Part of God's Process

Even in the church and the Christian community, we've led so much of the world's philosophy bleed into what we do that it's all about in music like me, it's certain standards of that number one songs or charting or gold records or Grammys or whatever else. There was a season where I achieved all that, top of the mountain, but nobody stays on the top of the mountain forever. God brings us to the top of the mountain for that perspective, but then he brings us into the valley, life is lived in the valley. Welcome to the Ignite with Barry McGuire podcast where Barry's book and passion for spreading God's love are guaranteed to ignite your life. Now listen in and prepare to have your life ignited. Hi everybody, welcome back to Ignite. I have a special, incredibly special opportunity right now to introduce you to Dallas Homes who I must say in my entire life, I've never known anybody that more represented God that just walks with God is all in has a crazy sense of humor makes me laugh, he makes me cry. Gives the most powerful articles I've ever seen and he does the old face you way. Everybody's sitting down if you want to get saved, stand up and walk forward. I think nobody's about it. And I've seen him in services where two hours later, he's still praying. He didn't just preach and leave. He's there. He burns for souls, but he had some challenging things through his life. So I just, I'm one of the energy she did my money. Dallas whole Dallas. Is it fun that we're able to do this after all these years? I know, it's incredible. In fact, I'm sitting at my desk in my office. So your picture, your family's on my desk all the time every day. I look at it and I say a prayer. Well, I love you guys. Well, we have those pictures visible around our house and we go back to 1970 folks. 1970 and it was a good thing if I can divert just for a moment. We were Nazarees raised, challenged by the Nazarees church and moved from Pasadena, California to Torrance County, to Irvine. And there was not an Nazarees church around of any size and we were church buttons for a year until he let us into on September 13th, 1970 into first assembly of God, Santa Anna, first assembly of God. And when we walked in that morning, little did we know that we would be there just about every Sunday morning, Sunday, Wednesday night for the next 31 years. And it was very interesting that I just had a realtor. Forgive me to divert for a moment now. Just set the seat. It's a miracle story. I had a realtor from Florida come up to me a couple of years ago at a car show and he said, I understand you knew really books. I said, yes, he's I sort of a house in Florida. I said, I knew he hadn't. What year is 69? No, I didn't want to embarrass you. I just let him talk to you. He said, yeah, and then when he got back to New York, Dallas knows and I both know well that Dave would do one thing one day and then during the night, God would tell him something differently. He was going to different direction the next day. He always followed not what we said. But then he was said, he followed what he heard God say to him. He would he would pray two or three times, two to three hours every night and he heard from God. And he calls the Republicans. I can't buy the house. So he says, Mr. Rookson brought Pastor Rooks and you're you're an escrow. You're your committees. I'm sorry. I can't buy the house. Why can't I buy the house? Because God told me to move to Irvine, California. Now in 1970 Irvine was not a city. There was no city Irvine, California. It was an incorporated area with a couple thousand people. How does a pastor in New York City tell anything about Irvine, California, except that God told him and when God told him, that's what he's doing. I said, so what'd you do? He said, I got him out of the way. I said, why would you do that? He's would David workers and tells you God told him. He's got to move to Irvine. What do you think? Yeah, I just buy for some strings. So he moved in and get this into the same neighborhood. We just moved into two blocks away from us. But we didn't meet in there and our soldier and going for church to church to church. He had a son of God had a son of soldier and of learning. And we went through so many empty churches and finally walked into it. The last church we'd ever go into us. Somebody's a God. Are you kidding me? Pedicostle speaking time. No, we're not going to go there. We didn't know we were there. We were he just let us in. The moment we arrived, we knew his home. And afterwards, we were introduced to Gwen Wilkerson. And our friend said, I think you have daughters, don't you? Yeah. And they babysit because the babysitter said, oh, yeah, they work out. We live two blocks of each other. Really? About a day was traveling every weekend, but find about three. So they we got to meet him. And that started rolling. I don't want to go off on that. But he not only moved, but he moved his team. And Dallas was just saying, singer, it Dallas home in heart church. And we became friends. Oh, it took us maybe two weeks or something. We're after the races. And memories from those days, Dallas. Yeah. And the reason we moved out there, and this is so typical, brother Dave, I joined him January 1st of 1970 in New York, work with him, traveled with him in the Wilkerson Youth Crusades for those months. But we were doing more ministry on the West Coast in California. We've come out almost every month and do a great crusade at the Anaheim Convention Center. It's back in the Jesus movement days. All the hippies were coming out. Brother David always given invitation. There might be 1500 street people come forward at the end. I need Jesus. I won Christ. We'd take him aside, pray with him, talk with him, turn him over to Chuck Smith, because he was kind of the only church in the area that really was specifically zeroing in on that group. And so a typical brother Dave's like, well, this is where God is moving in a spectacular way. Let's just get in the middle of it. Let's move there. So literally left New York moved to Southern California so we could be right in the middle of all that God was doing there. Of course, it was the movement all over the world. But California, Southern California, it seemed to really kind of headquarter there. The news media was picking up on it. And that is why we didn't care about that. And there was a lot of misrepresentations what was happening. But it was just such a, such a sovereign work of God and brother Dave wanted to be right in the middle of it. So back up your bags. Here we go. It's so we moved right in the middle of it. I'm so glad we did. I always remember my, my clearest memory is stand out kind of in the foyer of the church. One of those Sunday mornings in Karen was area wife and these two little girls, cutest little girls, Michelle and Nicole. And I just love kids. I always love kids. And especially Michelle and I just kind of clipped, you know, she did, she wanted to be wherever I was. And honestly, I wanted to be wherever she was. So we have the best best time and still maintain a marvelous relationship after all these years. It's such a special young lady. You've been that second father to her. And in the fun times, you ministered to her. A lot of her spiritual strength was drawn from you. Of course, we're talking to David and workers in across the switchblade fame and found her own challenge. And what's got? Can you see that? There's a look at that. Mary Karen and Dallas, our motorcycle. Oh, here's Linda back in about 70 is with her hard. Michelle and Nicole, that was in her house in Dallas, probably in about 72. I'm thinking around that area. Yeah, here's, here's Dallas. It is little friend Michelle on this wing site somewhere. Oh, I guess I found those up the spory of that. I got to show you that. Yeah, we go back a long way. You know, friendships like us, true friends in Christ are there are no richer treasures in all the earth. Obviously, our salvation. But I mean, you know, you mentioned that one we were praying. When you, we could sit here forever. We sit here for hours, talk theology, doctrinal issues, methodology of how we wouldn't share up either of you else. But the bottom line, when you boil down all the volume of scripture and all that God's heart is all about, it's very simple. It, it's answered when Jesus is asked toward the end of his earthly ministry by this smart young attorney. Well, Lord, what's the greatest commandment? They're really trying to corner him again. You know, ask him something maybe he'd come up with the wrong answer. And Jesus boils down the entire eternal intent of God's heart in basically two lines. Love the Lord, you God. Love one another. Love your neighbors yourself. And in this all along the prophets are fulfilled. That's why it makes even a conversation like this of all the things we could discuss. Bottom line is we are in Christ. We love the Lord. He loves us and we have this call on our lives. And that's all my life in ministry since I've been a Christian. That's, that's all that floats my boat. You know, music's just a vehicle. It was never the end game. It's just the tool that God gave me. How can I use this to promote the gospel, present the gospel. Now, on stage, what happens on stage through all those years, those concerts, that's one thing. But what happens on the street? What happens in the grocery store? What happens at Walmart? And what do we talk the other day? I share this. I mean, this year in particular, I don't know why I could just tell you that God has put upon my heart challenged me be more intentional, be more specific. Look, I mean, when I get up in the morning before I swing my legs over the bed, I always have just a little, it's not my prayer time, but it's good morning, Lord. Thank you for a good night's sleep. Thank you for your goodness, your blessings. Please let me cross paths with someone today whom I can show the love of Jesus to. And it's not a method. It's not a formula. It's not a, here's the four steps. Here's the, no, it's just, I put it this way and I've got to stop here. I'll get preaching, but it's great. Keep going. It's so basic. It's so simple. People are so intimidated because they think they've got to be theologians. They've got to have a script. They've got to have method a program. You know, I always say this, how would you, how would you describe Jesus? You know, how would you describe the personality of Jesus? I think the best way is, well, he was a man of peace, joy, love, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, patient, self-control. All that defines who he is. So as Christians, I say, think of ourselves as caring a nice big basket of fruit around fresh, ripe and fruit. In every day, we literally rub shoulders with people who are starving to death, sometimes physically, but certainly spiritually, relationally, financially, they're just starving. Will we not take out a piece of the fruit and say, taste and see that the Lord is good? I just look for opportunities to just show love, to encourage, to be kind to someone just a couple of days ago is that one of my favorite restaurants and the waitress came up, a lovely young Hispanic lady and did look like she had a care in the world. Beautiful young lady. Can I take your order? And I said, yes, you sure, man, I thought I always tried to engage in making life, if I can. And I said, you know, when my food comes, I'm going to have a, I'm going to pray and thank the Lord for his provision. Is there any way I can pray for you about anything? Oh, she just, I mean, she started to tear up. And she said, well, pray for me at school. I'm kind of struggling and pray for my health. And I said, I'm going to do that. I asked her name and, and I had prayer with her. Did I lead her to Christ? Did I present a sermon at no? That really, in a sense, is not my job. We know from scripture, it's a process. First of all, no one comes to Christ unless they're drawn by the Holy Spirit. One verse says, no one comes to the Son unless the Father draws them. Another verse says, no one comes to the Father unless the Son draws them. And the agent of drawing is always the Holy Spirit, who is also the one in charge of the regenerative process of salvation. But our job is to sow the seed. We, we trust that God is cultivated. We sow the seed. Someone else may water. Someone else, you know, plants, waters. Someone is there for the, the harvest. Now you and I know that sometimes we're privileged to be there for the whole thing. We, we start with someone in a conversation and a few minutes later, we're praying with them to receive Christ. But I'd say that's the exception. Generally, we're just part of the process that God is up to in their lives. I love your philosophy that you mentioned just every day, just move people just to step closer to Jesus. That's so easy. It's so simple. It's so, I just, I just love it. I wish I had heard that earlier because for a lot of, a lot of years in my early Christian life, I felt almost as condemnation. I'm not saying enough. I'm not doing enough. I don't know how to do that. I feel unqualified. I feel intimidated. You know, all these, yeah, you just like, well, who am I to go tell someone? Yeah. It's not about telling them. They'll, they'll be a time to tell. They'll be informational exchange. It's just show them who Jesus is. And it's so easy opportunities amount every single day. And I just, I, I'm so thrilled with you've always understood that in your ministry. We've known each other a long time. And I remember you saying through the years, the wax thing, that's just the vehicle. That's just the platform for me to minister to others. And God has taken you to people that never gonna come to my church, never gonna come to my concert. You know, but in the recent years, now you see that that was all preparation. That was foundational. All that was just stuff that God was doing to prepare you for the ministry that has given you now. And I'm just, I'm so excited. I'm so impatient about it. Whatever amount of encouragement or ministry I've ever offered to you, believe me, it's come back twofold from you to me to at this point in my life as a senior citizen on social security and all that stuff. To be even more impassioned, more intentional, more specific. You know, if life is a mile run, I'm in the last lap, well into the last lap. So make it count, make every moment, every day, every opportunity, count. That's what I'm about. That's my story. And I'm sticking to it. You're getting it. Well, we're in the sprint lap. This is, this is, this is it. That's right. We're in that last lap. We were learning and we get here technique down. But and you and I have, have, have arrived at the same place through entire different lives. But we're saving this serve the same God. Absolutely. And the whole spirit's been perfected through my challenges through your challenges. But your heart's always been there. I, I, here I talk often. Why, why do we have what we have? We don't deserve anything. We deserve nothing. Right. And it's not because we're good and it's not because we've been obedient and all that. Well, I'll beat it. I will take that back. It is because we've been obedient because from those days when we were together, you and I and Karen and Linda have kept God as our focus. And, and through thick and thin, no matter what's going on, we've kept it as we, we just trusted him and we've learned from him and we've had our failures and, and whatever. But all of it is boldness into what we are today. And it is God's truth. It's not our truth. And am I true? No, you're true. This is God's truth. And his promise is true. And he says, when we live for his purpose, it's, it's saying, I just did a podcast on this love God. I love your day for yourself. I mean, that's what it is. We don't need anything else. There's, there's nothing else he requires of us. And nothing, and when we get to turning nothing else, we'll have any significance. It will not matter. How many balls of carwax I sold when I get to heaven. It doesn't, not good of matters. It doesn't matter how many ministries I support. It doesn't matter how much money I give it away. None of that matters. Right. The only currency in, in, in heaven is souls. We, we can work. Boy, I see people so exercise and aggressive, active Christians fighting for causes. Right. Fighting against abortion, whatever. To the point where it consumes them, it's like it becomes their God. And they're so militant and they're even hating the people on the other side of those issues that God loves and much of the loves us. And they're seeing hate coming from a Christian. God, God loves, God loves the people we hate. Hate's not part of our vocabulary. We have to love it no matter what. But when we do that, every soul, if we do, if there's one more person gets to heaven because of our love, it's worth the day, man. Yeah. And sharing our faith should be, and I've always known this intellectually, and I've never been, I've never been afraid to share my faith. But again, there have been times I've missed opportunities because, you know, I felt that nudging of the Holy Spirit, the other thing, I'm crazy or they can say, I don't know exactly what to say, we find all these excuses. But the reality is sharing our faith should be the most natural outflow reflex response of our relationship with the Lord. And if it's not, and that's what I'm doing this here, it's like, I'm checking myself, okay, if there's any reason why that isn't just the natural response of my life daily, something's wrong, there's some area of pride or self-centeredness or whatever. And there's no condemnation in that. There's, therefore, no condemnation in them, that in Christ Jesus. It's just God's loving discipline and instruction to say, Dallas, let's check here, because all you got to think about is just sharing my love, sharing who I tell them, show them. You know, you mentioned something before how we got to this place, and I'll try to make this real short, but I think it's beneficial for, especially for people, you're a little older than I am, but I'm in my late 70s now. But even in the church and the Christian community, we've let so much of the world's philosophy bleed into what we do, that it's all about success, numbers, spreadsheets, achievement, you know, in the world of law when you become a partner, if you're in medicine, it's when you get published, if you're in sales, it's quotas, in music like me, it's certain standards of number one songs or charting or gold records or Grammys or whatever else. So I'll just say this real quickly, thanks to the blessing of the Lord, there was a season where I achieved all that, top of the mountain, but nobody stays on the top of the mountain forever. God brings us to the top of the mountain for that perspective, but then he brings us into the valley, life has lived in the valley. So probably about 20 years ago when I, you know, the crowds weren't there anymore, the records weren't selling as much, I kind of jokingly say, no, people come up and say, hey, didn't you used to be Dallas Hall? You're kind of, you know, you're doing time out right? If you're in the body of Christ, you've certainly heard the song rise again. Listen to the Gay Through Channel on Sirius Radio, that song comes up at least coming up and every time it comes up, they're hearing yells, there's Dallas. Another one is so many, written so many songs, but the one that breaks me with just you and the guitars, here we are. Oh, yeah, your presence lifting holy hands to you. Holy hands to you. breaks me. Oh, breaks. There came that time where all that quote success, what would seem to be success, that's all kind of going out down hill. I don't know, a number of years ago, I mean, I actually came to this point where I remember one day kind of saying, am I just another old guy that downhill side of life? Do I just ride off into the sunset like Roy Rogers and Dale Evans? And I was reading Charles Spurgeon's devotional that year, morning and evening, which is one of my favorites. In that particular day, I read this from Charles Spurgeon, he said, when the children of Israel marched to the desert, the Levites marched out front. Many of us in our youthful exuberance once marched at the front and one many souls to Christ, but in our latter years, he calls us to a more important place and he moves us to the rear and we become as the tribe of Dan and we pick up the wounded and the weary and the disenfranchised. And within a week of reading that, I was up in the mountains of, I think it was in Pace and Arizona, actually, a little church, about 50 people showed up. I mean, I'm just saying administer no matter who, but I've done concerts in Madison Square Garden, the LA sports arena, you name the venue, I've probably been there, now 50 people in the mountains of Arizona. And there's a little something in the back of my head, saying, man, you've come a long way down the mountain. But at the end of the concert, this lady brought this elderly gentleman who's probably in his 80s. She said, this is daddy. Daddy's going to church here all his life. Every Sunday we say daddy, do you want to give your life to Jesus? Nope. She said he's heard every evangelist, every sermon. Do you want to give your life to Jesus? Nope. She said, tonight he turned to me and said, do you think if I went down there, that man would pray with me to receive Christ? And he's just crying his eyes out, had a black suit on, nice little red tie, white shirt, he was dressed up, you know, and I was able to pray with him to receive Christ. But here's the point. I got this sense of God speaking to my heart. We all have different ways. I didn't hear an audible voice, but it was like God said, you see? All that other stuff was just preparation, preparation, all that stuff that the world calls success. That was just preparing the foundation. Now you're qualified to get this guy. And the next night about 50 miles down the road, the same thing, a little church, elderly gentleman, his 80s came down, he said, would you pray for me to receive Christ? It was kind of like God put an exclamation point on it. This is what I really care about, getting the one. Remember the mosque sheet leaves the 99, just go get that one. That's everything. That's our task on a daily basis. Find that one, move that one a little closer to Jesus, share the love of Jesus, share peace, share kindness, goodness, may it lead to a conversation, may lead to leading them to Christ. Yeah, it may, it may not, but you're to be part of the process, either the cultivator, the place, the water, the harvester. I was walking out of church at a huge service. It's packed of several thousand people. And we're down at the front. We're always the last ones to leave. You wouldn't be there. A little church for the last ones to leave. We're now we're going to a big church for the last ones to leave. Last ones to leave. And as we're going out the door, I looked back and there was a couple, an older couple praying together. It's a cavernous church, balconies. And the musicians at all gone, they cleared off the stage, they cleared the trash. They're very proficient in doing all that. And I'm almost to the door to go out and I look back. I'm talking the age of culprits and look back. I see this couple. I told the Leo tired. I just got yanked. Okay, I can't do this. I saw him, I saw him a little bit when I walked by, but I was engaged in conversation. Right. And then I look back and I saw I said, sorry, I just got yanked. We caught the nudge. And I had a source of incredible conversations. One of the churches is that moment. Let me on fire. It's what it does for us. Then we have this privilege. We may be the first or the 20th person. We don't know how many you, we're we're part of it. It's a team sport. All right. Back in the day, if I didn't get him saved in the spot, I was a failure. Where are you, God? What I needed you? What's going wrong? I get mad. It was so wrong. My arm, my God puts up with this, you know, he just shakes his head. Exactly. Oh, and you know, you just that moment and we don't have to prepare for that. I don't care what's going on. We don't have to prepare our secular conversation. We don't prepare. I wonder what they're going to ask me. What are they going to do about car wax? What are they going to say about car wax? I know that. It just comes out. It's the Holy Spirit. So anyway, our theme is move everybody every day close to Jesus. But beyond that, we say, our goal is to ignite Christians, to ignite America or the revival. One person at a time. And you have some great stories on that. And we're out of time. Can you come back? Let's do another while he's going to do that. Sure, we can do that. Okay. We'll have to do another while he's okay. Stay tuned folks and we'll be back with more of my buddy, Dallas Hope. God bless you.