How can we increase our love for the savior

Love, exciting and new.

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Speak your mind. And now, here's today's Truth Talk Live host. The love boat is making its final run this week today on Truth Talk Live. We're talking about, we've talked about increasing your love for, right? Your spouse, increasing your love for the saints, increasing your love for the Savior.

And today, very exciting, we would love to hear your ideas, your stories of how we can increase our love for sharing the Savior. And the way to do that, this is a live show, and if you've listened to it before, you know it's the callers that make the show. So we need your call. 866-348-7884.

866-348-7884. And here, helping me out, once again, it is Doc Date the Word Carson. So, you know, this was a sermon that you delivered at our church here this week and we've used it at the different points. And so today we fall on a really fun one, right? Increasing in our love for sharing the Savior.

Absolutely. And it's one of the most important ones because we'll be sharing a story that would change a person's eternity. Right, it's— And we should have, we should desire to want people to be saved.

He who wins souls is wise, Robbie. I could not agree with you more, but the beautiful thing of it is, what we're talking about here is increasing in our love for the process, right? And I know that you agree with this, that I learned early on, I guess God taught me that, if I will just have the amazing prayer time that I have in the morning and Bible time and the Lord will show me something or push me through something or pull me through or hold me through something, that, man, I will be so excited by the time I get to work or where I am and I'm on the air. Wherever it is I am, I'm dying to share what it is that He's given me and it's that enthusiasm alone that He gave it to you and it's so much fun to share it, right?

Yes. Sometimes we look at soul winning as an obligation, and I like what you just said there. We're going to share Jesus because we love Jesus and we love the opportunity to let someone else know the greatest story that they could ever hear. And I'm not just doing it because I have to.

I'm doing it because I want to. That's exciting. And we've got John already in Midway, North Carolina. He's got an answer. So, John, you're on Truth Talk Live. What have you got for us? Hey, buddy.

Well, it's like this. When I meet someone for the first time, I want to get to know a little bit about them, but I want to know for sure that they know my Jesus. And I want them to do this because the world today is so angry and fighting and confused because they understand sin, but they don't understand what it means to have eternal life. And because folks are so trapped in sin, they can't understand that sin will always promote and argue and do what it can to keep sin going. But Jesus did the very simple thing. He went to the cross and he hung between two guilty men and he knew their sin and he was sinless.

And the soldiers who led them there mocked him and the people and the rulers there mocked him and he took it. And he listened to what both men, both criminals had to say to him, knowing that one was going to blaspheme him and continue and argue on in sin, and the other one was going to say humbly, remember me to stay in paradise. And so I don't want anyone to go forward and be deceived with the argument that sin is good.

I want folks to know for sure that they can overcome sin by the power of the cross. Oh, that's absolutely beautiful, John. And so how do you, you know, you just met this person, how do you slip that into the conversation? I ask them something about themselves. How is your day going?

Example. Oh, it's been a rotten day and they tell me all the things that I'll say, but you know what? Today you have a job or today you're breathing or today I get to meet you and that's making my day. And they laugh and they say, well, that's kind of a funny thing to say.

And I'll say no, because I just want you to know that you can have joy in spite of whatever it is. And we go from there. So there you go, John.

Well, what do you think, Doc? Well, I so agree with John and being able to open up those conversations, finding out where they're at. And there's a thing we call intentionality. You're not sharing the gospel by accident. You're sharing the gospel intentional. And John, you have modeled that, that when you meet somebody, you know, at some point I want to talk to them about who Jesus is and where's their relationship? I used to, I would ask the question, hey, could I just ask, have you thought about becoming a Christian? Well, that's going to get you an answer of, oh, I am a Christian. No, I'm not a Christian.

No, I haven't thought about it. But that's that icebreaker. With Date the Word, we're using asking a person when is their birthday? And with ladies especially, I say just the month of the day.

I don't want the year. And we did this just a little while ago at a restaurant. And she gave me her birthday. When she came back, I showed her Bible verses. She got so excited. She said, is this an app?

Is this something I can get? And with that, we were able to show her how to get the app. Oh, we got, Doc, we got to go to a break, but that is a great segue. So, John, thank you, my friend. We appreciate your call very much. We need your testimony, your call.

How do you do it? 866-348-7884, 86634-TRUTH. We would love to hear yours.

Call us. Truth Talk Live! You're listening to the Truth Network and truthnetwork.com What we're talking about today on Truth Talk Live sure does flow back to you as you get an opportunity to share Christ. I don't know if you've ever had this happen. I hope you have. That when I think about how love flows back to you that you have a chance to share Christ with somebody and the next thing you know you've got a new disciple and you begin this relationship.

They've got Bible questions and some of those folks are still, you know, some of my dearest friends that never would have happened, right? Because it all flows back to you in so many beautiful ways. I know you've got a story. I know that you're increasing in love for sharing the Savior. I would love to know, you know, how that works for you.

866-348-7884, 86634-87884, and this topic is brought to you by the good doctor of date the word himself, Dr. Carson. And I do love, you know, ever since I heard this, increasing in love for sharing the Savior. And, you know, I know that you share this with me. You know, how many people that you shared with and then they end up teaching you, right? Oh yes. You know, my early Christian story started with a 12 year old girl that shared Christ with me. I'm 20 and then having, because of her sharing, her day at them would step into my life and disciple me. Really?

Yes. And talk about how that thing was used. It was incredible because she had the boldness and the love. And I think the more we love Jesus, the more bold we're going to be because we want people to know what changed their lives. But Tammy shared with me as a 12 year old, she invited me back to church. And I do encourage people, Robby, sometimes you don't feel like, I'm not sure I want to talk to them about Jesus. I'm not sure I'm comfortable, but you can invite them to come to a church service. That's what Tammy did with me. She invited me to come back to church.

We've got a big event coming up March the 16th and I'm hoping a lot of people will invite their friends, relatives, neighbors, people they work with, even strangers, invite them to come to church and hear a pastor preach John 3 16 on March the 16th. That's sharing the Savior. You don't have to always win them to the Lord. You might be a little afraid that they know more about the Bible than you. At least they think they do.

Oh, that's the beauty of everybody. Go ahead. I was just gonna follow that up to say I had a situation one time when I was witnessing to someone of a different. We would call them a cult. She was putting more scripture to me that I could even respond to. And I realized I didn't know my Bible very well. So sometimes it's just best to, hey, I want to invite you to come to our church, come in here a pastor, come be a part of a Bible study. But the point is you're inviting them to get to know Jesus.

Oh, yeah. And again, you know, as it says in 119 Psalm, it says, you know, I'll give my testimony before kings and not be ashamed. In other words, nobody can argue with your testimony, with your own story. Like, here's what Jesus meant to me in this situation or whatever.

It may not be your salvation story, but just today this is where he meant to me. You know, those things, you know, is a practical thing of, you know, our power, right, that comes, according to the book of Acts, right, with our testimony. And so that's another way. But, you know, obviously the scriptures have, you know, like they said that Paul planted, Apollo's watered.

So you've got seeds to plant. You've got stories to tell. And, you know, everybody has different gifts. And, you know, it's really fun, I think, to discover where you feel God's pleasure in doing that. And then certainly if you've ever been around Dr. Carson for like 15 minutes, you'll notice that he's got this, you know, when's your birthday? Like if you go into a restaurant, all that's real, man.

That stuff is happening. And he loves to do that. But if you go into a restaurant with Nikita Kolov, I can assure you, he has a completely different technique. And if you go in there with Stu Epperson, he has a completely different one as well. And it's just amazing to me to see how God's image is reflected in so many beautiful ways, with so many different ways.

But they all have fallen in love with the idea of sharing Jesus. And we have James. He's in Spartanburg, South Carolina. James, you're on Truth Talk Live. Hey, good to be here. Thank you.

I'm so excited. What have you got for us? Well, I just wanted to share, you know, this conversation really reminded me a lot of, you know, someone who discipled me, Suzanne Batchelor. You know, when I was in college, she just she I could tell that the things of Jesus were the most important to her, the most important things in her life. You know, if you ever asked her how she was doing, if you you know, even in a casual conversation, it was always about just how good God is.

And, you know, you could just tell that she was rooted. She meditated on God's word and was just was just wholly focused on him. And it was just, you know, I think with the people that we have relationships with, like at work, whether we want to or not, you know, we're going to find people that we see repeatedly. You know, the question that I have to ask myself is how important is sharing Jesus? How important is Jesus to me, even as a Christ follower? You know, how important is his word to me?

Is it evident in the way not just I act, but in what I talk about? But we all were pretty quick, you know, this weekend to talk about which team we're pulling for for the Super Bowl or something. How quick are we to talk about Jesus? If I ask one of my coworkers, you know, hey, do you know how important it is? Jesus is to James.

You know, what would they say? And so starting from there, that's that's always been a very helpful way of thinking about it. Oh, and the neat thing is you told your story. I could tell, you know, that I forget the girl's name, but right. Her love story, you know, was the seeds that planted yours. And you had that like, man, she has got something I want. Right.

Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, it's the beauty of the fruit. However it works, it has seeds in it and plants more fruits in other people's lives.

And then it just blossoms. That's wonderful, James. I'm going to remember that as really powerful. I really, really appreciate you calling, my friend. You keep up the great work out there, James. God bless. You too.

Keep doing what you're doing as well. God bless. Well, we would love, believe me, we love to hear your stories. 866-348-7884, 866-34-TRUTH. Again, we're going to remind you that for some stations, like here in Winston-Salem, you only have us for a half an hour. And you're going to hear another program, but you can always go back to TruthNetwork.com and listen to the podcast, which would have the rest of the stories that you're going to miss because, you know, there's a lot of people yet to call us at 866-348-7884. So we've got another half an hour for a lot of folks that we're excited to share with in other markets. But for some of us, you're going to lose you.

But nonetheless, you can still call and then you can hear on the phone. 866-348-7884. How are you increasing in your love and sharing the Savior? We'll be right back. The Love Boat is making its final run for this week. We're so grateful for all of you who've taken part, all the amazing calls.

I don't think I'll forget this week for a long time. It's been so wonderful, the calls that have come in. And we would love to hear yours today. We're talking about how can we increase in sharing our love for the Savior, right?

Increasing in the love that we feel for that, but also the love that we share when we do that, and that's a beautiful thing to do. 866, the number to call, which we definitely want you to do. 866-348-7884.

866-348-7884. And wow, that last call, Doc, that story about that young lady, that's it right there, isn't it? Yes. She reminded him it's all about Jesus and the work that he's doing, and we ought to be excited about telling what Jesus is doing. He's part of our life. He gives us life.

He gives us life more abundantly, and then he's going to give us life eternally. And when you've got life, you want to share that with others. I was thinking about, and I don't know if all of our listeners would have heard that last advertisement from Barry McGuire, but you know, Robbie, a lot of times we are afraid to share the gospel because we might be persecuted. I was in a conference a couple weeks ago, and the man preaching, he said, only good things come when you share the gospel. For instance, they could get saved. Secondly, they will have heard the gospel as a seed, so you haven't done wrong there.

We don't know when that seed may germinate, and they do get born again. And thirdly, if you're persecuted, well, Jesus says, blessed are you when you're persecuted, so you're going to get a blessing if you get persecuted. So you can't go wrong in sharing Jesus. Yeah, I actually, you know, interestingly, as you were talking about that, it reminded me of a story that, you know, I was in the car business. I am the Christian car guy for like 40 years. And in one of the dealerships that we worked in here locally, I started a Bible study that, you know, a lot of people were invited to. And it was just, you know, like you have the date, the word thing. I would invite people, the Bible study, come on, you know, we're having a blast.

We're having a Saturday morning, da-da-da, and I would invite everybody and all those kind of things. Well, eventually, that Bible study got me fired. You know, it upset some people.

It upset some people eventually. It did lead to the end of my, which God had a really neat place for me after that. But what I want to say is this, years later, like 10 years later, after long since, in the same day, I got two different phone calls.

I'll never forget this as long as I live. It was the God just reminding me. And they were from two people from that dealership that really did not care for me and certainly did not like me inviting them to the Bible study in spite of the fact that I still did. And one of them was probably instrumental in my demise of that particular dealership. They told a different friend.

There was two different phone calls from two different people, but they said, would you please call Robbie Dilmore, because I know you have his number, and tell him I came to Jesus, and I wanted him to know it. How about that? Right?

Right? And so as you were telling that story, I was like, oh, wow, yeah, that's exactly what happened. I was persecuted, but it was a blessing. And so many ways I could talk about how that was a blessing.

But that particular day where I got those two phone calls from two different places about two completely different people that were so different, but just because you somehow or another put it on your agenda to do that, and they certainly knew. If they knew me well, they knew my excitement for the Word of God. And for whatever God shared for me, you know, any particular day, that's always on my mind. And you know that too, Doc, just when we sit down to do Record Date the Word, we both are on fire for something as like a revival every time, right?

Absolutely. Because the Word of God is fresh in our lives, and that which is fresh you want to share. Earlier, we talked about how when you share the Gospel, it is going to bring a blessing to you later on. Today, this very morning, I met a gentleman that I had seen last night at a funeral that I'd gone to up in Ohio. And I said, sir, what brought you to the funeral? And he said that the lady that had passed away had led him to the Lord. Well, then I asked him where he was from. Where does he live now?

And I was expecting something like West Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio. He said, I live in Fort Worth, and he lived in Fort Worth, Texas. And when he found out that this lady had passed away, he looked at his wife and said, I've got to go to that funeral. And she ended up coming with him, husband and wife, because this was the woman.

This was the family that caused him to become part of the family of God when he was just a little boy. That is just, how cool is that, right? And of course, when we get to heaven, you know, it's going to be, what a party.

Can you imagine? Well, we've got Mike is in Dayton, Ohio. Mike, my friend, what have you got? I know you've got stories, my friend. I know you do.

Well, and it was hard to figure out which one, and you know, I'm going to give one. And I'm going to give one about my dad. He got saved from a guy at work, and every day he gave him a Bible trap. I mean, every day. And my dad was so angry.

He'd come home and throw this thing on the ground. And I remember as a kid, I was about 12 or 13, and he'd come home and say, look at this guy. This guy, Bill, he's giving me this Bible track every day. And I'm like, oh, and I would read it.

And I read it. And I'm like, and the next day, he goes, he did it again. You know what I told him, Mike?

Me and my dad was best friends with me all the time. He says, if he gives me another Bible track, I'm going to punch him in the nuts. And I'm not kidding.

He did that. I'm going to clobber him. And well, and then my dad came home the next day with a bloody lip. And I said, I am not. This is a true story.

This is a true, yeah, this is true. And I said, Dad, what happened? He says, well, Bill gave me another Bible track, and he didn't care. And then we got in a fight. And then he really sat down, and we really talked about God.

And I'm like, oh, wow, okay. And I mean, oh, wow, now, but oh, wow, you know, back then. Well, to make a long story short, my dad started reading his Bible and starting talking to Bill. And Bill became his mentor. And we were rabbit hunters together, me and Bill Tilton. And we were rabbit hunters together, and we rabbit hunted, and we were best friends. And we went to church together. And it was all because he was willing to give, you know, a Bible track to my dad.

So, you know, inquiring minds, Mike, I need to know. So it sounds like Bill took your dad, just saying. Oh, he did. And my dad said, he was a tough man. Well, he was standing on the Word of God, right, Doc?

Well, it sounds like Bill wasn't quite ready to turn the other cheek. And, you know, it's just amazing that, you know, how they became friends after they fought like that, you know. And then how God turned their hearts around on my dad. And how persistent and how bold he was when he did that. And I'll never forget what happened, you know. And then he reached a whole family.

He reached me, two boys, my mom. Generations, right? Yeah, and that would end up being your son and maybe your grandson and who knows all, right?

Exactly. And my whole neighborhood, you know, because my dad was a great evangelist in our neighborhood. And then everybody I meet and everybody I know, all because of one man, you know what I mean? One person. Well, and there was somebody that did it for him.

I don't know if they punched him out in the process, but... So, Doc, I'm wondering, what are your thoughts on this strategy here? Well, I like the persistence of Bill. And listen, so we are going to a break right now, but listen, you got to come back. I'm going to share a story about how before I got saved, I was a little bit like Mike's dad. Oh, well, we need your calls, 866-348-7884.

Maybe you took a lick in order to take it. You're listening to The Truth Network and truthnetwork.com. The Love Boat is making another run, actually, today, talking about how do we increase in our love for sharing the Savior? Like, man, what a neat idea to invest our lives in such a beautiful thing. And as we've heard all these stories, like just what Mike talked about, this one man affecting generations of folks, and all the life and all the joy that comes with all that, that they get a chance to do the same thing because it was done for them, right?

Right, Doc? And you promised us a story, so this is a hard act to follow, this last one. Well, as I was growing up, Robbie, I was close to Liberty University, Liberty Baptist College back then.

And I guess they had some professors that really encouraged soul winning. And so one night I was out drinking, and when you drink alcohol, you need to go to the bathroom. And so I went to the bathroom there in a McDonald's close to Liberty. And so as I got there to the urinal, a Liberty guy came up beside me there in the other urinal, and the next thing I know, he started witnessing to me, Robbie. He wanted to know if I were to die right now, do I know for sure I was going to heaven? Well, I was in no situation at that point to have a good conversation. I just knew I didn't want to hear this guy talking to me about Jesus. And I said, whoever you are, if you don't get quiet, you're going to get wet. Oh, I was not expecting that.

You were not expecting that, were you? So this guy's going to get a reward in heaven because I was going to persecute him. And then later on when Tammy talked to me, I was respectful to her.

But I don't know who that kid was from Liberty. Maybe we'll meet up in heaven sometime and I'll find out what he thought about what I said. But he never said another word at that point. He just was – he was silent as we then took care of business. Darrell Bock Well, I don't know what kind of story that dreams up for you listening, but hey, we want to hear really seriously how are you increasing in your love for sharing the Savior, 866-348-7884, 866-348-7884.

And there's no doubt in my mind that – I don't know how many folks you've known like this, but one of the greatest strategies I have ever seen was there was a man named Lester Cranfill and he was a truck driver. And by no means was he a great speaker, but I'll tell you what he was great at. He was a great prayer.

That man, I sat with him on I don't know how many opportunities. We would pray every single morning at length that God would send him somebody that day that he could share Jesus with. And his strategy was those prayers, and those prayers were so sincere and it was right from Lester's big old truck driving heart. And I could hear him praying them, you know, and actually I heard Lester's last words because he was – I was with him when he died which was I'm prayed up, packed up, ready and go. He just had me prayed. But I mean time and again he would get into the most crazy situations of sharing Jesus with people on the side of the road, whatever it was. Lester had that such a desire in his heart that it led to prayer and that was his action step and God answered that prayer for Lester on so many occasions and it was so absolutely beautiful. And the man was always prayed up, packed up and ready to go. Well, I do think if we're going to increase our love for sharing the Savior, that is one of the things that has to take place that we spend time in prayer and I recommend people have a Romans 10, 1 prayer. Paul said it was his heart's desire prayer that Israel would be saved.

Take the word Israel out and just fill in that blank. And sometimes like your friend Lester, the blank is just left blank. I'm praying that I'll have the opportunity to share the gospel with someone and our God really does answer those kind of prayers.

Yeah, he does. Next thing you know, someone has crossed your path that's there. We call them divine appointments. I was just going to say, and Nick knows that I pray at the beginning of every show that we're going to get amazing callers. So you could be an answer to my prayer right now by dialing 866-348-7884 because to me I've never had a call that wasn't amazing. I just love when people have an opportunity. That's why I love live radio, I love my job is to hear your thoughts on this.

What experience have you had? You've got just a couple minutes left, so call us, 866-348-7884. Pretty easy and it'll be fun, I absolutely promise. Bill, can you even imagine, we've talked a couple times on the show, what it's going to be like to meet people that you introduced their great-great-great-great grandfather or whatever relation, that you don't know how the trickle-down effect is amazing. Bill, like Mike was talking about, those things are going to be so cool to know that not only that person but their family, et cetera, et cetera, gets to spend eternity together with you. Increasing in our love for sharing our Savior needs to have what you just talked about, Robbie, that long view. One person getting saved can have generational effect and I think that stirs my heart, again, to think that someone I've shared the gospel with has gotten saved that decades from now, centuries from now, their lives are going to be different because they came to know Jesus. And on top of that, the most important thing, they're going to have a different eternity and I do think part of what should increase our desire and love to share is the reminder that people do perish. In the greatest verse about God's love, we find out that for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever shall believe in Him, he says, shall not perish. Before he says we'll have everlasting life, tell us what will not happen to them. And one of the reasons we ought to be passionate about sharing with someone is that we love them so much we don't want them to go to hell. Imperishable, right? That's what you get. You get that stamp of imperishable. You wouldn't want that on your worst, worst, worst, worst nightmare, enemy that we would ever want them to spend an eternity like that.

It's an interesting thing as I'd love to study words. As you know, Doc, I was studying the word hell a little bit from a different angle this week, and it's a place where the worship of God never happens. That's right, no worship of God at all. And you know, our hearts were meant to worship.

Of course, we're all worshiping crazy things, unfortunately at times, but to worship God is the only true way that you can actually have joy. And so if you take that out of the equation just for anybody, to never have joy again, never, for eternity. And they're just sitting across there and they look upset right now and you probably don't want to talk to them because they don't look like somebody that you really want to talk to. But hey, you know, you could be their last hope. You could be their only opportunity. And I'm talking to myself as much as I'm talking to you, you know, that when you see that person that, you know, isn't it you that always says the person that needs our love the most is the one who deserves it the least? That's right, yep.

The time a person needs our love the most is when they deserve it the least. That's what that guy thought that was standing next to you in the... Just saying, doc. I do have some embarrassing moments as a lost person. Oh, don't we all?

Oh, a lot worse than that. But you know what, I just think about, you know, wow, that had to be tough to stand there next to you at that point in time and say the next word, which, you know, who could blame him for not following up? But anyway, you know, I got to tell you, there's a few of these stories today that will be with me for a long time. But again, I am so grateful for this week. In so many ways, this trip on the Love Boat has brought some amazing stuff to us. I'm so grateful for each of you listening and certainly for all of those that you called in. God bless you. You guys have an amazing week. And I hope that we all increase in what we've been talking about this week. Love, love, love.

Well, thank you so much, Doc. Date the Word Carson. Get the Date the Word app. Go to TruthTalkTruthNetwork.com. Find out all about it. We'll be back come Monday. Stay tuned. Truth Talk Live!