Participants:
Series Code: TDYFW
Program Code: TDYFW210024S
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00:01 I want to spend my life
00:07 Mending broken people 00:12 I want to spend my life 00:18 Removing pain 00:24 Lord, let my words 00:30 Heal a heart that hurts 00:34 I want to spend my life 00:40 Mending broken people 00:46 I want to spend my life 00:51 Mending broken people 01:08 Hello and welcome to 3ABN Family Worship. 01:11 My name is Ben Lingle. 01:12 And we're so glad you're joining us tonight 01:14 for this very special edition. 01:15 That's what I'm gonna call it of 3ABN Family Worship. 01:18 We have the family here tonight, 01:20 and it's going to be a Young Adults edition of this. 01:23 But we want to thank you for joining us every week 01:25 to welcome in the Sabbath 01:26 with us here in Southern Illinois. 01:28 And even though it may not be the Sabbath 01:29 where you're watching, we're just glad 01:31 you're joining us in welcoming the Sabbath. 01:33 We're just so excited tonight, 01:34 because we have a very interesting topic. 01:36 It's going to be something that affects young and old. 01:38 So you're gonna want to stay around for this topic tonight. 01:41 But first before we dive deep into the topic 01:44 and really get into it. 01:45 I want to introduce our family here on the set. 01:48 I'm so excited to have all of you here tonight. 01:50 And I'm gonna start at the far end of the table here. 01:53 I call this guy my brother but many people call him CJ. 01:56 This is CJ. 01:58 So, CJ, why don't you introduce yourself to our audience? 02:00 All right, well, hi, everybody. 02:02 My name is CJ. 02:03 I work here at 3ABN as a camera operator. 02:06 I also help with the 3ABN Sabbath School Panel podcast 02:10 along with Faith Life podcasts. 02:11 So, if have you ever heard of any of those, 02:13 I help with that as well as running teleprompter. 02:16 So if you watch any of our news breaks with Jason 02:19 or Jill or Greg or anybody like that. 02:21 I'm running the teleprompter to make sure 02:23 that they sound clean and well read. 02:26 So, thank you for having me here. 02:28 Yeah, you're a great asset to the team here at 3ABN. 02:30 And I know you do a lot of stuff. 02:31 We all wear many hats here at 3ABN but really, 02:34 you're a great asset to the team. 02:35 So thank you for being here tonight to discuss this, 02:37 this great topic we're gonna talk about in just a moment. 02:40 To my far right, is sometimes 02:43 I call her my little sister. 02:45 We're not related technically, 02:46 but anyway, this is Tiara Walker. 02:48 And, Tiara, you also work at 3ABN 02:50 but you're just a great asset to the team, 02:52 and why don't you introduce yourself to our audience? 02:53 Okay, hello, I'm Tiara Walker as he said. 02:57 I work here in the control room primarily doing video graphics. 03:01 So I put up the supers, I roll the intro. 03:03 And there's a whole list that VG does, 03:06 but I am so excited to be here. 03:07 Listen, we have an awesome topic. 03:10 And we have some great people here. 03:11 And I'm just, I'm blessed to be here. 03:13 Amen. 03:14 That's great. That's great. 03:16 And then, of course, 03:17 I'm really excited about this guest. 03:18 Now listen, I'm happy all of you are here. 03:21 But I'm really excited that Rachel Arner, 03:23 my friend Rachel Arner could join us today. 03:25 She came all the way from Berrien Springs, Michigan. 03:27 That's right. Yeah. 03:28 Wow. So, Rachel, thank you for being here. 03:30 And why don't you introduce yourself to our audience? 03:31 Hi. Thank you for having me. 03:33 I'm so excited to see all of you again. 03:35 My name is Rachel Arner. 03:37 I did come all the way from Michigan. 03:39 I'm a student at the seminary at Andrews University, 03:43 studying the Masters of Divinity. 03:46 A couple other things, 03:48 I'm the host of the Preacher Girl podcast. 03:50 So that's really a great ministry that I'm thankful for. 03:55 And I'm also a phone chaplain at AIM. 03:58 So I take calls for 3ABN a lot actually, Oh, wow. 04:02 That's awesome. 04:03 Yeah. 04:04 So you kind of indirectly help 3ABN in some ways. 04:08 Yeah. That's awesome. That's awesome. 04:09 Well, guys, once again, I'm just glad you're all here. 04:11 And I'm really excited about our topic tonight, 04:14 which is about witnessing. 04:16 Now witnessing is something 04:18 that's so important to all of us as Christians. 04:20 And so, I really want you to stay along for this tonight 04:23 because it's really gonna be valuable, 04:24 I think for you. 04:26 But before we get too deep into this, 04:28 I think we need to invite the Holy Spirit to be here 04:30 to help us kind of, you know, carry this conversation. 04:32 So, Rachel, I'm gonna ask you if you'll pray for us. 04:34 Sure. All right, let's bow our heads. 04:37 Dear Heavenly Father God, thank You so much 04:39 for the opportunity to come here 04:42 and open the Word together. 04:43 Lord, I just pray that You will fill us 04:46 all with Your Holy Spirit, 04:47 Lord, so that as we talk and have this conversation, 04:51 and open the Bible that 04:53 You will speak through us, Lord. 04:55 Thank You so much for the Sabbath 04:57 and the opportunity to rest in Your presence as well. 05:01 So please be with us now. 05:02 In Jesus' name I pray. 05:03 Amen. 05:05 Amen. Amen. 05:06 All right, as we said, tonight's topic is witnessing. 05:09 And, you know, this is something 05:11 that affects all of us as Christians. 05:12 It's something that we all need to know how to do. 05:15 And there's various ways we can witness, right? 05:17 So we want to kind of talk about, initially, 05:21 I kind of want to start this conversation 05:22 open in the fact of 05:24 why is witnessing important to us as Christians. 05:27 So what do you guys think? 05:28 CJ, what do you think about that? 05:30 Why is witnessing important to Christians? 05:33 Well, it's a big drive. 05:35 It's one of the last things that Christ gave to us 05:37 as a command as a... 05:40 I wouldn't say an order, 05:41 but what we typically call a commission. 05:44 Yeah. 05:45 So towards the end of Matthew, you see 05:48 Christ telling His disciples to go into all the world. 05:51 And that's right after the resurrection, 05:53 you go into Acts 1, you see him telling them 05:55 that they're gonna go into Jerusalem 05:56 and into Samaria and to all the world. 05:59 So it's, it's important because it's telling people 06:04 of the life changing power of Christ, 06:06 telling him, telling them that there's a savior out there 06:10 who defy death. 06:11 And He's here to give you that opportunity 06:14 to not die eternally. 06:17 Yeah, that's good. 06:19 It's something that we hope as we witness, 06:21 and as Christ comes into people's hearts, 06:24 it's something that continues to change those people, right? 06:26 Because we know, we've experienced it ourselves, 06:28 being whether we were witness 06:30 to or maybe we were raised in the faith or something, 06:32 we know how important it is to have Christ in our lives. 06:35 So I think that was a beautiful summary of why it's important. 06:38 What do you guys think is? 06:39 Why do you think witnessing is important? 06:40 You know, I think that witnessing is important, 06:42 because you know, 06:44 if you're a Christian, you're filled, 06:45 you're full of Christ, and you want to go out 06:47 and you want to share that love. 06:48 Yeah. 06:49 But you have to realize that we're called to witness 06:51 so that others will find Christ, yes. 06:54 But we're called to witness 06:55 because it also helps us as Christians. 06:57 Wow. 06:58 It strengthened us. 06:59 And it makes us confident in our faith. 07:01 When you go out and you tell somebody, 07:03 "Hey, you don't, you won't believe who I was, 07:06 before Christ came in and found me." 07:08 You know what I mean? 07:09 And you just, you build this confidence, 07:12 and you just, you grow in your love. 07:15 And it's so important that Christians get out 07:18 and get out of their comfort zone 07:20 and just fully rely on God because He is a consuming fire. 07:24 And we want to shake those dry bones, 07:26 we want to rattle them 07:27 and we want to tell people what God has done in our lives. 07:30 Amen. 07:31 Yeah, our testimony is so important. 07:33 And there's a song I really love, I actually sang 07:36 a couple Sabbath's ago and it's called Mercy. 07:38 And one of the lyrics is, "If you knew me then, 07:40 you believe me now. 07:42 He turned my whole life upside down." 07:44 Isn't that powerful? 07:46 Yeah. 07:47 I just love, love that lyric. And it's really true. 07:49 It's something that's powerful. 07:50 Rachel, do you have any thoughts on why 07:51 witnessing is important. 07:53 Yeah, absolutely. 07:54 Well, like everything you guys have said, 07:55 it's so important that we don't keep the gospel 07:58 and the hope and the love of Jesus 07:59 that we have to ourselves. 08:02 And a lot of it comes down to just our daily life, 08:05 you know, going out to the grocery store, 08:07 having conversations with people. 08:09 Now it's a little bit more difficult, right? 08:11 We don't have as many opportunities to meet, 08:14 you know, strangers, meet new people, 08:16 things like that. 08:17 And I think that's why it's so important 08:19 to remember who Jesus was. 08:21 I mean, His character, He was full of love. 08:24 So as long as we invite Jesus into our heart 08:26 every single day, 08:28 you know, that's the best thing we can do. 08:29 Yeah. 08:31 Absolutely. 08:32 Now, has everybody here I'm assuming, 08:34 which is not always a bad thing. 08:35 But I'm assuming all of us 08:37 have been Christians all our lives. 08:38 Yes. Yeah. 08:39 So I'm kind of curious, kind of as we continue to dive 08:42 into this topic, have any of you had any 08:44 successful witnessing opportunities? 08:46 Or maybe just in general, 08:47 have you had some opportunities to witness? 08:50 Yeah. Yeah. 08:51 Absolutely. 08:53 What's, what, CJ, what do you have? 08:54 What have you done? 08:56 Well, most, most of what I have 08:58 the opportunity to do is online. 09:01 So I'm a moderator 09:03 on a chat service called Discord. 09:06 If any of you know about Discord. 09:09 It's typically for gamers, but a lot of our, 09:13 you know, young people have taken over Discord 09:16 and use it as a way to kind of grow and fellowship. 09:21 So one of the examples and I think this is kind of, 09:25 this is kind of like a general 09:26 because there's a lot of people are in there, 09:28 kind of talking to people of different backgrounds 09:31 and different religions. 09:32 So in one of the groups I'm in, there's a Muslim there, 09:34 so I could talk to him about stuff, he doesn't, 09:36 still doesn't agree. 09:38 And there is even a guy in there who is... 09:43 I wouldn't, I don't know exactly if he identifies 09:45 as modalist, which is a way they view God. 09:49 But I got to talk to him. 09:51 I remember when I was a child I got to talk to, 09:53 I was talking to a lady that was cutting my hair. 09:55 She just asked me about myself. 09:56 I'm asking what I believe. 09:58 Yeah, and I even remember an opportunity 10:01 came up a few years ago during the eclipse 10:04 that we had down here in Southern Illinois. 10:06 They had a in one of our bigger cities, Carbondale. 10:11 They had, they had this whole eclipse celebration 10:14 and they had Ozzy Osbourne 10:16 and all these things happening there. 10:18 But they had an opportunity for people from our church 10:23 and in the surrounding area to go out and to share books 10:27 because around that time Hacksaw Ridge was coming out. 10:30 And Hacksaw Ridge was a really good witnessing opportunity 10:33 because people were seeing that. 10:34 Which is the story about Desmond Doss. 10:35 Yeah. 10:37 Who was it, was it World War II? Yes. 10:38 Okay. Yeah. 10:40 Yes. Conscientious objector, right? 10:41 Yeah. Yeah. 10:42 So a lot of people were seeing this, this is Mel, 10:45 for a guy's named Mel Brooks 10:46 or however you say his name, but the director. 10:50 He directed Passion to Christ and stuff. 10:52 But he made a story about Desmond Doss 10:55 being an Adventist in a sense, but being this Christian 10:58 who was in World War II, 11:00 but he wasn't gonna kill anybody. 11:01 He was gonna help people. 11:03 And his story is well known, 11:05 even among Christians and atheists. 11:07 But it gave us an opportunity because not only were we able 11:09 to pass out the book about his life, 11:11 the new publishing from Remnant, 11:14 but also got to share GLOW tracks, 11:16 we got to just interact with some people is really cool. 11:21 That's really cool. 11:23 I know I've had some opportunities where, 11:25 you know, sometimes our greatest witness 11:27 is just like you said, Rachel, kind of how we live our lives. 11:30 And I remember there was one time I just, 11:35 it's amazing how just treating people with kindness 11:38 and love and respect, makes people question, 11:42 you know, you in a good way, like, 11:45 "Huh! I want to be like that." 11:47 What's so different about them? 11:48 Yeah. What's different about them? 11:50 How, they seem different. 11:51 Something's different about them. 11:52 And I remember one time, and this is not about me, 11:55 this is about Jesus. 11:56 And, but I remember one time, I had a friend. 11:59 We had, I've been hanging out with him, 12:00 just trying to encourage him and help him all that. 12:02 And he said, he, you know, he was obviously 12:05 aware of Christianity and all that. 12:06 But I remember him sending me a message on Facebook, 12:08 and he said, something along the lines of, 12:13 "If I had to say, who in my life 12:17 helped lead me to Christ, you're one of those people." 12:19 And I didn't always explicitly talk about Christ. 12:22 You know, not all our conversation was about God 12:24 or Jesus or whatever. 12:25 But it was amazing to see how even just 12:27 a little bit of kindness and love was able to change 12:31 that person's life around. 12:32 And I think that's just 12:34 something really special, you know? 12:35 That's amazing. 12:36 Absolutely, yeah, 12:38 if I could just share too, you reminded me. 12:39 Yeah, absolutely. 12:41 So there are a few different times that, 12:42 you know, I've had the opportunity 12:43 to share Jesus with others, which is awesome, right? 12:46 One time, in particular, though, 12:48 kind of related to yours Ben, a good friend of mine, 12:51 we went to school together, knew each other. 12:54 And, you know, how time, you know, draws people apart, 12:57 you don't see people as much. 12:59 He ended up coming back to the same university 13:02 where I was studying. 13:04 And what ended up happening was, 13:06 we started talking again. 13:08 And he had also grown up in the church. 13:10 I've grown up in the church as well. 13:12 And he shared with me how he totally just walked away 13:15 from everything, he said, "I can't do this anymore. 13:17 I'm done. 13:18 I've been hurt all these different things." 13:20 And he said, Rachel, you know, 13:22 "I've just questioned God so many times. 13:25 And I just don't know 13:26 if I even believe in God anymore." 13:28 And that was one of many conversations 13:30 we started having. 13:32 And then a couple years later, again, we, 13:35 you know, end up talking, and he shared with me how, 13:39 during those ups and downs, he remembered certain things. 13:43 And I know we're gonna talk about, 13:44 you know, innovative ways to witness later on. 13:47 But he shared with me how they were things 13:49 that I had shared online, like Bible passages, 13:52 or just whatever it may have been. 13:54 And he said, "Rachel, I don't think you realize 13:57 those little things of, you know, sharing online, 13:59 or whatever it was, that helped me and now 14:03 I can strongly tell you, that because of you 14:06 and other people," and like you said, 14:07 not about us, right? 14:09 It's about God. 14:10 But he said, "Because of what you were willing to do, 14:12 being willing to share the love of Jesus. 14:15 I realized, no, I need to have Jesus in my life." 14:17 Wow. 14:19 And he says, "Now I'm, I'm all in. 14:20 I'm all in." I'm all in. 14:22 And it's just amazing, right? 14:24 Yeah, it gives me chills, because you just never know, 14:27 like, from day to day, like what you choose to do, 14:29 like portray Jesus, like how that's going to positively 14:33 impact and influence someone 14:35 who you would least expect, so, yeah. 14:37 That's what Jesus needs. 14:39 He needs this all in, right? Yeah. 14:40 He needs you all in at home, right? 14:42 You don't want any distractions. 14:44 You want to be all in for Jesus and witness for Him. 14:46 So that's, Rachel, that's amazing. 14:48 I think what's really interesting about 14:49 that is what you were sharing about posting stuff 14:51 on social media and all that. 14:53 You weren't directly speaking to him. 14:55 Right, right. 14:56 But what's interesting is you, as he was reading that stuff, 14:59 and taking that in, the Holy Spirit 15:00 was impressing on his heart. 15:01 Yeah. 15:03 And that's really something special. 15:04 Absolutely, yeah. I love that. 15:05 Tiara, do you have any, any witnessing? 15:07 You know, I do I have a story. It's amazing. 15:09 God knows exactly what you need right when you need it. 15:14 A little back story on me when I was about 10 or 11, 15:17 a little school that I was going to started a drama team. 15:20 Okay. 15:21 And I was all in. I was all in. 15:23 I was ready. 15:24 So, sorry, what's a drama team? 15:25 For those who may not know, what's a drama team? 15:27 So, yeah. 15:28 So we were a Christian drama team. 15:30 So we would go to different churches 15:31 and different camps and minister through skit. 15:34 So things you know, acting and all these things. 15:37 We would do funny, and we would do serious. 15:39 But this one time I was 10, or 11. 15:42 This is one of the first really powerful things 15:44 I noticed about witnessing. 15:47 I was 10 or 11. 15:48 And we were at this women's seminar. 15:50 There was a church 15:52 where all the women were coming together 15:53 on a day, and we were just celebrating God, 15:56 and, you know, praising Him for everything. 15:58 And they asked us to do a skit. 16:00 And we did this skit called "Giants." 16:02 And it's about a girl who is thinking 16:05 she wants to start a Bible study, 16:07 but she's not really sure if that's exactly 16:09 what God wants her to do. 16:11 And it was kind of a funny skit. 16:12 Then there's three giants behind her. 16:14 You know, there's, there's low self esteem, 16:16 there's doubt, there's fear, all these things. 16:19 And they're throwing it at her 16:20 and they're trying to chain her down. 16:22 But at the end of it, 16:23 she opens the Bible and realizes 16:26 who she is through Christ. 16:28 And now we did this skit, and it was really funny. 16:30 And we had a great time. 16:31 And afterwards, you know, we were going and shaking hands 16:34 and saying hi to everybody. 16:36 And one woman comes up to us. 16:39 And she just was completely serious. 16:41 And she says, "You have no idea." 16:45 She says, "The last two months, 16:47 I have been going back and forth with myself 16:50 if I should start a Bible study for my family." 16:53 She says, "Everything that 16:54 you guys just said in this skit, 16:56 the fear, the self doubt, all of these things," 16:59 she says, "Is exactly what I have been struggling with. 17:02 And I've been in turmoil with for two months." 17:05 She says, in five, six minutes of our skit, 17:09 she says it was exactly what I needed to hear. 17:11 She came to that conference asking God for a sign. 17:15 And I mean, it wasn't a sign. 17:16 She said it was almost like a slap in the face. 17:19 Like a, "Hey, maybe you should." 17:21 And that was, I remember hearing that. 17:23 And I was like, wow, you know, I was just up there 17:25 with some of my friends doing this funny thing 17:28 making everybody laugh. 17:29 And I didn't even realize how powerful it is. 17:32 When God calls you to go, go because it, 17:36 that was just a beautiful story. 17:37 Wow. Amen. 17:38 Man. That's, that's amazing. 17:40 And like you said, Tiara, earlier, 17:42 that probably encouraged you. 17:43 Yeah. 17:45 Because sometimes when we're, when we're doing things 17:46 for God, we don't always see 17:48 the fruit of our labors, so to speak, right? 17:50 Right. 17:51 You know, like, Rachel, like, you're talking 17:53 about your friend reading that and he comes back and wow, 17:54 you know, you finally saw it. 17:56 But, you know, it's amazing to see once we see it 17:58 that does strengthen our faith, because we know 18:00 that the Holy Spirit is moving among people, 18:03 and changing hearts for the kingdom. 18:04 So that's really something special. 18:05 Thank you guys for sharing. 18:07 So I kind of want to see what the Bible says 18:11 about witnessing. 18:12 We've kind of talked about our personal experiences, 18:14 which I love. 18:15 That's kind of our testimonies and all that. 18:16 But let's see what the Bible says about witnessing. 18:19 And I think there's some really hallmark points in Scripture 18:23 that will give us a little bit of encouragement. 18:25 You know, one of the things that as young people 18:28 I think we're up against is being nervous 18:31 to witness to our friends. 18:33 Yeah. Right? 18:34 You know, we live in a culture now that is very, I would say, 18:39 hesitant to accept God, or believe in Christianity. 18:44 And, you know, in some ways, Christianity has got a bad rep. 18:47 There's been some, unfortunately, 18:49 some bad situations. 18:50 Now, we don't blame the whole body 18:52 for that obviously. 18:53 There are certain instances things happen, 18:55 people make decisions. 18:56 But the reality is, our generation in particular, 19:01 is becoming as I see it, 19:03 and statistics are showing this as well, 19:04 becoming more distant and distant from God, 19:07 religion, whatever you want to call it, 19:09 relationship, whatever you want to call it. 19:11 And so something we have to worry about is being nervous 19:15 to witness to a generation like that. 19:17 So there's a scripture in Jeremiah. 19:19 It's Jeremiah 1:7-8. Tiara, do you have that? 19:22 I do. I do have that. 19:23 Hopefully, this will give us some encouragement. 19:25 I think this is something really interesting. 19:28 That I think is really relevant to even our generation today. 19:30 So why don't you go ahead and read? 19:31 Yeah, for sure. 19:33 Jeremiah 1:7-8, says, I have the NLT version. 19:35 It says this, "The Lord replied, 19:37 don't say I'm too young. 19:39 For you must go wherever I send you and say 19:41 whatever I tell you, 19:43 and don't be afraid of the people 19:44 for I will be with you. 19:46 I will protect you. 19:47 I the Lord has spoken." 19:49 Wow. 19:50 That's powerful. 19:52 It is powerful. 19:53 That's something we can remember 19:54 as young Christians is that even when we're afraid, 19:58 when we have those insecurities 19:59 about witnessing sharing Christ or whatever, 20:02 because sometimes it can be a little bit uncomfortable. 20:06 I remember one time, this is kind of funny. 20:10 This was said to me, don't be offended by this. 20:11 It's just funny. 20:13 My friend was joking. 20:14 But anyway, we were, 20:15 I was talking to a friend about God, 20:18 somehow we got on the conversation of God. 20:19 Usually when we're talking sometimes it goes there. 20:21 He's not a practicing Christian. 20:24 He's, I guess I would call him more agnostic. 20:26 But anyway, we were talking about God and I said something 20:29 along the lines of, you know, this is crazy, or something. 20:33 I think I was referring to crazy in a good way, 20:36 like amazing, like, this is crazy. 20:37 You know, my friend goes, my friend goes, 20:40 "I think you're all kind of crazy." 20:42 I just laugh or whatever. 20:45 But you know, for me, I just kind of, 20:47 you know, brushes off my shoulders. 20:48 We laughed about it, whatever. 20:49 But for some people, that's a legitimate fear. 20:51 Yeah. 20:52 And in this verse right here, it's talking 20:54 about don't be afraid, because God's with us. 20:56 Yeah. I believe God goes before us, right? 20:59 And God, ultimately, God's the one 21:01 that has to soften the heart of that person 21:02 to receive the message. 21:04 Right. 21:05 You know, it's something that's very important, I think. 21:06 Yeah, absolutely. 21:08 What do you guys think about that? 21:09 You know, I heard a... 21:11 When it comes to the topic of fear, 21:12 I relate to that a lot. 21:13 I've always struggled with fear and anxiety of things. 21:16 That's, that's been my life, you know. 21:18 And I heard a pastor say this one time, 21:21 and it totally blew my, it was crazy, 21:24 you know, crazy in that good way. 21:25 It was crazy. 21:27 I'm gonna, I'm gonna say this to you in the camera. 21:29 He said this to me. 21:31 And I was just like, "Wow, that's so true." 21:34 He said this, he said, "God is going to put you 21:37 in situations that challenge you, 21:40 to put your belief more in Him than your fear." 21:42 Wow. 21:44 Sometimes it makes me think of Peter stepping out of the boat. 21:46 You know what I mean? 21:48 It was terrifying. 21:49 God called him, He said, 21:51 "Come here, step out of the boat, 21:52 step out of your comfort for a second. 21:54 And come here. 21:55 Let me show you what I can do." 21:57 You know, Peter, he stepped out. 21:58 And that was a great witness for the disciples watching him 22:00 like, "Whoa, see what Jesus can do." 22:02 But he started walking on the water, 22:04 and he started going forward. 22:06 And that was so amazing. 22:07 But he started seeing the waves, 22:09 you know, he started, he started feeling that fear, 22:12 that anxiety, you know, I relate to that a lot, 22:15 that's happened to me a lot in my life. 22:17 But who was there? 22:18 Who was there that saved him? 22:20 Jesus said in the Scripture verse, 22:22 "I, I will deliver you, I will protect you." 22:25 So even if you start going under, 22:27 He's gonna be there to reach you out. 22:29 And I don't know about you guys, 22:31 but I would rather be in a storm with Jesus 22:33 than anywhere else without. 22:35 Okay. 22:36 If that's where He is, that's where I am too, 22:37 even if it's scary, I'm there if He's there. 22:40 All right. Preach. Preach. 22:42 Amen. Tiara, that was so good. 22:44 That point the pastor said, man, that's powerful. 22:47 I love that, I love that. 22:48 You know, something else we're up against as Christians 22:51 is not only being afraid to share the gospel, 22:54 but in some ways being ashamed of the gospel. 22:57 Yeah, you know, because we are in an increasingly, 23:01 I'll say, anti-Christian culture, 23:04 people tend to think you ridiculous for sharing 23:08 what they may believe is a myth or a fairy tale or whatever. 23:12 And sometimes that can make us feel like, 23:13 "Oh, are we wrong? 23:15 Or, you know, are we sharing kind of, is it a fairy tale? 23:18 Is it a myth?" And that can make us doubt too. 23:19 Yeah. 23:21 But there's an interesting verse here. 23:22 Interesting passage, rather. 23:24 In 2 Timothy 1:8-12. 23:26 And, Rachel, do you have that? 23:28 Yeah, I have it here. 23:29 Let's read that. All right. 23:31 2 Timothy 1:8-12. 23:34 It says, "So do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord 23:39 or of me his prisoner. 23:40 Rather join with me in suffering for the gospel, 23:44 by the power of God, he has saved us 23:47 and called us to a holy life, 23:49 not because of anything we have done, 23:51 but because of His own purpose and grace. 23:55 This grace was given us in Christ Jesus 23:57 before the beginning of time, but it has now been revealed 24:01 through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, 24:04 who has destroyed death and has brought life 24:07 and immortality to light through the gospel." 24:11 Wow. Wow. 24:12 That's awesome. Yeah. 24:14 What do you guys think about that? 24:16 Wow. 24:17 Well, I know you're saying a lot of people sometimes 24:20 can be, I guess, turned off by certain things. 24:24 But at the same time, 24:26 you know, we can think of a lot of 24:27 what's going on right now. 24:28 And there are also a lot of people 24:30 who are searching and looking for something, 24:33 a lot of people who are not familiar with the gospel. 24:36 And so that's what I love about this passage 24:38 is that it does give us courage and strength to not only, 24:42 not be ashamed, but to be confident 24:45 in who Jesus is and what He's done for us. 24:47 And when we remember that too, if we're confident like, 24:50 okay, like, I don't need to be ashamed, 24:52 I don't need to be worried 24:53 about what other people will think of me. 24:55 Those are all real things, of course, but remembering 24:58 that the Word of God is true and God is always 25:01 going to be faithful to us. 25:03 And we can depend on the Word 25:04 and so we don't have to be ashamed. 25:05 Yeah. Wow. 25:07 That's, good. I love that. I love it. 25:08 CJ, it seems like you have 25:09 a little bit of a thought there. 25:11 I think you had a thought. 25:12 Yeah, I was gonna, I was gonna say, 25:14 I think one of the things that also makes people 25:16 ashamed of the gospel is the fact 25:17 that it's not popular. 25:20 Yep, that's true. 25:22 And if you're, if you're the only Christian, let's say 25:24 that you're in a public school or something, 25:27 if you're the only Christian in there 25:28 and you're trying to make friends and your friends 25:30 and the people, they're just not interested. 25:32 It's hard to be. 25:33 And I think the problem is as, as young people, 25:36 we are a community oriented species we are, 25:41 we want friends. 25:42 And I think some of us are afraid of not having 25:47 any friends, having no one to call you 25:50 and find out if you're okay, or someone to talk to you 25:53 if you know if you need advice or something. 25:57 And I know that, you know, we do have Jesus, 25:59 we can call on Him, 26:01 but it's still nice to have friends. 26:03 But one thing I noticed, because it was also, 26:07 I noticed in verse 12, here, where Paul says, 26:11 and I have the King James here says, 26:13 "For the which cause I also suffer these things. 26:16 Nevertheless, I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have 26:20 believed in and persuaded that He is able to keep 26:23 that which I have committed unto Him against the day." 26:26 So basically, Paul is saying here, I'm not afraid, 26:29 I'm not ashamed of the gospel, 26:30 because I know the one who gave it to me. 26:33 I know the one I... 26:35 Because whenever we look at the word believed, 26:38 in the Greek it is pisteuo, it means to trust. 26:41 So this is not, this is not because if you go into James, 26:44 it says the devils believed and trembled. 26:48 This is not a belief like you like oh, 26:50 yeah, I believe God exists. 26:52 You know, some people believe God exists. 26:54 And yet they don't trust Him. 26:55 That's the point, trust. 26:57 Just like the song says, trust and obey. 26:59 That's how you show God 27:01 that you actually believe in Him, 27:02 that you step out in faith, like you're saying, 27:04 Peter stepped out of the boat. 27:06 That's how we know that he believed in God. 27:07 Right. That's amazing. 27:09 You know, I really love, 27:11 what I love about this passage is, 27:13 it's not just Paul saying to Timothy, 27:16 you know, it starts with, 27:18 you know, don't be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord. 27:21 But it's not only that, but he also reminds Timothy. 27:24 Let me remind you what he's done, he saved you. 27:27 He's called you for holy calling. 27:29 It's not according to our works, 27:31 but it's according to His purpose and His grace, 27:33 which is given through us, 27:34 given to us through Jesus. 27:36 And I think that's something that we can hold on to, 27:38 a promise that we can hold on to. 27:40 That's amazing that when we are feeling 27:42 kind of uncomfortable with sharing the gospel, 27:44 maybe even ashamed, as the scripture says, 27:47 we can remember though, 27:49 remember what Jesus did for you. 27:51 Yeah. 27:52 You know, you're calling yourself a Christian, right? 27:54 You want to be able to share this, don't be ashamed. 27:57 And in fact, this should be something 27:58 you're so excited about. 27:59 You can't help but not share, right? 28:01 Yeah. 28:02 Absolutely. Absolutely. 28:04 So that's, that's what I love about that. 28:05 That passage in particular is that not only is it saying, 28:06 don't be ashamed, 28:08 but it's reminding us as Christians, 28:09 why we shouldn't be ashamed, and why we should continue 28:12 to take the gospel to the world. 28:13 And you know, it's kind of play off of that. 28:16 When we think of where Christ found us, 28:19 and where He's has us now and where He's taking us. 28:21 It's absolutely amazing. 28:23 You know, I know somebody who actually, 28:27 they have a great testimony, 28:29 an absolute great testimony of where Christ found them 28:32 and where they're now are and where they're going. 28:35 And I think of, you know, being ashamed. 28:37 And it is common that some Christians, 28:40 especially new Christians are kind of a fearful 28:42 or maybe a little bit ashamed. 28:44 You know, they still have those old friend groups 28:46 that they hang out with. 28:47 They're a little ashamed to talk about the gospel. 28:49 But there are some people out there 28:51 and that might be you at home, 28:52 you're not ashamed to talk about the Bible, 28:55 but you are ashamed to talk about your past 28:57 and where you were when Christ found you. 28:59 That's a good point. 29:00 And that is something that is so important 29:02 to witnessing. 29:03 You know, you don't have to know the Bible 29:04 from cover to cover and to be able to quote it, 29:07 but God has given you a story. 29:10 And that story is your testimony. 29:12 Hey, you won't believe the person that I was, 29:15 you wouldn't believe I hurt so many people in my life, 29:18 but Christ found me. 29:20 You know, He's that consuming fire 29:21 that cleanse me, 29:23 and now I am something totally different. 29:24 So don't be ashamed of sharing your testimony 29:27 of where you were and where God is taking you. 29:30 Amen. 29:31 This sounds like Paul, right? Yeah. 29:34 Paul, he was killing Christians. 29:36 Yeah. 29:38 And then he had a personal experience with Jesus. 29:40 Right. 29:41 And he was brought out of that lifestyle 29:43 and he became a powerful witness 29:44 for the cause of Christ. 29:46 Right. 29:47 Just something incredibly, 29:49 I think Paul is one of the most, 29:50 you know, there's a lot of great, 29:51 great Bible character. 29:53 Right. 29:54 But when I get to heaven, I think Paul's gonna be the one 29:55 I want to meet the most. 29:57 Find him first in the crowd. Yeah. All right, where's Paul? 29:58 Where's Paul? 30:01 Anyway, yeah, I think that's amazing. 30:03 That's good points, guys. 30:04 Very good points. 30:06 So another thing that hopefully by the time 30:09 we can kind of get over or learn to cope with that, 30:14 being afraid or being ashamed of the gospel, 30:16 there is something we call the Great Commission, right? 30:19 And we find that in Matthew 28. 30:21 Let's go to Matthew 28. 30:23 It's a very simple passage, 30:24 but it was one of the last things 30:26 that Jesus said to His disciples, 30:28 before He ascended to heaven. 30:29 And, CJ, do you have Matthew 28:18-20? 30:33 Yep. 30:34 I have it here in the King James. 30:36 And it says, "And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, 30:39 All power is given unto Me in heaven on earth. 30:43 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them 30:46 in the name of the Father, and of the Son, 30:49 and of the Holy Ghost, 30:50 teaching them to observe all things 30:52 whatsoever I have commanded you. 30:54 And lo, I am with you always, 30:56 even until the end of the world." 31:02 You know, what I love about this is, 31:06 it doesn't say, pastors go and teach all the nations. 31:11 Yeah It says, "Go ye," Preacher Ben. 31:14 What does that mean? 31:16 That means anybody here, I think, Danny, Danny Shelton, 31:18 our founder, he says, "Are you a Ye? 31:20 If you're a Ye, then you're supposed to go take the gospel 31:22 to the world," right? 31:23 So that's really something that we got to keep in mind here 31:26 is that sometimes, we kind of put the load 31:30 if you will of work on our pastors or lay teachers, 31:33 or maybe the Sabbath school teachers or whatever, 31:35 but we are all meant to take the gospel 31:38 into the whole world. 31:39 Right. Absolutely. 31:41 You know, and that's something 31:42 that's really powerful, in my opinion. 31:43 Yep. 31:45 You guys have any thoughts on that? 31:46 Yeah, if I could just share it? Absolutely. 31:48 So one thing that has always stood out to me 31:49 about this passage has been, 31:50 you know, it's like, "Go baptized, just go do it." 31:53 Which, yes, absolutely. 31:54 But when we think about practically, like, 31:57 from day to day, it's like, how are we going to do that? 32:00 Where do we go? What does that look like? 32:02 Yeah. 32:03 And so, what's beautiful is that we all have unique lives. 32:08 And God, there's this thing 32:09 called Divine Appointments, right? 32:11 Where you never know who God is going to put you 32:14 in contact with. 32:15 You just never know. 32:17 And so that's why it's so important 32:18 to always be open 32:20 to the Holy Spirit leading and guiding in our own lives. 32:23 And so maybe we won't be someone 32:25 who will go far, far away, baptize people 32:29 or anything like that. 32:31 But maybe it'll be more on a practical level 32:33 of being open to the Holy Spirit leading us. 32:36 And then being willing to, excuse me, 32:38 being willing to share Jesus through kindness, 32:42 through the character of Jesus, the fruits of the Spirit. 32:45 And so it's a great passage, but I just like to point out 32:49 that it doesn't have to be hard, 32:50 you know, it doesn't have to be difficult. 32:52 Sharing the gospel with people can be quite easy. 32:55 And a lot of it comes down, you know, a smile on your face. 32:58 Hey, how are you doing? 33:00 So it can be very practical. 33:01 Yeah. Yeah. 33:02 Kind of like what Ben, you were saying 33:04 more towards the beginning, how people will notice 33:07 that and you know, that everyday kindness, 33:09 that everyday something and ask 33:11 what's different about this person? 33:13 And maybe that'll spark a conversation with somebody, 33:15 you know, like, hey, 33:17 why are you so happy all the time? 33:18 Well, you don't understand, 33:20 I found something great, you know? 33:21 That's awesome. 33:23 Yeah. 33:24 I think it goes back to the idea 33:27 of finding something. 33:28 So Jesus talks about... 33:32 Oh, I'm trying to remember what it is, 33:33 but the point I'm trying to make is like, let's say 33:37 that you are in love with somebody. 33:40 And the thing about it is sometimes people 33:43 who are truly in love, 33:45 they don't tend to shut up about it. 33:48 And if I can say that, but they tend to, 33:51 like want to just say like, "Oh, did you hear 33:54 I'm in love with so and so, it's amazing." 33:57 And that's kind of what, 33:58 I think that's what Jesus is wanting to get, 34:00 get us to is that we're so in love with Jesus, 34:04 that we want to tell everybody about, 34:06 but we also tell them that, "Hey, 34:08 you also can love Jesus too. 34:09 And Jesus loves you and He wants to give you, 34:12 He wants to give you an inheritance." 34:13 That's what Jesus said in John 14, 34:16 "I go to prepare a place for you." 34:19 That's something some people on this planet won't even have. 34:22 You know, there... 34:23 I remember one of my friends talking about going to Chicago 34:27 and talking to this homeless man. 34:29 And this guy had nothing in terms 34:32 of earthly goods. 34:35 But he had something more. 34:38 I remember that my friend's wife him gave money, 34:42 but my friend also gave him books. 34:43 And he was like, you see this. 34:45 This has earthly value talking about the money, 34:48 but he talks about the books, says 34:50 this, this has eternal value. 34:52 This is something that's going to last. 34:54 This can burn up. 34:56 This, I can store it in my heart 34:58 and it can get me closer and closer to Christ. 35:01 And that's the point is that Jesus is trying 35:03 to get us closer to Him, 35:04 so that we may be able to also know the joy of knowing Him. 35:08 Hmm. 35:09 Wow, good point. 35:10 I want to go back really quickly 35:12 to what you said about someone being in love 35:14 and just constantly talking about it all the time. 35:16 You know, when you're in those situations, 35:19 and well this person just stopped talking about that, 35:22 we get it, they love Him, they love Him, right? 35:24 A lot of times we feel that way, 35:25 because we don't love that person. 35:28 So we're not experiencing that, right? 35:30 So, in other words, we don't know 35:33 how to connect with that person, 35:34 because we don't love that person 35:35 the same way the other person does. 35:37 Yeah. 35:38 You know, but once people find Jesus, 35:42 and of course, we have to share that, 35:44 like we were talking about this whole program, 35:45 we've got to share that and show that. 35:47 But once people find Jesus, then what's amazing is 35:51 and we're gonna learn a little bit here 35:52 about Pentecost, which is a powerful story. 35:55 But what's amazing is 35:57 there's a fire that started in people. 35:59 You know, when we talk about wildfires, right? 36:02 Typically, it may start with like 36:04 a little patch in the forest. 36:05 And then what happens? 36:06 It just goes and it goes and it goes 36:08 and it can get out of control, right? 36:10 That's what Jesus wants for His church. 36:13 Yeah. 36:14 He wants us to be like a wildfire 36:17 there that is constantly just burning and sharing Him, right? 36:21 That's what He wants. He wants us to be a wildfire. 36:23 Right. Yes, absolutely. 36:25 So, okay. 36:27 This is kind of on the same note, 36:29 but let's go to Acts Chapter 8. 36:32 And this passage in particular is talking about, 36:35 "When the Spirit calls, we should go." 36:38 And that's not always an easy thing to do. 36:41 Because sometimes we don't really know 36:43 if it's the Spirit calling us, 36:45 or if it's just us thinking the Spirit is calling us. 36:48 And, of course, the way to know 36:49 that is we need to test any type of thoughts 36:50 we think maybe the Holy Spirit with Scripture. 36:53 But this passage in particular, 36:56 I'm going to read it in Acts 8:26-38. 37:01 And it says this, it says, 37:02 "And the angel of the Lord spake unto Philip, saying, 37:05 Arise, and go toward the south unto the way 37:07 that goes down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, 37:10 which is desert. 37:11 And he arose and went: and, behold, a man of Ethiopia, 37:14 an eunuch of great authority under Candace queen 37:16 of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her treasure, 37:20 and had come to Jerusalem for to worship. 37:22 Was returning, and sitting in his chariot 37:24 read Esaias the prophet. 37:27 Then the Spirit said unto Philip, Go near, 37:30 and join thyself to this chariot. 37:31 And Philip ran thither to him, 37:34 and heard him read the prophet Esaias, and said, 37:37 Understandest thou what thou readest?" 37:40 Woo! King James, I' tell you. 37:41 "And he said, How can I, except some man should guide me? 37:45 And he desired Philip that 37:46 he would come up and sit with him. 37:48 The place of the scripture which he read was this, 37:50 He was led as a sheep to the slaughter, 37:52 and like a lamb dumb before his shearer, 37:54 so opened he not his mouth: 37:56 In his humiliation his judgment was taken away: 37:59 and who shall declare his generation? 38:01 For his life is taken from the earth. 38:03 And the eunuch answered Philip, and said, 38:04 I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet this? 38:07 Of himself, or of some other man? 38:09 Then Philip opened his mouth, 38:10 and began at the same scripture, 38:12 and preached unto him Jesus. 38:14 And as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water: 38:16 and the eunuch said, See, here is water; 38:19 what doth hinder me to be baptized? 38:21 And Philip said, If thou believe, 38:23 if you believe with all your heart, 38:26 you may be baptized. 38:27 And he answered and said, I believe 38:29 that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. 38:31 And he commanded the chariot to stand still: 38:33 and they went down both into the water, 38:35 both Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him." 38:38 Wow. It's amazing. 38:40 I can relate to this. 38:42 Not that I found a eunuch and I went and witness 38:45 and he got baptized. 38:46 But in a chariot, but I can relate to this 38:50 because there have been situations 38:51 where I felt the Holy Spirit impressed my heart to go, 38:53 maybe pray with someone, or something like that. 38:55 I remember one time, 38:57 it was actually 3ABN camp meeting. 38:58 We were here. 39:00 And there was a young man here, who actually attended 39:02 the academy I went to when I was in high school. 39:04 Now he didn't attend when I was there. 39:06 But he had attended. 39:08 Anyway, I knew of him 39:09 because I had been at the academy 39:10 a few times since I graduated. 39:12 And this young man was just sitting there. 39:15 And I'm sitting in the audio booth 39:16 because I do audio here at 3ABN. 39:18 And we're, I think the program was just wrapping up, 39:21 I think it was like the last 30 seconds. 39:23 And he's getting ready to walk out 39:25 and go back to his hotel or wherever he was going. 39:27 And I just felt a strong impression 39:29 of the Holy Spirit said, 39:30 you need to go pray with that young man. 39:32 I said, "Oh, goodness." 39:33 Now imagine going back to being afraid or whatever. 39:36 Imagine, at camp meeting we have sometimes 39:39 between 800 to 1000 people here. 39:41 So there's a lot of people around. 39:43 You don't want to be in people's way. 39:44 And all that type of stuff. 39:46 You don't want people to be staring at you 39:47 while you're praying or whatever. 39:49 And so I was nervous. 39:51 But what's really amazing is, I pulled him over and I said, 39:56 "Hey, I want to pray with you 39:57 and I didn't know what to pray about. 39:58 It just God told me. 40:00 And I feel like the Holy Spirit had impressed in my heart 40:02 what to pray about. 40:03 But it was something really amazing 40:05 because I remember that young man, I could, 40:07 we got done praying and the look in his face, 40:09 he looked like he was about to cry. 40:11 And I said, "Hey," I gave him pat on the back. 40:13 I said, "You're gonna be okay. 40:15 I said, "I don't know why I'm praying for you, 40:17 but the Holy Spirit told me to do so." 40:19 So when the Spirit calls, go. 40:21 And this is a really interesting, interesting story. 40:24 Do you guys have anything on that note? 40:26 Can I just say, I love verse 30, 40:28 where it says Philip ran up, 40:30 like he wasn't just like, taking his time, like, 40:33 he was like, I'm going like, verse 29, 40:35 "The Spirit told Philip," 40:37 like you're talking about the Spirit. 40:38 Yes. 40:39 "The Spirit told Phillip, go to that chariot, 40:41 and stay near it." 40:43 So before everything happened before a baptism took place, 40:47 before they saw the water, what happened? 40:50 The Spirit moved, and then Phillip, 40:53 he was obedient, he listened. 40:55 And he said, Yes, like, I'm gonna obey, 40:57 I'm gonna go do that. 40:58 And so it really, really starts with our personal relationship 41:03 with God, and our walk with God and asking the Holy Spirit 41:07 to fill us and actually listening to the Holy Spirit. 41:11 Because how exciting is the fact 41:13 that all of this even happened, someone was saved, 41:16 they now have a relationship with Jesus. 41:18 Because Philip was first willing to listen to the Spirit 41:22 and go run like he ran. 41:24 He's like, "I'm going yeah," so. 41:26 Exactly. Exactly. 41:28 Yeah, obeying. 41:30 That's a good point, Rachael. 41:31 Obeying is something that because the Spirit 41:34 can impress on us all, all He wants to. 41:36 But if we don't actually take that and do something with it, 41:40 then it's not, nothing's gonna happen, you know? 41:43 And so that's something that we also have to keep in mind 41:45 is that as we are being impressed by the Holy Spirit, 41:48 we have to obey that, that impression from Him, 41:51 because if we don't, we may be missing out 41:53 on a great opportunity to witness. 41:55 Right. 41:56 You know, and so that's just something very, very good, 41:58 I think, guys that was a good, good point. 42:00 And I love that story in Scripture. 42:03 Now, I want to kind of change directions here, 42:06 because we've been talking about 42:08 some scriptural references to witnessing 42:11 and how to kind of overcome 42:12 some of our fears and insecurities, 42:15 and just kind of some general stuff 42:16 about witnessing. 42:17 But now I want to take it a step further. 42:20 There's something that I believe everyone has 42:24 and something that I believe that God gives everyone 42:27 which is gifts. 42:28 Now, gifts are manifested in different ways, right? 42:31 Some people have the gift of speaking, 42:32 others have the gift of music, maybe of cooking, 42:35 maybe of, I don't know, sharing, acting, Tiara. 42:38 Yeah. 42:39 There's all kinds of different gifts in Scripture. 42:42 And I want to talk about kind of one of the first instances 42:46 of gifts in Scripture. 42:48 It was kind of like a huge, 42:49 one of the biggest witnessing events 42:52 that we find in Scripture was the Day of Pentecost. 42:55 And this is found in Acts Chapter 2, 42:58 and, CJ, maybe you can start reading where it starts. 43:03 What verse does it start at here? 43:06 I think it starts, well, okay, let's just start at the first 43:09 because it talks about the apostles 43:11 being filled with the Holy Spirit. 43:12 So let's just start with verse 1. 43:13 Okay. 43:15 "And when the Day of Pentecost was fully come, 43:17 they were all with one accord, in one place. 43:20 And suddenly there came a sound from heaven 43:23 as of a rushing mighty wind, 43:25 and it filled all the house where they were sitting, 43:28 and there appeared upon them cloven tongues like as a fire, 43:32 and it sat upon each of them. 43:35 And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, 43:37 and began to speak other tongues or languages. 43:41 And the Spirit gave them utterance. 43:44 And there were dwelling at Jerusalem, devout men, 43:47 or Jews, devout men, of all nations under heaven." 43:52 You want me to keep reading? 43:53 Yeah, why don't you keep going just a little bit more. 43:55 Okay. 43:56 "Now when this was noised abroad, 43:59 the multitude came together, and were confounded, 44:04 because that every man heard them 44:06 speak in his own language. 44:09 And they were all amazed and marveled, 44:11 saying one to another, Behold, 44:13 are not all these which speak Galileans? 44:18 And how hear we every man in our own tongue, 44:22 wherein we were born? 44:24 Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, 44:27 and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judaea, 44:29 and Cappadocia, in Pontus, in Asia, Phrygia, 44:34 and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya 44:37 about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes, 44:43 yeah, Cretes and Arabians, 44:47 we do hear them speak in our own tongues 44:51 the wonderful works of God. 44:53 And they were all amazed, and were in doubt, 44:56 saying one to another, what meaneth this? 44:59 Others mocking said, these men are full of new wine." 45:03 So we see right here that in Jerusalem, 45:07 there was people from 45:09 all over the world there, right? 45:10 Very interesting out of everywhere in the world, 45:12 people congregated in Jerusalem, right? 45:15 Right. 45:17 And we see that the Holy Spirit fell upon the people there, 45:21 the disciples and the apostles and the believers in Jesus. 45:24 And they spoke in the languages of the people that were there. 45:30 Now, what's interesting about this, 45:33 is that as they were speaking, people were probably like, 45:38 "Wait a minute," they're like, "What's going on here? 45:40 Is this a joke?" it's like come on. 45:43 Because they're looking at these men and women 45:45 speaking this language, and they're going, 45:47 these people are from here. 45:48 Yeah. 45:50 And the way it's worded here in Scripture, 45:51 it seems like it was very uncommon to speak 45:54 outside of your native tongue. 45:56 Right? 45:57 So this was very incredible in that moment 46:00 for those people. 46:02 And what's interesting is that, 46:05 you know, these people who received the message, 46:09 were able to fully receive the message 46:10 because Christ was able to give or the Holy Spirit, 46:14 I guess would be rather the proper term, 46:17 gave these people the ability to speak in other tongues. 46:21 What's amazing is God use this gift 46:24 that He gave people because God, God, I mean, 46:26 He created humans, right? 46:28 all the languages, He created everything. 46:30 So if He's gonna do it, He can do it, 46:32 nothing's gonna get in His way. 46:33 Doesn't matter if you're from Jerusalem 46:35 or Southern Illinois, 46:36 nothing's gonna get in God's way. 46:38 So, what's amazing is that these people received it 46:42 because of the gift of speaking in tongues 46:44 or as CJ said speaking in other languages. 46:47 And I think, you know, as Christians today, 46:49 God still gives us gifts, right? 46:52 There's still various ways we use our gifts to witness. 46:55 I'll kind of share my own experience, if you will. 46:58 I've been a musician since about 12, 47:02 I guess you could say. 47:03 I started playing guitar. 47:04 And it's been just such a joy and a blessing. 47:06 But I do believe that the gift of music is something 47:10 that God gave me and I'm trying to work within that purpose. 47:13 I believe it's a purpose God has given me 47:15 to share the gospel through that modem. 47:18 But anyway, I've had some experiences 47:21 before with the gift of music, where I was doing, 47:25 I was teaching actually, a group of students some music. 47:28 And we were doing a band song, like, you know, you have horns, 47:32 and you have woodwinds and all that. 47:34 And we were all, you know, practicing 47:37 and getting ready or whatever. 47:38 And I walked off the stage for a moment 47:40 because I needed to get some water 47:42 or something like that. 47:44 And one of the parents came up to me, 47:45 and this was a big guy. 47:47 And I'm not a big guy. I'm like 5'8. 47:49 I'm skinny. I'm not a big guy at all. 47:51 But anyway, this guy, he's probably six foot. 47:53 He comes up to me, and he's a big guy. 47:55 He just gives me the biggest bear hug you've ever seen. 47:58 You know, I'm just standing. 47:59 I'm like, "Uh, what do I do?" 48:01 You know, I'm a little nervous, you know, because I've never 48:04 had someone come up and do that to me before. 48:06 And, you know, he lets go me. 48:08 He has tears running down his face, 48:10 just totally just drew his face was drenched in. 48:13 He said, "You know, you don't realize 48:18 what you're doing for my children." 48:19 He said, and he said, "Thank you so much 48:22 for putting so much into them. 48:24 And being a witness to them, 48:26 and allowing them to do this music 48:27 and whatever and to glorify God in that manner." 48:30 And that was kind of one of the first experiences 48:32 I had of witnessing the power of gifts in witnessing. 48:36 Yeah. 48:37 It's just something, something incredible. 48:39 What do you guys have? 48:40 What's some of the gifts God has given you? 48:41 And how do you use those to share Christ? 48:44 Yeah, well, you know, as I mentioned earlier, 48:46 I was in a drama team. 48:47 And that's where I learned the gift of, 48:50 you know, getting up on stage and acting 48:52 and all these things. 48:53 And I had shared recently, or previously the story 48:57 of the woman who wanted to start the Bible study, 48:59 and that was something that was so powerful. 49:01 And I thank God all the time 49:03 because He has opened so many doors. 49:05 You know, we just a few weeks ago, 49:07 went to a prison with, 49:10 y'all maybe at home has seen Christmas Behind Bars 49:12 with Lemuel Vega, that, it's beautiful ministry 49:15 if you guys haven't heard of it, you should look it up. 49:16 Wonderful guy. 49:18 And we went to a prison. 49:19 And he had asked my cousin Jewlee and I to do a skit 49:21 and to talk to the women. 49:23 And you know, we were terrified. 49:25 This was a walk out of the boat type of moment. 49:28 And we were terrified. We've never been in a prison. 49:30 We didn't know what to expect. 49:32 But the Holy Spirit came in like he did in Pentecost, 49:35 and it was you could feel it. 49:37 You could feel it. 49:38 We could, you know, and everybody there. 49:40 And we went and we witnessed to all the women 49:44 and all the men, we went through every cellblock 49:46 and you know, it was a full day. 49:47 Ben, you were there. It was exhausting, All day. 49:51 But I mean, I thank God for the gift that He's given 49:54 because He has opened so many doors 49:56 and you know, hearing that woman's testimony, 49:58 and that was just one of many. 49:59 I was in the drama team for eight years, 50:01 you know, and just recently the prison what He has done. 50:05 I mean, if He gives you a gift, it's meant for something, 50:08 He's gonna use it, 50:09 and you're going to have stories 50:11 for the rest of your life. 50:12 I will always remember that prison experience. 50:14 And it's beautiful. I thank Him for it. 50:17 Yeah. Praise the Lord. 50:18 There was something interesting too. 50:20 You talked about the women, 50:21 but we also ministered to the men there as well. 50:23 So we did both. 50:24 And you know, what's amazing to me, 50:25 because these men, 50:28 you know, they had tattoos all over their bodies. 50:31 They looked like real tough, big guys. 50:32 Bigger than I am. 50:34 And I was watching them. 50:35 I was watching the men because as Tiara and Jewlee 50:37 were ministering through their skit. 50:39 I was watching the men and there were some men 50:41 who were just totally just, they lost it. 50:44 Just tears running down their face. 50:46 And you know, what was also amazing too, 50:48 was the opportunity we had to give Bibles to them. 50:50 Yes! 50:52 I have never seen someone so happy 50:54 to receive a Bible in their life. 50:56 And it wasn't just like a paperback Bible. 50:57 I mean, it was like this. 50:59 It was like a nice leatherback Bible. 51:00 Yeah. 51:01 And these men and women were so thankful 51:03 and so we don't always realize the impact 51:07 that we have by doing something as simple as the skit 51:10 or giving someone leatherback Bible book, 51:11 really that can be a huge 51:14 turning point in that person's life 51:16 if we follow the calling of God there. 51:19 Rachael, what opportunities have you had? 51:20 Yeah, absolutely. 51:21 So I know we're talking about gifts and everything like that. 51:24 And I do just want to share it to those who are listening. 51:27 I know sometimes you're in a place where you don't know 51:30 what your gifts are. 51:32 And so if that's you, I just want to encourage you to 51:35 go to God in prayer and start asking Him 51:38 what it is that your gifts are that He has given you. 51:42 And so that's one thing that we can do, 51:44 because for the longest time, or at least growing up, 51:47 you know, I was trying to figure out, 51:48 what are my gifts? 51:49 What are my God given gifts? 51:52 And you mentioned purpose, I've found my purpose in Jesus, 51:56 and also, in sharing the Bible with people, 52:00 whether that's through my podcast, 52:03 or through preaching, 52:05 or through conversations with people. 52:07 And so whatever, wherever you are in life, 52:11 I know we're all in different places, you know, 52:15 asking God, 52:16 what is it that you've given me that I can share? 52:19 And sometimes, you know, not all of us are going to 52:22 teach or preach or all these different things, 52:25 which are great. 52:26 Sometimes it comes down to different characteristics. 52:29 Are you an encourager? 52:31 Are you an empathizer? 52:32 Are you someone who can be there for someone? 52:36 You know, can you comfort a friend? 52:38 You know, can you be there? 52:40 And so using our gifts to lift up 52:43 others is very beautiful, 52:45 and something we should take hold of sometime. 52:47 Yeah. It is. 52:48 Yeah. Thank you. 52:49 Thank you for encouraging our friends at home 52:51 because some people don't know what their gifts are, 52:54 you know, but like Rachael said, 52:55 if you pray and ask God, He will reveal that to you. 52:58 And so anyways, CJ, did you have any experiences 53:01 with some of the gifts you have? 53:03 Well, I would actually say that I relate very well to, 53:09 you know, the question of what are my gifts. 53:13 Because I would say I'm still in the search 53:17 for what actually is my gift. 53:19 Okay. 53:21 I could say, things with podcasting. 53:24 Or maybe the speaking though, 53:25 I don't really have opportunities to do preaching, 53:28 because I just haven't been given them. 53:31 But I think that's a, that's the frustrating part 53:36 about the walk is not knowing what you're supposed to do. 53:39 Because you know, you come into the, 53:41 you come into the relationship with God, 53:43 and God tells you to do something, 53:44 and you're not sure what He wants you to do. 53:46 And so I would say that, definitely pray about it. 53:50 And don't be discouraged, because as someone 53:52 who deals with a lot of discouragement 53:55 on a daily basis, it's not fun. 53:57 So don't allow the discouragement 54:00 of not knowing what your gift is to keep you down, 54:04 because you could end up in a really dark place. 54:05 And especially if you struggle, 54:08 if you need a friend to talk to definitely call 3ABN. 54:11 They have a lot of people, 54:13 and you might even get to talk to Rachael. 54:14 Yeah. 54:16 That's right. 54:17 Our pastoral department is always ready to talk to you 54:20 and pray with you and encourage you. 54:22 So yes, please call us if you have any of those doubts 54:24 or concerns. 54:26 So as we're almost done here, 54:28 we only got about three minutes left. 54:29 But I kind of want to hit one more point, 54:31 which is witnessing in our modern world. 54:34 We talked a little bit about this 54:35 in the middle of the program, 54:37 talking about how our culture changed a lot. 54:39 And you know, I remember being raised, 54:41 I was raised Adventist, 54:43 I think all of us were here, or some of us. 54:45 But anyway, what's amazing is when we were young, 54:49 CJ, you talked about going out and passing books 54:52 and going sometimes we would go door to door and all of that. 54:55 We're not saying 54:57 there's anything wrong with that, 54:58 we think that's still a good way to witness 55:00 and to evangelize and take the gospel out there. 55:03 But you know, as the world is becoming more 55:05 technologically advanced, it's getting harder and harder 55:08 to not only get people to read books, 55:10 but also to get them to even accept them 55:13 into their homes, right? 55:14 Yeah. 55:15 And so, what are some innovative ways 55:18 we can use maybe social media 55:20 or stuff like that to witness for Christ? 55:23 You know, I feel like especially nowadays, 55:26 our generation, our attention span is so small. 55:28 Oh, man. 55:30 I mean, it's like what like, 55:31 Tiktok is like six seconds things. 55:33 And then we're like, all right, 55:34 you're scrolling through all of them. 55:35 And I think, you know, bite sized pieces 55:38 of Scripture does a lot. 55:40 You know, you have a social media account, 55:42 or you have any of that use that for the glory of God. 55:45 Come on! 55:46 I mean, that's like the hub of everybody, 55:48 that's like what people are on now. 55:50 And if you can just give a bite size, 55:52 maybe just a two minute video of you saying 55:55 something or even just a scripture verse, 55:57 "Hey, man, this happened to me today 55:58 and this is what encouraged me." 56:00 I mean, that is a huge way of witnessing 56:02 and it's bite size so a lot of people will watch it 56:05 or a lot of people will see it. 56:07 That's right. 56:08 Rachael, really quickly, I want to hit your podcasts. 56:09 Okay. 56:11 That's an amazing witness, go ahead. 56:12 Yeah, so, just about my podcast? 56:14 Yeah, just say about it. Okay. 56:15 So this is the very short version. 56:18 I have people come on the podcast 56:19 who share their relationship and their walk with God. 56:23 And it's a huge encouragement to people and praying 56:27 in the beginning and the end of the podcast, 56:29 because it's all about encouraging people 56:31 in their walk with God. 56:32 Excellent. 56:33 I've listened to it. It's an amazing podcast. 56:35 Thank you. 56:36 I love it. I love it. Thank you. 56:38 So, and yeah, maybe one day I can be on it, I don't know. 56:41 Maybe we could all be on it, 56:42 having a discussion with witnessing. 56:44 That would be great. 56:45 Yes. But anyway, yeah, so that is. 56:47 Those are some great ways, guys. 56:48 And really, I've really enjoy talking with you all today. 56:50 Yeah. 56:51 I think this evening, 56:53 we had a really great discussion 56:54 about witnessing and how, you know, Jesus can use us 56:57 whether it's our gifts or social media 56:59 or whatever it may be in order to continue to witness for Him 57:02 and Jesus wants you to witness for Him. 57:05 Witness for Him. 57:06 Remember, He wants you all in, right? 57:08 All in. All in. 57:10 So remember to be all in for Jesus. 57:12 And if you're discouraged or afraid, 57:14 remember, you can always claim these promises 57:16 that we referred to in Scripture. 57:18 So we're just so thankful that you joined us tonight, 57:21 and we're all at a time right now. 57:22 But remember that Jesus needs a generation of young people 57:26 to take the gospel into all the world. 57:27 Until we see you next time, 57:28 remember to keep moving forward in Jesus. |
Revised 2021-08-05