Telling The TRUTH
061612 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 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings being conformed to His death. Philippians 3-10, New King James Version. Do you know Him? Have you admitted that you have sinned? Have you turned to Jesus from your sins? Have you believed on the Lord Jesus? Do you know that God did raise Jesus from the dead? Do you believe in the resurrected Jesus? Are you fellowshipping now because of His sufferings? Knowing that when you suffer, it's nothing compared to what He went through? Are you really related to the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ? And are you committed to not only believing, but also sharing your faith in Him with others? Are you fellowshipping with other people who believe that Jesus Christ is who He says He is? Are you reading the Word of God? Are you praying consistently without ceasing, always in an attitude of prayer, willing to go to those people who need the Lord, diligently praying for them? Are you praying with others who are believers? And then to gather, taking the power of the resurrected Jesus and sharing that message with people who need to know Him, who do not write as life eternal? Are you headed for heaven? I hope you are. You can be if you will admit you have sinned. Turn to Jesus from your sins and trust Him totally as your redeemer, your Savior, your giver of eternal life. Listen to Philippians 3.11, New King James. If by any means I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Well, it can happen to you, one day, some day, if you truly have trusted Jesus. And if you have, why not take as many people to heaven with you as you possibly can? Here's how. Tell them the Christ died for their sins, for your sins, for my sins, for our sins according to the Scriptures. Tell them He was buried and He rose again on the third day according to the Word of God. And let them know that if they will turn to Him from their sins, believe with all of their heart that Jesus is who He says He is. The way, the truth, and the life. They can have life that lasts forever. Will you tell someone this? Will you pray with other believers and ask God to give you opportunities to tell others effectively? Even today, go. What kind of goals are you setting? Goals to succeed? Goals to fail. Goal setting can be a spiritual exercise. Listen to Philippians 3.12, New King James Version. Not that I have already attained or am already perfected, but I press on that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Isn't that wonderful? Isn't that great news? You haven't attained? I haven't either. We're not perfected yet, but like Paul said, I press on, and you can press on. Why? So that you and I may lay hold of that, that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of us, of you and of me. What? Eternal life. Life that lasts forever. Life with God. Fellowship with all those believers in Christ who have gone or will join us in eternity, in a place that was developed and prepared for you and me. It's called heaven. In my father's house are many mansions. Jesus said if we're not so, I would have told you, I go to prepare a place for you. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended, but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead. Philippians 3.13, New King James Version. Brethren, believers in Christ, people who have trusted Jesus, I do not count myself to have apprehended. I haven't arrived, but Paul says and you and I can say it with him, one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind. Yesterday is forever gone. All that is left of yesterday are memories. But we can reach forward to those things which are ahead. Tomorrow is without spot or blemish. Tomorrow is utterly fantastic for you and for others with whom you can have fellowship, with whom you can pray, and with whom you can reach out to those who don't know the Lord. What are you doing about the people who are lost and who don't know Christ, but who could if you would tell them? Are you reading God's Word? Are you praying diligently? Are you going with the gospel? Are you preparing to share the wonderful plan of salvation with someone today? Will you? Are you praying about God's will for your life? Have you discovered your destiny? What kind of goals are you setting? Philippians 3.14, New King James Version says, "I pressed toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." What is that prize? That prize is eternity forever with God. Jesus said, "In my Father's house are many mansions. I go to prepare a place for you that where I am, there you may be also." Remember that? Then he said, "I am the way, the truth, the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." Have you come to Jesus? Are you living for Him? Are you sharing your faith faithfully? Are you praying diligently? Are you fellowshipping with other believers? Are you then telling others the truth about who Jesus is? What He has done? What He will do for them if they will turn to Him from their sins? And trust the Lord Jesus personally. Someone is waiting for you to go tell them the truth. Will you? Go tell somebody today. Philippians 3.15, the King James Version says, "Therefore it let us, as many as our mature, have this mind, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal even this to you." Are you mature? Are you all that God would have you to be? Are you thinking right? Are you doing right? Do you have the mind of Christ? Are you thinking the way God would have you to think? God will reveal to you His plan, His will for your life. If you will allow that to happen, the Word of God is filled with information. It's inspired. And if you will read it and heed it, you can do something significant with the one life that God has entrusted to you. What goals are you going to set to glorify God? Are you praying about what would please Him the most? Are you praying for others? Are you praying with others who are believers? Are you reading consistently the Scriptures? Are you putting them into effect daily? Are you sharing Jesus with people who need Him? There is somebody out there waiting and you are the one that can tell them how to get to Heaven. Will you? If you think right, you will do right. God has a plan for you. He has something He wants you to do. Pray. Read the Word of God. Listen to Philippians 3-16, New King James. Nevertheless, to the degree that we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us be of the same mind. Yes, in fellowship with God, praying diligently, giving thanks to Jesus for dying for you. For being triumphant over death, understanding that the resurrected Christ wants to live in you and through you and wants you to live for Him. Be of the same mind as other Christian communicators. Making sure that every goal you have is God-glorifying and Christ-honoring. Then you can make a difference. You can make an impact with the one life God has entrusted to you. You can know. You can do the will of God. He will not force it on you, but He certainly makes it available to you to follow Him. To accomplish His purpose. Impact means I must personally advance Christianity today. Will you? Every Saturday at 7.27 PM, you are invited to attend a live youth event at Triple T, 13,000 US-41 North at Boone Building Harmony Road, midway between I-64 and Evansville Regional Airport. Every first Saturday, a good news club for those in 1st through 5th grades is available in a separate area. For more information call 812-867-2418 or visit www.tripletchristianyouth.org. Set your goals. When God designed you, He designed you as a goal-seeking person. You set all kinds of goals, and when you set goals, you are more likely to reach the goals than if you don't set goals. Is goal-setting biblical? Does it please God for us to set goals? Yes, reiterate again Philippians 3 verses 12-14 that we've just shared. God's Word tells us wonderful things. So yes, goal-setting is scriptural. The Bible talks about setting goals, reaching for prizes, moving in the direction that God would have us to go. And so we're going to set some goals today. Are you willing? Are you ready? Some goals in your own person, and some goals for outreach. Personal goals come in four areas, one physical. Set the goal to be the best physical specimen you can be. Take care of the one body God has entrusted to you. Pay the price to develop it and make it great for God's glory. Body exercise profits little, but it does profit. So use your body wisely and don't abuse it. Bring it in a subjection. Take care of the body you have because you've got to go full speed forward for God's glory if you're going to reach people who need Jesus. 2. Think on right things. Think often. Think clearly. Read right. Do right things in your mind. Set goals to become as smart as you can become. One of the things that I have tried to do is to read rapidly because the more rapidly I can read and retain the information I have read, then the more information I can intake. Right? And so learn some things and express to the Lord. Your desire to become as mentally as alert as God would be pleased for you to become. Use your smarts. Use your brain. Develop your mind. Develop it to the ultimate for God's glory. And one of the great ways to develop your mind is to read and memorize Scripture. Psalm 23 is a great exercise in Scripture memory. It will help you to understand who God is. I've set some goals regarding Psalm 23. I want to share these with you as we talk about the mental now. First words of Psalm 23 are, the Lord is my shepherd. And I take each of these words and emphasize those words. The Lord is my shepherd. There is one Lord and one God, one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. The Lord is my shepherd. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. Make him Lord of your life. The Lord is my shepherd. The Lord is my shepherd. It's not something that was or something that will be. He is now my shepherd and he wants to continue to be my shepherd. And so the Lord is my shepherd. Then we personalize it. The Lord is my shepherd. In a very intimate way God speaks to my heart through his word. And he will lead me in paths of righteousness for his namesake. The Lord is my shepherd. The Lord is my shepherd. He will be leading. He will be guiding me if I give him that right. If I give him that opportunity. If I allow him to be my leader, my guide, my shepherd. So we can exercise the mental prowess that God has entrusted to us and we can be as smart as God would have us to be. God wants us to develop that and has set goals in those areas. Then thirdly, there are the social goals to set. Socially speaking, you should meet everybody that you can and should have a good relationship with those people. Man, woman, you are a social creature. And so get involved with other people, but be careful not to abuse that social life of yours. Don't go. Don't do. Don't say. Don't be anything that would displease God. For set your goals spiritually. Become as much like Jesus as you can become. My goal in life is to be like Christ. To be like Jesus. You know, I fall far, far short. I am way, way, way weak in looking at His strengths. But as close as I can come to Him, I try to do that. And if I can become more like Jesus, I will set the goal to become what God would have me to become. Christian means Christ-like and we are to emulate the Lord Jesus. We are to pattern our lives after Him. And once we have done this, then we begin to reach out to other people. And goal setting becomes very, very important. As we talk about setting goals, we also talk about finding God's will. Goals are interesting. And I hope that you are willing to seek God's will in all of these four areas. First of all, the physical, then the mental, then the social, and especially the spiritual. I hope that you will look at what God is telling you to do about goal setting. Keep evangelizing youth. Understand that opportunities abound. Plan a specific outreach for God's glory. To be able to talk to people who need the Lord. Be a part of a Tiger Team impact in your community. We are getting ready to take fair share out across county after county this summer. From the 9th of July through the 11th of August for five weeks we will be taking Traveling Tigers. Teenagers from Teen Missions International. Missionaries who have a heart for Jesus right here in the middle of America. We have BMW students coming. BMW means Bible missionary work, training center, people. And so as we reach out, we want to put together an impact in community after community in fair after fair. As I said earlier, impact means I must personally advance Christianity today. When you take a long look at this, you'll see you have specific objectives that you state and set. You begin to build a prospect list of people who need the Lord. Remember you and God make a majority. So you can have an impact happen where you are. We have an impact adventure every Saturday at Triple T. Tigers are teens involved going evangelizing regularly. When you begin to pray specifically, Lord help us to reach out to other people. You watch Him work wonderfully in you and through you and for you. And then you make it a very special desire and you develop the whole approach to reach people with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Why are we doing this? We're doing it to communicate Christianity to and through youth, to share the gospel of the Lord Jesus to people who don't know Him and invite them to hear the gospel to believe on Christ to be saved. So we have to keep that as our constant, consistent objective. The fellowship factor is wonderful, but this is evangelism. This is youth evangelism. This is moving from a group of Christians committed to Jesus Christ on the basis of Romans 12, 1 and 2 out to others. And other people are invited to hear the gospel. That's why we share the gospel, to see them admit that they have sinned, to believe on Christ, to confess Him publicly. How is it going to happen? It's going to happen as we continue to pray and then find answers to each of the questions. And then we begin to put our master plan into effect. We begin to say, "This is how this is going to transpire." We now know that after we have determined the who, what, when, where, and why and how we're doing what we're doing, we set specific objectives. Then we say, "All right, we're going with the gospel. We're going together. We're going to watch God work in marvelous, wonderful ways." Always, we're moving toward an impact, an impact on people, from God through us to them. That's a wonderful way to go, a great way to live. People are going to come to know Jesus Christ. Oh, it takes work. Someone has said, "If you want to be successful, there are two ways to do it." One, plan your work. Two, work your plan. Plan your work. Work your plan. When you do these things, it's all going to come together. Now you're going to have some snafus, some pitfalls, some problems, so be prepared. And understand that the more people you have working with you, the larger your team, the more you expand this group of folk, the greater impact you're going to have. You're going to know people that I don't know, and I know people you don't know. And that's how it works. The more people we get working with us, the more we increase the number of people that can hear the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Our vision, every youth, to have the opportunity to hear the gospel with an invitation to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ before His or Her 20th birthday. Stay tuned for more. The mission to communicate Christianity to and through teenagers, to win them to Christ and train them for Christ, teaching them how to share their faith through their local churches, on their campuses, throughout their communities, and into their world, wherever God leads them in their future. Our target audience is youth ages 10 to 19 within 100 miles of Triple T's headquarters, four miles north of Evansville Regional Airport, four miles south of Interstate 64, one miles south of the New North High School. According to the 2010 U.S. Census data, there are 413,443 youth ages 10 to 19 in the 93 counties within this geographic area. So we have a key action plan to provide biblical and practical youth evangelism training and resources for adult youth workers. Evangelistic youth efforts are conducted in local communities in partnership with local churches and Christian organizations. That's why we're taking fair share out across the tri-state to Illinois, Indiana, and Kentucky counties. We'll be pitching a tent. A 10 by 10 tent was a banner that says "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ" with Christian flags unfurled, "flapping in the breeze." Giving away free ice water to all the fairgoers who will come by and surveying them about teenagers, offering every single person between the ages of 10 and 19 a free Triple T New King James Bible. Tigers will be at every fair, every street festival. Tiger teens involved going evangelizing rarely. Team, together everyone, accomplishes more. All Triple T activities involved Tiger Team peer evangelism in leadership training and evangelistic youth efforts. Youth are trained in biblically based peer evangelism, leadership, and creative Christian communications. Training includes Scripture memory and personal application that is designed to equip and prepare participants to share their faith effectively with their peers and to challenge them to commit to a lifetime of serving Christ with moral purity. We just finished, last weekend, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, the Traveling Tigers minicamp for 2012. Some of the world's greatest teenagers and preteens were with us, and what a delight it was to have them here housed in our little portable dormitories, our A-frame dorms, and having all of the meals here. And then one of the wonderful things that happened is someone recut the path out to our chapel in the woods. There's a cross out there. We have 30 acres here on Highway 41 at Boovlin and Harmony Road, and it was great to have testimonies by the people who were with us shared out there in front of the cross. The key action plan, key means keep evangelizing youth, provides biblical and practical youth evangelism training and resources for adult youth workers. Tiger Team Evangelistic Youth Efforts are conducted in local communities, in partnership with local churches and Christian organizations. That's the way the whole thing comes together. Last year, we had over 100 Triple T Evangelistic Youth Efforts. The Gospel was presented to at least 5,576 different 10 to 19-year-olds, and at least 464 indicated a decision for Christ and were prayed with personally by a youth or youth worker trained in peer evangelism through Triple T. 108 different individuals participated in Tiger Team Peer Evangelism and Leadership Training in 2011. Project Proclaim includes a public relations outreach, sharing the Gospel message online and through radio and outdoor advertising. Our billboards are appearing here, there, and other places, and they all have the message "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ," telling the truth to teenagers and our website, www.ttkristianyouth.org. All Triple T staff are involved directly with various aspects of Tiger Team Training and the Key Action Plan, along with many adult and youth volunteers. Training programs are conducted by Triple T staff, volunteers, and special guests. Each Triple T Evangelistic Youth Effort requires a team of volunteers in the community working alongside Triple T staff. We call them Tiger Teammates. The first $20 anybody gives makes them a Tiger Teammate Encourager. And we have a lot of Encouragers and we need a whole lot more. We're going together toward tomorrow, projecting to 2020 and beyond, going this summer with the Gospel, to county after county, fair after fair, probably where you are too. Know this, Christ through you can change the world. 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 in Harmony Road, midway between I-64 and Evansville Regional Airport. Every first Saturday, a good news club for those in first through fifth grades is available in a separate area. 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 this same time on this same station. [MUSIC] (dramatic music)