Jim Bakker Show - Identifying Divine Appointments - Larry Tomczak on The Jim Bakker Show
Aired: 2018-05-02
Duration: 04:19


=== Divine Appointment Risked (04:18) ===

[00:00:00]  You could have been killed that day.
[00:00:03]  Right.
[00:00:03]  But you believe they usually killed the people in that ghetto where they took you.
[00:00:09]  But they didn't kill you for some reason.
[00:00:11]  Tell me why and what's about this divine appointment.
[00:00:17]  Well, Jim, I was at Cleveland State University and what happened was, folks, I shouldn't have done this.
[00:00:23]  I should have known better, but my car had been in the shop and I needed to get to, I was a baby Christian.
[00:00:29]  I was just a couple months old.
[00:00:30]  And I hitched hike.
[00:00:31]  I should never have done this in downtown Cleveland.
[00:00:33]  I was going to a Christian retreat with some young man and a Christian leader.
[00:00:38]  And I hitchhiked.
[00:00:39]  I got in the car and these guys were taking me down what's called Euclid Avenue.
[00:00:42]  And all of a sudden they veered off, pulled into an alleyway.
[00:00:46]  And the next thing I know, picture if this was you.
[00:00:48]  I'm 20 or 21 years of age.
[00:00:50]  And they turned and I had guns like this to my head.
[00:00:54]  And all I could do, and this is the power in the name of Jesus.
[00:00:57]  I mean, I did something foolish.
[00:00:58]  I should never have gotten in that car and done that hitchhiking.
[00:01:01]  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.
[00:01:07]  Please, let me.
[00:01:08]  Well, they built me for what I had, and then they told me, get out, and I started to walk in that alley.
[00:01:13]  And today, I mean, that was years ago, one bullet, I would have been gone.
[00:01:18]  But afterwards, there was this sense that God spared me.
[00:01:22]  And many of us are in that place.
[00:01:24]  You're listening today, and you say, oh, I had a brush with death.
[00:01:26]  Boy, that one time, and I remember that near accident and whatever it is.
[00:01:30]  God's hand is on you, and providentially, he protects us.
[00:01:33]  That doesn't mean we act foolish and presume on God, but it's because there's a divine appointment.
[00:01:39]  God's appointed us for tasks.
[00:01:41]  That's what it says in Ephesians.
[00:01:42]  We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus under the good works, that we walk in them.
[00:01:49]  And so every day we have opportunities.
[00:01:53]  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.
[00:02:03]  And I can tell you, this is fun, and I love it because people say, well, pull out something from the past.
[00:02:07]  No, I'll pull it out from the past week.
[00:02:10]  I pulled up at a light, and all of a sudden I saw cars were peeling off because they were doing some paving.
[00:02:16]  And so one by one, and I felt just stay.
[00:02:18]  I felt the Lord just say, stay.
[00:02:19]  And I moved right to the front.
[00:02:21]  And this lady that was a construction worker, Leslie, comes up.
[00:02:24]  And you say, was this coincidence?
[00:02:26]  No, it was Providence.
[00:02:27]  She stood next to me and for 15 minutes just waited and I waited.
[00:02:32]  Well, we talked.
[00:02:33]  We bantered back and forth.
[00:02:34]  And I'm telling the honest truth.
[00:02:36]  Near the end, she said, where are you going?
[00:02:37]  I said, a Christian luncheon, the meltdown luncheon here in Nashville.
[00:02:41]  And get this.
[00:02:42]  I looked at her and I said, Leslie, let me ask you something.
[00:02:45]  You know what?
[00:02:47]  If you were to die tonight, do you know where you'd spend eternity?
[00:02:50]  And she said, no.
[00:02:53]  And then all I did is in the matter, in the most gentle, loving way, I shared the gospel.
[00:02:58]  Jesus was punished.
[00:02:59]  We're pardoned if we put our faith in him.
[00:03:01]  And I laid it out and I said, have you ever heard this?
[00:03:03]  She said, no.
[00:03:06]  I prayed with that woman right there on that Nashville street.
[00:03:10]  She repented.
[00:03:10]  She put her trust in Jesus Christ alone as her Lord and Savior.
[00:03:14]  When I was done, I shook that lady's hand.
[00:03:16]  I gave her a little testimony track, which I love to do to confirm this.
[00:03:20]  And I drove on.
[00:03:22]  I thought, that was a divine appointment.
[00:03:24]  And honestly, if you don't stop at times, many opportunities for sharing Christ come disguised as unwelcome interruptions.
[00:03:34]  And I say this because I hear pastors all the time.
[00:03:36]  They say, well, I've got an evangelist in our church.
[00:03:38]  He does the evangelism.
[00:03:39]  And we got an evangelism team.
[00:03:40]  And man, I'm a man on a mission.
[00:03:42]  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.
[00:03:48]  Well, okay, maybe, but maybe you miss divine appointments if you would interact and engage and take an interest in people.
[00:03:55]  So Jim, as you're inspired by this, I want to inspire America.
[00:03:59]  Please check out these videos, Loving Lifestyle Evangelism.
[00:04:03]  Check this book out.
[00:04:04]  And let's see an army raised up.
[00:04:06]  Billy Graham is gone.
[00:04:07]  And Ann said we can't ask Billy Graham to do the evangelism anymore.
[00:04:10]  We're all called to be involved in evangelism and sharing our faith.
[00:04:14]  Amen.
[00:04:15]  Amen.
[00:04:16]  This is the harvest time.
[00:04:18]  Harvest.
[00:04:18]  This is it.