Barry Meguiar 00:03
Hi everybody. Welcome back to Ignite America, this podcast, a dealing, interviewing, spending time with one of my most favorite pastors in the world from a church that I can almost say has impacted my life as much as any church in the world, that being Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church, and the pastor, D James Kennedy, being the great man that he was in the creator of evangelism explosion, and we were early signers up back in the 70s when we listened to this, this great man of God, every Sunday morning before we went to church, we were preached up. Well, good, very well, because of Dr James Kennedy before we went to church, and we’ve been ignited in sharing our faith ever since. But this great pastor now. And if you didn’t catch the earlier, you need to go back to our earlier podcast where he talked about the background. We can’t take time to repeat it now, but it’s a great it gives the miracle story of Pastor Rob’s life. It’s just, it is just amazing. Off camera, you were talking about sending 100. What, did you say a 100,000 kids? Tell me. Tell me. Tell us.
Speaker 2 01:19
Yeah. We’re Yeah. This, summer, we’re sending hundreds of students overseas, trained in evangelism explosion, to be able to go, from our church, that are going out, these are high school students, teenagers, and I think what’s so encouraging about these hundreds of students that are being sent out from our church, trained in evangelism explosion, we hear so much negativity about the next generation, but here’s an example of students that caught the fire, they caught the passion for sharing their faith. They’re being trained, and now they’re going to other nations in the world to train other pastors. So you have imagine that’s a 15 year old training a pastor on how to share the gospel and how to train others to share the gospel. I mean, they’re just some of the stories that this is not something that starts when we’re in our 20s and 30s. These are 14 year old, 15 year olds that are going and sharing the gospel. It’s so encouraging, and it’s what gives me hope for the next generation.
Barry Meguiar 02:17
Or a 14 year old like you were at Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church, and you walked in there, unsaved, without a Christian family, and heard the message. You know, I think the hope for America is our next generation, and we’re hearing they’re hungry for truth. They don’t know what truth is, necessarily. They’re hungry for it. When you help them understand God is the author of truth, and you can have purpose in your life. Actually have purpose in your life every day when you take his truth and you share it with the people next to you, we’re seeing the response from Gen Zers over the top, and we and our ministry team have talked about how we we say to the older audience, and at the end of talking to 1000 people, have 10 people come up out of the remnant, you know, and they’re all teary eyed, and they’re all in and the rest are just walked away. But when you talk to Gen Zers, they all stay. They’re not on their phones. They actually want to know who God is and how they can represent it. How can they have purpose in their life? So instead of thinking of Mark, you’re placing you and John are placing these kids hearts when they they go off in the field, and actually even mentoring pastors. God has a sense of humor.
Speaker 2 03:34
Absolutely, my 15 year old son will be one of them. I mean, he’s, he’s traveling across the world to go inspire other pastors. I mean, that’s, that’s what’s exciting about when you have a church that is on fire for Christ and sharing the gospel and equipping others, it’s the it’s, it is the it is our hope and it is the answer for the next generation. And it just doesn’t start with our high school students. We have, we have children as young as eight years old and nine that are going into our preschool ministry and our preschool across the street at our Christian day school, and they’re going out and they’re sharing the gospel with preschoolers. I mean, this is something that anyone I don’t care whether you’re five or whether you’re 95 if you belong to Jesus Christ, you are called to go and make disciples.
Barry Meguiar 04:19
And we are all called and, and one of the excuses we hear often, I’ve said this in the earlier podcast, where the excuse we hear often is, well, I’m not trained them taking the time to sit through a class of evangelism, explosion or any other. And so we at Ignite, we see ourselves as faith sharing for dummies. You don’t have to be trained. Folks, the scriptures don’t say go into the world all you who are trained. If you know Jesus Christ, it just comes out. You know, whatever you love you talk about, if you’re not talking about God, then he’s not your first love. I’m sorry, but it’s not a self test for you. I have to talk about how I love my wife. Man, I talk about my wife every day. The luckiest guy, I’m a lucky dog. I love my wife, and I tell her about everybody knows that, and I spend time with her. You know, if we love God, we’re going to spend time with him. We’re going to be in church on Sunday, and then the rest of we tell people about him. And you know, if you do that, it ignites your life. That’s the whole point of it. And so when you come to church on Sunday, boy, you’ll come in dragging in, hopefully the church can lift you up with worship prong and get you going again. And now you got to face another week. No, that’s not God’s plan. When you have these just individual conversations, unexpected conversations, several times a day, everyone you walk away, you’re ignited. I wrote a book on it ignites your life. It does when you do it ignites your life. And you’re in the word and you’re praying and you’re loving and everything’s all the works are flowing through you and you’re alive. I mean, this is what God intends for you. Unfortunately, most churches are not giving you this message. So we’re doing this podcast right with one of the champions, Pastor Rob at Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Is is it the leading, the charge for all of us. Thank you, Pastor Rob for doing that. So let me guess you this question. I know if you have some of the things you want to say, please jump in. But why are most pastors not giving the instruction? They may be saying, Go, but they’re not saying how, why? Where? Where’s the church gone wrong today? Because it has, in large cases.
Speaker 2 06:41
I think pastors are forgetting where the power comes from. The power doesn’t come from in flashing new programs or innovative techniques. The same gospel that turned the world upside down 2000 years ago is the same gospel that turns the world upside down today. This is where the power is. And so the god the gospel isn’t clear, and the implications of the gospel are not being made known for the congregation. If you, if you, as you just said, if you love Christ, you want to make Him known, if you’ve been transformed by the gospel, why would you not want to tell the whole world about it? And I think it really does begin with an exhortation and a calling from the pulpits, and here in America that this is the power. This is how we’re going to transform culture. And transform culture can only happen through transformed lives, and so we need to be calling our congregations. I shared this illustration with our congregation a couple months ago. I said, if I told you this morning that underneath your seat is the cure for cancer, you would take that cure, and you would not go out into the streets of Fort Lauderdale going, well, I just, I don’t want to offend anybody with the message. I don’t want to, I don’t want to inconvenience anyone. Or I don’t know if I have enough time for this. No, you would go running up and down the streets of Fort Lauderdale and beyond saying, I’ve got the cure. We need to remember that our world is suffering from something far greater than cancer. It’s called sin. But we have the cure. We have the ultimate answer for the greatest problem this world faces, and it’s the gospel of Jesus Christ, God’s given it to us. We do have the answer. So why should we not be the men and women of God that are running up and down the streets looking for every opportunity, not worrying about whether it’s going to offend somebody or not, not worrying it whether it’s going to turn somebody off or not. It’s the one message that has the power to transform them and to save their soul and to for them to be able to spend eternity with God in heaven. Why would we not want to tell everybody about this? It’s the greatest message the world’s ever heard.
Barry Meguiar 08:44
It is and it’s fun, folks. I mean, it’s not the sweaty palms and scratchy throat. Oh, I gotta tell you, if you love God, you don’t. Is the love of God.
Barry Meguiar 08:55
I mean, if you love your wife, you’re not having sweaty palms. Try to tell someone, I love my wife. Come on, we love God, and He gives he sent us his agents. It’s our respect. He works to the world through us. We would reconcile to God by Jesus Christ, and he’s given us, you and I, the ministry of reconciliation. Put that in our hands, and when we do it, our lives come alive. I mean, it’s just, it’s just nothing like it, and yet most of us are not doing it. Let’s talk about that for a moment. Why is it that most of us, most Christians, are not even thinking about sharing their faith every day they may be going, let’s talk specifically the ones are going to church. There’s probably 30, 35 million actually going to church three or more times a month, serious, but never, never, maybe on rare occasion, but certainly not intentionally, think about moving everybody every day closer to Jesus. Why is that not on their mind?
Speaker 2 09:56
I think we’re too apathetic and I think we’re too self consumed. We live in a self consumed culture that is even crept into the church, and so we go, it’s gonna it’s somebody else’s problem. It’s somebody else’s obligation. Somebody else will share the gospel. I don’t need to be that person, that is a self consumed. Thank, thank the Lord that my next door neighbor, when I was 14, didn’t say somebody else will invite them to church. Somebody else will get robbed into, into a gospel believing Bible, preaching church. Thank God that my neighbor said, You know what? If I don’t, maybe nobody else will. That’s the type of mentality we have to have. If I don’t share it, they might never hear the message of Jesus, Christ. And so I think if we don’t have a burden, we don’t have a fire, and we just assume somebody else is going to do it. And that is no way. One of the marks of that you are growing in a relationship with Jesus Christ is you want to tell everybody about him, that you don’t hide, you don’t hide behind anything, that you are coming out and and in a loving way, sharing about the greatest message that they could ever hear. That’s the type of burden and passion that we need to have.
Barry Meguiar 11:09
And the biggest part of it is you, folks, do you understand this, that God’s once you compelled you, challenged you, give you the Great Commission. He shouted from Genesis, Genesis to Revelation, proclaim the good news. He wants you to do this. Secondarily to win the lost. That might be a surprise to you, but secondary to win the lost. His primary focus is on you. That’s his focus on you. In Isaiah, 4310, he actually explained it. He says, you know why I want you to share your faith. He says, this is the saith the Lord, I appoint you as my witness so that you believe. If I was God, I’d say so that they believe. No, he knows that’s when you believe. Because when you’re out there and you’re sharing God’s Spirit, Holy Spirit, speaking through you give you words to say. That’s intimacy with God. You know you’re right where God wants you to be. How else can you know? I’m right here. God knows it. He put me here. He inspired this conversation, one of many this day, and he’s given me the words to say, and and the person in front of you is being changed, hallelujah. And you can have that conversation, those types of conversations every day. I mean, why would you miss out on this? It’s it’s.
Speaker 2 12:30
Not only developing a burden, but I don’t know if Christians understand the joy that comes from sharing your faith, from to see somebody convert, to see somebody put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ. I think of all the writings of the apostles in the New Testament, how many times do they say, I consider it a pure joy as I’m living out this mission, as I’m doing the work of an evangelist, when the apostle, writers like Paul, write to other churches that are growing and sharing their faith, he rejoices in what God is doing in their life. Why? Because when we live for Christ and we make Him known, it is the greatest joy for us when we get to see others doing it, when we get to do it ourselves, we only understood the joy and the encouragement that this brings us. I think we would never shy away. We would never refrain from telling others about the good news of Christ.
Barry Meguiar 13:25
May I add, particularly in the bad times, particularly in the bad times, the times when you’re tempted to say, where are you God? I just found out I got cancer. Where are you God? I thought you loved me. I just got a flat tire. I got an important appointment. Oh, thanks, God. Where were you when I needed you? I mean, it goes on and on and on. He’s right there.
Speaker 2 13:53
Well, at the end of the Great Commission, what does he say? He says, I will be with you to the very end of the age. Christ is with us. He does the work. We’re just the vessels. We’re the broken vessels that are just being asked to open our mouths. God gives us the words. God is present with us. He’s the one that actually does the converting. I mean that should give us all the confidence in the world. I just have to be obedient. I have to be humble. I have to just wait on the Lord, and He will provide everything I need in that moment, he’s with us till the very end. He’s the one that’s doing the saving. He’s the one that’s doing the converting. I just have to be obedient, humble and diligent in this calling of being an evangelist.
Barry Meguiar 14:34
When you bear fruit, the last parable Jesus gave that parable the fig tree in the garden. He says, When you bear fruit, ah, that’s when you’re my disciple. And then this great promise, I think it’s one of the greatest promises, because we’ve been talking about joy. He says, that’s when my joy remain with you and your joy will remain full. I mean, we’ve had that, Karen, I have had that since 1976 we got that message. Wow. But particularly folks, if I go back just for a moment, in the worst of times when things are going bad, God’s there. Romans 828, says all things, and he means that we all know in the scripture we don’t believe it, or it’s for somebody else. No, no, he’s saying to you right now, all things work together for good. When you do two things, you got to read the whole scripture. Folks, when you love me, it veers when he’s they asked the teacher, what’s the most important commandment? And he said, love me and love your neighbor as yourself. If you love your neighbor as yourself, you’re as concerned for their salvation as you are your own. And then you you straighten up your life, and you realize everything I’m doing I need to get, to do everything I can to get that person to heaven. So it’s not about legalism. It’s about pure joy of living, allowing God’s transformational love to flow through us and everything we do, even in our actions, particularly in the bad times when people are watching us, and they’re they’re expecting stress and pain, and they’re expecting foul words and and cursing and whatever, and you’re sitting there with joy, and you testify, no, God said it. He’s gonna, he’s gonna solve this problem. And that is so powerful. Don’t shake your fist when things are going wrong. If you, if you honor God, you realize that he’s at that moment, he’s going to give you people to talk to, you would not have reached any other way. And then when you’re speaking, you see their lives change. How many times have you and I walked away and said, Thank God I was responsive. What would have happened to that person if I didn’t respond in love of them, they would have been lost.
Speaker 2 16:42
Absolutely, and you’re you’re so so right when it comes to being able to exhibit joy, regardless of the circumstances, and only the Christian can have that hope. Only the Christian can have that joy, that even in the midst of tears, we can have hope. I remember when my wife and I, we lost our sweet Lillian, our three year old daughter, about eight years ago, and I remember our congregation. I remember my unsafe family members watching Jen and I walk through the greatest tragedy that a parent can experience, and not that there what were not immense tears, not as if there was not immense brokenness, but to see us respond with a spirit of joy and hope in the midst of the darkness was the greatest testimony we could have given our church, the greatest testimony we could have given our community, the greatest testimony we could have given our other two children. God used that tragedy to bring our other two children to know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. Because in that moment, all the theology, all the Bible knowledge, we all had to ask the question, is it all real? We were able to say, yes, it is real. It’s more than just a sermon. It’s more than just something that we talk about. It’s something that we believe to our core, that this joy that Christ has given us through His salvation is something that grounds us, not just in the good times, but it grounds us in our worst moments on our worst day. Only because of Christ and His work can we smile in the midst of the tears and have hope in the midst of tragedy.
Barry Meguiar 18:12
You and I have talked about this because we both lost a child. We lost a 49 year old daughter who’s a prolific face here, had lots of problems in her life and struggled, but used those struggles to share faith, and 1000 people came to her funeral and they saw me cry. I think a lot of over half of them were not saying they were car guys that knew me and saw me always sort of thinking, was he going to smile now? And I did. I bawled, and I bawled today, grieving, and the more you love, the more you grieve. But it never wronged my joy. And at the end, we had an altar call, and we taped it, we put it on YouTube. It’s on YouTube now. Nicole McGuire celebration of life. And guess what? 23K does check this. 23,000 people have watched a video of a funeral. And how many hundreds of people come to the Lord because of Nicole’s passing, in the funeral, we we held to put it all together. And at the end of the funeral, we served hamburgers. I had a 50s band singing about Jesus, and we had a car show, and it was celebration time. I still withhold her picture on my phone every day, smiling. I think you know what, as happy as you were, then you’re a lot happier. Now, if you’re happy, why should I not be happy? And they often say that through tears, the grieving continues, but you and I both know the joy of the Lord never stops, no matter what, because we’re living for God’s purpose.
Speaker 2 19:37
Absolutely, and I think that’s one of the beauties of what God does through a church that faithfully proclaims the gospel then equips their people to go out and share it. You wake up every day and you say, I have divine purpose. I don’t care whether I’m a businessman or a school teacher, a doctor, a lawyer, an entrepreneur. I believe, just like you Barry, there’s no such thing as retirement. I can’t find it in the Bible. We might retire from different functions and jobs and tasks, but we never retire. God has created us to work. He’s created us for divine purpose. That’s why I can’t understand churches that don’t equip their people to do the work of ministry. I go, What are you talking about? How are you spending your time as a church? What are you doing as a pastor? Mobilize the church. I remember talking to people that have been at this church from the from its beginning, and they said, single handedly, the greatest thing that happened to this church is when the pastor, D James Kennedy, stood up and said, I’m not going to be the only person preaching the gospel in this church, but I’m going to equip you to preach the gospel. And everybody looked at themselves, and then he said, together, as a church, we can change the world, and God did that through Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church, because the people sitting in the pews are not just spectators. They weren’t just there watching a spectator sport on Sunday morning, they were being mobilized and readied and prepared to go out into the world. Yes. To be witnesses. It was the most energizing thing that could have happened to this church, and that is the reason, it wasn’t just the great preaching of D James Kennedy, it was mobilizing his people to go and make a difference by being different.
Barry Meguiar 21:10
Thank you, Pastor, pastors, visitors. Couldn’t you hear that message? You wouldn’t ignite your church at the end of all the the conversations that you weren’t even expecting. At the end of that conversation, we have a website called seekinggod.org and these are on cards. You can hand them out and you say to people, it sound like you’d like to know more about God. They’ll always say yes and and when they say yes, they I have a website for you, seekinggod.org if you’re watching this right now, write this down and you’re not a Christian, go to seeking god.org and tell you everything you need to know how much God loves youas a as a path for you to get to heaven. And these are cards you can get free of charge. And I think pastor, you’re going to start handing out at your church pretty soon. Are you not?
Speaker 2 21:58
Easter Sunday. We’re ready to go.
Barry Meguiar 22:00
Wow, wow. Well, we are partners in this Father God. Thank you for Pastor, Rob from the beginning, from the from the foundation of the world. You had his name as you had all of our names. You had plans for him that you had plans for all of us, and you set him in this place at this moment in time, the greatest moment in human history, to ignite everybody he can to go out and share their faith. We can ignite America’s revival. Father God. We know that, but it’s up to us, each one of us listening to this, these of those of us that are laymen, yes, pastors, you too, send us. Your role is equip us and send us and lay people listening right now. We need to get this gift, and we need to go for it. Nothing Compares nothing else. Your life is eternal. Think of the lives you can impact today for eternity. Don’t be apathetic. Allow God’s amazing, unstoppable love to flow through you, and everything you do and everything you say, from the moment you get up in the morning to the morning go to bed, may you bring glory to God in Jesus name. Hallelujah. Amen. Thank you, Pastor. We’ll have to do this again. I love I love your heart. You have the heart. You really do have, the heart of a pastor, the essence of what it means to be a pastor, to equip the saints keep it going. You know, I’m here for you. Anytime I can do anything for you. Thanks, Barry. Appreciate you. All right. God bless you. Everybody see you next time.
