by Pastor Jack Hyles (1926-2001)
PREACHING ON A BOX IN A GARAGE
One Saturday I was soul winning with one of my daughters. We went to a house on the north side of Hammond only to find that no one answered the door. Suddenly we heard some noises in the garage behind the house. Upon opening the door to the garage we found about a dozen men having a drinking party as they worked on a couple of cars.
I witnessed to the man of the house and received in reply only jeers and heckling from the entire group. Again I tried to witness courteously; again my voice was drowned by heckling and jeering.
Suddenly I felt impressed of the Holy Spirit to preach. I jumped up on a box in the corner of the garage, opened my Bible, and shouted, "LISTEN TO ME!" Listen they did. You never saw such a sober drunk crowd in your life. I proceeded to preach a sermon on the sins of drinking liquor.
My little daughter hovered in the corner and was afraid (So was I!), but I was caught out of myself. They stood silently and stunned as I delivered my message. When I finished I abruptly came down, took my daughter, got into the car, and drove off.
The next morning as I walked into my pulpit to preach I saw in the center of the front row of the balcony the man who had hosted the drinking party. When invitation time came he was the first one to come down the stairs and down the aisle. When I took his hand, he said, "I am the man who lives in the house where you preached yesterday. When you finished your sermon, I said to myself, 'You better get right with God.' Now I want to be saved."
Within a few weeks over a dozen people in that man's family and inner circle of friends had been saved, all because of a sermon on liquor preached on a box in a corner of a garage. All this was made possible because a preacher and his little daughter went soul winning together.
