August 31, 2025 • 33 mins
On this Labor Day weekend, our community gathered under the tent at Krouskop Park for the annual Community Worship Service. Churches from across Richland County came together in unity to lift up the name of Jesus in worship, prayer, and fellowship.
This year’s guest speaker was Dave Gerry, a longtime Madison-area businessman, founder of The Princeton Club, and co-founder of SaltCo. While his career has seen great success, Dave shared not about building earthly kingdoms but about living with God at the center of every pursuit. Drawing from his own experiences, he encouraged us to put Christ first in our lives, to trust Him even when the path seems uncertain, and to believe that God is preparing to bless our community when His people walk together in unity.
Dave’s heartfelt message wove together personal stories of faith in the marketplace, testimonies of answered prayer, and a powerful call for believers to “step over the line” and boldly live out their faith beyond the walls of the church. His challenge was clear: when we put God first, He directs our steps and multiplies our efforts in ways only He can.
May this message encourage you to trust God more deeply, value the unity of His people, and live with the confidence that He desires to work in and through you for His glory. Recorded August 31st, 2025 Message by Dave Gerry
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Please welcome our special guest speaker today, Mr. Dave Gerry.
Thank you, Pastor. Appreciate it.
So for 40 years, I introduced myself as the owner of the Princeton Clubs,
which is a health club operation.
And every time I do it, somebody, the person I'm talking to goes and looks at
(00:25):
me. It's like, do you use it?
And so what I decided to do from now on is I just tell everybody,
Hi, I'm Dave. I manage the Dunkin' Donuts.
And then they look at me like, well, he's got pretty good self-control.
He owns the Dunkin' Donuts. He's not that bad.
I'd like to take two seconds and introduce my family. They drove out,
(00:48):
and if you'd just stand up for a second.
My wife, Jean, my son, Teddy, daughter-in-law, Lacey, who I love to death,
and then their three children.
This is the cutest little girl you've ever seen in your life.
And she knows how to do cartwheels. Isabella, David, and little Bobby.
And you sang Bobby's favorite song because when Bobby's at home,
(01:10):
he sings holy, holy, holy all the time.
I have recordings of it. It's just so beautiful.
I have a question for you. If I had just introduced my family and Bobby,
the little guy, wasn't there and he was, we can't find him.
Where is Bobby? We're in a community we're not that familiar with.
(01:33):
Where's my little boy? Where's my grandson?
And Teddy takes off looking for him and Gene and Lacey take off looking for him.
Tell me something. If you cared about me at all, wouldn't you get up and go try to find Bobby?
I mean, seriously, you got kids, you have grandkids. You would be like,
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I'm in, I'll help, I'll help.
God the Father has kids here in this community that he knows are lost,
and he wants to find them.
It's interesting to me that you're under a tent. You're under a canopy.
(02:15):
I want you to imagine this just for a second.
This canopy doesn't stay up by itself.
There's a couple major posts down the middle, and then there's all these slightly
smaller posts all around the side tightened up and holding the canopy in place.
These posts represent, in my picture, pastors and churches.
(02:38):
There's some that will have more of a central role, but there's many in your
community, many churches.
Listen to me. I know this is from the Lord. Pay attention.
God is getting ready to do something in Richland Center.
No, I mean it. I mean it. And this is a prerequisite.
Psalm 133, what's that talk about?
(02:59):
It talks about when brethren dwell together in unity.
It's like the oil that came down on Aaron's head.
And the oil of the Holy Spirit came down on Aaron all the way down to the hem
(03:20):
of his garment. It was a priestly anointing that God released.
But here's my favorite part. But when brethren dwell together in unity,
God commands a blessing.
Are you kidding me? God commands a blessing?
Do you mean that maybe God is getting ready to command a blessing over the Richland
(03:45):
Center area? Yes, let it happen.
Now, there's a lot of people that are my age and a little bit older. I want to honor you.
I don't know if you're older than me, but I just happened to touch your shoulder.
Don't turn around. I don't want to.
Thank you, grandmas and grandpas and the older generation in the faith for your prayers.
(04:10):
And some of you might get frustrated at times because, well,
they don't know the Lord yet. They don't know.
But you've been contending and you've been praying. And I will promise you every
single tiny prayer you ever prayed, he heard you.
Whether you understand that or not, he heard you. And he stores those up.
(04:32):
Those prayers are stored up. And there's moments in time that God dumps it out
over a community. That's going to happen in this city.
It is. I know it in my spirit. That's why you're gathering together as you're
preparing the spiritual atmosphere for God to move.
See, God is a very humble God, but he's also very ordered, and he does things his way.
(04:59):
Period. He just does it his way. And there's ways he wants to do things.
And one of the things he requires is that his children come together.
That's a very important thing. I'm going to, first of all, relax.
Nothing weird is going to happen.
I know you guys, you're like, I'm not going to run up and down.
(05:21):
I'm not taking any money.
I don't want anything from you. I came down here because I am deeply, deeply in love with God.
And I've watched in my life the things he's done in my life,
where now at 64 years old, put a gun to my head.
He's real. I know he's real. I've never seen him, but I sense him and I hear
(05:44):
him somewhere between my chest and my belly button.
You know what I'm talking about? I don't hear him in my ears.
It's not like David. I've never had that happen.
But somewhere in here, my spirit, God is spirit.
God speaks to us spirit to spirit. And in the word of God, the Bible,
it confirms if God is saying something here and it doesn't line up with the
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word of God, it wasn't the Holy Spirit. So be careful.
And while I'm on that subject, you have pastors here.
Your responsibility as believers is not to criticize your pastor.
And if you do, shut up. Amen.
And all the pastors said. I mean, seriously, that's not your role.
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See, what God will begin to do is cluster the pastors together.
So pray for them to have unity.
You know, when I was in Madison, all I'm going to do today is tell you a story, okay?
It's an unbelievable story, but I want to preface it with this.
When I was in Madison, I saw the pastors begin to cluster together.
(06:48):
But then came the marketplace people
around those pastors it's kind of like you know pastor and i well i'll just
say it this way my pastor when i was 19 20 years old when i was the age those
guys back there in the back hey you paying attention back there ash are you paying attention okay,
(07:10):
When I was their age, I loved hanging out with my pastor. He was just a cool guy.
And I thought, you know, if I was really holy, I'd probably be on the worship
team. And then I tried to sing and that was not going to happen.
So then I thought, maybe I should be a pastor. That's a cool,
cool thing. I grew up in a Catholic church. I went to the Baptist church.
(07:30):
I'd seen different denominations. I've been in all of your denominations,
not in your churches here, but in your denominations. One thing that I found
as I went to different churches is, y'all think you're really different?
You're really not that different. If I had you shut your eyes and you walked
into most of your churches and then you opened your eyes, you would be like,
(07:52):
I thought this was my church. We're very, very, very similar.
We believe in Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. We believe in the Holy Spirit.
We believe that Jesus died on the cross for our sins because every one of us
has sinned and fallen short. We can't earn our way to heaven.
And we believe that Jesus Christ miraculously and supernaturally was raised
(08:16):
from the dead by his father.
Let me ask you a question. You just met my son.
What wouldn't I do for my son? If my son passed out right now and died right
there from heart failure and I had the ability to resurrect him from the dead.
Anyone in this room wouldn't resurrect their son from the dead.
That's what God did for his son.
(08:41):
Here's my story.
It's probably 35, 40 years ago.
I get my first opportunity to be introduced in the health club business.
I'm going to be a manager.
And there's 75 people in front of me and I'm standing on a platform,
(09:04):
and prior to being introduced I'm over on the side,
and the president and the vice president are saying a couple words and then
they're going to introduce me and when I get up there I have 75 employees that
tomorrow morning I'm going to be their manager and,
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Not their pastor, their manager.
As I'm getting ready to come up, I get an invitation right here between my chest and my belly button.
And the invitation was really simple. Will you put me first?
(09:47):
Will you put me first? And it was just a loving, gentle invitation.
And I was thinking, are you kidding me?
I mean, you know, I don't even hardly know this president and vice president.
They're going to fire me before I even get started.
But I knew it was the Lord. And then I was thinking of Proverbs 5,
(10:10):
which is one of my favorite verses.
I mean, Proverbs 3, verse 5 and 6 basically says, in everything you do,
put God first, and he'll direct, and he'll crown your efforts with success.
That's kind of how I memorized it from the Bible when I was a kid,
so forgive me if it's slightly off.
That's the gist of it. So that's in my heart. So I get introduced, I stand up.
(10:35):
I don't even know what that looks like, but all I know is, listen to me,
guys, I know this, in the marketplace, I went from hiding in Jesus Christ to
stepping out over the line for Jesus Christ, and it scared the crap out of me.
I mean, really, it was like, am I really going to do this here?
And so what I did was I took a step forward, and I'm like, I love you so much.
(10:58):
I just, I want to honor you, and you've given me this opportunity.
So I ducked my head down, and I said, before I do anything, I want to just put God first.
And I duck my head down, I start saying the Our Father, the Lord's Prayer,
Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
Do you know how long that prayer is?
(11:18):
It's like 22 minutes. I mean, it took forever. Okay, nothing weird happened.
Except in here, I knew, the Lord knew how hard that was for me to step over
that line. And I knew I pleased him.
That's all I knew. I just knew. It was almost like I had a deposit in my heart
(11:39):
of, that was so cool, kid.
I'm so proud. It was like that kind of a feeling.
All right. Wait till you hear the end of this story. So now I go into work,
run things, get there in that company, work there for quite a while and realize
they're not doing things the right way business wise.
So I decided, I talked to my dad and he He said, you better get out of there
(12:01):
because you're going to wreck your reputation.
I mean, they're driving Porsches and Lamborghinis. We didn't,
you know, we were just getting started. We didn't have that kind of money. So I left.
I got started in the, on the east side of Madison because that company did go under.
And they had a brand new club on the east side, right by Easttown Mall,
(12:24):
if anybody's familiar with that.
And so I went to a guy that was older than me, a friend of my dad's,
and I said, hey, here's what happened.
This health club just went over. I would like to run it. I know how to do it.
And he helped me get started, okay, because I didn't have any money.
I had a Camaro with my TV in the front seat and two bags of laundry in the back.
And that was kind of what I had until I got to Madison again.
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I grew up pretty close to that location. So I knew a lot of people and we started
selling memberships and we worked and we worked and we worked and we worked.
I mean, just like you all do. Worked hard.
Wasn't mystical. It was just good old fashioned hard work. I pretty much lived in the health club.
Time goes on six years. That club's grown. It's doing good.
(13:12):
Now, there's a club on the west side of Madison that the landlords,
after it went under, decided, well, we're going to keep running this. We'll hire a manager.
And that business just kind of started going like this because they really didn't
know how to run a health club correctly.
So I prayed about it, and I thought the Lord wanted me to maybe go over there
(13:35):
and visit with them. So I went over and talked to two guys.
They're probably 72, 73 years old. I said, I don't want to compete with you
on the west side of Madison because you have a health club. I'll tell you what
I'd be interested in doing.
Would you ever sell your health club to me and my older partner?
Well, come to find out my older partner and these two guys are buddies.
They knew each other really well.
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And so after a couple of meetings, they were like, yeah, let's talk more about
it. We got to the point where we had a deal.
We're going to give them a million dollars in cash. And then they were going
to let me have the health club to run. and it was in their shopping center,
so everything was already in there.
It was really, I mean, and you got to remember, I'm still the age of those kids
(14:18):
standing back there by that truck, and I am so excited because it's a dream of my lifetime.
I mean, here I'm going to have the best on the east side and the best on the
west side. Everybody knew that.
It was no question about it. They were the nicest, newest 24-hour fitness centers.
Everyone would be talking about it. I come to the bank to sign the papers.
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Anybody bought anything, real estate or whatever, they set down the New York
phone book in front of you, and then you've got to sign your name for the next
half an hour until your hand looks like that.
So I come off the elevator, and I can see the door halfway down the tent.
The conference room, I see my partner in there.
I see over here was an attorney and then a couple accountant guys and the stacks
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of paper on the table. I step off the elevator, and somewhere between my chest
and my belly button, I hear a commanding stop.
Okay. That has to be the enemy.
Because my dream and my destiny is 12 feet away from me in that room right there.
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All I got to do is go in and sign my name. I got a question for you. Nobody heard that.
It was just me and I believe it was the Lord.
If it wasn't the enemy, it had to be the Lord. And I wanted to do it really bad.
So I was really sure it was probably the Lord because I want that more than you can imagine.
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What would you do?
I could have just walked in and signed the papers and started building Dave's kingdom.
I don't want to build my kingdom. I just don't.
I don't want my name on a building. I don't care about any of that.
I want Jesus Christ high and lifted up, And I want him to see us when we get
(16:13):
in front of him someday in person.
Go, way to go, kid. I am so proud of you. Well done.
Well done. That's what was in my heart. And so now I got to make a decision
because if I walk in that room and I say to those guys after I put the deal
together and did all that,
that I don't want to do this, I'm going to destroy my reputation in Madison.
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I mean, these guys are kind of the business guys.
Well, that's what I did. I walked in the room. I said, I don't know what to
tell you guys, but for some, you know, you know, I pray about stuff before I do it.
I'm not supposed to do this today. And I can't even give you a good reason why
I just know in my heart, I'm not supposed to do this deal today.
Holy smoke. If looks could kill, I would be dead.
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I mean, they, and my partner was looking at me like with arrows coming out of
his eyes. He's like, what is wrong with, you know, that kind of thing.
So I think I backed out of the room that day. You know, I was just like,
I'm sorry. I'll square things up financially with the attorney,
stuff like that. I get to the point where I leave.
I'm just disillusioned.
(17:21):
You ever been there? You thought God said something?
Maybe he did, maybe he didn't. And you thought you missed him?
I felt like I completely missed him. Like, you've got to be kidding.
I'm pretty sure you're the one that led me to the west side.
I'm pretty sure that that's how I had that meeting.
And you tell me, stop. Well, I wasn't mad at God, but I was frustrated.
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It wasn't happening the way I pictured it to happen. No, wait till you hear the end of this.
So time goes on. A year goes by. I'm back at the Eastside Health Club,
running the club, doing good, working hard.
My phone rings.
It's my partner on the telephone. And he says, hey, David. And he's a pretty big man.
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He doesn't get wound up too much. He was excited. I could tell he was excited.
He said, David, are you sitting down?
And for the young kids, yes, I was sitting down because I was at a desk.
And back then, there was a telephone thing.
It had a curly cord that connected over here to the wall.
So you had to be at your desk to talk to anybody.
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He said, David, you're not going to believe what just happened. I said, what?
He said, Mr. So-and-so and Mr. So-and-so, those two guys that had that Westside
Health Club and the landlords, they just left his office.
They're getting out of the health club business.
They know me. They trust me. They've seen what you've done on the east side.
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They want to know if you'll come over and run this Westside Club.
If you do, they're going to hand you the keys to the front door.
I didn't even know what to say, except yes. You know, I mean, it's like, yeah, yeah.
I mean, what are the money? We're friends. They don't want my money. Just pay them rent.
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You get the club. Here's the keys.
And I sat there for a minute, and I remember hanging the phone up I'm just kind
of looking at the ceiling in my office thinking, who are you?
I mean, God, how do you even do this kind of thing? And then I remember like this, just a flash.
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A decade earlier, I'm standing on a platform in a health club,
and the Holy Spirit goes, hey, kid, will you put me first?
I don't want to. This is scary. I like being hidden in you.
No one needs to know. you know I'm yours, but no one else needs to know.
And then that day he goes, no, I want everybody to know you're my son.
(20:00):
He wants everyone to know you're his son, you're his daughter.
He wants to show you off. You don't have to hide like this.
So I remember in an instant that moment, and I remember, wait a minute,
in everything you do, put God first, and
he will crown your efforts with success
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you know the health club they handed me the keys to the front door of was the
exact same health club that had the platform i was standing on when i said i
want to try to put god first i'm not nearly sure what to do our father which
art in heaven hallowed be thy name here's the key son.
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That's our father. It might not happen that way exactly to everyone.
I'm no different than you.
Those are brothers and sisters. I don't have favorites.
They're all my favorites. I love them all. So there's nothing unique about me.
But that's when I stepped over that line.
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Now, I'm going to finish with this because I don't have a lot of time this morning.
That health club exploded in growth. It was like the Holy Spirit just breathed on it.
We did eight months, eight months of business in 30 days.
I knew that for a fact because I had all their numbers. They gave us all the
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equipment. They gave us all the membership contracts, everything.
In that window of time in Madison, no one was talking about any other health
club except the Princeton clubs.
That's pretty cool. Helped me build a house. That was cool.
But here's what's really cool. God used the funds from that event after the
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pastors had clustered together and begun to bring the marketplace and business
people to completely fund 100% free to everyone the crusade in the Coliseum in Dane County.
Nobody paid a nickel there was no offering it was completely funded the public
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doesn't know the only reason you know is because I gave you my book and you'll read it in there.
I'm not telling you because I think, wow, I'm telling you, God brought this
in and he had a purpose behind it.
He has a purpose for us to step over the line.
He's got a purpose for you to step over the line. Do you know in that crusade,
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80 churches joined together in Madison?
In Madison, are you kidding me? In Madison, Wisconsin, 80 churches joined together.
The last night of the crusade was four nights. It was all about salvation.
See, the Father, all he really cares about, is he going to be with me forever?
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Is he going to be with me forever? That's all I really care about.
The answer is yes.
And that's what he cares about, the people in this community.
They're all looking for something And you guys all know what the answer is Here's
what I want to ask you to do today You don't have to do anything if you don't
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want to But would you in your heart,
Say, you know what, I've been hiding What you've done for me my whole life a
little bit I kind of show it a little bit at times When I'm around a sister
in the Lord Okay, I can do it on Sunday at 10,
Can you do it in the marketplace?
Will you step out in the marketplace, in the grocery store?
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And hey, don't be weird.
Seriously, don't be weird. The Holy Spirit is not weird. The Holy Spirit is amazing.
So don't be weird. People are weird. And that turns people off.
But if you're legit and genuine in your heart and you're deeply in love,
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I know when I look at a man if he really loves his wife or not.
I can just tell by looking at you. You don't have to tell me anything.
I can tell that she likes him and loves him or she's irritated at him.
I can tell by just looking at you. So can you.
You know that nonbelievers see something different in you if you're genuine
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and it's very attractive and the Holy Spirit's right there trying to usher him in.
The funds from those fitness centers did the crusade.
1479 people gave their hearts to Christ in the Dane County Coliseum.
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1479 people. I mean, they got up, they came forward.
You know, you ever see Billy Graham back then on TV? It was kind of like that.
The Coliseum was packed. There was no room, 10,000 people in the Colosseum. Why?
A, because the Holy Spirit and Jesus Christ are very humble.
So it wasn't about a man. I'll tell you how much it wasn't about a man.
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As I chaired that event, the opening night, we brought all the pastors on the
platform. The Holy Spirit said, go back over here.
I'm down underneath the Coliseum in the utility room while all the pastors are
up, and they did what you did.
When the pastors came up, they clapped for them and they cheered for them.
The Lord didn't want me anywhere near that.
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He won't share his glory with anybody, but if you will do exactly what he tells
you to do when he tells you because he's your first love.
Come back to your first love.
My first love is not the Princeton clubs. My first love is not Salko.
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And unfortunately for my wife, my first love is not my wife.
My first love is Jesus Christ in me.
When I was 12 years old, I opened my heart and said, come in.
It changed my life. It's not because you're weak.
What do you have that I want?
Everything I have, I got from the Lord. Same thing with you.
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Every good thing you have came from the Lord,
Last thing I'll say is this The money also went to fund What's called the Elizabeth
House In Madison It's a home for pregnant,
unwed women,
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Upstairs are the rooms Downstairs is a medical clinic It's completely paid for,
So a young girl, when her dad is not a good dad, it goes, you whore, what did you do?
Get out of here. Don't move out of my house. And she has to go somewhere. Where does she go?
Well, you know what our father wants to do for her?
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He wants to build her a home and a room with nurses and a medical center and
say, come here, sweetheart. Come here. And by the way, where's the guy?
And they come in and they get counseling I have pictures at Christmas time they
send me pictures the first children are now college age and every year I get
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pictures of this little baby and this mommy that God the Father said I want
to have a home for them right in our community,
and I got to tell you one last thing the land that was bought for that home is,
The abortion clinic was trying to buy the same piece of land.
And because God is God and God is the Father and he has authority over all things,
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he moved them out and allowed us to buy that land for that home,
move the abortion clinic off the property. I mean, is that cool?
I am probably done, aren't I?
I told him, I said, when I get to 20 minutes, go like this. So I quit talking.
But I will finish last promise, last thing.
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Teddy, when he was little, he used to walk into the health club.
That boy there now, he'd walk into the health club.
He could go up to anybody in the health club. He could go up to men your age
and say, would you put the baskets down in the gym for me?
And he was not arrogant. He was a nice little boy. He was polite, humble.
And they would say, sure, Teddy. and then he'd go over here to Miss Kitty and
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he'd ask her for a grilled cheese and yeah when you get done I'll make you a
grilled cheese okay great and I used to watch this little kid about four or
five years old walk through a health club and talk to men and women our age,
and they would do whatever he asked,
and they would do it with a smile and kind of quickly you know it was really
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amazing and then it dawned on me and understand what I'm going to say here that was my son.
Those people all were in my domain or
my kingdom so to speak so it wasn't so much who he was in only his authority
it was who he was with my authority backing him up and i said yes you can do
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that do you know this teddy used to come into the back office and ask me first.
He hung out with me and said, Dad, can I shoot hoops today? Yeah, absolutely, buddy.
I'd love for you to, I want to get a grilled cheese. Yeah, that's no problem.
He was in the back office with me and I gave him the authority as a father and
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the one that was in charge of that kingdom over Richland Center.
And I said, you have my authority to go out and do those things.
And when he went and did them, people responded just like that.
That's what will happen when God commands a blessing of a rich and center and
he says this is what i want to do and when you go to the different places that
god tells you to go to they will respond instantly you watch and see,
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that's how god does things.
You're the son and the daughter,
Would you go hang out in the office with your dad?
Would you go into the quiet place in your home and hide out?
Go into your closet, go someplace and just hang with him?
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Some of my greatest things in my life were just getting in the pickup truck
and driving down the street with my son. We never even said anything to each other.
We're just together. I just loved being together.
That's how God the Father feels about you. He just loves, oh, you don't understand.
No, I do understand. There's nothing he could do that would ever change my love for them.
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The three-year-old could start smoking cigarettes. It's not going to change my love for him at all.
I love him. I love him. I love him. I love him. That's how God feels about you.
Step over the line if you have the courage to do it.
And don't be afraid. and watch how God starts to roll out the things that he wants to do in your life.
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See, everyone in this room knows I was made for more than what I'm doing.
I just know I'm made for more than what I'm doing.
I'm telling you, this is like a blueprint. This is how God does it to move forward.
If each of us do our part because we spent time in prayer and he said,
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yes, I didn't tell him he could play racquetball. I said, you could take the baskets down.
So get specific instructions in the back room with your father and the Holy
of Holies in that place of prayer.
And when he says, you have my authority, who's going to stand up against God's
authority when God himself commanded a blessing?
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He threw the enemy right out of heaven.
You think he's having a problem with dealing with problems in this community?
When he commands a blessing, he will follow through and he will complete it.
God bless you I love you guys it's awesome.
Let's pray,
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Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty.
Heavenly Father, we give you thanks today. We stand here this morning as your
children, your sons and daughters, who you bought with your blood.
Lord, we are yours. And I just pray wherever we find ourselves In the community,
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in the marketplace With our families and friends and neighborhoods,
Lord, that we would take the challenge seriously today To put you first in our
lives Before anyone else, before all other pursuits,
Lord, I just pray that we would put you first,
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and now to him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and
made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father.
To him be glory and dominion forever and ever. And all God's people said, Amen.
Please welcome our special guest speaker today, Mr. Dave Gerry.
Thank you, Pastor. Appreciate it.
So for 40 years, I introduced myself as the owner of the Princeton Clubs,
which is a health club operation.
And every time I do it, somebody, the person I'm talking to goes and looks at
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me. It's like, do you use it?
And so what I decided to do from now on is I just tell everybody,
Hi, I'm Dave. I manage the Dunkin' Donuts.
And then they look at me like, well, he's got pretty good self-control.
He owns the Dunkin' Donuts. He's not that bad.
I'd like to take two seconds and introduce my family. They drove out,
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and if you'd just stand up for a second.
My wife, Jean, my son, Teddy, daughter-in-law, Lacey, who I love to death,
and then their three children.
This is the cutest little girl you've ever seen in your life.
And she knows how to do cartwheels. Isabella, David, and little Bobby.
And you sang Bobby's favorite song because when Bobby's at home,
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he sings holy, holy, holy all the time.
I have recordings of it. It's just so beautiful.
I have a question for you. If I had just introduced my family and Bobby,
the little guy, wasn't there and he was, we can't find him.
Where is Bobby? We're in a community we're not that familiar with.
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Where's my little boy? Where's my grandson?
And Teddy takes off looking for him and Gene and Lacey take off looking for him.
Tell me something. If you cared about me at all, wouldn't you get up and go try to find Bobby?
I mean, seriously, you got kids, you have grandkids. You would be like,
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I'm in, I'll help, I'll help.
God the Father has kids here in this community that he knows are lost,
and he wants to find them.
It's interesting to me that you're under a tent. You're under a canopy.
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I want you to imagine this just for a second.
This canopy doesn't stay up by itself.
There's a couple major posts down the middle, and then there's all these slightly
smaller posts all around the side tightened up and holding the canopy in place.
These posts represent, in my picture, pastors and churches.
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There's some that will have more of a central role, but there's many in your
community, many churches.
Listen to me. I know this is from the Lord. Pay attention.
God is getting ready to do something in Richland Center.
No, I mean it. I mean it. And this is a prerequisite.
Psalm 133, what's that talk about?
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It talks about when brethren dwell together in unity.
It's like the oil that came down on Aaron's head.
And the oil of the Holy Spirit came down on Aaron all the way down to the hem
(03:20):
of his garment. It was a priestly anointing that God released.
But here's my favorite part. But when brethren dwell together in unity,
God commands a blessing.
Are you kidding me? God commands a blessing?
Do you mean that maybe God is getting ready to command a blessing over the Richland
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Center area? Yes, let it happen.
Now, there's a lot of people that are my age and a little bit older. I want to honor you.
I don't know if you're older than me, but I just happened to touch your shoulder.
Don't turn around. I don't want to.
Thank you, grandmas and grandpas and the older generation in the faith for your prayers.
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And some of you might get frustrated at times because, well,
they don't know the Lord yet. They don't know.
But you've been contending and you've been praying. And I will promise you every
single tiny prayer you ever prayed, he heard you.
Whether you understand that or not, he heard you. And he stores those up.
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Those prayers are stored up. And there's moments in time that God dumps it out
over a community. That's going to happen in this city.
It is. I know it in my spirit. That's why you're gathering together as you're
preparing the spiritual atmosphere for God to move.
See, God is a very humble God, but he's also very ordered, and he does things his way.
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Period. He just does it his way. And there's ways he wants to do things.
And one of the things he requires is that his children come together.
That's a very important thing. I'm going to, first of all, relax.
Nothing weird is going to happen.
I know you guys, you're like, I'm not going to run up and down.
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I'm not taking any money.
I don't want anything from you. I came down here because I am deeply, deeply in love with God.
And I've watched in my life the things he's done in my life,
where now at 64 years old, put a gun to my head.
He's real. I know he's real. I've never seen him, but I sense him and I hear
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him somewhere between my chest and my belly button.
You know what I'm talking about? I don't hear him in my ears.
It's not like David. I've never had that happen.
But somewhere in here, my spirit, God is spirit.
God speaks to us spirit to spirit. And in the word of God, the Bible,
it confirms if God is saying something here and it doesn't line up with the
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word of God, it wasn't the Holy Spirit. So be careful.
And while I'm on that subject, you have pastors here.
Your responsibility as believers is not to criticize your pastor.
And if you do, shut up. Amen.
And all the pastors said. I mean, seriously, that's not your role.
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See, what God will begin to do is cluster the pastors together.
So pray for them to have unity.
You know, when I was in Madison, all I'm going to do today is tell you a story, okay?
It's an unbelievable story, but I want to preface it with this.
When I was in Madison, I saw the pastors begin to cluster together.
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But then came the marketplace people
around those pastors it's kind of like you know pastor and i well i'll just
say it this way my pastor when i was 19 20 years old when i was the age those
guys back there in the back hey you paying attention back there ash are you paying attention okay,
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When I was their age, I loved hanging out with my pastor. He was just a cool guy.
And I thought, you know, if I was really holy, I'd probably be on the worship
team. And then I tried to sing and that was not going to happen.
So then I thought, maybe I should be a pastor. That's a cool,
cool thing. I grew up in a Catholic church. I went to the Baptist church.
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I'd seen different denominations. I've been in all of your denominations,
not in your churches here, but in your denominations. One thing that I found
as I went to different churches is, y'all think you're really different?
You're really not that different. If I had you shut your eyes and you walked
into most of your churches and then you opened your eyes, you would be like,
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I thought this was my church. We're very, very, very similar.
We believe in Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. We believe in the Holy Spirit.
We believe that Jesus died on the cross for our sins because every one of us
has sinned and fallen short. We can't earn our way to heaven.
And we believe that Jesus Christ miraculously and supernaturally was raised
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from the dead by his father.
Let me ask you a question. You just met my son.
What wouldn't I do for my son? If my son passed out right now and died right
there from heart failure and I had the ability to resurrect him from the dead.
Anyone in this room wouldn't resurrect their son from the dead.
That's what God did for his son.
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Here's my story.
It's probably 35, 40 years ago.
I get my first opportunity to be introduced in the health club business.
I'm going to be a manager.
And there's 75 people in front of me and I'm standing on a platform,
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and prior to being introduced I'm over on the side,
and the president and the vice president are saying a couple words and then
they're going to introduce me and when I get up there I have 75 employees that
tomorrow morning I'm going to be their manager and,
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Not their pastor, their manager.
As I'm getting ready to come up, I get an invitation right here between my chest and my belly button.
And the invitation was really simple. Will you put me first?
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Will you put me first? And it was just a loving, gentle invitation.
And I was thinking, are you kidding me?
I mean, you know, I don't even hardly know this president and vice president.
They're going to fire me before I even get started.
But I knew it was the Lord. And then I was thinking of Proverbs 5,
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which is one of my favorite verses.
I mean, Proverbs 3, verse 5 and 6 basically says, in everything you do,
put God first, and he'll direct, and he'll crown your efforts with success.
That's kind of how I memorized it from the Bible when I was a kid,
so forgive me if it's slightly off.
That's the gist of it. So that's in my heart. So I get introduced, I stand up.
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I don't even know what that looks like, but all I know is, listen to me,
guys, I know this, in the marketplace, I went from hiding in Jesus Christ to
stepping out over the line for Jesus Christ, and it scared the crap out of me.
I mean, really, it was like, am I really going to do this here?
And so what I did was I took a step forward, and I'm like, I love you so much.
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I just, I want to honor you, and you've given me this opportunity.
So I ducked my head down, and I said, before I do anything, I want to just put God first.
And I duck my head down, I start saying the Our Father, the Lord's Prayer,
Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
Do you know how long that prayer is?
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It's like 22 minutes. I mean, it took forever. Okay, nothing weird happened.
Except in here, I knew, the Lord knew how hard that was for me to step over
that line. And I knew I pleased him.
That's all I knew. I just knew. It was almost like I had a deposit in my heart
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of, that was so cool, kid.
I'm so proud. It was like that kind of a feeling.
All right. Wait till you hear the end of this story. So now I go into work,
run things, get there in that company, work there for quite a while and realize
they're not doing things the right way business wise.
So I decided, I talked to my dad and he He said, you better get out of there
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because you're going to wreck your reputation.
I mean, they're driving Porsches and Lamborghinis. We didn't,
you know, we were just getting started. We didn't have that kind of money. So I left.
I got started in the, on the east side of Madison because that company did go under.
And they had a brand new club on the east side, right by Easttown Mall,
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if anybody's familiar with that.
And so I went to a guy that was older than me, a friend of my dad's,
and I said, hey, here's what happened.
This health club just went over. I would like to run it. I know how to do it.
And he helped me get started, okay, because I didn't have any money.
I had a Camaro with my TV in the front seat and two bags of laundry in the back.
And that was kind of what I had until I got to Madison again.
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I grew up pretty close to that location. So I knew a lot of people and we started
selling memberships and we worked and we worked and we worked and we worked.
I mean, just like you all do. Worked hard.
Wasn't mystical. It was just good old fashioned hard work. I pretty much lived in the health club.
Time goes on six years. That club's grown. It's doing good.
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Now, there's a club on the west side of Madison that the landlords,
after it went under, decided, well, we're going to keep running this. We'll hire a manager.
And that business just kind of started going like this because they really didn't
know how to run a health club correctly.
So I prayed about it, and I thought the Lord wanted me to maybe go over there
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and visit with them. So I went over and talked to two guys.
They're probably 72, 73 years old. I said, I don't want to compete with you
on the west side of Madison because you have a health club. I'll tell you what
I'd be interested in doing.
Would you ever sell your health club to me and my older partner?
Well, come to find out my older partner and these two guys are buddies.
They knew each other really well.
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And so after a couple of meetings, they were like, yeah, let's talk more about
it. We got to the point where we had a deal.
We're going to give them a million dollars in cash. And then they were going
to let me have the health club to run. and it was in their shopping center,
so everything was already in there.
It was really, I mean, and you got to remember, I'm still the age of those kids
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standing back there by that truck, and I am so excited because it's a dream of my lifetime.
I mean, here I'm going to have the best on the east side and the best on the
west side. Everybody knew that.
It was no question about it. They were the nicest, newest 24-hour fitness centers.
Everyone would be talking about it. I come to the bank to sign the papers.
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Anybody bought anything, real estate or whatever, they set down the New York
phone book in front of you, and then you've got to sign your name for the next
half an hour until your hand looks like that.
So I come off the elevator, and I can see the door halfway down the tent.
The conference room, I see my partner in there.
I see over here was an attorney and then a couple accountant guys and the stacks
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of paper on the table. I step off the elevator, and somewhere between my chest
and my belly button, I hear a commanding stop.
Okay. That has to be the enemy.
Because my dream and my destiny is 12 feet away from me in that room right there.
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All I got to do is go in and sign my name. I got a question for you. Nobody heard that.
It was just me and I believe it was the Lord.
If it wasn't the enemy, it had to be the Lord. And I wanted to do it really bad.
So I was really sure it was probably the Lord because I want that more than you can imagine.
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What would you do?
I could have just walked in and signed the papers and started building Dave's kingdom.
I don't want to build my kingdom. I just don't.
I don't want my name on a building. I don't care about any of that.
I want Jesus Christ high and lifted up, And I want him to see us when we get
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in front of him someday in person.
Go, way to go, kid. I am so proud of you. Well done.
Well done. That's what was in my heart. And so now I got to make a decision
because if I walk in that room and I say to those guys after I put the deal
together and did all that,
that I don't want to do this, I'm going to destroy my reputation in Madison.
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I mean, these guys are kind of the business guys.
Well, that's what I did. I walked in the room. I said, I don't know what to
tell you guys, but for some, you know, you know, I pray about stuff before I do it.
I'm not supposed to do this today. And I can't even give you a good reason why
I just know in my heart, I'm not supposed to do this deal today.
Holy smoke. If looks could kill, I would be dead.
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I mean, they, and my partner was looking at me like with arrows coming out of
his eyes. He's like, what is wrong with, you know, that kind of thing.
So I think I backed out of the room that day. You know, I was just like,
I'm sorry. I'll square things up financially with the attorney,
stuff like that. I get to the point where I leave.
I'm just disillusioned.
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You ever been there? You thought God said something?
Maybe he did, maybe he didn't. And you thought you missed him?
I felt like I completely missed him. Like, you've got to be kidding.
I'm pretty sure you're the one that led me to the west side.
I'm pretty sure that that's how I had that meeting.
And you tell me, stop. Well, I wasn't mad at God, but I was frustrated.
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It wasn't happening the way I pictured it to happen. No, wait till you hear the end of this.
So time goes on. A year goes by. I'm back at the Eastside Health Club,
running the club, doing good, working hard.
My phone rings.
It's my partner on the telephone. And he says, hey, David. And he's a pretty big man.
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He doesn't get wound up too much. He was excited. I could tell he was excited.
He said, David, are you sitting down?
And for the young kids, yes, I was sitting down because I was at a desk.
And back then, there was a telephone thing.
It had a curly cord that connected over here to the wall.
So you had to be at your desk to talk to anybody.
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He said, David, you're not going to believe what just happened. I said, what?
He said, Mr. So-and-so and Mr. So-and-so, those two guys that had that Westside
Health Club and the landlords, they just left his office.
They're getting out of the health club business.
They know me. They trust me. They've seen what you've done on the east side.
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They want to know if you'll come over and run this Westside Club.
If you do, they're going to hand you the keys to the front door.
I didn't even know what to say, except yes. You know, I mean, it's like, yeah, yeah.
I mean, what are the money? We're friends. They don't want my money. Just pay them rent.
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You get the club. Here's the keys.
And I sat there for a minute, and I remember hanging the phone up I'm just kind
of looking at the ceiling in my office thinking, who are you?
I mean, God, how do you even do this kind of thing? And then I remember like this, just a flash.
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A decade earlier, I'm standing on a platform in a health club,
and the Holy Spirit goes, hey, kid, will you put me first?
I don't want to. This is scary. I like being hidden in you.
No one needs to know. you know I'm yours, but no one else needs to know.
And then that day he goes, no, I want everybody to know you're my son.
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He wants everyone to know you're his son, you're his daughter.
He wants to show you off. You don't have to hide like this.
So I remember in an instant that moment, and I remember, wait a minute,
in everything you do, put God first, and
he will crown your efforts with success
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you know the health club they handed me the keys to the front door of was the
exact same health club that had the platform i was standing on when i said i
want to try to put god first i'm not nearly sure what to do our father which
art in heaven hallowed be thy name here's the key son.
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That's our father. It might not happen that way exactly to everyone.
I'm no different than you.
Those are brothers and sisters. I don't have favorites.
They're all my favorites. I love them all. So there's nothing unique about me.
But that's when I stepped over that line.
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Now, I'm going to finish with this because I don't have a lot of time this morning.
That health club exploded in growth. It was like the Holy Spirit just breathed on it.
We did eight months, eight months of business in 30 days.
I knew that for a fact because I had all their numbers. They gave us all the
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equipment. They gave us all the membership contracts, everything.
In that window of time in Madison, no one was talking about any other health
club except the Princeton clubs.
That's pretty cool. Helped me build a house. That was cool.
But here's what's really cool. God used the funds from that event after the
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pastors had clustered together and begun to bring the marketplace and business
people to completely fund 100% free to everyone the crusade in the Coliseum in Dane County.
Nobody paid a nickel there was no offering it was completely funded the public
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doesn't know the only reason you know is because I gave you my book and you'll read it in there.
I'm not telling you because I think, wow, I'm telling you, God brought this
in and he had a purpose behind it.
He has a purpose for us to step over the line.
He's got a purpose for you to step over the line. Do you know in that crusade,
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80 churches joined together in Madison?
In Madison, are you kidding me? In Madison, Wisconsin, 80 churches joined together.
The last night of the crusade was four nights. It was all about salvation.
See, the Father, all he really cares about, is he going to be with me forever?
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Is he going to be with me forever? That's all I really care about.
The answer is yes.
And that's what he cares about, the people in this community.
They're all looking for something And you guys all know what the answer is Here's
what I want to ask you to do today You don't have to do anything if you don't
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want to But would you in your heart,
Say, you know what, I've been hiding What you've done for me my whole life a
little bit I kind of show it a little bit at times When I'm around a sister
in the Lord Okay, I can do it on Sunday at 10,
Can you do it in the marketplace?
Will you step out in the marketplace, in the grocery store?
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And hey, don't be weird.
Seriously, don't be weird. The Holy Spirit is not weird. The Holy Spirit is amazing.
So don't be weird. People are weird. And that turns people off.
But if you're legit and genuine in your heart and you're deeply in love,
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I know when I look at a man if he really loves his wife or not.
I can just tell by looking at you. You don't have to tell me anything.
I can tell that she likes him and loves him or she's irritated at him.
I can tell by just looking at you. So can you.
You know that nonbelievers see something different in you if you're genuine
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and it's very attractive and the Holy Spirit's right there trying to usher him in.
The funds from those fitness centers did the crusade.
1479 people gave their hearts to Christ in the Dane County Coliseum.
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1479 people. I mean, they got up, they came forward.
You know, you ever see Billy Graham back then on TV? It was kind of like that.
The Coliseum was packed. There was no room, 10,000 people in the Colosseum. Why?
A, because the Holy Spirit and Jesus Christ are very humble.
So it wasn't about a man. I'll tell you how much it wasn't about a man.
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As I chaired that event, the opening night, we brought all the pastors on the
platform. The Holy Spirit said, go back over here.
I'm down underneath the Coliseum in the utility room while all the pastors are
up, and they did what you did.
When the pastors came up, they clapped for them and they cheered for them.
The Lord didn't want me anywhere near that.
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He won't share his glory with anybody, but if you will do exactly what he tells
you to do when he tells you because he's your first love.
Come back to your first love.
My first love is not the Princeton clubs. My first love is not Salko.
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And unfortunately for my wife, my first love is not my wife.
My first love is Jesus Christ in me.
When I was 12 years old, I opened my heart and said, come in.
It changed my life. It's not because you're weak.
What do you have that I want?
Everything I have, I got from the Lord. Same thing with you.
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Every good thing you have came from the Lord,
Last thing I'll say is this The money also went to fund What's called the Elizabeth
House In Madison It's a home for pregnant,
unwed women,
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Upstairs are the rooms Downstairs is a medical clinic It's completely paid for,
So a young girl, when her dad is not a good dad, it goes, you whore, what did you do?
Get out of here. Don't move out of my house. And she has to go somewhere. Where does she go?
Well, you know what our father wants to do for her?
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He wants to build her a home and a room with nurses and a medical center and
say, come here, sweetheart. Come here. And by the way, where's the guy?
And they come in and they get counseling I have pictures at Christmas time they
send me pictures the first children are now college age and every year I get
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pictures of this little baby and this mommy that God the Father said I want
to have a home for them right in our community,
and I got to tell you one last thing the land that was bought for that home is,
The abortion clinic was trying to buy the same piece of land.
And because God is God and God is the Father and he has authority over all things,
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he moved them out and allowed us to buy that land for that home,
move the abortion clinic off the property. I mean, is that cool?
I am probably done, aren't I?
I told him, I said, when I get to 20 minutes, go like this. So I quit talking.
But I will finish last promise, last thing.
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Teddy, when he was little, he used to walk into the health club.
That boy there now, he'd walk into the health club.
He could go up to anybody in the health club. He could go up to men your age
and say, would you put the baskets down in the gym for me?
And he was not arrogant. He was a nice little boy. He was polite, humble.
And they would say, sure, Teddy. and then he'd go over here to Miss Kitty and
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he'd ask her for a grilled cheese and yeah when you get done I'll make you a
grilled cheese okay great and I used to watch this little kid about four or
five years old walk through a health club and talk to men and women our age,
and they would do whatever he asked,
and they would do it with a smile and kind of quickly you know it was really
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amazing and then it dawned on me and understand what I'm going to say here that was my son.
Those people all were in my domain or
my kingdom so to speak so it wasn't so much who he was in only his authority
it was who he was with my authority backing him up and i said yes you can do
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that do you know this teddy used to come into the back office and ask me first.
He hung out with me and said, Dad, can I shoot hoops today? Yeah, absolutely, buddy.
I'd love for you to, I want to get a grilled cheese. Yeah, that's no problem.
He was in the back office with me and I gave him the authority as a father and
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the one that was in charge of that kingdom over Richland Center.
And I said, you have my authority to go out and do those things.
And when he went and did them, people responded just like that.
That's what will happen when God commands a blessing of a rich and center and
he says this is what i want to do and when you go to the different places that
god tells you to go to they will respond instantly you watch and see,
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that's how god does things.
You're the son and the daughter,
Would you go hang out in the office with your dad?
Would you go into the quiet place in your home and hide out?
Go into your closet, go someplace and just hang with him?
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Some of my greatest things in my life were just getting in the pickup truck
and driving down the street with my son. We never even said anything to each other.
We're just together. I just loved being together.
That's how God the Father feels about you. He just loves, oh, you don't understand.
No, I do understand. There's nothing he could do that would ever change my love for them.
(30:49):
The three-year-old could start smoking cigarettes. It's not going to change my love for him at all.
I love him. I love him. I love him. I love him. That's how God feels about you.
Step over the line if you have the courage to do it.
And don't be afraid. and watch how God starts to roll out the things that he wants to do in your life.
(31:15):
See, everyone in this room knows I was made for more than what I'm doing.
I just know I'm made for more than what I'm doing.
I'm telling you, this is like a blueprint. This is how God does it to move forward.
If each of us do our part because we spent time in prayer and he said,
(31:35):
yes, I didn't tell him he could play racquetball. I said, you could take the baskets down.
So get specific instructions in the back room with your father and the Holy
of Holies in that place of prayer.
And when he says, you have my authority, who's going to stand up against God's
authority when God himself commanded a blessing?
(31:56):
He threw the enemy right out of heaven.
You think he's having a problem with dealing with problems in this community?
When he commands a blessing, he will follow through and he will complete it.
God bless you I love you guys it's awesome.
Let's pray,
(32:18):
Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty.
Heavenly Father, we give you thanks today. We stand here this morning as your
children, your sons and daughters, who you bought with your blood.
Lord, we are yours. And I just pray wherever we find ourselves In the community,
(32:43):
in the marketplace With our families and friends and neighborhoods,
Lord, that we would take the challenge seriously today To put you first in our
lives Before anyone else, before all other pursuits,
Lord, I just pray that we would put you first,
(33:04):
and now to him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and
made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father.
To him be glory and dominion forever and ever. And all God's people said, Amen.
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