Deepening Our Faith: A Call to Intimacy with God

So John chapter 17, verse 3. The reason I'm putting that verse up there is this is the verse that after I came back to the Lord, ministered to me the deepest. I mean, I'm talking days. It was after I rededicated my life to the Lord, and I'm reading the Bible, just even wondering if God liked me anymore, could stand me, wanted me around, because I had pretty much rejected him. I had rejected him. [00:49:07] (24 seconds)


And I came across this verse, and it's, this is eternal life. To know the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he sent. When I read that, it changed me. Paul, it's okay if you cry. I mean, it's okay to get emotional. He got me going this morning already. But it changed me. It brought an understanding that God wants us to know him. Not just know about him. Not just once in a while hear a story. He wants us to literally know him. [00:49:31] (44 seconds)


I read in the Old Testament where Moses was a friend, a friend of God. He would go into the Holy of Holies. He'd go into the Tent of Meeting, and he would talk to God face to face. And we all know the story how he spent 40 days on the mountain. He came down, he was glowing. Well, you spend 40 days in the presence of God, you'll be glowing. But he talked to God face to face. And I realized, I want that. I want that. I want... I want that in my life. I want to know him. And to know what he's doing, who he is, and what he's doing, and why he's doing it. And so for the last however many years, 38, 39 years, literally been seeking him. [00:50:05] (52 seconds)


And in 1993, I went to a minister's meeting, a youth pastor meeting down in Oklahoma City. And while I was down there, there was a whole bunch of people, different people speaking. And one guy got up one day, and he started, this is how he started his talk. He said, he goes, you know, I really don't know why they have me here speaking. And I'll be honest with you, because I have to be. I thought, yeah, I don't know why they have you speaking either. You start out like that. And he said, yeah, he says, well, he says, you know, actually, I do know why they're having me speak, because I have the largest youth group in America. And at the time, it was in Cleveland, Ohio. I mean, that's where the church is. And at that time, I don't know what they're doing now. He goes, I have the largest youth group in America. He says, I have over 2 ,000 kids coming every Wednesday night. [00:53:20] (57 seconds)


He says, we bus them in from communities all around, and they come in. And he says, here's the deal. I don't do anything. I'm just going to be honest with you. I don't do anything. He says, I, you know, a couple hours before service, he said, 300 kids. Come to the church, and they all meet in front of the altar. And they pray for the service. And then the worship team comes, and they practice and get ready, and they lead worship. And the service starts. People are, there's ushers, and there's greeters. There's people that are bringing, you know, come in, and everybody comes in and fills up. And then the worship starts, and he says, after about, you know, 35 to 40 minutes of worship, he says, I come on. I come on and speak for 25 minutes, and then I leave the stage. And he says, our worship, or I'm sorry, our prayer team comes. They're all teenagers, and they lay hands on the sick. They pray for people to get saved. They pray for deliverance. He says, these are all teenagers. Hundreds of them do this. [00:54:57] (72 seconds)


And he says, he goes, that goes on week after week. And then our team, we have teen teams who go out into these neighborhoods and do evangelism and bring more people in. And I'm sitting there the whole time. If I was actually sitting, I could show you, but I kept slouching more, because the conviction was so deep. And so he gets all done, and now it's lunchtime. He was the last speaker before lunch, and everybody that I was with got up and said, hey, let's go grab lunch. And I said, guys, I'm not really hungry. You guys go ahead. So they got up, they left. Everybody left the auditorium, the sanctuary where we were at, and I was the only one sitting. my seat because I couldn't move. And I was just like, I'm just like, wow. My goodness. Who did I think I was? And I still remember praying this because I have to be honest because I have to be. I said, Lord, what's wrong with my kids? What's wrong with the kids? How come they don't come before and pray? How come they're not leading worship? How come they're not praying for the sick? Lord, what's wrong with the kids? And the Holy Spirit, I love the Holy Spirit. He goes, John, you're the problem. [00:55:47] (79 seconds)


And I literally said to God, I'm the problem? And he goes, yeah, you're the problem. I said, why am I the problem? He goes, because you won't let them grow up. You don't expect anything out of them. And I repented. I repented. I said, all right, what do we got to do? And he goes, well, you're going to go back. And he says, number one, you're not going to play any more games. Because we used to play games, really fun games, really go crowd breaker stuff. And I, okay, here's the deal. I'm not talking about anybody else. I'm not talking about any other youth group. I'm not even talking about our youth group. I don't know if they, do you guys play games? Keep playing games. Keep playing games. This is, this is, this is God dealing with me in that moment. He goes, you're not going to play any more games. He says, I used to sit on a stool and teach the lesson. You know, everybody would sit where on couches. We had couches and, you know, all kinds of stuff. And I used to sit on a stool and, and teach. He says, from now on you're going to stand up, you're going to have a lectern, you're going to preach. [00:56:34] (61 seconds)


And then, and then after that, after each of the meetings, we would, we would, I said, hey, you guys, we're going to stick around and we're going to pray. Because that's one of the things God told me early on. He says, be a man of prayer. I want you to be a man of prayer. I want you to pray unceasingly. And he's taught me how to pray unceasingly. And so, I said, you know, I did that. I came back the first Wednesday night. I said, okay, guys, we're not going to play any games tonight. We're just going to, we're going to sing some, you know, some songs. We're going to worship. Then I'm going to preach. And then afterwards, after you're dismissed, then we're going to, we're going to, you know, have a time of intercessory prayer. And the youth group went from 60 to 70, somewhere around there, down to 50, 40, 30, 20. It actually kind of leveled off at 13. We leveled off at 13. Now, here's the thing you need to know about those 13, is those 13, almost all of them are in ministry today. Almost all of them are following a call of God on their life. [00:57:50] (72 seconds)


And so I came back from that and, and we were still praying on Wednesday nights. And every once in a while they would come out. He was, you know, Lord, I pray for revival in the River Valley. And then as, as that went on and I, now I'm, I'm, I'm, you know, experienced revival but now I began to study revivals. I started reading all the books. I started reading John Knox, books about John Knox and Smith Wigglesworth and Finney and, and uh, you know, you name them. I read them. The, the Great Awakening. Uh, uh, uh. John Knox and Jonathan Edwards and, and, you know, other revivals around the world but also here in America. And I began to pray more directly. We began to pray more directly and praying for, for outpouring of God. Signs and wonders. For the power and plan of God to be, fill this valley. [01:01:11] (55 seconds)


And he said, well, he says, you know, we've only got 14 people. He says, we're in this church. And he's just like, you know, I can't afford anything else. And it just, it's so oppressive being there. And he said, I, we're just going to quit. We're just going to shut it down. And I said, really? I said, is there nothing else? There's nothing else you can do. There's nothing else, nowhere else you can go. And he goes, well, you know, he says, I got a guy in the church who has a warehouse building over in Somerset, Wisconsin. He said, we could use that for, for free. And I, and for those of you that really know me, I don't tell people what to do. I, you know, I'll say, Hey, you pray about it. You'd be led by the Lord. You just do whatever God tells you to do. And, uh, but on that day, I couldn't, couldn't help it. I literally stood up at the table. Everybody else is eating, put my hands on the table. I looked him right in the eye and said, Bill, you got to move your church to Somerset, Wisconsin. And he goes, Oh, okay. Why? And then I, so I told him the story that I've been praying and driving and praying and that I knew God wanted to put a church there. [01:06:31] (60 seconds)


And so, uh, he talked with his people. They get the two, three weeks later, they moved over to the other side. We gave them a lot of some, probably a lot of the chairs you're sitting in. We're actually their first chairs over there. We like to move chairs around in, uh, in this vision. So we moved the chair, gave him some chairs, gave him a pulpit. We gave him a bunch of stuff we had upstairs that we didn't need. And we just, we helped him. Plus we gave him a, well, I'll tell you, it doesn't matter. At this point, we gave him a thousand dollars. We gave him a thousand dollars. We gave him a thousand dollars. We gave him a thousand dollars. We just said, here, go start a church, go start. We restart this church. And one year later, they were running over a hundred people. They now that they now he's now retired, but he threw that ministry because they kept going. There are Bible schools all over small Bible schools and villages all over the world. God has a plan and a purpose. [01:07:30] (54 seconds)