In this sermon, the speaker shares a personal experience of witnessing a miraculous change in the weather after praying to the Lord. The clouds cleared up and the sea became calm, reminding the speaker of Peter's lack of faith when he walked on water. The speaker also mentions a recent trip to Boston where a mix-up with medical records caused anxiety, but ultimately, the Lord intervened and resolved the situation. The sermon concludes with the speaker expressing gratitude for the growth of their assembly and the transformation of people's lives, particularly those who were previously involved in negative activities.

Brother Bob Pierce, and then followed by Brother Lowe. I'll tell you, it's really nice to be here, to see you all. I'm from Miami, Florida. We're a Massachusetts family from Canada. But I've been in Florida for 43 years now. Raised in Massachusetts. If I'm not speaking loud enough, just raise your hand, because in July I had a tumor removed in my throat. Everyone in Florida gets a little harsh, though. If you don't hear me, just speak out and say, hey, Bob, a little louder, please. I try to get my dear brother, Wilson, to go first, because he's a senior and certainly has a lot more to say than I have, but he wouldn't have it, so I have to bow to my older brother. And I count it a real joy and privilege to be here with him. I was called by Uncle Sam, as he did to so many of us in World War II, and the Lord was really gracious in his service. I ended up in a chaplain's court, came out of that, and then decided to go back to school, to college, and they told me in Massachusetts at Northeastern University that I'd have to go back and take a refresher course in high school. So I went to Massachusetts, and they said you'd have to take a year, and I didn't feel like going a whole year of what I'd already had, enough of that. So I was up at Camp Maria as a lifeguard up there in New Hampshire, an assembly camp up there, and the folks from Florida were there, several of them, and they told me, well, Bob, in Florida all you have to do is six months. So I came down to Florida, and at that time the schools in Florida were not that academically advanced, shall I say. So I got down there, and after three months they told me, just go ahead and take the exam and get out of here, you're wasting our time and yours. So I took the thing, and they gave me the six months credit, and I went on to college. And associated with assembly down there, I ran into this real pretty girl called Betty, and she got me chasin' and stopped real quick one day, and that was the end of the trail. So we've been married for 38 years now, and God in his marvelous grace has given us four wonderful sons. One of them was taken home to be with the Lord 11 years ago at 18 years of age. But the Lord's hand was in that. We thank God for grace to us. Brian was 18 years and three months, just graduated, working as a mechanic. And I was out in Texas with my dear brother's state there. We used to have a meeting, and I got a call that Brian had been conjured with the Lord. He was conjured? It still works. Well, I came home, and Brother David Adams and Ray Zander and my brother Miles had the funeral. It was awful at the time, wasn't it? And there were several people saved. I had the joy of leading the young man that took Brian's place at the garage where he was a mechanic. I had the joy of leading him to the Lord, and he's gone on for 11 years now. Well for the Lord. Married a Christian girl, and he's still goin' on. And the young man that was out here, there's several of them out here. Henry, his wife, Lisa, was blessed to the Lord by my brother Miles. That's a Catholic at the same time, and she's gone on well for the Lord. And there were four others that professed to be saved, but I could not follow up. But the Lord was good. In death, there was resurrection. And we thank God for that. And he did leave a wonderful testimony. A testimony that we didn't even realize we had. And we thank God for that. And then the Lord, I was at the telephone company, repair supervisor. And a brethren came to me 15 years ago, and he said, Full-time work, you're goin' night and day. Now you ought to just be doin' it full-time. Well, I'm a little bit of a faithless character, I guess, at times. And I was so afraid. My wife and I, in the meantime, had been prayin' about this and had told no one. And I felt that I was really of a large mind, but still I was afraid I might be doin' something in reflection. I dreaded that. I didn't want to do something that was pleasing to me. So I went along, and the Lord was really workin' me over. I was miserable. So finally I got down one night and I made a big mistake. I gave the Lord an ultimatum. Beloveds don't ever do that. You've probably learned that long before I did. I'm only 60 years old. I told the Lord, I said, Lord, I gotta have an answer the next day. I can't take this anymore. Well, that should have told me I wasn't in the right place. Because when we're in the right place, Beloved, we have the peace of God that passes on His hands. And by this time I'd already had four heart attacks, and they'd lost me once. And the next day I went in and saw that all the men were out. And the 12 women that worked for me were off on their days' work. And when I went in at six, I felt fine. And by eight I felt terrible. I couldn't tell you how bad I felt then. So I called my boss and told him I'd turn my activities over to one of the foremen and assign him to that responsibility for the day at least, and he could take care of a few minutes in case. So I'm down to see the doctor, and we're down to see the doctor, and he took one look at me, put me on the table, and he said, I don't think you're right. And he took my blood pressure. We had a doctor here, so I guess you'd appreciate this more than I. My blood pressure was 210 over 190, and he said, you haven't had any break in your life. And I said, well, I drove 18 miles. I'll drive three blocks more and forget it. So I drove over there, and they were waiting for me and rushed me upstairs. And he told me, he says, well, in about four days you should have your blood pressure down and you'll be able to go home, but no work. He said, I always come back to work in two or three months. They tell me to take off a year. I'm a workaholic. So I went in the hospital, and I can remember it as if it happened yesterday. I looked up and I said, Lord, if I've got to take any more than four days, I'll go out of my mind because I had enough of that intense fear stuff and that already. And I'd never been in the hospital before until I had the heart attack. So 31 days later and six fulls later and five heart attacks later and four heart stops later, I got out. And the Lord answered my prayer. I said, I have an answer next day. He gave it to me. When I came home, I was home about two months, and the company called, and they said, Bob, we're going to come out to see you or you can come down to the office. So I'm down to the office, and they said, well, Bob, it's been nice having you around the last 28 years, but we'll see you. So the Lord shut the door. He gave me a very clear, precise, specific answer. I'm so glad he did. I'm so glad. Oh, it's good. I said, no, this is what the Lord has done. This is what the Lord has for you, and there's no backing out of it because you don't have anything to do with it. I am closing that door. I've already opened the other door, and I'll get out and get going. You know, Bob, I haven't passed. I've had a couple of seizures, but I haven't had a heart attack since. Of course, I was going. I was on 24-hour calls seven days a week with a beeper, with a radio, with a telephone. It couldn't be an emergency. Some days it worked right around the clock. You don't appreciate what telephone people go through. Well, let me tell you, I don't know if you remember when the L-1011, the Eastern L-1011, the first one they had, went down on the Everglades out there. I was out there to set up communications, and I never got home for three days and three nights. I slept in the car. It was a mess. We had to get telecommunications, radio communications of all kinds. So you may think that telephone people are standing around wasting time, but believe me, there's a lot of things you don't see. They're down in those manholes, and the water's creeping up, and the cable's going to go, and they're sweating because you're going to lose your phone, and they stay in it. They do appreciate it. They learn. They really do. They work long, hard hours. I just passed that along so you won't think they're a bunch of losers. I know they look like it. You go by the road, and there's three of them standing there, but there's a purpose for them standing there. They're waiting for something to make things better before they die, as it is in many works. But the Lord has been gracious. I've labored primarily in the South Florida area. I go up to Canada, eastern Canada, in the Maritimes. The New England area, I labor there quite a bit. I go north when the wintertime comes, and the spirit leads the other preachers south. I pass them on the way. And the Lord's been gracious. He's really blessed us. And our assembly has grown. We've seen in the last three years the Lord has given us about, I couldn't give the exact count, but roughly 20 couples right out of the world. And in Miami, when you say right out of the world, I mean out of the world. Some of them were goat peddlers. Some of them were the wall of marondos, even the women, mothers, to some degree. And to see these lives just turned around, and to see them on fire for the Lord, it really does. So the Lord's blessed. Our Sunday school has, and I don't have a Sunday school, my son has, has grown to where we have to build another building. The Friday night work, I talked to my son the other night, and they had 55 of them the first night of the new year. They've been closing down during the summer. Last year, it was up to 155 young people every Friday night, and most of them from unsafe homes. And we thank the Lord for that. A lot of them have been saved. Some of their parents have been reached. He gives us an open door to get into their homes and visit them. And the Lord has been very, very gracious to us in that. We do covet your prayers and appreciate your prayers. When I leave here, I'll be going to Rhode Island for two weeks of meetings, gospel meetings, and on up the name for four weeks of meetings up there and two different assemblies. And then I have to get back home before the wife locks the door and throws the key away. My dear wife works in the school's cafeteria cashier, so she doesn't like to travel with me. I'm married to a grandmother. You know how it is. She can't keep up with me. We have nine grandchildren. Our oldest granddaughter is now in a Bible school this year. So we thank the Lord for that. The children are old enough to know and profess faith in the Lord Jesus, and we thank God for that. The boys are all involved in the assembly. Their wives are involved in the assembly. And so we have an awful lot to thank the Lord for. And I'm going to speak the Lord willing on the 23rd psalm, but after our brother gave out that hymn, I've just got to read the last verse of the 23rd psalm to you, and then I'll turn it over to Brother Wilson. The last verse, as you all know, is, Surely, surely, or only, as the Newberry tells us it is in the original, Holy goodness, and loving kindness shall follow me all the days of my life. And the result of that is, I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. And beloved, I think we can say to that, Amen. He's a merciful, gracious, wonderful Lord. And here we prove it tonight. And believe me, I don't know if there's anyone here, because I don't know any of you currently, but if you don't know the word Jesus Christ as your Savior, I plead with you, I beg you, before you leave here tonight, because tomorrow may not come, close in with the offer of mercy to the Lord Jesus Christ. He died for us. You think of that. He took your place in death. He took your place to pay the debt of sin that no one could pay. He gave his life for us, that you might have life and have it more abundantly. And beloved, I can tell you this from experience. Having had my heart stopped five times, there is absolute, total, abiding peace. Even though he murdered us. The matter, the fact of the matter is, you're looking for it. In 1960, I had an ulcer, and it got so infected, they couldn't get the burium down to my upper stomach. And they thought I had cancer. They didn't tell me that. And the way I found out, I went down one day to x-ray. They were trying to take the x-rays. And I saw a cool old gentleman in there on the stretcher, and he looked like Jeff Warnbrook. And I said to the little girl, the technician, I said, who's this gentleman in there? And she said, I said, what's his name? I said, we're an ophthalmologist. She said, oh, his name is Ziska Beer. I said, oh, that's interesting. I said, what's the matter? She said, he's only got about four weeks to live. Thank you. Boy, you talk about being shook. I was shook. You know, I had to tell the Lord all about it. Lord, don't you understand? I got four young children at home, and I got a wife at home. What are you doing? You know, I really ran around with the Lord. But anyway, I went in and talked to the old gentleman. And then everybody left, but I was still there. And the little girl said to me, she said, the guy came down to get me and roll me upstairs in a wheelchair. She said, I can't find your record. She said, they took the wrong record. It's Mr. Beer's record, baby. I said, that's OK, dear. They're mine. And of course, when we came up, I thought she was going to die. She said, oh, no. I am going for my examination today as a technician. I'll be thrown out. I'm not going to tell a patient anything. I said, well, I'm happy as hell. I was cool on the outside, but believe me, I wasn't cool on the inside. And I went upstairs on that fourth floor, and I got in that bed, and boy, the Lord and I really ran around in there. You know what the Lord did? Affirmative. It says it right on there. Right there on Biscayne Boulevard, on Biscayne Bay, beautiful bay. We looked out there, and in a matter of minutes, the clouds were so heavy, they looked like they were going to settle right down. And the sea, the bay got rough and poisonous and white. And I thought, boy, I almost had it. My Lord, if that isn't a picture of mine tonight, I don't know what is. You know what the Lord did? He was great. The Lord of Heaven took and he opened up the clouds in one little spot, and he let the light shine through that little hole in those black, black, black clouds. And you know what they shone? Right on my face, right on me. And you know what I thought of? Oh, Peter, you faithless thing. You stepped out and you walked, but you lost your faith in the Lord. And boy, the Lord hit me right between the eyes. And right there and then I said, Lord, you're in control. Whatever you want, just do it. And you know what happened? No. In less than two minutes, the clouds were gone. The bay was like glass. There wasn't a white cap in sight, and I could see as far as I could see. I didn't see anything. Oh, Lord, move the heavens, I said to her. Faithless. Oh, inspiration for her. He is wonderful. He loves her so much, that even with the clouds, and you make the sea, the haze is well. And she thought to herself, and Peter, when you're awake, and you look at her, what a version of God you have. Surely, goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord.