SPEAKER_01: You know, I'd uh I'd be at the stoplight, you know, in the middle of town.
SPEAKER_01: Roll down my window and how far across the street, hey, do you know Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: And they'd say, uh, I'd park my car right across the street and leads me to the ward.
SPEAKER_01: I'd go to the bank, give the lady money for her deposit.
SPEAKER_01: And I'd grab her hand and say, hey, do you know Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: No, I'd lead her to the lord right there at the bank.
SPEAKER_01: I'd go to the grocery store, the guy's handling the melodies.
SPEAKER_01: I'd tap them on the shoulder.
SPEAKER_01: Do you know Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: Uh-uh.
SPEAKER_01: I'd lead them to the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: So I let about 400 people to the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: That first year, I was so at The Road.
SPEAKER_00: Our mission is to empower people to change the world.
SPEAKER_00: For more information on The Road, visit theroad.org.
SPEAKER_00: We hope you are encouraged by today's message.
SPEAKER_01: So I'm excited to be here today.
SPEAKER_01: Today I want to talk about holy hunger.
SPEAKER_01: What is it?
SPEAKER_01: How do you get it?
SPEAKER_01: And what can happen when you have it?
SPEAKER_01: Because the sky's the limit, baby.
SPEAKER_01: I think one of the biggest challenges in the Christian life today, one of the biggest dichotomies, if you will, is how do you remain full of the things of God and be hungry at the same time?
SPEAKER_01: Let me repeat that.
SPEAKER_01: How do we remain full of the things of God and hungry at the same time?
SPEAKER_01: It almost sounds like a dichotomy, doesn't it?
SPEAKER_01: Or like a uh like a contradiction, doesn't it?
SPEAKER_01: But it's really not.
SPEAKER_01: In the physical realm, how do you get hungry?
SPEAKER_01: By not eating, right?
SPEAKER_01: Reminds me of the show Survivor.
SPEAKER_01: Any Survivor fans out there, raise your hands.
SPEAKER_01: Well, Survivor, I mean, these guys are out there stranded, they're, I mean, they have nothing to eat, they're starving, they'll eat bats, they'll eat rats.
SPEAKER_01: When you're really, really hungry, I mean, really, really hungry, you eat just about anything.
SPEAKER_01: Moms, how many of you in your teenage kids say there's nothing to eat in this house?
SPEAKER_01: And you can look in the freezer, you can look in the fridge, and you can look in the cupboards, you can find 15 meals.
SPEAKER_01: But if they're really, really hungry, they'll eat just about anything.
SPEAKER_01: On the show of Survivor, almost every season, they have what they call a food challenge, where they eat some of the grossest things on earth.
SPEAKER_01: And um, there's one guy, one episode, uh, the guy in there, big black guy, muscular, looked like a gentle giant.
SPEAKER_01: His name was James.
SPEAKER_01: If you watched um Survivor, he's probably been on five for like four or five seasons.
SPEAKER_01: He he would eat everything and anything during that food challenge.
SPEAKER_01: He'd just gobble it up because he knew that that's a good source of protein, and he might not get that protein for days upon days.
SPEAKER_01: So he'd eat it up.
SPEAKER_01: In one episode, after he ate one of the grossest things ever, he licked his lips.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm thinking only hunger can cause someone to do something like that.
SPEAKER_01: How about the spiritual realm?
SPEAKER_01: How do we get hungry?
SPEAKER_01: Well, we get hungry by eating, right?
SPEAKER_01: Just the opposite.
SPEAKER_01: And by consuming and chewing on the things of God.
SPEAKER_01: Psalm 34, 8 says, Taste and see that the Lord is good.
SPEAKER_01: And it's so true.
SPEAKER_01: Do you remember?
SPEAKER_01: I remember Lay's potato chips, their commercials back in the olden days.
SPEAKER_01: One of them used to say, Bet you can't eat just one, you know?
SPEAKER_01: And the word of God is kind of like that.
SPEAKER_01: You get hungry for it as you start eating it.
SPEAKER_01: The more you eat it, the more you want to eat it.
SPEAKER_01: Well, holy hunger is actually a sign of health.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, physical hunger is a sign of health too.
SPEAKER_01: And you're thinking, how can that be?
SPEAKER_01: How many of you have little kids?
SPEAKER_01: You know they have ferocious appetites.
SPEAKER_01: So when they're not eating, it's a sign that something's not right.
SPEAKER_01: When people aren't spiritually hungry, when they're not reading their Bible, when they have no desire to hang around fellow believers or even pray, it's a sign that something's not right and they're spiritually unhealthy.
SPEAKER_01: Or when they read their Bible, like a software license, you know, where they don't really read it, they just skim down to the bottom, hit I agree, and click it and get it out of the way.
SPEAKER_01: So that's how some people read their Bible.
SPEAKER_01: They just read it out of duty, read it to read it, to say they did it, and check it off their list, but they don't really chew on it.
SPEAKER_01: They don't really ponder it.
SPEAKER_01: And so they wonder why they get no revelation.
SPEAKER_01: Well, hunger, it can cause us to dream.
SPEAKER_01: We've all heard the expression, God wants to take us beyond our wildest dreams.
SPEAKER_01: The problem is for many people, they've forgotten how to dream wildly.
SPEAKER_01: So holy hunger causes us to dream wildly again.
SPEAKER_01: So, what is hunger?
SPEAKER_01: What is holy hunger?
SPEAKER_01: Well, it's a motivating force that takes us out of who we are and where we're at into a greater and better place.
SPEAKER_01: Holy hunger takes us out of our comfort zones.
SPEAKER_01: Holy hunger takes us out of our convenience.
SPEAKER_01: Holy hunger takes us out of our entitlement.
SPEAKER_01: Holy hunger takes us out of our dignity, out of our pride, out of our apathy.
SPEAKER_01: And yes, holy hunger even takes us out of our pain.
SPEAKER_01: Job.
SPEAKER_01: In the midst of everything, when everything was taken away from him.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, the dude was at rock bottom.
SPEAKER_01: His wife said, curse God.
SPEAKER_01: He said, I'm not gonna curse God.
SPEAKER_01: Instead, what do you do?
SPEAKER_01: In Job 14, 14, Job held his hands up to the sky and he said, All the days of my appointed time I'll wait until my change comes.
SPEAKER_01: So holy hunger, yes, can even take us out of our pain.
SPEAKER_01: So, how do you get hungry?
SPEAKER_01: Well, you get hungry by chewing on, consuming the things of God.
SPEAKER_01: It can come by reading your Bible.
SPEAKER_01: Even if you don't read your Bible, and you know, I have probably about 20 Bibles at home.
SPEAKER_01: I like this one the best.
SPEAKER_01: It's full of duct tape.
SPEAKER_01: I don't think I'll ever get rid of it because it's got probably at least 25 years of notes in it.
SPEAKER_01: And um, but even when I'm not hungry to read my Bible, if I hold up and say, Lord, make this real to me, make it come alive as I'm reading it, Lord, let it speak to me, let it bring life to me, let it give me revelation.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, if I have to read the same verses over and over and over again until I hear you speak, Lord, let that come to pass.
SPEAKER_01: And you know what?
SPEAKER_01: God will honor that.
SPEAKER_01: How many of you uh know that you can get hungry by reading other books as well?
SPEAKER_01: Anyone here of Tommy Tenney?
SPEAKER_01: He wrote the book God Chasers and many other books.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, but God Chasers is one of my favorite books.
SPEAKER_01: I've got the book up here, Extreme God Chasers.
SPEAKER_01: Extreme.
SPEAKER_01: So um, great book, but Tommy is a good old boy.
SPEAKER_01: And he'll say things, the kind of things that you thought, man, I wish I would have said that.
SPEAKER_01: Things like, whatever you can ponder in your heart, God can carry in your womb.
SPEAKER_01: Or expectancy is the matrix of miracles.
SPEAKER_01: I get excited when I read stuff like that.
SPEAKER_01: Tommy's a Louisiana boy, and for two years straight, every Tuesday, he'd fly up from Louisiana to Baltimore and he'd visit Rock Church, a church pastored by Bart Pierce.
SPEAKER_01: Rock Church was 73 minutes away from my front door in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania.
SPEAKER_01: So every Tuesday, out of hunger, I'd go hear Tommy Tenney speak.
SPEAKER_01: I'd bring my kids with me.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes I'd go alone.
SPEAKER_01: But every service that I listened to, um, none of them were the same.
SPEAKER_01: But they all had one common denominator.
SPEAKER_01: By the end of the service, everyone was on their face weeping for more of God.
SPEAKER_01: Tommy had that ability that God really used him.
SPEAKER_01: One time he went to, he came back from uh the Hibride Islands and and uh and Wales because he wanted to go to the church where the revival happened in the Hibrides.
SPEAKER_01: 1900, Evan Roberts went through Wales and the Hibride Islands, and like 90-some percent of the country got saved.
SPEAKER_01: 1949, Duncan Campbell was the pastor that that ushered in revival in the Hibrides.
SPEAKER_01: But the catalysts of that revival were two old ladies.
SPEAKER_01: They called them the seekers.
SPEAKER_01: One was blind, one had arthritis, they would kind of help each other around.
SPEAKER_01: But they would pray for revival to come to Cook, the town of Cook in the Hibrides.
SPEAKER_01: Every day they'd pray.
SPEAKER_01: At night, they would go out in their barn, cover themselves up to their neck in hay, and pray for revival to come.
SPEAKER_01: People would drive by the barn at night and thought it was on fire.
SPEAKER_01: It wasn't on fire, it was just the manifest presence of God coming down, consuming the bar.
SPEAKER_01: Often they'd invite their niece, her name was Mary, would pray with them, and the three of them, covered up to their neck in hay, would pray for revival to come to the Hibrides.
SPEAKER_01: That niece, Mary, is Donald Trump's mother.
SPEAKER_01: The old ladies were his great aunts.
SPEAKER_01: True story.
SPEAKER_01: So Tommy Tenney wanted to go to the very church, a real small church where this happened.
SPEAKER_01: And he gets in there and it's really small.
SPEAKER_01: Two old ladies were up front, okay?
SPEAKER_01: And they're on their faces weeping before God.
SPEAKER_01: They're crying, they're praying for more revival to come.
SPEAKER_01: And they looked up and they said, Laddie, Laddie, come here.
SPEAKER_01: Laddie, come here, I've got something for you.
SPEAKER_01: And he said, Open your hand.
SPEAKER_01: And Tommy opened his hand and he held them, he held, he put in his hand a pocket full of matches, wooden matches.
SPEAKER_01: And he said, Go light some fires in America.
SPEAKER_01: So Tommy Tenney came back in the first service after he been to Wales in the Hebrides, and he had all these matches, and he threw them out just like this.
SPEAKER_01: And he said, Go light some fires in America.
SPEAKER_01: So I'll tell you what, I jumped on about three, four of those matches quicker than Grease Lightning.
SPEAKER_01: So books can get you excited.
SPEAKER_01: Another book I like, I don't know if any of you have heard of Ruth Ward Heflin.
SPEAKER_01: How many?
SPEAKER_01: Ruth has had the good privilege and pleasure of praying for more heads of state than anyone in recorded history.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, she's she just God opens the doors.
SPEAKER_01: She's in all these different countries.
SPEAKER_01: She died a few years ago.
SPEAKER_01: When she was real little, she told her parents who were missionaries, they had camp meetings in Virginia.
SPEAKER_01: She told her parents, I want to be, and she was young, early teens.
SPEAKER_01: Um I don't even know if she was a teenager yet, but you know, so 11, 12.
SPEAKER_01: She said, I want to be a missionary in China.
SPEAKER_01: Mom, dad, can I go to China?
SPEAKER_01: I think I'm supposed to go there.
SPEAKER_01: I'm supposed to be a missionary.
SPEAKER_01: And they thought, man, that's kind of young, Ruth.
SPEAKER_01: And they'd hear her praying at night, and they'd just tell her, Ruth, Ruth, it's late.
SPEAKER_01: Go to bed, you know.
SPEAKER_01: One night they heard her praying and it sounded kind of different.
SPEAKER_01: So they went and listened at her door.
SPEAKER_01: They thought, this is unusual.
SPEAKER_01: They opened up the door, she was sleeping, and she was praying in fluent Chinese, and they knew it was probably a good idea to let Ruth go to China.
SPEAKER_01: You know, God would tell her things like, I want you to go to Ethiopia.
SPEAKER_01: And she'd say, God, I don't have any money.
SPEAKER_01: So, well, I didn't ask you if you had money, go to Ethiopia.
SPEAKER_01: So she'd get up in line, there'd be five people in line, then four, then three, then two, then one.
SPEAKER_01: She'd stand up there and she'd say, I need one ticket, one way to Ethiopia, one plane ticket.
SPEAKER_01: And someone would come up and pay for her ticket.
SPEAKER_01: Her whole life was like that.
SPEAKER_01: This book, it's called Harvest Glory.
SPEAKER_01: It's one of her my favorite books by her.
SPEAKER_01: She's got a number of them.
SPEAKER_01: But every chapter is only a couple pages long.
SPEAKER_01: And even if you're tired, you can get through three, four chapters, because I tell you, it's just exciting.
SPEAKER_01: It gets me hungry.
SPEAKER_01: Well, you can also get hungry by hanging out with other believers.
SPEAKER_01: You know, you tend to be like the five people that you hang out with the most.
SPEAKER_01: Are those five people bringing you up or are they bringing you down?
SPEAKER_01: I've heard, you know, people say, I want to be the dumbest person in the room, because I want everyone to be smarter than me, so I can learn from someone, you know?
SPEAKER_01: And uh so I kind of want that too.
SPEAKER_01: I want to be, I want to be around people that are even hungrier than I am.
SPEAKER_01: So you can get hungry by listening to the testimony of others.
SPEAKER_01: You know, everyone's got a testimony.
SPEAKER_01: If you claim the name of Jesus, if you've been passed from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light, you got a testimony.
SPEAKER_01: People say to me all the time, Well, I I don't really have a good testimony.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I didn't do anything wild or bad.
SPEAKER_01: And I'll say, Are you kidding me?
SPEAKER_01: That's the best testimony altogether.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, the grace of God kept you all the trouble out of all the trouble that I got into.
SPEAKER_01: Because I I found a lot of it when I was growing up.
SPEAKER_01: So the testimony of others.
SPEAKER_01: What does Revelation 12, 11 say?
SPEAKER_01: It says, We overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony.
SPEAKER_01: And they love that their lives unto death.
SPEAKER_01: So today I'm gonna share a little bit of my my testimony.
SPEAKER_01: I'm only gonna give you the uh reader's digest condensed version.
SPEAKER_01: To do the faux version, you're I'm gonna have to speak at least one more time, maybe a couple more times, because there's many, many stories in there.
SPEAKER_01: But I grew up in northern Minnesota, a small town called Carleton, outside of Duluth, Minnesota.
SPEAKER_01: My dad got a job working for Penny, stocking the shelves.
SPEAKER_01: He uh worked his tail off and they liked him, so they said, John, why don't you uh join our management team?
SPEAKER_01: He did, and he got promoted and transferred, promoted and transferred.
SPEAKER_01: We went from Carleton, Minnesota to Waterloo, Iowa, to Columbia, Missouri, to Jacksonville, Florida, my one of the funnest places I ever lived, and to Atlanta, Georgia.
SPEAKER_01: There, in 1973, my parents got divorced.
SPEAKER_01: Some things about Atlanta, Georgia.
SPEAKER_01: We lived in Dunwoody, and they were just building Dunwoody High School at the time.
SPEAKER_01: And they just finished eighth grade in the ninth grade.
SPEAKER_01: So I have four other brothers.
SPEAKER_01: There's five of us, or four of us.
SPEAKER_01: I do have a half-brother, so there's four other brothers, but four of us in five years, my mom had, and she got gray hair and a sense of humor real quick.
SPEAKER_01: But my brother, I was in eighth grade, my brother Brian, I was the youngest, was in ninth grade.
SPEAKER_01: And my two oldest brothers went to a different school called Peachtree High School.
SPEAKER_01: Remember that name.
SPEAKER_01: So Dunwitty High School, um, ten years after I went there, our very own Randy Valentine that goes here, and Randy and Christy, Randy went to that same high school ten years later.
SPEAKER_01: It's just such a small world.
SPEAKER_01: And Pastor Steve went to high school in a town right outside of Atlanta.
SPEAKER_01: He won state and gymnastics his senior year, the individual title.
SPEAKER_01: But this team lost by just a fraction of a point to Peachtree High School, my brother's high schools.
SPEAKER_01: So Steve went on to the University of Georgia, became a gymnast.
SPEAKER_01: My brother went on, oldest brother went on to the University of Georgia and stayed there.
SPEAKER_01: So I've got a brother in Athens.
SPEAKER_01: Steve's got a brother, David, in Athens.
SPEAKER_01: I lived in Athens before I moved here.
SPEAKER_01: Just a little side note.
SPEAKER_01: So when I walked in the door for the first time here at the road, I heard Pastor Steve talking about kingdom prayer and the Georgia Bulldogs.
SPEAKER_01: I looked up to heaven and I said, God, I'm home, you know.
SPEAKER_01: I thought this is heaven, you know.
SPEAKER_01: So we moved up to Minnesota to my mom's hometown.
SPEAKER_01: It was called Esco.
SPEAKER_01: We were the Esco Eskimos.
SPEAKER_01: No kidding.
SPEAKER_01: And it was, you know, two seasons in Minnesota, 4th of July and winter.
SPEAKER_01: It was cold there all the time.
SPEAKER_01: But one thing about my hometown, one thing about Minnesota, probably the upper fourth of Minnesota is all Scandinavian.
SPEAKER_01: A lot of Swedes, a lot of Norwegians, a lot of Finnish people.
SPEAKER_01: And my whole town was Finnish.
SPEAKER_01: My grandpa came right from Finland, my other grandpa came right from Ireland.
SPEAKER_01: But everyone in my town spoke Finn.
SPEAKER_01: The word sauna is the only Finnish word that everybody knows, and no one pronounces correctly.
SPEAKER_01: Everyone says sauna.
SPEAKER_01: It's not sauna, it's sauna.
SPEAKER_01: Take it from me.
SPEAKER_01: So I'm half Finn.
SPEAKER_01: That's why mermaids are so cute.
SPEAKER_01: They're half Finn.
SPEAKER_01: But another thing about my hometown is there's big fam, big families in my hometown because there's dairy farms.
SPEAKER_01: My grandpa had Meadowbrook Dairy.
SPEAKER_01: So my grandpa had 16 kids.
SPEAKER_01: His brother had 14.
SPEAKER_01: Another brother 12, and another brother 10.
SPEAKER_01: So you can imagine the number of first, second, and third cousins I had.
SPEAKER_01: I graduated 88 in my class, and I was related to 52.
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: First day of ninth grade, I hadn't seen any of my cousins since I was real little because we were busy unpacking.
SPEAKER_01: I get home from school and I said, Mom, I think I'm in love.
SPEAKER_01: She's got blonde hair, she's beautiful.
SPEAKER_01: I said the name and she said, That's your cousin.
SPEAKER_01: Next day I said, Mom, I think I'm in love today.
SPEAKER_01: She's got black hair.
SPEAKER_01: I figured I'd try a different color hair, you know.
SPEAKER_01: She's beautiful, and I said the name, mom said, That's your cousin.
SPEAKER_01: The first five girls I liked, no lie, were my cousins.
SPEAKER_01: But I pretty much grew up without God.
SPEAKER_01: My mom's side of the family was pretty much sprint down the middle.
SPEAKER_01: Half were Bible-believing prayer warriors, diehard Christians.
SPEAKER_01: The other half were beer drinkers and hellraisers.
SPEAKER_01: And I fell into that other half.
SPEAKER_01: I went to um confirmation classes in ninth grade two times before I realized you're talking about God.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't want to go there.
SPEAKER_01: So I'd wait for my cousins.
SPEAKER_01: I'd sit up back behind the church and smoke cigarettes and drink beer in ninth grade.
SPEAKER_01: All through high school, I had a number of different jobs.
SPEAKER_01: I had at least two or three jobs all through high school.
SPEAKER_01: Um I was in every sport, one of the stars in every sport.
SPEAKER_01: But when I was a senior, I got a job at Hardy's as a cook.
SPEAKER_01: And it was a turning point in my life.
SPEAKER_01: They love me.
SPEAKER_01: I love them.
SPEAKER_01: They said, Al, when you graduate, won't you go into our management program?
SPEAKER_01: I said, okay.
SPEAKER_01: And when I was right when I became 19 years old, I became their youngest general manager with about a hundred employees.
SPEAKER_01: Later on, I grew up quickly.
SPEAKER_01: I was a district manager, personnel director, and I was in charge of eight states and 5,000 employees by the time I was 23.
SPEAKER_01: So I was very results-oriented.
SPEAKER_01: Well, that first store I managed was right right by my hometown, five miles away.
SPEAKER_01: And there was a girl that would come in almost every day, and I thought, she was the prettiest thing on earth.
SPEAKER_01: And looking back, what was pretty about her, she just had the glory of God all over her.
SPEAKER_01: She glowed.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, she just glistened, you know.
SPEAKER_01: And one day I got the nerve up to ask her out.
SPEAKER_01: Her name was Barbie Tester.
SPEAKER_01: I said, Barbie, will you go out on a date with me?
SPEAKER_01: She kind of smiled.
SPEAKER_01: She said, I don't go out with any boys that don't go to church with me first.
SPEAKER_01: In the back of my mind, I'm thinking, I can do that.
SPEAKER_01: I said, Barbie, I'll go to church with you.
SPEAKER_01: So that next Sunday, I found myself sitting next to Barbie at church.
SPEAKER_01: And when we walked in, the first thing I noticed was everybody in there was beautiful like Barbie.
SPEAKER_01: They were all glowing with the goodness of God.
SPEAKER_01: And it was something I knew I didn't have in my life, something I was attracted to, something I wanted.
SPEAKER_01: And I thought, man, they're just all glistening, they're glowing.
SPEAKER_01: And then the church started, they started playing some music, and I was going to say something.
SPEAKER_01: I turned to Barbie and I looked and her eyes were closed.
SPEAKER_01: And her hands were raised.
SPEAKER_01: And she was singing.
SPEAKER_01: I thought, that's about as weird as it gets.
SPEAKER_01: And I looked around and everybody's eyes were closed.
SPEAKER_01: Everybody's hands were raised and everybody was singing.
SPEAKER_01: And later, Barbie told me that was called worship.
SPEAKER_01: You know, I've heard the term worship before, but had no context in the church realm.
SPEAKER_01: I was just kind of naive.
SPEAKER_01: You know, and so um they had some words up on the screen.
SPEAKER_01: I could see that they were singing those words, so I started singing along.
SPEAKER_01: And after the second thought, I got a little beaten there.
SPEAKER_01: I thought, this is pretty good.
SPEAKER_01: They got some guitars, and church isn't so bad.
SPEAKER_01: Then this guy got up and started telling stories.
SPEAKER_01: And I presume they were from the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: They sounded like they could be.
SPEAKER_01: And then he had what he called an altar call.
SPEAKER_01: Barbie told me later.
SPEAKER_01: And I didn't respond, but all day long when I left church, all I could think about was that altar call.
SPEAKER_01: And the words he said, I kept playing them over and over in my mind.
SPEAKER_01: And 19 years old, living on my own, that night, I got down on my knees and I said, Jesus, if you're real, come into my heart, come into my life, take me, make me into everything I've been called to be.
SPEAKER_01: And I instantly started weeping.
SPEAKER_01: And I felt fresh as a new driven snow.
SPEAKER_01: And I just weeped.
SPEAKER_01: I instantly had a craving to read the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't even know if I had a Bible, but I found one.
SPEAKER_01: I found a bookshelf, and I knew I had a lot of books.
SPEAKER_01: I found a Bible.
SPEAKER_01: I dusted it off.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't know the difference between the Old Testament and the New Testament.
SPEAKER_01: I knew none of that.
SPEAKER_01: I just saw a name that looked like something I could read.
SPEAKER_01: It was Matthew.
SPEAKER_01: So I started reading there.
SPEAKER_01: I read all night.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't stop.
SPEAKER_01: All night long I read and I weeped and I cried.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, This is so simple.
SPEAKER_01: How come no one's ever taught me this before?
SPEAKER_01: And it was just, it was amazing.
SPEAKER_01: I couldn't wait until morning.
SPEAKER_01: When morning came, I called my mom and said, Mom, I got saved last night.
SPEAKER_01: You got to get saved today, mom.
SPEAKER_01: Because I think Jesus is coming and it's probably going to be in the next couple weeks.
SPEAKER_01: Do you know what I mean?
SPEAKER_01: And my mom said, Oh, that's nice, dear.
SPEAKER_01: That's good for you, you know.
SPEAKER_01: But later, a couple years later, I was able to lead my mom to the Lord before she passed away.
SPEAKER_01: My brother Michael was able to leave my dad to the Lord before he passed away.
SPEAKER_01: And I was able to lead my brother Brian to the Lord before he passed away.
SPEAKER_01: So they're watching right now.
SPEAKER_01: Hey guys.
SPEAKER_01: So the first thing I did I wanted to do, you know, when it got daylight out and everything, and the the bar that I used to hang out with was just about opening.
SPEAKER_01: And so I wanted to go in there and invite everyone over to my house, you know.
SPEAKER_01: So I went in there, and the bar had opened, and uh about 10 minutes earlier, there was already 50 people in there.
SPEAKER_01: I opened the bar, opened the bar door, and I said, Hey, I want everyone to come over to my house for a Bible study tonight.
SPEAKER_01: You know, I just figured like the natural thing to do.
SPEAKER_01: And they looked at me and they laughed and they thought I found a new drug, and I did.
SPEAKER_01: Instead of the L S D, I was now on J E S U S.
SPEAKER_01: The next thing I wanted to do is I thought, man, I should probably find a church.
SPEAKER_01: I lived in Minnesota, and um at the time, and on the same block of me, there was a church.
SPEAKER_01: I went by it hundreds of times.
SPEAKER_01: Didn't even think twice about it because why?
SPEAKER_01: It wasn't in my radar before, but now it was.
SPEAKER_01: And so I walked in the door and I said to the receptionist, I said, Hey, uh I'd like to speak to the manager.
SPEAKER_01: And she said, she said, uh, manager?
SPEAKER_01: She kind of goes.
SPEAKER_01: You mean the pastor?
SPEAKER_01: I said, is that what you call him?
SPEAKER_01: Pastor?
SPEAKER_01: I said, Yeah, the pastor.
SPEAKER_01: I want to speak to the pastor.
SPEAKER_01: So she got up and she was going to show me to his room, and I just walked past her, barged open the door, it was closed.
SPEAKER_01: He was talking on the phone, and I blurted out, I want to do the stuff.
SPEAKER_01: And he said, The stuff?
SPEAKER_01: I said, I want to lay hands on a stick, cast out demons, and raise the dead.
SPEAKER_01: And he said, I read it in the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus said, I could do greater things than that.
SPEAKER_01: Where do I sign up?
SPEAKER_01: And he looked at me and he says, Did you just get saved?
SPEAKER_01: I said last night.
SPEAKER_01: And he so he said to the guy, I think I need to call you back.
SPEAKER_01: So he hung up the phone.
SPEAKER_01: He talked to me for a little bit and he said, Al, he said, look, my son's the associate pastor.
SPEAKER_01: His name is Rob.
SPEAKER_01: He said, he's got a little Bible study at the prison, about 10 people.
SPEAKER_01: Won't you come tomorrow and go to the Bible study?
SPEAKER_01: And I thought, great.
SPEAKER_01: So on the way there, I said, Rob, I said, I know you've got 10 people at your Bible study, but to me that's kind of small.
SPEAKER_01: Do you mind if I go and rattle the cages and see if I can round up a few more guys?
SPEAKER_01: I probably sold drugs or drank beer with most of the guys in there.
SPEAKER_01: So he got us all his 10 guys together, they're getting their coffee together ready for their Bible study.
SPEAKER_01: And I came down walking down the hall, and I had 25 guys with me.
SPEAKER_01: So his Bible study went from 10 to 35 overnight.
SPEAKER_01: And about a month later, they let me preach.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't know any doctrine.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't know any theology.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't know any scripture.
SPEAKER_01: I did know Jesus loves me and He can love you.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus saved me and He can save you.
SPEAKER_01: So that zeal and that hunger were enough for God to work with.
SPEAKER_01: And the warden and all the guards gave their life to the Lord, and revival broke out in the prison.
SPEAKER_01: That first year, I was so hungry.
SPEAKER_01: I just read Hal Lindsay's late great planet Earth.
SPEAKER_01: And I thought Jesus is literally coming in a matter of weeks.
SPEAKER_01: I had a sense of urgency.
SPEAKER_01: I wanted to tell everyone I know.
SPEAKER_01: You know why?
SPEAKER_01: Because when you know him, you'll want to make him known.
SPEAKER_01: Is that true?
SPEAKER_01: So I told everybody I could.
SPEAKER_01: You know, I'd um I'd be at a stoplight, you know, in the middle of town.
SPEAKER_01: I'd roll down my window and holler across the street, hey, do you know Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: And they'd say, uh-uh.
SPEAKER_01: I'd park my car, run across the street and lead someone to the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: I'd go to the bank, give the lady money for a deposit, and I'd grab her hand and say, Hey, do you know Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: And she'd say, No, I'd lead her to the Lord, right there at the bank.
SPEAKER_01: I'd go to the grocery store, the guy's handling the melons.
SPEAKER_01: I'd tap them on the shoulder, do you know Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_01: I'd lead them to the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: So I led about 400 people to the Lord that first year.
SPEAKER_01: I was so hungry.
SPEAKER_01: The first two weeks I was saved, um, I can't get into it every day, but something miraculous happened every day for two weeks.
SPEAKER_01: The first day miracles didn't happen, I cried for four hours.
SPEAKER_01: I thought I was grieving the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: And I reasoned to myself, I didn't know anything about the Christian life.
SPEAKER_01: I thought I'm a Christian, miracles are supposed to happen every day.
SPEAKER_01: First day a miracle didn't happen.
SPEAKER_01: I cried.
SPEAKER_01: And I didn't realize that sometimes they don't happen every day.
SPEAKER_01: Second day after I got saved, I'm walking on the shores of Lake Superior, and right in front of me, it's like a movie screen, this vision, I had the first of a bunch of different visions.
SPEAKER_01: I'm in this vision, I'm standing on this platform in the middle of Africa, as far as I can see, were local natives, and um there had been hundreds of thousands, maybe millions, and I'm preaching to all of them.
SPEAKER_01: I never knew that many people could assemble in one spot together until years later I saw videos of Reinhardt Bunky's crusade.
SPEAKER_01: One crusade he had lasted two weeks.
SPEAKER_01: Six million people came to his crusade, 1.2 million people got saved in that one or two-week period.
SPEAKER_01: And that was me standing on that stage.
SPEAKER_01: It hasn't happened yet, but as long as I have breath, I believe it can happen.
SPEAKER_01: I'm playing catch up here.
SPEAKER_01: We all go through peaks and valleys in our lives, ups and downs.
SPEAKER_01: If you've been walking with God any length of time, you'll understand this.
SPEAKER_01: In 1978, I got saved, in 1986, in 1997, in 2007, and 2017, almost 10 years apart each time, I went through this period where I all I can say is I think I got born again, again, and I got hungry, unprecedented hunger again.
SPEAKER_01: I remember I would listen to um, I'd lay on the floor and I would listen to music.
SPEAKER_01: I'd listen to Keith Green and Eve and the second chapter of Acts and Imperials, and uh there's another guy I listened to who was John Fisher, Chuck Gerard, John Fisher.
SPEAKER_01: But John Fisher had the first contemporary Christian album in America, the second contemporary Christian album in the world, and I just listened to him.
SPEAKER_01: About um a couple years ago, my brother's got a company called Life, the Leadership Institute for Entrepreneurs, and we hold classes and we hold boot camps for entrepreneurs, teach them how to launch grow and scale businesses, a 24-step systematic approach.
SPEAKER_01: And John Fisher, this guy I used to listen to, came in for um one of the boot camps.
SPEAKER_01: So I picked him up in the middle of a snowstorm, went up to Denver.
SPEAKER_01: On the way back, it lessened up a little bit, but I had one hand on the wheel looking straight ahead, one hand on John, praying over him, and he's crying, and I'm crying.
SPEAKER_01: I said, You had no idea the impact you had on my life.
SPEAKER_01: Because of you, I got this unprecedented hunger, and I started writing worship songs.
SPEAKER_01: So I've written, on the average, a worship song a week for 42 years.
SPEAKER_01: Some weeks I'll go two, three weeks without writing one.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes I'll write two or three in a day, but on the average about one a day because of John Fisher.
SPEAKER_01: So you never know what can happen with any that kind of hunger.
SPEAKER_01: In 2007, God woke me up about two in the morning and he said, Let's go for a walk.
SPEAKER_01: And it reminds me that Adam used to take walks with God in the early morning in the garden.
SPEAKER_01: I walked about a mile, sat down on the parch bench, and God said to me, I want you to jump off the rat race, merry-go-round.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Excuse me, he says, I want you to jump off the rat race, merry-go-round.
SPEAKER_01: Your life is just too busy.
SPEAKER_01: You see five miles down the road, Al, but you miss the people, you miss the roses that are growing at your feet.
SPEAKER_01: You've missed so many divine connections, Al, just because you were so busy.
SPEAKER_01: You know, I think one of the greatest weapons of the enemy are weapons of mass distraction.
SPEAKER_01: There's just so many things vying for our attention.
SPEAKER_01: Would you agree?
SPEAKER_01: So God said something to me that's stuck with me ever since then.
SPEAKER_01: He said, I want you to underwhelm your schedule so I can overwhelm your soul.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to underwhelm your schedule, Al, so I can overwhelm your soul again.
SPEAKER_01: So since then, that's what my life has been like.
SPEAKER_01: Also, in that year, I went through a divorce, 2007.
SPEAKER_01: I got custody of the kids and they needed me, they're teenage girls, and uh I knew I had to make a decision right then and there.
SPEAKER_01: And um, let me tell you, if you're a parent in this room, parenting is like a grand prize drawing.
SPEAKER_01: You must be present to win.
SPEAKER_01: Isn't that true?
SPEAKER_01: So I made a decision.
SPEAKER_01: I quit my job right then and there on the spot.
SPEAKER_01: I had five weeks' vacation, I knew I had five weeks to find a job.
SPEAKER_01: I was working kind of part-time at the church, I was doing it from home.
SPEAKER_01: So I um I got a part-time job at Red Lobster as a server so I could be around my kids.
SPEAKER_01: I did life coaching, and I worked for two international ministries for Healing Tree International and for uh George and Banoff's Global Celebration.
SPEAKER_01: Did they did their media work from home?
SPEAKER_01: I became a teacher's aide at school, and I became the Girl Scout Cookie Mom for eight years.
SPEAKER_01: And I never realized how frustrated it can be with little Girl Scouts when it became time to hand in all their money and it and they were taking their time getting it in.
SPEAKER_01: You you want to grab them by the ankles, hold them upside down until you get that last quarter.
SPEAKER_01: But um, but it was actually pretty fun, a Girl Scout Cookie Mom for eight years.
SPEAKER_01: And then I had time to be with God.
SPEAKER_01: You know, I still wake up every morning like a five-year-old on Christmas morning.
SPEAKER_01: I believe the standard for maturity in the kingdom of God is to be overflowing with wonder, awe, hope, and expectancy.
SPEAKER_01: I've never lost that.
SPEAKER_01: So I've been childlike all my life.
SPEAKER_01: I got the the brain of a 12-year-old and the body of a 90-year-old, you know, someone's got to compromise.
SPEAKER_01: But I wake up every morning, bright-eyed and pushy tailed, saying, God, today could be the day that someone walks over the threshold of their destiny, and I might be able to help them.
SPEAKER_01: Today could be that day.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, give me a due word and due season for everyone that comes across my paths.
SPEAKER_01: So when you're full of God and you're hungry at the same time, I said it's one of the biggest challenges, biggest dichotomies of the Christian life in the beginning.
SPEAKER_01: When you're full of God and hungry at the same time, God can really use you.
SPEAKER_01: So I oversee the health care of my uncle, Uncle Bill in Minnesota, with my brother, and because I do it remotely, sometimes I have to fly in.
SPEAKER_01: Bill had an operation on his heart, he had his pacemaker, the batteries replaced.
SPEAKER_01: So I'm sitting in the waiting room, and there's two other people in the waiting room, two ladies, probably in their 80s, and I could tell the lady across from me was in just an agony.
SPEAKER_01: She was in a lot of pain, just the way she was sitting, she couldn't sit right, she kept moving, and you can see the look on her face.
SPEAKER_01: And God gave me a word of knowledge saying her name is Diane.
SPEAKER_01: So I said, Is your name Diane?
SPEAKER_01: She said, Yes.
SPEAKER_01: And before she could wrap her hand around how I knew that, I said, It looks like you're in pain.
SPEAKER_01: She said, I am.
SPEAKER_01: I have bone spurs in my tailbone, and um and the doctor says there's nothing they can do about it, and it's caused me to walk in a walker for years now.
SPEAKER_01: I said, Diane, do you mind if I just pray for you?
SPEAKER_01: I believe God can heal you.
SPEAKER_01: And the other lady across the room in the waiting room, she said, Can I join in?
SPEAKER_01: I said, sure.
SPEAKER_01: So I'm praying for Diane, and as I'm praying for her, you could see the look on her face went from agony and pain to relief.
SPEAKER_01: I got done praying and said, Diane, how do you feel?
SPEAKER_01: She says, I don't feel a thing, nothing.
SPEAKER_01: I feel nothing.
SPEAKER_01: I can't believe it.
SPEAKER_01: Right then I got a phone call.
SPEAKER_01: And the reception in there was bad.
SPEAKER_01: I had to run outside.
SPEAKER_01: About 45 minutes, an hour later, I came in, and I see Diane walking down the hall, and uh, and she's uh with no walker, good posture, smile on her face, said, Diane, how are you doing?
SPEAKER_01: She says, I feel 30 years younger.
SPEAKER_01: That's what can happen when you're full of God and you're hungry at the same time.
SPEAKER_01: I was down in Jupiter, Florida last year.
SPEAKER_01: And um I walked into a place, I think it was called Salad Works, might not be correct on the name, but something close to that.
SPEAKER_01: You go in there, create your own salads and a bunch of different salad bars.
SPEAKER_01: So I walked in there, and um, as I went in there, I could see, and you can order food from the kitchen there.
SPEAKER_01: I could see into the kitchen.
SPEAKER_01: There's a big tall black guy there, probably about 6'4.
SPEAKER_01: And um, so I looked over, he looked at me, I looked at him, he smiled at me, I smiled at him, and I'm getting my salad and going around the salad bar, and as I'd look over, I'd catch his eye, he'd look at me, I'd look at him.
SPEAKER_01: He was just smiling the whole time.
SPEAKER_01: Great smile.
SPEAKER_01: So finally I went over there, and the coffee is over there in that area anyway.
SPEAKER_01: And I said to him, I said, You know, you've got an intoxicating smile.
SPEAKER_01: I said, smiling has the same effect on humans as sunlight on an unbudded rose.
SPEAKER_01: It may cause a struggling life to blossom once again.
SPEAKER_01: And he said, Thank you.
SPEAKER_01: And he had this heavy Caribbean accent.
SPEAKER_01: So, what's your name?
SPEAKER_01: He said, Paul.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Well, I'm Al.
SPEAKER_01: I said, Paul, and here's what I like to say to people.
SPEAKER_01: Paul, if there's just one thing I could pray for you for you, what would it be?
SPEAKER_01: And he said, Oh, but my family, my family's uh uh the tape is red, the tape is red, the paper's all messed up, the tape is red.
SPEAKER_01: And so I said, Well, let's pray.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Lord, your eyes search to and fro over the whole earth that you might show yourself mighty on behalf of those whose hearts are right toward you.
SPEAKER_01: Would you show yourself mighty on behalf of Paul?
SPEAKER_01: Would you glorify your name, clear up all the red tape and all his papers so his family and his wife can come to America?
SPEAKER_01: And Paul just smiled and said, Yeah, yeah, that's it.
SPEAKER_01: So I didn't think much about it, you know, and I went to many other cities in Florida that week.
SPEAKER_01: Came back, and I was in Jupiter about a week later, and I was thinking, man, I want to go to that salad place again.
SPEAKER_01: It was really good.
SPEAKER_01: And I'd forgotten kind of all about Paul until I walked in the door and I saw his smiling face there.
SPEAKER_01: He saw me right away and he lit up like a Christmas tree.
SPEAKER_01: And he said, Hey, come here, come here.
SPEAKER_01: So I went over there and said, Paul, what's going on?
SPEAKER_01: What's happened in the last week?
SPEAKER_01: He says, The papers, the papers, there's no tape is read anymore.
SPEAKER_01: No tape is read.
SPEAKER_01: My family is coming to America.
SPEAKER_01: Do you know what I mean?
SPEAKER_01: That's what can happen when you're full of God and overflowing with God.
SPEAKER_01: We had um last year we had this kingdom business summit for my brother's company at the Great Wolf Lodge.
SPEAKER_01: Big place, great place, great food.
SPEAKER_01: Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, we taught some classes, had had the meals catered for lunch.
SPEAKER_01: Thursday we had a reception, people all over the world came in.
SPEAKER_01: Friday and Saturday we had a global summit, people all over.
SPEAKER_01: Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, and Monday.
SPEAKER_01: During lunch, one of the people in the classes said to one of the caterers, her name was Amy, said, Man, this is such great food.
SPEAKER_01: You guys are doing great.
SPEAKER_01: She says, I really don't know what it's like.
SPEAKER_01: He said, Excuse me.
SPEAKER_01: He says, I got a couple operations on my ears seven years ago and it knocked out my taste buds, taste buds.
SPEAKER_01: I can't taste any food.
SPEAKER_01: And so during the break, one of the guys told me about that.
SPEAKER_01: So I went and hunted down Amy.
SPEAKER_01: I found her.
SPEAKER_01: I said, Is your name Amy?
SPEAKER_01: She said, Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: I heard you can't taste food.
SPEAKER_01: She said, No.
SPEAKER_01: I said, can we take care of that right now?
SPEAKER_01: I said, I believe God can heal you.
SPEAKER_01: Will you let me pray for you?
SPEAKER_01: And she said, Well, wait, wait a minute.
SPEAKER_01: She said, I gotta tell you right up front, I'm a I'm a Jehovah's Witness.
SPEAKER_01: I said, You know, Amy, I don't care what you are.
SPEAKER_01: I said, I think God can heal anybody.
SPEAKER_01: She said, uh, okay.
SPEAKER_01: So I prayed for her and I said, Amy, I don't want you to feel disappointed if you don't sense anything right away.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes healings are immediate, sometimes they're gradual.
SPEAKER_01: And so I got done praying.
SPEAKER_01: I said, Do you sense anything?
SPEAKER_01: She said, No.
SPEAKER_01: I said, Well, don't be disappointed.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes healings are gradual.
SPEAKER_01: The next three days I hunted down Amy.
SPEAKER_01: I'd see her across the room and say, Amy, get over here.
SPEAKER_01: Give me a hug.
SPEAKER_01: And say, Do you sense anything today?
SPEAKER_01: She'd say no.
SPEAKER_01: On the fourth day, Amy hunted me down.
SPEAKER_01: She said she stopped at Starbucks and got a double shot of vanilla in her coffee just on faith.
SPEAKER_01: And for the first time in seven years, Amy can taste everything now.
SPEAKER_01: That's what can happen.
SPEAKER_01: One more story.
SPEAKER_01: During that same business summit that we had, uh, I was house sitting for Len Crawley that goes here.
SPEAKER_01: And um I was driving by a 7-Eleven on my way to Len's house after one of the days, and God says, Go get gas at 7-Eleven.
SPEAKER_01: I said, Gas get gas at 7-Eleven, Lord, I never get gas at 7-Eleven.
SPEAKER_01: I got about a third of a tank.
SPEAKER_01: I don't need gas, and it's expensive there.
SPEAKER_01: And God said, I didn't ask you that.
SPEAKER_01: I just said, go get gas at 7-Eleven.
SPEAKER_01: So I said, okay.
SPEAKER_01: So I'm getting gas, and God says, go get something inside.
SPEAKER_01: I said, God, I don't need to eat anything.
SPEAKER_01: I just ate.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not hungry.
SPEAKER_01: He says, I didn't ask you to just go get something inside.
SPEAKER_01: So I went inside, got a nice tea, and I went up to the counter, and the guy had a shirt, father of a heart survivor.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Tell me about your shirt.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Well, I've got four, five kids.
SPEAKER_01: My fifth one is little baby Levi.
SPEAKER_01: He's had two open heart surgeries.
SPEAKER_01: He's got his third one tomorrow.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, I too know what it's like to hand one of your kids off when they're that age to have open heart surgery, not knowing if they'll come back alive.
SPEAKER_01: So he teared up.
SPEAKER_01: I want to tear up now.
SPEAKER_01: I teared up and I said, Can we just pray for baby Levi?
SPEAKER_01: And he said, Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: So he's balling, I'm balling.
SPEAKER_01: I just prayed that the doctor's hands would be in it and he'd have supernatural, accelerated recovery and healing.
SPEAKER_01: Two days later, I'm driving by 7-Eleven again.
SPEAKER_01: Forgotten all about baby Levi because praying for people like this is what I do on a daily basis.
SPEAKER_01: Not every day, but almost every day.
SPEAKER_01: So I'm past 7-Eleven, about a quarter of a mile, and God says, Turn around, go to 7-Eleven, check on Baby Levi.
SPEAKER_01: So I did, and I get there and I said, Hey, look, there was a guy here a couple nights ago working.
SPEAKER_01: He had a son that had an open heart surgery.
SPEAKER_01: His name was Levi, his baby.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Is he working?
SPEAKER_01: He says, Well, no.
SPEAKER_01: And as a matter of fact, that was his last night he worked.
SPEAKER_01: He said some guy, crazy guy, came in and prayed for him, but that was the last night he worked.
SPEAKER_01: And so when I got home that first night, I put it on Facebook for people to pray for baby Levi.
SPEAKER_01: And there were about 200 people praying for baby Levi.
SPEAKER_01: So I said, Well, do you know the story?
SPEAKER_01: What's up with Levi?
SPEAKER_01: Do you know it's can anyone get a hold of him?
SPEAKER_01: I just want to see how he's doing.
SPEAKER_01: He said, Well, Levi's dad happens to be my best friend, and Levi had that operation the next day, and the doctor said they've never had a child recover from heart surgery that quick ever.
SPEAKER_01: So that's what can happen.
SPEAKER_01: If I wouldn't have gone there, wouldn't have listened to God, wouldn't have been hungry, wouldn't have been full of God, I probably never would have gone to 7-Eleven, wouldn't have put it on Facebook, people probably wouldn't have been praying.
SPEAKER_01: So that's what can happen when you're hungry and full of God.
SPEAKER_00: You've been listening to The Road.
SPEAKER_00: We hope you have been blessed by today's message.
SPEAKER_00: To connect with us further, visit theroad.org.
SPEAKER_00: If you are walking through a difficult time, we want to pray for you.
SPEAKER_00: Go to theroad.org, click on the ministries tab, and go to our prayer page to send us your prayer request.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for tuning in today, and be sure to listen to the next edition of The Road.