This sermon emphasizes the importance of sharing one's faith in Jesus Christ, highlighting the urgency to reach out to others with the message of salvation. It addresses the fear of rejection, the need to prioritize eternal matters over temporary concerns, and the impact of personal testimonies in leading others to Christ. The speaker encourages boldness in witnessing and stresses the significance of caring for lost souls and making a decision to follow God wholeheartedly.

And, you know, sadly, the truth of the matter is, if we lined up a whole bunch of teenagers that love Jesus Christ, and we lined up a whole bunch of adults who say they love Jesus Christ, and then we looked at how much you're sharing your faith in Jesus Christ, there's a lot of high schoolers that would make us look like fools for Jesus Christ as adults. Okay? Because they don't wrestle with as much as we do that fear factor of pleasing other people. Galatians 1.10 says, are you here to please men, or are you here to please God? And the whole implication of Galatians 1.10 is you can't do both. You gotta make a decision, ladies and gentlemen. You gotta make one or the other. You're either gonna please God with your life, and when you please God with it, you won't please all men with your life. But if you please men with your life, you can be rest assured you will not be pleasing God with your life as well. So the whole point is you have to make a decision at some point and do that. Teenagers, I find, all the time, Randy, that they just make that decision and they go for it, literally taking their campuses for Jesus Christ. So that's what we're gonna talk about is to make sure what holds us back, but then make sure we step out and do the exact same thing, all right? So I'm gonna give you some things to think about. First one I want you to think about is time. I want you to think about time, okay? Every second, two people die, okay? By the time you put your head on your pillow tonight, if the Lord allows you to, another 150,000 people taking their last breath, walked off into eternity, heaven or hell as we speak, okay? So simple question for you, Priority Associates. Do you care about those two people that just died? But a much, much, much tougher question. Do you care enough to do something about where those two people are gonna spend eternity that just died? Because we sit here, two more people just died, and two more people just died. And people are walking off into eternity, and yet we don't have that urgency, okay, to strike up a conversation with either one of those two ladies working behind the counter right here that are giving coffees to the Phoenix people, okay? Or we'll go through a gas station and not even stop and chat with somebody at a gas station on our way over here today. But as we sit here, two more people just died, and two more people just died. And if you're born again and saved, what's it gonna take for God to get your full and complete attention that I've got to care about all these lost souls that are walking through planet Earth? The cross is the proof God cares about lost people. Is that correct? Well, the cross is proof He cares about lost people. The question only is gonna be, when is Mark gonna start caring about lost people? About a year and a half ago, two years ago, at the University of Georgia, a student was rock climbing with his buddies, lost his hands, his hands were, he falls off the side of the mountain, the clip held, hits the side of the mountain, he's just dangling here dead as can be, 18-year-old student, eternity, just like that, gone. I was speaking about a year later in Montgomery, Alabama, at a banquet, and I told this story. A lady walks up to me afterwards, and she said, hey, you know the story of the young man at Georgia that died in the rock climbing, I said, yes, ma'am, she said, that's one of our relatives. I said, really? I said, how are you doing? She said, we just miss this boy so much, he was just one of those kids that could just light up a room when he walked in, just had all that energy, but let me tell you something about him. In high school, he committed his life to Jesus Christ, okay? He boldly shared his faith in Jesus Christ with all of his friends in high school. He went to the University of Georgia, boldly stood up for God and Jesus Christ, and you know what, we miss this kid so much, but we know where he's at. Isn't that the hope we have as Christians, yes or no? That's the hope we have. I had a real good friend die this past year, but I know where he's at. He just beat me to the throne is all it was, all right? He got there quicker than I did is all it is, okay? I'm not even the least bit saddened for this man. Dreams come true on that day if you truly believe in Jesus Christ and God like that, okay? But see, what are we doing to reach people before they walk out of here? Because you might be a 21-year-old student walking on some ice in Wisconsin, and the son of an offensive coordinator for the Green Bay Packers is a 20-year-old boy in eternity just like that, died a couple days ago. The question is not that the 21-year-old boy died a couple days ago. Where is he right now? Because he's still alive. Never forget that. Every time you drive past a cemetery, we want to talk about people being dead. But remember, death in the Bible means just the beginning to the other side. That's all it means. I always tell people they're either alive in heaven or they're alive in hell, one of the two. Or as I always say, they're either alive and well or they're alive in hell, one of the two. Everyone in the cemetery is still alive. If you've had a friend or relative or maybe a co-worker or whatever pass away in the last year, raise your hand, anyone that's passed in the last year. And when we're at that funeral, we always think about death, but death to the world means over. Peter Jennings is dead. Michael Jackson's dead. Elizabeth Taylor's dead. No, no, no. They're still alive. They're either alive in heaven or they're alive in hell, one of the two. All right? Today's Thursday. So tomorrow at 2.45 on Friday afternoon, just give me a nod of a head, if any of you will have any plans for the weekend by, you think, by 2.45 on a Friday afternoon, just nod your head if you think you'll have any plans for the weekend. Okay? Yep, I fly to Indiana tomorrow. I'll go speak this weekend up there and stuff. So most of us have plans by 2.45 in the afternoon. Last year at 2.45 in the afternoon, the earth shook in Japan. We all thought that 9.1 quake was going to be the big deal, but that wasn't the big deal. What was the big deal? Those tsunamis. And we've seen the pictures. We've watched the YouTube videos and stuff. But if you keep following the whole story, it's actually, the tsunami is actually not the big deal. Anyone know what the big deal is? It's the nuclear reactors. It's Fukushima. They've had three complete total meltdowns. Anyone remember Chernobyl from back in the 80s? They're saying a much worse disaster than Chernobyl. But because our society is moving at such a quick pace, we're moving quick. That story is only like eight months ago, but it seems like it was years ago, doesn't it? Because it's just the next story, the next. Now we're in political season. All of a sudden, things go so fast, we don't even slow down and think. But if you go to any Japanese sites, literally, the radiation that's coming out of those things is literally killing people over there. But we're not hearing because it's not currently on our news. But one of the stories from the tsunami was, if you watch the YouTube videos, you can hear the tsunami warnings going off in the background. You can hear the sirens going off. And that's what we talk about out of Ezekiel 33, is we're supposed to warn people trouble's coming. We need to warn people they're going to stand in front of God. Their choice what to do with the warning. Because people didn't have to listen to the tsunami warnings. They could have stayed in their house and just enjoyed the water coming up, I guess. But it was up to their choice what they wanted to do. But one of the stories from over there, this couple was in a house. He heard the tsunami warning and said, let's get out of here. So they start going up. All of a sudden, he says, wait a minute, I want to get something from my house. And he turns back around. Well, that was the first problem. What has your hands? What are you holding on so tight to that holds you back from just being sold out for the most high God and his son, Jesus Christ? What is it? Is it a job? Is it a dollar bill in this economy? Is it tickets to a game you just won't release because it's got your hand? What's got you back that the moment you die, whatever's in your hands right there will not matter the moment you die? I wrote in one of my books, if it doesn't matter the day you die, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. Okay. So what you need to release to let it go so you're going to be serving God like you want to in your lifetime. Okay. Think about that as you wrestle in the next few weeks, what you're going to do for the Lord. Well, they go back to the house. That's when the tsunami hit. All right. They never found his wife. In one part of Japan, the tsunami went six miles inland. All right. So the next time you're sitting at a beach somewhere, think about that water. It's not a wave. The whole ocean rises is what a tsunami is. Think about that water rising up and literally going six miles inland. Just think about that for a second. But then what's going to happen to the water? Yeah, it's going to recede back out. Well, they found this gentleman on the top of his roof. Okay. They found him 10 miles out in the ocean. That's where they found him. A plane was going by. Saw him on top of his roof, 10 miles in the ocean. They sent a Coast Guard cutter out there. They picked that guy up. And as I was reading the article, he made a very interesting statement in the article. He said, I knew today was going to be my last day to be alive. That's what he said in the article. But yet my Bible says in Daniel chapter five that I as God hold your breath in the palm of my hand. Well, you can't take a last breath until God says so. And the moment God says so and it's snatched away and gone, that's it. We don't get a do-over. We don't get a mulligan. We don't get a second chance. One shot at this crazy little place called Earth. And once you're a Christian, what are you doing for God that's going to have eternal value and do that? So think about if your life, anyone a little bit older and life went by pretty quick? Anybody there? I mean, my goodness. I turned 50 in two months. I turned 50. I'm trying to, I was trying to figure out, I was thinking about this today. Where in the world did 50 years on planet Earth just go? I mean, my goodness. You know what I'm talking about. And it just goes by so fast. You know better than me, actually. But it just goes by so fast. But what are you doing that's going to have eternal value the moment you stand in front of God? All right. Now, I need a verbal response. Okay. Do you believe hell is a real place? Yes. So you believe hell is an actual real place that people can really go to for all of eternity? Yes or no? Yes. Okay. If you believe that and you have to hold that position with a biblical worldview, that means you can never ask yourself the question, how can I witness to this person? The only question to ask, how can I not witness to this person? How can I not take the time to share with Neil, the Catholic gentleman that I sat next to going to Maryland last week? How can I not share with Dan, my waiter the other night, hour and a half conversation on is there a God? He was an atheist, atheist, last Saturday in Maryland. He fired questions at me for an hour and a half and then he tells me, oh, by the way, today's my last night working. It was his last day there. He's leaving Wednesday. He said yesterday to move to Manhattan and I almost did not go to that restaurant on Saturday evening. I was so tired from the travel up, but I pray for God to order my steps, order my feet so I meet the right people. Even Dan, the atheist said, you know what? You and I are supposed to be talking tonight. Even he knew that. Okay. But see, once I know hell is a real place, that means I really want to stop people from going anywhere near that when they take their last breath and walk out of here. You've heard about near death experiences. People flatline and see white lights and tunnels. You heard about those? Yes or no? During my times of witnessing, I have now met 28 different people who flatlined, who got the hell experience and not the heaven experience. It's a very real place. I played college basketball at Auburn with Charles Barkley years ago. His younger brother flatlined. End of his, trees on fire, ground smoldering around the trees, lake of fire in front of him. Literally said he could feel the intense heat off that lake of fire. Ever heard of a lake of fire before, folks? Matthew 25, book of Revelation. I've had more people tell me they see this lake of fire when they die. Two EMTs pulled a guy out of a car. They're pumping on his chest. He starts screaming. He's not about the EMT. They can't figure out what's going on. They just keep pumping though. Fire, fire, flames, flames. Flatlines and dies. Both EMTs, both atheists, both said they could smell a burning sulfur smell as the man flatlined and died. Both atheists will tell you they knew it was supernatural and they knew it was hell. They both knew it was. Okay. I've heard that burning sulfur from more than one person. Craziest story I ever heard from a lady, her husband died. They paddled, he died. Nothing worked. Pulled the wires out, wheeled him off in a gurney, left him in a hallway. He was dead. Ready for this? Fifteen minutes later, he sits up on the gurney. Fifteen minutes later. All right. Four and a half minutes. Your brain's what? It's toast. It's history. Completely fine. Lived years later. Told his wife he went down a dark tunnel. I have heard this from more than one person. Not this white light, a dark tunnel. Vapor fog. Could see and hear people screaming in hell. I almost always hear people tell me about the screams they hear from people in hell. Down, down. All of a sudden, two hands of light grabbed him. Told his wife later he knew it was Jesus, the light of the world had shown him. I have heard this from more than one person. They didn't think it was Jesus, hope it was Jesus, might have, should have, could have been Jesus. They knew it was Jesus Christ. Priority associate, do you know it's Jesus Christ? The only hope for Atlanta is Jesus Christ. The only hope for America is Jesus Christ. The only hope for America is not a better economy. Not a new president, not an old president, not a white president, not a black president, not a Hispanic, Asian president. The only hope for America is Jesus Christ. Do you understand that? And if you believe that, you hold the keys to America in your hands. You actually hold the keys to America in your lips, Jesus Christ. The question is are you going to walk out and share Jesus Christ and watch him literally change lives in front of you or will you keep that to yourself? So I asked the lady what happened. And all of a sudden grabbed him, pulled that man up, up, up, up, up, hit the top of the tunnel and that's when he sat up on the gurney 15 minutes later. So she told me, she asked her husband the question, honey, what was the worst part of that experience? You think it's anything I just mentioned? Not what the man said. The man said the worst part of the whole experience was, ready for this? He couldn't bring anybody out of there with him. Oh my, my. What do you know from the story of Rich Man and Lazarus, Luke 16? Once judgment's set, heaven or hell, you shall be there forever and ever and ever and there's no what crossing over from one side to the other. So one, are you sure you're born again and saved? The Bible says test yourself, examine yourself, prove that you have the faith. This isn't a game. Alabama, LSU is a game. One on one with God is not a game. It's as serious business as it gets, okay? So make sure, one, you're born again and saved, then two, who are you bringing with you to a place called heaven? Matter of fact, you have no biblical right to go to heaven by yourself. You have the biblical command to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. I never want to, I don't want to go to heaven by myself at all. I don't want to go by myself. I want tons and tons of people for the throne of God at the wedding supper of the lamb. I want a full house. Don't you want a full house? I want a full house. But it's our job to invite people to come. And always remember, it's their choice what to do with the invitation. They don't have to go. Okay? I got offered World Series tickets a couple years ago. I said, no, I didn't want to go. I didn't want to travel. I've been traveling too much and stuff. And I just didn't want to go. Okay? So what? Okay. But at least they invited me. Wouldn't it have been worse though if I found out they all went and didn't invite me? See, that would have been the worst part, right? Yeah, that would have been the worst part, you see? But see, once you just, all we do is invite. That's what witnessing is. We invite people to come. Their choice what to do with that. But time is precious. It's ticking by. And our focus is on something else instead of what it needs to be on. And once I'm focused on that cross of Jesus Christ, I'm automatically focused on lost people. Can't wait to hit an airport tomorrow to see who I'm going to run into, who I'm going to engage, what are the stories going to be tomorrow that I get a chance to plant a seed. Okay? That's what we're going to talk about as we open up the Word. So let's pray. Father, we thank you so much. You're just an awesome God, a wonderful God. Thank you so much for all you've done in my life and just the changes, the challenges you've given me, Father. But now let's take that and let's bring this out to the marketplace in Atlanta, Father God. We need an urgency. As we hear that siren that just went by, there's an urgency for a firefighter. They have to get there. They have to get the people out of that house. They have to save those people so they don't die. But why don't we have that same exact urgency, Father God, that we know we have coworkers and friends and the same waiter and waitress at the same place we go to all the time. We know they don't know the Lord. We know they're throwing their lives away and yet we won't have that spiritual conversation we need to have. Father, let today be a life-changing day for people, for all of us, that all of us are going to walk back out those doors bolder than we walked in. So we're going to thank you for that. Father, glorify your name and we ask it in the great name of your Son, Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen. Mark 16. If you have your Bible, Mark 16, verse 15, a couple of simple verses I'm just going to go through. So Mark 16, verse 15. And he said, this is Jesus speaking, okay? So Mark 16, verse 15 for all you phone folks and doing that, okay? And he said unto them, go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. Go means do not stay. It means get up and go. It means go and meet somebody. It might be a woman at the well you might be chatting with this afternoon, but it might be a story we're going to hear about for 2,000 years later. See, Jesus could have spent his afternoon just getting watered. He was tired from the journey, but he was in the middle ready for a conversation. Literally we have the most amazing story in John chapter 4 because he was going out into all the world, wherever people hang out at, okay? And preach. The word preach there doesn't mean preacher, it just means to speak. It means to proclaim. It just means to open up your mouth is all the word means, all right? The gospel. What's the word gospel mean? Good news. Okay. 2012 America. Don't we need some good news? We need some good news. So we need good news. We have the good news. But it's beyond good. It's actually great news and do that, okay? And to every creature. Why do we speak to every person? Because every person needs Jesus Christ. And once you realize every person needs Jesus Christ and we've got Jesus Christ, you want to engage those conversations and do that. I was in Orlando, Florida a couple years ago for something and I played college basketball with Charles Barkley. So hanging out with Barkley is something. Well, Tiger Woods happened to be there as well. And so when I was hanging out with Barkley and Tiger, we were actually on a golf course, I started walking with Tiger. I said, Tiger, I always wanted to ask you a question. He said, go for it. I said, Tiger, I said, when you die, I said, what do you think's on the other side? What do you think's out there when you walk out? He literally stops dead square in his tracks, stares up at me and says, I don't know. And it struck up a 10 or 12 minute conversation on the topic of God. Why? I care about his soul. Now when I started the conversation, was I nervous? Yes or no? Yeah. Very simple statement. Make sure you let your love of God trump your fear of man. Very simple. I repeat this to myself on the streets many times. I'll repeat it to myself. I guarantee it's warm at Atlanta airport. Mark, make sure you let your love of God trump your fear of man. I deal with fear of man issues. I deal with worrying what people think about me in people's eyes. None of us like rejection and all that stuff. But I want to make sure my love of God trumps my fear of man, okay? Because I do love God. I do deal with the issue of fear of man. But you know what? My love has to trump that, okay? And so one of the things my book will show you, my other books as well, I just walk people through the Ten Commandments so they can see their sin. Because a lot of people want to know why the cross. See many people are going to tell you, well Jesus is fine for you, because Muhammad's fine for them and Buddha's fine for them and Confucius is fine for them. But why the cross? But always remember, a sinner understands a savior. A savior makes more sense to a sinner. Because once you know you've sinned, you want to know how to get rid of that sin. Does that make sense? Right. So once you go to the doctor's office, you have a problem, whatever the problem is, what's the next thing you want to know? What's the solution to get rid of the problem, okay? So I just walk people through the Ten Commandments. So I asked Tiger, I said, you ever told a lie before? He said, yeah. I said, what does it make you? He said, a liar. All right. Now, a lot of people will say sinner, will say human, something like that. So I just go, if you murder, you're a murderer. If you rape, you're a rapist. If you tell a lie, you'd be what? Liar. Let them say liar, okay? I said, Tiger, you ever stole something before? He said, yeah. I was about to say, what does that make you? But you always keep eye contact, okay, with people. His whole face, literally, his face contorted, it popped. He took a half step back. He was trying to get out of the conversation. The Bible says the law is written on your what? Heart. You see, I was in his business in two questions, because that's what the law does. It brings conviction, exactly what the scriptures say. But Galatians 3 says the law will carry you unto the cross, is what it says, all right? I saw what was happening, so I just went around it. I said, you know what, Tiger, it makes all of us a thief. Now, isn't that correct? Yeah. See, I don't talk down to people. I talk with people. They're no different than us, except for the grace of God, and aren't you thankful for the grace of God? Aren't you thankful for the blood of the cross, Lord Jesus Christ? It's my only hope. I have no hope beyond that, trust me, all right? So it keeps you talking with. So I said, you know, Tiger, it makes all of us a thief. All of a sudden, he puts his foot back. Ever lusted in your heart before? He said, yeah. I said, Jesus said, even looking upon a woman with lust is the same as committing what? Adultery. Ever been angry with somebody? He said, yeah. I said, anger without cause is the same as committing what? Murder, Jesus says. I do prison minister work. I've wound up on death row a few times, and every murder I met, anger first, shot and killed their wife over something. Anger first, knife to buddy over a dice game. Just a couple days ago, going to Atlanta Airport on the MARTA train, sat next to a guy who spent 48 years in prison for murder, 48 years in prison for murder. He spent out two years. He's 75 years old. He spent out two years. But something happened along the way. He got saved in prison. Can you get saved? Can God forgive murder? You'll get to meet Moses and David one day who were forgiven of murder, okay? He can forgive it. You never want to walk down that road. It doesn't take the punishment away. He had to spend all those years in jail, but he was very thankful what Jesus Christ did, okay? So I just said, Tiger, you just told me by God's standard, keep pointing to God, you'd be a liar, a thief, an adulterer, and a murderer. Would you be guilty or not guilty on Judgment Day? What did he say? Guilty. I said, would that mean heaven or would that mean hell? What did he say? Hell. Hell, okay. Now, I can't remember if I asked him this, but I usually do. I always ask people, does that bother you that you'd be going to hell? And it's a good question to ask. I don't mind ruining your day a little bit if your eternity is about to be ruined, okay? No problem with it, okay? But you can say that in a loving way because I'm about to give you a solution. And I can't remember if I asked him that or not, okay? And all of a sudden, we end up getting cut off for a certain reason. We were at a commercial shoot for Nike, but he had to go do some more stuff. Barkley was done, so we were leaving. We're cut off. So right when I get to the good stuff, right, the cross, we're literally cut off. Within one week, Tiger came up here for a golf tournament in Atlanta. Within one week, three different people who found out about the conversation got to finish where I got stopped at. They got to finish with the cross, the blood, the resurrection. One was a high school kid. He was an FCA kid up here. He was a little bit older now. He graduated from, played football at Georgia. But he ran into Tiger downtown or something. But he was a kid I met in high school who boldly shared in high school, boldly witnessed at Georgia. Then he ran into Tiger, so he boldly witnessed at Tiger as well. Close to my house. I said, Paul planted, Apollos watered, but God gives the increase. So I just did as much as I could. I wanted to go farther with Tiger, but you just get what you can get, right, and do that. But isn't God gracious to bring the one behind that, okay? But see, they know we care about them, because we go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature, okay? Matthew chapter four, verse 19, Matthew 4, 19, a verse you've all heard. Jesus speaking, says, and he saith unto them, follow me, and I will make you wealthy beyond your dreams. Okay, I went to Auburn, let me try that again, okay? I said, follow me, and I'll make you healthy all the days of your life. Follow me, and I'll make sure your kids are healthy, and they get a full Hope scholarship one day to college. Follow me, I'll make sure your bank account is full when the economy goes down. He never says any of this stuff. He says, come follow me, I'll make you what? Fishers of men. Why? It's the highest call in life. There is no higher call in life than fishing for lost people. Jesus said, I came to seek and to save those who are lost, okay? And people who are lost need directions, is that right? I'm in the Baltimore airport on Monday flying out. I saw someone get off a plane, they're looking around for, you know, the TVs in front of where they're going. So I said, hey, can I help you out? Okay, it's not my airport, but I don't know, I can help people, give them directions, right? Yeah, and gave them directions, help them go with that. It was amazing. Then you get into a spiritual conversation, because people get lost, right? We all get lost. I was in a Tokyo airport a year and a half ago, and I was lost as all get out of the Tokyo airport, okay? But someone helped me out, got me going where I needed to go. Don't we need to help people out spiritually? Get them headed in the right direction where they need to go in a conversation, a question, a book, a seed that's planted can do that. You'll be amazed how God can use that in people's lives. I was about a year and a half ago flying to Newark for something, and the guy next to me, Darren, we're talking back and forth, and he worked for the CIA. So I kept asking him all these questions he couldn't answer. It was a lot of fun. And I kept trying to pick his brain on deeper stuff, but I guess I didn't have a high enough security clearance or anything, and so we couldn't talk about some of that stuff. So we're talking back and forth, and I didn't have an answer. We start talking. Well, then he tells me he's an agnostic. Now, a good thing to remember, remember two things here. When you're sharing your faith in Jesus Christ, if you learn this one simple thing here, you'll be ahead of 90% of all people when it comes to witnessing. Sharing your faith in Jesus Christ, okay? It isn't a presentation. Sharing your faith in Jesus Christ is a conversation. Very easy, simple thing to remember. Sharing your faith isn't a presentation. Sharing your faith in Jesus is a conversation. Jesus had a conversation with the woman of the well, the rich young woman. Paul had a conversation with Agrippa, with Felix, okay? So all we do is go out and have conversations, and then during the conversation, we present things during the conversation. Does that make sense? Okay, can all of us have conversations? As a matter of fact, we all do. We have them all the time. Welcome to the business world. But the question is, are we going to leave them at temporary conversations, or are we ever going to make these eternal conversations that God can do something to life with, okay? Watch what happens. He told me he's agnostic. Now, the other thing to remember, if you don't know what a term means in a conversation, just ask him. Hey, what do you mean by agnostic? What do you mean by atheist? What do you mean by Muslim? What do you mean by evolutionist? What do you mean by Christian? That's a good one to ask. You'll get all kinds of answers to that one, all right? So what do you mean by, and as you ask questions, it builds friendship between people, and then you get to get more of the, you get to figure out where you're going to go in a conversation as they answer. You see what door opens up, right? So he told me he's an agnostic, so we started talking about stuff like that. All of a sudden, Darren looks at me and says, oh, by the way, he said, I was on flight 93 on September 11th. Now, wait a minute. Flight 93 was the plane that went down where? Pennsylvania, where everybody, what, died, but they're all still, they're all still alive. All those people are still alive 10 years later somewhere. They're all still alive. Think about that, okay? So obviously, he wasn't on the plane flight. So I said, what do you mean? Remember, September 11th was a Tuesday. He said, the Friday before, his boss called and said, Darren, I need you to get to California a day earlier, okay? So he switches his flight to flight 93 on September 10th, 2000. It says, on my wall, he said, there's a picture frame with a ticket in there. Flight 93, September 11th, 2001, okay? So this is what I said to Darren. An agnostic basically means he's not sure there's a God, hasn't seen evidence to push him one way or the others, but most people believe that to me. So this is what I said to Darren. I said, Darren, was that luck? Was that chance? Or was that God that kept you off that plane flight? He looked at me and said, yes, yes, yes, okay? I mean, Darren knew something kept him off that plane flight, all right? I said, Darren, the reason God kept you off the plane flight is so you could hear the rest of the story. And I gave him the rest of the story, the good news of God in Jesus Christ. He loves to read. He gave him one of my books and stuff. So you plant the seed in someone's life, then it's their choice what they do with that. Does that make sense? All right, but see, I can't just, and the other thing to remember is I'm working on a new book and I'm talking about something in there called friendship evangelism. People said, I can't witness to somebody if I don't make friends with them first, all right? One, there's only a couple of problems with that. One, you'll never see it in the Bible. You'll never see the term friendship evangelism in the Bible. I did a men's conference in California and I asked the men, I said, you men, if you could add X amount of friends to your life, whatever's going on in your life, how many could you add? So wrestle with that again with yourself. Just wrestle how many you could actually add to your life. The most I've ever heard is five. Usually it's one or two. The last guy, sir, he said zero. I said, okay. I said, why? He said, my life is so busy. I am spending so much time at my job and stuff like that. When I'm not working, I want to spend time with my wife and my kids. Wasn't it good to hear a man say he wants to spend time with his wife and kids? That was a great thing to hear from a guy, okay? But so what does that mean? Does that mean then I don't talk to the UPS guy that delivers the stuff to my house? Does that mean I don't talk to the Xerox people that come to our workplace? That we don't talk to waiters like Dan the other night and waitresses? No, I believe God orders our steps to do that. And remember, take it from a stranger perspective. A lot of strangers love talking to other strangers because they can tell you things, what? That they couldn't even tell their closest of people. I am stunned to this day the things I hear from people, okay? Because they feel, and if you're easy to chat with, and if you speak the truth in what? Love, Ephesians 4, 15. If we speak the truth in love, actually it's a comfort zone for them to do that. And by the way, every friend you have today began as a complete total what? Stranger. You folks who are married, at one point in the past, your spouse was a complete total what? Stranger. And be honest, aren't you glad you talked to that stranger? Yes or no? One amen? There should have been more than one amen. And yeah, so we just go talk to people and do that, okay? And never be ashamed. I'm looking forward to the people, if I wake up tomorrow morning, the people I get to run into and chat with tomorrow and do that. Don't turn there, but I'm just gonna real quick, Ezekiel 3, verse 18. When I say unto the wicked, thou shalt surely die, and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life, that same wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood will I require at thine, your hand. God is saying, if you do not chat with your friends, people you run into that he puts in front of you, okay? That I'll require the blood at your hands. Because that's why he put him there, because as a Christian, we have a very simple job just to warn people. It's their choice what they do at the warning. When the tornado sirens go off, isn't it people's choice whether to go underground and do that? It's totally their choice. But wasn't it great that the city had tornado sirens and did that? Yeah, it's a gracious thing. When you warn somebody about eternity, it means you care about them. You love them enough to do that. I've looked at Charles Barkley. I've witnessed with Charles a few different times, and I've told Charles to his face, I said, Charles, I love hanging out with you here. I said, Charles, I don't wanna hang out with you here. So I wanna hang with you there. Okay, because life is so short. Eternity is so long. And if you care about somebody, we want to address that and cross that bridge on that topic. Because the other thing is, how would they ever know to come and chat with you when the serious questions begin in life if you haven't tried to open up the door just a little bit? You see? See, Charles knows who he can talk to when he wants to open up that door and do that. He can come and call now because we've crossed that bridge a few different times, right? But he wants nothing to do with it now. That's his choice, all right? But I'm ready for the time. He is ready for that. And his wife, Maureen, is ready for that, all right? But I wanna know if they can chat with me about that and do that, right? I was on a plane flight last year heading to Wichita, sitting down, chatting with the guy next to me. I don't have an in yet, all right? So this is a very easy way to witness somebody. I said, hey, Joe, can I ask you an interesting question? Very easy one. What does everyone say to that one? Sure, what do you got? Okay, I said, Joe, when you were younger as a kid, I use this all the time, works on any age group. When you were younger as a kid, did you grow up in any religious faith or belief or tradition as a child? He said, sure, I grew up Methodist, all right? Most everyone grows up in something, okay? Day on my way to the night, grew up in nothing as a kid. His parents said, just choose. Whatever you wanna do, you can choose it later in life. Christian parents in here, read Deuteronomy 6 sometime. I think the number one thing you will be judged on in front of God is how you raised your kids. It'd be the number one thing. It will not be how your kids turned out. That's their choice as they get older. It's how you raised your kids, okay? I think it's the number one thing a parent would be judged on, all right? So don't beat yourself up if son or daughter has strayed from the path. You set the foundation, is that right? Oh, and God's not done yet because they're still breathing, is that correct? They're still breathing. There's all kinds of hope in the world to do that, okay? So always remember that. So we laid that foundation for the kids and do that. But you taught your kids, you wouldn't let your kids, okay, you just decide on your own if you're gonna brush your teeth. You just decide on your own if you're gonna eat vegetables or not. And if you do that, none of you did that with your kids, okay? We don't do that with people. So you just decide on your own if you're gonna believe in God or not. No, no, that's the most important thing you can ever lay in someone's life. So I asked Joe, I said, Joe, now that you're older, is it more important or less important to you? See, now it's interesting because you ask people now that they've gotten older, is that belief they had more important or less? Which one will most people tell you? Most people will tell you less, okay? Then I always say, by the way, as you get older, we're getting closer to dying. So shouldn't it be, whatever it is, we need to be thinking about it because we're about to hit it pretty soon walking out there and stuff, okay? I said, Joe, more important or less important? He looked and he said, less important with a little bit of edge to it. So this is what I said. I said, Joe, did anything happen along the way to kind of push you away from God? He said, yes, it did, with a definite edge to it. So whenever I get that, this is how I handle it and it seems to work. I said, Joe, if you feel comfortable, can you tell me what happened? You never wanna push somebody to walk into an arena to talk about something that they don't wanna talk about. Okay, does that make sense what I'm saying? Okay, I just had a man tell me the other day he was raped by a Catholic priest when he was six years old at a Catholic school in France. Okay, he opened up and told me this in Hampton Inn in Scottsbluff, Nebraska and he was an atheist. Was there any shocking reason why he was an atheist? There wasn't shocking, okay? But I knew there was something. I didn't know what it was though. But once I got to that point, before we walked away, he took one of the books and I was gonna give him a hug because I had decided before that man took his last breath and walked up planet Earth, that he was gonna get a positive touch from a man of God instead of a negative touch from what he thought was a man of God. So I reached over, I shook his hand, I pulled it in to hug him, okay, after our conversation and he pulled in and I put my, man, we just had this hug in the middle of a checkout counter in Hampton Inn in Scottsbluff, Nebraska. It was a chance I took, but I just wanted to make sure he had a positive touch from a man of God and not just negative what he thought the whole time, okay? So you can walk into some crazy areas, but if they're not ready to talk about it, you can't push them in that area, okay? Joe, if you feel comfortable, can you tell me what happened? He puts his head down, he starts nodding his head. You ever had that awkward silence in a conversation? It was a long one. It's never as long as you think it is, but it was long in my opinion. He pulls his head up, he says, okay. He said, a stalker came after my daughter. We had to get the police involved. He said, the stalker came after my wife. We had to get the police involved. He said, the stalker broke the restraining order. He was arrested, thrown in juvenile detention center. He's only 17 years old. Can 17-year-olds do wicked things? Yes or no? Yes, that's why we need to reach 17-year-olds for Jesus Christ, because you have a 17-year-old doing great things for the most high God. See, that's why all I do is I see where Satan's working hard and just go walk right in the middle of it. That's where we belong, right where he's working hard, because light only shines in what? Darkness. We want to go to those places. That's how you light it up for the Lord and do that. I'm looking for people who are throwing their lives away on Friday and Saturday evenings when I meet him at work on Monday. I'm looking for this person to take the lunch Monday afternoon and bless their life and ask a few questions, because I know that world can't satisfy you. The Bible is very clear about that, okay? And he said one morning he wakes up at 5 a.m. after his 17-year-old daughter lets out a blood-curdling scream at 5 a.m. He comes running out of the bedroom. The stalker is standing in the middle of his house with a rifle. He had shot out the sliding glass door and is standing in the middle of his house with a rifle. All right? Now think about for a second, if you had someone in your house with a rifle, what would you do? And you men think about this. I speak at men's caucus across the country. I was doing some chapel services for the Cardinals and the Cubs this summer, some of the pro tapes. I have the men give me answers. I don't let them just sit there. I make them give me answers. What are you going to do if you have a gunman that pulls a gun on you? All that bullet can do is send you where you've been wanting to go. You swear you've been wanting to go your whole life down here. Do we really just read the verse in Philippians 1 for me to live as Christ and to die as what? Gain? Do we just read it or do we actually believe that's really true? That all dreams come true the day I die. I have told my friends, don't you dare. When I used to teach school, I told my students, if Mr. Cahill dies before you, don't you dare shed a tear at his funeral. Dreams came true on that day, okay? Because either this is the biggest fairy tale going, all right, or we've hit the eternal jackpot when we take our last breath. It's one or the other. Figure out which one it is, and that's how you live your life. You'll live your life that way to do that. I said, Joe, what'd you do? He said, I took off. He took off after that boy. Two bullets to the stomach. I said, what'd you do? He said, I kept going. He kept going. He tackled that young boy. They're resting. So it's very bloody. He slips out of my hands. He gets out of the house. The police catch him down the street. He's laying on the floor in his house. And all of a sudden, he said, he's laying on the floor. He said, wait a minute. He said, where's my wife at? He gets up. He goes to the front door, opens the front door. His wife is laying face down in the snow, shot and killed. The gunman was waiting behind a bush, shot and killed his wife when she came home from work. Came to the back house, shot up. And that's how the rest of the story played out. So Joe was sitting there. And he said, and I have a question for you. Well, conversations go what? They go both directions. OK. They go both directions. And what does 1 Peter 3 says? Always be ready to give a defense of what you believe. OK. I said, Joe, what's your question? He said, how can there be a God with my wife who is dead and this man who is still alive in a prison in Ohio? Is that a legitimate question? That's as legit as I come from. And we began to talk. We talked and talked and talked. I said, we'll get towards the end. I said, Joe, do you like to read? He said, no, I don't. So I gave him one of my books. And I don't give up easy. I really don't. And it's a different one than what you have on the table. It's called One Heartbeat Away. It's more geared for seekers and searchers, lost people. And by the time we landed in Wichita, Kansas, he was 55 pages into the book. He said, this has really helped me answer my questions. Whoops, there we go. He has what? And we've got what? We've got the answers people are looking for. He's looking for hope. He even told me as we land the plane, he said, I rarely ever share this story. Happened in the 90s. It was almost 20 years ago. But to him, it was like yesterday because he had to relive it. Every time he tells it, he said, Oprah tried to get him to sell it. Jesse Raphael tried to get him on. So he wouldn't do none of that stuff because he didn't want to go through this again and do that. But he's still needed. Joe doesn't get to heaven because his wife was shot and killed. Joe gets to heaven when he repents of his sins and believes upon the Lord Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of his sins. And if we care about the Joes of the world, we need to talk with the Joes of the world. And I care about the Joes of the world. He shook my hand twice, thanking me for the conversation and stuff. So our job is to plant the seed, go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature, their choice, what they do with that, okay? As a matter of fact, I was just checking my emails coming over here and I got an email from a security guard at a mall I witnessed during Christmas season. I tried to hit all the malls in Atlanta, walk up and just chat with people and stuff because sinners love buying gifts and I like talking to them. So it's like a perfect combination at Christmas time. I've gotten one email from a lady at Lenox and I've gotten a Phipps and one email from a security guard today at another mall just emailed me today asking for my books, if he could have a book to read and stuff like that. So we just look for opportunities everywhere we go and do that. On your table, I wrote a book called One Thing You Can't Do in Heaven. What's the one thing you can't do in heaven? Share with a lost person, because why? Not gonna be there. Ever gonna reach him, gotta reach him where? Here, when? Now, that's what the book is. All the basics on witnessing, okay? How to break through the fear of rejection, the winning, winning, winning chapter. People tell me that one chapter just changes their life. Good questions to get started. The chapter called Say What? So we taught you a couple there. I have a friend in Toronto. He's an oil salesman, he sells oil. So when he starts doing his sales calls on Monday, his first question, hey, what'd you do this weekend? So he's just talking to people. What's the question coming back his direction? Hey, what'd you do this weekend? Well, Saturday, I did this with my family. Sunday, I go to church and stuff over here. Hey, by the way, do you have any spiritual background, anything like that? He just uses his weekend question to get rolling on a spiritual question, Mondays, Tuesdays, sales calls and stuff like that. And even told me, his boss told me, he needs to tone that down just a little bit, his boss said. There's only one problem, he's the top salesman at the company, you see? And one boss, a boss won't get rid of what? The top salesman at the company. So always remember, as a Christian, we're the best worker at our place. Public school teachers ask me all the time, how can I witness in a public school? I said, simple, be the best teacher in the school. I used to be a school teacher. I said, be the best teacher in the school. One thing a principal will not do is get rid of the best teacher, impossible. They shall not do that. They don't have enough good ones, okay? They won't, I'm telling you, okay? Be the best worker at your place, always a good attitude, always encouraging people, always helping people out and watch God give you favor. But don't ever think you're gonna give 50% effort and God give you favor. It doesn't work that way, okay? So we give our best effort as Christians everywhere we go and do that. In this book here, I got to witness to a Satanist, an atheist, Charles Barkley's in this book, Alex Rodriguez, Michael Jordan's in this book. Why, I met him. If I met him, I'd meet people, I'd throw a question out and just see what happens. So it's a real fun, easy book to read. I ran into Herschel Walker, remember Herschel, the football player? I ran into him the other day in the Atlanta airport. So I started talking, we started witnessing stuff. He seemed to have a pretty strong faith in Jesus Christ. Do you like to read? I always ask that question. He said, oh yeah, I love to read. So I gave him the book, One Thing You Can't Do in Heaven. He said, what's the one thing you can't do in heaven? I said, well, you couldn't share with lost people because they wouldn't be there. You remember Herschel, that big smile he gets. And then we talked about if you believe in Jesus, stand up for what you believe and do that. And then I gave each one of my DVDs. I've done The Holiness of God or Lukewarm No More. There's a couple of talks on each one. Then those little booklets, they're so much fun to give away. The one second after you die, it's like a mini, it's like a big track. How to prove a God, how to prove a Bible true, all the facts to back it up. You're going to like the facts to do that. We have a lot of business people. They just leave a few on their desk, on the corner of their desk. People walk by and say what? Hey, what's that? OK, well, it's a book. You want one? Yes, they take it. Then when they take the book or whatever you give them, a couple of them say, hey, did you start reading that yet? Hey, what did you think about it? Bingo, easy hook to walk through. Anyone ever heard there's many paths to heaven? Ever heard that one? The second greatest lie booklet is that's what it is. We go through the top nine religions where they teach Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Roman Catholic, Jehovah's Witness, everything. Wait a minute. You read the top nine religions, guess what? They all contradict each other. How can they go to the same place if they contradict each other? Because they don't go to the same place, only through the blood of Jesus Christ when we get where we want to go. So those are for you. I just wanted to bless you all with those. Jesus said it's more blessed to give than receive. So enjoy those. But let them pass through your hands and other people's lives. And let's bless some other people and do that, OK? Time is precious. You had a good meal, heard a talk. Teenagers many times will ask me, well, how do you think the talk went? And I always tell them, I said, I don't care. I said, wait a minute. I said, well, if you're not doing something a month with it from now or six months, we just wasted our time together, had a good time together. We don't need to waste our time. People are dying. We need a sense of urgency today, all right? I'm so glad I went to Auburn because four people told me about God and Jesus Christ. OK, that's why I like Auburn. No other reason. No other reason. That's it. Oh, you've been there, too? And that's it. I'm so thankful to those four people. And I can remember all their names 30 years later because I knew how much they cared about me to share the gospel, OK? Make sure everyone in your workplace, every stranger you meet at a gas station, waiter just knows you care about them as well, OK? And let's keep speaking the truth, all right? But let's speak the truth in what? Love all the days of our lives. Father, we thank you so much for a good chance to get here. Thanks for Priority Associates and all that it's doing to impact the workplace here in Atlanta. Father God, I've had people ask me to move to other cities, but I always tell them I want to see Atlanta, Georgia come to Jesus Christ first. Well, we only got about 5 million people to reach, Father, but it doesn't take a whole lot for 12 people to change the world 2,000 years ago. 100 people right here could literally turn Atlanta, Georgia upside down in the coming days. Father, make sure they understand the urgency and the biblical man to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. We thank you for it. We ask it in the great name of your son, Jesus Christ. Amen.