RR:  That’s a good word.  (Applause)  Dave, I know that you understand that young people, high school students, college students, look up to professional athletes.  They hold you in such high regard, in some cases they hold you too high.  They want to be like you.  They, if you’re a football player they want to run with the ball like you run or carry the ball, throw it or kick it or pass it.  Or if it’s basketball, they want to shoot like you shoot.  Or if it’s golf, they want to hit the ball like you do, or they want to stride down the fairway like a Jack Nicholas or something like that.  And young people hold professional athletes in high regard.  And what I want to talk to you about and ask you to speak to is, well, concerning the matter that happened recently with the young man from University of Maryland, drafted by the Boston Celtics, who wound up in this cocaine situation apparently for the first time in his life.  I don’t know that anyone will ever know all of the circumstances because in those kind of things we don’t always know exactly what happened.  They know what perhaps it appears that happened.  But I know of your determination against drugs and against that in professional sports, but what would you say to a young person, high school, junior high, college, that has athletic ability but somehow they have either somehow got with drugs or the devil is playing tricks with their minds, what would you say to them? Take a moment and talk out of your heart.

DB:  I would say three things to them.  The most important thing for a child or someone who is living at home with his parents is, number one, children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right to honor your father and mother which is the first commandment with a promise that it may go well with you and you may enjoy a long life in the land the Lord your God has given you.  Number one, to obey your parents.  Number two, the Bible says in 1 Corinthians 15:33, “Do not be deceived, for bad company corrupts good morals.”  So number one, to obey your parents and watch who you associate to, with.  And number three, oftentimes in life that every generation feels that our parents or another generation is obsolete and we have to experience everything for ourselves.  One of the ways we learn is from other people’s experiences.  Drugs, the use of alcohol, the abuse of alcohol, those are all dead-end streets.  How many people have to die before you wise up?  And for me, I don’t have to use drugs or abuse alcohol.  I don’t drink for that matter as it is because of all the people that look up to me, and it’s just really a dead-end road.  And it’s not glorifying to your body, for the body is a temple of the Holy Spirit.

DB:  Well, when, you know, now everything that I do I give glory and honor to God because that’s what I’m here for, you know, to bring other people to the kingdom of God and snatch them out of hell because this is a serious situation that we’re in.  You know, we’re in the last days.  And when I play in a football game, I’m doing it all as heartily as unto the Lord.  And I do my very best every single play and I relieve the results to God.  As long as I do that I know that I have success because I please God.  And that’s the one person that I’m playing before and that’s the most high God.

RR:  Here you are running one of those touchdowns right now onthe screen.  (Applause)

DB:  And so when I get an interception and I’m running back for a touchdown, instead of jumping up in the air and throwing the ball down and I’ve just decided that I bow a knee, that just by maybe my bowing on my knee that someone might see that there is a God in Seattle, Washington, because we know that there is. (Applause)  And so how that effects, you know, my teammates, you know, the guys particularly that knew me before I became a Christian eight years ago, they know without a doubt that there is a difference.  And, you know, there’s a guy who’s a news commentator, a few other guys that are on the team that are still not believers.  But when I see them, they know what I stand for, and I stand for God through Jesus Christ and I stand for His Word.  And because of that stand, I believe that some day, you know, I’m just planting seed or maybe I’m watering the seed, but only God can make it grow.

DB:  Ephesians 2:8,9.

RR:  All right now, when you came to Jesus through this man’s witness, what did it do?  How did it change your life?  How did it effect your fellow players?

DB:  Well, first of all–

RR:  Because you began acting in a way that you weren’t used to acting before.

DB:  First of all, you know, I had a strong wife.  My wife Rhonda who I’ve been married to for ten years now, she was a Christian at the time.  And she was just really a strong witness in front of me.  She always stood by me.  She was my support and really I just feel so fortunate and blessed to have a wife like Rhonda. And once I became a Christian and I started reading the Bible for myself and studying it and allowing God to work through my life just saying, in every situation, you know, I’ve made a choice this day to follow after You, Lord, to be the man of God that You called me to be.  And I don’t know what to do.  You just show me through Your Word and through my spirit, the Holy Spirit that You’ve given me, and show me how I am to live. And each day as I’ve been obedient to the Word of God I’ve been revealed more and more from studying the Word of God, spending time in prayer and fellowship with other believers and witnessing.  This is what I’m doing right now, just telling what God has done in my life. I’ve just grown and grown.  (Applause)

RR:  A question I want to ask is the reaction, the reaction throughout your teammates and throughout the NFL and the fans, because suddenly people began seeing you do things, like, for example, the time that you, that you intercepted a pass, ran for a touchdown, the second largest interception in NFL history, and when you got into the end zone you got down on your knees and thanked the Lord.  I’d like you to, I’d like you to talk about that, how people responded.  And also when they saw you after Seattle came up in the world and you wound up beating the Miami Dolphins in the playoffs, you all were having a prayer meeting back in the dressing room afterwards.  And cameras came in and the news media came in and saw all this.  What was the response of people?

RR:  Did you, was that the time when you really came to know Jesus as your Savior, through his witness?  out there may be.  I didn’t really want to give God my life.  I felt I had to be good in order to give my life to Christ.  And when he explained to me, you know, that God wanted me just as I was, that I could not be good enough for God, I’d never make it because the sacrifice of Jesus Christ who died on the cross for my sins and the sins of the world, just believe in God through Jesus Christ and ask Him to come into my life, to forgive me of my sins and be my Savior and my Lord, that He would.  And it took me about a year later.

RR:  And it took you a while.  You said something a minute ago that I want to ask you because a lot of people have said this to me and I picked up on what you just said.  You said, I didn’t feel like I was good enough to become a Christian.  What did you mean by that?

DB:  Well, what I meant by that is that, you know, oftentimes we think that we have misconceptions about what God’s Word says.  We base most of our information on what the Bible says from what other people tell us and what we hear and what we think God should be.  And oftentimes that’s a misconception.  That’s how the devil uses other people or false prophets, antichrist, to influence our lives.

RR:  You know it’s not true now.

DB:  No, no question about it.  You know, when I found out He died for my sins and it’s by grace that I’m saved through faith, it’s not a gift, it’s a gift of God.  I can’t work my way into heaven.

RR:  Nothing of yourself, but it is a gift of God.

RR:  Now that was a time when Tampa Bay, the Tampa Bay Buchaneers and and they had no tradition.  They didn’t have any tradition of winning or losing, it was a new team.  And so they started their own tradition, which at that time was lose, lose, lose, lose, lose, lose, lose, lose.  Now here’s a young man who won in high school, he was a star with the University of Michigan, the first round draft pick of the Pittsburgh Steelers, win, win, win, win, win, go to the Super formed Seattle Seahawks, and suddenly it all comes crashing down around you.  What happened to you while you were there?

DB:  Well, no question, it was definitely different and I don’t think it had an effect on my character and I believed I still was a very, very fine, I was the best football player in my position. But again, I realized that it wasn’t just because of my ability I was able to do the things that I was, that I did.  I’d been very fortunate to have not ever missed a game of football in high school and in college, and my first year in professional football I missed one game.  And since that point I’ve only missed, I’ve missed six games.  I broke my leg in 1981.  But there was a guy who was on our football team, because at that point in time every team in the National Football League had put 13 players on a list and I was chosen off that list.  So we had guys from just about all the other 26 teams in the league.  And there was one guy in particular that I watched, because we had a group of guys on the team that they were different.  One guy in particular, he just seemed to have a smile on his face all the time, seemed to have something different.  And I watched him and he received an injury and his career was ended, and just because of his witness when he had the injury and all during the time when he rehabilitate his knee and his career was ended–

RR:  What was his name?

DB:  His name was Kent Hutchison.

RR:  And his witness had an effect upon you?

 DB:  No question about it.

RR:  Dave, I want to give you an opportunity to tell your story, and I guess maybe the best way to do that is for me to just ask you a question.  When you were young did you dream of, everydream that you’d wind up in the National Football League?  would be a professional football player. 

DB:  When I was real young, something like 8 or 10 years old, all the other kids were allowed to play football but my father wouldn’t let me play football.  I wasn’t football, and plus the other thing was that unless I got good grades I couldn’t do anything other than go to school.

RR:  So you had a strong family that believed in your education and wanted you to be healthy and was concerned that you might get injured or something in football.

DB:  That is correct.

RR:  By the time you were 15 things began to change in your life.

DB:  My father felt I was big enough to play, so I was allowed to play.  I had played baseball all the up to that point and basketball.

RR:  Now I know you played through high school and of course you went to the University of Michigan and you were the number one pick by the Pittsburgh Steelers.  Was that in 1976 or 7?  (75) 75.  The number one pick of the Pittsburgh Steelers.  When you got to the Steelers right out of college and wound up, you know,in the Super Bowl.  What did that do to Dave Brown?  All during my first year playing football, bantam league, in high school and college, you know, all we ever did was win.  So I think in college I lost, in high school I lost four games, in college I only lost two games.  So I hadn’t been used to losing at all.

RR:  So you were ready for the tradition of winning with the Pittsburgh Steelers.  the expansion draft in 1976, God moved me from there to Seattle, and we lost 12 games in the first year and only won two.  And God let me know that it was only because of His grace that I was able to be fortunate enough to be playing on one of these teams.

RR:  So many great things that are happening over at the City of Faith Health Care Center.  And you can make an appointment at the City of Faith by calling the clinic appointment number.  Let’s see, is that number on the screen?  Yes, it is.  1-918-493-8000, or 493-8282.  The City of Faith is changing the way people think about prayer and medicine joined together.  The City of Faith is a place for miracles. And by the way, I also, I’ve been mentioning it, ever since the Charismatic Bible Ministries Conference, the Oral Roberts Ministers Conference which was held the 23-25 of June this past month, love and unity through signs and wonders.  And we have made cassette tapes of all of the different men and women who ministered during this conference, and I want to offer it again to you in case you have not already gotten yours.  Services with Oral Roberts, Dr. Larry Lea, Jerry Savelle, Jack Hayford, Dr. Cho, Jamie Buckingham, Kenneth Copeland, a host of others.  There are 12 tapes (Applause) 12 tapes in this series.  And also, the womens luncheon with Freda Lindsay, with Anne Gimenez.  Who else?  You were involved in that.  (Your mother. 

LR:  Marilyn Hickey and Freda Lindsay were speakers.

RR:  Marilyn Hickey.  More than 1,200 women joined together for the womens luncheon during this great conference.  And if you’d like to receive the entire series of cassettes, you can.  For a Seed-Faith gift of $60, that’s $5 per tape, you can receive this. Just write me, Richard Roberts, Tulsa, Oklahoma.  Or call the Abundant Life Prayer Group and you can put a seed on your credit card.  Also, the VHS video cassettes of the Ministers Conference are also available for $20 a service.  And they will be a blessing.  You can put them in your video library at home.  My very special guest today is a young man that I’ve been very anxious to meet and to interview because of his career with the Seattle Seahawks, the National Football League.  He is their outstanding cornerback, defensive cornerback, Dave Brown.  Dave, God bless you.  Welcome.  (Applause)

DB:  Thank you very much.

LR:  Yeah, it really is.

RR:  I’ve studied the Bible most of my life now, but every time I open the Bible I find something that I didn’t notice before.  Now maybe I’d read the words, but something leaped out.  You see, that’s the anointing on God’s Word and that’s what’s happening to people at the Healing Outreach Center.  You see something in that Journey Through the Bible that you didn’t see.  So if you haven’t been through the Journey Through the Bible, come on down to Tulsa and see it.  I believe it will be a great blessing in your life. (Applause)  I want–God bless you, Hal.  Just sit right where you are because I want to, I feel like singing.  I wanted the ORU Singers to open with a song today, but I also feel like singing. Is this microphone on?  Yes, it is.  I want to sing a song called–would you like to sing, Lindsay 

LR:  I don’t even want to stand up today, let alone sing.  No, I’m fine right where I’m at.

RR:  If you’ll just excuse me, I’ll go right over here and I’m going to bring this song to you, “Devil, You Can’t Hold Me Down.” (Amen) (Singing “You Can’t Hold Me Down”)  (Applause)  Now here’s a testimony coming up just for you, so watch this.  PATSY LEONARD (Montrose, Michigan):  I think I had always been one of those who expected to see the manifestation of the healing before I received it.  And I learned that that’s not the way it should be. I I’m going to stand on that and believe it, that’s when my healing starts.  I stop asking God and I start believing I have already received it because His Word says, “By his stripes we were healed.” My name is Patsy Leonard and I’m from Montrose, Michigan.  And I became a partner of Oral Roberts approximately 10 or 12 years ago.  We have come to ORU the last five years for all the seminars.  When we receive an invitation we look forward to it every year.  But this year in particular I had just found out a couple of weeks before I received the invitation that I had some masses in my left breast.  And I went to my doctor and was examined and he suggested that I have a biopsy because he couldn’t guarantee me it was not malignant if I didn’t have one. And I knew that I was coming here and I knew about the City of Faith.  And I just felt a knowing inside of myself that the Lord gave me that this is where I should be because there was a possibility that I would need more surgery than just the biopsy. And I knew that having the faith and the belief that I did in the City of Faith that this is where I should come.  We went through the seminar and I came on Friday and had an interview with D. L. Moore and Dr. Henderson. And they examined me and they suggested too that I have the biopsy. And we set it up for Tuesday morning after the seminar was over.  And Sunday at the last service Oral and Richard came through and prayed for everyone in the healing line.  And I held in my heart that I wanted my healing from the knots in my breast.  And I just believed on that when they came and laid hands on me.  And then Sunday night we went over to the Victory Christian service at Billy Joe’s church and he laid hands on me and prayed for me.  And I felt more and more the tenderness was going out of my breast.  So I knew that God was starting to work there, that there was something happening inside of my body. And so I had no fear.  I remember in the holding room in surgery, the anesthesiologist came in and she said, “I will give you something in your IV to relax you.”  And I said, “Don’t bother.” I said, “The Lord has just made my spirit so relaxed I don’t need anything else.”  And so she said, “Well, fine.”  She said, “That’s unusual, but it’s good, you know, that you can feel like that.”  And the cancer that they found in my breast was benign. I think they took three different little small tumors out and it was all benign.  The doctor came back and told me while I was on the table that it was benign.  And I just began praising the Lord right there on the operating table.  (Applause)

RR:  What are people saying, Hal, as they go through the first phase of the Journey Through the Bible? 

HL:  The response has been unbelievable.  It’s just the presence of God in that place, it’s tremendous.  Not only in the prayer room which I really feel it, but all throughout it, the whole tour is tremendous. You can watch the little children’s faces. You know, I always like to watch the kids because you can see how much it’s going to mean to them and they’re going to remember this, you know, they’re going to remember creation, how God created man and woman.  And it’s just been a fabulous thing. It’s going to be the largest witness that’s going to ever take place for Jesus Christ in this world for people to remember.

RR:  Are people saying “We can’t wait for the next phase,” or- 

HL:  Oh, they’re ready to go out and help start building it.  I mean, they’re so anxious for that second phase, it’s unbelievable. (Applause)  It’s unbelievable.  People have been coming through two, three, four, five times.  Amen.  They just keep coming out, going back in 

RR:  And you see something new every time you go through, something you didn’t notice before.  You say, hey, I didn’t notice that the first time.  Or I didn’t notice that the second time.  That’s what happened to us.

LR:  You know what, that’s what happened to me.  That’s why I went back another time.  I had taken little Juli with us, and Juli is Richard’s 14-year-old daughter.  And Juli said, “Did you see that?” And I said, “No, I missed that.”

RR:  Missed it the first time.

LR:  So I had to go back and see what she was talking about.  And when you do, you see something else and you think, well, I didn’t realize that.  Then you go back and you begin to pick up things over and over. And your faith rises.

RR:  Just like the Bible, just like the Bible.

And you say, well I, Richard Roberts,  can’t give that kind of money but I could give a seed of $10 a month. Or I could give a seed of $15 or $20 a month. Or I could give $50 a month or I could give $100. There’s someone who’s watching who could give $200 a month. Someone who’s watching could give $300 a month.

Someone who’s watching could give $500 a month. Someone who’s watching who could give $1,000 a month. There’s a minister in Texas, if I were to call his name, most everyone watching would know his name, recognize his name. He’s an internationally known minister. He was on our program recently. He told me privately, “Richard Roberts, I’m going to send you $1,000 a month because God spoke to my heart to keep you, to keep the university operating.” That’s, that’s what it is. That’s what it is.

That’s what Cheryl, I want you to step over to the piano. I want you to step over to the piano, Cheryl, and bring us a song because we’re going to pray. We’re going to pray in just a minute. We’re going to pray. The endowment of Oral Roberts University is important. Oral Roberts University is important to you. Think what would happen if Oral Roberts University closed. It would be a tidal wave, not only across America but a tidal wave around the world.

For this is a beacon of faith, that there’s hope in young people. Youth is magic and tomorrow is youth. How is the world going to be won for Jesus Christ? Let me tell you, it’s going to be won with young people. You can only reproduce yourself through young people and that’s what Oral Roberts University is all about. We’re going to pray in a minute. Cheryl, bring us a song before we pray.

Let’s join our hands together now. Everyone in the audience join hands together. If you’re with somebody, touch them. Or if you’re alone, lay your hands on yourself. And, John, I’m going to ask you to lead the prayer in behalf of Oral Roberts University. The Bible says if you cannot go, you must send someone. And you can send the Oral Roberts University students to the nations of the earth. You said, me, I could send a student? Yes, you can, by keeping the doors opened. John, would you lead us in prayer and then I want to pray. We have about two minutes before our program closes.

Our God and our Savior, what a privilege it is to approach You this morning, knowing that You have all power in heaven and earth. And I know that Your eyes rove to and fro the earth and you have not left out looking down from Your pinnacle of glory upon this university. And I pray in this emergency need, God, that when we hear words like the university may not open come next season, those words are words of doubt and I defy them ever to be spoken from the mouth of anyone, for we are faith people.

And now, in the name of Jesus, reach your tentacles of faith out to someone watching that they could endow someone to carry forth knowledge into the earth, that the earth may be filled with knowledge and that the earth therein would give forth life and life in a sanctified pure sense. Bless it, let it come to pass and bless all the requests today. Bless all of those who support the ministry already and continue to bless and keep harm, danger, plague or sickness from them.

Of those You’re speaking to now, Lord, to endow it, we wait for their letter in the mail, in Jesus’ name.