Church, it's pretty amazing to see what God can do with a sinner. Listen, I don't know what I'm doing, but He knows what He's doing. And it's amazing how the video, when God put my wife and I together, and I wanna share that testimony with you because it just backs up the grace of God. Boy, I'm thankful for the grace of God that changes my destiny, but not only that, He's changed my attitude, my appetites, and my actions. I just wondered today, has the grace of God changed your attitude and your appetites and actions? Listen, I used to drink from the devil's fountain. I drink from the water of life. I used to live for the world. I don't live for the world anymore. I live for Jesus Christ. That's the power of the gospel that's changed our lives. That bar that you're seeing back there, the red one, the one that's on our... I used to spend a lot of time and waste a lot of brains and memories in that thing. foolish things that I used to do. I was a heathen. I was lost and didn't know anything about Jesus Christ. But one morning in that bar, there was a gentleman that came to me by the name of Bill Beebe. He said, they're hiring in Jacksonville, Florida. And so I went home, the greatest thing my mother ever told me, first generation Christian, my parents are lost, they don't know anybody, all my family's lost. My wife's side, she's got her sister and dad, and her mother say, don't know anything about Jesus. I went home and my mom said, go, leave. And I left New York 2003, and I moved down to Central, actually Jacksonville, Florida, where I worked in a shipyard for about eight months. And I used to hang out with my wife's brothers a lot, knew them in upstate Northern New York, we used to hang out all the time. Well, I had called them because they had left in the early 90s and moved to Central Florida. And I left Jacksonville and I moved in with her mother and her brother and that's where my wife and I started dating. I had no idea. God was putting us together to do that. So we lived together 13 years. We had a house together, a piece of land, and I worked with a gentleman by the name of Alan Cockcroft. And Pastor Townsley, the greatest thing I've seen in that man is he always had a whistle and a joy about him, and there was a glow about that man. I didn't know what in the world he had. I worked with this man for 11 years. Had no idea what he had, but I saw something he had that I didn't have. In 11 years, that man prayed for me. I didn't have no idea he was praying for me. In the latter part of those 11 years, from 2010 to 2015, God burdened that man, and that man prayed for me every day that God saved my soul. And that man, I just was drawn to him. I was drawn right to Him. You know, the Bible says that we have been given the ministry of reconciliation. We are reconciled to God, to Himself, through Jesus Christ. Well, we had that ministry of reconciliation, and that's what that man was doing. As he was bringing me to Christ, and God was using him, and he began to share Scripture with me, and my wife had no idea what was going on. I didn't tell her. I lived a double life. Thirteen years I told that lady I loved her. I wouldn't have done the things I did if I truly loved her. I didn't know how to love her until the day I got born again. And brothers and sisters, let me tell you something. Friday morning when I went into work, I was so broken, I was tired of my sin. Listen, the Bible says the way of the transgressor is hard. And I'm going to tell you right now, it's hard living out there in the world. Some of you may not have the same testimony. You've got saved at a young age. Praise God. You don't have to go through all that foolishness. Listen, all those choices were my choices to drink and do dope and all that mess. And listen, you have an awesome testimony too. I'm not taking away from that. Every one of us has got a testimony. But God, I'm telling you, is amazing. Friday morning, and Alan knew my story because I would talk to him. I'm struggling with this, and I'm struggling with that. And that man prayed for me, and I know he wept over me, and I had no idea. And I went into him, and I'm going to tell you what, Brother Wallace, I went into him Friday morning, nine o'clock, and looked at him, and I said, Alan, I'm done with this life. I need to get saved. And he looked at me, and he says, I know what you need. And it was just like Jesus spoke right into my heart and soul. And I said, Alan, I need to get saved. And he said, well, I've got my Bible with me. We can go out to the picnic table. And Brother Workman, I'm telling you, I'm thankful for the mercy of God. I said, no, I'll come over tomorrow night for supper. God could have took my life right there, and I'd be in hell today. But God showed his mercy and longsuffering to me, and I went over to his house, had supper, and it was 8.30 at night. And my wife and I were there. We weren't married then. And I told his wife, I said, can you get Alan? I want to get saved right now. I'm done. I've had enough of this life. And he went in that room, Pastor Townsley, and he opened up the old black book, King James Bible. And he read the Romans Road to me. And I want to tell you what, Brother Workman, I was so broken. I'm talking about hard. I'm telling you, you know how Yankees are. They're prideful. Hard. You can't tell them nothing. God's goodness broke my heart. The Holy Ghost, I'm telling you, got a hold of me and squeezed my heart. And He looked at me after He expounded the Scriptures to me, and He said, Daniel, He said, it's between you and the Lord. Are you ready? I said, oh, I've been ready. And I'm going to tell you what, Brother Workman, I bowed my head, and I'm telling you, I could hear every tear drop and touch the ground. And I'm going to tell you what, brothers and sisters, I'm not a charismatic man, but I'm going to tell you right now, God was in that room. And when I cried out to Him and I said, God forgive me, it was no special prayer, I didn't repeat some prayer. Listen, I'm telling you, I was broken and I was hungry and I was ready. Because I knew that I needed to be changed. I knew that He was the only one that was going to do that. And God, I cried out to Him, and I'm going to tell you what, brethren, it felt like two grown men sitting on my chest. The weight of sin was so heavy. And I cried out to God, and I'm going to tell you, God reached down and He touched me and just went foop, and He took the weight of sin away. Gone. Dr. Wallace, I'm telling you, it wasn't some expression or some feeling. Yes, it was. But I knew that very moment that God filled me with His Holy Spirit and sealed me and saved my soul. And I remember standing up, Brother Townsley, and I remember shouting and saying, God, You're real. You're real. Listen, the greatest miracle ever is when God saves a person's soul. We live today in doubt of God that He can't do certain things. You go back to the time when He saved your soul, that's the greatest work that anything could ever do. That's eternal. That's forever. And that's what God did in my life. And as you saw the video, my wife's lost. She's thinking, what in the world is going on? Here's this man that I've lived with for 13 years. He cussed and drank and did all this foolishness. And she watched me for two days, and Monday morning, we were eating breakfast, and I gave her a kiss and went to work, and I came home, Brother Workman, that afternoon, and she was bawling her eyes out, and I said, what's wrong, honey? She says, I know what you have. I said, what are you talking about? She said, I've been watching you for two days. I've never seen you like this in 13 years. And she said, I went into my bedroom, and I got on my knees, and I cried out to God and asked Him to save my soul, and I got born again while you were at work. Brothers and sisters, let me tell you something. That was the first step of faith right there. The Bible says in Hebrews, it's impossible without faith. It's impossible to please God. And I'm thankful that for by grace are you saved through faith in that and out of yourself that is a gift of God. And her and I received, the Bible says in Romans 12, it says, but as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, to them that believed on His name. And here my wife and I are born again. We received the most precious gift of eternal life. And now our life begins in Central Florida. And now we're like, wow, I mean, what do we do? Here God saved us, two sinners, deserving of hell. And that was the first step of faith. and we just gradually took steps of faith in our walk with the Lord Jesus Christ. And God began to grow her and I. So we went to the church for the first time ever. Saved Sunday morning. Pastor Townsley, I don't know what it was like. The trees were green and so bright and there was light. Because Jesus Christ is the light that lighteth all men that cometh into the world. He put light in her and I. I never seen it that way. 35 years I walked this earth in darkness. And I was dead. But now that He hath quickened me, who I was dead in trespasses and sin, He hath brought life into me, and now the trees and the grass and everything was so bright. It was life. We could see what was going on. It was amazing. And then in 2017, God called me to preach on a youth Sunday. So for two years, my wife and I, we just slowly grew in the Lord, and we started taking steps, and I couldn't understand what God was trying to call me to do. And brothers, I'm telling you, my idol was hunting. Brother Birchwell, we were talking about hunting. And it was my idol. I knew God was doing something in my life. He was drawing me and telling me. I didn't understand what it was. He was calling me to preach and I didn't know what it was. Brothers and sisters, I want to talk to you about prayer. And the important thing about this was I just prayed. I said, God, I don't know what you want me to do. I sold everything that I had for hunting. I'm talking everything, you name it. And I said, God, I want a born again believer to come and buy each and everything that I had. I had everything, tractors, you name it. I'm gonna tell you something, brothers and sisters, God sent a born again believer to buy every piece of hunting that I had to our house. And they would leave and I would ask them, oh, I would say, are you saved? Do you know Jesus Christ is your Lord and Savior? Some of them would hang their head in shame and say, yes, I have not been living for him. And some of them would say, yes, oh, I know him. And they were walking with him. And every time I'm like, man, I don't know what's going on. I don't know how to pray. Nobody's taught me how to pray. But we were praying and seeking God's will. Every person that came and bought something, the man that bought my John Deere Gator, the man that bought my bush hog, he gave me extra money. I called him. I said, sir, he wouldn't answer the phone. I left the voicemail. You left me more money. Because I told him my story. And he knew before I knew, because he was a man of prayer, that God was calling me to do something. He gave me extra money. I couldn't believe it. And we saw God's hand working all the way through this. That's why it's so important you live by faith. When God called me to preach, brothers and sisters, I left the job making $32.50 an hour. God gave me a $5 an hour raise when I was at that place. Imagine if one of you guys got a $5.00 raise. I was in tears. I got to go before my boss and the supervisors and they said, do you have anything to say? And I said, yes, I want to thank Jesus Christ. The man was a Jewish man. He was lost, full of religion. And I got to be a witness to him. I got to see God's mighty hand working. I couldn't understand why. You know why he was calling me to Bible college. We saved all that money, so God was preparing me to go to Bible college. Brothers and sisters, the best thing you could ever do is live by faith. What is faith? What is it? We think it's things that we do, right? No, it's Christ living in us and through us. It's not that we, yeah, we have obedience and things, but faith is fully, am I trusting Him? Are you trusting Jesus Christ with your life? With your emotions? With your thoughts? With your finances? The greatest thing I've ever seen, my wife and I, we started beginning about faith promise, and I was telling Pastor Townsley this, and I said, we were sharing this testimony about faith promise. We're in missions conference. I'm telling you, it's amazing. I'm telling you, if you want to see God working in a mighty way, you take a step of faith, get out of that comfort zone. See, many of us like to stay in this comfort zone. Can I tell you, great things do not come from comfort zones. We have this little bubble that we like to stay in. and we're afraid to get out of that bubble. Whether it's service for the Lord, maybe he's calling you to teach Sunday school, run a bus route, be a bus captain, or even a preacher. Listen, I'm still in your shoes. I graduate this May. I graduate Bible College at 43 years of age, I'm gonna graduate. Actually, three days before I turn 43, I graduate. But can I tell you something? When you step out of that comfort zone like my wife and I did, and we started giving to missionaries and started Faith Promise, I have seen God's hand work in such a mighty way, it is amazing. It will increase your faith, it will cause you to draw closer to God because you're gonna trust in Him, because really, we're bought with a price, amen? We're not bought with silver and gold, such as silver and gold, but by the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. In 1 Peter 1 and 9 and 18, listen, our faith is in Him, trusting in Him by faith. Turn your Bibles, I wanna give you a small message real quick. I wanna teach you something that was taught to me in Bible college. Brothers and sisters, I don't care if you're gonna be a Sunday school teacher, 1 Timothy chapter two, 1 Timothy chapter two. There's two things I wanna encourage you with our Christian walk. You know, I was always taught do, do, do, do, do, do, do. We can get really wore down in duty, can't we? And then we beat ourselves up because we don't read our Bibles, or we fall short in our devotions. Listen, God never stops loving us. He does chase us, and if you're His child, He will chase you. Listen, what I've learned is that I want to submit my whole entire life to Jesus Christ. I want to give Him everything. Actually, I think there's nine men in the Bible that said, here am I. Abraham, Jacob, Moses, Samuel, Isaiah, and Ananias. They said, here am I. Use me, Lord. My prayer today and my encouragement and my challenge to you is, is Lord, here am I. And whatever He has for you, just let Him do it through you. Listen, a Yankee, upstate, northern New York Yankee, here I am in Florida, get saved, and now we're going back to our hometown to preach the gospel. And all I've been saying my whole life since I've been saved is, Lord, here am I. I don't know what in the world you want me to do, but here, use me for your glory. And I'm gonna tell you something, the greatest thing that you and I could ever do is live by faith. Don't trust in the 401k or the money that's in your savings account. God did give us wisdom, we are to save money, absolutely, but don't trust in that. Trust in God to provide your needs. It's easy for you and I to go down to the bank and get a loan or something. God wants us to turn to Him because He's our Father and trust in Him, amen? He wants us to trust in Him so that He can provide, so that He can work in us. Here's one thing I want to encourage you in the next 10 minutes, maybe shorter than that. Brothers and sisters, the greatest thing you could do, live by faith and get a prayer life. I'm going to tell you this, and it may be shocking to some of you. Most preachers, statistics our teacher gave us the other day in class, most preachers pray about 15 minutes a week. You tell me how you're gonna have a ministry if you only pray 15 minutes a week. You tell me how you're gonna be able to teach a Sunday school, how you're gonna be able to run a bus route. I mean, you tell me how you're gonna be able to do anything in the ministry if all you ever pray is 15 minutes a week. Let me give you an illustration. What if I just talk to my wife for 15 minutes a week? Let's bring it down to our level. What if I, I mean, we wouldn't have any kind of a relationship, would we? I didn't have any kind of relationship before I was saved. I didn't, I was all about me, selfish. I wouldn't give the first dollar to the first man or woman that was in need of it. I remember, Brother Workman, the first time I put three dollars in the offering plate. I'm telling you, it was like a chain was broken, Brother Townsley. It was, it was a chain that was holding me down. And I'm gonna tell you, the Bible says, for where your heart is, there will your treasure be also. I can look at your checkbooks and I can tell you where you spend your money. I can find out where your heart is, I can find out where you invest your money. I'm gonna tell you what, he said, don't invest your money in things in the earth, invest your money in treasures in heaven. That's for eternity. But you think about the prayer life. If I were just to talk to my wife for 10, 15 minutes a week, most of us don't do it though, do we? We plan our lives, a prayer life. What is it, ladies? You plan your life around doing your nails and your hair and all that, nothing against that, right? You plan your life around doing those things. We plan our life around school, you got classes, you gotta go to the doctors, you gotta get your teeth cleaned, we plan our life. Why don't we plan our life around, have a prayer life? You plan it. Write it out. Plan it out, write it out. In the morning, I'm gonna, listen, you know, there's great men that prayed hours and hours a day. You need to start with five minutes before you can pray five hours. You're not going to pray five hours. You're not going to pray five minutes. I'm going to tell you this, brethren. If you're not doing it now in Bible college, you won't do it when you get out there. You won't do it. If you're not knocking doors right now and reaching folks, if you're not being a witness for Jesus Christ now, you won't do it when you get out there. Don't say, well, I'll do it when I get my ministry and when God calls me to pastor and do that. If you're not studying your Bible right now and doing your devotion time and walking with the Lord now, you're not going to do it when you get out there. You need to cultivate that right now, and you need to do it now, because when you get out there, God's going to grow you through that way. I hated reading. I thought, Lord, brother, Dr. Wallace, I thought, how in the world did you call me to preach? I hate reading. I'm serious, I hated it. I'm just being real with you, I hated reading. If it wasn't a book that had pictures, I didn't want it. Because I was lazy. You think about a man, 35 years of age, God called me to preach in 2017, I was 37 years of age. I had to learn discipline. Now, I'm a hard worker, I love to work, don't bother me a bit. Actually, I'm gonna go knocking doors with you guys tomorrow, my wife and I, so I need to get with one of you. Whoever's doing that, we're going with you. I wanna knock doors with you. So I need to get with you. Listen, I love to work, but I had to develop a mental, spiritual appetite for God's Word. And discipline-wise, hands-on, I mean, we can do whatever you want, we can do it, but I had to learn and do that. If you don't discipline yourself to do it now, you won't do it when you're out there. You need to cultivate that stuff right now. 1 Timothy 2. He says, I exhort therefore that first of all, supplications, prayers, intercession, and giving of thanks be made for all men. All men. It's talking about you and I, brothers and sisters. It says all men, but it's talking about you and I. Prayer. We see the four kinds of prayer. Supplications. I wonder how many of us pray for each other. How many of us are lifting each other up in prayer? We're brothers and sisters in Christ. Actually, I'm closer to you guys than I am my immediate family, because they don't understand spiritual things. You need to develop a prayer life now while you're in Bible college. Start with five minutes, and then work it from there. Daniel, he prayed three times a day, opened up his window. And you think about Daniel, he was a man, they said he had no fault, he had a great spirit, and he served the Lord. I think it had to do with his prayer life. If you and I don't develop a prayer life, it's gonna be hard for you and I to be able to communicate to our Father, because He speaks to us through His Word, and then you and I communicate to Him. He'll speak to you in prayer. He will, He'll speak to your heart. So how are you and I going to have a good spirit? How are we going to be without fault? I think if you develop a prayer life now, it keeps your heart in the right place when you're praying and talking to God. So we see the four kinds of prayer. Look at this, he says in verse 3, for this is good and acceptable in the sight of our God. He's talking about prayer. He wants to hear from me today. Let me ask you the question. I know you guys are in Bible college. It's the easiest thing to do is backslide. Easiest thing to do. I've seen it in my life in Bible college. Because you go to Bible class, you open up the Word, the teacher, the main textbook is the Bible, and you feel like, okay, I'm good. But you never do your own devotions. You never do it for yourself. You never feed your own soul. And you can get complacent in that, and before you know it, you haven't even walked the Lord, you haven't even prayed, you haven't even met with God. You have to feed yourself through the Word of God. You have to feed your soul. And I'm learning that as I'm gonna be going to pastor. Oh my, bro. I'm telling you, I'm excited, but I'm also nervous. I'm nervous because I have to feed myself so that I can feed the congregation through the Word of God. And I'm gonna tell you right now, prayer will help you do that. Prayer will help you do that. And not only that, he says in verse eight, I will therefore that men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting. Everywhere. Praying without ceasing, as the Bible says in 1 Thessalonians. Brothers and sisters, you and I need to pray without ceasing. David said in Psalm 55, 17, evening and morning and at noon while I pray and cry aloud and he shall hear my voice. Let me ask you, let me challenge you. It's just a simple challenge. It's not a very profound message today. I just want to encourage you to get a prayer life and live by faith. this week in Faith Promise, if God is speaking to you about giving, let me give you a couple of illustrations. So when we first moved to Kentucky, Pastor Fugate doing a huge building project and still going today. We wanted to be part of that, but we had no money. So my wife and I prayed, Lord, I wanna know how can we provide to be part of this building fund? Well, it was during Christmas time, and we got a card in the mail. And we opened it up. It was anonymous. There was no name in there. There was $500 cash in that thing. And instantly, my fast brother Townsley, oh man, I could use that for this and that. My wife said, oh, no, you're not. I've been praying that God would provide money so that we could be part of that building fund. It's going to Clay's Mill. I said, yes, ma'am. One illustration, let me give you another illustration. So I drive for a Christian organization, a box truck, and they donate. It's like Goodwill, but it's all Christian. They provide for services. And so the tips that I get from donors is what I put in my faith promise. So last year we were praying, and we were given a certain amount, and my wife and I, she prayed, and I prayed, and we were hoping that it would be the same number. And so when we got to the end of faith promise, like you guys were getting ready to do on Sunday, I had a number in my mind, Brother Wallace, and I went to my wife and I gave her that number, and she said, this is the number that I have. I said, there's no way we can do it. And it's a lot. I'm not gonna tell you what it is, because only the Lord needs to know that. I went and I got a little counsel on it. I went to my friend and I said, what do I do? I said, my wife, this number is double of what we got. He said, Brother, there's nothing wrong with going with what your wife says. Many pastors, many. So I said, okay, Lord, I'm gonna trust you for it. There's no way we could provide it. You look at our finances. There's no way we can do it. Can't do it. We make $14.50 an hour. And by the way, we have more now than we did when I made $32.50 an hour. I'm telling you because we live by faith and trust the Lord. So I wish I could tell you the amount. I can't do it. Listen, I wish I could. It'll blow your mind. I'm encouraging you to live by faith, I'm telling you, because God has provided for it. He's been faithful every month. So we were short $35 from our faith promise. I didn't know this. So at work, a lady came to me. She said, thank you for coming to pick up my furniture. She gave me $35. I put it in my pocket. And I called my wife. I said, hon, you're not going to believe this. I said, we just got a $35 tip, and she started weeping on the phone. I said, what's wrong, huh? She goes, this morning I was looking at our envelope that we put our faith promise in, and we're short $35. I'm telling you, God does it month after month, because we do faith promise, month after God provides it. It's amazing. My wife got a job, and I'm going to kind of speak. I hope this doesn't. Anyways. I got a couple minutes. So my wife prayed. She said, Lord, I need a job. I want a job to where I can provide for Faith Promise. And it's like 50 bucks a month or something, is it? I don't remember. So anyways, I'm going to tell her sin, but it's OK. Lord's forgiven her. She repented. And she wasn't using that money for Faith Promise. And I didn't know this, but she had to keep taking money from another account to pay for Faith Promise. She got sick one day, had to stay home from teaching. I believe God put the sickness upon her. And that's where God got a hold of her heart and convicted her and said, I gave you, you prayed for a job, and I gave you that job, and you're misusing that money. And she repented and got right with the Lord. And she's providing that $50 every month towards Faith Promise. I'm telling you, the greatest thing you could ever do, brothers and sisters, is live by faith. The Bible says three or four times in Hebrews and in Romans that the just shall live by faith. What is faith? Paul said, nevertheless I'm crucified with Christ. But he says that Christ, the life that I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Christ liveth in me. And if you wanna live by faith, you've gotta let Christ live in you. Say, Lord, here am I. And I'm telling you, brothers and sisters, I know you guys are in Bible college, and it's tight, and it's tiring, and it gets wearing. I've been there. But I'm going to tell you what, God will give you the strength and the grace to get through this. You just live by faith and trust Him and develop a prayer life. And you'll see God's hand working, moving a mighty way. Let's pray. Father.