Telling The TRUTH
100111 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." Genesis 18, 9, New King James Version lets us in on some special things that God was doing. Listen, then they said to him, "Where is Sarah your wife?" And he said, "Here in the tent." Abraham was approached by angels, and they had a message, and Abraham allowed them to know where Sarah was. Where are you? Are you hiding from God? Are you willing and ready to be placed in his hands? Are you willing to give yourself to him to be made usable and then used by him to impact your world? I hope you are, because if you are, there are four things you can do. Number one, you can pray. You can ask God for the guidance that only he is capable of giving to you. Secondly, you can read God's word. Thirdly, you can fellowship with other believers in Christ, and then, fourthly, together, you can then go with the gospel to people who need the Lord. God can make you usable, and he can use you to reach out to those who need to know Christ personally. Do you know him? If you do, are you sharing your faith with those who don't? If not, you can. You can start now, will you? Listen to a fascinating story. Genesis 1810, New King James Version. And he, that is God, and he said, "I will certainly return to you according to the time of life, and behold, Sarah your wife shall have a son." And Sarah was listening in the tent door, which was behind him, eavesdropping, just being at the right place at the right time. Sometimes we learn things that are shocking, disconcerting, and certainly, as we will soon see, this was the case with Sarah. What about you? If God tells you something from his word, are you going to respond negatively or positively? Are you going to do what God says to do the way he says to do it? Are you willing to pray consistently? Are you willing to pray with others who know the Lord? Are you willing to look into God's word and to find out what his plan is for you? And then, are you willing to take the gospel to people who need the Lord? Someone you know needs Jesus. Do you know him? If you have been born again, if you are a child of God, if you have believed on the Lord Jesus, then tell someone. Tell them today. God had just told Abraham that Sarah was going to have a baby. Listen to Genesis 1811, New King James Version. Understand why this was a puzzling thing for Abraham to try to comprehend. Now Abraham and Sarah were old, well advanced in age, and Sarah had passed the age of childbearing. There you have the scenario, but is anything too hard for God? What about in your life? What about your circumstance? Are you listening to what the Lord would have you to do? Are you willing to work for his glory? Are you willing to do the thing that will accomplish magnificent results by listening to the Lord, by doing what he says to do when and how he says to do it? Pray with others and then go with the gospel. It becomes your personal responsibility and your ultimate privilege to serve the Lord. But he is not going to force it. It is up to you to listen and then to do what would please the Lord. The question is anything too hard for God is one that you need to answer personally. Where are you today? Where does God want you to be? Only you can determine the answer to that question. Sarah was in the tent listening when God told Abraham that she was going to give birth to a child. Listen to her reaction in Genesis 1812, New King James. Therefore Sarah laughed within herself saying, "After I have grown old, shall I have pleasure, "my Lord being old also?" Trying to comprehend, trying to figure it all out for herself was not the best thing for Sarah to do, and she laughed. Never laugh at God. Never say, "Oh God, you could never do this for me. "You could never do this for me." Because God can do anything he wants to do under any circumstance that he wants to rearrange. Let him help you be all you can be to bring honor and glory to him. Read his word consistently. Pray all the time asking God for guidance and direction. Then pray together with other believers in moments of fellowship and determination to be the communicators of the Christian message to those who don't know the Lord, but who could, if you would go to tell them. Will you? It becomes your privilege and your honor. Only you can decide whether or not you're going to do what God would have you to do to be a Christian communicator. Will you? God is omniscient. He knows everything. Listen to Genesis 1813, New King James Version. And the Lord said to Abraham, why did Sarah laugh saying, "Shall I surely bear a child since I am old?" Of course God heard the laughter. God knew the doubt and God is coming back to Abraham one more time giving him the assurance that what he has already told him will come to pass. What God says he will do, he will do. Do you believe that? Do you understand that? God has a plan for you that you can accomplish for his glory if you will get your heart totally in tune with him. Are you willing to pray every day? Asking God what he would have you to do? Are you willing to search the scriptures? To learn from the word of God, his plan for you? Are you willing to fellowship with other believers? And together, are you willing to work out the strategy to accomplish God's purpose? God is not willing to any should perish, but that all should come through repentance. You first, your friends, your family, your world. What are you doing about it? Someone is waiting. You have the truth. Tell it. God is about to ask Abraham a specific question and give him a definite assurance. Listen to Genesis 1814, New King James Version. Is anything too hard for the Lord? At the appointed time, I will return to you according to the time of life and Sarah shall have a son. There you have it. Question, is anything too hard for the Lord? What is your answer to that question? And then God's answer, his assurance to Abraham, at the appointed time, I will return to you according to the time of life and Sarah shall have a son. Not maybe, but positively shall. God has a plan for you too. It may not be this kind of a plan, but it is a plan nonetheless. There are people who can be born again if you will take the gospel to them personally. It becomes your opportunity in your decision. Will you pray about the people you know who don't know the Lord? Will you pray with other believers? And will you together go with the gospel? Will you read and heed the word of God? Jesus said go, go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. Will you? Lying is never the right thing to do. Listen to the predicament that Sarah found herself facing. Genesis 18, 15, New King James. But Sarah denied it saying I did not laugh, for she was afraid and he said no, but you did laugh. The he was God. The laugh happened because God told Abraham that Sarah was going to have a baby and Sarah was sitting in the tent listening. Never defy God. Never laugh at what God can miraculously accomplish. God wants to do something very special for you. Don't laugh. Don't even hesitate to endeavor to know and do the will of God. People are perishing. Someone has got to tell them the truth. That someone can and should be you. If you are a believer, then share your faith. Pray, read God's word. Have fellowship with other believers and then go to those people who desperately need the Lord. Who will you tell today? Someone you care about needs to know the truth. What will you do about it? What will you do with Jesus who is called the Christ? Sharing. 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 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 PLAYING] Pray without ceasing. Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing in everything, give thanks. For this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. 1 Thessalonians 5, 16, 17 New King James. Ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find. Knock and it will be open to you. For everyone who asks receives and who seeks finds. And to him who knocks it will be opened. Matthew 7, 7, 8, New King James. Flashback, 1931, 1940. God has ordained a divine destiny for every believer. To discover your destiny and for me to discover my destiny begins with prayer, reading and heeding God's word and listening to wise counsel from committed Christians and fellowshiping with other believers. So it's getting to know Dave Breeze and helping him publish his book Discover Your Destiny when I assisted Gerald McCracken lunch word books in 1965. I have had an increased appreciation of God's divine design. He providentially connects his chosen Christian communicators with each other. In March 1931, Bob Jones Sr. launched the Young People's Fellowship Club at Bob Jones College in Florida. Clifford Lewis, a member of the very first graduation class, 1931, was named President. He and other B.J. grads and students began Young People's Fellowship Clubs everywhere they went. And almost simultaneously, in 1931, but unknown to each other, Wheaton College grad Percy B. Crawford began the Young People's Church of the Air in Philadelphia. In July 1933, a doctor's wife took her adopted daughter, Marge Smith, to Pine Brook Bible Conference, founded by Percy Crawford in the Pocono Mountains. Marge accepted Christ and told her dance band director boyfriend, Jack Wertzen. He let her know he was already a Christian, but was not ready to give up his dance band. Jack went with Marge to a Pine Brook reunion in October, but it was December 4, 1933, when he left the band and surrendered everything to the Lord. And in 1933, Ford Porter left the pastorate of the first Baptist Church of Princeton, Indiana, just 12 miles from my hometown. But before he moved to the Indianapolis area, Pastor Porter wanted to make sure everyone in Princeton could know how to become a believer in Jesus Christ. So he wrote a scripture-saturated tract, God's simple plan of salvation. At that time, there were 1,800 homes in Princeton, so he had 2,000 copies printed. He told the printer, who was insisting that he should have more, 2,000 is all I will ever need. He enclosed some of the 200 left over with his correspondence and requests for more of the tracts came in, so he had more printed and more and more. By the year 2,496 million had been printed in 109 languages, over 13,000 churches, ordered imprinted copies. And all during the 1930s, ministries to young people accelerated. Bob Jones Sr. and Percy Crawford effectively used radio. They not only presented the gospel, but they promoted causes. Bob Jones, his college and the Young People's Fellowship Clubs. Percy Crawford, his Pine Brook Bible Conference in the Poconos of Pennsylvania over the Young People's Church of the Air. Every nomination on youth rallies began in a number of places. The Young People's Fellowship Club pledged to sponsor at least one youth revival every year. In 1934, William Franklin Graham Jr. responded to the invitation at the Mordhahiah Cam meeting in Charlotte. At those meetings, he met the Wilson brothers, Grady and T.W. The boys got to know Jimmy Johnson, a young Bob Jones graduate. Jimmy stated the Graham home while conducting evangelistic services in a Methodist church. He started the Young People's Fellowship Club for a year and a half after their conversion. Grady, T.W. and Billy were almost always there. By Thanksgiving 1935, the Young People's Fellowship Club had become the fastest growing Christian youth movement in the world. Many of America's outstanding Christian leaders were helping. In addition to Bob Jones Sr. founder and president of Bob Jones College, they included Dr. J. Oliver Boswell Jr. President Wheaton College, Wheaton, Illinois. Will H. Houghton, President Moody Bible Institute Chicago. Harry Savage, Pastor and Howard Skinner, Director of Music and Young People's Work, First Baptist Church, Pontiac, Michigan. Dr. Walter L. Wilson, Radio Preacher and Bible Teacher, Kansas City, Missouri. Melanie Trotter, Superintendent, City Mission, Grand Rapids, Michigan. And Willis G. Haymaker, National Secretary, Business Men's Evangelistic Clubs, Lenore, North Carolina. Two of the objectives for the 1935 Young People's Fellowship Club's convention were to sponsor as a club at least one Young People's Revival a year in your community to organize at least one more club within the next 90 days. Clifford Lewis wrote a book titled Youth on the March, detailing the Young People's Fellowship Club Movement. About the same time, my dad got a job at Oakley Grocery Store at Fourth and Market in Mount Carmel, Illinois. He was soon made manager. He would often take me next door to jazz site store, and they would set me on top of a stack of bolts of cloth. Mr. Sites and my dad were friends, and Mr. Sites took a liken to me. Mr. Oakley liked the promotional posters that dad made for the store, and invited dad to move to Terahote and produce advertising for all of the Oakley stores. Dad did everything from lettering the semi-trailers to designing a bread wrapper. During the time we lived in Terahote, we attended the Terahote Bible Center. We moved back to Mount Carmel, and my parents purchased their first home at 519 Ash Street just before my fifth birthday. Personal note, in November 1938, my home church, 2nd Street Baptist Mount Carmel, had evangelistic meetings with the Harwood Jones Draw Evangelistic Party. Songleader Jesse Jones used Percy Crawford's new Pine Brook songs, copyright 1936. The inside cover said, "The time of your life awaits you at Pine Brook." The back cover carried the initial announcement about the new King's College that Crawford was founding in the fall of 1938. It was about this time that I personally began to be convicted by the Holy Spirit about my relationship with the Lord. When asked from the pulpit to raise our hands if we needed prayer, I would put my coat on and hope that the preacher would see my hand raised, but that no one else would notice. I was seven years old and stayed under conviction until February 1940. On the last Sunday evening of meetings with evangelist Paul Levine and blind singer Bob Finley, I responded to the invitation to accept Christ personally. Paul and Bob had been at our home for the evening meal before church. Bob asked me to read John chapter three to him and he gave me a Braille-like card with John 3 16 on it. It was February 1940 and I was eight years old. That night, my parents prayed with me and explained that I no longer needed to say the children's prayer, now I lay me down to sleep. As a Christian, I could talk with the Lord about anything. One of the privileges of being saved, they explained, is prayer. So that evening I began my prayer life and it has continued every day for more than seven decades. While living on A Street, my mother wisely insisted I first listened to the Evansville Rescue Mission broadcast over WGBF before I could hear Tom Mix, Jack Armstrong kept in midnight, tearing the pirates, the Laar Finani, the Lone Ranger and others. I got exposed to some marvelous Christian preaching by very well-known speakers from the Rescue Mission. Finishing third day at Berry School, I was enjoying the summer with my friend Ivan Peterson and others in the neighborhood. In August, the Blackburns were visiting from Virginia and preached to my dad about the many job opportunities there. They urged Dad to ride back with him and find work. He did, and soon my mother and I moved in with her parents and I enrolled in Longfellow School. Our house was rented to provide income. By October, Dad arranged for my mother and me to go by train and join him in Virginia. My world changed drastically. Dad got a job pile driving to expand the Newport News Shipyard. Our first weekend there, the Blackburns took us to watch the launch of the huge USS Hornet Aircraft Carrier. And that weekend, I learned that Army versus Navy, really meant a football game between West Point and Annapolis. Riverside Baptist Church at Hampton Roads where preach Blackburn was pastor, had invited the Rollins Evangelistic Party for meetings. Each afternoon, following my fourth grade classes at George West School, I attended kids' meetings at the church. He advanced as Rollins was urging all of us to buy a Scofield Bible. Getting my parents permission to use the money, I was saving for a bicycle. I bought my first Bible. The next day, one of the kids knocked my new Bible out of my hand and it fell on some rocks, damaging it. I cried. Because I was from Illinois and Yankee, several rebel kids attacked me every day at recess. As soon as school was dismissed, I would start running as fast as I could toward preach Blackburn's house and up the stairs to his study. I learned to watch and pray and sometimes I would outrun the boys chasing me. Sometimes they were faster. Reluctantly, I learned self-defense, but I was miserable. Stay tuned for more of the story. While living on Virginia's East Coast, my dad took me to see Fort Monroe or Langley Field on Saturdays. Airplanes from Langley were constantly flying. War clouds were gathering and the Hampton-Newpert News Norfolk area was filled with soldiers and sailors. One Saturday, my parents and I boarded a big ferry boat and went over to Norfolk. I had never imagined there could be so many sailors. For Christmas 1940, I was given a large metal replica of United Airlines DC-4. We celebrated Christmas with the Blackburns and I was very homesick for my Mount Carmel friends. The basketball that arrived from my grandparents was very welcome. A frail little boy about a year younger than me lived in the apartment below us. We played together with my new ball. What I was praying for most at Christmas time was for my parents to move back to Mount Carmel. We did move back less than two months after Christmas. Next week, we'll share, see God's will, the imperative for every believer. For three and a half decades of my life, God was preparing me to come and found and direct triple T Christian youth ministries. It's been a great time since we've been here for 45 and a half years. Every Saturday night, there's been a happening without exception. Always one, two, ten, thirty, a hundred, two hundred, three hundred, thousands have gathered. But always one or more. Every Saturday night. Few years ago, we formed what we called "Tiger Team." Tiger means teens involved, going, evangelizing regularly. Now, at least once a month, we have peer evangelism training. Young people are taught the plan of salvation. They learn Romans 3, 23. Romans 6, 23. John 3, 16. Romans 10, 9, and 10. And our consistent happening is Project Proclaim. Project Proclaim is a really great way to get the gospel to people. It's saturation evangelism, one-on-one sharing Bible distribution, evangelistic youth efforts and public relations outreach, internet, billboards, radio, and sometimes TV and newspaper. All of this is to put together a Tiger Team impact evangelistic youth effort at our near public high schools, county by county everywhere God opens doors of opportunity. And then we have the traveling tigers. These are committed Christian youth who are willing to share their faith in Christ and go on the road. In the summertime, we call it fair share. With fair share, we pitch triple T tents at county fairs and street festivals and students offer a free cup of cold water in Jesus' name. Using a survey about teenagers, they present the gospel one-on-one. It takes a team to do all of this. Many adults assist with special projects and events. College students, high school students, and middle school students help the triple T Saturday nights happen. The Tiger Team impact events, leading youth training and other activities, are directed by adults, but implemented by teenagers. Triple T's executive board, John Dunn Chairman, Ora Johnson Vice Chairman, Frank Schulteis Treasurer, myself as President and Secretary, Tamili Dume's Vice President, invite Christian adults willing to invest time, talent, and treasure to join them as Tiger teammates. You can be a teammate by just giving $20. That provides a scholarship for one of the world's greatest teenagers to attend a 3G Day, God's Global Go, training in peer evangelism. And then you can be a Tiger teammate in larger by giving $20 or more monthly to help us reach out to more and more youth with the gospel. And you can be a Tiger teammate expander by giving $100 or more monthly. We need more of those so that we can reach out to all 93 counties with 100 miles of where we are. You can help the vision become reality. Every youth to have the opportunity to hear the gospel with an invitation to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ before turning 20. Will you pray and then send whatever God leads you to to help us keep going with God's glorious gospel? 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 1st through 5th 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 812-8672418 812-8672418 or write Triple T, 13,000 US 41 North, Evansville, Indiana 47725. Tune in to Telling the Truth next week at the same time on this same station. [Music]