Great Is Thy Faithfulness - John Hagee — From the Pulpit & Classic Sermons

Welcome to From the Pulpit in Classic Sermons. Each week we bring you a different message from some of history's greatest speakers in the Christian faith, and powerful sermons from modern preachers, too.

This week, we have John Hagee with his message, Great is Thy Faithfulness.

God's Faithfulness Across a Lifetime

Join with me to Psalms, the 89th chapter, as we speak on the theme, Great is Thy Faithfulness. This is not a sermon, it's a testimonial to the faithfulness of God in my life and ministry over the past 50 years.

On the first Sunday of March, 1958, I walked into the pulpit for the very first time to preach the gospel. In a way, it seems like yesterday, and then on the other hand, it seems like an eternity. The celebration of the accomplishments of Cornerstone Church, with its more than 19 ,000 plus active members, the celebration of John Hagee Television Ministries that reaches America and every nation on the face of the earth by television almost every day, the celebration of Cornerstone Christian Schools, and the building of the beautiful Tarpley Retreat Center, the celebration of the accomplishments of a night to honor Israel, and Christians United for Israel is a monument to the faithfulness of God, not John Hagee.

I assure you, the God that we serve is a faithful God. I want you to read with me Psalms 89, 1 and 2. I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever. With my mouth will I make known your faithfulness to all generations, for I have said mercy shall be built up forever.

Your faithfulness you shall establish in the heavens. And then let me read to you Lamentations 3. Through the mercies of the Lord we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are renewed every morning.

Great is your faithfulness. Say that with me. Great is your faithfulness. If you've been saved more than a week, you know that's absolutely true. The faithfulness of God is far, far, far beyond our deserving.

Father, we stand here today through the blood of Jesus Christ and the mercies of God in your faithfulness. Thank you for the great things that you have done. Thank you that the majesty of your name can be proclaimed from this platform to the nations of the world.

Thank you, God, that a foundation has been built for which future generations can launch into the 21st century. And the best is yet to be for your glory and for your honor. We have not arrived. We have only just begun.

In Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated. Our God is a faithful God. The truth is I have failed the Lord many times, but he has never failed me one time. Our God is a faithful God whose mercies are renewed every morning.

If that weren't true, God would have fired me a long time ago. Saint Paul said the things that are not seen are greater than the things that are seen. For the spiritual and the invisible are greater than the physical and the visible.

Many are watching this celebration today from the balconies of heaven, whose blood, sweat and tears helped make Cornerstone Church and all of its related ministries possible. Generations of the Hagee family who have preached the gospel all the days of their life are gathered around the banister of the Celestial City today, celebrating the goodness of God, celebrating the faithfulness of God in the generations that followed them.

I have been asked by many pastors on many occasions, what is the secret of your success in the ministry at Cornerstone? And the answer is, like Joseph in Egypt, God was with me. God was with me. He held me in the hollow of his hand until the storm passed by.

He is Jehovah Shammah, the God who was there in the darkest nights, showing the way to walk. By his sovereign grace and his eternal faithfulness, we survived the most vicious and sustained storms. We survived assassination attempts.

We survived criticism from all directions. We survived the toxic tongues of Christians who were certain I had missed the will of God for this church. Our God is a faithful God. He is a faithful God. He is a never-failing God.

And he is the Lord that has made this church and all of its ministries possible. Give the Lord a praise for his great work. The faithfulness of God placed me in a godly home. The child that's born into a home where both parents are Bible-believing Christians has an advantage over other children greater than wealth and fame, better than apples of gold or pictures of silver.

A Mother's Prayers and a Call to Ministry

My father, Beithel Hagee, was an ordained minister in the Assemblies of God for more than 50 years. He had only one passion in life, preaching, preaching the gospel. He has now been with the Lord for 20 years.

My mother, Veda Hagee, will be 95 years of age in another two months. She is suffering from dementia and living in an assisted living center for those who are suffering with Alzheimer's. Without my mother's prayers, I assure you, I would never have come to know the Lord.

I was not saved by my father's preaching. I was saved because of my mother's praying. I certainly would never have entered the ministry. I would never have preached one sermon. I would never have built four churches, never preached the gospel to the nations of the earth by television, never founded a night to honor Israel or Christians United for Israel.

If Cornerstone Church has a founder other than Jesus Christ, it's my mother. She was the chisel in the hand of God that sculptured my life. There are no words in human speech to describe the love I have for her.

When I go to see her, she doesn't know me. I have to introduce myself to her every time. And I go down the fact that she's got four sons. And she said, which one are you? And I say, my name is John. Do you remember me?

And she says vaguely, I'll tell you, that'll take the wind out of your sails in a hurry. Your own mother looks at you vaguely. Now get this. She's been watching me on television for 30 years. And she knows me on television.

I'm standing right beside her. She says, do you know my son that preaches on the television? I said, yes, I know him very well. She said, I want you to sit down here and listen to him preach. She still says it like MacArthur.

Sit down and hear him preach. So I sat down and listened to a sermon. Because of her sickness, she has been separated from us in a way. But through the television, she's uniquely connected to us. So I would like for this audience to give my mother an ovation for the sacrifice of her life and to the kingdom of God.

Because without her, we wouldn't be here today. Would you do that, please? God was faithful to save me as a teenager. When I was growing up, going to church every service was not an option. It was a command.

My father was very inflexible when it came to the rules of the house. We went to church early, and we stayed late. Late was 10, 30, 11 o 'clock. We had four major revivals every year. Some of them lasted six weeks.

We went to church on Saturday night, even. We didn't have time to sin. We didn't have the energy to sin. After 42 offerings, that would be seven weeks times six. After 42 offerings, we didn't have the money to sin.

And that's the gospel. I sat on the back row of my father's church, as close to the back door as I could get, with a mechanical drawing board hung on the songbook rack where I wrote English themes, worked quadratic equations, waiting for the preacher to shut up, who was generally my father.

In those days, the Assemblies of God considered sports worldly, something Christians simply didn't do. I was a four-sport letterman, which made me the devil's poster child, sitting on the back row of the church.

I didn't like sports. I loved sports. I told the people in my father's church, if all of you people are going to heaven, hell is not going to be half bad. They were shocked. It was a major miracle that I ever got saved.

I had an appointment to West Point, and being in the ministry was not on my radar screen. I told my parents, when I'm 18, take a picture of me going through the door. That's the last time you'll see me in a church house.

I fully intend to keep that promise. But God had a different plan because of my mother's prayers. In January of 1958, after one of those long, everlasting, eternal sermons that never shut up, sitting on the back row, waiting for the altar call to mercifully end, it was going now into its 20th minute.

Suddenly, like a light in a dark room, like the Apostle Paul on the road to Damascus, I wanted to know, who art thou, Lord? And what wilt thou have me to do? I walked to the altar that night and surrendered my life to Christ.

Ten days later, I went to Southwestern Bible Institute, which is now Southwestern Assemblies of God University, and walked to Hatchett, Texas. I took one course in high school to graduate and took 12 hours in the Bible college because the high school and the Bible college and a junior college were on the same property.

God was faithful to help me to get a job to stay in school. I will never forget the Sunday I left home at the age of 17 and watched my father write a check for $75 out of a checkbook that only had 80.

That would pay for six weeks of school. I had six weeks to find a job or come home. If I was going to stay at Southwestern, I had to find that job and fast. And I'm going to tell you something, watch your hatchet, then and now is not downtown New York.

On the last day that I could possibly stay at school, by the grace of God, I found a job making church pews at Southwestern Wood Products. I don't know why God always waits to the midnight hour to answer.

I don't know why he lets you hang by the cliff by your fingernails, knowing or feeling you're going over the edge, but he just seems to like that somehow. I simply don't know. Southwestern decided to make a movie, Life at Southwestern.

I was chosen to make that movie. I sang in the Harvester Choir and was the president of my class at Bible College. I preached my first sermon on the first Sunday of March of 1958 at the First Assembly of God Church in Houston, Texas.

I was 17 years and 11 months old, and I preached that sermon out of this Bible. This Bible was given to me by my father's church before I left for Bible school. I want you to know that this grand old book is worn out.

If I held it upside down, pages would fly in all four directions. But the truth that's found in this battered old book are still greater than all of the knowledge in the world and every book and every library, because this is still the eternal unshakable Word of God.

The Bible as the Eternal Word of God

This message is a consuming fire. This is still the two-edged sword. This is still the living water and the bread of life. This is still meat for men and milk for children. This is still a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my pathway.

Here the gates of heaven are open and the gates of hell are closed. This Word rules our lives. It guides our thoughts. It controls our speech. It determines our relationships. You don't read this book.

This book reads you. People who have a Bible that's falling apart have a life that's not. Thank God for His Word. For the flower wilts and the grass withers, but the Word of God shall endure forever. Hallelujah, for the unshakable foundation of the Word of God.

I want to express my profound appreciation to the pastors of the Assemblies of God who had the raw courage to turn a teenager loose in their pulpits. I have to tell you, that is real courage. You learn to preach by preaching.

And while in Bible college, I averaged preaching about four or five times every week. I would drive Friday to the church, preach Friday night, Saturday night, Sunday morning, Sunday night, and then drive all night back to the school in time for class on Monday.

Most of those pastors that were brave enough to let me preach those revivals that went two or three weeks are now in heaven. Pastors Lonnie Mullins, R .R. Taylor, Jimmy McClellan, Elbert Smart. Elbert Smart is a member of this church now.

He was a child pastor, by the way. G .Q. Manley, C .E. McNeely, J .J. Land, J .S. McMullen, Charles Wigley, J .S. McQueen, Pastor Eldridge, and many, many others who courageously gave me the opportunity to preach the gospel from their pulpits.

Study, Preparation, and the Expansion of Ministry

God was faithful to expand the borders of my tent. In January 1962, I came to San Antonio to attend Trinity University after preaching for two years revivals across America. I realized that I'd been raised exclusively in the church world.

You just don't know how exclusively that was. I knew if I was going to reach my generation, I needed a broader intellectual base to do so. I enrolled at Trinity University and was awarded a football scholarship at a fabulous university I certainly didn't have the financial ability to attend.

Trinity University was one of the best decisions I ever made in my life. I was introduced to a level of scholarship and knowledge that I knew nothing about. I had never had to study in middle school or high school to make the honor roll, not in Bible school either.

At Trinity, I had to study three hours plus every night to get ready for class the next day and make the dean's list. A whole new world opened up, and it changed my life forever as a pastor and as a writer.

Those study habits produced far better sermons. Those sermons became chapters in the 23 books that I have written and the 24th that I am now writing. The prophetic book, The Beginning of the End, was dictated in one day to a team of stenographers and was in the bookstores around the world in 60 days.

They came at 8 o 'clock in the morning. We were in the executive dining room. We began page one, chapter one, paragraph one. At 6 o 'clock that night, the total book was dictated, and 60 days later, that book was in every Christian bookstore around the world.

It sold over one million copies, and they ran out five times. After graduation from Trinity, I coached football for one year in the Northeast Independent School District to get my finances ready to go to graduate school.

We won the district championships in three sports, and I have to tell you, it was one of the most enjoyable years of my life. It was lots of fun. I was offered a great job right after that, and I talked to Jesus about possibly pastoring 60 sweaty boys wearing helmets rather than a lot of people with lots of problems.

Heaven said no. So I, in the fall of 1964, enrolled in North Texas State, now North Texas University in Denton, and completed my master's degree in the summer of 1966. In the summer of 66, I was preaching a revival in Beaumont, Texas with Pastor R .R. Taylor.

I was about to make a decision that would change my life forever. God was about to bring me back to San Antonio. Two couples drove down to Beaumont from San Antonio, James Roy Taylor and his wife, Jean, and CB and Joanne Singleton, and they asked me, said, would you consider coming to San Antonio to start a church?

I said, do you have a building? They said, no. I said, do you have a congregation? They said, no. I said, do you have any financial funding? They said, no. I said, how many do you have? They said, us.

I said, man, I've never seen such an opportunity like this. Sounds like the will of God. And so we started. The first Sunday in October 1966, we started in a home because that's all we could afford. We were there for three weeks, and then we leased a vacant storefront building on Loop 410, across from the Broadway Bank.

We started growing very quickly. Every Saturday night, I would call every family that was on my list to determine exactly how many people were coming to church the next Sunday morning. And then Saturday night, I would go down to the church and put out 10 seats less than the people that were coming.

Why? Because every Sunday, they would leave the church saying, we had to go get more chairs this Sunday. We had to have more seats. They didn't know I had that jury rigged from the word go. They were absolutely certain we were broke.

We lost our lease in about six months to the Oppenheimers. That's where I learned the devil is in the details. You better read a contract with at least two lawyers. I asked Dr. Laurie, president of Trinity University, if we could use the Earl Sam Center for six months while we were working on our church.

Dr. Laurie said yes. God bless the Presbyterians. Dr. Laurie was a gracious man, and he's heaven today. We found the property we could pay for on Nacogdoches Road, 2938 Nacogdoches Road. We had just enough money to buy the land.

I was 26 years of age and had never pastored a church before. Our church was a new congregation, a new congregation that had no wealth, a new congregation that had no denomination to support us. We looked like poster children for failure.

No bank would back us, and so we went to the Security Church Finance of Houston. We got $65 ,000 from them from Joe Lee Todd, who attended Reagan High School with me, and we wouldn't have gotten that money if I hadn't have known Joe Lee Todd.

Joe Lee Todd told the president, he said, I know that man, and if he said he'll pay you back, he will pay you back. I gave him the money, and they took a gamble to give us $65 ,000. It wasn't a lot of money then, and it's nothing now, but that helped us buy that property, and that church was built by myself and about eight or 10 men who worked on that church every night except Wednesday.

We would take up money on Sunday, buy as much material as we could on Monday, and work all week. It was cash and carry. That's exactly what it was. Our first winter on Nacogdoches Road, it was record cold.

We had poured the foundation. We had put up the studs. Now, this is a building that's square. It's just a little A-frame church, hold 250 people. We had the naked studs there, and the rafters were overhead, and that was it.

We had the foundation under us, and we gathered for church. It was freezing. People were seeing amazing grace, and smoke was coming out of their mouth like they were smoking cigars just about that far, but tears were running down their face because we knew God was with us.

We knew that in the eyes of men, we didn't have a chance in this world of surviving, but God put his hand on us and helped us get that church ready. It took one year to finish that little church, but when it was finished, it was beautiful from front door to back, and already full on Sunday morning.

If you were a member of that first church at Nacogdoches Road, I want you to please stand. Most of them came this Sunday morning. Do we have anyone here this morning who was there? Here's Ursel, and there's Pops and Sharon.

Deliverance, Demonology, and Spiritual Conflict

My first major book was written here in 1971 while I was on Nacogdoches Road. It was called Invasion of Demons. It was published by Fleming H. Revell. It was a bestseller, and it split the church. Pentecostals didn't believe that demons existed in America and didn't believe that they could function in the church.

I was told when I went to Bible school that they functioned in foreign countries where people were illiterate and they were poor. I couldn't understand why, if there were demons in Mexico, they couldn't get across the Rio Grande River.

I asked my theology professor why, and he said, you're impertinent. I said, good. One lady told me after I wrote this book, and people were starting to read it, said, Pastor Hagee, I don't bother the devil, and the devil doesn't bother me.

I looked at her and responded, lady, you don't have enough of God to get a used demon to chase you. She was offended. She quit the church. In December of 71, a demonized man walked into our church with a loaded gun, roared like a wild animal, walked to the front of the church on a Wednesday night and announced to the church he'd come to shoot me in front of the congregation to prove that Satan had more power than God.

From a distance of eight feet, he emptied every bullet in that gun. The supernatural power of God protected me from that man, and I am here today to say that there's more power in the Word of God than all the devils in hell.

The church was packed to overflowing every Sunday. We met a wonderful young missionary named Johnny Isles from Mexico, and in a very short time we helped him to build a major church in Ciudad Victoria, a Bible school to teach men and women of Mexico how to minister to their people.

There were 52 village churches that Johnny reached by plane. He was a fantastic bush pilot, and an orphanage that we bought from a Mexican governor. It had 200 acres. It had orange trees, lemon trees, its own irrigation system, a swimming pool, a stable.

It was heaven on earth. It was great by American standards. By Mexican standards, it was absolutely unbelievable. Tragically, Johnny was killed in a plane crash, and the work in Mexico was then and now continues to be headed by Ursel Lewis and his family.

Ursel, where are you? There you are. Please stand. Would you give this man 35 years in Mexico, serving God faithfully. God bless you, Ursel. To show you how the fruitful vine of Cornerstone is growing, Ursel has a son named Paul.

Paul is a very talented young man. He's married to a very brilliant young lady. Graduated from the university. Paul came to me one day and said, Pastor, I have the opportunity to get on television in Mexico, but I don't have the money, and I don't have the equipment.

I said, I've been there. I know exactly how you feel. So I gave him the money, and I gave him the cameras, and I gave him the switchers, and I gave him everything he needed to go on TV. I said, what are you going to use for a studio?

He said, I'm going to use my daddy's garage. I said, that's a place to start. That's fine. They don't know that you're not in a million dollar studio. Take off. He has a fabulous television ministry going at this time.

Right now, he and his wife are having marriage counseling seminars over the year to 42 Hispanic nations throughout South America. Give the Lord praise for his faithfulness. So we moved from Nacogdoches Road out to Windcrest in 1972.

We bought 14 acres on I -35. I told the architect, Arlen Conner, that I'd gone to school with to build all we could pay for. That was 750 seats. When the church congregation saw those blueprints, they said with one voice, we will never fill that church.

There's just no way we're going to fill that church. No one in that church had ever attended a church bigger than the church we were in, and that wouldn't hold but 250. I was called a lot of things then, and none of them were good.

Because when you stretch people's faith, they become fearful, and they say things they later regret. By faith and bulldog grit, we built that second church, and it was packed to the back walls the first Sunday.

We went to two services, and it was still full. The church expanded so quickly, I felt like a guest speaker at my own church. I kept looking for that corporal's guard that had moved in with me originally.

We started something called home ministry, and gave the congregation to various trained spiritual leaders so that everyone would have a spiritual point of contact. After the book Invasion of Demons, I started looking for someone that had more experience in this area than I did, because I had none.

I finally found an Englishman by the name of Derek Prince. Derek Prince, I called him on the phone. How many of you remember Derek Prince? Good. Derek asked, what denomination are you? I said, well, I was raised in the assemblies of God, and presently our church is non-denominational.

Derek said very kindly, Pastor Hagee, if I come to your church and present my teaching on demonology, it will tear your church apart. I said, if you can tear my church apart preaching the Word of God, come down here, and we'll both tear it to the ground and start over to have a grander revelation of what God is trying to do.

He came, and it proved to be one of the most sensational church services I've ever attended in my life, and I've been going to church since I was two weeks old, several times a week. Brother Prince taught the first two nights for two hours.

He was British. He was a British professor. He was saved by reading the Word of God. He was a brilliant theologian, and he taught like a college professor. He laid a foundation down that was biblical and undeniable.

The building was packed on the third night, the night of deliverance. Derek gave everyone who didn't believe in deliverance the chance to leave. He invited them to leave. No one left. They had no idea what was about to happen.

The New York Times was there. They had two camera crews ready to go. Derek started the deliverance service calmly, demanding the spirit of witchcraft to come out. What happened next was absolutely unbelievable.

I was standing up. A dozen women, 12 of them, instantly jumped to their feet and started screaming like a fire truck going to a five-alarm fire. All you could see was teeth and tonsils. I mean, just wide open.

I mean, it was blowing your wig off. After about 30 seconds of that, a 25-year-old man started running up the center aisle, and he knocked the communion off the table. He charged up on the platform after Derek, and four big ushers took him down to the ground, and there was the wildest wrestling match you've ever seen in your life on the platform, and it lasted for four or five minutes.

20 to 25 people at the same time, startlingly running in terror for the back door of the church. God was out of the box. Too much was happening at one time. We lost those 25. I never saw them again. I stood on the platform.

I laughed so hard I cried. This was wonderful. We had the wide world of wrestling going on right here. We had 12 women screaming their heads off. People were running out the back door. It looked like a relay track meet.

The New York Times camera crew was running all over that church, taking pictures as fast as they could take it. The wrestling match wasn't over, and Derek was up there just calmly saying, come on, come on.

It was quite a night. If you were a member of that church at Windcrest, please stand. If you were a member at Windcrest, please stand. You went to the Windcrest church. Give those wonderful people a good hand.

God bless you. God was faithful to lead us to the third church building on Loop 410 at Roletto Drive. This would be our church home from 1975 until 1988. They built the church to seat 1 ,200 people. Again, we heard the mantra, we'll never fill it.

We'll never fill it. We had to fire the foundation crew, first rattle out of the box. They underbid the contract so they could get it. When they got the contract and the job was halfway done, they said, we can't finish the contract because we underbid it.

I fired them on the spot. I said, get off the property. You've broken your contract. We'll do it. They said, you can't tie steel. I said, you're mistaken. In the morning at 8 o 'clock, we're going to start learning.

I told the men on the staff in the church, meet me in the morning with your blue jeans on. We're going to tie the steel for this foundation. We found one person who knew how to do that and we learned how to tie steel.

We tied the steel for that foundation and we got the foundation in and on time and for what that contract called for to come in on time. We have a job description on every employee at Cornerstone Church that says, assist the pastor as needed because here you never really know what you're going to get to do the next day.

On dedication day, the church that could never be filled was packed to the back walls. Hundreds of people were in the lobby and standing out in the front yard. We went to two services and it was still full.

The fact is, the week we dedicated our third church, that week, dedication week for church three, I started looking for property to build this church. No, I didn't tell anyone I was looking. I knew they just couldn't handle it so I didn't tell them.

Our parking lot at Loop 410 was an absolute nightmare. How many of you remember that parking lot? They haven't forgotten the church but they never forget the parking lot. Here's how it worked. We let everybody park in the parking lot.

Every space was taken and then we let them park between in the lanes and they were just bumper to bumper so we had a perfect gridlock and we had two dismissals to every Sunday morning service. Those of you who were parked behind the cars, please get up and leave and we let them leave and we sang a song and when we'd sung long enough, those of you now who are legitimately parked, now you can go.

Those were the days that people ran over the feet of our parking lot crew. That actually happened. At the third church on Loop 410, God was faithful to give us the vision to preach the gospel to the world by television.

I said, Lord, I don't know how far this will grow but I'm asking you to open the doors to give us the ability to reach the city and the nation and the nations of the world to preach the gospel and whatever door you open, I'll walk through it.

My wife was in the other room saying, Dear God, don't let us get on television. I want nothing to do with Christian television. Do not let him get on television. I'm over in the next room. God, I want that television.

We've got to get that done. Gods in heaven had to be laughing but he heard two different prayers from the same house. I formed something called Global Evangelism Television Incorporated. We hadn't telecast across the street yet but that was a good name.

Global Evangelism. The Bible says, The power of life and death is in the tongue. The Bible says to speak of those things that are not as though they are. The Bible says, Whatsoever you say, you shall have.

Therefore, if the Bible is true, you need to start talking where you want to go. When you talk where you want to go, God will take you there. As it worked out, the city of San Antonio decided that they were going to have a cable system.

They brought the seven largest cable companies to San Antonio to receive the contract. By happenstance, there is no happenstance, but by happenstance, the president of one of the companies went in and talked to one of the members of our church who owned the store.

They met each other, got to talking to each other, found out what each other represented. The man that owned the store, my church member, said to the president of the company, If you want to get that cable franchise, you need to go over and talk to Pastor Hagee.

He says he knows the mayor and he knows about half of those city councilmen. They all go over to his Saturday morning prayer meeting and they especially go over there when it comes to election time. That hadn't stopped.

He came into my office like his shirt tail was on fire. It took him 30 minutes to say, Will you lobby for me to go downtown? I said, Look, I'm in the kingdom of God. I don't do anything that God doesn't get a benefit from it.

I said, You give me a contract that gives me the authority to preach the gospel 24 -7 for absolutely free and my attorney approves of that contract. I said, I'll go down and talk for you. He said, You're asking a whole lot.

I said, 90 of something is better than 100 of nothing. It's your call. He ground his teeth for a little and he said, Okay. He left. He came back the next day with a contract. I took it to my attorney.

We got all of the buzzwords worked out and believe me, if you don't have a good attorney, get one. You need one. You may need two. They got everything worked out. I went down. I talked to the mayor. I talked enough to the city council to have a quorum.

By the grace and mercy of God, he won. Out of all those other seven people, he won the cable franchise for San Antonio. When they got 50 ,000 people on that franchise, we are presenting San Antonio with a gospel.

We're letting every gospel preacher in town preach who wants to preach absolutely free. I mean, it was like Disneyland. We're the most loved people in town. We're taking TBN down. We're taking CBN down.

We're taking the PTL club down. At about that time, I got a call from Paul Crouch. Paul Crouch said, I want to be on your cable system. It's one of the largest in America. I said, I want to be on TBN.

I said, I'll give you Monday through Friday three hours. You let me on TBN. National TV on Sunday morning for free. I could hear him sucking wind on the other end. We got together. For 12 years, I was on TBN, nationwide, absolutely free.

Think about that. Our television department started out in a room eight by 12 with one lady answering the phone. Whenever they sold that franchise, we had to start paying for our television time and it cost millions of dollars per year.

God has made it possible for us to reach the nations of the world preaching the uncompromising gospel of Jesus Christ in every language that we can get it translated in. God is a faithful God who will help you do the impossible.

If what you're doing brings glory and honor to his name and builds his kingdom, nothing is impossible to you. I challenge you to try it in every adventure of your life. Nothing is impossible with God.