Saving Souls

Number two, learn how to be a seed sower.  Life is in the seed.  It is an eternal principle.  God planted a seed, and He planted His best seed.  He didn’t plant an angel.  He planted His Son.

The Bible says that He loved us so much that He gave His only begotten Son so that whosoever believes in Him would not perish, but have everlasting life.

Let those with ears hear what I’m saying tonight.  God gave for a reason, a desired result.  When He gave, He had something in mind.  He had a harvest in mind, for He had lost mankind.  There in the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve committed sin and lost their relationship with God.

And God said, “I will redeem mankind.  I will give My Son.  I will put Him on a cross.  I will let Him die for the sins of the world.”  And when He gave His Son, He gave His best.  He did not give an angel; He gave His Son.

And you and I have the right to sow our best unto Him and expect a harvest.  Every time someone gives their heart to Christ, God gets a harvest on the seed that He sowed when He sowed His only begotten Son.

The Bible speaks of a man named Abraham.  Abraham was Jewish, was a Jew.  We as Christians are grafted in because of the faith of Abraham.  Abraham discovered who God was.  He discovered who God was.  And when you know who God is, you know who you are.

He found out three things about God:  First, God is most high.  Second, the possessor of heaven and earth.  And third, the one who delivered him from all of his enemies.  Say that with me.  Most high, possessor of heaven and earth, deliverer of all of my enemies.

And when you know who God is, when you know that He is most high, when you know that He is the possessor of heaven and earth, when you know that He’s the one who delivers you from all of your enemies, then you know who He is and you know who you are.

And when Abraham learned that, he wanted to give unto God.  And the Bible says he gave a tenth, or a tithe, of all that he had.

Richard Roberts – We cannot acquiesce or bow the knee to a holy God. But women say, “Lord, you take it. I’m yours”. This church could not survive without the godly women of the Fellowship of Las Colinas, neither could the early church.

And he said, “I need help to do it.”  And we marshaled hundreds of students who went door to door.  And it looked like it was 50/50, it wouldn’t pass.  And because of what the students did in getting involved and going door to door, that measure passed by the largest margin of any bond issue in the history of this city.  (Applause)

Now that wasn’t endorsing a candidate.  That was speaking out on an issue.  And we have a right as citizens of the United States of America.  But somewhere along the line, somebody convinced us Christians that we’re not to be involved in the process.  And that’s satan’s lie.

America, what are you doing here when I’ve called you to be there?

You can hold up the candidates and say to your people, “Look at them in the light of the Ten Commandments.”  There’s no law against that.  And you can stand up for what’s right.

One man had his entire congregation to stand.  He said, “I want all of the registered voters to be seated.”  And about half of the crowd sat down.  He said, “The rest of you, I’m assuming because you’re standing that you are unregistered, which means you cannot vote.  Please remain standing.  My ushers are bringing a registration form to you.”

He said, “I will not preach today until you register to vote in the United States of America.  I’m not telling you which party to join.  I’m not telling you who to vote for.  I’m telling you, you have a right and a responsibility as an American citizen to go to the poll and cast your vote.”  (Applause)  And he didn’t preach until every person had registered to vote.

There’s a law on the books.  Every year in August at the beginning of the school year, I am required by law to tell our students who are from another state that while they are living on this campus studying, they have the privilege of changing their registration and vote on national and statewide and local issues in Oklahoma.  And then they can change their registration back to their home state after their time at ORU is up.

Richard Roberts – So men, I encourage you to lead out, to follow the Lord as a husband, as a father, to model authenticity in your life as I do the mom.   Spiritual values.

And that night when I gave the invitation, Abdul gave his heart to God.  And then God manifested in the operation of the gifts of healing. And I prayed for him and he got healed.  He came upon the platform and for the first time in his life he stood up.  And he began to run and walk and leap.  The whole crowd of maybe fifteen to twenty thousand people began to jump and cheer.

Lindsay and I were the only two that did not know what was going on, because we didn’t speak the language.  I was being interpreted.  And my interpreter told me that this was the beggar of Jos.  Oh the whole city knew him.  Everyone knew him.  And now he was running and leaping and praising God.

And the news media was there.  And they came up on the platform and they interviewed Abdul and they carried the story.  And there was a professor from the University of Jos who had come to mock me.  But when he saw this young man in whose bag he had put money–when he saw that he was healed–he fell on his knees right in front of me and gave his heart to God.

They interviewed him the next morning; it was on the front page of the newspaper.  And that night one hundred thousand people came to hear the Word of God.  And that wasn’t all.  That night twenty-five thousand Moslems gave their heart to the Lord Jesus Christ, because of an operation of the gifts of healing!

Now the second one is the working of miracles.  You don’t believe in the working of miracles?  Look at the person next to you.  (LAUGHTER)  The working of miracles is: supernatural intervention by the Holy Spirit to change or to alter a situation.

The parting of the Red Sea–that’s an operation of the working of miracles.  The ten plagues that Moses brought by the hand of the Lord is an operation of the working of miracles.  Water coming forth from the rock–that’s an operation of the working of miracles.  Their clothes, their shoes not wearing out–that’s an operation of the working of miracles.

I was reading the Readers Digest the other day and they had a little quip in there about Catholic school children who were asked,  ”What is the greatest miracle in the Bible?”  And one little boy said,  ”The greatest miracle in the Bible is when Joshua told his son to stand still, and he did.”  (LAUGHTER)

The working of miracles–your ministry is a working of miracles, because there’s no way that you had the ability on your own to start it.  There’s no way that you have the ability on your own to sustain it. And there’s no way on your own you have the ability to grow it–it takes an operation of the working of miracles.

You talk about the operation of the working of miracles–you’re sitting in the middle of the working of miracles today.  Because I remember, as a teenager, my father walking across this farm out here five miles south of Tulsa with no money, no land, no buildings, no students, no faculty and no know-how.  And God operated a working of miracles, and you’re sitting in it today.

Richard Roberts – What if I told you that I know a way to reduce the stress, to increase  intimacy with your spouse, family and friends and, also, to make you acutely aware of the presence of God like you have never experienced it before.

We announced this conference as “doubling up,? and everyone has touched on doubling up.  But there’s been something extra.  There’s been a doubling up on touching people.  In every service we’ve turned and we’ve prayed one for another, and we’ve had hands on one another. People want to be touched.

Doctors tell us we’re one sixth skin, and we all needed somebody with skin, and that’s why God sent us Jesus, to show us what God is like.  And He said, “If you’ve seen me, you’ve seen the Father.”

Now the Lord heals through the laying on of hands.  He heals through the operation of the gifts of the Spirit.  He heals through anointing oil.  I remember some years ago my father and I got huge 55- gallon barrels of oil, and we took our shirts off and we put our arms all the way down and leaned over so we could touch the bottom.  And we prayed, believing that as we took this oil and put it in little vials and sent it to our Partners and told them the story from James, chapter 5, about how they used anointing oil and how it was used throughout the Bible as a symbol of the power of the Holy Spirit, that they could believe for healing.

And we got a letter back from a woman who said, “Brother Roberts, I got the oil.  I drank it.  I’ve felt better ever since.”  Now we didn’t mean for her to drink it.  It certainly wasn’t going to hurt her, make her a little more regular but it wouldn’t hurt her.

But there was a family in Arkansas whose little nine-year-old boy had been born deaf.  And when he came home from school, he saw my dad’s and my letter laying on the table and he saw the little vial of oil. And he read it, and he took the oil and poured it in his deaf ear.  And the little boy is still hearing today out of that ear.  (Applause)

God will give you methods.  He uses methods all throughout the Bible, and everyone is ordained of God.  He uses prayer cloths.  Acts 19 tells us that the apostle Paul took handkerchiefs and aprons, or prayer cloths.  He laid his hands on them, and they were sent to the sick and the sick recovered.

About two weeks before the war in Iraq broke out, one night Lindsay and I were on television and the Holy Spirit said, “Get Acts 19 and begin to teach on verses 11 and 12 on the apostle Paul and handkerchiefs and aprons and prayer cloths.  And tell the people that you’ll send them prayer cloths if they want one, that you’ll lay your hands on it and believe God, and send it to them.”

So I called our office and said, “Quickly, bring me some prayer cloths.”  And thank God we had several thousand of them.  And they brought them over immediately while we were on the air that night.  And so I preached, and we offered the prayer cloths.  And I don’t know what made me do it, but I said, “If you want me to, I’ll sign the prayer cloth.”  And so I said, “Give one to me.”

And I took my pen, and it’s a little cloth about like this, and I tried to write on it.  Well, if you’ve ever tried to write on a prayer cloth, it’s really hard, because this is a little piece of cloth. There’s no power in the cloth.  It’s just a piece of cloth.  It’s a symbol.  It’s a point of contact of the power, but it doesn’t have any power in itself.

Richard Roberts – In other words, what if I had something that would meet the deepest needs in your life?  If you listen very carefully to what we are going to talk about this morning, the things I just mentioned can become a reality for you.

I want one of the students, I want Tiffany Watkins, who just came back from a missions trip last night, I want you to share a word of testimony, Tiffany, about what ORU means to you.

TW: ORU means the world to me.  Every day I thank God for being at Oral Roberts University.  And one of the reasons why it means so much is because I know what it is to be in a secular environment, in a secular school.  Before coming to ORU, I was at another school, another college, and it’s a little difficult when you are one light in such a dark place. It can be difficult.  And the Lord spoke to me through people and just spoke to my spirit and let me know that ORU was where I was supposed to be.  So I came to a College Weekend, and as soon as I stepped on the campus, I felt the presence of God.  And I knew this was where I was supposed to be.  Didn’t even want to go back to finish my term.  Had to force myself to go back to finish my term.  But I did come to ORU, and I tell you, there is no experience that compares to what I gave up to come here.  I tell you, I was traveling at the other university and doing different things, and I wasn’t quite sure what my calling was.  I knew that I could sing, I knew that God had called me to sing, but when I came here, God began to define who Tiffany was and is, and He’s still doing it.  I mean, through the chapels, and getting involved with the music ministries program and being able to lead teams and just be so involved, God is defining my call.  And I tell you, I thought that you had to be a certain age to allow God to move through you in a certain way.  But I’m letting, the signs and wonders are moving through these hands now.  You know, miracles are moving through these hands now.  And I praise God for that.  And it took an obedient step to hearing the call of God, and I’ve learned here, I’m learning to hear His voice, more and more clear.  And I just thank God for ORU.  I love it so much.  Thank you.

RR:  George Pearson, could you come up?  Many of you know George.  He and his wife, Terri, pastor Eagle Mountain Church in Ft. Worth.  What you may not know, they’re alumni of Oral Roberts University.  Give him a good welcome.  God bless you, George.

 Richard Roberts – And that leads us to this question.  How has Christ welcomed us?  He welcomes us just the way we are.  I like that.