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. The greatest commission ever sponsored by Truth Talk Live.
I've spoken of, you know, as a car salesman for over 40 years. You know, one of the things that I always wondered about was what would be the greatest commission you could ever get. Well, I'm going to tell you that there's one in Matthew 28 that honestly and oh sincerely, some of the most fun I've had in life has to do with this commission. And so we got a question for today when it comes to this commission that we're talking about in Matthew 28. You may know it's commission to go make disciples. And what it reads exactly is, go therefore and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I've commanded you.
And lo, I'm with you always, even to the end of the age. So the question today on Truth Talk Live, what are those all things? It says teaching them all things.
Well, you know, all's a pretty incorporating word. And you know, here to help us, but you know, if you've got some idea on this all things, I want you to call us. Please, please, please. 866-348-7884. I love these discussions. I had so much fun last week with the wonderful calls we have.
So we would love some great ones today. 866-348-7884. Here to help me out, as you might imagine, is Dr. Date the Word himself, Dr. Carson, because it is 3-10. Or is it 3-9? Tomorrow's 3-10. Today's 3-10.
Today is 3-10. And so that being 3-10, obviously, this has to do with discipleship. And so we need to know about these all things, Doc. Yes, 2 Timothy 3-10 is one of the verses we use at Date the Word. Paul says to Timothy, But you have carefully followed my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, wrong-suffering, love, perseverance. And when I saw that verse years ago, as I was teaching students how to disciple at Liberty University, where I was serving as a campus pastor, the question always came up, as you have put to our listeners, the all things. What are the all things? And we could get so bogged down with the things that really didn't matter.
And I wanted to have, what really does matter? What needs to be the things that are conveyed from a believer who has been growing in their faith to a new person growing in their faith? And 2 Timothy 3-10 became one of my key verses that we would use to teach how to disciple others. We call them the seven essentials of discipleship. And so a really cool thing from my perspective, and I know you agree with me wholeheartedly, it doesn't have to do necessarily with new believers, because hopefully I'm being discipled all the time. And you know, I'm hopefully discipling, but I sure hope that I'm learning more and more about all those things.
Well, definitely, definitely. I think it was the great professor from Dallas Theological Seminary, Howard Hendricks, that said you need three people in your life at all times. You need an apostle Paul, who is discipling you. You need a Barnabas, who is encouraging you. And you need a Timothy that you're discipling. And then, you know, we become the Paul, and we need to be the Barnabas.
And then we stay a Timothy. And like you just said, I'm not apprehended all that Christ wants me to be or do. And so I need to still be being discipled as I disciple.
Oh, it's so true. And, you know, it was so clear in the 119th Psalm, David talked about all are my teachers, and all are my teachers in so many different ways. Even, you know, when I taught special needs at Calvary all those years, some of the best teachers I ever had. I can assure you that there were a lot of things that they taught me that only they could do, because they have a unique ability to see God, and they have a unique ability to operate with no mask whatsoever.
There's no insincerity. And when they say something, when they think it, they say it. And so, you know, it's just a cool thing.
And I love the idea of discipleship. And so I know you're listening, and this is making you think, I hope. And you're thinking, you know, how does this work out in my life? You know, do you have those three people? Some comment that you're thinking about what we're talking about.
You call us, 866-348-7884. Lord, we're hoping that you have some great calls for us today, because this is where the rubber meets the road. This was Jesus' commission to all of us. And how we're doing this is really such a neat opportunity, because I know you're like me, Doc. And we sit there all the time disciplining each other. Whenever you come across anybody that begins to light up, when you begin to talk about the things you've learned, and then they light you up with the things that they've learned, you know, it's some of the most wonderful interactions you can imagine, right?
Yes. We're to be passing the faith along. That was the old song when I was growing up, pass the faith along.
And Paul had told Timothy earlier in chapter 2, the things that you have learned from me, teach others, and teach them so that they can teach others also. And there's just something about being able to learn the truths of Scripture, how it is applied to our lives. And then when those things start happening, you know, the word is we become transformed. And it's like that old caterpillar that now is becoming a beautiful butterfly. All of a sudden I'm able to put into my life truth.
Truth sets us free. And now I am living a different life. Yeah, you are. You're not eating green anymore.
You're now just sucking nectar. There it is. 866-348-7884. What do you think are the all things? We're going to dig into them all things. We're going to dig into each other's discipleship, but we need you. 866-348-7884. We'll be right back. Welcome back to Truth Talk Live. Today's question comes to Matthew 28 and the Great Commission and teaching them to do all things.
What are those all things, as far as you're concerned, when you go to be teaching or learning, as the case may be? Because the beauty of that, you know, to me, Doc, is—and again, we want your calls. 866-348-7884. Nowhere near as fun without you calling.
866-348-7884. But there's so much of, you know, what you're going to get into there in 2 Timothy 3.10 that I think, you know, it's really neat if you just go through the list, Doc. Yep. Paul says to Timothy, you have followed, you have learned from me doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, long suffering, love, and perseverance. And you start thinking about each one of these.
These are the things that I need to learn. And then, as we disciple others, it gives us a great pattern to follow as we look to help someone develop their spiritual life. You know, you think about this idea of doctrine.
That's really what we believe. And we have to have solid doctrine, not only what we believe, but why we believe it. If we don't have the right doctrines, we find ourselves—literally, we could find ourselves in a cult. We need to examine what are the—we call them the tenets of the faith. And make sure we've got correct doctrine. And so, if I'm discipling someone, I'm going to be talking about, I call them the five fundamentals of the faith, making sure they knew about the inspiration of Scripture, making sure they knew about the virgin birth, making sure they knew about what we call the substitutionary atonement of Christ, that He is the only one that has provided salvation, the bodily resurrection, and the second coming of Christ. Now, there are other doctrines, but these are those foundational doctrines. And then He says, manner of life. And this is behavior. And I was studying today, Robbie, the Colossians 3. I love Colossians 3. And for the person who becomes a believer, there are things that just are no longer part of their lives.
You put to death. And then it says you put off, and then you put on. There are things now that I do as a Christian that I didn't do before I was a Christian, and there are things that I don't do now that I'm a Christian that I was doing before I was a Christian.
I would change life. There's a proper behavior. I've got a question between the two. You just mentioned doctrine, which is obviously, and I think a lot of people just think that all things all has to do with doctrine. But when you say, you know, manner of life, so, you know, clearly to me, you know, Jesus cleared the temple saying, my house will be a house of prayer, and since our bodies are now the temple of the Holy Spirit, obviously, one of the main doctrines in my life is the doctrine of prayer. But also, it's also my manner of life. And so where do you put that one in between those two, Doc?
Probably at both of them. There is the understanding of prayer as I have this ability to talk with God. He wants me to talk with him, to listen to God. How I think about God determines how I'm going to pray. So that's going to fit under doctrine. But then my manner of life is I have become a person who trusts the Lord. How is that trust expressed? It's expressed by praying.
The old hymn, what a friend we have in Jesus, we take all of our grief and pain to God in prayer. So it's going to fit into both of them there. Yeah, I love it. That's so cool. And so vital, right?
Yeah. That there are, when it comes to all things, it's kind of neat when you walk with somebody, even if you go to lunch with Nikita Kolov sometime, you're going to learn some all things. Because one of the things he might do, it would not be unusual at all, is for him to buy your lunch and then ask if you would take whatever you were going to spend on lunch and give it as a tip to the waitress. That was after he asked her how he could pray for her and whatever, and then it goes on to make this impression financially that we really do care about you. And it's just an all thing, right?
I mean, it's a manner of life. But I can tell you, one time I saw him do that, it was a whole party. There were probably like 20 of us. And he says, look, I'm going to buy everybody's breakfast, I think it was. And he said, but I want everybody to take what they were going to spend on it. And I think the tip for the lady was like over $300. See, that's generosity. And when you're discipling someone, one of the first, and the multitude of manner of life, okay, we'll say it that way, the multitude of the different things, one of the things you want to cover with a person is giving, not just to God, though that's a starting point, but generosity, that the Good Samaritan who is going to help someone out, all of a sudden there's an urgent need, right there, boom, let me help you out. And I love this, a friend of mine said, generosity is the new evangelism. And I got to believe when this lady or this gentleman received the tip, they were far more open to listening to the beautiful message of the gospel. They were in tears. You know, because they were actually in nursing school, really struggling. You could tell a single mom and she, you know, the whole idea of us praying for her financially, all that, it was a gigantic moment in her life.
And, you know, it would have been a normal breakfast. I love this. I just learned something again from you, from Nikita.
See, this is discipleship. And then you add to that, you ask them when their birthday is. No, that's right, that's right. Yeah, that's another all thing. If you go to lunch with Dr. Carson, I can assure you, or dinner, or any other meal, that's coming.
And it's really effective. You know, we had a dinner, I guess it was your birthday dinner. And talk about generosity, he took us all out to dinner, it was his birthday, and to an amazing Christmas event that we all went to. And then, as he was giving these birthdays, and almost everybody in the place, it became a spiritual revival, right there in the restaurant, right? Right there in the restaurant.
Because again, when people start hearing how God's work connects to their lives, they get excited about that. Well, I hate we got to go to a break. For some of you, we're going to lose you. We can hear the rest of the show at podcastattruthnetwork.com. For the rest of you in all those other markets, like Lynchburg and Ohio, we're going to be on for the whole hour.
But you've got to call 866-348-7884. What are those all things in Matthew 28? The Great Commission.
We'll be right back. Welcome back to Truth Talk Live. Today's question, what are the all things in the Great Commission? That Jesus referred to, is we got this unbelievable commission, I can just tell you, from so many wonderful experiences I have had, and being discipled, and enjoying discipling with others. What are these all things that we are supposed to teach?
And we've been enjoying this discussion, as today is 3-10, so 2 Timothy 3-10. It gives us seven of the all things in categories that really help, you know, I think, to flow through on this thought. And we've talked about the first two, which are doctrine and manner of life.
And, you know, both of those are absolutely huge. Doc, I don't know that we've finished manner of life. We were getting there, but that's the big one, very wide, because it's going to cover every area of life.
So, I've always said, you're never going to run out of topics to cover when you're discipling someone. And it's a matter of prayer, as you sit down with a person, Jesus, you know, He took His disciples, Mark chapter 3 verse 13-14, He picked those that would be with Him, with Him, and He prepared them for preaching and for teaching, so that they would be ready to go forth and preach the gospel when He's gone to heaven, and He had them equipped for the ministry that they were to do. But the manner of life, a lot of times I take it back to Colossians 3, if I'm sitting down with some guys or, you know, a mixed group, guys and girls, I'll ask them, all right, where are you in the process here of Colossians 3? Are you still doing something that God said put to death? Are you still messing around with things God said put off, like anger, malice? But more importantly, are you putting on those things, putting on the things of humility and tenderness and compassion? The big one is to love, and part of loving is forgiving.
Have you put those things on? Yeah, it's a huge, huge challenge. Well, we got Mike is calling in from Dayton, Ohio, and we need your call, 866-348-7884.
What are the all things, or how are you experiencing them? 866-348-7884. Mike, you're on to talk live.
Yeah, thank you for taking my call. And I listened to a sermon today on Noah, and he was building the ark, and how detailed the ark was, and how to do all the, you know, how big it was, and God said to use gopher wood and all that stuff. And he had to build, I'm in construction and I make cabinets, and it kind of hit to my heart about thinking of pondering on that. And by pondering on that, I made, it says, you know, he had to obviously do it with excellence, with all his heart, with, you know, he did it exactly the way God wanted it to be made. And when we work at work and we're around people, we need to do things with excellence and hard work, and do it the way God would want you to do it.
And that's, you know, that's one of the, that's the all things, I think, that could be a witness to people. And a lot of people over the years, my wife, I'll give you an example of my wife. My wife went from working at Target to working at my uncle's bar, and she works hard. And my uncle come up to me and she is such a hard worker. She cleans those tables, she does things, she's doing this and that.
We are so blessed to have her. And that is a witness to my uncle and my relatives that work there at the bar, you know what I mean? And it's just awesome to, you know, for that to happen. Yeah, because everybody's watching, right?
Everybody's watching, yeah. And everybody knows what you've, you know, this guy goes to church and this guy says he's a Christian, and this guy does that, and then they watch and see how you do your job. And you're discipling whether you know it or not, right, Doc?
Exactly, and Mike, what a great topic. And as I think about different topics on the man of life, I'm pulling from Proverbs. And Proverbs talks about the work ethic. And there is absolutely nothing in the Bible that compliments a lazy person.
Nothing at all is said good about someone who is lazy. We are to always have that mindset with our work that we are to give our very best, because we're really not working for the employer, we're working for God. And it is, it's a testimony. And people do, when they hear, hey, this person's a Christian, they go to church.
And then in one moment they're blessing God, the next moment they're cursing. James says that's not the way it ought to be. We ought to be living our lives in accordance to what we do believe. So belief then leads to that behavior. But absolutely, Mike, that's a topic that is supposed to be on that list of doing discipleship with someone.
What's your work ethic? That's beautiful. I also think, Mike, that when you're out there and, you know, you see somebody stranded on the median, and you go out there and push them off. You know, it's in all things too, right? You just have a whole different ability to talk to somebody about the gospel once you've just gotten them out of harm's way.
Right. And you're able to, you know, they say thank you, thank you, and you know, why'd you stop? I had that question asked for me. Well, then I say because God told me to. And they look at me like, and they're with their eyes like a deer in the headlights. And then I says, do you know my God?
Do you know Jesus? You know, and that's the conversation that it starts from. And then it's pretty cool by just pushing someone out of the median. You know what I mean? It didn't, it happened, it's haven't happened lately.
So it'll probably happen tomorrow. I do it. You know, you get it. And, you know, it's just, it's easy to not listen to God and easy not to work hard and easy. I'm tired.
I don't feel good. You know, those are the thoughts that the devil gives you. But if you say, God, thank you for being with me today. Thank you for encouraging me today. Thank you, God, we're going to get this done.
Thank you for giving me the wisdom. And you're thanking God throughout the day, you're going to be a witness. And the other thing that comes to me, Mike, as I think about that is he who seeks to lose his life will find it.
Yes. And, you know, when you jump out of your car and you go, you know, that wasn't where you were headed, right? And you were seeking to lose your life. And as a result, you found it. It's a beautiful thing.
It is a beautiful thing. And people will see it every time you do it. You know what I mean?
You know, it's not, shoot, that's why I felt like that the Moses thing was, you know, Noah thing was pretty cool that, you know, he did it with excellence and everybody made fun of me. And people make fun of me, too, at my job. Why are you working so hard? Why are you doing this? And I don't hesitate to tell them, you know what I mean? And, you know, it's just interesting that, you know, my wife does the same thing because that's the right thing to do. That's what she says.
It's the right thing to do. Oh, thank you, my friend. As always, you're a blessing.
You have an amazing week, okay? God bless you. You too, sir. Thank you. God bless you.
Bye-bye. Well, Doc, go ahead. You know, what Mike was just talking about takes us to that next point, purpose. And when you're working with someone, discipling them, you've got to spend time with them determining what God wants them to do with their life. And how then, again, what will be those core values that you're going to have? This is what I am about and I'm going to strive for excellence.
I'm going to give my very best. I'm going to protect my testimony. And I always would sit down with a person and say, as we're determining what God wants you to do with your life, remember Jesus said, I must be about my Father's business. What's the Father's business for your life? You don't have to be a pastor. You don't have to be a missionary to be about the Father's business. It's being wherever God has gifted you to use your gifts and talents, and then shine as a light wherever that is.
And it could be in a neighborhood and it can be at a workplace. You know, that's a gigantic thing right there, purpose. And I, you know, as you know, we'll get into all that, but we need your calls when we come back about purpose.
What do you think? 866-348-7884. How do you disciple somebody as far as their purpose? I would love to know.
I really would. 866-348-7884. We got a whole lot more of what are these all things in Matthew 28 on discipleship. We'll be right back, hopefully with your call. Welcome back to Truth Talk Live. Today's question is, in your discipleship experience, what are the all things talked about in Matthew 28?
Teaching them all things. And again, today is 3-10, or March the 10th, and so Dr. Date the Word himself has got this information again. We should mention that, man, if you don't have the Date the Word calendar yet, oh my goodness, you can call in with your discipleship experience today, and we will send you out a Date the Word calendar, where you can find out that today is 3-10, and probably, is that the scripture for today on the calendar there, Doc? You know, I'm not sure I went with 2 Timothy 3-10. I went with 1 Samuel 3-10.
Then the Lord came, stood, and called, and all the time, Samuel, Samuel, and Samuel answered, speak for your servant here. There's some really good verses for 3-10. If your birthday is today, you've got some really neat verses, like Philippians 3-10, also Malachi 3-10, and they can get this by downloading the Date the Word app. And I also wanted to say, while we may not get through this entire lesson here today, anyone can go to the Date the Word website, www.datetheword.com. Just go to the search bar, type in 2 Timothy 3-10, and the lesson that we're talking about right now comes right after the different things that we're talking about here. But that's on the website, datetheword.com.
How cool is that? And so, hopefully, you know, in so many different ways, we are all discipling, and we are all being discipled. It's a scary thing, but it's coming out all over the place, and sometimes we're not discipled in such good ways. But, you know, there's a whole discussion that just goes into what exactly does that word mean.
But nonetheless, we don't want to not get to some of the stuff you want to talk to, Doc, so what's next on our list? Well, when we look at this purpose, we're trying to determine what God wants to do with our lives. We're supposed to determine the will of God. Many times, and you and I both have had this experience, God calls us to do something that now we have to have faith to do it, where God guides, God then provides. And we've got to trust Him to do that, and Paul said, Timothy, you've followed my faith. You've learned how to trust God, how to rely on Him. If everything we need was given to us, then we're not living by faith.
I loved working with Dr. Jerry Falwell, because his theme song is, We've Come This Far by Faith. It was constantly trusted, and Hebrews 11 speaks of how we please God. Well, it's impossible to please God without faith. And when we say, Okay, God, you want us to do this? We're going to trust you. The next point that Paul said to Timothy, you have followed my law.
Well, let's back up one second, because that's such a gigantic point. I can't tell you how many people we've ministered to at boot camps and those kind of things, and they come to me and they say, Bobby, I know that I was just meant for so much more than this. That they feel this deep hunger to serve God in a lot of ways, and it's hard for them to determine that purpose. And, of course, Kingdom Pursuits, the show we do every week, we talk about how does God take your passion and use it to build the kingdom? And quite often you're going to find in your purpose and what we teach at boot camps is that you're going to need to take a great risk.
You're going to have to stay way out of your comfort zone. And you can't continue to bury your talents. It says, cast your bread upon the water, and then it will return to you. Right, right. And so it's interesting. You feel him prompting you to write that book, you feel him prompting you to get out there and teach that Sunday school class, or maybe you feel him prompting you to dial 7866-348-7884. You feel that?
866-348-7884, right? God's doing that because he knows that that's outside your comfort zone. However, you're trusting him. He's going to give you the words. You know, he gave me the words to be on the air. I was terrified. Probably still am terrified.
Many times, when all of a sudden that music's over and I've got to talk. So you can do it. You know, it's all part of that is that God is a very risky, and love is the most risky thing you can possibly imagine, and God is love. And that takes great faith, right?
Every marriage is going to be based on, to some extent, faith. Yes, yes. And so in order to walk in that relationship with God, it takes tremendous love, which takes tremendous faith.
I love that, Doc. Next. Long suffering. And, you know, to live above with those we know, oh, that will be glory, but to live with those below with those we know, that's another story. Where did you get that poem?
I don't know, but I've been reading it for years. I'm telling you, get along with people. Having the patience with people is one of the most important lessons we have to learn because we're all flawed. And there are times, we talked about this last week, about honoring our wife. I unintentionally offend my wife and occasionally, yeah, I'm going to even go to the point where, yeah, I do something to aggravate her. And I know I've done it.
I have to come back and say, look, I blew this. How do we get along with people? And Paul did a lot of teaching. There's a lot of one anothers in the New Testament about how to get along with others. And then that next word comes, you follow my love. And I love how Paul wrote to the Thessalonians. He said to them, I have cherished you like a mother would cherish a newborn.
Wow. Talk about going the extra mile. That's the way I'm supposed to love you, Bobby, and how I'm supposed to love other believers. My definition of love, when it really gets down to where the rubber meets the road, to love someone is to love them when they deserve it the least.
A time a person needs love the most is when they deserve it the least. Yeah, it's a beautiful thing from my standpoint that the word grace is so applicable to the situation. You're talking about the transition between faith and long suffering.
When he put those two together, it was no accident, as you've already described, that they're very, very, very connected. But interestingly, the second letter in the word faith in Hebrew, which is Han, it has everything to do with faith. And that child, you have great faith that that mother has great faith in that child, and that's why they're capable of long suffering. And that faith in God is often, I find myself in this place, Doc, that I don't necessarily have faith in that person. What I have is faith in God in that person. Because God's in there.
It's kind of like Prego's spaghetti sauce. He's in there. We've got to try to call him out.
He's in there, right? And in order to do that, it requires that ability to suffer long. And God does this incredible work in a person. That's why, again, as you said, we can trust God to do more in a person's life, back to the prayer life, than we could ever do on our own.
I can get 12 steps to somebody. Well, that's wonderful, but if I'm praying and God's working on their heart, this is that beautiful, mysterious work. How did you transform? How did you become like you are? And as that obedience is taking place, the application of God's Word is taking place, seeds are being planted and they're growing, all of a sudden, out comes the fruits of the Spirit.
And people see stuff like, wait a minute, that's not the way you used to be. That's right. I'm now living out Christ. Not just Christianity, I'm living out Christ. And then we get to this last word of Paul's list. Robbie, he says, you followed my perseverance. And if there was one thing Paul wanted to do was to finish well.
He said, you have been watching me. I don't give up. I don't quit.
I'm never going to throw the towel in. I may be being persecuted. I may not have anyone standing with me, but I am going to finish my race.
And there's just something about that person that says, you know what? God can give me the strength. God can give me the wisdom. And I'm not quitting. I'm not quitting on God. He never quit on me.
I'm not quitting. So those are the seven things that Paul said Timothy had followed. It just gives us a little bit of a pattern of the all things.
It's not inclusive here. We could add probably another 150 to 200 more topics here. When you come to that perseverance, I know in May you're going to probably be talking about Romans 5-3. And that's your testimony. It's going to produce that right. You're going to have these tribulations. It's going to produce that wonderful ability to persevere. And then it's going to be the Holy Spirit that's going to help us with all these things.
So I just love the discussion. As always, Dr. Date the Word. If you go to DateTheWord.com, you can get his app. You can get his calendar. All these things that you can revel in today's stuff. Thank you for listening so much.
