Faith Sharing and What It Does For You with special guest Barry Meguiar

00:00 - Speaker 1
Real Life presents the Jack Hibbs Podcast with intention and boldness to proclaim truth, equip the saints and impact our culture.

00:09 - Speaker 2
Hey, you guys, we're getting together with our friend Barry . We're going to be talking about faith and what is the church's role. What are we doing, and are we even doing it? Let's find out.

00:23 - Speaker 1
You can get the outlines of this podcast by going to jackhibbscom/podcast Today. If this podcast lifts you up and encourages you to live a more fulfilled life in Christ, then make sure you leave us one of those five-star ratings. To us that's like saying amen or yes. Then that rating will encourage others to listen Now open your hearts to what God's word has to say to you. Here is Jack Hibbs.

00:52 - Speaker 2
Hey everybody, welcome to this episode of the Jack Hibbs podcast, and we're going to have some fun today. And first of all, before we get going, you guys know the jingle right At the end of every program that we say it's time for you to live out what you believe in. It's time for real life. That's the whole essence of what we're doing is living out your faith in a real life setting. And so our argument is to you, as always it's time for you and I to do that, because the world is hurting, the world is in trouble and it needs you and I to be obedient. And I can't think of a man I don't know a man who's been more obedient longer, with the same message. Here's what's key the message hasn't changed Consistent, faithful, blessed witness, remarkable. I'm talking about our good friend and a precious man of God, Barry . And so, Barry, I would shake your hand and all that stuff, but we know each other too well.

01:50 - Speaker 3
Well, we do. Maybe we'll do this. Okay, all right, how's that? That works, that works. The message is the same, but the poignancy of the message and the interest in the message is far greater. That's true. Explain why that's the case. We're worried about bad times. God doesn't. He looks at things entirely different than us. When you and I look around the world, we know that Christianity is growing. People are coming to the Lord in the highest of numbers. Where there's persecution, yeah, this is true.

02:23
If we're God, we look down and we say, okay, the persecution is working. Great, All that prosperity stuff that's not working so good.

02:34 - Speaker 2
Just goes out the window. When the earth shakes prosperity doctrine goes out the window.

02:38 - Speaker 3
And I dare say whether you're a Trump supporter or not. If Trump had been reelected, it would be easy to say we could have gone on with better times and economy, whatever one might say that, and there'd be no rush to God. Yeah, but the fact of the matter is I don't want to blame any Polish?

02:55
I'm just saying the times are bad right now, supernaturally bad. True, the people are. This is not natural. I hear it. I'm amongst people that don't know the Lord. All the time I'm in car shows, I'm with thousands of people. I hear it, I hear it, and they're coming up. What is going on? They want to know.

03:14 - Speaker 1
Inquiry minds want to know. That means they really do.

03:17 - Speaker 3
So I think the Lord is allowing these hard times to bring revival. I think the world is getting it faster than the church. The church seems to be still asleep, but the world, I mean, there's this, this, the scripture. Of course, the harvest is white for harvest, absolutely, I think it's white, for I think it's already there. Yeah, everybody's asking, everybody's searching.

03:41 - Speaker 2
They really don't, I think because he said that 2,000 years ago. It's been in the Bible. It's been in the pages of the Bible ever since that. It's always the season, I think, every generation, of every decade, of every century, of every millennia. The harvest is massive and is ready, isn't it amazing? What a strange thing, because who can figure that Jesus' challenge is pray to the Lord of the harvest, that's the Holy Spirit. Pray and ask the Spirit of God to send laborers into the harvest. The lost are there. The need for us, as believers, to engage the culture with the gospel is a command. And yet, barry, why, in your opinion? Why is there a deficit in people sharing the gospel?

04:26 - Speaker 3
Well, there's a long list. It is really yeah, send them, God, you need to send somebody.

04:32 - Speaker 2
God fixes God, Isn't that what?

04:34 - Speaker 3
we pay our pastor to do Exactly. That's the pastor's job, not my job. There's a whole lot of reasons and we've talked about those a lot. The fear is certainly one of them. You know, I almost think not caring is at the top of the list. Epathy, epathy. I mean if you really concentrate, if you really think about what hell is and it's eternal, you don't want your worst enemy to go through that. I mean you just don't. And if you come to cognizance. But we don't talk about hell. You do, you share, you have this balanced ministry, but most churches do not.

05:10
It's not popular to talk about hell anymore. It pushes people away. They won't come back to it. We can pay for my buildings. I need to get everybody back. So the way I look at the gospel is twofold. God is extraordinary in whatever he did. He gave us an extraordinary reward and he gave us an extraordinary punishment. And we have the choice. And he gave us free choice Because hell is so horrible. But he makes that clear. But we've stopped talking about the other side. So most Christians today don't even think about hell anymore, and so there's no urgency.

05:46
There's no urgency and that's the gospel. The gospel is very much. The Bible talks as much about hell as it does about heaven. I mean it's balanced there and we need to know those two. And the church not Calvary Chapel, but the church, and I would go to church all over the country that's not talked about and I'm finding, in fact, studies even show that most evangelicals now are not thinking about hell anymore and this is tragic At this moment in time when we could be at the end of time. That's a huge motivator that we're not even thinking about.

06:17 - Speaker 2
Well, you've got a great book that's available to everybody. We want you to get your hands on Barry's book Ignite your Life. This is an incredibly encouraging book, especially for it's great for everybody. But for the person who says, well, I don't know if I can share my faith, you need this book and I'm not just saying so for Barry to sell books. This is so extremely systematically helpful on how you, being a believer, you've been called by God to share the Lord and the love of the Lord among whoever you come in contact with.

06:49
To think every day and I know Barry, his wife Karen, we all think this way that today, when I wake up, god's got appointments for me that I'm not even aware of. So whoever comes across our doorstep or wherever we're at, that this has been ordained by God. I mean, can you live like that? Would you live like that To think, hey, my life is under so much control? If he's controlling the waves and the Jupiter and the Mars and the sun moving, can't he control my life right now, so that when I'm at the store today, that person who our paths cross, could it be a divine appointment, rather than sit around and figure out if it is or not go for it. Step out and say, hey, can I pray for you about something, or whatever it might be, but show the love of God, it's just not for a few.

07:35
But I think you hit the nail on the head. I really do believe this as well that there is a neglect in the pulpit from teaching it. No doubt that is heaven and hell, repentance of sin, the glories of heaven, but there's an apathy where, oh you know what. If heaven is just an add-on to my life right now, okay, I'll sign up. I got my Costco card, aaa card, season ticket holder to this, I'll get my Jesus card. If you don't realize that there's a real hell that costs God his life on the cross, that it is so real and it's so bad that Jesus said it was prepared for the devil and his fallen angels. So for us to fluff that off is to actually this might be harsh, but it's actually a form of unbelief- Well, it really is.

08:31 - Speaker 3
Of course, a lot of people say God wouldn't send me to hell, I'm too good a person.

08:35 - Speaker 2
You're already on your way Without Christ. You're on your way they don't understand.

08:38 - Speaker 3
God doesn't send anybody to hell, it's your choice. Yeah, you wind up there. There's only one way to get to heaven. Of course, jesus Christ died for your sins. So when you recognize that, recognize you're a sinner we all are. I have a lot of friends that question that, but, my gracious, we all are there in our honesty and to think that he died for our sins the only way we get to heaven. There's no other way you look at it. There's no other way God could have made a way for we can stand before a holy God in a pure environment, can't stand sin, and we can stand there face to face, looking at him clothed in his righteousness, because he sent his son to die for us, and that's the essence of everything if you don't capture that. But more importantly, we only have a short time.

09:24
I think people don't understand what face sharing does for them, for you, that's right, because we've been taught all our lives that you've got to do all this and have training and you've got to recite all this stuff and find one person a day and first off, with all the people you're going to see today that are going to hell, how do you pick one?

09:43
And it's usually the least likely one that responds the fastest. So we just say move everybody every day close to Jesus. Move everybody, just make sure, if nothing more than just a touch and God bless you but make sure you move everybody, don't miss a person, including with your spouse on the morning. Okay, you have that, but then it just opens up the door and you just love on people and it's amazing what takes place there. But, more importantly, the specifics of all that is God doesn't want anybody to be lost. He doesn't want anybody to be lost. He came to seek and save the lost, that none be lost. He doesn't want anybody to. But when he gave us free choice, he opens up the door for people to be lost and, quite frankly, more will be lost, as the scriptures describe, than will be.

10:26 - Speaker 1
That's right, sad to say.

10:27 - Speaker 3
He treasures angels. That's why the angels rejoice when every new person that comes to receive Jesus.

10:33 - Speaker 1
Christ, just one.

10:34 - Speaker 3
It's just so huge because we're losing most of them. But we got one. But there's another piece. The other piece is when we not only receive our own salvation but we realize that the number one goal for God right now, between now and whenever the time, the end comes, he wants to get as many of us into heaven as possible. That's his goal. That's his goal. It's not about how many we do this or this and all these good things. Just how do we get people into heaven? And when we sign on, we say we're going to help you do that, my gracious. Then all the blessings come.

11:07
So he really says there's a wonderful scripture in Isaiah 43, 10, where he says I appoint you as my witness so that you will believe. I would think he'd say I appoint you as my witness so they'll believe, but he says so that you'll believe. So the primary reason for sharing your faith is not what you think it is. You've been thinking to reach the lost. I need to go out there and do that, and that's not my task. It's about you. Because when you share your faith, the whole dynamic in your life changes. I got to tell you. And when you feel God speaking to you without preparation and he gives you the words to say you know God not only orchestrates our lives right, but the other person's life.

11:46
He brings us together in the most amazing ways and you know that's happening in the midst of it and you know God's giving you words to say. He gives you the words to say when you don't have them, and then the person's changing in front of you. That's an experience you can't have any other way. Folks, if you've not experienced that, you've missed the joy of being a Christian. You have no idea how excited it is to be a Christian and about 90% around you are lost. And so you have that opportunity every day, and when you move them and don't worry about getting them saved in the spot, just move them closer, just be there and love on them, with no agenda.

12:20 - Speaker 2
Barry. Give us an example for somebody who's asking Several times Barry, you've mentioned move them closer. Give us an example as to what would that look like moving them closer? Granted, you may not lead them to the front of the altar at the moment. Moving them closer, what does that look like? What would be something?

12:38 - Speaker 3
Well, first off, you do it with your own countenance. I mean, just when you're doing it, he gives you joy. He said, when you bear fruit you've talked about this just recently in a sermon when you bear fruit, my joy will remain with you and your joy will remain full If your countenance is heavy.

12:54 - Speaker 1
Nobody wants. I don't want what he has, oh boy become a Christian Quite frankly, most Christians aren't Christians because of Christians.

13:01 - Speaker 3
I mean, it's just the sad truth. We're witnesses for the prosecution, right yeah. And so we're in full-time ministry and just love it. When you're looking and expecting to have conversations, just the presence of that, people want to talk with you. They almost want to say why are you so happy? I want some of that, so you already have credibility with them. And then you just mentioned and it can't force feed it. You know, god is so good to me. I just say, well, why are you so happy? Why are you letting me? I just, god loves me and he likes to love people through me. And then I change the subject. I don't want to be heavy because I could push them away so quickly. And they're expecting heavy, they're expecting heavy. And then I just let it go and I start, hey, how about those Dodgers or whatever? And I leave it.

13:44 - Speaker 2
And I want to go back to it in that setting. That's very wise because you're trusting the Spirit of God to take that little bit of that seed being planted? Yes, and let it take care of it.

13:55 - Speaker 3
And let the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit's orchestrating that. We're not doing it on our own, it's the Holy Spirit he organized it. And if they're hungry they'll start asking you questions. There you go. So I say it's like throwing out chum when you go deep to the fish, you throw out chum and that attracts the fish to out all over the place. That's right. Everybody knows I'm a Christian. I'm never overbearing. I never preach at them. I never get away from bearing. You just always talk about God. No, I'm a regular person. I have all kinds of passions, but I'm always in the middle of every conversation throwing out a little bit and just letting people know. Everybody knows I'm a Christian. When they're in need, when they're hungry, the phone calls come.

14:36 - Speaker 2
So let's talk real quick, just so you put this in perspective. For some of you, you might be saying, well, I love what this guy's saying. Who is he again? Barry McGuire. Some of you may not be familiar, so it's almost impossible for me to give an introduction into the world that he influences, into the world that he influences, but we're talking about the McGuire car products that are global, the car guy, the car crazy programming. Listen, I can say this he's a legend in the car world and those that are legends, such as Jay Leno and others, they know that they share the same passion with Barry, but what they're learning about is a passion that is greater than that. So, for example, somebody like a Jay Leno or somebody like you know fill in the blank, they know you, they use your products on their treasures.

15:38
Yeah, oh, yeah Because there's some guys, I would assume it's all over the world, but in Southern California there are people who have warehouses of cars and all of their product, all of their cars are taken care of by your products. Point being is that's their treasure, and then Barry comes along, talks, car with them. But they know that Barry loves Jesus and so would it be possible? You can maybe not name anybody to protect them, but could you share one of those moving someone closer to Jesus in your world? I can.

16:12 - Speaker 3
One of the most famous guys. He's passed away now but yeah, the car guy thing gives me credibility. They know that I'm not just. I don't spend all day long in my Bible and praying and come out once in a while to try to get somebody to capture me. I have a lot of passions. I am a car guy. I love making cars look perfect, you know. But sports and politics, and food and places, I mean all that stuff.

16:38
But you just always have this on your mind but you're always sharing. So the guy that was at the head of hot rodding I'm going back to the 40s now- was a guy named George Barris.

16:49 - Speaker 2
Yeah, oh, yes, okay.

16:52 - Speaker 3
And he was called the king of customizers and I knew him all my life and his wife actually was going to church. He had nothing to do with God, he was a bit of a character okay. So I'm always sharing with him, I mean, over the decades always sharing with him. I see, then something comes along and all of a sudden he has a brain tumor. There you go. A crisis. I love crisis, that's right.

17:16 - Speaker 2
I've led so many people to the.

17:17 - Speaker 3
Lord during a crisis. I thank God for crisis. That's right. We think bad news is bad news. It's not. God uses these kind of things as a wake-up call to us. That's right. And George Barrett is in heaven today. He was in his whole life. He was pushing in the late 80s and because of his tumor then he wanted to talk. That's right.

17:37
He wasn't ready. I couldn't push him. I could not push him. I loved on him, I prayed for him, I shared with him. He wasn't ready, wow. And at the end of his life he had a brain tumor. And the last thing he said his son, his grandson and his mom. They reported the last thing they did. They walked into the nurse and she says do you know your name? Yeah, george Barish. Do you know your age? And he gave his age. Then she says what are you most thankful for? The nurse asked him what are you most thankful for? He says that Jesus is here saving me, the last thing he said to his family After decades of praying for.

18:14
George.

18:15 - Speaker 2
That's right.

18:16 - Speaker 3
But you can't push. You push, they'll move away. That's right Now. There's sometimes. There's sometimes when somebody, God, will just give you you need to be aggressive. That's so unusual. It is unusual. I mean, maybe three or four times it's ever happened to me. But each time, boom, they're ready, they're just waiting to pray, they're all ready. Yeah, happen to me. But each time, boom, they're ready, they're just waiting to pray, they're all ready. But most of the time it's just you just let them take over the agenda. So you're not. You don't offend anybody and I never argue with anybody. I know apologetics is wonderful. I don't do that. I don't argue with them. I've never had one conversation about apologetics in 50 years of sharing my faith. Nobody said, well, was creation a thousand years?

18:55 - Speaker 2
No, no, let's dig into this. What they want to know is does?

18:57 - Speaker 3
God really love them. You tell somebody God loves them, most of the time they can't receive it. That's right. They think of all the stuff they've done and all the stuff that's happened to them. They think God's beating up on them. God must hate me. And when you tell them God loves you no, he does love you. And when you tell them God loves you no, he does love you. No, he couldn't love you. No, actually he loves all of us the same. You know he loves you as much as he's ever loved anybody. And they're just speechless. They're not arguing with you, they just can't hardly believe it. It's not hard to share the love of God.

19:28 - Speaker 2
You just love to share the love of God. It's awesome what you're saying. Where in my family my mom, my dad and my sister they saw the transformation in my life when I became a Christian. They watched it. Years went by and then decades went by. I had shared with them the gospel. Then time comes for us to be doing a home Bible study that turns into a decent sized church. They watched all this and I would share with them until there was a point where I remember the Lord saying or impressing on my heart you don't need to share with them anymore. They know the way and that was like you know. That was quite of a shocking moment.

20:13 - Speaker 3
Allow the Holy Spirit. Exactly, you commit them to that no-transcript. Let the Holy Spirit do his work.

20:16 - Speaker 2
So what I could not do in evangelism, but I did plant the seed. By God's grace, all three of them wound up coming to Christ eventually because of cancers. It was them not being able to defeat cancer that proved to them they were weak, proved to them that they were mortals, and then prove to them that they were in trouble. And that's when they came and picked up the phone and said can you tell me about Jesus again? And my mom, my dad and my sister, three people who are in heaven today because of suffering the crisis You've heard me preach and speak before about how I'm a real.

20:58
One of the reasons why I'm a real big fan of AW Tozer as an author is because he speaks often about people needing a crisis of faith, because it's the crisis that drives this luxury of belief or not urgently down into your heart, to faith where, hey, right now, if everything's fine and cool with you and you've got the money and you got the health and the youth, you don't really care about trusting Christ for eternity because you think you've got the world by the tail. I had a US Army general tell me notice that we send young men into battle first because they don't think they're going to get shot. It's the old guy who's way in the back. He knows how fragile life is. But if you're young and you're just like I got it, I got it. I don't need to hear this. I understand that we all live that way, but eventually mortality is going to catch up with you.

21:48
And when Barry talks about somebody hearing about God and they feel like they're getting beat up, I do believe, even if no one has beaten up on them, I do believe that there's that flinch that people feel because Jesus says that the spirit of God would be convicting people of sin, and that's an important thing, because people know that they're not perfect. Even the ones who tell you and I, I don't need you guys, I don't need the message you're preaching, I'm good they don't know that. We know that they're lying about themselves. It's so true, we can see right through that.

22:28
But listen, when suffering hits, then you start grabbing for things that are hopefully firm and nothing's firm except him.

22:37 - Speaker 3
And fear. I love Fear when you find out that 80% of Americans are living in fear.

22:43 - Speaker 2
That's evangelism too. It's a great motivator.

22:46 - Speaker 3
It's a great motivator. How do I escape fear? And we have the answer. Because when you're living with God, of course we know God's in control, and then all of his promises, it's just. We live in peace, you and I live in peace. Nothing can happen to us because unless God allows it, that's right. I live in peace. Nothing can help him to us because unless God allows it, that's right, because we're living for him.

23:05
So to get, and even for Christians, when you share your faith, when you share your faith, it opens the door to, like Romans 8, 28, where he says when you live for my purpose his purpose was to seek and save the lost when you live your life to seek and save the lost, he says, that's when you live in my favor and I will make everything in your life work together for good. What so? You start getting into that zone. So if you're a Christian today and you're not shared your faith, you're probably on your way to heaven, but you may not be enjoying yourself very much, you may not be having joy and you may not be having the fun of having God speak through you and having this personal relationship with you. I got to tell you it'll ignite your life.

23:47
That's why this book that we're talking about it's 50 years. We've been, gary and I have been sharing our faith for 50 years on a daily basis, and we have more stories in there and there, but it's mostly scripture. The most important part of that book, as you know, is the scriptures. That lay it down very clearly how God will speak through us and use us and bless us and you get the whole package, but it will ignite your life. So if you're going through life and you're a Christian but you don't feel a real ignited right now and you're wondering where God is and you're praying as much as you're worrying, this is a way to escape all that effortlessly. The bottom line is defeat fear effortlessly, because when you step into this zone, it changes everything in your life and it's a pretty good way to live and Karen and I have been married for 60 years and we're having the time of our lives.

24:34 - Speaker 2
Well, I love what you're saying because if you think about it, if we could snap our fingers and we're walking with Paul the Apostle right now, somewhere we're in Macedonia, or we are somewhere in Syria. If we were walking with Paul right now, guess what would be on our mind? Because we're walking with Paul? Well, we're going to be watching Paul, because he's going to be sharing Christ with people along the way. Then that rubs off on you, because you learn that by example and one of the things that you can do in this world. You may not be able to have Barry McGuire sit down and coach you through this, but you can get his book, and more than this also in getting the book. Which, by the way, where can they get the book? Oh, amazoncom, amazoncom.

25:14
But also you can tune in. I know you can tune in to Barry McGuire's programs at the Real Life Network, which is free for you to download. It's free, all of it's free Free for the broadcaster, free for the subscriber. Real Life Network app on your device. But, barry, you also have an ongoing program podcast. What is it? You can be viewed by going to and they're on your network. Actually, podcast, yeah.

25:43 - Speaker 3
We do a lot of podcasts and I do it myself. I do it with people that are incredible sharers of their faith. It's not stories about how I got saved, but how people are having so much fun sharing their faith, yeah it's incredible and it is contagious.

25:57 - Speaker 2
Yes.

25:58 - Speaker 3
And we're just starting a new site now Ignite your World, where every time you share your faith, you put it on there, and we're about to have a long list where you can just send your—. When you're trying to find something to occupy your time on your phone, you go here and you see one amazing, exciting story after another of people talking about how they've been sharing their faith and that's what gets us excited.

26:17 - Speaker 2
These are their God stories. That's their stories that you're recording and archiving.

26:21 - Speaker 3
What they're doing. They're doing.

26:22 - Speaker 2
They just recorded themselves Like a public journal almost yeah exactly.

26:26 - Speaker 3
So that's just started. We just launched that. That's going to be great fun, that's awesome.

26:29 - Speaker 2
Well, you guys, it's always a joy to be around Barry and he's like this on and off the camera. I promise you this, and it's just absolutely precious what God is doing, and so listen, like always, it's time for you to live out what it is that you believe in. It's time for real life. When we live our lives for real for Christ, then he gets the glory. You get the thrill because you'll see the spirit of God show up. You'll see gifts that the Holy Spirit will bring up and out of you that you didn't even think that you had. Step out, watch what God does, and so until next time, god bless you, be bold, step out, let the Holy Spirit ignite your life. Get a copy of Barry's book, read it and then go out and do it, because this book is full of scripture and full of great examples. So God bless you. Thank you, Barry. Thank you. Thank you, Barry. Thank you.

27:25 - Speaker 1
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