Alabama evangelist Phil Waldrep was the keynote speaker at the opening session of the State Evangelism Conference at Lakeside Baptist Church in Birmingham last night (Jan. 26).

In his introduction, Rick Lance, executive director of the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions, said Waldrep for 50 years had been both a “minister of encouragement and a master of encouragement.”

During his sermon, Waldrep told about his late grandmother, Linnie, of Colbert County who lived to be 96 and had a circle of friends she called every day. She once told her grandson that she was very disturbed. She explained, “All my high school classmates are dead, and everybody at my church within 20 years of my age is dead. They’re probably all up in heaven thinking, ‘Linnie’s not coming!’”

‘Principle that changes everything’

Waldrep said his grandmother kept her World War II era Bible and recorded dates when she heard sermons from particular passages. One day she questioned her grandson, “Whatever happened to Obadiah?” because she had never heard a sermon preached from that book.

“My grandmother found entire books in her Bible without notations that they’ve ever been preached to her,” he said. “And I discovered that Romans 16 was one of those passages. I began to study it and believe that in it we have the principle that changes everything.”

Waldrep said Romans 16 is Paul’s greeting to his friends in Rome as he planned to visit the church for the first time.

“These 26 or so men and women who crossed his path were his friends and co-workers,” he said. “They loved him, and Paul loved them. The Ephesian elders broke down and wept when Paul left them, according to Acts 20, so we know Paul was a man who loved others, and this love was returned. One of the great problems the church faces is how to make people feel loved.”

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This article was originally published at TheAlabamaBaptist.org.