This is the Truth Network. Welcome to "If Not for God," stories of hopelessness that turn to hope. Here is your host, Mike Zwicky. All right, if not for God, with Mike Zwicky. Hope y'all are doing well today.
This is the day that the Lord has made. I am going to rejoice and be glad in it, Amen. And so the title of the episode today is just. Do it. You know, there was a there was this motivational speaker years ago that I listened to, but he was also a Christian, and he said he was tired of people who were telling him they were saying, "Hey, I'm going to do this, I'm going to do that," and he said, "You know what?" He said, "I got sick of people telling me what they were going to do and what they were not going to do," and he finally got to the point where he said, "Just." Just do it, like the Nike ad used to say.
Just do it. He said, "I don't want to hear. I don't want you to tell me what you're going to do." He said, "I would rather you just do it, and you know, we'll leave the consequences up to God." And so, I remember many years ago, and I thought about this when I was growing up. It's like the more people would say. I am gonna do this.
I am gonna do that. It seemed like the more that they said that, the less that they that they actually did it. And so, here is my thing: is that. You know, I don't really want somebody to tell me I'm going to do this or I'm going to do that. I want to see your action by your words, and I do believe that that is held up by the word of God.
And so, in God's word, it says that you say that you believe in one God. He says you do well. He says that the demons believe and tremble. He says, but don't you know that faith without works is dead? And so, you.
You know, I heard a story recently about a husband and a wife, and they were getting a little older. and And the wife said, "She said, honey, she said, I really want to know. She said, if I were to die when I get older, she said, would you remarry?" And he said, "Honey, we're having a nice breakfast this morning." He said, "Honey, I don't want to talk about this right now. This is depressing." And so, about a day or two later, his wife came up to him and asked him again, "Honey, would you remarry?" Would you remarry if I if if I was able to? And she said, "Honey," she said, "I don't want to talk about." He said, "Honey, I don't want to talk about this." And so, finally, a third time, the wife said, "Would you remarry if I died?" And he said, "Finally," she said, "Yes." He said, "Yes, honey, I would.
It'll get you off of my back." And she said, "Well, honey," she said, "Would you give me? Would you give your new wife? Would you give her your?" Our bed that we had together, and he said, "No, honey." He said, "That's our bed. I wouldn't do that." And she said, "Okay." She said, "Well, honey, would you give her our house? Would would this be her house when you passed away?" She said, "He said, 'No, honey.' He said, 'I would not give her our house.
This is our house.'" And so finally, the third thing came along. She said, "Well, honey, what about this? Would you give this woman our my golf clubs?" And he said, "No, honey, she's left-handed." And so sometimes you have to realize that the truth will come out, and that the truth will set you free. The Bible says that you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free. But at the same time, we've got to realize that there are times where it's time to plan.
There's a time where it's a time to grow. It's a time to water and a time to do all that stuff. But there is a time where. You must act. Yes, it's good to go to.
You know, people go to seminary. It's good to go to school on how to learn to do evangelism. But at the end of the day, some of you would be better off if you just went out and told people that Jesus loved them and hand them a track. And you know, some of the best teaching and some of the best learning that I've ever done is in the field.
Some of the best learning that I've ever done is by learning on what how what not to do. And the best way that I've learned to do that is by just doing it. Just do it and do it and do it and do it. That's what you got to do. And.
You know, sometimes life is not so easy, but. The Bible says that we cannot be ashamed of the Word of God. The Bible says in Romans chapter one verse sixteen, He says, "I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God, first to the Jew and then to the Gentile." So, in other words, I'm not ashamed of the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm not ashamed of standing up for the Lord Jesus Christ. Did you know that?
I'm not ashamed of that, and I'm not ashamed to tell men. What God has done for me? Are you ashamed? Are you ashamed by not talking about Jesus in front of your friends? Not talking about the goodness of God at your workplace?
Not talking about how good God is on Facebook or Instagram or whatever it is? You see what I'm doing right now? You can do the same thing.
Well, Mike, you're on the radio. Doesn't matter. We all have an opportunity to be able to share the goodness of God wherever. We are, and however we want to do it, you know. There was a story about a woman and her mother's ugly hands.
Have you ever heard this before?
So a young girl, she gets up and and she's growing up with her mom, and her mom has the ugliest hands. And so every time that this young lady goes out with her mother, she always says the same thing, "Mom, I love you." She says, "But you've got to cover up your hands because your hands are extremely ugly." She says, "Mom," she says, "You've got to cover up those hands because it's embarrassing." When I have to, when people have to see me, and they see those hands that you've got that are so ugly, and so the mother would comply, and so one day what happened was was that the the mother. She asked the girl. Young girl asked her mother this. She said, "Mom." She said, "I've always talked about how ugly your hands are." She said, "But what happened to make your hands so ugly?" And so the mother says to her.
She says this. She says, "Well, honey, I've never told you this before." She said, "But when you were very young." She said that there was a there could have been a terrible accident. She said, but I didn't want to talk to you about this because I thought that it might hurt your feelings or it might embarrass you or this, that, and the other, or whatever. She said you were just about to grab something. You were just about to grab a boiling pot of water, and she said right before you could grab that pot of water, she said that I stopped you.
And she said, "Because I stopped you from grabbing that pot of boiling water, this is why my hands are all messed up, and this is why my hands are so ugly." And the young girl said, "She said, 'Mom, she said I never knew why your hands were so ugly. She said, but now I know that the reason that they're deformed, the reason your hands are ugly, is because you saved my life.'" Because I know that you saved my life, she said that I am not ashamed of your hands. And she said every time after that, when they would go out with her mother to to to show what her mother had done for her, she said, "Mom, don't wear those gloves anymore because I am not ashamed of your hands because I know what you've done for me." Oh my goodness! I know what this sounds a lot like. It's a lot like Jesus.
Jesus, yes, you paid the price. On the cross for my sins, you gave your life for me. And the least that I can do is I can live my life just for you, Jesus. I can live my life for you. Chip Ingram told a story years ago, and he said this: He said that there was a young girl, and she was a Christian girl, and she was living in a Muslim country.
And she said that she there. There were some other kids around, and there were some other families around that they were friends with, and they were Muslims. But they heard about a group of radical Islamists who were coming, and they were going to kill all of the Christians in their town. And this other Muslim family was nice, and they said, "You know what? They said we're going to take up for you." They said, "This is what we're going to do.
If you will dress your daughter up in Muslim clothes, and you will tell, we can tell your daughter, we can tell the the radical Muslims when they come around that no, we'll give you a Muslim name, and you tell them your Muslim name, and you say, 'I am a Muslim,' and they'll leave you alone." And the young girl was only about twelve or thirteen years old, and she was just about to say yes, but then she remembered the. Words of Jesus Christ of where He said this. He said, "Whoever is ashamed in front of me, of me in front of other men, and in front of other women, He said, I will be ashamed of you in front of my Father in heaven." He said, "But whoever is not ashamed of me in front of other men, whoever is not ashamed of me in front of other women, He said, that I will not be ashamed of you in front of my Father in heaven." And when the girl remembered this, she Said, you know what? I am not. You are not going to give me a Muslim name.
I'm not going to dress up dress up as a Muslim, and I'm not going to tell these people that I'm a Muslim. I am not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And because this girl said no, and she said I am a Christian, they ended up killing her. You see, we're always looking for a happy ending in this world, but I remember a preacher I heard one time. He said, "This world does not always give us a happy ending.
We don't always have a happy ending in this world." He said this. He said there are times when we do everything the right way. There are times when everything looks good, sounds good, smells good, and feels good. But sometimes on this battlefield, we lose. Because you know what?
It's like that old song says: "This world is not my home. I'm just passing through. Where I belong is somewhere beyond the blue." And I can't feel at home in this world anymore. No, I don't. I feel at home in heaven.
I feel at home bowing my knees at the feet of Jesus. And guess what? I am not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And you may say, "Hey, hey, I'm not ashamed of the gospel." Okay, are you sharing that good news with other people? Are you sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ with your friends?
Are you sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ with your family?
Now, let me tell you what I can sit here and say. I go to the gym. I'm a bodybuilder. I'm a real big bodybuilder, and and that's who I am. And people would ask me.
They'd say, Mike. They say, how often do you go to the gym? And I said, Well, I don't go to the gym.
Okay, are you eating a lot of protein? Are you eating healthy food to try to get strong? Are you running? Are you doing home workout? No, I don't do any of that stuff.
At some point, these people are going to say, and they're going to look at me and they're going to say, Mike, we've got a nice safe place for you. It's over in Butner, North Carolina. Because you may say that you are a bodybuilder, but you don't lift weights, you don't work out, you don't eat healthy, you don't do any of the stuff that a bodybuilder does. At some point, they're going to say you're not a bodybuilder. And I'm here to tell you today: I can say that I'm a Christian.
I can talk Christianese. I know all the Christian language. I know all that stuff as well. But unless I'm living it out, am I really a Christian? That's a question that you've got to ask.
You know the Bible says, "Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name? Did we not heal the sick? Did we not cast out demons?" And He's going to say, "Depart from me, you workers of iniquity. I never knew you. Are you living a Christian life?" Have you turned away?
Have you repented of your sin? You know, I heard a guy this morning. I led Wednesday in the Word over at Dario, right here in Winston Salem, off of University Parkway. We do it every other Wednesday morning at eight a.m. If you guys ever want to join us.
But anyway, so I was leading Wednesday in the Word this morning. And one of the guys said, "He said the devil came to a church and he wanted to join the church. And they said, 'Well, do you believe that Jesus is the Son of God?'" And the devil said, "Yeah, I believe that." He said, "Do you believe that he died on the cross?" The devil said, "Yes, I believe that." He said, "Do you believe that he rose from the grave?" He said, "Yes, I believe that." And they said, "Well, what can you do?" He said, "The devil said, 'I'll clean up the church.'" He said, "I can sing in the choir." I can do this. I can do that, and I can do the other. And they asked him one final question: Will you completely surrender your life to Jesus Christ and do His will?
And the devil said, "No. Yeah, I can act like a Christian. I can talk like a Christian. But the Bible says that man looks at the outward appearance. It says, but God He searches the heart." Hey, you could talk a good talk, but my question is this: Are you walking that walk?
Oh, we could talk a good game. I can look good in front of people. I can smell good, sound good, and this, that, and the other. But if I'm secretly living in sin, the Bible says, "If I regard iniquity in my heart," in other words, if I'm living in sin, it says that the Lord will not even hear your prayers.
Well, that's harsh. That may be harsh. That's the Bible. You know, I tell people, "You, hey, we've got to avoid sin. We've got to stay away from sin." But I'm going to put it the way that Jesus said.
Jesus put it like this. He said, "If your hand causes you to sin, he said to cut it off. He said it's better for you to go through life with one of your hands than to have both of your hands and to be thrown into the fire of hell." He said, "If your eye causes you to sin, he said pluck it out. He said it is better for you to have one of your." Eyes than to have both of your eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell. Jesus said, "Woe to those things that cause men to sin.
They must come, but woe to them." Another verse, he said, "This is what he said." Jesus, this is not me. This is not Mike Zwick. He said, "If you cause one of those little ones to stumble." He said it would be better if you had a millstone tied around your neck and that you were put at the bottom of the sea.
So people say, "Well, there's all these pedophiles out there and they're getting away with it." They are not getting away with anything. You are going to have to face the Lord Jesus Christ one day, and so am I. The good news is, is that no matter what you've done, because of the blood of Jesus Christ, because of the price that He paid on the cross, there is a get out of jail free card, and that is surrender. Believing, yes, believing. Like we said, the demons believe, but surrendering your life to Jesus Christ, turning away from your sin.
Jesus put it like this. He says, "If you want to be perfect, he says, sell everything that you have and give it to the poor." He says, "Come follow me, and you will have treasure in heaven." Are you building up your treasure here on this earth for the here and now, so that you can do what you want to do right now, or are you building treasure in heaven? You know the Bible says in Matthew six thirty three, it says, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness." And He says, "And all these things shall be added unto you." Jesus said in Matthew six twenty five through thirty two, He says, "But I tell you, do not worry about your life." You say, "Well, I can't help worrying today because there's so much stuff that I've got to worry about." What about the Apostle Paul? The Apostle Paul was in prison in Philippians chapter four, and this is what he said. He said, "I've had a lot." He says, "I've had a little." He says, "In any place that I'm in, I've learned to be grateful and to be content with what I've got." You see, out of all the the commandments, the Ten Commandments that we have, most of them are pretty simple.
You know, don't commit adultery. We know what to do. Don't kill. Don't steal. You know, do all that stuff.
But there's one of them that I think gives people a lot of trouble. There's one of them that's really tough for a lot of people to heed and to listen to, and that's this: Do not covet. Do not covet your neighbor's wife, because that's a heart issue. Yes, adultery and stealing and all of that—that can be a hard issue as well. But when you're talking about not coveting and not going after what everybody else is going after, that is an issue of the heart.
And you know what? I wake up in the morning and I say thank you, God, for everything that you've given me, because it's it's it's easy to go one of two ways each day. I can I I can be grateful or I can grumble. And in the Old Testament, when Moses is leading the people and they start to grumble and complain about the the food that God has given them from heaven, they grumble and complain about this and they grumble and complain about that. God sends venomous snakes to those people to bite them, and they and they start to die.
And they cry out to the Lord as they often do, and as we we need to do today as well. And they said, "Lord, save us!" And He put up a a bronze snake up on a pole, and He said, "Whoever looks." To the snake, whoever looks to the snake on this pole will live, and I'm here to tell you today that if you're living in sin, you don't have to do that. You don't have to continue to live in sin. The Bible says in First John, believe it's chapter three, verse eight, where it says that anybody who continues to live in sin is of the devil. If you continue to live a sinful lifestyle, you are not of God.
You are of the devil. That's not a good place to be in. And most people and most preachers won't tell you this, and that's okay. They've got their ministry. They're going to be accountable to God.
I've got this ministry right here, and I'm saying what the Lord is having me to say. I'm going to have to give an answer to Almighty God one day when I stand before Him. I'm going to bow the knee to Jesus, and Jesus is going to say, "Mike, I gave you this family. I gave you this radio station. I gave you this platform to preach from, to speak from." This that.
And the other, what did you do with the platform that I gave you? And I'm going to have to say, Lord, I gave it my all. Or Lord, I didn't. Lord, I did my very best for you. Or Lord, I didn't.
And you know what? I may mess up a lot. I may make mistakes, just as we all do. But I'm here to tell you today that the Bible says in Colossians chapter three, verse twenty-two, twenty-three, twenty-four. He says, "When you're working, work as if you are working for the Lord and not for man, because it says the Lord will give you the inheritance for your." I'm not working for man.
I'm not trying to get the applause of man. I'm sitting here and I'm trying to get the applause of God because there is only one God and His name is Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is coming back again, and I believe He's coming back soon. What are you going to do with that? You know there are no loopholes in the area of Jesus Christ.
There are no loopholes when it comes to the Word of God. I heard years ago W. C. Fields, who was a famous comedian, but he was also an outspoken atheist, and they said towards the end of his life he was in a sanitarium. He was in a hospital, and he knew that he was going to die pretty soon.
And he starts to look through the Bible, and they said, "What are you doing, looking at a Bible?" And he says, "I'm looking for loopholes. There are no loopholes in the Word of God. There are no exceptions to the Word of God." Jesus put it like this. He said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life." He says, "No man cometh unto the Father but by me." And if you're listening right now, and if you've never surrendered your life to Jesus Christ, I want to encourage you to do it right now. I want to encourage you to pray with me right now before the show is over.
Just say, "Lord Jesus, I surrender my life to you. I repent of my sins. I turn away from my sins, and I surrender my life to you, Jesus. Thank you for saving me." In Jesus' name, Amen. And see if you've prayed that prayer.
Get in touch with me. Send me a message. Send me a message on Messenger. You can email me at zwickm8 at gmail dot com. There's a lot of ways you can get in touch with me, but I want to know that you made that decision for Christ.
And I'm here to tell you, if you're looking for the approval of man, you're never going to get it. It's kind of like that man that I heard that day who was who who had a dog and took the dog out. And he was throwing a stick out to the dog, and he said, "Okay, I'm going to go out to the water right now, and I'm going to throw the dog a stick." And he threw his stick out in the middle of the lake, and instead of swimming across the lake, the dog ran across the whole lake, and the dog ran on top of the water all the way back. And the man said to the dog, "He said, 'Wow, this is incredible.' He said, 'I've got to show my neighbor what just happened.'" And so he went and he got his neighbor who was next door, and he said, "Buddy, you got to see this." And he took the took the stick and he threw the stick in the middle of the water, and the dog ran on the water and ran back. And he said, "Did you see what my dog just did?" And the guy said, "Yeah, I saw what your dog did." He said, "Your dog can't even swim." And so there's some people that no matter what you do, no matter how many good things that you can do for the Lord.
They're just going to see the bad that you're doing, and and that's why I love when Jesus was talking to the Pharisees. He said, "You love the praise of man more than you love the praise of God." And see, we're all we all need affirmation. We all need friendships. The Bible says in Hebrews ten twenty five, it says, "Do not forsake the gathering of yourselves," as some of them have done. And we need to we need to do that, and we need to believe that.
But here's the problem. That even though that's true, our number one priority needs to be pleasing the Lord Jesus Christ. Because on Judgment Day, I'm not going to face Sophie. I'm not going to face Jimmy. I'm not going to face Jack.
I'm going to face the Lord Jesus Christ, and He's going to say, "What did you do?" If you're doing nothing right now, this is what I would tell you: is this, as I remember when I was starting off in in the business, and this and that and the other, and they told us they said you hear all of these great things at these conferences that you go to, and you hear all of these great things at the conferences that you're doing. They said, but I want to tell you this, and I want to ask you this. They said. A lot of times, people go away from these conferences, or you may listen to the show and you may go away. From you said, Mike said so much stuff.
I would take one thing that you learn from this show today, and I would apply it to your life. This is the first thing. If you are taking notes, I would write this down. Take fifteen minutes and read the Bible.
Well, I'm going to read the Bible for six hours a day, and I'm going to witness for three hours every afternoon on on the streets and and tell people about Jesus.
Okay, that's great if you're going to do that. But I would say this: if you're not doing anything, why not start off and say I am going to read the Bible for 15 minutes a day? I mean, how many people do we know who can't do fifteen minutes? You know, kind of reminds me of an older couple, and it was Jack and Susie. and And Jack says to his wife, he's dying, and he says, "Honey," he said that time he said when we first got married, and he said I lost my job.
He said you were right there, weren't you, honey? She said, "Yes, honey, I was." And she said, he said that time when I had cancer. He said you were right there with me, honey. And she said, "Yes, honey, you were." And she says, "Right now," he says, "Right now, I am dying, and you are right now. You are right here with me, aren't you, honey?" And she says, "Yes, honey, I am." And he says, "Woman, you are bad luck." We all try to do that.
We all want to please people. We all are looking for the affirmations of others. But I tell you what: the less I look to other people, and the more I look to God, the closer I get to God. If you're not spending any time in prayer today, or any spend, you're not spending time in prayer right now. Make a commitment today.
I'm going to pray for 15 minutes. If you're not telling anybody about Jesus, I would make a commitment. I'm going to pray for one person today.
Well, I want to do three hours. I want to start there. If you stay small, you get them all, because he who is faithful in the smaller things will be faithful with the bigger things as well. And I want to thank you guys for listening today. You can follow me on Facebook, Michael's Wick.
I've got eighteen thousand followers there. You can follow me on Michael's Wick four thousand seven on TikTok. I've got forty two thousand followers there. But more important than that. Spend time with the Lord each day, and ask Him, "What is my will?
What is Your will for my life?" In Jesus' name. If not for God, God bless you guys. All right, for my YouTube channel, "If Not for God" with Mike Zwit, just like, subscribe, and hit that notification bell.
So you'll be alerted when we have our next video.
