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Is Your Schedule Too Busy · Bible Tract Echoes Podcast

• 0:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: Hey friend, I'm Mike and McCurray and this is Bible Trek Echoes.
• 0:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: Thank you so much for joining me today and a special thank you to our guests today, Pastor Dennis Leatherman.
• 0:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: We've been talking about obstacles to soul-winning obstacles to being a witness Christian friend.
• 0:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: We all
• 0:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: must be a witness.
• 0:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's commanded in the Bible.
• 0:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: You think with a letterman his last command should be our first priority wouldn't you?
• 0:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: Well, you've given us to this point Monday Tuesday and Wednesday.
• 0:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: You've given us four different obstacles.
• 0:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: Let's see if my memory serves me well.
• 0:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: We started on Monday with a lack of assurance.
• 0:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: That's an obstacle.
• 0:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: If you don't know you're saved, it's going to be hard to tell other people about being saved.
• 0:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: Then we went to
• 0:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: let's see locked up by fear.
• 0:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: And as you mentioned, that could be the biggest obstacle for most Christians.
• 0:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: Then we talked about Lucifer's opposition.
• 0:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: The devil doesn't want to see people come to a saving knowledge or Jesus Christ.
• 0:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: And then we talked about living in my comfort zone.
• 0:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: We like to be comfortable.
• 1:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: especially us, first world Christians we greatly enjoy that.
• 1:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: I was over in Burma, Myanmar, not long ago, where Christian, Christian brothers and sisters, some of them living on a handful of rice every other day.
• 1:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: Not quite as comfortable as we are here in America, but somehow they're also better Christians and better witnesses and a lot of them.
• 1:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: different ways and it was convicting to me, brother Letterman, you've got a couple more things to share with us as we dive in, tell us why or tell us what kind of obstacles might keep the Christians they're listening right now might keep them from being a witness.
• 1:34
  [SPEAKER_02]: Sure.
• 1:35
  [SPEAKER_02]: And I think this next one, particularly, maybe for us Americans, may be a bigger issue than we realize, but I put it this way having a loaded schedule.
• 1:47
  [SPEAKER_02]: In other words, we're just too busy.
• 1:49
  [SPEAKER_02]: you know we got sports the kids of the games we got stuff at church we got work we got you know we just have everything i don't know what your schedule's like but mine is just slammed it's every night every day and so sometimes if we're not careful uh that schedule can we will reflect the fact that we have priorities out of whack
• 2:12
  [SPEAKER_02]: and we tend to schedule in the things that maybe aren't the most important thing and then the other things kind of get pushed aside.
• 2:21
  [SPEAKER_02]: And so I think what we need to do for serious about this matter of being a witness, serious about soul winning and being involved in other people's lives.
• 2:29
  [SPEAKER_02]: Of course we can always witness as we go about our schedule.
• 2:32
  [SPEAKER_02]: Let me back up here a little bit.
• 2:34
  [SPEAKER_02]: You know, we can share the gospel as we are.
• 2:39
  [SPEAKER_02]: doing our shopping as we're sitting watching a game so, but I think it's wise to schedule some time every week where I focus on sharing a gospel with people in my community, maybe a neighborhood or certain folks I make an appointment I want to sit down and talk with them.
• 2:58
  [SPEAKER_02]: It's kind of like I have a preacher friend of mine that lives down state and every time we talk and this has been going on for about 25 years.
• 3:07
  [SPEAKER_02]: nearly and literally, nearly every time we talk, we'll end our conversation with this.
• 3:13
  [SPEAKER_02]: One of these days, we got to get together and have lunch together.
• 3:16
  [SPEAKER_02]: Well, that started 25 years ago.
• 3:18
  [SPEAKER_02]: You want to guess how many times we've had lunch together?
• 3:21
  [SPEAKER_02]: We haven't.
• 3:23
  [SPEAKER_02]: because we don't schedule it and we're just busy in it and one of these days I'm going to start solving it and one of these days I'm going to get those tracks and give them out.
• 3:32
  [SPEAKER_02]: Well we're just too busy and because we're busy I think we have to schedule it in there.
• 3:38
  [SPEAKER_02]: Make sure that we're doing our part in fulfilling the great commission.
• 3:43
  [SPEAKER_02]: And not just gone through the motions, but, you know, say, hey, this is a priority.
• 3:48
  [SPEAKER_02]: This has to be part of my schedule, just like we do other things that are important.
• 3:53
  [SPEAKER_02]: Old illustration and probably many of you have already heard it before many times, but there was a professor that was teaching on time management, he had a jar.
• 4:06
  [SPEAKER_02]: He put in that jar, he put these big rocks in the jar.
• 4:11
  [SPEAKER_02]: And put as many as he could fit in there.
• 4:13
  [SPEAKER_02]: And he asked the class, can I get anything else in this jar?
• 4:16
  [SPEAKER_02]: And they also know it's full.
• 4:17
  [SPEAKER_02]: So then he got some smaller rocks and put them in.
• 4:20
  [SPEAKER_02]: They fell in around the big rocks and classes.
• 4:24
  [SPEAKER_02]: They're watching them.
• 4:25
  [SPEAKER_02]: He goes, is the jar full now?
• 4:27
  [SPEAKER_02]: And they said, well, yeah, now it is.
• 4:29
  [SPEAKER_02]: Then he got some sand.
• 4:30
  [SPEAKER_02]: and he poured sand in and that filled it in between all that.
• 4:34
  [SPEAKER_02]: And he asked the class, can I put, is the jar full and they didn't know.
• 4:38
  [SPEAKER_02]: They're now, they're like, we don't know, maybe.
• 4:41
  [SPEAKER_02]: He says, well, what's the point of this object, so what am I trying to say?
• 4:46
  [SPEAKER_02]: And their answer was, we can always squeeze a little bit more in.
• 4:50
  [SPEAKER_02]: And he says, no, you've missed the whole point.
• 4:53
  [SPEAKER_02]: He says, you've got to put the big rocks in first, or you're never going to get everything else.
• 4:57
  [SPEAKER_02]: And I think that's where our schedule is.
• 5:00
  [SPEAKER_02]: Soaring the gospel, seeing others come to Christ, is a big rock.
• 5:04
  [SPEAKER_02]: And if I don't put that in first, if that doesn't have priority, then all these other things are going to crowd that out, and it's not going to happen.
• 5:12
  [SPEAKER_02]: So an overloaded schedule can be, and I think many times is a very real obstacle.
• 5:17
  [SPEAKER_02]: Let me give you another one real quick here.
• 5:19
  [SPEAKER_02]: And this is, I think, a real factor for a lot of believers.
• 5:24
  [SPEAKER_02]: I put it this way, a low view of my own usefulness to the Lord.
• 5:30
  [SPEAKER_02]: Sometimes, you know, we folks think, you know, I'd like to see people say, but I don't think God could ever use me.
• 5:36
  [SPEAKER_02]: I don't know what, I'm inadequate to be able to win some, because I don't know what to say.
• 5:42
  [SPEAKER_02]: I just don't know that I could do that.
• 5:45
  [SPEAKER_02]: And you'd be surprised, brother, Mike, how many times I've had people over the years say, almost verbatim, what I just said.
• 5:52
  [SPEAKER_02]: They'll say, I just don't know that God could use me.
• 5:55
  [SPEAKER_02]: I don't think I could do that.
• 5:57
  [SPEAKER_02]: I had a fella in the church.
• 5:59
  [SPEAKER_02]: years ago he says um he said oh I'm just not much of a talker I don't think uh I just couldn't do that I just don't think I could do that well we had a missionary come through preach the scorching message on hell I mean it was powerful and our hearts were stirred
• 6:17
  [SPEAKER_02]: and the alters packed about, you know, trying to point people to Christ in the reality of hell, and this guy's at the altar, and Lombahold that week he shows up at Soul Winning.
• 6:29
  [SPEAKER_02]: And you know, that guy became one of our best Soul Winners.
• 6:32
  [SPEAKER_02]: He went people the Lord all the time, and so he just had a misconception of himself that I can't do this, I couldn't do that.
• 6:42
  [SPEAKER_02]: And he could.
• 6:43
  [SPEAKER_02]: It was just he had to get beyond that.
• 6:47
  [SPEAKER_02]: And set in Corinthians 5 one of the most encouraging passages to me, Saint Corinthians 3, chapter 3,
• 6:54
  [SPEAKER_02]: I'm sorry, first Corinthians chapter 1 verse 25, notice what Paul says.
• 6:57
  [SPEAKER_02]: He says, God had chosen, verse 27, God had chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, God had chosen the weak things of the world, to confound the things that are mighty, based things of the world, and things which are despised.
• 7:12
  [SPEAKER_02]: And God specializes in using people who think, I can't do anything for God.
• 7:18
  [SPEAKER_02]: And the reason being is when we trust him, then he gets all the glory.
• 7:22
  [SPEAKER_02]: It's not how many souls I've won.
• 7:24
  [SPEAKER_02]: It's how many souls God has used me to bring the Christ.
• 7:29
  [SPEAKER_02]: And so the greatest ability is availability.
• 7:33
  [SPEAKER_02]: I heard a preacher years ago say that.
• 7:36
  [SPEAKER_02]: You know, if you're wanting to hang a picture up on the wall and you don't have a hammer,
• 7:42
  [SPEAKER_02]: The hammer is not available.
• 7:44
  [SPEAKER_02]: You've got to put a nail in the wall to hang the picture up.
• 7:47
  [SPEAKER_02]: You know, you take your shoe off and use the heel of your shoe to hammer that nail in the wall.
• 7:52
  [SPEAKER_02]: So you can put the picture up.
• 7:53
  [SPEAKER_02]: If the hammer is not available, now hammer is ideal.
• 7:56
  [SPEAKER_02]: But if it's not available, you use what's available.
• 7:58
  [SPEAKER_02]: And I think God's that way.
• 8:00
  [SPEAKER_02]: You know, I might not have the highest IQ.
• 8:02
  [SPEAKER_02]: I might not have a Bible education.
• 8:04
  [SPEAKER_02]: I might not have the whole new testament memorized.
• 8:09
  [SPEAKER_02]: But if I just make myself available to God and say, you know, it's really not my skills and my abilities, it's simply my submission and my availability to God, God will use you.
• 8:20
  [SPEAKER_02]: And I think sometimes the things God has done here at Mountain Lake, and I just look in myself in the mirror and think, what in the world?
• 8:28
  [SPEAKER_02]: And, you know, I read this passage and said, ah, it's gone to me, and so this low view of ourselves.
• 8:37
  [SPEAKER_02]: I heard a preacher years ago used to any good guy, but he used to brag about his IQ, how high as IQ was.
• 8:44
  [SPEAKER_02]: Every time I heard him preach, he was like, I was discouraged.
• 8:47
  [SPEAKER_02]: Because I knew one half what his was and I thought, man, God could never use me.
• 8:52
  [SPEAKER_02]: And you know what, I found out it's not my IQ that makes me usable to God.
• 8:56
  [SPEAKER_02]: It's my availability.
• 8:58
  [SPEAKER_02]: and so sometimes we think we get a low view of ourselves and our usefulness to God.
• 9:07
  [SPEAKER_02]: And then, do I time to give another one real quick?
• 9:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: Absolutely.
• 9:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yes, so we got about about three minutes left.
• 9:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: Go ahead.
• 9:15
  [SPEAKER_02]: Okay, and this one here might be limited in its application, but I put it this way.
• 9:20
  [SPEAKER_02]: I'm letting ministry replace personal soul winning.
• 9:25
  [SPEAKER_02]: In other words, sometimes folks get the idea, well, I teach Sunday school.
• 9:30
  [SPEAKER_02]: and therefore, you know, that's my service to Lord and I don't see soul winning as something I'm responsible for.
• 9:39
  [SPEAKER_02]: The fact that matter is, every sunny school teacher ought to be a soul winner.
• 9:43
  [SPEAKER_02]: Every sunny school teacher ought to be sharing the gospel, not just in the class, but throughout their life as a lifestyle really.
• 9:51
  [SPEAKER_02]: Um, and so, you know, well, I, I'm the bus driver and I thank God for Sunday school bus drivers.
• 9:57
  [SPEAKER_02]: Good night.
• 9:58
  [SPEAKER_02]: My hats off.
• 9:58
  [SPEAKER_02]: I've tremendous love and respect for them.
• 10:01
  [SPEAKER_02]: But you know, driving a Sunday school bus doesn't replace my responsibility as a personal soul winner.
• 10:07
  [SPEAKER_02]: choir.
• 10:07
  [SPEAKER_02]: I sing in the choir.
• 10:09
  [SPEAKER_02]: Praise the Lord.
• 10:09
  [SPEAKER_02]: I love our choir.
• 10:11
  [SPEAKER_02]: But doesn't replace personal soul winning and giving out those tracks.
• 10:15
  [SPEAKER_02]: So if we're not careful, we can get the idea well.
• 10:20
  [SPEAKER_02]: I'm doing this.
• 10:22
  [SPEAKER_02]: But then we failed to do the very thing God instructs us very clearly to do.
• 10:27
  [SPEAKER_02]: So letting personal ministry replace personal soul winning.
• 10:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: And my hope is that this week, for all of you that are listed right now, this has just been a little bit of a tune up.
• 10:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: As you said with the Leatherman, you've been in ministry for many years now, pastures about 30 years.
• 10:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's amazing how we can all that one or two or three or all of these things, trip us up every once in a while.
• 10:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: We bogs us down and I can tell you we have an enemy that would like nothing more than for Christians to be bogged down by one of these obstacles.
• 11:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: And a thing that we have the opportunity to represent the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords and to let these little things.
• 11:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: trip us.
• 11:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: I recall I was a little kid.
• 11:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: We were in Germany.
• 11:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: My parents, my dad was stationed in the military.
• 11:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: He was in the army in Germany.
• 11:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: And we'd go on these weekend tricks.
• 11:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: They call them Vokes marches.
• 11:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: Normally on Saturday, after noon, sometime we'd have church responsibilities and things.
• 11:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: But then we'd squeeze this in on Friday or Saturday.
• 11:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I could recall they'd be like a 10 kilometer about a six mile hike through the German countryside.
• 11:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: It was beautiful, it was a great family bonding time.
• 11:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: But I could recall a few times.
• 11:38
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'd be walking along.
• 11:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: I was probably eight, nine, ten or so years old.
• 11:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: We got to a place as a family.
• 11:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: We could do these things pretty fast.
• 11:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: My little brother would be in a little kitty backpack, you know, my dad would be carrying him.
• 11:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: And the middle kid would be in a stroller.
• 11:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: One of those altering ones with a big mass of tires on it.
• 11:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I'd be walking.
• 11:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: I got a rock in my shoe.
• 12:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: We'd be walking along and all of a sudden I had to hold up progress because I'm hobbled but if the smallest little thing, but I can tell you, hurt pretty bad, it slowed us down and can I tell you the devil like nothing more than a sprinkle enough rocks that gets caught in your spiritual shoe, if you will.
• 12:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: for you not to be a witness.
• 12:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'm gonna encourage you to borrow on the broadcast when I put a bow on this thing, but the leatherman's gonna share the last couple obstacles to our Christian witness.
• 12:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: And if we have time, I don't know if we will, there's a track story.
• 12:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: I might want him to tell as well, but you're gonna stick around to hear about that.
• 12:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: You will need to listen to Bible Trek Echoes tomorrow.
• 12:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: Thank you so much for listening.
• 12:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: My prayer is always, is that you have a great day, for his glory.
• 12:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: We'll plan on talking you soon.
• 12:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: God bless.
• 13:12
  [UNKNOWN]: Thank you.
• 13:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: Thank you for tuning in to Bible Tract Echoes, the radio ministry of Bible Tracts Incorporated.
• 13:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: Want to see our gospel tracks and other resources?
• 13:26
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• 13:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: Thanks again for listening.
• 13:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: May the Lord richly bless you as you live for Him.