Welcome to Summer Reading Series and I'm delighted to be a part of this series. I want to say how much I love and appreciate Pastor Levi and

Jenny Lusk. They are remarkable leaders and if you ever want to know, you know, how God feels

about a church, check out what kind of leaders he gives them

and all I can say fresh life church is God gave you two of the greatest leaders in the

kingdom of God. I love Levi and I love Je Jenny and I love their ministry. He's not saying what everybody

else says. There's a depth, there's a beauty and there's a power and truth that you hear every week that is remarkable and I so honor you

Levi has poured into our ministry and poured into our conferences and it's an honor

to be able to give back to Fresh Life Church.

You're touching the world and I pray that what I share today you'll never forget.

As you know that one of the books that you're reading this summer is acres of diamonds and I want to tell you the premise of the book.

It's a true story about a man by the name of Russell Conwell.

Russell Conwell was a businessman who went to the Middle East because he had read the Bible

and he wanted to see the Holy Sites back in the late 1800s. Of course they didn't have hotels

and bus tours, so he hired an Arab guide.

He had camels to travel on and they stayed in tents and would have campfire food.

And every night as entertainment, the Arab Guide would tell stories.

And one night during his tour of the Holy Land,

this Arab Guide told Russell Conwell the story that I'm about to give you.

As a matter of fact, I had permission to put it in our book and you can read it word for word

in the kind of old English that it was written in back in the 1800s.

Now listen to this, this story was so phenomenal that when he put it in a small pamphlet,

it sold 7 million copies and then he gave the speech on it 6,000 times and

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