Participants:
Series Code: IIWC
Program Code: IIWC201907S
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00:00 ♪♪ ♪♪ >> It has stood
00:13 the test of time. God's book, the Bible. Still relevant 00:20 in today's complex world. 00:24 "It Is Written" -- Sharing messages of hope 00:29 around the world. ♪♪ 00:40 >> Welcome again and thank you for joining us on 00:42 "It Is Written Canada." I'm holding this stool here 00:46 because we have been talking about the three legs of the 00:48 stool. What am I talking about? 00:50 I'm talking about the ingredients 00:52 or the building blocks for Christianity. 00:55 And that first leg of the stool that we've been talking about, and we are here with 00:59 Lee Venden. He's been teaching us that that first leg is 01:03 Bible study for the purpose of connecting with God and having a real relationship with Him. 01:08 And the second one we talked about last time, which was connecting with God 01:12 through prayer and not just a one-way communication but a two-way communication. 01:17 Now, this stool is not going to stand up on two legs. And so it means -- 01:22 >> Let's try. >> We can try it, sure. And it's going to fall over. 01:26 Don't want to make a big noise here. So that third leg of the stool, 01:29 which I'm going to put on there, and you can see. is sharing, so sharing 01:34 what God has given to us. And when we share that message that God has put into our hearts 01:41 through His word and through connecting with Him and talking with Him, 01:45 then we can stand and then we have a solid connection with Him. 01:50 Without that we do not experience joy. Actually, there is joy 01:54 in service. And so God does not expect us to keep that to ourselves, does 01:58 he, Lee? >> No, no. 02:00 In fact it puts me in mind of Matthew 25 02:03 where there is a story Jesus tells about these three 02:05 stewards that are given talents to work with. 02:08 And then the master goes off on a trip and when he comes back, one of the stewards 02:11 has just buried the talent did nothing with it. And he returns it. 02:15 The other two had doubled it and they gave it back to the master, and the line that 02:19 Jesus uses as each of those two faithful stewards return their talents doubled, the line 02:25 Jesus uses is, "Well done." And then He says, "I'm going to give you 02:32 another job to do. Enter into the joy of your Lord." 02:35 >> Yeah, yeah. >> And then he tells the other guy, "Out of here," 02:40 and the guy ends up losing out on the joy of the Lord. In fact, they take the talent 02:44 from him that he had done nothing with, and they give it to one of the other guys. 02:48 But the concept was he gives them more work to do and calls it joy. 02:54 >> Yeah, yeah. So either you use it or you lose it. 02:58 >> It fits perfectly. >> Yeah. So, I know you have had 03:03 experiences with people who you have had the opportunity to guide and lead them to the Lord. 03:10 Can you think of one that really speaks to this? You know, someone who is -- 03:15 who has had that connection with Jesus through His word, through prayer 03:19 and then his greatest joy was in service. >> The joy in the Lord concept. 03:23 That would have -- The first one that comes to my mind is my friend Steve Mackey. 03:28 Steve Mackey -- When I first met him, Steve Mackey had just taken the world 03:31 heavyweight title in kickboxing or shoot boxing. He'd taken in Tokyo, Japan, in 03:36 the Tokyo Dome on international satellite television. >> I remember him. 03:41 >> You do? >> I do. I saw him on the Internet. 03:44 A long time ago. >> Yeah, it was back in the '90s, yeah, when I first met 03:49 him. At the time, he was, like, the baddest of the bad as 03:53 they would say. I didn't know anything about kickboxing 03:55 or shoot boxing, but it's a form of martial arts. It's considered the most 03:59 dangerous, most lethal form of organized refereed sport fighting. 04:03 So it's not something I'd glorify, but I'm just mentioning that 04:06 that's what Steve came out of. And I happened to meet him in Kansas City, which was his 04:10 hometown, and I was pastoring there, and somebody introduced us, and he said, 04:15 "What do you do for a living?" And I said, "Well, I try to help people get to become 04:19 better friends with Jesus." And he said, "Get out of here. You can't be friends with Jesus. 04:22 He's keeping the universe running and He's invisible and all that. 04:26 He doesn't have time for that." I said, "Oh, no, He's dying to be friends." 04:29 He goes, "How do you get to be friends with Him?" So I told him about 04:33 the three legs of the stool. I said, "You know what? If you would open up a Bible 04:38 to one of the gospels, like the Gospel of John, say a prayer 04:41 that you want to meet Him there and you want your heart touched and stirred, 04:45 that you want Him to take you into a deep experience that's real and tangible." 04:48 I said, "He'll do it." And Steve Mackey said, "I'll go get a Bible. 04:52 I'll buy a Bible and I'll try that." And I said, "Go for it." 04:56 Well, that just became the beginning of interactions that I had with Steve. 05:00 And, you know, I just -- probably -- it's not meant to be name dropping but it'll probably 05:04 sound like it's name dropping. But Steve was a mover and a shaker at that time. 05:08 I mean, he was personal friends with Chuck Norris, Sylvester Stallone, 05:12 a guy named Mr. T. Chuck Norris actually -- and Sylvester Stallone 05:16 actually involves Steve in choreographing fight scenes in the movies, 05:21 the "Rocky" series that Sylvester Stallone put together. So, you know, 05:26 he had this reputation And then incidentally, just about three years ago, 05:29 Steve was inducted into the Martial Arts Hall of Fame, and Chuck Norris 05:33 was the one that gave him the honors and so on. So, you know, 05:36 he had that reputation. Well, he started reading the Gospel of John, and Jesus 05:42 said, "If I am lifted up, I'll draw you to myself," and oh, man, 05:45 amazing things began happening and Steve -- sort of long story short there, 05:50 Steve actually became a member of our congregation. He became the leader of our 05:54 youth department and they thought, "How cool is this to have Steve Mackey 05:57 be our youth director?" And if Steve needed their attention, he'd tell them 06:01 the Bible talks about the laying on of hands. [ Laughter ] 06:05 They would pay attention. But such cool things began happening in Steve's life 06:10 that he had story after story to tell about God transforming him. 06:14 In fact, I saw him interviewed on national sports -- nationally syndicated 06:18 sports television after the fight, and one of -- after he'd become a Christian -- 06:23 and one of the things that the interviewer said was, "So, Mr. Mackey, 06:27 when and where are you going to defend the world heavyweight title?" 06:29 Because obviously the title was meant to be challenged. And Steve said, 06:33 "I won't be defending it." He said, "I've become friends with the Lord Jesus Christ, and 06:36 He's taken the fight out of me." And then he said, "I work for my boss now." 06:40 And he went like that on nationally syndicated sport television. 06:43 I thought, "How cool is that?" >> That is cool. >> Well, there was a woman named 06:47 Jeanette Johnson. She was writing a book called "Paint the World with Love," 06:50 and she wanted to include some of the stories of what got him doing 06:54 the life of this kickboxer. So she asked Steve if she could, and Steve said, "If you think 06:58 it'd be of any value to anybody, you're welcome to use my story and what Jesus has done." 07:03 So she did the book, published it. People began reading the story 07:06 and thinking, "Wow, how cool, God's doing." And then Steve started getting 07:09 invitations to go places and tell people what God was doing in his life. 07:13 >> Yes. >> So, years go by, and we move off to the West Coast. 07:18 We're living near Seattle, Washington. And I find out 07:21 that a public high school in Bellingham, Washington, which is right at the north end 07:25 of the I-5 corridor out there on the West Coast, asked Steve to come 07:29 and talk in a public high school on a Saturday night, tell what had been going on 07:35 in his life. I thought, "Wow, that's something." 07:38 And I said, "Steve, that's just a couple-hour drive from where I am. 07:41 So I will come up, and Margie and I will take you to the airport on Sunday 07:44 because you got to fly home again. That will give us a chance 07:47 to spend some time together." So I drove up and got there in the evening on Saturday. 07:52 It was a Saturday thing, and the parking lot was jam-packed, and the auditorium 07:56 was completely filled because Steve was well-known. And so I went around looking for 08:00 him before it started to say hi. And he was crying over in a corner by himself. 08:06 I said, "Man, are you okay?" He said, "Oh, yeah, I'm okay." He said, "I was just praying. 08:11 I was asking that when this meeting is over and people go home, instead of 08:15 thinking about Steve Mackey the kickboxer, they're thinking only about the 08:18 Lord Jesus Christ, who is the best friend you could ever have." 08:21 He said, "I want that so badly. I'm just in tears praying for it. 08:25 I said, "I think that He's going to honor that request, Steve." Anyway, long story shortened, 08:29 God did honor that request. And when it was over, a bunch of people came forward and 08:33 wanted to shake his hand, talk with him, ask him questions. But there was a little guy 08:36 about 9 or 10 years old, and he came forward with a piece of paper in his hand, 08:40 and he said, "Mr. Mackey, could I have your autograph?" I was off to one side 08:43 because I'm going to give Steve a ride home. And Steve gets down. 08:46 He puts one hand on each of that little guy's shoulders and gets down, looks him in the eye. 08:50 He says, "Buddy, I'll sign that paper, but I'd like to ask you a question 08:54 first. If there was one thing I want you to remember from tonight's 08:57 meeting more than anything else, what do you think it is?" And the little guy said, 09:01 "That Jesus wants to be my friend and He'd be the best friend I could ever have." 09:06 Oh, Steve gave that kid a hug. "Give me a high-five, buddy. You got it." 09:11 And then he looked over at me and smiled. Anyway, we finally got out to 09:16 the car to go home. It was after 11:00 at night. For Steve, that'd be after 1:00 09:20 because he was on Central time, and I said to him, "It's a couple hour drive." 09:25 So I said, "Tell you what. That seat reclines. I'll drive. 09:28 You can sleep, and tomorrow we'll get caught up on stuff and talk before we take you to the 09:32 airport." I'll never forget what he said next. 09:35 He looked at me and he said, "Sleep? Are you kidding me, man? 09:39 Sleep? There is no way I am going to sleep." 09:43 He said, "That was the greatest rush I've ever had." Now, think about that. 09:48 This guy was in the world heavyweight kickboxing stadium in Tokyo. 09:52 This is the greatest rush. "This is the greatest rush I have ever had." 09:57 He said, "I'm telling you what. Did you see that little guy?" He said, "Did you see that 09:59 little guy that came up afterwards?" I said, "Yeah." 10:01 He said, "Lee, he got it. He got it." He says, "When you tell people 10:04 what a friend you have in Jesus and that they can be friends with him too, ooh," 10:07 he said, "It doesn't get any better than that." He said, "You get paid 10:12 to do this as a pastor? Whoa!" And then he said these words. 10:16 He said, "This could be addicting." >> Wow. 10:19 >> That's what he said. This could be addicting. >> So he was talking 10:23 about serving, about sharing. >> Yeah, yeah. >> I mean, why would 10:27 anyone not do that, right? I mean, when you have that experience, you have to tell 10:33 someone. >> Right. >> You just got to get it out, 10:37 right? >> You remember the man that Jesus raised 10:40 his daughter from the dead? >> Right. >> And He says, "Now, don't 10:42 tell anybody about this." [ Laughter ] The guy goes, "What?" 10:47 >> Why? >> "Don't tell anybody? I got to tell somebody." 10:51 >> Yes. It's like taking, you know, your thumb and putting it over 10:55 the edge of a -- or the end of your Coke bottle or your root beer and you just shake it up. 11:01 >> Yeah, it's carbonated. >> It's gonna explode. >> Yeah. 11:04 >> And I guess that's the result of the first two legs of the stool. 11:08 >> Yes. >> As you keep hanging out with Jesus and He keeps 11:10 interacting in your life, you begin to just really like this guy, you know? 11:15 And you can't keep quiet about it. And then here's the cool part. 11:18 As you tell other people how cool He is and you see them start to catch on that maybe 11:22 He'd be cool for them too, then you get excited because you see they're getting it. 11:27 >> Exactly. >> And so then, the enthusiasm grows for you. 11:30 It gets even better, which is why I think that God gave the -- at the end 11:34 of every gospel, there's a commission to go to work. But Jesus doesn't need our help 11:40 because He can finish it with angels. He can finish it with dreams. 11:42 He could finish it with -- rocks could cry out. You remember all that stuff? 11:45 So He doesn't need our help. So why would He give us four gospel commissions -- 11:49 Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John -- go to work, go to work, go to work, go to work. 11:52 And it's because He wants us to have the joy of our Lord. >> Yeah. 11:57 >> He says, "Why should we hoard it, angels? Let's let them in on this thing. 12:00 Let's let them taste it." >> So, this morning we were here, here in Nova Scotia, 12:06 Pugwash, Nova Scotia, and a man came up to me. His name is Bob, and he 12:11 introduced himself to me. And I asked him, "What do you do, Bob?" 12:15 And he said, "Well, all my life I've been a fisherman." And he said, "And that 12:21 brought me great joy." He's got two daughters and a wonderful wife. 12:26 And he says he's found joy in that. But the greatest joy he said, 12:29 "that I've ever experienced is sharing my faith with others." He says, "I just can't get 12:35 enough of it. I share it." He says, "It's greater than 12:38 anything. So, yes, I was a fisherman all my life. 12:41 But God has now made me a fisher of men." And he says 12:44 he enjoys doing that. He really enjoys it so much so that he says 12:47 this coming weekend, he has an opportunity to actually go into the tank 12:51 and baptize someone. And he says this is so exciting for him. 12:56 He doesn't want to mess it up. So he's looking forward to it. So the joy that God 13:01 gives to us in the very act of blessing others, it reacts in blessing upon ourselves. 13:08 >> Exactly. >> So who is really getting blessed by this? 13:12 And why would you rob yourself of that opportunity?" >> Yeah, yeah. 13:16 You're making me think of Luke 6. 13:18 "Give and you will receive." This is verse 38. 13:21 >> Yeah, uh-huh. >> "Your gift will return to you 13:23 in full -- pressed down, shaken together to make room 13:26 for more, running over, and poured into your lap. 13:29 The amount you give will determine 13:30 the amount you get back." >> Yeah, yeah. 13:32 So, when we witness of our faith to others, I mean, this is a tremendous blessing for us. 13:37 And God wants us to experience that. >> I guess the most exciting 13:42 thing for me is those first two legs of the stool, you know, the prayer and the Bible study, 13:48 and when you really do that and really seek that close connection with God 13:54 and spend time with Him and make Him your best friend, then those two things, 14:00 well, you'll be so excited and so full that the product will be 14:05 that you just have to share. You have to get out there. You just can't wait to 14:10 tell people about Jesus. >> Yeah. >> So those two, like the third 14:15 one is dependent on those two. If we could grow on those first two, 14:20 and then we just can't wait to tell people about Jesus and what He's done for us, 14:25 right? >> It would be a tragedy to try and get people to witness 14:29 who don't have the first two going on. >> Absolutely. 14:32 >> Because they don't have that joy to spill over. And then that kind of witness 14:36 is not really contagious. >> No, it isn't. >> But the kind you're talking 14:40 about, Rene, that's contagious. >> Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, I want to go further 14:44 with this discussion. It's just so exciting. But before we do, we're just 14:48 gonna take a little break, and then we'll be right back. Friends, we are so thankful 14:55 that you joined us today. If you would like to enhance your relationship with God, 14:59 we have an offer for you today that will help you to understand the Bible better. 15:03 >> Friends, our offer for you today is the Discover Bible study guide. 15:08 >> In these lessons, you will find the key to help you to understand 15:13 the Bible, God's holy word, much better. 15:16 >> Here is the information that you need in order to receive 15:19 these free Bible study guides. >> To request today's offer, 15:23 just log on to www.ItIsWrittenCanada.ca. 15:28 That's www.ItIsWrittenCanada.ca and select the TV Program tab. 15:34 If you prefer, you may call toll free at 1-888-CALL-IIW. 15:40 That's 1-888-CALL-IIW. And thank you for your prayer 15:45 requests and your generous financial support. 15:49 >> Welcome back. And we've been looking at the three legs of the stool -- 15:54 Bible study for the purpose of connecting with Jesus, and prayer for the purpose 15:59 of communication with Him, and then sharing, and these are all tangible things 16:03 that we can do to have a practical Christian experience, making Christianity real. 16:10 And Lee's been sharing those with us. So, we've been talking 16:13 about sharing our faith, about witnessing for our faith, and you've given a good example 16:18 with Steve Mackey and his experience and how he just felt great joy 16:23 when he shared his faith. Now, let's be more tangible. What was he sharing? 16:28 What was the content of what we are to share when we share as Christians? 16:35 >> Well, I think that Rene was kind of alluding to that a few moments ago when she 16:43 talked about bubbling over with your own personal testimony and how that's a byproduct 16:50 of the first two, and it puts me in mind of Mark 5:19. 17:00 Maybe you could read it for us. Jesus is talking, right, to those demoniacs? 17:06 >> Mm-hmm. >> Remember that He cast the demons out, and the pigs 17:10 go into the water and so on, then they want to keep hanging out with Jesus and He says no. 17:15 >> It says, "However, Jesus did not permit him, but said to him, 17:21 'Go home to your friends, and tell them what great things 17:26 the Lord has done for you, and how He has had 17:31 compassion on you.'" 17:33 So I guess all of us have our own story. >> Yeah. 17:37 >> Right? And so, that's the content. That's important because 17:43 I can't share what Mark has experienced nor what you've experienced, Lee, 17:48 but I can only share what God has given to me, right? And share that -- I can't even 17:55 because that's my story. That is my story. >> Have you ever noticed 18:00 that sometimes people, their idea of a Bible study, is giving somebody a convincing 18:04 argument about some theological truth in scripture? >> I've done that. 18:08 >> Have you noticed that? >> Absolutely. >> And how do people generally 18:11 respond to that kind of thing? >> It turns into a nice intellectual discussion. 18:15 >> Or a debate. >> Or a debate, yeah. >> But like you're talking 18:18 what you just described, Rene, when you share something that's going on in your life 18:23 that Jesus has done in your life, do you ever have people try to argue with that? 18:27 >> No. >> No, not at all. >> So it's a huge difference in 18:30 the way you're received. >> Yes, absolutely. >> Yeah. 18:33 >> Yeah. And I think it's much more attractive. 18:35 I mean, I can see this man. He was demon possessed. >> Yeah. 18:39 >> And, you know, and he's -- he wants to be with Jesus naturally because He just healed him. 18:45 And he says, "Please, let me get in the boat with you. Let me go with you." 18:47 And Jesus says, "No, I want you to go and tell your family what I did for you." 18:53 >> And your friends. Go and tell people. >> And your friends, yeah, yeah, 18:59 yeah. So, that puts me in mind of a story of a guy. 19:02 I pastored a church. When I first came to that church, there was 19:06 this guy named Larry Claridge. And he came to me. At the time, he was in his mid 19:11 to late 70s. Almost 80 or so. And he said, 19:13 "Pastor, I want to tell you about a prayer I've started praying." 19:16 He said, "Every morning, because I don't know how many more, you know, weeks or months 19:19 I have left to live at this age. So every morning I pray, 'Lord Jesus, 19:24 when it comes my time to go, could you just orchestrate it so that I'm in the middle 19:28 of doing one more thing for you when I die?'" Oh, I think that's such a cool 19:32 thing, you know? And he meant it. >> Yeah. 19:36 >> It wasn't just words. Larry was, like, nonstop working for Jesus. 19:42 And another thing about Larry is that Larry was not what you call an upfront guy. 19:47 He was not a charismatic guy. He wasn't a speaker. He wasn't a presenter. 19:50 He was a behind-the-scenes guy. Kind of shy, but he had major skills 19:55 in terms of handyman skills and stuff. He could make anything out 19:58 a coat hanger and duct tape. I mean, he is an incredible guy. And he would use those gifts 20:05 to make differences for people just because he loved Jesus and he wanted to make a difference 20:09 for somebody else. So, one day, Larry's driving in our little town, 20:13 Walla Walla, Washington, and he sees a man on a hot summer day in the ditch -- 20:19 I mean, in the gutter trying to climb up onto the sidewalk, 20:22 and Larry thinks the guy's tripped and fallen, he's hurt. So Larry parks his car, runs up 20:26 to see if he can help the guy, and the guy is stone drunk. That's why he can't get up. 20:30 He's fallen down. He's drunk. So Larry says, "Man, there's no 20:32 place for you in this hot sun. If you tell me where you live, I'll take you home." 20:37 Well, the guy happens to be able to be coherent enough to give Larry instructions 20:40 to get to where he needs to get. It turns out the guy doesn't live in a home. 20:44 You know, these campers that they put in the back of pickup trucks that have, like, a little 20:48 hangover thing, and then, you know, the rest in the back. This guy's living in a cab 20:51 over a camper without a truck. It's just sitting in the dirt in a vacant lot. 20:55 Has no hookups, nothing. And he's, like, basically homeless. 21:01 And Larry gets the guy there, helps him up under the overhead bed thing, 21:06 and then he writes on a piece of paper, "Here's my name -- Larry Claridge. 21:08 Here's my phone number. If I can ever be of any kind of help to you anytime, 21:12 anywhere, don't hesitate to call. Doesn't matter what time." 21:15 Then Larry tells me that's the beginning of phone calls. "I started getting calls, and 21:20 they almost always come late at night after I'd been in bed for hours, and they're always a 21:25 bartender at the other end, and he'd say, 'I got a guy here who is so drunk, he can't walk 21:29 out of the bar on his own, but he said if I call, you'll come and get him.'" 21:32 And Larry, who is a longstanding member of our congregation, wouldn't 21:36 think twice about people seeing him coming out of a bar late at night. 21:40 He would get up. This is 80-year-old-something Larry, gets up, goes down, 21:45 and gets that guy. Takes him to his camper. And Larry told me, "There were 21:48 times I took him to his camper. He was so drunk that I was worried if I left him unattended 21:53 he might throw up and then aspirate his own vomit and die." And Larry said, "I couldn't -- 21:57 I couldn't bear to think of the guy dying or choking on his own vomit." 22:00 So he said, "Many a night I would sit in the little dinette beside the bed 22:05 and I would watch him all night and turn his head if he started to throw up 22:08 so that he wouldn't choke on his vomit. And one morning, 22:12 I was still there and the guy wakes up. And he says to me, 22:15 'Why do you keep coming to my rescue?'" And Larry said, "I said 22:19 because somebody keeps coming to my rescue and I'm just trying to pass it forward." 22:24 And the guy says, "You need rescue?" And Larry said, "All the time." 22:30 And the guy says, "This fella who rescues you, What's his name? 22:35 Do I know him? Maybe I know him." Larry said, "His name is Jesus." 22:39 The guy says, "I don't know Him." Larry says, 22:41 "Would you like to know Him?" And the guy says, "If He's your friend, I'd love to know Him." 22:46 So then Larry says, "I meet Him every day in a Bible. Have you ever read a Bible?" 22:51 The guy says, "I've never even owned one." Larry says, "If I bought you a 22:54 Bible, would you like to meet my friend Jesus?" The guy says, "You bet." 22:58 So Larry goes and gets a Bible for this guy. And then Larry tells me -- 23:04 now, I'm the pastor -- Larry tells me, "I decided I'm not going to 23:08 give him a Bible study on theological truths or Bible doctrines. 23:14 He didn't ask for that. He asked how could I meet your friend. 23:18 I'm just going to open the Gospel of John with a prayer that the Lord Jesus will reveal 23:22 Himself to us and pull us to Himself as He promised He would if we lift Him up." 23:27 I thought, "That's a good way to witness." So, they're reading the Gospel 23:32 of John together. No hook in it. That's another thing 23:35 I think is cool -- no hook. Sometimes we say, "We'll give you some soup 23:38 if you listen to our sermon." You know? >> Right. 23:40 >> "We'll help you out with this if you do this. Here's some literature 23:42 we'd like you to read and then we do this for you." No, no, no, no, no. 23:46 No hook involved. And so time goes by. And Larry keeps 23:51 meeting this guy. >> And so he would meet with him and they would read 23:54 the Bible together? >> Yeah, yeah. Read the Gospel of John 23:58 together. Yeah. And time goes by. 24:00 And then one day the guy says to Larry, "Do you go to church somewhere?" 24:04 And Larry said, "Absolutely. I go to the village church just above Walmart." 24:09 And the guy says, "Could I go with you?" And Larry said, "It'd be an 24:12 honor to take you." So then the guy said, "Well, what should I wear?" 24:15 And Larry said, "Well, what do you have?" He goes, "Well, you know what I 24:19 have. All I have is blue jeans, a T-shirt, baseball cap, and 24:22 tennis shoes." And Larry said, "Perfect." Now, I just need 24:25 to interject right here that the village church that Larry was referring to 24:28 is a congregation of about 1,800 people who are very into looking good 24:33 because they're on television every weekend. The broadcast has gone out, 24:37 all around place. And they actually have people who tell other people 24:42 they're not dressed right, that they need to go change. Now, I'm not saying 24:45 that's a good thing. I'm saying when I was pastor of that church, I tried 24:48 to change that paradigm and get them to say, "Hey, anybody's welcome here." 24:52 But anyway, I just need to make sure you understand that at the time 24:55 that this guy said what he said, that wasn't the way it was, a village church. 24:59 So Larry -- the guy says, "That's all I --" Larry says, "Perfect. 25:03 I'll come and get you next weekend." And Larry Claridge 25:07 went to pick that guy up wearing blue jeans, a T-shirt, a baseball cap, and tennis 25:12 shoes. They come in and sit on the third row from the front. 25:15 Keeps his hat on in church, the whole bit, you know? >> Wow. 25:19 >> And he didn't turn around and say to people, "I'm just leading this guy, the Lord, 25:23 so cut us some slack. Don't give us trouble about our clothes." 25:26 He didn't say that. He just sat there with that guy. 25:29 And then Larry started crying. He's telling me the story. He starts crying. 25:33 He goes, "Pastor, I got to stand at the top of the stairs of the baptistery 25:38 and watch this guy come out of the water when he gave his heart to the 25:42 Lord Jesus Christ in baptism." And then Larry said to me, "It doesn't get 25:46 any better than that." >> That's right. That's right. >> There it is again -- the joy 25:50 of your life. And what was he telling him? "About my friend Jesus 25:54 who rescues me." >> Wow. >> So God pours it in. 26:00 And we just drink it in, and He stirs it up. >> And then we spill it over. 26:05 >> And we spill it over. We just got to tell someone. And, you know, it's an amazing 26:11 story. And a relative of Larry Claridge -- 26:15 We actually taught him. He -- she was one of our students. 26:18 >> Her. >> Her, sorry. She was one of our students. 26:20 >> That's a small world. >> Yeah, it is a small world. She was on fire for the Lord 26:26 as well. She was just a wonderful student. 26:28 >> And she was also quiet. >> Yeah. >> Like her granddaddy. 26:32 She wasn't outgoing or anything. >> You know, when you said stir just a moment ago, 26:37 you said He pours it in and He stirs it up. He's not real careful 26:41 with his stirring. It slops over, you know? And then as it slops 26:45 over, the cool thing is it makes room for more of Him, more of the water of life. 26:51 And this is a key because it keeps us from growing stagnant. >> That's right. 26:54 That's right. >> Trying to live the Christian life without spilling over, we 26:58 grow stagnant, and then actually if you think about that original parable in Matthew 25 27:02 we were just talking about, we don't just grow stagnant. We die because he says take from 27:07 him what he did have. So you end up with nothing. So it's kind like you said 27:12 earlier -- use it or lose it. >> Yeah. >> Yeah, it's for real. 27:15 >> It's for real, yeah. So our job as Christians is to get involved, to dive in, 27:20 not wait for the pastor. Sometimes we're kind of like the Greyhound bus. 27:24 The pastor takes control. You know, "Leave the driving to us," right? 27:28 You just sit back. >> Shame on us, the pastors that do that. 27:32 >> Yeah, we need to really let everyone else -- >> In on the joy. 27:36 >> In on the joy and drive that bus yourself, and you'll get a lot of people 27:42 following along that path. So, thank you very much for sharing that with us, Lee. 27:48 Rene, can you close with a quick word of prayer for us? >> Yeah. 27:51 >> Okay. >> Dear God and Heavenly Father, thank you so much 27:56 that You fill us with Your love and the precious relationship that we have with You 28:02 as friends. A friend that loves us and cares about us. 28:07 And, Lord, when we communicate with You and we listen to You and we talk to You 28:12 and You talk back to us, we just can't help but share Your love 28:17 and Your joy with others, and that brings joy to us, and we thank you so much 28:22 that You are our savior and our friend. I pray this in your precious 28:27 name. Amen. >> Amen. 28:28 So, friends, thank you for joining us again on "It Is Written Canada." 28:33 And remember the words of Jesus when he said, "It is written: 'Man shall not live by bread 28:38 alone but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.'" 28:43 ♪♪ ♪♪ |
Revised 2020-05-19