In this sermon, the speaker shares a personal experience of witnessing a devastating event where everything in a person's life was destroyed. Despite the loss, the person remained faithful and acknowledged that everything they had was given by God and could be taken away. The speaker then relates this experience to the tests and exams that believers face in the school of God. They emphasize that these tests are necessary for growth and advancement in the spiritual journey. The sermon concludes with a prayer for God's mercy and a reflection on the impact of a previous message about the speaker's godly father.

Father, thank Thee from our hearts that we, as Thy children, can be here in this convention. Thou art good to give us this privilege where many multitudes across the world would do anything for once in their life to have such an atmosphere with God's choices people, all fellowshipping and talking of God and bowing before God and praying through and dragging their families to have fellowship with other children from godly homes. Oh, there are multitudes across the world that would do anything for one occasion in life to have a weekend like this, let alone the occasions we have, Lord, but we bless Thee for this time together, this lovely convention center which is an awful cost for the Maranatha Baptist Church to lay out, but we bless Thee for that, their vision, their willingness, everything of the food held out, all the love in that kitchen, all the love in every room prepared so lovingly, every preparation, every brochure with the program, everything of the equipment, the recording equipment, everything even on the stage here, that someone put these flowers here, Lord, with love, because that's all they could do, but oh, they did it well. And we thank Thee for everyone involved in this, that we could come and we ask Thy blessings upon them as a congregation, Thy blessings upon them as individuals, every single one that did any kindness that we as the people of God from so many states across this country could come and seek God and enjoy fellowship and enjoy all the good things held out to us in privilege. Thou hast privileged us, God. Thou art good and we worship Thee and thank Thee for every kindness shown to us at this convention. We thank Thee, our God, that tonight we heard little Samuel, 15 years of age, and I bless Thee for my son that wanted to stand up for Christ, fearful but longing, and I ask Thee, Lord, to give him such a taste of God speaking through him that he'll be ruined for anything else in life once he's tasted that. Thank Thee for my wife and her life and her sharing everything from her soul to the ladies of this convention and the girls and for my young son, Roy, doing the same to us as men this morning and yesterday. Keep us as a family under the blood of Christ and safe from the hatred of Satan, that we as a family want all to serve Jesus with our whole heart. Oh God, please keep this little family safe as unworthy and weak and base and despised as we are. Please protect us, anoint us and use us till the day we die, each one of us, for Thy glory. Come, our God, even with this message tonight and speak to every heart in such a way that we forget about the person sitting beside us. We become conscious it's just God and me, God speaking to my heart so clearly, so directly, that no one else matters now. Oh come, visit us and do something of eternal value in every single heart. Keep us now safe from all the principalities and powers and the rulers of the darkness of this world against whom we wrestle. Keep us safe by the risen resurrected power of Christ, the Holy Spirit, the angels of God, not only us but this whole convention center and nation, a nation that Satan is trying to destroy, because it sends out more Bibles than any other nation in the whole world, more missionaries than any other nation in the whole world, more support to the mission fields of the whole world, even missions that have nothing to do with them so long as they're true to God. Oh, there's no nation on earth sending more than America, and Satan hates her, and everything that's coming against this nation is Satan. Come in mercy upon America, that part of her that does not love God, lest the day come when the scales will reverse and the evil from this nation will outweigh the good, and God will have to judge them or apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah. In mercy awaken the Christians of this land, protect them under the blood, and move in a Holy Ghost revival to set them ablaze for God with no compromise, no matter what the cost. In mercy move through the Christians when they know thee, and bow in such a way, confessing their sins, turning from their evil ways, thy people, call by thy name, till thou dost hear their cry for their land, and come and visit this land, and heal this land through them, and that's the only way thou wilt come, through thy people, if they let thee, before it's too late. Come in mercy now to this meeting, speak to the depth of our hearts to bring about this movement of God that we so long for and wait for in faith, in Jesus Christ's name, Amen. Many years ago, I preached a message that God for some reason took and reached through this message to multitudes and multitudes of people across the world. Countries I've never been, pulpits I've never been into, and never will, but somehow God took that message when I preached in the early times of visiting your country, and have met with many, many people in the way he honored that message. I shared about my father the things I remembered in his life that brought glory to God, and that would glorify God, as I shared them. Someone entitled that message, my godly father, and God has honored it in a way that I would never have dreamed God could honor such a message in such a singular way. But tonight, I'd like to speak to you about another man. You see, two months after I was married to Jenny, my father died. But God did a singular kindness to me in giving me another father. From that moment that I have loved equally as much as I loved my own father, I say that carefully, but to be honest, I say it. I love my father, but I love my father-in-law equally because of his godliness. God gave me such a favor in giving me such a man of God to be a father-in-law that he is as a father to me, and has influenced me to follow God as much as my own father did, and I regarded my father to this day as one of the godliest men this world has ever, ever known. Multitudes have never recovered from my father's life, but equal multitudes will never recover from my father-in-law's life, especially this man. Oh, God was kind to me. I'd like to share on his life an attempt in it, hope that this also will be honored by God to the degree he honored in his mercy the CD, DVDs, the tapes, videos of that message, My Godly Father. I'd like to entitle, if you want a title, My Godly Father-in-law, in case you're thinking of some other title, brother. I'd like that. Family can destroy you. Family can be your worst enemies, and a man's enemies are the members of his own home because he loves Christ and they want Satan. When a mother-in-law rises up against her mother-in-law, the daughter-in-law against the mother-in-law, David had the misfortune of having a father-in-law that wanted him dead and tried to kill him, lived to kill him. There was Naomi and Ruth. Thank God for that life. Her mother-in-law was so godly that all that young lady could say from her soul is, thy God shall be my God. That life did that, no sermons. She wanted the God that made such a life. I have been so privileged to have a man and woman in my father and mother-in-law that have made me seek God as I never would have, had I not had their examples, their conduct, and the blaze burning in both of their hearts for Christ's glory, to the degree that it's staggering. Staggering. His name is Yanni. That is short for Johannes, Jacobus, Petrus, Larue. You shouldn't say Larue, people will think you're being rude. Larue is a French name. All the immigrants of the early and the early settlers came to America. They fled Europe for South Africa also. French, German, oh well, a language came, a people came called the last white tribe of Africa. Well, this Africana speaking man, Yanni Larue, was saved when he was 14 years old through a teacher. There at school, there was no homeschooling, but there at school a teacher came along one year that had more burden for their souls than their academic achievements. And he just brought Christ in everywhere he could, pleading with them, pouring out his heart and compassion about the gospel to these young children. And Yanni Larue was so deeply convicted, so stirred by God through this teacher's compassion and the way he presented Christ, calling on them to turn to Jesus and not to go to hell, but to find eternal life by seeking God to save their souls. At the age of 14, through this teacher's compassionate cry to his pupils, Yanni Larue knelt down before this teacher. He knelt down with his teacher and he sought God from his soul as a boy of 14 to save him from hell through the blood of Christ and to come into his heart and to save him, make him God's child. God saved him, but this teacher swiftly was taken away, and he had no follow-up, no example, no protection, no one to nurture, no nurturing, or he was suddenly left alone with no born-again believers that knew he was born again to nurture him, and he didn't grow. He did one thing, though. He knew he was saved, that he never doubted, and he remembered this teacher said, the one main thing is never to miss God in the morning and night, and from that time, he never did. He took his verses, meditating, and he prayed through to God daily, morning and night, but he didn't grow as he ought to have, for he stood alone. His father was up in Oudtshoorn, a district in Africa, in southern Africa, where the ostrich farming and industry was a great wealthy business, and many multitudes of people in the early days found a living in this time of the ostrich market. With all the fashions of the world with ostrich feathers and everything else, it really was something, but it collapsed, and all the thousands just evacuated this town and went across southern Africa and other parts to try and find a means of survival in the days of depression across the world. His father took this family of five boys, a girl, down to what they call the Gemtoos Valley, and he tried to start farming. The Gemtoos Valley is in the eastern Cape of southern Africa. You bore war will break out again. The Boers don't like you to take their words and anglicize them, so you say Humptoos. Of course, you don't say that in America, because you think something's wrong with me. Anyway, there I've learned, don't dare say Gemtoos. You're in trouble. Well, they went to the Gemtoos Valley, and this man with nothing but these five boys, young girl, he began to work so hard. It didn't matter what it cost him until he began to get each of these sons a farm. He established them as boys. Each one had their own section of land that he worked like a slave to acquire down the Gemtoos Valley. It was tobacco farming, but that was what they farmed there, and that's where he had come for hope of making some sort of a living and a future for his children in the hard times of Africa that were faced at that time. He taught those boys to stand together, not just to look after themselves, but if one thing went wrong, they all came to their brother. He taught them to farm together as one body, as one family, though they each had their own lands, and they did, and they enjoyed each other, and they stood together. One day on his acquired land of tobacco farming, he was standing with his brothers, and he looked over to the farm next door, over the fence. They were Engels, English, and he saw something that changed his life forever. He saw a girl on a horse riding down the valley, and the wind was blowing her hair, and something happened, of course, that he went to pieces. I don't know if he had ever noticed a lady before, or a girl, but there he was, this fellow, teenager looking, and all his brothers saw him just start gasping as it were. You know what happened, and there he was, falling to pieces, and of course, they began to laugh and mock him, so he looked at them and felt embarrassed. He said, look, look at her. I'm going to marry that girl. That's my wife. Don't doubt it. That's the sort of man he is, by the way. Well, she became conscious that he was after her, and she got scared. She wasn't so keen on him, and one day in her despair, because everybody noticed this fellow was just desperate to get her attention, she turned and said, Yanni Leroux, you'll never get me unless you seek God with all your heart and become a man of God. Until then, I won't let you near me. That's something. He said, but I am. I'm a Christian. I gave my life to the Lord when I was 40. She said, no, no, no. You come to the conventions where the full revelation of God's Word, the standard of God's Word for Christianity's priests. You come attend with my family, my mother. I don't want to go through what my mother went through with an unsaved husband. I'm not going to face that, Yanni Leroux. I don't want to weep for years and want to serve God, while a man doesn't want God. I don't want what my mother went, and I want someone who will be the priest of the house, the head of the home, and a man of God. That's what I want. So, if you want me, you come and you start attending the conventions of the godly. So, he went along. He had never been outside of his church, which is the Dutch Reformed Church, which most people go to in South Africa. So, he comes along now to this big convention, where the godly go now. And he sat there in the A.B. Convention. The A.B.'s the mission of which we are in, Yanni and I, and Roy, and people from all over came, and he saw the godly from all these areas coming. And he sat under one of the godliest preachers in our land's history, R.T. De Villiers, and then Ethel Britzman, men who staggered South Africa, staggered that land, reached so many multitudes. They stood in that convention, and he trembled, and he despaired at what he had missed. The atmosphere, the blaze of the full revelation of God, just burning in his heart, coming from the pulpit of the years he'd never heard or grown under the light, just blazing. He thirsted, but he trembled in the blaze of the full revelation of anointed preaching. For a man of God such as that, he began to thirst for God, he began to seek God, he began to go to prayer meetings, he began to want for every convention. And eventually, Enid Jones, that is English, she said, all right, now you can marry me. So, they got married. They were young, by the way, but they got married. Well, bless the Lord that that happened. Yanni Leroux then found something as he pursued these meetings. He heard a message that Andrew Murray preached, the most singularly used man of God in South Africa's history, and one of the five most, I would say, used over the centuries, over the years, ministries in this world's history was Andrew Murray. He heard of a Christian having to come to a place of absolute surrender. He'd never heard that before. And he heard how Andrew Murray's message cries out that unless a child of God comes to a place where he comes to the end of himself, unless a child of God comes to a place where he has a personal Calvary and dies to self, unless he comes to a place, though he's born again, of absolute surrender like Jacob, wrestling with God, fighting with God over issues in his life. And God didn't win the battle, so God struck him. But he came to the place of absolute surrender and gave in the fight and clung to God, confessing his true state, though he was a child of God, Jacob, clinging, saying, God, have thy way. I will not let thee go unless thou dost have thy way, unless thou hast thy full way with me. A yielded, confessing, clinging, desperate man for God to meet with him and make him what he ought to be. Because Jacob's life, though God was so with him, was not on the altar and brought him into much shame and hurt until absolute surrender, which happened at Peniel. Well, Andrew Maurice says, unless a child of God like Jacob comes to a place where he gives in the fight of all the life that he's been given, that he yields to God and lays his life on the altar of God, as Paul cries out, I beseech you, brethren, I beg you, brethren, brothers, by the mercies of God that he present, you dedicate your bodies, a living sacrifice, holy, H-O-L-Y, which is acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service, acceptable unto God, and be not conformed anymore, in its translation, be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, that ye may prove what is that good and perfect and acceptable will of God. There has to come a pace of dedication in a Christian's life. God will consecrate only what you dedicate. God can't dedicate, you can't consecrate, but when you dedicate your life as a child of God, according to Romans 12, verse 1 and 2 and 3, God consecrates. You will be filled with God the Holy Spirit at absolute surrender when you come to a place where you have a personal calvary, where you die to suffer and lay everything on the altar. You don't die physically, but you die, and God has you on the altar, a sacrifice, a life totally on the altar, sacrificed for God, and then God comes. Oh, Andrew Murray says, unless this happens in a child of God's life, he will become a grief to God and man, beginning in the hole. Unless this happens to a child of God, though you're saved, unless a child of God comes to a place where you have a personal calvary and die to self and have an absolute surrender and seek God to cleanse you through and through and through and through, that's Andrew Murray's terms, with the blood of Christ, not just from the guilt of it, but God cleansing you. They were filled with the Spirit, their hearts being cleansed by faith, and God fills you with the Holy Ghost. Andrew Murray says, being filled with the Spirit isn't like a glass of water, half filled, and now the empty half gets filled. No, the Holy Spirit is a person. He can't be half in you, so what does it mean to be filled with the Spirit? He's in you, otherwise you're not saved, and that grief that you feel of your failures and inconsistencies and lack of growth and compromises, that's His grief, driving you to despair, to come to a place where you're desperate like Jacob. God has to have everything. I am saved. I am His child. What does it mean then to be filled with the Holy Spirit? Well, that person in you just takes full control, but He can't do that unless you're absolutely surrendered. You have to do that. He's in you. He saved you. Your life has changed, but there's so much crying out that just makes you despair and come to a crisis moment. Hudson Taylor preached it. William Booth preached it. John Wesley preached it. Charles Finney preached it. You can go on and on and on. The fullness of the Holy Spirit, the absolute surrender, being filled with the Spirit is not something about gifts. 1 Corinthians tells you gifts are obnoxious and not of God unless you have the fruit. And all that happens is when you yield and He takes control, that's all. Being filled is just to be taken control of by the Holy Spirit. All that happens is that from that time onward, spontaneously, not by effort of your own, the fruit of the Spirit, the evidence that the Holy Spirit is in you, you react with the fruit of the Spirit. Love suffereth long and is kind. You can't do that by a set of rules and laws saying, I'm going to live the standard and so thou shalt not, so you don't. I must love not. No, it must be a spontaneous reaction, not an effort of yours. And only when God has taken the whole, filled you, will you find that the fruit of the Spirit is there when He's taken full control because He's absolutely surrendered life. And spontaneously you will react by the fruit, the evidence, the reaction, the response of the Spirit being in control, you react. You will suffer long and be kind. You will be able to find the ability to love your enemies, to bless them that curse you, to do good to them that hate you, to pray for them, not with, not pray for their death, but pray for the good that despise, persecute you. Oh, this is why we have to come to that or we struggle to attain the standard of the New Testament. I have not come to destroy the law, but to fulfill it. How? By putting you under the bondage of a whole lot of laws again? No. Are you yielding your life and me living it through you? You can't live it yourself. You'll never, you'll despair till you die trying to live the standard, the full standard, in the light you've been given. You'll never know perfection, ultimate until you see Jesus. But what you do know, Andrew Murray says, instead of a life of ups and downs, suddenly from yielded, you'll see a consistent growth into more and more of the image of Christ as more light is given to you and you continue. But there has to be this initial yielding, this initial dying of self, this initial personal Calvary, as it were, whereby you yield all on the altar. Well, my father-in-law was so staggered by this message as it came, and he saw his need, he saw his inconsistencies. He was despairing of his failures, though he knew he was saved and loved God. But he knew he was grieving God on so many levels. That message made him kneel before God and say, everything, everything is on the altar. Take everything, no matter what it costs. I want the full light to be my life. Well, he stood up. From that time, the next thing he did was the first thing he ever did as a Christian that staggered the world. From the time of absolute surrender, the first thing he did staggered his world, everyone who knew him. Before that, nothing had staggered anyone for Christ and Christ's glory, though he was saved. He went home. He called his father, he called his brothers, and he said, trembling, still young, married though, this tobacco, it's sin. I have to stop. I'm going over to vegetables. I know it's profitable, there's money, and it doesn't seem there's money in vegetables, but I cannot have liberty naming the name of Jesus with tobacco. I'm plowing it into the ground, and I'm planting potatoes. Well, they laughed at him. They laughed, and they laughed. The father was angry, but the brothers were laughing. The father was shocked, but the brothers were laughing. Others laughed. Oh, as the news went by, this fellow's plowing his tobacco with all the profit of tobacco farming in this area that's tobacco land, in this irrigation system with this rich, wealthy soil. What's he doing? He became like a joke. Eventually, there were even people protesting that this is tobacco land. You don't change the whole system. Everything functions as tobacco. Don't you start bringing... There was so much reaction about this, and so much of the value of what he did, the single man. But let's remember something, beloved. God honors them that honor him, and he cannot deny himself. He said he will honor you, if you honor him. He so prospered, he so prospered, that others began to just plow their tobacco in and start planting vegetables. He out-prospered the others. He so prospered, that he got into the newspaper of the Eastern Cape, the main newspaper. Now, I know that newspaper is something of... The whole of South Africa knows the name of that newspaper. He got in, and they called him the Potato King of the Eastern Cape. He so shook what happened in his business, in his farming. And his brother also followed God. Opie, the younger brother that loved him and followed the Lord with him. In the beginning, he plowed all his tobacco in the land his daddy had got him, and he planted tomatoes. And he became known in the paper as the Tomato King. I'm glad I don't call me a Potato King. That doesn't really sound wonderful. But anyway, that's what they called him in the secular world. God honors you. God honors them that honor him. Now, at that time, God did something very, very unusual. He sent a young missionary from the A.B. Many of our young workers went through Africa. Many died. Many came home to die in their early thirties and forties of diseases worn out for souls in times when it was very difficult to survive in the African continent. But they went out. But they sent to the Gamtus Valley, our mission, in those early days, they sent a young lady. She was so small. I knew her an old, her old age. Annie Nouveau. Annie Nouveau. Now, that's hard for you to pronounce, but Annie is like Anne, and Nouveau is like New Wood. New Wood. Yeah, I think so. Anyway, this little lady was brave. She had a braveness that few Christians on earth will ever know. Trust me. This is the testimony of multitudes. That little lady was sent a young lady, not great experience, but one qualification. She was a blaze for God. And she just wanted to burn out for God. And she just wanted the privilege of bringing souls to God. She went into the Gamtus Valley. They became conscious of her, Yanni Leroux and Enid and the other few Christians around. And this woman's braveness for God, as she went from farm to farm, telling them why she's come. I'm not a Jehovah Witness, but she had a Bible. She was dressed in a godly way. And they let her in. And farm upon farm turned to Christ, the children. People just began to turn to God, down the valley, farms after farms, until everyone was speaking about this woman. You know, she couldn't drive a car. Till the day she died, she couldn't drive a car. So, they said, well, you can't walk from farm to farm. Yanni Leroux and a few others said, we give you a horse. You can't drive, we'll take a horse. So, she took this horse, because she felt obligated, but she never rode it. She just walked with the horse. They said, they all used to stand there watching. What's she going to do now, when the rivers came? And she used to take her shoes off and walk the horse through it. But, oh well, she was famous for her horse then. When you see this little lady coming with a horse, run, because she's after your soul. Well, one old farmer, he's a big man. Many of the farmers, the Boers, they call it, the Boers, the farmers, they are big. You want to see their hands. I've got to hold their thumb, that's about all I can reach, you know, because they're so big and strong fellows. Well, this one big old farmer heard about Annie Nouvert. Everybody's talking, when she comes along, she wants your soul for God. He came to see her farm, and this old farmer got up and said, you'll never get my soul. No, not this I.B. sect that comes along here, wanting this rubbish and telling us all, I've got my church, you want to come here and talk about a soul, you won't get my soul. I'll take my shambok, he says in Afrikaans, this big long whip that the farmers have for the animals. He goes and grabs it from behind the door. I ax a lot, do it, slam. I'll kill her. He was an angry old man, and a big man. Well, they told Annie Nouvert about this farmer, what he said. They got back and she said, oh, lo and behold, what does she do? The next day, she takes the horse and goes to this farm. Now, this man was inside, and they all ran, the family and different people, and said, Annie Nouvert, the one, the horse, the one who comes for your soul, she's come, she wants to speak to you, she's going to get, he goes, ah, not me, she'll not get my soul. He gets his whip, he runs out, and she's there standing at the door with the horse, at the bottom of the steps, and he stands, and he starts cursing and swearing and even blaspheming, and this poor little, everybody else was trembling, and she looked at this big man, swinging the whip. She looked at him, it was so funny, so she just started laughing, and she started crying. She saw this as hilarious, the way this big, what does a big man do when a little lady is screaming, crying and laughing at your worst effort, your best effort, I mean. Well, he looked, everybody else was looking at her, and looking at him, everybody now does. So he walks down the steps, and he looks at this little lady, he throws down his whips, he kneels down, he says, take my soul. She brought him to Christ, and you know, he really got saved. Can you believe such a testimony? Well, her braveness shook the whole valley, in the end, the whole valley, and this is a long and wide, it's amazing how long, the miles and the miles and the farms of some of the richest land, soil for farming in this irrigation scheme of the Gamtus Valley, the great Gamtus River. Well, so many came to God, but this lady, this young, this small lady, full of boldness for God, that nothing put fear in her heart, she just went to every soul that she could find, and she stirred, she turned the world upside down, a little lady. This made Yanni Leroux change course forever. He thought as he watched her, if such a little woman God can use, if she's so brave, I'm going to witness. He started witnessing. It set him ablaze. He copied the way she would speak, you know, the way she would witness, and he began to witness to every single soul he came near. I can't say all the others did, but he did. He began to witness that people come on the farm, and they come, all these business people to try and get the farming business, you know, with the implements and all the things for the crops. Yanni Leroux became known as the man that if anybody comes for business for the farms, especially such big farms, such farms that are prospering, he would say, you come for business, good, come in. First, there's a more important business than yours, then I'll speak to you, your soul. Oh, people became scared, you know, even businessmen, even these people who are salesmen, they knew, this word got around, there's a man that just confronts you about, he spoke to everybody with such compassion, with such amazing compassion, almost a desperation that they have to listen. They have to listen to the bitter end of everything, there's a heaven, there's a hell. All down the valley, everywhere in the towns all surrounding, Yanni Leroux became a name. I was sitting and having my hair cut, in what they call human's dope, it's about 40 minutes drive from the farm, in the towns there in the valley, and I was sitting there, and the man was saying, where are you from, and what are you doing, and I said, well, I married a girl, a farm girl, and oh, which farm, who, which family, I said, the Leroux's, Yanni Leroux's, my father, and he stopped cutting my hair, and he went and stood in front of me. You are Yanni Leroux's son-in-law? Yes. Yanni Leroux is the only man in my life that ever, ever talked to me about salvation. No person in my life, before or since, has ever told me I'm going to hell. Quoted the scriptures, told me I can find eternal life, by grace through faith in Christ, just point it out. The only man in my life, that ever, you walk past people, brethren, you think they know the way, you might be the only one that came near them, that could have, and should have, could have, and should have. Oh, he began to, eventually they started to preach. Him and a lot of the other young Christians, they took the preaching on their hearts to preach, and oh, every, whoever they could gather, the workers, the laborers, bring them in lorry loads, and fill out the buildings, and the sheds, and just preach out their hearts, and souls started coming to God. Eventually, God so anointed him, he started preaching in churches, in the pulpits, and as the years went by, into some of the greatest conventions in the whole of South Africa. Where ministers of high academic qualifications, and theological seminars, would just flock to sit at the feet of a man who's never ever been in Bible school, but in the school of God, has a ministry so practical, so compassionate, that they don't want to miss it. He became loved, and revered for the way he so longed to be used of God. I first heard of Yanni Leroux through a man called Rossi Fenta. He was a missionary, a district superintendent of all the young missionaries, and he would get them organized, and I first heard of Yanni Leroux through this man, when he was driving me, when I was very young in the faith, to go and help in a big convention in the Gantus Valley. And he says, there's a man here called Yanni Leroux, you're going to meet him. I know no man in my life like this. He's so ablaze for God, and there's no man in this whole state, this area, this district, that stands with the work of God like Yanni Leroux. Everything is just for God, and you're going to be blessed by it. He said, you know Keith, in 1968, the floods came. There's books written on the Gantus Valley, the taming, the trying to tame, when they thought they'd tamed it, it just smashed the whole damn wall, and went down as the dam just collapsed. Hundreds died, hundreds. The farms swept, destroyed all the crops, all the implements. Hundreds just swept away. What that valley, the hundreds and hundreds of lives that have been swept away. Yanni's great-grandfather's given an award from the King of England for his braveness, and going out with his little dangerous thing, trying to rescue people, hanging onto trees. All the lives he saved, and he was godly. And he said to me, Rashi Fenta, the floods came, the river came, the farms were swept, the houses, the people, lives lost. The radios say the bridges, one kilometer width, the bridges are washed away, there's no crossing, there's no way of getting to them, no way they can come. And I knew that most of the godly have lost everything in life, there's nothing left, they've lost everything they have in life, and my burden was for them, and then eventually the newspapers, the news and the radio says there's a moat being developed, where they bring all the cars and the vehicles who want to get across. There's a chance now, they pull with the ropes, as all these vehicles now can get on a moat, and cross over, because there was no possibility of repairing the bridges swiftly. So he went, he thought, at last I can go and see the godly, and try and comfort and encourage them, and pray with them, because I know they've lost everything in life. People were attempting suicide, some did, they lost everything they knew they could never get on their feet again, they never, ever could recover, they've lost everything. He went to the Burdened Heart, and they saw the moat coming across, with the cars and the vehicles, and there was a face, and as it got closer, he recognized it's Yanni LaRue, and Yanni LaRue recognized him, this missionary, and he shouted, Hallelujah! Hallelujah! I thought the man's lost everything in life, how can he shout Hallelujah? Not a word of grief, not a word arguing against God, or the injustice, not a word, just praising God and joy. I looked at him, I could hardly speak, I come to comfort him, and he's now speaking to me, God speaking to me? No murmur, not the slightest, not one word negative about what's happened, or God's done. Come, we go back and we'll go with you to visit all the farms you want to, all the Christians. As he went, he said, he became aware of something staggering, Yanni LaRue took hold of farmers that were suicidal, many of them, sitting there, given up, there's no hope, he said, you get up. He took his own workers, any implements they could find, he didn't go in his own farm, he went from farm to farm first, to others, and said, get up, we're going to stand together, we're going to get going, and he got them going. Getting on their feet, his life gave him the right to witness as never before, because that message went, that that man didn't give up, he got up and he got others up, everywhere he could, because of his faith in God, and they got going again. Well, years went by, after that first meeting when I just stood and looked at him, didn't get any too close to him further than that, and one day, I met his daughter. And that was the end of my life. I don't know if Jenny's here, perhaps I better be careful, but anyway, she might have fled by now. Nonetheless, I was in the ironing room of a Bible school, where there was a big convention, she was at Bible school, 12 years of age, she stood up and said, I want to be a missionary for Christ. That's all she ever dreamed of. And here she was now, just left school in the mission, she's in the Bible school now, preparing for anywhere God wants to send her. Well, at this convention, they took over this big Bible school and all the facilities and the grounds, they're very conservative, very strict, no girls are allowed anywhere in rooms with men. I was in the ironing room with some brother, and ironing my shirt, and we were talking away, you know. And suddenly the door opened and two girls rushed in, and it was Jenny, of course. And all I heard was, I'm sorry, the meeting's starting, we've stood outside for so long, but you go on and on, we have to iron our clothes, or we can't go to the meeting. Sorry, we're just going to take, and then, don't look at us, they're just suddenly ironing, you know. And I never ever saw anything so beautiful in my life. Well, smoke was coming up, I was burned, the iron was on my shirt, and so I didn't lift the iron up, I just got rid of the smoke. And I was doing this, you know, and the brother was saying, Keith, what's wrong with you, the shirt's burning! And they pulled it away, oh, I saw Jenny looking up wondering, what's wrong with this man, he must be a little bit, you know, smoke all over the place. Of course I was blood-red and embarrassed, but I was gasping at her, I'd never seen anything so pure. It wasn't another beauty, that perhaps in my unsaved days I noticed, it was something so pure that I was staggered. I was staggered by the integrity and purity that shone through this whole face and being. Well, she didn't seem to notice me in the same way, but I could hardly sleep. The convention was over for me, the messages, all I was doing was looking around, where is she, you know. Every time she came down a passage, I said, how am I going to stop her, but she seemed to do everything in her powers to walk past, you know. She didn't want to see me, there was no hope, but God did something wonderful. I'll tell you the story one day, but anyway, one thing led to the other, and she began to notice me. And at least, I think God began to put something in her little heart to say, this is the one I've kept you for all these years. You waited faithfully. The AEB did something staggering. They decided right then to send me to the Eastern Cape, to the Gamtus Valley area. She went on holiday from that little convention, I was placed there, and I was given a few days off, and they said, go and stay with the young little Ru. Oh, I was on the farm, and I was in love, and all, I looked up in the sky, and I looked at the clouds, and I just saw Jenny. I looked at the moon, you know, I said, Jenny, couldn't get her out of my mind, you know. She's on the farm, she's there. Now I'm sitting at the table, and suddenly, I mean, how do you hide it? Her father, I saw him getting pretty earnest, because I was trying to act normal, but I looked at her, and I just melted. And of course, they saw it, and I saw his eyes looking at her, and looking at me, and I thought, oh, you know, he didn't look too happy. But from the moment he saw me looking at his daughter, he started preaching at me. He preached. Whole sermons were worked out for me from that day to this day. He's never stopped. He works on whole sermons. I mean, it's unbelievable. His wife even said on two occasions over all the years, as they're all sitting around the table, Jenny, it's so obvious this whole message has been worked out for Keith. Have you no shame? Well, I look at him, you know, when I see him, and I just say, preach. That means preach. I'm ready, you know. Even the appeals, everything's with me. He's determined from the moment he saw me look at his daughter, this man's going to not fail us or fail my daughter. I'm going to keep him on the road. That was from the day he saw me looking at her. Well, bless God for that. Anyway, it was lovely. It was precious. And Jenny and I got more and more conscious. It was God, and men were praying for us. But of course, one day, I asked her if she would marry me. And she was in hospital at that stage, lying in quite a state. And she said, you do choose the right moment, don't you? She said, you have to ask my father and mother, because I'm young. So I went, and I went to the mother and said to Auntie Nid, I've never ever been in love before in my life. I never knew love. I was infatuated, I was attracted, but I never knew what I know now. I've never ever known what's happening in my heart. I want to marry your daughter, and I do believe it's God's will. You'll have to ask Yanni. Don't ask me. Go, go find him. That wasn't very encouraging, so I'm walking down now to the shed, and he's down there with all the things and the machines and the workers, and he says, oh, come in the office. We'll have a cup of tea, I'll take a break. And we sit there, and I said, look, I came here for one thing. I want to marry Yanni. I love her. I won't fail you. I can't promise to be perfect, but I will love her with my whole heart till I die, if you let me. He stopped smiling. He sat back. He looked at me for at least four minutes without blinking. And I was unnerved, waiting. I didn't say a word. He said, Keith, I want you to do me a favor. I want you to look at Yanni's mommy. Carefully, Keith. I want you to look at everything about Yanni's mother, because that is what you will have 20 years from now. Exactly. Her conduct, her standard, the way she speaks to me, the way she's raised her children, the way she runs her home, her reactions to me and everyone else. I want you to look at Yanni's mother, because, Keith, that is what you will get. In 20 years, that's all you'll have. Is that what you want, Keith? Don't answer me. Pray first. And I did pray. And I said, I think she's lovely. Your wife. And you look so happy. I'd love to know your happiness for the rest of my life. Well, that was the right answer, because he smiled. He said, all right, then you can marry my daughter. But I'm watching you. Only he could have said it the way he said it, so I can't even tell you what it meant the way he said it. But anyway, well, we courted. We had to wait for a good while. And they began to preach. All the time. In every way you can. They didn't have to, their lives were a message. I was sitting in the car with Yanni's mother in the front seat. And Yanni was sitting in the back, and her two sisters, and we'd just come back from Port Elizabeth, the big city, with Christmas shopping and everything else. We need the food. So, we're now driving back, and I'm driving, and we get back to the farm, and we're talking and talking, and we're sitting outside of the farm, at the gates there, at the garages. And Yanni's mother, after a long time, says, Keith, do you want to know why we're sitting so long in this car, talking like this? Yes. Because I was brought up that a lady doesn't leave her car until a gentleman opens the door. I suddenly realized it wasn't my good company, and I felt very bad. I got out, opened the doors, and they all got out, and I just looked at her. Thank God she told me that, you know, because I didn't do that before, but from then onwards, I opened the door for my wife. Their lives were their messes. They didn't have to preach. Their lives, their conduct, I mean, the love they had in that home, without any soul. I was trembling at times. They so loved each other. It was one day, when Yanni, her father, now a whole lot of preachers, a whole lot of Christians in the lounge, and suddenly, he jumps up, Keith, quickly, come! And he's running, and he's running, so I, what's wrong? What's happened? My wife has come home! And he runs. With Yanni, come on! Tell me, do you run, sir? You're so lover. Or is that obnoxious? Funny? Does your wife know? You run. You're so lover still. When she comes home, he runs. It wasn't for me. He didn't moan at all the things she bought. The packets of singing and all. It was a wonderful... Every time she comes home, he's out there. When she's gone out, you want to see the occasions on the farm. The tea, it's an occasion. Quickly, quickly, quickly. Yanni's coming, they're coming up. And the cakes. The lunch, it's an occasion. She's excited, her husband's coming. Off the land, you can't believe the way they sit at that table. She dresses, it's like an occasion. They love each other. They're excited. The tenderness, the love that's there, not for us, it just flows out of them. I don't believe you grow less out of love and attraction and excitement with each other's company once you get married. If you stay right with God, it becomes more. Or do you honestly think God wants it to become something of a monotony? The thrill of being together, the excitement that they look at each other and she matters more than anyone else at the table. Her opinion. Is that not what God wants in marriage? Or do you think that was left behind when I fell out of love, when she lost the perfection outwardly? Is that Christian love? Is that God's love, brethren? Then that, that's the world's love. But it's just physical. Our love is different. It's holy. And as holy as you are, one of the greatest men of God in America said, I can tell you how holy a man is by the way he speaks to his wife. Full stop. And I've never been wrong, King. Oh, the blessing of their life. They just were such an example. Well, eventually, we got married, Jenny and I. To which I bless God from my soul. It was like a meeting that people said they can't even remember in their lives. Attending a church meeting or conference which was so blessed by the presence and the glory of God resting upon us that wedding. People came from across the whole godly and oh, it was just precious, that wedding. And I do thank God that I was married into this lovely family. Well, God didn't stop speaking through him, his example. He just kept on, God, keeping on, staggering my life to this day. I remember on one occasion, I was sitting in a meeting like you are. And the preacher in the pulpit began to attack me from the pulpit. And everyone in that meeting knew who I was. And my father-in-law was in that meeting at that convention. And this man somehow just lost all control. Somehow the devil had so told him things about me. And this was his moment, he just forgot. And he started attacking as if he wanted to destroy me forever the way he stood there in that pulpit. Have you ever imagined a man from the pulpit could name you, single you out and just attack you? My integrity, my motives, the true fruit of my ministry was of God. I just trembled. I don't know if being absolutely surrendered and filled with God, the Holy Spirit, means you can't be hurt. But I was hurt. I was grieving. I was grieved. Tears just welled up in my eyes. I trembled. This man is destroying me. Will I ever recover from such a public attack? Such a disgrace thrown out with such venom and anger that some other devil had gotten to this man's heart. I trembled. I trembled. I trembled. And then the end of the meeting came and I thought I've got to get out of this room. I've got to get out of this building before anyone speaks to me. I've got to get along with God. I can't face anyone. So while they were praying, I was trying to get past the seats, trying to get out of the road. And suddenly the prayer stopped and I was caught before I could get out the door and people all looked to me. And I saw tears in everyone's eyes. Everyone was grieved for what he did. The whole convention atmosphere was crushed. Oh, what a terrible thing. People just put out their hands to me. A godly man just in front of all people as they were holding me, just touching me, said, don't you worry, boy. He's destroyed himself. He hasn't touched you. But I still wanted to get away and tears were coming down my face and I was trembling. It wasn't easy. I walked out of that building eventually and I found myself outside just pushing past people who were all turning to want to speak to me and comfort me. I got out of the building and about two or three preachers stopped me. They wouldn't let me pass and they began to talk of their anger at the cowardice of this man, the unethicalness, the breaking of everything, the destruction of the whole convention, destroyed by what he'd done. There's no hope of blessing now. It was such a failure. People were angry at the cowardice of taking advantage of the pulpit when he should have perhaps spoken alone. And then just as I was about to speak because a whole lot of people had gathered listening to these men and they wouldn't let me pass. Just as I was about to express what was going on in my heart and my grief, I heard a voice. Keith! And there was my father-in-law, taller than most and a passageway just opened above all these 30, 40 people standing around me and he just walked and he had tears in his eyes. It hadn't been easy for him as a father-in-law to hear what was said about what happened there, the wrong of it, to hear all those things, those accusations and there was silence and he put his hand here and he looked me in the eyes and said, Keith, my boy, listen carefully. And he said it loud for everyone listened. No one moved. I hope you know what this is all about, Keith. Listen carefully. In the school of God everyone faces tests, exams, just like secular school and the standard, the grade you were in, you call it grades, the standards over there. You have to face tests in every standard, every level. And if you fail the exams that you have to face, you have to go and face them again until you pass. It's the same in God's school, Keith. Before you get to the next level, no matter how many times you go through those exams, you have to face the same exam. Keith, it's the same in God's school. Nothing happens that isn't the school of God if you're a child of God. Listen carefully, boy. This is a more difficult test than most of us have had to ever face, Keith. And I don't know why God's letting you face such a difficult test, but it is a test that if you fail, you are going to face it again. I guarantee you in the school of God I've learned it, Keith. You pass the exam, Keith, or you're going to face this again. Do you want to face it again? Pass the exam in God's eyes in such a way, and men's eyes, the men are watching you, or you will face this again, Keith. Trust me. And he turned and walked away, and suddenly, without a word, everybody just disappeared. No one dared to speak after that. Suddenly, everything was different. The whole perspective changed. I found a peace flooding my heart. I started talking to God without negativeness. The next day, the convention, they announced something. We're all going to go as a convoy, as all the cars, the vehicles, the combis, the vans, every vehicle available is going to take the whole convention conference to another conference center like mine that was uniting. We were going to stand in one single meeting with a whole other effort. And we were leaving at a certain time in the afternoon. Everybody has to be out of the building in all the available combis, and we all leave together so you don't get lost on the way. We all know. Somebody leads us to where these people are gathering in other facilities. Well, I, of course, suddenly realized I was late and I suddenly found everyone's gone. I'm the last one in all these buildings. So I ran outside. The cars were all revving and they're idling the engines. And everybody looked and saw, here comes the late comer and it's me. Everybody's sitting and so I'm trying to find a place, a car. Not one car had a seat available. They're crammed up. Can you believe it? Eventually, everybody's looking. What are they going to do with it? So they're right over there, the other side of all the parking, all the cars and the vehicles. There's a hooter there. There's one seat. One seat in the whole convoy. So I'm running now. I'm keeping everybody waiting. And as I got to the car and they saw who was coming, I just saw despair. And as I looked in the combi, the only seat available of all those vehicles was next to the man who tried to destroy me. You think that just happened? That's God. Let's face it. That cannot just happen. That's God. You're in a school. You're going to face tests, brother, every single thing, even when things are going right. That's the hardest time to face the exams, by the way, I'm learning. The pastor, God wants you when everything's going right and you don't have to cling to him. Oh! I looked at that car. I looked at that seat empty. I looked at that face. He was white. Everybody, the driver, he just looked out. So, of course, I'm keeping, I get in, I sit next to him, they shut the combi door and now we're driving in his dead silence. And I saw the man driving, his eyes in the rearview mirror looking at me. Everybody's looking at me. What am I going to do? This poor man beside me, trembling. He was under such conviction. God, by that time, had shown him the wrong, shown him how wrong he was and what he, he knew he was wrong now. He was in a state. He was white. Sitting there, trembling. His eyes, as I just looked at his face, you know, welling up of tears in his little lips. He was in a state. And we're driving, so I look out the window and I prayed, Oh God, give me the grace I don't have. I just don't have it, but give me the grace I don't have, God, to pass this exam in God's eyes and men's eyes. And men are watching. In such a way, let me pass in such a way I'll never have to face this again, God. I don't want to face it again. Please let me pass. Give me grace now. And I turned and looked at this man and he looked at me and everyone in the car looked. And I put my hand in his arm and I said, Sir, I want you to know that I love you. I love you. And I'm going to pray for you, your life, that God will honor you and bless you. I'm going to pray from my heart for you to be so blessed by God and honored by God. And I saw something in his eyes that I will treasure for eternity. I saw respect from a man who so hated me that the night before he wanted to destroy me like no other person I'd ever known in my life wanted to. In one reaction, he respected. He didn't just hope things would come right. He was so staggered. He respected me. That look, I will treasure. I could have given him back what he gave me and never ever seen that treasured moment. Beloved, no matter what circumstance you face in life, no matter how hard it is, if you look to God for grace to pass the exams, He is obliged to give you that grace. There's no circumstance that you will be tried above that you're able to bear. God promises and He will give you. He's obliged. He wants it more than you. He's promised it. You have to want it though so much that God lovingly reaches out and gives you that grace and discernment. There's nothing you ever face in life that isn't an exam. And you either pass it or you fail. And if you fail it, brother, sister, you will face it again whether it's financial, whether it's tragedies, whether it's hatred and bitterness, whether it's a person who tried to destroy you with every bit of venom a human could possibly do in a situation that you really can't recover. But that's an exam that you either pass or fail. Nothing happens. I've learned this and I mean it. That isn't a test to pass or fail and face again and again until you pass in God's eyes and men's eyes. Oh, I bless God he was in that convention or probably a preacher full of bitterness and anger and fear of man and wounds would still be walking around trying to preach to this day. Thank God for such a man with such words that no other man in that whole convention center would have said to me but my father-in-law. Oh, thank God he gave me such a witness, such an influence, such an example. I stood with him one day the night the storm was so bad it was so severe that house I don't know how it stood. By the morning I hadn't slept one moment. The winds, the rain, the hail, the force that whole building and I mean they're not wooden buildings they're big bricks. I didn't know how we were still early in the morning the winds had subsided it was still raining but I went downstairs and there he was putting his boots on. Oh, he says come with me let's see what's left. We walked out there was nothing. Ostriches lying dead everywhere just dead. We walked just devastation. We walked a shed the roof blown off the implements just washed away you couldn't believe there was nothing left just devastation how the house stood I don't know the neighbor's house the wind just swept bruised. As we go up I saw tears in his eyes and now he comes to look over the lands where they had ploughed every bit of money they had because it was new lands in new areas barren they'd never farmed it was all soil there to start from scratch it wasn't the right place to start farming they suddenly found this was their end but they had gotten to such debt to keep this and keep ploughing hoping suddenly they'd get to turning. They were in such debt and now to lose everything they were bankrupt they lost everything in life he comes to this top of the hill he looks at all this there was nothing not a blade of the crop standing everything just smashed you couldn't believe what I saw I just felt tears running down my face oh God they'll never ever survive this they've lost everything in life I know they're in terrible debt with all the things against them of the weather in this area down to the bottom of the mouth and I also began to say it's not the right place to farm as he looked I saw the tears but a smile and then a groan it came from somewhere that most people their voice doesn't come and he cried with a groan oh as he lifted his hands and tears flowing down his face it wasn't for me the Lord gave the Lord has taken away blessed be the name of the Lord and I said the words God was writing in heaven in his records the words that were written after Job said that when he lost his children his wealth everything in life in one day I just finished it off in all this Yanni LeRoux said not nor charged God foolishly and don't doubt it God was also writing that in the record books of the lives of the people as he recorded in this book of every life even their failures he didn't deny in this book by the by they were declared to be bankrupt the banks with all the money owed said it's finished and when you do that you don't walk off the property with anything your furniture your vehicles it's not yours you lose everything they were on their knees just before the day that it was a total bankrupt declaration and open to public auction just before a knock on a farm door a strange face an American multi-millionaire passing the farm by the by you must think this is wrong but my wife looked at this house from down there in the streets passing and she said I want to live there I want you to try and buy that farm house this is where I want would you be willing to sell this house my father looked and said it's not a house it's a farm and it's a farm that's faced a lot of devastation I'm not interested in the farm I buy the farm but I want the house would you sell I'll give you anything name the figure I'll do it I want to get my wife the house come in well Andre said let's just talk for a while we owe the bank all this we didn't want to owe we had to farmers get in that state in Africa we owe all this we've got to then we've got to get other farms where we come from where we know we can farm where we shouldn't have left anyway get all the implements everything we have to get let's ask for everything all all our debt all we'll need for the farms up there everything but he'll never give it ask so he goes to and he says this is what we want fine get the lawyers get your people and so they go up the valley where they come from they bought three farms out of debt brother do you honestly think your darkest moment God has forsaken you but your darkest moment in the school of God is necessary because in your darkest moment you'll ever face in life God is doing his greatest work in you and your children if you don't know that you've just got to keep your eyes on God he cannot fail he cannot fail my son Roy who preached this morning and last night yesterday morning said I said Roy did something very silly he nearly died in his final year at school he's just like that he decided he has to be the best he has to get the highest he doesn't want to prove anything to anybody just himself he's like my daddy was that he had to do everything perfectly and nobody could come inside the way he nearly died daddy nearly died just and my father climbed to the top of the business world in our country had to throw it all away when he got saved but Roy decided he's going to do well he's going and I said Roy you're kidding yourself nobody can stay awake the whole night and then expect to face an exam I mean you won't stay awake you just sleep he's daddy this is my last year at school for the rest of my life please just let me have the right to do my best I don't want to hold back anything so then after he studied now I go to bed no now I'm going to have my quiet time I said Roy God doesn't expect you to spend an hour with him now after a whole night of studying it's two in the morning my boy goes to sleep you die he looked up at me and repeated what I said to him years before if I miss once daddy whatever the reason it'll give me a reason to miss again I don't want to miss God daddy even at this time and he spends his hours with God and then got up and had his quiet time and then went off to he went through all these weeks to the degree that he nearly died when he was finished he had pains down his arms pains reaching through his body and headache he looked like death I said I warned you look at you now he wants to go to Glenville Bible College now finished I said you're not going to Glenville you'll die the first term I mean it's not easy there you go on the farm to grandpa for six months mummy and I have been speaking about it you go on the farm you love the farm you're just like a farmer you just sleep late go for walks and go with grandpa and farm you just go there do nothing no studies no pressure no time just get over this we even got people spending medicines to try and get the pains all spiraling or whatever it is I don't know people are all worried about Roy never going to recover well he went on the farm for six months before he went to Bible school and praise the dear Lord he did very very well in his exams extraordinary wish I could look back and know that I did that but Roy did well they offered him even Oxford a chance to go to Oxford University as a bursary whatever it is what's the word I don't know where they what is the word Roy anyone scholarship so we were blessed we couldn't afford but everything offered because he was so achieving but that nearly killed him to achieve they didn't know that he said who do I what do I want to go to university what do I want to go to Oxford for I want to be a missionary I don't want to go to what do you I can't waste my time the Lord's coming back I want to insult so I said thank God imagine stooping to go to such a place if God has called you to be a missionary well dear Roy now goes to the farm and on the farm granny got cancer they tried to operate the blood splurted into the lungs she lost her use of her body she was virtually paralyzed told she couldn't walk again she'd never be able to dress again she'd never be able to help herself or bath again she'd have to be helped out of bed she couldn't do anything she won't walk again so Jenny hears this and she comes into her mommy and said mommy the doctor has told me that you'll never walk again the mother lying in the bed said no the doctor's wrong he's made a mistake God has just said I'm the Lord that healeth thee well isn't that precious you know that lady wasn't and I don't want to lie and be sensational and say she was healed she had to go through therapy but in her determination though she was told there's no hope you'll never walk again or be able to clothe yourself again or help yourself even bathe again you'd have to be helped that woman walked in these therapies these bars when she's supposed to take a step she took 2 or 3 until she could take 4 she staggered the specialist until she could walk without any help until she could clothe herself of course she walked like this let everybody know something as terrible as happened but she walks I'd love to say she's perfectly but to her faith and determination she did something that staggered the specialist she walks she can clothe herself she can help she can cook clean up oh bless the Lord but now the wonder of it is she never once complained not one word of complaint against God not one grievous word of murmuring now Roy was in the farm he said Daddy I watched Granny fall and hurt herself she tumbled and rolled and the wood and all she does is praise God it could have been worse he said Daddy I was standing with Granny he phones and I forgot to hold her on this large section where the security gate was and I just left her to open the security gate and she fell and she started rolling this dignified leg rolling into her body her legs up smashed and she was wounded she was hurting so Roy just burst into tears goes Daddy Granny what have I done I just said did you forget your old Granny she smiles so Granny please forgive me oh it could be worse praise the Lord I'm not dead I'm don't worry just help me up you know he said Daddy you can't believe it Granny never ever has murmured she just praises the Lord no matter what she's facing since the day I arrived I haven't heard her do one without gentleness and joy in her eyes and peace in her eyes there's not one complaint and he said Daddy I need to tell you something I made a mistake I told you once that Grandpa is the godliest person in the world that I know he said not you Daddy Grandpa is I didn't feel threatened I agreed I thought what a wonderful testimony that a grandchild could say that his grandpa he said Daddy I made a mistake when I said that about Grandpa Grandpa isn't the godliest person in the world Granny is and Daddy I mean it she is not Grandpa I told Grandpa those words I went to him Yanni and I told him what Roy had said and tears rolled up in his eyes and he turned around and he looked at me and he smiled and he said it is so I doubt that anyone else is more godly than Yanni in this world Roy is right what made this man so stagger my nation as he has what made this man so stagger his community to towns upon towns what made this man be so used across our land that without any academic achievement what made him be so loved that people from and preachers with great academic achievements and degrees theological flock to hear a farmer who has no degrees what made this man's walk so stagger that his own son in law and grand children look upon him with such reverence and all because of his example in all circumstances that have changed our life because our consciences wouldn't allow us to ever be the same when we watched his life what made him so different does god not want to I think of three things that made god able to bring such glory to his name through one man three things firstly he wasn't just saved he had a personal Calvary and from that day he staggered the world the next day his world till this day secondly he never missed his quiet time his grandchildren know it his children know it and anyone who knew anything of that home know that from the day I went to that home to this last time I went after all these years of marriage at four o'clock in the morning you hear that man walking down the passage I've never ever been in that house that I didn't hear this at four o'clock in the morning he's big the farmers are normally big and you hear this boom boom and he doesn't do it to me he has to make that noise down the wooden passages he goes to be with Jesus every morning at four o'clock for two hours and I've never and his family his children have never ever known that that man at four o'clock doesn't walk down the passage to his prayer room to devour the word of God and to pray to his God and commune in intercession in the nights after the family devotion which was a long occasion of him preaching and then everyone praying the others have all their things but that man walks to that closet and spends another hour with Jesus and sometimes two I've watched through the years his grandchildren have watched he never misses God from the day I walked in that home to this I've never known him to not go down to be with Jesus at four o'clock in the morning and to not leave the company when everything that's done of fellowship demanded of him as the head of the home to get along with Jesus for his hour before he goes to sleep he had a personal calvary as a young Christian despairing of all the failure and inconsistencies where he laid his life on the altar of God and absolutely surrendered and trusted God for a heart made clean by blood the theology of Hudson Taylor John Wesley and probably 90% of every name you will ever name that was used miserly by God different terminology but basically that's it including Andrew Murray where an absolute surrender where God filled them with the Holy Spirit took control and anointed that life to live a life that gave you the right to testify to every soul including your children that they couldn't doubt you had the right to testify he had a personal calvary and absolute surrender and was filled with God taking control of the Holy Spirit as he laid his life and God took the world from the next day through him to this day he never missed his quiet time never missed God not once to anybody's knowledge that knew him and thirdly he never neglected a soul that came near him that he could have witnessed he never has been known to neglect a soul on any occasion when he could have witnessed I've been with him on many occasions for many years his children have his grandchildren no one knows an occasion that he neglected to take full advantage of the minutes whether it's a waiter whether it's sitting next to someone on a plane whether it's a worker whether it's someone in the gutters that he somehow can speak to a drunk he doesn't bypass a soul he never fails to witness from a young Christian especially from when he was filled with the spirit and saw the example of an innovator all these years now 76 years old he never has been known to neglect a soul he could have witnessed those three things is that your testimony have you ever staggered your world once because of those three things because I can't think of another thing as to why he is what he is and why God shook his world everywhere he went that is to him those three things have you had a personal Calvary you never miss God not for anybody on earth no matter what you face it and do you never neglect to win souls just ask God now what's left of your life can be that if you let God do it for you and I want to ask you from my soul tonight every one of you who know God is speaking to you in the little moment left that you can be all you should be you can choose though you're saved to say yes or no to that I want everyone in this building whether you're a child whether you're an old man whether you're a preacher that knows that you've never come to a place of absolute surrender where you had a personal Calvary and laid everything on the altar a living sacrifice acceptable to God to prove what God's perfect will I beg you to do it Christians Paul said I beg you tonight come dedicate everything absolute surrender seek God by a work of grace through your faith in the blood of Christ for such a deep cleansing such a thorough cleansing through and through of every faculty of your being and by a work of the Holy Spirit to take complete control by faith as you in not physical form put yourself on a physical altar but in the altar of God in your heart you just yield and let God take control full control and then determine in your heart you never miss your quiet times again not for anything or anyone to devour the word of God and soak yourself in the scriptures through the day you dine in prayer morning and night as your greatest priority in life and you by God's grace will witness as you ought to by His anointing and never neglect a soul again you can witness to your choice to not be a hicken up with all the hours that you get wasted with but these things as your first priority I want those of you tonight that know God is speaking to you you're saved but look at your life you haven't staggered anything I want those who desperately need to say God everything's on the altar tonight I lay it I absolutely surrender I want thee to work a personal Calvary in my life God and I want thee to fill me with thy Holy Spirit take complete control no matter what it costs I'll obey thee come what may oh but God have thy way now I will not let thee go except thou dost bless me oh God please do it I want those who desperately and they know God requires and wants this of them more than they want it and will not deny them such a prayer if they want it with him I want those who desperately need God to do that work and who will let God and seek God to do it now to stand right now and say it's me God it's me God that thou has spoken to tonight it's me God and this moment left of life is thine take it have it God I don't want it God I want all who are standing to come stand in the front let's make this an altar there's no altar here but come let's make this an altar of God come let's make something special here come stand just move your way past those who are sitting they're praying for you they're not judging you they want this desperately for you for they found it come just let's stand as close as we can to give everyone some opportunity somehow to stand together before God we're all going to just bow our hearts and heads and seek him and I want you to know in your heart that God will not turn his face away the devil will tell you but can you honestly believe that God will look at you if you mean this from your heart and say no I don't want to judge your whole life no don't listen to such thing God will he is so holy he has to that's not irreverent it would be irreverent to say God could turn his face away he is so perfect in integrity in your longing for your welfare for you to be used of God for you to walk in truth in victory so don't doubt that God will answer this but he doesn't look at the words that proceed out of the mouth God look at the words that come from whence they come so though these words come from your mouth I want you as best as you can and God can't get anything more than that or expect as best as you can are you saying these words led by a man yes but God these words are from my heart let God see that and he look at those words he won't turn his face away I want you all to pray as best as you can for God's ears only sir because no one else matters now just God I want you all to pray aloud with me that is standing oh my God forgive me for all the grief and failure inconsistencies compromises neglect of the things I ought to have done but denied thee through my folly wash me in the blood of Christ from all my sin though I am saved I need the blood desperately tonight for forgiveness from things I've forgotten to even confess oh let the blood of Jesus Christ wash me clean from every failure every un-Christ likeness in every reaction in every thought in every word but let me have a clean start by being cleansed in the blood of Jesus Christ from all sin let the blood go deeper wash me through create in me a clean heart oh God renew a right spirit within me a consistent steadfast uncompromising unyielding walk with God by thy grace I absolutely surrender my life every faculty of my being no matter what it costs I ask thee that by thy grace through the blood of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit thou would work a personal calvary in me right now fill me now with thy Holy Spirit take complete control I don't want gifts I want the fruit of the Spirit to be seen in my life spontaneously no matter how trying the circumstances if I look to thee for grace day by day no matter what comes against me I want Christ to be seen beginning in my home and to my worst enemy to live out his life through me by the Holy Ghost controlling me I cannot vow but I ask for grace that from this day to the day I die I will never neglect thee to be alone with God morning and night is my greatest priority my most treasured moments my most guarded hour till the day I die give me that grace never to miss the quiet time where I will soak myself in the Word of God meditating day and night is my greatest love and commune with God in prayer and by thy grace enable me to not neglect a soul that I can witness to help me not to offend but to expect God to create circumstances where I can speak and when God does to not let me fail I speak boldly and fully the Gospel of Christ to every soul God brings near me expecting me to witness to take my life and let it be consecrated Lord to thee I dedicate my life to thee on the altar of God consecrate me now for service of the King of Kings in this moment left called life in Jesus Christ's name in faith in hope in longing to glorify Him and Him only I ask these things from my heart Amen Bless you don't doubt God now don't wait for feelings don't wait for gifts God gives to whom He will what He wants you want to seek Him for anything particular of a gift seek to be used of God with the handling of this word that's the greatest gift study to show thyself approved workmen that can handle the word of God write that need not be ashamed prepare yourself for every soul He'll bring near you equip yourself and go out in faith longing for God to give you souls and He will He will He will don't doubt it thank you for seeking God oh thank you for seeking God tonight