Telling The TRUTH
122813 Telling The Truth 28 Minute Program
[music] You're listening to "Telling the Truth" from Triple T. Christian Youth Ministries, "Telling the Truth to and through Teenagers." Here is Triple T. Founder and President George Dumes. "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Most assuredly I say to you, He who receives whomever I send receives me. And he who receives me receives Him who sent me." John 1320, New King James. God sent Mary and Me to Evansville to establish the Christian Communication Center by faith 48 years ago. And God has blessed abundantly. And now we are thrilled about all the people that He has sent our way who have heard the gospel, who have believed on the Lord Jesus, who not only received His gift of eternal life, but have gone into their world with the gospel. One of those people is you. God gives us the privilege of speaking each day on the stations to which you are listening. And we pray today that you will heed the call to go with the gospel. We pray that you will understand the need of seeing people who need the Lord. It was 2,500 Saturdays ago that we opened our doors for the first time to teenagers. This is a milestone. There are so many kids, so many people who have not yet been reached. Will you help us reach them? Will you pray with us and for us? And then will you go with the gospel, bring with other believers in sharing Jesus with people who need the Lord. Listen to John 20, 21, New King James. "Then Jesus said to them again, 'Peace to you, as the Father has sent Me, I also send you.'" Are you willing to be sent? Are you willing to go wherever God wants you to go to say what He wants you to say, to do what He wants you to do? I believe that every one of us needs to be in that attitude and in that position. When Mary and I had our ceremony to marry each other, one of the songs we had sung was the one that says, "Where He leads Me, we will follow." God has led us across the country, from coast to coast and border to border, all over the United States, and because of having a center where people can come, people from the whole world have come here, from every populated continent, from country after country, from all 50 states in the USA. Yet today, we have this opportunity of going with the gospel to you where you are and telling you that Jesus loves you. He died for you, He was buried, and He rose again. That's the message. If you haven't received Jesus as your personal Savior, do it now. If you have, tell others, get a prayer partner and go with the gospel to the people you know who need the Lord. God will send you if you are willing to go. Repent, therefore, and be converted, and your sins will be blotted out so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord and that He may send Jesus Christ who was preached to you before. Acts 3, 1920, New King James Version. Have you believed in the Lord Jesus? Have you turned to Him from your sin? Are you telling other people about Him? God wants us to know that He has a plan for us to follow. He has a pursuit for us to accomplish for His glory. There are people who need the Lord and we need to go with the gospel to them. God's plan of salvation is precise and it's really easy to share. We call it God's ABCs, and we would like to send copies to you so that you can approach a new year getting the gospel to every person you possibly can as effectively as you can, praying as you go with God's good news. To get your copies of the ABCs of the gospel, simply call us. Area code 812-867-2418. We will get them right out to you so you can share the gospel with people. That phone number again is area code 812-867-2418. God's ABCs have the gospel in them and you can use them to share with people you love. When God furthers the gospel, He uses people. Listen to Acts 1622, New King James Version. Then it pleased the apostles and elders with the whole church to send chosen men of their own company to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas. Yes, God will send people when they're willing to go. God wants us, those of us who love the Lord, those of us who are trying to serve Him effectively to pray for people, to willing to go and then to help send them. God wants us to go ourselves, but He wants us not to go alone. He wants us to prayerfully consider other people who could go with the gospel. What a thrill it is to look back over the years, actually decades now, and see how God spoke to some of the teenagers and how those teenagers responded to the gospel. And now, because of their response, the glorious gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ has gone into every area of the world. On every continent, person by person, through them as individuals, and through the people with whom they were connected. God will make us usable today if we are willing. Are you? As you wrap up the year and get ready for a new opportunity, say, "Lord, here am I, send me." Are you ready to go where God sends you? Are you willing to receive those He sends your way? God is a very special plan. It involves people like you, people like me. But it takes willing hearts ready to go and do and be all God wants of us. Listen to Acts 15, 25, New King James. It seemed good to us, being assembled with one accord, to send chosen men to you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul. That phrase, being assembled with one accord, is so important. We have got to be in tune first of all with God and then with each other before we can accomplish God's purpose for us and for others. To send chosen men to you, there are people you know who could go with the gospel if you would help send them. How? First, you pray for them. And second, you help them with whatever support they need. Will you do that? We are thrilled about the open doors God has put before us across the world. And we want to go with the gospel as quickly as we can and as effectively as we can. We want to keep going your way, so keep listening and keep responding and we will keep coming with God's great news. Paul was writing to Christians in Corinth. He is explaining to them the why of his ministry. Listen, "For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of no effect." 1 Corinthians 1, 17, New King James. You see, God wants us to respond to Paul's words to let us know that the cross of Christ has got to be lifted high, that if we get involved with our words, our explanations, we're going to mess up. Of course, we've got to use words. Of course, we've got to use whatever wisdom God gives us. But it's the gospel that Christ died for our sins, that he was buried, that he rose again in the third day. It all revolves around the cross. It's the cross that needs to be center part of our Christian walk. So, we can lift the cross high and if we can tell other people about the cross and the why of the cross, that it was on the cross that Jesus died for our sins and he didn't stay dead. He is alive and he wants to live in the hearts and lives of everyone who will open their heart to him. Will you tell somebody today how they can go to heaven by believing in the Lord Jesus? Call 812-867-2418 and order God's ABCs. Beloved, you do faithfully whatever you do for the brethren and for strangers who have borne witness of your love before the church. If you send them forward on their journey in a manner worthy of God, you will do well. That's 3rd John, verses 5 and 6, New King James. Do you understand that? Wow, such a wonderful, wonderful way to live. And in 3rd John, God gives us some very excellent information and he gives us a lifestyle that we can emulate and put into effect every single day all the years before us. Faithfully, do what you do for the brethren and for strangers before the church. The church is the body of believers worldwide. Every person who is admitted he or she has sinned, who is believed on the Lord Jesus, who has confessed him publicly, can be sent forward with the gospel. One of the privileges and thrills that is ours through the Triple T. Christian Youth Ministries is to send people and help them take the gospel across the world. What about you? Are you willing to say, "Here am I, Lord, send me?" Call 812-867-2418 and ask for copies of God's ABCs to share. Share the plan of salvation with people. Every Saturday at 7.27 p.m., you are invited to attend a live youth event at Triple T, 13,000 US-41 north at Booneville and Harmony Road, midway between I-64 and Evansville Regional Airport. Every first Saturday, a good news club for ages 6 to 9 is available in a separate room. For more information, call 812-867-2418 or visit www.tripletchristianyouth.org. O give thanks to the Lord for He is good, for His mercy endures forever. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom He has redeemed from the hand of the enemy and gathered out of the lands, from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south. Christmastime brings rejoicing and reflecting. Before the first Christmas, when the Virgin Mary gave birth to God's Son, He was. The Bible says in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men, and the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. Go tell it on the mountain is our theme song, Our Story. From our teenage dating days, Mary and I have continued to communicate Christianity. God has graciously allowed us to serve Him together. One very special date was just before we began a ministry in our hometown of Mount Carmel, Illinois, her junior year, my senior year in high school, called Youth for Christ. It was December, 1948, and we led Youth for Christ there, and we sang in the YFC corral directed by Gene Seitz-Kapen. And then on another very special occasion, we had the privilege of going to Evansville. I was a student at Greenville College in Illinois and got some students to drive the car and stop at Mount Carmel to get Mary, and we stood outside Locust Street, the old Evansville Rescue Mission, and listened to Cliff Barrows play as trombone and lead the singing and Billy Graham speak. It was February of 1950. It was a very special occasion because it was that night that Billy and Cliff said they got their evangelistic emphasis at Bob Jones, and they urged us to return Saturday night to hear Bob Jones senior. That night we went back and he said Billy got his slant on evangelism at our school. Mary and I were married June 18, 1950, and moved to Greenville, South Carolina in August to attend BJU. Our interactions with the Billy Graham team have continued across the years and actually across six decades now. It was our friend Dick Capen who involved us more directly with the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association when he became the senior vice president, a position he still holds and a place that he lives and shares the gospel with people everywhere. When we heard about My Hope America, we were thrilled about the possibility. I called Dick on his birthday in August 2012. He happened to be meeting with the two people who were going to be leading My Hope America, and we got involved from the very outset. We trained people, pastors and youth workers here at Triple T on two or three different occasions. And now we've had the privilege of using the videos, defining moments, lose to gain and the cross. We are making these available to people who are close to us, family and friends, Tiger teammates, so that they can, in turn, open their living rooms and show these to people for whom they are concerned. It's a delight, again, to be able to do what we're doing. As I shared last week, we are looking forward to having the trimester plan put into effect in places all over the tri-state, but especially in our hometown of Mount Carmel, Illinois. The first four months, January, February, March and April will be pursuing a thing called the Youth Evangelism Academy, and then going with Restart, the opportunity to challenge teenagers and those 10 to 19 who are believers in Christ, to make a commitment to go to their Bible-believing church, Sunday school or church youth group every single week, six weeks before Easter, Easter Sunday and two weeks following. And then we're going to be going with the gospel across the tri-state, coming back to Mount Carmel for ag days. Again, God willing. We'll be going to as many counties as we possibly can with fair share, taking our tent, taking free ice water, sharing God's ABCs, and giving Bibles to 10 to 19 year olds. Last year, we had the privilege of being in 12 different county fairs and street festivals. We hope to double it this year if God will send us enough people who are willing to be involved and to go with the gospel. We need transportation. We need drivers. We need youth who will share their faith in Christ. And we are praying for this to happen all over the place. And that will be May, June, July and August. Then following that September, October, November and December, we want to put together what we call Tiger Team Youth Evangelism efforts in community after community. In 2013, it's been our privilege to either go or have people from 31 tri-state counties be involved with Triple T Christian Youth Ministries. The goal for 2014 is to double it and go to 62 counties. And we believe God's going to do this. He's going to give us the people who will become Tiger teammates. He's going to give us Tigers who will be trained. Tiger means teens involved, going, evangelizing regularly. When Mary and I were in high school, we had the privilege of not only starting youth for Christ, but of going to church after church because the churches in Mount Carmel banded together to make this ministry happen. And I happen to be singing songs a lot and was a soloist at every church that was cooperating with us across the county. And what a delight. And we want to do that again. Going back with Christian communicators, creatively sharing the gospel. We want to keep going in every way we can, as effectively as we can, as often as we can. And so by this time next year, we hope to have been in 62 different counties. Again, God willing. I emphasize God willing because Psalm 27.1 says, "Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring forth." And James 4, 13, 14, and 15 says, "Come now, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell and make a profit. Whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we will do this or that." And that's our hope on the horizon. To do all these things, as God gives us the strength and the energy and the stamina to keep going, we're facing some very, very difficult days right now because Mary has been diagnosed with cancer. We're going through some very, very crucial times of chemotherapy. And we know that God has a plan that we are in His hands. On my desk, when I graduated from college, I put a little poem and it's still there. Only one life will soon be passed. Only what's done for Christ will last. It was a long time ago that we came back to the tri-state and we came with a 30-year plan. And now it's been 48 years since we have come here to establish this ministry. God has been gracious and it has been widespread. And people from everywhere have come to be trained. And they have gone back out into all of the world. Not certainly every single country, but over 40 of them, all six continents. And we've had people from every one of the 50 states who've been here. And we've been able to go out there. And Mary and I have been privileged to get on an airplane and to fly all the way to Portland, Oregon on one occasion and to New York City on another occasion, from coast to coast. And we've been privileged to serve the Lord together all over the tri-state and beyond. God has been wonderfully opening doors. Our radio broadcast has now heard on stations in nine different states. And we're getting information back from people who are listening. And we hope that some of you who are listening right now will respond today and even come and be with us tonight. This is a very special night. God willing, 2,500 consecutive Saturdays. And we're going to be showing you where we've come from, where we are, but especially where we're headed. Again, God willing. So come tonight if you possibly can and be a part of the 2,500. Time flies when you're having fun. As I said, we want to know you, and we'd like you to know us. And if you can possibly be with us tonight at Triple T or this afternoon, 2 o'clock we begin an open house. And we'll be showing you things that God has done across the years. And we're going to be projecting what we anticipate is going to be happening in 2014, 15, 16, and even beyond through 2020 and ahead of that too. But God knows he's in charge. I flash back because of things that happened to me in my hometown. I remember the day that I looked across the street walking with my next door neighbor, Gene Dean. And I said, "Who is that?" And he said, "I don't know." And I said, "I don't need him. I'm going to find out. I've never seen her before." I think I'm going to marry her. And that's what teenagers say to one another from time to time. And he said, "Well, yeah, I'm going to marry Maxine." Maxine was two years older than Gene. And we went on to school and things happened in October. I was hit with two verses of Scripture. I didn't even know I knew. I beset you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God that you present your bodies, a living sacrifice, holding acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. And when God grabbed my heart with those verses of Scripture, I totally turned everything over to Him. I was playing games. I was in a situation that was not pleasing to the Lord. And I knew that. But I wanted the popularity that came with it. I wanted the applause of people, I guess you would say. But God had another plan. He wanted me. He wanted all of me. He wanted me to totally dedicate everything about me to Him. And so on that very special night, I did. I had done something special for Mary. We had not even met. We hadn't talked to each other. I knew who she was. She was the girl that I saw on my way to school. That particular Tuesday after Labor Day. And so she came up to me with her dad's prompting and said, "Thank you, George." And my response to her was, "You're welcome, Mary." And that was the total extent of our first conversation. We had our first date on the day after Labor Day of 1948. It was a very special, special occasion because we continued to put together Mount Carmel Youth for Christ. And then I had the privilege of graduating from high school and enrolling in Greenville College. That summer, 1948, we had an event at the County Fair. And we gave the Gospel to people. And it was at that moment that Don Brown gave his life to Jesus Christ. Now, here we were, 1950. It was Easter. It was a very special day. And on that morning, Don had put together an Easter sunrise service. The acapella choir was singing. And Don had asked Mary to read a poem. He'd asked me to sing a solo. He'd asked Pete, my first target teen, to share the Gospel because Pete was now enrolled at that time. At Midwest Bible College in St. Louis. And that morning, God used Pete's message and the song and the poem and the choir and the rest to zap a lot of hearts. It was a day to remember. It was my longest day. I got up way, way early that morning to be at the sunrise service. Didn't get back to Greenville College until almost 23 hours later. But during that day, some significant things happened, and God blessed abundantly. And because of what happened that day, I've never been the same. And I thank the Lord for directing us to people who care. We got advice from someone who was on the board of Bob Jones University. And he advised us to go ahead and get married that summer and then to move to Greenville enrolled at Bob Jones. And we followed his advice, and we did. Slim Brown, Don Brown, my classmate, Mary's classmate, is now with Jesus. My friend, Pete Peterson, my very first target teen, went to be with the Lord in October. Both of them made an impact wherever they went. Don became a chaplain in Vietnam. Pete had a ministry in Africa and then in Europe, and we've worked together many, many times. So tonight, we'll tell more about that story and we'll let you know what's happening and what will. Christ through you can change the world. Every Saturday at 7.27 PM, you are invited to attend a live youth event at Triple T, 13,000 US-41 North at Booneville in Harmony Road, midway between I-64 and Evansville Regional Airport. Every first Saturday, a good news club for ages 6 to 9 is available in a separate room. For more information, call 812-867-2418 or visit www.tripletchristianyouth.org. For your free copy of The Telling the Truth newsletter, call 812-867-2418, 812-867-2418, or write Triple T, 13,000 US-41 North, Evansville, Indiana, 477-25. Tune in to Telling the Truth next week at the same time on the same station. [MUSIC]