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So lower your taxable income while increasing your retirement. PRCUA.org. That's PRCUA.org. Welcome to If Not For God, stories of hopelessness that turn to hope. Here is your host, Mike Zwick. So today on If Not For God, you may have heard of somebody pulling your man card.
Well, I don't know if I've ever heard what Mike's talking about today. Have you ever had anybody pull your cool card? Pull your cool card.
That is correct. You know, it's funny. I was thinking about this the other day because I used to sell books door to door. And when I did it, I was, gosh, I was 21, 22 years old, and I was junior and senior at Appalachian State University. But before we went out for the summer, there was a lady who actually came to our room and she said, all right, guys, I got something to tell you. She's like, I know you guys are all cool. You're in college or whatever, but you're about to have to lose your cool card.
And she said, because when you're out there going door to door selling books, she's like, you're going to have to kind of eat your pride a little bit. And you're not always going to look so cool. And sometimes you're, you're going to have to feel a little silly, but you're going to have to press on and you're not going to feel so cool anymore. But the cool thing is about that is that by the end of the summer, what I learned is by doing the things that were really tough and were really difficult by going door to door, selling people something, my confidence actually soared. And so I was thinking cool card.
And I said, cool card. Well, this kind of relates to the gospel. A lot of times when we want to go share the good news with somebody, or maybe we, you know, I know Robbie or Stu, we've all had the point where we've said, you know, we've seen somebody or we've been talking to them and something tells us we need to share Jesus with this person, but a lot of times something can happen to us. Our heart starts beating.
We get the butterflies in the stomach and Stu, I know you do this with a lot of, I mean, what, how would you advise people? Well, you know, it's interesting because we have three different industries of going way back to our roots, Mike, Robbie Dilmore, and myself, where I'm sure you had people say, if you can sell books door to door, you can sell anything. You've heard that before. Robbie, I'm sure you've had people say, if you can sell cars and we can ratchet it up, if you can sell used cars or whatever, you can sell anything. And I'm convinced if you can sell radio, and I started out selling ads on the radio, you can't see it, it's intangible, right? People are wanting to know, well, what does that look like?
Well, I can look at my newspaper ad and my yellow page ad, which really doesn't exist anymore, but what does a radio ad look like? And of course, that's the beauty of the theater of the mind. But think about something deeper. Selling books, you can sell anything.
Selling cars, you can sell radio. Think about this, if you follow Jesus, you can do all things through Christ who gives me strength. That right there takes invincibility and it puts it all on God himself. You know what it does? It makes him cool. And so often when I'm thinking about my cool card, which I probably think about too much with all my social media and all that stuff, and we have a little bit of a success, and then we think, oh, well, hey, I just signed a book, and then they thought I was someone else. But the fascinating thing about that is, is when you think about, wait, who is cool? Well, Jesus Christ is cool.
You know what? He's made us cool because we're in him. But my identity, my pleasure, my people pleasing is to please him and to make much of Jesus. And when that becomes the prerogative, the motive, then all the cool card talk, which makes sense on a tangential and on a physical motivational level, like the lady very successfully motivates you guys with that talk, I mean to say, hey, you're going to knock on a door to a stranger. But when you go deeper into the kingdom and think, you know, I might on the other side of that door could be someone whose complete eternal trajectory is changed forever because I have the opportunity to present them Jesus Christ. I'm not presenting them to become a Democrat or to become a Republican or to vote for a candidate or to buy a book or to buy a radio ad or to buy a car, which who cares what, you know, how that could end anyway, and that could be neither here nor there, or that could really destroy my self-confidence.
I'm presenting them with the beauty of the Lord Jesus Christ, the water of life, the bread of life who can change them forever. So hence, acceptance isn't accepting me, it's accepting Him. Rejection isn't rejecting me, it's rejecting Him. But then we do want to get into keeping myself out of the way. Maybe I should have a little mouthwash, you know, or throw in a little, you know, breath mint, you know. Maybe I should dress somewhat decent, you know. Maybe I should have good hygiene and good comportment so that I'm not the stumbling block. Maybe I don't yell at that person.
Maybe I ask some questions. Maybe I pray beforehand, Lord, you're gonna have to work here because if He doesn't work, unless the Lord builds house, they that labor, labor in vain. That's right, and I'm looking at a couple of verses right here. Galatians 6, 9 through 10. Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers. 2 Corinthians 8, 16 through 17. Thanks be to God who put into the heart of Titus the same concern I have for you, for Titus not only welcomed our appeal, but he is coming to you with much enthusiasm and on his own initiative. Romans 12, 11.
Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor serving the Lord. And so, Robbie, I know you've been doing this for quite a while. You used to sell books, but what gets you excited in the morning?
You know what is funny? I remember even going selling seeds. You know, in those comic books, you could get a little army man and stuff if you sold seeds door to door.
It is a pretty scary proposition. You don't seem one bit cool as you are standing there, you know, these people trying to sell seeds or greeting cards or whatever it is that you tried to sell. But we used to teach something, because I probably trained, I don't know, way more than a thousand car salesmen in my life, maybe 2,000. And so, one of the things that I always told people, and I think is so relevant here when you talk about fervor, is the first and most important sale that you will ever make is the one that you make to yourself. Because if you're completely sold on Jesus, and that's the fervor that, you know, you experienced him this morning, you had an encounter with God today, then something flipped your switch. I mean, I can just assure you, if you have an encounter with Jesus, he's going to open your mind up, your heart up for something. And then, because you've been sold, right, and the word sold is not a manipulative type of soul, but just like, I mean, you've been encouraged and whatever. And so you actually have been loaded, right, with a great sale for today.
You know, we used to do a sales meeting every morning, you know, that was part of what we did to try to, we called it loading their lip, you know, to be able to have something that was cool that offered customers that day. Well, it's the same exact thing, from my perspective, as I get into the Word of God, and he's going to load my lip for the day. And those are the kind of things, because it says in Acts, and this is one of those things that just got down in my soul, actually, it got down in there because of Ted Burton, who was Christian Businessmen's Committee, had us memorize these verses, like Stu's parents did, but this one was, you know, you'll receive power from on high to be my witness, right, in Acts. Well, when you've actually witnessed something today, you have power today.
Like, this is what happened to me today. And it's pretty exciting for me to be able to share that stuff. Even in my new podcast I just started about six weeks ago, it's called Bible Wonders, and so every day God loads my lip and I come in here and record the thing.
I mean, it really, we were talking about this Saturday, it really doesn't even feel like a job. You know, when I first became a Christian and I said to people, well, you have to tell people about Jesus, it was like, well, it's something I've got to do, but now it's like, after being a Christian all these years, it's something that I get to do. And I'll tell you a story. I was at the pool the other day, and when I was at the pool, there was this little two-year-old kid or whatever, and the teacher was teaching him how to swim, and all of a sudden this little kid started yelling and screaming, mommy, mommy, mommy.
And all of a sudden the mommy was there, she looked at the kid, she turned around and ran outside. But what I thought about was this, it's Proverbs 3, 4 through 6, then you will win favor in a good name in the sight of God and man, trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not under your own understanding, and all your ways submit to him and he will make your path straighter. Philippians 4, 12, I know what it is to be in need and I know what it is to have plenty.
I have learned the secret of being content in every and all situations. Proverbs 24, 10, if you falter in a time of trouble, how small is your strength? Well, it would have been really easy for the mother to come back and talk to the kid and say, oh, I'm going to get you out, and you don't have to scream anymore. And she would have felt better in the minute, and he would have felt better in the minute, but there never would have been any true growth. I mean, you think about it, if we went out and every single person that we ever talked to about Jesus said, oh my gosh, I've been waiting for you to talk to me. That's exactly right.
It's going to be very, very rare. I heard John MacArthur talk about someone he sat next to on a plane and somehow they figured out he was a minister. They looked at him and they said, hey, sir, you're a minister. Listen, I've been trying to figure out how to get saved. Can you help me get saved? Can you leave me a prayer?
MacArthur's like, you know, that has never been set up like me before. But you know, it's interesting, I was just at a Christian school and I'm a product of a lot of Christian schools growing up, and I challenged the kids to know God and to make God known. And I challenged them from the last words of Saul in Acts 9 and the first words of Paul in Acts 9, where Paul said, okay, God, who are you, Lord? Who is Jesus? Know God, know him.
And then what do you want me to do? Well, make him known. We're going to take the gospel everywhere, right?
Aggressively, intentionally, ambitiously. Think about the stuff we are quick to talk about. Like if I'm vegan, everyone's going to know about it before I get out the room, right?
If I'm in CrossFit, everyone's going to see my flex and my muscles, and they're going to know, right? Think about the stuff that gets you excited about. Well, how excited are we about the gospel? And so I challenged the kids. I said, if you guys after this chapel go up to your lab in the science class and a couple of the whizbang science kids get together with a professor who's a brilliant professor, and things come together in the lab, and somehow you get the molecular compounds together to create the cure for cancer. I mean the real cure.
I mean some sort of syrup, liquid, some sort of serum that you can put on any kind of cancer, it will kill it. And it's real. It's bonafide. It's proven.
You've tested it out, and it's in a high school lab at a small, well, a good-sized Christian school, but you know in a small town, Winston-Salem, North Carolina. What's going to happen here? Suddenly, everyone in this school is famous. Suddenly, we aren't doing fundraisers anymore. We got more money coming here. We're famous. We are well known. And how long will it take for us to get the message out to the world that we have the cure for cancer, and how excited will everyone be?
Now, you think about this. While we don't have the cure for cancer, people that get that, or other diseases, or they're going to die of other things, right? We have the cure of sin. We have the knowledge of Jesus Christ, the savior of the world.
We have the answer to all of life's questions. It's a name. It's a person. It's Jesus.
He came, died, rose from the dead to give us life. We can present him. We can present information to you that could transform your life forever. And so I said, kids, why are we hiding this under a bushel?
Why aren't we aggressively telling people? This is the greatest news ever. And Jesus said, go. Go is the first two letters of the word gospel. Go make disciples.
Go preach the gospel. You'll receive power. Holy Spirit comes upon you, Acts 1-8. You'll be my witnesses. You're going to go and infiltrate, and infect, and super spread the word of God.
So how intentional. Who have I asked God for today? Lord, open one door for me to share Jesus. And by the way, I've never had that prayer gone unanswered.
Here's a reason right here, and we talked about this on Saturday, Robbie. Ezekiel 33, 7 through 9. Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the people of Israel. So hear the word that I speak, and give them warning from me. When I say to the wicked, you wicked person, you will surely die, and you do not speak out to dissuade them from their ways. That wicked person will die for their sin, and I will hold you accountable for their blood. But if you do warn the wicked person to turn from their ways, and they do not do so, they will die for their sin, though you yourself will be saved. So what I hear him saying is, is that if we have the cure for cancer, which is Jesus, I mean the cure, we have eternal life, and we don't tell anybody about that, well what does that say? He's gonna, he's gonna hold us accountable.
If we tell people about it, and they don't respond positively, we're off the hook. You know, that's one, but even a bigger reason, and this is what we were talking about before, Robbie, was we talk so much about, and we think so much about this, but when I started to, and I've really started thinking about this recently, and I'm sure you've studied this, Robbie, but when you think about the wonders and how glorious it would, it's going to be to get to heaven, man, I want to tell people about that. What do you think, Robbie? I think what Stu said was absolutely beautiful, that the word go is in the word gospel, but if you look at the word go in Hebrew, which is all over the place, if I could just kind of give you the inside of that word, it's like planting a seed that becomes an oak of righteousness. It's a letter called a zadik, when you see it, you know it means righteousness, and there's a seed involved in going, and so what you're doing is you're planting seeds, because I can't save anybody. But what I can do, you know, what God enabled us to do is at least tell the story of what's happened in my life, what I've seen happening, what I've witnessed, you know, with Christ, but in doing so, you know, I don't want people to think, well, I've got to lead all these people to Christ.
Well, that isn't what it says, because you're not responsible for people's response. What you are responsible to do is to plant seeds, and so when Jesus told the parable of the sower, which is the more I study that, the more I realize that it's really a picture of what we are, because we are dust, and so this is not a parable necessarily. You are dirt, so if people plant seeds in your dirt, if it's good dirt, it will take root, and the next thing you know, you'll become an oak of righteousness. And so, unfortunately, Satan's going to try to come and take the seed up. He hates seed.
He's going to try his best to do that. You've got hard soil, you've got all sorts of other things, so it's kind of cool that we get to look at people like you would farmers. Like, we love somebody, and we have an opportunity, right, to kind of begin to till up their soil so that when we do plant seeds, which are clearly the word of God, which is why I love both you guys, you guys have scripture after scripture that you can fire out.
It's just beautiful. Well, Robbie, that plays, the soil plays right into one of the greatest soul-winning verses ever. My favorite verse, Proverbs 11 30, which says, "'The fruit of the righteous is the tree of life, and he that winneth souls is wise.'" So there is a reproductive component to being a believer.
And if you notice, Luke, I think it's 1310, somewhere in there in the Luke passage of the parable, he says, you know, this is the fruit, this is a seed, the sign of the good soil is it's not just productive, but it's reproductive. And you know, in the Chinese church, I've interviewed people who have been with underground members of the church, who have seen them imprisoned, who've seen the oppression and all that, but they've seen the fire of God in these dear saints' eyes. And they've told me that in China, among believers, if within a year of you converting to Christ, if you haven't been a part of a church plant that's bringing more to Christ, then they consider you an infertile Christian.
Like, it is not a badge of honor. In other words, everywhere they're going, they are leading folks to Christ. There's 20,000 people coming to faith in Christ every week in China. They're praying that we'll get saved.
Now, that number, I've heard, is as low as 12, as high as 30, so I always park somewhere in 18,000 to 20,000 a week. But there are people in China that are praying that we in the West will wake up, and that we will start, you know, like Robbie said, how am I a super-spreader of the seed of the gospel? I have the vocal cords, and I have the bodily ability and the Holy Spirit of God living in me and His power to take the message of Christ to people who are hurting.
Has that message ever been needed in history? What's my legacy? I kill over tomorrow and go to heaven. Who's there at my funeral that I brought to Christ? Who am I intentionally bringing to Christ?
It starts in my home. That's the hardest part, people that you know, right? But who am I talking to, looking for opportunities to bring to Him? Yeah, there was an old expression that said, I set myself on fire, and people come to watch me burn.
You know, I mean, there's something I heard one time that said, you can't sell a dream if you're living a nightmare. You know, there's a verse, and you probably know this, Stu, if anybody asks you for the hope that you have within you, always be willing to give an answer. And Pastor Chad Harvey, who we had on before, he said, the problem is for many of us, we're talking about answering questions that nobody's asking.
And I know, Robbie, you say when you wake up in the morning, you spend time in prayer, and I see you, and I see Stu, I see you're excited. There's something different about you. If you're a Christian, and you're indistinguishable, people can't tell the difference between you and the unsaved person.
Now, I'm not saying you have a bad day or whatever, but I'm saying over the course of your life, if there's no difference between you, a Christian, and a non-Christian, man, I wonder if there's some question marks that people might have about you. I was looking at Psalm 11. It says, in the Lord, I put my trust. How can you say to my soul, flee as a bird to your mountain? For look the wicked bend their bow.
They make ready their arrow on the string that they may shoot secretly at the upright in heart. If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do? The Lord is in his holy temple.
The Lord's throne is in heaven. His eyes behold, his eyelids test the sons of men. The Lord tests the righteous, but the wicked and the one who loves violence, his soul hates. Upon the wicked, he will rain coals, fire and brimstone.
I thought that was a bad word. It's in the Bible. Fire and brimstone and a burning wind shall be the portion of their cup, for the Lord is righteous. He loves righteousness. His countenance beholds the upright. When I'm looking in there, I actually saw a verse where it says, the Lord tests the righteous.
What does that mean? One of the beautiful places he tests us, if we're really direct. Morgan Snyder with Wild at Heart Ministries tells the story about this pastor that passed away, and he had a son that was in his 20s. And when everybody got up and they were talking about this pastor, what a wonderful man he was. You know, the son said to one of the deacons there, boy, he sounded like he was a really nice guy.
I wish I'd have met that guy. And, you know, that kind of tells us that, right, where we're living in our own homes, right? Are we actually living the good news? Like, you know, God has given us that kind of peace where we can relate to our families, our children, our wives. So, you know, that story is always just kind of stuck like, yeah, a lot of people say, Robbie, yeah, but what did my kids say?
What did my wife say? You know, and, you know, what would it be like to spend eternity without those I dearly, dearly, dearly love? Because I don't take the time for that as well. So there's clearly a balance that is just critical to ask.
And there's no way to navigate this, by the way. I don't think so, without God's help. It's like, there's no way I can do this without God. So God help me to see what it is that I can do to clearly be the king that God wants me to be over my own house, to be Jesus to my own kids, to be Jesus, you know, to my wife. Robbie, I think you put the test in testimony.
You know, that's the first three words, you know, first four letters of testimonies test. And, of course, James said, count it all joy when you fall into these tests, knowing the trial of your faith works patience. But don't short circuit that process.
Let patience have her perfect work. That there's, you know, there's no golden parachutes in the middle of that. You lean into God, you lean into God, and yet you come out, you know, more purified than gold. And there's a refining that happens that shows the Lord's love, you know, and you've got to separate chastening, which is the Lord's discipline, from testing, which is what we're in. This whole world is a test.
And things are, they're up in the ante every day. I mean, this is someone, I heard someone say they might call Christians a designation of domestic terrorist. Imagine someone said, hey, you're a domestic terrorist, let's lock them up. Because you use that Bible, which they are trying to, there are forces right now trying to make the Bible hate speech. So what if they come for your Bible? What if they, online version, they take all the verses of the Bible out, all the imprecatory verses that are negative, that they're not politically correct, you know. So believers, there's never been a time for us to anchor into the rock of ages, Jesus Christ.
He's the key. Well, that's pretty good. And how do we respond when we face persecution? Not if, but when. And it could be on a smaller level or on a larger level, but Acts chapter 5 verse 40, at this they yielded to Gamaliel. They called the apostles in and had them flogged. Then they ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus and release them. Now they were flogged.
That was pretty serious. They were beaten. The apostles left the Sanhedrin rejoicing that they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the name.
Every day in the temple courts and from house to house, they did not stop teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Christ. And you know, I was thinking about it. My wife's, her mother, her favorite Psalm was Psalm 139. God is with us wherever we go. Says, oh Lord, you have searched me and known me. You know my sitting down and my rising up.
You understand my thought afar off. You comprehend my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word on my tongue, but behold, oh Lord, you know it altogether. You have hedged me behind and before and laid your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It is high.
I cannot attain it. Where can I go from your spirit or where can I flee from your presence? If I ascend into heaven, you are there. If I make my bed in hell, behold, you are there. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there, your hand shall lead me and your right hand shall hold me. If I say, surely the darkness shall fall on me. Even the night shall be, even the night shall be light about me. Indeed, the darkness shall not hide from you, but the night shines as the day.
The darkness and the light are both alike to you. For you formed my inward parts. You covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are your works and that my soul knows very well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in secret and skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Your eyes saw my substance being yet unformed and in your book they all were written.
The days fashioned for me when as yet there were none of them. How precious also are your thoughts to me, oh God. How great is the sum of them.
If I should count them, they would be more in the number of the sand. When I awake, I am still with you. Oh, that you would slay the wicked, oh God. Depart from me, therefore, you bloodthirsty men, for they speak against you wickedly.
Your enemies take your name in vain. Do I not hate them, oh Lord, who hates you? And do I not loathe those who rise up against you? I hate them with perfect hatred. I count them my enemies. Search me, oh God, and know my heart.
Try me and know my anxieties and see if there is any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting, if not for God. You've heard me talk about his pillows for a long, long time and no doubt big business is responding to Mike Lindell and all this generosity for causes for the kingdom by trying to shut down his business. You can't buy his pillows at Kohl's anymore. You can't get them on Amazon or you can't get them at Costco.
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