How’s Your Faith?

Welcome back to Ignite. I hear of my good friend Steve Amerson. Did I get that right? You got it right. Amerson. Yeah. Okay. So much fun hanging out with you and we couldn't get it all into one episode. So I begged to come back and do a second one. But this thing of sharing faith is fun. It's fun. It is amazing. And you know what? I've learned that I shared in an earlier episode. You know, I asked people what then you'd got to do for them. Another line that I will sometimes use just as an icebreaker, I'll just say, how's your faith? And I picked that up very actually. President Bush 43 asked a reporter, David Gregory, who used to be at NBC one day. President Bush says to David Gregory, who's Jewish, said, how's your faith? David ended up writing a book entitled How's Your Faith? How's your faith? And you know what? That is also just a great, just a tool and not not to not to be wrote, not to use all the time. But if you ask someone, how's your faith? Yeah. It will make them think. And it's not saying if you were to die tonight, are you going to go to heaven or do, you know, that do you believe in Jesus? But just, hey, Barry, just make it as simple as possible. Yeah. Not an offensive as possible. How's your faith? And you know what? As believers, sometimes our faith is right on top and some days, quite honestly, we're struggling. So, yeah, there answer would not be the same every day, you know, I say it's somewhat similar to that. I often say to people, do you have a faith experience in your life, just something to just throw it, kind of just kind of, you know, you have, is there faith, past year in your life, is there something that drives you to faith? And there's a hundred way. I always try to say it a little differently every time, so that's not saying just the same words every time. But yeah, you just throw up the saying of faith. And I've found that people are generally speaking, you're not bothered by that because they're just saying, yeah, but you, even by that quick answer, you know, where they are. Just like, you know, no, as I, as I fly, I will encounter people. I never know who's going to be seated next to me. And, oh, it was probably two or three months ago. I'm loading in and I see the guy that's going to be my seat mate. And he's probably 40-ish. He's wearing real hip jeans, a real hip t-shirt, a Yamaka, and a bunch of chains. Oh, the perfect candidate. Perfect. And so, you know, a lot of times people will, the adult say, you know, what do you do? Or where are you going? I'm going to Washington, D.C. And what do you do? I said, normally I say, well, I'm in communications. Because A, I sing. Yeah. But I'm communicating. Yeah. I'm communicating when I sing. And when I involve in D.C. I'm a communicator. And then they start digging more. Yeah. They want to know more. And so, I just don't dump the whole truck load on them all at once. I let them pull out and pull out of me. I caught chumming. Yeah. I'm chumming. I'm just throw some chum and let them see. So, there's a sequence to that. I'm throwing it out there. What I love with every face share I met who is prolific at it has found they don't have to beat people up. They could just sit there and relax and give some chum. Absolutely. And see if they're interested. You can't beat people into Christianity, force them to listen to you. But when they want them to listen to you. If I go in like this, yeah, forget it. But it was interesting by the end of the trip before we, before we landed. And I got to know a bit about Robert, his life, his business, his partner, his lifestyle. But before we landed, I prayed for him. I didn't ask permission. I prayed for him and I prayed and I closed my prayer in the name of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jesus. And he was so open. We traded business cards. We have texted some sense. He's intrigued. He's intrigued by my life by what I do. He had never, and I have another Jewish friend that I often will say, okay, I'm going to be praying for you. And a couple of months back, he said, you're the only person who said you're going to pray for me and you do it. When I, I normally, if I tell someone I'm going to pray for them, I do it right then. Yeah, yeah, you do it then. And then you resolve to do it. And when you tell somebody you got to pray for them and you don't pray for them and it goes badly for them, you've misrepresented God. I mean, you better be careful who you tell people you're going to pray for them. Because if you say it, you need to do it before God, you need to do it. My friend Frank said you're the only person who was actually prayed for me. I'm also, you know, we do have a thing on our Ignite America app. It's a prayer app. It's a prayer app. On our Ignite America app, we have a prayer app. You go to that and you can actually put down the person's name, okay? You ask him what the problem is. They say, why? But I want to take care for note, okay? So next week, I won't have to worry, is it their ankle or their niece or their cousin or dog head, sure what you got it all down there, okay? You put it all down and then with a touch of a button, you can send them a text or an email that will get to them and you'll say, hi, this is very required. I was, we talked to the Walmart store and I told you I'd pray for you and I've been doing that on a regular basis. Can you give me an update on what's going on so I can pray with more intelligence? Whoa. Do we actually have an app that allows us to do that? Because how do you get home and what's their name? Suzy or Jenny or was it their ankle or their aunt or when you do it all day long. So you do it and people are impressed, I'm going to, I'm going to actually pray for you. They'll give you the information and then you send them, you could give them a custom one. Wow. And actually write it yourself. You're just been on my heart today. I told you I pray for it today, particularly God asked me to pray for you. What should I pray for you about Suzy? You do a custom one or you just said one that's just, it says, I've been praying for you. Give me an update. You can do either one. That's a prayer app on NickditeAmerican.com. It's amazing. It's amazing. Go ahead. I'm sorry. I'm just going to say, that was a commercial. I think we did. It's fine. It's your show. You know, I'm looking to stop you. But I think that we need to demystify, I'll use that word, sharing our faith and praying for people. When I grew up, I remembered, you know, one tool was the four spiritual laws, which are fantastic. And there was a program called evangelism, explosion. I went through both of them. Exactly. I remember they've saved millions of people. Oh, I'm a guide for both of them. On Monday night, people from our church would go visit people. Yeah, we did that. And those tools are so, and I think they're still viable for today. They are. They are. But we don't in today's culture, we don't visit people at their home very much. No, you couldn't really do that. But you can't ask for a better entree than to text someone or to send them an email. And see, people will learn. There's one particular office that I visit a lot. And the people that work in the office just know that I'm a person of faith that I'm positive. And I was in there. And you're available. I'm available. And it's probably two months ago. I walked in and one of the girls behind the desk, her name is Virginia. She said, can you get me a Bible? There you go. There you go. Why? Why did she ask me? What is it? I never, what is it that she saw people were watching? She Virginia saw something in me and she knew that I could be a source of faith. To share your faith is not just the word you say. It's everything you do. It is your kindness. People are watching you. And if you're rude to somebody and different to somebody, if something in a mode of emotion, a word comes out that doesn't make any sense. If you're indulging in crazy things, you know, just because you think you can. All those things, they've, everything we say and do, everything you say and do is moving everyone closer or further away from God. Everything. I had one guy come up to me in Monterey in the middle of Pebble Beach with all the thousand people. He sat and waited for me and he says, I just wanted to say thank you. I said, what for? He says, you led me to the Lord. He's you and I've never met. But I saw you talk about the Lord several years ago and I go to a lot of car shows all over the country and you're often there. And I've sat back and just watched how you treated people. And what you said, I would listen. I was there. A lot. You never met me. But when I, when I thought you I realized you were the real thing and that's a God I wanted to serve. He says, I accepted the Lord and now I'm sharing my faith. I never spoke to him. You didn't have to because I did. You spoke to him and then the Holy Spirit amplified everything you say and do is movie. Everybody watched you closer for the way for God. I've just an emphasis on what you're already talking about. Absolutely. So true. Absolutely. It's so true. And you know, again, I've entered the program. I love them and I've learned from them and they've saved millions of lives. Here's the problem. Most people have never gone to those programs. And they use that as an excuse. I'm not trained. You don't have to be trained to love on people. Jesus said, no, no, you're my disciple by your love. And again, I say it over and over you, but the most prolific of all faith shares are new Christians who don't even know scripture. They don't know they're doing it. I love Jesus. He's their first love. And the first thing you do, first love is Jesus first thing you do. Your first work is telling people about him. And so it's all good. Absolutely. I get sick. I hesitate to ask, but could we talk about one more of these? Absolutely. Could we do that? Absolutely. Would you like to have me back for one more little segment? I think that would be pretty cool. All right. Can we do that? All right. Come back. Okay. Come back and see us on Ignite.