Hello, this is Brother Denny.
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Well, I'd rather be a Christian than anything
else in the world.
You could be the President of the United
States if you want.
That would be a step down from being
a child of God.
I'd rather be a Christian than anything else
in the world today.
Greet each one in the name of the
Lord Jesus.
I think it's right for us just to
fall upon our knees and commit the service
into His hands.
I don't want to commit the service into
His hands.
Let's all commit the service into His hands
together as we pray.
Father, we come to You in the name
of Jesus this morning, Lord.
We just thank You, God, for all Your
goodness to us, Lord.
We thank You for the shed blood of
Christ this morning.
We thank You for Jesus.
We thank You, Lord, that He's there in
that exalted place on high this morning.
His name is above every name.
We thank You for this, Lord.
We thank You, God, this morning that everything
can be well with our soul through the
blood of Jesus.
Thank You for sprinkling our heart again this
morning, Lord, with the precious blood of Jesus,
making it clean, making it pure, making it
white, whiter than snow.
Lord, we thank You for that this morning.
It's well with our souls, Lord.
Oh, the bliss of that glorious thought.
My sin, not in part, but the whole,
is nailed to His cross, and I bear
it no more.
Praise the Lord.
Father, we just ask You this morning to
meet with us.
We are not here to hear words.
We didn't come here to sing, Lord.
We came here to meet with You.
I just pray, Lord, come on down.
Come minister to Your people again this morning,
Lord.
Set the fires burning in each one of
our hearts.
God, make us what Jesus wants us to
be, each and every one of us.
Oh, God, we just want to commit this
service into Your hands.
Every person, every child, every visitor.
Oh, God, just let a hush come over
all of us here this morning.
We just commit the service into Your hands,
Lord, asking You to bind the powers of
the devil and every evil spirit that would
hinder this meeting this morning, Lord.
We trust You to do that in the
name of Jesus.
We ask You to bless this meeting in
the name of Jesus with thanksgiving.
Amen.
Well, we want to welcome all the visitors
that are with us this morning.
We may not be able to get around
to every one of you, but we're very
grateful that you're here today.
I trust that God will bless you, minister
to you through something that is said or
something that was sung or a prayer that
was prayed.
I trust that God will minister to you.
We just believe with all of our heart.
God makes no mistakes and He led you
here.
And He led you here for a blessing.
And that's our prayer also, that God would
bless you.
I'd like you to turn in your Bibles
this morning for an opening to Psalm 40.
I feel led this morning by the Lord
to just to give my personal testimony.
I don't know if I've ever done that
around here.
I know that I share different pieces of
it here and there.
But I just felt led of the Lord
this morning to give my personal testimony.
How the Lord works in somebody's life.
Psalm 40 says, I waited patiently for the
Lord, and He inclined unto me and heard
my cry.
He brought me up also out of a
horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and
set my feet upon a rock and established
my goings.
And He hath put a new song in
my mouth, even praise unto our God.
Many shall see it and fear and shall
trust in the Lord.
I would have to say this morning, as
I pondered the possibility of giving my testimony,
these verses came clear to my heart over
and over again.
Maybe you feel the same way.
I think it's good if everybody feels like
that.
That God had mercy upon them and lifted
them up out of a pit and out
of the miry clay, and set their feet
on a rock and established their going.
But I know this morning that that is
exactly what the Lord did for me.
He put me on a rock.
He established my going.
He gave me direction in life that I
desperately needed.
And I've never been the same for it
since.
As I look back in my life, it's
now almost 18 years.
It will be 18 years, I think, in
February, that I became a Christian.
And I look back on my life and
remember that as I was growing up, I
didn't have any religious training.
There was no Bible in our house.
Nobody ever opened up the Bible.
Nobody ever took us to church.
No one ever spoke about God in our
house.
If anything, it was kind of laughed about.
It was kind of a joke.
Anybody who was a real Christian, well, we
sort of called them holy rollers at our
house.
We didn't know what that meant.
We had no idea what it meant.
But we heard it somewhere as somebody else
was mocking God and God's people.
So we picked it up around our house.
No religious background.
When I became a teenager and it came
time for me to choose, just like it
comes time for every teenager to choose what
they're going to do, what they're going to
think, what's going to direct their life, I
made my choice based on what I had
learned.
And I decided there was no God.
I decided I'm going to be an atheist
because there is no God.
During my teenage years, God did have mercy
upon me and allowed me one opportunity to
hear about Jesus.
But I threw it away.
My aunt and uncle, faithful aunt and uncle,
they came to me one day at the
house when my parents were gone, tried to
tell me about Christ Jesus.
I wouldn't even let them talk about Jesus.
I mocked them.
I made fun of them.
I sent them away humiliated by my mockings
and my laughings.
And they went out the door.
And I went my way.
And I went down and down and down,
which is the only way that anybody ever
goes when you reject the light of the
Gospel.
You go down and down and down.
A few years after that, I went into
the army.
And the army did what the army does
to most people.
It defiled me more than anything ever had.
In the army, there was all kinds of
filth, all kinds of wickedness, all kinds of
drugs and drinking, all kinds of false philosophies.
And there while I was in the army,
I strengthened my convictions and became a strong
atheist.
I began to study.
I read Sigmund Freud.
I read Charles Darwin, Origin of Species.
I read about Huxley.
I read some of the writings of Plato.
And as I read all these people, it
just strengthened my convictions that there was no
God, all the way while I was in
the army.
I used to make fun of Christians.
I must admit, I never met a real
one who knew their Bible well enough to
put me in my place.
I usually argued them into the corner and
sent them away ashamed, not having answers to
the questions that I would throw at them.
I wished one time I had met a
real one who could have put me in
my place and opened up the Word of
God and shut my mouth by the Word
of God, but I never did.
Well, I got out of the military and
I came home and just continued in my
life the way that it was there in
the military.
I continued right down the same vein after
I got out of the army until one
night.
And I remember this night so clearly in
my experience.
It was a summer night.
I'd been to a party somewhere.
I left the party.
I was sitting out on the grass looking
up at the stars.
It was a beautiful summer night.
It was one of those summer nights where
the clouds were nowhere in sight and the
heavens were just gloriously arrayed up in front
of me.
And I was sitting there looking up at
the heavens and they were preaching to me.
I didn't know that back then, but they
were just preaching about the glory of God.
And God was preaching to me.
And God was saying, I am and I
made all these things.
I'm God.
I'm the Creator and I made all these
things.
And I remember that night as I gazed
up into the heavens, saying out loud with
no one else around to hear me, looking
up at the heavens I said to myself,
I wonder if maybe there is a God.
I was looking at this glorious display that
our mighty and majestic God had made.
And it was preaching to me.
And the question came into my mind and
my heart.
And I believe that was the first time
that I opened my door a little bit
to God and the light of God.
But it was enough, hallelujah!
It was enough for God's Spirit to run
after me.
That was the summer.
By February of the next year, I was
under such deep conviction, I didn't know what
was wrong with me.
My girlfriend, which is my wife now, God
used her to convict me of my need,
even though she wasn't even a Christian.
She had some morality about her.
She loved old people.
She loved little children.
And I couldn't stand either one of them.
It was the last place I'd want to
be is somewhere where there'd be some little
children or an old person around.
I couldn't stand them.
And she'd reach out to them and love
them.
And this brought conviction upon my heart and
I realized, there must be something that I'm
missing.
There must be something that she has that
I don't have.
And I remember this question kept ringing in
my heart.
Maybe there is a God.
I wonder if there is a God.
Until finally one morning I woke up and
I was just consumed with it.
And I said, I'm going to find out
if there's a God.
I'm going to find out no matter what
it costs me.
My girlfriend, which is my wife, she said,
What are you going to do?
And I said, I don't know, but I'm
going to find out if there's a God.
I've got to get the answer to this
question.
And I don't know where I got all
these things in my mind, because I never
read the Bible.
But I told her, I'll tell you what
I'm going to do.
I'm going to go get me a motel.
And I'm going to lock myself in that
motel room.
I'm going to take a week off work.
I'm going to lock myself in that motel
room.
And I'm not going to eat until I
find out if there's a God.
And I don't even know where I got
all those things.
And I left her that day.
Walked away and she was crying.
She thought I was off my rocker.
She thought there was something desperately wrong with
me.
And I left that day to make the
arrangements.
Went to my boss.
He was a Jew.
Told him what I needed.
I told him I need a week off
of work.
I want to find out if there's a
God.
And he gave me the week off work.
Probably didn't understand me either.
And I got my motel.
And everything was set.
I was ready to go.
Then it dawned on me toward the end
of the day.
I don't even have anything to read.
How am I going to find out if
there's a God if I don't have anything
to read?
And then it came to my mind and
I know now so clearly.
It was the Spirit of the Living God
who said to me, What about your aunt
and uncle?
Those fanatics.
They'll tell you what to read.
And I thought, yes.
Aunt Pearl and Uncle Don.
They'll tell me what to read.
And I went over to their house and
knocked on the door that evening.
And there I stood outside the door.
Long hair.
Had a beard of rebellion on my face.
Had a little marijuana in my back pocket.
And I stood there at the front door.
And Aunt Pearl opened up the door and
said, Well, Denny, what do you want?
And I stood there completely innocent.
Not realizing how it would shock her.
And I said, Aunt Pearl, I want to
find out if there's a God.
Do you know of any good books I
can read?
Oh, sure.
So, when her heart must have flip-flopped
that evening, she said, Well, sure.
Come on in.
And she convinced me to come inside the
house there.
And she brought me over to the dining
room table and took a big black Bible
just like this one here this morning.
And she opened it up and took me
down the Romans' road to salvation there in
the book of Romans and showed me that
I was a sinner and showed me that
I was on my way to hell.
And she showed me that Jesus died for
me and He could set me free and
He could change my life.
And then she showed me all you have
to do is get on your knees right
here and call upon the name of the
Lord and He'll save you.
And she said, Denny, wouldn't you like to
just kneel right down here and pray right
now?
Oh, no way.
I've never been on my knees.
I don't know how to pray.
It embarrassed me.
I said, No.
No, thank you.
No prayer for me.
Okay.
She could tell that was as far as
she could take me.
She could tell that I kind of got
ruffled by that.
So she took her black Bible just like
this is my black Bible and it's all
marked.
I've got notes in it and all over
the place.
She took her black Bible and she stuck
it in my hand and she said, You
take this with you and you take this
to the motel and you'll find out if
there's a God or not.
I said, Alright.
I'll do it.
So I left her house with a big
black Bible in this hand and a lid
of marijuana in this pocket and I went
out and got into my car and I
was going over to my friend's house.
We were going to get high one more
time and then I was going to the
motel.
I'd already made the arrangements, called him up.
He was waiting for me to pick him
up.
I pulled down in front of his house.
He was standing in the doorway waiting for
me.
As soon as I pulled up, he took
off running from the door of his house
to the car and he reached out to
get a hold of the car door and
just like that, something came over me and
I hit the gas pedal and pulled away
and just left him standing there with his
hand out just like this.
Wondering, what is wrong with this guy?
And you know, as I look back on
that evening, it was the mercy of God.
It was the mercy of God.
He had put that seed in my heart
and the devil was ready to snatch it
out and I believe if I had went
with that friend that evening and we had
got high, the devil would have snatched those
seeds right out of my heart.
But God who is rich in mercy, in
the love wherewith He loved me, He caused
me to pull away from that place and
I left him standing there and I didn't
even call him for a couple of days.
He didn't know what happened to me.
And I drove away and drove around in
Omaha, Nebraska for two hours.
Later, I found out my aunt had been
praying for me much while I was driving
around the city of Omaha, Nebraska.
She was praying, Oh God, don't let the
seed come out of that heart.
Oh God, save this boy.
And I wrestled.
And for two hours I wrestled.
God wrestled with me and I wrestled with
Him.
And I realized this is going to mean
something.
This decision that I need to make is
going to mean something.
It's going to change my life.
And finally after two hours, I pulled the
car over to the side of the road
and I just cried out to God and
I said, God, I give up.
I'm a sinner.
I know I'm going to hell.
Will You please save me?
And just like that, heaven came down and
the glory of God filled my soul and
that weight of sin rolled off of my
back and I was forgiven and I knew
that I was.
It was so clear to me.
I spoke the words out loud again and
nobody was around and I said, it worked!
It worked!
What a glorious evening that was for me.
Well, I went over to the house where
Jackie was and she was sitting there watching
television and I come busting in the door
and of course she didn't expect to see
me for a week.
And she wondered, what are you doing here?
And I told her, well, Jackie, everything's alright.
I don't need to go to the motel.
I'm saved now.
And she looked at me and she said,
well, good, so am I.
Now we're both saved.
She had a few things to learn about
salvation.
But I got on the telephone and I
called my aunt and told her what God
had done and she was so happy.
And I went to bed that night.
And the next morning I woke up to
this book right here.
That black book that my aunt had given
me and I opened it up and all
of a sudden this book that I never
believed, refused to read, mocked it, made all
kinds of jokes about it, all of a
sudden this book was very precious to me
and I started reading it.
And for some reason, I think maybe to
renew my mind, God put such an insatiable
desire to read the Word of God in
those first days of my Christian life, I
think a couple of years of my Christian
life.
It was two and three hours a day
that I read the Bible.
I just read it and read it and
read it.
I couldn't get enough of it.
It was God's Word.
This is how God feels.
And I want to know how God feels
because I never knew there was a God.
And now I've met Him.
And I want to know what He thinks.
And I want to live the way He
wants me to live.
And I was consumed with reading the Bible.
I remember the day after I was converted,
I was taking Jackie somewhere and I looked
over at her while I was driving.
Maybe she was driving.
I can't remember.
And I said, you know what?
And I still had long hair and a
beard.
And I still had a lot of needs
in my life.
But I looked over and I said, you
know, I think God wants me to be
a preacher.
Can you believe that?
I think He wants me to be a
preacher.
I found the answer.
I know what all my college buddies are
looking for.
I'd sat in all those rep sessions at
college.
I'd heard all the things they talked about,
all the philosophies that they had.
Now I knew the answer.
Now I knew what they were looking for.
And I thought in my heart, I'm going
to tell everybody I can.
I found the answer.
They need the same thing.
And like so many young Christians do, I
took off in that zeal, not realizing that
people would spit in my face and laugh
at me when I'd tell them.
I went and told all my buddies.
They thought I was crazy.
They said I'll get over it.
They said it will pass away and He'll
be back.
But I've never been back.
Hallelujah!
17 years and I haven't been back.
Well, from February to June, many changes took
place in my life.
We, Jackie and I both, we started going
to the Baptist church.
The preacher there sort of convinced Jackie that
she was alright.
But one day when she was out soul
winning with my Aunt Pearl, she got to
see my aunt lead a Catholic lady to
the Lord Jesus.
Took her all the way through the plan
of salvation.
Saw the lady get down on her knees
there in the living room and just pour
her heart out before God in repentance and
receive Christ as her Lord and Savior.
And God spoke to Jackie's heart and said,
you've never done anything like that.
And she went out to the car and
gave her heart to the Lord Jesus.
That was in June, I believe.
We were married in November of the same
year, somewhat unwisely.
We both looked back on it and we
wished somebody would have had enough wisdom to
tell us that we needed to grow in
the Lord.
But the little Baptist church wanted a nice
little couple in the church and they thought
it would be wonderful if we'd get married.
So they encouraged us to get married and
we got married prematurely.
We've had our share of struggles because of
that.
But God has been faithful to us through
the years.
In January, they shipped us off to Bible
school.
We pulled out of Omaha, Nebraska with our
little car and a U-Haul trailer pulling
behind heading for Hammond, Indiana to go to
Bible school.
Didn't know anybody there.
Didn't know where we were going to live.
Didn't know what kind of job I'd get.
Just knew that we were supposed to go
to Bible school in Hammond, Indiana.
And we pulled in there in January of
1974.
And I found a great blessing to my
life.
When we got to that Bible school, it
was a blessing.
It was just a small school then.
300 students.
About 150 young preacher boys aspiring to the
work of God.
And I walked into that place and here
these young men are out preaching on the
street corners.
They're out soul winning.
They're having all-night prayer meetings.
And I found all these things and I
thought this has got to be the closest
thing to heaven on earth.
And I jumped into that school with both
feet.
I gave myself to the school.
I submitted myself to the authority of that
school.
I listened to the teachers in that school.
And God worked in my life while I
was in school.
I wouldn't trade it, even though I've had
to unlearn a few things since I left
there.
There are some things that I got there
that have been the guiding posts in my
ministry ever since, and I wouldn't trade them
for anything.
Well, the Lord began to bless.
I got into the bus ministry.
And the Lord blessed that.
And many, many children started riding the buses.
And after that, after my graduation from school,
the church there, they noticed that the Lord's
blessing was upon my work and they called
me to stay there and be an associate
pastor in the church there in Hammond, Indiana.
So, at my graduation time, I was ordained
into the ministry.
And while I was there for two years
after that, I grew much in influence in
the college.
The college was growing very, very fast, and
I just grew and grew in influence there.
And it looked to me like the next
step for me is a nationwide ministry, being
a Baptist preacher and going all over the
country preaching the Gospel.
I saw it.
I said, this is where I'm going.
And I knew that someday that's where I'm
going to be.
But God had some other things in mind.
Somebody gave me a tape.
I wonder how many could say that this
morning.
Somebody gave me a tape.
But somebody gave me a tape.
And it was a tape on the cross
of Christ in the life of the believer.
And I put that tape in my brand
new Cutlass Supreme that the church paid for.
I put that tape in that car and
I listened to it one time.
And it was a powerful tape.
It spoke about a depth of knowing God.
It spoke about a crucifixion.
It spoke about a dying to yourself that
I knew that I had never had any
kind of a touch like that or any
experience like that.
When I got done with the tape, I
stuck it back in again.
And I don't know how many times I
listened to it, but I know it was
dozens and dozens of times that I listened
to that one tape.
Each time listening to it, crying to God,
saying, Oh God, I know I have a
lot of needs in my life.
I pray, Lord, do it.
Lord, whatever You've got to do to me,
do it!
I want everything You've got for me, Lord.
I'm not satisfied where I'm at.
I want to grow.
And if growing means dying, then I want
to die.
Little did I know what I was praying
when I prayed that prayer, but I prayed
it many times, many times.
Then the Lord ordered a very traumatic experience
for us.
We were brother Denny and sister Jackie, well
known, looked up to, much respected in the
college.
And through some mistakes that I made and
some misunderstanding of doctrine there, my whole life
was turned upside down.
Or I should say, our whole life was
turned upside down.
And I went from brother Denny, brother Keniston,
Mr. Somebody, Mr. Man of God, to a
nobody.
You're fired.
You're expelled from school.
Get out of here.
We don't want you around.
We don't understand what you're doing, but we
don't want you around.
And everything was just pulled right out from
underneath me.
I lost it all.
I didn't understand.
I went to my basement.
I fell on my face before God and
I just wept until there was no more
weeping left in me.
I wept and wept and wept.
But God was in it all.
He knew what a proud man I was.
He knew what an arrogant preacher I was.
He knew how much impurity was in my
life.
And He knew that He needed to do
a great work in me.
So, for a year and a half, we
studied the Bible.
I went into that basement with a desire
to find out what I believed.
I had to admit I don't know what
I believe.
I know what they taught me in school,
but I don't know what I believe.
And I went into the basement.
I had a study there in the basement
with a desire to find out what I
believe.
And God, in a miraculous way, He led
us not to work for a year and
a half.
For a year and a half, I didn't
work.
Before that, I was a salaried preacher.
Everything cared for.
Car cared for.
House cared for.
Oh, it was nice!
But God led me not to go to
work.
And for a year and a half, I
studied the Bible.
I searched the Scriptures.
I studied books.
I prayed.
I fasted.
I was searching for truth.
I wanted to find out what do I
believe.
Not what does the Baptist say, but what
does the Bible say.
And I would encourage every one of you
this morning that you ought to have that
same kind of heart.
It's not what the Mennonites say.
It's not what the brethren say.
It's not what the Baptists say.
It's what does the Bible say.
That's the only way we can be building
on a sure foundation.
And that was the cry of my heart
as I went into the basement.
And for a year and a half, the
Lord graciously met our needs month by month.
For a year and a half, which was
a great blessing to us.
It was like God was saying, I still
love you, even though you're in the crucible,
even though you're in the frying pan, even
though it's real hot and I've turned the
fire up as hot as I can, I
still love you.
And the Lord met our needs for a
year and a half.
And after the finances stopped coming, we went
out and got a job.
But at the end of that year and
a half, I didn't know where I belonged.
I didn't know what I was.
I wondered, am I crazy?
Am I crazy?
Is there anybody else that thinks like me?
Or am I just weird and crazy and
I'll be by myself the rest of my
life?
I hadn't preached for a year and a
half.
That was probably the greatest trial I ever
went through.
But then God led me through.
I think I was listening to a tape
by Leonard Ravenhill, and he mentioned a book
on church history called The Pilgrim Church.
He said it's the most inspirational church history
book you could ever find.
And I went out and found it as
soon as I could.
And I sat down and I started reading.
And I started with the early church fathers
and I read all the way up to
the present day.
It was a 500-page book.
I read it in two days.
I just consumed it.
I wept while I read it.
I looked in there.
I saw all these different groups of God's
people.
And I looked at them and I said,
Lord, that's what I am.
That's what I am right there.
But is there anybody like this?
Is there anything like this, Lord?
And I cried to the Lord.
About a week after I finished that book,
I got a phone call from Tennessee.
A preacher friend of mine, he got on
the telephone and he said, Brother, you won't
believe what I found.
You won't believe what I found.
He said, I found some 15th century Waldensians
down here in the hills of Tennessee.
Waldensians!
I just read about the Waldensians!
I knew about them!
And when he said that, that was all
I needed.
I said, I'm coming.
I'm coming as soon as I can get
there.
And we packed our things up and we
took a weekend trip down to Tennessee to
see these people.
He had met a group of conservative Mennonite
people down in Tennessee.
And he was really blessed by the holiness
of their lives and encouraged me that I
should come also and meet these people.
So we went down there, just the way
we were, and walked into the back of
the church house on a Sunday morning.
And the first thing we saw is we
saw a little bit what we see here
on Sunday morning.
We saw all the sisters sitting on one
side, all the brethren sitting on the other
side, all these sisters clothed in modest apparel,
which was such a grief to me.
Back where I came from, there was so
much immodesty.
I saw all these sisters veiled with veilings.
I had never seen anything like that before.
But when I stood in the back of
that church house, the Lord bore clear witness
in my heart, these are some of my
people and you can learn from them.
And I looked upon that congregation and I
said in my heart, it's beautiful!
It's beautiful!
And my dear wife, she looked at the
same congregation and she said in her heart,
yuck!
Yuck!
It was traumatic for her.
They split us up, put me down in
the front row on the men's side and
put her over there somewhere with the children
and here she was in a new place,
insecure, and they sat her over there by
herself and it was traumatic for her.
But after the service was over, which was
a bit dry, and I guess I just
overlooked the dryness of the service.
I was so interested in these people.
When it was over, I started talking to
these men and they knew their Bibles.
I mean, they quoted verse after verse after
verse and I thought to myself, what is
this?
Preachers know their Bibles, but here are all
these men, they all know their Bibles.
I thought this is very unusual.
Somebody took us home for lunch, went into
this house.
Mom, Dad, must have been nine children.
Mom was in order.
Sweetly submission to the Father.
The Father was the head of the home.
The children were in order and subjection around
the table.
And I mean, my heart was just flip
-flopping on the inside.
I thought, this is what I need.
I need some of this.
I need some example.
I don't know my way in all these
things.
And after that Sunday afternoon dinner, we went
back to the friend's house and Jackie wanted
to go for a walk.
She and I took a little walk and
we got a little ways away from the
house and she said, Denny, you're not going
to make me move down here, are you?
And I said, well, Mom, I don't know.
I just don't know.
There are some things here that we don't
have.
I want to have everything that God has
for us.
And we spent the rest of the weekend
there and headed back home with a Kaufman's
Doctrines of the Bible in my hand so
that I could find out if these people
were sound or not.
And we went back to Hammond, Indiana to
pray.
So for one month, we sought the Lord,
we prayed together, we fasted some, we studied
the Bible, we discussed many things, and finally
God brought us to a place of unity
and we both agreed, this is what God
is saying we need to do.
We don't understand it.
It's a step of faith.
It's a step out into a bunch of
unknown things.
But God is telling us to do it
and we're going to do it.
We made up our mind.
The greatest fear I had was no evangelism.
All the people that I knew there in
the Baptist church, they warned me.
They said, don't you go down there among
those people.
They don't win souls.
They're not concerned about the lost.
Stay away from them.
You'll get deceived.
And I think that's a good challenge for
every one of us this morning.
God forbid, if we be the people of
God, that we're known as a people who
do not evangelize.
But that was my biggest fear.
These people don't evangelize.
They're not burdened about souls.
I was concerned.
Well, we decided this is God's will.
We had a big garage sale.
Mama sold all her pretty dresses.
All Rebecca's pretty dresses.
All of Elizabeth's pretty dresses.
And all of her friends came to the
garage sale.
Oh, they were just delighted to buy up
her nice dresses.
And, what are you doing?
Why are you selling all these things?
Well, we tried to explain to everybody what
we were doing.
Nobody understood.
Finally, after we had all of our things
packed up and the trucks were heading back
to Tennessee, there we sat in our empty
house in Hammond, Indiana.
Red Camaro sitting out in the front driveway.
That's what we had, an old red Camaro.
Jackie put on one of those plain dresses
and put a covering on her head.
And we were all waiting in the car
and she came to the door and she
looked this way to see if the neighbors
were looking.
She looked this way to see if the
neighbors were looking.
And she ran with everything she had and
jumped into the car and cried like a
baby.
Just mortified her.
Just crucified her.
But she got in that car and we
headed down to Tennessee.
Plain clothes, covering, modest apparel in a red
Camaro.
And she didn't stop crying until we stopped
about halfway down there.
We stopped at a shopping mall to buy
something.
And we walked up to the door and
all of a sudden men started opening the
door for her and saying, yes ma'am
and excuse me and all of this.
And she realized there's a respect coming her
way that she never got out of men
before.
And it quieted her heart.
So there we were in Tennessee.
We spent ten months there learning.
Learning as many things as we could.
We asked questions.
We listened.
We studied.
We learned.
And God changed many of the things in
our life while we were there.
We gained some convictions that we needed.
But at the end of the ten months,
we just didn't feel like we could unite
ourselves with the fellowship there simply because we
saw that the body of Christ was bigger.
And we sensed in our heart if we
join this church, the only way we'll get
out is by excommunication.
And I didn't want that.
I didn't know what it was, but I
knew enough about it to know that I
didn't want it.
We felt the body of Christ was bigger.
That out of every nation and kindred and
tongue and people, He had called out a
people unto Himself.
So we were cautious there during that examination
time.
We just dwelt among the Mennonites there.
Oh, it was a blessing.
They were lovely people.
I just have nothing but good feelings of
love toward them even to this day for
the things that they did for us while
we were there.
But as we moved among the Mennonites, something
kept longing down in our hearts.
We saw their holy lives, but we just
felt there's something missing there.
Isn't there a way that we could put
some fire into this?
Isn't there some way that we could put
some life and some zeal into this?
The covering is good.
The modesty is good.
All of these things are good.
But couldn't we put some fire into it?
Couldn't there be some Holy Ghost fire in
it?
That was a cry that was coming up
out of our hearts.
During that time, we met Brother Mose and
Sister Rhoda.
They were down in Tennessee.
They came to a wedding reception where we
were at.
And I noticed this couple sitting in the
back.
And there was something unusual about them.
They had a dirty little bus kid sitting
on their lap.
And that, oh, that stuck out to me.
I'd seen hundreds and thousands of dirty little
bus kids.
Little Spanish children.
Little black children with the runny nose and
things like that.
And they had a little Spanish girl sitting
on their lap that had an eye tear
duct problem.
And her tear ducts were always seeping pus.
And she had this stuff on her face.
But it was a divine appointment from God.
I don't even think I would have walked
up to them and asked them who they
were.
But I saw that dirty little bus kid
sitting on that Mennonite couple's lap.
And I went back there to find out
who they were.
Found out they go preaching.
They go to Boston.
They go out on the street corners and
preach the Gospel.
And I thought, amen!
That's just exactly what I'm looking for.
I didn't know there was anybody like that.
Well, it was shortly after that we had
a wedding up here in Philadelphia.
Brother Paul Renier and Sister Denise.
A lot of you know them.
I stood up in their wedding.
So we came up here for the wedding.
During the very time that some brethren here
were having meetings on the recovery of the
Anabaptist vision.
Maybe some of you remember that.
It was over in the old New Holland
Mennonite church building.
They were having meetings about six Friday nights
in a row.
And we passed through here.
And they asked me to have a message
before the teaching session.
I'll never forget that evening.
It's one of those milestones in my life.
It was the first time that I opened
up my heart and really preached in three
years.
And I had no idea what God had
done inside.
You know, when you're in the fire, you
don't know what God is doing.
Sometimes you may go one or two or
three years and not even know what God
is doing until later.
But that night when I stood up behind
that pulpit and I opened up my mouth
to preach and I hadn't preached for three
years, I couldn't believe it.
I couldn't believe how different I was.
I couldn't believe the brokenness of my heart.
I couldn't believe what flowed out of my
heart.
And I only lasted about ten minutes and
my throat was raw and I couldn't go
anymore because I hadn't preached.
But when the service was over, I just
stole away.
I went up there somewhere in the top
of that building.
I don't know where it is now.
And I found a dark room and I
fell on my face there and I just
said, Lord, thank You.
Thank You for all the cross.
Thank You for all the trials.
Thank You for all the buffeting.
Thank You for all the humiliation, Lord.
Thank You for every bit of it.
It's worth it.
It's worth it a thousand times over.
And I would say to you this morning,
if you find yourself in God's crucible, it's
worth it!
He knows what He's doing.
He is a loving God and He wants
to purify His people.
And I guess it was that night where
it really dawned on me what God had
done inside my heart and life through those
three years of not preaching.
It was so different.
From those meetings, when the meetings were over,
there was some interest with a few families
and with Brother Moe's to start a church
up here.
The cry was, we want a conservative church,
but we want to have an emphasis on
evangelism and spiritual life.
Oh, when I heard that, that's exactly what
my heart said.
Sure, this is fine.
Sure, the covering is fine.
Sure, all these things are fine, but what
about evangelism?
What about the souls of men?
What about spiritual life?
What about prayers that God answers?
What about mighty movings of God's Spirit?
Where are they?
And it was the burden of my heart.
And a call came from Brother Moe's and
these other few families to come up.
Would you come up and help start a
church?
We felt God's call in the whole thing.
Back when we were in Hammond, Indiana and
we were praying about changing, making this change
of direction, God had told me, clearly one
evening while I was praying, God spoke to
my heart and said, you go this way
and I'll open up a door of utterance
for you.
And I hadn't preached for a long time
and I felt this was God's answer to
that witness which was, oh, probably a year,
a year before that.
You go this way, I'll open up a
door of utterance for you.
I'll open your mouth again.
I'll release your preaching gifts.
Go this way.
So we felt led of the Lord to
move up here.
And that was eight and a half years
ago that a few families met together in
Brother Moe's basement and we started a church
back in May eight and a half years
ago.
Many trials have gone by since those days.
Sometimes we doubted God's leading, but every time
we got alone with God, God said, this
is the way.
Walk in it.
Trust Me.
You just trust Me, Denny.
You just trust Me, Jackie.
I'm in this whole thing.
Many trials we went through, but here we
are today and we just thank God for
what He's doing.
We feel unworthy of the blessings.
We know what we are.
We know the pit from which we came.
We know we have a lot of rough
edges.
I'm sure you've seen them through the last
several years.
We have some rough edges.
But I thank God so many times that
God would let me pastor such a people,
that God would let my children grow up
here.
Oh, I thank God for that.
And that He, by His grace, would expand
the work of God.
And I often think about it as I'm
sitting in church services.
Am I here?
Am I really here?
Is this me?
Is this really me?
You know, and sometimes I think I need
to pinch myself to see if this is
real or not.
But it is real.
And I love the Lord and I want
to serve Him.
By His grace, we want to finish the
course that God has laid out for us.
May I just thank Him and praise Him
for His divine leadings.
Oh, listen, God works in mysterious ways His
wonders to perform.
If ten years ago you would have told
me I would be right here, I would
have never believed you.
In fact, if you would have showed me,
I probably would have ran away twelve years
ago.
But God works in mysterious ways and we
thank Him in praising for that.
Let's kneel together in prayer.
Father, we just give You praise again this
morning.
We come to You in Jesus' name.
Oh, Father, I just pray, take this little
testimony about two hippies, Lord, that God changed.
And just use it, Lord, in people's lives.
Maybe there's somebody here today, dear God, who's
a mess, whose life is a mess.
They're all mixed up.
God, I just pray, You minister to the
needs that are here.
Father, we thank You this morning for the
way that You work in people's lives.
Oh, the stories are endless, Lord.
I know they are.
The trophies of grace, there more than can
be numbered.
But we thank You this morning for the
way that You work in people's lives.
And I pray, dear God, give us some
more.
Give us some more, dear Father, people in
whom You put Your hand on, sought them,
bought them, redeemed them, sanctified them, purified them,
filled them, and used them.
Oh, God, I pray that You'll do it
again and again and again through our lives,
Father.
Reach out to other lives, through the lives
of the people that are in this room.
Dear Father, we want to just commit the
furthest service into Your hands, God.
And I pray, be merciful to us and
bless us, cause Thy face to shine on
us.
Lord, bless the children this morning with a
good message that will enlighten their innocent hearts,
oh God, to the right ways of God.
Father, we pray Your blessing upon our brother
Aaron also, as he preaches to us later.
Lord, we commit all these things into Your
hands.
We pray in the name of Jesus together.
Amen.