The Ministry Of Reconciliation

brother Tenny man that I I tell you Tom Fred Tenny is is good a preacher you'll ever hear CU you know that here in Louisiana he is just a man of great wisdom I've learned so so much from Brother Tenny I was on the general board for 17 years and he was not always the first one to speak but I tell you when he spoke he settled the matter quite a few times a great man of wisdom to brother Cox I wish you well as a superintendent of this District I know that you know you have some very big shoes to fill I was so impressed of the story that brother Mangan was telling about brother Cox driving the bus see some of us we grow old in God but we never grow up in God and there's a vast difference in growing old in God and growing up in God and some people they kind of outgrow God that they feel that there are so many things that are kind of below them now at our general conference in Toronto I was asked by our superintendent to give a testimony which is a very difficult thing thing for me to do I talked about some of the situations that came into my life and I want to say that it is possible for you to be going along praying seeking God thanking the lord even with tears every morning for all he's done for you and really not be in the will of God not be doing what you should be doing for God I thought I had a stable church and later on I started interpreting that it's just been a stagnant Church the turn of the century we were running 250 to 300 people we had a good missions program we had a good outreach program had a good youth program the people were very supportive of sister Grant and myself but I woke up after several things that had happened to me realizing that I needed a fresh Touch of God on my life yes I think all the things that happened to me you know naturally they happen for a reason and I I for one thing I I don't think that that what happened to me could have served me any better or nothing else could have served me as well maybe I should say I had knee surgery this happened within like a three-year period I had knee surgery I had ear cancer reconstructive surgery on my my right ear I had colon cancer had a blood clot 54 in my colon removed I took chemo for one year blood thiner shots I gave myself twice a day for a year H I had a stic nerve problem that just ran me crazy I was fitted with an afo brace on my ankle so when all of you are jumping around and you look at brother Grant he's I'm not jumping outward but I'm jumping inwardly right that's right I I can't move this ankle I've been praying for a healing for this ankle then I had a heart attack I lay in the hospital with my blood pressure 50 over 20 they were saying don't move now because if you do you will no doubt pass out could even be fatal and then of course something I haven't said much about publicly but I did say the general conference so and my youngest son Steve his wife left him for another man man and had three young children he moved in with us he was like a clinging Vine claimed me to be his very best friend but he had a nervous breakdown went into deep depression and then on January the 3rd of 2000 he got up and he kissed me goodbye told me to meet with the

church well that day went and he didn't show and that that night and the next day and of course we notified authorities and they found him in South Dakota the truck stop he had taken his life so I I guess I can relate to a lot of your testimonies especially our brother from New Orleans and then brother Huntley when he said I have nothing to lose I got a staff infection I had to open me back up so I could see inside of my stomach cavity I tried to preach I I couldn't I couldn't stand it the blood and water would drain into my socks I said brother Arnold I don't know if I'll ever be the same again I don't know but several things happened to me I had a lot of downtime and I said I'm not going to waste these trials don't ever waste a trial so I'm not going to waste these trials I'm going to be a better Christian a better Soul winner better person now my general makeup I'm the type person I do not get depressed I don't know if I've ever been depressed in my life and my son was so depressed and I I prayed with him I it's not that I couldn't understand but I I just never have been depressed couple times I tried to get there but I just couldn't I couldn't get there you know just that's just the kind of person I am I just couldn't get there I I thought I deserved it but it just didn't happen to me you know Lord but there's several things that that God really showed me cuz you know you feel that all of hell has broken loose you feel that every devil in hell is after you I'm going to abbreviate this somewhat today because of the powerful move of God that we had I don't really think it's necessary to you know I began to look look at the Bible differently now I I teach a lot on Christian principles so I do believe that the Bible is the manual of life uhhuh I really believe it is it's a blueprint but I also believe that that the Bible has other purposes the the Bible is a road map now I just pulled out of my Atlas a a road map of Louisiana I use this coming down here now if I showed all of you this you can't see it there's Interstate 49 it's right here and I think that all of you are well acquainted with especially you who live here here's Interstate 49 and if I ask you if you saw that you believe this is Interstate 49 probably all of you say that's Interstate 49 but the truth of the matter is that's not Interstate 49 Interstate 49 is about 2 miles out this way that's right it's not it's not Interstate 49 it's a road map it's a picture there stay 49s way out there now you see where the Bible is a manual of life and we can't make it without the Bible we have to understand this the Bible is the road map but Jesus is the road oh that's what he said in John 14 I am the wayall so Jesus is the road now I said that to bring you this point there's a vast difference sometimes in what we say and what we do because many of us can talk the talk but we can't walk the walk okay in other words we're well acquainted with a road map you know if you learn to read you can

learn you know the the learning process is very simple you go to school and learn to read and then you read to learn that's right and if you can read there's never a boring day you can go to China you can go on a cruise to Alaska you just sit in your living room and do it sit then you're D and do it you're right stay right there you don't have to move it's a very very exciting thing to be able to do that but the truth of the matter is it's like people who sit around watch television all the time now I know that none of you do that but okay but you know why in the world would one some would someone want to spend all their time in other words the greatest amount of joy and fun you have in life is watching everybody else have fun I mean get a life go do something yourself well you want to watch somebody else doing it all the time all right and the the amazing thing is that when Jesus Christ walked upon the scene or when he arrived upon the scene very few people knew that Jesus Christ was born very few the truth of the matter is they knew where he was to be born they knew that he was to be born of a virgin they knew all of this the Magi that came from the East they asked Herod where is he this born King of the Jews for we have seen his star in the east and we have come to worship Him Herod turned to the scribes and said where and they said in Bethlehem of Judea they knew exactly where he was to be born they knew he was to be born of the household of David they knew it was to be by a virgin in this tiny little town but when Jesus Christ appeared upon the scene there was just a handful of people that God revealed himself to you think about this now just a handful of people to the Magi we don't know how many the Shepherds we don't know how many Zacharias and Elizabeth the parents of John the Baptist Simeon the high priest Anna the prophetess and Mary and Joseph that's it yet they were professors they knew the word now the religious sect of the days of Jesus can rised of basically two parties the extremist and the Liberals the Pharisees and the Sadducees seriously I mean the Sadducees they didn't believe angels and Angels they didn't believe in Heaven they didn't believe that fat meat was greasy you're right and that's just the way they were and yet the Pharisees Jesus pronounced seven woes upon the Pharisees in Matthew 23 and he did this simply because that they were so far out of balance we've heard a lot about balance this week let me tell you something the hardest job that you will ever have as a preacher is this to live up to your own preaching it's going to be the that's your hardest task in life it's a tough one because listen when you're anointed man you can spit it out oh yeah you can you can lay it out there when you got the anointing on you you know and after a while you know you preach things you say I wish I had preach that wonder if I and then of course your second greatest challenge is to keep people focused on the V Vision that you have for your community that's a tough one it's tough It's the reason why the children of Israel wanted to go back to Egypt they lost Focus it's called the promised land for a reason you know the amazing thing is that when the spies went over they did not go over there to determine whether they could or could not take the land 400 years ago it had been promised to them so the question was not do we or do we not the question was how

do we do it 10 of them simply missed their assignment they came back and said we can't well that wasn't a question the question is go over and find out how you know it's call the promised land for a reason and so they came back said oh we can't do it and and immediately when they decided they couldn't do it they said we want to go back to Egypt now the Bible tells me in second Corinthians 5th chapter verse 17 the Bible says therefore If any man be in Christ is a new creature old things are passed away behold all things have become new and as a and as a pastor to keep people converted it is a difficult job see the the purpose of the church is very simple get people saved and keep them saved it's basically it now we may add a lot of other phrases and such to it but that's that's basically it get them saved keep them saved so what happens is we revert back to our old way of thinking I spend a lot of time I especially since the year of 2000 I spent a lot of time working on negativity it's amazing how negative people can be you get into church and you talk about what God's going to do great and wonderful things he's going to do Mighty things and then they walk out and start talking about well I knew if anybody have a flat it'd be me knowing my luck you know you hear that all the time don't you so you see we get in the road mapap in church but when we get out there where the road is all right we don't walk it and for this reason then we've developed a lot of convictions but let me let me let me say something about convictions a lot of our convictions and if you don't believe I'm right on this pastor go back home and just pass out a piece of paper and have people don't put their name on just list your convictions now I know this is right because I did it okay I only had one person that wrote down something was positive one says I don't watch television don't own one one lady says I don't wear wedding rings that's not something I preach against but that's her conviction another says I don't cut my hair I don't I don't I don't I don't I don't I don't I don't I don't I don't now conviction is a strong religious belief it's a passion for something how come all of our convictions are I can't do this and I can't do that and I won't do this and I won't do that don't we have some convictions that are positive saying I do believe in love I believe in longsuffering I believe in Mercy I believe in gentleness I believe in kindness I believe in the fruit of the spirit I believe in the gifts of the Spirit I believe in the evangelization of the world I believe that Sinners can be converted at our altars I believe that revival can be a reality so why can't we establish some strong convictions but you see we reached a point that we feel if somebody in our church dresses right and they look right and they pay their tithing then they're worthy of position in the church now they may have nasty spirits and they may talk about everybody and run everybody down but because they look right and they dress right they're okay yeah but wasn't that what Jesus said about the Pharisees he said you just take and you wash the outside the but you leave the inside dirty and the inside is what is important because that's where all the s that you put inside of you comes from it comes from the inside of the cup so spend a little time washing the inside while you're washing the outside that's what he now let's go back to this road map thing why is it that people can Goot scripture after scripture after scripture after scripture after scripture can be so nasty sometime Jes H come on oh how how come they can be that way now

this this does affect Revival you know and then when you talk about doing something here's the thing you know most of the Miracles that were done in the Bible God use or at least Incorporated the help of people not not all of them but most of them so we stand up we say God's about to do something great God wants to do something Mighty God wants to do something You' never done before and then the question comes well if he uses people are you willing to go where you never gone before are you willing to walk where you've never walked before maybe God wants you to jump out of the boat walk on the water so what happens sometimes Christianity it's just a lot of talk yeah see Paul goes on to say in the book of second Corinthians he said that God has given unto us the ministry of reconciliation now reconciliation simply means that that he wants us he's put us between himself and the world and he says now I want you to help me bring this world back to myself beauti now you got to stay a new creature for that to happen got to be a great move of God in your life Revelation 2 something I learned from Brother Tenny is teaching at a camp meeting that I attended that he was preaching at he talked about the church at Ephesus he says now it is possible for you to hate sin and not love Jesus I still remember you saying that with ten now going back to where I feel that I was before all of these things began to happen to me I think I was terribly out of focus okay I was busy busy busy busy busy busy busy and I prayed I sought the Lord but looking back now I I just I really wasn't where I should have been in God I thought I was then and I felt real good when preachers preach but goes I felt what am I doing this wrong but when I read this this letter to Ephesus you see they stood against this and they were against that and they were against this and they were against that but God then challenged them and says nevertheless I have somewhat against thee because thou has left thy First Love and the word love there means desire or passion what you have a passion for so you've lost your first love and this is what he said remember therefore from when thou art fallen and repent now I'm going to give you something that I feel is necessary if you want to get out of a rut and stay out of a rut okay from 2 Corinthians the 7th chapter verse 10 this is what Paul says for Godly sorrow worketh repentance to Salvation not to be repented of but the sorrow of the world worketh death for behold this selfs same thing that you sorrow it after a Godly sord what carefulness it WR in you yay what clearing of yourself yay what indignation now what I see here is that Paul is saying that just like the Holy Ghost has a fruit and we see that in the book of Galatians the fifth chapter repentance also has a fruit John the Baptist says bring forth meat fruit under repentance now first in Repentance there's a Godly sorrow and then there is a carefulness at comes to you remember when you first repented how careful you were I mean you watched every little thing you did and said and then he says yay what clearing now I have a calculator on this notepad and so I'm just going to add up some some simple figures so 5 + 5 is what 10 okay and then there is 6 + 6 and that is what 12 12 my calculator doesn't say that my calculator says 22 now can you figure out what went wrong I

didn't clear it and basically what he's saying is if you want the right answers if you want wisdom and and the gifts of the Spirit and the fruit of the spirit if you want to be used of God and you want to stay a new creature in Christ Jesus before you start spinning out all of this stuff you better make sure you clear yourself because your answers will not be right they will be caral you got to clear yourself but you see we look at repentance as just a lot of snotting around at the altar and weeping and crying but you see he goes on further he says yay what indignation yay What Fear yay what veh desire yes yes you no doubt read brother Alan OG's book you got to have the want to but pray tell me how do you get the want to if you don't have it you just don't have it well the thing about the thing about repentance see when you repent and the the evil spirits leave you they go forth in the earth into dry places now they'll return and if you're empty they will enter back in you'll be seven times worse than the first time but now God has put in this whole process of repentance some safety factors so that if you don't receive the Holy Ghost right away the devil just can't come just jump back on you and go back in you and so forth and so on now I want to stay away from this demon possession stuff okay but listen he says ye what desire ye what Zeal see Jesus said he that hung reth and thirsteth after righteousness shall be filled right if you take a person that doesn't receive the Holy Ghost right away and you have them coming to the altar several months you find out the tears are gone and after a while there's no hunger isn't that right yes now you find someone that comes into your church for the first time they don't know one thing about even repentance but when you tell them that you need to ask God to forgive you they just slide in the altar like a runner sliding in the second base I mean the snots are flying and the tears are going and before long they're receiving they're they're speaking in tongues and you knew when they did because there was Hunger there there was a desire there there was passion there and what's happened to this brother over here is that he repented one time and he thought that's good enough now I want to tell you something that's my person belief okay cuz I thought I went through burnout but I didn't go through burnout I went through choke out Jesus says consider the vines that grow up around the plants they said what are those he said well they are the cares of this life and the deceitfulness of riches they they go hand in hand you know in our fluent Society we got all this stuff that's choking us killing us and we say we need a vacation we're burned out in most cases that's not the problem no the problem is we're choked out now you think about what I'm saying now cuz I'm going to give a testimony here in a minute but I feel that listen to me if you learn how to repent you see in in Hebrews the 4th chapter let us come boldly before the throne of grace that we may receive what Mercy the first thing that's issued at the throne of grace is Mercy and mercy is the withholding of judgment you need a revelation of just how weak you are without God and just how corrupt you can be without the redeeming blood of Jesus Christ and learn to depend on him and do it every day of your life you'll find out you will establish convictions that are not just all I can't do this I can't do that you will let let me just start and let me just stop and put it this way God had a passion for man and red himself in human flesh and came into the world and died for us he also Old Testament and New Testament he wrote

or moved upon passionate men and they wrote as the Holy Ghost gave them utterance now we have this Bible that was given to us by passionate God and by passionate men and if you think for a New York second that you can take this Bible and live it to its full its extent without pass my brothers and sisters you are mistaken you cannot do it it only should fall in the hands of passionate people people yes people that believe certain things that adere to certain things oh Hal yes oh my so I wasn't burned out I was just choked out so I developed after a after a form of I say form after a season of Prayer of repenting every day and I've been doing this now you know repentance is the Lost Art of Pentecost because you feel like you know that what do I do this wrong come on don't be so self-righteous other people could critique you and tell you differently see all of our Rags or righteousness are as filthy rags in the sight of God so I developed what I call Vision praying after I'd fully cleansed my heart I started praying that God would take my mind and use it Ephesians the second chapter verse 6 Paul says we are made to sit in Heavenly places with Christ Jesus you see you'll never be able to see life from God's point of view until you sit where God sits you have to see it as he sees it now Madison is a very liberal City it's a capital state of Wisconsin when I moved there the first governor not Governor but mayor that was elected after I moved there was University of Wisconsin student who belonged to the national Communist party when we had Veterans Day he flew out to Cuba exchanged keys with Castro and Havana Savannah was a sister city to Madison big homosexual stronghold freedom from religion Foundation is has his headquarters there and you know you can kind of excuse yourself by saying but our city is hard there's Devils everywhere you can do this now I know that we fight devils and we rebuke devils and we cast out devils and and please I'm not here to give any rebuke to anything that we've done this week because I believe that that there the devil can get on you and and cause depression and and discouragement and a lot of things can happen now I'm a firm believer however that the devil the only thing that the devil can do to you without the express permission of God is lie to you right can't touch you but he can lie to you but let me tell you when he lies to you that touches you he makes you feel insignificant unworthy you can make one little mistake and he pounds it in he's the accuser of the Brethren so I said now Lord I want to sit with you until I see things the way you see them the Lord led me to Isaiah 6 most of you know this Isaiah saw the Lord High lifted up and his train filled the temple in verse three and one Cried unto another and said holy holy holy is the Lord of hosts the whole earth is full of devils that's the way we interpret it you know well there may be Devil's there but that's not what he saw he saw what God wanted him to see he saw the whole earth full of the glory of

God you will never have a vision for your city until you can see all of your City full of the glory of God because the devil would stop you in your tracks will that's right so I have a covenant with God I do I do my and praying every day I said now Lord I'm not leaving this place until I can see not just Calvary gospel church not just Madison but all of DNE County the metro area of 450,000 people that's until I can see the glory of God because when I leave this place I must walk in Divine favor and I'm not going to walk out here afraid of every devil in hell I got to believe there's a God in heaven and I'm going to walk in his presence in every place I go God's going to show favor to me and he's going to show favor to his right oh hallelujah hallelujah oh yes hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah and you need to you need to sit in Heavenly places until you can see all of your city filled with the glory of God hey hey I'm not taking this out of the Sunday funny paper I'm taking out of the word of God this comes straight from the Bible come on oh hallelujah hallelujah hey let's let's lift our hands and praise the Lord again oh thank you God thank you God thank you God oh God yes yes Elisha prayed in 2 Kings 6:16 that his servants eyes would be open that he would see that they're more far us than against us and what we need to pray also is Lord open our eyes that we may understand that while Lucifer was cast out of heaven and took a third part of all the stars two-thirds of them stayed with you sometimes we think well there's 1/3 against 2/3 not really and the reason why because some of those angels were thrown in the lake of fire with and bound with chains and will not be loosed on the earth until the Great Tribulation period so it's it's a it's a greater ratio than 2: one so there's more for us than against us and while we're dancing in the spirit and running the aisles and such we got to understand saying oh that we're not the only ones that are dancing and running that there's Spirits angels in this place God has ordained them to be here a host of Heaven is here to encourage us to pick us up to help us oh my oh Hallelujah and the next thing that we need to understand according to Matthew 19:26 that all things are possible With God all all all then the next thing we need to understand is greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world 1 John 4:4 now this is just a little formula that I worked out sometimes I don't get through this tell you the truth sometimes I just I just can't other days I feel I don't need to because I feel I'm already there and then the last thing Philippians 4:13 I can do all things through Christ all things all things are possible let me tell you something only God knows what can not be done so when God talked to me about the ministry of reconciliation we had done very little in our community to make friends with the community our church was branded as being a cult I said now Lord we got to change this change my thinking about some things now if you are involved in the ministry of reconciliation we all are then you're going to have to find ways to break down the barriers between you

and your community do you hear me because you cannot reconcile those people to the Lord unless you do so we begin to explore and begin to pray we have a gentleman who is a counselor for the DNE County drug and alcohol situations and he wanted to start a drug and alcohol rehabilitation program so we've got someone from the spirit of freedom I know the axe program has or the home Mission has the axe program which is a great program it's just that brother HW could use some of the material and so we we decided we just give this a try so with their representatives we met with judges we met with the police chief we met with the Dane County sheriff and we were amazed when we started reaching out in the community how many doors were open right it just one door right after the other we were invited by wnwc our our local Christian station we were invited to come over and they were going to interview us and and when we got over there they had 1 hour's worth of programs that did not arrive and it was simoc cast and so they didn't arrive and so they said W don't you come in and they interviewed us now this is a station that wouldn't even allow us to put Harvest Time on several years ago because they said Harvest time is to Hellfire and brimstone if you can but we got in there and for one hour they interviewed us which led to one one year later to a a second interview which lasted an hour and we took some students over who were Holy Ghost fill and they gave their testimony and would you believe right in the midst of all this the radio announcer that I know now because he's been attending our church he stopped and he said you know I feel moved of God to have everybody out there that's listening to pray for Calvary gospel church and so he led them in prayer and he also said now Lord move upon these people that hear this to send in offerings to Calvary Gospel Church oh God you cannot believe the money that started pouring in then what happened was that the ferish Huber Center which is a Work Release Center gave us a call and said we know we've got quite a few inmates here that could benefit from your program and so we went over there and we tght one week and then we got permission to bring them to church so we run a bus over now two years we've been doing this we run a bus over we pick them up we bring them to church at 4:30 in the afternoon their families can meet them there which is very rare and and then serve them a meal and then they come into service and we have had no telling at the the the TV coverage the newspaper coverage radio coverage in fact since the year 2000 our church has been in the paper and on television not something we solicited just something they showed up and did we we we've been on the front page in the news probably 20 to 25 times in in 5 years now we've since had 200 new births already from the CIP program and quite a few of these people are in our church and well established now that I'm going back home next Sunday dedic meeting a child that was just given to one of the inmates he got out and made something of his life and married a young girl in a church and now she's given birth and we the dedication of the child on the 29th now would you believe that all of a sudden people just started to come in you know if you want a lot of con converts you have to have a lot of visitors yeah that's just the way it works you know but we were amazed I I tell you you know when When God says I can do exceeding abundantly above all that

you're able to ask or think according to the power that work it within you now we we can't comprehend that because it talks about above and beyond what you're able to ask or think see God can do more than you ever dreamed are you willing though to let him do it are you willing to step out and say okay I want God to do this all right and I was amazed one Sunday night when I drove up to church cuz the CIP program was going went inside that the all of the the fourer was was filled now we we have a church auditorium at best with seat 700 600 and and then on with with chairs and and and the platform about 700 but we had a crowd that Sunday night was unbelievable we put out all the chairs we had and still couldn't get everybody in the auditorium the foyer was full the kitchen was full and down in the fellowship hall there were people there I said God what are we going to do with all these people I had Scott Graham to come up and preach for me when he finished preaching in the altar was filled from side to side so many people that we we couldn't pray with them and he was a little frustrated about it and I was too and I said what I need to do something who should I who should I get I said well I need somebody like Billy Cole to come and he said well you know brother Cole of course I know brother Cole's situation I talk with him quite regularly and he began to dropped some names and everything so I said okay this is what I'm going to do I'm going to I'm going to give some thought to this and so during the course of the week I prayed oh God now speak to me and and tell me who I need to get in here because we need to pray some of these people through and God spoke to me just as clearly as as he's ever spoken to me and said well you can do it all right I said no not me no not me I said I can never do anything like Billy Cole does he said why not I said now Lord you know now you may ask me were you afraid I'm not going to tell you cuz you know the answer seriously I said I I I don't Lord I just can't do this I prayed about it come Wednesday night I kind of put in a disclaimer I was I said now what we're going to do Sunday night and this is God's fault if it doesn't work you know no I didn't say that but I guess that's why why I put in the disclaimer I was a little nervous about it but come Sunday night now I did the preaching the altar filled the same way I stopped everybody I talked to them about repentance genuine repentance they started repenting and would you believe in a matter of minutes we had 22 people filled with the baptism of the Holy Ghost oh when Joshua went in the promised land he used the word courage over and over and over be of good courage courage is not the absence of fear it's the ability to harness your fears and take them with you even when you know that there's a possibility of failure Hall but you're going to do it anyway because you feel a from the Holy Ghost to do it so I'll just harness my fears and say now now John Grant Jesus Christ died on Calvary for you and you're not your own anymore yeah so you don't have a right to be afraid like this now you are afraid because you're a human being but harness up your fears and go ahead and leap off the wall and if you'll do it others will leap with you yes amen there you go oh Hal my Jesus my Jesus my Jesus oh God oh God oh God oh my praise God praise God praise God you know I set some goal for souls in 2001 I set a goal for 200 KN knowing we were weren't planning on having a lot of evangelist now this doesn't seem like many to some of you but to us you know we weren't running that many the first quarter we were right on the halfway mark we were a few off the third quarter we were real close and

we closed December 31st or December 30th rather which was on Sunday and we closed with 199 but we we had home fellowship because now our churches began to look different now it doesn't look so Pentecostal CU we got a lot of new converts Okay so we're going to have home fellowship groups because we're going to have a watch Night Service in each one of these homes so we had 18 homes and we somebody called me at 11:30 and said brother Grant guess what we just had a man filled with the Holy Ghost 200 EV I said okay it's going to be 250 next year yeah we did the same thing we closed out with 254 then the next day next year we set a goal for one a day we didn't we didn't quite make it but we made it 346 thank you in the last 100 days from last Sunday with only six special services we've had 107 people filled with the Holy Ghost over one a day oh God dear God since the turn of the century we're approaching 1,400 new converts now my biggest challenge is discipling these people because we have we have visiting preachers that come and evangelists that come and missionaries that come and I don't like to be misunderstood I don't want people to leave and say man brother Grant's Church doesn't even look Pentecostal but I got to tell you our new one's far outweigh come on that's right the established Saints in our building we we applied for a building permit and the gentleman on zoning says I disapprove move a big box churches that's what he called it he said what do you want to build a church so big for my answer was very simple I said well you know the thing about it is I said I've been in this business a long time I've been at Calvary gospel church for a long time but I just keep on preaching and preaching and preaching and people keep on coming and truthfully I don't have the heart to tell them not to come that's right oh hallelujah hallelujah oh my we had a businessman that walked in our church with a couple of gentlemen one is tax attorney and one was a buyer he said I have a piece of property his son was on alcohol and drugs and he was re rehabilitated in our church and he signed over this P piece of property to us and he had the buyer there said now know you don't want this and so I have a buyer for you and we were given a check for $190,000 I had I had a special burden because I could see all the new ones that we needed we needed more people on the staff we didn't have the money we needed more Outreach programs I approached our church on a Tuesday night which we had a full house and even visitors who showed up and the spirit of the Lord Came Upon Us and we started giving we started giving shortly after 7:00 as we addressed the the the situation and we did not leave until 11: one visiting later lady stood up and said pastor come back here and I went back there and she says I have a check for $1,000 I want to give to this church she said I I've never been so moved I've never been in anything like this in my life now remember this was just a service where we're giving so when everything was said and done we had pledges and and cash in the amount of $686,000 now that's for one year that's besides our missions that's besides the tithing that's besides the building fund it's just the spirit of the Lord Came Upon Us we had prophecy that night and the prophecy said that that the tide had been turned in DNE County for

us and that we were going to win much favor and that we would be published to the community I was in Crocker barar the other day and someone came over the server came on and said there's a gentleman over here wants to meet you he's a pastor of the Assembly of God Church in Sun Prairie neighboring City just a bedroom community I went over there and he said pastor I just want to thank you and Calvary gospel church for what you're doing for our community he said we don't have a Sunday night service but my wife and I get in a car regularly and we drive by to see how many people you have there show all the cars we've gone from 250 to 275 averaging to running I think last year we had an attendance one Sunday of 1688 I think it was we started a Veterans Day program to to just honor our vets and I told our church now this not going to be a church service we don't want to get them in here and somehow Ambush them and so it's going to be to honor them this is the fourth year this year we could not believe we got calls from all over the state of Wisconson the county executive Milwaukee Scott Walker he wanted to come com and and he wanted to to to see what was happening we asked him to speak we had several color guards that came we've had armored artillery from the from the the services to come humies and such then we got a call from the Air National Guard and said we'd like to bring a Blackhawk helicopter over and so we mowed out a spot and they landed the helicopter we had TV interviews and TV coverage and right one one one local public television channel 4 I've never seen it but it's for children and just had to put that in there because I think I'm being misunderstood too much they said pastor this is what we want to do we saw a video of your Veterans Day last year now we do it up big we spent a lot of money on it okay and we drop a big American flag from the ceiling 33 ft up down to the floor and they said we've seen this now what we'd like to do we'd like to take and show this on our TV program your last year service I said how long are you going to show what day you going to show it said oh we're going to show it every day for 30 days oh and the whole earth was full of the glory of God there's not enough devils in hell to keep the church down there's more Forest than against us what God on all things are possible greater is he that's in me than he that's in the world and I can do all things through Christ which strengthen Me Oh My My My My I you know I forgot to look at the clock and I think my time's up I've got to get out of here but let me tell you something though the best years for me or ahead of me I believe it we've had the DNE County Executive Kathleen faul who ran for governor with us we've had the police chief we've had the D County Sheriff we've had Supreme Court Justices everybody coming out nobody is question our ho and standard or our cultish ways nobody our kids have been invited all

over the city to hold prayer meetings in the projects sing at the capital local pastors coming to see what we're doing one Lutheran Pastor stated through the whole service recently he said I've never seen anything so electrifying I looked at his ad in the paper it says he he started a Saturday night service and this is what he he said noisy worship here we have noisy worship on Saturday night that's oh Hallelujah let's give the Lord a great big hand