Embracing the Great Commission

Hi, this is Roy Jones with ManTalk Radio Podcast. Our mission is to break down the walls of race and denomination. Your chosen Truth Radio Broadcast will be starting in just a few seconds.

Thank you. This is the Truth Network. The name Truth Talk might be changed to Coffee Shop Conversations because I'm in another coffee shop and I'm sitting with a young man of God who you would think this guy's off chasing the career, jumping in the job at the bank, and there's nothing wrong with that, by the way. We're all about marketplace ministry, but this guy's going over like to another country across the pond and this guy's going into ministry working with a highly intense high voltage church to be a part of their team to reach Souls for Christ and his name is Ryan Fuller. Ryan, and we're in a coffee shop.

You didn't think you'd be suddenly propelled to a national stage, did you? I don't know how we got connected, but I think the Lord's doing something in it. Well, Jackson, a mutual friend, when Jackson calls, I answer and he's got a short attention span and I have a shorter attention span. He always tells me a quick joke and asks me a quick Bible question and we pray together, then he's gone, just like that. And this time he called and talked a little longer because he said, there's a young man, so you got to meet. He's on fire for Jesus.

He's doing some crazy things that most kids his age aren't really kind of doing and he's not like a Pharisee about that. You're like encouraging people. You're like, hey, jump on in, man.

You know, I'm a beggar trying to show other beggars where they can find bread. Amen. That's right.

No, that's exactly how I would have said it. Just heard a lot of good streets and I want to tell the people about it. Amen. So we're like, okay, you can tell me all about this and then you can tell me all about this again on my national radio show, Truth Talk for everyone to hear all our awesome listeners, all our awesome affiliates, all across AFR land and Wilkins land and the great affiliates all across this country that carry Truth Talk. Thank you so much.

170, almost 200 folks carry this program across Florida, the whole truth up and down Jacksonville, Brunswick, everything like that. So don't get nervous because you just remember, Ryan, you can't see the hundreds of millions of people that are hearing you right now, okay? I'm not going to think about it either. Is that comforting? So, but what's kind of cool is, as you share about your testimony, I want to start with this question. Who is Ryan Fuller? Tell us who you are.

Man, that has changed a lot over the years. Actually, so I grew up in Winston-Salem, went to Reynolds High School and then went to UNC and that's where I came to know the Lord and that's where I think my life totally changed because first 20 years of my life, like anybody, I wanted to be somebody but on the inside, I felt that I wasn't, you know, like I wanted to be successful and success is great but on the inside, I just was completely unsatisfied and so one day, one of my friends sat me down. His name's Miles. He shared his testimony with me and it was exactly the same as what I was experiencing. He was saying, you know, on the surface, everything is good. On the inside, like there's something missing and so he shared that, hey, when we confess that Jesus is Lord and that God rose him from the dead, like we're saved and we're brought into a relationship with him. He says that, you know, if anyone is in Christ, we're made new, that the old has passed away and that the new is coming and that's what I saw. Like he gave me this new identity, not only as his son and as his child but as his ambassador and that's, it's changed everything. Let me get this straight.

You're on the planet for 20 years. You're living the dream in the same hometown as me, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, going to church but you get to school and maybe not a bastion of Christian schools either, you know. You see chapel where kind of everything's going on and great basketball program and everything but you're a full-blown college co-ed and you find a relationship with Christ there?

That's right and within my fraternity too. You think it's probably not the place you're going to find Jesus but well, that's what happened. So what was the biggest radical change in your life from that? What happened from the old Ryan Fuller to the new Ryan Fuller and I love that verse, 2nd Corinthians 5 17.

What a great verse being a new creation now. What is that statement, you know, maybe it's C.S. Lewis that said, you know, Christ doesn't make, you know, he doesn't make bad people better but he makes dead people alive, right? Were you, how did your life reflect that particular statement?

Well, I'm not sure there's anything that stayed the same. I think a lot of times or in a lot of ways I probably was maybe too direct in a lot of areas and I was so gung-ho it kind of threw people off but I think that was just because it's like when you when you see that treasure and you find that treasure in the field like when you have found something that gives you life and you're like okay this is who I am who I was made to be I don't see how we can't tell people about it because like I know there there were guys in my fraternity and there's people I'm around now that have that same story of they're looking for something more and it's like all right if I if I have the answer to cancer like I want to tell people and so that's what I've been doing. So can you really be an on-fire born-again Christian loving Jesus and being in a fraternity where you're all around alcohol and women and college and the party life I mean like a lot of folks listening might be kind of going wink wink nod nod come on you know what give us that you know give us the real skinny here but talk about that how if that really is a reality. It is everything that you see in the movies is there but I think it's like it's like any other part of our our walk with Christ he doesn't just you know make things better he redefines everything and he redefines it according to his original perfect good design and so without getting into the specifics it's like man like we can we can be anywhere doing a lot of things as long as like we're looking to the Lord and and we're allowing him to define like what is good and what is right so it's not so much where we are it's what has God done how is he reshaping where we are. Now since then you've been through college your life changed growing in Christ sharing Christ leading others to Christ getting plugged in you learned you found a new kind of community church community there I guess in Chapel Hill right and then kind of take us fill in the blanks between there and now. Right so my junior year before going to college I for some reason well I know exactly why I did this program this discipleship program with summit and we went to Turkey for a week and a half just to meet people be able to share our stories and and point them to Jesus and while I was there that was the first time I experienced international missions but even still like I knew there were guys in North Carolina that needed to hear about what God had done in my life and so I thought I was going to be on crew staff with the campus ministry just reaching out to these guys mentoring them telling them about the bread that I found I was about to sign the contract with them but then everything I was reading in the Bible everything that my friends were telling me every talk at church about missions my heart was just on fire it's like I couldn't I couldn't stop thinking about like being overseas and so I looked into this company this this missions organization called the International Missions Board and yeah it wasn't necessarily like this this big huge like God speaking to me it was God tells us to go there's a need for disciples to be made that are going to make disciples and he's worthy of being glorified everywhere I'm just sitting here thinking and by the way I'm Stu Everson that's the voice of Ryan Fuller who just shared about how he came to Christ in his 20s or 20 and heard the gospel God just the light came on and now all of a sudden he's dialed in discipleship he's growing you're baptized and you're going now all of a sudden God's called you to go you know that short-term missions trip to Turkey really stuck and so now and you don't have to talk you don't have you can give as many details or as little as you want on this national radio show but you are also trying to get people to to help support you financially so that you can go over and tell us about what your work God's called you to do of all the things you could have done what the Lord's leading right so these past few years I've been in Spain working on a church planning team but even within that just like to always remember that the goal is not to start churches it is but the goal is to see God glorified and he's glorified most by churches being started and by disciples being made they're going to go and reproduce and so just even thinking about that one of my good friends over there he was far from God and we read the Bible for a year together and he decided okay I want to do this and now he we trained him and we discipled him and now he's becoming an elder at the church that opens next week and so it's yeah it's crazy seeing lives transformed like that so you're heading back over there I will probably end up in Europe yeah I want to work on a church planning team so what I'm doing now with summit it's it's all tied back to the great commission you know we we hear about you know go and make disciples of all nations but I think a lot of times we're surprised when we see God changing people's lives and seeing him draw people to himself and he's doing that over there but he's also doing that in Raleigh and in Winston-Salem and so if I'm called if God's leading me to be overseas to you know share the gospel and draw people together bring them together as a church I want to be as prepared as possible to do that awesome and John here with baller nation you see a young guy like this and this is what we're working out there is as one of our younger truth ambassadors John what do you have to say to Ryan maybe what question you have for him about a young guy like him full-blown praying to go overseas plugging in with the church that's equipping him to do that yeah what ways do you guys go over there and share the gospel I mean you can go and speak you can go and teach English or you can go and really share the gospel how do you how do you what do you do once you go over there and your church planning yeah I mean it's all about relationships I think especially within Europe you can share the gospel with someone and you hope and you pray that they come to know Christ right on the spot but the reality is it's usually takes time and so you could do anything you could be teaching English you could go to the same coffee shop every day and get to know those people well it's just whatever you can do to hear their story and to share yours that's been redefined by Christ Ryan what do you say to young people that are out there looking for something looking really we know they're looking for someone they're looking for Jesus and you're bringing that message and I love that we're trying to get more young folks to listen to the truth network and the truth talk and all of our awesome stations that carry this program but what do you say to parents of young people young people what's your challenge to this generation of which you are one in terms of really taking that step with Jesus and making it all count for him while we have such little time on this earth what I would say is that I don't think we can't just we can't just hear the gospel and then put it on the shelf and leave it there it's like we're entrusted with this incredible honor and privilege of of knowing God and making him known and that can be scary that can be really scary like what if what if he calls me to go overseas um but I always think back of all right do we believe God is good do we believe that he's a good father that if he calls us somewhere that's really the best place for us to be um and I think it always is so I would just I would just challenge all of us just to continually go back to the word our source of truth and see like who is God like why why is he telling us all of this and and is it good and um even just if you don't feel like you've had that experience of who Christ is even tonight just start talking to God start praying say God if you're real like would you show yourself to me um I think I would start there Brian God bless you thanks for sharing your testimony man you've been encouraging me to this old guy here tell us what your how can we connect with you how can you so maybe someone wants to send you a hundred bucks maybe someone seeing you more than that to support you're trying to raise your support so you can go on these missions trips and in plant churches and all that as a as really a missionary and in those areas what what's the best way for people to connect to that well I could you know what I'll do I will give my email to you and my phone number yeah we'll take we can get your major reach out to us and then they can go to our website truthnetwork.com reach out to us and we'll get you in touch with Ryan they can support you what they're doing yeah and I just I feel like I didn't you know I would love to connect with with anybody and everybody sit down and have a coffee share you know my story but I would love to just hear your story and how I can pray for you and and how we can partner together because you know like missions isn't done by one person um I don't rarely if ever um but what I do know is this guy's not done saving and so you know on the other side of that coin is he's not done sending either and so I would just love for us to work together in that um so god bless god bless you we are in a coffee shop we're at buy good coffee in Winston Salem corner of Marshall street and Brookstown avenue and we're having a coffee shop conversation on truth talk with a young missionary but perhaps the next David Livingston the next William Carey who's saying I'm gonna go and bring the gospel to people who've never heard and build make disciples Ryan thank you for being an encouragement to us today buddy thanks Tim learn more listen to the podcast download our good our subscribe to our podcast channel truthnetwork.com it's all there what do you do if you grew up in church and you go off to college and you get radically saved by Jesus that's what happened to Ryan Fuller and now folks it gets better he's on his way to the mission field what in the world is going on with Ryan Fuller Ryan Fuller you come home and everyone maybe maybe they think you lost your marbles what's going on bud just a little bit so I was talking with a friend the other day and and we were just just discussing about how like in the past few years especially in college the great commission became so much more real to us it came alive to us you know it's one thing to read on on a piece of paper like go and make disciples and and and baptize people and and all of that like to all nations but it's another thing when you see it happen like when you see your best friend decide to follow the Lord and so that's happening in Spain that's happening in in India but that's also happening in North Carolina and like that's the goal it's to see disciples being made that are going to go on and make disciples of all nations so you're intentionally going pursuing relationships so you can lead people into Christ build them up in Christ and then send them out to be on commission on mission with Christ and that I don't see any downside of that I think us old folks need to be doing that too but what is it that's gripped your heart that's led you to this to this conclusion right I think it's I think it's seeing lives completely transformed so especially just within a small group context being able to just speak into their lives and hear their stories and answer questions and doubts and just see that he's that Jesus is just worthy like he's worthy of of everything and it's it's not a risk it's not like it could go wrong it's it's like no like God is going to glorify himself I think his word is not going to come back empty and and that's exciting and so I think I want to do that internationally wow take us back to the day you met Jesus take us back to the frat house on the campus of the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill to tell us about Ryan Fuller the day before what you're involved in and you don't have to get too many details in there and tell us about Ryan Fuller the day after you met Jesus in that frat house tell us real quick paint the picture yeah so basically I mean I'm not gonna lie on the outside I'm not sure if there was a whole lot that looked different but that's the thing with with Jesus it's not like you're you don't become a perfect person right when you say God I need you it's it's like he he takes you and you're dead in your sins and he makes you alive in Christ by forgiving you but also making you new and sending you out and so what looked different three months prior I had already decided that the party scene was not for me that it wasn't fulfilling the day after I just had this desire to want to know what it looked like to walk with Christ so I went up to the guy that shared the gospel with me two years prior and said hey will you like you know teach me how to read the bible and like how to you know walk with Christ and he said very calmly yeah sure sure let's let's find a time to grab a coffee I spoke with him a few weeks ago he was fist pumping internally and freaking out but um well look at the power of that so now you're gonna go over to Europe you're gonna go over to Turkey to Spain India wherever God leads you you're gonna lead people to Christ like you already have and that guy is now having grandchildren through his witness to you what a story huh yeah no I mean God's doing a lot he's doing a lot in my life and my heart and and I'm really hoping and praying and praying and praying that he uses just my my yes you know to send me to people in Raleigh in Wake Forest North Carolina just anywhere I am just to be able to share what God has done for me and to train them and to send them out to do what God has made us to do and that's just to bring glory to his name make him famous everywhere okay we're in a coffee shop by good coffee in Winston-Salem North Carolina this is a we may rename the show truth talk to coffee shop conversations because I love coffee shops there's an amazing muffin baller nations here you may know him more for his basketball theatrics on the gram and other places baller nation John Perry one of our truth warrior ambassadors what kind of muffin is that first of all some kind of banana confagulation banana pumpkin muffin thing it's very good you gotta come you're out there sharing Christ all the time you see a guy like this on fire for the Lord planting churches what it comes in your mind and maybe what question do you have for for Ryan Fuller how do you get in contact with Ryan and what what's Jesus all about he's fun you're making Jesus seem like a fun person and so tell me more about that yeah and that's interesting because this generation they think oh no I got to start dressing up I got to go be bored to death in church and all that but like you're a the joy of the Lord's all over you we're not trying to paint a picture of some easy little you know now all your problems are gone but can you talk about how there's this new meaning that even using the word fun there's a satisfaction that wasn't there before yeah and excitement I think a lot of people will go their entire life as a Christian and never share their faith but I think some of the most joyful moments of my entire life are you know saying hey like this is I'm a little uncomfortable right now but like you know like I want to share what Jesus has done I'm excited about you know who he is it's it's not coat and tie it's hey like let's go on a hike and while we're there like what's been going on like with you recently you have any faith background or maybe you go to a concert and it's like you can know Jesus at a concert and a t-shirt and jeans if even no shoes it's gospel conversations everywhere looking for opportunities exactly so what do you say to old funny dud parents like me who got kids who are living this comfortable American dream less than five percent of Christians are are leading someone to Christ this year we have the cure to cancer we're not sharing with anybody we're hoarding it keep it to ourselves less than 10 of Christians are given 10 to the church it's it's sad these statistics but some are sharing I don't want to shame and guilt everyone well maybe that we need to do that but challenge parents out there who have young people your age or younger what can they do now to build that that heart for the great commission for going out and making disciples going out and being a fisher of men a soul winner how can they create that in their in their youngsters I think we have to model it you know they need to see it I think I know I'm very influenced by the people around me I think we all are it's that's in some ways but I think like all right are our kids I don't have kids yet future kids but are we are we seeing like our parents sit down and and open up their bibles and and pray are we being taught how to pray by the people that are influencing us the most like do we see that it's not just something on Sunday but is it is something that changes every second of our life so even just starting the conversation of maybe it's scary to pray with our kids are the people that we're around even just starting there like I don't know what I'm doing but I know God has called me to train up my kids and in righteousness and I want to try my best to do that maybe it's hey with your child hey who can we pray for that's an unbeliever a neighbor someone that we can pray to for for them to be saved you know you I think it was J.D. Greer that said this and it could have been him quoting someone else so I'm not because he you know he doesn't he's humble he doesn't take credit for a lot of things probably he's giving credit for but this the quote that I heard from him was this something like if everyone that you prayed for today came to faith in Christ how many people would come to faith in Christ is that convicting a little bit and then he puts the mic back in the guest's face and asks for an answer no I mean I think it's like anything it's not you just read a book and and then you're perfect at it it's like you prepare for things by doing those things with someone that knows how to do it and so it's I would just say like we all need someone that's not ahead in every area but maybe they're one step ahead in sharing their faith I know that's what I need and that's why I need and and ministry and church planning I get it I need to be shepherded too but you're you start with saying God lead me to the places where I can do that God lead me to this person God I pray for this person by name you'll open their heart to the gospel give me an opportunity I have no clue how to even open the door I have no clue how to even engage with this person they're they're a genius and I'm dumb and they're gonna talk me in circles open the door and then suddenly God works but if we don't ask him if we don't invite him the ruler of the universe who's offered this to us now final point Ryan Fuller you're on your way to the mission field really you're you're you're interning with the church you're working it's it's a like a discipleship program it's pretty powerful and you're trying to raise support tell us about that and tell us about practically what you will be doing right so I'll be with the summit church in Raleigh but I'll be specifically working at the Briar Creek campus which is where most of the NC State students go that go to summit and so like I said the idea of preparing and learning how to do something by learning from someone that's done it for years and years and so if I want to be involved in starting house churches in the future or bigger churches in the future I want to learn from someone that's done it and so I think a Bible study a small group looks so much like a church could look overseas and so what I'll be doing is leading small groups but also leading the small group leaders as a way of learning by failure a lot of times but but also by people walking alongside of me and say how do you how do you care for people by sharing Jesus with them training them and then sending them out to do the same yeah so the sending out part we got to go with this thing this is too good not to share and then build disciples and so you're going to be going yourself at some point right I'm hoping so I'm at Southeastern Seminary right now so I'll be there for two years this apprenticeship is two years and six months before both of those then I'll be applying I don't know where yet but I know God will make it clear promise you'll come back to truth talk and give us updates and thank you just we love I will have every any person your age on fire for God doing what you're doing the door is open the welcome mat is out for them to come on truth talk what an encouragement Ryan Fuller thank you support him folks get in touch with me through my Instagram my Facebook I'll take a picture we'll post it on the gram support this guy send them money that will go right towards your support right and toward helping you in your mission to grow make disciples into your charge in the next generation to do the same thing right that's right yeah and I would love to sit down with anybody and everybody just hear your story share a little bit more about mine and just here I can pray and and how we can just work together so thanks guys this is the truth network