The following is a pre-recorded program. Welcome to Truth Talk Live. All right, let's talk. A daily program powered by the Truth Network. This is kind of a great thing, and I'll tell you why. Where pop culture, current events, and theology all come together. Speak your mind. And now, here's today's Truth Talk Live host.
When's the last time you ran a hundred miles? You hit an NBA 3 and you share Christ with hundreds of thousands of people in the Philippines. I'm talking right now to a man of God who's done that. He's got another man of God with him.
They have these t-shirts that say Jesus is king. I'm gonna have to post a picture of me standing with Doug Elks, with Kevin, with BallerNation. He's here too. Man, all six foot eight or however tall you are.
You're over the rim half the time. God is working, and it's an honor, Doug Elks, to have you with us, man, in the studio to celebrate Jesus and to encourage our listeners. So many people are hurting out there. What's the message? What is heavy on your heart right now for our country, for our youth, even for the older folks like me?
I'm in that category now, listening. First off, I just want to thank you so much. I want to thank you for what you do and what your team does through this platform. This is unbelievable that you guys are on fire for the mission to get the truth out there to so many people.
So thank you for what you're doing, man. But the one message that's deeply on my heart is the good news of Jesus Christ, that God created everything. He created all of us, you and me, and he created us in his image. He wants a relationship with us, but because of our sin that separated us. So we need his Savior, and his name is Jesus Christ. He's coming to your life right now, and he can save you from your sin.
You get to live a life walking as his disciple and find true freedom in him alone. I love it. For some of you listening, it's a new year, and you're thinking, hey, I want to turn over a new leaf. And those resolutions you make every year, whatever they are, work out, get fit, start smoking, lose weight. I don't know what they are. They're just not working.
But there's one resolution that always works on time every time. Doug, what is it? Tell everybody. To follow Jesus. Fully receive him first and then walk with him every single day of your life.
And Christ has changed your life. We're going to get into the testimony of how. We got to introduce the supporting cast here. Baller Nation is the guy that introduced us. John, what about this guy, Doug? Is he the real deal, and how did you guys meet? Yeah, Doug is the real deal. I've been following him through social media for a while, and we actually met at Zach Clinton's Ignite ministry.
It was our first time meeting in person, and just a great time, and really talking with him a little bit and getting to know him. But over the time, we've kind of texted back and forth and talked on the phone, and just really loved Doug's heart for the Lord, and loved that he's bold, and he wants to go and speak in churches, and to basketball teams, and FCA, and all those things. So Doug and I have just become good friends, and really tried to connect and really share the gospel, and allow Doug to have a platform, and thankful that he has a platform that he's using to spread the gospel. It's such a blessing to know Doug.
That's so cool. I'm gonna get a little selfie with all you guys. John, lean in a little bit. We've got Kevin now.
We've got a supporting cast. Doug has these other people that love Jesus. Who is this guy? Let's get him to talk a second.
I mean, what in the world? Kevin! Before we get there, John, I just appreciate you so much. I'm so grateful for our friendship, and you've been such a blessing to my life.
So thank you for bringing us in to be a part of all this. But Kevin is a great guy, a great man of God. I got introduced to Kevin earlier this year, and I love him, kind of share the story, but I've just been so encouraged to see God move in his life. Just completely changed his heart, and just the fire, and the hunger he has for the Lord is so inspiring. It's so encouraging, and I'm just excited for what God is doing in and through him, and will continue to do that, because he's got a lot of good works for him to step into. Praise the Lord. Kevin, what's it like to run around with this guy, man?
Come right up in that mic. Man, so running around 2024 has been the year of all years for me, and more specifically my relationship with the Lord. It's kind of just been set on fire, completely set ablaze this year, and Doug was an absolutely massive part of that. I got baptized in late June of this year, and that was kind of the catalyst mid-year, and just carried the rest of the year on. So I have been in the great state of North Carolina by way of Chicago, Illinois for the greater part of a year, 14 months at this point, and for the first six months I was there, I was like, man, I really don't have community. I don't really have community. I don't have a family.
I don't have any tie to stay in North Carolina. I was walking with my girlfriend one time, and I was weeping. I was crying out to the Lord, and I was like, man, I need something. I wish I had other guys here that were into business, that were into fitness, that were into faith, and it's almost amazing how when you cry out to the Lord, and you're specific in what you're asking of him, he just may make those things come true. So not a week later, I saw I followed our worship leader on Instagram, great guy, great man of God, fantastic voice, and he was at this event with a guy named Doug, and they were doing amazing things.
They were doing fitness outside. They were worshiping in the rain, and so I found Doug through Instagram, and I decided to reach out to him. I said, man, I don't know what you got going on, but if there's any way I could be a part of it, I would be so grateful, and he said, will you come to church with me on Thursday? So that was back in March of this year, and the rest of the year has just been amazing traveling state to state, speaking at FCA, Unite Us, you know, different events across the country, and it's just been amazing.
I'm so grateful. Yeah, young people are coming to Christ. Young people are being baptized, and Doug, you know, people are wearing these Jesus is King shirts. You got a Christian apparel company. We've been swapping cool stories about all the swag of the Truth Network, man.
We want to grow up to have the kind of swag like that. It's looking really good, man. What a blessing, I tell you. Jesus is King. I mean, you come, we went to a college basketball game last night.
Yes. See my nephew and see his team play. You walk up with a Christian hat, a Jesus is King t-shirt, and a Bible, and I'm thinking, how are we going to get him through security? What's with this giddyup, buddy? Man, I truly believe if you're going to stand on something you believe in, you got to go all out, and you know, what the Lord has done in my life is undeniable, and I just want to make sure that people know that I'm not perfect. I've made a lot of mistakes. I've sinned, but Jesus has completely redeemed all of those things, and I just want other people to experience the same love that I experience every time I just truly walk with Jesus, and so we launched these shirts. There's a man in my life, Steve Weatherford, who's had a massive impact on my journey, my faith, and he's helped me really go from just claiming Christianity to truly walking in the fullness of what I believe God has for my life and just being activated as a disciple of Jesus, and so it's been really cool to wear this message.
I mean, this is the only thing that I want to tell people about, and so I don't want it to bring attention to me. I just want people to come to know Jesus. I love it. We're going to take a break in just a second, but before we do, I want to tell everyone what's coming. We've got these men of God with you. We've had a great day of ministry here in North Carolina. God is working. We've spoken to some teams, a company about the Lord, just sharing, you know, the message, what Christ has done in your life, encouraging some folks from the Word. We had Wednesday in the Word. It was a great time. Doug Elks is a ministry.
It's called AIM. We want to know about that ministry, and we want to hear about how can you be following Jesus when the patriarch of your home was hooked on drugs and alcohol, abusive, a struggle, and what has God done to heal that father wound? How is that part of your testimony, and how did you end up to be such a phenomenal athlete, basketball player, track star, fitness guy with a huge social media following? Will you tell us about that when we come back? Absolutely. All right. It's a special pre-recorded edition of Truth Talk and Truth Talk Live for the new year or whenever you're listening, and be sure we're going to make this a podcast.
Download it. Share it with all your friends. Make sure we share it with a lot of the teams that have heard you speak, man. It's a real blessing. We'll be right back. I'm Stu Everson.
Don't touch that dial. The great prophet, in some of the very last words of the Old Testament, said the prayer of Almighty God to turn the hearts of the fathers to the son and the sons to their fathers. This is a story of God healing that wound, and some of you have those wounds. Some of you have had brutal abuse. Some of you have had generational sin passed down through your father.
Some of you have unforgiveness. God's had breakthroughs in some of your lives, but we're going to give some hope to you. I'm Stu Everson. So glad to have you with us on this special edition of Truth Talk Live, Truth Talk, coast to coast, nationwide, bringing pop culture, current events, and theology all woven together to lift up Jesus Christ as our king. And the man in front of me has a t-shirt that says, Jesus is King. We've got a whole studio full of men of God. We've got Kevin right here with the same t-shirt on, brother Christ of yours, Doug from Raleigh. We've got John Perry, Baller Nation here in the house as well. And we've been just running around sharing Jesus with anybody and everybody with teams on the college level, high school level, just bringing them the great news of the gospel, just like the angels proclaim the message.
The angels are not doing that anymore. We have the word of God, but they are protecting us, and they are great examples of what we're to be doing now as evangelists, evangelists to share the good news of Jesus everywhere we go. Doug Elks, that's what you do with AIM. Give us kind of like the synopsis of your whole ministry with AIM. Yeah, I mean, so, you know, the ministry has been a huge blessing to kind of give a little bit of context for those listening. I played college basketball, Division I basketball, Western Carolina, and up till my junior year in college, I felt like the Lord had called me to be a basketball coach. That's what I wanted to do with my life.
I loved, I looked up to Coach K. I lived in Raleigh growing up, so I was around Duke and just a hotbed of ACC basketball. But when COVID hit my junior year, I got to go home and spend some time just really in reflection. I think everything for a lot of people just stopped for a moment, and it was time to just kind of really evaluate what the way it is you were doing. And when I prayed about it, I really felt like there was a shift that God was calling me to something else, and that's when I felt like he put the initial version, like AIM 1.0 on my heart. And at the time, what we did was we wanted to encourage people, we wanted to inspire people, and AIM stood for ambition in mind. And so it was a motivational co-ed collection of just different types of people as a community.
We had a podcast, we were doing merch out of my apartment before NIL, so don't tell anyone. And we just were doing we just were doing a lot of fun stuff, but we were pushing a positive message, but it wasn't Christ. It was a healthy motivational message. But what happened, man, I'll tell you, the testimony is that as I continued to grow with the Lord, I got convicted when I was reading Philippians 2-3, where it says, Do nothing out of selfish ambition.
And I was like, man, why? Ambition in itself is not inherently wrong or sinful. That's a very, it's a very hard topic to preach on or discuss with other people. And so I went before the Lord took it to him. And that's when we changed it from ambition in mind to just the word aim. And now we reference Acts 20-24, which I know is a verse that you love as well, where Paul says, I consider my life worth nothing. My only aim is to testify to the good news of God's grace. And now our mission is truly to reach as many people as we can with the gospel.
We love to activate men as leaders, to be disciples unto Christ, but also to go out and walk in the fullness of what God has for them. Well, that's Doug Elks, and you can learn more about the ministry. What's the website for AIM?
aimmissions.com, AIMmissions.com. Of course, you're on social media. You're, you're dropping buckets on the gram and sharing good messages, speaking at FCAs all over the country in the Philippines with Crossfire Ministries, late Randy Shepherd, who's with Jesus. You were with him last summer, you know, and Jamie Johnson, what a blessing, what a ministry, Baller Nation's done that too.
And I'm going to ask you very personal here. And you've been so transparent even in sharing today about your relationship with your dad, the miracle that happened in his life, but it wasn't so miraculous early on. I mean, it was some rough stuff. Yeah. And how prone we are to make idols that can't do anything for us, but yet we erect all these idols. Talk about that and how even basketball became that for you, and then kind of what God did to open your heart with your father wound and how you got saved. Give us your testimony, if you could, in a nutshell for our listeners.
Yeah. Well, first off, you know, there's a verse that I love to talk about. It's John 10 10. The enemy wants to come to steal, kill and destroy, but Jesus wants to come to give us life to the fullest. And so what I've seen in my life and people that I love have been, you know, just pulled into different and different temptations and things that we believe that will satisfy us. We believe these things of the world will complete us. Or when we have pain or trauma or things we're going through, instead of turning to God, the easy thing to do is to turn to worldly things that we think will take away and numb that pain.
And that's certainly what happened in the, in the early parts of my childhood. I had a father who I love very much, and I never, ever say this to dishonor him. I only want to honor my father, but this is the truth of my testimony is that he did struggle with drugs and alcohol, and it created a lot of issues, a lot of problems in my own life. And, you know, I'm very grateful to, to share with everyone what the Lord has done in his life. But what that did for me is I was grateful the Lord had his hand on my life. I didn't turn to the drugs and alcohol route, but instead I went to the route of saying, Hey, look how great I can be. And I'm going to put my identity in things that I think will fix this pain in my heart.
And that was basketball. That was the approval of others that was making money, all these worldly things. And I made them idols.
You know, I put them on the seat where God is supposed to reign in my life. And they never, they never worked, man. They were leaving me asking questions and searching for more.
They never were the strength that I needed. And ultimately they never loved me back the way that Jesus has. And so that was really a big part of my testimony. And it wasn't until I went off to college, you know, I grew up in a place where I would say I was a Christian.
I would claim that title. It was religious. You know, we'd go to church sporadically. I owned a Bible, but I did not read it. I did not study.
I did not meditate on the word of God. And it wasn't until my freshman year in college where I met a guy who was, he was roommates with the one senior we had on the basketball team, this guy named Joe. And he just had this joy about his life, man. When you looked into his eyes, when you saw him, when you're around him, you could tell there was something different about him. And after many conversations, ultimately I was like, Joe, what is so different about you? And he said, I have a relationship, relationship with Jesus.
It's not a religion. I have a relationship. And I was like, I want that because whatever I'm doing now is not working for me.
And I need something to fix the problems in my life. And so that's when I gave my life to Christ. I fully received Christ in faith. And since then, um, it's been a journey, but about a year ago in November 3rd of last year is when I fully opened up my hands and I came before the Lord in prayer. And I said, I need to give you 100% of myself. I have not fully surrendered.
I want you to have the rest of my life. And I prayed a prayer where I prayed for three things. I prayed that God would have every breath for the rest of my life. I prayed that he would take away everything that was distracting me and causing my eyes to turn away from him and for him to boldly open doors where he called me to go. And my mentor, Steve Weatherford prayed that over me and we prayed in agreement. And I felt like the Lord struck me by lightning and all I felt was the love of God in a new way that I'd never experienced. And since that day, man, it hasn't been perfect, but my, my sole mission is to share the message of Jesus with as many people as possible. Well, I want to bring Kevin in here. You're one of your, your, your, your young disciples who loves Jesus, who you've been on the career track.
You've been in fitness. How have you seen Christ changed in this guy's life? Kevin, how would you testify to what he said, man? If, if somebody is claiming Christ, one thing that I've come to learn in my personal walk is, you know, you could re you could really tell, you know, you can't look at somebody and say, that's what a Christian looks like. But one thing that you can tell is if their life is bearing the fruits of the spirit and that's evidence in the way that they talk, the way that they carry themselves, the way that they treat others, XYZ, ABC, so on and so forth. If there's a box to check, you know, I'm not just pumping his tires up, but Doug checks those boxes. And it's very, very, very clear to me that he is claiming to be a man of Christ and actually living it out. And because there is a difference in like being somebody that has claimed Christ since 2018, but all through college, man, I would, I would tell everybody that asked that I was a Christian, but I was not, I was not living like it. I was in a fraternity, you know, whole nine yards and praise God, I've turned away from that, that style of living.
But man, it's evidenced in his life that he talks the talk and he walks the walk to back it up. And the plot thickens. We're going to take a quick break. When we come back, we want to hear a little more about how God brought healing in your family with your dad, which was a whole, a whole journey, whole struggle, something supernatural happened on the beach that you're going to tell us about when we come back.
I'm Stu Everson. This is Truth Talk, Truth Talk Live. Thank you all for being here.
Thank you to all of our wonderful, brave affiliates for carrying this program. Download the podcast. We'll drop it very soon so you can hear this whole thing and you can share it with other people that need some hope, that need some encouragement. Stay tuned. Don't touch that dial.
We'll be right back. Website truthnetwork.com. You're listening to the Truth Network and truthnetwork.com.
The following is a prerecorded program. There's a healing. There's a forgiveness.
There's a wholeness. It only can happen when the love of the Heavenly Father comes in. And when you allow that love, like Jesus talked about in John 15, 9, where he said, as the Father hath loved me, so I have loved you, with that same intensity. And then he says, now abide in my love. And how many of us have a hard time allowing God's love in? And we have a hard time allowing other people to love us.
We can't receive anything because we feel like we're going to get just stabbed in the back, and we've been hurt, we've been wounded. And part of the testimony of this man of God here, Doug Elks, is his testimony of a rough relationship with his father. And God has brought some supernatural healing, and we want you to tell us about that. But I want, for those that just joined us, or maybe caught this podcast late if you're listening on a podcast, John Perry, aka BallerNation, introduce Doug. Tell everyone who Doug Elks is.
You introduced him great this morning at our Wednesday in the Word men's group. Tell everyone a little bit about Doug. Yeah, Doug is from Raleigh, North Carolina, and he really is just a man on fire. He's got a ministry called AIM Missions, and his mission is to empower people to to empower people to believe in Jesus, to equip people with the knowledge of Christ, and to really dive into that. He's got men's ministries that he has done, which are geared toward fitness and towards, obviously, spiritual growth, which is the most important part. But Doug is just, he's on fire for the Lord, and he really, he's an evangelist. He wants to share the Lord with everybody and anybody that he comes in contact with. You know, when Christ came in the world, at Christmas, which, you know, many celebrated around the world, you know, recently, he came into a real messy situation.
It wasn't some palatial setting of comfort to some wealthy couple who had no problem. He came into abject poverty. He came into the smelly, stinky cattle stall. Right there was the Lord of all. And there was geopolitical, awful stuff happening.
It was bloody. Here, Israel had been oppressed, and here comes the King. And you are wearing a shirt, Doug Elkes, that says, Jesus is King. And I think about how you shared your testimony earlier on in our segments about how Christ saved you, but there's a lot of mess that he came in, and it also has to do with the 99 that the Good Shepherd left to go after the one.
Share about that and what God's done in your own family, in the own mess, to bring his glory as part of the... I wish we could just say, okay, show's over. Radical testimony. Hallelujah. He's saved. He's not fired for God. He's preached the gospel. But there's another side of the story where the grace of God shined in through weakness.
Amen. Well, first off, man, how great is it that we serve a God that loves us so much that he would indeed leave the 99 for the one? The Bible says that he wants none to perish but all to come to repentance. That is the heart of the Father. And so as an evangelist, as someone who has been deeply touched by just the grace of God, the goodness of God, the love of God through Jesus Christ, I have a burning passion for all people to come to know him, for all people to have an opportunity to hear the truth, to hear the good news of Jesus, and to be able to respond to that in faith.
And so that's truly my mission, man. And to give kind of more context to what you shared about with my family, man, as I mentioned, all of us have struggles, all of us have temptation that we undergo. But what happened with my father was, you know, a really challenge, a big challenge in my life when he did battle with drugs and alcohol. And thankfully, the Lord has brought so much healing to that situation. And basically, the better part of the testimony, the part that we like to celebrate is what God did this year. And that was over the summer, I was watching a movie with my mom, who I love so much, and she's just a rock in my life.
She and I are very, very close. And the movie was Jesus Revolution, which people listening to this probably have seen. It's an incredible movie, I highly recommend it. But essentially, the movie takes place where it's showing this revival, this massive revival in California, where there's a hippie revival. And there's a guy that this kind of leading this charge who has a background and, you know, with drugs and alcohol and different things that he dealt with. And then he comes to Christ, he gets radically encountered. And he comes to put his trust in Jesus. And now he's leading all these other hippies, these people that are, you know, not seen in the church, these people that are pushed to the side, and he has a heart for them. And after some tension in the movie, they eventually partner up, the local church and this guy partner up, and they see this massive explosion of these hippies coming to Jesus. And you see the great rise of this guy's ministry and just the way he's pouring into thousands and thousands of people coming to Christ, which is beautiful.
But there's one scene in the movie that deeply touched my heart. And that's a scene where it's a stormy night. They're driving, he's driving in the car, and there's a sky on the sidewalk. And he stops and he gets out. And he goes and talks and ministers to this one person. And just like in Matthew 18, which we talked about, leaving the 99 for the one, in that moment, I saw the same heart posture as the Father to say, look, the easy thing to do would be to turn a blind eye to keep going. He's got this massive ministry exploding. People are coming up to him, praising him, all the great stuff that, you know, the Lord is doing in and through him.
But he says, no, I have the same heart and I want to see this one person come to Christ and I want to minister to them. And in that moment in the movie, I'm sitting there watching and I feel the Holy Spirit come over my heart saying, you know, this is, this is the same heart posture that you need to have if you want to walk into the calling of an evangelist. And so I started to pray like, Lord, you know, who is that one person in my life right now that I should go reach right now, and I will be obedient to whoever you put on my heart, because I want that same heart that you have, Father. And the person that he put on my heart was my dad. And man, it was just such a, it was just such a powerful moment.
In that moment, I had excitement, but also confusion, also worry, and just all these different things because of the emotional side to it that I experienced. But what I did is I, after wrestling with the Lord about it, I texted my dad, how can I pray for you? And in the context here is I haven't talked to my dad in months, you know, prior to this text.
And I haven't talked to him on the phone in the greater part of the year and hadn't seen him since the previous year in person. And I texted him and I said, hey, how can I pray for you? And he responded that, you know, he wanted the truth to come out about some things that had happened. And he said, I want you to do something that would mean so much to me. I want you to baptize me. I want to dedicate my life to Christ. I want to fully commit my life to Christ. And I want to be baptized. And man, in that moment, that's not what I was expecting to hear, but I was like, man, praise God.
But there was also still some hesitation just because of the relationship. But I prayed about it. I actually talked to one of my great friends about it. And after praying with him, he said, you know, what I felt the Lord say to me is, who are you to deny what the Lord can do? And I just hope that someone listening to this can be encouraged by that testimony. It truly is powerful what God can do in and through us when we're available. And so we ultimately met up, we got together, a couple of my friends were with me, he got to really pour out his heart, and he got to hear the full gospel, respond to the gospel, and we prayed to fully receive Christ in faith. And I got to see a moment with my father that I'd never seen before, the true presence of God in his eyes, and it was one of the greatest things I've ever gotten to see. But the Lord broke off so much doubt and disbelief in my own heart, so the Lord increased my faith as well.
So glory to God for that. And what would you say to so many out there who have these massive, massive just firewalls of pain that are just, they can't even call their family, they can't even be in the same room with them. There's just, there's so much unforgiveness, bitterness, even among people claiming to be Christians.
I mean, there was a moment where before you called your buddy, you're sitting there thinking, okay, really, you know, I'm ready to go, I'm ready to go charge hell with a water bucket. And now God's telling me to go to this very difficult relationship where you could have, you know, many, many a man would curse his dad, say, how dare you for doing this, look at what you've done to us, but let God change your heart. What would you say to others out there that are battling with that, Doug? Well, I think, I think the big thing that hit me where I got the deepest revelation is, of course there is pain and trauma in different relationships, but I just sat there and I said, you know what, what have I done? I said, man, I've sinned.
I've fallen short of the glory of God. I have separated myself eternally from God because of my sin, but Jesus died on a cross for my sin, for your sin, for every sin of the person, people that are listening. And so when you start to break that down, you start to fix your eyes on Christ, the great physician, the healer, you know, it does help. And I believe that Jesus can come into anyone's heart and heal any wound. I don't, it doesn't mean that you just brush everything under the rug, but it does mean, it does mean that you can be fully restored in the sense that, that you can forgive someone, you can walk with them. And through the power of what Jesus can do in your heart, there, there can be relationships that are, that are rebuilt and reformed. And man, man, it's just encouraging. And I think at the end of the day, it's, it's just love. It's truly love. And we don't look at love in the way that the world and the culture wants to teach it. We look at love the way it was demonstrated on the cross.
And that's what Jesus does. If coach wants to have you come and speak to his team, if someone wants to come speak at FCA, their banquet, come and share, what's the best way to get ahold of you. What's, you know, give your website, plug in all that.
I want everyone to listen and plug in. Parents, get your young people following people like Doug Elks to hear about Jesus, to be encouraged, to get on that. If you're going to be on social media, be in front of him and hear the message of Christ and invitation, inviting people, invitations constantly to come to Christ.
He's a prayer away. Yes, absolutely. And I would just say through, through Instagram's a great method at Doug Elks is my Instagram. Our website is aimmissions.com.
There's a contact form on the website where people can inquire to, to bring us in to speak. And we just, we just want to come talk about Jesus. Like that is our heart. We want to see people get set free from all their sin. And we want to see people walking and what Jesus has for them in this side of eternity and, and for eternal life.
And that's only found in Christ alone. Okay. Get ready. Cause this guy's bold about Jesus. He'll come in and he'll, he'll light you up with the good news of Christ, invite people to Christ. We've seen people invite Jesus in their life today, haven't we? Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. He's the answer to every problem. The question is how are all of us making much of him?
That's right. How are we actively introducing others to the only one who can transform anyone? Come on.
Even your pops, right? Praise God. So even this, this crusty old sinner right here. So thank you for what you're doing, Doug.
Great for your testimony for these other guys, John, Kevin, for being a part of this. And at the end of the day, Jesus is King, right? Jesus is King. We were just in Mexico and we were saying Jesus as Ray, but it's the same thing in Spanish. I love it.
In any language, he is Lord of all. Amen. God bless you guys. Thank you.
You're listening to the Truth Network and truthnetwork.com. The following is a prerecorded program. What's the theme for next year, Jesse Connors? The theme for next year is sew as you go.
Sew as you go. Is that S-O or S-O-W? It's definitely S-O-W, Stu.
Or is it S-E-W, like a weaver? It's S-O-W because what has to happen is what we see in Matthew 13. We all have to be sowing seeds and we have a very hard time sowing seeds regularly without a simple tool like the sharethetruthnow.com card where on one side we have video answers to life's hard questions for the unbeliever called truelife.org. They can scan that and it proves that Jesus loves them. And then on the other side, it allows the believer that might get the card to order their own cards for free, which gives them the opportunity to sew. What do you think of that?
Sew as you go and you will grow. Amen. That's right. Amen. Jesse Connors with Share the Truth Now. I got a car full of evangelists talking to Jesse right now. Doug Elks, who's a basketball, missionary, athlete. We got Kevin back there who's sporting the Jesus is King T-shirt who shares Christ through fitness and through business. We got Baller Nation here who you share Christ above the rim, don't you, brother?
Oh yeah, for sure. Jesse, what can we do to reach more people in the new year? Talk to me. I think it's just coming to the realization that everyone has a hole in their spiritual soul that has to be filled with evangelism. And if it's not, then it gets filled with depression, it gets filled with anxiety, it gets filled with just wanting more money, it gets filled with so many other things that don't add up to where God wants us to be.
But I know when we fill this hole with the proper thing, then we will be able to fill the completeness and the fullness of God. And you can't experience that unless if you're God's hands and feet. And being His hands and feet is amazing, but being His mouthpiece really takes it to the next level when you hear that, you know, what you're saying is really directly from heaven. You feel the Holy Spirit talking through you and you're being a conduit of His love for others. It's just amazing, Sue. Well, now Doug, lean way up here, Doug, so we can hear you.
You know, it's like the Mark 1-17, which is one of Jesse's favorite verses, where he just said two things. He said, follow me, I'll make you fishers of men. We got the follow me part down, but you wonder, do we really have the follow me part down? Because we're not fishing, Doug.
What's up with that? We've got to fish, man. You know, we got to do what we're responsible for. And like Jesse's saying, you know, we're called to sow in water. God is the one that's going to grow them.
There's no one that we can save in our own strength and power. That's only by Jesus alone. But we are called to make that message known to the world, to preach the gospel. I love Mark 15, excuse me, 16-15, where he says to preach the gospel to all creation all over the world. So we have a direct call and a command from Christ to go out and share this powerful message of hope that's only found in Jesus.
Those who know must go and sow, and God will cause it to grow. That's it. That's amen, brother. We got to write that down before we forget it. I've got to write that down. Jesse, this is exciting, man.
Thank you so much. You're on TV now. God's blessing this thing. We got to record some more, my friend, because the world needs to hear, but we need to go preach the gospel. Believers need to hear the gospel. Not only do they need to hear the fact that they've been set free, they need to hear encouragement to go and share the good news, to go and sow.
That's right. And I think that we need to focus, guys, this year, I think we really need to focus on the fact that Christians think they can live a life without making evangelism a priority, when the number one job that God gave us was to seek and save that which is lost. It was his number one job. That's what he came to do. And how many days are we waking up saying, that's what I'm here to do too. And we have to just adopt a mentality that's saying, today, I'm going to wake up and say, I'm going to seek and save that which is lost.
Now the question is, how do we do that? And that's why the ShareTheTruthNow.com initiative is growing. We have had some major hurdles.
We've been jumping through them. It's been like we've been in the lion's den and thankfully we haven't been bitten, but God's been growing us still. And we have a huge advancement happening right now across this country. And I am so thankful for you, Stu, on helping to come up with this concept and idea it lives on. And we need everyone to go to ShareTheTruthNow.com, get these seeds to sow where one side allows an unbeliever to go online and get video answers and the other side allows a Christian to order theirs for free.
But we also train people with what to do. So it's a free car. You can order 200 free cars. Doug, John, Kevin, we can order these cars for F-R-E-E. Now we're trying to capture this audio while we're driving. Jesse, and I'm watching the wheel, don't worry, but I got a bunch of good co-pilots in here. Jesse, we are walking in to share Christ with a basketball team right now.
We literally have to get out of the car. We are a minute late, so we're going to make it. Well, let me pray for you guys. Pray for us right now. Pray for all our listeners too, but pray for Doug as he shares his testimony.
He's got a wonderful ministry called AIM, A-I-M, which is based on Acts 20-24. Lift us up, Jesse, real quick. We got to get out of here. Okay, Jesus, we love you. We thank you for that. Our hearts are right with you. We rejoice in that. I pray that all the listeners can say the same thing, that our hearts are right with you, that our priorities are straight.
God, that's the goal of a Christian, that we die to ourselves, that we become Libyan sacrifices, and we can't do that unless if we die to ourselves and that we're willing to take up our cross and go outside of the city walls and share our faith where we become uncomfortable. God, you make us the most comfortable. We love that. We rely on you for that. And so be with Doug as he is now sharing his testimony in front of this basketball team. I pray for open hearts. God, I pray that your anointing will be on him, that he'll fill your presence, speak through him.
The only way you can help your love for these people to overflow through him and help him to sense the magnitude of the moment. This opportunity may be the only time to hear the gospel. We're not promised tomorrow, Father, but we do pray for open hearts and that we will have a great report now because of this prayer and faith to you that you promise us, God, if we come to you, that you'll answer us, especially when it comes to evangelism.
So please, God, knock down those strongholds that are even in Doug's life so he can speak fully for you and also those that are listening. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Amen. Jesse, thank you. Love you, man.
Happy New Year. God bless you. God bless you guys. I will get you in touch with Doug and all these guys very soon, okay?
Sounds great. Thanks for having me. Thank you.
Well, Happy New Year, everyone. I had a chance as we wrap up the show today to visit with Robbie Dilmore, the Christian car guy, a man who's done a whole lot to reach a whole lot of people with the good news of Christ, who's been a real part of our Truth Broadcasting, Truth Podcasting network in this program, Truth Talk Live. He's really been a go-to host even in here a lot more than I am. Robbie, what a great year it's been looking back. What, oh, the great things God has done. To God be the glory, great things he has done. Isn't it great to look back and reflect with a heart of gratitude?
Oh, it is. And I reflect on the audience and the amazing calls, like one after the other that have literally made my day, day after day. As you get a chance to host this, sometimes I have to pinch myself to say, man, how lucky am I? I had this person call in just like yesterday, Ed. Like, oh, my gosh.
He had this amazing testimony of this dream that he had where God stood right beside him and said, don't lean on your own understanding. Did you hear it? I heard a little bit of it. As always, I'm in and out of those shows when I'm not in here, but I always love it.
In fact, I almost tried to call in because I was listening in Spartanburg to the show yesterday. But the whole theme of this whole hour is we want to share the good news of Christ and what he's done. And all those segments you've heard, it's about God taking what you have. And you've heard some people with amazing energy, you know, Jesse, you've heard Jamie, you've heard some great energy from Joy, a wonderful doctor who just shares Christ and shares Joy to hundreds of thousands of women. But the whole theme is spreading God's word and sharing your testimony.
What has God done in your life? And everyone has a story. And the question is, are you telling that story? And suddenly you're in a bad spot. You're in a funk.
You just can't get out of it. You're looking at the new year. There's this foreboding calendar ahead of you.
What do I do? Well, think back about what has God done and think about all the people who need to hear the good news of Christ in the new year. And this brings me to the drum roll, Robbie. Here we go. I'm announcing my verse on this network right here, right now, to celebrate the new year for 2025. And it is Psalm 20, verse five.
Want me to read it to you? Here we go. We will rejoice in your salvation. And in the name of our God, we will set up our banners. May the Lord fulfill all your petitions.
So that is Stu's verse. I'll sign all my emails with that. I will tweet that. That'll be the first tweet I tweet on X or Twitter or whatever they call it now. And I'll put it on my IG, my Instagram, in the year 2025, on the first day of the year, this day, in January.
So it's on there right now. Follow me at Stu Epperson, Facebook at Stu dot Epperson, and Instagram. And you're going to follow me there. And I tag a lot of people.
I played basketball recently with a guy with a lot of followers. And he loves the idea of being tagged in a Bible verse because it reminds him, kind of jogs his mind, to say, hey, I'm going to read the word. Look at the verse.
Look at God's word before bed. It's so important to be in God's word. It's so important to rejoice in his salvation. It's so important to set up our banners. You know, those banners were a sign of unity. Everyone held their banner up and said, hey, we're together.
We're under one banner, and that banner is Christ. We're all marketers. We're all salespeople.
The question is, what am I marketing? Who am I about? Whose brand? Whose name?
Whose logo? Am I making myself famous, or am I making the Lord Jesus Christ famous, and spreading his fame, and raising up his banner, lifting high his banner? Robbie, what a great year it's going to be as we raise his banner up and watch him fulfill all our petitions. I know, and I love the end of that verse because, oh my goodness, what a wonderful prayer that we can pray this year that the Lord's going to, you know, meet these needs of all these petitions. And, you know, I love the idea of the banner that we've always carried here at The Truth Network. It's just simply the truth.
That's exactly right. You know, you have banners on websites. You have banners, you know, at all these different places. And if you're going to do something, if you're going to open a business, if you're going to promote an event, anything from a ballgame to a party to an announcement for the kid's gender, you've got a banner, right?
It's going to be pink or blue, whatnot. But we have the privilege of hoisting up the banner of Jesus Christ and lifting up his banner and telling everyone about him and exhorting, mobilizing, encouraging you listening out there to make much of Jesus, to share the good news of Jesus Christ everywhere you go. And ask God, like if you're kind of stuck on that resolution, ask him, Lord, what's my assignment? Like the show you did recently, Robbie, what's my assignment for the new year? What do you want me to do? And who? The very next question better be who.
Who do you want me to reach? And just look around at the harvest. It's plenty of every believer listening to my voice right now in this new year would share the good news, Robbie. We'd see a revival like we've never seen before. Oh, man, wouldn't it be? It is.
It's amazing. And, you know, firstly, I'm sitting there going, wow, I didn't know what Psalms 20 verse five was. But now that I've had a chance to digest it, the more excited I am because it really is the possibilities of 2025. Amen. Psalm 25 in 2025, we will rejoice in your salvation. And in the name of the Lord, we will set up our banners. May the Lord fulfill all your petitions. Robbie, happy new year. Happy new year. Another program powered by the Truth Network.
