Latest / The Living Waters Podcast / Ep. 413 - How to Recover from a Bad Evangelism Experience
Transcript
- 1:04SPEAKER_00: You know, people get upset, they get angry, some don't.
- 1:06SPEAKER_00: You know, you never know the reaction, but I'm I'm reminded of the adage that when you throw a rock into a pack of wolves, the one that yelps the loudest is the one that got hit.
- 1:14SPEAKER_00: We never know what is happening inside someone's life.
- 1:17SPEAKER_00: So somebody can be coming up against you and they are angry.
- 1:23SPEAKER_00: Who who knows what's happening inside their life?
- 1:25SPEAKER_00: And then on the other hand, you think that you're actually getting through to someone and they're quiet and they're nodding and they're agreeing, but they're not listening.
- 1:32SPEAKER_00: So you just never know.
- 1:33SPEAKER_00: So we can't be afraid or dismayed by their faces and the reactions that we are getting.
- 1:38SPEAKER_00: You know, in Acts 5.41, and referring to the apostles, it says that they rejoiced that and that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for his name.
- 1:48SPEAKER_00: So here's the apostles, right?
- 1:49SPEAKER_00: One bad conversation, we're going to get sushi because we feel we feel that bad.
- 1:54SPEAKER_00: But here's the apostles, right?
- 1:55SPEAKER_00: They're mocked, they're beaten, they're thrown out of cities.
- 1:59SPEAKER_00: And we have the apostle Paul in, I think, 1 Corinthians chapter 11 or 2nd Corinthians 11 saying all the things that he had gone through, the persecution, night and day out inside the deep, uh, the scourgings often, and all the things that came upon him with the church.
- 2:14SPEAKER_00: But he said that he was not moved by the things that came upon him.
- 2:19SPEAKER_00: Persecution has always been good for the church.
- 2:23SPEAKER_00: Who was it?
- 2:24SPEAKER_00: The that the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the saints, right?
- 2:28SPEAKER_00: That that that's the way it is.
- 2:29SPEAKER_00: It should motivate us.
- 2:31SPEAKER_00: You know, and we know that if these afflictions, they're but light.
- 2:34SPEAKER_00: It's light and it's gonna push us onward and upward towards what is ahead.
- 2:38SPEAKER_00: And we have to remember that God is using these things inside of our lives.
- 2:47SPEAKER_06: Surf shop owner, leather jacket manufacturing tycoon, Christian bookstore proprietor, evangelism ministry founder, hole and bed digger, and now restaurant chain magnate of Comfort Foods Inc.
- 3:03SPEAKER_06: Rumfort.
- 3:07SPEAKER_06: You know what that reminded me of, Mark?
- 3:09SPEAKER_06: Remember those uh Jack Stefan commercials?
- 3:11SPEAKER_06: Oh yeah.
- 3:11SPEAKER_06: Jack Stefan.
- 3:15SPEAKER_06: Stefanofinich no! That's right.
- 3:17SPEAKER_02: Jack Stefan.
- 3:18SPEAKER_02: Wasn't he advertising?
- 3:20SPEAKER_05: The most fascinating man in the world.
- 3:21SPEAKER_05: Remember those advertisements?
- 3:23SPEAKER_02: Uh Kenyon.
- 3:24SPEAKER_05: Most interesting man in the world.
- 3:25SPEAKER_06: Yeah, the most interesting man in the world.
- 3:26SPEAKER_02: Delsekis?
- 3:27SPEAKER_02: Dels'.
- 3:27SPEAKER_05: Yeah, Delsekis, yeah.
- 3:28SPEAKER_05: Yeah, I saw an advert advertisement.
- 3:30SPEAKER_05: They use him again like 20 years later.
- 3:32SPEAKER_05: He's not that interesting there.
- 3:34SPEAKER_06: He's all you were mistaken for him a couple times.
- 3:36SPEAKER_05: Yes, a couple times, which is kind of strange.
- 3:38SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
- 3:39SPEAKER_06: Speaking of comfort foods incorporated.
- 3:41SPEAKER_06: Guys, what is it about comfort food?
- 3:43SPEAKER_06: Like, how do you how do you define that?
- 3:45SPEAKER_06: Do you guys have oh yeah.
- 3:47SPEAKER_06: Sushi's comfort.
- 3:50SPEAKER_06: Sorry, it's lady foods.
- 3:51SPEAKER_06: Soup.
- 3:52SPEAKER_06: Sushi.
- 3:52SPEAKER_06: Lady food.
- 3:53SPEAKER_06: Soup.
- 3:54SPEAKER_06: When I think of comfort food, I think of soup.
- 3:56SPEAKER_06: Yeah, something that, you know, I'll tell you what what one of my absolute favorite comfort foods is chips and salsa.
- 4:06SPEAKER_06: Greg Garcia in the house today.
- 4:09SPEAKER_06: Our good friend Greg Garcia is the salsa connoisseur.
- 4:13SPEAKER_06: I never see you, I never see you, Greg, without saying salsa.
- 4:17SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
- 4:17SPEAKER_06: Isn't that what you guys talked about?
- 4:19SPEAKER_06: It is.
- 4:19SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
- 4:19SPEAKER_00: I mean, I told him that I am forever indebted to him because of his salsa recipe, which we still make to this day.
- 4:25SPEAKER_06: Wait, that's you got that from Greg?
- 4:27SPEAKER_00: Got it from Greg.
- 4:28SPEAKER_06: Which my daughter Summer learned.
- 4:29SPEAKER_06: So I was really eating your salsa in my house, bro.
- 4:32SPEAKER_06: It lives on from generation to generation.
- 4:35SPEAKER_05: I've developed a taste for salsa, seriously.
- 4:37SPEAKER_05: That's ketchup, right?
- 4:38SPEAKER_06: That's ketchup.
- 4:39SPEAKER_06: Yeah, right.
- 4:39SPEAKER_06: That's that's watered down ketchup for Ray's palate.
- 4:42SPEAKER_06: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- 4:43SPEAKER_06: Really?
- 4:43SPEAKER_06: You like salsa now?
- 4:44SPEAKER_05: Yeah, Mark, you're a soup maniac.
- 4:46SPEAKER_05: You could dive into a swimming pool of soup, swim across this.
- 4:50SPEAKER_06: I've seen it, witness.
- 4:51SPEAKER_06: You too, you like soup?
- 4:52SPEAKER_06: No, no, I've seen him.
- 4:53SPEAKER_06: Oh, yeah.
- 4:54SPEAKER_06: Soup.
- 4:55SPEAKER_06: He does grow stuff like French onion.
- 4:56SPEAKER_06: But you can put French.
- 4:58SPEAKER_05: French bread into soup is really nice.
- 5:01SPEAKER_06: It is nice.
- 5:01SPEAKER_06: Comfort foods.
- 5:03SPEAKER_06: All right, friends.
- 5:04SPEAKER_06: Oh, by the way, we do have guests here.
- 5:05SPEAKER_06: We have Greg and Julianne.
- 5:07SPEAKER_06: We have Joshua and Evanus.
- 5:09SPEAKER_06: What a cool name.
- 5:10SPEAKER_06: Evanus and John and Lori.
- 5:13SPEAKER_06: Welcome to the Loving Waters and podcast.
- 5:17SPEAKER_06: All right, time for a cool, classy comment.
- 5:19SPEAKER_06: This is from Sarah Pavey.
- 5:21SPEAKER_06: Hello, Ray, Easy Mark, and Oscar.
- 5:23SPEAKER_06: I listened to your most recent episode where you asked if any listeners had listened to all 400 of your episodes.
- 5:29SPEAKER_06: I was surprised to hear you ask this, as I would assume that any listener would have listened to them all, as they are so awesome.
- 5:35SPEAKER_06: I was baptized just two years ago, and part of the reason for my salvation was coming across the Living Waters podcast.
- 5:42SPEAKER_06: Do you guys hear that?
- 5:43SPEAKER_06: One of the reasons was coming.
- 5:44SPEAKER_06: It came at a time when I was just starting to explore the Christian faith, and I don't know how I discovered you guys, but I'm so glad I did, because your sound coverage of biblical doctrine and the constant reference back to the heart of Christianity, the gospel, convicted my heart.
- 5:58SPEAKER_06: And since then I've been living as best as I can for the Lord.
- 6:01SPEAKER_06: I started on wherever episode was current at the time, but quickly decided I needed to hear all episodes.
- 6:07SPEAKER_06: So I plowed through them in a matter of months.
- 6:09SPEAKER_06: I've also listened to probably half of them twice.
- 6:12SPEAKER_06: Figured I have spent the equivalent of at least 22 whole days listening to you guys, and it's been time well spent.
- 6:18SPEAKER_06: I've also shared the podcast with many others, uh, other believers and non-believers alike, and thank God that he led me to you at the right time.
- 6:27SPEAKER_06: Thank you for your service and dedication to sharing the gospel and doing so with wisdom, integrity, and of course lots of humor.
- 6:32SPEAKER_06: Maybe it says something about my sense of humor, but I smile and laugh my way through the opening of each episode.
- 6:37SPEAKER_06: God bless your ministry.
- 6:38SPEAKER_06: And please thank Mark, Oscar, and Ray for ruining my letter by putting the cup on the table and creating distractions.
- 6:45SPEAKER_06: No, no, I've got to explain this.
- 6:46SPEAKER_05: No, no, no, no.
- 6:47SPEAKER_05: Mark needs to be sent to El Catraz.
- 6:49SPEAKER_05: Seriously.
- 6:49SPEAKER_05: I second that.
- 6:51SPEAKER_05: For life.
- 6:51SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
- 6:52SPEAKER_05: Because Yale sneaks across.
- 6:57SPEAKER_05: Yale sneaks across because someone left a butt cup there.
- 7:01SPEAKER_05: He sneaks on his knees, pulls up, takes it away, and then Mark puts us deliberately in the middle.
- 7:05SPEAKER_05: And then Yale comes out to get that cup, and Mark pulls it back.
- 7:08SPEAKER_05: So it was I was thirsty.
- 7:09SPEAKER_05: You're both going to Alcatraz, both of you.
- 7:11SPEAKER_05: Both Yale, too.
- 7:12SPEAKER_06: All right.
- 7:13SPEAKER_06: Well, thank you so much, Sarah.
- 7:14SPEAKER_06: From the UK, by the way.
- 7:16SPEAKER_06: Oh.
- 7:16SPEAKER_06: From Somerset UK.
- 7:18SPEAKER_05: How come you didn't read it with an English accent?
- 7:20SPEAKER_06: Start over again.
- 7:21SPEAKER_06: It's right, friends.
- 7:22SPEAKER_06: I'm Sarah from Somerset UK.
- 7:24SPEAKER_06: Yeah, right.
- 7:25SPEAKER_06: Get on you, mate.
- 7:25SPEAKER_06: Sarah's Australian.
- 7:26SPEAKER_06: Not English.
- 7:27SPEAKER_06: It's all the same, right?
- 7:28SPEAKER_06: Anyway, Sarah, what a blessing.
- 7:29SPEAKER_06: And guys, she came to the Lord through the podcast.
- 7:32SPEAKER_06: That is wonderful.
- 7:32SPEAKER_06: Praise God.
- 7:33SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
- 7:33SPEAKER_06: Thanks for writing in, sister.
- 7:34SPEAKER_06: Hope that's a good thing.
- 7:35SPEAKER_01: That's a very fitting, uh, fitting thing for the title of the podcast.
- 7:39SPEAKER_06: Yeah, isn't it?
- 7:40SPEAKER_01: She would come to the Lord.
- 7:41SPEAKER_01: Amen.
- 7:42SPEAKER_06: All right, friends.
- 7:44SPEAKER_06: Uh, you've just entered the quality question section.
- 7:46SPEAKER_06: Uh, this is for Ray Comfort.
- 7:48SPEAKER_06: This is from Justin Ayers.
- 7:50SPEAKER_06: Hi to all Living Waters family.
- 7:51SPEAKER_06: I remember a little while ago that Ray put a video out about Howard Stern where he's questioning life and its meaning and death.
- 7:57SPEAKER_06: Ray had agreed to pay him$2,000 along with his way to come sit down with him and share these things.
- 8:03SPEAKER_06: I sent an email hoping that Howard would take the challenge.
- 8:06SPEAKER_06: If Howard has an open mind, he can see the truth.
- 8:08SPEAKER_06: Death or the looming that thought was a way of pulling these thoughts from us.
- 8:13SPEAKER_06: I know there are thousands that would like to see the gospel shared with Howard and ultimately a surrender from him to Jesus.
- 8:19SPEAKER_06: What a blessing that would be.
- 8:21SPEAKER_06: Is there an update on Howard Stern?
- 8:24SPEAKER_06: Ray Comfort.
- 8:25SPEAKER_05: Yes, there is an update.
- 8:25SPEAKER_05: Nothing's happened.
- 8:26SPEAKER_05: Um I heard him and Arnold Schwarzenegger talking about the vanity and futility of life, and they're both, especially Schwarzenegger, was extremely angry about death, which is ridiculous.
- 8:38SPEAKER_05: It's like spitting into a hurricane, and so I don't like it.
- 8:41SPEAKER_05: You know, you've got to find out what causes death, and I'd love to witness Arnold Schwarzenegger as he begins to dwindle away.
- 8:47SPEAKER_05: He's become like a little old man, a little bit bigger than me, but it's all all that time in the gym is just a waste of time.
- 8:53SPEAKER_05: Bodily exercise profits little.
- 8:56SPEAKER_05: And I'd love to talk to Arnold and love to talk to Howard Stern.
- 8:59SPEAKER_05: Howard Stern's about six foot six, isn't he?
- 9:02SPEAKER_05: So it'd be quite an interesting thing to do.
- 9:03SPEAKER_05: You make his knees.
- 9:04SPEAKER_05: But I said I'd give him$2,000 for his time.
- 9:08SPEAKER_05: Not a bribe, but just for his time to let me share the gospel with him.
- 9:11SPEAKER_05: And I encourage a lot of people in our YouTube channel to write to him.
- 9:16SPEAKER_05: I put an address there and say, come on, just do this.
- 9:19SPEAKER_05: It would lift your program.
- 9:20SPEAKER_05: It would be an interesting, an interesting thing to do to have a Christian in studio.
- 9:23SPEAKER_05: And you could abuse me as much as you want, but I'd love to share the gospel with you.
- 9:27SPEAKER_05: And no, and and there's a reason for this.
- 9:30SPEAKER_05: It's not that I'm infatuated with celebrity, it's that celebrity has such a huge platform.
- 9:36SPEAKER_05: You know, Arnold just needs to come on and say, I'm losing my muscle, and he gets like 20 million views on YouTube.
- 9:43SPEAKER_05: Imagine if he came on and says, I've been wrong about Jesus.
- 9:45SPEAKER_05: He's the savior.
- 9:46SPEAKER_05: He's washed away my sins.
- 9:48SPEAKER_05: I've got everlasting life.
- 9:49SPEAKER_05: I no longer fear death.
- 9:51SPEAKER_05: So spend time building the strength of character as well as the muscle.
- 9:55SPEAKER_05: Because the muscle's gonna fade, but character is eternal.
- 9:58SPEAKER_06: Amen.
- 9:58SPEAKER_06: You know, we did our last episode on people being too far gone.
- 10:03SPEAKER_06: We talked about Paul the Apostle.
- 10:04SPEAKER_06: And I think sometimes we have this sort of mental block in our minds with certain people.
- 10:08SPEAKER_06: Well, he's a celebrity or he's this or that, he's too blasphemous or far gone.
- 10:12SPEAKER_06: No way.
- 10:13SPEAKER_06: Like God is in the business of doing that.
- 10:15SPEAKER_05: So and Howard Stern, incredibly blasphemous and as crude as you can get.
- 10:19SPEAKER_05: Huge.
- 10:20SPEAKER_05: He he was he's the uttermost, goddamn most sort of guy, but that's what Jesus came to say about the uttermost.
- 10:25SPEAKER_06: Amen.
- 10:26SPEAKER_06: Amen.
- 10:27SPEAKER_06: Well, thank you so much for that question, Justin Ayers, and uh keep praying for Howard Stern.
- 10:32SPEAKER_06: Get ready for a shout out from the Sheik of Showarma, the number eight top Christian population.
- 10:37SPEAKER_00: Excuse me, I don't understand what the Sheik of Shawma is.
- 10:39SPEAKER_00: I wanted to ask last time, but I just didn't care.
- 10:41SPEAKER_02: I have no idea what you're talking about.
- 10:43SPEAKER_02: I think I realized like five episodes ago, I think he's talking about himself.
- 10:46SPEAKER_02: Is that what it is?
- 10:47SPEAKER_06: Of course.
- 10:49SPEAKER_06: Showarma.
- 10:50SPEAKER_06: Ken Ham gave me the name, and I loved it.
- 10:52SPEAKER_06: One time we were going back and forth, he called me the Sheik of Shawarma.
- 10:54SPEAKER_05: He did, and you grabbed it.
- 10:56SPEAKER_05: I love it.
- 10:57SPEAKER_00: So use it again, because now I I think I understand it now.
- 10:59SPEAKER_06: Okay, got it.
- 11:00SPEAKER_06: And now erotic liberalism.
- 11:01SPEAKER_06: Oh no, that's a different one.
- 11:04SPEAKER_06: Get ready for a shout-out from the Sheik of Shawarma.
- 11:08SPEAKER_00: Oh, you are.
- 11:10SPEAKER_00: You just didn't know that.
- 11:11SPEAKER_00: No, I didn't know it.
- 11:12SPEAKER_00: I tend to tune out when you're talking, but I'll know that.
- 11:15SPEAKER_00: I just thought he's gone overboard.
- 11:16SPEAKER_00: He's nuts.
- 11:17SPEAKER_00: Just let him go.
- 11:18SPEAKER_02: So example, like if you were living in Ireland right now, the number eight top Christian podcasts on Apple Man, Ireland!
- 11:25SPEAKER_06: Number eight, you guys ironing.
- 11:27SPEAKER_06: Our pastor's Irish.
- 11:29SPEAKER_06: Oh, that is right.
- 11:29SPEAKER_06: Pastor Phil, not Northern Ireland.
- 11:31SPEAKER_06: Ireland.
- 11:32SPEAKER_06: And the number 11 top podcasts in all religions and spirituality in the whole country.
- 11:37SPEAKER_05: A lot of Catholics in Ireland, so it's wonderful.
- 11:39SPEAKER_06: So greetings.
- 11:40SPEAKER_06: By the way, folks, when you hear us give shout-outs to you, we want to hear from you.
- 11:44SPEAKER_06: Let us know if you're from Ireland.
- 11:45SPEAKER_06: Listen.
- 11:45SPEAKER_06: Last time I shared we're number one in Lebanon.
- 11:49SPEAKER_06: So write to us, my Ed Up friend.
- 11:51SPEAKER_02: The Sheikh of Swans.
- 11:53SPEAKER_05: So how can they write to us?
- 11:55SPEAKER_06: Podcast at livingwaters.com.
- 11:58SPEAKER_06: And now a radically revolutionary resource.
- 12:00SPEAKER_06: This podcast is breaking.
- 12:02SPEAKER_06: The ultimate USB.
- 12:06SPEAKER_06: I thought it was USB.
- 12:07SPEAKER_06: Mark Spence.
- 12:07SPEAKER_06: Wait.
- 12:08SPEAKER_00: USB.
- 12:08SPEAKER_00: No, it's an USB.
- 12:09SPEAKER_00: Us Ultimate USB.
- 12:11SPEAKER_00: Tell us about it, Mark.
- 12:12SPEAKER_00: You know, back in 2014, I was asked to speak at a concert with uh uh Lecrae, Breathe to Me, uh Breathe to Me or something, and uh Tubby Mac, things like that.
- 12:23SPEAKER_00: And and I from that point started to put together really the ultimate gospel presentation.
- 12:31SPEAKER_00: And in the midst of that, that entered into the realm of apologetics.
- 12:34SPEAKER_00: You know, during COVID, I started studying out the pro-life movement uh with uh uh abortion and things of that nature, and I just started accumulating everything that I could possibly put together.
- 12:43SPEAKER_00: And then in 2017, our our IT guy, who's no longer with us, had uh deleted all of my files.
- 12:52SPEAKER_00: That caused me bitterness, bitterness of heart to which I toilet papered his house.
- 12:58SPEAKER_00: No, I did not.
- 12:59SPEAKER_00: So, what that did though is that put me back into the drawing board to try to accumulate and put together the ultimate Christian defense library of uh information, right?
- 13:10SPEAKER_00: And I took a hold of one section called the debate tactics that I use out on the street, and I actually texted that to Charlie Kirk.
- 13:18SPEAKER_00: And Charlie Kirk went through it and he immediately just said, Wow, this is great.
- 13:22SPEAKER_00: And he started to use that on his videos when he was on the college campuses.
- 13:25SPEAKER_00: But that made me start to organize and put together folders and put everything together, and it's the ultimate library.
- 13:31SPEAKER_00: It's my it's my brain, it's my heart, it's all my studies, everything I possibly have on that little thumb drive that we make available.
- 13:37SPEAKER_00: And that's called the ultimate USB.
- 13:39SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
- 13:39SPEAKER_06: Very, very effective and lots of good things on there.
- 13:42SPEAKER_05: You can get the USB via UPS.
- 13:44SPEAKER_06: Oh, USB UBS.
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- 13:48SPEAKER_06: Don't forget the Living Waters mug from which you can chug.
- 13:50SPEAKER_06: The Even a Study Bible is I will bring about revival and Living Waters TV, all at LivingWaters.com.
- 13:58SPEAKER_06: What the Sheikah Shawarma busts that out.
- 14:03SPEAKER_06: And you fail me, Oscar.
- 14:04SPEAKER_06: And don't forget the podcast YouTube channel, tens of thousands of subscribers.
- 14:08SPEAKER_06: Let's get to zillions.
- 14:09SPEAKER_06: All right, friends.
- 14:11SPEAKER_06: Today we're talking about how to recover from a bad evangelism experience and a bad podcast.
- 14:18SPEAKER_06: That was bad.
- 14:19SPEAKER_06: That's today.
- 14:20SPEAKER_00: Well, this was last night.
- 14:22SPEAKER_02: I was thinking about that.
- 14:23SPEAKER_02: I was wondering if you're gonna bring that up.
- 14:25SPEAKER_00: Oh, tell us.
- 14:26SPEAKER_00: Well, so you know, Oscar and I we set up a table down in Huntington Beach right there on the pier, and we went further out towards the end of the pier than we normally go, and it was louder, and we could not hear what people were saying into the microphone.
- 14:40SPEAKER_00: What do you mean it was loud?
- 14:41SPEAKER_00: No, the sea.
- 14:42SPEAKER_00: Yeah, the sea was louder.
- 14:44SPEAKER_00: Why'd you guys do that?
- 14:45SPEAKER_00: It's it's a better view for the camera.
- 14:47SPEAKER_00: Just trying new things.
- 14:48SPEAKER_00: So we have like five cameras set up right.
- 14:49SPEAKER_00: So it's so we have that going on, and people are talking.
- 14:54SPEAKER_00: And so Oscar and I, what we have, so we have this microphone, you know, easy, right?
- 14:58SPEAKER_00: So you set the microphone down when you don't want to speak.
- 15:00SPEAKER_00: When you want to speak, you're the one that picks up the microphone when you're done speaking, you put the microphone down.
- 15:04SPEAKER_00: So that gives whoever wants the time to speak.
- 15:06SPEAKER_00: Well, Oscar was never picking up the microphone because Oscar could not hear what they were saying.
- 15:12SPEAKER_00: I was pretending to hear what they were saying, and so I would hear a word, like every other word, and I was thinking, all right, so they must be dealing with like this objection or this question or this scripture.
- 15:22SPEAKER_00: And so then I would just kind of run with it.
- 15:24SPEAKER_00: So now we have Ryan, our audio guy, who's actually listening.
- 15:27SPEAKER_02: Pause.
- 15:28SPEAKER_02: I'm I'm listening to him, and I'm like, man, I thought Mark was hard of hearing.
- 15:32SPEAKER_02: Like he can hear these guys and he's killing it.
- 15:35SPEAKER_02: He must be, he must know what they're talking about.
- 15:36SPEAKER_00: You're just winging it, Mark.
- 15:38SPEAKER_00: I was winging it.
- 15:38SPEAKER_00: And so Ryan echoed something that my wife often says, which is you had a great answer to a question that wasn't asked.
- 15:46SPEAKER_00: So Ryan goes, wait till you hear back what their questions were, because your answers had nothing to do with what they're saying.
- 15:53SPEAKER_02: They were good answers, though.
- 15:54SPEAKER_00: But we started really slow.
- 15:56SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
- 15:56SPEAKER_00: Really, really slow.
- 15:57SPEAKER_02: It was I I would put it like this.
- 15:59SPEAKER_02: Yeah, we like the night before we went out, and it was an incredible night.
- 16:03SPEAKER_02: I mean, everything went really, really well.
- 16:05SPEAKER_02: And I think Mark's plan was to go once a week, and then I think both of us were fired up, like, let's do this again tomorrow.
- 16:11SPEAKER_02: And so you ended up making the plan to do it again, and so we go back the next day.
- 16:15SPEAKER_02: And that first hour was the opposite of the night before.
- 16:18SPEAKER_02: It was hard.
- 16:19SPEAKER_02: It was we had a very intoxicated guy.
- 16:22SPEAKER_02: We had like people just wanted to be on camera, we're trying to dance, we couldn't hear anything.
- 16:28SPEAKER_02: I mean, like, yeah.
- 16:30SPEAKER_02: The first hour, there was there was this moment, this vibe between me and Mark and even the rest of the crew.
- 16:34SPEAKER_02: So just go eat.
- 16:35SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and it you feel bad, right?
- 16:37SPEAKER_02: Because we've got five people with us, camera, sound, you know, and and it's like, man, we took away from their evening.
- 16:44SPEAKER_02: My wife's home alone because my kids are at church retreat, and so she's like, she could easily be having dinner with her husband.
- 16:51SPEAKER_02: Same thing with Laura, she's home, you know.
- 16:53SPEAKER_02: That's you.
- 16:53SPEAKER_02: What's that?
- 16:54SPEAKER_02: I'm I'm Kelly's husband, that's true.
- 16:56SPEAKER_02: Uh, and so, you know, there's just this moment where you're like, dang, like, this is maybe we maybe we uh were the were the mouse that asked for a glass of milk when we got the cookie last night, you know, and then and then we moved spots, and an hour in, all of a sudden we just had like tremendous, great conversations with people.
- 17:17SPEAKER_02: It was really I'm getting the chills thinking about it.
- 17:19SPEAKER_02: Like just when we were at the pits of like we should probably just pack up and go have dinner, uh, it turned around.
- 17:25SPEAKER_02: We had back to back amazing conversation.
- 17:27SPEAKER_05: Anyone can do this, set up a table somewhere, put up a sign that says ask me a question or something provocative, yeah, and you have a microphone and people come up and ask questions and you answer them.
- 17:36SPEAKER_05: Yeah, and so anyone can do that.
- 17:38SPEAKER_06: It's it's so phenomenal.
- 17:41SPEAKER_06: I I mean I I've been loving it.
- 17:42SPEAKER_06: I I think both Oscar and I got the bug.
- 17:44SPEAKER_06: Mark really turned us on to this, and uh it's just amazing.
- 17:49SPEAKER_06: And you look at some of the videos we've put up, you know, just hundreds of thousands of views, some of them millions of views.
- 17:55SPEAKER_06: And you're just having a conversation with one or two people, and there's maybe 10, 15 people around, but but so many more are getting it, you know.
- 18:03SPEAKER_06: Uh, but yeah, it's it's amazing.
- 18:05SPEAKER_06: But Ray, to their point and to the point of the topic today, I mean, how many times has that happened to you where you're just discouraged?
- 18:14SPEAKER_06: Oh, lots of bad days, bad, bad interviews, bad open air preaching, whatever.
- 18:18SPEAKER_06: What do you do?
- 18:19SPEAKER_05: Well, you grab the footage because this is what happened about two weeks ago.
- 18:23SPEAKER_05: I had three interviews that were just horrible.
- 18:27SPEAKER_05: Uh one guy, I can't even repeat what he was saying, but it was just quite disgusting and stupid, didn't go anywhere.
- 18:33SPEAKER_05: And I said to the guys, my camera crew, I'm deleting this, and they said, No, don't.
- 18:38SPEAKER_05: Put it on the second channel or put it on on YouTube and say this is what really happens.
- 18:42SPEAKER_05: And uh we put it on, it's getting a lot of views.
- 18:45SPEAKER_05: That's cool, um, because people are saying, This happened to me.
- 18:48SPEAKER_05: You know, I get this sort of thing.
- 18:50SPEAKER_05: Because when you put on the successes, it it's just not a real world, it's not how the real world works works.
- 18:55SPEAKER_05: So you've got to take the punches, and the punches come quite regularly when you're when you're with using.
- 18:59SPEAKER_05: We, our team, we uh we're thick skinned, uh, Frank, um, Yale, myself, and Danny because we get so many rejections.
- 19:08SPEAKER_05: We get one person come on camera, but we get forty to fifty rejections, one after the other.
- 19:14SPEAKER_02: Like me trying to get a prom date in high school.
- 19:20SPEAKER_05: But you just keep going because you realize that this is the most honorable thing you can do with your life is to share the gospel.
- 19:27SPEAKER_05: So you just keep going.
- 19:28SPEAKER_06: Ray, share the story of uh the day that you were uh in the square and it was windy, or no, it was uh there was a band playing and Yeah, sure.
- 19:36SPEAKER_05: I was a system pastor at the time.
- 19:38SPEAKER_05: One of those.
- 19:39SPEAKER_05: Six uh six miles from the square.
- 19:41SPEAKER_05: Yeah, it is, it's gonna be real long, so just snooze off.
- 19:43SPEAKER_05: I was six miles from the square where I used to preach daily, and I came out and I saw it was very windy, like a 15-mile-an-hour wind or something, which is quite a lot.
- 19:52SPEAKER_05: When you open air preaching, it's gonna take your sound away.
- 19:55SPEAKER_05: And I I'd committed to take someone into the square, so I said, well, jump in, I'll go in anywhere.
- 20:01SPEAKER_05: Go in anywhere, went into the square, I looked across, and there was a band setting up about 50 yards across from where I spoke.
- 20:07SPEAKER_05: Maybe 40, maybe 38, who cares?
- 20:11SPEAKER_05: And and uh I thought, I'll go across and see how when they're gonna start.
- 20:16SPEAKER_05: And I said, when are you gonna start playing?
- 20:17SPEAKER_05: Because that was gonna drown me out in the speaker's corners in that area.
- 20:20SPEAKER_05: And I thought, and I said, uh, about 20 minutes.
- 20:23SPEAKER_05: And this is exactly what went down from there.
- 20:25SPEAKER_05: And he said, about 20 minutes.
- 20:26SPEAKER_05: I turned my back to him and I said, 20 minutes.
- 20:29SPEAKER_05: I said this out loud because I talked to myself, 20 minutes.
- 20:32SPEAKER_05: Hardly worth preaching the gospel.
- 20:34SPEAKER_05: As I said that, I looked down, a piece of paper just came in front of me, and I looked down and I thought, what's that?
- 20:39SPEAKER_05: And I picked it up and it was a page from a Bible.
- 20:42SPEAKER_05: And I'd been preaching there for about nine or ten years at that time.
- 20:44SPEAKER_05: I'd never seen someone Bible page come out of it, float around, picked it up, and I looked at the page number, it was 1128 or something like that.
- 20:53SPEAKER_05: And I looked down and my eyes fell upon a scripture, Woe unto me if I preach not the gospel.
- 20:59SPEAKER_05: And I thought, of all the people, to find a page out of a Bible with over a thousand pages in the Bible, and to pick it up when I just said hardly worth preaching the gospel, and my eyes fell upon woe unto me if I preach not the gospel.
- 21:12SPEAKER_05: And I crept, I don't know what I did with a piece of paper, but I went back, stood up, and preached my heart out, and I've done it ever since.
- 21:18SPEAKER_05: I've always remembered that.
- 21:20SPEAKER_05: Wow.
- 21:20SPEAKER_05: Always worth preaching the gospel.
- 21:23SPEAKER_06: You know, years ago we we did an episode called When Things Go Wrong.
- 21:27SPEAKER_06: Oh, yes.
- 21:27SPEAKER_06: You guys remember that one?
- 21:28SPEAKER_06: One of my favorites, actually.
- 21:30SPEAKER_06: And we talked in there about all the things that have gone wrong with us.
- 21:34SPEAKER_06: Because again, people watch the television program, they see the YouTube videos.
- 21:37SPEAKER_06: Remember where we filmed it?
- 21:39SPEAKER_06: Uh yeah, it was in our old upstate.
- 21:42SPEAKER_05: Oh, boxing ring.
- 21:43SPEAKER_05: It was a boxing ring.
- 21:44SPEAKER_05: Oh, yeah, yeah.
- 21:44SPEAKER_05: I thought he meant the commentary.
- 21:45SPEAKER_06: Yeah, it was in a boxing ring, and uh and we had a boxer, it was actually a professional boxer that was in there, and he was remember each time punching the camera.
- 21:53SPEAKER_02: Is that how you punched?
- 21:54SPEAKER_06: Yeah, it went like this too.
- 21:56SPEAKER_06: Uh but it was it was refreshing to me to watch that.
- 22:00SPEAKER_06: Or we talked about all these different things that we talked about, Billy in the in the square New Zealand.
- 22:05SPEAKER_05: Remember what you said to Billy?
- 22:07SPEAKER_05: Oh, sorry, you just stole your thumbs up.
- 22:10SPEAKER_06: Oh yeah, to Billy, yeah.
- 22:10SPEAKER_06: I remember uh when I look back on that, in my mind, and I know I don't want to sound prideful, arrogant, but it was it was probably the most eloquent thing I've ever seen.
- 22:21SPEAKER_06: Before you saw it.
- 22:22SPEAKER_00: Set it up.
- 22:22SPEAKER_06: What what what's happening for people that are so basically we're we're we're uh preaching open air, Ray and I.
- 22:28SPEAKER_06: Speaker's course.
- 22:29SPEAKER_06: Speaker Course, Mark, you were there.
- 22:30SPEAKER_06: Yeah, uh Rachel was there.
- 22:31SPEAKER_06: My two daughters, Summer and Julia, they were like babies back then.
- 22:35SPEAKER_06: And was Mark there?
- 22:36SPEAKER_06: Yeah, you'll find out.
- 22:38SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
- 22:38SPEAKER_06: So anyway, uh I I'm I'm preaching the gospel, and then we finish, we're sitting down, and Billy, who had persecuted you for many years, he's the guy that carried you off.
- 22:47SPEAKER_06: Now we'll talk about that.
- 22:48SPEAKER_06: Anyway, so he's uh he was a uh transvestite, I think was the word back then.
- 22:54SPEAKER_06: I don't know what it was.
- 22:56SPEAKER_06: Anyway, he's talking to me and I'm saying, you know, hey, there's hope for you.
- 22:59SPEAKER_06: And he's like, Oh, I'm a woman.
- 23:00SPEAKER_06: I say, No, you're you're not, you know, and why have I gone extra Y crimezai and whatever.
- 23:04SPEAKER_06: And I go, well, you know what I'm talking about.
- 23:05SPEAKER_06: And then next thing you know, he gets up, like comes over at me like a train.
- 23:08SPEAKER_06: He goes, listen, yank.
- 23:10SPEAKER_06: And he grabs me by the throat and just starts to just whack me, just hit me.
- 23:17SPEAKER_06: And that's when I said the most eloquent thing I've ever said.
- 23:20SPEAKER_06: And I just looked at him and I went, and I got it on camera.
- 23:26SPEAKER_00: Yeah, my friend.
- 23:27SPEAKER_00: Yes.
- 23:28SPEAKER_00: My beloved friend Mark Spencer.
- 23:29SPEAKER_05: How would you have liked him not to have got it?
- 23:31SPEAKER_05: We've got their wrinkles.
- 23:32SPEAKER_05: Yes, two feet away.
- 23:33SPEAKER_05: Always yells, hit him again, Billy.
- 23:35SPEAKER_06: Keep the camera again.
- 23:38SPEAKER_02: Can you do the impression of the box friggin?
- 23:41SPEAKER_02: The first time you did, you look at the Rock'emstock em robots.
- 23:45SPEAKER_05: Rockham stock them.
- 23:46SPEAKER_05: Put them away.
- 23:46SPEAKER_05: Put them away.
- 23:48SPEAKER_05: So anyway, you you could have eaten him up if you'd be excellent for a sick.
- 23:51SPEAKER_06: To this day, I look back, I say, how did that not happen?
- 23:54SPEAKER_06: Because you know, having been a gangster, that's reflex, muscle memory, you know.
- 23:59SPEAKER_06: But by God's grace, yeah, he held me back.
- 24:01SPEAKER_06: I mean, I think back on that and say, what would have happened if I just just did that, you know, and just started hitting me.
- 24:06SPEAKER_00: Maybe because he was bigger than you.
- 24:07SPEAKER_00: I think he weighed 135.
- 24:08SPEAKER_06: No, I think it's because he was really skinny guys.
- 24:11SPEAKER_06: I think it's because he looked like a woman that psychologically it helped me.
- 24:14SPEAKER_06: I'm not gonna hit a woman.
- 24:16SPEAKER_06: So anyway, um it's amazing.
- 24:19SPEAKER_06: But you know, you think of the discouragements that we've had.
- 24:22SPEAKER_06: And again, like how God uses things.
- 24:24SPEAKER_06: Like the Lord has used that to encourage people that, hey, it doesn't always go well, but don't give up.
- 24:31SPEAKER_06: You know?
- 24:32SPEAKER_06: Um You talked about Billy before.
- 24:33SPEAKER_06: I'll just tell us about the other story, the Billy.
- 24:35SPEAKER_05: Um, I was preaching once.
- 24:36SPEAKER_05: I went back, I think I was by myself that time, and I had a good crowd, and Billy was heckling me, and he said something weird when I caught him a homosexual, he didn't like it.
- 24:45SPEAKER_05: And I just said, Don't be silly, Billy.
- 24:47SPEAKER_05: And he ran at me and he went behind me and grabbed my, I think I was wearing a sweater, and he pulled it over my head.
- 24:54SPEAKER_05: And then he grabbed me from around my arms and carried me to the police station, which was only about 50 yards away.
- 25:02SPEAKER_05: And uh the police held me for a little while, and then I came back and I stood up the crowded state and I said, sorry about that, I'm always getting carried away.
- 25:12SPEAKER_05: And they stayed and listened to the gospel, so that was worth it.
- 25:15SPEAKER_05: But um yeah, Billy was quite a character.
- 25:17SPEAKER_06: Yeah, and and you know, we just we look and we say, Lord, you're you're sovereign.
- 25:21SPEAKER_06: You guys remember years ago we went to the um Comic-Con conference wherever it was.
- 25:27SPEAKER_06: This past weekend.
- 25:28SPEAKER_06: Yeah, I think it was in it was San Diego or wherever it was.
- 25:30SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
- 25:31SPEAKER_06: Anyway, um, that was a very discouraging day for me.
- 25:35SPEAKER_06: You guys might remember, I I talked to a young lady and her boyfriend, they were dressed like Ghostbusters.
- 25:40SPEAKER_06: Do you remember that?
- 25:41SPEAKER_01: I was there for that, yeah.
- 25:42SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
- 25:43SPEAKER_06: And uh, man, it was going so well, you know, and then she just like turns on me and and just got upset, and she turns around, walks away, and I go after them.
- 25:54SPEAKER_06: I want to give them their in and out cards, you know, too.
- 25:56SPEAKER_06: And I'm she's like, you and then she comes.
- 25:59SPEAKER_04: What does she say?
- 26:01SPEAKER_06: Exactly like that.
- 26:03SPEAKER_06: And then she looks and she she realizes she left her bag by where we were speaking, and she comes back and she starts accusing me of trying to steal her stuff.
- 26:13SPEAKER_06: I didn't even touch her stuff, you know.
- 26:15SPEAKER_06: She put it down, and I just honestly that day I just felt like, man, this is ridiculous.
- 26:19SPEAKER_06: Like, why'd I even go out?
- 26:20SPEAKER_06: It was horrible.
- 26:21SPEAKER_06: And and that video now has almost a million views.
- 26:25SPEAKER_02: Wait, we had whatever happened to that footage?
- 26:27SPEAKER_02: Because I had some really good conversations that day, too.
- 26:29SPEAKER_06: Yeah, yeah, I think it's been broken up and posted and different things.
- 26:31SPEAKER_06: Uh, but but I mean, you know what I'm saying?
- 26:33SPEAKER_06: Like, I look back on that and I was able to give commentary afterward and and just encourage people.
- 26:38SPEAKER_06: Hey, look, sometimes people respond this way, but we can't compromise truth, you know.
- 26:42SPEAKER_06: You're gonna say, right?
- 26:43SPEAKER_04: I can't remember.
- 26:44SPEAKER_00: Uh wait a minute.
- 26:44SPEAKER_00: You know, people get upset, they get angry, some don't.
- 26:46SPEAKER_00: You know, you never know the reaction, but I'm I'm reminded of the adage that when you throw a rock into a pack of wolves, the one that yelps the loudest is the one that got hit.
- 26:55SPEAKER_00: Dogs.
- 26:55SPEAKER_00: And sometimes, or cats, lions, mice, bears, humans, uh, seagulls, snakes, doofuses, yeah, yeah.
- 27:04SPEAKER_00: So we we never know what is happening inside someone's life.
- 27:08SPEAKER_00: So somebody can be coming up against you and they are angry.
- 27:14SPEAKER_00: Who knows what's happening inside their life?
- 27:16SPEAKER_00: And then on the other hand, you think that you're actually getting through to someone and they're quiet and they're nodding and they're agreeing, but they're not listening.
- 27:23SPEAKER_00: So you just never know.
- 27:24SPEAKER_00: So we can't be afraid or dismayed by their faces and the reactions that we are getting.
- 27:29SPEAKER_00: You know, in Acts 5.41, and referring to the apostles, it says that they rejoiced that and that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for his name.
- 27:39SPEAKER_00: So here's the apostles, right?
- 27:40SPEAKER_00: One bad conversation, we're going to get sushi because we feel we feel that bad.
- 27:45SPEAKER_00: But here's the apostles, right?
- 27:46SPEAKER_00: They're mocked, they're beaten, they're thrown out of cities.
- 27:50SPEAKER_00: And we have the apostle Paul in, I think, 1 Corinthians chapter 11 or 2nd Corinthians 11 saying all the things that he had gone through, the persecution, night and day out inside the deep, uh, the scourgings often, and all the things that came upon him with the church.
- 28:05SPEAKER_00: But he said that he was not moved by the things that came upon him.
- 28:10SPEAKER_00: Persecution has always been good for the church.
- 28:14SPEAKER_00: Who was it?
- 28:15SPEAKER_00: The that the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the saints, right?
- 28:19SPEAKER_00: That that that's the way it is.
- 28:20SPEAKER_00: It should motivate us, you know, and we know that if these afflictions, they're but light.
- 28:25SPEAKER_00: It's light and it's gonna push us onward and upward towards what is ahead.
- 28:29SPEAKER_00: And we have to remember that God is using these things inside of our lives.
- 28:32SPEAKER_00: Not many of us can say that we've been whipped for the cause of Christ.
- 28:36SPEAKER_00: Uh we have been punched, Ray's been punched.
- 28:38SPEAKER_00: I've had things thrown at me when I've been open-air preaching, and it's hurt.
- 28:42SPEAKER_00: But I had some French fries thrown at me.
- 28:45SPEAKER_00: Did you have ketchup as well?
- 28:46SPEAKER_05: No.
- 28:47SPEAKER_05: No, no.
- 28:48SPEAKER_05: What happened?
- 28:48SPEAKER_05: I was preaching, and someone from the crowd um threw a French fry, which I was able to catch and eat and keep preaching.
- 28:55SPEAKER_05: I'm not kidding.
- 28:56SPEAKER_05: And then he threw another one and it was a cigarette, and I caught it in my hand, and it was burnt my hand.
- 29:01SPEAKER_05: I'm not kidding.
- 29:01SPEAKER_05: I'm not kidding.
- 29:02SPEAKER_05: Did you eat that?
- 29:03SPEAKER_05: No, I didn't.
- 29:03SPEAKER_05: I don't like eating cigarettes.
- 29:05SPEAKER_05: Oh, I wish I could have worded.
- 29:07SPEAKER_05: But Jesus said, uh, when you're persecuted for the name of Christ, rejoice, be exceeding glad.
- 29:11SPEAKER_05: And Luke says, leap for joy.
- 29:14SPEAKER_05: And it's really hard to do that.
- 29:15SPEAKER_05: To rejoice, be exceedingly glad, and actually leap for joy.
- 29:20SPEAKER_05: And sometimes I actually physically do that out of obedience.
- 29:24SPEAKER_05: I only get about four inches off the ground now.
- 29:26SPEAKER_05: But it's good, yeah.
- 29:28SPEAKER_05: Leap for joy.
- 29:29SPEAKER_02: I also think that sometimes if we're being honest, we should always be able to be honest with God.
- 29:36SPEAKER_05: By the way, don't have a lie, you a lie, Oscar.
- 29:38SPEAKER_05: Mark used another idiom before.
- 29:40SPEAKER_02: Our hearts are deceitful.
- 29:43SPEAKER_02: Um and they're deceitful not towards the Lord, because he knows they're deceitful to ourselves.
- 29:50SPEAKER_02: And I think that sometimes when we are discouraged, it's sometimes revelatory on the fact that we were depending on ourselves.
- 29:58SPEAKER_02: That we had our own idea on how this was gonna go, that we think, you know, I'm well prepared, I'm gonna have this amazing conversation, I should be able to do this.
- 30:07SPEAKER_02: And uh, and so often our discouragement is a sign that we're we're too dependent on our own self.
- 30:13SPEAKER_02: Um, I mean, I think of like you think of the sowing of the seeds.
- 30:17SPEAKER_02: Can you imagine sitting there sowing seeds and one of them lands on cement and seeing somebody get down on their knees and go like, I'm such a terrible sow seer.
- 30:25SPEAKER_02: How could this not grow to be a beautiful flower?
- 30:28SPEAKER_02: It's like, because it's does it has nothing to do with you throwing the seed, you know it?
- 30:34SPEAKER_02: And and in anything good, what is the best thing that can come out of witnessing?
- 30:38SPEAKER_02: That someone would be saved.
- 30:39SPEAKER_02: And as you said in the last episode, that is a miracle.
- 30:44SPEAKER_02: Like that is the ultimate gain, right?
- 30:46SPEAKER_02: Not that you get a million views, not that you put them in their place, not that you had a great metaphor at the right time.
- 30:52SPEAKER_02: Ultimately, that someone would come to a saving faith.
- 30:54SPEAKER_02: And that is done by the work of God and God alone, softening hearts and opening eyes.
- 31:01SPEAKER_02: And so oftentimes I think our discouragement is a sign that we've decided to start relying on ourselves more than the power of the Holy Spirit.
- 31:09SPEAKER_00: You know, and sometimes the greatest victory is not when somebody believes, it's just the fact that you didn't give up.
- 31:14SPEAKER_00: Amen.
- 31:14SPEAKER_00: You you you kept going.
- 31:16SPEAKER_00: You know, easy and I, we've been going out witnessing for years, and easy, you've had a way of reversing the difficulty, right?
- 31:25SPEAKER_00: Where you talk about collecting rejections.
- 31:27SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
- 31:28SPEAKER_00: Speak on that for a moment.
- 31:29SPEAKER_06: Yeah, I call it uh rejection collection.
- 31:32SPEAKER_06: And and basically the the outlook on that is the law of averages, right?
- 31:37SPEAKER_06: I mean, you know, right, that in in some types of scenarios, so many people out of 10 are gonna respond this way, right?
- 31:45SPEAKER_06: And so if let's say hypothetically that uh two out of 10 people that you try to share the gospel with are going to listen and and you're gonna have a good, fruitful conversation.
- 31:57SPEAKER_06: Then what that means is as you're being rejected and you're collecting those rejections, in your mind, you're just saying, okay, the law of averages, I'm just that much closer to the person who's gonna receive that, you know?
- 32:08SPEAKER_06: And I've found that helpful over the years because there is something, right?
- 32:12SPEAKER_06: I'd love for you to speak to that because you you have touched on that before.
- 32:15SPEAKER_06: Like there's something that happens inside of us when we're rejected.
- 32:19SPEAKER_06: What is that?
- 32:20SPEAKER_05: What what what what's that it's it's horrible, it's not a good feeling.
- 32:24SPEAKER_05: But I remember years ago, and I mentioned it before, uh, what persecution can actually do.
- 32:30SPEAKER_05: When Saul of Tarsus um brought slaughter to the church, um, acting like a crazed animal, it says, therefore, they went everywhere preaching the word.
- 32:39SPEAKER_05: So the winds of adversity just blow up the flames and make us become stronger.
- 32:43SPEAKER_05: And I remember this where a guy named Wally was got to my ladder out of the cathedral and set it up.
- 32:48SPEAKER_05: I said he could do it because I was a little late, and he was preaching when I got there.
- 32:52SPEAKER_05: And he had a good sized crowd, and behind him there was some peace demonstrators.
- 32:56SPEAKER_05: They were demonstrating for peace.
- 32:58SPEAKER_05: And they came came across when Wally was speaking and actually physically grabbed his shoulder and said, Stop, we're doing a demonstration.
- 33:05SPEAKER_05: We want you to stop.
- 33:06SPEAKER_05: And he actually stopped.
- 33:08SPEAKER_05: And that made me extremely righteously indignant when they stopped him.
- 33:12SPEAKER_05: I thought, how dare they?
- 33:14SPEAKER_05: So I walked across and I started preaching about ten feet from where Wally had stopped.
- 33:18SPEAKER_05: And they immediately came across these peace marchers who want peace without God, and they stopped me preaching.
- 33:24SPEAKER_05: But as soon as they stopped me preaching, Wally burst into flames and went back to Wally, I burst into flames, and you don't realize the Holy Spirit is like fire until the winds of adversity begin to blow.
- 33:34SPEAKER_05: Oh, wow.
- 33:35SPEAKER_05: And uh that that and another time too, um, and this has happened quite a lot, and this will sound kind of weird, but I've had crowds in Cathedral Square where I was preaching, and a heckler became so nasty, I had to tell them to stop because the spirit of glory was resting upon me.
- 33:56SPEAKER_05: And I couldn't smile and preach at the same time.
- 33:59SPEAKER_05: I had to say that.
- 34:00SPEAKER_05: I say, would you please stop?
- 34:01SPEAKER_05: Because this is making me so joyful, I can't preach when I'm smiling this much.
- 34:06SPEAKER_05: And that's what the Bible says.
- 34:07SPEAKER_05: Um, the spirit of glory rests upon you when you're persecuted for the name of Christ.
- 34:11SPEAKER_05: So we we've got a realm of the supernatural that you step into in the book of Acts that we can see as a reality if we're prepared to be obedient to the Lord.
- 34:22SPEAKER_05: Um be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, for your labor is not in vain in the Lord.
- 34:27SPEAKER_05: First Corinthians chapter 15, verse.
- 34:30SPEAKER_05: But before that verse, it tells us why we should be steadfast.
- 34:35SPEAKER_05: It's speaking about death losing its sting.
- 34:37SPEAKER_05: The grave losing its victory.
- 34:39SPEAKER_05: What an incredible thing we've got in Christ.
- 34:41SPEAKER_05: Be steadfast, therefore unmovable.
- 34:45SPEAKER_05: Why?
- 34:45SPEAKER_05: Because we've got the message of immortality, that death has lost its sting.
- 34:49SPEAKER_06: Amen.
- 34:50SPEAKER_06: Yeah, in Galatians uh six, you know, and let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap.
- 34:55SPEAKER_06: No, that was yours.
- 34:56SPEAKER_06: That'll do.
- 34:57SPEAKER_06: Oh, was it?
- 34:58SPEAKER_06: Um, yeah.
- 34:59SPEAKER_06: Um if we faint not.
- 35:01SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
- 35:02SPEAKER_06: And so anyway, it it's it's huge to to recognize that the Lord will work in ways that we can't even fathom, even through circumstances that we perceive our failures, right?
- 35:16SPEAKER_06: Because we don't know what the Lord's gonna do.
- 35:19SPEAKER_06: I mean, I think of of David Wilkerson and his encounter with Nikki Cruz and and the gangs in New York.
- 35:25SPEAKER_06: And I remember what he he said to them, he said, look, if you cut me up into a thousand pieces, because they they threatened to kill him, he said, every one of them will cry out to you, you know, with the gospel or whatever it was.
- 35:36SPEAKER_06: But but that that is the the essence of what we as believers are called to do, right?
- 35:43SPEAKER_06: We're called to lay our lives down for people.
- 35:46SPEAKER_06: You know, Paul said, Hey, I don't count my life dear to me, right?
- 35:49SPEAKER_06: Like I'm I know I'm gonna be killed in Jerusalem, come what may.
- 35:53SPEAKER_06: I don't care.
- 35:53SPEAKER_06: Because I need to finish that race that God has set before me.
- 35:56SPEAKER_06: I need to be faithful to him.
- 35:58SPEAKER_06: And I think oftentimes that's the issue.
- 36:00SPEAKER_06: It's that we forget what the call is.
- 36:03SPEAKER_06: The call isn't to go out and get positive responses, it's not to go out and to reap a harvest, it's not to go out and to feel good, it's to go out and proclaim the gospel faithfully because he's worthy.
- 36:15SPEAKER_05: We're such weak vessels.
- 36:16SPEAKER_05: We don't want to run towards persecution.
- 36:17SPEAKER_05: Was it Agabus that took Paul's girdle and he said, Whoever owns this girdle, and he said, What would have come, I would have given the girdle to someone else, and that run at moments is a gift, it's yours.
- 36:28SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
- 36:28SPEAKER_06: I I've often said that that uh expectations are the foundation for disappointment or delight.
- 36:35SPEAKER_06: And so if our expectation is that evangelism is some sort of great Disneyland fun experience, then we're gonna be disappointed.
- 36:44SPEAKER_06: But if if our expectation is that no, this is something that can conjure up persecution, that that will be hard plowing, that that will put me into intense spiritual warfare sometimes.
- 37:00SPEAKER_06: And we go out and we expect that, right?
- 37:02SPEAKER_06: Right?
- 37:02SPEAKER_06: Your whole parachute analogy, um, then we're not disappointed.
- 37:07SPEAKER_05: You know, if you want to do yourself good, just start reading the comments on your YouTube um, and you just see people come on and say, This is the most evil man on earth.
- 37:15SPEAKER_05: Why?
- 37:16SPEAKER_05: Because we preach the gospel, yeah.
- 37:18SPEAKER_05: And uh we're just trying to tell people how they can find everlasting life.
- 37:22SPEAKER_05: That's what it boils down to that we're not here to annoy the world, we're here to see the world come to Christ.
- 37:28SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
- 37:28SPEAKER_06: All right, so let's speak to the person right now who is dealing with discouragement uh because they can't find anyone like-minded to go out and proclaim the gospel with them.
- 37:41SPEAKER_06: That's one area I think obviously we're just talking about hey, when when things don't work out, but hey, it's it it's kind of almost not even working at all because I I have no one to partner with.
- 37:51SPEAKER_00: I feel so alone in this.
- 37:52SPEAKER_00: Listen, God will always have his remnant.
- 37:55SPEAKER_00: You know, remember, one with God will always be in the majority.
- 37:58SPEAKER_00: It doesn't matter who's against you, if God is for you.
- 38:01SPEAKER_00: And if you realize that God is with you, you're not going out alone.
- 38:05unknown: Right?
- 38:05SPEAKER_00: You don't you don't need to think about that.
- 38:07SPEAKER_00: Think about Peter.
- 38:07SPEAKER_00: How how discouraged was Peter?
- 38:10SPEAKER_00: He denies Jesus three times, then Jesus dies.
- 38:14SPEAKER_00: Imagine that weight and waiting.
- 38:20SPEAKER_00: The weight that's upon him and the waiting that's happening until Jesus resurrects from the dead, and what does Jesus do with Peter?
- 38:29SPEAKER_00: He doesn't replace him, he restores him.
- 38:32SPEAKER_00: Right?
- 38:32SPEAKER_00: He restores him, and we we get down on ourselves because I can't get somebody to go out with me.
- 38:38SPEAKER_00: I can't I can't get somebody who listen, I want to go out for an hour.
- 38:41SPEAKER_00: Will somebody be won't nobody?
- 38:43SPEAKER_00: I mean, how many times have you tried to get pastors to go out?
- 38:46SPEAKER_00: I have four senior pastors lined up right now to go out with me to sit at the table.
- 38:50SPEAKER_00: Four senior pastors, not including associate pastors at other churches.
- 38:53SPEAKER_05: That's actually a miracle, isn't it though?
- 38:55SPEAKER_05: Yeah, because I I preached for 12 years, nothing, only two pastors came into the local square during all that time.
- 39:00SPEAKER_05: Wow, so and the whole thing about going alone, just go alone.
- 39:04SPEAKER_05: Um there's something wonderful about going alone.
- 39:07SPEAKER_05: Um, and this is what it is.
- 39:08SPEAKER_05: If you make a mess of it, nobody witnesses it.
- 39:11SPEAKER_02: That's a good, like a response.
- 39:13SPEAKER_02: Next time a local pastor asks us to preach, I'll go to your pulpit if you come into my square.
- 39:19SPEAKER_02: That'd be pretty good.
- 39:20SPEAKER_06: It's good.
- 39:21SPEAKER_06: Yeah, and look, we have to remember that um it's not about us.
- 39:26SPEAKER_06: That's right.
- 39:27SPEAKER_06: First Corinthians 3 7.
- 39:29SPEAKER_06: So then neither he who plants is anything nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase.
- 39:34SPEAKER_06: Right.
- 39:34SPEAKER_06: It's him, right?
- 39:35SPEAKER_06: We're we're just out there to be faithful.
- 39:37SPEAKER_06: And nothing freed me up more as a younger believer than the realization that salvation is of the Lord.
- 39:43SPEAKER_06: Somehow I got deceived into thinking it's it's of me.
- 39:46SPEAKER_05: Well, that's what the modern gospel gives us.
- 39:48SPEAKER_05: That whole thought that you have to get a decision.
- 39:51SPEAKER_05: That's what that's what gets someone saved.
- 39:53SPEAKER_05: It's my manipulating them to come to a point of decision.
- 39:57SPEAKER_05: When you realize that salvation's the Lord, just keep your hand out.
- 40:00unknown: Yeah.
- 40:00SPEAKER_05: Let God do the work.
- 40:01SPEAKER_00: We think every gospel conversation rises and falls upon our success, defined as I was eloquent.
- 40:10SPEAKER_00: I had them repeat a prayer.
- 40:12SPEAKER_00: You know, we had last night we had an amazing conversation.
- 40:16SPEAKER_00: There was a woman, a gymnastics teacher, her name was Melissa.
- 40:19SPEAKER_00: She comes off to the side and we're just talking.
- 40:21SPEAKER_00: She didn't want to go to the microphone at first.
- 40:23SPEAKER_00: I'm not even sure she knew what we were about, but she was like some sort of an agnostic atheist, didn't really think too much about it.
- 40:29SPEAKER_00: And then Oscar Ben began to talk to her, kind of off on the side.
- 40:33SPEAKER_00: She ends up coming to the microphone, talking to her.
- 40:35SPEAKER_00: And the illustrations and the stuff that was coming out of Oscar's mouth, I was beside myself.
- 40:42SPEAKER_00: Oscar ends up going home.
- 40:44SPEAKER_00: We go out to eat, me and the film crew, and we're just going, Oscar's conversation with that girl Melissa.
- 40:51SPEAKER_00: And it seemed like it was a side conversation.
- 40:53SPEAKER_00: Like there was no heat, there was no debate, there was there was no uh unction attached to this.
- 40:59SPEAKER_00: There was just a conversation, just like the way Oscar is right now, just kind of talking casually with this.
- 41:03SPEAKER_00: But what he shared, it was spirit, it was truth, and it was life.
- 41:09SPEAKER_00: And she could not deny the power by which Oscar spoke.
- 41:12SPEAKER_00: And I was just blown away.
- 41:13SPEAKER_00: Well, that that's what does it always seem like that?
- 41:16SPEAKER_00: No.
- 41:17SPEAKER_00: But even when it doesn't seem like it, when you share truth, it is like that.
- 41:21SPEAKER_00: Because God's word does not, will not, ever return void.
- 41:25SPEAKER_00: Get the word in you, and there'll be ample opportunity to get it out of you.
- 41:28SPEAKER_05: Speaking of that, Oscar, can you give us a synopsis of what you said?
- 41:31SPEAKER_05: Can you remember anything?
- 41:32SPEAKER_05: The Shakespeare writing into the story.
- 41:35SPEAKER_02: She said her question was you know, with modern day science, we've we've even been able to go to space and we've not seen God.
- 41:44SPEAKER_02: Where is God?
- 41:46SPEAKER_02: And uh I reminded her, C.
- 41:48SPEAKER_02: S.
- 41:48SPEAKER_02: Lewis, I reminded her, you know, there was this Russian astronaut that went to space.
- 41:51SPEAKER_02: And when he came down back home, he made the same claim.
- 41:55SPEAKER_02: He he he was an atheist and he said, you know, I've been through the clouds, I've been up into the stars, I've seen it all, and there is no God.
- 42:02SPEAKER_02: And C.S.
- 42:03SPEAKER_02: Lewis, he wrote this oped, and uh he responded to this Russian astronaut.
- 42:08SPEAKER_02: He said, if there was a God, he would not relate to us in the same way a man on the second story would relate to somebody on the first story.
- 42:18SPEAKER_02: Instead, he would relate to us in the way that an author would relate to somebody in his story.
- 42:24SPEAKER_02: And so you think, how would Shakespeare reveal himself to Hamlet?
- 42:29SPEAKER_02: Shakespeare would have to write himself into the story so that Hamlet would know his maker.
- 42:35SPEAKER_02: And in that way, God has written himself into our story in Jesus Christ to make himself known to us.
- 42:43SPEAKER_02: And she did, she seemed to be very reflective on it.
- 42:47SPEAKER_02: I um I've been thinking about uh 2 Timothy.
- 42:50SPEAKER_02: You think like the Apostle Paul, he went through so much.
- 42:54SPEAKER_02: One, the first time he goes to to like preach, people are like, isn't this the persecutor of Christians?
- 43:01SPEAKER_02: So he's he's uh he's looked at questionably by Christians to begin with, and then he's speaking in pagan squares, and some people are rejecting him.
- 43:11SPEAKER_02: Pharisees are questioning and mocking him.
- 43:13SPEAKER_02: He ends up being beaten, imprisoned, shipwrecked.
- 43:17SPEAKER_02: And when he goes on to describe why he does what he does, 2 Timothy 2.10, he says, Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.
- 43:38SPEAKER_02: In other words, Paul was like, Man, I know the Lord has gone before me and has a plan to save.
- 43:45SPEAKER_02: And I'm I'm out there preaching because he already knows some of these people are gonna be saved and some are not.
- 43:51SPEAKER_02: That's that that's already written in history that these people will be saved.
- 43:55SPEAKER_02: And so I'm just gonna be faithful and go and preach because he's already gone before me.
- 44:00SPEAKER_02: That was the thing that motivated Paul to keep going.
- 44:03SPEAKER_06: Amen.
- 44:04SPEAKER_06: And we forget the part of the Great Commission that is indispensable, that I think really is a foundation for our perseverance in evangelism.
- 44:13SPEAKER_06: And lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the age.
- 44:17SPEAKER_06: So it's like, hey, if if our eyes were open, like right, like Elijah's servant, like like to see who's with us, right?
- 44:26SPEAKER_06: God and the the hosts of heaven and and and the support that we have in that regard, it would change our outlook and our perspective, you know.
- 44:34SPEAKER_00: And can let me add a scripture to that.
- 44:36SPEAKER_00: I think it's their bedfellows together, and that's John 6 44.
- 44:39SPEAKER_00: No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.
- 44:43SPEAKER_00: So, hand in hand with what you just shared, this should take a weight off of your shoulders.
- 44:47SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
- 44:48SPEAKER_00: Salvation belongs to the Lord.
- 44:50SPEAKER_00: It's like the question was asked a prominent evangelist one time how many people have you led to the Lord?
- 44:55SPEAKER_00: And his response was all of them.
- 44:57SPEAKER_00: But what the Lord did with them at that point is completely up to him.
- 45:00SPEAKER_00: Right?
- 45:01SPEAKER_00: So we don't know where the wind blows, we don't know how salvation can.
- 45:04SPEAKER_00: comes to an individual or how eyes are open.
- 45:06SPEAKER_00: Last night when we were talking to somebody, there was a young kid that was there, and it seemed like he wanted to get right with God.
- 45:11SPEAKER_00: And when are you going to do that?
- 45:12SPEAKER_00: When I come to the end of myself, well, when's that going to be?
- 45:14SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
- 45:14SPEAKER_00: Could that be today?
- 45:15SPEAKER_00: Uh yeah, it could be today.
- 45:16SPEAKER_00: So today seems like it's the day to get right with God.
- 45:18SPEAKER_00: What's keeping you?
- 45:19SPEAKER_00: Nothing.
- 45:20SPEAKER_00: Is there any sin in your life that's worth that you want to hold on to that it's going to be pulling you down to the grave?
- 45:25SPEAKER_00: Is there anything worth holding on to where it will drag you down to the depths of hell?
- 45:29SPEAKER_00: And he's all no, I can't so doesn't it make sense that you get right with God now?
- 45:33SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
- 45:34SPEAKER_00: Like we'll do it.
- 45:36SPEAKER_00: That was a good moment.
- 45:37SPEAKER_00: You know so I get hand in hand, take the weight off of us.
- 45:41SPEAKER_00: You know, no one come to the Father unless the father draws them.
- 45:44SPEAKER_00: Salvation belongs to him.
- 45:46SPEAKER_06: Yeah and to be compelled by by love, you know that's what love does.
- 45:51SPEAKER_06: It it acts um totally independent of circumstances.
- 45:56SPEAKER_06: We've seen those videos where someone will run into a burning inferno in a house or building to save people or or someone will risk their life to save a stranger out of a car that's on fire that could blow up.
- 46:10SPEAKER_06: But there's something that overtakes you at that moment and says this is more important than I am even to myself.
- 46:17SPEAKER_06: You guys remember the story that our friend Chad Williams has shared before about the the their fellow soldier that jumped on a grenade to save his fellow soldiers.
- 46:37SPEAKER_06: Hurt my feelings I didn't I didn't like their attitude toward me.
- 46:43SPEAKER_06: I felt bad.
- 46:44SPEAKER_06: I mean you know what I'm saying like we're talking about the apostles and what they went through for the sake of the gospel.
- 46:49SPEAKER_06: We go through nothing.
- 46:51SPEAKER_06: But there are believers today who are going through so much more you know but like man this is but that's the thing one eye on hell right as we're preaching the gospel that is that's their destiny without Christ.
- 47:06SPEAKER_02: You just reminded me I didn't even put two and two together.
- 47:09SPEAKER_00: Or thanks Matt I'm here for you.
- 47:12SPEAKER_02: Thank you for joining I was at the gym this morning and uh I was the the TV was on and it was you know you guys know in Soak how we've had these crazy currents and these crazy waves this summer and there's been all these lives that have been lost.
- 47:26SPEAKER_02: Someone in Laguna Beach like a little kid got lost and um ended up passing away.
- 47:30SPEAKER_02: And so they're showing this video that was his lifeguard and for whatever reason backup wasn't coming and somebody out on the sand was videoing this guy and he was just relentlessly trying to save this little kid disappeared into the water didn't hear the the whitewash yeah I mean you can it looks like both of them are gonna drown.
- 47:49SPEAKER_02: And by the time it was just a fight for this kid's life and then finally he gets him out of the water and the lifeguard is exhausted.
- 47:57SPEAKER_02: And so what was amazing about this moment is they're interviewing the the lifeguard's dad and the lifeguard's dad I'm getting emotional he's like man I knew I knew my son had it in him.
- 48:08SPEAKER_02: That's my son.
- 48:09SPEAKER_02: And just think like when we're preaching and we're being relentless that God in heaven is looking down and going yes I put that in you be relentless for my sake amen that's so good.
- 48:23SPEAKER_06: Yeah it's all it's all perspective and reality and what we're constantly consumed with.
- 48:30SPEAKER_06: JC Rao said there is no work so important to the souls of men.
- 48:35SPEAKER_06: It is an office which the Son of God was not ashamed to take up that was JC Rao.
- 48:41SPEAKER_06: Yeah I mean again the Lord didn't tell us go out and do this period he said all right yeah go out but then he said watch what I'm gonna do right Philippians 2 let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus who being in the form of God did not consider it robbery to be equal with God but made himself of no reputation taking the form of a bondservant and coming in the likeness of men and being found in appearance as a man he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death even the death of the cross and that's the one thing I think that we often leave out of the equation because we go back to how I feel and and what I went through and all that.
- 49:22SPEAKER_06: We don't pause to say no I'm an ambassador for Jesus Christ.
- 49:27SPEAKER_06: And as an ambassador I'm called to what?
- 49:30SPEAKER_06: Let God plead through me to be to people to be reconciled to God.
- 49:35SPEAKER_06: And so it's not an option it's obedience.
- 49:39SPEAKER_06: But what kind of obedience glad obedience for Sean and this is a love of God that we keep his commandments and his commandments are not burdensome.
- 49:48SPEAKER_06: And so of course we have all kinds of emotions feelings thoughts things that bombard us but as I've mentioned before we we show our faith by our works show me your faith about your works I'll show you my faith by my works I feel this I think this the circumstances are like this the outcome is this that and the other okay but let me prove that I believe that the gospel is valuable that God is worthy that sinners need to be saved by continuing to do what I don't even feel like doing glad obedience despite what I feel and that's proving what we believe.
- 50:21SPEAKER_05: You're talking before about the apostles and what they went through for the sake of the gospel our sufferings in America we have to try very hard to be persecuted because we're such a such a saturated gospel saturated who doesn't know John 316 etc where isn't you know if Bibles churches on every every corner.
- 50:40SPEAKER_00: But the apostle Paul when he spoke of being whipped he was whipped 39 times do we know why it was 39 times do you remember why why Mark it's it's an act of mercy right so but the catenine tails you know would come down upon them so you'd actually be whipped multiple times each time you were hit.
- 50:57SPEAKER_05: So the catenine tails had glass or put into the leather and they stopped at 39 because they said anything more than that will kill you.
- 51:05SPEAKER_05: Paul had five thirty nine lashes that's a hundred and ninety five lashes for Christ.
- 51:13SPEAKER_05: I don't bear any marks in my body for the Lord Jesus not one.
- 51:17SPEAKER_05: Yeah I did get hit by a quarter once in the forehead left an impression on my mind but it didn't even leave a scar.
- 51:23SPEAKER_05: I was really disappointed thank you too bad it wasn't a penny penny for your thoughts and it still didn't knock any sense into you huh?
- 51:35SPEAKER_05: Sicko yeah so uh so we have to try really hard to get persecuted so let's push aside our silly fears and our fear of rejection and just do it.
- 51:45SPEAKER_06: Yeah yeah yeah your imperfect words cannot frustrate the perfect plan of God that's good yeah and you think of Paul's words to Timothy 2 Timothy 4 5 but you be watchful in all things endure afflictions do the work of an evangelist it's interesting that those are side by side fulfill your ministry right I mean you think about Paul talking about at the end of his life like I've fought the good fight I finished the race I've kept the faith he must have just been one big scar seriously a walking scar walking scar.
- 52:20SPEAKER_06: See I'm I'm seriously imagining like Paul being transported to our time right like right after he's done being whipped and stoned and and beaten with rods and shipwrecked and he's just like coming off the shore you know it's almost like it's the abundant life told me to he gave me a thumb down to my post the guy he blocked me on Instagram that'd be a great little video wouldn't it?
- 52:47SPEAKER_06: That would be yeah yeah uh but but yeah that that determination to endure why because there's there's a the there's a higher calling there there's a greater cause Ray with the illustration that you give of the two men with the parachute right I mean that it's just so profoundly understandable when we look at it from that perspective when the studes you call her studess still?
- 53:13SPEAKER_05: No.
- 53:13SPEAKER_05: Oh yeah but it's she was a she was a hostess originally now she's a flight attendant.
- 53:17SPEAKER_05: Flight attendant I had to move to flight attendant how does that illustration I would have been terrified about a month ago um because I hadn't preached Hell's Best Kept Secret for 17 years and easy made me preach it again.
- 53:31SPEAKER_05: Well you didn't make me be encouraged encouraged it because we're redoing the basic training course.
- 53:36SPEAKER_05: Yes because it's so archaic and so got such horrible graphics compared to what we could have now so we're redoing the whole basic training course and the essence of the basic training course the foundation is Hell's Best Kept Secret the use of the law and evangelism and true and false conversion.
- 53:49SPEAKER_05: So when I was invited to speak at Jack Hibb's church however what is the plural of Hibbs?
- 53:55SPEAKER_05: I have no idea Hibs Eye Hibse Hibbs Eye Church.
- 53:57SPEAKER_05: I preached it three times and made it through um thank God because it it's uh complex and then I did it for Ken Ham uh recently too so four times in the last uh month or so.
- 54:08SPEAKER_05: So yeah.
- 54:09SPEAKER_06: Yeah so back to the illustration the flight attendant spilling the what was a flight concierge spill coffee over the lap of a second passenger who put the parachute on to escape the jump to come.
- 54:22SPEAKER_05: He feels the pain but he doesn't rip the parachute off because he didn't put it on for a better flight.
- 54:27SPEAKER_05: He put it on to save him from the jump to come.
- 54:29SPEAKER_05: And if anything the hot coffee incident causes him to cling tight to the parachute and even look forward to the jump.
- 54:35SPEAKER_06: Look at that flawless pride yeah you know uh oh I love that though Ray because it it really does paint the picture because that's that's what it is like we're going through these things and rejection and feelings and and we're saved from hell.
- 54:55SPEAKER_06: We have everlasting life and we get the privilege of proclaiming the gospel to lost people.
- 55:01SPEAKER_06: And we have to remember the words of Jesus too blessed are you when they revile and persecute you and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for my sake rejoice and be exceedingly glad for great is your reward in heaven and we also have to remember this right Jesus put it perfectly Jesus said to his disciples yeah I just that just came to me yeah that came to me wow that time it was perfect Jesus could go easy said this was good.
- 55:29SPEAKER_06: Yes been watching the chosen reminded me of that right I was just about to say that where Jesus is like practicing his sermon on the mount of this what do you think Matthew makes me so mad.
- 55:41SPEAKER_06: Anyway then Jesus said to his disciples if anyone desires to come after me let him deny himself take up his cross and follow me.
- 55:50SPEAKER_06: And you know he talked about how a servant isn't greater than his master I mean Christ's whole message from start to finish brought upon him persecution and if anyone desires to live godly in Christ Jesus they will suffer persecution that's a promise.
- 56:08SPEAKER_05: Why don't we quote those promises in the word it's always you know oh yeah so so we have to boy that'd be great to have promises that come to you each day but they're all promises of persecution.
- 56:21SPEAKER_06: Next devotional yeah to you it has been granted not only to believe in him but also to suffer for his let's all say the word suffering.
- 56:29SPEAKER_06: A book of of those kinds of promises but yeah and and you know Oscar I I'd love you to touch on how we are byproducts of the gospel ourselves and that should be an incentive for proclaiming I've often said that right we're not out there hawking these worthless wares that we're disassociated from.
- 56:48SPEAKER_06: Like as we proclaim the gospel we're we're evidence to that person that the gospel is real and transforms.
- 56:57SPEAKER_02: Yeah I think that happens in two different ways in the first way we don't proclaim the gospel as prideful arrogant people that figured it out or that has discovered the moral high ground we don't talk down to people right we are beggars who found food and who have been sent out to tell other beggars about that food.
- 57:19SPEAKER_02: That's the first avenue the second avenue as I've said in the past I think Psalm 51 it gives us a great um recipe for what encourage us to proclaim the gospel.
- 57:30SPEAKER_02: And the primary thing that encourages first and foremost God certainly does command us to proclaim the gospel but Psalm 51 also reminds us that it's the steadfast love of God that inspires us to proclaim the gospel as well.
- 57:43SPEAKER_02: When we go out there to proclaim the gospel to other people we are it should be out of an overflow of joy.
- 57:51SPEAKER_02: And if you think about it I said this before if you think about it like that is that is the nature of being being human which is that to summarize our joy is to invite others into experiencing it.
- 58:03SPEAKER_02: We do this when we go to a great sushi restaurant we want others to experience good sushi.
- 58:07SPEAKER_02: When we read a new book when we binge a new show when we watch a new movie and it's really good the natural next thing that you do is you tell somebody man you've got to watch that movie you've got to read that book you've got to see that movie have you seen Great Awakening yet?
- 58:23SPEAKER_02: I haven't parasitism That's the height of parasitism practice what you preach.
- 58:37SPEAKER_02: We have to get it for you at some D or whatever but so so to go back to your question it that that is the that is the work of the gospel working through us.
- 58:49SPEAKER_02: It's us reflecting on the joy of our salvation and allowing that joy to overflow into what we say to other people.
- 58:58SPEAKER_06: And a big part of that is meditation.
- 59:01SPEAKER_06: Meditate on that truth like pause pause and consider what you possess in Christ what God has done for you how your life has been transformed.
- 59:10SPEAKER_06: That's why Peter said he who lacks these things is short-sighted and has forgotten his purification from his old sins if we lack the virtues that stir us to proclaim the gospel we've forgotten our redemption which means we've forgotten our redeemer we have to come back to that be refreshed by the Lord and let that stir us and rouse us right there's no greater evangelist than the new convert no one has to rouse them no one has to tell them don't say don't tell they're compelled right the leper and and and mark he he was told not to say anything but he went out proclaimed it freely so much so that Jesus could no longer openly enter the cities they came to him from every direction.
- 59:49SPEAKER_06: So be encouraged friends and you know Oscar when you when you were talking you mentioned the steadfast love of the Lord and it reminded me of steadfast love of the Lord never ceases I didn't know I could go that low as you need that is low very fitting.
- 1:00:15SPEAKER_06: I've been stirred afresh and anew uh and reminded that I need to be reminded reminded that I need to be reminded there are souls all around us perishing we have the words of everlasting life we have the spirit that raised Jesus from the dead dwelling in us and we have eternity coming.
- 1:00:35SPEAKER_06: So let's endure some knocks and some scratches and scrapes isn't Christ worthy of it all right amen all right there you have it friends and hey by the way to get you more equipped to do that don't forget the ultimate USB or as we like to call it us b and don't forget to like subscribe and share because we want to hear from you and especially your questions right comfort is pulling out money.
- 1:01:02SPEAKER_05: I'm giving Oscar$20 and I'm sending you a great awakening via text.
- 1:01:09SPEAKER_05: What a nice guy give it to him so he can pay for it.
- 1:01:11SPEAKER_06: What a nice guy come on don't forget to like subscribe share uh podcast at livingwaters.com with all your thoughts and questions thank you for joining us friends if you want money come to Ray Comfort thank you for joining us friends with you here next time on the Living Matters podcast where we have no idea what we're doing