God Works in Your Home When You Obey His Call to Go

When I was a young person, I left home to move to Arizona to go to a Bible college, and I didn’t want to go.

I actually gave all my money away to pay for someone else to go, and then I told the treasurer of that school, I said, “Yeah, I don’t have any more money. I gave it all away. I paid for that other student to go.”

But I didn’t want to go because my family weren’t practicing Christians. My mom, my dad, my three brothers—they were wrestling with different things in their lives.

I remember I sat them all down. I preached Daniel 2 to them in the living room with a huge whiteboard, and I was like, “Who’s ready to get baptized?”

And they looked at me like I was crazy.

I was like, “It didn’t work! Like, it worked on me—why didn’t it work on them?”

I remember I would do so many things. I’d give so many Bible studies. I would invite them. I’m preaching, I’m preaching, I’m preaching, I’m preaching. And they would occasionally pop in, they would listen, and they’d like, “Yeah, that was cool.”

And I’m like, “Cool? Like everyone else is in tears. Why are you just saying it’s cool?” It doesn’t make sense to me.

And I tried so hard. I offered one-on-one: “Hey, do you want to study?” “No, not really.” “Okay. You guys want to watch this Christian movie?” “Is that not really?” “Okay.”

And I tried so hard.

Then God said, “Leave and go to Arizona.” And it was hard.

So I gave my money away. Said, “I’m not going.”

The treasurer of this—I called the threat—the finance person at the school. I said, “I can’t go. Can’t afford it.”

They said, “But your bill’s already paid for. Someone paid for it. It’s paid for. We already have your money in.”

I was like, “Wait, wait, wait—is this other student paid for it?”

They said, “Yeah, they’re paid for too.”

I was like, “Oh, we’re both paid for?”

They said, “Yeah. So we expect to see you on Monday.”

This was like on Thursday. I was like, “Okay, I’ll see you in a couple days.”

Tears were coming down my cheeks as I thought about my family. It seemed like God opened the door, but it seemed like I was betraying my family.

So I leave. I go to this college for two years. Then afterwards, I get asked to stay there and teach. I’m supposed to go home and save my family.

God makes it clear: “Stay in Arizona.”

So I stay. Occasionally I pop in, occasionally I eat Mom’s cooking, occasionally I say hi. No one wants Bible study—that’s okay.

Then one day, a few years down the road, I get a phone call from my dad.

He says, “Hey, are you gonna be home for your birthday?”

And we didn’t really do birthdays anymore. So I was like, “Sure.”

And I came home.

I went to my local church. And the elder of the church—when I came in, I grabbed the bulletin—he walked up and tore it out of my hand.

He said, “You’ve been gone too long. You don’t get bulletins.”

I was like, “What?” It’s okay. That was weird.

So I go and sit down in the pew, and I’m seeing all the old faithful church members of my little local little church in Banning, California. And all of a sudden, they say the pastor comes out in a baptismal robe, and he’s in the tub, and he’s describing the story of a person who he studied with.

And then my dad walked out.

And I had no idea this was happening. I had no idea. He was even—I didn’t even care about the Bible. Every time I called him, “What’s new?” “49ers latest game.” “Okay, let’s talk about it.” Like that was it.

And I asked him afterwards. I remember he got baptized, and I was just shocked.

I was like, at first I was like, “Dad, get out of there! Like, you’re in the wrong—like he’s wandering in the wrong place. What’s he doing in there?”

And I remember afterwards I spoke with him. I said, “Dad, what happened?”

He said, “Let me tell you a story.”

He said, “A couple of years ago, I was going through a tough time. And I remember when you became a Christian, we put you through a lot of stuff as your family. And we really tried to get you to stop. But you didn’t.

We thought it was a phase that would pass, but it stuck. And you were happy. Things always didn’t work out for you, but you were happy. And I wasn’t happy.

And I remember you had given me a Bible, and I never read it. And I remember one day I was looking at that Bible and I said, ‘Why does this book make my son so happy?’”

So he went to the pastor with a friend who he met at a football place where you can watch football games, who turned out to be a Seventh-day Adventist. They went to the pastor, my home church, and he said, “I want Bible studies. I want to talk about the Bible. But you cannot tell my son.” Rule number one.

So they studied for a couple years, secretly. Closet Bible study.

And I found out the day he gave his life to Jesus.

When you obey and go out and serve, my friends, Jesus takes note, and He goes and serves in your own areas. Because Jesus said, “Prophets aren’t welcome in their own homes,” usually. But Jesus can get His way to the heart. Amen.