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Alpha and Omega - The Beginning And The End · Main Thing Podcast

0:02
SPEAKER_01: Main Thing Podcast with Pastor Steve, equipping you to respond and thrive in the world we live in today.
0:08
SPEAKER_01: Keep the main thing the main thing has been a saying that Pastor Steve has told for decades.
0:13
SPEAKER_01: It means no matter what is happening around us, Jesus is what we need to have front and center in our lives.
0:18
SPEAKER_01: There couldn't be a more powerful reminder for us to recall in today's divisive and dark culture.
0:24
SPEAKER_01: From foundational truths and scripture to the hot topics of today's culture, allow this podcast to inspire and motivate you on your faith journey.
0:33
SPEAKER_01: Well, hello, Pastor Steve.
0:35
SPEAKER_01: Good morning.
0:36
SPEAKER_01: We're in the same attire as we just got done with the last episode.
0:39
SPEAKER_01: So uh if you guys see us in the same attire, we usually record two episodes a time just to, for time's sake, to make sure that you guys get something every other week.
0:48
SPEAKER_01: So uh today we're gonna be talking about the Alpha and the Omega.
0:52
SPEAKER_01: Uh, this is the last name of God part in the series, the beginning and the end.
0:57
SPEAKER_01: And so to set us up, it's gonna be in Revelation chapter 1, 8, which literally says, I'm the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.
1:05
SPEAKER_01: And then also in uh Revelation chapter 22, starting in verse 12.
1:13
SPEAKER_01: Behold, I'm coming quickly, and my reward is with me to render to every man according to what he has done.
1:20
SPEAKER_01: I'm the Alpha and the Omega, the first and last, the beginning and the end.
1:26
SPEAKER_01: So to set this up a little bit, there's some historical stuff I want to mention.
1:29
SPEAKER_01: So uh for those who don't know, Alpha is the first letter in the Greek alphabet, omega is the last letter in the Greek alphabet, uh, in the Koige Greek.
1:37
SPEAKER_01: And um literally means this idea of beginning and end means totality, sovereignty.
1:45
SPEAKER_01: God has sovereignty over time, history, and meaning.
1:48
SPEAKER_01: Um, nothing exists outside of his rule, he's in complete control.
1:52
SPEAKER_01: So the implications of this revelation was written to Asia Minor, which is modern-day Turkey, with a lot of the churches, Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, you'll find in Revelation chapter one.
2:03
SPEAKER_01: And these were strong centers of emperor worship.
2:07
SPEAKER_01: And so they had cultic worship, they had sexual idolatry, I mean, they you name it, they had it.
2:14
SPEAKER_01: And so this uh vision that John had, and these judgments and these warnings and these some encouragements are for these churches in this area.
2:24
SPEAKER_01: And um, what we see is that there's three important things.
2:28
SPEAKER_01: God is not reacting to Rome, God precedes Rome, and God will be there after Rome falls.
2:35
SPEAKER_01: And um, so God is above all, even though empires rise, empires fall.
2:40
SPEAKER_01: And so, to talk about that, the first question, Pastor Steve, is how does knowing Christ is the beginning and the end change how we view our our life?
2:52
SPEAKER_03: Well, I I think it's um a statement of God's sovereignty.
2:57
SPEAKER_03: Um He created it all, He will end it all, as you said.
3:04
SPEAKER_03: And so if you understand, I mean, we use phrases like He's my Lord.
3:10
SPEAKER_03: Well, what is a Lord?
3:12
SPEAKER_03: We understand when you say don't lord something over someone, right?
3:17
SPEAKER_03: Uh we understand that means you have authority, you're holding it over their head, whatever.
3:22
SPEAKER_03: Uh when we say he's our Lord, uh we're acknowledging that he is creator.
3:28
SPEAKER_03: Uh and the Bible says he created all that is good.
3:32
SPEAKER_03: And so um another way of saying is this is this is his show.
3:38
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
3:38
SPEAKER_03: You know, we we tend to think of ourselves as being more important than we are.
3:44
SPEAKER_03: Uh we're important to him, but he doesn't need us.
3:48
SPEAKER_02: Right.
3:49
SPEAKER_03: We need him.
3:50
SPEAKER_03: And uh I think sometimes we forget the order of that thing.
3:54
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
3:55
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
3:55
SPEAKER_01: And that that brings up his sovereignty always brings up questions of salvation.
4:00
SPEAKER_01: And I think in today's church culture and church climate, you either have to be all human responsibility or all sovereignty.
4:10
SPEAKER_01: But it's okay in biblical and rights to view God's sovereignty as yes, salvation happens by his power, but there's also an element of human responsibility, free will.
4:21
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
4:21
SPEAKER_01: And that's okay.
4:22
SPEAKER_01: That's okay.
4:23
SPEAKER_01: So I guess, Pastor Steve, talk on that a little bit and help us understand the tension and how we can land in a safe place according to scripture.
4:32
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, too, too many people, uh, in my humble opinion, ascribe to either or.
4:38
SPEAKER_03: Um in the Arminian tradition, uh, you know, the Arminians are all about personal choice.
4:46
SPEAKER_03: And so they would say you absolutely have to make a decision if you want Christ in your life or not.
4:53
SPEAKER_03: Uh, and then when we move into the Calvinist teachings, um, you know, we understand um that their view is that you don't make a choice.
5:05
SPEAKER_03: So what you just said, I I think, I think for me it's somewhere in the middle.
5:10
SPEAKER_03: We know scripture says that God draws us.
5:16
SPEAKER_03: And what I think that means, he draws us, he makes himself known to us, he makes himself um uh visible to us, whether it be spiritually or physically or whatever.
5:30
SPEAKER_03: We we we grasp an understanding of who he is, and then I fully believe that he allows us to decide are we willing to commit our lives to him, uh to go all in with him or not.
5:49
SPEAKER_03: I I don't believe that he makes us be saved.
5:54
SPEAKER_03: Right now, does he have that ability?
5:57
SPEAKER_03: Absolutely.
5:58
SPEAKER_03: But here's where I balk on it.
6:01
SPEAKER_03: God wants us to love him, he wants a relationship with us.
6:06
SPEAKER_03: And if you could make your wife love you, would it be true love?
6:12
SPEAKER_03: No, it'd be manipulation.
6:14
SPEAKER_03: And so I don't believe our God is a manipulator.
6:18
SPEAKER_03: I believe he gives us the ability to choose if we're going to love him or not.
6:23
SPEAKER_03: And um, I I think that's the way to put obviously a lot of very smart people disagree with me, but I'm in the camp of Billy Graham and Adrian Rogers and uh several other historical greats.
6:37
SPEAKER_03: Um, and I know there's some historical greats that disagree, and that's okay.
6:43
SPEAKER_03: Uh, this is not a new issue, right?
6:46
SPEAKER_03: It's been going on since the Reformation.
6:48
SPEAKER_03: And so um uh I believe God makes Himself known to us.
6:52
SPEAKER_03: I believe the Holy Spirit draws us, or we sometimes use that word, convicts us of our need for God, but I then think it it's on us how we respond.
7:06
SPEAKER_03: We can reject him or we can accept him, and to accept him is to commit ourselves to him.
7:14
SPEAKER_03: Um and so um, yeah, the great theologian RC Sproul uh goes so far as to say that God absolutely created evil because he created Satan, Satan became evil.
7:29
SPEAKER_03: Uh I don't think there's an answer to that this side of heaven, personally.
7:34
SPEAKER_03: But I I I'm I'm not sideways with Sproul because he believes different than me.
7:40
SPEAKER_03: I I think it's a point to be pondered and studied, but I disagree with it.
7:46
SPEAKER_03: You know, the Bible also said God created all that is good.
7:49
SPEAKER_02: Right.
7:50
SPEAKER_03: So how do you reconcile those two things?
7:53
SPEAKER_03: Right.
7:54
SPEAKER_03: You know, yeah.
7:55
SPEAKER_01: I'm I'm reminded of uh just when you look at the over the overarching theme of biblical theology and salvation, the this idea of God hardening Pharaoh's heart always comes up.
8:06
SPEAKER_01: But I think what what we miss, what a lot of people miss, is the fact that there's still human responsibility involved in that.
8:14
SPEAKER_01: We don't know, we don't know what the Lord was doing with Pharaoh before he came on the scene, before the Israelites.
8:21
SPEAKER_01: I mean, we know that he was a king that didn't know Joseph and then and then up being the the Israelites can be in judgment in Egypt, but God still used that situation to show his glory for his people.
8:35
SPEAKER_01: And I think there's still an element of human responsibility there.
8:38
SPEAKER_01: I think it's dangerous to say God hardens hearts and he opens hearts, and that's it.
8:43
SPEAKER_01: We have no we have no response to that.
8:45
SPEAKER_01: I just think it's a very dangerous place to be.
8:48
SPEAKER_03: I think it's dangerous too, and I think it comes for me, uh, it comes from spiritual elitism.
8:54
SPEAKER_03: It is a natural inclination of a human being to want to be right, to want to believe they're believing the only correct way about God, they're believing the only true doctrine, they're believing the only truth about scripture, and anybody that doesn't believe what they believe has to be wrong.
9:13
SPEAKER_03: Right.
9:14
SPEAKER_03: Uh, I think that's a very dangerous approach to scripture.
9:18
SPEAKER_03: I've heard it all my life.
9:20
SPEAKER_03: Uh, I've been reading the Bible my whole life, and I read a passage the other day.
9:24
SPEAKER_03: I've been reading for years, and all of a sudden I saw something I never saw before, right?
9:29
SPEAKER_03: So we're all on a journey.
9:32
SPEAKER_03: God's at a different place with every one of us.
9:35
SPEAKER_03: Uh and the most important thing is that you're on the journey.
9:38
SPEAKER_02: Right.
9:39
SPEAKER_03: Not if you think you got it all right so you can tell other people they're wrong.
9:43
SPEAKER_03: Um, it's spiritual elitism, I think, is very dangerous.
9:48
SPEAKER_03: And I think, I think a lot of people may miss the opportunity of being in a relationship with holy God and actually spending eternity with him because some, and it's become a large grouping in America today, uh, believe that uh they don't line up with the proper thinking, therefore they they can't be one of God's children.
10:10
SPEAKER_01: Right.
10:10
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
10:11
SPEAKER_01: And if you think about it, that that should be a second-tier issue.
10:14
SPEAKER_01: That's not a first-tier.
10:16
SPEAKER_01: A first tier issue would be there's other ways to God.
10:18
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
10:19
SPEAKER_01: But we're fighting amongst each other, and we all believe there's one way to God, that's through Jesus the Son.
10:25
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
10:25
SPEAKER_01: You know?
10:26
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
10:27
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
10:28
SPEAKER_03: Well, that's what I'm talking about.
10:30
SPEAKER_03: That's like, and I love Vody Bachman.
10:32
SPEAKER_03: Uh, he's gone on to be with the Lord.
10:34
SPEAKER_03: I don't mean to speak ill of Vodi Bachman.
10:37
SPEAKER_03: I'm a big fan of Bodie Bachman.
10:39
SPEAKER_03: Brother was a great preacher.
10:41
SPEAKER_03: Uh, but you know, he he had this big thing, he'd get on this thing, and he'd say, the sinner's prayer is not in the Bible.
10:51
SPEAKER_03: You shouldn't be leading people in sinner's prayer.
10:53
SPEAKER_03: Well, but Romans tells us we're to confess with our mouth.
10:57
SPEAKER_02: Right.
10:58
SPEAKER_03: So I asked myself, what does that mean?
11:01
SPEAKER_03: That I'm confessing.
11:02
SPEAKER_03: I'm confessing with my mouth.
11:05
SPEAKER_03: I'm I'm obviously asking for forgiveness of my sins if if you follow, if you track with scripture, and I'm asking God to allow me uh to come into his fold, I'm asking God to allow me to commit my life to him and for him to be my God.
11:23
SPEAKER_03: And I I just think Vodhi wanted to control how people do that.
11:28
SPEAKER_03: And I think that's just carrying things a little too far.
11:32
SPEAKER_03: They assume, our reform brothers assume that when you and I pray with a person to accept Christ, that we stop at the end of the prayer and we don't explain to them what that means.
11:48
SPEAKER_03: I've never once shared Jesus with a person that prayed to accept him as their Lord and Savior, and then gave them the idea, well, you're good now, you can go.
12:00
SPEAKER_03: Right.
12:00
SPEAKER_03: Uh I have always gone into detail of what that means and the commitment, uh, etc.
12:08
SPEAKER_03: And so there's some assumptions, as I was saying earlier, if you don't do it the way I do it, then you're wrong.
12:16
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
12:17
SPEAKER_03: I went to school with reform guys.
12:20
SPEAKER_03: I mean, I was in school four decades ago.
12:23
SPEAKER_03: Uh, I had reformed professors, but we all had a great respect for one another.
12:28
SPEAKER_03: And as you say, it was a secondary issue.
12:32
SPEAKER_03: Nobody hated each other, nobody was critical of each other.
12:37
SPEAKER_03: We just understood that there were some nuances in scripture that uh we saw a little differently.
12:44
SPEAKER_03: But today, there's a line in the scene.
12:48
SPEAKER_03: There's a line, yeah.
12:48
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's right.
12:49
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and I think that's unfortunate.
12:52
SPEAKER_01: And I I want to say this because I think this is important for people understanding what a sh what a what a human shepherd's role is.
12:59
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
13:00
SPEAKER_01: Um, it is most definitely okay to call out doctrine that is leading the people astray.
13:05
SPEAKER_03: Absolutely.
13:06
SPEAKER_01: And and leading the people astray in the sense of leading them away from Christ or away from from God.
13:12
SPEAKER_01: But it is not okay to call out doctrine that is a second tier, third tier issue, and you're just you're just stabbing, you know.
13:20
SPEAKER_03: It has to be serious enough to I'll never forget when Jan and I were at Southern Seminary in Louisville, this would have been in 1983, and there was a great conservative uh church there.
13:34
SPEAKER_03: And um ninth and oh in Louisville, Kentucky.
13:38
SPEAKER_03: Uh, Pastor's last name was Butler.
13:41
SPEAKER_03: I remember that.
13:42
SPEAKER_03: Uh and we went, it was a huge church, around a couple thousand solid church.
13:47
SPEAKER_03: So we go to a Sunday school class, and the guy spent an hour talking about how evil cigarette smoking was.
13:55
SPEAKER_03: And and I was just so disappointed because I expected better uh out of a solid Bible teaching church.
14:04
SPEAKER_03: I don't smoke, I'm allergic to it, I detest cigarettes.
14:09
SPEAKER_03: Cigarettes are obviously harmful, but to spend an hour as if it's a Bible doctrine, yeah, you know, and I just think if we're not careful, we get caught up in these things.
14:22
SPEAKER_03: Um and we want to be the judge, we want to make everybody conform to our understanding of what it means to live for and glorify Jesus.
14:34
SPEAKER_03: And um there's just too much there that says you don't have that right.
14:41
SPEAKER_03: You know, that's that's why Paul teaches us uh that if we're doing something that offends a brother, then we ought not do it.
14:50
SPEAKER_02: Right.
14:51
SPEAKER_03: Well, we've twisted that into people using that for a Billy Club.
14:55
SPEAKER_02: Right.
14:56
SPEAKER_03: Oh, you you playing canaster on the weekend.
14:58
SPEAKER_03: That offends me.
14:59
SPEAKER_03: You ought not do it, you know.
15:01
SPEAKER_03: Um so yeah, I I I just think uh as we call this podcast, I I believe in keeping the main thing the main thing, you know.
15:11
SPEAKER_03: Um, and the nuances are not worth fighting over.
15:16
SPEAKER_03: They keep us from doing the main work of the gospel.
15:19
SPEAKER_01: Right.
15:20
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
15:20
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
15:21
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
15:22
SPEAKER_01: What are some anxieties that people have about the future?
15:27
SPEAKER_01: Like you you had mentioned, you know, the anxieties in the youth today is rampant, you know, suicide rates, all this.
15:34
SPEAKER_01: We know that there's these anxieties, but how how is trusting in Jesus as the first and the last?
15:40
SPEAKER_01: How can that help someone with them worrying about life, the future, what's going to happen next?
15:46
SPEAKER_03: Well, this is what I try to preach on a regular basis, um, because I find that it's not true in a large portion of the Christian community.
15:55
SPEAKER_03: To commit my life to Christ, to call him my Lord, is to say, I am all in.
16:01
SPEAKER_03: I totally believe you're who you say you are.
16:04
SPEAKER_03: I totally believe you can do what you say you can do.
16:08
SPEAKER_03: But to then live in anxiety is to say, I don't actually believe that.
16:12
SPEAKER_02: Right, right.
16:13
SPEAKER_03: I don't really believe you have the power to help me.
16:17
SPEAKER_03: I don't really believe you have the power to change my situation.
16:21
SPEAKER_03: And so what we have in the modern church is what I like to call the yeah but syndrome.
16:28
SPEAKER_03: Uh oh, I'm a Christian, but uh, yeah, I believe in God, but uh, yeah, God can heal, but and so uh we we live in the exception today, and we all know why God can't do anything.
16:44
SPEAKER_03: And so I seriously question if a person is saved, if they don't believe God can do anything.
16:52
SPEAKER_03: Think about it.
16:53
SPEAKER_03: Let's let's think logically.
16:56
SPEAKER_03: I'm trusting him with my salvation so I can go to heaven.
17:01
SPEAKER_03: And he's gonna take my dead, decaying body, he's gonna raise me and take me to heaven, he's gonna give me a resurrected body, he's gonna give me a new spirit, I'm gonna live for all eternity in heaven with Jesus.
17:17
SPEAKER_03: Now, every Christian I know believes that, but he can't help me with this problem at work.
17:22
SPEAKER_02: Right.
17:23
SPEAKER_03: You know, so he's got that kind of power, but he can't help me with this little problem I'm having with my brother-in-law, you know.
17:32
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, but so yeah, but so the problem is not what God can and can't do.
17:38
SPEAKER_03: It's Christians have trouble believing that he is who he says he is and that he can do what he says he can do.
17:46
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
17:47
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, amen.
17:48
SPEAKER_01: We have a faith problem.
17:49
SPEAKER_03: We have a faith problem.
17:51
SPEAKER_01: And that's probably why we don't see we don't see the signs and the wonders and the miraculous things today is because we're walking around with no faith.
18:00
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
18:00
SPEAKER_03: Hey, you know me.
18:01
SPEAKER_03: I'm not a health and wealth preacher.
18:03
SPEAKER_03: I'm not one of those guys looking for a miracle behind every door, but I do believe if you don't believe in the power of God to act, you're not gonna see it.
18:14
SPEAKER_03: No, absolutely not.
18:17
SPEAKER_01: How does Revelation remind us, especially these two passages, that history isn't random and that Jesus is going to return?
18:26
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, well, what Revelation does is he tells us how God's gonna pull the curtain on history, right?
18:33
SPEAKER_03: So it it gives us a heads up.
18:36
SPEAKER_03: There is an end to all of this, what we call planet earth.
18:39
SPEAKER_03: There's an end to our existence here.
18:42
SPEAKER_03: Uh, we don't know what that is.
18:43
SPEAKER_03: Jesus said, No man knows the day nor the hour, but the Father.
18:48
SPEAKER_03: Um, and so um God He raised the curtain on history, He controls history, and He'll close the curtain on history.
18:59
SPEAKER_03: And this is what I tell people uh going back to free will, He gives you the ability to make decisions, and He may it may be in His will for you to do a certain thing and you reject that.
19:15
SPEAKER_03: Well, that's fine.
19:16
SPEAKER_03: Uh you miss that blessing, but His will will still be accomplished.
19:22
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it will happen.
19:25
SPEAKER_03: God's will is not based on whether or not you and I are obedient.
19:29
SPEAKER_02: Thank God.
19:30
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, His will is His will.
19:33
SPEAKER_03: Uh and our blessings are based on whether or not we're obedient.
19:40
SPEAKER_03: Uh so His will will play out exactly as the Word of God says it will.
19:47
SPEAKER_03: So Revelations reminds us the Alpha, who created all of it, who sustains all of it, is also the Omega.
19:57
SPEAKER_03: Amen.
19:58
SPEAKER_03: And he's gonna he's gonna pull the curve.
20:00
SPEAKER_03: Curtain at some point and bring it all to a close.
20:03
SPEAKER_03: Absolutely.
20:04
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
20:05
SPEAKER_01: That reminds me, we were um we've been making we've been making friends with the owners at um local motel.
20:11
SPEAKER_01: And uh it's an Indian family.
20:14
SPEAKER_01: And last night we brought them some gifts and we we we had a chance to share with the whole family the gospel, and we gave them a gospel invitation and they rejected it.
20:23
SPEAKER_01: But um I reminded the team last night that it's not about the outcome, it's about being obedient with what God is telling us to do in the moment.
20:33
SPEAKER_00: That's exactly right.
20:34
SPEAKER_01: Even though we may not see the physical fruit, the spiritual fruit is abounding all around us, and so that's the point, you know, that we're obedient.
20:43
SPEAKER_03: And you never know what God's doing.
20:44
SPEAKER_03: I've been involved with some people because I wanted to see them come to Jesus, and I invest huge amounts of time in them, and they never come to Jesus.
20:54
SPEAKER_03: But I get their spouse, their children, their in-laws.
20:59
SPEAKER_03: You know what I mean?
21:00
SPEAKER_03: Right.
21:01
SPEAKER_03: And so God's will may not be that we ever get that person, but that person becomes the open door to others you may get.
21:08
SPEAKER_03: So, yeah, as you said so well, uh our our job's just to be obedient.
21:14
SPEAKER_02: Right.
21:15
SPEAKER_03: It's not to force the outcome.
21:17
SPEAKER_02: Right.
21:17
SPEAKER_03: That's why I don't give long invitations in church.
21:20
SPEAKER_03: If the Holy Spirit is the Holy Spirit and has the power that Scripture says he has, he don't need me to talk people down the aisle.
21:30
SPEAKER_02: Right.
21:31
SPEAKER_03: They'll come.
21:32
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
21:32
SPEAKER_03: See.
21:33
SPEAKER_03: Uh, and so I'm always a little leery when I go somewhere and some guy holds an invitation for 20 minutes trying to get somebody to come down there.
21:42
SPEAKER_03: Two invitations, three invitations.
21:44
SPEAKER_03: Something's gotta happen here, you know.
21:46
SPEAKER_03: Well, look, if God's moving, he's not slow.
21:50
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you know, I'm reminded of Isaiah talking to the prophets of Baal.
21:54
SPEAKER_03: Maybe your God's on a track.
21:56
SPEAKER_03: You know, relieve himself.
21:58
SPEAKER_03: I think sometimes we act that way in the way we worship, you know.
22:03
SPEAKER_03: Well, he must not be listening.
22:04
SPEAKER_03: He's taking a nap.
22:05
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
22:06
SPEAKER_03: You know, I need to keep this up till he wakes up and does something.
22:10
SPEAKER_03: Um, yeah, I look, I was radically saved, and I'd be the first to tell you I don't remember walking from the pew to the front.
22:24
SPEAKER_03: My reform brothers would say, God made you do that, and you had nothing in it, you know.
22:31
SPEAKER_03: Uh I certainly know God drew me.
22:36
SPEAKER_03: Right.
22:37
SPEAKER_03: You know.
22:38
SPEAKER_03: Um, and uh a a faithful deacon sat down with me after church rather than just praying a quick prayer with me, and that deacon went through the scriptures with me and explained the gospel to me and explained that I needed to count the cost and what that meant, and blah blah blah blah blah blah.
22:59
SPEAKER_03: And I prayed with him after church to actually ask Jesus to come into my life and be my Lord.
23:07
SPEAKER_03: Um, you know, but he was very faithful to make sure I understood.
23:13
SPEAKER_03: But to this day, I've thought about it many times.
23:16
SPEAKER_03: I I don't remember even walking down there.
23:18
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
23:19
SPEAKER_03: You know?
23:20
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
23:21
unknown: Yeah.
23:21
SPEAKER_01: That's awesome.
23:22
SPEAKER_03: So when the Holy Spirit gets hold of you, he got you.
23:26
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, he got you.
23:27
SPEAKER_01: You're right.
23:27
SPEAKER_01: He got you.
23:28
SPEAKER_01: You're right.
23:29
SPEAKER_01: I was uh I was lit I'm listening to a uh audiobook and it was talking about I don't know if you ever heard of the word Brainerd.
23:35
SPEAKER_01: I can't think of his first name, but he was a missionary to the Indians back in like early 1700s, before Wesley and all them.
23:42
SPEAKER_01: And he couldn't speak to the Indians.
23:44
SPEAKER_01: So he literally prayed all day.
23:46
SPEAKER_01: That's all he did.
23:48
SPEAKER_01: And then years later, this he found a drunken interpreter that ended up interpreting the message to the Indians, and he was wasted, you know.
23:57
SPEAKER_01: And he recounts in his journals how he says scores.
24:01
SPEAKER_01: I don't know what that means back then, maybe 10, 20.
24:04
SPEAKER_01: He says scores of Indians were saved.
24:06
SPEAKER_01: And it was, and he didn't have a great ministry, but it was him that influenced William Carey and other missionaries that then, you know, this wide movement of missionaries all over the world.
24:18
SPEAKER_01: And so it was just really cool to hear how those small acts of obedience and and trusting can produce such wide, you know, big things like that.
24:27
SPEAKER_03: Billy Graham loved to tell the story.
24:29
SPEAKER_03: I want to say it was Mordecai Ham, but I may be wrong on that.
24:33
SPEAKER_03: Uh tent revival he went to, you know.
24:36
SPEAKER_03: Um, just a man nobody knew, faithfully preaching the word of God.
24:41
SPEAKER_03: And Billy Graham and a friend wandered into the tent that night, had no intent to be there.
24:46
SPEAKER_03: Just saw it happen and said, let's go check it out.
24:48
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
24:49
SPEAKER_03: And uh we all know how God used him.
24:51
SPEAKER_01: Right.
24:51
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
24:52
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
24:53
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
24:54
SPEAKER_01: Well, I appreciate you, Pastor Steve.
24:56
SPEAKER_01: Thank you again.
24:56
SPEAKER_01: You as well.
24:57
SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
24:57
SPEAKER_01: All right, we'll see you guys on the next one.