Stu Epperson, Jr. Guest Hosts

It's time for the line of fire with your host, activist, author, international speaker, and theologian, Dr. Michael Brown, your voice of moral, cultural, and spiritual revolution. Michael Brown is the director of the Coalition of Conscience and President of Fire School of Ministry. Get into the line of fire now by calling 866-34-TRUTH. That's 866-34-TRUTH.

Here again is Dr. Michael Brown.

Well, good afternoon. I am Stu Upperson Jr., filling in for my good friend, Dr. Michael Brown.

On the line of fire. Toll-free, 866-34-TRUTH. Dr. Brown, I will commend him for his. Amazing heart for God.

I commend him for his heart for missions. He's a world traveler all over the world, reaching people for Christ. I commend him. For Being a talk show host and an author and a father and a grandfather and a mighty man of God, but I will. Right now, publicly, on his show, commend him for his courage.

To have me Filling in for him. I'm so honored to be guest hosting today. On the line of fire, and I'm the president of the Truth Network. I'm also host of a show called Truth Talk Live. Which used to be live daily, but now it's a weekend program.

Mostly interviews when I'm able to catch up to the likes of Dr. Michael Brown or Ray Comfort or other friends. I interviewed them, interviewed Dr. Ben Carson about a month ago, or actually about a month and a half ago, just before the election. I had a great time with him.

Maybe that was two and a half months ago. Where has time gone? But it's a new year. And I want to talk to you about New Year's resolutions, but in a different kind of vain. I want to talk to you about Well, you know, I want to know how you're doing on your New Year's resolutions, of course, but my resolution is real simple.

Luke 2:17. I just wrote a book that just came out at Christmas called First Words of Jesus. I was honored to be a guest on this program. The Line of Fire with Dr. Michael Brown.

And that book, First Words of Jesus: From the Cradle to the Cross, basically. I talk about the real meaning of Christmas, why Jesus came, why we celebrate it, and the last chapter is entitled, Twas the Day After Christmas. And I talk about how the shepherds never got the memo. to drag the tree to the curve. To take down all the Christmas decorations, to get rid of all the fruitcake, and to move on with their life.

It says in Luke 2:17. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John. It says. And When they saw him, Who is Him? The Savior.

The shepherds encountered the living God in the manger. Baby Jesus. We don't know exactly what was going on, if he was crying, if he was cooing. If he was sleeping, but they saw God. They were some of the first.

human eyes to lay to to lay those eyes on The Messiah, Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, the Word became flesh.

So that's pretty powerful, encountering him. Luke 2:17. When they had seen him. It says the very next thing they did. The very next thing they did is it says they made known abroad They went and spread the word about Jesus.

And so effectively, my New Year's resolution in 2017 is Luke 2:17. Encountering Jesus Christ afresh and anew every day. Here's a word for you. Enjoying Jesus. Wow, am I going to get in trouble for using that word, enjoying Jesus, enjoying God?

This guy, John Piper, wrote some books Not too long ago, and the thrust of his ministry even since then has been this idea of. Delighting in God, enjoying God. His ministry is called desiring God ministries. I just love that. This idea that.

Enjoying God. May maybe not Christians being known for what they're against all the time, but what we're for. There's such a A vibrant Peace in my life. There's a difference in his life. He's enjoying Christ.

How can that be? How can a Christian enjoy God? I've had some double takes. When I've asked people this question, I'm going to talk about this a little bit later in the hour. This New Year's resolution, Don Whitney put this out, top 10.

His first one was. What's one thing you could do this year to increase your enjoyment of God? And I read that. I thought, enjoyment. I've read that to a couple people aloud.

They're like, enjoyment. We don't always associate enjoying. But didn't the psalmist say, Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. with me to talk about how to enjoy God. And the second part of that Today on the line of fire is the legendary Ray Cover to talk about how to make him known, how to spread the message of Jesus boldly, courageously.

We're going to talk about that. Stay tuned. 866-34Truth. Ray Covert coming up next on the line of fire. It's the line of fire with your host, Dr.

Michael Brown, your voice of moral, cultural, and spiritual revolution. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown.

Stu Upperson in for Dr. Brown. There's something in the holy water because I just coming into this break, the message from Greg Laurie said. Knowing God and making Him known, which is exactly how we opened the show. Luke 2:17 in 2017, the shepherds encounter Jesus.

In person, God in the flesh, and what does it do? They pivoted instantly, it says, and they. Made him known abroad.

So the question is: how are you enjoying? Knowing Christ. Today, more this year, and how are you making him known? A lot of times we focus and obsess with that first part. To the exclusion of that second part, and there's a man on the phone with me right now who's been a huge mentor to me in this area.

He is. I was going to call you America's Evangelist, Ray Comfort. Would that be would that be off base to do? It would be. Yeah, I don't like being called an evangelist because of the 80s when the old televangelist was.

I'd rather be called all sorts of things.

Well, you don't have the hair to be a televangelist. I just don't, I don't take that, you know, don't take that, you know, but we got to get some work done there, you know. Right. Hey, Ray Comfort, I'm telling you, man, you gave me all these million-dollar bills. I was in your office.

This is on StuTube now. It might go viral, but you're amazing, man, how you have a heart. to reach people for Christ. We we but you know, and you You do it in such a way, your guy put on a Santa Claus suit. I mean, you know, all these people are making excuses why they can't share Christ.

Can you talk about how that breaks your heart and what God's kind of done in your heart to. To wake us all up, to get out there with the good news. The Shepherds never went to seminary school, but look at what they did.

Well, I I think Stu, I'm a normal Biblical Christian. There's nothing abnormal about me. I'm a person who's found everlasting life, who believes in the existence of hell. And I I'm horrified that any human being could end up in hell. And it seems the church has forgotten that hell exists.

We Well we were rebuked by a a a well known atheist with a little video, Penn Gillette, who put it out and said, Look, how much do you have to hate someone to believe in hell and not to not to tell people? He said, uh the a time would come if a truck was heading for you and you didn't know when I would tackle you. And we should tackle people.

So the moment I became a Christian, I had a horror in my heart that my mom and dad, my brother, my sister, my friends, my coworkers. could end up in hell. And then I began thinking of strangers and people out there that are just like me. That love life and fear death are heading for hell. And so that's my motivation.

I'm like the Apostle Paul who said, Wherefore, knowing the terror of the Lord, we persuade man, men. And he said, Also, that we're warning every man That we may present every man perfect. There's a judgment day. Sinners have to stand before a perfect and morally perfect God, be judged by a morally perfect law, and God's provided a Savior where we can be made morally perfect by His grace in an instant. And they'll never repent unless they realize they've sinned against God.

So, like I said, normal biblical Christian read the book of Acts. I fall way short. Of what we see in the book of Acts. That's our blueprint. And we seem to be doing everything but what we should be doing.

Ozwald J. Smith said, Oswald Jib, we got a cut for a break. No, I want you to finish this quote. I got to hear it. Yeah, Oswald J.

Smith said, Oh, my friends, we're loaded down with countless church activities, while the real work of the church, that of evangelizing and winning the lost, is almost entirely ne entirely neglected.

Okay, and we're going to really drill down there. I want to invite two people to call in today. No, we may have more than two callers, Ray, but I want to invite two types of people to call in. One, If you don't know Christ, you're struggling. You just stumbled upon this radio show.

And you wanna want to want to find out. How to know Christ, or maybe you're an atheist, you're completely against anything we're talking about. We want to hear from you. This guy right here. Ray Comfort's on the line with us, and he's done street evangelism.

He's led many people to Christ, and the toll-free number is 866-34Truth. We want to listen. And we want to hear your tough questions and have a dialogue. 866-34-TRUTH.

Now, I want to hear from some believers out there. is to try to crack this nut.

Well, no. You know what? I'm not dropping names there, but try to figure out why aren't we sharing the gospel for Pete's sake? Why is it that less than, you know, I I've heard statistics that scare me. Less than 10% of Christians tithe, give 10%.

Less than maybe 4% of Christians have ever led anyone to Christ in their lifetime. I mean, you know, Ray, maybe heaven isn't so great. Maybe hell isn't so hot. Maybe, you know, maybe this Christian life thing isn't so swell. You know, maybe it's just a big put-on because we all keep our big mouths shut when we're around unbelievers.

And we don't talk about it. 866-34-TRUTH. Tell me why we don't make him known. And hey, you may just want to call and talk to the amenable. Did I say that right?

Ray Comfort, he's on with us right now. Ray, what's your take? Take us to task of why we don't do it. And we got the lines lighting up now, but while we're loading up for a caller, tell us why. Why don't we share our faith?

Well, you said a few maybes. Maybe the church is filled with false converts, tears among the weak, foolish virgins among the wise, bad fish among the goods, goats among the sheep. And these people have never Truly repented, and they don't have the things that accompany salvation. Charles Spurgeon said, Have you no wish for others to be saved? Then you're not saved yourself, be sure of that.

What would you think of a man who let a child drown in a swimming pool because he was too busy polishing his car? No one could ever do that. In fact, if you do, you're violating a civil law. You're guilty of something called depraved indifference. And how can we sit on pews while sinners sink into hell?

Love would never let a child drown in a swimming pool, and love cannot let sinners sink into hell. And so we need to examine ourselves and say, for in the faith, do we have the love of God in us?

Okay, let's see what Mario says about that calling us from Washington, D.C. Mario, you're on the line of fire with Stu Epperson filling in for Dr. Michael Brown and Ray Covert. Mario, jump on in here. Thanks for calling.

How you doing? Great. Um I don't Questions pertaining. Um like I I read the word try to read every day. Uh There's a Also, um But uh I have I've bought people closer to God.

Um through my actions. Um And I'm here late. Um I I have certainly important people come to me. and saying, How why do I believe the violent has been Hampered with And my response to that would be Uh you know, because that's the only book I've I've I've read. you know, in my life that That It's truth.

Okay, okay.

So, Ray, Mario's trying to bring people to Christ, but they're saying, hey, this Bible, man, it's all these different authors, it's probably been meddled with, tampered with. Ray, what's a good way to get back on the gospel train? Because most of those people, by the way, haven't even read the Bible. But, Ray, give Mario something practical. to convert the sinner to Christ.

through that question that's really just trying to sidetrack him. Go ahead. Yes, it's very important, Mario, that you don't address the human intellect. The Bible says the carnal mind is enmity against God.

So if you want an argument with people, if you want them to disagree, address their carnal mind. Stay in the realm of apologetics, and you'll always get contention. The best thing to do is do what Jesus did and what Paul did, address the conscience. How does that happen?

Well, a young man kept running to Jesus, knelt down and said, Good master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus said, why are you calling me good? There's none good but God. And then he gave him five of the commandments. He says, you know the commandments.

And he he named them five of the ten commandments. What was he doing? He was addressing the conscience. The Bible says, by the law, that is the moral law, the Ten Commandments. is the knowledge of sin.

Paul did the same thing in Romans chapter two. You who say you shall not steal? Do you steal? You who say you shall not commit adultery? Do you commit adultery?

And what's happening is you're addressing the work of the law written upon the heart, that inner knowledge, that judge, the impartial judge on the courtroom of the mind that agrees with the commandments. That brings the knowledge of sin. That shows sinners they need God's forgiveness, and that prepares the way for the gospel, the means of God's forgiveness. Christ on the cross. death being destroyed through the power of the resurrection.

If you want to see this done, Just go to fullyfreefilms.com. We've got all our movies on one website fully freefilms.com Uh we're fortunate enough to have over 42 million views on our YouTube channel, and people can learn how to do it by being a fly on the wall and watching it. It's already one way for me to speak about it, but if you see it done, it can really help you. Fully free films. Yeah, Mario, we got folks, other folks we want to get on the line.

I'm so glad you called it. Look, go watch this guy's videos, Mario. Trust me. That'll bless you and it'll give you a fresh way of presenting the gospel. Using the law, the law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul as a way to break loose the soil to see where they're really coming from.

See, a lot of these things are distractions and to take us away from the main issue, that is Jesus the Christ, and our guilt before a holy God. And then, of course, we got to have the bad news. You can't have the good news without the bad news, right, Ray?

Well, you're not going to appreciate a cure unless you're first convinced of the disease.

So it's very important to diagnose the disease of sin before you give the cure of the gospel. Yeah, God bless you, Mario. We're going to jump over to a New York caller listening to us on AM570, The Mission. Mary, you're on the line of fire. Stu Everson filling in for Dr.

Michael Brown and Ray Coverts, our guest. Mary, welcome to the program. Thank you. I just would like to say that I saw the atheist, I believe it was illusionist YouTube video that you put together. And solution, yes.

Yes, it was the most Fantastic display of testimony, and it just reminds me on a daily basis, myself, my responsibility as a Christian, whether I'm going to the library, whether I'm going shopping, wherever I am, that the love of Jesus is in me, and it's my mission to spread the word and spread his love. And thank you. Thank you for all you do. And that's a powerful video. I want to plug that video when we come back, Mary.

God bless you. Hey, you watch people at the beginning of that video. Ray's like, they're totally against any thought of God. At the end, they're weeping, coming to Christ. More with Ray covering the line of fire.

Your calls 866-34Truths. Stu Everson, the seat for Dr. Brown today. Coming back right after this quick break. Oh God of burning, cleansing flame.

Send the fire. It's the line of fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown.

Get into the line of fire now by calling 866-34 TRUTH. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown.

Hey guys, this show is really a wake-up call. I hear Dr. Brown hosting a wonderful host. I'm honored to fill in for him, Stu Epperson. I'm the president of the Truth Network, host of Truth Talk Live, author of First Words of Jesus, my most recent Christmas book, and my Easter book, Last Words of Jesus.

One of my fabulous endorsers of that book is really one of my heroes of the faith who's on the line with me. Ray Comfort, I first read his book, Hell's Best Kept Secret, as a freshman in college in a philosophy class. It blew me away. He goes out and he shares Jesus with all kinds of people. All over the place.

He's bold about sharing the faith. And we're talking about that today on the line of fire. How can we be more bold like these uneducated, illiterate, cast off, unclean shepherds in Luke 2:17? Luke 2:17 and 2017, my personal New Year's resolution. How can we be more bold about sharing our faith?

Ray is with us. And Ray, the lines are loaded. Should we jump on another call? Yeah.

Okay, let's go to Cindy in Springfield, Virginia. I believe coming to us by way of WAVA, great Christian affiliate of the Line of Fire, Christian radio station there. Cindy, welcome to the Line of Fire. You're on with Stu Epperson filming for Dr. Brown and Ray Covert.

Go ahead, Cindy. Hi. Thanks for letting me be here. But I wanted to comment on the why do people just don't speak out about Jesus Christ? Yes, please do.

And just recently, for me, I think once I knew who Christ was, And once I knew what he had done on the cross, you know, it was almost as if that's just part and who I am now is is only because of the Christ.

So I find myself I can't stop talking about him. And just recently, my sister, who I'm trying to bring her back to Christ, she actually commented that you're just too loud, she says. Yeah, Ray, can you give Cindy some therapy? You know, talking about Christ all the time? I mean, she must be a Christian or something.

Ray, what's wrong here? Ray, we got to get her some help. Ray, is there a toll-free hotline or something? We can get her some unanimous help? What do you think?

I'm sure the enemy has one. Hey, don't get around all of us old bull elephant Christians that have been at this a long time, or we might tone you down. I mean, Ray, Cindy, I mean, she sounds like, like you said, a normal Christian sharing her faith. But people in her life are like, you're loud. You're obnoxious.

You're out of control. Ray, what do you say to her?

Well, the the disciples said, we cannot but speak that which was seen and heard. We're like doctors with a cure to cancer. we have a moral obligation to speak up. And we have to do it in love and in gentleness. We can't be obnoxious, like Cindy's saying, and we have to be motivated by love.

Most of us are held back by fear. We're fearful of rejection. What will people think? But I what I like to say is don't pray for less fear, pray for more love. Love is the reason we share the gospel.

We love our neighbor as ourselves, we're concerned for their salvation. If you're not concerned for your neighbor's salvation, I'm concerned for yours. And so we should all be Sensible, down to earth, have common standards and speak the truth in love and in gentleness. Um, and so God bless you, Cindy, for your for your concern to the lost. Yeah, Cindy, now you watch this you watch Ray Comfort's uh videos, it'll really put some meat on the bones for you, 'cause he talks to atheists, homosexual activists, pro-abortion advocates, and he's winsome, he's kind.

Ray, we don't have to beat him over the head with our our our sixty-six uh, you know, uh uh original uh King James Red Letter version, do we? You know, often people say Uh don't ram r don't ram it down my throat.

Well, if it's going down someone's throat, the problem is they've got their mouth open. It's for their ears. And so you look around for people to listen to. It's kind of like bees when they're searching for nectar. They go to flower to flower to flower looking for nectar.

We're looking for the nectar of a humble heart. The humble will hear and be glad. Proud people are obnoxious. They just want to argue. But you find someone who's humble of heart, who says, look, I'm afraid of dying.

There's something in me that says I want to live. What have you got? And then you can share the gospel with them that Jesus Christ has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. What greater news could this world ever hope to hear? And so it's very important you put people up the River Niagara without a paddle.

By that I mean you show them That they're going to die, they have to face the holy God. God's provided one Savior, they have no other answer outside of Jesus Christ. Apulse called it being shut up under the law. The law condemns, Christ forgives. The law I brings ref The gospel brings mercy.

And so, like I said, talk about the disease so people understand it and then they'll embrace and appreciate the cure. Amen. God bless you, Cindy. Thanks for calling in. Thank you.

Yes, ma'am. We're going to go to New Joy and talk to Rhonda calling us from the Mission AM570. You're on the line of fire. Stu Everson in for Michael Brown, Rhonda, and our other, our wonderful guest today, Ray Comfort. Jump on in here, Rhonda.

Uh good afternoon guys. Ray, I love you. I've seen lots of your shows, and I'm just enamored by. Your courage and your boldness, and uh that that's my desire, just to have more courage and more boldness. And I'm really enjoying this conversation because I had um just the same conversation at our women's uh study group at church.

And, you know, my question was, you know, what what makes us so ashamed about talking about the gospel, sharing the gospel. And um you know, there were various answers and a lot of the women were saying, you know, you don't want to shove the gospel down someone's throat. And that's just what you just said. And, um You know, it's I I don't see it as shoving it down someone's throat, you know, unless someone, you know, I get the opportunity, then I share it, but you know, how is someone going to come to faith in Christ unless they hear the gospel? That's right.

And one great one great key for me It is to use this one question when speaking to people about the gospel. If I meet a stranger, I'll just say, Hey, how are you doing? What's your name? He says, Fred. And I say, Fred, I've got a question for you.

He says, What? I said, Do you think there's an afterlife? That question paves the way for me because I haven't talked about God, Jesus, the Bible, heaven, hell, the blood of Christ, all these things that make people and us feel a little bit uncomfortable. I've just asked him, what do you think happens when someone dies? And Fred says, I dunno.

I said, Do you think heaven exists? Are you going there? Are you a good person? He says, I hope so. His I hope so was just alleviated by fears.

This guy's normal. He's afraid of dying. He's thinking about the issues. And I say, well, let's just see if you're good enough to go to heaven. We'll go through some of the Ten Commandments, okay?

Have you lied? Have you stolen? Have you locked with lust or blasphemed? And so if you if you just practice what you preach, practice on your dog, practice in the mirror, Learn to ask people that question, do you think there's an afterlife? It's inoffensive.

You're asking for their opinion and it will really help you bring your fears into proportion. That's great. Rhonda, thanks for your call. God bless you. Keep sharing the faith.

This is what we're called to do. This is part and parcel of being this is everything to being a Christian. It's who we are. Let's go to George calling for Washington, D.C. George, we're coming up on a break, but I want to get your question in here for Ray Comfort on the line of fire.

Go ahead, sir. Yeah, I like that's a very interesting con subject because that's the problem today. That's one of the lack of the problem in the church today. spreading the gospel because you read the scripture of Jesus and the disciples out of the field, they were spreading the gospel and he saw these lost sheep running around by the shepherd, everybody touching. He said, we got to pray to God sends the helper.

And second, God said there's the sheeps and goats. There's many sheep and goats in church. He separates sheep from the goat. And the third said, he said there's people who profess with their mouth, live profess, but being a Christian, their heart is far away from being a Christian. That's all I want to say.

Hey, what about that, Ray? What do you say to George? That's a great, great question. Yeah.

A lot in there. Ray, when we come back, just really address the problem of false converse in the church and the solution and how you share the gospel, real quick. Ray Comfort on the line of fire. Stu Everson filled in for Dr. Michael Brown.

Right back for those of you who are still able to carry the program. Leave the website, askdrbrown.com. Back after this. It's the line of fire with your host, activist, author, international speaker, and theologian Dr. Michael Brown.

Your voice of moral, cultural, and spiritual revolution. Get into the line of fire now by calling 866-34 TRUTH. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown.

Making Christ known abroad in 2017, knowing him and making him known. Luke 2:17 says the shepherds encounter Jesus. And then it says this in the same verse, like right quick, it says. And they Spread abroad the word. And that's something.

So that's my New Year's resolution. I'm Stu Everson filling in for Dr. Michael Brown.

My friend Dr. Brown is very courageous to have me on, and he's even more courageous. When he finds out that I had Ray Comfort on, Ray, it looks like it's going to be with Dr. Brown here asking for forgiveness, not permission, because he's somewhere on the other side of the world and you're on the radio on his national talk show with Stu Efferson. Ray, how are we going to, what's going to be our, you know, how are we going to get around this?

What are we going to do, man? Just give them Romans 8:28. The old thing's ready to get up and good. Hey, take the gospel pill and call me in the morning, right? The age of 28.

Hey, Ray Comfort, we're talking, and you've got to go to, I love it, you know. He's not chasing that little white ball. He's not hitting the slopes. He's going to share Christ at a preaching opportunity after the show, and he's only got a couple more minutes with us. You want to call in and maybe challenge Ray on something or maybe inquire or share with us why don't more believers share their faith, then call 866-34-TRUTH.

We may have time for one more quick call for Ray: 866-348-7884. Ray Cuffert. Our last call, you know, as we carried over for the break, the line of fire shirt on all kinds of stations in all kinds of time zones, all kinds of places. But there's been a lot of talk about a lot of false converts. in the church.

One of the challenges we got a lot of folks that say They have faith, but they have no fruit, no works whatsoever, like James 2:1 says. Rehadiya. What do you do with that? What do you do with the Time magazine poll where some 80% of Americans say they are, quote, Christian, end quote? What's your.

take on that and what's the solution? As believers, to wake up and get out of our quiet funk and start sharing the gospel.

Well, we just have to gently and lovingly tell the leading pastors in our nation to stop being motivational speakers, instead be sons of thunder and to preach the fear of the Lord and open up the commandments instead of telling people how they can improve their lives. It's like polishing the brass in the lifeboats of the Titanic. There's people drowning all around us. And what we need to do is put the fear of God in our And to our people, because through the fear of the Lord, men will depart from sin. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and the beginning of knowledge, and that's what's lacking within the church.

And if you don't fear God, you'll toy with sin, you'll have your darling sins. And Jesus warned in Matthew 7:21: Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, and you'll say, Depart from me, you worker of lawlessness. That is no regard to the divine law. They tell fibs and white lies. They're liars, and all liars will have their part in the lake of fire.

They take little things that belong to other people, they have a lustful heart. the opposite of the same sex. They're committing adultery in their heart and storing up God's wrath.

So a false convert is a worker of iniquity. When someone is genuinely saved, they name the name of Christ and depart from iniquity or lawlessness.

So Pastors Preach the fear of the Lord, open up the character and nature of God, talk about sin, preach the Sermon on the Mount, expound the spiritual nature of the law, and let it do its job and let this conscience Begin to be awakened and exalt the cross of Christ and tell the people they must go out and witness if they love the Lord, they'll keep his commandments. Because Charles Spurgeon called sharing the gospel evangelism in the irksome And it really is. I don't like it. Each Saturday when I go to preach at Huntington Beach I'm going somewhere to say something I don't want to say to people who don't want to hear it. But I go because I love them and and we all have to do that.

And Jonah didn't like it, but the whole town got saved. No, he felt down in the mouth, I tell you.

So, isn't that something? Hey, he had a whale of a problem there. We're going to go to Bell here in Boston, real quick. Probably our last caller for Ray: 866-34-Truth. We still want to hear from you and talk about why don't we share our faith?

We've got the greatest. Message in the in the in history and eternity inside of us, but why not? Let's go to Bell real quick. Bell, you're on with Ray Cuffert. You got about 20 seconds.

Go ahead. Hi, thank you. Do you Bless you. I'm sincere. I'm sincere no longer.

Okay. You know what? The break hit sooner than I thought, Bill. Hang on. We'll tackle your question on the other side, and I'm going to give you what Gray's website when we come back.

Hold on. God bless you. And God bless you, Ray Coffer. Ray, I want to get your website real quick, and then I'm going to let you go. Hold on, okay?

More coming up on the line of fire after this. It's fire we want, for fire we It's the line of fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown.

Get into the line of fire now by calling 866-34 TRUTH. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown.

Stu Upperson for Dr. Michael Brown.

Early, early on the show, I talked about why don't we talk about in terms of enjoying God? And all hour long, we're talking about my personal New Year's resolution. I want to hear yours. How it relates to this idea of evangelism. Knowing God Part one, part two, making him known.

Ray Comfort's doing that all over the world. He is with us right now. He's an author. He's a TV guy, radio guy. He's a great friend of mine.

He stands, what are you, Ray, about six foot nine, six ten? Yeah, just a little taller, I think. I'm going to put a picture of me. Ray, I'm going to put that little video we did. I don't know if I posted that yet.

You mean the day that I met your legs? Yeah.

That's right. I want to put that on Instagram. And also, I just put one of your quotes, by the way, on Twitter. Don't pray for more fear, for less fear. Pray for more love and sharing the gospel.

What a brilliant thing. God's used you with all these quips and other people I know say things. But just to sharing Christ, being aggressive, being ambitious, even being creative.

Now, you're going to tell me the most winsome, fun, creative way, a couple of those things. But Belle, our last caller, I grabbed her during the break. And Belle, you have a heart for reaching bisexual people, people that are struggling in the areas, homosexuality, transgender, bisexual. Belle, you want to share Christ with people. Is that right?

Amen. Okay, Ray, how do you give her some, yes, friends she's trying to reach with the good news of Christ? What do you say to her? Give her a couple of tools, and then we want you to, as you say goodbye to us in a second here, to give us all your websites too, Ray, but go ahead. Yeah, the the best thing I could suggest would be to go to fullyfreefilms.com and click on Audacity.

It's a scripted movie that we produced using Hollywood actors And it addresses the subject of homosexuality, and it does it in a biblical and very loving and effective way.

So it's called Audacity on fullyfreefilms.com.

So, Belle, on that, you'll watch. Ray and his team. Sharing Christ and leading people to Christ who are in perverse lifestyles who are struggling. You know, Ray, we... You know, sometimes we might pick on the sin of homosexuality, but we have people living in adultery and promiscuity, right?

So it's everyone needs the gospel, correct? Absolutely. Yeah, that could be more well thought.

Okay, did you get that website, Bell? Is it fully free sale? Home dot com. Forty freefilmza dot com. There's six of them.

Okay. Okay, God bless you, Bill. Thank you. Hey, thank you. Stay tuned because, Ray, as you get out of here, tell us a couple People out there, they hear you, they want to share their faith, like Bell.

I love Cindy called earlier on fire for God. What are some fun. Easy, creative ways to share Christ. Yeah, I give away money. I done I've done it for about thirty years.

When I get up to open air preach, I say, Okay, I'm going to give away some money and I have a whole stack of one dollar bills in my hand and I ask questions like, first question for money, what's the capital of France? It rhymes with Aris and begins with P. And some will say Paris and they'll say, Here you are and everyone applauds and the person gets his money. And then ask another question. What's the capital of Japan, let's say Tokyo, here's your money.

That gets a crowd by giving away money in public. I'll say to a little kid standing there, What's your name? he says, Tommy and I say, That's right, give him a hand and I give him a dollar for getting and it makes people laugh. It's a lot of fun and it creates good feeling to have a breacher giving away money and then I say, Okay, let's go for twenty bucks. Anyone let her for twenty bucks?

If you prove to be a good person, I'll give you 20. If you're not, I'll give you five. Come and talk to me. And they'll jump up on a box and I'll take them through the Ten Commandments. And I usually get five because they're not a good person.

But it gives me an opportunity to share the gospel, and then I give the five dollars to them.

So that's a great way. Jesus used money in relating spiritual truth. He said, Give me a coin. And so we do the same sort of thing.

So, one time I ordered from your ministry all of your tracks. And I got this giant bundle. And they are the most the coolest tracks I've ever seen. Talk about gospel tracks. Is that okay to do?

Yes, Hudson Taylor, the great missionary was stayed through a gospel tract. God uses tracts. And so should we. He uses tracks to save people. It gives me a chance to witness to someone when I give them a gospel tract.

And our tracts are so unique, people ask for more.

So people can order the sample pack from LivingWaters.com. That's what you're talking about. Yeah, livingwaters.com. Memorize that website. And Ray, it's such a treat to have you on.

LivingWaters.com, your closing challenge to our listeners about getting bold for their faith. For those of you who know Christ, Getting bold for your faith in 2017 and actually sharing Christ. Ray, this isn't an option. This isn't the great omission or the great, you know, the great possibility. This is the great commission.

What's your challenge? Yes, study to show yourself approved. Learn how to do this. Watch fullyfreefilms.com and then learn how to do it. I may seem to have expertise.

It's only because I've done it a lot. You can see a guy won a marathon. He didn't win it because he's clever. He won it but he won it because of hard work. And I've Over the years, fallen over and bruised my knee and got up and run again.

And that's what we all have to do.

So you two can become an expert if you study it and learn how to do it. You know, you've got to go because God's opened a door for you to share the gospel here shortly. Can I say a prayer for you with our listeners? That'd be great. Ceritas College, and we're open air preaching there in about 10 minutes.

Okay, so, guys, listen, Ray goes out and does all this. He comes on shows like this, and he brings so much to the table and brings so much encouragement on TV, on radio, everything.

So, we're going to bring some love and some prayer into his life right now.

So, everyone, bow your heads and keep your eyes open if you're driving. And let's pray, Lord, we thank you for Ray Comfort. What a great man of God. He loves you. What a heart.

Of a servant, as someone who just wants to share Jesus, Lord. And I thank you that you're using Him. I pray right now specifically. For this open door you've created here at this college, he's about to go to in 10 minutes to share the gospel, to preach. Lord, give him your words.

Take over, Holy Spirit, his mind, his heart. Speak through him and prepare hearts to be. To hear your word, to be moved, to be touched, to be convicted, to be converted.

So we ask this in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen. Amen. Thank you, sir. I appreciate it.

Yes, sir. God bless you. Yes, sir. And support this guy's ministry, livingwaters.com. Send them donations.

You send out, hey, if someone sends you a little donation, you'll send them out some million-dollar bills, right, Ray? That's a good return on investment. Hey, I just sent him 20. Hey, Lucy, we just sent him 20 bucks and we got a million-dollar bill back. What happened here?

Well, it's got the gospel on it, right? Right, Ray? That's right. Anyway, God bless you, man. Appreciate you being on today.

Okay. Dove us. Thank you. All right, Ray Comfort, livingwaters.com. I love this guy, man.

He has a heart for sharing Christ. You know, it's just natural for him. It's a believer just Jesus comes out. And he used a Spurgeon quote, folks. Is he going too far, by the way?

Is Spurgeon going too far to say if you don't share your faith, if you're not actively sharing the gospel, there's a real good likelihood that you've never been converted yourself? Whew, how about those Marvels? 866-34TRUTH. I want you to hear creative ways you're going to share Christ. What's the most creative way you have shared Christ, your idea that could spark others to get active sharing their faith?

Why don't we share our faith enough? As part of our New Year's resolutions, anyone got any of those in there? 866-34-Truth. This is the line of fire. I'm Stu Epperson.

President of the Truth Network filling in for my good pal, Dr. Michael Brown, an honor to be in the hot seat, the fire seat, the line of fire seat today. And my first guest was Ray Comfort.

Now, I'm on Twitter at StuEpperson. I just tweeted out a cool Ray Comfort. Quote, I ate, I guess that's what you call it on Twitter. I put at Ray Comfort because he gave us the quote a little bit ago on the show. And I included at Doctor.

Michael Brown.

And I put By the way, I gave the wrong site. It's askdrbrown.org. That's the website for this program. AskDr. Doctor Brown dot O R G And I like the fact that Dr.

Brown's on Facebook and he tweets, and I think he's even on Instagram. And that's my account, by the way. Stu Epperson, I'm on Instagram. Would love to have you follow me on the Gram. How can we be more creative?

More winsome about sharing our faith. Here's a good one for you. Not only can I ask earlier, how can we enjoy God more in 2017? But how can we enjoy Telling people about God. In 2017.

I'd love to hear your calls, your thoughts, your challenges. If you don't know Christ, We want to hear from you at 866-34TRUT. That's toll-free. eight six six three four eight Seven eight eight five four. 866-348-7884.

Hudson Taylor got saved. from a gospel track. Imagine that person saying, Uh I don't know about that. Uh No, no, that's just not my style. Uh no.

comfortable. Just passing out a a brochure. to a stranger. You know, they'll line the streets of Vegas and pass out little cards with not such good things on them. or they'll line the streets of other places, New York City passing out.

or Boston even or any kind of town passing out Flyers about a program coming up, big show coming up, big opportunity, a seminar, make some money.

Well, we're the believers.

Now, let me tell you something else Ray's guy did. It was one of the officers in his ministry. I was out in California with him. He told me this. He put on a big Santa Claus suit.

It was last month coming up to Christmas time. Listen to what he did. This is so cool. dressed up as Santa Claus, you know, the big you know, jelly full of belly full of jelly and all. and he goes out to the Santa Monica pier.

And What does he do? He takes these million-dollar tracks and passes them out. Kids were flocking to him. Mommy, Daddy, I want to go see Santa.

So, all these kids are going to see Santa Claus, and they're getting the full gospel right there. They're getting a gospel track. I mean, how cra folks, this isn't rocket science. The Shepherds. Weren't even that smart.

And they wouldn't spread the news abroad about the Savior. What about you? What's your creative idea of sharing Jesus? I want to hear what you've done, or maybe an idea you have in the next segment. 866-34TRUTH-866-348-7884.

More line of fire. Stu Everson in for Dr. Brown after this. Hang on. Oh God of burning, cleansing flame, send the fire.

It's the line of fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown, your voice of moral, cultural, and spiritual revolution. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown.

Hey, I'm not Dr. Brown, but I'm honored to be in for him today. I'm Stu Everson. Here we go. Siri, ready for this?

Ready? An honor to be guest hosting for my friend At doctor Michael Brown. TO DAY ON THE LINE OF FIRE.

So I just I'm tweeting that. The at doesn't go over too well. That's on my Twitter account. Follow me at StuEpperson. What an honor to be with you today.

Man, I tell you what, I'm still kind of trying. I was writing down rapid fire writing down. what Ray Comfort was sharing. And Oh man, thank you, Twitter. An honor to be guest hosting.

Guest tone. Posting. For my friend Dr. Michael Brown.

Siri, come on, buddy. I got to go back and I'm going to go back and work on that. I'm not as dictarious. As dexterious or as coordinated as Dr. Brown, who's able to tweet at rapid fire on the line of fire every day on this show.

But I'm so honored to be with you and. We're going to keep him in your prayers as he's abroad sharing the good news of Jesus Christ. Keep Ray Comfort. Our former guest on, just on a little bit ago, in your prayers is he is probably right now about to open a mic up and preach on a college campus in California. This is what he does.

Tell me about the last time you shared the gospel. How did it go? Tell me about your plans, specific plans to share Christ. In 2017. Just want to hear from you.

There's no wrong or right answer. Love to hear from you at 866-34TRUTH. We've been talking about that all hour long. How are you making Christ known? I'd love to hear someone's creative idea.

Hey, here's a fun, clever, cute little thing I did. to tell people about Jesus. Here's a cool little idea. About sharing the gospel. Why does it have to be so complicated?

I mean, obviously, the shepherds in Luke 2, 17, they weren't the brightest knives in the drawer. These guys weren't super smart. They weren't super cerebral. They'd never been to seminary school. Shepherds, the profile of shepherds, Was probably about the lowest rung on the societal.

Ladder. of anyone. in the culture. McKay, besides someone that was incarcerated. And they were kind of deadbeat on a dead end street.

They're out abiding their field. Keeping watch of their flock by night. Luke 2:8 tells us. And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them. And the glory of the Lord shone round about them.

They came in contact. with the glory of Almighty God and everything changed on that moment. on that little hillside in Galilee, in the lives of the shepherds. The question is Has Christ changed your life? To such a degree at such a point where You're telling other people about them.

We sing that song. Do we really mean it? Go tell it on the mountain? Guess what? Yeah, Christmas is over.

But the message of Christ The good news of the gospel, the gift of God, which is eternal life. It didn't end. On December 25th at 11:59.59. It keeps going on. How are you sharing Christ?

In twenty seventeen. That's the question. I love what Ray said. Are you polishing the are you like someone who's polishing the brass? That's uh of the lifeboats that are on the Titanic.

Ship's going down, you're polishing the brass. Folks, hell is hot. Heaven is real. Christ is Lord. Are we telling people?

About Jesus. How are you doing that practically? What are some ways practically you're doing that? Ray gave us some ways.

Now Ray sent me, I'm going to tell you a cool story. Ray sent me or gave me last time I was out there about a month ago. he gave me a stack of million dollar bills. And I took those and I actually preached at a chapel at a Christian school. And preach the gospel.

And did you know one of the kids. Pray to receive Christ. The teacher gave the kids an opportunity. They were interacting about the message and prayed to receive Christ that morning. The dad came up and gave me a big hug.

In the school gym a couple days later, and just blessed me. But just that challenge that Ray gave me about sharing Christ, giving me a million-dollar bill. Who's going to say no, by the way, to a million-dollar bill? You get a little bit shy about sharing your faith? Carry around a million dollar bill.

And watch what happens. Everyone wants one of those on the back of the. Million dollar bill. It's actually, you can get this cool wallet from Ray 2 that's shaped like a $100 bill. It's so funny when I pull it out, everyone laughs.

You pull out this wallet that's shaped like a hundred dollar bill. You pull out a million dollar bill and you give it to a kid and they just get excited. And on the back, it says, What's the million-dollar question? If you were to stand before God today, The great God Of the universe, would you be guilty or innocent? Heaven or hell?

Are you prepared to face his judgment? Have you received the Savior? Have you received the only Source of life, Jesus Christ. That's on the back of this billion-dollar bill, that million-dollar question. Pretty cool.

And the whole the whole thrust of it is But Jesus said, What shall it profit a man? if he gains the whole world. But Finished the sentence class, loses his own soul. What will a man give in exchange for his soul?

So, real quick, I want to share with you. As we wrap up the show today. My New Year's resolution. I'm Stu Epperson, the president of the Truth Network, host of Truth Talk Live, and author of. Last words of Jesus?

In my second book, which is actually a Christmas book, I was on this program with Dr. Brown. It was an honor to be here with him talking about it. First words of Jesus. From the cradle to the cross.

You can find all about that at firstwordsofjesus.com. Or lastwordsofjesus.com. And I tweet regularly. I'm a big follower of Dr. Brown's on Twitter at Stu Epperson, S-D-U-E-P-P-E-R-S-O-N.

And this resolution comes out of a text I talk about in my Christmas book. which is Luke 2.17, which I will read to you right now. Luke 2.17 says, And when they saw him, They made known abroad The saying which was told them, Concerning this child So two things happened in Luke 2:17. First, These shepherds These herdsmen, these rough, uneducated, Illiterate. Rednecks, for lack of better word?

They encounter Jesus Christ.

Now it's cookers. Luke 2. Sixteen says, And they came with haste.

So they were in a hurry. To do what? To find Jesus.

So, are you in a hurry to seek Jesus? Are you in a hurry to know Jesus? We get in a hurry about a lot of things. Is Jesus the center of that? Because when you make Jesus the center of anything and everything, and you're in a hurry to find Him and know Him, then everything will change in your life.

But it says they made haste to find him. And then verse 17 says, And when they had seen him, they encountered Jesus Christ. They saw What no one listening to my voice has seen in the flesh with their eyeballs, they saw the living God. That little baby wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in a manger, that was a sign the angel gave them. Beautiful.

They saw Jesus. And it says in that same verse, verse 17 of Luke chapter 2: they made known abroad. They went and spread this message everywhere. Wow.

Something happened when they saw him.

Something happened when the glory of God hit them. Earlier on in Luke chapter 2, verse 9, 10, 11, right in there, something happened. They encountered Almighty God, says they went and spread it abroad.

So, Luke 2:17 and 2017. That's our news resolution. Just jot that down. 2:17 and 2017. First of all, encountering Jesus.

Afresh. Knowing him. Knowing Jesus, is there anything greater? than knowing and delighting in. And here we go.

Enjoying The Savior Afresh every day. What's your plan on enjoying him more in 2017? Number one. Number two. Making him known.

Enjoying him. knowing him and then making you know they spread it abroad. What's your plan on telling people? about Jesus in 2017. Jesus said, go and share the good news of Jesus, what he's done for you.

That's my challenge. Stu Everson in for Dr. Michael Brown.

Ask drbrown.orgtruthnetwork.com is my site. God bless you. It's time for the line of fire with your host, activist, author, international speaker, and theologian, Dr. Michael Brown, your voice of moral, cultural, and spiritual revolution. Michael Brown is the director of the Coalition of Conscience and President of Fire School of Ministry.

Get into the line of fire now by calling 866-34-TRUTH. That's 866-34-TRUTH. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown.

Welcome to the line of fire. Stu Epperson Jr. filling in for my friend Dr. Michael Brown.

Nationwide, I am the President of the Truth Network. The author of Last Words of Jesus? First Steps to a Richer Life, a book that takes you into Christ's final works on the cross, and also my new book, First Words of Jesus, connecting the cradle to the cross, just came out at Christmas, and I am honored. to be In the hot seat. I guess it's the line of fire, so this is the seat of fire.

Filling in for Dr. Michael Brown, who's very courageous to have me as a guest host today. Toll-free number is 866-34TRUTH. I want to talk to you today. about something that It's been heavy on my heart lately.

I want to get your interaction. I want to get your thoughts, your feedback. By the way, how's 2017 going for you? Any of you have some New Year's resolutions that you want to share? Here's what I want to ask you.

Very simply. I came across something that has been... Quite disruptive in my life, in the life of others. Because I got this. Email from someone.

Were these 10 or 20 questions on it to challenge us spiritually in the new year. I love, by the way, New Year's. type things that actually Challenges you in your faith to grow closer to God because fundamentally. You may not have a list, you may not have a doo-doo-doo-doo a punch list, which I I I think, by the way, is I have some issues with And I'll tell you why in a little bit. But Very generally, what's wrong with saying, hey, I want to grow closer to God this year?

Nothing wrong with that at all. But The first question on this list really has messed some people up, including me. This is from Don Whitney. Who's an author? Who He wrote this.

He said, the beginning of the new year is an ideal time to stop, look up, and get our bearings. To that end, Here are some questions to ask prayerfully in the presence of God. Number one. What's one thing you could do this year? to increase your enjoyment.

of God. Enjoyment? Did he say enjoyment?

So I got to thinking. How do you enjoy God and how are you in 2017 planning? on enjoying God more. And why does that sound almost like a bad word? Because instantly someone out there is going to say.

Did he say enjoy? Does that kind of intimate happiness in the Christian life. God didn't come to make you happy He came to make you holy.

So, I want to talk about this happiness. versus holiness, a dichotomy we've created. And I would like to posture this question right now at the beginning of the show. is happiness And holiness, are they? A an either or equation.

As a believer, he came to make me holy, not happy. Period. It's either or. It's either happy. These name it, claim it.

False prophets of the prosperity gospel It's happy, happy, happy, or it's holy. The true doctrinally sound. preachers of holiness of repentance. of true saving faith. Is it either or or is it both and?

Now, I'm going to read a couple of verses that might mess you up as well, but I want to get the toll-free number out of the gate. And I'm going to ask you, how are you planning on enjoying him more? I'm going to share my New Year's resolution, by the way, with you on this program publicly with the awesome audience of the Line of Fire. I think you'll enjoy it. It's pretty cool.

I thought it was pretty cool. It's kind of catchy, but it ties in with what we're talking about today. How are you planning on enjoying God? N twenty seventeen. 86634-TRUTH.

866-348-7884. Am I off base as a believer to use the word enjoy, pleasure, delight with the word God in the same sentence? Give me a scripture verse to back it up. 866-34-TRUTH.

More coming up on the line of fire. Stu Efferson in for Dr. Michael Brown.

Hang on. It's the line of fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown.

Get into the line of fire now by calling 866-34TRUTH. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown.

If anything, gives you a double take as a Christian. It's when someone starts talking about enjoying God. Isn't that That concept Antithetical to the Christian life. Come on, enjoying God, taking pleasure in God. I mean, we're Christians.

We're doers, we're performers. You do this, you gotta tighten your act up. I don't smoke, I don't drink, I don't go out with those that do, right?

So Right out of the gate, I read this New Year's resolution. This guy sent out, I printed a bunch of copies, shared it with my Wednesdays in the Word men's group. Bible study we have at the at Wednesday mornings at Dario, 8 o'clock. And In the morning, I said, guys, read these. The first one was just like a shot over the bowel.

What is that? Here's the question. Ready? And who is talking? It's not Dr.

Brown, but I'm honored to sit in for my friend, Dr. Michael Brown.

I'm Stu Epperson. President of the Truth Network. Host of Truth Talk Live and So glad to be with you. What's the one thing you could do this year? to increase your enjoyment of God.

Guys, I think I'll take a picture of this whole sheet here, by the way. And I think I will put it on Twitter at Stu Epperson. And I'll put at Dr. Brown a course. Because he's got a lot more Twitter followers than I do.

But I'd love for you all to follow me. I just put verses and encouragement. And sometimes I'll listen to this show and I'll tweet out something that Dr. Brown said. 'Cause he says a lot of really cool things.

But I got to thinking. Why don't we talk about enjoying God? What's so bad about saying I want to enjoy Godmore In 2017. Let me ask you: how are you planning on enjoying God more in 2017? And I think maybe we've put up this false dichotomy, and this is going to get me in all kinds of hot water here.

Yeah.

Holiness versus happiness. You've got your happy campers over here, your happy camp that says, well, God is here to make you happy. Your best life now. Go be happy, happy, happy. If things are going well, it's because God wants you to be happy.

You don't like who you're married to, get a divorce and go marry to someone that makes you happy. And we have that extreme. But then you got the other extreme. The holiness extreme. Hey.

Hey, shut up. Get your hands down. Don't worship God like that. What are you thinking? Hey, what's wrong with you?

You talking to me? You talking to me? What's that book you're carrying around? Get that smile off your face. We're in church, you know?

So these are people that don't put the fun in funeral. I'm going to tell you that, okay? Or maybe they did put the fun in funeral. Actually, that would make more sense.

So, which one is it? Does it have to be. An either-or equation. Or isn't there a sense?

Now, I'm going to read a verse that's going to rock your world in a second. I'm going to hold my powder, though. On the line of fire, you got to use analogies or hyperbole like that. I'm going to hold my fire, my powder. on this verse I'm just going to wait.

I'm going to sit on this verse. I'm going to squat on this verse for later in the program. Out of the mouth of Christ. He said it himself. But I'm going to give you a chance to weigh in on this.

How are you enjoying God more in 2017? 866-34-TRUTH.

Somewhere here, I'm going to interject my own in our truth network. New Year's resolution. You want to join the line of fire, please call in 866-348-7-884. Let's go to Sheila. Listening to us in Virginia.

Sheila, you're on the line of fires. 2 Uppercent in for Dr. Brown. Jump on in here. I the happy and the holy.

could be together. I'm an older person coming back to God. At an old age of 60-something. And in Exodus, as I'm going through the Bible chapters with instructions, ki the my grandkids and I draw pictures That go along with the chapters, and they're hilarious, but we send pictures to.

some relatives who were in prison. And they're a laugh for me, but also they're serious in that that's how their little minds are taking in. the stories of you know, God and all. Sure, sure. And I thought that was, you know, a good way.

Then we created the Lazy People's Club. Were we too lazy to pick up a piece of paper? Are we too lazy to open the Bible? And my oldest Granddaughter, she draw, she'll draw, she'll read, then they'll draw their kind of not crazy pictures, but what's in their mind about God, about the chapters we do. Yeah, kids say the darndest things.

There's some really the fun stuff, but but you know, sometimes we get so serious and we take ourselves too seriously. And we get so bound up that we forget that Isn't there something, isn't there this idea of enjoying God, Sheila? Why don't we enjoy God? I actually, when I pray, I do a little giggle when I ask God's will be done. And I say it for my grandbabies, and I do a giggle each night.

I don't know. I'm not so holy.

So I just think that's right. But here's the thing: look, you have Christ in you, you have the Holy Spirit living you. Your life is changed. You are different. But how could Paul write in Philippians?

He's bound, he's in jail, he's in prison, he's at a low point. And he writes about rejoice in the Lord always. And again, I say, rejoice. Thirteen times, he uses the word joy or rejoice. You know, in the book of Philippians, he's in prison for Pete's sake.

What's he talking about? Joy. Him and Silas were bound in fetters. They've been beaten to a pulp, and they're singing songs of praise to God. Come on, obedience.

Obedience. I have a, well, I'm not going to say who, but a child is doing that between all that sexual stuff coming through with the gayness of the body and all. And I thought it was going to crush me, but with God's help, I can have a joy to know that his will will be done Even though I feel like I want to cry about all this stuff, because the power of Satan is so big. is trapping our kids.

So I still Have a joy because he said, Have a joy. I know what I'm doing.

So with the pain. Obedience seems to make me kind of happy because I'm going to obey. Interesting. I like that.

Well, but everything you said is focused on him, see? Everything you said is not some human humanistic definition or derivative of ourselves It's of him. And then you do need to find joy. You know, the prophet said, the joy of the Lord is my strength. You've got to define these words, and we're going to probably go deeper that way as we get into it.

But Sheila, keep praying with those grandkids. God bless you. Thanks for tuning in. Bye-bye. Yes, ma'am.

Stu Epperson in for Dr. Michael Brown today on the line of fire. No. I'm not condemning holiness To be replaced with happiness, not given a bunch of health and wealth and prosperity. But yes, I'm trying to ask a question.

Can't we be happy in God? Can't we enjoy God? Can't happiness and holiness. kinda go hand in hand. Want to hear from you at 866-348-7884.

What sparked this conversation Was from Don Whitney, who sent out some resolution questions at the beginning of the year. One of which was: What's one thing you could do this year to increase your enjoyment? of God? Why don't believers talk more in terms of enjoying God? I mean, maybe we should get a bumper sticker that says frown if you love Jesus.

Because that would actually be reflective. I look around, we're singing songs of highest praise to Almighty God. I look around church, and I got to see all blessings. Whoa, what's going on here? Sure we should.

Weep and mourn over our sin and be broken, but can't we enjoy being in his presence? Like that song, I can only imagine. Let's see what Raleigh says. Calling us, listening to us on KTIA, a great line of fire affiliate in Iowa. Raleigh, you're on the line of fire.

Stu Upperson in for Dr. Michael Brown.

Go ahead. Yeah.

Or hello. I just happened to hear the comment and when I heard that resolution, I mean, I was overjoyed actually to hear someone wanted to be and have more enjoyable relationships. And the word joy means. Is a great word to use because joy in itself, if you break it down, we've heard these little things before where. Joy is Jesus first.

Others second yourself last. But I mean, joy is in the word rejoice, it's in enjoyable, and the joy is in the Lord.

So. I mean, when I heard that, I just wanted to get it out there to say I'm I'm with that guy. I'm totally with him in the sense that I want to have more joy with the Lord because I do put Jesus first, and you've kind of already iterated that, but I think to answer a little bit of what your question, you just kind of asked there before, putting me on, was that. I don't think a lot of people truly know the Lord. And If they don't truly know the Lord and seek His truth, And if you will, get God's Word.

If you don't get into God's Word, God's Word won't get into you. And we've heard that before. And I'm just saying, When God's word gets into you, we have a joy like none other on this earth.

Okay, now look, I got to have an issue with my call screeners in there. How does a guy like Raleigh get through? Talking about the joy of Jesus. Raleigh, someone's got to confront you, man. I mean, this is.

We got we got some real issues here. Talking about enjoying God and the joy of the Lord and Jesus others, you what in the world? Man, I gotta, we might have to have some church discipline right on the show. I mean, we're gonna put him in the line of fire firing squad. Unbelievable.

Well, I can't Bible drop and name verses like a lot of people. I'm not good at that. But I mean I I definitely listen to these shows a lot. I get into the word that way, and it's the only thing that gets me up and going nowadays ever since I came to Christ. Wow.

Well, we're so glad you called. Really? What happened? How did you come to Christ? Tell us real quick.

Well, it was through my kid. He brought me to my knees in a sense that he had some health issues and I knew where to turn. I mean, I had faith. I just didn't truly know the Lord using that reference, like I said earlier. And when I truly found him, and he worked in my prayers.

That's power. We've got to take a break. Hang on. Hang on, Raleigh. More coming up on the line of fire.

866-34-TRUTH. The joy of Jesus. Wow, what a testimony. Give us strict to always do what's right. It's the line of fire with your host, Dr.

Michael Brown, your voice of moral, cultural, and spiritual revolution. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown.

Happiness, holiness, are they contradictory? Are they completely incompatible? God didn't make you. God's goal for you is not to be happy, it's to be holy. Have we set up a false Dichotomy here.

866-34-TRUTH, Stu Epperson in for my buddy, Dr. Michael Brown, who is a very brave soul. to have yours truly on. As his guest host today. And I was So encouraged by Raleigh.

A caller, he says he listens to the Truth Network every day, and it's such a blessing in his life. And he went on a rampage. I mean, we guys got to learn how to screen that stuff out here. I mean, you got to bleep that stuff out. He's just talking about the joy of Jesus.

Our producers are in there just letting it go. Just let it go over the airwaves, Howard. JJ. I mean, I got a we may have to clean house here at the Truth Network, you know, at the line of fire, all these producers. Unbelievable.

Don't talk about that happy stuff. Get that smile off your face. You're in church. How have we lost our joy, folks? How have we Almost in our effort to push holiness, have we eliminated?

Have we wiped out the notion of Happiness. Does God want you to be happy? 866-348-7884. We're not going extreme today on the line of fire. But we are going to challenge some things.

We're going to challenge a few things. Like Is it wrong? To enjoy God. How are you enjoying God? Have you enjoyed God today?

Maybe you should shut off your radio. Close your eyes if you're driving, don't, and enjoy God. Say, God, I'm so it's awesome to be in your presence. I don't have to get I'm not stuck in voicemail, Joe. I'm talking directly to you.

Because of the blood of Jesus Christ. I'm blood bought. I'm saved. I've been forgiven. Whoa!

Forget it. Forgiven of my sins. He died in my place. Whoa! What does that bring?

Well, I'll tell you what it brought to Peter. A la 1 Peter 1, inexpressible joy. And of course, we're going to need to some point. I hope one of our sharper callers will. Clarify the difference between joy and happiness.

We can go there. But what's wrong with saying I'm going to enjoy God? Is my New Year's resolution, and what's wrong with me asking today on this show, filling in for Dr. Brown? Stu Epperson asking you, how are you planning on enjoying God more in 2017?

866-34TRUTH, 866-348-7884. We got to go to LaRue in Grimes, Iowa. Another listener to KTIA. 99.3 FM. LaRue, you're on the line of fire.

Go ahead. Yes, I enjoy listening to your program. I try to do it. daily, but it depends upon if I'm here or out about. But I try to be kind and a a loving person.

When I'm out and about, and I, of course, I do fail, but one thing I enjoy doing is. Oh, say I'm standing in a line and it's uh the speed line or so And the line is long, and I'll just turn around and to the person behind me, and I'll say. God has many ways of teaching us patience. Mm-hmm. And then too, when I purchase an item, I like to find something to talk about, about that item.

Say at Christmastime I was out at a a local uh store here and I picked up an activity set. And the lady was wrapping it up for me very carefully. And she picked up baby Jesus and wrapped him up, and I took care of my bill. And as she was wrapping up Jesus, I said to her, This is at Christmas, and I said, too many people keep Jesus wrapped up after Christmas. And I there was a long line, so I didn't want to say a whole lot more but I got my message across that Jesus is the reason for the season.

Well, then just recently I was at another little store of similar clarity and I picked up this rooster. And of course, I just heard you talking about Peter. And this little story, I said to this gentleman, I picked up this rooster. And I said, I'm going to put him on my windowsill so I reminded that I don't deny Lord, my Lord. And he said, I will never look at a rooster the same again.

That's great. Wow.

I tell you what, you're sure encouraging me, LaRue. What's some great stories of how we can. God's given us a sense of humor, okay? You don't think God has a sense of humor. Look in the mirror, right?

Right. Yeah.

Yeah, that's really true of me. I got a face for radio like nobody else. But why can't we be more winsome? One of the great theologians said, Yeah, all the guys in the studio are smiling. Howard, JJ, they're having fun at my expense.

They're like, Yeah, he's got to face a radio. Thank goodness there's not a camera rolling. But LaRue, hey, one of the great Spurgeon or someone said, Why we need to be more winsome? Yeah.

For Christ.

So there's nothing wrong with that. I love your spirit. God bless you. Thanks for calling the line of fire. That is so encouraging.

So, this idea of how are we going to enjoy, you know. We enjoy life because of God. You take him out of the equation, there is no joy, there's no nothing, there's no happiness whatsoever. Does God want to make you holy? Of course!

But does God want you to be happy? I don't know about that one. Maybe we've got to define happiness. I'll concede that, but. I do want to hear from Leanne calling from Raleigh.

105.7 FM, AM 1030. Leanne, you're on the line of fire. Stu Everson in for Dr. Michael Brown.

Go ahead. Hi, thanks for having me. In Psalm Psalm 1, it says, Blessed is the man who walk. Not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of the sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful, but his delight. Is in the law of the Lord.

So that implies. Enjoying the Lord. And then his delight. I love that. I'm writing that down right now.

Psalm one. Right. Right. Psalm one. I mean, that's just one of the first obviously, that's the first Psalm.

You can't delight in God. You can't delight in God, though, Leanne. Come on, that doesn't sound right. How can you not? His mercy endures forever.

You know, he removes our sin from us as far as the east is from the west. How do you not find joy? I mean, what would happen? What would happen if we all memorized those verses like Psalm 37, 4, 37, 4? Delight yourself in the Lord.

That's a command. Absolutely. That's what I was going to say. I got to tear that out of my Bible. I can't, you know, that just doesn't sound right.

Leanne, come on. It's funny you said that because I had my Bible open to that page because that was the next one I was going to say. And then the next one is 37:23, where it says, The steps of the good man are ordered by the Lord, and he delights in his way.

So it's. You delight in the way of the Lord, and the joy. Of the Lord is a fruit of the Spirit. I mean, that's just one of the fruits that comes from knowing the Word of God. It just comes out of you.

So the joy is in you, regardless of life circumstances. you know, things can Happen and they may not make a person quote unquote happy, but you can still find that joy should just bubble right out of you because. we're here we need to be eternally focused. We can't be focused on our The flesh, the here and now, it's it's For the everlasting that we need to focus on.

So is this statement true? Your delights, your passions, your desires. Will ultimately dictate. your lifestyle. How you live?

What you love will dictate how you live. True or false? I guess that, yeah, when you phrase it the second way, yeah, I think you're right. Because every verse you quoted talked about God as the object of that delight. Let's build on that when we come back.

God bless you, Leanne. Thanks for calling in from Raleigh. This is the line of fire. I'm Stu Everson filling in for my friend Dr. Michael Brown.

More coming up after this. 866-34TRUTH. Is it okay to enjoy God? It's the line of fire with your host, activist, author, international speaker, and theologian Dr. Michael Brown.

Your voice of moral, cultural, and spiritual revolution. Get into the line of fire now by calling 866-34TRUTH. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown.

You know, I don't want to go too far on this, but I'm telling you. You gotta wonder if some people who call themselves Christians I mean, what are you doing? It's it's like you're dead. There's no excitement. There's no, it's just kind of like, well, we got to get to church.

Yeah, we do that.

Well, yeah, we got to do this. We got to make sure we're watching that clock. You know, better, got to be at the Presbyterians to lunch. Hope the preacher doesn't go over again. You're singing songs of worship.

Great. How great is our God? How great is our gun? Sing with me. And then half of us, half of us aren't even singing.

And don't you dare put your hands in the air. You know, don't get excited and bounce around because if you do that. You know, but hey, hey, hey, my team's playing in about. 45 minutes. And their first touchdown, I would go through the roof.

I'm gonna hug a complete stranger. Because he's got My jersey on.

So, what in the world? How have we come? Have we gotten?

So far on the holiness bandwagon, that we've completely eviscerated and wiped out the happiness bandwagon. Does it have to be either or? And I'm not saying God. Isn't absolutely concerned with making you holy. But I'm also not going to throw the happy thing out.

Is it possible to be happy in Jesus? Like the song says, trust and obey, for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey. 866-34-TRUTH, I'm Stu Upperson, and for my friend Dr. Michael Brown.

It's 31 minutes past the hour, and we are talking about. New Year's resolutions. This question really shook me up here, and a lot of other people that I shared it with. I shared it with my men. I'll lead a Wednesday morning, Wednesday in the Word.

Bunch of guys as messed up as me. We get together, we're going through the book of Philippians, which is the epistle of joy. Joy in jail, Paul's writing from prison. Here's the first question of these New Year's resolution deals that Don Whitney put out that I shared with them that messed me up. What's one thing you could do this year?

To increase your enjoyment of God? Love for someone to try to answer that question as we work through this issue today on the line of fire. happiness versus holiness or Are the two a lot more compatible than we think? Let's talk to Virginia. Who's calling from North Carolina, kind of cool.

Virginia, you're on the line of fire with Stu Eberson in for my friend Dr. Michael Brown.

Go ahead. Thank you. Um One afternoon or one evening, I sat out on the porch and there was a thunderstorm going on. And I had um the Psalm one hundred four in front of me. And I was reading through Psalm 104, and every time there was a thunder crash, lightning, It just it uh somehow it seems so much to apply to that particular psalm.

And Since then Lots of times in a thunderstorm I'll go stand out on the porch or, you know, stay in the house, but But I'll just watch the lightning. and just praise the Lord and sing. You know, a verse of How great thou art, saying a verse of you know Just a praise song or anything that just seems to just bubble out while I'm watching that lightning and Heat lightning as it goes through the clouds and everything, you know, is just so wonderful. Thunderstorm Florida. Just uh Seem to draw me closer to God.

Wow.

Enjoying God's creation, right? Yes, uh-huh. And when there are big puffy white clouds in the sky, I just think you know, God is such an artist and how he can just save the clouds and shape 'em and And all this thing and That's my enjoyment, you know. I love it. I love it.

You can also look at people and just imagine, you know. how he's shaped and and formed each Person in their own way, and if you let it, you know, it'll just draw you to where you love people. I love it, Virginia, because they're made in God's image. Virginia's joining the heavens, declaring the glory of God, enjoying his creation. How are you enjoying God more in 2017?

866-34TRUTH. More coming up after this real quick break on the line of fire. Don't touch that dial. Mm-hmm. It's the line of fire with your host, Dr.

Michael Brown, your voice of moral, cultural, and spiritual revolution. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown.

When I put my trust in Jesus, he made my heart so glad that I threw away my frowning faith, for I could not be sad. Oh let the joy of Jesus put a smile upon your face and let the joy of Jesus every little from erase. Proclaim his great and happiness, let his glory shine and show the joy of Jesus on your face.

Okay, now you know that you know the math on this. It takes twice as many muscles. To to to uh well hold on Listen, listen. Heaven. A gloomy grump who always was in pain.

The math is basically It takes more muscles to frown than it does by a duplicate, by a multiple of many, many more muscles to frown than it does to smile. And I'm simply asking this question today. Stu Everson in for my good friend, Dr. Michael Brown, filling in for him on the line of fire. I'm in the hot seat today asking a question that probably is getting me in all kinds of trouble.

Where's the joy of Jesus? Where's the happiness of believers? Why so much gloom? Is your joy contagious? Are you shooting what you've got?

Have we so painted God doesn't want you to be happy into a corner that happiness is now taboo? And it's all about holiness. And I'm just simply asking, does it have to be either or? Does it have to be God does not want you to be happy? God damn it.

Does want you to be holy. Get the smile off your face. And I'm It's all kind of Been disrupted by this question from Don Whitney that I've read several times on the air today. What's the one thing you could do this year? It's like a New Year's resolution.

I'm going to take a picture of this sheet and I'm going to put it on my Twitter post. I'm going to try to do it before the show's over at Stu Epperson. And I will at Dr. Michael Brown for all of his wonderful Twitter followers. He's got a bunch.

What's the one thing you could do this year to increase your enjoyment of God? Why don't we see this walk of faith as a walk of enjoyment? Like our like Leanne from Raleigh said a second ago. Like our last caller, Virginia from North Carolina said, from Lexington. She said, Hey, I listened to the thunder and I worship God.

I sing how great thou art. 86634-TRUTH-7884-8484 We're going to go to Alabama and talk to Carl next. Carl, you're on the line of fire? Jump on in here. Well, thank you for taking my call and I um I've been in the ministry for thirty years and uh I'm uh close to four months from having triple bypass surgery.

I was in uh Uh Recovery for 12 days. And during the time I was in the recovery, I had a vision or a dream or something that I was in here. and that there was no way for me to escape. And every conversation I heard from the nurses and whoever my advocate was was that there was no way for me to To be delivered, that Christ's blood could not cleanse me, that I was too dirty. And it was just denying Christ every situation that I encountered.

And I as I was wheeled down the hall, uh a door opened and I um saw a glimpse of uh uh our adversary. didn't see his face, but I was more focused on all the souls that was in torment. They was in bod bodies prepared for eternity. and that traumatized me. And as I come to myself, the only thing that gave me comfort was Psalm thirty seven and four.

and also Romans eight. That really cleared me up and stopped all of my my dreams and everything about me being uh inhale. I was so traumatized that when everyone came to visit me, I told them I was in a a different dimension than that. I wanted them to get me out of that. and take them into a r real um intensive care unit, and they were all telling me that I was in the right place.

But through all of that, what I come to the conclusion of was in that in that Romans aid that. Nothing can separate us from Christ's love. And New Living Translation says, Does it mean that He no longer loves us when we're going through trouble, calamity, persecution or hunger, destitute, in danger, or threatened with death. I uh took that and that that really gave me comfort that happiness as I defined it. Is, and I've heard it from others, that happiness depends upon what happens.

Joy. is with you always. You find joy in the Lord because you know that ultimately Uh You know, it's like when I was in the hospital, no one could help me but cry. That's right. No, that's exactly.

You're not, hey, I'll tell you one place you're not going to find joy or happiness. is hell. That's right. There's none of that in the lake of fire. None of them.

And maybe the joy of Jesus should be even more in my life. While I'm living to share, you were a medical missionary, Carl. You weren't even supposed to be alive, A, and then B, you're there in that hospital. Telling people about Jesus and literally Sharing with them the only hope. The only joy, the only way to know true peace with God.

Right, whether you're alive or dead. That's exactly right. No, that's powerful. Wow.

What a story. Hey, thanks for sharing that, man. God bless you. You're welcome. Oh, what about Carl's story?

That is sobering. Let's see what Gail says. Gail, you're on the line of fire.

Okay, we lost Gail. Let's try. To go to Kernersville, North Carolina, and talk to John listening to us on AM830, 50,000 watts right there in the Triad area. John, you're on the line of fire. Stu Eberson in for Dr.

Michael Brown.

Talking about happiness versus holiness, or are they more compatible? Then what we think, John, go ahead. Wait a minute. Am I to are you are Hey, this is Clay from Raleigh Durham, Brothers, Stu. Clay.

All right, Clay. Man, it's good to hear your voice, my friend. Talk to me. What do you think about all this? What First things first, let me say Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you, brother.

And it's wonderful to. Do you want this wonderful day? I know your brother and Christmas. Brother Michael is Out and about, and it's wonderful to have you. First thing, I would like to share with people.

is I did Bible study fellowship last night. That's one of the things that came up there, that you can talk about God, but people don't want to talk about Jesus. Jesus is a more personal thing. But you know what? Jesus sacrificed himself on the cross for each and every one of us.

All of us. Which I truly am thankful for.

Now, another thing that you're talking about. What's wrong with being happy? Why are you going to get up and complain about it being cold because of the winter weather that was here a week and a half ago? Why are you going to get up and complain about it being hot? Each day that is brought about us and that is given to us is created for us to be allowed to live in.

You know, hey, I can comprehend what Brother Carl was saying because I went through that same thing. August of this year, August 19th of this year will be seven years ago that I had majored surgery. And if you separate your index finger and your thumb, Less than a quarter inch. The man told me I would have Had that much of a chance by getting colon cancer. No kidding.

Well, I truly believe in my heart that God intervened in that. Each day that we are allowed to live, we need to be thankful. I'm happy for that. I believe that there is holiness out there. But how can you sit there or stand there and personally say, well, man, like you were saying, like you were saying about the songs, I'll get into the songs.

I love the sing. I'd love to do be able to do that. Just so thankful that God allows me and Jesus allows me to get up each day and live in the day that they created for us. Look around you. Look what everything's created for us.

Even me being able to talk to you today was creative. Hmm. No, it's it's excellent. And it's all about perspective, and it's all about having, and I really appreciate it, it's great to hear from you, Carl. It's having, again, the object.

being not myself. You look at yourself too long, you look at others too long, you are going to get bummed out. But being, because every time you see joy, you see delight, you see happiness, you see fulfillment, you see, here's a great word, Christians don't use enough. Satisfaction. Psalm 103, he satisfies.

my soul with good things. But we don't use that word. The world has Hijack that world word. Satisfaction. How are you satisfied with Christ today?

How are you going to be satisfied more with Him, with more Him this year? I think we got John back. John, you there? John? John here.

Hey, great. Hey, go quick. We're coming up against a break. It's the line of fire. I'm Stu Eberson in for Dr.

Michael Brown.

866-34Truth is a toll-free number nationwide. John, go ahead. Welcome. Great, thank you. Yeah, we're talking about New Year's resolutions and happiness and holiness.

Yes, Christians, our sins are forgiven by the Lord Jesus the Christ. And also, we try our best not to sin because God gave us rules for a reason because we will be happier if we sin less. And I want to remind your listeners That if you confess with your mouth, Lord Jesus, And believe in your heart that God hath raised him from the dead, you will be saved. And if you confess Jesus Christ is the Son of God, then God dwells in you, and you dwell in God. Jesus Christ came in the flesh.

That's beautiful. See, that's the whole thrust. John, thanks so much for calling. See, that's the thrust, that's the essence. The gospel, Christ coming.

We're going to come back to Gail after this break, and your calls at 866-34-TRUTH. Christ coming. Good tidings of great joy unto all people. Where's that? Why is it so doom and gloom in the church today?

Where's your happiness? Where's your joy? What's it based in? More coming up on the line of fire. Stu Everson in for Dr.

Michael Brown.

After this quick break, don't touch that dial. Oh God of burning, cleansing flames. Send the fire. It's the line of fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown.

Get into the line of fire now by calling 866-34 TRUTH. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown.

Up every trace of sin to bring the light and glory in the revolution now begin. Sam Love to hear from you today at 866-348-7884. I'm Stu Everson filling in for my good friend, Dr. Michael Brown.

It's been a great hour. Wow, some wonderful callers. to the line of fire today talking about This, what I believe is an unbiblical Dichotomy. But I also believe you got to define your terms. And you can't go off on the happiness tangent.

Where there's no True definition of happiness. I mean the first word in the longest book of the Bible. Is the word happy? Psalm 1, verse 1, happy is the man. That walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scorners, but his delight is.

His delight And thank you, Leanne, for sharing this earlier. Is in the law of the Lord.

In his law, he meditates day and night. He's obsessed with. God's word. He's obsessed with listening to God. He's obsessed with being in God's presence.

He's obsessed with, he's satisfied with, he's enjoying. These words of passion, these words. That are emoting, that are part of our love, our desire, our delight. are all throughout Scripture. You hang around a lot of Christians, it's like.

Where's the love? Where's the joy? Where's the happiness? And we're not talking about this fake Facade Happiness based on happenings, but a happiness based on Jesus, the joy of Jesus, happiness in him, the Sermon on the Mount.

Okay, this is the one, and I'm going to go to Gail. She's been holding on forever. Dale stay with me. I'm going to read a verse that's going to absolutely. It's going to mess you up.

First of all, I love this thing. Peter says in 1 Peter 1:8, Whom having not seen, ye love, in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice. with joy unspeakable. and full of glory. Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.

We've been saved. Do you think someone cured of cancer is going to be a little bit happy? A little bit joyful. A little bit excited? We've been cured for something.

From something from eternal hell for Pete's sake. And then this one right here in Matthew, in the Sermon on the Mount. The Sermon on the Mount where Jesus, you know, he says happy, happy, happy. Happy are the poor in spirit. Happy are they that mourn?

The word blessed means happy, but it's what is the object of that? is the key folks. Look at what he says. This is just unbelievable. Blessed are you when men shall revile you and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake.

Now, why does he say that? Why is he happy if you're persecuted, you're reviled? What in the world is Jesus thinking here? This is the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the Prince of Peace.

But then he says this, rejoice. and be exceeding glad. Be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven. For so persecuted they the prophets which were before you. Here, Jesus is saying people are reviling and attacking you and beating you up and throwing you in jail.

Rejoice and be exceeding glad. What in the world is where's that coming from? 866-348-7884. Almost out of time. I got to get Gail in here.

Colin from Greensboro. Gail, thanks for hanging on. Yeah, hi, Brother Stu. Hello, hello. How are you going to increase your enjoyment of God in 2017?

I am going to increase my joy in God in twenty seventeen. By bathing every day in his grace. Oh, I like that. Bathing every day in his grace. And I have to remember that this grace came through Jesus Christ at the cross.

It's finished. And because it's finished, And because of Romans 8. 28 says everything will work out for good. I can only do but Let's enjoy him. And it doesn't mean, but see, here's the thing.

It doesn't mean. The product of that is going to be a supernatural. You're encountering Jesus, you're going to be changed. Absolutely. You're going to be holy.

You are going to be holy. God ain't going to leave you that way because it's in his presence that there's fullness of joy. And if the object is him and his grace and listening to him and his word and walking with him, not so much, you know, we focus on doing for God all the time. Christians do, do, do, do, do instead of walking with God. Yes.

And Brother Stu, my real name is not Gail. My real name is Thail, F-A-I-L. Oh wow. That's my real name. And people always think that's something dreadful, you know, because my mother named me F-A-I-L-Fail.

But it really came from my grandmother that used to say that the Lord would never fail you, exactly. And he couldn't say the other names. I'm the last of five.

Well, so my mother said, That's it. I name her Fail.

So she named me Fail because she said the Lord will never fail you. Yep. And look, look, when my grandmother died, she never knew my name was Fail. She called me Fay. Yeah.

Wow.

And listen, I'm on my way now to Vintage Bible College. And we have so much joy at Ventus Bible College here in Western Salem. Yeah.

I can't say any more, but just in the middle.

Well, tell Brother Curtis that Stu said, Hey, will you? And all the petties over here. All right. God bless you. What a dear saint.

What an amazing perspective. We're going to have to get Alan in here. And we only have time for Alan.

Well, we lost Alan, so let's talk to Orlando, High Point, North Carolina. Orlando, you're on the line of fire with Stu Everson filling in for Dr. Michael Brown.

It's been a great hour. By the way, Orlando, I just posted these awesome questions from Donald Whitney. The first one really messed me up. It says: What's one thing you could do this year? These are New Year's resolution questions.

I just posted these on Twitter at StuEpperson. I added Dr. Michael Brown and all some other friends. What's one thing you could do this year to increase your enjoyment? Of God.

Orlando, we're putting you in the hot seat. What's your answer? Um To spread the gospel, to magnify Jesus. Amen. You know, that's a great thought because when you're telling others about Jesus.

All of a sudden it's not about you. It's really not about them. It's about him. And you're saying, you're telling them, man, look, this same God who saved a messed up wretch like me, amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me, he can save you. And I care enough about you.

And I love him so much that I'm going to tell somebody. You know, that's making this message. No, that's what the shepherds did. It says in Luke 2:17, and by the way, I promised to do this, Orlando.

So you set me up real nicely, Orlando. Thank you so much, my friend. Wow.

All right. Orlando set me up. God bless you. He wants to magnify Jesus. There's no greater joy than sharing Jesus.

There's no greater joy. What is it? There's joy in heaven when one sheep. The way the shepherd, the good shepherd, leaves the 99 and goes saves the one. There's no greater joy in heaven, Jesus says.

when one sinner repents. See? Hey, that's some joy. Wha so Luke 2.17. Is the New Year's resolution here at the Truth Network?

And you can tweet this, you can share this with anyone you want. Luke 2:17 basically says, And when they saw him, The shepherds, the illiterate herdsmen, I talk about them in chapter two of my new book, First Words of Jesus. They encounter Jesus. We don't know all that was going on. We're not going to superimpose a bunch of issues into this text.

We just know this: they encountered the living God, that little bundle of joy, that little stranger in a manger. They saw Jesus Christ. They laid eyes on Jesus.

Some of the first eyes to see him were these third shift. Low life, dead end, redneck shepherds.

Okay, they saw Jesus. What does it say they did? What Orlando just said? They went and they made haste. They went and spread the word abroad.

They told everybody, I got to tell somebody what Jesus did for me. Because when you find him, you find joy, a deep, eternal joy, and he makes you holy.

So they're not divorced. They're all together being happy in Jesus. Luke 2:17 in 2017. Right here on the line of fire, the website for this show is askdrbrown.org.