the guy took off and he put the wheel back on and he eased that car down a little further to a wider spot and stopped right there. He told the kids to get in first and that's where they sat for quite a while. They prayed again and he said to the kids, pray again. We need help. It's going to be dark. And then we're stuck on the top of this mountain. And so he, after they prayed, one of the sons said, [01:05:44] And he said, Daddy, why don't you open the trunk? There might be another wheel in there or another whatever brake pipe. And he said, Son, would you just shut up and let me think. I'm trying to pray and let me think. You know, some kids will tell you what to do and you say, hey, leave me alone a little bit. Anyway, one of the kids went down, one of the sons went down the mountain and explored, man, they were in their, you know, they have a great time. [01:06:20] And one came up and said, Dad, you know what? There's a car just like ours down over the mountain way down there. You'll probably have some brakes on it. And his dad says, man, it's a black car just like ours. Well, all the cars in the 30s were mostly black. And he says, but he had lots of time, so he went down with his children down to the black car that had gone over the hill possibly years ago because there was moss and growth all over it, and they got the stuff away from them, looking for the back wheel. [01:06:55] There was no wheels on this car. There must have been another Buick that needed wheels, and they'd already gotten the wheels. And he said, God, I can't understand. It was a black Buick, the same as his, identical, but no wheels on it. God, what are you trying to say? And again, this smart aleck boy, no, this boy, this boy that was listening to the Lord says, Dad, why don't you look in the trunk? [01:07:26] Maybe there's some in there. Kid, don't be a smart aleck. But what else he could do? He went up and got the lug wrench and so on and started working on it because he had no keys for that thing. Finally, they popped that trunk and there was a box there. He said, Daddy, it's probably in that box, what you need? And it was. The box held up brand new parts for a rear wheel brake for a 1938 Buick that the guy had there stored. [01:08:07] It wasn't, see, if he'd gotten an old rusted one off the wheel, I mean, how could he have gotten all the bolts loose and turned it on? So God says, I've got to have a nice new one in this car with the grease still on it so that he could just turn it almost with his fingers. and he carried it up and put that on the car and it worked like a charm, it worked great and he tightened it up and the car was fixed [01:08:38] now you don't believe that do you? why should you believe that? if you believe in God who wants to show himself strong folks then you believe things like this God had this drunk guy or whoever drive that car over the cliff maybe 10 years earlier and he had that box of parts in there in preparation for this missionary coming [01:09:09] folks, he knows what parts you will need 10 years from now and he probably got them ready for him so go down the cliff and find them But God knew that this man needed the parts and he knew that his wife and children needed the spiritual instruction and the faith and he put that on there and he drove all the way to Quito. And God enjoys the impossible. [01:09:42] Well, he gave me another story but I won't give you that one. There's enough things to do. The widow woman in Pennsylvania. The widow woman that worked for richer people, cleaned their houses and so on. Two things about the widow woman. She was always smiling and always praying. And she was cleaning well. And when the businessman went to his job, she'd say, I'll be praying for your business today, that God will bless it. [01:10:18] Well, how is a businessman, a worldly businessman, going to react to that? He didn't know how to react to it. But God blessed his business that day. And at the end of the day, he drove his big car by the little cottage, the little rented cottage of the widow woman. Where she and her children lived And she said, ma'am, did you pray for me today? She says, yes, did my God answer? He says, oh, it's either the biggest coincidence or he has answered [01:10:51] Because I got more good deals today and sold more equipment today And it just blessed me And he got his wallet out and gave her a bill He says, no, no, no, you don't need to pay me for praying He says, no, I'm not paying you for praying I just want to share some of what I received today. So she took it and she had grocery money and so on. So she was in a different home the next day on the Tuesday of the week. She did the same thing. Sir, I'll be praying that God will bless your business today. [01:11:26] She did this the whole week in all the different homes in the next week. And when they realized that when the widow woman was praying in their house, God was blessing them. One guy said, well, I don't even have to go to work the rest of the week. I can make enough in one day that the widow woman is in my house. And so he was encouraging her and the wife was giving clothes for the children and everything else, meeting their needs. And so that went on. And finally, she was controlling all the business of this town. [01:12:02] Because they were holding it. They tell the other men, come on Thursday. Well, one man said, why don't you work for me all the time? Well, that's like American greed, isn't it? Why don't you work for me? Oh, I can't work for you. I promised the other ladies that I'd clean their house and help them on the other days. I can't do that. How frustrating for the businessman. He had a good thing going, but he wants more. He wants to be blessed every day. and so this went on [01:12:32] and just as sure as could be so these businessmen were feeling mighty guilty and one went to the landlord of the lady of the widow woman and said I want to pay her rent for the next year gave her the money, gave the man the money said just tell her that it's all taken care of so she goes to pay her rent and he says Man, put the money back in your purse because somebody made a deposit for a whole year to come back a certain month next year. [01:13:09] And so, what do you think she did with that money? Well, what she had heard in her church, a missionary speaking, had such a great need for his ministry or orphanage, whatever he was doing. and she said oh I wish I had money to give to that missionary and she made a promise that time she said God any money I get above my basic needs like food and the rent and so on I will send to this missionary [01:13:41] and then she got this money a year's worth of rent and she had so little that she went to the banker and gave that money to that address to that missionary Well, when she did that, you can imagine God kept blessing her. All the other people she worked with did the same thing. And they were, one went to the grocery store and put a deposit by the grocery, said, when that lady comes here, you put it on my bill, take it out of my account. [01:14:13] And so when she gets her meager groceries, he says, put your money back in your purse, ma'am. It's all paid for. She did that two Saturdays in a row. And then she started eating better. Then she started getting better food for her children. And it was all paid for. She just couldn't spend any money on food. And then they were giving her more clothes. Not only hand-me-dons, but she got new clothes. And one man saw her wearing that same black coat and said, [01:14:47] And she said, ma'am, here's $80, go buy you a new coat. And she stood in her home with the $80 in her hand. And she said, you know, this black coat is still good. I don't need two coats. I'll send this to the missionaries too. and she sent her grocery money to the missionaries and her rent money to the missionaries and everything else for every other bill all of it was paid for [01:15:17] by these people she worked for they were all, it was conscience on their part they were getting rich because of her prayers and her work and so she was now giving 100% of her paycheck to the missionaries Now, that's hard to believe, isn't it? 100%. And they ate better. And the furniture truck comes. We've got your new furniture. She says, I didn't order any new furniture. [01:15:49] You've got the wrong address. No, no, they said you wouldn't know about this, but we are to deliver it. Take your old stuff out. Please get out of the way and we'll get it done. She's sleeping on better beds and sitting in better chairs and has nicer rugs on the floor. and she's still giving 100% away. And that's how this widow woman... You know how we found out about it? The pastor told us. He wasn't supposed to tell her where this was in Pennsylvania, so don't ask me. [01:16:22] But he says she doesn't want any attention. But the missionaries come home on furlough. Where do they go? To the churches where the money comes from. Right? I've been there, that's the kind of mission I was with we had to raise our own support some of you don't know that system and they said who is this family that sends us $500 every other month he says we don't have any rich people in this church [01:16:53] and told their name he says no I can't believe that And so they were given And so they go to the donor And they said have you been sending money to this missionary, this widow woman And he said yes And God so blessed him for giving that gave him more And so that's the way she went on It just met all her needs [01:17:23] And she was giving more money because the pastor tallied it up. Every missionary came. They'll keep coming. They come where the money comes from and they keep coming and he tallied it up and she was giving so much to missions far more than the whole church was giving. One widow woman and she was just rejoicing in the Lord. Don't you think God showed himself strong? [01:17:55] Those that are honest. Now he isn't giving it to most of us because we'd spend it on ourselves. But she was, he could give her, she became a channel. And God could give it to her because he could trust her to get it to the mission field and to the need where the need was. May God help all of us to be that kind of people, to serve God and his cause first, before taking care of ourselves. Heavenly Father I pray for this group of people at this church [01:18:29] I pray that you might give them courage to live for you Give them understanding that you long to show yourself strong in our behalf That you long to do miracles for us That you long to bless us in many ways And Father we've seen that through these stories which I've told tonight And I could have told many more Thank you, Father, for this message in the hearts of my hearers and may they believe that you're God, that you're interested in every one of our lives, that you want to use us and bless us and make us a blessing to others so that your name might be mightily glorified and that your church might become stronger and that your will might be done. [01:19:18] Oh, how we need your help. How we need miracles in this day and age when the churches are so weak. And we see so little miracles. And you've got all the goods up there. You've got all the wisdom and all the power and all the money and all the provisions. And you want to use it sometime. And we apologize, Lord. We've kept you unemployed. You have nothing to do because we're asking man to take care of us. So, Lord, forgive us. Help us to trust you once again In Jesus name, Amen.