Telling The TRUTH
051912 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 Dooms. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you love the Lord? Do you love your neighbor? Listen to 1 Peter 3.8, New King James Version. Finally, all of you, be of one mind, having compassion for one another, love as brothers, be tender-hearted, be courteous. Wouldn't that be a wonderful way to live if everybody did that? But everybody is not willing to do that. It's you and me who have to be willing to take the initiative. So, will you be of one mind, have the mind of Christ, do what God wants you to do? We have compassion on people who are hurting, people who have problems bigger than your problems. Will you love the brethren? Every person who is a believer in Christ is your brother or sister in the Lord. Be tender-hearted. Do you really, really understand hurting folk need us to be courteous and considerate? I hope you do. I hope you will. I hope you will pray for others, especially those who don't know the Lord. Pray with other believers, read God's Word, and together go with the gospel. Someone, someone who is hurting spiritually or maybe even physically needs you. The natural man wants to fight back, but listen to 1 Peter 3.9, New King James. I'm not returning evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, blessing, knowing that you were called to this, that you may inherit a blessing. Yes, if someone has done you in, if someone has done something that you really detest, somebody has hurt you, even hurt your feelings, pray and turn around to that person and bless them. Be a blessing. Do right no matter what, and God will bless you. That's how you inherit a blessing. By ceasing to do evil and not to revile, even though it's happening to you. But turn around, trust the Lord, love other people, and be courteous and kind and considerate no matter what they have done. God can make you usable and use you in this manner. It's up to you. Pray with other believers, asking God to help you be all that you can be for Him, and then represent Jesus to lost people. Read the Word of God. Hade the Word of God. Praying always for other Christians and for those who don't know the Lord. For he who would love life and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking guile. 1 Peter 3-10, Nooking James. Do you love life? Do you want to see good days? Then let's not say evil things or speak evil about anyone to anyone. God holds us responsible for every word that comes out of our mouths. Be prayerful. Be careful what you say, and God will bless you when you think of others first. We have what we call the joy formula at Triple T Christian Youth Ministries, and I'd like to share it with you again today. Joy, Jesus first, other second, yourself last, but don't leave yourself out. Keep yourself in tune with the Lord because He can make you usable and use you to help others to serve Jesus. He wants you to love Him and love others and even love yourself a little bit. So get in tune with the Lord and watch Him make you usable and use you. People need you, other believers, and those who don't know Jesus. Will you pray? Will you stay in God's Word? And then will you go? Tell the truth? You and I are living in a mixed-up, messed-up world. But in the middle of it, even though this world is not our home, we are just passing through. We are here today. Listen to 1 Peter 3.11, hooking James Version. Let Him turn away from evil and do good. Let Him seek peace and pursue it. What a way to live. Turn away from evil. It's going to hit you on the blind side, but put on the whole armor of God to stand against the wiles of the devil and, having done all, stand. Do good. Help people who need help. Pray for those who need prayer. Reach out to those who need Jesus. Tell the truth to those who need to know Him. Fellowship with other believers. Pray together for those who need the Lord. Do good. Seek peace and pursue it. Go for it. Make it a very special happening this day where you are. Do you have a prayer partner? Are you going to pray together for each other? And for those who are out of tune with the Creator of the universe? And are you willing to go and tell them how they can know Him, whom to know right is life eternal? For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and His ears are open to their prayers, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil. 1 Peter 3, 12, to King James. The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous. Are you righteous? All of our righteousness is as filthy rags, but we can put on God's righteousness. We can be holy. He has commanded that, for He is holy, and His ears are open to the prayers of the upright, of the righteousness, of those who are endeavoring to do right. Do you fit into that category? Then God will hear and answer prayers. He will answer your prayers for supplication about your own needs and intercession for the needs of others. Don't stop by just praying for yourself, but pray for those folk who are hurting. Those folk who have needs, those folk you care about, those folk you know about. God can make you usable and use you if you are willing to allow it to happen. Pray for the people who are lost and don't know Jesus and do something about it. Pray with other believers in Christ and then together go and take the gospel to the lost. Is someone out to get you? Is somebody trying to harm you? Is someone trying to, and you name it? If so, then do the right thing no matter what. 1 Peter 3, 13, New King James Version says, "And who is He who will harm you if you become followers of what is good?" God's Word is great. God is good, and God wants us to be as good as we can be. How do we do that? First of all, we pray. Secondly, we read the Word of God and we let it be applied to our own set of circumstances. Thirdly, we stay in fellowship with other people who are believers in Christ. If you are not a believer, right now admit you have sinned. Turn to Jesus, ask Him to forgive you, receive His gift of eternal life, and then tell people that Jesus Christ died for your sins and theirs, that He was buried, that He rose again on the third day, and He is alive and well now, interceding in behalf of every believer in Christ, including you and me. If indeed you have trusted Him. So make sure that you are in tune with the Lord, and then share the good news of the saving power of the Lord Jesus with people today. 1 Peter 3.14, New King James says, "But even if you should suffer for righteousness' sake, you are blessed, and do not be afraid of their threats." Nor be troubled. Yes, you could suffer for righteousness' sake. It has happened to others, and it could happen to you. It's happened to me more than once, and it could happen again. But if it does, God's Word says, "You are blessed." What does that mean? It means that Jesus said, "Let not your heart be troubled. Believe in God. Believe also in me." So don't be afraid. People will threaten you. I've been threatened, and maybe you have too. If not, you probably will be someday. So put on the whole armor of God. Stand against the wise of the devil. Don't be troubled, but draw close to the Lord. By praying, reading His Word, sharing with other people who also believe, and then telling the truth to those who need the Lord, God can make you usable and use you. It's really up to you. So don't forget to pray. To read God's Word. To fellowship, and then go with the Gospel. 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 those in first through fifth grades is available in a separate area. For more information, call 812-867-2418 or visit www.tripletchristianyouth.org. [music] Trust in the Lord and do good. Dwell in the land and feed on His faithfulness. Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart. Psalm 37-3-4, New King James. We have a top 10 at Triple T Christian Youth Ministries. Needs, Goals, Hearts, Desires. Our vision for 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. Our mission, telling the truth to 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 number one of our needs, goals, and hearts desires is people praying daily. We call it the 727 Prayer Team. Number two, teammates, people willing to invest time, talent, and treasure with Triple T Christian Youth Ministries. Three adult youth workers to serve as key Tiger Team coaches mentoring and encouraging youth in their communities. Four, qualified drivers and chaperones to provide transportation and leadership for Triple T Saturday nights and events. Next, we're going to share with you tools and tasks. Before we do that, I want to share with you something very special. The best friend that I had on planet Earth for a lot of years was Dave Breeze. And ten years ago, this month, God called him home. His wife Carol asked me to come to Kansas to the memorial service as Dave's best friend, and I did. What a privilege to know, to fellowship, to have all kinds of interactions with this giant of a person, six feet, six inches tall, with a mind to match. God has a plan for every individual. Dave Breeze, multi-gifted, proclaimer of God's glorious grace, gave me something that I consider priceless. When he wrote and then dedicated the poem, "The Plan." When he stopped at the St. Louis Airport in his way to Evansville, he was putting something on paper, and we printed it in "Tell me the Truth" magazine, "The Plan." There is in life a bright design. My soul declares it so. There is a vision still by me, unseen, but yet I know. Another mind, another heart, has hoped on my behalf, another one has seen in me that which I know not half. A surety within my breast, more sure than can be shown, convinces me that I am here for reasons yet unknown, but daily on my heart there dawns, a fairer, floor light, a brighter morning, more aglow with clarity and sight. Thereupon my earthly way, all this midpoint I had, I can more clearly now compare the road ahead behind. The poignant shocking contrast here, I can now mark with ease. The path that seemed so liquid then was really charted seas. And he goes on, and I want to wrap it up by how he wrapped it up. My Lord, my God, I know that I have not as yet attained, but help me now more sure to walk amid the unexplained, to show that God ordains on earth the making of a man, which process is the prelude here to his eternal plan. And when that moment golden comes when faith gives way to sight, no hesitation shall there be, no backward look, no fright, no flicker of reluctance, for there I sure shall say, the mighty architect of time designed it all that way. Dave had a stroke unexpectedly. He was put on the shelf. He still did everything that he could. And I'll always remember the very special note that he sent marrying me on our fiftieth wedding anniversary. In telling a truth magazine, which we published for some time as a magazine, it's now a newsletter. Dave wrote an article called Satan's Favorite Trick. Here it is. His internal majesty, the devil, has a favorite trick. He has used it for a long, long time, and he continues to keep it at the top of his list of dastardly things because it works so frequently with so many of us. The old rascal is probably laughing up his sleeve right now at the fact that this old trick is working at this present moment to some degree with most of the readers of this page and at this point the listeners of this broadcast. A tricky guy, the devil is, but we need to take a moment or three to talk about his favorite one so that he is never able to hook you or me with it again. What then is Mr. Satan's favorite trick, which he continues to work so successfully? It is making you and me believe that acts do not have consequences. Instantly, you will agree with that. Many foolish teenager, adult boy, lady, man, woman, merchant, jail bird, and chief have come to believe this stupidly foolish notion and it has cost them plenty. Their reputations, their physical health, their money, and even their lives. Probably most of the guys and girls whom you know today are living there silly little lives right now in the midst of the deep delusion that today's activities do not produce tomorrow's consequences. Therefore, because most of us have made it through a few math classes, I'm going to give you a little formula which has been helpful to me for many years in my life since the day I invented it. It is as followed. MC plus A plus MC. You don't have to be an Einstein to figure it out. Let me tell you its simple meaning. This formula which deserves to be printed on the brain of us all means each act has multiple causes and multiple consequences. This proposition, if believed by us all, would have as an important effect upon the world as E equals MC2. You see, we're already ahead of Einstein already. Look at the first part of it for just a moment. Each act has multiple causes. A young man may tell you he loves you, that's the act, but the cause of his statement may be far more numerous than you could imagine. Indeed, he may love you, but he may also want your money, your body, your name, as a statistic on his list, an invitation to your house to eat your mother's cooking, etc. With little thought, I'm sure you could add a dozen other reasons. You've probably heard them. A person whom you know may get a high mark on a test. That's the act. And you may believe it's just because he is a pet of the teacher. It may be that he has also studied and he might even be smarter than you think. The point is that almost no person in this world has ever done anything for a single reason alone. There's a multitude of motivations which run through our minds, so the average person is a seething mass of pressures, inhibitions, reasons and the like. But it's never doubt, however, that we do what we do because of a multiple number of reasons. A given act has many causes. What really is worth emphasizing, however, is the more important side of this equation. An act has multiple consequences. Here's where the devil comes in. The Bible calls him the God of this world and says that he has blinded the minds of those who believe not. The kind of blindness which the devil pushes upon people is usually not that he runs the light down to totally black. No, siree. What he does is that he narrows the shutters and makes us believe that the things that we do will produce only one marvelous or fulfilling result so that we can ignore even the possibility of other consequences beside the one which hypnotizes us at the moment. I'm sure that already, rising in your mind is the classic illustration of this semi-blindness which comes upon people. This semi-blindness the devil uses daily when he tempts people to commit sin. You can already imagine the picture, and on it goes. This, of course, is the devil's doctrine. God wants us to know that he has a plan. The devil arrived and blinded them to the plain truth that a given act produces many consequences for a long time to come. Stay tuned and we'll give you some more insights from Dave Breeze, words, Satan's favorite trick. Meanwhile, know this. Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, and everything give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. 1 Thessalonians 5, 16 through 18. Two more categories of Triple T's top 10 are tools and tasks. Before we go back to Dave Breeze words, here are these prayer requests. Large digital sign at Triple T along US Highway 41. 3 New 7, 8 passenger minivans. Video audio system for entrance in 32 snack shop areas. Critical and plumbing repair. Painting 60 passenger buses and fixing Triple T identification banners. Paving drives and parking lot. And God's going to hear an answer prayer and we're going to see these things transpire in his perfect timing. Back to Dave's words. Other things a devil does not tell you about. For his businesses to create that partial blindness in which our own foolishness prevents us from seeing that a given act has consequences. Many of them. This works out in a lot of other ways in life. You can cheat on an examination with the immediate consequence that you pass the test and make it through this time. The trouble is that you know it. Probably someone else knows it. And almost certainly the teacher knows it. From that moment on, your good name is forever lost with some people. Including yourself and that can be a terrible thing indeed. The world is full of people who paid a very high price 10 years 20 years later for a foolish act of dishonesty, immorality or stupidity. When with little thought they could easily have done otherwise. The trouble is that the devil arrived at just that moment and blinded them to the plain truth that a given act produces many consequences. For a long time to come. So the world is full of beaten tragic people who were tricked by the devil during a foolish moment in their lives and are now paying a very high price on the installment plan. They become his slaves and apart from some kind of miracle, they will remain his slaves for time and eternity. But wait, that miracle is available. There is one wonderful way in which the killing, cause and effect equation in life can be broken. The Bible puts it in a most interesting way when it reminds us that the wages of sin is death. The fearful final consequence of the lives that you and I have lived is death and eternal judgment. Because we have sinned, there is no possibility from any human direction that we can find a way to avoid the consequences of our sins. But here is where the miracle comes in. Jesus Christ came into this world for the express purpose of dying for our sins on the cross in order that you and I by faith in Him might have everlasting life. On the cross, He in fact bore the wages of your sins in mind and there He died bearing in His own body the agony and shame that was unquestionably deserved by you and me. That's why the next verse, Romans 3, 24, is able to say that we are justified freely by His grace. Justified means that we are declared righteous and made perfect sinless in the eyes of a holy God. When we receive Christ as personal Savior, in the eyes of God we are made just as though we had never lied, never cheated, never sinned in any way. Because we are justified by faith in Jesus Christ, God is able to give us the greatest gift of all. The gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord. So you see, the wonderful thing about being a Christian is that Jesus Christ has borne in His body the consequences of our sins and we take as a free gift the consequence of His sacrificial death for us. He dies, we receive eternal life because we believe in Him. God by grace trades the consequences, yours for His. So look, make this the day in which you receive Christ as your Savior and become a real Christian. I promise you Dave says that nothing else will ever work in life until you have been forgiven of sin by faith in Jesus Christ. Every Christian has become a new creature because the Lord Jesus has to live within, for Him, for Her, for You. Life will never be the same again. When you know Christ, begin to live a life which is a grateful response to His wonderful grace. You have been delivered from the fearful consequences of sin, death, and hell and are now given the opportunity to walk as children of light. You need never allow the devil to trick you again, but you can walk a light from heaven illuminating the pathway which is before you. Stay on that pathway, live for Christ every day, and let your life continue to prove the proposition that Jesus Christ and His salvation is greater than the terrible power of Satan which used to control your life. This marvelous program of knowing Christ and living for Him can begin today for you. Admit you sin, believe on Christ, tell other people you are a believer. Write to us our call us and we'll send you information to help you grow in Christ better yet. Come to triple T tonight, 727, four miles north of the airport, four miles south of Interstate 64 on Highway 41. Know that as you pray and confess with your mouth, the Lord Jesus, wonderful things happen. Christ through you can change the world. [MUSIC] Every Saturday at 727 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 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]