Pray at 3:16 for 3:16

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Speak your mind. And now, here's today's Truth Talk Live host. Well, good afternoon.

I'm Duane Carson. With Date the Word Ministries, your host today for Truth Talk Live. I've got Robbie Dilmore in here with me, and we're going to be talking about how important is it to pray before a big event.

And folks, we've got a big event coming up. Two months from now, it will be March the 16th. And March the 16th, 3-16, is a Sunday. And we've got a number of people now around the world who are beginning to realize 3-16 on a Sunday gives a tremendous opportunity to preach God's greatest message to mankind, Robbie. John 3-16. So Robbie, thanks for being here with us today.

We've got some other callers already that are going to be talking to us about praying and about mobilizing people to be involved with this great event. John 3-16. You know that verse, Robbie?

I figure I'm fixed to hear it. For I am not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God unto salvation. And when we're talking about Rome, about John 3-16, well, that's what it's all about. We're not ashamed of the Gospel, because it is the power to take a person who is perishing, and transform them into God.

To where they will have everlasting life. I love Romans 1-16, but I'm afraid we've got a lot of people today that are ashamed of the Gospel. They're secret Christians. And hopefully as we move through into March, we're going to find more and more Christians who will become bold in their faith.

In March the 16th. I just think what an opportunity it is to get, you know, the church on the same page. We're all baptized into one spirit, right? Yes, yes. And so, you know, I guess I was one of the blessed people to be there at the Million Man March in Washington, D.C. back when the Promise Keepers was doing that.

Yes. Were you there that day? I wasn't, but I watched it.

I had other responsibilities, but I loved it. But when everybody came together with the same idea, and everybody's praying along, you know, you can imagine the power, and the power of this program, even now, as if we can get people all praying for the event. Because this is the event, and God, you know, he loves it when his people come together on that same page. And we all are baptized into one spirit. And so here's our opportunity, right? To share, you know, clearly, the best news that anyone will ever hear anytime that we get to spend eternity with Jesus, and eternity together.

Yes. Now, as a listener, if you want to call in and tell us about how God has worked through prayer, to have him do an incredible thing with an event, love to hear your story. Call us at 1-866-348-7884. If you're going to be participating in preaching John 3.16 on March the 16th, we would love to hear from you.

Again, 866-348-7884. We have on the line, James. And good afternoon, James. Good afternoon, Dwayne. Good to be with you. James, tell us a little bit about your present ministry. This is James Peeples, Dr. James Peeples. You right now, I believe, are based out of the wonderful state of Florida.

That is correct. I live in Jacksonville, and I serve in a partnership with the North American Mission Board and the Florida Baptist Convention. And I serve as Director of Syn Network Florida. That's that church planting partnership. And so I've been in this role about seven and a half years after pastoring for 23 and a half years in Florida.

Went right there, right from my time with you, serving together at Liberty. But currently, in this role, we've got about 260 church planters in our five-year window where we're supporting. And so really just, again, as we're coming back to this, encouraging pastors, church planters, lean in, be praying, use this date as an opportunity to teach and preach on John 3.16. And kind of both worlds that I work in together hand-in-hand, North American Mission Board and the Florida Baptist Convention, both of those have really embraced this challenge here. And so, yeah, I've got some resources online from both the North American Mission Board, 316 on 316.com, and Florida Baptist has some complimentary resources as well, challenging pastors all over the state and across North America to do this.

So I'm really excited about it. Well, James, we're going to be going to a break here in a few seconds, but before we go to that break, I just want to hear your heart. The moment you heard about this idea, why is preaching John 3.16 so important?

Christians may want to share or say they would, but, well, how do I get started or how do I open up the door? And so I think this date is a good intro that can be a natural lead in. I like that. A natural lead in.

It's 3.16. We're going to focus on John 3.16, God's greatest message to mankind. James, stay on the line with us. We'll be right back. This is Truth Talk Live. Welcome back to Truth Talk Live. It's January the 16th.

It's 116. And Romans 116 is on my mind today, for I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God unto salvation, first to the Jew and then to the Greek. The apostle Paul was not ashamed of the gospel, and today we have the privilege, the opportunity to make Jesus known to an entire world. We have the responsibility to tell people, and you can't be ashamed of the one that saved you. We've got to be bold. And so we've got a big initiative coming up on March 16 this year. 3.16, it's a Sunday, and we're challenging pastors all over the world to preach John 3.16 because there's just a connection there. And I don't know when that started. I've got James Peeples on line here.

I've got Robbie Dealmore with me. Arthur Blessed just went to heaven. I don't know if you knew that. And my understanding was he's the one that made 3.16 a big deal because he was carrying a cross, and he was walking by a tennis court, and someone yelled, Love, 15! Because that's what the referee, umpire, whatever they're called, does at a tennis match. And he yelled back, Love, John 3.16!

Well, that's where all of a sudden you start seeing signs. James, do you recall hearing this story that I'm telling? No, huh? Well, then no one's fact-checking me, but I'm pretty sure it was Arthur Blessed. But if you recall, James, I know you're not as old as me, but back in the 70s, we started seeing signs where people held up John 3.16, and now we've got Tim Tebow. He puts it under his eye and goes and plays at a national championship, and 96 million people googled, What is John 3.16?

That was great, but then I was kind of like, How did 96 million people not know John 3.16? James, you're telling us about the North American Mission Board, about Florida Baptist, and you guys have embraced this idea. Tell us more about some things that are going on, some of the resources that North American Mission Board has, and how a person can access that information. Yeah, some of the most robust sites at the moment and Florida Baptist on their website are loading up more, but North American Mission Board, simply 316 on 316.com takes you to the landing page. And robust resources, a prayer guide from March 1 to March 16, so there's a daily prayer guide with things morning, midday, and evening through the prayer guide.

Social media kit, encouraging others to get involved on that, even some guides with some different outlines, other things like that that could be for consideration as you're putting this together. And so I would encourage you, 316 on 316.com to check that out. Well, I'll tell you how easy that is. Robbie here just did it, and he's looking at it right now. Robbie, what do you think about the website? Oh, wow, you know, it's just like he said, and then you can click on a plan and it's got like a step-by-step, you know, as a pastor I can use this. And you're going to be preaching John 316 on March 16, and so it's helpful resources. I'm interested in today the prayer. So you guys are kicking out an idea of praying three times a day. Yeah, so it's just, you know, it's a prayer guide prompt and just some ways to, you know, to think through specific verses, and so it walks planters, it walks anyone through that, and as a way to stay on track and stay consistent and keep this before them.

Well, you and I worked at Liberty University, and even before I came to Liberty, I had already filed what I considered one of the greatest, at least in the top five, greatest quotes from Dr. Falwell. Nothing of eternal significance ever happens apart from prayer. And right now on 116 here, I know when we're two months out, 59 days away, to our listeners, I would want our people to begin praying fervently, praying fervently. I throw at the challenge today, listeners, set your alarm for 3.16 p.m., and every day at 3.16, take a moment to pray. Take three minutes to pray, and using this guide again from North American Mission Board, praying in the morning, at noon, in the evening, you're going to get prompters there. I can't stress enough, and I'll get James and Robbie, if you guys chime in, how important it is for God's people to pray for God's man when he's preaching in the pulpit. I can't do it without an anointing. I've got to have the anointing of God, and that comes by God's people praying.

Robbie, your thoughts on that? James, your thoughts? Well, you know, like you, I get a chance to preach in a lot of different churches. It's amazing to me how in certain churches, when you're preparing for the sermon, you get this super boost, and you know it came because that's a praying church. I often preach at James Banks' church, which he does encouraging prayer on our network. Well, buddy, you better be ready for what God's going to bring you when you go to preach at that church. I have another church in Atlanta where I often get to preach, and they are a praying church, and like, man, it just blows your mind. I know that I know that God has a message for your church as you begin to pray and pray harder and harder and consistently. It's a beautiful thing.

Yeah, yeah. God answers that. He answers those prayers, and we need it. You know, Acts 1-8, you're going to receive power, so we don't need just our words. We need the power of God, the power of the Holy Spirit to be able to help us to share with boldness, to give clarity in the gospel message, speaking with conviction, praying that God opens up hearts that they would hear.

God opens up opportunities for us to be able to share, and so people praying is key, key, key, and God answers those prayers. Well, one other thing I'm hoping, and we'll talk about it in the next segment, is that God's people will be praying, and they'll be inviting, and maybe we've got to pray that God's people will have boldness, they'll not be ashamed of the gospel. We'll be right back. This is Truth Talk Live. Well, we want to welcome you back to Truth Talk Live. I'm Duane Carson.

I've got Robbie Dealmore with me right now, and I've got James Peoples on the line. James is with the North American Mission Board, and that's a church-planting organization. James, as you think about March the 16th, yes, we want pastors preaching, but we need God's people to take advantage of this, and what are some things God's people can be doing as we move in these next 59 days to March the 16th? Yeah, Duane, I think not only praying, everybody can pray, but I think everybody can invite also. Not everybody's going to be the pastor who's preaching John 3.16 on 3.16, but everybody can be praying, everybody can be inviting. And so I think what you can do even now is pray, God, help me build that relationship, make John 3.16 personal on who you can share it with.

Lord, help me have this caring relationship with this person and praying for them. God, open up an opportunity for me to invite them, give me a bold witness to share with them, be praying God would prepare their heart, open up their eyes, give them a spiritual hunger when they do. So, you know, make them receptive to His Word. I think just making it personal, you know, in what I'm doing and helping churches that are planting churches, it's not just places to preach. The point is that the gospel is preached and lives are being changed and gospels being shared, and we have to all do that personally. And so let's take this as a personal invitation on 3.16 to be praying for, inviting those to be a part. You know, you and I both had Dr. Elmer Towns, who, he was big on having a friend day, and he told us, he called it frangelism.

I don't know if you remember that, frangelism. You got to invite your friends that don't know Jesus. And the sad thing is right now, a lot of us believers have gotten so isolated, we don't have any lost friends, and that's not good. We need to have some lost friends. And then relatives.

And on that side now, I've got some lost relatives. But then those that you associate with. Who do you work with? Who do you go to the gym with?

Who do you play basketball with? And then your neighbors. And if a believer will start thinking of those four different groups, they ought to be, Robbie, able to at least invite one to come hear you preach on March the 16th. What do you think? Yeah, I mean, we used to have what we called our 10 most wanted list, right?

Yes. And you just start creating a list as God puts them on your heart, and then when you're doing your prayer at 3.16 in the afternoon, or for some of us 3.16 in the morning. And I didn't go there, but we could. We could be getting up to pray at 3.16. The Lord wakes me up way too many times for that.

Well, you know me, it's easier for me actually to do at 3.16 in the morning than it would be at 3.16 in the afternoon. But nonetheless, if you have a prayer card of some kind wherever you have it, and you just start putting down ideas. Who can we be praying for? And it's interesting that as you pray, God begins to give you opportunities to share. I've seen it amazingly, where I had people like, man, God, I have no idea how to approach this guy.

I have no idea. And I started praying and praying, and he'll slip something, well, you know, Robbie, that guy's a car salesman. You can relate to that, can't you?

Or whatever it may be. That prayer is, like we talked about, it makes a difference as far as for the event for the speaker, but it makes a difference as far as sharing too. I find myself sometimes not wanting to pray to witness, because what you just said, if I pray about witnessing someone, sure enough, the opportunity's going to come. And now I've got to cross that hurdle of fear and take the step by faith and now open some conversation with them. And I was with a person yesterday, and they said what they miss with all the things that happened with COVID, people started shopping a whole lot more online. He liked having the encounters with people at the stores.

I said, well, at our home, we have encounters with the delivery person, because we've got UPS and FedEx and Amazon and the United States Post Office dropping stuff off at our house. Well, that becomes a whole list of people right there, right, James, to invite them to come and hear God's greatest message to mankind. Amen, amen. Just praying God gives you opportunities and thinking about it, open about it, and open to those, and then stepping forward in doing what God gives you those opportunities.

James, I want to thank you for your time today. I know that you are a busy man, a man of God making things happen, love, church planting. Florida, you've got to be planting churches there, because so many people are moving there. The growth's incredible, and there's not enough churches to meet the needs there. Thank you for what you're doing to get the gospel to an unreached – is that the right word, especially in South Florida, an unreached people group right now? Well, it's all – I mean, certainly South Florida is just very densely populated in the southeast, but even the southwest side. But yeah, but it's all over the state.

I mean, it's – so Florida's now the third most populous state behind Texas and California now. So it's just more and more and more people are moving, didn't have enough churches before, but then with all this growth, we just got to have more. And so doing what we're talking about, praying, witnessing, it's all about reaching the loss. Planting a church is just an opportunity to make disciples, and we want to share the gospel, the good news, and pray that God does his work. God does his work, lives are changed, and we can plant some churches to disciple and see them mature to plant other churches and reach more people. There you go.

The cycle keeps going on. I look forward to 3.17 to hear how God worked through the North American Mission Board, through Florida Baptist, but all different churches all over the world. We're just praying for a great harvest. James, thanks for your call. Yes, sir. Thank you, guys.

Thank you. We've got Brian. Brian, welcome to Truth Talk Live. Tell us where you're calling from.

Calling from Fayetteville, Georgia, right south of Atlanta. Well, I would hope that you're not a Braves fan, though. Can you be different? I'm not honest, man.

I was blessed to be a Braves fan, and we just try to spend most of our time letting other people win so they can know what it's like to be a Braves fan. Brian, tell me about your ministry. Tell us about your thoughts on John 3.16 on March the 16th. Well, I am a pastor of a southern Baptist church in Fayetteville, Georgia. I live in a Baptist church, man. Just a wonderful fellowship of believers and people that love Jesus and do a wonderful job loving others.

And I heard from you, incidentally, a few months ago, or about a year ago, about 3.16. Man, we've been keeping it on our calendar, keeping it in front of us, and now we're in the process of just going full board, trying to encourage them to put it on their mind and put it on their heart. One of the ways that we're doing that is being intentional about praying about it. We've set up an alarm system.

I don't know what the correct term for it is, but we have all of our cell phones and everything else. They have reminders that we've set up, and it's been really cool to see young people going and helping some of our senior saints put alarms on their phone. And we've encouraged them at 3.16 every single day. Not in the morning, like you guys talked about. We're not that spiritual in Georgia. But at 3.16 in the afternoon, just to know that I was in Fayetteville. I was in Walmart, which y'all pray for me.

I don't try to go there too often. But I was in Walmart, and at 3.16, my phone went off, and two hours over, I heard somebody else's alarm go off. So I peek around the corner, and one of my members is standing there holding hands with his wife, praying for 3.16.

Oh, wow. You know, God don't always let you see stuff like that. But man, it's just been good knowing that people are, you know, prayer isn't about, everybody knows, it's not about getting from God.

It's getting with God and trying to accomplish what He's called us to do and partner with Him. And so just to see that was super encouraging, and man, I'm looking forward to what God's going to do. Hey, Brian, if you can hang on, I want to talk to you a little bit more about this. This is so exciting to hear about people praying at 3.16. Hey, this is Truth Talk Live.

We'll be right back with you. Welcome back to Truth Talk Live. I'm Duane Carson. The ministry is Date the Word, and today is 1.16, Romans 1.16. For I'm not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God unto salvation, first to the Jew and then to the Greek also. I don't want to be ashamed of the gospel.

I want to proclaim it boldly. It's the message that changed my life, and we have an opportunity here in 2025 to really make the gospel known, just using a date on the calendar. I don't know if you've looked at this yet, but March 16, 2025 is a Sunday, and so we are now challenging pastors to preach John 3.16, God's greatest message to mankind.

We've got Valentine's Day coming up, a little less than a month now, and after that, there's the month of March, but Easter is not until April the 20th, so there's some wiggle room, if you will. Easter being so far out, there's something big we could be doing on March the 16th, and just using that number, 3.16, when you ask people, think of a Bible verse with 3.16 in it, it's always John 3.16, and this is a tremendous message of hope for the world, 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. And we are gonna perish if we don't know Jesus, and I've got Brian Parish on from Fayetteville, Georgia, and Brian, how excited do you get when you just hear John 3.16? Man, you know, the beautiful thing about the gospel, Duane, is it is good news. You know, we live in a day when there's bad news here, and you turn on this, and you open up this website, and there's just bad news everywhere, and all these bad things going on, but when you hear John 3.16, it's that little bell, man, that God's not done, and that God has a hope for us and a plan for us, and he's never let us down yet, so man, he's gonna see it through.

So it's just that glimpse of the gospel and the beauty of what God has done. Well, hey, I've got coming online also now is Clayton. Clayton Carson happens to be my son, and Clayton, welcome to Truth Talk Live. Absolutely. I've got Brian from down at Fayetteville, Georgia, online also. We're talking about how do we make the most of this opportunity, and Clayton, I just wanted to hear from you on some things that the Conservative Baptist Network is doing and how other pastors can get resources, and then, Brian, we're gonna talk some more about what people can be doing as we head now with 59 days to this great moment.

Yeah, absolutely. The Conservative Baptist Network, we're pushing material and things like that. I just spent my day writing Sunday school material because this isn't just for the preachers.

This is for everyone. If you're leading a Sunday school class, you could even walk you through with your kids, walk through this passage with them, but the main thing, we just put out an article of three things, one thing, and six things to pray for for March 3.16. We want you to pray for your pastor as he prepares, as he proclaims, and then for his invitation. We want you praying for the lost, that people would get saved on 3.16. And then we want to pray, want you to pray for six groups of people. Pray that your friends would come to church with you. Pray that your relatives would. Pray that your associates, neighbors, strangers, and then pray for the unreached.

This isn't just America. There are churches around the globe participating. I honestly think we can safely say half a million people are going to be participating in preaching John 3.16 on 3.16.

That's awesome. And so right now, the big emphasis is praying, but also starting to cultivate, as Robbie said, a most wanted list. Who am I going to invite? Who am I going to invite to come hear God's greatest message to mankind? Brian, you were telling us about prayer.

I want to hear that quote again, because that, both Robbie and myself, we were like, wow, what a great quote. Say that again to our listeners, what exactly prayer is and what it isn't. Well, I mean, prayer is trusting God to show up. You know, the Bible talks about we shouldn't, that we should pray with faith. And, you know, as we're praying for 3.16, you know, we don't just want, we do, man.

We want the masses, we want them all. But man, ultimately we want God to show up and God to do work in people's hearts that are going to change them for eternity. And then that God would be glorified. You said something about with prayer. It's not getting something from God. Oh yeah, it's getting with God.

It's getting with God. That's a profound statement. Well, I had someone tell me one time that our goal should be to fulfill our God-given potential. You know, when God saved me, it wasn't just so that I could spend eternity in heaven, but man, God has an intention for our days.

Think about this. God allows us to partner with him and what he's doing in the world. And just the significance of that, that we get to do what only God can do. You know, he does it through us and it's the empowerment of his Holy Spirit. But man, it's by being connected in prayer and understanding the heart of God as he reveals that to us and as we love on people, everything comes together and it makes all the difference.

Before this show comes to an end, let's take a moment and kind of review a little bit here. If you are looking for information about being involved on March the 16th with John 3.16 being the verse of the day, there's a website that we have through Date the Word. You can go to www.datetheword.com and you'll see information there. We have a dedicated website, www.March316.com. You can get information there. James talked about how you can go to www.thefloridabaptist.org and there you'll see information on 3.16, on 3.16.

The North American Mission Board, they've got 3.16 on 3.16. You go to that website, you're going to get a lot of resources, encouragement, prayer guides. Clayton, with the Conservative Baptist Network, what are some things that people can be doing there?

Yes, you can go to conservativebaptistnetwork.com. If you go to the articles, you can actually read a more specific article on how to pray for March 3.16. Brian, you've already bought into this idea of praying at 3.16 p.m.

Yes, sir. I just want to give a challenge to our listeners right now to start cultivating this idea. If every day alarms go off all around the world at 3.16, what's this about? We're praying for God to just move and save lost people. Who knows what kind of witnessing opportunities that may open up? But to every day have your phone set, to go off at 3.16, and then to pray for the pastor, to have that preparation, as you said, Clayton, to have that anointing. I know this, Brian, I can't preach without God's anointing. How about you? I would not want to.

Once you've been up there by yourself, you don't want to go back. Yeah, there's just something about having God's favor. It's not so much God's man, it's God's message. And I want his message to go forth with power so that lives will be changed. But we also now, we not only have to be praying at 3.16, but start thinking about who are we going to invite.

And Clayton, pitch that again, the 3.16. We're going to pray for three things. We're going to pray for preparation, delivery, and the invitation.

Those are the three things. Then we're going to pray for one thing that for us will be saved, and then praying for and inviting six people, the friends, the relatives, the associates, the neighbors, the strangers, and then praying for the unreached as well. And I like that last part because I was with people yesterday that they've got people all over the world. There's a big event taking place in Nairobi, Kenya, that thousands of pastors are being invited to join in on this. We've got people in India that are going to be preaching. John 3.16, we have people in England preaching John 3.16.

This is a worldwide event because John 3.16 says, For God so loved the world. And tell me, Brian, your hope coming out on 3.17, what's happened on 3.16? You know, we look at the brokenness of this world, and I know that we talk about the church, man, but I'm ready to see a generation raised up that's unashamed, that wants to make much of Jesus, and I want to see the Lord just rain down on 3.16. And on 3.17, man, just praising his name. Brian Clayton, thank you. Listen, thank you today. This has been Truth Talk Live.