Let’s see a freedom and a drawing where people come and very excited about Jesus Christ. Faith and prayer and kindness can do so much. We can go by faith and help the prodigals come to themselves and come home. The craziest thing is that God died to save the whole world. (Jeremiah 31:8-12)

Speaker(s): Pastor Thomas Schaller, Testimonies from audience
Sermon # 11655
6:30 PM on 3/31/2019

P. Schaller

We have one more worship song. Before we sing it, would you make small groups and have prayer for each other and encourage each other. You may move around and make little groups and have some prayer together.

Wash all my sins away. Just think of that. Lying, pride, murder, revenge, and hatred. When we leave your [God’s] house tonight, we have joy because we’ve been forgiven. I cannot remember your sins anymore. They are gone. We leave your house. We are in your house with joy and leave with joy. We’ve come from the house of God. We have been forgiven of all our sin. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Jesus. All our sins are washed away. Everyone in heaven and everyone here. Everyone on earth that believes in you, you wash our sin away. Restore unto us the joy of our salvation. That we would not be familiar. My sin and then it’s gone. It cannot be remembered. Every one of us. Halleluiah, halleluiah. In Jesus’ name. Halleluiah! Thank you, God.

We have our play coming up in a couple weeks. It will come fast. I want to bring the crew and the cast before our eyes so we could be part of the team praying for them and recognizing them. Last night, they had a young adult get together and Mat Gehret has been leading it.
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Mat

Hi, every one. I’m not the leader. There’s like 10 or 12 of us. So far, you’ve see me. We had a great time, a huge turnout. A lot of people came. The age group is 18 – and upper limit is between 30 and 35. We had a big crew varying within that age range. We talked about what we plan to do and hoping to have a lot of small groups happening through the year and larger events like last night. People prepared a free meal for everyone. We got to know each other a little better…you get to talk more in a smaller setting. Part of the mission statement is to grow together in the faith and knowledge of God, 2 Pet. 3:18. We want to learn together and lean on each other and glean from each other. We had a great time last night.
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P. Schaller

The Spirit of God when we are Spirit-filled, all those barriers and walls are changed. We don’t have the same concepts about people. P. Scibelli preached at 9:00 about our identity. I did the message at 11 and we spoke about how important our identity is. In the Body of Christ, we have a new identity. We reinforce in each other this identity. We are loved by each other. We don’t even know each other in a way. Did this happen to you with Dr. Stevens? You knew him but didn’t know him. I was his disciple for 36 years. He was my pastor and discipled by him but in one sense, I didn’t know him but in the most important sense, I knew him because we are spiritual. When we are spiritual, there are things about each other we don’t care about. For example, do you eat spaghetti on Friday night? Does it really matter? Is that what it means to know someone? The Spirit has put us together.

I gave my life to Jesus in New York State in 1972 and I started to follow Jesus and hitchhiked from New York to Maine to go to a little Bible school that hadn’t even started yet. There was a young girl in Washington, D.C. who spread out a map on the steps of a church and figured out where Brunswick, Maine was to visit a friend. We were soul winning and she came to the service and raised her hand for salvation and gave her heart to the Lord. She became my wife!

How does it happen? When young people say, how can I find a wife? Don’t ask me! I have no idea! If you get to know her, does she eat spaghetti on Friday night? It might be useful but there’s something a lot deeper. Has the Spirit put you together? Remember when Adam needed a wife and he had a chimpanzee on the right side and an 800 pound gorilla behind him and a horse and dog but didn’t have a wife. Say to your neighbor, he didn’t have a wife. Talk it up a little bit. What happened? The Lord put him to sleep because he know Adam would mess it up, so God put him to sleep. God gave him a wife and it’s a beautiful story. I think it’s more than having a wife. It’s being joined to the Lord. The Lord did that. He saved you. It’s more. It’s us knowing each other. It’s more. We heard them sing about the coming of Christ. We know we have a home in heaven.

Last testimony, Ciara came back from Vietnam. She was there for two weeks.
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Ciara

Do you want me to say anything specific? In my heart, I believe Doug and Bethany are there and poured out there hearts and seen the openness of the Vietnamese people. Ninety million or more. Communist countries do us a great favor. The devil does a great work for us. When you go to a Communist country, there is something going on there. They are coming home but want to pass the baton on.

I was there for two weeks for my practicum for Bible college. There is so much I could say. I whole heartedly believe there is a place for us there. I went four years ago and went back now. My feeling didn’t change the whole time. I love talking about the park. There is a park in one of the districts in Ho Chi Minh City. A lot of young Vietnamese students who are learning English come there to practice their English with foreigners. You sit on a bench and pray and you have two or three Vietnamese people walk up to you and say, can I talk to you? I remember the first time I was there. It captured my heart and I fell in love with the people. I joined God there in what he was doing. I’m talking to a room full of people who have way more experience in missions, but I went and joined God and something is happening there. If we go, God will put it in our hearts. Pray for the Pierson’s and their health. Both times I was there, I’m like, when am I moving there? I have a job, but I would leave it. It’s ready. I sat with people that looked at me and said I want God. I want God. I stood in front of – there are English clubs where there is conversational English practice and they sat in groups and shared. I blatantly shared the gospel after one of them. I was talking about God taking care of the root of our sin. That’s so simple but that’s it. Yes, I did make it through Bible college but it’s simple. I could stay here and work and live a normal life and I could also go. I participate with God there and here. The presence of God was – I almost didn’t experience the presence of God except for when the gospel was coming out of my mouth. This is what you have for us here.
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P. Schaller

Jer. 31, I was reading this afternoon and simply and shortly tonight will share with you what I sensed and want to see. I want to see young people come to the church on the street. I want to see in America in Federal Hill. I want to see in small churches everywhere, in New York City, San Francisco, Denver, Colorado, and Houston, Texas. Everywhere with all kinds of churches everywhere a freedom and a drawing where people come and are deeply excited in their hearts about Jesus Christ. This text is about the Jews going back to Jerusalem.

Jeremiah is prophesying, Jer 31:8 (AMP). The Jews were in captivity 70 years and then they returned back. God is saying I will bring them back. I think of what happened in the 70s with the Jesus Movement. Life Magazine on the front cover, Jesus Movement, hippies coming to Jesus. The brother, Arthur Blessitt who carried the cross around the world. He was in Hollywood, California and got saved. There was a cross and God told him take the cross off the wall and carry it outside on Sunset, Boulevard. There were Hells Angels and free love and the sexual revolution. I think it was at midnight he did it and was out to 2 or 3 in the morning. There are guys with motorcycles and girlfriends and drugs. God spoke to him to share the gospel and minister. He did this for some time. He got a brain aneurysm. The blood vessel in his brain was leaking. There was some damage and he couldn’t move. The medical people said you are done. You can’t move around. In his story, he said God spoke to him and said take the cross and carry it down the street and walk across America carrying the cross. He started to walk and he hasn’t stopped. Apparently, God healed his brain aneurysm. Rachel said he gets it checked regularly and it hasn’t bled out and he keeps living. He has carried the cross around the world on his shoulder with a little wheel. That’s an amazing story. Young people can turn to Christ and find him and come. These verses say this.

vs. 9-12. When this happened in our ministry 50 years ago, and David Bennet was in California, God told him to drive to Maine. He and Sandy drove across to Maine. I ended up there. Scott Robinson came from Oklahoma…we are from many different states and places in America. We didn’t know how we got here but with this pastor who was on fire and humble and simple and clear and anointed. After he preached, he didn’t leave. He stayed with us. He taught us about prayer in the morning and visiting people. He taught us about faith and being kind and humble and happy and joyful and visionary, saying in principle, we can go to Vietnam if we bring the gospel. We can go by faith.

This is what I think. The prodigals come home. The people without any knowledge of God come here, come to God. This is what I want. We have experienced it and know that freedom and that love.

This morning we said in Song of Solomon 2, the voice of my beloved come away, rise up, come away my beloved. From behind the wall, come away. I don’t know what challenges everybody has as a person, but we all have them. If we come away from them, and we set the Lord and seek him, we will find him. If we hear him and follow him with all our heart, Jeremiah says, we’ll come with joy and rejoicing and everlasting joy on our heads. That’s what I want. Here we are in America. It’s pretty crazy out there. Believe me it’s not crazier than the fact that God gave his Son. It’s not crazier than the fact that God’s grace is bigger than sin. The gospel is more powerful than man. That the grace of man will meet man anywhere in any dungeon or dump or state, in any state of mind and in any condition. That he goes to the uttermost. Our God is a saving God. Living God. He can do it. Father, you know in our country we hear the voices of the Baal’s. We hear the cry of Goliath, the outrageous blasphemy of the unbeliever. The bold, atheistic, Communistic, old story.

Prov. 26:16 the slothful man is wiser in his own conceit than seven men that can render a reason. You can explain to someone Communism is a failure, psychologically, politically, – Communism is a disaster. It’s of the devil. You give seven reasons but a man over here is persuaded in his own conceits. That’s what he wants.

When you get choking on your own foolishness and drowning in your own conceit and emptiness, then we need to hear the voice, come home. Turn back. Come to me. I will enlighten you, free you, save you, forgive you, fill you, comfort you, and confront you. Jesus said I will send you the Comforter. I’m saying, Lord, we don’t need the Comforter; we need the confronter. Jesus is the confronter. He confronts the lie, the arrogance, the pride, the sin. I tell you as it is. Then comes the healing balm of Gilead.

Arthur Blessitt coming across the country 30 years later with a brain aneurysm that does not burst. He is preaching the gospel everywhere in the world. He’s getting to be maybe 80 years old now.

I’m so persuaded this can happen. This can happen.

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