And this morning I want to share my story with you of how God called me as a little
kid to not only believe in Him but to also enter into the gospel ministry.
I want to read the scriptural reading for today and then we have a prayer and we'll
jump right in.
2 Timothy chapter 1 verses 6 and 7, I consider those verses my life scripture.
They were given to me by a gentleman many years ago and since then I have read them.
They've been a source of encouragement and strength and I like what Paul is saying to
young Timothy.
At one time I was young but now I'm old and it meant a lot back in those days and it still
does.
It says, for this reason I remind you to fan into flame, to fan into flame, to make an
effort to tap into that energy, that power that God has given us, the gift of God which
is in you through the laying on of my hands.
If God has saved you, He has laid His hands on you.
For God did not give us a spirit of timidity.
There's nothing to be ashamed of when it comes down to the gospel but a spirit of power,
a spirit of love and a spirit of self-discipline.
I like the fact that the word love is in there because the gospel message is a gospel of
love, love to God, love to one another and of self-discipline.
That is my life scripture and with that let's just bow our heads for prayer.
Father, as we delve into my story, my history, I pray Lord that something that I share today
might stir, might fan into flames.
What you've done in each and every one of our hearts and maybe there may be someone
here who is just on the fence not really decided whether they want to give their heart fully
to you or not.
I just pray that you will just use this time, use me to be a conduit through which you speak
today in Jesus' name.
Amen.
I was seven years old when I sensed God's calling on my life.
I was a strange kid growing up.
I was a kid who I respected mom and dad but I knew that there was someone that was greater
and more powerful than mom and dad and that was God who was always kind of looking in
on whatever the situation might be.
So because of this awareness of this greater being, God himself, I was very cautious in
how I lived.
I wanted to live right.
I wanted to do the right things and I wanted to encourage others to do the same.
I didn't grow up a Seventh-day Adventist but I did grow up in a moderately religious home.
Many of the founders of the Seventh-day Adventist Church were members, former members of the
United Methodist Church and that's the church I grew up in.
One of the first churches I was a member of was the Ladd Street United Methodist Church
in Atlanta, Georgia.
Small church but a loving church.
I remember every Sunday morning there would be this one little old lady, a little pleasant
lady, elderly lady who wore these old fashioned cat frame glasses, the cat-eye glasses.
She would bang on the piano every Sunday morning.
Her name was Miss Morton, one of the sweetest Christians that I have ever known.
Miss Morton would look at me dressed up in my little suit and she would say, he's going
to grow up and become a little preacher one day.
I don't know about being little but she seemed to have been a little prophetess when she
spoke those words.
And so at seven I sensed God's calling on my life but as I grew older I chose to run
from that calling.
I didn't want to go to church anymore.
I didn't like the people in the church because we had transitioned to a different church
and the people were not as loving.
And so I was trying to do everything I could to get out of going to church on Sunday morning.
And so I found a part-time job that got me out of going to church.
I began as I grew older and older I began to experiment with some of the vices that young
people were attracted to back in those days, alcohol, tobacco, and relationships.
I moved further away from God as I found myself like Jonah just running away from the things
that were of religious interest.
And so after high school I joined the Marine Corps and it was during my years in the Marine
Corps that I plunged headlong into a life of drinking and partying and night clubbing
and trying to impress others.
I mean just a lot of vanity and vain things doing things that I thought I'd never do because
these were the things that folk were telling me if you want to really live life this is
what you do.
This is the highlight.
So I was out there just really fully engaged in those type things.
But after three years of living it hard my life was at an all-time low.
You know the media today portrays people drinking ruthlessly, partying hard, but what the media
rarely shows is the other side, the consequences of living such a lifestyle.
Anyone who has ever experienced it will tell you that it ain't all, it ain't what people
claim it to be.
That's why many people who are involved in that lifestyle end up depressed, feeling empty,
and unfulfilled.
There is a price to pay for that type of lifestyle.
Although I was hanging out with people I was still lonely.
And no matter how much I partied people in loud music could not remove that loneliness.
Though I had nice things, I had a beautiful sporty car, I had nice clothing, I had what
we call bling, I had a lot of gold and silver that I used to sport, but I was still unfulfilled.
Though I had female friends I did not have companionship.
I was full of guilt and I felt like my life was headed down a dead-end road and I figured
that if this is all that life had to offer then life wasn't worth living.
Waking up with the hangovers and the headaches and the regrets and the disappointments, instead
of facing those things all the time, death was a welcome alternative.
But church family what I didn't realize was that through the pain God was drawing me closer
to himself.
Because he had something better to offer.
He actually had something priceless to offer me.
He was preparing to rekindle the flame, the calling that he had upon my life.
It was 6 a.m.
Easter morning.
I'm gonna give you the year, Lord have mercy.
The year gets longer and further away, 1982.
Wow, that was a long time ago.
I had been asleep in the Marine barracks for two hours.
One of my buddies who had not gone out that night before partying came pounding on my
door, screaming and hollering, Victor, Victor, get up.
I had a dream about you.
And I'm just dragging and waking up and saying, man, you know I don't roll that way.
Why are you dreaming about me?
He said, no, I had a dream that you and I died and we both went to hell.
The hangover miraculously disappeared and I wanted to hear more.
The dream didn't have much detail outside the point that we died.
But the real knocker was this whole idea of spending an eternity with Satan.
Because I was terrified.
I was terrified as he's telling me this dream.
And I asked myself, well, what do we need to do to appease God?
And his name was David.
He says, I don't know what to do, but one thing I'm gonna do is I'm going to church
as soon as I get dressed.
And I said, well, I'm gonna find a place to go to.
But as soon as David Errol left my room, I said to myself, I ain't going no church.
And I laid down trying to go back to sleep.
But I couldn't go back to sleep because the thought of roasting for eternity with little
demons torturing me would not let me sleep.
And of course, back then, that's what I used to believe.
And I didn't know the truth about the state of the dead, that there's no such thing.
But that frightened me.
And so in an effort to, again, appease God, I decided to...
Since I wasn't going to a church, I decided I'm gonna try to read my Bible.
I did have a Bible.
For me, the Bible, the Holy Word of God was kind of like a talisman that you keep on your
nightstand just to keep the demons away.
That was the purpose of the Bible.
But I never read the Bible.
But that Easter morning, since it was Easter, I decided that I wanna read about the crucifixion.
And so I didn't know anything about the layout of the Bible.
I mean, I'm telling you the truth.
I had never read the Bible.
But that morning, that Easter morning in those Marine Corps barracks, God had a one-on-one
Bible study.
The Holy Spirit taught me something, and I discovered a most intriguing truth.
I discovered the truth about the seventh-day Sabbath on that Easter morning.
And the reason why I even had any inkling or knowledge of the seventh-day Sabbath, it
came from earlier encounters with two of the most overzealous Bible thumpers I had ever
met.
You see, my mom and my sister, both of my sisters, but when I would go home, it was
my mom and my youngest sister, because my oldest sister had moved her own place.
They had been at Venice for two years.
And whenever I came home on leave, they would try to convert me.
And so here I am running around the house, trying to get dressed, trying to get ready
so that I could go out and party on the town with one of my friends who were coming over
to pick me up.
They would follow me all around the house, hounding me with what they called the truth.
The truth.
This is the truth.
You need to know the truth.
I said, so what is the truth?
They said, for one thing, the body is the temple of God.
Your body is the temple of God.
And smoking and drinking will destroy the temple of God, and God doesn't like that.
And I'm thinking to myself, well, there are going to be some brain cell casualties tonight
because I'm going out to party.
They also said that Friday night was the start of the Lord's holy Sabbath, and that partying
was of the devil.
And I responded, good.
I'll enjoy celebrating the Sabbath.
And so that's as far as they could get with me because I wasn't hearing it.
I was trying to get out and have a good time.
My friend would pull into the driveway, not come running out, being chased by these holy
pit bulls.
I mean, they wouldn't let up.
They would go all the way to the car, quoting Bible quotes while I'm getting in the car
and rolling up the window so that we could leave.
Those are my Bible thumpers.
But on that Easter morning, I read about the Sabbath for myself.
I read Matthew chapter 28 verse 1.
Now remember, I didn't know anything about the Bible.
I looked in the back of the Bible to this thing that said concordance, and that's where
my journey, my introduction to reading the Bible, studying the Bible began.
So Matthew 28, 1 said, now after the Sabbath, as it began to dawn towards the first day
of the week, Mary Magdalene and Elder Mary came to look at the grave.
I always knew that Easter took place on what day of the week?
On a Sunday.
So I knew that the first day was Sunday.
Easter was on Sunday.
So this day called Sabbath must be Saturday.
Mark chapter 1542, when evening had already come because it was the preparation day, that
is the day before the Sabbath, I knew that Friday before Easter was called Good Friday.
And so that day after Good Friday Sabbath, well, Sabbath again is on a Saturday.
And then Mark 16, 1 and 2, when the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother
James and Salome brought spices so that they might come and anoint him very early on the
first day of the week.
They came to the tomb when the sun had risen.
All of these things, as I read these things for myself, things began to make sense.
I began to understand what my Bible thumping relatives were trying to tell me as I read
it for myself.
What they were saying is true.
The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord that God.
It is so important that as we're sharing the truth with other people that we invite them
to read these words for themselves because the word of God is living and it is active
and it is sharper than any two edged sword and piercing as far as the division of soul
and spirit of both joint and marrow and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the
heart.
And I read it for myself.
And that morning I decided to keep the Sabbath.
But only until I could prove from the Bible that the Sabbath had been changed from Saturday
to Sunday.
And you know how that all turned out, right?
Because the more I read the Bible, the more I became convicted of the seventh day Sabbath
and other important biblical truths.
And so after that time I had not yet learned how to properly keep the Sabbath.
So I decided I'm going to make my own rules for Sabbath keeping.
These were my rules back in my introduction to Christianity as a seventh day of Venice,
becoming a seventh day of Venice.
So I decided I'm going to do things that I like to do and not do things that I didn't
like to do.
So instead of ironing my uniforms, I didn't do that.
But I enjoyed watching and waxing my car.
So that's what I would do.
I also decided that since I don't watch TV during the week, I'm going to watch TV on
that day.
And so I'm watching TV.
I'm waxing cars.
I'm drinking cool drinks while I'm working on my cars and whatever else was pleasing
to me.
And yes, I was still breaking the Sabbath, but God knew how to use that too.
And so one Sabbath afternoon after I finished washing the car and waxing it, I decided to
go in and watch TV.
And while I was watching something interesting happen, in those days, remote control technology
was very expensive.
And so most common folk didn't have remote control.
The only remote control that we had in my house was my dad calling me to come change
the channel.
That was as good as it got.
But as I walked over to the TV and it had these knobs on it that you turn.
Many of you remember those things, don't you?
You had to click the thing.
And in between the channels, because you had like anywhere between three to seven channels
back in the day, you click it to make this little static noise.
And I'm changing this TV and I'm like, as I'm changing, I hear Sabbath.
I said, what was that?
And I turned back to that channel where I heard the word Sabbath.
And on this Sabbath afternoon, there was this TV evangelist by the name of Herbert Armstrong
of the plain truth.
He was teaching about the seventh day Sabbath.
Herbert Armstrong, non Adventist.
And as he was preaching, as he was teaching, he said something that was very interesting
to me.
He says that the Seventh Day Adventist Church and his church, the Church of God, were the
only Protestant organizations to keep the right day as Sabbath.
And I took note of that.
And as I heard these things, as I heard him saying these things, I found myself saying
out loud, that's right.
That's right.
And so there was an offer to receive more study material from them.
We didn't have the internet back in those days, so I couldn't send an email.
So I had to send snail mail and ask for some biblical literature, which I started receiving.
And I began to study his material.
But again, as I began to study Herbert Armstrong's material, another remarkable thing happened.
Now remember, I was biblically illiterate.
I didn't know much about the Bible.
But as I was studying this material, I mean, some of it was good stuff, but others parts
of it contained some error.
But as I'm studying this stuff, I found myself saying, that's not right, or that's not true.
But then I'd ask myself, well, how do I know that it's not right or not true?
Because I didn't know.
But I didn't realize it then, but later on I realized that it was the Holy Spirit that
was leading me in my studies, dividing truth from error.
And I know that if God can teach me how to decipher scripture and truth, I know that
he can teach you too, as we strive to grow in the knowledge of Jesus Christ.
And so as I continued these studies and having these episodes of that's not right, but this
is right, I began to become much more hungry for the word of God.
And I started receiving another study in the mail.
This study was entitled, The New Life Bible Studies.
Now, I didn't know it back then, but I know now that that was from the Seventh-day Adventist,
a correspondence Bible school, and I'm pretty sure my mom signed me up for that.
And so I would complete these lessons.
I mean, that was part of my Sabbath activities.
I would go through these Bible studies.
I would complete my lessons, and I would send them back, and then someone who received them
would correct them and include some nice encouraging words on it and send it back to me.
And I faithfully went through all of the lessons.
And once I finished and where I am now, I look back and I think about those times and
the person who answered those lessons.
And I think to myself, those folks faithfully did this lesson, never ever, ever thinking
of the idea that this person I'm studying with will one day become a Seventh-day Adventist
pastor.
God is awesome, isn't he?
And so I have this question for you.
Do you run a correspondence Bible course here at this church?
Do you know anything about the LEADS program that the conference is involved in?
If you're a part of that LEADS program, if you thought about it, heard about it, please,
please, do what you can to become involved in it because you may be used with God to
lead someone to Jesus Christ who may end up being a powerhouse for the sharing of the
good news of the gospel, amen?
Amen.
I got a couple of amens from you.
I don't know what time you're in service here.
I hope it's not at 12 o'clock, but we're not going to go too far after that, okay?
Okay.
In my room there in those Marine Corps barracks, God taught me biblical truth one-on-one.
And as he taught me, he reignited the flame in my heart, the desire to understand and
to know him better.
And I know, folks, that as I look at my life and where I was and where God brought me at
that time and was bringing me, I know that if he can take me hard-headed, knuckle-headed,
just continuing to push against the prick, I know that if he can save me, he will do
the same thing for you.
He wants to be known by you.
He's not there waiting on you to try to figure out a way to find him.
No, he's there because he wants that relationship with you.
So talk to him.
Ask him to show you, to lead you.
Ask him to reveal himself to you, and he will.
I'm not talking about he's going to appear in a glowing, ghostly form, but he will let
you know that, hello, I'm with you.
I'm here.
And that beginning of a relationship will change your life forever.
I know that because I'm a witness.
And so as I continued to take these studies, I was impressed with the fact that I need
to go and find a church that taught what I believed.
And so I knew about the Seventh-day Adventist Church, but I didn't necessarily want to go
to the Seventh-day Adventist Church because I had heard so much about the Seventh-day
Adventist Church, and I said, I don't know if I want to go there.
And so I decided I was going to go check out other churches.
So I went to check out the Baptist Church.
I checked out the Pentecostal.
So I went to the Episcopalians and the Catholics and other denominations and non-denominations.
And as I visited all these churches, I couldn't find what I was looking for when it came down
to biblical truths.
I found a little bit here, a little bit there.
But what I was learning, I wasn't finding until I went to the very last church in my
journey.
And guess what church that was?
The Seventh-day Adventist Church.
I walked in the door and that was it.
These were the people who were teaching what I was learning.
Remember the Bible studies I was taking.
I didn't know they were Adventist, but with that and whatever else God was teaching me,
I said, that's the church.
Now I had heard a lot of things about the Seventh-day Adventist Church that people think
they know everything, that they're so judgmental, they're not nice, they believe in some woman
named Ellen G. White because I hadn't heard about her or anything like that.
And I was like, I don't know if I want to trust those folk.
But my mom just gently encouraged me, go check them out.
And so one Sabbath morning, church, I got up enough strength, enough courage to go to
the local Seventh-day Adventist Church.
I said, I'm not going to a Sabbath school, I'm not going to a worship service, I want
to hear the sermon.
So mom, what time the sermon is normally starting the church?
And she told me.
And so I went there, I arrived at this little church in New Bern, North Carolina, New Bern,
North Carolina, right before the pastor began his sermon.
And here I'm walking in this church and I decide I'm going to try to be inconspicuous.
And so I sit way back in the back trying to crouch down.
In those days I was very athletic and I kind of stood out, but there was no way that they
weren't going to miss me.
And so the pastor came out and the sermon that he was preaching, I mean, God must have
been laughing that day thinking, I got you now, because the sermon that this pastor was
preaching, the message was about pride.
And the main point in this sermon was, get off your high horse of pride to see the real
truth.
This is what this pastor is preaching.
And this pastor who preached that day was very animated.
I mean, he was walking back and forth across the stage and he was pointing as he was preaching
in different directions.
But I'm going to tell you, I'm sitting way back in the back and something divine was
happening because no matter where this pastor was pointing, he seemed to be pointing directly
at me.
And I was so uncomfortable sitting back there in the back as he's preaching.
It's like his hand was turning to hit me right in the chest.
And I didn't know what the feeling was that I was experiencing.
I now know that this feeling was called conviction, but it was almost like fire shut up in my
bones.
And this man could not say the benediction fast enough for me to jump up.
And I went bolting out of that church like a horse coming out of its starting stable.
I mean, I was running to my car.
And I remember this little gentleman, this older gentleman was running behind me, breathing
hard and yelling, wait up, slow down.
I said, no, I got to go, man.
I got to go.
I want to invite you home for lunch.
I said, no, I don't have time for that.
I jumped in my car and I sped off as quickly as I could.
And I like to say that I enjoy eating.
And if I was going to turn down some food, you knew something was going on inside of
me.
That was the Holy Spirit working on me.
I was torn up.
I'd never heard words like this before.
And so I left that church, but as I sped away, I realized that I could not stay away.
I needed more of what I had heard.
And so Sabbath after Sabbath, I came back for more.
It was at that little church in New Bern, North Carolina that I discovered a God who
loves me, a God who forgives me of my sin, a God who desires to rescue me foremost,
from myself, and creating me a better person, a Christ-like person.
I discovered that God, the God of the universe, the God that I grew up fearing because I thought
he stood with a handful of lightning bolts just waiting for you to mess up, that God
was not that kind of God, but he was a loving, kind, righteous, and just God.
No matter what you've done or what you may find yourself presently doing, no matter what
other people think about you or what you think about yourself, understand that God loves
you and that he wants to give you life more abundantly, more than anything that this world
can offer.
Not a life of things, but a life of purpose, a life of hope, a life of joy.
He wants to kindle in you a flame of love, a love for him, and a love for others because
he is such a wonderful God.
That is what he wants to give to each and every one of us today and every day until
eternity is ushered in and we live with him forevermore.
A number of months later, I accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior and was baptized
Christmas Day, 1982.
And God had used a multitude of methods to crack this hard case that you see standing
before you.
God used family members who had become Adventists in their attempts to witness to me.
He had used frightening dreams of a friend.
He used correspondence Bible courses.
He used the Sabbath testimony of a non-Semite Adventist televangelist and other random people
to lead me to the truth.
What I'm saying, folks, is that we all can play a part in the salvation of others.
What you have to offer might just be a small seed, just a small little way of affirming
or confirming something that may already be happening in a person's life.
Do not look at yourself as being unworthy, but play your part.
Share what God has given you.
Another person will come along and they may water the seed.
Another person may come along and they may nurture the seed.
We don't know where people are in God's quest to draw them closer, but the goal is to be
ready to ask God to use us to help someone else see the light.
So six months later I was discharged from the Marine Corps and I returned to Atlanta,
Georgia.
And my MOS was in the field of electronics.
So I did some different technical jobs.
I had the opportunity to interview with Litton Industries, a big, huge military contractor
working in Saudi Arabia making a huge amount of money.
Problem was I would have to work on the Sabbath.
When I heard the figures on the job, I was like, yeah, I want that job so bad.
But then God whispered in my ears, remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.
And so I had to turn down that job and I walked out of that building, that office, wanting
to kick myself because I only had less than $100 left to my name and my account and I
had just turned down a perfect job offer.
But you know, God always comes through because by the time I arrived home, there was a message
on our little message board at home that stated that Xerox Corporation called and they want
to interview you on Tuesday.
And so make a long story short because I know those timers are going off at home and the
veggie steak and all those type things are ready to be consumed.
I ended up working with Xerox Corporation for about three years, some of the best work
that I'd ever did.
And I was enjoying it and I probably would have worked with them for many years, for
many years.
But again, God had a different plan.
My growing relationship with God was fueled by attending small groups, Wednesday night
prayer services, any time the church opened, guess what?
I was here.
I was even here for work B. So go ahead and sign on that, what you're going to bring for
breakfast tomorrow and be here to enjoy the fellowship.
Amen?
Amen.
I wasn't paid to throw that little advertisement in there, but you can pay me later, okay?
So I wanted to serve God with my all in all because having that relationship with Him
meant everything.
And folk, it was growing deeper and stronger daily.
And the good news is this, that God does want to be known by you as well.
One morning I was sitting in my car preparing to go to my first client there for Xerox.
And I became overwhelmed with this burning desire to serve God.
And I'm sitting there and I'm saying, God, instead of going to see these folk and working
on machines, I could really be going to the hospital and I could be visiting with church
members.
And I could be studying your words and I could be involved in planning worship services and
leading board meetings and giving Bible studies.
I could preach the word.
I could love people and share the good news of the gospel.
That's what I think I want to do because I want to be in the presence of Jesus all day
long.
And as I'm thinking about this, it was at that moment that God rekindled the sense of
a call upon my life.
And I decided, Lord, here I am.
Here I am.
I surrender.
And I decided that I will go into the gospel ministry.
And the church said, amen.
I decided that I resigned from Xerox and I entered Southern College back in those days
in January of 1985.
And it was there at Southern that I met my beautiful friend for life.
I'm going to give you all her names.
Her name was Pauline Claudette Iceland James of Jamaican descent.
I added another name to her name, Maddox.
So whenever I'm making fun of her, I'll call all her names, her five names, and she just
look at me and say, and?
After graduating from Southern, I was picked up by Florida Conference where I served in
various capacities for 22 years before coming here to Georgia Cumberland Conference.
There's more to the story.
And I want to be sensitive to your time as well.
But one thing I can say is this right here, that there may be someone here who's hearing
my story, my testimony of what God has done and is doing in my life.
And maybe you're hearing it and you're thinking, well, you know, God, God hadn't, that has
not been my story.
All of our stories are different.
But I want to encourage you that if God is speaking, if you feel in that funny sense
of things happening in your heart, that thing might be conviction.
That might be God kind of leading you, prompting you, nudging you to make a decision for him.
Maybe you might already be a believer, but maybe you have been not as been engaged as
you feel or know you should.
And you're not experiencing guilt right now, but maybe you're experiencing a little nudge
that I need you more.
You can do better.
Whatever sensations you may be experiencing right now, I want to attribute that to the
Holy Spirit speaking to you personally.
And I want to encourage you to fan the flame, to invite God to speak louder, with clarity,
and to give you the courage to do the right thing, to take that next step, to say, here
I am, Lord.
To invite him in and say, Lord, I want to know you better.
If you're experiencing this, I want you to bow your heads with me as we pray together.
Father, you love us, and you're coming soon.
And Lord, you want as many people saved as possible.
And Lord, you could send angels.
You could do this work yourself, but you've chosen us to be partners in the salvation
of others.
And Lord, there are people in this room right here today whom you're seeking to draw closer
to you.
I pray, Lord, that your Spirit will never give up on any of us, but that you will convict
us, you will strengthen us, you will encourage us, you will help us.
You will strengthen us to take that stand for you and to take our place in this work
that we might be instruments in your hand to lead others to Jesus Christ.
Continue to bless this congregation as it seeks to grow and as it seeks to impact this
community with the love of the gospel.
We thank you, Lord, for hearing this prayer, and we ask it in Jesus' name.
Amen.