<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Lansing SDA Church

Wes Peppers

Draw Your Swords

Yesterday I was at Meijer, right down here on Saginaw, and I was doing my shopping.

It wasn't terribly long before Sabbath, about probably about an hour before Sabbath, I needed to just pick up a few quick things.

And I had my cart and I was going around and I was on my way to the very last thing, but I didn't know where I was.

So I'm looking around in this particular department and there's a young man named Alex working at the store, he's 20 years old, and I just felt like I should talk to him.

You ever get that feeling, that impression from the Lord?

And so there I was standing there thinking to myself, Alex is doing something and he looks like he wants to talk to me too.

I was thinking, Lord, work this out, right?

So he's standing there with this piece of paper in his hand and he smiles at me and he says, he's a really nice guy, really nice guy, really nice guy.

And he says, someone left their shopping list.

And I said, oh, I've done that a few times.

And then I said, was there anything interesting on it?

And he said, oh, there's, he started listing off all these things.

And he said, there's a really, they wrote a really big garlic on there.

I said, I probably wouldn't want to be around them after they ate that, right?

I started talking to him and asked him, you know, how long he'd work there and if he goes to school and so forth.

And I just felt like the Lord wanted the conversation to turn spiritual, but it was kind of awkward talking to this guy because he's the kind of guy, and I've got to be careful what I say in case he comes to church someday, that doesn't like initiate a lot of conversation.

You have to keep digging for something to say.

So we just made some small talk and I'm starting to think, man, it's starting to get closer to Sabbath and I've got to get my stuff and go and, But I felt like I had to say something spiritual to the guy.

So I said, Oh, you should come to our youth group sometime, our young adult group.

And he just kind of looked at me and I said, Here, let me give you my name and my number And if you ever want to come to it, I said we have a lot of fun, food and stuff, and we have a little study, and you can come to that.

And I'm just thinking, it's almost Sabbath, I've got to go.

So I hand him the thing and he says, sure, okay, I'll think about it.

And as I'm going, I'm thinking to myself, that's not what the Lord wanted me to say.

And the conviction grows and I thought, man, the Lord really wants me to talk to this guy, but what do I do now?

So I'm pushing my cart, I'm on my way to the checkout and then all of a sudden something happens.

And then I thought, I stole someone else's cart too.

So I start to go back, and I'm going back and I'm thinking, this must be from the Lord, this is my opportunity now to talk to Alex again.

So I go back and I'm looking for my cart, but more importantly I'm looking for Alex.

And there he was, still stocking the shelf.

And he looks in the cart, he says, that's my cart.

And I said, well, it's a good thing, man.

I said, because I was about to go purchase all this stuff.

So I found my cart and I start to talk to Alex again and I said, Alex what kind of things do you like to do?

And I said yeah and he said video games and he lists off some other stuff.

But the first thing he said triggered my mind.

I said, what kind of stuff do you like to read?

He says, oh, he says, I read a lot of sci-fi.

He says, I read a little bit about World War II.

And I'm just praying, Lord, it's very hard to talk to this young man.

Usually I don't have a problem talking to people.

I said, so if you want me to talk about something spiritual, you're going to have to bring it up.

I said, So what interests you about reading in World War II?

What you have to learn when you're witnessing to people is you don't always have to think of things to say, you just have to learn how to ask questions.

And you can just ask questions and it usually leads to these other things.

So he says, well he says it's interesting that I find that all the wars I read about, he says, often times religion is the back-lying cause of the war.

I said, so tell me a little bit more about it.

So we talked a little bit and I said, you know, I said, I have an amazing book for you.

I said, it's called The Great Controversy.

And I said, and it talks about why religion became so corrupt.

And where it's headed and how it's going to be purified in the future.

And then he said, you know, he says, I don't know.

But he says, but God, I don't really know much about Him.

He says, I'm kind of skeptical because He's never really done anything personally in my life.

Now I knew why God wanted me to talk to him.

And then I said, well, if you knew he wanted you to, if you knew he wanted to do something in your life, would you want him to?

I said, why don't we get lunch this next week?

So we're going to meet on Wednesday for lunch.

And I'm praying that God will give him an interest in Bible studies.

Is there somebody in your life that God wants you to talk to?

And then, you know, when that conversation, I thought, Lord, it's almost Sabbath.

And then his phone rang and he had to go dip out some fish for some customer.

I got out of there just in time, on my way home, and now I'm going to meet Alex next week.

Does the Lord have somebody in your life today that He wants you to meet?

Pray that prayer, Lord, lead me to somebody today.

Father in heaven, we thank you so much for this opportunity to know you.

We thank you so much for divine appointments that you lead us to.

And even if it has to do with the wrong cart, with the wrong stuff, you always know what you're doing, Lord.

Back to Menu

Draw Your Swords

Transcript

Sponsor

Recorded

Related

The Butterfly Effect

41m

Essentials for Salvation

01 Feasting on the Word

45m

The Word of God

The Rule of Faith

33m

Why the Jews Misinterpreted Bible Prophecy

43m

Faith in Action

Making God’s Word Come Alive

49m

GYC SE 2012 Seminar: Personal Evangelism

An Audience with God

59m

GYC 2012 Morning Devotional

Redefining Culture

54m

The Third and Final Glory

46m

Remodeling Your Life- God's Transforming Power

12- Becoming New

28m

Plenary

Sound Doctrine

43m

Anthony Baca Weekend 2019

The Intention of the Bible

49m

How to Study the Bible- Part 1

56m

Sound Doctrine