[0:00] I am very, very excited to introduce you. I didn't know Brother Rotman at all. I got word of him from Ed Frampton, but we had supper last night. And I love his brother. He loves Jesus.
[0:11] That's why I like him so much. And, you know, he's a graduate of Juilliard. I don't know what all he'll tell you, but the year he got in, 2,000 people applied and 18 got accepted.
[0:23] And just a few years ago, they had basically the, he was in a Beethoven type Olympics thing. And 76 people were invited from all over the world, 29 countries.
[0:37] And he was one of the winners. And so I really think you're going to enjoy it. But most of all, what I like about him is not the piano playing, although he's going to do a good job of that.
[0:47] You're going to like it. But he loves Jesus. Amen. Amen. Brother Rotman, you come up here and he's going to let, he's just taking over. So y'all just pay attention now. Go ahead.
[0:58] Thank you. Well, good morning. It's a privilege to be here. This was a year and about nine months in the making. Your pastor called me about a year and nine months ago.
[1:09] And he said, we heard about you. We would like to have you come. I'm booked about a year ahead of time. And I said, well, I could come the Sunday after Easter of 2020. 2020. So we had already the Sunday after Easter of 2020 worked on it, you know, eight months, you know, beforehand sent information.
[1:24] And then COVID hit and 64 of my concerts were that's done. And I sat at home and someone said, now, you know what it's like to be retired.
[1:36] But I was practicing a lot. So after things settled down, I got in touch with the church and the pastor and we talked. He says, well, now have it. Let's have it now the Sunday after Easter of 2021. So that's what the day is, the Sunday after Easter.
[1:49] So it's a privilege to be here and to share with you. And so let me tell you what I'm going to do a little bit this morning. Of course, tonight the concert is at five o'clock. I want to really encourage you to come.
[2:01] It's going to be about an hour and a half. I have a program. We're going to have classical music. It's a special concert because this year, Beethoven is 250 years old.
[2:11] Beethoven, the famous classical composer. I'm a big performer of Beethoven. I get invited a lot to play sometimes Beethoven. I'm known as a Beethoven specialist. And so it's going to be all Beethoven music.
[2:22] I'm going to explain the music. We're going to roll the piano a little more centered here. We'll move this. You'll be able to see the hands. But I'm going to share that music is not the most important thing in my life, but Jesus Christ is. You're going to hear my whole testimony.
[2:34] So I want to encourage you to come. It's like I say, an hour and a half. I always share this. If you have children who play piano or they sing, people have asked me for 40 years, how do I get my child to practice more?
[2:46] How can I get my child to... I'll tell you the answer. I'm sure. I'll tell you the answer. Take them to a concert. Because one concert is equal to six months of nagging.
[2:58] And you bring your child and they're going to hear a piano concert. And they're going to say, mommy, I want to go home and play my piece, my little piece like that. I'm 70 years old. I go to concerts and I come home and tell my wife, mommy, I want to play my little piece like that.
[3:14] So I'm telling you, bring kids, bring kids, bring kids. Have them in the front. It inspires them in their music in that sense. And so I'm going to share a little bit about my music, a little bit about my testimony.
[3:26] I'm not going to share everything about my testimony. That's going to be at the concert. And I want to share something from the word. I'm going to play for you. So let me share a little bit about my music. I got into music through my mother.
[3:38] My mother was born in Eastern Europe. At that time, the country was called Czechoslovakia. Two hours from Vienna, Austria. And she loved music. When I was a little boy, she took me to concerts.
[3:49] Six years old, seven years old. I mean, almost every week we went to a concert. Symphony orchestra, pianist. She never asked me about playing. But when I was nine, I said I wanted to learn the piano. And so I started the piano and I liked it.
[4:01] And when I was 11, I remember I said, I really want to be a concert pianist. And that was pretty strategic. At 11, I really loved music. And, you know, I was not special.
[4:11] I was not a prodigy. I was not a genius at it. I just realized the more I practiced, the better I got. And the more I practiced, the better I got. And the better I got, the more I wanted to practice.
[4:22] So the better I got. And the better I got, the more I wanted to get better. So I practiced. And eventually I practiced three hours a day, four hours a day. I used to get up at 5.30 in the morning for two and a half hours before I went to school.
[4:35] And then I won a big competition when I was 16 years old. Played with a famous orchestra in Texas. Went on tour with them. And then I went to Juilliard. And there I started practicing 10 hours a day.
[4:47] And I mean not nine hours and 45 minutes. I sat every day at the piano for 10 hours a day. Look what it did to me. I put in all that notes and all the hair went away. And so I've played now in 61 different countries.
[5:01] I've played in most, almost all the countries where you have missionaries. And I've played 3,100 concerts. I love music. It's a passion to me. I love performing.
[5:14] And so in a moment I'm going to share with you about coming to Christ. But one of the things that, you know, I wanted to be a great pianist. I want to be famous.
[5:25] I wanted to play all around the world and everything. And in one night, in one night when I came to Jesus Christ, Jesus changed the whole thing around.
[5:36] All that practicing you did for your glory, Sam. All that practicing you did for your ego. You're going to play the piano for me. You're going to be a pianist for me. And one of the things, I play classical music.
[5:49] So God did not give me the gift of playing hymns. I can play hymns. But it's not like, you know, there's people who can really play wonderful hymns and have ability. But I play hymns for my own edification.
[6:02] But I play classical music. So I remember once reading in 1 Kings chapter 10 how the Queen of Sheba came to visit King Solomon. And she said, you know, I'm amazed at your wisdom.
[6:14] She goes on this list there, I think, in verse 8, 9, and 10. You know, your wisdom is more than I thought. And happy are your servants who wait upon you. And I see how you go up into your place of worship.
[6:24] And then she said, but blessed be the Lord God who made you king over Israel. You know what she had? She had spiritual antennas. She could see that beyond the wisdom of Solomon, beyond the glory that he had had, beyond all the things, she saw it was God who gave you this wisdom.
[6:45] God gave you this gift. God gave you this grace. God gave you this place that you could do this. And I realized God gave me the gift of classical music, to play classical music. And I want to reach people for Jesus Christ by playing classical music.
[6:59] And so he gave me this gift. He moves my fingers. He gave me the mind to learn the music. He gave me the heart to love the music. And so I was invited to start to play classical music, etc.
[7:10] And then the Lord opened up concerts in 61 countries. And this is the key. If I went to 61 countries and I played Christian music, you know who would come and hear me play?
[7:22] Christians. You are not going to get a Jewish person to come to your church to hear someone play Amazing Grace. They're not interested in hearing Amazing Grace. But a Jewish person will come to hear Beethoven.
[7:35] A Jewish person will come to hear Chopin or Mozart. Muslims will come to hear if they have an interest in classical music. So I have thousands of people who come to concerts who are interested to hear classical music.
[7:48] And then at every concert, I take 18, 20 minutes. And I tell them, after a lot of playing, 20, 30,000 notes, music is not the most important in my life, but Jesus Christ is.
[8:00] And then I share with them what it is to know Jesus Christ and what he did in my life. I've seen thousands of people. I was in Israel not long ago. And in one night, 11 Jews came to know Jesus Christ.
[8:11] And they were all baptized and they're still in the church. So I just share with you that, you know, it's not that you have to be a pastor, which is a gift.
[8:22] You don't have to be a Bible teacher. You can do what you do. And you can say, Lord, I want to serve you with what you've given to me. And watch what God will do in serving Jesus Christ.
[8:33] So listen, I play classical music. I play classical music. I play this music and I practice seven hours a day. I want to play on a high level. I say I play for Jesus Christ. And if I play for Jesus Christ, someone say, well, he may play for Jesus Christ, but he doesn't play very well for Jesus Christ.
[8:50] I don't want people to say that. You do your best. You practice hard. You do it to honor him. And so people say, wow, I want to really serve him in that way, know him in that way.
[9:02] So let me just share a little bit about you'll hear more of my testimony at the concert. But I was raised as an Orthodox Jew. The Orthodox Jews are the strictest, strictest, strictest Jews.
[9:14] They really try to follow the Torah, the five books of Moses. My father was born in Romania. My mother was born in Czechoslovakia. And they were Orthodox Jews, very religious.
[9:26] To make a long story short, they left because of Hitler. I'll share more of that tonight. And then they came to the United States in 1950. All my grandparents were dead before I was born.
[9:36] Two of them were killed by the Nazis. Another one died in 1919. Another one before I was born. So the point was, was that my parents came to America and I was raised in a very religious Jewish home.
[9:49] I went to Hebrew school. You know, there's Christian school, there's Baptist schools, there's Catholic schools. There are some Jewish schools, not many, but it was called Hebrew school. I went five days a week for eight years.
[10:00] Very important part of my life. My grandparents died for being Jewish. My parents suffered for being Jewish. And I was going to be everything I could with my Jewish heritage. I learned all about being Jewish.
[10:11] I learned 900 prayers. 900 prayers. Five days a week. I put on what's called the tefillin, the phylacteries, every morning praying for half an hour.
[10:22] And even though I was so moral, I was so religious on the outside, I knew I was very immoral on the inside. Something was not right. And again, I'm going to flesh this out more tonight.
[10:35] And then I went to Juilliard, practicing 10 hours a day. And there I met three born-again Christians. And they asked me two questions. They asked me if I ever read the New Testament. I said, nope, it's not a Jewish book.
[10:47] I don't read the New Testament. Jews don't read the New Testament. I have no interest in the reading of the New Testament. They asked me if I thought Jesus was the Messiah. Nope. He's not the Messiah. He's an imposter.
[10:58] We have no interest in this Jesus. This is the reason people hate us, because of this Jesus, these Christians that persecute us. So I had no interest in this. And yet I was very moral.
[11:09] Listen, never took drugs. I lived in New York City during the Vietnam War, during the hippie movement. Never had sex before marriage. Never drank. But again, I was not right on the inside.
[11:21] I knew that I was not right. And in May of 1971, I decided I would read the New Testament. I was practicing 10 hours a day, 10 hours. I started to read the New Testament, and I was absolutely shocked.
[11:33] You know what shocked me? Come tonight at 5 o'clock, and you'll hear the rest of the story. Only to say that on May 21st, 1971, in five weeks, it will be my 50th spiritual birthday.
[11:51] May 21st, 1971, the first time I prayed to Jesus Christ. And I'm going to tell you what I said. My name is Sam Rotman, and Jesus, I want you to take over my life.
[12:01] I told him the dirty words, the immoral thoughts. I told him the sins I did. I didn't hide anything from Jesus. I didn't want to give him any excuses.
[12:12] I was completely, I finished praying. I opened up my eyes. I didn't know what happened, if you turn green or something. I didn't know, I didn't know nothing. And I knew immediately that Jesus Christ completely transformed me.
[12:25] He cleaned my mouth. He cleaned my mind. And the next morning, I couldn't wait to get to Juilliard, and I told all of my Jewish friends, I met Jesus Christ. It was, I met the Messiah, Yeshua HaMashiach.
[12:37] It was the greatest, greatest, greatest moment of my life. Everything changed. Everything changed. My music changed. My view of everything changed. My whole life changed. I married a Christian wife.
[12:48] We've been married 47 years. We have three children who know the Lord. We have five grandchildren. Everything changed by coming to know Jesus Christ. So, again, tonight, I'm going to share much more.
[13:00] This is the five-minute testimony. Tonight, you'll hear the 20-minute testimony. But I want to share this. I'm going to share it at this first service. I'm going to show you something tonight from the life of Beethoven.
[13:14] Now, you see, I play a lot of Beethoven. I have a CD that was nominated, almost nominated, I say, almost for a Grammy in 2004 by Beethoven. It's the best playing, best CD.
[13:25] I'm going to show you something tonight from the life of Beethoven that you will never, never, never, never forget. You're going to forget the concert.
[13:38] You're going to forget a bald-headed guy came and played the piano. By the way, thank you to the church for renting this piano. You know, this is a $100,000 piano. I'm not being exaggerated.
[13:51] In fact, it's probably $125,000. I know pianos. This is not an A-plus piano. This is an A-triple-plus piano. So you'll enjoy it on an exceptional piano.
[14:05] You'll forget the piano, but I'm going to show you something tonight. I'm not going to tell you what it is. You will never, never, never forget what I'm going to see tonight.
[14:16] I'm going to take a few minutes and share something from the Word that I think will be an encouragement to you. And then if we have a few minutes, I'd like to take some questions. If you have any questions about my Jewish upbringing.
[14:28] Sometimes people love to ask questions about what it was like as a Jew or how did your parents react. Or, you know, any questions about music or practicing or anything you'd like to ask.
[14:38] If you have your Bibles, I'd like to have you turn to Matthew 25. Matthew 25. We'll do this about 15 minutes at the most.
[14:50] But I think this will be an encouragement for everybody. You know, Matthew 25 follows Matthew 24. Now, I know that sounds funny.
[15:02] But Matthew 24 sets the stage. Jesus is teaching in the temple. And he comes out of the temple. And they tell Jesus, wow, look at these buildings.
[15:13] Unbelievable. Look at these buildings. And Jesus says the day is coming when it will all be torn down. Not one stone will be left upon another. He predicted the destruction of the temple, which happened in the year 70.
[15:28] And then privately they get with Jesus and they ask him three questions. When will this happen? What will be the sign of your coming? And when is going to be the end of the age?
[15:38] Now, I wish they would have asked him one question and then let him answer. Then the second question and let him answer. And the third question, because sometimes Matthew 24, what is he asking?
[15:51] Your pastor probably knows all the answers, but I don't. But following Matthew 24 about when is this going to happen, the end of the age, the sign of these things, he gives us three stories.
[16:03] In other words, he continues talking. He continues. And he tells us three stories. The first is the ten virgins waiting for the bridegroom, right? Five had oil. Five didn't.
[16:14] Five was ready. So he says, be ready. Because they said, what's going to be the sign of your coming? You know what the sign of my coming is? Don't worry. But you read, be ready. You don't know when I'm going to come.
[16:25] You don't know. You see, it's all related to this question in Matthew 24. And then the third parable is, I'm going to gather all the nations, the sheep from the goats.
[16:37] And I'm going to put on one side, I was thirsty, you gave me drink. I was hungry, you visited me. I was in prison. And when did we do this? The fact you did the least to my brethren, you did it unto me.
[16:49] To the others, he's going to say, I didn't, you didn't feed me. You didn't help me. You didn't clothe me. You didn't visit me. The fact you didn't do it to the least of my brethren, you didn't do it unto me. Can I tell you something? Be very careful how you treat one another in the body of Jesus Christ.
[17:05] Because you know something? You know how you treat your brethren Christ? That's the way you're treating Jesus himself. And then in the middle, you have the parable of the talents.
[17:19] Look with me, Matthew 25, verse 14. It is just like a man about to go on a journey who called his slaves and entrusted his possessions to them. To one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, each according to their own ability.
[17:35] So this is the story. Here is a man who has great possessions. And he says, I'm going away. And by the way, I'm going away and I want you to take care of my possessions. You're going to be a steward of what I'm going to give to you.
[17:48] So to one who gave five talents, two talents, one talent. Can I tell you something? Everything you have has been given to you by God. You want a philosophy of life?
[17:59] Just follow John the Baptist in John 3. They came to John the Baptist and said, are you the Messiah? He said, no, I'm not the Messiah. I'm here to point to the Messiah. But he said this.
[18:11] A man can receive nothing except it has been given to him from above. What a view of life. A man can receive nothing.
[18:21] You know who gave you the strength to get out of bed this morning? God. You know who beats your heart? God. You know who gave your pastor the strength when he was in the hospital? God.
[18:32] You know who's the one who gave you your wife, your husband? God. You know who gave you the strength to earn money? God. Because in Deuteronomy it says, lest you forget, I am the one that gave you the ability to earn money and to gain wealth.
[18:47] It is me that gave you this ability. You can play the piano. Who moves my fingers? God. Who gave me the mind to learn the music? God. Who gave me the heart to love the music?
[18:58] God. Who gave me a teacher that I could get better in the music? God. A man can receive nothing. This is what this is. And we're all different.
[19:09] We're all different. You know you are the most unique person on the face of the earth. Listen to me for a minute. A hundred years ago you weren't here. And a hundred years from now you think you'll be here but you won't be here.
[19:26] There has never been another you. Never. And there will never be another you. And we are each individually, wonderfully, fearfully made.
[19:38] God weaved you in your mother's womb. God gave you who you are. God gave you the gifts you have. God gave you everything. And we're all different. We're all different.
[19:49] People say to me, boy, I wish I could play the piano like that. No, you don't. You're not supposed to play the piano like me, like that. Because you're not me. I'm not you. I'm not Billy Graham. There's only one Billy Graham.
[20:01] That's Billy Graham. I'm not supposed to be Billy Graham. He's Billy Graham. I'm not your pastor. He's not me. You understand what I'm saying? Each according to his ability.
[20:12] So now we know the story. I'm going to go through this quickly. Immediately the one who had received the five talents went and traded with them and gained five more talents. The same manner that wanted to receive the two talents gained two more.
[20:23] But he who had received the one talent went away, dug a hole in the ground, and hid his master's money. So the one man with the five talents goes and he says, I'm going to serve my Lord with this. He goes and he's industrious.
[20:34] He works hard. He practices. He does whatever. He studies. He thinks. He figures out. And he's blessed. And he gains five more talents. Twice as much.
[20:45] Another man with the two talents does the same. He works and he gains two more talents. And the man with the one talent says, I want to be sure I don't lose maybe what I got. I don't want to come up empty handed. So I go and I bury it. At least when he comes back, I can dig it up and I can give him what he gave to me.
[20:59] Okay. Now, verse 19. Look at it. This is very important. Now after a long time.
[21:10] You know I say that? You know that every word is God breathed. You know they said, where is Jesus is coming? You know it's been 2,000 years since Jesus went to be within heaven.
[21:21] I mean I can understand if we followed Jesus and it was 50 years ago. Or 30 years ago. But 2,000? It's all a bunch of hocus pocus. You're believing a lie.
[21:31] It's a dream. Jesus told us it would be a long time. Isn't that great? Isn't that great? Jesus told us after a long time.
[21:46] He showed up. That's why this parable is in here. Remember the original story? What's going to be the sign of your coming? What will be the end of the age? After a long time he came. So now I'm going to use myself an example.
[21:59] Now the next two minutes is going to be a little bit tough. For all of us. But in about five minutes you're all going to be standing up and dancing a jig. Okay?
[22:10] I'm going to stand before Jesus Christ. Now listen. Why? Because we will all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. To give an account. If you're in Jesus Christ.
[22:21] There is no condemnation for those that are in Christ. You are going to be with Christ. Because salvation is not what you have done for Jesus Christ. Salvation is what he has done for you.
[22:32] Thank God nothing in my hands I bring. Simply to the cross I cling. Right? That's salvation. So it's not dependent on you. It's what he has done for you. But we will all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.
[22:45] Why? To give an account. He's going to say, Sam, I gave you your body. You didn't make your body. You didn't make your liver.
[22:56] You didn't make your intestines. You didn't make blood. You didn't make your brain. You didn't make your heart. You didn't make your bones. I made all of that. I weaved you in your mother's womb. And your mother's womb.
[23:07] You. God weaved you in your mother's womb. I gave you the body. I gave you the strength to get out of bed. I gave you the strength to learn music. I gave you the strength. What did you do with your body? Did you honor me with your body?
[23:19] Did you use it as an instrument for righteousness? Or did you use your body for sin? Did you use your body for immorality? Did you use your body for selfishness? I'm telling you, God's going to do this.
[23:32] I'm not. This is no. This is in here. Sam, I gave you the ability to play the piano. What did you use it for? Did you use it for your glory?
[23:42] Did you use it to have a bunch of money? Did you use it for fame? Did you use it for your ego? Or did you honor me? You know, my favorite verse is Psalm 115, verse 1. Not unto us. Not unto us, but to God give all the glory.
[23:55] To realize that God is the one who has given me the gift to play the piano. And I want to thank him and point to him about it. But do you have a gift? Who do you thank? Who do you thank that the job you can do?
[24:06] Something happens good. A sermon is well preached. You do something in your accounting work. You do something as a mother. Do you say, thank you, Jesus, you helped me to do that. Thank you, you gave me this ability. Thank you that I closed this deal on the house.
[24:18] Thank you that I could do this in the business world. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I'm the one that gave you that ability. Sam, I gave you money. What did you do with your money?
[24:29] Did you honor me with your money? Were there treasures in heaven? Were you using your money for things that are valuable and true and noble and honorable?
[24:39] Or did you use your money for sin? Did you use your money for toys? I never forget Carl Norder, a man I knew in my first church in Pennsylvania I was in.
[24:51] And when I was first saved, I was in New Jersey. And then we were in Pennsylvania for a church. He said, Sam, always remember, everything is premature junk. Everything is premature junk.
[25:04] What did you do with the money you had? Is it all just spending it on a lot of premature junk? Or did you invest in the things above? Did you give?
[25:16] Look at the missionaries that are bringing spiritual fruit, spiritual eternal fruit. Sam, I gave you a wife. Did you use your wife as a thing or did you love her as I love her?
[25:26] I gave you your children. I gave you, you see, you wear many, many hats. Many, many hats. Sam, I gave you, yesterday I was talking to Gene. I love art. I live in Arizona.
[25:37] We have beautiful sky, blue sky. Sam, I gave you the eyes to look. I gave you the eyes to see things. You love art. You've seen beautiful things in the world. 61 countries. Did you use your eyes to honor me or did you use your eyes for pornography?
[25:53] Did you use your eyes for pornography? Remember, Job said, I made a covenant with my eyes. He took his eyeballs out and put them on a table and he said, look, look at me. Look at me. Listen, look at me.
[26:04] I know. No, look at me. Listen, I control you and you don't control me. You're going to look at what I tell you. You understand what I'm saying here? God is going to examine us with everything he's given to us.
[26:19] And to whom much is given, much is required. My friend, this is in the story. This is the words of Jesus. So now the best part.
[26:34] After a long time, he came to settle accounts. Verse 20. The one who had received the five talents came up and brought five more talents saying, Master, you entrusted five talents to me.
[26:45] See, I've gained five more talents. Lord, you gave me five talents. You gave me to me as a gift. You entrusted it to me. I have sought to do what's right to serve you. I gave five more talents.
[26:55] Here I have five more talents to you. And one of the most greatest verses in the whole Bible, Matthew 25, 21. Well done, good and faithful servant. You are faithful with a few things.
[27:07] I'll put you in charge of many things. Enter into the joy of your master. Everybody wants to hear those words. Every funeral it's quoted. Every pastor at a funeral quotes it. It's on the bulletin. It's in the scripture.
[27:18] Some place in every funeral you hear Matthew 25, 21. What a great thing. Well done. Well done. I give you a standing ovation.
[27:29] Well done. Good and faithful servant. You are faithful with a few things. Wait what I'm going to give to you. Enter into the joy of the fruit of my kingdom.
[27:41] Verse 22. And the one who had received the five talents came up saying, Master, you entrusted two talents to me. See, I have gained two more talents.
[27:52] Now everybody look at me. Don't look at your Bible. I want everyone to look at me. I want everyone to look at me. This next moment is the greatest moment in this story.
[28:06] Look at me. Notice what Jesus does not say. He does not say, you know, Sam, you have four talents. But over here, Pastor Gartner, he has ten talents.
[28:18] Jesus doesn't say that. You know why? Because, my friend, there is no comparison in the kingdom of God. There is no comparison.
[28:33] God doesn't compare your church to another church. He doesn't even compare you to your wife. He doesn't compare your pastor to another pastor. He doesn't compare me.
[28:45] There is no comparison in the kingdom of God. But you know what happens? Listen to me. Jesus says the exact same words to the man with the four talents as the man with the ten talents.
[29:00] Matthew 25, 23 is the same verse as Matthew 25, 21. Look at verse 23. His master said to him, well done, good and faithful servant.
[29:11] You are faithful with a few things. I'll put you in charge of many things. Entering in the joy of your master. Can you say amen to that? That is tremendous. My friend, I want to live for this Jesus.
[29:25] This is the one I want to live for. This is tremendous. This is tremendous. And you know, everybody always talks about the man with the one talent. I don't.
[29:36] Because you're not the man with the one talent. You're here. You're here. You're here in the people of God. You're here on the Lord's day. You're here wanting to serve Christ. You're here wanting to know about Christ.
[29:48] We spend way too much time on the man with the one talent. Sure, the man with the one talent had fear. He didn't want to do this. He didn't want to do this. He had fear and he was afraid of this. That's not you. That's not you.
[30:00] You're the man with the one talent or two talents or five talents in that sense. God has given you and you're seeking to serve him and what he's given to you. And this is what I'd say. I'll be down here one minute.
[30:11] Then I'll play another number. And then we can have some questions if you want. You know, sometime today I encourage you to go home and say, Lord, I want to serve you with what you've given to me.
[30:23] You may say, I don't even know what that means. A bald-headed guy came and preached to me and opened up Matthew. I don't know what it means, but I want to serve you with what you've given to me. My friend, watch what God will do when you tell him that.
[30:37] Watch, watch, watch. And notice I come like this. My hand. Lord, I want to. Oh, but you got to be careful. You come to Jesus and give him everything.
[30:48] You know why you come to God like this? Because when God sees that you come to him like this, he says, oh, actually, I can put more in your hand now. God can't put something in a hand that's like this.
[31:01] God cannot put something in your hand if it's like this. And sometimes the way to get you to not be like this is God sometimes breaks your finger to get it open.
[31:14] And it's not pleasant. But whom the Lord loves, he. You understand? I'm not saying this negatively. I'm saying this collectively. And you say, Lord, I want to serve you with what you've given to me.
[31:29] Watch what God will do. My friend, listen, it is worth living for Jesus Christ. I've been a Christian 49 years, 11 months and a week. Right. You know, it's worth living for Jesus Christ.
[31:42] So I want to encourage you. You know, you don't have to play the panel like me. You can say, what has God given to you? Your family, your possession, your house, your job, your the knowledge of God.
[31:53] That's another thing. I gave you the gospel. What did you do with the gospel? Wow. What a church sent out people all around the world. God's going to say, well done. Look what these people did with the gospel. Were you ashamed of me?
[32:05] Didn't you? Oh, I don't want to offend anybody. I don't know. How will they know unless you share? It was not easy for me, but I went and told my parents I was a believer in Jesus Christ.
[32:18] My father kicked me out of the house. He said, you're no longer my son. I never want to hear from you. And yet, you know something? I've had a thousand mothers and fathers in the church of Jesus Christ. Jesus told us that. I'm going to give you a.
[32:28] I'm closer. My sadly, my brother of my flesh recently passed away. But, you know, I've been closer to some brothers. I've had 10,000 brothers closer to me than my own physical brother in the church of Jesus Christ.
[32:44] You have no idea how God. God has a billion trillion ways of how to bless you and how to be a blessing to you. Amen. Amen. Well, we have a few minutes, four minutes or so.
[32:55] Anybody have a question? You'd like to ask me my Jewish upbringing, my music, anything you'd like to ask me? Anything. Anything. Yes, ma'am. I would like to know, when you started reading the New Testament.
[33:08] Yes. When you started reading the New Testament, what was the thing that the Lord really, like, nabbed you on where you were like. I was asked that by Gene this morning as he came to bring me from the hotel. I'll tell you exactly what it was.
[33:19] It was the claims of Jesus Christ. I started in the Gospel of John. They told me, start in this. So I found, go, Gospel of John. A man said, I am the light of the world.
[33:31] Let me tell you something. Moses never said that. And Abraham never said that. King David never said that. I am the bread of life. Listen to this.
[33:42] No man comes to God except through me. Without me, you can do nothing. This is a man who's either insane or an egomaniac or a lunatic or an idiot.
[33:58] Or he is who he says. It was the claims of Jesus. He who has the Son of God has life. He who does not have the Son does not have life. You know, I went through a lot to Jewish people.
[34:09] And, you know, I don't argue about politics. You know, Trump is a Democrat. I don't argue about evolution. They need to meet Jesus. A Jewish person, they never read the New Testament.
[34:20] They have no idea who Jesus is. They think he's a Christian. They don't know he's Jewish. So I tell them, look who this man is. Look at what he said. And I show them. Look what he said.
[34:31] I am the light of the world. You find that in the Old Testament. So it was the claims of Jesus Christ. And then I went back to the Old Testament. This was written to fulfill this.
[34:43] And then I started to compare. And then I said, I give. This is it. This is it. Amen. Someone else, any question? Anything you'd like to ask me? Surely, surely.
[34:54] I'm not here tomorrow. I'm gone. I go back to Arizona tomorrow. This is your chance. Yes, sir. Yeah. Oh, sure. Oh, yeah. There was many times when I thought that, you know. I mean, I never doubted that I loved music.
[35:08] And I wanted to persevere at it. But I'll give you an example. I won a very big competition when I was 16 in Texas and played with an orchestra. And it was written up in a national magazine.
[35:20] And my teacher, who was a graduate of Juilliard, told me to go to New York City and take a one-hour lesson from his teacher at Juilliard, a very famous Russian teacher named Sasha Gordnitsky.
[35:32] Legendary. So I went, and I'm 16 years old, and I played for him. And he said, well, Mr. Rotman, you may be something in Texas, but you're nothing up here. This is what he said to me.
[35:45] He said, I have 12-year-olds who play better than you will ever play the piano. That's what he told me. That's the exact words. So I thought, well, either he's an idiot, and I'm really, you know, you're just a little misguided.
[36:00] Or maybe he knows something. So there were many, many times when I was just confronted with the reality. Look, you want to be, you have to practice. You're a legend in your own mind.
[36:13] You've got to do something, and, you know. And so I practiced hard and practiced hard and practiced hard. And so this was when I was summer between junior and senior. Then the next year I auditioned at Juilliard. I got in, and I asked him to be my teacher, and he turned me down.
[36:26] You can pick your teacher. Doesn't mean, so Sasha Gordnitsky didn't accept me. And every year at Juilliard, you have to play what's called a jury, J-U-R-Y, like a court jury.
[36:37] And the piano faculty hears you every year to evaluate how good, if you've made progress. Or just to give you a grade. And very rarely you ever get an A. A lot of Bs, B+, I got an A-.
[36:49] And the next day I was in the elevator, and who walks into the Juilliard elevator? Sasha Gordnitsky. The next day after my jury. And he said, well, Mr. Rotman, you've become quite a pianist.
[37:03] You know that, it not, look, this was the man who was honest with me. And now he tells me, 24 months later, you've become quite a, you know what I'm saying?
[37:15] So the point is, is that many, many times, many, many times I was discouraged. Or I entered this, or tried to do this, and you know. But when I see the Lord's hand, his will is perfect, and he guides and everything.
[37:30] You know. So I'm just saying, it's not all this way. It's not all roses, no. We learn through difficulties. We learn through trials. We learn through suffering. We learn, you know. So, yeah.
[37:41] Yeah. So that's, you see what I'm saying? That's an example. I was a big fish in a tiny little pond. And then I got to the big pond, and I was a minnow. I was nothing, buddy.
[37:52] I was nothing. But I said, but that's not going to discourage me. I love music, and I'm going to work at it. And here, this is, I don't share this to brag. I share that with you as a life story. I hope you understand that.
[38:04] Someone else? Any question? Yes, sir? I was wondering how your coming to Christ affected your family. You already relate a little bit about that. Yeah, very briefly. Did anybody in your family, extended family, come to Christ?
[38:17] Yeah. I went and shared with my parents. I knew it would be very difficult, especially my father. My father's parents died because of Hitler and the Nazis, and now he believes in this Jesus. He told me to leave my house. You're no longer my son.
[38:28] I never want to hear from you. I didn't hear from my parents for many years. I got married to my Christian wife. They did not come. And slowly, things began to open up, but not very, it was sad.
[38:38] It was difficult. I wanted to have them enjoy grandchildren. I was not going to aggravate them or bring up Jesus. I just wanted a bridge of love. In 1995, my father became ill.
[38:50] He was 89. He was born in 1905, almost 90. He was in the hospital. I wanted to visit him, and he refused to see me. And he did want me at his funeral. The next 12 years, I had a great relationship with my mother.
[39:02] She loved music. I did concerts for my music. She loved my wife, three kids. And on February the 12th, 2007, my 91-year-old mother came to faith in Jesus Christ. Amen is right.
[39:14] I will never forget it. I prayed 36 years, 37 years for her. My 91-year-old mother came to faith in Jesus Christ. It was tremendous.
[39:25] I have a brother who I've witnessed too many times. Sadly, he passed away a few weeks ago from leukemia. I have a sister that I have. I didn't have a good relationship with her because of what I did to my family, she said.
[39:37] But now I have a better relationship. But she's the only one. Now I have a niece who is a born-again Christian. And her husband is Jewish, my brother's son. But we're praying him into the kingdom because he has two kids who are believers.
[39:49] So we're making, we're gradually, you know, changing the 12 tribes of Israel into the church of Jesus Christ. Because I have a son named Simeon.
[40:00] My nephew has a son named Asher. Another one was Joseph. You know, so we're trying to get back the... I told my wife if we have a fourth kid, we'll name him Ruben.
[40:12] Ruben Rotman. Someone else. Anybody else? We have one minute. Yes, sir. What kind of advice would you give some of the people here playing music or trying to play music? Yeah.
[40:23] Two things. Practice every day. Practice every day. Don't miss a day. You miss a day and you've lost what you did the day before. I would rather you practice 10 minutes a day than four hours two times a week.
[40:37] Now, you see? That's a lot more. Eight hours is nothing compared to 10 hours. But it doesn't work that way. Practice every day. And listen to your teacher. Listen to your teacher. When your teacher tells you something, note it.
[40:49] Write it down. Every time you practice, something should get better. Just don't play the piece over and over and over and over. Your pastor asked me, I said, I practice 10 hours a day. You know how long 10 hours a day felt to me?
[41:00] Like 10 minutes. It felt like, because I'm learning. I was getting, I was inside, I was trying to get this better. I want to get this better. I want to get this better. I want to get this better.
[41:11] I go over 10,000. I want to get this better. I want to get this better. You know, there was a famous book called Outliers. There was Malcolm Gladwell. He said that you need to do something for 10,000 hours to be good at it.
[41:24] And you know, he told us about Michael Jordan. Michael Jordan had in his basement a gym. And he would get to a spot and he would shoot a basket 50,000 times. You know how many 50,000 times is from the same spot?
[41:38] So you know what Michael Jordan did? They're down by one point. There's two seconds left. He got to that spot and he shot it. And you know what he did? He made it. That's what he did.
[41:49] He shot at certain spots on the court 50,000 times. 50,000. Consistency. Consistency.
[42:01] Perseverance. Commitment. Vision. So I hope that helps a little bit. Practice every day. Listen to your teacher. And have your kids. They learn a piece. Play it for them. Let them perform it.
[42:11] Let them learn. Show. You know, in that sense. Well, our time is gone. I'm sorry. God bless you. I'll be here later. And come to the concert. You won't miss something when you come and see about Beethoven.
[42:22] All right. There are some CDs out there that you can pick up. He's got about 100 of them with him. And I hope he doesn't take any of them home. Take a break. We'll be back in about nine minutes.