In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of having a testimony of what Jesus is doing in our lives. He encourages the congregation to not underestimate the power of the spoken word and how it can impact someone's life. The preacher shares his personal testimony of how God has worked in his life, including overcoming fear and experiencing victory through faith in God's word. He concludes by reminding the audience that with God, all things are possible.

Hallelujah. I remember several years ago, actually quite a few years ago, when I was just a new Christian, I remember being in a church one time in a town that I was visiting in, and they were singing that song during the service, and I remember thinking in my heart, I can't wait until church is over, so that I can sing this song the way I feel it's written. And when it was over, I stayed behind with some other folks and just walked up and down the aisle singing this song at the top of my lungs. I knew him, I loved him with all of my heart, like I know him and love him today. I've come here today to share with you my testimony. It's a personal testimony that each one of us have in the book of Revelation chapter 12. Don't turn there please. Speaking of the church of Jesus Christ, it says they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, by the word of their testimony, and they loved not their lives unto the death. Every one of us have a testimony, irrespective of where we start from. In this room, there are folks that, you've come from different walks of life than I have, and your road and your path has been different than mine, your struggles have been different, your successes and victories in some cases have been different. But every road, every path in this entire world, no matter where it comes from, ends up at Calvary, and that's where you and I came to. Some of us crawled over that finish line, some walked in and stumbled over it, some seemed to get there relatively easily, and others had to go through dark, deep places in this life. But thank God tonight we can say we found that place of eternal life in Christ Jesus. Hallelujah. Now a testimony is the most powerful weapon that we have here on this side of eternity to present the gospel of Jesus Christ. I always find it ironic that the Apostle Paul, with all of his knowledge, with all of his biblical understanding, and as you read the New Testament writings of Paul, you realize that he was an absolute brilliant theologian. And it was the Apostle Paul that God sends to the Gentiles who know nothing about God at all. And Paul, at times when he would be called to present a defense for the gospel, would have to revert back again to the testimony he had. I was on the way to Damascus, I was there in raids against the church, and I saw a bright light and fell off my donkey, and all of a sudden people would say, oh you saw a bright light and you fell off your horse, well the God you serve must be real. And God would begin to work through him, and God sent no, nothing, Peter, to the know-everything Jews. And that's just the way the Lord is. Each one of us has a testimony. Now a testimony is our story, but really it's not just our story, it's the story of Christ's working within our lives. Any testimony that anybody gives at any time, if it draws to the flesh, it's not really a testimony of Jesus Christ. It can be a testimony of that person, or his or her exploits, or the things that they've done. And if it draws attention to the person, you're not hearing a genuine testimony of Jesus Christ. A testimony that we give is a testimony of the faithfulness of the one who called us out of darkness and into his marvelous light. The one who has opened prison doors in our lives and set us free. The one who has healed those areas in our heart where we were bruised by the precious healing oil of his presence. The one who is faithful, the one who sticks closer than a brother. The one who is the beginning and the end, the Alpha, the Omega, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the bright and morning star. It's a testimony of him. One day we're going to stand before the throne as we sang tonight. And there's going to be testimony meetings in heaven. There won't be prayer meetings, we don't need to pray anymore. We're going to be in the presence of the Lamb. We're going to be there. There'll be no more sorrow, no more sighing. The only thing left is the testimony meeting. And you talk about testimony meetings we're going to have in heaven. Every one of us, I believe, is going to have a turn, or more than a turn, because we're going to be there for eternity. To share with our friends and neighbors, to share around the throne of God. Maybe in heaven our voice is projected so that it can carry in multiple millions at one time, can hear what Jesus Christ has done for us and through us and through our lives here on this earth. Oh, what a wonderful day that's going to be before the throne of God. Hallelujah. I'd like to pray with you tonight, because I want to share some aspects of my life. I'm not going to share them all. I prayed today that God would just allow me to touch down in those areas that would be of profit and of benefit to you who are gathered here tonight. There are some areas I could share that would be nice for you to hear, but of no profit to anybody. And so I'm just going to leave that part out and ask the Holy Ghost to give me liberty tonight to share where He brought me from. And I trust with all my heart it would be an encouragement to you who are here tonight to believe God, that through Him all things are possible. He can take anybody anywhere who will simply surrender their life to Christ, irrespective of your talents or abilities or lack thereof or who and what you are or have been or desire to become. If you will simply surrender your life to Jesus Christ, the possibilities of what He can do through your life are as limitless as God is limitless Himself. Hallelujah. Father, I thank You tonight for the anointing of Your Holy Spirit. I thank You, Lord, that oft times when testimonies are shared, that in the lifting up of Your name it becomes the key to open prison doors to them that are bound. And so, Lord God, I ask tonight that those that are bound and held captive by fears and by darkness, that Jesus, You would be the key tonight that would open these prison doors and set them free. I ask that You would heal those that are bruised in heart. I ask, O God, that You would touch homes and marriages and children tonight and young people that are in this assembly. I ask, Lord Jesus, that You would be lifted up and held in the highest esteem and that You would be longed for and desired, O God, that You would minister life to every heart, to every mind, to every spirit and soul that is gathered in this house tonight. I ask, O Lord, that You would help the people that are gathered here to look away from this human vessel, to look away from all human vessels. For, Lord, without You we are nothing. Without You we have no hope. Without You we have no strength. Without You we wouldn't stand here. Without You we wouldn't have any praise in our voices. Without You we'd have no form of intelligence whatsoever, O God. Without You we'd be dead in our sins. Help us, O God. Help every one of us not to look to the armor of flesh, not to look to man, O God, but to look to You, Jesus. You're the author and finisher of our salvation. You're the one, O God, that saves. You're the one that heals and sanctifies. You're the one that justifies. You're the one that holds us in the Father's hand. You're the one that promised to take us home when it's all over. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. I ask again, O God, and specifically tonight, that I may stand behind the cross and exalt Your holy name, Jesus. I want to minister to You tonight, Jesus. I want to minister to You. Holy Spirit, enable me to minister to Jesus tonight. Enable me to minister to the Father. Hallelujah. I thank You for this tonight, O God. Lord, would You come and bear fruit for Your namesake. Would You come and release captives and save those that are lost, O God. Deliver those that are bound by the enemy, O God. O Lord, let strength be given to those that are weak and feeble and faith to those that don't have any, O God. Lord, let Your kingdom go forward and let the kingdom of darkness suffer great violence. Hallelujah. I thank You for this now, and I praise You in the precious and holy name. Lord, I declare the triumph of Christ in this house tonight over every principality and power of darkness. I declare the kingdom of darkness null and void with zero authority in this house. Jesus Christ has triumphed. Hallelujah. No prison door can hold anybody tonight. No past experience can blind. No lying spirit can deceive. Hallelujah. I thank You now for the liberty and strength of Christ in Jesus' name. Amen. Hallelujah. I was born in Canada, in a province in Canada called Quebec, in a little town called Rouen-Niranda, Quebec. It's a mining town. My father is a very hard-working man. He was a miner, worked in the mines in Rouen-Niranda, Quebec. My mother's French and my father's English, so I'm sort of half and half, I guess a product of what that country can produce. And I had a nominal church upbringing. When I was raised, I went to a traditionalist-type church. Never really heard the saving gospel of Jesus Christ. Became very disillusioned with that experience, and in my early teen years I forsook it all and came to the conclusion that although God may be real, the people who served Him weren't, and there was no need to go to church any longer or follow that course for my life. I remember being a teenager, and a deep, deep sorrow seemed to come into my life. Not a depression, I wouldn't call it that, but a sorrow. I didn't know who I was. I didn't know where I was going. I started turning to alcohol and to drugs to some extent. I was never very heavy into drugs, but I did on occasion try different things, and I found that these things didn't satisfy my life. The more I indulged in different things, the deeper I got into bondage. When I was 15 years old, some of you have known, I've shared this before, I started suffering some very, very horrible panic attacks. If anybody's ever suffered those things, it's because I had a crisis going on in my life. Not knowing where I was going, not having very much confidence in myself or any abilities, having an incredible fear of failure having come over my life. It virtually crippled me. I would want to try new things, and I would become so afraid of failing that I couldn't go forward. Some of you here might know what that's like. It's a horrible prison. Because of it, I started suffering panic attacks, and they were very serious things. They lasted probably about seven or eight years or so, not quite sure how long. I had to take drugs called Valium and different things to be able to go to school, to be able to function normally. It was like I was underwater most of the time. The only way I could get out of this thing is by drinking. Needless to say, even though there were some happy times, I don't want to impress upon you that it was all absolute misery. It wasn't. There were some happy times. I did have somewhat of an outgoing personality. I had a lot of friends at times. Nevertheless, there were some deep, deep troubles that were in my life. I shouldn't say I don't care. That's an expression you pick up in preaching sometimes. You say, I don't care where you've come from. I don't care how you've struggled. Well, I do care. Sometimes people of other cultures misunderstand that. But we do care what your struggles are. That's just a North American expression. It doesn't really mean what we say. It was a difficult time in my life in the teen years. A lot of confusion, a lot of identity things, not knowing who I was and where I was going. And I remember leaving Miranda when I was in my teen years. I guess the highlight, one of the highlights, there were several of them. But one of the highlights is when I was a young boy, I was in a lot of trouble in school all the time. I was one of those kids that just delighted in causing grief for the teachers, things like that. We used to have a teacher that paced between the desks all the time as he taught. And I would flip tacks continuously on the floor as he paced. By the time the class was over, he'd be sliding on the linoleum because of all the tack stuck on the bottom of his shoes. Things like that. There was a dear homeroom teacher, a godly lady. I didn't know it then, so I think she was a Christian. And she used to put up slogans on the board at school and things like that. And I would delight in messing around the words and making different slogans out of them. Just full of mischief, really, in those days. Now, I'm not suggesting, young people that are here, that you get involved in that. I'm not endorsing it at all. It's not really the way to live. But I remember this godly nun. She was a nun. Now, she never talked about anything but Jesus. Everything that came out of her mouth was Jesus. Jesus loves everybody. And what she prayed, she prayed to Jesus. And I remember her coming to me one day. And I was just a young boy, maybe 8, 9, 10, 11 years old. And she told me, she said, Carter, you don't understand how blessed you are. She said, the Lord has shown me He's got a plan for your life. And a great purpose for your life. You're so blessed of God. And here I am, just a lost, kind of a lonely, hurting kid. And I remember thinking, looking at her, I don't want to say what was in my mind when she was saying that to me. But it wasn't complimentary. I was embarrassed. And it used to disturb me. But the words that she spoke into my life stuck with me over the years. God has a plan for your life. God has a plan for your life. Never underestimate people who are Sunday school teachers or have a position of influence over young children. Even the ones that are the terrors of all of your classes. Never underestimate what the spoken word can do into somebody's life. God has a plan for your life. God has something He's going to do through your life. And so, I left Miranda when I was a teenager and headed off to university in Ottawa. Not so much that I wanted to go to university, but my father in particular had been denied a university education because of the war. And because of his family background, it was a very important thing in our family to have an education. And so, really to please my mom and dad, I went to university. Now, I didn't appreciate it then, but I certainly do today. It did help me in many respects to understand some things that I needed to understand. And most of all, I met my wife Teresa in university. So, that was the biggest blessing of my life, coming from that place. And I remember going to university, and again, I was suffering these horrible panic attacks all the time. I'd have to drug myself to be able to sit in a classroom. I had a fear of failure that was overwhelming me. I had a fear of being singled out in a crowd. Some of you might know that. If I was sitting in a classroom and a teacher looked at me, and very often in university, it was a dialogue format, where a teacher would talk for a little while and then turn to members of the respect, because I was in law classes to some degree, there would be very often dialogue back and forth. And so, the teacher would turn to somebody and say, well, what's your opinion on this case or this thing? And I was living in morbid fear that the teacher would turn to me and ask me to speak publicly. And if that ever happened, I'd have to get up and run out of the room. I couldn't be singled out. There's such a deep fear. You can't understand it until you've experienced it yourself. And I hope you never have to. And so, I remember suffering these attacks. They were getting worse. I was taken to the hospital by ambulance and university three times. One time, they took me into the nurse's room. I was there. I'd taken to the hospital by ambulance. They took my blood pressure, and it was 260 over something. When the nurse took my blood pressure, she dropped the thing on the floor and ran out of the room. She had a panic attack. She told me later on that they were very surprised that I hadn't suffered a serious stroke or died. I don't understand this medically, but because of the way my heart was acting and the blood pressure, it's incredible what anxiety can do to a person and fear can do in somebody's life. And so, I finished university in 1975 and was walking down the street one day just needing a job. I never really wanted to be a policeman. I ended up being a policeman for 12 years. Never ever had any desire to be a policeman. But I was walking down the street one day. I'd come out of a restaurant, needed work, needed some money. And I walked by this police station. I had hair down to my shoulders. I had sandals on my feet. I was part of that generation. T-shirt, you know, with a frog or something on the front of it. And there was a poster in the window, and it said, if the hat fits, wear it. And so, I said, well, I wonder what it's like being a policeman. I do need a job. So, I walked into the police station. I talked to the recruiting sergeant. And he said, he convinced me to fill out an application form. And so, I did. I never really anticipated hearing from them again. I went back to finish off my exams. And three weeks later, they hired me. And so, without even anticipating it, here I am, a police officer now, sent down to police college in a place called Elmer, Ontario. They shaved my hair off. I used to have long hair. I've had it for years. And they shaved it all off. It was so short, you couldn't even comb it. And you had to spit and polish your boots at night. And I remember, after about two weeks of being there, I'm standing in line on parade at 530 in the morning. Anybody who's ever been in the military, you know what this is like. And you've got some guy with onion breath yelling at you from this far from your face. And you're wondering, what am I doing here? But, you see, God's hand was on my life even back then. There were some disciplines that had to be brought into my life. And what a better place to learn it than in military police college. And through the years, as a police officer, God did some good work in my life. Everything, all things work together for good. God's hand was upon my life. And I'm thankful for those years and for those experiences that God gave unto me. We were married shortly after leaving university. And when I joined the police force, Teresa and I got married. And I was a very, very selfish person. I lived for myself, stepped over people to get what I wanted, did anything I had to do to just be gratified. And after being married for a period of time, I began to deeply regret getting married. And I wanted desperately out of that relationship. I had a young son at that time who's now a little older. He was just a few months old. And I remember I wanted to get out of it. And I used to scheme as to how I was going to get out of this marriage relationship. And some of the older policemen at work were only too kind to help me, try to organize my finances and figure out how much it was going to cost. A lot of them have had that experience. And I remember just being so disillusioned just simply because selfishness was governing and ruling in my life. You're never satisfied when you're living for yourself. I had this little boy that I didn't know how to love. You see, I was a hard man. I was as hard as a stone. As a policeman, I would go to an accident scene. There'd be bodies all over the road sometimes. I'd chalk the bodies and help pick them up and oftentimes put them in the funeral wagon and head off and just eat my lunch. And it wouldn't bother me at all. It was just cold, coldness inside, just like a stone. And very often you have to do that as a policeman simply just to cope with what you see every day and what you have to deal with. But I was like that almost naturally, just a coldness, a withdrawnness from people. And so I just carried on in that particular line of work, that hardness and that coldness. And one day I came home and I said to my wife Teresa, in that circle that we were traveling in, the people we hung around with at that time were into this thing. I don't know if you remember it, those that are back in the 70s, that you had to travel. You have to expand your horizons. You have to learn about other cultures and other people, intermingle with the general populace, and thus you will fulfill yourself. And so I began to think that we need to travel. If there's any hope for this relationship, we need to travel. We need to get away. So I went to see my commander and I managed to get six weeks leave of absence from police work, got a ticket to go to Europe, and we were going to backpack it all through Europe. Jeans, jean jackets, a big backpack with a Canadian flag on the back. Both of us had that, and we were taken off for Europe. Now in the interim, Teresa and I had a house in Ottawa, Ontario, and we had leased out some rooms to some students, and we had this one student come in that was a Christian. Now she said she was a Christian. It didn't matter to me what people said they were Christians. I didn't have a whole lot to do with Christians or churches. I had arrested a lot of good church-going people over the years, so it just sort of kept up my impression of what church people were all about and what they were like. And this girl was different. She was like Pastor Dave shared one night. Her face was saved. There was something different about her. She was always happy. She was always glowing. It was an incredible thing. And I didn't know anything, and I really wasn't interested in what she was espousing, but I was sure interested in the happiness that was in her life. And so Teresa and this girl and another girl who was living there began to have a Bible study together. Not that any of them knew what they were talking about, I don't think, but they began to have a Bible study. And I would come home, and they would be sitting on the living room floor, and they had this huge Bible. Like the bigger the Bible, the more you're going to learn. It was huge. It was this big thing. They would unfold this thing, and they'd be all sitting around. And at that time, you know, with their wooden crosses, you know the big thing with the big wooden cross, the whole gambit. You had to put that on. That helped you to learn, I guess. They'd open the Bible, and they were having a Bible study. Then they would go off on sometimes these seminars and different things like that. I wasn't interested in these things at all. So I came in, and I had my airplane ticket for Teresa and I, and we had our Eurail pass and the whole thing. And just before we were due to go to Europe, Teresa said to me, she said, Carter, I've been studying to go to this church with these girls. And she said, it's a really nice church. How would you like to go before we go to Europe? And, you know, folks, I didn't go to church. I hadn't been to church for years. As far as I'm concerned, if you want to find a hypocrite, go to church. It never occurred to me that hypocrites go shopping, they buy shoes, they're everywhere. I just felt they were all in church. And I wasn't interested. But the saving factor of the whole thing is that I was so deathly afraid of flying. I had an absolute morbid fear of flying. Then I thought, well, I'll think it over. If we're going to be flying from Montreal, Mirabel Airport, to Paris, France. And I thought, if the plane should happen to go down in the middle of the ocean on the way over there, and I stand before the pearly gates, at least I can say, well, I was in church the day before we went. Actually, it would have been the day of our flight. So I thought, well, I've got nothing to lose. I might as well go to church, just in case the plane goes down. So we headed off to church. I hadn't been to church in years. It had been a long, long time. We walked into church. And here I have my jeans on, and a jean jacket, and a t-shirt, and my big backpack, the whole thing. We're all ready to go. We're heading to Montreal. But this church service is happening that morning. And one of the things that astounded me was the welcome that we got there. I looked a little bit rough. I hadn't shaved for a few days. My hair was a little scraggly. And the way they welcomed us there was really wonderful. They didn't put us in the back seats. They just let us sit anywhere we wanted to. And I'd never been in a church like this. It wasn't one that really was similar to my experience when I was growing up. We got into the church. We sat down. The service began. And they began to sing. I really loved the singing. They sang hymns like I just sang out of the hymn book. And I was asking Teresa questions the whole time that we were there. I was asking her, where's the candles? Where's all of this stuff? Why isn't all this stuff in the church? And then this guy got up to speak with his suit on. Who's he? And what right does he have to speak? And he got up and he began to speak. And the balcony went not only to the back but down the sides. And I was over on this side on the balcony. And he began to speak about being under the law and being under grace. And he had a fire in his soul. Like he had a fire when he preached. He even had tears as part of his message. And I didn't understand a word he said. Nothing. I couldn't understand anything. As a matter of fact, I really never could understand him even after we got saved. It was hard. But he was talking about the law and about grace. And I was a policeman and he kept referring to those under the law. And he would point to my side and I thought it was very good. Very good. I thought, I'm a policeman. I'm under the law. That's exactly where I should be. Thank you. And I kept thinking in my heart, I'm sure glad I didn't sit on that side. I didn't know what grace was. All I'd ever remembered is a prayer when I was growing up. We prayed to somebody who was supposed to be full of grace. And I didn't know what it was. I didn't even know what grace was. And so I was really thankful I was on the law side. And I was sitting there and I was stirred because I saw something in the people. You see, what I saw was a testimony of Jesus Christ but didn't know it. Jesus Christ is alive. The Holy Spirit is a person. The third person of the Trinity of God. He comes and indwells us when we receive Christ as our Savior. It wasn't the service. I didn't understand the preacher. You have to understand this. It wasn't so much the singing. I had been in good singing groups before. I'd even been playing music myself. I'd been in places where I was moved by song. It wasn't so much that. It was the people. It was something about the people. What I was seeing, I couldn't quite grasp it. But it was Christ alive and living within this church body. I saw Jesus. That's what a testimony is all about. Folks, that's what sinners are looking for. It's not so much our presentation. It's not so much how good a church service we can put on. They're looking for the risen Christ. They're looking for a living testimony. That's what it's all about. They're looking for something tangible they can sink their teeth into and put their hands upon. I was stirred by the people that I met. I was stirred by the ushers. If you're an usher in the house of God, don't ever despise the gifting that God has given you. You're the first contact with somebody that comes in the house of God. Don't despise that. I was more moved that day by the ushers than I was by the preacher. I saw something in them, the way they treated me. They were obviously a well-to-do church. But they didn't sit me in the back. They sat me in the front. They took care of me. They asked me if I had different needs and different things. They even took time to hand me a card. Then my police nature began to take over. And I said, there's got to be a catch to all of this stuff. And I looked on the card and it said, I'd like a visit from the pastor. You know, like church cards always say, and I'd like this, I'd like that. And one of them said, I'd like a box of offering envelopes. And I thought, that's it. Aha, I got it. That's the catch. Then I looked a little farther and said, I'd like to know what it is to be a Christian. And I thought, well, I think I'm a Christian. I've been raised to say I'm a Christian. If you were to ask me religion, if I was filling out a form, I would have said Christian. But I'm not like these people are. There's a difference in these people. And so, I said, well, I'd like to know what they think it is to be a Christian. So I checked it off and I put it in the offering basket when it came by. I don't know if I put anything else in it, to be honest with you. At least I put the card in, anyway. We left Ottawa, headed for Montreal, and took off for Paris. And something had sparked in my heart. And I began to think on that plane trip, if anybody could put my marriage together, if anybody could help me, could change my life, I'd believe God, you can. And it began to be unequivocal. It's not like I couldn't have lived the rest of my life like the rest of society does. I could still take my guitar and sing songs and probably would have gone through my police career and who knows what would have happened. But there's a deep, empty cry inside of everybody who doesn't have Christ in their lives. You can fool most of the world and you can even fool yourself for a season, but there are those empty nights when you sit on the edge of your bed all alone, you and God, and you know the game is over. You're facing God, you don't understand it. But there's a deep, deep hole inside that nothing seems to fill. And I remember thinking that if anybody could change my life, God, you could change my life. If anybody could meet my needs, I didn't know why or how, but I knew that God could meet my needs. And so, we landed in Paris, and we had this Eurail pass where we had no itinerary. We just traveled from country to country, from city to city, town to town. And those that have been to Europe, you know it's not the same as here. The towns are maybe a little smaller, and the train station is right in the center of the town, and all of the hotels around it. And so, we began to go from town to town. We started in France, and we went to Italy, we went to Switzerland, went to Austria, went to Germany, we went to Greece. We went all over the place, all over Europe for six weeks. And I said, I'm going to find God in this place. God has got to be here, and I'm going to find Him. And every time we got off the train, I would get a tourist map, and I would look for every church, every cathedral, every synagogue, everything that looked like a church on that map. And I dragged poor Teresa around for six weeks through Europe, to every church. I don't know how many churches we visited. But that's all we did. We visited church after church after church. I'm going to find God. It's as simple as that. We went into magnificent, beautiful buildings all over Europe. I dare not say hundreds of them, but we went all over in all kinds of buildings. And I would go in, and they would be ornate. There would be all kinds of gold. There would be all kinds of different things. But I would get that feeling I had when I was a child, that it's nice, but God's not here. I want what I felt back in that church, that little church way back in Canada before we left. I want to feel the presence of God. I want to know where He is. And so we traveled around. We finally got to Italy. And I remember the whole thing of travel among the people and learn the cultures. I remember we just happened to get into Italy at the time that the leader at that time, his name was Aldo Moro, was kidnapped and subsequently murdered. And Italy, martial law was declared in Italy. It was a very dangerous place to be. There were roving gangs of people on the streets. They would push us off the sidewalk into the street, and there's nothing you could do about it. You couldn't even complain because the army would arrest you. They could throw you to jail for months on end without even laying charges against you. And it was a very dangerous place to be. I remember standing on the street corner yelling at Teresa, saying, travel, travel, travel. Here we got to travel. Here we are right smack in the middle of Italy. I said, travel and learn about other cultures. This is going to fulfill me. I said, I don't even like these people. Now, don't misunderstand me. I have nothing against Italians. It was just simply the fact that I was trying to express the fact that I'm not being fulfilled here. This is not doing a thing for me. I need to find God. So finally, in desperation, I said to Teresa, we've got to see the Pope. I said, if anybody knows where God is, he must know where God is. So we headed for Rome. We got off the train in Rome. We headed down to the Vatican, and we went and visited all the buildings in the Vatican, and then finally waited for the Pope to come out. We were standing in St. Peter's Square with about 50,000 other people. I don't know who it was. It was one of the Popes. But here, this is my moment. I'm going to hear from God. I'm going to know where God is after this day. And I was so excited. I was standing there. Here I was in the Vatican, right in the middle of Rome. This is the end of my search. I'm going to find God. And so the door opened, and out he came, and he spoke in Italian for about 10 minutes. I don't speak Italian. And so there had to be a group, a tour group next to us. We were alone there. There was a tour group, and the guy spoke Italian and English. And I said, what did he just say? The guy said to me, he said, we need more churches. I said, man, we don't need more churches. There are 365 churches in Rome. You can go to a different church every day of the year in Rome. And I started talking to this guy. I said, we don't need more churches. We need God. I need to know where God is. So we left, went back to Paris, flew out of Paris again, and came back to Canada. Six weeks later, same old guy, same old problems. You know, travel doesn't change a thing. If you've got a problem, you can go from here to Timbuktu. If you don't have Christ in your life, when you come home, that problem is still stuck to you. Absolutely nothing changes without Jesus. I was at home just a few days, and the phone rang, and it was the pastor of that church that I'd been at. And he said to me, he said, are you Carter Coleman? I said, yes. He said, I see that you've filled out a form, and you said you'd like to know what it is to be a Christian. Now, this is, you're talking seven weeks after I'd filled that form out. And I had that sinking feeling inside that you get, that I've filled something out, and these people are going to bug me from now until eternity. He said, we would like to send somebody to your house to talk to you about what it is to be a Christian. Would you agree to that next Wednesday? And I thought, well, okay, I'll humor them, let them come to my house. We'll just get it over with. I'll just get them here and then get them out, and that'll be the end of it. And I expected that a couple of little old ladies, they didn't ask me who I was. They didn't ask me my age. They didn't ask me what I did. They didn't ask me anything. They just said, we're going to send somebody to your house. And so I expected Wednesday night the doorbell's going to ring, and this couple of little old ladies with hats with big flowers hanging off them are going to come in, and I'll give them tea, and they're going to tell me about Jesus and their church and everything. I'd be very nice to them and just thank them and out the door, and then the whole thing is over. Lo and behold, the doorbell rings on Wednesday night. I go to the door, and it says, 6'2 Royal Canadian Mounted Police Officer standing at my door. He said, Are you Carter Conlon? I said, Yeah. He said, Who are you? I said, Who are you? He said, I'm Irv. He said, I'm the guy from the church that you went to, and I've come to talk to you about Jesus Christ and what God can do in a person's life. And you know, folks, I would never have listened to anybody else. I was dealing in blood and guts all the time as a policeman, and my thought was, How could these people ever relate to what I go through every day and what I have to deal with? And so this guy came into my home, and he came back every Wednesday night for about two months, or maybe a little longer, maybe three months. I'm going to confess to you, I wasn't very nice to him. I tried to shake him down. I wanted to see what he was made of. I'd drink beer in front of him, offer him a cigarette, while he's telling me about the Lord. I'd say, What kind of church do you go to? You can't even have a cigarette, have a beer. In my former church, I never had a problem with that. I told him about all my theories of religion. You know how foolish it sounds when somebody's trying to tell you about a God that they don't even... Here, I've just come from all over Europe, ranting and raving like a fool, looking for God. And here I am now defending this God and this religion that I don't know anything about. And I've taken my position, and I'm trying to shake him down. I just wanted to see what this guy was made of. Is it real what he had? And he kept coming to my house every Wednesday, and I would argue with him, and he just kept opening the Word of God, and he just kept loving me. He told me his testimony. And that's the one thing that stuck with me. He said I was a drunk, and I was a gambler, and he told me the things he used to do. I found Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior, and this is what I am now. And that's what I couldn't shake off. There was a reality in his life. This man looked at me, another policeman, and he wasn't a flake. You know, sometimes you get that impression about people, that it's just people who have gone over the edge that come to God. This guy had a good career. He was advancing in police work. He was intelligent. He was a well-thought-out man. And he was presenting Christ before me, and telling me how Christ had changed his life. It wasn't so much the Billy Graham books he was using. It was his testimony that was stirring my life and my heart. It was his persistence. It was the love that was in him for me that caused me eventually to get a Bible and turn to the book of John, and begin to read it for myself. And I read through the book of John. And I came to the part where it said, God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. I came to the book of Ephesians 2, 8, and 9. It says, For by grace are you saved by faith, and not of yourselves. It is a gift of God, and not of works, lest any man should boast. I used to tell him, he says, Carter, you can be a good person the best you can be. You can give to charity, and help little old ladies across the street with their groceries all your life, and still go to hell. You can't get into heaven by your good works. It's simply by the fact that Christ died for you. And by faith, you acknowledge that He took your place on the cross, and invite Him into your life to be your Lord and your Savior. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. I began to read the book of John. I saw who Jesus was. I saw the claims that He made upon the lives of those who would be His disciples. I closed the book one day, May 12, 1978. And I said, Jesus, You are who You say You are. I saw the claims. I saw what He had done. I said, Lord, from this day forward, I had better either surrender my life to You, or never again ever call myself a Christian. I was on my way to work in full uniform. I pulled my car over to the side of the road in Ottawa at about 3 o'clock in the afternoon. I bowed my head behind the wheel, and I said, Lord Jesus. And it wasn't a prayer of any great faith. It went something like this, If what earth has told me is the truth, then I invite You into my life too, to be my Lord and my Savior. You ask me how I know He lives. We say, He lives within my heart. When you're born again, the Bible says when you receive Christ, you are born again. The Spirit of God comes upon you. You become a new person from the inside out. Religion is an exterior trapping, trying to produce godliness from the outside in. But Christianity is God coming inside and working His nature from your inside out. It's completely different. Oh, hallelujah. The next morning I woke up. It's like I received Christ in my life, and it's not like sirens run off and bells rang or anything like that. I didn't feel any different. I put my car in drive and went to work and worked a normal shift. But the next morning, I woke up and sat on the edge of my bed, and as surely as I stand here tonight, something was different. I couldn't put my finger on it. I can't tell you what it is. I didn't even understand it. But the Spirit of God had come into my life. Things began to change. I wasn't thinking the same anymore. There was a difference in my life. God began to work out miracles in my life. I began to go to a Bible study in the church. The next Wednesday, Herb came to my house, and I had argued so vehemently with him, and I had made so much fun of him, that he came again and he started going through the Bible and says, Carter, you've got to surrender your life to Christ. And I said, I did that. And then he just kept on going. You know, you're not going to get into heaven by your works. You need to give your life to Jesus. And I said, I did that. And then he just kept on going. And finally I said, Herb, I did that. And he said, you did. I said, yeah, I did that. I did it last week. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. He says, so, he closed up the how to be saved books and put them on his briefcase. He was very organized and took that out, though, after you were saved books. Step one, step two, step three, step four. Let's get at it. And so he got right in the beginning. And then I joined a Bible study in the church, and I was so excited because I found this new life in God. And I remember going to my first Bible study, and the pastor of this church, I was zealous for the things of God. And he said, he had a passage of Scripture, and he would challenge us to see who could find it first. So I got in there and I found it first, and I read out the passage of Scripture. And then he said to me, he said, what translation are you reading from? I didn't even know there was such a thing. So I turned to the front of the Bible. Now, when you graduated from police college, the RCMP, which is the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, gave every policeman a Bible. And I just happened to be carrying that one. It was a little red one. And so I turned to the front of the Bible. I said, it's the Royal Canadian Mounted Police version. And he said to me, I thank God for his zealousness, you know. And nobody else in the room knew the difference. And he said to me, he says, oh, I didn't know they had one. I said, yes, they do. I said, look, isn't the cross right there? He said, oh. And he just carried right on. Never said a word about it after. And so I began to learn, and as I began to learn, God's Spirit began to wash me. And that's what the Word of God does. It begins to wash and begins to wash and begins to wash. And God began to change me. I remember the first time that I ran into the book of Ephesians. And God's Word said, husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church. You see, we had had a very difficult marriage situation. I remember driving to work one day saying, oh, great, God. Love your wife as Christ loved the church. How am I supposed to do that? And it's like the Lord spoke to me and says, you're not. You're to allow me to do it in your life. And, you know, I had prayed after I got saved. Oh, God, if you would just change her, things would be so much better. You know, a lot of us pray prayers like that. That's why you can laugh like that. But God spoke to me and says, I want to change you. You let me worry about her. I want to change you. You're the problem. And so I said, OK, I give up on that. And I let God begin to work in my life. And He has put a love for my wife in my heart. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. It's an incredible thing today. The closer you get to Jesus, the more you draw unto one another. And I begin to realize that the partner I have, the life partner I have, is exactly the one God picked for me. And there's fulfillment when you have a life partner that you will allow yourself to draw close to as you draw close to God. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. And God put a love in my heart for my son. And God put a love in my heart for my other children. And today I stand here fulfilled. My testimony is simply this. It says, Jesus looking upon them. They were astonished, it says, out of measure, saying among themselves, Who can be saved? And Jesus looking upon them said, With men it's impossible, but not with God. For with God all things are possible. Hallelujah. I have known the victory of God in my life. All through my life I have known the victory of God. I wish I had sufficient time. I really don't tonight. I could speak to you for another two hours of the things that God has done in my life. I have known victory upon victory because I have simply chosen to believe God. And believe His Word as stronger than every circumstance. One of the biggest battles, the first battles I ever faced as a Christian is facing that old spirit of fear that was upon my life. And those that have been here before, I've shared that with you. That one night I felt one of those panic attacks as a Christian coming upon my life. And it's a horrible thing. You think you're going to die. And I remember coming downstairs and standing the devil to the face that night and saying to him, you throw everything you've got at me. And if you kill me then so be it. If I die then so be it. I'm going home to be with God. But I stand against you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I stood in my living room that night. That's about 14 or 15 years ago now. I stood in my living room that night and I felt this thing literally lift off of my body and I've never ever suffered one of those things again. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. The triumph of Christ. The triumph of Christ. There's an absolute victory in Christ. It's not another religion. It's a living relationship with the living God. Working out His purposes within our lives. Changing us from image to image and glory to glory. That's what the scripture says of any man being Christ. He's a new creature. All things pass away and all things become new. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. The church that I was part of were a good people and I thank God for them. They had the heart to send somebody to my house. And I thank God for them. But I began to look at some of the older people that were in that church. Not necessarily the best thing to do, I suppose, but I remember going to a banquet one time and because I had sung and written songs, they asked me to sing. And I was really shocked that they asked me to sing secular music. Songs that I had written before and things like that when I came to Christ. I wouldn't do it. I told them I can't sing these things anymore. I'm not comfortable with it. And I would sit at a table and I was so excited about Jesus and so much wanting more of Jesus. And yet a lot of these folks, they were very affluent and all they could talk about is their homes in Florida and their vacations and things like that. I'm not against homes in Florida and vacations. Don't misunderstand me. But I am against it if it takes Christ out of your heart. I'm against it if that's all you can talk about. I'm against it if that's all you look forward to in this life. There's more to that. There's a life in Christ. I've been from church to church throughout North America over the years where people have died. Some have powerful testimonies, but it's all 20 years back and 10 years back. And they sit frozen with yesterday's victories in their heart. I began to seek out God after about two years in a new way. And I began to say, Lord, you see this church didn't know about the baptism of the Holy Spirit. And I began to cry out to God and say, God, there's got to be more. I'm tired of this half-hearted walk. And I began to struggle with the flesh. And I began to struggle with being ashamed of the testimony of Christ. And some of you know what that's about. And I wanted to speak at times at work to the guys and out in the streets. But I couldn't find the power to do it. And I would shy away. I'd be all hallelujah and praise God as much as you're allowed in the church on Sunday. But walking the court with some of my co-workers and see some of these Christian guys coming towards me, I'd want to just drop through a manhole cover and disappear. You understand what I'm talking about. I don't even have to explain that. Some of you are living it right now. But one day I was driving down Carling Avenue in my police car. And I've always been impassioned, I suppose you can say. And I got so fed up with myself that I punched the dash of the car as hard as I could. And I said, I'm fed up. I'm not living like this anymore. I'm going to serve you, Lord, if it kills me. And I went home and told Teresa, I made a decision today. I'm going all the way with God. And I'm going to serve Him if it kills me. I really don't care. I'm going to serve Him. I'm not going half-hearted into this thing. I want everything that God's got for me. And I'll give Him everything I've got in return. And I remember the next day I went into work. And this Christian policeman, his name was Bob, came to me. He said, Carter, tomorrow night there's a group of us going into the prison. And we're going to share Christ with the prisoners. Do you want to come with us? And I remember standing there thinking, oh God, you didn't have to take me up on it so soon. I said, Bob, there had been some unrest in that prison. And I said, you realize if there's a riot, we'll never get out of there alive. He said, I know that. He said, do you want to come? I said, yeah, okay, count me in. And the next few days later, I showed up in my uniform. We were going in full uniform into prison too as well, which is doubly dangerous. And on the way there, he said, I want you to meet a friend of mine. We're going to stop at a halfway house. And he's an ex-biker that got saved. He said, he's a year in the Lord now. He's a year old in the Lord. Now, if I had trouble with anybody, it would have been bikers. Because I had some really heavy duty dealings with some bikers that were almost life-threatening over the years. And we went to this place. And I walked into this house. And it was all guys out of prison. And I walked in. Now, you've got to understand, I'm a policeman. I've never had social contact with prisoners before. I've had contact, but not socially. There's a difference. I walked into this house. It was my first experience with a hug from another man. I tell you, it's tough. Folks, you've got to be gentle in the house of the Lord. You know, guys come in here and they're not ready for that. You've just got to be careful. I come in. And these guys out of prison started hugging me and saying, oh, praise God. Great to have you here tonight, brother. Awesome to have you. And I remember they asked if we would stay for the meeting. And we agreed to stay for their meeting. They were having a praise and worship time. We stayed for the meeting. And at the end of the meeting, some of the young guys came up to me and said, Officer, have you been baptized in the Holy Ghost? And I said, no, no, I haven't. I said, but you guys need that. You know, you're out of jail and stuff, and you need that extra power or whatever, that emotional. All of the things I've learned in the last couple of years, again, came back to the surface. You know, you guys need that. I don't need that. You know, I can stand on my own. And it was a lie. I knew I couldn't stand. That's why I was punching and dashing my car. But you can't admit it, of course. And so they said, well, if you want us to pray for you, you can receive it tonight. I said, no, no, not right now. No, thanks. So they went away, and we hung around. We saw what was going on at the meeting. And by the way, that biker is now a cake decorator and a good friend of mine. Isn't that what God can do? You take a guy that we would have shot each other ten years ago, and now he makes cakes. And I preach the gospel. And so when the meeting was over, they were praying for people, and they were receiving the baptism of the Holy Ghost. I didn't know what it was. And once in a while, one of them would fall over in this house. So they said, would you like us to pray for you? And I remember, oh, God, I don't know. I said, but Lord, I want everything you've got for me. I want everything. I want it all. And I said, Lord, I'm trusting you tonight that if I, your word says if a son asks for bread, you'll not give him a stone. If he asks for a fish, you'll not give him a scorpion. I said, Lord God, I want everything that you've got for me. And so I stood there, and somebody stood behind me. And I didn't like people standing behind me as a policeman. I said, get away. I don't need anybody. And so I said, you don't need anybody behind. I'm not going to fall over. Don't worry about that. I could just imagine my letter, Dear Chief, how I split my skull on Monday night. And so they began to pray for me. And I said, what do you want me to do? They said, nothing. We're just going to pray for you, and you just do what God tells you to do. I said, okay. So I stood there. They laid hands on me. They began to pray. And the next thing I knew, I was flat on this hardwood floor, full uniform. Kaboom. Down I went. And I was speaking in tongues in another language. I didn't even know what it was. It was coming out like a river out of my mouth. Hallelujah. I got up. I got up that night, and I drove home. I ran in the door of our farmhouse. Teresa's sitting there in the kitchen. I said, hey, Teresa, listen to this. Boom. Oh, hallelujah. Then I ran out. I was so excited. I couldn't sleep. I didn't come down for weeks. I ran out of the house. I went out in our field. Our field was 2,200 feet long. And I ran out in the field, and I was shouting at the top of my lungs. And I was jumping. I was singing Amazing Grace. I just couldn't stop worshipping God. Hallelujah. Lights came on. The cows started to moo in my neighbor's barn. Everything came alive. It was 3 o'clock in the morning. I couldn't care less. God's Spirit had filled me. I've got to wind this thing up. Not long after that, I was working in a radar car. And I was sitting there, and I was reading a testimony. And I was studying the Word of God. And the Spirit of the Lord fell upon me in that car. And God began to speak some things to my heart. And He began to reveal to me what He can do through any vessel that would surrender to Him. And things that He desired to do through my life. And He began to speak to me about setting me up as a testimony for what He can do in somebody's life. Or just simply say, Do it, and choose to believe Him. And I remember sitting there saying, Oh, God, you've got the wrong man. I can't speak publicly. You know that. I mean, I couldn't. It was a crippling thing in me. I couldn't do it. I said, Nevertheless, Lord, if You're speaking to me, I surrender my life to You, and I trust You to do it. And so a series of events came into my life. God began to lead me. He began to put me in positions. I remember every time I said yes to the Lord, it was just a short time after He began to do things in my life. I was called in to my commanding officer. He said, We need an officer for public relations. We need somebody to go into the public relations field. He said, The only thing is you can't be nervous to speak publicly. And He said to me, Are you afraid of speaking publicly? And before I knew what I was saying, I said, No. And as I was standing there, I was thinking, In heaven's name, what am I saying? I can't speak publicly at all. He says, Good. We're going to send you on a course. Oh, I wish I had time to tell you all this tonight. When I went on the course, I went on this course to Canadian Police College. And the whole time I was there, I said, Jesus, I know how to do this. Just let me lift up Your name. And so every time I got up, I talked about a Bible topic. And so finally when I got around to the 30-minute presentation, I died a million deaths in that place. I died, literally. I died inside. Every time I'd get up, I'd feel like I was underwater. And all these seasoned speakers were getting up from all over Canada. They were proficient at speaking. And here I am getting up. And oh, God, help me. Help me. Don't make a fool out of me, Lord. And I was getting up. And so I would speak on the Bible. And then finally, for the final thing, they told me, You've got to have a police topic. This is a police college. You've got to speak on a police topic. And so I went and I prayed. And the next day I got up and I said, Gentlemen, I'd like to speak for this 30-minute presentation on a police topic. I'd like to speak on the Bible. And they all looked at me like, How's he going to work this one out? And I said, Well, every time you go into court, you put your hand on a book. And you swear and say, based on what's written in that book, that you are to believe me in the court that what I'm about to say is the truth. The whole truth and nothing but the truth. So help me God. I said, So would you agree with me today it's important to know what's in that book and what you're swearing on? They said, Yeah, okay, tell us. And so God gave me a message right from Genesis to Revelation, right through the whole thing that I've been taught over the years. The whole wagonload. They got it. And I came out of there saying, Jesus, you have triumphed again. You have triumphed, Lord God. I don't have any strength. You know, oftentimes I get up to preach and say, Lord, I don't have any strength. I don't have any wisdom. I mean it. It's not just a religious rote that I go through. I know where I've come from. Hallelujah. But I know what he can do. He can take the weakest vessel he can find in this church and he can set you up in a high place that his name might be glorified through your testimony and through your life. Hallelujah. Don't limit God with unbelief. They said, Who then can be saved? He said, With men it's impossible. And there are many impossible things in our lives. It's impossible to get out of prisons of fear on your own. It's impossible sometimes to have hurt marriages and hurt relationships and hurt children healed. But with God all things are possible. You look at yourself and say, Lord, it's impossible to use me. I'm not a speaker. I'm not. I have no knowledge. I have no ability. We fail to understand. Is that not the people that God chose in the early church? Did he not bypass the religiously learned and go to the seashores to ignorant and dumb fishermen and fill them with the Holy Ghost and set them up as a sign to this world that he's alive? With God all things are possible. I stand here today saved. I stand here sanctified. I stand here set apart for God. I stand here healed and delivered by the power of Jesus Christ. I stand here able to speak. I stand here having my home and family in order. I stand here with a love for my wife. I stand here with a father's heart for my children. I stand here with the compassion of Christ soon in my life, not by anything I have done, but according to his righteousness, according to the truth of his word. There are so many more things that would begin to call me out of police work and call me to pastor this little group of people. Throughout the years, he's never let me put money in the bank. I tried hard over the years and God would never let me do it. I've never, never been in a situation where I couldn't pay a bill all of my life, but God would never let me have anything extra. And every time I'd save and get it there, the engine on my car would blow or something like that. And I found when I didn't save, the engine on my car would last. He just wouldn't. I didn't understand, but he was leading me and teaching me to trust him in all things in my life. Hallelujah. Even those things that I had accomplished, he took them all away so that I would have nothing left to lean on but him and know that he cares and know that he provides, know that he keeps. I have not arrived by any stretch of the imagination. There are still many things in my life that God wants to work out. I feel like Apostle Paul says, but at least I'm leaving behind those things that are behind me and I'm pressing on to the mark of the high calling in Christ Jesus. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. My challenge to you tonight through the word of this testimony is that you would not look to me. Don't go out of this service tonight saying, well, isn't Pastor Conlon blessed or isn't God done something good in his life? No, you've missed the whole thing if that's what you say. It's what Jesus can do in your life. He can touch your life if you will let him touch your life. He can heal your marriage if you will let him heal your marriage. He can put back your heart again towards your children and turn your children's hearts back towards you fathers if you will let him touch your life. If you will choose to believe him. It doesn't matter if you can't speak publicly. Jesus Christ can take you if you will just surrender your vessel unto him and say, God, work out your plan in my life. Work out whatever it is you have in my life. Yes, it's going to cost you something. You have to stand up and there's going to be a bit of sweat and there's going to be a few tears that are going to be shed. There's going to be times of anguish, but if you will believe him, hallelujah, you will come through the other side of whatever trial you're in and know the triumph of Christ. And when you stand and testify to your friends, it's not some well-prepared liturgical thing about how you're a sinner and you need to be saved. Your friends will be able to see Christ in your life. Hallelujah. And isn't that the ultimate goal of the church? To lift up Jesus Christ, to glorify his holy name. To be a light that's set upon a hill, giving light to all who sit in darkness. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. I was worshiping the Lord in the service this morning and I was remembering those times when I used to run through my field. As I was worshiping and lifting up my hands to God, it was like I was running through that field all over again, glorifying him. And I said, oh God, no matter what you do in my life, no matter where you take me, don't let me ever lose that. Don't let me ever change, oh God. I want to love you with all of my heart, my soul, my mind and my strength. Hallelujah. I don't want to lose it and become religious. Oh, hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Jesus can change your life. He can change your life. He can change your life. It happens to the degree that you simply believe him. That's what faith is. Faith is not a feeling. Faith is a choice. It's a choice. I chose to believe him. I chose to believe his word when I gave my life to him. I chose to believe that what he says is the truth and that's what he's going to do. If he says the truth will set you free, the truth will set you free. Don't settle for anything less. God can give you a testimony. A testimony is what Jesus is doing in your life. It's not something ten years ago. A testimony is what he's doing today, what he did yesterday and what he's going to do tomorrow. A testimony is ongoing every day. Would you stand please? Soon we'll be gathered around the throne. Can we sing that again? I don't like being so hard on Sister Gwen but it's such a beautiful song. This is the conclusion of the tape.