Join Bob George as he delves into the powerful stories of those transformed by Christ’s love and faithfulness. From heartfelt letters of gratitude to testimony of restoration, Bob shares impactful accounts that speak to the unconditional love and grace available through Jesus. Listen as he reminds us of the importance of sincere love and the dangers of living in fear.
00:00:12 Introduction to Classic Christianity Radio
Welcome to Classic Christianity Radio with Bob George. Bob’s clear, timeless teachings on the complete forgiveness and unconditional love of Jesus Christ will transform your life as you learn about God’s amazing grace. Let’s join Bob as he teaches us from God’s Word.
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Major Thomas went to be with the Lord a number of months ago. And I got this letter from his wife Joan, very, very sweet lady. She said, I’m glad that you too continue to preach Christ so alive and available to every believer and to the answer to all human needs the church must hear and from whom the truth if there is to be any impact on the world that they need to hear this if there’s any impact that’s going to be on the world. Thank you for your faithful ministry and the Lord bless you in Christ Joan Thomas. Those are things that encourage us. Closer Things with Major Thomas was a man that made a big impact on my life and I’ll always be deeply indebted to him for that. But equally important with that is a man, like I said, that when you’re around him you didn’t have to wonder, does this guy really know the Lord? There was no religious playing in his life. He was just a man dedicated to the Lord Jesus Christ. I’ve got another note I want to share with you. This came from a girl that I… was in a Bible study back in 1980. And she said, dear Bob, I met you in 1980. You were teaching a Bible study that was held in a Criswell’s carriage house. We taught a senior or a high school and early college Bible study in the garage of Dr. Criswell’s house. And he said at the carriage house every evening each week. It was the college class and I came even though I was still in high school. And you hired me to illustrate a couple of books that you were having printed. I was amazed that you hired me to do that. I was so young. And he talks about your son and I dated for a short time during that summer. I don’t remember this, but I’m sure he will. Anyway, you have been on my heart for the past week because there was a specific night during one of those Bible studies that I truly felt God called me to teach for him. It seemed like he highlighted the evening and And you were teaching me. I remember wanting to run and hide from the highlighting and waiting to soak up all the teaching I could at the same time. So why are you on my heart to say thank you for teaching me? I have run from the Lord’s calling for half of my life and I finally surrendered to Him. My life is His. It began to be his in the carriage house under your teaching. Thank you for teaching me so long ago. And it’s signed by this girl who is teaching today. She wrote an additional on the back of this. She said, my heart won’t rest until I obeyed this strange prompting to get in touch with you. I found your website when I googled your name. I ran into you once at the First Baptist Church about eight years ago but I had no idea you were pastoring a church. I’m beginning to teach and speak where my precious Lord leads. It leads me in these little towns in central Colorado. It has only started May of 2007 and quite a journey it has been. It just makes me take a deep breath and hold on to the Lord tightly. I’m grateful for that highlighted moment because when I asked the Lord if He really wants me, He reminded me that was the time when He called me. He was so faithful. And these are letters like this that you get from people. There’s a girl that I hadn’t seen since 1980. But God is faithful and He keeps working with people. Said she kind of ran from the Lord for half of her life, but God brought her back. And He always will. It just doesn’t make any difference. He always will bring you back. Amy and I had the opportunity of having lunch and spending some time with Dave Boyer and his wife when we were in Florida. And again it was just an example of a man who grew up in this Christian home, his dad was a pastor, his brother was a missionary in France, and whole family involved in Christian work and activity. And yet he was the prodigal son. And he ran and had a beautiful singing voice and there he was in Atlantic City and got all tied up with a mob and alcohol and drugs and women and everything under the sun. Wife left him for a period of time with their daughter. And all of these things while he was running trying to find happiness and success in the world which was not able to be found. One night was out on a railroad track waiting on a train to come to take his life and saw a phone booth over there and finally went over to the phone booth and called his brother who was back from France in a missionary field kind of taking over the church because of the death of his father and he called his brother and said I need your help and his brother said you stay right where you are and came and got him and took him to the church that night and prayed through the night and at the end of that night Dave became a born again believer Here he was, a very, very popular singer, hobnobbed with the Sinatras and all of the people. Some of you don’t even know who he is. He was a singer. An old singer, but a singer. And Sammy Davis and all of those guys called the Rat Pack and gave it all up in order to devote his voice to the Lord. And has been doing so now for well over 30 years. So it’s like you’ve heard me say before of people that we’ve met where they say that God restored the years that the locusts ate away. So it really doesn’t make any difference guys where you are or what you’ve done God’s ready to restore you and He will restore you if you’ll let Him. And that’s one of the reasons that we have to give thanks again, to be thankful people because whatever we’ve done it doesn’t make any difference what we’ve done or where we’ve been We know that Christ Jesus is there to restore people and to lead us into a path of righteousness. And that’s the greatest news on the face of the earth. Let’s turn now to the 12th chapter of Romans and beginning in verse 9. He says because of these truths in other words where at the beginning of that chapter he said I urge you brothers in view of God’s mercy to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice. In other words Christ says I came to live in you. Think about that for a minute, guys. Jesus through His Holy Spirit has come to take up residence in you and in me. To live there. And it says that we have the privilege of participating in that divine nature that lives in us. Christ lives in us, it’s our hope of glory. We have someone no longer to follow but Because if I’m following Jesus, then he’s out there someplace, isn’t he? So I don’t follow Jesus anymore. I followed him to where he was going. Where was he going? To the cross. And then where? To the resurrection. So I followed him to where he went, to his death, burial, and resurrection, and then was indwelt by him, no longer to follow him, but to be led internally by him. You see the difference? There’s a difference between following someone trying to imitate their steps and someone living in you, guiding you to take your steps. There’s a world of difference in that. It’s the idea, well, what would Jesus do? Well, He did what His Father told Him to do. And what are we supposed to do? Follow what the Father told Jesus to do? No. To follow what Jesus tells you to do. If he lives in you, he’s there to guide you and me into all truth. Not to imitate somebody else’s steps, but to individually guide you and me into the steps of righteousness that God called us to. And so he’s saying that there is love, but then there’s love that is sincere. And again, guys, you see a lot of insincerity, don’t you? And you see a lot of it, unfortunately, in a lot of Christian realms. I just love you brother. I’m going to stab you in the back tomorrow but I love you. He said love must be sincere. Love is something that I want to come out of the heart. I don’t want it just with words. And you know guys there are many times people have trouble loving. Do you know what I’m talking about? There are people that have trouble loving. Sometimes they’re afraid to love because they’re afraid they’re going to get hurt. There are people that have loved in their early life and have been hurt so traumatically by that that they say no one’s going to get close to me again. And we put a wall around us and say no one’s going to penetrate that wall. Well I’ll tell you if that’s the truth you’re going to be one sad creature. Because again you’re not trusting the Lord with that. If you were hurt by somebody what makes it important is you keep thinking about it. Outside of that it’s over. isn’t it? If someone has ripped you off, it’s over. And the only way it’s going to be important in your life is you insist on continuing to think about it. And so the issue is, let go of it. Leave the past behind and realize that the future is God’s and learn how to live what? One day at a time. You’re not being holy by putting a wall up against yourself and saying no one’s going to penetrate this sucker. Because I’m just not going to love because I’ve been hurt before. Well, you see, what is that? Selfishness. Selfishness. It’s saying, I don’t want to be hurt. Well, think how many times Jesus was hurt. Do you think maybe he might have been a little bit disturbed when they were crucifying him at the cross? But it never stopped him from loving. He said, I know that there’s a danger to loving. God so loved the world. There’s a chance on that. There’s a gamble connected with that. For me to love you unconditionally, there’s a gamble connected with it. You might hurt my feelings. You might walk out. But God doesn’t say, so don’t love anybody. Satan says that to you. Don’t get close to anybody. God wants our love to be sincere. He wants to have a sincere love for one another. To get rid of this attitude of fear because, guys, fear is the opposite of love. That perfect love drives out all fear, and fear drives out perfect love. And so God doesn’t want us fearful that I’m going to get hurt, or fearful of what’s this going to do. And a lot of times people live in fear, and I will tell you, they’re hard people to live with. When you’re always living in fear, always fearing this and fearing that and fearing this and fearing that and fearing this, because you’re never free. You’re never free to just be free. You’re always wondering, what’s the motive of this person? What are they thinking about? I wonder what they’re trying to get to me. I wonder if they’re trying to rip me off. All of those kind of thoughts, they don’t come from God. God says, well, if they rip you off, so what? He said to be wise as a serpent and gentle as a dove. Don’t walk around saying, hey, here I am, rip me off. But the issue is, is quit living in fear of that. Because it ain’t going to do you an ounce of good Until your love is sincere. And you can’t have sincere love when you’re fearful. Or when your cell phone goes off. Either one of those. Hate what is evil and cling to what is good. I’ll give you some genius here. Before you can hate what is evil and cling to what is good, you’ve got to know first of all what is good and what’s evil. And you’ve got to cling to what’s good and what’s evil.
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That’s what’s going on in the world today. People don’t have stopped even dealing with what’s good and what’s evil. They just don’t think they’re in anything evil. Everything’s okay. You’ve got to be tolerant. You know what we’re told? You’ve got to be tolerant. Just accept everyone. There’s no such thing as bad. No such thing as good. Everything’s relative. Is that true? Not according to the Word of God. He said there’s evil and there’s good. Our role is to say what is good and what is evil. Well, it tells us in the Scripture what is good and what is evil. We don’t have to wonder about it. It tells us in the Scripture the things that are good and the things that are evil. And he says, hate what is evil and cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Devoted to one another. You know, there ain’t anything that irritates me more. You’ll hear people say, well, I don’t like what you’re doing. I’m not going to come here anymore. I feel like saying good. Is that brotherly love? No. You know, if there are things that are done that you don’t like, discuss it with people, but don’t come up with that stuff, well, I don’t like it here anymore because I don’t like what you… That’s not brotherly love. You’re not practicing brotherly love. If you’re practicing brotherly love, decide that. That’s one thing. But if it’s just an ego deal that I just don’t like the way you do things, well, talk to us about it. You might find out you’re wrong. Or right. I don’t know. Don’t think so, but you may. Yeah. Honor one another above yourselves. What is it saying? It says a little later, don’t be conceited. Don’t sit around thinking that you’re a know-it-all. You know there are some people that have never made a mistake in their lives. They’re a know-it-all. How many of you have ever known a know-it-all? How many of you have ever been a know-it-all? Okay, we’re going to put a few of our hands down. But you know there are people that I don’t care what it is, I know the answer to it. You’re not honoring one another above yourself, you don’t even want to listen to their opinions. I already know the answer. And that is not of God according to these passages of Scripture. He said it’s not an attitude of love. that we should honor one another above ourselves. In other words, listen to the opinions of others, have a willingness to do so without having to shed your own opinion on everything dogmatically. So we have to say, is the attitude that I have of God or is this of Satan? Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor serving the Lord. Don’t ever get tired of serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope. Be joyful and patient in affliction. And be joyful and faithful in prayer. And share with God’s people who are in need and practice hospitality. This group shared joyfully in the project that we had for the soldiers. Now I personally want to thank those of you that are involved in it with both your money and your time. I’ve been in service, I’ve been overseas at Christmas time and it’s lonely. I wasn’t in combat, thank God. Saved me from going AWOL. But I know many of you that were in combat and you’ll testify to the fact that it is not fun. And these guys and gals need all the encouragement that they can get from us And I’m just grateful to be able to use our time and treasure and talent in order to help those guys to put a smile on their face and these gals a smile on their face at Christmas time. And I want to thank each and every one of you for participating in that. It was a blessing to me. I think it unifies the assembly, to be real honest with you. So it talks about the fact here that bless those who persecute you, bless and don’t curse. How many of you had somebody in your life that persecuted you? That was not kind to you or did something to you that you really didn’t like. How many of you have ever experienced that type of thing? You know what he says to do? He says bless them. Now guys is this normal? I mean bless them I want to crucify them. No he said bless them. Bless them and bless and do not curse. Why? God says revenge is mine. It’s not yours. It’s my business to take care of these people. And if somebody has done something to hurt you, it says get off of trying to get even and recognize the fact that if there is justice to be done, believe me, I will do it. So we don’t have to. Now is that good news? Does that enable you to walk with a thankful spirit? To be thankful. What am I thankful for? I’m thankful that God’s going to take care of this and I don’t have to. But what does the flesh say? Huh. going to get even. Going to get my revenge. Don’t we? Isn’t that what our flesh says? God says uh-uh, no. Get out of it and let me take care of it. Rejoice with those who rejoice. Be happy in other words when people are joyful. Mourn with those who mourn. When someone is sad, be sad with them. Live in harmony with one another. How many times, where’s one of the best places to test this one? Living in harmony with one another. Where’s the arena? The best arena I know to test this one. Where would that be, guys? Marriage. Yeah. Marriage. To be in a situation where you are living in harmony with one another. Now what keeps us from living in harmony with one another? All we like sheep. have gone astray. Each one of us want to do our own thing. Is that right? I want to be right. I want to do what I want to do because what I want to do is the right way. There’s a right and a wrong. There’s my way and a wrong way. Am I right? Yeah. Now you’re not going to live in harmony with one another like that. If we realize that because I’m a man and because Amy is a woman, which is quite frankly the way God intended marriages to be, he didn’t make Adam and Steve, he made Adam and Eve. It’s the way God made it to be. And if people think that’s not politically correct, get a life. Just get a life. And start seeing what the Bible has to say is you hate what is evil and you have a hold of what’s good. And I want to tell you, homosexuality is not good in the Bible. And even if you don’t know anything about the Bible, you know it’s not good. In your own heart, you know it’s not good. So don’t call it good. That doesn’t mean you hate a person that’s involved in that any more than you hate a person that’s involved in lust. If you did, you’d have to hate everybody. Just hate all the guys, get rid of them. So I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about the activity. Stealing is not good. Lying is not good. It’s not just a little white one. Lying is not good. Are we right or wrong? And so we must look at what the Bible says is right and wrong and grab a hold of it. I’m not condemning those people. We have no right to condemn. But I’m condemning the practice because it’s a perversion. There’s a lot of perversions. That’s not the only one. But I’m just sick and tired of the world trying to call that good and then trying to get marriages around it when it’s a little hard to propagate. In case you haven’t figured that out, that’s a tough job. Nothing angers me any more than seeing in the world people just absolutely calling bad good and good bad. Doesn’t it say in the scripture, woe to the man who calls bad good and good bad. And yet that’s the world we live in today. And it’s acceptable. Now to get back to where I was. When you live in a marriage, you’ve got a guy and you’ve got a gal. And when it talks one’s from Mars and the other’s from Venus or wherever that is, that is true. We think of things totally different. We’re like looking at the moon and I’m looking on one side of it and Amy’s looking on the other. And both of us are looking at the moon. But I’m saying it’s bright and she says it’s dark or vice versa. She said, no it isn’t, it’s bright. No, it’s dark. Well I’m looking at the moon. What do you think I’m looking at? Two different thoughts. Normally opposites attract. How many in here are married? How many in your marriage one of you like to get up early go to bed early and get up early and the other one likes to get up late and go to bed late? How many in your marriages have marriages like that? Opposites attract don’t they? Now God says, I want to create unity in that. And you say, God, you may be able to split the sea, but I don’t think you’re going to be able to accomplish that one. He said, yeah, I will. If you let me, I’ll show you how I can get unity in the midst of this unbelievable diversity of a man and a woman living under the same roof together. But you can’t do it if you both want your own way. That’s why I have to forget about, well, this is just a man thing. And Amy has to forget about, well, this is just a woman thing. And what we have to do is say, what does Jesus have to say about it? It’s not what I as a man say about it, or what does a woman say about it? The issue is what does Jesus say about it? And if you’ll center your life in him, instead of hanging on tenaciously to our own desires, To be in control. And to be controlling everything. Let go of that. God didn’t call you to control. He called him to control you, not you to control the world. And let go of that and say what I want to know is what does God want me to do? You’re going to have a successful marriage. You’ll have some problems because you’re man and woman. But God said, if you’ll let me alone and let me control this thing, I will show you how I can bring unity in the midst of this unbelievable diversity. Can you think of anything more diverse than a man and woman in the same house together? With Amy and I for 50 years? 50 years. We’ll have our anniversary this year, not too long from now. 50 years. Arguing for 50 years. 50 years. Wanting our own way for 50 years. You talk about tenacious. But that’s true. So he says in these passages here that he wants us to live in harmony with one another. Now how do you do that? Take a look at these verses. Don’t be proud. You’re not going to live in harmony with somebody when you’re proud. I think I know more than they do. I’m more intelligent than they are. I know how to accomplish things better than they do. Be willing to associate with people of low position. Guys, that is such an important thing. When it talks about that and don’t be conceited. I’ve seen churches say, how do you get to be a deacon? By checking your financial record. If you make over a couple hundred thousand bucks, you’re in. Especially if you tithe it. People just associating with people of high financial status. That’s all you want to associate with. He says don’t be that way. You’re not going to experience love when you’re associating with people just in your financial strata. He said learn to love people of all stratas. Learn to love the rich, learn to love the poor. Learn to love the white. Learn to love the black. Learn that from God’s standpoint we’re all brothers and sisters in Christ and learn to love one another. Isn’t it great when you can just love each other not wondering what your financial record is? Don’t be conceited. Do not repay anyone evil for evil. And be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody.
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Thank you so much for tuning in to Classic Christianity with Bob George. We hope you’ve enjoyed today’s program. We truly hope that today’s message has inspired you to walk a life of faith in the Lord. Find more information online at bobgeorge.net. There you’ll also find available CDs, DVDs and Bible studies available for purchase. It’s through your help that we are able to spread the good word of Jesus Christ. Until next time, walk in faith, be good to one another and praise the Lord. Amen.
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Put Jesus first in your life and turn your life around.
