How Do You Keep From Drifting?

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How do you keep from drifting away from the Lord in your Christian life? 866-34TRUTH-866-348-7884. How do you keep from drifting? In your Christian life, this is Michael Zwick. It's glad to be back with you guys today.

You know what? I wanted to share with you something. I could tell you what I do. I wake up in the morning. And I praise the Lord.

I tell you what, I've met a lot of people who are disappointed. I've met a lot of people who are depressed. I've met a lot of people who are down. But I tell you one thing, it's really hard for me to be depressed, down, angry, and sad when I'm praising the Lord. You know, in our house, we wake up in the morning, and the first thing that we do is we say, This is the day that the Lord has made.

I will rejoice and be glad in it. And so, every week when I'm on the radio, I always ask people, I say, you know, what do you guys think about this? What do you guys think about that? But I spend time in the secret place. I spend time alone with the Lord by myself.

And I say, Lord, what do you want me to speak about this week? What do you want me to talk about this week? And the Lord reveals to me what He wants me to talk about. You know, the Bible says that I have written your word on my heart so that I might not sin against you.

Well, In order to be able to follow the Lord, in order to be able to serve the Lord, in order to not drift. We've got to stay in his word. The Bible says in Psalm 119, 105. Yeah. He says, Your word is a lamp unto my feet.

and a light unto my path.

Well, how can the word of God be a lamp under your feet and a light into your path if you don't know the word of God. Right? You know, and I've forgotten a lot of scripture over the years, but when I first became a Christian, one of the first passages that I ever memorized was this, and it was Revelation 3, verses 15 through 16, where the Lord says, and he says, I know your works. He says that you're neither hot nor hot. nor cold.

He said But because you are lukewarm, He said, I will spew you or vomit you out of my mouth. And at one point in that verse, the Lord says, He says, I'd rather you be one or the other. He said, I'd rather you be ice cold than just lukewarm. And so I knew early on in my Christian life that I wanted to be on fire for the Lord Jesus Christ. But you know what else I learned is that this thing, it is a Marathon, it is not a sprint.

You know, when I first got out and I was so excited about the Lord, I was so excited to see the things that the Lord was doing in my life. I wanted to share the word of God with everybody. I wanted to share the goodness of God. Jesus saves, He loves you. And you know what's funny is I thought that other people would be just as excited as I was about the Lord.

But what I realized pretty soon is that a lot of people who have been following the Lord for many years, and a lot of people who have been doing all of these things. All of a sudden, I realized after a while they start to cool off. And so. How do you keep your fire? What do you do?

You know, the Bible says in Matthew 24, 13, He says, he who endures until the end shall be saved. This thing is not something that we do overnight. It's not something that we do, it's quick and then you're done. This is something that we have to stay excited about. And if you really know the Lord and if you really love the Lord, you're going to listen to him.

The Bible says that my sheep hear my voice, and another they will not follow. You know, I heard a story about an older couple, and it was a husband and a wife, and the guy was dying, and all of a sudden, he had some quiet time with his wife. And he said, Honey, he said, remember that time when we first got married? And he said, and I lost my job. She said, yes, honey.

And he said, you were right there with me, weren't you? She said, yes, I was, honey. He said, well, do you remember that other time? He said, when I was diagnosed with cancer, And they thought I was going to die, and I ended up living. He said, You were right there with me, weren't you, honey?

And she says, Yes, honey, I was. He said, and now that I'm dying, now that I'm passing away, he said, You are right here by my side. And his wife said, yes, I am. And he looked at her and he said, Woman, Your bad luck. Instead of seeing that his wife was always there, instead of seeing that she had done all of these wonderful things for him, all that he saw.

Was that She was around when all these bad things happened. And I think the same thing can happen in our relationship with the Lord. It's easy to cool off in the Lord. If we're so focused on all of these other things, or we're not focused on his goodness, we start our day in worship. We praise the Lord.

We turn up the music in the morning. And there's a song, and he says, Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. And we're all singing it. And I don't know about you, but when I hear that worship music and I'm singing out my heart to the Lord, I can't be depressed. I'm praising him and I'm happy.

And I get excited about being with the Lord. We've got a Elizabeth out of Richmond. Are you there, Elizabeth? I am. Yes, I'm here.

Good, good deal.

So let me ask you the question. Elizabeth, what do you do to keep from drifting away from the Lord? That's a good question. I think I Love what you were saying about the secret place and abiding with the Lord. As it says in John fifteen we can't do anything without him.

We can't do anything without getting his heart and connecting to him. And to know about him and his character and his nature is by reading his word, and it's by like intimately connecting with them. And I think about Mary in the Bible of Bethany and she She could have been doing all of these things that Martha was serving, but Mary chose to sit at his feet and to listen to him and to hear his words. And to know what was on his heart. And that when you know, at the end of the day, they were shaming her for that.

And Jesus said, wherever the gospel is preached, her story, she chose the good portion and she decided that nothing else Would come before hearing what Jesus wanted to say to her because she knew, apart from him, she had no good saying. And I think. The biggest thing for me is leaning in on the brokenness and the weaknesses that I have and knowing that. You know, what other God is attracted to weakness? What other God desires to take my brokenness and make it beautiful and take what the enemy meant for evil?

And he uses that.

so that his glory is proclaimed through my weakness. And it just shows me I I'm dependent on him. I I have to have him daily or else I will go toward what is normal for me, which is my sin nature. I'm a new creation, but I will always turn toward what is not, you know, leading to him. Yeah, that's really good.

And it sounds like you've spent some time with the Lord. And I see you're out of Richmond, Virginia. And so you're at our 97.7 FM station up in Richmond, Virginia. Are you in the ministry yourself, Elizabeth? Yes, I am.

I am a full-time missionary at an organization here in Richmond. Really what do you what is the organization or what do you do? Yeah, so the organization is called MAPS Global, and we exist to pray, preach, and sing in the unreached nations in the Middle East, Central Asia, and North and East Africa so that every nation can see and sing of the work of Jesus. And we are committed. To send the gospel to the regions that have not yet heard and for them to encounter God the way, I mean, I've seen Him in my life.

I feel how He's healed me from addictions, from things in my life, and that's my testimony. And now I want to see these regions. see the light of the gospel.

So this is what this is what our organization does.

Okay, and and it's uh are you guys on Facebook or? Yes, we are on Facebook, Maps Global. You can also find us on the internet, mapsglobal.org. We are a prayer and worship and missions movement.

So we mingle, it's a house of prayer, so we're open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., Monday through Friday. And it's just a place for people to come to soak in the presence of God and get a heart for what's on his heart because he desires that worship would be in the nations. He desires that every nation would have an opportunity to to receive him. We are open.

We also have a school that runs. And I want you to hold that thought. We're going to a commercial break, but if you can just hold for the break real quick, when you come back, I want to hear about, I'm sure you've done, maybe you've done some missions yourself, but I'd like to hear a little bit about it. And then we've got our friend Bucksman out of Dayton, Ohio.

So this is Michael Zwick. We'll be right back with Truth Talk Live. Yeah. Truth talk life in a beautiful death. All right, guys, 866-34-TRUTH, 866-348-7884.

This is Michael Zwick, and we've got Elizabeth on the line. But Elizabeth, over that commercial break, I was reminded by Billy Graham that we're not bothered the same way that the world is bothered. And one of the ways that I can keep myself from drifting is I focus on eternity. And I think sometimes the devil wants us to think that this life is really long and that eternity is really short. And the devil wants us to think that, you know, and but the truth is, is that this life is like a vapor.

It's only for a moment. And so I want to do the most that I can do for the Lord because I know that I'm going to spend all eternity with him. What do you think? Mm. No, that's so true.

I mean the time is urgent in a sense of I have this small life and When I get connected to his heart, I realize I'm like. In the time that I can, I want, yeah, I want to give myself toward his work. And it is, I think there's an An idea that serving the Lord is, you know, not fulfilling or that it's not joyful, but actually it can be the most fulfilling scene because we were destined, like, we were created to to work it's like going to work with your dad. You know, we're created to do things with him and it's actually the most fulfilling thing to do. It is.

And so you're a missionary. Have you been to some foreign countries or? Yes.

So I did we have a school at Maps Global, and I was in the school for six months and then for three months I was in North Africa, and I got to see amazing testimonies of Muslim girls who are my age that had never heard the gospel. And when I would share the gospel with them, they would say, I'm not sure why, but you're glowing. There's something coming off of you. And a lot of the times, they would feel this sense of peace that they've never experienced before, and they had never heard the gospel.

So I had this life altering experience going to this nation that you see there's war going on, but it's actually that God is moving and the news is not it's not true. Yeah, and the Bible says that God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of a sound mind. And so once again, what's the name of your mission organization if people want to follow you on Facebook or Instagram or support you? Yes, it's called Maps Global. Maps Global.

Thanks a lot for the call, Elizabeth. Thank you. All right, and we've got a Bucksman out of Ohio. Bucksman, welcome to the show. Hey, Michael, what an awesome testimony from Elizabeth.

She's a woman after my own heart. I mean, She hit it when she talked about how she's reaching Muslim girls. Michael, I'm doing the same thing in Dayton, Ohio. I'm working with two Muslims. One's very devout, he's the father, and then by serendipitous Divine intervention, I meet this man's son.

and I'm discipling him. I got him a really good Bible. And he's eating like a baby would on milk right now. He's asking me all kinds of questions. And I'm working with an Israeli young woman.

about Christ, which is just it's just amazing Situation that God has put your brother in here in Dayton, Ohio. I'm actually in Buffalo, New York right now. I told our producer that I'm actually not in Dayton right now, I'm in Buffalo, New York. But I had to call in because I just love you guys. Hey, Elizabeth, great.

Job, great job. Keep going. Do what you're doing. And Michael, you hit it on the head, sir. What keeps me from drifting?

Eternity.

Now I don't look at eternity, Michael. As okay, Busman gets to rest and play guitar in heaven and all. Great. That's true. But I'm frightened about my judgment to come.

and how God's going to root out you know, the stuff that I shouldn't have done. while I was wearing his name. And what I will be given crowns for For the righteous things that you showed me to do in the Word of God. And I'll receive crowns for that. And my life now, Michael, is.

Okay, Busman, we're going after crowns. No longer after earthly trophies, which could be reputation, things, whatever that brings you joy and contentment on the earth. I'm now putting my focus on that judgment that will be coming to all of us, that'll be coming to all of us. And that's what keeps me. Drifting.

And when I think about how much I have prayed over these two Muslim men and this Israeli young woman. God shows me exactly what to do, Michael, via reading, studying, and really pulling out. Truths from all 66 books. I don't listen to many podcasts.

Well, I listen to you guys. And we're grateful for that. Yes, you are so welcome. I highly recommend this program because what Stu Erperson has set up is where Christians can call in and dialogue over things that they're not quite sure of. And he's got really good people to man that microphone.

And Michael, I'm telling you, I'm very grateful for Truth Network. I'm very grateful for this particular program. But, yes, that's what I do, Michael. I really. There's a fear of God in me, sir, that when I see him face to face one day, right now he's faith.

But one day I'll see him. And he's going to say, and I'll be the only one in the room, except for my advocate, my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And I will give an account for what I did on the earth, Michael. Good and bad, and that's in Ecclesiastes, and that's which is the Old Testament, and in our new covenant, guys, in the new covenant. This day is coming.

So may that be a help to you, my fellow brother or sister, that we've got a judgment coming. How do you want it to go? And we can decide by what we do and what we do not do. Yeah, that's right. That's all I got, Michael.

Yeah, well, and I wanted to ask you something as well. Sure. Because there are a lot of people out there who are Christians who are saying, you know, well, how do I even talk to a Muslim? Or, you know, how do I, you know, because they have this different culture, they have this different belief. What did you do to either start the conversation?

I mean, I'm curious about that. Awesome, awesome question. I'm sure Uncle Elizabeth could call back in, she would answer this as well. Follow the fun. Here it is.

When the love of God is inside of the Christian, you automatically love everybody. And you can find that evidence in Galatians five. It shows you the fruit of the Spirit. And the very first one, Michael, is love. And if you're robbing.

Then, when you see someone in a hijab or someone that looks different, darker skin tone, you see the beard. You just It's God within you that says go talk to him. Basically, Mike would say, hey, how you doing? It's it. My name's Bosman.

What's yours? That's how it starts. And you'd be surprised at how many Muslims are just grateful that you acknowledged them. As somebody not an enemy, because our culture today, Michael, is saying shun away from the Muslim. You know, they're bad, bad people, they're going to blow us up and everything.

Well, their religion does teach that. But believe it or not, some of them haven't reached that level of maturity in their own religion, Michael. Remember this verse, and this is what I love about you, sir. You quote scripture, and it's part of your dialogue. You remember, my fellow Christian brother and sister, when you see a Muslim.

These words, straight from John. The the disciple whom Jesus loved. Greater is he who is in us than he who is in the mooselo. Greater is he who is in Buskman Then he who is in this Father and this Son, who are both Muslim. through the or this Israeli who is who is Jewish.

We have to live By what we read, ladies and gentlemen. And just as Michael said, if you're not reading it, You don't know that power source that I just quoted from the Word of God. through through the heart and mind of of of John Barsevity, who wrote it. And that's how you that's how you start it. And then You let the conversation and the relationship, Michael, start and fog from there.

But it begins, my dear friend, with love. It begins with love. That's good. And then, so, do you also learn about their religion or do you learn about their culture as well, Bucks? Absolutely.

Absolutely. The father that I'm working with actually handed me a copy of the Quran, and he goes, Flussman, if you won't read it, bring it back. But if you will, Keep it.

So I read And Oh my goodness, you can find so many ways to get these people Christ if you just read their textbook. All right, buddy, we're going to a break. Thanks for the call. 866-348-7884. We'll be right back after this break.

All right, guys, 866-348-7884-866-34Truth. This is Michael Zwick. How do you keep from drifting in your Christian life? And so the reason I did this or the reason I did this show today is because we went to the beach with my family, my wife and my three kids. And my two boys and myself were out at the beach.

And I told them, I said, whatever you do, I said, you can play, you can swim in the water, this, that, the other. I said, but I want you to keep an eye on your mother. And so what the two boys started to do is they were swimming, they were doing their thing. And all of a sudden, the riptide or the ocean started to pull them away. And I said, where's your mother?

And they had to go back and they had to look at their mother. And I pointed, I said, let's move over this way. In this case, we had to move over to our left so that we would stay with our mother. And I felt like what the Lord was telling me was this, is that we can't. Just kind of drift, we can't just kind of hang out in our Christian life.

This life is a battle, and the Bible says that don't you know that your life is like a vapor, it's here for a moment and then you're gone. And so, when I realized that, hey, I've instead of saying, Well, I'm going to be around for 80 or 90 years or whatever, I just turned 45, I've only got another 40 years left to praise the Lord, I've only got another 40 years left or 30 years left to be able to share the word of God. And I know that tomorrow is not promised. I could be hit by a bus, I could get in a car wreck, anything could happen. I want to give my very best for the Lord.

Jimmy Carter, President Jimmy Carter, who lived to be 100 years old, when he was a young man, he went to Georgia Tech and then he got into the Navy. And there was a guy named Admiral Rickover who started to interview. Jimmy Carter for the job that he had in the Navy. And he started to ask him questions. Jimmy Carter got nervous and he got more and more nervous.

And he felt like Admiral Rickover was going to say good job, but he never did that. And he asked him, What place did you finish in your class? And he told him number 60 out of 300 or whatever it was. But then at the end of the interview, Admiral Rickover, he looked Jimmy Carter straight in the eyes and he said, Son, he said, Did you always do your best? And Jimmy Carter was just about to say yes.

But then he thought about it, those times that he was at Georgia Tech. He didn't always do his best. Those times when he was in the Navy, he didn't always do his best. And he had to say, no, sir, I did not always do my best. And Rickover turned the chair around and the meeting was over.

And for the rest of his life, Jimmy Carter said, if I really believed that my education was something important, why did I not always do my best? If I really believed that the United States Navy was that important, why did I not always do my best? And you know, I may mess up on a lot of things in this life, Michael's Wickmay, but I'm going to tell you one thing. One thing that I want to do right when I stand before the Lord Jesus Christ, I want him to say, well done, good and faithful servant. And I want to be able to look him in the eyes and say, Lord, I messed up, but I always gave you my best.

And we've got a David out of Greensboro, North Carolina. Are you there, David? I am here, Zwick. How are you? Hey, hey, doing good.

Doing good. We we actually just heard your commercial for Faith and Finance, and we've got a David Belk. But I talked to you earlier today. David, you said you're on the road. Is that right?

I am. I'm between Asheville and Knoxville as I speak, yes. Let me ask you this. For you in your life, your personal life, between you and the Lord, what keeps you from drifting away from the Lord in your Christian life, David? You know, it's probably materialism in the bigger scheme because, I mean, it just, there's too many things that are glittery in the world that.

It's always attracted me as a young kid, as a young college kid, as a young adult. And you make a little bit of money, and you want some of the better things. And the more you buy, the more you want, the more you want, the more it tends to pull you away from those things. You start. Negotiating attending church, you start negotiating services, you start negotiating small groups.

Because it's inconvenience to the things that satisfy you of this world. And that's been a struggle for. For me, a lot of people I know, but that is a struggle. It's real. I think it's real with everybody that hears my voice.

We all struggle. The more we get, the more we want. And the more we get, From that want. The more it controls us. the more it basically does not allow us to live free.

And I think if you've been in any kind of bondage, whether that's debt bondage or you have a lot of stuff. You're always trying to figure out, well, I must need to use it. I must need to spend time with it because I've got it. And it can pull you away from Being a steward to your family, it could pull you away from being a steward to your job or your employer, your relationships. And also, when you do that, you know, I hear a lot of people in my line of work as a financial planner, you hear people all the time like, I'd love to give more.

But they put themselves in a position that they've got this lifestyle, that it takes so much money. They can't give and then they feel guilty about it.

So there's a lot of little things in the stewardship world of our time with our family, our jobs. our relationships Yes, our church. Yes, our volunteers and all that stuff. That it just affects every bit of that, and it's easy to get pulled away because this world is all about telling you you are not satisfied. You can't be satisfied with the way you're living.

You have to buy more. You have to get your hair done like this. You have to get your nails done. You have to wear this coat, this brand. You have to drive this car, et cetera, et cetera, to keep up with the Joneses.

And you don't know if the Joneses are happy, but we all want to try to do that. We do. And when you're talking, I'm reminded of Matthew chapter 19 and in verse 16, where it's the rich in the kingdom of God. And it says, just then, a man came up to Jesus and asked, Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life? And he says, Why do you ask me what is good?

Jesus replied, There is only one who is good. If you want to enter life, keep the commandments. He says, Which ones? He says, Don't murder, don't commit adultery, don't steal, don't lie, don't give false testimony. Honor your father and mother, and love your neighbor as yourself.

He says, All these have I kept. The young man said, He said, what do I lack? And Jesus answered, He said, if you want to be perfect, go sell your possessions and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me. And it says, when the young man heard this, he went away sad because he had great wealth.

And then Jesus said, it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.

Now, David, does that mean a Christian cannot be wealthy? Absolutely. No, that is a heart condition of that young man. And unfortunately, many of us live with that heart condition. It's.

There are many wealthy people, and we could do show after show and bring up topic and people and family after family. that do a lot of good for the kingdom and and donate a lot to the kingdom. And that's what their mission, either from their company or their family, is all about. They know they've been blessed and they know where that blessing comes from. And so therefore they put it into the kingdom.

So it's a hard thing. If you can't get rid of something. It's got your heart. It doesn't matter if it's an old family heirloom. It doesn't matter if it's an old.

Hard that was left from Grandpa. If there's something if there is something that you can't get rid of, And you're just like, well, I would never do that. Or you would try to find every excuse to do everything. But I would say that's probably the one thing you probably do need to get rid of. And those are the problems is when you can feel free to live without everything, you probably have released To where you know what's really important, to where you can steward.

And the piece of today's topic is. What are the things that pull you away? You know, the the good old contemporary Christian s song that says It's a slow fade when you give yourself away. And everybody, as James says, we have a slow fade to the things that we want From our own hearts' desires that leads us into those things. And I'm telling you personally, it is a struggle.

It's been a lifetime struggle, and that is a struggle that I know most people deal with. And they'll flip a switch and justify so many things and say, well, but.

Well, but when you start with those two words, you've already missed the point. Yeah, and there's a place that people, a lot of people live, and it's called someday aisle.

Someday I'll do this.

Someday I'll give some money away.

Someday I'll help the poor.

Someday I'll give to missions. But the Bible says that today is the day of salvation. And I've seen in my own life, David, that when I put something off, a lot of times I don't do it. But when I force myself to do something right now, a lot of times I'll do it. It says in Hebrews 13:5, it says, Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have because God has said, Never will I leave you and never will I forsake you.

And I'm reminded of a story by John Wesley, and I'm going to update it for 2026. But it's like, you know, you get this call from your uncle and he passed, or no, you get this call from your uncle, and one of your family members passed away and they just left you $10 million. And while you're on the way to the bank to pick up that money in your car, your car breaks down. You kick your car and yell at God and say, God, what is wrong? Why can't I?

Why did my car know? You're excited because you're going to the bank and you're going to pick up $10 million. You'll get somebody to fix the car with all the money that you've got. And so a lot of times when we're so focused on making money or getting more possessions for ourselves, I don't really think that we're looking towards eternity. The other thing that John Wesley said was this: He said, You can tell how close a Christian is to Jesus Christ or how closely they're following the Lord by watching their checkbook.

So, in other words, there's some Christians who show up to church every Sunday and don't give a dime. You know, and if you're not giving anything, then hey, it may not be realistic that you start to give 50% of your income, but we can all start somewhere. Is that right, David? It is. You know, we the conversation is often about, well, how much should I give?

as opposed if you flip it on its head. Maybe the question is how much should I really be keeping? Oh, that's good. How much of somebody else's money am I keeping? If it's God's.

It's his I'm keeping.

Now we use the term my money, my stuff, my everything. But if you believe the scripture and you live the scripture, then you've got to lay it down that it's his, and you've got to. To me, you have to resolve how much of his stuff should I really be keeping. Yeah, that makes sense. And in Philippians, where the Apostle Paul is in prison, he says, I've had a lot and I've had a little.

He said, I have learned to be content. In all things. And then the verse is Philippians 4:13, where he says, I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. Everybody knows that verse, but I think the verse that they don't really think about as much is that you could be content with a lot and you could be content with a little. You know, I heard J.D.

Greer years ago and he was preaching a sermon and he said he knew this guy who was very wealthy. And the guy said, he said, I want to give away so much of my money that the last check that I write will bounce. 86634 Truth. David, if you can hold the line, we'll be right back after this break. 86634 Truth, 866-348-7884.

This is Michael's Wick with David Belk. I'll be right back. Truth Talk Life All right, guys, eight six six three four Truth eight six six. 348-7884. This is Michael Zwick.

And This is what I was thinking about over the break. How do I keep from drifting? I stay in the word of God because your mind is going to be filled with something. You know, I'm either going to be watching the news all the time, I'm going to be watching sports all the time and talking about sports, or I'm going to be talking about the Lord and spending time with the Lord. And I've got some Bible verses for you.

I've got Psalm 119:105. It says, Your word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. Hebrews 4:12, for the word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and the intents of the heart. You know, it says in 2 Timothy 3:16 through 17, All scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every work. And so the Bible says that all scripture is God-breathed.

How can you know how God is speaking? to you or what God is speaking to you if you're not reading his word.

Now, I'm not saying that God doesn't speak to people. He does. I was actually listening to Charles Stanley this morning and he said that God speaks to you. The Bible says that my sheep hear my voice and another they will not follow. Before I started this show today, I asked the Lord, what do you want me to talk about?

And I think a lot of times when people are praying to God, they're not praying. They're just petitioning. They're talking. talking to God. They're telling God what they want instead of asking him.

And I do some of that. I say, Lord, I'm asking you about this, but I say, Lord, what do you say? What do you say, Lord? What you say is 10 billion times more important than anything that I could ever think or say. And we've got a Cody out of Prospect Hill, North Carolina.

Are you there, Cody? All right, I guess not.

So we've got, I guess we can't hear Cody right now, but what I was going to say is this: your word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. And so I know every single day. Can you hear me, Cody? I guess not.

So, but every single day I wake up and I thank God for what He's done.

So, what I do is I spend time in praise. I spend time worshiping the Lord. I spend time in prayer. I spend time praising the Lord. The Bible says, Well, you say, Well, I don't really spend a lot of time in prayer, but I do read the Bible or I spend time with other Christians.

The Bible says to pray without ceasing. Jesus, Jesus prayed. When he was in the garden of Gethsemane and he knew that they were about to take him away, he prayed to the Lord and he prayed so hard that he was sweating. And we've got a Cody on the phone. I can't hear him right now.

Are you there, Cody? Can you hear me? I can hear you now.

Sorry about that, buddy. And you're out of Prospect Hill, North Carolina. Is that right? I was. Yeah, I can hear you.

Can you hear me? All right, I guess not.

But that's okay. But anyway, so we have to pray. The Bible says to pray without ceasing. And so we continually pray through the day. And I think sometimes I had a friend of mine named Jason Hamlet who said this recently, but he said.

If you're going to pray without ceasing, he said, when you're driving down the road, are your eyes closed? And I said, no, he said, so that means when you're driving down the road, your eyes don't always have to be closed and you don't always have to be kneeling by your bed, but you can constantly be communing with the Lord. And one of the things that I thought about was my friend Fred Hagee. I told him, I said, you know, one of the things that the Lord has told me about this is that when you're doing evangelism, it's easy not to drift away. And so for me, if I'm excited, if I'm on fire for the Lord, you know, then you know what?

I'm telling other people about Him. I'm going out to Walmart on Saturdays and Sundays, and I'm sharing the Word of God, Word of God, with people. I'm praying for people on the streets. I'm sharing the good news. And they've actually done studies of people.

Okay, what keeps people from drifting away? And evangelism is one of the very top things that people do from drifting away. And so, what they do is they say, you know what? This thing is so good. My salvation is so good from the Lord.

That I can't keep this thing to myself. Jesus put it this way: He said, Preach the gospel to all creation in Mark chapter 16. And so, you know, I heard a guy say one time, he said, you know, Jesus told people in his day, it was David McGee, but he told people in his day, he said that, you know, go everywhere, you know, and preach the gospel. That's what he told people at the end. But while he was around, he would heal somebody or he would do a miracle for somebody.

And he said, don't tell anybody what I just did for you. And he said when he told people not to tell anybody, that the people would tell everybody what happened. And he said, but there would be other times now in our day, Jesus told us to preach the gospel to all creation, heal the sick, cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give. He tells us to tell everybody, but we don't want to tell anybody.

And so study after study after study has shown that especially children, they talk about children when they go to college and when a lot of them end up leaving their faith, but they said the children who really end up staying with it are the children who have shared their faith, who have shared the word of God, who have been involved in direct evangelism. Because what happens is, is that when you're involved in direct evangelism and you're not just keeping this thing to yourself, but you're sharing the word of God with other people, then it keeps you sharp. Because what happens is, is you're going to have people who throw these objections at you. And what you're going to have to do is you're going to have to learn to overcome these objections. I've got news for you.

Hey, I go out and share my faith. I know Buxman. He said that he goes out and shares his faith. But there's people who aren't always very excited as we are about the Word of God. There's people who aren't as excited about Jesus Christ as we are.

But what we do is we study the word of God and we realize, okay, so somebody keeps saying this to me. They give me this objection. And then here's the great news, guys.

Nowadays we have Google.

Nowadays we have ChatGPT.

So if you want to learn how do I overcome this objection, you can just Google it or ask ChatGPT, how do I overcome this objection? You know, and there's lies that so many people are telling. There's people who are telling, oh, you know, you can't trust the word of God or this or that or the other. Do you know that the word of God is extremely reliable? You know that there's more proof that Jesus died on that cross and was resurrected again than George Washington crossing the Delaware River.

There is more proof for the word of God and Jesus and his miracles than there is all this other stuff. And when you really do a deep dive into it, and that's why we teach people, you have to learn apologetics, you have to learn what to say to people. You know, and our friend Ray Comfort, who's been on the show several times, says this. He says, you know what? He said, the Bible says, if anybody asks you for a reason for the hope that you have within you, always be willing to give an answer.

But you see, when I was growing up, what used to happen was this: I would see people come up to a Christian and ask them, they would say, Well, yeah, you believe in God, but this. And then all of a sudden, instead of the Christian giving a response and giving an answer, For the reason or the hope, for the hope that they have within them, they would go uh uh uh and they would walk away and they wouldn't say anything. Listen, if people are coming to you with an objection. We have to be able to answer that in some way, shape, or form.

Now, there's some stuff that we don't always know the answers to. I get that. And for me, what I do to keep from drifting away from the Lord, I've heard one time they said this: they said that the enemy of the best. Is the good, and you see, sometimes I think that we expect the devil to come walking up to us with a red pitchfork and horns on his head and stuff like that. And that usually is not the case.

Now, I'm sure that's happened before with some people. I heard Martin Luther's story about Martin Luther when he was sleeping one night, and the devil actually came to him and he turned over in the bed and he goes, Oh, it's just you. And then he turned back over and fell asleep. That's a great way to deal with the devil because the Bible says that greater is he who is within you than he who is within the world. And if you believe that, if you've got that fire in your belly, you've got that excitement for the Lord, you know what?

I love what John Wesley said. He said, I set myself on fire and people come to watch me burn. But you know what you have to do? You have to keep that enthusiasm. You have to keep that excitement.

You have to keep that love that you have for the Lord. And you do it through prayer. You do it through worship. You do it through sharing the gospel with other people. And I'm going to be honest with you, there's sometimes some stuff that you may have to give up.

You know, there's no such thing as drunks for Jesus. Going out, getting drunk every day and sharing the gospel, whatever. People are going to look at you and they're saying, hey, if you're a drunkard, Why would I want what you've got? If you're running around on your wife or you're running around on your husband and you're consistently living away from the Lord, I don't want to hear what you've got to say. I've heard people say, preach the gospel constantly, use words when necessary.

Yes, we've got to use words. Yes, we've got to share the good news of Jesus. But what we've also got to do is we've also got to live a life that's right. I like what Buxman said earlier, where he says that I fear God. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Guys, pray, fear the Lord, listen to the Truth Network. My show, If Not for God, with Mike Zwick, I'll be on tomorrow at 12 o'clock noon on the Truth Network. You can follow the podcast, If Not for God, with Mike Zwick, follow this show, share it with others. You know, there was a time in our lives where if we wanted to tell somebody that God was good, we'd actually have to come and walk up to Him.

And that's the best way, by the way. But nowadays, we've got tools at our dispensal, we've got phones that we could literally take a picture of ourselves and take a video of ourselves and tell people that Jesus loves them. And immediately it will go out to many, many people. But, guys, I want to thank you for listening today. But I want you to store up the word of God in your heart so that you might not sin against him.

Jesus Christ is coming back soon. And I love you guys. Follow me on Facebook, Michael Zwick. I've got 16,000, 17,000 followers there. You can follow me on Instagram.

I think it's Zwick Michael or something like that. And on TikTok, Michael Zwick4007. But do whatever you have to do to stay close to the Lord, follow him, read his word, pray, and share the good news of Jesus Christ with somebody today. God bless you.