| Time | Text |
|---|---|
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Divine Appointment Risked
00:04:18
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|
| You could have been killed that day. | |
| Right. | |
| But you believe they usually killed the people in that ghetto where they took you. | |
| But they didn't kill you for some reason. | |
| Tell me why and what's about this divine appointment. | |
| Well, Jim, I was at Cleveland State University and what happened was, folks, I shouldn't have done this. | |
| I should have known better, but my car had been in the shop and I needed to get to, I was a baby Christian. | |
| I was just a couple months old. | |
| And I hitched hike. | |
| I should never have done this in downtown Cleveland. | |
| I was going to a Christian retreat with some young man and a Christian leader. | |
| And I hitchhiked. | |
| I got in the car and these guys were taking me down what's called Euclid Avenue. | |
| And all of a sudden they veered off, pulled into an alleyway. | |
| And the next thing I know, picture if this was you. | |
| I'm 20 or 21 years of age. | |
| And they turned and I had guns like this to my head. | |
| And all I could do, and this is the power in the name of Jesus. | |
| I mean, I did something foolish. | |
| I should never have gotten in that car and done that hitchhiking. | |
| But I just put up my hands and all I could say was, please, in the name of Jesus, please, in the name of Jesus, let me go. | |
| Please, let me. | |
| Well, they built me for what I had, and then they told me, get out, and I started to walk in that alley. | |
| And today, I mean, that was years ago, one bullet, I would have been gone. | |
| But afterwards, there was this sense that God spared me. | |
| And many of us are in that place. | |
| You're listening today, and you say, oh, I had a brush with death. | |
| Boy, that one time, and I remember that near accident and whatever it is. | |
| God's hand is on you, and providentially, he protects us. | |
| That doesn't mean we act foolish and presume on God, but it's because there's a divine appointment. | |
| God's appointed us for tasks. | |
| That's what it says in Ephesians. | |
| We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus under the good works, that we walk in them. | |
| And so every day we have opportunities. | |
| And as you shared at the roundtable, when you said, let's bring back the king by evangelism and sharing the gospel, and God ordains opportunities every single day. | |
| And I can tell you, this is fun, and I love it because people say, well, pull out something from the past. | |
| No, I'll pull it out from the past week. | |
| I pulled up at a light, and all of a sudden I saw cars were peeling off because they were doing some paving. | |
| And so one by one, and I felt just stay. | |
| I felt the Lord just say, stay. | |
| And I moved right to the front. | |
| And this lady that was a construction worker, Leslie, comes up. | |
| And you say, was this coincidence? | |
| No, it was Providence. | |
| She stood next to me and for 15 minutes just waited and I waited. | |
| Well, we talked. | |
| We bantered back and forth. | |
| And I'm telling the honest truth. | |
| Near the end, she said, where are you going? | |
| I said, a Christian luncheon, the meltdown luncheon here in Nashville. | |
| And get this. | |
| I looked at her and I said, Leslie, let me ask you something. | |
| You know what? | |
| If you were to die tonight, do you know where you'd spend eternity? | |
| And she said, no. | |
| And then all I did is in the matter, in the most gentle, loving way, I shared the gospel. | |
| Jesus was punished. | |
| We're pardoned if we put our faith in him. | |
| And I laid it out and I said, have you ever heard this? | |
| She said, no. | |
| I prayed with that woman right there on that Nashville street. | |
| She repented. | |
| She put her trust in Jesus Christ alone as her Lord and Savior. | |
| When I was done, I shook that lady's hand. | |
| I gave her a little testimony track, which I love to do to confirm this. | |
| And I drove on. | |
| I thought, that was a divine appointment. | |
| And honestly, if you don't stop at times, many opportunities for sharing Christ come disguised as unwelcome interruptions. | |
| And I say this because I hear pastors all the time. | |
| They say, well, I've got an evangelist in our church. | |
| He does the evangelism. | |
| And we got an evangelism team. | |
| And man, I'm a man on a mission. | |
| When I go to Costco or Walmart, man, I go in there and I look for the shortest line and I don't mess around with small talk. | |
| Well, okay, maybe, but maybe you miss divine appointments if you would interact and engage and take an interest in people. | |
| So Jim, as you're inspired by this, I want to inspire America. | |
| Please check out these videos, Loving Lifestyle Evangelism. | |
| Check this book out. | |
| And let's see an army raised up. | |
| Billy Graham is gone. | |
| And Ann said we can't ask Billy Graham to do the evangelism anymore. | |
| We're all called to be involved in evangelism and sharing our faith. | |
| Amen. | |
| Amen. | |
| This is the harvest time. | |
| Harvest. | |
| This is it. | |