Hey, this is Jim Graham from the Masculine Journey Podcast, where we explore relationship instead of religion every week. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just a few seconds. Enjoy it, share it, but most of all, thank you for listening and for choosing the Truth Podcast Network. This is the Truth Network. Welcome to Truth Talk Live. All right, let's talk about truth.
Well, welcome to Truth Talk Live. I'm Duane Carson, and it's a joy to be your host today. I want to quickly give a shout-out to our new listeners in Jacksonville, Florida, 91.7, to our listeners in St. Augustine, Florida, on 91.9, and in Folkstown, Brunswick, Georgia, on 91.3.
We welcome you guys. And I also want to give a shout-out to listeners in Amherst County, Virginia, 93.7. I was up there Monday night preaching in a revival and was privileged to meet some of their listeners.
So welcome to wherever you are listening, Truth Talk Live. Today is August the 7th, 8-7, and we want to begin by sharing the verse for the date from the Date the Word ministry that I have founded. Today, 8-7, and the verse we have is 2 Corinthians 8-7. But since you excel in everything, in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness, and in the love we have kindled in you, see that you also excel in this grace of giving, while the apostle Paul comes to the Corinthians as he's challenging them to be faithful in their giving. He's raising money to help the poor Christians in Jerusalem, and as he's doing this, he gives a challenge for these Corinthians to excel in giving. What do you excel in?
Right now there are numerous athletes from around the world that are excelling in their athletic abilities as they compete in the Olympics. Some excel in business, and some people excel in the world of politics. When it comes to the Christian life, as Paul says here in this verse, you might be excelling in witnessing, you might excel in understanding the Word of God, but here Paul says, I want to challenge you to excel in giving. Now, when it comes to talking about people giving their money, some people bristle up.
They grumble. They don't want to hear this thing about giving. I've heard many people say, all that preacher wants is your money. Well, I can tell you from the Bible, God is so clear about He loves a cheerful giver, and He wants us to, from this verse, 2 Corinthians 8, 7, to excel in giving. And you know, while you could go through the Bible and see all kind of great examples of people being givers, the greatest example of all is the Lord Jesus Christ.
2 Corinthians 8, verse 9, just a couple of verses later, on this idea of excelling in giving, Paul says, For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, so that you by His poverty might become rich. You know, God gave up all that He had. Jesus gave up all that He had in heaven to come live on this earth. From the beauty, the glory of heaven, He came to this impoverished world so that He could give His life so that He could then give to us the gift of eternal life.
Greater love has no man than to lay down his life for his friends. And you know John 3 16, For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. I think, folks, we can say God excelled at giving, and now we as His children, we should be excelling in giving. Have you thought about how you are described by God when it comes to your giving?
Would He say you excel at giving? This is 2 Corinthians 8 verse 7, and if you want more information on this topic, you can go to the website for Date the Word, www.datetheword.com. We have a devotional here. You read the entire devotional. You can sign up for the daily devotional.
You can download the app. You can see verses on this app for every day. And so for your birthday, you can see your verse for your birthday.
You want to give a birthday verse to someone, you go to that app, and whatever the date is, you can find that verse. As the founder of Date the Word, we're just trying to encourage people, get in the Word, get to know the Word, and as you get to know the Word, you'll want to make God known more. Now, today, 8-7, is also Wednesday, and on Wednesdays, we have on Truth Talk Live Wednesday in the Word. Each Wednesday, about 8 a.m., a group of men all over Winston-Salem show up at different dairios, and they open up their restaurant so we can have a Bible study. And Stu Epperson, Jr. leads this.
It's incredible today. We were in the book of Mark, Mark 11, verses 1-11, where Jesus comes into Jerusalem, and he comes in in a very odd way. For the first time, he's going to be riding on an animal. He had ridden on a boat, but here he is riding on an animal, and he's riding a donkey.
He's not riding a horse. He's not coming in as a conquering king. He's not coming in to shed blood, but he is coming in on a donkey, that which is speaking of humility, and as he's coming in, he's coming in that he's going to shed his blood. Mark will talk about how he comes in, and they begin to cry out, Hosanna.
This is fulfilling prophecy, and Hosanna means save us now. And that's what Jesus was coming to do. He was coming into Jerusalem so that he could save us. And when we come back from our break, we're going to talk about how Jesus was coming in. He encountered interruptions, and we want to talk about how Jesus was interrupted, and he uses interruptions in our lives. We'll be right back. This is Truth Talk Live, the Wednesday in the Word edition. Welcome back to Truth Talk Live.
I'm Duane Carson. It's Wednesday in the Word, and I'm asking you to consider how many times Jesus was interrupted. I want you to think about his ministry, especially from the book of Mark, where he is a go-getter. Mark wants the Romans to know how Jesus was making things happen, and you'll see the word immediately in a straight way.
But over and over, as Jesus was doing his ministry, he would find himself being interrupted. And I don't know how you handle interruptions. I don't handle them very well. I like to have my schedule laid out. I've got things I want to accomplish.
I want to make things happen. And all of a sudden, there's some type of interruption. I have come to learn in my Christian life that there are interruptions that really turn out to be divine appointments, as God stops our world so that we can be available to him to be available to someone else. And I'm wondering if you might have a story today about being interrupted so that you could share the gospel.
And we would love to hear your story of an interruption. You can call us at 1-866-348-7884. You new listeners, you want to get that number down? 1-866-348-7884. That does stand for 3-4-TRUTH.
You can call us at 866-3-4-TRUTH. We want to hear from you about a story where God interrupted your day so that you could then be used to share the gospel. We heard a story this morning. A gentleman, he didn't have a whole lot going on one day other than he wanted to get his yard mowed. But as he went out to get the yard mowed, it was one of those proverbial, if it could go wrong, it would go wrong. And the more he tried to get things done, nothing was working at all. He found himself having to go to the store to get this, and he had to go pick this up. And as he put things together, it still didn't work. And all of a sudden his wife said, Honey, there's someone sitting out in front of a house sitting there on the road.
It looks like they're broke down. And so the gentleman goes over, and all of a sudden, because he's sensitive, listen, sensitive to the Holy Spirit, he realized everything's been happening in his life that day, things not working, keeping him from mowing his yard, doing that little simple task, had him at a place where there were three young men that he had the opportunity to share the gospel to. And one of those young men was very, very interested, and so he had the opportunity, because of all the things going wrong, for something to go really right.
And he opened up the Bible, and he shared some Bible verses with this young man, and then this young man prayed and asked the Lord to save him. Now, you may have a story just like that story, where you were doing something, you had it all planned out, and then nothing was working. We want to hear about interruptions that brought about divine appointments. I had a situation one night in Dallas, Texas, where I'm driving a car, and I was pretty sure it had plenty of gas in it, but all of a sudden it runs out of gas. And I didn't understand how this car, that I was sure had gas in it to get me to where I was going, it ran out, and I found myself realizing, you know what, I think maybe I've run out of gas for a reason. And with my world being interrupted with an empty gas tank, I found myself with an opportunity to share with the person at this gas station, the attendant there, I was able to spend about 20 minutes with this person and share the gospel with them. It was one of those divine appointments. For whatever reason, the car ran out of gas, but now I have a chance to pour into a person the truth of the gospel, all because of an interruption.
And I'm just curious, if you have a story like that, give us a call at 1-866-348-7884. Philippians chapter 1 verse 12 has become one of my favorite verses because of this subject. We talk about why do things happen in our lives? We'll ask that question. Why do bad things happen in our lives?
We consider them to be bad. The apostle Paul in Philippians chapter 1 verse 12, he's in prison. He's sitting in prison, and the Philippians, they're wondering, how in the world can the apostle Paul, this great man of God who is preaching the gospel, how can he be in prison? Well, Paul writes to them and says, the things that have happened to me have happened for the furtherance of the gospel. And if you read the book of Philippians, you find that the apostle Paul was able to share the gospel with soldiers. He was able to share the gospel with some of the top soldiers of all of Rome, and he got to share the gospel even with people in Caesar's palace. He was in prison so that he could share the gospel in the palace.
And that word, furtherance, means that a path was cut open, to open up a path, and things happen in our lives so that we can share the gospel. Hey, we've got Bucksman here from Ohio, and I know he's got a great story. Hello, Bucksman, how are you today? How are you, Dr. Carson? I'm doing great. I want to say hi to all the new listeners that are listening all the way down to Florida, and please call in, guys. I know you've got some great stories as well, and God is good. So I got to tell you this story, Dr. Carson. Tell me something.
It's got something to do with our dear brother and Satan's nightmare, Nikita Koloff. Are you ready for it, Dr. Carson? Oh, I'm ready. I'm braced. Okay, so he was filling in for stew on one of the programs, and he says, Hey, Bucksman, if you're up in St. Clairsville, come up and see me.
I've got an event. Well, the Lord worked it out. I didn't have anything on the schedule, Dr. Carson, so I call a buddy and say, Hey, we're going on an adventure. He says, Okay, so we get in the car, and it's two hours and 50 minutes away from where I live. Well, 30 minutes to the church where Nikita was at, the bus mobile decides to quit.
I mean, radiator problems. Don't want to tell you how much it costs, but it was a God story of how I was able to pay for it. Anyway, the dear tow truck driver, Pastor Carson, and I want to give him a shout out. His name is Travis. I got to talk to this young man, 29 years old.
He has been through some serious issues. He and I had the greatest conversation all the way back to Dayton, Ohio. So that was my interruption.
Wow. And I was going to see Nikita, but I was there to meet Travis, and he knows the Lord, and he is strengthened now because of your fearless, skinny man with a straggly beard, going to see Nikita. Hey, we'll be right back. You're listening to the Truth Network and truthnetwork.com. Welcome back to Truth Talk Live.
Wayne Carson here. Date the Word is my ministry. It's my joy to have you all listening today as we're talking about divine appointments that show up as interruptions. And we've got Bucksman on the line.
And Bucksman, thanks for hanging in there with us. We were talking about how you were telling us about being on a drive to see Nikita, and yet you ended up getting to talk to Travis. Tell us more about that interaction you had there. It was awesome, Pastor Carson. He was very moved at how he sends the Holy Spirit in me. And it was a Sunday, Pastor Carson, that I and my friend had to be transported to Dayton, Ohio. And I'll tell you, by this time, Pastor Carson, we were brothers, and he was a big guy, too, big guy. And he was just like, I got to give you a hug. He gave me a big old hug, and he says, I just want to let you know that though I wasn't able to get to church today, you gave me the sermon, Bucksman. And I'll tell you, I was honored and humbled at the same time, Pastor Carson, because of Big Travis. It was awesome.
It was awesome. You know, so many times, Bucksman, when we have these interruptions, we find ourselves getting irritated, and we can quickly lose our testimony. And here comes a person that's there to help us, and because we're now upset and angry that we're not getting to do what we have planned to do, we don't have that opportunity to then be a blessing to another person. But when we're sensitive and having that mindset, okay, not why has this happened, but how might God be using this? Amen, Pastor Carson.
What could happen out of this situation that seems to be bad? I'm not getting to be where I want it to be, but rather, okay, who is God going to bring across my path that I can be a blessing? And in turn, here's what your story is. He was a blessing to you. He certainly was. I mean, he actually even knew what was wrong with my car. He said, if you don't mind, let me pop the hood and take a look. And sure enough, he showed me exactly what was wrong with it.
Now, once I gave it over to the mechanic, he found some other things that needed to be fixed as well to get it back fully online. But I was just so moved by our interaction. Here was two guys, Pastor Carson, who didn't know each other from Adam.
We got three hours together basically in the truck and my friend was sitting next to me. And he was taking this all in. And even he, after we departed the truck driver, Travis, even he was moved by the interaction that happened. And I said, brother, we were supposed to go see Nikita, but evidently our father said we were supposed to meet Travis. That's it.
That's it. And I was able to contact Nikita through his website. And he was so encouraging.
He says, well, maybe next time, and I hope to see Nikita if he does make it back and know how all of you guys actually. But it was just an awesome, awesome interruption from what I had planned on, Pastor Carson. An awesome interruption.
I like that. Pastor Carson, thanks for your call today. Absolutely, my friend. You stay blessed up there in Ohio. God bless you, Pastor Carson. Yes, sir. TruthTalk listeners, that's what we're talking about.
Give a call here, 866-348-7884. Tell us your story about a divine appointment that started out as an interruption. It started out as something that, well, it just wasn't pleasant. I've loved hearing from Stu Epperson so many times how he has found himself in certain places, like a hospital, and all of a sudden realizing God had him there just at the right moment at the right time to say the right thing to some people who needed words of encouragement. He's been an inspiration on being sensitive to what the Holy Spirit is doing.
When we think again about the life of Jesus, doing a little teaching here, just going through the book of Mark as I start thinking about what all we would talk about today and how these interruptions, Jesus being available to people, he's out there. He had his world interrupted so many times as he was teaching in Mark Chapter 2. All of a sudden, some people start tearing up the roof. Jesus was in the room teaching, but now someone's tearing up the roof because there wasn't any more room in the house, and now he has to stop everything he's doing so that he could take care of the immediate situation. Four men just believed they had to get this man, this paralytic man, to Jesus. Jesus could have pushed him away, but he didn't.
He could have chastised them for messing up the roof, but he didn't. I want to give some encouragement out there to the world of prayer. You don't interrupt God when you call on him. He can be interrupted when your world seems to be crashing down. You can call on him and say, Help, Lord. Lord, I need your help right now. I'm in trouble right now. Call upon the Lord in the day of trouble, and he will hear you.
He can be interrupted, just like in Mark Chapter 2. I was reading Mark Chapter 4, how Jesus was taking a nap, and all of a sudden, his disciples were in a storm. Well, he was in the storm too, but he was sleeping, and his disciples began to yell at him, Lord, wake up! Wake up! We're going to die!
Don't you care that we're perishing here? I thought about how I am when someone wakes me up from a nap. I can really get irritated.
There are family members who can tell some stories about that. I don't like being woke up from a nap. Jesus was woke up from a nap. He was interrupted as he was resting, because his disciples needed him. And then he gets up, and he is able to quickly, just with the Word, he calms the storm. He calms those waves.
The boat settles down. And then he has to talk to his disciples about growing their faith. And sometimes we're going to find our lives going into interruptions, where all those things are not working. And we've got to call on Jesus so that he can do for us what we could never do for ourselves. And right now, we know there are a lot of people dealing with a storm called Debbie. And we're asking God to protect, to watch over, for people to stay safe.
It's just a reminder that we do have storms in our lives. And as we're going through them, I just, again, with as much truth I can convey to you, God says, when you're in trouble, call on him. Do not hesitate.
Do not fear. Hebrews chapter 4 says, Come boldly to the throne of grace, that you may find help and mercy in a time of need. You don't have to be timid with your prayers. You can go boldly to the throne of grace, and he is there to help you, to get you through whatever those struggles are. If you've got a great story about an interruption that led to a divine appointment, we'd love to hear from you. 1-866-348-7884 is the number.
We know that they're new listeners, so 1-866-348-7884. You can call us here and share your story with us about how God had a divine appointment for you in a unique way, something you had never expected, but God had you at the right place at the right time to do the right thing, to say the right thing that made all the difference in another person's life. You know, as Jesus, again, we're thinking about Mark and how he had these different interruptions. Mark chapter 5 talks about how Jesus was interrupted by a man by the name of Jairus, and Jairus will say to him, my daughter, she is near death. She may already be dead.
I need you to come right now, Jesus. And Jesus will turn and he will go to be with that little girl. He'll end up needing to raise her from the dead. But you know, as he was going, immediately there comes a woman who reaches out and touches him. And again, he's interrupted. This woman needed healing, 12 years.
She had been dealing with an issue of blood and physicians had not been able to do anything to help her at all. And she says, if I can just touch him, if I can just reach out and touch his clothing, I'll be made well. This woman had incredible faith, and she reaches out, touches, and just like that, she's healed. Jesus' world was interrupted, but in the interruption, he was able to have this lady's life completely changed. We're thinking about interruptions that bring about great change. Give us a call at 1-866-34-TRUTH, and this is Truth Talk Live. We'll be right back for our last segment in just a few moments.
Truth Talk Live You're listening to the Truth Network and truthnetwork.com Welcome back to Truth Talk Live. We're grateful that you're listening today, and we're thinking about interruptions that come your way that could surely cause you to stumble, to become irritated, but rather, looking at how Jesus handled interruptions, they become divine appointments. We begin to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit and who he may be bringing across our path. I do want to take a moment and just remind you, we're in August, and earlier this month, as we went into the month of August, we gave a challenge that you would read one chapter a day out of Proverbs. August has 31 days, and Proverbs has 31 chapters, and I think some of the greatest advice I could ever give a person is after that advice, you need to get saved. Today is the day of salvation.
Put your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's to read one chapter a day out of the book of Proverbs, especially on those months that have 31 days. August has those 31 days, and today is August the 7th, so you should have read Proverbs 7. Proverbs 7 is just loaded with the call to get God's Word into your heart, and one of the reasons you're going to get God's Word into your heart, Psalms 119, 11, your word of I head of my heart that I may not sin, we find in Proverbs 7 that as we're memorizing and hiding God's Word in our heart, it's going to keep us from certain sins, like sexual sins that we have no business being involved in. And then there's like a parable told there in Proverbs 7, and here's a young man who's going to go to the wrong place, and he's going to be with the wrong person, and then they're going to be involved in the wrong practice, and from that's going to come a whole lot of wrong things.
And Proverbs 7 just gives a huge warning for us to obey God's Word when it comes to His parameters for morality, because if you step out of God's boundaries with morality, you're involved in immorality, you're going to get a lot of unwanted things, and that's in Proverbs 7, so I encourage you to read Proverbs 7 if you haven't, and tomorrow read Proverbs 8, and when you get to the end of Proverbs 8, you're going to find one of the great reasons for reading Proverbs is the blessings that come to the person who daily waits. That's the idea of a quiet time, sitting there where you can hear what God has to say to you. It is crucial that we're getting God's Word daily into our lives.
As a pastor, I try, when I'm preaching, to feed people, but I can't feed them that will last a whole week, and I've said unto some wonderful pastors myself, but they can't feed me to the level I need. That's why it's crucial to have a quiet time, and so tomorrow, make sure you read Proverbs 8. As we think about Jesus and being interrupted, he came to this earth, he was born to die at just the right time also. Galatians talks about being born at the right time, and then he's headed to Jerusalem for the right time, but as he's headed to Jerusalem, going through Jericho, he's going to have one interruption after another. Yet, he didn't allow those interruptions to cause him to become irritated.
Yet, he took those interruptions as opportunities. For instance, here's a man who is blind, and it says that he began to cry out, Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me. And you know, there were people that told him to be quiet. They told him to stop crying out. And yet, he's like, you know what, I need Jesus, and so he's crying out even more. Son of David, have mercy on me. And so Jesus, he said, hold on guys, just stop. We don't have to be in a rush to get to Jerusalem.
Tell that man, hold on, I want to talk to him. And so they went over and said, be of good cheer, Jesus is calling. And so then he goes over to this man, the man comes to him, and Jesus says, what do you want? And he said, Rabbi, that I may receive my sight. And Jesus said, go your way, your faith has made you well. And immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus on the road. Now, he's going to be one of those guys that's going to be there when he's headed into Jerusalem on the triumphal entry. Here's a man that was blind, but now he's seeing because he's had an encounter with Jesus, and Jesus had time for him. And I guess I'm trying to convey to you today, if we will be sensitive to interruptions, we can make such a difference by pointing people to Jesus, and that he can change their lives. But if we are rushing and we're we have to fulfill our to do list, there's no telling how many blessings we may miss. We we heard from Buxman earlier that that not only was he able to be a blessing because his car broke down, but he himself was blessed because of the encounter with another believer and they fellowship together. They had fellowship, but that could have all been missed if Buxman had a horrible attitude, if he was mad at God because he couldn't get to hear a preacher that he wanted to hear, but rather being sensitive. I wonder what God might do with this situation. Who might come that I could be a blessing to? As this man is coming, as Jesus is coming into Jerusalem through Jericho, a blind man needs help, and Jesus did not push him away. Rather, Jesus invited him to come and have an encounter with him, and then he journeys with him up to Jerusalem.
You know, there's another guy down at Jericho. His name is Zacchaeus, and if you put these parallel stories together, Luke 19, you find this great story about Zacchaeus, a wee little man, and you might remember that song from church. When I was growing up, we would sing that I do not dare try to sing a song today to sing it. Now, Stu Epperson today led us in singing it. I didn't sing.
But remember that song about Zacchaeus being a wee little man? He wanted to see Jesus. And again, here's Jesus taking time.
His life's being interrupted. He's headed to Jerusalem. He's going to go there so that he can be the sacrificial lamb, that he can die for our sins. But rather, as Zacchaeus wanted to see him, Jesus said, You know what, Zacchaeus?
Not only are you going to get to see me today, I'm going to come to your home, and we're going to fellowship together. And I think, I don't know if this is true or not, but I get the idea that Zacchaeus then traveled on with Jesus. He may have been a part of that triumphal entry, who would then, they're going to be crying out, Hosanna, save us. Well, Luke 19, 10 says, For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save those that are lost. For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save those that are lost. And that verse, Luke 19, 10, it explains the purpose of our Lord Jesus Christ. He came to seek and save, not just seek, but to seek and save us, we that are lost.
And he does that by then going to the cross for us. And now, we have the opportunity to share this with others. And I want to tell you, as we begin to wrap our program up, that I had a very rejoicing moment when I was up in Amherst this past Monday, as I came across a family that I had met years ago. And as soon as I encountered this man, he was very gracious. He told me how excited he was to see me. He said, You know, back years ago, we were in a revival with you, and our family's lives were changed. And I said, Oh, I remember. Your son got saved. And he said, He sure did. He got saved at the revival. And then we reminisced about what had happened. And I want to share this with you.
Here's what happened. As we went into that revival, I asked people to be praying for family members to get saved. And on a Tuesday night, as I'm getting ready to head out to preach, I had to walk by the choir. And as I'm walking by the choir, a lady reached and grabbed my arm, and she wanted to look me right in the face. And she said, Pastor, I have, and as she said, I have, I could see tears starting to flow down her face. She, she had started to cry.
She had started to weep. She said, I have been praying all day for my son to get saved. And I looked at her and I said, Ma'am, I believe God is going to honor your tears tonight. I'm thinking of Psalms 126, verse 6, those who sow in tears will reap in joy. I believe God's going to honor your tears tonight and your son's going to get saved. Well, sure enough, I preached and preached the gospel and gave the invitation. And that young man was the first one to come forward. Well, his dad, here we are now, 2024, is still rejoicing that what happened in 1988, that his son got saved. And his son got saved because there were parents who were weeping over their child to be saved. Another program powered by the Truth Network.
