Talk—Josh Ruga
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#48.
First of all, I want to say that I get one thing straight. The young people, maybe they don't realize that some older ones have good hearing. And I, I want to just relate one thing that happened here. I think it was the 2nd day that I was here and I was going past a group of young people and you know, just nonchalantly walking this way and they were coming this way.
And as we passed by, maybe I was 5 or 10 feet past this group of young people, I heard one of them ask another one who's gimpy back there and, and said, oh, he's, he's just the softball pitcher for the ball games, you know? So by way of introduction, my name is Josh Ruger and I'm from Dorothy, NJ.
And of course, it really doesn't matter where we're from, you know? What matters is where we're going, you know? Where will you spend eternity? You've heard that.
That term before eternity, that word before eternity. And we've been here at so many gospel meetings this week and what's been before us, those two things, Calvary and eternity, and how important these things are because you have to deal with them. You have to do something about them.
And you know, I think the terms Calvary and eternity in God's Word are mentioned very, very few times really maybe once or twice or something like that. I'm not sure. But you know, the the idea for Calvary arose in eternity in the heart of God.
In the heart of God and what you do with.
Calvary will determine where you will spend eternity. And so that's why this morning we want to bring before you so important. You know, it would be a shame to leave Lassen 99, leave this place today and somebody here still be lost in their sins that that would be tragic. It would be terrible, you'd say, how could it possibly be?
That they've enjoyed everything that they've tasted of all the good things we've had from the word of God this week, and yet they're lost in their sins. You say, well this person, what hope is there for them?
Well, remember, God speaks once, yeah twice. Yet man perceiveth not the heart of God.
You know, you guys, you're all like, like sports and especially basketball. I woke up many, most of the mornings and watch the boys play basketball. You know, years ago, I think before the Michael Jordan era, there was a man who had fantastic potential for basketball. His name was Hank Gathers. Maybe some of you here remember hearing about Hank Gathers and he was a man about 6 feet, 10 inches.
Had a big, strong body and he had every skill that could be desired to play a fantastic game of basketball. And he was so good that right out of college they took him into the professional ranks and they said this is a superstar And he played a couple professional games. And after a couple professional games, the way he handled himself in the court and the way he was able with his big strong body.
To fend off other players who are trying to guard him. A sports writer.
Made this comment about Hank Gathers. He said Hank Gathers is an incredible life force. Now you know, that's really putting him way up on a pedestal, isn't it? And so Hanks response when he read that and heard that remark about himself, they said, What do you think about it, Hank? He said. That is a true statement, he said.
I am a pure thoroughbred. I am the strongest man alive. That's what he said.
That he was really acknowledging this incredible life force that was spoken about him while, you know, Hank Gathers was 23 years old, 23 years old. The next morning he dropped dead. He dropped dead. Strongest man alive, pure thoroughbred drop dead. You know, you don't know what is in store for you, but we know, do know this, that there's in store.
Who put their trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, eternal courts of glory forevermore. Because the Lord Jesus is here and he wants to save your precious soul. You know, years ago, an atheist, he took it upon himself to write on a wall that God is nowhere. God is nowhere.
00:05:24
NOWHER E.
And you know, that was really propagating what he thought God is nowhere or what he he thought. He thought a little girl came along and changed that to God is now here, here, OK, and NOWHERE. So we believe God is now here and he's here because he's interested in you as a person, as an individual, and he wants to save your precious soul.
And you've got to do that before this time is over, because procrastination can send you to a lost eternity.
No, back in 1961, I had in in my Class A boy by the name of Johnny Broyles. Johnny Broyles was a fine guy and a redhead and and just the kind of kid that you could just love, you know? But Johnny had one defect in his person. He had a lift. Everything he said would be a lift. I thought it was kind of cute myself and it caught the attention of most of the other.
Students, well, the school administration personnel didn't think that it was so cute. So I guess through correspondence, they contacted Johnnies mother and tried to tell her, you know, we should do something about this problem of Johnnys speech impediment. And since he was in my class back in those days, they gave you more freedoms than they do now. And the principal came to me and says.
Why don't you take Johnny home one day after school and meet his mother or his parents and and see what the cause of this lisp is. And fine, I'll be glad to do that. I don't mind doing something like that. So I told Johnny, I said, Johnny, come on, I'm going to take you home tomorrow after school and make sure your mom's going to be there and just have to talk to your mom a little bit. He says, what about? And I said, you know about the lift.
That you have and OK, I'll make sure my mom is going to be there. So the next day Johnny and I went to his house and knocked on the door and sure enough, his mom was there and she opened the door and I introduced myself that. Hi Missus Broyles. I'm a Mr. Ruger from Johnny's school. And. And she says, oh, oh.
I know they think my son doesn't speak right.
He speaks funny. So I said, well, that's alright, Mr. Broiler, let's just let's just talk about this, you know, and see what we can do and everything. And when we were all finished talking and having a little conversation together, she said thank you, Thank you. Mr. Wooga says, I appreciate what you did for me. And I said by that time I was caught up in it too. And I said.
Thank you. Thank you very much.
But but anyway, the reason I tell is because, you know, Johnny Broyles had something from his environment he's brought up that way, picked it up and he really couldn't, I guess he couldn't do anything about it. But with some help, speech therapy and so on, he was able to overcome the situation quite a bit. Maybe not get a job in communications or public relations or something like that, but I'm sure I will do very well for.
But you see, we are most times a product of our environment. And the Word of God says, you know, evil communications, corrupt good manners. If you hang around with the wrong group of people at here or at home or school or work or whatever, you're going to become just like them. Just like Johnny Broyles picked up the way his mother talked. That's what you're going to pick up too. OK? So you have to be careful about these things because God.
Is everywhere, He's everywhere and he wants you to be a vessel for his honor and glory. You know, man's heart hasn't changed a bit. It hasn't changed a bit down through the ages. And 90 years ago or so you read about the you heard about the Titanic sinking and the man who built that Titanic ship. What did he say? He said before it sailed, he said not even God.
00:10:10
Think this ship the other day, yesterday, we're talking at the dinner table and I made a remark to somebody say, you know, they're building another replica of the Titanic, exactly the same length, the same characteristics, everything's going to be the same. And I happen to have that article here just to show you how man's heart hasn't changed a bit in the past 90 years, it says coming in 2002.
Full size Titanic replica.
A Swiss US partnership said it will build a 500 million full size replica of the Titanic and have it ready for the 90th anniversary of the ships sinking. It cannot sink, assured Walter Navratil, president of the development company White Star Line Limited. Navratil said the oil fuel steamer will make a Southampton, England, New York round trip.
April 2002 now, in case you're interested in going on that voyage.
Tickets will cost $10,000 to $100,000. After the voyage, the ship will serve as a pleasure cruiser. But, says Mr. Navratil, don't worry, it will have modern equipment to detect icebergs.
So 90 years since the first one sank, and here we go again. Has man learned anything? He said it cannot sing. So we'll see what happens in 2002 if we're here. Well, very interested. But you know, I think some of you here probably have the same problem that I do at work and meeting people in the street and so on.
We just are a little bit passive, a little bit withdrawn about speaking out.
For the Lord. But you know there's other things you can do to compensate for that. And just real simple ones are by the way you deport yourself, by the way you speak, by the way you look.
By your actions, all these things show whether or not you are a Christian, whether or not you belong to the Lord Jesus. So there's ways that you can get others.
To look at you and say, hey, he is different, he is different. Another way is wherever you work or wherever you go to school, do you take the time? Do you give thanks for your meal before you eat it in front of a lunch room full of students or wherever you work? These things people notice.
And it can lead to conversations and say, hey, you are just why are you the way you are?
Well, you know, I'm just like you years ago when I was going to college, I was, you know, very hesitant and very shy and so on. And I didn't, I didn't know how to get a conversation going about the Lord to other people. So I might before I went to school, I took these great big stickers and put them on the dashboard of my 1948 Pontiac, you know, stickers about you must be born again. Christ Jesus came into the world to.
Sinners. And I had them plastered all over the dashboard because I knew that I'd be giving kids ride in the in the car and so on. And sure enough, it worked. And I'd go back and forth on different holidays and have maybe five students with me coming back to Philadelphia from Ohio. But the one student I always took was Bill Johnson. And Bill four years faithfully going back and forth 3-4 times a year with me. And he would read the stickers, you know, we would talk about them.
Sometimes it was just he and I in the car for 1213 hours and you know, we had a lot of nice, but Bill never came to the point where he gave his heart to the Lord Jesus, where he said, yeah, you know, I'm a lost and I want to be saved. He never came to that point, but he did say this. He said, well, I want to, I want to do good in my studies. I want to graduate at the top of the class after four years. I want that 4.0 GPA. And you know, he did just that. He just did just that. And at the end.
When he was topping the class and had the perfect average straight A's for four years, he went to celebrate in the nearest town about four miles away. They drove his car there. He had a car in a senior year and then when he finished celebrating, couldn't even remember where he had parked his car so started walking down the highway back to the college and he was so inebriated he could only follow the yellow line in the middle of the road. And of course he was killed by.
00:15:12
By an automobile. And there went the four years that he had before him. Now I'm afraid that Bill Johnson died and is in a lost eternity. But we don't know. God knows. Well, I have. Sometimes we hear about tragic things that happen in schools and so on. We're all familiar with this Columbine incident, and that can happen anytime, anywhere, in any school in the United States.
Of the world. But you know, sometimes God uses situations that are intended for pleasure or something like that, and he can use it for himself. I'll give you an example. At our school, the principal came on the intercom system one day and he says, hey, guess what? Tomorrow we're going to have a special assembly and it's going to be called living life to the fullest. I said, boy, this is great. This is just what we need.
You know, thinking why it's going to be some kind of gospel thing or something like that. Living life to the fullest.
He says, OK, now tomorrow he came on and he said, he said the day of the assembly, he said there's only 800 seats in the auditorium is 15-16 hundred kids in the school. So we can divide the school in half and the 11Th graders and half, a 10th going the first section and 11Th graders and 12Th going the next section. And so the auditorium was full of kids, 800 kids. And to live life to the fullest, they invited some former Philadelphia Eagle football players there.
Strapping men and since they were no longer playing football because of injuries and gimpiness and so on and so forth they they made their living by going around to different schools and they would try to through song and dance try to instill within the students the idea of staying in school don't drop out OK that was pretty good a pretty good idea and so by staying in school not dropping out getting a diploma getting.
Education, they could live life to the fullest. And during the course of this assembly, they were singing songs which I wasn't familiar with. Maybe they weren't very bad, they weren't vulgar or anything like that, but you know, just entertainment and trying to get the thought across to the kids to stay in school, don't drop out.
And after this one leading.
Actor. He had sung quite a few songs and everything. He asked for a volunteer and I know Brian has heard this before.
But he asked for a volunteer, says would anyone in the audience, any of the students in the audience, like to come up here and sing a song for the group? And of course, if you and I were there, we'd shield down and try to get as low as we could. But a couple of the students, they started pointing toward this one, one young lady, you know, and and she didn't know they were pointing to her, but yeah, they were pointing to this one young lady. And so the, the, the, the.
The entertainer, he went to her and he said, young lady, would you like to sing a song for us? And she sheepishly, sheepishly looked up and and wondered why he singled her out. And then she saw a couple of her friends pointing to her, well, she was a singer in her church choir and apparently was a good singer, too. And believe it or not, she knew gospel songs.
And so he persuaded her. The entertainer persuaded her to get up to the microphone.
And she said to her, what are you going to sing? And she said, I don't know yet.
He says, well, you just stand there and when something comes to you sing. So she stood there a little while, you know, and she was, you could tell that she was sort of afraid and everything. But then all of a sudden she started singing the words of this hymn. And I always keep it with me because I thought it was so unusual.
The words of the film, the hymn go like this says Why should I feel discouraged? Why should the shadows come?
Why should my heart be lonely and long for heaven and home when Jesus is my portion? My constant friend is He. His eye is on the Sparrow, and I know he watches me. His eye is on the Sparrow as the name of that hymn. And here, you know, here, here she is, this young lady, maybe 1617 years old, singing this hymn to a group of 800 kids and teachers, administrators.
So on, so remember that little girl, she changed. God is nowhere to God is now here. And I felt exactly like that, that God had taken a situation that was meant for entertainment and enjoyment and so on. And now he had changed it to something that was reaching the hearts and conscience of all those in the audience. Well, you know, it didn't end there. And.
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I thought, wow, what's going to happen now? Everything was very quiet and so on. And after that first.
First verse of that hymn, another student who happened to be the president of the Jewish, it was in my classroom. And he said, wait, I can't let you continue singing that song alone. And he jumped up, went up in the podium there and started singing with her. And of course, the second verse goes like this.
Let not your heart be troubled. His tender word I hear, and resting on His goodness, I lose my doubts and fears. Though by the path He leadeth but one step I may see His eye is on the Sparrow, and I know He, He watches me. So here were two people singing in front of 800 fellow classmates.
And.
You know, I'm supposed to be the the rough stuff gym teacher and so on. Well, I teach Jim and Sally and Joe and Jim and John's. But anyway.
And here I am, you know, I have my handkerchief here and my kids aren't looking. I'm dabbing my eyes because this to me was so touching. I said wow, how God has turned this around to make it something to bring glory and honor to the the Lord Jesus.
And so that they didn't stop there, they continued singing the third verse. And you know, when you think of something political comes up and they always speak of the silent majority. Well, the silent majority of those who you really don't ever hear from, but they know what should be, but yet they don't vote and so on and so forth. And the political people are always hoping they will come forth and vote, you know, and and make.
Mind known well, during this third verse of this hymn we heard, or I heard distinctly the silent majority because there were more Christians in that group of kids than I had ever imagined. And myself, I I couldn't remember the words of the hymn, but the silent majority during the third verse of that hymn, you could hear them humming the tune.
Along with those up on the stage there. And the third verse goes like this whenever I am tempted.
Whenever clouds arise, when song gives place to sign, when hope within me dies, I draw the closer to him from care He sets me free. His eye is on the Sparrow, and I know he cares for me.
And so during that third verse, you could hear a reverberation throughout the auditorium of the hearts of the silent majority. And so I, I thought it was very touching. But here, this young lady, this young man, they had a purpose in life. And you know, the purpose of life is to have a life of purpose. And you can't have a life of purpose without.
That which fills the heart and that is the Lord Jesus Christ. So unless you have that, you are wasting your time, you're wasting your life.
But those who have a life of purpose will be like a ship on the water. You know, the ship rises above the water, floats on the water, and that ship is safe and sound as long as the water doesn't get into the ship. And so you and I as Christians, as born again believers, you know, we go through this world and we are in the world and we're, we're fine. We're happy in the Lord and everything, as long as the world doesn't get into us. We have to stay above it all.
And Wally, I have a couple more things, but Wally did say that he would appreciate if we would express our Thanksgiving the last 10 minutes or so for everything that we've had here this week. You know, the good weather, the camp staff.
The reason for being here, the efforts of so many involved here and journey and mercies for bringing everyone here and some on their way home now.
We have so much to give thanks for, so if we could just get on our knees now and thank the Lord Jesus for all He's done for us.