[00:00:00] I made it my prayer, Lord, I want to be a bold, passionate praiser. You see, there's such power in praise to even enable us to overcome hurt. I know at times when I'm hurting, I often just stop and praise the Lord, praise Him even 10 times. So it seems the hurt will simply are overcome. So I want to urge you to join me today as we praise the Lord. Let's say praise the Lord. Amen.
[00:00:30] Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Amen. Praise the Lord. Amen.
[00:00:39] Praise the Lord. Amen.ните
[00:00:43] Praise the Lord. Amen.
[00:00:46] Praise the Lord. Amen.
[00:00:57] Hallelujah!
[00:00:57] Hallelujah! Well, I trust you have that desire to be a passionate praiser of our wonderful Lord Jesus Christ.
[00:01:08] Now, we've been speaking on the subject of hurting and hurting people.
[00:01:13] I want to share with you the story of my dear friend, T.L. Osborne.
[00:01:19] He went to be with the Lord on February the 14th, 2013.
[00:01:25] And Debra and I went to the memorial service in March down in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
[00:01:30] So let me tell you about this man who had many deep hurts in his life and how God helped him to overcome.
[00:01:39] When he was just 21 years of age, he and his young wife, Daisy, went to India in obeying the call of the Lord to become a missionary.
[00:01:51] He was assigned four years to be in India.
[00:01:55] But he found one adversity after another out there.
[00:02:00] They were, first of all, health issues that are so common to people who go into India.
[00:02:07] I know I've had that and members of my team otherwise.
[00:02:11] Well, then T.L. Osborne experienced nothing but opposition.
[00:02:16] He had a young mullah, a Muslim priest, whom he had a good relationship with.
[00:02:23] And they would sit down and talk.
[00:02:25] And T.L. said I would say to him,
[00:02:28] My Bible is the word of God.
[00:02:30] And the young mullah would say,
[00:02:33] Oh no, my Koran is the word of God.
[00:02:36] And T.L. said I could no more convince him that the Bible was God's word than he could persuade me that his Koran was.
[00:02:45] And so there were a series of adversities that just broke his heart.
[00:02:51] And finally, after 11 months with the health issues he was having,
[00:02:57] he said to Daisy,
[00:02:59] We're just going to go home.
[00:03:01] We've done our best to come out here to India,
[00:03:04] but it's not worked out.
[00:03:06] We haven't won one soul to Christ.
[00:03:08] We've not been influential enough to touch the lives of these people.
[00:03:13] And our health has been such a factor.
[00:03:15] He said,
[00:03:17] We're going home.
[00:03:18] So Daisy and T.L. came back to America.
[00:03:23] He often told me how that one day came under the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.
[00:03:29] He took Daisy into his arms and said,
[00:03:32] I will never take you away from America again.
[00:03:36] We've done our best.
[00:03:38] It didn't work out.
[00:03:39] And I'll never do that again.
[00:03:41] Well, he was deeply hurt over the fact that his endeavor to be a missionary in India had not succeeded.
[00:03:49] He made a promise to Daisy.
[00:03:51] He said,
[00:03:52] I'm going to get a job and I'll raise the money to pay the mission board
[00:03:56] for their expenses of sending me out to India for four years.
[00:04:01] And I stayed less than one year.
[00:04:04] And he then told me how it was that the challenge of being hurt,
[00:04:09] he kind of went into retirement from ministry for a short time.
[00:04:13] And then he accepted the pastorate of a small church in Portland, Oregon.
[00:04:18] It was a very discouraging time for him because he was aware that somehow the plan of God for his life was not being fulfilled.
[00:04:27] However, there came the visitation of God.
[00:04:30] When he heard the voice of the Lord speak to him,
[00:04:35] you can do that.
[00:04:36] You can do what Peter and James and John and Philip and Stephen did.
[00:04:40] You can do that.
[00:04:41] It was such a wonderful visitation that T.L. said,
[00:04:47] Yes, Lord, I can do that.
[00:04:49] Well, the rest is history.
[00:04:51] He went aside for three days of prayer and fasting.
[00:04:55] And then out to the mission fields he went.
[00:04:59] And, of course, it was that story of telling his wife he would never take her from America again
[00:05:05] became totally opposite.
[00:05:07] Because for the rest of many, many years, T.L. Osborne has gone to the mission fields of the world.
[00:05:14] And my working with him as his co-laborer, it was such a great blessing to see a man who had undergone such continual hurts and adversities.
[00:05:25] And then there came a time when one of his children passed away.
[00:05:30] And this particular child had not lived a very Christian life and had broken T.L.'s heart.
[00:05:36] So when my family and I arrived in Tulsa to conduct the memorial service for T.L.'s family member,
[00:05:45] He took me to the funeral home.
[00:05:47] And there we looked into the face of this one who had passed away.
[00:05:53] And T.L. said so pitifully,
[00:05:55] Don, I've died a thousand deaths over this boy's life, more painful than this.
[00:06:02] And it was another of his hurts in life.
[00:06:05] But thank God, in light of all the circumstances that he had known of hurts and difficulties,
[00:06:13] God has used him, used him in a mighty manner.
[00:06:17] I esteem my friendship with him as one of the greatest treasures of my life.
[00:06:22] He taught me so much about faith.
[00:06:24] He taught me so much about how successfully carrying on God's work in world evangelism.
[00:06:31] And he was the one that ignited the fire by the Holy Spirit in my heart to dedicate my life to going with the gospel to the nations of the world.
[00:06:40] So I salute the memory of my friend T.L. Osborne,
[00:06:44] who went to be with Jesus forever back on February 14, 2013.
[00:06:50] And I'll miss him very much.
[00:06:52] Well, I want to assure you that God wants to heal your hurts today, whatever they may be.
[00:06:57] And he wants to give you victory.
[00:06:59] You know, only as I make this broadcast, only last week I was in Charlotte, New York, Carolina,
[00:07:06] and I was a guest of the television show by Sid Roth entitled It's Supernatural.
[00:07:13] It's Supernatural.
[00:07:15] And I was asked many questions.
[00:07:17] I was interviewed from many directions.
[00:07:20] And one of the hurts that I was addressed was they asked me about how did I overcome my speech impediment?
[00:07:29] You see, I'd always had a problem speaking clearly throughout my childhood.
[00:07:35] And then when I was in high school, I was nominated to run for the president of the student body.
[00:07:42] That meant I would have to make speeches.
[00:07:45] Oh, my, how that was a hurt to me, the fact of facing that possibility.
[00:07:51] And I asked a classmate to be my campaign manager.
[00:07:56] He was a very smooth speaker.
[00:07:58] And he said, Don, I'll speak on your behalf.
[00:08:01] And after he would make a nice tribute speech about my life,
[00:08:07] I would then simply stand and receive the applause with only a few words I had to speak.
[00:08:14] However, I was elected president of that student body,
[00:08:18] which meant that I had to lead the student assemblies every Friday morning.
[00:08:23] Oh, you talk about hurt.
[00:08:25] It was a frightening experience for me.
[00:08:28] And at the graduation exercise,
[00:08:31] one of my teachers said to me,
[00:08:33] Don, you're a fine young man.
[00:08:35] The students all like you.
[00:08:36] But, Don, if you're going to succeed in life,
[00:08:39] you must overcome this speech impediment.
[00:08:42] Well, after graduation, I met the Lord in my bedroom in an all-night prayer.
[00:08:47] He called me to become a preacher.
[00:08:49] When I met Dad the next morning, with hesitation,
[00:08:52] I told him I had been called to preach.
[00:08:55] He was yet unsaved.
[00:08:57] And he ridiculed the idea.
[00:08:59] He said, Don, all your life you have struggled with speaking,
[00:09:03] even in a personal conversation.
[00:09:05] And to be a preacher, you have to do a lot of speaking.
[00:09:08] No, Don, I don't buy this idea of you becoming a preacher.
[00:09:13] Well, I knew he was corrected by my inability to speak effectively.
[00:09:17] And I was disappointed by his rejection.
[00:09:20] But I was asked on the national television program last week,
[00:09:24] how did I overcome my speech impediment?
[00:09:28] I simply took three scriptures that helped me overcome.
[00:09:31] Exodus 4.12,
[00:09:33] Now, therefore, go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you should say.
[00:09:38] In 2 Samuel 26.3,
[00:09:41] The Spirit of the Lord spake by me, and his word was in my tongue.
[00:09:45] And that meant that I must memorize scriptures to have God's word in my tongue.
[00:09:50] And, of course, Philippians 4.13 became my life verse.
[00:09:54] I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
[00:09:57] And that word enabled me to become a can-do person.
[00:10:02] Praise God.
[00:10:03] I mean, by his grace,
[00:10:05] I was able to overcome the speech impediment that had beset my life,
[00:10:10] a hurting event so often.
[00:10:13] And I was mocked when I would stutter.
[00:10:14] But I praise God that I learned the truth,
[00:10:17] that I can do all things through Christ.
[00:10:20] And that enabled me to be able to overcome.
[00:10:22] And then I started preaching in those country Baptist churches.
[00:10:26] To be sure I wouldn't mumble and stumble,
[00:10:29] I'd memorize my message so I could share it.
[00:10:33] Well, it was the combination of the word of God applied to my problem.
[00:10:37] And then the infilling of the Holy Spirit enabled me to preach
[00:10:40] thousands and thousands of messages by radio,
[00:10:44] and, of course, all over the world,
[00:10:46] in hundreds of meetings in many nations.
[00:10:49] Praise the Lord for these victories.
[00:10:51] So I want to help you today
[00:10:53] to overcome whatever hurt that may be besetting your life.
[00:10:58] You may not be the problems that I had,
[00:11:02] but your problems are real.
[00:11:04] And Father, I'm humbly grateful that by your grace,
[00:11:07] you've enabled me to overcome deep hurts in my life,
[00:11:11] the inability to express myself with clarity,
[00:11:14] and overcoming mumbling and stumbling in my conversation.
[00:11:18] O Lord, I thank you for deliverance from this stuttering habit.
[00:11:22] And now, Father, I pray for every listening friend
[00:11:24] that this day is beset by hurts of all kinds,
[00:11:28] that this day they'll cast their care upon you, Lord,
[00:11:31] for your deliverance.
[00:11:33] In Jesus' name I praise you, Lord.
[00:11:36] Amen.
[00:11:37] And the Bible says,
[00:11:39] To him that overcomes,
[00:11:41] God's blessing will be yours.
[00:11:43] And now, how about it?
[00:11:45] Well, don't you invite me,
[00:11:47] join me, let me invite you
[00:11:48] to join me as we together say a hearty,
[00:11:52] praise the Lord, amen.
[00:11:54] Let's say it ten times.
[00:11:56] Praise the Lord, amen.
[00:11:59] Praise the Lord, amen.
[00:12:01] Praise the Lord, amen.