a dramatic presentation about the life of evangelist Dwight Lyman Moody, shared by Dennis Eversen at Timber Creek Community Church in Springfield, Missouri, on July 7, 2002 [03:18]. The video includes the audio recording of the presentation with accompanying photos.
The main theme of the presentation is the power and magnitude of God’s love, drawing on D.L. Moody’s life experiences and ministry.
Here are some key points from the presentation:
That night, the great Chicago fire broke out, and he never saw that audience again [46:06]. Since then, he stated, he has “never dared give an audience a week to think over their salvation” [46:30].
D.L. Moody’s Background:
Born in Northfield, Massachusetts, in 1837 [14:17].
He was the seventh of nine children, and his father died when Moody was six, leaving the family destitute [14:21].
He moved to Boston at age 16 to “earn his fortune” and worked at his uncle’s shoe store [20:18].
The Influence of Love:
He learned about a mother’s powerful, unwavering love from his mother’s efforts to keep her family together after his father’s death [14:35]. He compares this to a mother’s love for a wicked, convicted son [15:00].
A school teacher’s decision to rule with love and pray for him, rather than using the rod, changed his unruly behavior and was more powerful than fear [18:45].
Mr. Kimell, his Sabbath class teacher, showed him kindness by helping him find the passage in the Bible when he was searching in the wrong place, which was a “big thing” to Moody [22:18].
Conversion and Ministry:
Mr. Kimell later visited Moody at the shoe store and shared the Gospel with him, focusing on John 3:16 [25:09]. Moody accepted Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior, resulting in a peace he’d never known [25:46].
He moved to Chicago, rented pews in a church, and filled them with young boys like himself [26:12].
He got involved with the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) [27:03].
People initially called him “crazy moody” for his unorthodox ministry, which included Sunday school classes on the beach using driftwood as pews [29:36]. As his ministry grew, they began calling him “Brother Moody,” then “Mr. Moody,” and finally “D.L. Moody” [29:43].
The Theme of God’s Love:
Moody quotes Ephesians 3:14-19 to emphasize the need for “power together with all saints to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ” [23:54].
He recounts how he was changed by an encounter with a young man named Henry Mohouse in Dublin, Ireland, who preached that “God loves the sinner” using John 3:16 for six consecutive nights [36:38]. Moody admitted this ruined two or three of his own sermons that had previously preached that God was against the sinner [38:13].
A Memorable Mistake:
Moody shares a regretful mistake from an evangelistic series in October 1871 in Chicago [43:47]. After preaching on the question, “What shall I do then with Jesus which is called Christ?” (Matthew 27:22), he told the audience to “come back next week and tell me what you’ll do with him” [46:11].
