You are a High Value Target in the 5K Race that is Life

This is Stu Epperson from the Truth Talk Podcast, connecting current events, pop culture, and theology, and we're so grateful for you that you've chosen the Truth Podcast Network.

It's about to start in just a few seconds. Enjoy it, and please share it around with all your friends. Thanks for listening, and thanks for choosing the Truth Podcast Network. This is the Truth Network. Kingdom Pursuits, where you hear from ordinary people instilled with an extraordinary passion. Together, we explore the stories of men and women who take what they love and let God turn their passion into Kingdom Pursuits. Now, live from the Truth booth, your host, Robbie Dilmore. Oh, it's so good to be with you here, just right before Valentine's Day. You know, there's a lot going on this weekend, as well as the Super Bowl.

I understand, I've heard a rumor about that, but we've got way more of a Super Bowl going on here today on Kingdom Pursuits. First up, we have with us Pastor Skip Farrow. He was with a North Point Baptist Church here in Winston-Salem, and Skip, we got a big event coming up. Yes, we do, and I appreciate so much the opportunity to tell everyone we can about this. It is a privilege for our church to be in support of the Salem Pregnancy Care Center, which reaches out to young women in a crisis pregnancy situation, giving them an alternative to abortion, counseling them, loving on them, giving them advice, supporting them, and helping them through a crisis in their life, and giving them an alternative. And we have been very impressed with their ministry and their outreach and their presentation of the Gospel. On March the 5th, we will be sponsoring, as a church, a 5k walk-run, all proceeds of which will go towards Salem Pregnancy Care Center. And we are, I want to just be able to tell everybody about it.

You can find it on itsyourrace.com. This is an official race. Dick's Sporting Good stands behind this. Finish Line Timing will be the official timekeeper for it. There'll be awards for every age group. We will give away door prizes, free prizes. Zaxby's will be there with free food. We'll have a classic truck parked there on the tailgate. There'll be coffee for everyone who wants to enjoy it. And the 5k race will start at 10 a.m. and then right after that, a pot of gold, short, just a short dash, I think, for young kids at 11 and the awards at 1130.

The cost of it is $35, but if you push a child in a stroller, it's only $25. That'll make it more fun. Yeah. And so, in my understanding, it's at the farmer's market? It is, in Colfax.

Right. You'll be running around the farmer's market at Colfax. So, how fun. Saturday, it's called the Lucky Leprechaun 5k. Again, it's going to be at the farmer's market. That's pretty easy for all of us to know between Winston-Salem and Greensboro.

Kind of fits here right between the two. And how neat that this is going to support such an amazing cause. So, we're going to be talking with, obviously, Skip about, you know, this race, about his church, et cetera. But we also have with us David Johnson. And we've had David on before.

I've met him at the National Religious Broadcasters Convention. He's an author. But you've got a new project, David. I understand that it's your new book.

You are a high-value target. I didn't know it. You are. I didn't know it. You are.

Of all the people who should know how valuable they are, it ought to be both of you. You know, unfortunately, we do these Mask on Journey boot camps. And sometimes I've told these guys, you know, as you leave here, be aware that you've got a bigger target on your back than you've ever had. The enemy now knows that you're walking into your true identity and those kind of things that you become a more valuable target. And, wow, one time, three weeks later, one of those young men, you know, got taken out completely was—and it happened to be Bob Young's son, who is the Christian junkyard guy.

And I can remember Bob looked at me and said, you remember what you said three weeks ago? And it really—it's a frightening reality, but by the same token, you know, God has got us right where he wants us. Yeah, and he's got a battle plan for us to deal with the enemies, and they are plural.

I like that. But, you know, an interesting scripture says we're not ignorant of Satan's devices. We know what's going on, and the first rule of warfare is know your enemy. And so we don't shirk in fear. We're ready, and we've got marching orders.

Let's go for it. Yeah, and David, you were in the military and written other books for military people, right? I wasn't in the military, but yes, I wrote a book called Time to Kill and a Time to Heal, basically to help combat soldiers recover from PTSD. Because when you've had to shoot a man face to face on the battlefield, you then have to go through his clothes, pull out his passport, whatever his pockets, and they would find a picture of his wife, a picture of his children, and they have to live with that for the rest of their lives. And it's interesting because the insight comes, of course, from scripture, which is the basis of all truth. But in Ecclesiastes, there's a time to be born and time to die, and two verses, a time to kill and a time to heal.

Anybody who's had to kill legitimately in a war has got to heal. And the very fact that we're having so many suicides by military people every day in America is just indication of how severe they need biblical instruction on how to get over the killing. Right, which ties back into what Salem Pregnancy is doing so much, right, David, pastor, in that every single abortion has multiple victims of murder, right?

You've got the mother, but then you also have the father, and you know, a lot of times have the in-laws or the parents of the mother, all these people now all suffer with that same kind of thing. And so, boy, if we can get it stopped before it ever starts, it's a powerful thing, right, pastor? Yes, and I was just thinking, the other perspective to this is, as you mentioned, the father and the mother of a child that has been aborted, they are going to deal with a huge crisis. And another part of a ministry like this is to be there for people like that for the healing and to know that they are loved by God, that they are cared for, they're valuable to Him, and that there is forgiveness, there is redemption. Well, you've got that right.

Yes, and I think that's the other part of this that sometimes is neglected. But, David, I'm looking forward to reading this book, just now hearing about it. Well, you know, what we celebrate, really, is what all three of us celebrate, and that is the gospel, is the power of God to salvage these people. I'm amazed that God loves sinners like this. He loves sinners. That's a radical thing, and there's no sin or number of sins that the blood of Jesus cannot cleanse. So we just, we get forgiveness, but we get cleansing, and then we get re-establishment. And so, like you're saying, Skip, that father and that mother need that kind of encounter with God that makes the old past away so the new can begin.

Right. I can remember, it was interesting, I did a, I guess, a radio show during the Christian Counselors Convention that was in Nashville one time. They wanted me to interview 100 counselors. And as I was going through, doing all these interviews, so many of them, I would say a third of them, were counselors to people either that were considering abortion, the mothers, the fathers, the in-law, I mean, the mother and father of the daughter often push their daughter, and the guilt that can come onto that is, it's all part of—but it was interesting to me that almost every, in fact, in that particular situation, every single counselor had experience firsthand of an abortion, or somehow were connected to it, where they had walked through those things, and God had healed them.

He was the God of all comforts, Scripture, right, from 2 Corinthians, that God had comforted them so that they could comfort others. It's amazing how that all goes around. So you can see we got our great show lined up for you.

I still haven't got to my riddle. Didn't seem appropriate right there in the moment we were talking about. But we will get to that when we come back, as well as more from Pastor Skip in this 5K race, and David Johnson with his book, right? You are a high-value target.

Wow. We'll be right back. Welcome back to Kingdom Pursuits, where we hear how God takes your passion and uses it to build the kingdom, and how fun we've got Pastor Skip Furl with us with North Point Baptist Church, North Point Baptist Church, and their amazing Leprechaun Lucky 5K that's coming up, as you might guess, in March, like leprechauns do, at 10 o'clock, the farmer's market in Colfax. And again, this is at Lucky Leprechaun.

Give the website again where people can register. Um, if you go to itsyourrace.com, we are calling the race running for their lives. So you'll see that also on there. And the four is numeric, running for the number for their lives. But we're piggybacking onto what has historically been the Lucky Leprechaun race at the farmer's market.

So look for the either running for their lives or the Lucky Leprechaun on itsyourrace.com. There you go. And so we got that coming up and a lot more from him. And of course, we have David Johnson.

He's the author of You Are a High Value Target. So as you might know, I have to get to my riddles. And so that Carmen, speaking of targets, oh, some of these, you know, I honestly had one that was so funny. It made me laugh for five minutes, but I can't share it on the air anyway. Not because it was, well, just couldn't do it anyway. How did the bank now we're all wondering. Yeah, yeah, they get worried right now.

There was a racial slur in there that I just didn't think was appropriate. Anyway, how did the bank robber choose his next target? You may wonder this. Did you wonder about it Carmen? Yeah, I did wonder, can you tell me how did the bank robber you know, they have to be careful. So he used Google Safe Search. Yeah, I don't know if you knew that.

But Google's Safe Search, you know, they show you where all the safes are. Yeah, yeah. And I don't know, I'm so tempted to tell this one. But it's, it's not a rate. It's not. Oh, well.

What do you call a bank? Excuse me. What do you call a duck that always hits its target? Did you know that one Carmen?

No, I don't call that a quack shot. That's very good. Yeah, that one's just, you know, this is actually anyone from my church is groaning right now because they know I'm gonna repeat it. You've talked me into it. And so I've had to do it.

Here we go. The sudden and now I understand this isn't the best of taste. But I find it so funny. I just sat there and laugh for five minutes. Anyway, the son in law was sat in his room throwing darts at his mother in law's photo.

But not even a single one hits the target. Can you picture that Carmen? He's throwing these darts apparently is not a very good shot. And from the living room, his mother in law says, What are you up to now, Larry? To which he responds, I'm missing you, mom. Oh, my goodness. Oh, well, I think it's funny anyway. So after all that, Shannon, again, you know, I'd actually would do you like that that one, David? Yeah, I think you should have written the book instead of me.

What an introduction. So we got to get to our actual Bible riddle today. So here you go. What archery shots in the Bible? Since we're talking about targets, right? What archery shots in the Bible went long? It's like the Super Bowl. These archery shots went long. And you could say the two involved were pulling a few strings to get safe.

You know what I'm saying? So if you know the answer to that, you call us 866-348-78840. We got some stuff for you. 866-344 truth. If you know which archery shots in the Bible went long, you can say the two involved were pulling strings to be safe. And Carmen, if they can guess that, tell them what they'll win. They'll win one of our marvelous reads from the Kingdom Pursuits Prize Vault. Oh, it's loaded for bear.

We have so many wonderful books. And all you got to do is call in to answer our riddle on those famous long archery shots. Come on, it's a pretty easy one. 866-348-788486634 truth.

And no doubt, they missed the target. Anyway, on purpose. So Pastor, I'm curious about how did you get involved with Salem Pregnancy?

How did God put this on your hearts to get involved? I enjoy running. Really? I do.

I do. I enjoy running. And I just heard about the ministry. Our church has heard about them for years and just felt burdened.

And I enjoy participating in 5Ks. And I thought, well, why can't our church do one to benefit this local ministry that is such an incredible outreach to others? And so we contacted the ministry and they thought it was a great idea.

And so we just decided to do it and thought it'd be a fun way to raise money for them. And so you've probably run in previous, it sounds like, lucky leprechauns runs, maybe. No, last year was the first time that I've ever run in that one. I've done some other 5Ks. But this is the first time I've ever done this one. But last year I did run in it, yeah.

Yeah. So you've had a chance to experience that. But the neat thing, as somebody that I used to could do that, I'll be honest that I'm not physically able to do it anymore because my knees won't take the running that they used to.

I could do a 5K walk maybe. But when I used to run 5Ks, the camaraderie, right, and that whole sense of really community as you guys are getting through it and the whole fun of, wow, God gave you a body that could run miles and miles. It's still fun for me to do that.

And it's exciting. And you're right, there is a camaraderie because you just have fun together. A younger, a much younger guy than me, who's a good friend that I met through a married Christian camp, he ran with me last year. And he deliberately stayed with me. He could have run it a lot faster, but he deliberately stayed with me in the race just to encourage me. And we had a lot of fun. And I really appreciated him doing that. He could have run it a lot faster than me. Yeah, I actually had a guy that used to run marathons. It was a Marine.

That I can't imagine. And he taught me some beautiful things that I've never forgotten. He would say, Robbie, don't look ahead.

Look at the ground right in front of you. And he said, I've never forgotten that if I'm running. And then he said, it's all about the breathing. It's all about your breathing. Yes, it is. And that if you can get a cadence in your breath going, which don't you find that interesting that in so much of life, it's all about the breathing?

It is. There's a lot of spiritual applications in physical exercise. And just the discipline, you read the book of Proverbs, it says a lot about just discipline, diligence.

And there's a lot of applications, I think, spiritually that you learn from just physical exercise. Right. And it's like, man, unfortunately, we're mindless about our breathing. Yes. But it's so connected to the spirit.

It's unbelievable. And if we could, you know, somehow or another, get on that page. Are you tracking with us at all, David, here? Are we off and left?

I've decided I would like to go to your race.com and register on the condition that Skip doesn't make me actually do the run. That'll be just fine, brother. I'm an old man. In fact, the highest compliment I ever get from my wife is, David, you don't act your age.

There you go. That's a compliment. Yeah, I still enjoy riding my bike. I can do that with my knees. But and I actually employ the same techniques I used to do when I run.

I'll tend to look at the road in front of me and I'll measure my breaths and get a cadence going when I'm when I get tired and all that kind of thing. But I think it's absolutely a wonderful thing and especially for such a time as this, right? Because to get outside when everybody's so afraid of to get outside and run and all that. I can imagine taking part in that event last year when everybody's been hunkered down and all that stuff.

This is helpful, isn't it? It was refreshing. We actually, if I remember right, we had tried to do it before, but the fear of the virus and things like that and what it turned out to be last year was just it was kind of like a just a release for those who participated to me, at least it was to me anyway, that at least outside we could get together outside and not worry about it, get fresh air, be in the sunlight and just have fun. It was nice to be together again.

I remember that from last year. It was really refreshing and exciting. I think that was part of what made it so much fun last year was people finally at least outside.

You could still maintain distance, but nice fresh air and people gathering. Is there a lot of fellowship between the runners or has everybody pretty well concentrated on their own run? It's funny and hopefully will attract a few more serious runners. For me, it was a lot of fellowship. For others, some of those guys and some of those men and women are so serious. I mean, this is a big deal. For me, it's just a lot of fun to be together, but you have the serious runners that they're focused and they're going to get their time and their time is going to be on the internet where everybody can see it and things like that.

They're very competitive, so it kind of varies, but we try to make this a real fun atmosphere. Right, right. Well, we blew through that segment and nobody called.

I'm shocked that you didn't know what Archer in the Bible really. His shots went long. 866-348-7884. We would love to hear that so you can call in and win when we come back. We got a lot more to talk about. You are a high value target with David Johnson's new book as well as this 5k run. So stay tuned.

We got a lot more coming up. Welcome back to Kingdom Pursuits where we hear how God takes your passion and uses it to build the kingdom we're so blessed to have with us Pastor Skip Furrow of North Point Baptist Church here in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, as well as David Johnson. He's the author of You Are a High Value Target, Knowing Your Enemy's Schemes and Defeating Them.

So I'm interested, David, how did God put it on your heart to write such a book? I think my observation of so many people being defeated one way or another by different mechanisms, and I thought, my goodness, this just cannot be. Add to that the contemporary, what's going on in our present culture is shocking because the good guys are now the targets. For example, the First Amendment is being denied a lot of Christian organizations. We got this anti-conversion therapy on the way through legislation right now, which basically says that you cannot attempt to advise therapeutically or otherwise anybody to change their gender or sexuality or identity. In fact, just last week, I think it was, in Finland, they used the hate speech laws and they redefined it, and they called it ethnic agitation.

One of the members of the parliament got charged three criminal charges for giving her testimony because it was considered ethnic agitation. In fact, when Scripture says in the last days of parallelism, time shall come, as men shall be, and one of them is that they will be despisers of those that are good. Evil is not content to just be evil. It wants to change the whole scheme of things and say that the good people are really the evil people, and that's where we get that great verse, woe unto them that put good for evil and evil for good, bitter for sweet, sweet for bitter, etc. And so what happens now is anybody who stands up for moral principles is considered evil because they are against the evil side of the ledger. So I think the issue is really contemporary right now, culturally, but individually, too. People are under attack, and the more valuable a person is, the more it seems they're under attack, like we just referenced, the truth is that few people understand how valuable they are, for starters.

I just came and it's kind of difficult right now, I'm glad to be on Robby so much and to share with Skip. But I just came from a morning event where there were two ladies that worked there, and one didn't show up dead. She's dead. They're not sure whether she shot herself or whether her son shot her. But people who are into self-abuse have a major identity problem of loving themselves, and of course we're supposed to love our neighbor as ourself. You don't love yourself, then you're not going to love your neighbor. And so self-destructive behaviors are really suicide on an installment plan. Instead of taking your life with some finality, you just kill yourself, you know, drink by drink, by drug, activity by activity. And so people are self-destroying.

And I think the second and major reason is because they don't know how wonderful they really are. Darrell Bock Yeah, I couldn't agree with you more that, I mean, obviously God thought you were wonderful enough to literally die for you. I mean, but I'm curious, you know, when you go on these projects with God, and I know you did that, he sneaks up on you sometimes and he teaches you something that you're like, oh, I didn't know that. Was there something along the lines when you were doing your research on the book or studying that God showed you as a solution that you didn't see coming?

David Morgan Oh, sure. Sure. I had to differentiate between what was an attack from without versus the fault of my own activity or disposition. Because not everything that's going wrong is an attack, because we can mess things up by ourselves. So I have had my share of had to, like, I love the scripture of Skip, I think it was Skip, I don't know whether it was Robbie or Skip, that you quoted earlier in the show, that one Blessed be God, the Father of Allegiance Christ, the God of all mercies, who comforts us in our tribulation, so that we can comfort others for the same comfort we ourselves got from God. So it's like God takes us through our trouble, because now we know how to help somebody else who's going through the same trouble, and we can share with them the help we got from God.

That is a phenomenal concept. And I can't remember which of you quoted that, but it's so significant. And it's your point right now, Robbie, is that, and that's, I guess, you know, I guess that's why God didn't choose angels to do the preaching. He chose people. He wanted people who had to struggle and win, fail and survive, sin and get recovery. And this is the wonderful thing about God, he's totally delicate, he knows how to fix everything that's broken, and so that's why people should come to him. But people must, first of all, know their value, and I really like what you just said, to be died for.

What does that mean? What does it mean to have somebody die for you, if it doesn't mean you are really important? Somebody died for you.

Oh, so, so wonderful. And of course, there's so there's so many more points to that. To know that you are actually fathered by God, for just as he's the father of us all. And Jesus starts to say, when you pray, say, our father, which art in heaven, it's true a man and a woman got together and it's going to be a baby coming, but it is God that puts the person inside the baby. That's why he's called the father of spirits. Yeah, it is really a good point. It's a beautiful thing that actually he, before time began, he said, well, there's going to be a skip, furrow, we need this guy to run in the 5Ks.

You know, he thought through, I mean, it's unbelievable when you think about it, that, you know, my parents may have wanted to have kids, but God was going to delight in you when you were born. That's a beautiful, wonderful point, David. And part of the whole reason that, again, this 5K is so critical, because all those babies, that God wants to be on the scene, that's how much, the same thing, right? Exactly.

David had to— I'm sorry. I can't be more respectful and admirable about what you're doing about what you're doing to save the babies. I mean, this is like— I read that, somebody was demonstrating and they had a sign, a girl had a sign that said, if when the heart stops, we are declared dead, why aren't we declared alive when the heart starts? Oh, I like that. I've never heard that. That's brilliant. I mean, there's no rationale to kill the babies.

None. Evil isn't rational. It's never rational, because evil distorts everybody's thinking. And thus, of course, that whole abortion thing goes back to the days of Hitler, when the people, the Jewish people, were deemed as less than human. Therefore, they could be killed without it being called murder. And of course, when the trials came up, the main argument for the defenders, who were Germans, for killing all these people was, well, we never broke the law.

We never broke the law. Well, I hate we're going to go to a break, David, but we will be right back with more from Pastor Skip Furrow and David Johnson. His book, Are You a High-Value Target? No, you are a high-value target.

Not are you a high-value target, you are. And then Skip's race. Welcome back to Kingdom Pursuits, where we hear how God takes your passion and uses it to build the kingdom. And today, we are blessed to have with us Pastor Skip Furrow with North Point Baptist Church and their 5K, which is called the Lucky Leprechaun 5K.

It's going to be at the farmer's market in Colfax. And let me get this website to you. Itsyourrace.com. That's great. And not like, it's my party and I'll cry if I want to. No, it's Itsyourrace.com.

Saturday, March the 5th at 10 a.m. And again, the idea is to support Salem Pregnancy Care Centers. And I liked what David said. He said, you know, I'll just go there. You can go there and register and whatever. And you don't have to run. You can ride a bike. You can walk.

You can stay in Dallas or wherever. Where are you at today, David? I am online trying to register right now. Okay. Awesome. That's fantastic, David.

It wasn't quite long enough, you know. But where do you live, David? I live in Atlantic Beach, Florida. Oh, good for you. I'm a Canadian by birth, an American by the grace of God, and a Southerner by choice. We have a great bumper sticker down here.

It says, I wasn't born in the South, but I got here as fast as I could. That's good. I like that.

I like that. So, getting back to, I just want to talk a bit about North Point. That I've been familiar with your ministry for years. Your sons, you know, got a neat ministry. And what would you share with us about your church where people are thinking, man, I need a church to go to up here on the north side of Winston-Salem. Oh, I appreciate that very much.

First of all, North Point is a very loving group of people. And we are interested in people coming into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. It is a privilege for me to just preach God's word. I don't have enough time left in my life to preach anything else. I will never get done with the word of God. And we just preached right straight from the Bible, just trying to reach people for Christ and encourage them in their walk with Christ. And I would just say, we would welcome you to come. If you don't know the Lord, we want you to know how you can know him. If you do know him, please come and just grow with the rest of us who are trying to figure out how to grow in Christ. And it is a super group of people.

Very loving, very kind. And that's absolutely critical. I remember our pastor at Calvary one time said, you don't have to go to church to get to heaven, but you don't need a boat to get to Europe, but it is a long swim. Yes, it is. And I love it, but I was going to say, Pastor, in your own life, right, your church, because you've been there a long time.

Yes. I mean, when you suffer sort of the losses that you've been through recently, you find out what it really is, what it's like to be a pastor, what it's like to be a pastor, what it's like to be a pastor, what it really does mean to belong to a community that loves you, not because you're their pastor, but because they love Skip. Of course, I've been on the side of ministry. I've been on the side of being there for people, but going through personal loss myself, I've also experienced the love that that church had towards me. And that they were there for me in a special way to love back to me. And so it was a wonderful privilege, although it was very difficult, to see them when I've gone through some times of crisis in my life, that I was on the receiving end of their love. And I've seen how important it is to have the community. And I have to say, it's not... I've got pastor friends in this area that stood with me too, that were incredible, and other people in other churches, other Christians.

And for those who don't know, I should say Skip lost his wife in 2018. Yes. And to be... Well, for instance, the Sunday after the funeral, I went back to church. I was not preaching. And someone said to me, pastor, you don't need to be here so quick. And for me, and I'm not saying this would be like that for everyone, but for me, I needed to be with those people. I wanted to be surrounded by them. I wanted just to sense their love and the camaraderie that they had. And for them to be there was a real ministry to my heart. Right, and that's the beauty of being part of a loving church, that Jesus shows up with everybody that walks in. All those high value targets that you're talking about, David.

And I have to say this. There is a philosophy of thought that if you're in leadership, you cannot be close to the people that you lead. And I don't see that in our Lord.

No, not at all. A good point. You know, this concept that, hey, you're the pastor, you're supposed to be up there in a pinnacle. Well, I'm not. I'm just a busted broken guy that God chooses to use.

And being close to people I think is extremely important. I hate we're out of time. We're going to mention that website one more time. It's your race.com as well as David's book, right?

You are a high value target, knowing your enemy schemes and defeating them. You can find out, again, all about David Johnson's other books. It was all there at Amazon. Thank you so much for listening. Thank you, Pastor. Thank you, David.

Thank you. Good to meet you, David. And we're going to have more David at the NRB coming up, so that won't be long.

And I'll get a chance to see you again, I hope. And right now, those listening, we've got encouraging prayer followed by masculine journey. We're just so grateful that you're listening and for joining us here on the Truth Network. God bless. This is the Truth Network.