And if you haven’t figured that out now, you need to figure it out because when you get married, you’re going to understand what I’m telling you is the truth.  They’re pretty smart.  They’re going to have to be smart to land you.

So anyway, we went back to Pastor Strader’s house, and he gave me their little guest bedroom.  And I stayed in there for a few hours, and I tried to prepare a message for the evening because I was supposed to preach that night.  Got to the service, and nobody was laughing.  And I thought, Well, wow!  The last time I saw them, there were several thousand people, they’re rolling in the aisles.  They’re laughing hysterically.  They’re falling off the chairs.  They’re everywhere, and now it was back to normal.  And I thought, Well, I guess it’s over, one-time deal, you know?

And so they had their praise and worship, and they raised their offering and they were on the radio live that night.  And they introduced me.  And I thought, Well, okay.  I guess it’s over.

I got my Bible.  I was sitting on the front.  And I tried to get up.  Instead of getting up, I fell off the pew in the floor.  Now, students, surely you know me well enough to know that I don’t normally fall off the chair into the floor.  That’s just not my speed.  I am dignified!  I’m a college president.  I’m on television.  I don’t fall off my chair into the floor.  I don’t do that.  I just don’t do it.  That’s not me.

I fell off my chair into the floor, and I started rolling and laughing hysterically, and I couldn’t get up.  Now you may have heard of people who have had that experience.  It was as if my legs had been nailed to the carpet.  I tried to pull my legs up, and I couldn’t get them to move.  You talk about weird!  I’ve never experienced anything like that in my life.

And I heard Pastor Strader say, “For the benefit of our radio audience, our evangelist is on the floor.”  And I lay there, and I laughed and I laughed and I laughed and I laughed.  And as I lay there, the Holy Spirit spoke to me, and here’s what He said:  “As you laugh, I’m going to pay off your debt.  And as you laugh, that ulcer which you’ve had for months is going to be healed.”

And he began to walk me through Nehemiah 8:10, and he said, “Did you know the joy of the Lord is your strength?”  And I said, “Well, sure.  I’ve read that scripture.”  He said, “No, do you know what it means?”  And I said, “No, sir, I don’t have any idea what it means.  I’m like many Christians, I know the Bible, but a lot of it I don’t understand what it means.”

And then he took me over to Ephesians 6, and the light came on.  He said, “Paul said, Be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might.”  He said—listen to this, this is the key.  You might want to write this down.  This is a key—“How can you be strong, how can you be strong unless you have joy, which is your strength?”

Well, I’d never put the two scriptures together.  I didn’t understand.  And he went on to explain.  He said, “Richard, I’ve been on your board for years, when your father was President, and now that you’re President.  I was one that voted for you to be President.  I know what you’re going through.”

He said, “If anybody in this world is a candidate for the joy of the Lord, it’s you.  And the reason I invited you to come down here is because you need the joy of the Lord in your life.  And I prayed that what has gotten on us will get on you.”

I said, “Pastor Strader, that’s not why I came at all.  I came because my wife made me.”  And, of course, he had already talked to Lindsay, and they were working together on the deal behind my back.  And she already knew the whole story.  You know, the wives, women, you always know everything anyway, you know.  It’s just easier just to confess it all.  We guys don’t want to confess all that, but the truth is, guys, they’re working behind your back.

But right here in my belly—everybody put your hands right here, everybody.  This is your solar plexus area.  All right, this is where you feel things.  You don’t feel things in your chest or in your head.  You feel right here.  That’s why Jesus said, “Out of your belly”—we talked about this when we talked about the baptism of the Holy Spirit.  “Out of your belly shall flow” what? “rivers of living water.”

And He was speaking of what?  The Holy Spirit, which at that time had not yet been given because Jesus had not yet been glorified.  But now here we are, it’s 1993, the Holy Spirit’s been poured out.

All right, so I feel this something hit my belly, and I start chuckling.  And the chuckling turned into a full-scale laugh.  And while I was laughing, I said to myself, “Why are you laughing?”  Because there was nothing funny.  I was doing my best to be angry, and all of a sudden, something is bubbling up in me and I’m laughing.  And now suddenly I’m laughing as hysterically as they are laughing, and I can’t figure out why.

And I didn’t know what to do.  I couldn’t say anything.  I just stood there and laughed and I laughed and I laughed.  And finally I just went to the front row.  There were pews, you know how those big long pews are, and there was a woman there.  I’ll never forget it.  She had on a light blue dress.  I’m trying to see somebody that has that color dress on.  Kind of like the blue of your sweatshirt, about that color, beautiful dress.  I laid down in her lap.  I put my face right in her lap, and I just laughed and laughed and laughed and laughed and laughed.

And when I was able to get up, I looked, and I had left a huge pile of spit all over her dress, big wet spot.  And I tried to apologize to her, but she was laughing so hard it didn’t seem to bother her.

And I laughed, and I never got to finish my message.  I never got back to the pulpit.  I laughed and I laughed.  The next thing I remember—I really don’t remember how the service ended.  I do know that I remember we went to lunch.  And by now I’ve stopped laughing.  And I said to the pastor, “Pastor Strader, please, what happened?”

“Suddenly there came a sound like a rushing mighty wind from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.

“They saw what appeared to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them.

“All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.”    This is what is commonly referred to as the Day of Pentecost, or the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

We’ll have a session this semester on the baptism with the Holy Spirit, and we’ll have a session on the gifts of the Spirit, and I will differentiate the difference between the operation of the gift of tongues and your daily devotional prayer language.  I’m going to clear up that kind of controversy as well this semester.

John 3, verses 5 and 6.  “Jesus answered, I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and of the Spirit.”  Or, in other words, no one can be a Christian unless they are, first of all, born from their mother, but also born of the Holy Spirit, which is the new birth.  Flesh gives birth to flesh, but Spirit gives birth to Spirit.

Now let’s deal with you and me and the church generally, and that comes in Acts 1:8.  You all know that Jesus on the third day rose from the dead.  He showed himself alive to hundreds.  And then He went to the Mount of Olives, preparing to ascend to His heavenly Father.

Remember, He had said, “I will not leave you comfortless.  I will not leave you alone.  I will send you another Comforter.  I must go.  It’s better for you that I go because if I go, then I will send the Holy Spirit.”

And He says in Acts 1:8, “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you.  And you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and to the uttermost bounds of the earth.”

It is the power of the Holy Spirit that enables you to become the witness that you are to be.

And Jesus said, “I’m not talking about flesh.  That’s just simply flesh.  I’m talking about being born of the Spirit.”  But there were many who had a real hard time with me, and there were those early on in my leadership back in the days when I served as vice president of the university, who did not believe, because they went to school with me.  And they remembered.

Now they didn’t remember anything that they had done.  They only remembered what I had done back when I was 18, 19, 20, you know, in that area of my life.  You know, watch out for those kind of people.  You know, pray for them but don’t make them your lifelong friends.  Those are fair-weather friends.  You want someone who will really stand beside you and believe and see the change that has come.

Now I don’t harbor any bitterness toward those people.  I don’t.  But I do recognize that there are those kinds of people in the world.  And if they’ll treat me that way, many of them will treat you that way.  Okay?

Somebody who’s hurt your left leg above your knee, you’re getting healed right now.

All right.  So Jesus says, “This is the day.  It’s fulfilled.”

Now write down Acts 10:38, Acts 10:38.  “Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tested by the devil.”

Now I’m going to deal with some of this in the morning in chapel.  I’m going to talk about the Holy Spirit leading you.  Tomorrow morning I’m going to bring you a message, I’m going to bring some balance to some things on campus.

I’m going to talk tomorrow morning about how you can be in the world but not of the world.  And I’m going to bring some balance.  There’s some things that have been said this school  year from last semester on that need to have some balance.