Latest / Bible Tract Echoes Podcast / Don't Be Almost Sure

Transcript

Don't Be Almost Sure · Bible Tract Echoes Podcast

• 0:00
  [SPEAKER_01]: Hey friend, I'm Mike McCurray, welcome to the final installment of this week of broadcasts for Bible Tract Echoes.
• 0:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: I observed a couple of days ago that this program has been going out over the airwaves, both terrestrial and now online and YouTube podcasts, all those sorts of things.
• 0:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: For over 65 years, can you wrap your mind around that?
• 0:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: All the way back to 1958, the first time that our founder, Dr. Paul Levine,
• 0:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: As sat in front of a microphone, probably not quite like the one I'm sitting in front of right now.
• 0:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: I don't think they had a sure SM7B back then, but regardless, Dr. Paul Avine, he sat in front of a microphone and for the first time his voice.
• 0:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: He was such a...
• 0:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: a charismatic individual, he had such a personality, such a verva, and Ephraines about him, I'll never match, and there's big shoes to fill here at BTI, and Paul Avain's shoes are will be always be unfilled.
• 1:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: But now we have the opportunity to carry his legacy on into the future, and what a blessing it is.
• 1:08
  [SPEAKER_01]: One of the biggest burdens.
• 1:11
  [SPEAKER_01]: One of the most pressing things on Dr. Paul's heart and life was the cause of the gospel.
• 1:20
  [SPEAKER_01]: Was the great commission?
• 1:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: Was seeing people come to no price?
• 1:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: They did, by the thousands.
• 1:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: Many tens of thousands during his earthly ministry realized, Dr. Paul, he preached the gospel faithfully in full-time evangelism for over 60 years.
• 1:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: It was important to him.
• 1:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: His desire through this radio program of it was of course to equip the saints, to let Christians know about how they could get our gospel tracks and use our gospel tracks, but at the same time evangelizing the sinner, evangelizing the lost, that was also part of this desire, our desire.
• 1:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: Bible tracks.
• 2:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: The reason we exist is to see people come to no Christ, the Word of God to all the world.
• 2:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: You don't scatter the seed in the hopes of not getting a harvest.
• 2:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: No, you specifically desire a harvest.
• 2:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: That's why you do the work in the first place.
• 2:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: And so, I ask you, if you died today,
• 2:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: Where would you go?
• 2:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know, someone asked me that question some years ago.
• 2:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: I was a little boy.
• 2:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'd heard the question before in church.
• 2:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: It was a Wednesday night.
• 2:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: At a church in Monterey Bay, California, a Wednesday evening service.
• 2:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: And the pastor is preaching, I am no idea what he preached about, but apparently he mentioned the need for salvation.
• 2:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: That evening, I came forward, my junior church leader dealt with me.
• 2:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: My mom, if I recall, was in the nursery.
• 2:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I, bowed my head, just a little boy, hadn't sinned a whole lot, necessarily as far as like a catalog of sins, my catalog was kind of anemic, I didn't have some stunning testimony of coming out of a life of drugs and crime, no, but I was a sinner, and I knew I was on my way to hell.
• 3:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: That evening, bowed my head and asked Christ to save me, the sinner I was, friend, how about you.
• 3:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know, not that long ago, a man named Mark contacted our ministry from over in New Zealand and one of our good staff members Cameron had the opportunity to communicate with him and tell him how he could know by they were text essentially texting back and forth and he was telling Mark was telling him his background and Cameron was sharing the gospel and telling him how he could know for sure where he was going, gave him the full gospel.
• 3:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: Things like that, all they refresh me, and they give renewed purpose to what we are and who we are, why we exist.
• 4:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think of it my home church, not but a few Sundays ago, young man, maybe ten years old, mom, been coming for some time to our church and hurt three beautiful kids.
• 4:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: And this young man, he accepted Christ.
• 4:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: And just a few Sundays ago, he followed the Lord and believed his baptism.
• 4:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: Knowing that baptism has nothing to do with salvation, but it's just the first step of obedience after salvation, and to signify, to testify, I got saved.
• 4:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: that young man got baptized.
• 4:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's a blessedness seeing new life, isn't it?
• 4:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think of our stand-by gospel track, the new birth, the very first one that to my knowledge that Paul Levine, our founder, ever wrote, was it talk about, it talks about, yes, the new birth.
• 4:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: It talks about a new birth, not of water, but of the Holy Ghost of God Almighty.
• 5:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'd ask your friend.
• 5:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: Do you know that you know where you go?
• 5:08
  [SPEAKER_01]: I've often found when I give an invitation a time at the conclusion of a message.
• 5:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: When I mention a need for salvation, I'll ask a question like this.
• 5:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'll say, if you know for a fact that if you were to die today, you know that you would go to heaven.
• 5:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'd ask if you would.
• 5:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: If you know that, if you can't be honest in the house, God, where can you be?
• 5:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: If you can't be honest right now,
• 5:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm not sure if there's a place on earth you can be honest, other than church, and so if you know for sure where you're going, I'd ask you, would you just raise your hand?
• 5:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm not not looking to embarrass anyone, but the Bible says that if we're ashamed of him, he'll be ashamed of us.
• 5:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: The Bible says, let the redeemed of the Lord say so.
• 5:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: So if you know Christ, would you just raise your hand?
• 5:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: And of course, there will be many often.
• 5:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: In a church,
• 6:00
  [SPEAKER_01]: So, folks raise their hand, but almost without fail in any congregation, there may be one or two, maybe more that won't raise their hand.
• 6:11
  [SPEAKER_01]: And so I'll ask the inverse, the opposite of that question.
• 6:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: God forbid something were to happen to you, do you not know?
• 6:20
  [SPEAKER_01]: Are you not 100% sure?
• 6:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: If you did died a day, do you know you wouldn't go to heaven?
• 6:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: If that's you, I'll say something like this.
• 6:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: I won't make you stand up.
• 6:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: I won't make you stand out.
• 6:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: I won't embarrass you.
• 6:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: I won't call you out.
• 6:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: Call you down.
• 6:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: I just want to pray for you.
• 6:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: Would you mind just raising your hands so I can pray for you?
• 6:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: I found oftentimes.
• 6:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: It helps if I ask the question twice, not because I'm trying to draw decisions out of people, but I was in Australia not too long ago.
• 6:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: Young man named Axel.
• 6:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: Young man buys own testimony.
• 6:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: We knew he wasn't saved.
• 6:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: There was no get around that.
• 7:00
  [SPEAKER_01]: He knew it.
• 7:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: That last service on a Thursday evening.
• 7:06
  [SPEAKER_01]: I said, if you know for sure you're going to heaven and people raise their hands, axle didn't, so I asked the other question, if you're here and you don't know.
• 7:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: Where would you go?
• 7:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: If you don't know that, would you raise your hand?
• 7:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: And Axel didn't move.
• 7:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: He stayed just as still as on that first question.
• 7:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: I said, I found just the same thing I said to you.
• 7:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: I found that sometimes I need to ask twice.
• 7:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: And so I did.
• 7:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: If you don't know,
• 7:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: would you please raise your hand and then I just waited.
• 7:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's almost like playing touch football in the backyard.
• 7:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: One Mississippi, two Mississippi, three Mississippi, four Mississippi, normally five Mississippi is all you give, but I think I went just a little beyond five Mississippi.
• 7:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: I was at least on seven or eight Mississippi in silence.
• 8:00
  [SPEAKER_01]: Everyone's heads were bowed.
• 8:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: I was the only one looking around.
• 8:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: and Axel's hand went up.
• 8:06
  [SPEAKER_01]: I don't know if it was a 910 or 13 Mississippi, but his hand went up.
• 8:11
  [SPEAKER_01]: He acknowledged it for the first time.
• 8:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: I know I'm lost.
• 8:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: Axel had the opportunity, and he took the opportunity.
• 8:20
  [SPEAKER_01]: He had saved that night, what a blessing.
• 8:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: It was out of church not too long ago, down in Decatur, Illinois, Pastor Dave Brown, what lovely people down there, one of, he's been passing, get this for 47 years and he is so, he, he sharp as a tack, I'm, I'm not sure how old I didn't ask how old brother Brown is, but he's been passing for 47 years in the same place.
• 8:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: He's not 48 years old, I can tell you that much, so sharp, sharp as a tack.
• 8:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: Beautiful folks, lovely to preach too, just funny folks.
• 8:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: Wonderful.
• 8:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: Had the opportunity to send him over and ask that question, preached them.
• 9:00
  [SPEAKER_01]: They soaked it up.
• 9:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: And a young lady raised her hand.
• 9:05
  [SPEAKER_01]: After I asked the second time, friend, you've already heard me ask it.
• 9:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: Maybe it doesn't times today.
• 9:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: Let me ask you one more time.
• 9:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: If you're listening right
• 9:20
  [SPEAKER_01]: you're not completely.
• 9:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm not asking if you're 98% certain.
• 9:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm asking if you're anything less than a hundred.
• 9:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: Don't be almost sure.
• 9:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: Don't be almost persuaded.
• 9:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'd ask you.
• 9:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: If you don't know here is the action I'd ask you to do, not to raise your hand.
• 9:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: Maybe you could.
• 9:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: I won't be able to see it though.
• 9:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'd ask you to reach out to me.
• 9:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'd love to hear from you and I'd love to take a Bible, or one of our wonderful staff members like Cameron did with Mark over in New Zealand not long ago, they can take a Bible and show you.
• 9:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'd love to talk you by a phone call, by text, by email, whatever is most convenient for you, but I certainly don't want you to step into eternity not knowing.
• 10:08
  [SPEAKER_01]: You could text me today.
• 10:11
  [SPEAKER_01]: If you don't know for sure, would you consider this?
• 10:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: I want you to grab your phone right now.
• 10:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: Dude, I'm just going grab your phone.
• 10:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: If you don't know, text me at 309.
• 10:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: 316724.
• 10:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: Zero.
• 10:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm gonna turn, or I'm, I'm at Revelation chapter 3 in verse 20, a verse I wanna share with you before I let you go.
• 10:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: Text me at 3-0-9-3-16-7-2-4-0, I'll give you that number one more time.
• 10:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: Alright, not just twice, even three times, alright.
• 10:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: Revelation 3-20 says behold, I stand
• 10:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: at the door and knock.
• 10:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: If any man hears my voice and open the door, I will come in to him and will sub with him and he with me.
• 11:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: Friend, the invitation is open today.
• 11:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: The God of this blessed book wants to meet with you.
• 11:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's not my come a curry from Bible Trax Incorporated knocking on the door
• 11:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: And if he's doing a work right now in you, it's a work that no man can imitate.
• 11:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: If you know for a fact that if you died today, you would not go to heaven, police, friend.
• 11:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: I want this is literally my life's work.
• 11:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: This is why I exist.
• 11:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's not to be chummy, chummy with radio listeners.
• 11:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: The way I enjoy that.
• 11:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's not these all these other things.
• 11:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: Those are great.
• 11:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: They're accessories, though.
• 11:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: We are called, I am called as a Christian, to reach people just like you.
• 11:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: If you don't know where you would go.
• 11:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: I don't care if it's morning, noon, or night, wherever you may be listening in a America or around the world, I want you to reach out to me.
• 11:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: You can email me, micha at bibletracksink.org, you can call our ministry.
• 12:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: 3, 0, 9, 8, 2, 8, 60, 8, 88, that's 3, 0, 9, 8, 2, 8, 68, 88, bad, I'd love it if you just text at me.
• 12:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'd love you to text me at 3, 0, 9, you'd be this number one last time, all right?
• 12:20
  [SPEAKER_01]: 3, 0, 9, 3, 1, 6, 7, 2, 4, 0.
• 12:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: I remember the joy and the weight that fell off of a little boy's shoulders.
• 12:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: They might come with curry and Monterey Bay, California.
• 12:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: When I accepted Christ as my Savior, you could do that today.
• 12:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: Ignalageress Center, you know it, I know it, we all know it.
• 12:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: Ignalage that you're on your way to hell.
• 12:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: Ignalager at you need Christ and you want him to save you.
• 12:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: Reach out today.
• 12:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: Thank you so much for listening.
• 12:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: Join us next week on Bible, Tract, Echoes, I greatly appreciate every Christian and every person that's not yet or Christians.
• 13:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: I believe you can make the right choice.
• 13:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: Reach out.
• 13:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: Have a great day for His glory.
• 13:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: God bless.
• 13:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for tuning in to Bible Tract Echoes, the radio ministry of Bible Tracts Incorporated.
• 13:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: Want to see our gospel tracks and other resources?
• 13:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: Visit us online at BibleTracksInk.org that's BibleTracksInk.org or follow us on social media to learn how you can partner with this ministry.
• 13:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: Thanks again for listening.
• 13:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: May the Lord richly bless you as you live for him.