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[Music] The Night I Wrestled a Boa Constrictor, a message by Dr. Bruce W. Thielman. [Music] Will you attend with me now to the reading of God's Word as it is recorded in the Acts of the Apostles,

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the first chapter, beginning the reading at the verse numbered one. In the first part of my work, Theophilus, I wrote of all that Jesus did and taught, from the beginning until the day when, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen, he was taken up to heaven.

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He showed himself to these men after his death and gave ample proof that he was alive. Over a period of forty days he appeared to them and taught them about the kingdom of God. While he was in their company, he told them not to leave Jerusalem. "You must wait," he said, "for the promise made by my Father, about which you have heard me speak.

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John, as you know, baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit, and within the next few days." So when they were all together, they asked him, "Lord, is this the time when you are to establish once again the sovereignty of Israel?" He answered, "It is not for you to know about dates or times which the Father has set within his own control, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and all over Judea and Samaria and away to the ends of the earth."

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And when he had said this, as they watched, he was lifted up, and a cloud removed him from their sight. And may the same Spirit that inspired these words illumine our hearts to understand them. Pray with me. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen.

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Mark Twain remarked a long time ago that the parts of the Bible that gave him the greatest difficulty were not the parts he didn't understand, but the parts that he did understand. And I would like to most decidedly second that motion. I do not find myself becoming too disturbed at the profundities or the obscurities of Daniel or Hebrews or the book of Revelation.

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But the Sermon on the Mount, something that clear, really disturbs me. We are, you see, if we're honest, sometimes approached by Scripture so bluntly and so clearly that there's no place to run. And it's the passages that speak to us in just such a way that oft times cut us to the very quick. Take this word of Jesus, which I've just read to you from the first chapter of Acts.

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Jesus says to his disciples, that is, he says to us, "You are to be my witnesses." Now we can sit around and argue about millennial questions from now until the Lord Jesus returns, and none of us will get too excited about the question. But how do you feel when you are confronted with the word as clear as this, "You are to be my witnesses"?

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Many people are quite upset by that word. And they're usually upset because I think they have a wrong conception of what witnessing is. There are a lot of false ideas about witnessing. For example, there is the strong, silent type of witness.

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This is the individual who says he never announces his faith orally, but he tries to live the kind of life which will show his faith and will win others. Now there's a certain nobility in that. There's a poem which says, "I would rather see a sermon than hear one anytime."

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And we can all understand that. But it is, on the very face of it, insufferably conceited for anyone to suggest that they are going to be able to live a life that is so splendid that they are going to be able to testify to the Lord Jesus Christ in all of his fullness. If you hesitate to enter into witnessing because you believe that kind of lifestyle is required, then hesitate no more.

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Then there are some people whom we might call the clever and casual witnesses. These are the kind that leave a Bible tract in a telephone booth for the next person to find it. Some people showed me tracts in which Halloween candy was wrapped for their children this last year. And I suppose if that's the best you can do, it's all right.

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But it is pusillanimous in the extreme. It shows no courage whatever. And if you think that that kind of subtle, shifty witnessing is what is called for in Scripture and do not feel comfortable with it, then I have a word for you.

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You do not have to feel comfortable with that kind of thing. Then there are the witnesses who are inevitably inviting. These are the people who do not give you a personal expression of their faith, but always invite you to come and hear somebody else. Come to our church and hear our minister.

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Come to our Bible study group and hear our study. Come to our fellowship group and be a part of it. Never a personal word, but always an invitation to listen to someone else. If you find yourself not moving gracefully into that kind of witness, then do not be dismayed because it's a weak witness at the very best.

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Then, of course, there's the tremendous testimony type. This is the fellow who used to be a jewel thief and now he steals souls for Jesus. This is the football player who says that ever since he's committed himself to Christ, he hasn't missed a single place kick, extra point. Or this is the individual movie star, for example, who wants you to believe in Christ because after all, if he, a star, believes in him,

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then certainly you, a common person, ought to be able to believe in him also. And if you haven't had a life of sensational sin like the jewel thief, or if you are not a star, at least as you made your stars, and you backed off from witnessing for those reasons, then do not be discouraged because that's not witnessing as the Scriptures present it. And finally, there's what I call the breathlessly blessed group.

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They're full of doctrines and texts, and they always come on you with what I describe as the gospel of gush. They gush all over you, a whole host of verses, until you find yourself absolutely deluged in things you do not understand. If you think that that is what witnessing is to be and you do not have that kind of mastery of Holy Writ, and therefore if you back off from witnessing for that reason, I have a word of encouragement for you.

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There's not much testimony about that in Scripture either. The Scripture's picture of witnessing is a joyous, enthusiastic sharing of Jesus. There's an old line that goes that the amount of good that you do is related to how much fun you get out of it. I'm not sure that's always true, but insofar as witnessing is concerned, I think it's absolutely true.

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Biblical witness is joyous witness. Take, for example, the night that I wrestled a boa constrictor. Now, I was in Dayton, Ohio. I had just finished three days of preaching in Cincinnati and then went for a one-night stand in Dayton and then was to fly back to California.

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Now, I know as soon as I say that, that there are some people that will say, "Okay, preacher, you're flying all over the country and you're doing this witnessing and that's one thing, but I don't have occasion to fly very much, and so please excuse me. What you're talking about just doesn't fit my particular lifestyle."

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Please, I only make reference to the travel to set the context. You see, what I'm trying to point out is that witnessing begins with a sense of awareness where you are, wherever that place may be. I was talking to one of our students who drove to Pittsburgh and back yesterday,

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and I asked him how the trip was, and he said, "All right." And I said, "Did you see anything interesting?" And he said, "No." Now, this morning I had to drive to Pittsburgh to preach at the Pleasant Hills Church, and I drove back.

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On the way, I saw a field so full of pumpkins that it looked like the sun had fallen and broken into smithereens. I saw a silo at a farm that was wearing a halo of birds. I saw the clouds of the night holding on to the dawn. It was about 6.45 a.m.

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And I saw long lines of gray trees already beginning to protect the hills that the winter winds have wounded. All these things were there to be seen. A lot of people, you see, are not perceptive. They've lost the faculty of being surprised.

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And the first thing you have to be ready for if you're going to be a winning witness is the presence of surprise. Discover in any situation the opportunities that God is preparing for you. The German people have a toy which they often give to their children at Christmas. It's called a wonder ball.

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It's a great big ball of yarn, and each day the child is allowed to unwind some of the yarn. And wrapped into the yarn are little toys and candies and cookies and things of that kind. As the yarn is unwound, more and more surprises are found. In the unwinding of our experiences, wherever we are, God introduces us to people, to places, to situations where we can witness.

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So the first thing we must be is alert to that. Have the capacity of being surprised. One day in the summer, I was speaking at a camp, and I got there late, and I went in. Everyone was already at dinner. So I went through the cafeteria line, I came out looking for a chair, and a group over here signaled that there was one chair left at their table, and I went over and sat down.

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The group introduced themselves. And I was fascinated to discover that sitting right beside me was a young man, 33 years old, named Erasmus O. Melonovsky. Erasmus O. Melonovsky was a doctor of physical science, a graduate of the Moscow Institute of Research. I discovered in our conversation that he was a card-carrying communist.

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Well, I was immediately grateful for the fact that God had put such a one beside me. And I listened in to the conversation at the table, only to discover that nobody was talking about anything that could possibly have any effect or any real interest on this man. I asked him about his family, got out his wallet and showed me pictures. That gave me a great opening. I commented, "How is it that you can be so deeply attached to those children when you understand them to be nothing other than concatenations of the physical?"

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That is, there is no spiritual relationship there, is there? And what about death, as our conversation continued? I said, "Will you feel remorse then? And why remorse? Purely a chemical attraction? Is that all there is? And the research to which you've given yourself? If everything that is will end up on the dust heap of history, why do you bother to do the research which is yours? Why are you here to study?"

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I pressed the matter with questions like that, and finally he said to me, "All of life is a pity. Just a great pity." And that opened the door for me to tell him about the Prince of Peace, not pity. Now what amazed me about the situation was that these folks had been sitting there with this fascinating and questioning young man, and had never introduced the subject of Jesus Christ. But the potential was there if they had been more perceptive.

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Remember Phillips in Acts chapter 8. When Phillips discovers the Ethiopian eunuch reading from the prophecy of Isaiah, what does he do? He immediately, right there on the spot, enters into a conversation with that Ethiopian on precisely the subject that the Ethiopian is reading, and begins his witness at that point. There's a great deal of fun, you see, in living on the alerts for the opportunities that God gives. They might be right across the hallway, or right across the driveway, which is where they were the night I wrestled a boa constrictor.

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Let me get back to that now. I had a 7am flight, and so the church said that instead of sleeping at a motel, they would put me in the home of one of their members who lived next to the airport. And he did live next to the airport. All night long I thought those planes were coming right under the covers with me. He was a veterinarian, and his name was Bill Smith, and he had a wonderful family, and he had invited four couples from the church, and we had all gone over to their home,

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and were doing the thing which I like to do on winter evenings more than any other, sit in front of a fire, enter into warm conversation, and drink hot cider. You know, the kind with the cloves and the cinnamon in it. That makes your teeth tingle when you taste it. And then it kind of bathes your mouth in warmth.

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And it goes down like the sun setting right inside of you, and then settles in a golden pool right in your belly. We were sitting doing that, and as he talked about the Lord, and shared the happiness which was his in faith, I saw in him all the things that are necessary for good witnessing. He was first of all a person of great humor. I mean, he had the ability to laugh at himself. Not to laugh at the faith, not to laugh at the things of the faith, but to laugh at himself.

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That is, he didn't take himself too seriously. There was a story which was appropriate a few years ago about a man who died and went to heaven, and when he got there he was being shown around, and they passed one room where there was loud singing, and he said, "Who's in there?" and they said, "That's the Methodist." And then they went to another room, and they passed that room, and there were a lot of people in there, but not a sound coming out.

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And he said, "Who's that?" and they said, "That's the Quakers." Then they came to another room, and there was a barbed wire fence all around it, and big gates, and iron posts. And he said, and all he could hear coming out of that room was a low murmur and then loud laughter. Then a low murmur and then loud laughter.

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He said, "Who's in there?" and they said, "Oh, that's the Catholics. They don't think anybody else is up here." Well, there was a time before John XXIII when that attitude was a present attitude in the Roman Catholic Church. But Pope John XXIII, full of the grace of God, came in with a holy, sanctified laughter, and with that laughter washed away all of that pretension. There are some people, you see, who think that to be in Christ means always to be solemn and sad. That's a heresy.

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And Bill Smith, this vet from Dayton, didn't have that heresy. He was a joyous, buoyant Christian. The second capacity that he had which made him a good witness was humility. Now, I don't mean Uriah Heep going around with his head bent down all the time, wringing his hands in dismay.

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I mean the kind of humility that you see in Moses, who was one of the strongest men, if not the strongest man of his time, yet is described in Scripture as the meekest of all men. I'm talking about the kind of humility you see in Jesus when after his resurrection, when he was walking with those two on the road to Emmaus, he still was humble enough to take the time to open to them the Scriptures and explain to them why he had to suffer as he had to suffer. Great gentleness and tenderness there, you see, a patience. I'm calling it a sanctified humility.

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We had an atheist in college when I was going there, and he was very proud of that fact and announced it everywhere. I'll never forget the day when I was walking with Joe down the street. It was at noontime, and the street was full of students. And one of our leading campus Christians came out on the steps of the Conservatory of Music and yelled across the street, where I'm sure at least 200 people could hear him, "Hey Joe, come on over here. I want to talk to you about Christ."

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Needless to say, Joe didn't go. Needless to say, Joe's respect for the faith and the things of the faith and the people of the faith was even less than it had been before. There was no humility. There was no grace. There was no tenderness. There was no meekness. There was no gentleness in that approach. But all of these things were President Bill Smith, the veterinarian. You need that kind of humility and witnessing. And the other thing you need is honesty.

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William Ernest Hawking, who was the professor of philosophy at Harvard University for so many years, said that religion becomes universal at precisely that point where it is the most personal. And the honest person is the person who speaks out of his own experience honestly. He confesses not only his victories but also his defeats. That is, he shares himself vulnerably, and out of that truth and that honesty makes contact with others.

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It is not a matter of convincing someone of a proper theology. It's a matter of making someone feel at home in the arms of God. That's not theology. That's honestness and openness. Oh, the time for theology comes, of course.

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But we're talking now about making contact for Jesus Christ. Paul Tournier is a great Christian psychiatrist, and he tells of how he was born and came into this world and was orphaned very young. And the first person, he said, who ever made him feel like a real part of the human race was his Greek professor. They had a warm relationship, not an intimate one, but a warm relationship.

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Well, years after he graduated from school and the professor was retired, Tournier wrote his first book. And he wanted to read it to someone who would give him an honest and objective opinion. So he wrote to his professor and asked if he would do it. And the professor said yes. And at the appointed day, he arrived at the man's home and sat down and he read the first chapter of the book to him.

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And the professor said, Paul, continue. So he read the second chapter of the book to him and the professor said, go on. So he read the third chapter of the book to him and the professor said, Paul, we must pray together. And the young man said, sir, I didn't know that you were a Christian.

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And the professor said, oh, yes. And Paul said, well, when did you become a Christian? And the professor said, right now, as I listen to you read. Those three chapters were nothing other than the open and honest expression of how Jesus Christ met Paul Tournier's needs. But that honesty was the channel of love. And along that channel, winning witnessing moves.

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I saw that in Bill. And I was with Bill that night when we wrestled the boa constrictor. And I want to get back to that now. It was about eleven thirty and the telephone rang and I heard him talking to a woman. Obviously, she had a sick pet. And he said something like this. Well, I would be glad to come over, except she probably should stay here for a few days.

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So why don't you bring her over? Oh, yes, you can bring her over right now. I was impressed with that. I know people doctors don't go out anymore at night, but evidently animal doctors still do. He hung up and he said that this person was going to be bringing this pet. And would we like to go over and see his animal hospital? And the men in the group said yes.

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And so we crossed the driveway to his hospital, which was right next door. And as he was showing us about, I said to him, I think it's remarkable that you're willing to see this person at eleven thirty at night. Oh, he said, I'm not seeing her on the kind of pet. It's just I'm trying to win her to the Lord and I'm all charged up about every possibility that I have to be with her.

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Now, that just thrilled me to think that here was a man who wasn't principally concerned about the fee he was going to receive for his professional services. He was concerned about the opportunity to share the Lord Jesus with this woman. I was reminded of a friend of mine who started his own business. And very soon after he got this business going, even though it got off to a good start, he found himself ten thousand dollars overdrawn at the bank.

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So he went for an extension of his loan. And the bank, of course, went very carefully over all of his financial statement, and they noticed there that he was a double tither. That is, that he gave 20 percent of all that he made to the Lord's work. And they said to him, now, look, you're just starting out here.

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Wouldn't it be better for you to wait a while until you have your financial feet under you, then begin to tithe as you wish? But not now. No, he said, I can't do that. He said, you wouldn't hire your employees and say to them, we're going to pay you such and such a salary someday, but we're not going to pay it now. We'll start sometime in the future.

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Just so, he said, I won't treat my church or the other Christian agencies that I support in such a way. No, I'll continue my giving. But couldn't you delay it a bit? I mean, wait until you're more affluent and then begin.

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No, no, I will not wait because it's hard now. But if I get accustomed to having all of that, it'll be even harder then. It's better for me to continue that tithing which I've already begun. Look, they said, you've got to cut some expenses.

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And this is one that you can cut. And we'd suggest that you cut it immediately. All right, I'll cut expenses, but not this expense. I will never cut back on what I offer to the Lord.

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And he made other adjustments in his budget. He left the bank really wondering whether he was going to get the loan. The next day, he received a call. And the bank advised him that his line of credit had been extended to $25,000.

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They said, anyone who is as committed to Jesus Christ as you are deserves our trust and our confidence. That man is Bob Stover, a good friend of mine. He's the founder and the president of Western Girl, which today has 120 offices in this country and 40 offices overseas. A multimillion-dollar corporation with a credit line in the millions.

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Now, here is a consecrated Christian businessman standing up and by his courage and his demonstration of faithfulness, reaching out and winning others. In the New Testament, the word "witness" and the word "martyr" are the same. And you see, there's real risk and adventure and thrill in that. That's the picture I want you to get of witnessing.

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It's like that night that I wrestled the boa constrictor, and I want to tell you about that now. [ding] Please turn your cassette to the other side. The chime on the hospital door rang, and Dr. Smith went over and admitted a very attractive young lady.

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When she walked in, I thought at first she was a telephone operator, because when she walked, every line was busy. I found out a few minutes after she was there that she wasn't a telephone operator, she was an ex-diseased. Now, for those of you who are not com-arts majors, I'll tell you what an ex-diseased is. An ex-diseased is a striptease dancer.

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This was her profession, and she had in her hand a big box. And she opened that box, and out of that box came an 11-foot boa constrictor. She did her striptease dance with a great big snake. And it seems that the snake had a head cold.

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Now, you may wonder how you can tell when an 11-foot boa constrictor has a head cold. I'll tell you. It's very sophisticated. Its nose runs. And she plopped this great big snake down on the table.

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And the doctor was vastly enjoying the looks on the faces of the four paralyzed Presbyterians who were there in that room. He had not told us what kind of pet was being brought or what kind of person he was witnessing to. All I could think of was my high school biology class. We had a teacher by the name of John Maynard. We called him Bugsy Maynard.

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And he had a three-foot boa, and every week we would all have to stand there while he would feed that boa a little white mouse. And that little white mouse would run all over the inside of the cage, all over the snake and everything, without any fear at all. And then the snake would begin to move, and it would move so slowly that the only way you could tell it was moving was you could see the lines of newsprint from the newspaper on the bottom of the cage disappearing under his snout as he moved.

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And then all of a sudden, he'd strike. And the coils would be around, you'd see the little mouse's tail sticking up like that, and it would quiver like that, you know, and then it would kind of slow down. That's all I could think of. And then he said to us, "Now, the snake's not going to like this." The snake's name was Cleo, incidentally.

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"So I want you all to hold the snake." Well, the snake took a look around the room and decided that I was the largest and heaviest object in it. And so it threw its coil around my arm and my waist to anchor itself. And there I was, holding on to this snake with three other petrified Presbyterians,

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while the doctor is giving the snake nose drops and talking to this woman about Jesus Christ. If I live to be a thousand, I'll never forget it. When the treatment was over, he said the snake had to be kept there for a few days. He shared some more and invited us to share with this very pleasant young lady.

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He gave her some material. He said he would call her later that week, hoping that she would come with him to church. And she was gone. But the seed was planted, and it was exciting. Now, no one knows, at least I don't know, whether that seed took root or not.

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But that's in the hands of the Holy Spirit. All we're called upon to be is witnesses, and that can be such a joyous and exciting thing. So about a year and a half ago, a Hollywood film star decided to take flying lessons. And he went to a little airstrip 60 miles north of Los Angeles in the San Fernando Valley.

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And he started to take lessons from a man named Sam. And one day when he came in, he saw on Sam's desk a Bible. And he said to him, "Do you read the Bible?" And Sam said, "Yes." He said, "Why?" He said, "Because I'm a Christian, and God speaks to me through this book."

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And the star said, "I'm not a Christian, but I'd like to learn more about it. Would you be willing to teach me the Bible?" Well, I'd be willing to share with you out of the Bible, but I'd like you to talk with somebody who could share with you much better than I could. "Will you come with me to my church?" "No, not up to church." Well, they met and discussed the Scripture a few times before this star said one day, "I'll go with you to your church."

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And he went, but he did not agree to meet the minister. It wasn't until they had gone together four times that this star said, "I'd like to meet your preacher." So they arranged a luncheon, and Sam and the movie star and the preacher sat down together. He was a very young minister, had only been there a short time.

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And very shortly into the conversation, the movie star introduced the fact that he was living with a woman who was not his wife. And the preacher, being young and untrained and insensitive, reacted very negatively to this, so much so that he almost lost the contact. "I cannot talk with you or share with you anymore until you marry this woman or stop living with her." And the movie star went home that day, and he said to the woman, "We're going to have to get married."

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And she said, "Why?" And he said, "Because I'm becoming interested in the Christian faith, and they say I have to be married." So she said, "All right." And they went back to that young minister to marry them.

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Only the young minister, still very young and very insensitive, said, "I can't marry you because I only marry Christians." Well, fortunately, there was an older minister in the congregation. He'd been around long enough to learn not only theology but also love. So Sam went to him and said, "Would you marry this man? We're trying to bring him to the Lord."

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And he said, "I certainly will." And that old retired minister and his wife and a group of other senior citizens from that congregation and Sam went up to the home of this Hollywood star, and there in the woods, they married him and the one he chose was his wife. Well, there happened to be in the group that day of senior citizens an older fellow who really knew the scriptures.

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And he said, "I understand you want to learn more about the Bible, and I'd be willing to come every Tuesday morning and teach you." So every Tuesday morning, my friend, names Arnie Peterson, would drive 60 miles up into the San Fernando Valley to talk to this star about the things of Christ. And after about five weeks of that, this film star gave himself to Jesus.

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But their study continued because he wanted to grow in the faith. And one day after they had studied, the film star straightened up and said, "Oh, my back hurts so much." And Arnie said, "What's the matter with it?" "Well," he said, "I've got a real problem."

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"What's your problem?" "I haven't told anyone. I haven't even told my wife. But we're brothers in Christ, so I'll tell you. I have cancer." "Well, what are you going to do about it?" "Well, they recommend surgery."

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"Are you going to have the operation?" "No." "Why?" "Well, you'll think this strange. Everybody calls me a tough guy, and I am a tough guy.

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I've been in jail twice. I spent most of my young life in reform school. And I've done all my own stunts in all my movies. But the thought of someone cutting on me with a knife just fills me with fear. I cannot bear it."

00:34:05.000 - 00:34:19.000

Arnie said, "We'll pray about that." And they did. They continued to meet for a few more weeks. Until this star's deteriorating condition made it impossible.

00:34:19.000 - 00:34:39.000

He heard about a place down in Mexico where they claimed to be able to cure cancer without surgery. So he went there. But the condition worsened. Until last Thursday, they did have surgery.

00:34:39.000 - 00:35:04.000

And while on the operating table, at 50 years of age, Steve McQueen died. But he died in Christ. He died at peace with God. Because of Sam and a Bible on a desk.

00:35:04.000 - 00:35:22.000

Because of a young creature who really doesn't have all his shots yet. Because of an old creature full of grace. Because of a retired furniture salesman who went to talk to him about the scriptures. Because people entered into the joyous adventure of witnessing.

00:35:22.000 - 00:35:48.000

Steve McQueen, tonight, is with God. His greatest movie was called "The Great Escape." But the greatest escape he ever made was not on film. And it wasn't an escape he pulled off by himself.

00:35:48.000 - 00:36:22.000

He was led in his escape by those who listened to Jesus when he said, "You shall be my witnesses." And understood that to be what it really is. An invitation to the highest of all adventures. Let us pray.

00:36:22.000 - 00:36:56.000

Our Father, we thank Thee for those across the years who have been faithful in witness. Our fathers and mothers in the Spirit. If it had not been for them, we would not know Thee as Father. And we think tonight of those whom in Thy providence it will be our privilege to introduce to Thee.

00:36:56.000 - 00:37:25.000

O God, thrill us with the possibility of witness. Excite us with the surprising opportunities that are at every hand. Give to us a humor and a humility and an honesty which make us attractive to others because of the Christ dwelling in us. And grant that we might someday know the joy.

00:37:25.000 - 00:37:55.000

That we might many days know the joys of those who become Thine. Because You blessed some word or deed You led us to do. We pray this in Jesus' name. And the Lord bless you and keep you.

00:37:55.000 - 00:38:27.000

The Lord make His face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you. The Lord lift up the light of His countenance upon you. And give to you and to all those whom you love and to all those whom nobody loves His peace. [BLANK_AUDIO]