Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. This is Dale Jackson welcoming you to the Lamp and Light Broadcast, coming to you from the studios of Central Baptist Church in beautiful Ocala, Florida. Lamp and Light is a ministry. It takes a book of the Bible, verse by verse, teaching it as it is to men as they are, without compromise or apology. Speaking the truth in love is our purpose and to give the lamp and light to all. Now, here is our teacher and pastor, Dr. Andy Bloom. Yesterday, I was answering a series of five questions from a young pastor in his first ministry. Well, you ought to listen today and just hear how we try to help a young preacher. I love young preachers, and this is one that we're trying to help out here in answering his questions. Okay, question number two that this young preacher sent. What is the number one thing you have learned in your life that helped you share Christ more? Well, first, spending time in the word and prayer, seeking both the knowledge of God, all the more I could as concern his person, to know him as a person. as I want to know what to do that pleases Him. And when we get there, when we get to that point, God will burden your heart for soul. It is never to make it about myself, rather it is to make it about the Lord Jesus Christ and my personal relationship with Him. Rather than a conviction from guilt of failing to witness, it is more a conviction of love that I have not pleased my Lord, while at the same time I have shown a lack of love and care for a soul. I can remember being in a hurry and having an opportunity to at least give a track, but I was in such a hurry I found as I was driving down the road, five minutes later, that I was smitten in my heart by the Lord for missing that soul. I was in a hurry for something in the church. Yet it became more about the duty than it did about the Lord and His will. That refocused, then, everything on me, not the Lord. And that's wrong. if each Christian will focus on getting to know our holy God in a personal intimate way to the point that his voice is as familiar in your heart or even more familiar than the voice of your spouse is to your ear or your child's voice is to your ear. You remember in Hebrews 7, 26, for such and high priest became us who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heaven. Now, holy, harmless, undefiled, separation, It's the opposite of those things that keep him from answering our prayer. You see, the arm of flesh is not our strength. And so, if I'm going to know him more intimately, I need to know more about his holiness, his harmless spirit. his undefiled way, his separateness from sinner. I think of John chapter 15, verses 13 through 15. Greater love hath no man than this, and a man lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do whatsoever I have commanded you. Henceforth I will call you not servant, for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth, but I have called you friend. For all things that I have heard of my father, I have made known unto you." Go forth and witness, talking to God, knowing that you are talking to your friend, your best friend. As a father, allow him to guide your witness as well. In time, build a list of names of people for whom you prayed daily. that you believe are unsafe. In time, as a friend, it will be more important to hear what God says and what His reaction is, rather than how they responded to you. In John 16, 33, he says, These things have I spoken unto you, that in me you might have peace. Now, friend, our peace is not in success as men view religious success and as preachers thinking, well, my church did not grow by 50 people this year, then I'm not a success and they don't have peace. No, God made some to be Catholics of 20s and some of 50s and some of 100s. And so you do the best you can no matter where you're a Catholic. He said, in the world you shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I've overcome the world. So you do God's will, God's way. In Matthew 5, 10 through 12, he says, blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake. for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you." Others were before you. Think about it. Paul, Peter, these guys have been dead for nearly two thousand years. Would you like to have been in their position for the last 2,000 years? Or the Christian that may have lived back then but was saved so as by fire? Nothing to show. You prefer him for the last 2,000 years or those guys that really paid the price, served the Lord? I believe for this country to have revival, we're gonna have to have people that would pay the price like that early church did. I really do. And pastor, it starts with us. You know, these passages I just read are passages in which you can rejoice if Jesus Christ and the knowledge of him is foremost, first, most important to you. Your focus is on Him, and therefore, attacks of the unsaved, attacks by fellow church members, they simply won't matter as much if God is pleased. And so, in answer to the question, that this young preacher asked me, what's the number one thing you've learned in your life that has helped you to share Christ more? It's me getting to know Christ more. The more I get to know him, the more I can share. And that requires time in the word and prayer every day, every day, every day, every day. Okay, his third question was, of this young preacher, finish the sentence. I believe I would share Christ more If. And my answer's pretty simple. If I scheduled myself to do so. If we fail to schedule, we schedule to fail. Study the Word each day, and then look for someone to share that special thing you gathered from the Word. Sometimes it'll make great witness to a lost soul, other times it'll edify a Christian. It may open the door to witness to a lost person as they are no longer on defense as you speak of things as the return of Jesus Christ, the tribulation, the millennium. His holiness is something that may also interest them. One may witness to a lady, and they're completely different. As a matter of fact, I do know a preacher witnessed to a lady on an airplane that was a Muslim. But she wasn't really dressed as one on the airplane as we see Muslim ladies dress. But she listened to his presentation, and then when finished, she said one thing. that to her keeps her from respecting or accepting Christianity. You know what that one thing was? That is, there's no repentance. There's obviously no sin. They won't identify anything as sin. Now, some have gotten upset with our president because he won't say, radical Muslim terrorist. radical islamic terrorism and he won't use that terminology well think about it how have you ever gotten mad when preachers called things in your life from the bible sin oh that's not it yeah yeah it is it's because our flesh desires to continue Boy, if I mention social drinking, I mention the movies, I mention, you know, that sometimes, now there are even churches, even some call themselves fundamental, that are saying, well, it's not wrong to social drink. Some are even giving away free movie tickets if people come to church. And that's what that Muslim lady was talking about. There's no repentance in this modern day Christianity that she should want. Someone sent me an email recently that showed me a picture with two halves. The one half was of a club having a rock concert. On the other side was a picture of a church service. The lights, the smoke, and everything else going on. Without the titles at the top, I wouldn't have known which one was the club and which one was the church. A good friend of mine who worked out at a gym started to witness to a young lady who got very angry and then asked, by the way, why are your churches imitating the music and lifestyle of the clubs I go to? That's not Christian. Hmm, somebody that's not a Christian could at least say, what are you trying to give me when you're doing the same things that I do? I witnessed to a man in our community that went to a church that is very probably the most contemporary and most popular in our area. And he said this to me, I felt like I was at a coffee and donut shop. Dress casually with no respect for God. This is your radio pastor, Pastor Andy Bloom saying, May the Word of God be a lamp unto your feet and a light unto your pathway today. We want to thank you for listening to the Lamp and Light broadcast. If you would like a CD copy of today's message by Dr. Bloom, send us your name and mailing address and include the radio station by which you are listening and the date of the broadcast. We would appreciate a gift of $5 to Lamp and Light Broadcast, 1714 Southeast 36th Avenue, Ocala, Florida 34471. You may also visit us by our website and freely download the sermons by clicking on the sermon library. That site is www.centralbaptistocala.org. Again, the address of Lamp and Light Broadcast is 1714 Southeast 36th Avenue, OCALA, FL 34471 And our website is www.centralbaptistlocale.org This is your announcer Dale Jackson saying, May God's peace be with all who are in Christ Jesus. I will plant my feet on its firm foundation, for the Bible stands. I will plant my feet on its firm foundation, for the Bible stands, firmly stands.