Open—Sam Ludvicek
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I want to continue with what was just being said.
Turn with me to.
Matthew, Chapter 7.
Last night I was visiting with some brothers and there was a group standing here. I listened in on and afterwards till about 11:00. I had a nice visit with a dear brother, really enjoyed it. We talked about a number of questions and things and he made a statement that you could title a whole message by.
He said. Sometimes we're unbelieving believers.
I said that's really good.
In the context of that was the thought that we know things from this book.
And we'll say they're true, but we think of them almost like an abstract idea.
So I want to read verse 7.
Through 11.
Ask and it shall be given you. Seek, and ye shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened unto you.
For everyone that asks us receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth, and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.
Or what man is there of you whom, if his son asked bread?
Will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent?
If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father, which is in heaven, give good things to them that ask him?
This kind of conversation.
We were talking about witnessing for Christ and sharing the gospel with people.
And over the years, I told him, I've been asked many times by older and younger people.
That come and talk with me and they'll ask me questions about leading souls to Christ.
And I've had older ones too that say to me, I've been witnessing and sharing the gospel all my life and I've never LED one soul to Christ.
They said you tell stories about it sometimes the experiences you've had, and I said yes I do. They're thrilling.
And I usually ask and sometimes young people ask me this and I got asked this at John Lebens camp and when I visit in different places.
And I will say to them, have you ever asked the Lord to give you a soul to win for him?
And almost every time the answer is no.
That surprises me.
Why would you? If it's a desire that you have, why wouldn't you ask the Lord to give you that?
Well, a young man in Denver had me over to his home, and we were having a visit about this. And I asked him the same question. And I said, why don't you ask for it? And he gave me an unusual answer that I hadn't gotten before. He says, because I'm afraid.
Well, I said thank you for being honest. I said, what are you afraid of? And he said, I'm afraid of the responsibility that would follow.
It would mean that if I lead a soul to Christ, I am there at the end.
I tell people it's like being a midwife, you don't have anything to do with the conception. There's a whole lot of work that's going on before.
You get to catch the baby. That's what it means to win a soul to Christ. You're there at the end.
And God has you placed in somebody's life where they have.
Being worked on and they've heard things and all of its down to this last moment where you have this wonderful, glorious experience.
Of being able to bring that soul, just that last mile, so to speak. And it is a thrill and it's a joy. And any anybody here who's done that will say that it is. And that is a joyful experience. My wife was watching a YouTube series about midwives and she was sharing with me how much she was enjoying it.
And saying how these women who practice this just love doing it because they like catching the baby.
00:05:05
That last experience and doctors who do that, they love it because there's this new life in their hands. Well, this young brother said, well, I'm afraid of the responsibility. I said, don't you think the Lord will help you?
Wouldn't it be thrilling to lead a soul to Christ and then lead them into the first things, the truth our brother went on and on about? The Lord wants to use you.
Yes, he does. You know what else sometimes people are afraid of? They're not good enough. They're not perfect enough. They don't know enough.
I've got problems in my life. Well, OK.
Why not ask him?
If there's a problem, he'll point it out to you.
Try me, Lord, search me, see if there's any wicked way in me and he'll show you and then deal with it. But He does want to use you. He wants to use everyone for His honor and His glory. Last night we were talking, I said, you think that the Lord.
Prefers to use the faithful young Baptist fellow down the street or the the evangelical of whatever stripe down the street to lead a soul to Christ. He prefers that.
Does he prefer to use the Assemblies of God guy down the street who is leading souls to Christ? He will use whom he will. And thank God there are faithful people preaching the gospel and witnessing from all kinds of stripes and backgrounds. Thank you, Lord, for that.
There are many who are leading people to Christ we know nothing about and have all kinds of backgrounds. But if you really want that privilege.
I can't imagine a Christian who doesn't.
But if you really want that privilege, ask him.
I just read you verses that tell me and I read some before at the prayer meeting when we started.
About the wisdom that if you ask and you ask and you persist in asking and you ask in faith, you're going to get it.
Why wouldn't you ask?
Why don't you ask?
Are you afraid?
Well, OK, go ahead anyway. And when you are thrilled by the first time.
The Lord gives you that privilege and I'm talking to young boys and young girls, men and women both.
The Lord can bring it and drop it in your lap. This brother I was talking with, he was saying, well, you kind of have to plan how you're going to do this and this stops a lot of people. Well, I got to go give out so many tracks. I've got to prepare this. I've got to really study and, and get make sure I can answer all the questions and all this and I have to plan some kind of effort. No, you may do that.
But do this first. Just go to the Lord and tell him your heart's desire, Lord Jesus.
Blessed God and loving Father, I want to lead a soul to Christ. I want that gift from you. Give it to me, please and keep praying that Lord make it happen.
He will do it.
He'll make it happen. He'll surprise you. He'll put you in a spot someplace and you can't even. You'll just suddenly realize, you know what? He's doing it. He's doing exactly what I asked. He's helping me.
To lead a soul to Christ. Many of you already you are at any opportunity witness for Christ. You'll share the gospel, you'll hand out a track and you'll do that.
You already do that because you can't almost not help yourself because if the opportunity arises, you're going to answer those questions. But I'm talking about a particular thing. And that is literally being given that opportunity to lead a soul to him at that last part where you have the joy of that. And it might be passing in the night where you just don't meet him anymore.
My brother-in-law, Bruce, told me a story about one of his drivers.
That drove him, I think, from the airport, and now he had the privilege of leading him to Christ. I don't know. Did you ever see the man again?
00:10:03
Did you see him again?
Or maybe sometimes you wouldn't and you have that privilege and they're gone, and who knows, maybe you get contact and can call him and talk to him and so forth. But sometimes it may be just like ships passing in the night. Yet you had that wonderful privilege, and certainly you've done that.
Many of you with tracks and sharing the gospel, but I'm not talking particularly about that. I'm talking about winning a Soldier price.
And as our brother was exhorting us, he does want to use you. Now, some of you young people, you will say things, and I've heard you, and you've said it to me and you say it to others, how sometimes it seems the Christian life is pretty boring. And maybe it seems pretty boring what you see practiced in front of you. Sometimes you can't use it as an excuse, though, right?
Why don't you do something about it?
And I will tell you, just think about it, if you had that chance and God gave it to you and a soul came to Christ, young person, man, woman, child, how excited would you be about that experience? Thrilling. That's not boring.
It's not boring. It's been pointed out at this conference.
How unbelievable the treasure of information and knowledge that we have.
That's been given to us.
By our spiritual ancestors.
People have a lot of different backgrounds and we have such a treasure and the world is starving.
Christians are starving. I have the privilege of going down to little town in Iowa called Washington.
And another man set it up for me. He didn't know how to have a Bible study, but he got permission to have one.
He was working in the place he was going to Bernie Breck's Bible study in Marengo. And he said those people, there's Christians there and they they're not getting any food and they've been abused by people who have treated them badly in the past. He got permission to have a Bible study.
I got the privilege of going down there at 6:30 on Friday night, so I went the first time and about 20 people showed up. They're in their 70s and 80s.
Most of them are women. They know the Lord, or at least most of them did or do.
And they're getting nothing. They go to this church and that church, there's nothing there. What I'm telling me, there's a lesbian pastor teaching in her church. There's no food.
We had a brother give a Sunday school about a funny one mixing food in a bowl. Junk food. They're not even getting junk food, they're getting poison.
And these dear old ladies, a couple of old men, one of them is blind, he can't see anymore. They come and they sit and they ask questions. And the first part of the message that was given tonight.
About talking about the things that are above all. Do they love that? They love going to this last part of Revelation?
Thinking about the possibilities, what that's going to be like to be there because.
They are not far from getting there and it thrills their souls to talk about these things, some of the simplest things.
That perhaps most of us learn when we were children. They don't know.
And they are thrilled to find it out and see it in the pages in front of them.
To the little old ladies after a while came to me after one of the Bible studies and said.
It's an hour drive.
And I they said when you leave here, how do you feel?
Do you feel like it's a burden to come here every week? I said no.
You know what I'm doing? Usually when I leave here, I'm singing in my little kick out. You're singing, I said. Yes. It's a real privilege to come and sit with people who love the Lord and are thirsty for His word.
I said I'm thrilled. He said, well, are you getting paid? I said no.
I'm happy to come because you're hungry for it, and as long as the Lord allows me, I will come. I said if I travel, I can't be here.
Dave Thurston and Huey will take my place, and they do. And those old ladies love them too.
00:15:05
But they're not getting anything.
They're getting something, though, when we sit down. We started going through a book.
But you know what? We haven't gotten very far because usually it's questions, and they have questions about what they've read and they've been reading or something they've heard, but what they've been reading in the Bible, because now they're starting to read their Bibles more than they ever have, and they have sometimes simple questions.
Would you be thrilled if you were sitting in that circumstance and you had a Bible study? Bruce said last night, telling you talking about a brother who had a Bible study, neighborhood Bible study. And he said.
Would that all the Saints had a neighborhood Bible study.
Having people that are hungry for this truth that we have.
What a thrill to your soul. It's exciting, it's wonderful, it makes your life fuller. We have so much.
And I talked to people here at the conference from time to time and I'll ask are you enjoying the meetings? Everybody has said yes so far. And some of them will say that something they heard or whatever that they've enjoyed. It's so good that what we have it is very good.
But back to the Lord wanting to use you. How about that? What if every young person in here went home and said, you know what Brother Sam said? I'm going to start praying that way.
And I'm going to ask Lord to give me one this year, this next year, if he tarries, just what?
And then I'm going to invite him to come to the conference with me.
This place wouldn't have any room.
But how about just starting with that and say, Lord, I would really like to do that. I've wanted that. I'm asking you to give me the privilege of leading us all to You and then give me the wisdom to do what comes next. He will do that. Can't you trust Him for that too?
My brother was talking about.
Believing unbeliever.
Treating things that you read in the word of God and maybe repeating them and saying I hate this thing that sometimes I hear people do and I have done it myself so bad on sand, saying the Lord's will be done and using it like a throwaway line. And this brother told me the same thing. He's I've done it and he told me a story about his children.
And one of his children had his bike stolen and they prayed about it like.
Being returned. But he said, you know, I was saying Lords will be done as a throwaway line because I really didn't expect it to come back. But you know what? The Lord brought it back. So he shared that with me.
Let's not be unbelieving, believers.
We know that our God acts.
He saved you, He saved you.
Some young people are at a crossroads. Maybe you're about to depart. Maybe you're facing something.
Maybe you think it's all boring.
Take one last shot.
Ask God to give you a soul to lead for Him.
And see if you're bored.
The first time it ever happened in my life, I said now this is far. I've been rebuked for saying that it's fought. It is fought.
It's some of the most fun I've ever had in my life. You want to have some fun? Dear young person that thinks Christianity is boring, ask God earnestly to give you a soul to lead to Christ for him, and he will use you. Not because you're perfect and a perfect evangelist or perfect anything. He will use you because you ask in faith and He will answer.
I promise he will answer.
13 in the appendix.
So.
Relationship.
Praise my God and our Father.
We're grateful.
For your word.
For your son.
The blood of Jesus Christ which cleanses us from all sin.
We're grateful for life, for life.
For a path to walking.
For your Holy Spirit which guides and teaches.
To the power.
You get it.
To honor you.
And the vessels that you've chosen?
We offer praise. We give thanks.
Our glorious God.
For the knowledge that no amount of darkness.
Can quench life.
Brave Jesus name, Amen.