(279) “Following Jesus with the Cross” with Keith Wheeler

0:00 And I said, Jesus, how do I reach these people? Speak, Lord, your servant's listening. And just like when you see an animal get branded, that's the only way I can describe it. I felt the branding of God's voice on my soul. I want you to make a large wooden cross and begin walking through the streets of Tulsa on Good Friday. God promises in Joel 2 .28 to pour His Spirit out on all humanity. Welcome to Global Outpouring, where we contend for that promise outpouring, we equip for that outpouring, so that we may engage in that very outpouring. I'm Philip Buss. And I'm Sharon Buss.

0:48 Welcome to the podcast today. We are so delighted to have with us a friend who is very, very dear to our hearts. We haven't seen each other for many years, but his name is Keith Wheeler. Perhaps you've heard of him. Maybe you haven't. But he is a man of God that has taken up his cross and followed Jesus, literally. Jesus challenged him to take up his cross, to build a 12 -foot cross and carry it around the world. And he has been doing that now for many years. And he's going to share some of his testimonies on this episode. And you're going to be really blessed with how the Lord has led him in his work. That is Jesus' work. Thanks so much for joining us today. We are so encouraged with the goodness of God in this episode. You're going to really enjoy it.

1:48 But before we get started, we want to encourage you, if you haven't already done so, that you go out to our website, globaloutpouring .net, and make sure that you have subscribed to our email lists and that you take the opportunity to leave us some feedback or write us an email at feedback at globaloutpouring .org. Enjoy the things that we have out there on our website. And I think this is one of those episodes that you're going to want to share with others. So share this on social media or send a text with a link to it to your friends. This is going to be a life changing episode. Keith Wheeler, it is such a delight for us to have you with us on this Global Outpouring episode. I'm so delighted.

2:35 It's been really a long time since we've been connected, but we've been connected for many years. Yes. So welcome. Welcome to this episode. What a treat. Thanks for the gift of your all's time. I really appreciate it. We appreciate the gift of your time because we know that, well, you're just getting ready to go on another long walk. But we'll get to that in a minute. Let's just go back for a moment. You were raised not so very far from here, just in the big town nearby. We're in the little town south of little town of Jasper, which is population about 500. So Harrison is. Not quite three times bigger. About 13 ,000. Anyway, we're just so delighted that you're here. And just tell us a little bit about how we got connected in the first place and how long ago was that? It was a long time ago. Once again, thank you, guys. It's such an honor to be reconnected with you all. I grew up and went to Harrison schools, but I grew up out in the country more. on the north side of Harrison, out toward Bergman and Bled Hill. My nearest neighbor was two and a half miles away. Wow.

3:48 So I really grew up out in the country. Went away to school. I tell people my short story, and I hope this makes sense, is I was a Christian for 20 years, and then I met Jesus. Okay. Or you could say that I loved Jesus for 20 years. And then I fell in love with him. Oh, yes. There's a number of other ways of saying that. And out of that, he gave me the beautiful invitation eventually of carrying a cross, of walking together with him and carrying a cross. And I try to always be really clear up front. I'm often introduced as this is a guy who's carried a cross around the world. And I said, if that's... true, if that's all it is, then I'm just a Christian tourist, a spiritual adventurer. Because the cross without Jesus is meaningless. The cross without Jesus is, minus Jesus, it's still the greatest device of torture, the most heinous thing that mankind has ever come up with. But with Jesus and his redemption of the cross, it becomes the greatest symbol of hope and peace and unconditional love.

5:03 of faith that there ever has been. And my journey, if I'm just a guy who's carried a cross around the world, minus Jesus, then that's all I am is a Christian tourist. But if he can redeem the cross, then that means he can redeem me. And if he can redeem me, then he can redeem others. And I don't call it his commission or his commandment. It's his invitation. The creator of the heavens and the earth. The one who breathes stars and calls them by name is the one and the one who knows how many hairs are on my head. Right. He's the one who has invited me to sit on the front row center stage and watch him do what he does best. Oh, I love that. And he blesses. He changes people's lives forever. He touches them. He heals them. He saves them. He delivers them. And the world pays premium prices to sit front row center stage, whether it's 50 -yard line at the Super Bowl or midcourt, seventh game, NBA finals, or whatever your favorite recording artist is or band. But here's the creator of all, the king of all. And he says, I want you to sit here and I'm going to do it and I'm going to let you watch me do it. That's beautiful. So he did. In 1985, on Good Friday, he invited me to begin carrying the cross and walking together with him. How did that happen? How did that happen? Tell us the story. Well, I'll back up just a little bit

6:33 to get to that first question. That was kind of a long introduction. Sorry. That's a good introduction. But it was five years into celebrating that. I was invited by some local pastors in the Jasper area. to come celebrate five years of carrying the cross. And one of those pastors was a pastor by the name of Earl Bergman. And he pastored there in a little community church right there at the bottom of the hill of Highway 7, just south of Jasper. It was my first time ever speaking in a church. He had heard me. First time ever. Now, just to give context, Earl Bergman was Gwen Shaw's brother. Correct. They're both in heaven now. And that's where I was going because his sister happened to come to the service that night and attend. And after the service, my first sermon, she came up to me and she said, young man, I would love for you to bring the cross to Washington, D .C. and speak at our international convention there in Washington, D .C. And I think that was in... 96 or 97 when I got to do that.

7:48 And that actually set the stage for me many years later. But on either that first or second Washington, D .C. event that I got to attend and speak at, which it just shows what an incredible lady Sister Gwen was. But she could see things that... The rest of us couldn't because I was definitely a shepherd boy out in the backside of the wilderness. And she saw something that even I had no idea. And I still don't really see myself as a speaker. I think that's why God called me to carry the cross. He said, you know, he's not a great speaker.

8:31 He's not real handsome. He can't sing for sure. But he loves me. He loves people and he can carry wood. And he's given me that privilege. But it was out of that that... She and I developed a beautiful friendship, and I got to come to your events. But on that second one, I think in Washington, D .C., she said, I have a place for you to stay. And I said, well, that's great. And it was the Iranian embassy. Seriously? I mean, how many Americans actually have gotten to sleep in the Iranian embassy? And I thought, if I can sleep in the Iranian embassy, I can carry the cross in Iran. And shortly after that, maybe a year or two later, I actually carried the cross in the nation of Iran for 19 days. Wow. That all goes back to my journey with her. The journey with the cross in answering your question is, as I said, I was Christian. I was a good Christian.

9:28 And we have a saying there in the hills that says just because there's paint on the outside of the barn doesn't mean there's not manure on the inside. That was truly a story of my life. I tell people my story and it's important to listen closely or you miss something really important. My parents were hippies when I was growing up. I don't know if they were hillbilly hippies or hippie hillbillies. But things were pretty crazy at my house. But my parents always believed in me and believed in my dreams. And I was an athlete. And they sent me to a Christian athletic camp.

10:08 And there I heard about being a Christian. And they told me about the beauty of heaven, the horror of hell. And I think any seven -year -old boy would say, I choose heaven. Anybody in their right mind will. I'm going to become a Christian. It was really quite an easy decision. They said, next step, you need to go to church. There's a lot of choices. And if your parents don't go to church, where do you go? Especially if you live in the country. Yeah. But I knew a girl that I kind of liked, and she was Catholic. And so I decided I would become Catholic. I went through catechism, through confirmation classes.

10:51 And in order to be baptized, though, I had to drive all the way over to Siloam Springs, where the bishop was. And I was baptized in Siloam Springs. But there was another pretty girl and she went to the Episcopal Church. So you got to cover your bases. And I went through their confirmation classes and was baptized and had communion in the Episcopal Church. I played basketball with a friend who went to the Lutheran Church. And so I went through their classes, met his pastor. We've gone past priests now. And I was baptized in a Lutheran Church. Played football with a friend who went to the Presbyterian Church.

11:31 So those are just the ones that you have to have confirmation classes. But I was also baptized in the United Methodist, the Disciples of Christ, Evangelical Free, Assemblies of God, Independent Charismatic, American Baptist, Missionary Baptist, and multiple times in the Southern Baptist Church. So whatever your theology is, I'm covered. I've been sprinkled, splashed, dunked, held under bubbles. Either the wettest or the cleanest Christian you've ever met. And then they said, now you have to pray. And I've always been an overachiever. And so I said, how much? And they said, well, one hour. And the baptism I didn't mention. was I was baptized before those baptisms because, as I said, my parents were hippies, and they did transcendental meditation. So my parents had made us be baptized into transcendental meditation, actually by the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. And I got sprinkled, and I got a mantra. And you're not supposed to tell your mantra to anybody.

12:37 Mine was not om. Mine was ing, I -N -G. shared with my sister. Well, she got the same one. So I'm wondering if they didn't distribute ings to everybody that day. I don't know. But we had to go to our room for an hour. My parents wanted us to go meditate for an hour. And I had to say the word ing for an hour. You just come up with different ways of inging. So when they said that I need to pray for an hour, praying was much easier than inging. So that was easy. They said, now read your Bible every year from cover to cover. And I love to read. So I did that every year. And one year I made it through three times in a year. And then they gave me the don'ts.

13:27 Don't smoke while I was training for the Olympics. So that was easy. And putting fire in my mouth never made sense anyway. And don't drink. And I'd done it once. And I saw how silly it made some of my. parents and their friends act. And so no, thank you. And when I did drink one time, it tasted like fire. So, okay. And again, I'm training for the Olympics and don't chase the girls. That was a little bit harder, but, but I, I'm a rule keeper and I was a straight A student. I was an all American athlete. And once again, I had a beautiful coat of paint on this Christian barn, but there was manure on the inside. And if you listen to my story at the first, I didn't say anything about Jesus. I said I became a Christian.

14:11 I'm sure I probably would have gone to heaven because, I mean, I could tell you apologetics. I mean, I met him, but I didn't know him. There's a huge difference. And one night on a beach in Florida, I realized, and it's a long story, I won't go into it, but it's a beautiful story. Actually, I have this on my desk. I don't know if you can see, but it's a railroad spike. It's about the size of the nails that must have gone through Jesus' hands. Sharp enough to penetrate the skin, but dull enough to cause as much tissue damage as possible and heavy enough to hold a man's weight. And I realized that it wasn't the Roman soldier who put him there with those nails.

14:55 It wasn't the decision of the Jewish lawyers and judges. If he died for my sin, I'm guilty. of the murder of God in the flesh when he came to this earth to show us his love. And yet he said, Father, forgive them. But he included me in that. Forgive him. He doesn't know what he's doing. And then he said, it's finished. And literally he said, it's paid in full, my price. And I fell in love. I fell head over heels, hopelessly, madly, crazy, twitterpated, thunkerpated, upside down in love with the king of all. And when I did that, I had been pursuing the Olympic medal.

15:36 I felt like he said, who is Lord, me or that gold medal? I was training 12 to 14 hours a day in the summertime. Would you be willing to give me the same amount of time, energy, and training? Blood, sweat, and tears. It's a no -brainer, yes. So I did. I skipped nationals that year. delivered Bibles. It was still Soviet Union. I was arrested three times by the KGB. I didn't have to serve it, but I did end up, it's a long, really hilarious story, but I almost faced a two and a half year prison sentence and almost had to serve it in Soviet Union before there was Russia. And so I saw what real faith was.

16:20 And then I had just graduated by now. And I had this thirst to know the Bible better, transferred to, came up here for graduate school in Tulsa, Oklahoma at Oral Roberts University. If I would have known it was seminary, I wouldn't have gone because in my world, seminary was cemetery. That's where preachers go to die. But God knew what he was doing. And he had me there for a reason. After three days, I turned to the guy next to me. I said, bro, this is just like seminary. And he looked at me and said. son, where do you think you are? Honestly, I had no idea. And I tried to leave multiple times. Again, long story, beautiful story, but God had me there. I'm so thankful because while I was there, I had to write a paper on the Holy Spirit. Every student that attends, whether you're a graduate student or undergraduate student, you have to write this paper, whether you're in seminary or... whether you're in a business class or whether you're in education, everybody at the school has to write a paper on who is the Holy Spirit. What is his purpose? What is the evidence of his work in our life? And if you remember my resume of churches, I attended a lot of different perspectives on the Holy Spirit. Some said that dispensation of the Holy Spirit, miraculous, the voice of God was all past. And others say. Everybody has to speak in tongues. And if you don't, you're not saved. And you have to speak so loud and so many decibels and so many syllables per second.

17:54 And I looked and said, Jesus, what do you say? And I came across a verse in Acts chapter 1, verse 8. And I would say this. I would add this. I ran across this phrase. I don't know who to attribute it to. They said, the issue is not tongues. The issue is the tongue. And I thought, yeah, that was really powerful. But Acts chapter one, verse eight, Jesus speaking to the disciples said, you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you shall. And he didn't say a thing about speaking in tongues or not. You shall be witnesses. Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, the uttermost parts of the earth. I don't ever want to be a cherry picker when it comes to Bible verses, but that seemed pretty. clear. But Jesus in Luke chapter four, when he opens the scroll of Isaiah in the synagogue in Nazareth, the spirit of the Lord is upon me for he's anointed me to, he didn't say anything about tongues or no tongues, preach good news. And so then as I'm following this thread, I read Mark chapter one, verse 17, follow me and I will make you fishers of men.

19:10 And so I would add this at this point of my life. He didn't say we're catchers of men. He's the catcher. We're the fishers. And I would be very clear. I've never led anybody to Jesus if the Bible's true. He says no one comes to the Father unless he draws them. If he is lifted up, he draws all men unto himself. He's the author. He's the finisher. He who began a good work. It's not by might. It's not by power. It's by my spirit, says the Lord. In fact, I'm 65 now, so I think I can say this. It's an addendum. If somebody has to tell you how many people they've led to Jesus, then hide your wallet because all they're after is your money. But it's true. I mean, because otherwise we get glory and we use statistics and numbers to pad our ministry. I don't have a ministry. Jesus does. And it's his ministry. to my life, in my life, and I pray overflowing out of my life. That's my definition of ministry. It's true, real ministry is simply the overflow of a life lived in love with Jesus.

20:19 And so as I'm reading these verses, I, okay, by nature, my personality type, I am probably the shyest, most insecure, fearful, timid person you've ever met. Now I'm adventurous as far as... climbing rocks and mountains and swinging off vines and pole vaulting and all of those kind of things. But talking to strangers, I'm a hillbilly boy. I'm a country boy that I would just rather be out in the woods. But God didn't call me according to my strength. He called me according to my weaknesses so that he might be made strong. And so I remember reading those verses and I said, Lord, am I even? filled with your Holy Spirit?

21:05 Am I baptized with your Holy Spirit? Am I even following you? Because I'm not witnessing. I was the guy that said, my life will be a witness. Of course, when somebody tells me that today, first of all, the Bible says, how will they know unless they hear? And of course, a lot of people speak with their mouth, but not with their life. Well, that's hypocrisy. But other people speak with their life, but not with their mouth. That's confusion. Somebody might think, you know, you're a vegetarian or a football player. You know, how will they know unless they hear? And so I laid down on the floor and I was there for hours.

21:45 And this is before Toronto Blessing made this phrase popular. This was 1984, fall of 84. More, Lord, more. God, give me more of you. More, Lord. Crying and praying and repeating it over and over, desperate for more of God so that I would feel different so that I could go tell people about Jesus. And after nearly four hours, I felt like Jesus said to me, shut up and listen to me. I felt like he said, son, I'm not a stock. I'm not a commodity. You cannot buy or sell or trade me. I'm not a part or a parcel or a portion.

22:28 I'm all that I ever was. I'm all that I ever will be. I'm all that I am. And when I came to live with you, everything I ever was, everything I ever will be, all that I am, came to live with you. The question is not you getting more of me. It's me getting all of you. And I said, OK, don't feel different. Don't look different. Probably don't smell different. So I'm going to go tell people about Jesus. And I got my big Ryrie study Bible and the best tracks I could get were cartoons. And, you know, they basically said everybody else is going to hell except me. And I thought, OK, where? Remember, this is 1984. The materials we have available today weren't available then.

23:17 Where are lost? people. And I thought, has to be bars. Everybody always told me, stay away from bars. So remember, I'm in Tulsa, Oklahoma. And I know where the bars are. There's a section of town, they tell you don't go. And in the 80s, it was called the Restless Ribbon. And people came from Texas and Missouri and Kansas and Arkansas and would cruise up and down and bars all up and down. So I've got my big Bible. Got my gospel tracts and I show up at 8 o 'clock and nobody was there. And I thought, you know, Tulsa really is a Christian town. There are no sinners here.

23:59 And they all started backsliding about 9 o 'clock. And by 10 o 'clock, they were really backsliding. 12 o 'clock is full on backslide. And the part that I'm ashamed about is I'd been there four hours and I didn't tell anybody about Jesus. Because I use the excuse, I don't feel led. And of course, now when people use that phrase, I said, where is that in the Bible? And what does feeling led feel like? Does it tickle? Does it shazam? Does it gotcha? The Bible says as many as are led by his spirit, not by feelings, will be called sons of God. And the word of God was written under the leadership. of the Holy Spirit.

24:47 So every word in this book, if I obey this book, I'm obeying him. People often ask me, do you have a word from God for me? I said, yes, read the word and do it. And we don't have to have a word. We've got the word. I'm thankful for words, but we have the word. Too many of us are looking for words and we're neglecting the word. And so I was neglecting the word because I didn't feel led. Here I am just wandering around with a big Bible and gospel tracts, and my eyes are sensitive to smoke, and I've not been awake much past that. And I was looking higher and trippier than everybody coming out of the bars and the nightclubs. Two o 'clock, the bars close, and I still hadn't talked to anybody. And three o 'clock, the cars were pretty much gone. And finally, and I'm looking like a glazed donut by now. I've never been awake this late in my life. And I just said, Jesus, if you want me to talk to someone, bring them around the corner in the next five minutes or I'm going home. In your name I pray.

25:49 Before I said, man, someone came around the corner. And there was an adrenaline rush. And I definitely did not social distance. I, you know, this close nose to nose almost. Sir, if you die right now, you know, you're going to heaven. Jesus died across the edge of the blood. Always again, it's life. Praise the Lord. We're going to get saved. And here I've got my big Bible, my gospel tracks, and my big, glazy, glassy eyes. And the guy said, you've got to be kidding me. And he said some other things that weren't nice that I can't say on a Christian podcast. And he spat on my shoes. And I knew I missed God. That was burritos, bad burritos. It was indigestion. Could not have been God. So my car was one of the few left, and I was backed up against a wall. I put the key in the ignition. turned the car on and put it in gear. And as I started to pull out a really jacked up, kind of like a monster truck, not quite, but big truck blocked my path. Tinted window comes down and it was that same guy. And he says, are you that guy who's trying to tell me about Jesus? And I said, yes, sir. He said, you really meant it, didn't you? Could we talk?

27:08 And he got down, left his car right in front of mine. It wouldn't have mattered. I had to talk. We sat on the curb and talked till the sun came up. And I'd like to tell you guys and anybody listening that his life was changed. That's why I won't tell you how many people I've led to the Lord. Only God knows the stories I've prayed with lots and lots and lots and lots of people. I just don't count. But how can I know someone's heart? The Bible says, I don't even know my own heart. Only God does. My heart's deceitful above all things. But I will say my heart was changed. My heart was changed that night. Because I saw that those people that were in those bars and those nightclubs, the people that live under bridges, the people that sit on street corners with signs, those people in the gangs, those people around the world in terrorist organizations, the people in mosques. And temples that look different than me, different colors than me. Those people in the high rises downtown, the people on the other side of the fence in my backyard. They're not monsters to run away from. They're not creatures to be fearful of.

28:17 They're kidnapped royalty. Exactly. Men and women created to be sons and daughters of a king. And they've just been trapped. So I started going on a regular basis. And then I got an idea and I'm almost to the cross -carrying calling. I made business cards. I should have incorporated the idea, patented the idea, because I was the first Uber service. Too drunk to drive home? Call me. And it was great. I handed them out at all the bars, and I was a friend of all the bouncers because I'm getting rid of a problem. And it's good because I need practice in sharing about Jesus, and these guys need to hear what I have to say. Of course, some of them were too...

28:59 drunk to tell us where to take them. So I can't tell you how many we smuggled into ORU for a night or two. So it's a different administration. I think I've got amnesty now. But now I'm making friends and I've got the front door. But then I came up with another idea. And that other idea was I met owners and managers. And I said, hey, tell you what, Saturday afternoon, Sunday afternoon, I'll come in and I'll clean your bathrooms, your toilets. I'll clean your toilets so clean that you can eat soup out of them. And they said, why? I said, well, Jesus washed people's feet.

29:45 And I'm just here to tell you that the restrooms at bars and nightclubs are pretty nasty the next day. I can imagine. But God used that. And now I had friends. that were owners and managers and bartenders and bouncers. And they started having me come in and speak to people table to table. They would say, Hey, this person's going through this. Can you talk to them? Can you pray with them? And that led to even some nights when they had live music, they would close. And then they would ask me to pray, especially on Saturday night, which wasn't by now Sunday morning, because that was the only service some people would come.

30:25 And I'm sure. Jesus forgave me. But I just basically, God, thank you so much that you love the world so much that you gave your only begotten son that whoever believes in him, that even though the wages of sin is death. And I was just praying scripture. And there was one little, it was a little dive bar and there was a little old lady. And I'll never forget her. It was right across the street from the dirty movie theater. We would go to her place and she would say, oh, you're here. And she would unplug the guy in the corner playing the guitar. She would lock the door. Nobody else could leave. And she would stand in front of the door or unplug the jukebox if it was playing. And I had these little red stickers that say, God loves you. And she goes, do you have any of your red buttons? And she put them on everybody. She goes, he's going to preach to you now. And then at the end, she goes, don't forget to pray that special little prayer. And if I preach too long, she goes, it's time for you to pray now. Or sometimes she'd say, keep going. This is good. This is good. But right across the street was the dirty movie theater.

31:34 And next door to it was the dirty bookstore. I made an agreement. It was a Jewish man that owned it. And he let us come in in the lobby and talk with people about Jesus. And so by now, as you can imagine, my friends are starting to be. Homeless people. They're starting to be gang members, people involved in prostitution, people involved in drug use, drug dealers. This is my flock. And it's beautiful. And I'll never forget that it's been torn down since then. But near Denver and 15th Street here, there was a bar, a little dive, and I was there one night. And two of my friends, Homer and Harold, they were both homeless. They'd been drinking too much.

32:20 They weren't. Drunk, drunk, but they were drunk. And they went outside and I went outside with them, still talking with them. And Homer, he was staggering and he broke his bottle. He was holding it by the top. And he's joking with his friend, Harold, I'm going to kill you. I could kill you. I could cut you up. And in his instability, he stumbles. And I'm standing 15, 20 feet from what happened. The jagged edge of that bottle went into Harold's chest and Harold was gone just like that. I never had seen somebody die. I'd seen bodies prepared at funeral homes, but I'd never had seen life leave somebody, let alone somebody be killed. And it shook me. And I just, I went home and I said, Jesus, how do I reach these people? Speak, Lord, your servants listening.

33:14 And just like. Like when you see an animal get branded, that's the only way I can describe it. I felt the branding of God's voice on my soul. I want you to make a large wooden cross and begin walking through the streets of Tulsa on Good Friday. I got up and I said, Lord, I rebuke the devil in the name of Jesus. That cannot be you. And I opened the window to get some fresh air. Again, Lord, I'm so sorry I was distracted. I don't know where that thought came from, but speak. Your servant is listening. And once again, like fire, I want you to make a large wooden cross and begin walking through the streets of Tulsa on Good Friday. Okay, Lord, that's the last time I'm eating fruity pebbles and pizza.

33:59 That is indigestion. I am not going to fall for that one. And so, Lord, I love you. I love you. I adore you. I worship you. Speak. Your servant is listening. And a third time. And this time, my prayer was, Lord, there was a guy at our local Walmart. And this fella carried a cross and he had a bullhorn and he wore a toga and pretend crown of thorns. He yelled at people coming in and out. He had hand -painted scripture verses and slogans on the side of his van. Repent! The kingdom of God is at hand! I said, Lord, you got somebody. You don't need another guy. And I felt like he said, son, that's the most religious excuse you could ever give me. I felt like he said, if I called you to preach, you wouldn't say, but Lord, you got Billy Graham. You've got all those pastors and all those people you look up to. You'd be honored and you'd be really happy.

35:06 You just don't want people to think that you're weird. The truth. I felt like he said, son, anyone can carry a cross. Simon carried mine. Anyone can die on a cross. Two thieves died beside me. Thousands have died through the centuries. But only I could die. for the sins of the world, and I did it for love. And I want you to take that cross and identify my message of love in the highways and the roadsides of this world. And I said, Lord, that sounds like you, but I really need a sign. And almost immediately, the phone on the wall rang. It was a friend. Keith, this is crazy, but I just need to tell you, last year on Good Friday, my best friend and my pastor carried a cross. And I think God wants you and me to make a large wooden cross and start walking through the streets of Tulsa on Good Friday.

35:58 Wow. And I said, okay, Lord, that was pretty good. But could you give me one more sign? Seriously? I know. My walk, I'm telling you, my walk has not been one of great faith. A lot of people look at me and say, oh, you've got so much faith. I said, no, it's been a walk of God's grace and mercy. It's been a walk of love. I'm in love with him. And I'm choosing to follow him. No matter how hard it is or how weird it feels, no matter what people think now. But my first prayer when I picked up the cross was, Lord, don't let anybody see me. But in between picking up the cross the first time, I go to class the next day and a professor who's going alphabetical.

36:40 My last name is Wheeler W. We were in the M's like the Miller, Martin, Martinez. And he said. Keith, for some reason, I think you're supposed to speak next week. And normally we would select the text. But he said, no. He said, I want to select the text. And I think you're supposed to speak on Mark chapter 8, verse 34. I look it up. If anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself. Take up his cross and follow me. Okay, I'll do it. And we started walking, prayed that prayer. And then later that day as we're finishing. And the deal was. John was going to walk a mile. I'd walk a mile and we were going to alternate. John walked six miles and I walked about 30 miles with the carrying the cross. But at the end of the day, there was an elderly couple walking, beautiful couple and had a perfectly coiffed beard. She had perfectly coiffed red hair and they were just stately. And they asked if they could pray for us. And when they finished, my friend said, you guys look familiar. Are you?

37:48 And he goes, T .L. Osborne, I am. And she goes, and I'm Daisy, too. And his prayer was, and Lord, send this man to the nations. And I'm praying, no, no, no, no, no. And so I walked maybe three times. And then the end of the story comes now. This is the last part. Sorry to drag it all out. No, it's beautiful. But I was visiting my mother and father in Harrison. And for a weekend, I was driving back. And as I got near, the highway wasn't like it is now. It was two lanes, Highway 62. And as I came through a little town called Choteau, I was approaching it, coming down a windy road. Sun was setting through the forest.

38:33 And I don't know how to describe it, but in front of my eyes, I could still see the road, but I saw a Newsweek magazine. And the magazine had my picture on the cover carrying the cross. And it said, take the cross to Cape Town, Durban and Johannesburg. Oh, wow. And South Africa. And I like pull over, rub my eyes. I could still see it. And I woke up my friend and do you see anything? No, I don't see anything. I prayed for them like Elijah did the servant that, you know, open their eyes. There's more with us than there are against us. Nothing. And then I look and it was normal. But it was like that fire that I described earlier, just burning in my heart for two weeks. But I'm making every excuse.

39:21 I'm making the excuses like, I don't have enough money to go. It's dangerous there. I've got a great job. I'm in school. What about my family? How do you get a 12 feet long cross on an airplane? God makes more sense than that, right? So it can't be God. God is logical. And so, no, I'm not going to go. And I didn't. And once I said no, that intensity of fire was gone immediately. It was normal. Two more weeks pass. And I was in part two of that class, the professor who gave me Mark chapter 8, verse 34. And our assignment was, and you have to remember, this is 1985.

40:08 And there's no... internet. There's no computers. There's no cell phones. There's no YouTube. I didn't have cable. I didn't have satellite. But he wanted us to watch a Christian TV show. Christian television was new in the area. And TBN had a channel nearby. It was channel 17. And I don't remember if it was UHF or VHF. And you guys remember this, but some of the listeners may not. So I had antenna. And you put Right. Tinfoil on the top and you move it a certain way. You could almost move your mouth a certain way and read through what we called the snow. And I got to the channel and the first words I ever heard on Christian television. Yeah. It was, I later found out it was a Kenneth Copeland convention in Anaheim, California, Believers West Coast Convention. And Paul and Jen Crouch of TBN who owned the station that was airing this. had a guest and that guest came up and the only other guy I knew who carried a cross was the guy in my Walmart parking lot. And this guy comes up and he said, Kenneth Copeland says, what is God saying to you? And he didn't introduce him or anything. He said, well, brother Ken, God has been calling someone to take a cross to Cape Town, Durban and Johannesburg, South Africa.

41:29 And they didn't go. He said, I've always asked God to call someone first. And if they didn't go, I volunteer. I'm really tired. I just got back, but I'm leaving next week to go to South Africa. The man's name was Arthur Blessed. I knew nothing about him, but he went in my place and I made a commitment. Lord Jesus, I would rather miss your will trying to obey than not do anything at all. So I may get to heaven and Jesus may laugh at me and say, son. He may scratch his head. I didn't mean for you to actually carry a wooden cross. I meant for you to preach the cross around the world. But thanks for trying.

42:13 So it's been that journey of walking together with Jesus, carrying a cross and getting to be front row center stages as he does bless, touch, save, deliver, change people's lives forever. And that's what it's all about. Yeah. And that's why we do this podcast. We want to see people's lives changed. And we don't always hear any feedback that anybody's was. Once in a while, we get a tremendous piece of feedback about that. So does the Lord allow you once in a while to get some feedback to kind of encourage you? Well, yes, yes. But he knows I don't need it. He is my encouragement.

42:58 He is my great reward. I hear people sometimes say, oh, you're going to get to heaven and you're going to see how God used you. No, I'm going to get to heaven and I'm going to get to watch how he worked. Heaven is about him. Yeah. And it's not about me getting, I mean, the reward in heaven is him. He fills heaven. True. And heaven is about him. And the only reason we get crowns is so that we can throw them at his feet. Yeah. He's the worthy one. And so he is my encouragement. One of my mottos has been, Lord, blind me to what happens behind me. That way I don't, the responsibility for the success or failure, that's not mine. It's him. That's why I say it's his ministry. My role, my calling has been to be faithful. If I'm here and I've got another friend that comes in the room and you guys have never met the friend. I actually have a young man staying with us. His name is Nate. He's from Norway.

43:57 But you've never met him. He's not here right now. But if he comes in the room, and I would say to you guys, I'd say, Philip and Sharon, you guys have been friends for a long time. This is Nate. He's my new friend. I would tell him a little bit about you guys. I would tell him about you all. And that's what I'd get to do with Jesus. And you can't unmeet Nate after you've met him. You can't. But it's how are you going to choose to pursue that friendship? And it's only a work of the Holy Spirit in the heart. And so that's what I love is I get to watch. I'll tell you a funny story that I heard years later. I was carrying the cross from Panama to Mexico. That's a long walk. And in the 1980s, there was war in every country except Costa Rica.

44:44 I actually was in jail in Panama when Noriega was leading there. But the war, obviously, the big one we all knew about was in Nicaragua. You know, the drug wars were in Panama. But El Salvador had a horrible war. Honduras had spillover war. Guatemala had the longest running civil war. And eventually Chiapas. And that's where I faced the firing squad was in Chiapas State in southern Mexico. As I walked through, I don't know if it was northern Costa Rica, southern Nicaragua. This guy approaches me and he said, I'm a bad man, but I need to carry your cross. And I said, why are you a bad man? He said, I'll tell you, but I'm a bad, bad, bad man. He's crying. And anybody who wants to walk with me, I'll let them because I get that time together with them. And I knew what was happening. There's a tradition in the church there and it's called penitentia, penance. There's one called promise, and you do something to get something. I'll carry the cross so far if God will answer my prayer, or God answered my prayer, so I'm going to do this.

45:59 Penitencia is the other way around. It's I've done something really bad. I need to be forgiven, so I need to suffer for a while. And so he has no socks, but he takes off his shoes, and he rolls up his pants above his leg, and he starts carrying my cross. And he's crying the whole time. I'm a bad man. And he told me he was a bad man. He had beaten people up. He had shot people. He had stabbed people. He'd used drugs, sold drugs, misused drugs. He cheated on his wife. He'd raped other women. He was a bad man. And every time he would see sharp rocks, he's carrying the cross. And the cross isn't... I tell people when they say, how heavy is it? It's heavy enough to remember. It's light enough not to be a sacrifice. The goal is not to sacrifice.

46:49 Number one comment around the world, you're cheating. Jesus didn't have a wheel. I said, you're right. He didn't have a wheel, but my name's Keith. And I'm not planning on dying on this cross. But even if I die on this cross, I could shed all my blood and it wouldn't take away one of my sins, let alone the sins of the world. And I couldn't come out of the grave on my own. I'm walking to remind people of that. But the cross, I don't know, you probably can't see on the screen, but my collarbone has a lump there, an inch and a half of the years of the weight of the wood bearing down on my shoulder. The wood of the cross has shaped my body. And so that's what Jesus does with us. So this guy was trying to be forgiven. by carrying this cross and stepping on sharp stones. And if he'd see thorn bushes or sticker bushes, he would step on those thorns and sticker bushes. And he was just, I'm a bad man crying. And the whole time I'm telling him, you don't have to carry the cross. Jesus already carried the cross for you. He didn't just carry the cross. He died on the cross. You don't have to bleed. Jesus bled for you. You don't have to suffer. He paid the price. He suffered for you. And I mean, there was even one point there was broken glass. I mean, he stepped on twisted metal, rusty metal. There was some broken glass and he got down on his knees and he's walking across his knees on that broken glass. Blood just pouring down and he's sweating. And it's like after 12 kilometers, which is about seven

48:22 and a half miles, we're on the top of, it's not a mountain, but it's a high hill that he's walked up. And it's like the light bulb went off. And he says, you mean? I didn't have to walk with you this whole way. That's what I've been telling you. And I didn't have to carry this. No, sir. Jesus already carried it for you. And I didn't have to suffer and bleed. No, sir. Jesus' blood was enough. And he's alive and I can know him. Yes, sir. That's what I've been trying to tell you. And he'll forgive even me and make me new and make me clean. You got it, sir. And I've never seen somebody get more saved. It was just beautiful. Because it takes, by now, the cross is off his shoulder. It's on his side, kind of like it's leaning. Listeners can't see it, but it's leaning on his side, almost like a pulpit.

49:16 And that guy, he doesn't bow his head, close his eyes, nobody looking around, raise his hand, none of that. He didn't sign an altar card. This guy gives me the cross, jumps in the air like the old Toyota LEAP, kicks both of his heels together, hands up in the air, and he goes, Yahoo! Yahoo! At last I saw him running down a hill, both hands up. I'm free! I'm free! I'm free! Wow. That's a pretty cool story right there. First of all, how many of us got that saved when we got saved? Really? Yeah. 20 years later, I was speaking at a missions conference in Waco, Texas. And I was one of the general session speakers, but they had breakout sessions on specific areas of the world. And the speaker for Latin America wasn't able to arrive because of bad weather.

50:13 And they said, well, Keith, you've walked through Latin America. How about you be our speaker? And in my talk, I included that story because of the whole idea of penance, penitentia. And how we go about reaching people in that part of the world. And afterwards, a man, obviously from Latin America, came up to me. And ear to ear, beaming, grinning. And he pokes me in the chest. He goes, you're that man. And I said, I'm sorry. He goes, that story you told, that's my pastor. Wow. And I said, I'm sorry, what? He goes, our pastor has told us that story over and over again. And he goes, and I get to meet you today. He said, I can't wait to tell that story to my pastor. So sometimes, you know, you don't know. But I don't care. I don't care. I'm free. I really am free from whether you're threatening to kill me because that's obviously happened many times. People put guns in my mouth, in my ears. One particular group had a sword to my neck. threatening to cut off my head that urinated on me, or whether you're bribing me with money or not money, or life or death, prosperity or poverty, I'm free. Praise or rejection, I'm free.

51:39 My Savior loves me, and my fairy tale princess adores me, and I'm free. Beautiful. Beautiful. Well, would you pray for our listeners? Yeah. First of all, thanks again for the honor of being together with you guys. It's really a treat. Holy, holy, holy. You're so holy and beautiful, beautiful. And we adore you. You take our breath away and our hearts beat for you. I pray in this talk and this time together that... That you've allowed me to honor you and that I've lifted you up. You could be seen. I pray for those who have been hurt along the way. Maybe have gotten their eyes on other things. Their eyesight's been wounded and they can't see you as clearly.

52:36 Maybe they've just gotten tired and they've let their eyes fall. But you give everybody who's listening the grace to lay aside everything. Just keeping them from running to race and fixing their eyes on you. And would you allow them to fix their eyes on you? Would you give them the love for you that they'll never, ever recover from? Yes. Would you burn the image of your face, your beautiful face, your glorious face in our hearts so that you are always before us? Would you put in us hearts that want to lean on your chest, lean our heads on your chest and hear your heartbeat? Hearts that want to wipe away the tears from your eyes today as you weep over this broken world. May we bring a smile to that beautiful face. And may our hearts be with your heart. Would you not only lead each of us, everyone listening, as well as Philip and Sharon and me.

53:41 Not only lead us by your voice, but by your whispers and by your heartbeat. But you promised to lead us with a glance of your eyes. May we become so intimately acquainted with you and your face. We just look to you and we're led by a glance of your eyes, as the psalmist said. So we adore you. We honor you. And we bless you. And our hearts sing. Thanks for inviting us to follow you. Thanks for inviting us to work together with you. You can do it so much better without us. And you invite us to do it with you. And even though we're weak, help us to remember it's not by might. It's not by power. It's by your spirit. It's not only your wisdom. You are wisdom.

54:29 Yes. We come to you. It's the first point in your sermon where you said blessed are the poor in spirit. And we say we're poor in spirit. We need you. Would you fill us? And as you said to me so many years ago, you're more interested in reaching all of our heart than you are in all the world. Yes. Because when you get someone whose heart is completely yours, you've got someone you can reach all the world through. So we give you all of us. We don't need more of you. You need all of us. And we give you all of us, our dreams. We give you our sin and our wretchedness. We give you our problems. We give you our hangups. But we give you our dreams. We give you our vision.

55:11 We give you our goals. We give you our callings. We give you everything that you've given to us, our strengths and our abilities. We give you everything. And we pray that you'd find this living sacrifice as holy and acceptable in your eyes. And we just say, we love you. We love you. In the name above all names. In the name, it's the most beautiful name. Thank you for allowing us to say it in the name of Jesus. Amen. Amen.

55:55 Your review helps the podcasting platform suggest this podcast to other listeners who are also looking for a great move of the Holy Spirit. Check out our website at globaloutpouring .org to find out more information, read our blogs, connect with us, and donate. You can also browse our web store for life -changing anointed books. Until next time, this is Sharon Buss. And I'm Philip Buss. God bless you with His overwhelming, loving presence.