Okay, all right, this is the mic that’s on. Okay. Good morning.
This morning is an opportunity, I think, that we all can share with one another. I think it’s always a blessed time and a privileged time to be able to share with all the saints what the Lord may have given to you during the time of the conference.
Just to help us, the Scripture is 1 John 1:3:
That which we have seen, and that which we have heard, we declare unto you.
That ye also may have fellowship with us.
And truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son, Jesus Christ.
So, we know that all fellowship really comes out of the fellowship between the Father and the Son that He shares with us. And then we share with one another. That’s the way the Lord intends His fellowship to flow, and then it flows back to Him.
So fellowship is very important in the life of the church. In order to encourage one another, God has intended that we share with one another. The fellowship is precious to the Lord, and I hope to us all as well.
I hope all will participate today and not be too shy. I noticed that when we were introducing people, no one stood up. I hope that doesn’t follow on into this session.
You know, it’s funny. I couldn’t see anybody. Honestly, if you’re dependent on me to go by your voice as to whether I knew you or not, you’re in sad shape, because this ear doesn’t hear much of anything.
As a matter of fact, the other morning, I knew for years I couldn’t hear crickets out of my left ear, because I could flip over on my right side and I wouldn’t hear anything—any crickets, anyway. So I said, “Well, it’s not too bad. I can use that in the morning, because when the crickets are really rolling, I can just flip on my right side and go on to sleep.”
Well, the other morning I rolled over and heard a whippoorwill out of my right ear. I said, “Uh-oh.” So I flipped back over, and I couldn’t hear the whippoorwill anymore.
So anyway, you’ve just got to stand up and you’ve got to speak. That’s the point of all of that rambling around this morning.
Actually, at the conference, it was a precious time. The Lord shared His heart with us, and that’s what I came away with, brothers and sisters. It was not just a matter of the Lord sharing things that we needed to see and hear. I really felt like the Lord just reached deep down in His heart and said, “This is My heart. I’m going to share it with you.”
I do pray that you take it up in responsibility. I really do believe the Lord did that when He shared with us, particularly in the adult sessions, on the eternal purpose of God as seen in Christ, as seen in the church, and as seen in the individual. I hope we’ll have some sharing on that today.
With our youth, I think the messages were on who we are in Christ. Who we are in Christ is His purpose to bring many sons to glory. So I hope we can have some sharing on that.
The children shared out of the life of Samuel. You know, Samuel gave his heart to the Lord when he was four years old. I’ve always been impressed by that. He served in the house of God from the time he was four years old enough.
So it doesn’t matter if you’re four, forty, or a hundred and forty. You can share. I just want to encourage us all to share. I think it’s important to the Lord.
Now, we’ve made some provision this morning. We’d like for you to come up and share here so we can all see. But if you’re particularly shy, I do have the portable mic, and I can come to you. So we can work both ways, particularly with the children, who may be a little shy.
We encourage our children to share as well. You may have something to share with us. We think that’s important.
Now this morning, we want to begin. I want to ask Mary Ruth to come up and put her on the spot. I would like all of the children from third grade through sixth grade to come up.
Third through sixth grades, all in here. Come on. Let’s go. Come on up. Y’all stand over here, right here in a group.
Nobody look—you can’t keep moving toward the back. Come on up here. Y’all come right up here, real close. Get around this mic.
I think we’re fitting people, and all the short ones are getting in the back. That doesn’t work. Let’s get some of the short ones up front. Come on, guys. We want to be able to see all your bright faces. They’re smiling right now.
Now you tell them what we’re going to do. They didn’t know this was going to happen.
The children sing, including the refrains: “As long as I live, I will praise You,” “I will love You,” “I will serve You,” and “In my life, Lord, I will glorify You.”
Okay, it says the children will lead them. We would now like to open the time up. Any of those who would like to share with us—and like I say, I think it is an important time—let’s don’t be bashful. There’s no need for that in the Lord.
They’re a hard act to follow.
I don’t think I’ve ever been so excited or so thankful to get to the conference. I only made it three nights, but I was so excited to be with you all, to worship with you all, and to hear the messages.
Something Lance said the first night was a statement he made in the middle of everything he was talking about. He said, “Where two or more are gathered, and the Lord Jesus has preeminence, that’s the church.”
That meant so much to me, because I think the last couple of years have been really painful for all of us—most of us. There are so many people we all miss who aren’t meeting with us anymore. It’s been kind of a sad time, and I think it’s been a time of a lot of questioning and talking to each other and trying to figure things out.
I think I’ve finally gotten to the place where I’m never going to figure everything out. I know it, and I accept it. I’ve realized that I’m one little person.
Being this one little person, it’s as simple for me as: love the Lord my God with all my heart, take care of my family, and maintain unity with all of my brothers and sisters. To me, that has become church life. I hope you understand it. It’s just become that simple, and I was touched by that word.
I also wanted to say thank you for all your prayers. I know you all have prayed for me a ton, and I have the deepest appreciation for that, even more so than I did five years ago when I had the transplants. I’m so very, very grateful.
I was so tired and sick over the last six weeks. My stomach was hurting, my mouth sores were hurting, and it was weeks at home and a week in the hospital. I went into the hospital pretty down and confused, not knowing what was going on.
When I came home, they told me that after a week I would absolutely have to have surgery to remove the left side of my colon. I thought, “Oh, another major surgery.” I just said, “Lord, I just need a living word from You. I just need something to hold on to. If I’ve got to do this, then fine, but I need something.”
He gave me those verses in Matthew 10:29-31:
Are not two sparrows sold for a penny?
And not one of them shall fall on the ground without your Father.
But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.
Fear not therefore: ye are of more value than many sparrows.
I got that word the day after we came home from the hospital the first week. That night I had bad pain again, and Clay took me back to the hospital the next day. They checked me in and said the surgery was absolutely necessary, but I was at peace because I had this verse and knew that the Lord was completely in control.
Thursday night they said the surgery was the next morning. We prayed, and we were at peace. I was supposed to be taken down at ten the next morning to have the surgery.
At eleven, the head transplant surgeon walked in and said, “You know, it’s been brought to our attention that I’m going in and taking out the left side of your colon, but I may need to take more. We really don’t have a good colonoscopy. We need biopsies. So instead of surgery, we’re going to do another colonoscopy.”
I thought, “Well, all right. At this point, you get worked—whatever.” But I knew the Lord was in control. Clay woke me up from that colonoscopy and said, “Your colon’s almost healed. There’s no need to do this surgery.”
I said, “Did they take biopsies?” He said, “There was nothing to biopsy.”
So we went home rejoicing and just so thankful. I just want to thank all of you. I hope this will be an encouragement to you also.
I think I’ve spent so much of my Christian life wanting to feel the Lord as I feel one of you. I think that’s my greatest weakness, my greatest struggle. That first week in the hospital, I couldn’t feel Him, and like another person, it really troubled me and bothered me.
But when I went home and got a living word, I realized we just live in a totally different realm. A word will keep us more than any feeling ever will.
I hope I’ve expressed myself okay, that you all understand. I love you all very, very much, and I’m so appreciative. I would ask you to stand with me for a few more weeks. I have to have one more colonoscopy to prove that I’m okay.
I don’t think I said my name. I’m Susan Hazelton.
Hi, I’m Julian Faltz. I allowed Susan to go first because these past few years have been really difficult.
It’s called Sapson’s Conference, and it just really hurt me to hear, “Why should we have the conference? You know, this is all the people who left.” You know, it’s not.
That’s not the reason why we have the conference—because it’s the thing we’ve always had in the past. I hope that’s not the reason why people just go, just go.
I’ve been there since I was a baby, and it’s really been a real blessing. This year, I just felt such a relief to have gotten along.
I’ve been having these really horrible anxiety attacks lately. I felt like God said, after we brought this stuff back to the fellowship from the conference and a couple people gave their testimony, “Everything’s going to be okay,” and that I’m not going to have these anxiety attacks anymore, and that He was going to heal my depression.
The reason why we’ve had this conference for years is so that people from other places could come in fellowship and hear God’s word. With all the people that have left, it’s not them that makes the conference. It’s God. God will raise up people to do His work.
I was very blessed not just to work, not just to have the emphasis at night, but to actually do the crafts with the kids. That was a real blessing. You can see how much of God they have in them, and that they really look up to us.
I didn’t really get to hear a lot of the messages, but one thing that spoke to me was when Stephen Kong was speaking: the church is God’s purpose in Christ Jesus. The church is not the center of all things. Christ is the center of all things. Christ is the Head, and the church is the body.
Something else that Dan happened to say last week, which was right in my heart, was Philippians 4:6-7:
Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.
And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall guard your hearts and your thoughts in Christ Jesus.
This has been a real blessing, to know people in this fellowship and get to know people that I really never talked to in the fellowship.
I know He allowed things to happen for a reason, even if we don’t understand. Sometimes it’s not meant to be understood. But I do know this: we are supposed to be here, God is in control, and He is the Head.
We need to be ready. Jesus said you have to have faith as small as a mustard seed. We all need to have faith. Just thank you.
I’m Carolyn Bowles, and I really didn’t think I would get up here this morning, but this kind of goes along with what the first sister just shared, so I’ll go ahead and do it.
Two words came more living to me: the word chosen. I’ve always loved that verse in 1 Peter 2:9: “You are a chosen people.” I think I always centered more on the people.
But somehow, this conference, it just became living to me that each one of us individually—each one of us—can say, “I, wonder of wonders, am a chosen person.” All of us together are the chosen people. The Head of the church has chosen us. That’s just mind-boggling.
The other word is humble. I really don’t even remember which ministry it was that that word came to me more.
Many evangelists today make the appeal, “Make a decision for Christ.” But we really have to humble ourselves before a righteous, holy God. Yes, we receive the free gift of grace through Jesus Christ and what He did, but we come to a place of deep repentance. We humble ourselves.
Then we can lift our heads in praise and worship to Him. The worship at the conference is always so wonderful; the worship here is wonderful. It’s only because there was a point in our life when we humbled ourselves, repented, and then were able to lift our heads in praise and worship to Him.
There was probably a wonderful ministry about the disciples in the boat, the great storm, and the water. Jesus was asleep, and they cried out to Him, “Master, wake up, save us.”
I have a little tract that I enjoy so much. It’s called Our Incomparable Christ, and it lists over a hundred things that Jesus is and did. I love this whole section:
He was never elated by success, daunted by enemies, depressed by defeat, conquered by fear, or worried over any situation.
That verse that Julian just shared—“Be anxious for nothing”—we need to live on it every day.
Lastly, one of the morning devotionals has meant a lot to me. I’ll just give you the Scriptures; I won’t read them: Exodus 33:12-23 and Numbers 11:10-15.
The brother brought out the difference between Moses’ prayer in those two Scriptures. In the first one, his focus was all on God: “Oh God, show me Your glory.” He was just looking at God, and he said, “I can’t go—we can’t go—unless You go with us.” His focus was God.
In the other Scripture, it was, “Why have You called me out to take these rebellious people in? I can’t do it. Kill me. I just can’t do it.”
That’s just how we need to keep our focus: always on the Lord Himself and not on us.
I’m Jonathan Pittman. Those of you around the world, I’m Kenny’s son.
I actually did not get to hear a single ministry, so you’re probably wondering why I’m up here. Me too.
But I think the Lord really, just through a few nights teaching the seventh- and eighth-grade boys—which was quite an experience in itself—and through the fellowship the Lord enabled me to have in the times of worship, encouraged me.
I think Friday night, when we moved that here, and people from all over got together, and at the end we just worshiped the Lord and prayed, was such an encouragement to me. I think it softened my heart.
The Lord used that to encourage me. I just want to thank you for that, and for what an encouragement all of you are to me.
I just want to encourage myself and all of us to take advantage of what we have here, and each other, as an encouragement in Christ. Encourage each other to put Him first each and every day. That’s all.
My name is Gail Spence, and I just want to take this opportunity to say hi to everybody in the whole world.
What I want to concentrate on is one verse. Before the conference, as I was working on the sixth-grade crafts and trying to come up with ideas and things, I have to say the Lord really met us there. That was such a great experience. I’m really thankful. Now I want to do crafts every year.
I kept looking at the central verse of the young people:
For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son.
I wanted to pull out the main words and come up with something, but I could never pull it together. As it turned out, I didn’t need that anyway.
Somehow, by doing the keyword thing in the verse, it just got into my head. The verse kept going through my head, which was a good idea for Bible memory.
Last night, I was having my pre-group nervous breakdown zone. I work with French students, and I’ve got a group coming Tuesday night. It’s the same thing every year—I still need a couple of things. You have somebody arriving internationally who’s going to be homeless as soon as they put their foot on American soil.
I was lying in bed last night and realized that you feel so spiritual when you come off the conference. It’s a light veneer that’s come over you, and it’s not too long before, especially with this kind of stress, you feel like, “What happened?” You’ve already plunged to the depths, and you’re fighting because the soul and the spirit are in warfare.
You’ve got to trust God. “What am I going to do?” All this stuff is going on. I’m in the middle of the night wrestling with this, but somehow that verse came into my mind.
After the whole conference, through this turmoil, I saw it: those whom God foreknew, in His foreknowledge He selected. It’s way over us, though. But they are predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son.
Okay, it’s not done today. We’re still having all these battles, but it’s done. We are going to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. This is an accomplished work that’s going to be done in us.
Since Brother Stephen spoke, we all have this neurosis: “Are we going to be in the rapture or not?” You can just see this neurosis coming in. If we’re not in the rapture—and somebody has shared this before—it’s still done. It’ll be done here or there. It’s going to be done.
No matter what comes into our life, no matter what our crisis is or anything, what does it matter? We’re going to be conformed to the image of God’s Son, and nothing could be more precious. Nothing can supersede this truth.
No matter what we see—when we look at ourselves, it can be pretty bad—but when we see the incomparable Christ, that this is our heritage, that we are joint heirs with Christ, then everything else can say, and we can say, “Hallelujah and praise God.”
Then I could go to sleep and say, “It’s done. One way or the other, God is in control, and this is accomplished.” Praise God. Thank you.
My name’s Andrew Moore. It is true that these recordings do go worldwide. I had two or three people come up to me at the conference and say how much they enjoyed my ministries that I had done here. I see them once a year at the conference.
It’s intimidating a little bit to think that when you get up and share, folks might be hearing it all around the world. But if the word goes forth and it’s living and helpful to brothers and sisters, then I’m glad.
One thing I wanted to share was something from our brother Kong’s ministry—a kind of hybrid thought from all three ministries.
There’s this aspect of our relationship with Jesus that is integrally tied to the church, to the Body of Christ, and to where the rubber meets the road—that is, with our brothers and sisters.
Our brother talked about the Lord’s love for the church, how it was in His heart. As we love the Lord Jesus, it’s inherent that we love the church. Otherwise, we do not have a complete relationship with Him.
This was encouraging to me because being with any group of believers is a challenge sometimes. It can be tough. I think many of us have experienced that toughness in a real way in the last couple of years.
Division is dismemberment, as our brother shared. But why do we stay with it? Why do we stay with our brothers and sisters? Is it just habit? Is it just tradition?
Or is it because we, in some way, have the same love that the Lord has for His body, for His church? In our relationship with the Lord, we have that same love.
So if we are tempted to just go off and find a peaceful spot on a mountaintop and declare, “It’s going to be me and my God, me and the Lord, and nobody else,” then we don’t have a complete relationship with the Lord Jesus, because in His heart is the church.
So I was really touched by that.
Hi, my name’s Dan Boyer. Several things I just wanted to testify of. I’ll give you a little nursery report. How about that to start?
I realized one day during the week, as I was in one of the older classes—I think it was sixth or seventh grade—taking pictures, I was looking through the lens of the camera and thought, “Oh my gosh.”
We’ve probably been in the nurseries close to twenty years. Can you believe that? It’s amazing. If you’ve been coming to the conference for nineteen or twenty years, you were probably in that two-year-old nursery.
I was looking through the lens of the camera, going, “Oh my gosh, that’s so-and-so,” and here they are grown.
The testimony from the nursery is astounding: to see the Lord’s work in these young people’s lives; to know that even when they are so small in the nursery, the Lord has given us all a heart to pray for the little ones because His life is involved in these little ones; and then to see them grow.
It’s been so long now. We mentioned this when Willow Run came about: some of the young men and sisters carried the responsibility and ministry to the young people. They’ve grown up in the Lord. They are growing up in the Lord. It’s a wonderful thing.
We got a great report from the ministry that went on in the nurseries. Joanna mentioned mustard-seed faith. I don’t know how small a mustard seed is, but last year was the first year that some type of intestinal virus did not sweep the nurseries. It just happens from year to year.
It did not happen last year, and it did not happen this year. I mean, that is God. Those who work in the nursery know: they touch everything, they’re all over each other, and there’s no way to keep it out. We do all we can humanly do. It’s the hand of God. It’s a wonderful thing.
Something else I wanted to share was a word of encouragement. I think part of the testimony time is reminding one another. In 2 Peter, he said, “I want to remind you over and over.” He said, “I’m at the end, but it doesn’t bother me to tell you this again. I’ve been telling you my whole life.”
I was incredibly blessed by the verses in Ephesians 4. Our brothers shared verse 3:
Giving diligence to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
Then verse 13:
Till we all attain unto the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a full-grown man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.
I have been and continue to be so blessed by this encouragement. I’ve heard it here this morning.
This is the unity of the Spirit: being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. That has been given to each one of us. You do not have to look for it. You do not have to work for it. If you’re the Lord’s, it has been given to you. That’s why it says, “Preserve it.”
You can’t preserve something you don’t have. We have been given that.
But in verse 13, there is something we need to attain to: the unity of the faith. Those two things are astounding to me in these days. Several have mentioned difficulties. We’re all the Lord’s. He is going to finish what He started. He will. His bride will be without spot or wrinkle.
All this attaining is us learning to allow the Lord to humble us, to prefer one another in love, and to be diligent to preserve the unity. It’s a very encouraging word that I was blessed by.
There’s one other thing I wanted to testify to. I don’t know how many of you have heard this story, this testimony, and I think it’s really worthy of the Lord being praised for.
I bet everybody was aware there was a huge storm Thursday night, right? A big storm. Actually, it’s one of the biggest storms I’ve ever seen in my life in Richmond. I have never seen thunder exploding in the air like that. It was like being in a war, I guess.
How many of you knew that a sister got trapped in the elevator in Gray? Who didn’t know that there was a sister trapped in the elevator?
I’m going to make this as quick as I can, but it’s sort of a Paul Harvey “rest of the story” thing.
It was obvious a few minutes after the electricity went off that there was someone in the elevator because they were banging on the elevator. We made attempts to find out who that was, and I found out who it was—more about that later.
This sister was in there by herself. There were plenty of people in the lobby of Gray who had escaped the storm. We thought, just to keep her company until the necessary personnel could get there to free her from the elevator, we would sing songs.
We asked her what she wanted to sing, what she wanted to hear and sing. Eventually they got the doors open, and she was brought out with cheers and applause.
Now, here’s the rest of the story. This is, by the way, another blessing: because we have to clear out of the campus so early on Saturday morning, we’ve been moving everything out on Friday nights. All the brothers and sisters help. I mean, it was dozens and dozens and dozens of people. It was amazing, wonderful help and privilege.
When we gathered over here, as Jonathan alluded to, we had a spontaneous time of testimony. The husband of the sister who was stuck in the elevator was the first to stand up. It was Alan Mazurick.
This dear sister and her family have been through many trials, many things over the years. They had lost a child some years back. Then about four years ago, in childbirth, our sister lost very much of her blood during a delivery. That set up all kinds of things, and she had been in clinical depression, as her husband shared with us.
Alan shared with us that she had told him on Monday that she shouldn’t be there. Everybody was more spiritual, and she felt under everyone’s feet—the sort of thing that the enemy had done.
But here’s what went on while she was in the elevator. She was at the level of the floor where she could see through the crack of the door everyone’s feet in the Gray lobby. She could just see the feet. Then she could hear the singing.
One of the songs requested was “To God Be the Glory.” None of us knew this was a song that was sung at their wedding.
When we got to the line, “And open the life-gate that all may go in,” that’s when those doors came open, and she was pulled up into the midst of everybody.
He testified that the Lord spoke to her: “You see, you’re not under everyone’s feet. The Lord has pulled you out.” She was delivered in a great way through that depression.
I share this for two reasons: because it glorifies the Lord, and just to pray. I just happen to be aware of that one. Who knows how many things like that the Lord did all week? Hallelujah.
It was a wonderful, wonderful testimony to the mercy of God. I thought that was worthy of us knowing as we thank the Lord for the things He did in big ways—speaking to the house of God, to the church—and also the personal victories that were gained as the Holy Spirit moved that week. It’s a wonderful thing.
Hello, world. My name is Mary Louetter. The first thing I want to say is, “Thank You, Lord Jesus, for healing our sister Susan.”
Our God is good all the time, in every situation. Thank You that He proves Himself over and over again to us, that He does heal. Many have gone away to be with the Lord who have been sick, but this is a testimony to Him. He has healed her body.
Lord, we stand in that You’re going to continue to heal her body. We thank the doctors, but You are the Lord of glory. You created our bodies. Lord, we ask You to continue Your healing, for Your name’s sake.
I had to get that first. Sorry.
I almost missed the conference. I wanted to go so bad. I had come over here the week before, and something happened to my knee. Kenny and Marianne had laid hands on me and prayed for my knees, so my knee got well. I thought that was fun.
I thought the Lord was going to get my car fixed. We had this brother who said he was going to come and fix my car. Well, he came, and he didn’t fix my car. So I moved it down that end of the lot.
Then Marianne and I were going to move my car, and the hood fell down. The hood wouldn’t come back up. So the car is down there with much prayer.
Another brother was going to come, and he was going to fix it. He didn’t show. One’s supposed to come today, and we’re going to see if he’s going to show.
But you know what? The Lord—there was so much. I didn’t get to go to the conference until Wednesday. I didn’t know if I was going to get to go then. I wanted so badly to go. I was just sad myself.
Finally, the Lord worked it out that I could go. On Wednesday, I was so blessed. I was told that the Lord had just worked a miracle. A room had just come open, and I ended up having a room by myself right next to a hostess. That was just wonderful.
Thank you so much to the brothers for letting me go. I learned a lot during the conference. I can’t even begin to tell you—we’d go into tomorrow. But I’m waiting to get the tape so I can go back and pick up the little things they said that I didn’t get to hear.
One of the things the Lord was showing me was the difference between the fullness of the Holy Spirit, being full of the Holy Spirit, and having the gift of the Spirit—the filling of the Spirit.
The Lord hasn’t worked that out yet, but I know there’s a depth there that I’ve never seen before or entered into. I’ve always wanted the things of the Lord—the gifts of prophecy, the gifts of tongues. I want all of these things that are already mine in Christ, according to Corinthians, every spiritual gift.
But it’s like now, being full of the Holy Spirit—you have the fullness of the Lord, and all of these things are added unto you.
I really appreciated Dana breaking it down for us about the car wash. Over the last year, about a year and a half since I’ve been unemployed, it’s like my little car is hooked up to something that I didn’t intend to be hooked up to.
I realize it’s the Holy Spirit. He’s got a hold of my life now, and I’m on His little pulley. That thing about being in self-control and being in control of your situation—the Lord is working on that.
It’s not easy, and I’ve wrestled with it a lot. But out of that, He’s bringing me into faith to believe Who He says He is. He is the Lord God Almighty. He’s the sovereign Lord. No matter what happens in our life, He is in control. He wants our cooperation, and that’s what I saw.
When I try to do the gears and use self-control and get off that car wash, we’re fighting against Him. I’ve been fighting against Him so long. So I don’t want to fight anymore. I want Him to pull my life in the direction I’m supposed to go.
I’ve noticed an immediate thing. My daughter’s not here today, so I can say something. We’ve had a contentious relationship all of our days, and she’s not a young girl—I’m not going to tell you how old she is.
But the Lord has done something immediately. When I came home from that conference, something had broken, and it’s no longer the same. I can look at her with different eyes, and I believe it’s the Lord’s eyes.
Not that there aren’t opportunities where personalities can clash, but the Lord’s in charge now. For the last three days—not today—she and I have read the Bible together in the morning. She’s allowed me to read Proverbs to her, and so many other things, which is wonderful.
It’s like, you know, on Monday, when you come back and you think everything’s different. You’ve touched the glory of God. Well, I couldn’t go back to my regular thing. It was like I was being drawn to come to the Lord now, to read His word, to be quiet before Him, to do these things.
That’s just the beginning, I believe. But what Dana said in that car-wash illustration explained to me what I’ve been going through. God’s been trying to move in His direction, and I’m resisting it.
It does matter that I don’t have a job. It does matter about my car being broken down. It matters about all these things. But I know the Lord’s in charge, so I’m not going to worry.
He did show me one thing about this car. He showed me that the enemy was very angry with me because I had witnessed to some people in the last couple of months, and two of them had come to the Lord.
I think the enemy wants to squash me so that I can’t allow the Lord to use me in people’s lives. But I know now, because the Lord has shown me that He’s going to get the car fixed, and I’m going to be able to go places where I can witness to people, where I can bring people to Christ, where I can take those who are urged by the Holy Spirit and bring souls out of hell, and stop them from going there, that they might serve the living God.
I know we’re so blessed, brothers and sisters. We had prayed, I thought, for so long about a prophetic word. I believe the Lord gave us prophetic words. Like Dan said, He opened His heart, and He showed us what He’s doing. He showed us why He’s doing it and how He’s going to do it.
What a God we serve. We have the most wonderful God. No matter what our problems are, He’s in charge. He ordains them. He sets the boundaries.
Then when He’s finished His work—like some child spoke one day and said that we were like silver—when the Lord sees His face in us, then He will remove the trials and tribulations.
So may He get all the praise and honor to His name today. Thank You, Jesus.
My name is Sarah Tran, and I just wanted to share with you something that the Lord revealed to me during the conference.
This past year, I’ve had to make so many decisions about what I’m going to do and where I’m going to go in my future. As I prayed, I realized what I wanted to do was not the Lord’s will. So I made the decision to submit to His will and do what He wanted me to do.
But I wasn’t happy about it. I didn’t want to do it.
Brother Kong said something. He said that our God is perfect, and whatever He wills is perfect. It just hit me. Even though I didn’t want to do what He wanted me to do, it was perfect. It put me at peace about everything. It was such a blessing.
I just wanted to read Romans 12:2:
And be not fashioned according to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
Thank you.
As you know, Mr. Boyer said the big storm in Richmond was one of the biggest ones we’ve had in a long time. I was on my way up to Gray Dorm, and my friends and I got in the Gray Dorm. We saw this humongous lightning bolt right in front of us, and it just knocked us off our feet.
We just thought, “Whoa, that was really big.”
Then we went down the hallway and saw the lady who was stuck in the elevator. Everybody was singing to her. I just wanted to thank God for saving us. If we had gone up there a second earlier, we could have gotten hit by lightning.
This has to do with the storm too. I’m Kathy, and I begged my daughter Anna to come up, but she just couldn’t. She’s just too shy.
What is so neat about during that storm: I found out later that she and a number of other girls who were stuck in the cafeteria were praying. They had gotten in a little corner, and they just got together and prayed, and then they sang. It just blessed me to see that.
For those of you who can’t see me, I’m Courtney Hendrick. I thought it was really neat that during the storm, I got there really late. When I got there, she was already out of the elevator, and the storm had already passed and everything.
But when we got there, my older sister Katie Hedrick was sitting in a corner, and she was crying. My mom went up and asked what was wrong.
Katie said that she was almost hit by a tree. She was driving, and this tree fell in front of her. She was stuck in traffic and everything. She was really blessed.
All these teenagers and everything were just singing around her. It was just a really neat time for all of us, and I was just blessed.
For those of you that don’t know, I’m Kenny Pittman, Jonathan’s father. I would like to read to you a letter we received from Ed Miller. It’s quite a blessing, and I think there’s a real point in the testimony about this.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
Behold, bless ye the Lord, all ye servants of the Lord,
Who by night stand in the house of the Lord.May the Lord bless thee out of Zion.
—Psalm 134:1, 3
He wrote “who by night stand in the house of the Lord” and underlined “by night.” I guess he was quite aware of the storm as well.
Now, you have to forgive me, because I’m not sure I can read quite all the words. He and Stephen are competing for worst penmanship, I think.
We cannot imagine all of the labor and work that goes on “by night,” backstage, behind the scenes, that is not seen by the eye.
We do pray that blessing from the Lord will go from your secret ministry to Him to the ends of the earth.
Lillian joins me in my prayers of thanksgiving to the Lord for the small part we have been privileged to enjoy. Thank you in His name for being His instruments to open the door for us.
We also ask you to receive our gratitude for the royal financial provision you gave to Him in terms of us. We have asked Him to grace us as stewards. Thank you so much.
We pray the Lord will keep you in His refreshing arms. Such a week of strength, spending love. The focus of the week was dynamic.
Thank you again. Rest, enjoy, abide, and worship.
In union with Jesus,
Ed Miller
I just wanted to spring from that for a moment this matter of service. How much we were touched by service, and the service of all the saints, young and old alike.
Young people serving the Lord. I don’t want to embarrass anybody, but how touched I was by Michael Berman. He just gave himself. I couldn’t keep up with him. I realized, at fifty years old, I can’t keep up with him. But how he served with registration and helped, and how many others did as well.
I shared this Wednesday night: the Stearmans. I don’t know how many of you got to meet Trevor Stearman and his wife Sarah, I believe is her name, from California. How they served.
It may seem a small thing to you, but they volunteered to take care of the fruit. They took it on with such a heart of service. They washed every piece of fruit.
I might be embarrassed to tell you that this was, I think, the first year every piece of fruit was washed. We thought it was pre-washed fruit from the cafeteria.
I remember the night the storm hit and took everything out, how they labored. I saw them. They were soaked. They looked like drowned rats, but they continued to serve with a full heart.
The last night, we got the fruit from the cafeteria, and half of the fruit was bad. I remember Trevor coming to me saying, “The fruit’s bad.”
We went and talked to Betty—the manager—and Betty said, “I know, man. We’ll do what we can. We’ll give you what we got.” So we got what they had.
But that wasn’t good enough for Trevor and them. I believe they went out, because they headed me off at the pass later. Again, in the rain—it rained Friday night—they were wet, and they didn’t seem to care.
They went out on their own and bought twelve watermelons so the brothers and sisters could have enough fruit.
Now, of course, in their zeal to serve in the house of God, they didn’t come prepared. They got there at the meeting and said, “How do we cut the watermelons?” They thought they could go to the cafeteria, and of course the cafeteria was closed.
Justin was there, and we came over here and found knives. We took knives back that we used to cut the fruit. Now, sisters, if those knives are still missing, I apologize. They may still be missing. They’ll return, I think.
But thank God for that heart of service. This is the point: we need to, young and old alike—whether you’re three like Samuel, whether you’re ninety, or someone said a hundred and forty a little while ago, whether you’re twenty or forty—we need to learn to serve together in the house of the Lord.
One thing I think keeps us from service is the fact that we don’t think our service matters or our service counts. We say, “What can I do?”
I believe our eyes are in the wrong place. They’re on us. If our eyes are upon the Lord, and we serve with a heart of gratitude, it doesn’t matter if it’s watermelon, carrying somebody’s bags, ministering the word of God, or prophesying in the house of God.
It’s all service unto the Lord in His house.
I would like to encourage particularly the young people. I believe the Lord is moving among the young people. He’s raising young people up. This is your opportunity to learn to serve in the house of God. Don’t miss it.
God will be blessed. The church will be encouraged. We will see that service that is done by night in the house of our Lord.
This is really simple, and I almost hesitated to share this, but I’m just going to do it. My personal word was, “Christ in you, the hope of glory.”
But the thing that I really wanted to share was: your conference testimony might not be from the ministry. Your ministry might have been in the cafeteria or in the nursery. Of course, I was in the nursery.
The parents had to fill out this little form, and they tell you about their child. The parents of one child had almost lost this baby. He was born premature and had all these problems. They wrote on there, “Take care of him. Love him like he’s your own.”
I’m sitting there thinking, “Oh wow, they are our own for this week. This is my baby.” It’s so precious to see the Lord nurturing the babies, and nurturing them through the brothers and sisters.
This year, more than ever before, I’ve seen such a hunger in us for each other, and just a preciousness in the fellowship—how we touch, and there’s like a real life there.
I just felt like the Lord was saying, “This is your baby. Your brothers and sisters—they’re the ones. Don’t miss the chance to nurture them.”
I feel like this year we’re really called, along with the other saints who were with us, to nurture each other. Everybody can nurture.
I just want to read the Scripture. It’s not from the conference, but I believe the Lord spoke this to us. I think He’s still speaking it to us. Our response to being nurtured by the Lord and nurturing each other is from Song of Solomon 2:8-14:
The voice of my beloved! behold, he cometh,
Leaping upon the mountains,
Skipping upon the hills.My beloved is like a roe or a young hart:
Behold, he standeth behind our wall;
He looketh in at the windows;
He glanceth through the lattice.My beloved spake, and said unto me,
Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away.For, lo, the winter is past,
The rain is over and gone;
The flowers appear on the earth;
The time of the singing of birds is come,
And the voice of the turtle is heard in our land;The fig tree ripeneth her green figs,
And the vines are in blossom;
They give forth their fragrance.
Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away.O my dove, that art in the clefts of the rock,
In the covert of the steep place,
Let me see thy countenance,
Let me hear thy voice;
For sweet is thy voice,
And thy countenance is comely.
I don’t want to miss the opportunity to nurture my brothers and sisters. Thank you.
Something the Lord spoke to me during the conference—actually, He spoke it first on the way to the conference over the radio in the car—was a story that perhaps some of you are familiar with.
Apparently, I guess it’s a true story. It was about an organ in an Austrian church. It was just a small church, but it had a beautiful organ that played wonderful music.
The organ became broken and was unable to play like it used to. The people responsible in the church hired some experts to repair it. They came and worked on it. I can’t remember whether it was one expert or more—two different sets—but they couldn’t repair it.
Then this man from the village came and said, “I’d like to work on the organ.” The people responsible said, “We’ve already had experts come in, and they spent a lot of time on it, and they couldn’t help.”
He said, “Well, I believe I can.”
This man went in and spent two days working on it, and lo and behold, he repaired it. It played beautifully again. The villagers came down when they heard it playing. They stopped their work just to come and listen.
The people responsible in the church said, “Well, how were you able to fix this?” The man said, “Many years ago, I built this organ.”
The reason I’m sharing this is that same morning at the conference, in one of the fellowship times, a brother shared another story, which many of you have already heard, about the guitar that our brother Dana left in Russia, which he called Hope.
It had been ruined, just ruined. He took it to have it repaired, and some people told him, “Don’t bother. It’s too far gone.”
But he found a craftsman, and that man worked on it and was able to repair it. Now it has been given to these Russian people whose lives are so messed up.
But the message is: God, your Creator, is able to repair you.
Through those two things in the same morning, the Lord really spoke that message to my heart. It’s for all of us: no matter what state we are in, what our upbringing was, God is able to repair us. Praise the Lord.
Probably my own miracle was that I didn’t have a migraine this year. That’s actually quite a lot, because I’ve had them for almost thirty years of conferences.
I thank the Lord for that. Interestingly enough, I mentioned that to Stephen, and he said, “Yeah, you didn’t have any problems.” So maybe that was a true answer, but I do thank the Lord for that.
I only want to say one last thing as we close. It says to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. I went into this conference with that greatly on my heart.
The Lord’s return is so soon now, so imminent, that we need to be prepared. I realize I’m not there, and yet I knew that He wanted to use this conference to prepare His people.
That was really the Lord’s heart and purpose this year for us all together. He’s trying to prepare us now. He’s trying to awaken us to a soon return, and it will be soon.
So our hearts all really need to turn to the Lord. Two things that were emphasized in Luke 12, if you ever get a chance to read that, are that He’s looking for those today who are watching, really looking for Him with a heart; and the other is those serving Him.
The two go together. If you’re going to really serve, you need to be watching. So may the Lord bless us.
I pray, Lord, bless everything. Let’s pray.
Lord, we do thank You for this time this morning, this sweet fellowship, just a small part of what I think You accomplished there at the conference this year.
Lord, we do look to You that in these ensuing days, Lord, You will have a people prepared for Your return.
Lord Jesus, You will encourage all our hearts, that You will deliver us from all of our bondages, break all the bands and chains that would bind us, Lord, and that we would be set totally free.
Lord Jesus, there would be nothing here to hold us down when You return. Lord, we look to You to work mightily in our hearts, that there will be a passion in our hearts for Your soon return.
Lord Jesus, may we be found watching and serving when You return. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Okay, who is heading up the mealtime this morning?