When I was a little boy growing
up, I used to often, almost weekly, set up chairs in the basement
of 7208 Jackson Street in Warren, Michigan. And I was probably
seven, eight years old, and we would have church. And by we,
I meant, I mean me. I was the song leader. I was the preacher. And the chairs were empty, but
they were my audience. And I said to myself this week,
you know, Kent, you are not playing church. You remember how you
felt and what you experienced? as you had church in the basement
with empty chairs. You know you you can worship
God by yourself alone. How boring church can be if God
is not there. In fact I don't want to play
church. I have often thought that many times as an 8 7 8 year
old boy there in the basement. I encountered God. It was spirit
worship. It wasn't just the emotions of
an eight-year-old. I was encountering God Almighty,
and that He would draw so near and make Himself manifest to
an eight-year-old is just something else. I remember many times at
my grandmother's house there on the farm, walking out in the fields and
preaching to those cows. None of them got converted, but
we had a great church service out in the field. I know this may seem a little
strange to you, but I've preached in the tobacco patch, pulling
big old green worms that long off the tobacco leaves. just
me and God and the big long green worms experiencing God. I'm going to
write a book one of these days, because I have some things to
tell, not religious things, but things like I just told you,
or things like how God is doing the impossible here. how we are
seeing signs and wonders and miracles of this mighty God right
here in this place. And I know in my own heart, there
are great things to come, great things. I see so many of you,
your lives changing. You're getting your children
back. You're marrying each other. You're
coming to know the wonder of the grace of God. And there is
a takeover amongst us. And I simply mean this, that
God is taking the folks who come around here, changing their lives,
and they're becoming leaders in this church. That's what I've
always dreamed about. I want to tell you this. If you
have not experienced God in a very personal way, you're missing
out on life. You really are. I don't want
to go to church and sit and be numb all through that and get
it over with and go home. I want to experience God. Tomorrow's
Monday. Another day to experience God
and to be in the presence of the God who loves me and gave
himself for me.