Skip to content Where is Your Pulpit? Aug 1 · 17 min ...more
Where is Your Pulpit?
August 1, 2023 · 17 min
Often, we go through our lives just doing the things we need to do to survive. We sometimes fail to recognize opportunities to minister that are right under our noses. At some point, we may ask God if He means for us to stop what we are doing so that we can better serve Him. His answer may surprise us as we are likely already right where He needs us to be.
Romans 8:28 tells us that, “…in all things, God works for the good of those who love Him…” and He proves this time after time. We must never be afraid to share His word and share our faith with everybody, every day to help bring them closer to Jesus. Be encouraged to do that in this episode.
Host Barry Meguiar is a car guy and businessman who hosted the popular TV show, Car Crazy, on Discovery Networks for 18 years. He loves cars, but he loves Jesus even more! Learn more about Barry at IgniteAmerica.com.
Get your copy of Barry’s book Ignite Your Life: Defeat Fear with Effortless Faith at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million, and other online booksellers.
Learn more about:
Recognizing your pulpit
The difference between happiness and joy
Is it okay to get “mad” at God?
Understanding your reach
How God is using you to send souls to Heaven
Get resources to help ignite your faith and move everyone, every day closer to Jesus at IgniteAmerica.com — including the Ignite ePrayer app (available on the App Store and Google Play), Faith Sharing Stories, One Minute Inspirations, SeekingGod.org and more. Sign up to receive emails that will deliver practical faith-sharing tips and powerful inspiration.
Series Ignite with Barry Meguiar
Most Americans are searching for God and have at least one Christian in their life they trust. IgniteAmerica is focused on igniting Christians to ignite America
August 1, 2023 · 17 min · Ignite with Barry Meguiar
Often, we go through our lives just doing the things we need to do to survive. We sometimes fail to recognize opportunities to minister that are right under our noses. At some point, we may ask God if He means for us to stop what we are doing so that we can better serve Him. His answer may surprise us as we are likely already right where He needs us to be. Romans 8:28 tells us that, “…in all things, God works for the good of those who love Him…” and He proves this time after time. We must never be afraid to share His word and share our faith with everybody, every day to help bring them closer to Jesus. Be encouraged to do that in this episode. Host Barry Meguiar is a car guy and businessman who hosted the popular TV show, Car Crazy, on Discovery Networks for 18 years. He loves cars, but he loves Jesus even more! Learn more about Barry at IgniteAmerica.com. Get your copy of Barry’s book Ignite Your Life: Defeat Fear with Effortless Faith at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million, and other online booksellers. Learn more about: Recognizing your pulpit The difference between happiness and joy Is it okay to get “mad” at God? Understanding your reach How God is using you to send souls to Heaven Get resources to help ignite your faith and move everyone, every day closer to Jesus at IgniteAmerica.com — including the Ignite ePrayer app (available on the App Store and Google Play), Faith Sharing Stories, One Minute Inspirations, SeekingGod.org and more. Sign up to receive emails that will deliver practical faith-sharing tips and powerful inspiration. ...more Show the full description Show less Often, we go through our lives just doing the things we need to do to survive. We sometimes fail to recognize opportunities to minister that are right under our noses. At some point, we may ask God if He means for us to stop what we are doing so that we can better serve Him. His answer may surprise us as we are likely already right where He needs us to be.
Romans 8:28 tells us that, “…in all things, God works for the good of those who love Him…” and He proves this time after time. We must never be afraid to share His word and share our faith with everybody, every day to help bring them closer to Jesus. Be encouraged to do that in this episode.
Host Barry Meguiar is a car guy and businessman who hosted the popular TV show, Car Crazy, on Discovery Networks for 18 years. He loves cars, but he loves Jesus even more! Learn more about Barry at IgniteAmerica.com.
Get your copy of Barry’s book Ignite Your Life: Defeat Fear with Effortless Faith at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million, and other online booksellers.
Learn more about:
Recognizing your pulpit
The difference between happiness and joy
Is it okay to get “mad” at God?
Understanding your reach
How God is using you to send souls to Heaven
Get resources to help ignite your faith and move everyone, every day closer to Jesus at IgniteAmerica.com — including the Ignite ePrayer app (available on the App Store and Google Play), Faith Sharing Stories, One Minute Inspirations, SeekingGod.org and more. Sign up to receive emails that will deliver practical faith-sharing tips and powerful inspiration.
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0:03 Welcome back to Ignite. I wanna talk to you about the fact that you have a pulpit. Oftentimes, we think of a pulpit as, you know, up on the stage, right, with a lectern and all the0:15 pomp and circumstance that goes around that. But but if you read the definitions of what a pulpit is, it it goes way beyond that. And in my terms, I would just say if0:27 anybody who has more information than I have on a given subject, they kinda have a a pulpit. I I did this television show for a lot of years0:39 called Car Crazy, 18 years. And 1 of the great interviews I ever did was with the rock musician, the guitarist Jeff Beck.0:51 Amazing car guy. I'm there because he's a car guy, but when we finished him, we actually had if there were so much, we did 2 shows together. He was fabulous. But then I said, I wanna I wanna just sit and watch1:03 you play your guitar. So we're in the studio and he started playing, and I I can see in my mind right now, it's been a few years, the way his fingers glided so1:14 effortlessly. It was like he he was my teacher, and I was his student. I was never gonna play guitar, but you get the you get the understanding of yeah.1:26 He had his pulpit was that he was a great guitarist and I'm sitting there watching it. Wow. Pulpits take off all kinds of things. I'm reminded of Eric1:37 Liddell, know, back in the Chariots of Fire story, remember? And what a great story. And, of course, he was born of missionary parents and went on to be a missionary afterwards. But his great1:49 story was in running, and he felt that when he ran, the holy spirit flowed through him and he used running as his pulpit. I had a great
2:00 professor in college by the name of Ken Armstrong, doctor Ken Armstrong, 1 of the best professor I ever had. And, he taught me so many great things. But, 1
2:12 thing he said was, if you wanna be great, hang out with great people. And do whatever you have to do to hang out with great people. Carry their bags. Take out their trash. Do
2:24 anything. Just hang out with great people, and you become great. Now that's I guess there's some scripture in there somewhere. I don't know what it is, but it's a it's a it's a truth that
2:36 works, and I have done that. And I've had many great people in my life that I have run to. I've known doctor James Dobbs and Jim Dobbs, and I have been friends since I was 14 years old, and and he's
2:48 been more than a mentor to me. He's been a rock to me his life. He and Shirley both. They've never changed. Just as easy to be with as
3:00 ever with this loud voice and this unchangeable voice where nothing's gonna change Jim Dobson, and I watched that, and and he has been a model for me
3:12 in how I've lived my life and not to change. A lot of change going on right now. There's a lot of people that I hugely admired a few years ago that that I will say I will
3:23 avoid now because of apostasy. There's a lot of crazy stuff going on that's a whole another subject. David Wilkerson David Wilkerson the the author of the cross and the switchblade, he founded Times
3:35 Square Church at 50 first and Broadway. I found that church with him. Close friends for 40 years. A prophet. He prayed every night for 2 or 3 hours a night. Every night for 40 years. We'd come home at night, it'd be
3:47 12 o'clock. Karen and go into bed. He's going to pray. And this man knew God. He carried on conversations with God when he prayed. He would say and he'd hear back and he'd carry on a conversation. That's how close he was
3:59 to God. Obviously, he was a great man in my life and I owe much of where I am today to David Wilkerson. So that that idea of hanging if you wanna be great, if you wanna know God, hang around
4:11 with people who know God. Okay? I gotta go to the other end of the scale, and I gotta tell you that I had a friend. His name was Bob since passed away, but Bob was a a good bit older than me. Married 1 of
4:23 my college friends. Bob was not well spoken, and he was not of well stature. He didn't have any status. He did all kinds of
4:34 wonderful things for God. The church couldn't live without him, but he was never the chairman of the board or speaking in front of a lot of people. But Bob knew God. And and
4:46 even though he did not speak well, he knew God. And whenever he would come into the room, I would run to Bob. And I would stay with Bob as much as I could. If
4:58 if we got to a terror room, I would move people away so I could sit next to Bob. Bob was a huge influence in my life. It wasn't because of stature, was because
5:10 of his relationship with with the Lord and my wanting to have a little more what he has. Started sharing my
5:22 faith. Karen and I both started sharing our faith back when we were first married. I'm now going to 19 73. This is 50 years. We have been sharing our faith every day for
5:33 50 years. Wow. That's incredible. I'm old. And, you know, while I'm building my business that was a tiny little business, I'm working like crazy. I'm working 18 hour days. I
5:45 did that for about 30 years. Worked really hard. But, at the same time, I found myself, going from being a horrible face sharer, not
5:57 wanting to be a face sharer, to doing a little more. And then after a while, you get to where you start doing it more easily and started just relaxing and having fun doing it and becoming quite good at doing it. I I have
6:08 to say, you know, you start shooting baskets, you may miss them all for a while, but you keep doing that. After all, you're gonna start sinking some baskets, and and that happens when you're sharing your faith. And when
6:17 you do that, you enter into this thing called joy. And I never realized there was something different between happiness and joy. Happiness comes and goes. I've I've I've I think I did a podcast on this.
6:30 Happiness is fleeting. It's depending on what circumstance going on at the moment. But joy, oh, man. That if you have joy, you could you could go through anything. How do you get
6:41 joy? That's another subject for today. I was I was finally to the point where I was thinking I should go into full time ministry. I was really thinking I should go into full time ministry. It was said to me so clearly. I
6:53 just kept it because I was now I'm sharing my faith with with gusto, you might say. Is that still a word we use? Then you do it energy and you look forward to doing it and then and results are happening and thinking,
7:05 god, you're leading me into full time ministry. And so I prayed this most really the most fervent prayer of my life saying, God, if you want me to go into full time ministry, I'll leave my business that will fail.
7:15 There's nobody else to lead this this little fledgling family business. I'm the third generation leader, but I would do that. I just wanna be where you want me to be. I just wanna serve you, whatever that is.
7:28 Now 20 minutes later, a guy walked to my house by the name of Dave McNutt, and I'd never spoken to him before. And I again, there's a story I've told many times. It's in my book, Ignite Your Life. But very quickly, he
7:39 just started asking me questions, and he said, I'm just in the area. Just wanted to stop by and see how you're doing, and how's it going? And so I decided as a missionary kid he was a missionary kid. He grew up in Africa
7:50 with a missionary family my age. He was my age now, had his own business. And as I started sharing, he said, wow. God's given you a wonderful ministry here, hadn't he?
8:04 I said, what do you mean by that? He said, well, a pastor couldn't reach all the people you're reaching, but as a businessman, you can't. He gave me this line. Your business is your pulpit.
8:16 Wow. I never put together that the life that I'm now living is my pulpit. The life you're now living is your pulpit. Look around.
8:29 There's people all around you who are lost. You're there. You're you you have purpose. God has you right where he wants you. You may wanna go somewhere else someday. I don't care where that is. I don't care if you're a
8:40 young person and you're a job you don't like right now. Right now, this is your pulpit. And if you honor him recognizing this is your pulpit, you do that. You start living for his purpose that he has all
8:52 kinds of plans for you and it just plays out. You know, it's never been easier than now to do that. I've I've been doing it. Cara and I had had both been doing it now for 50 years as I just mentioned.
9:04 But you you see yourself differently. I I I transitioned seeing myself as a guy who sells car wax to a guy who's in ministry that God's using and using my business as my pulpit.
9:16 And the more I did that, the more he blessed my business. And now we're the number 1 selling car wax in America. I mean, it's amazing how that's worked. But I didn't do it out of, you know, fight and struggle and all
9:28 that. Every meeting was how do I lead everybody who whatever that meeting was. It's my own board meeting or it's it's a at a at a huge retailer who I really need their business. I wanna lead them closer to Jesus. This
9:39 little this little thing of what is it? This little light of mine. This little light of mine. I'm gonna let it shine. That's what we're called to do. It just happens that our our our little light right now is huge.
9:53 Thank God we're in tragedy. We're in turmoil. The whole world's in turmoil. There's darkness everywhere we look. And this little light of ours shines bright. People don't
10:05 expect us to be happy. They just don't. They just don't. And when they see happiness and it's real happiness, real joy in us, they want what we have. And that's our pulpit.
10:17 I don't care how menial a job you have. I don't care if you're living on the street. I don't care where you are. When you have joy, you can have joy no matter where you are when you know God is with you. You know
10:29 God loves everybody on the street as much as he loves you and and me. And how are how is he gonna reach them unless he has Christians among them speaking to them? That's a whole another subject, but
10:41 when you're in the dark place, when you lost 4 years ago your 49 year old daughter,
10:53 When you're when you're dying in the hospital, the doctors give up on you. They give it up on me. I'm I'm toast. I mean, I still had joy. Nothing affected my joy, and
11:05 I used the darkness. People now say, of course, he's he's smiling. He's got a beautiful wife and business and cars. Of course, he's smiling. If I had that, I'd smile too. Well, guess what?
11:18 I'm talking about truths that I discovered in the midst of tragedy when I had no hope. I had a friend. Her name was Ann, and and she served the
11:30 Lord all her life, but she just she was like she was there. She's on her way to heaven. We came from a great Christian family. But she was also a businesswoman and did great things in business and
11:42 all kinds of things and and and even remarried. And then she got cancer, And that's when our relationship really took
11:54 off because she started questioning what was God doing in her life. And when I explained to her what we've just been talking about, she got really excited and realized that she was gonna use her cancer
12:06 to lead people to Jesus Christ, and she did. And she got to where as I was when I was in the hospital. Look at everybody who walks through that door, there were 1 more person I could talk to you about the Lord. And she
12:18 did that, and I talked to her regularly until finally she didn't have a voice strong enough to talk, but could she still push buttons on her computer? And we still and I tell you know, he's kept you alive. There's still
12:29 at least 1 more person he wants you to talk to about God. She had a pulpit in her weakest moment. I often tell the story of missus Damato who was 1 of the most godly people
12:40 I've ever met, and she died horribly. And I was mad at God. They couldn't stop her pain. It was cancer. She could not stop her pain. They gave her the the most serious stuff.
12:52 They they could not stop her pain. And then we go to her funeral and I'm mad at God. I've been mad at God several times. He puts up with us.
13:06 He puts up with us. And I'm at her funeral and I'm just beside myself. I'm I'm just mad. I'm just sitting there mad. I don't understand you God. I don't
13:17 understand. Until 3 different nurses got up 1 after the other and each told their version of the same story of how they had nothing to do with God till they met missus Damato.
13:31 And and they never met anybody who had so much pain, who had so much joy and they each decided that's that God's real. I want I want what she has. The the 1
13:43 nurse I'll never forget, she says as I was walking down the hallway, the day she died, I was walking down the hallway and I could hear her singing hymns. Wow.
13:56 So let's go back just for a second now in this, know, Romans 8 28, I love this verse. All things work together for good. From now until you get to heaven, God will make everything in your life work together for
14:08 good as long as you love him and live for his purpose. The question is what's good? Was was that good for missus Damato to have all that pain? You bet it was. Do you know when
14:20 she got the other side and she realized that God led 3 more people into eternity because of that momentary pain and now she's gonna be with them forever? Are you kidding me? Is she gonna
14:32 be doing backflips or what? See, God's definition of good is how many people, how many more people can I get into heaven because of you? And if I need to put you through some fire to get a few more
14:44 people in heaven, that's to your credit, that's to your benefit. Wow. 100 years from now, I say it so often, it's probably more like a year from now. I don't know what it is. But it
14:56 but safe to say 100 years from now the only thing that's gonna matter when you're in heaven. This is for Christian stuff. You're a Christian. 100 years from now the only thing that will matter when you're in heaven is
15:07 how many people are in heaven because of your influence, because of your pulpit. Think about it. I don't matter how many bottles of car wax I sold or how many good things I
15:19 did or built or it's it's it's hay and stubble. It means nothing. How many people are gonna be in heaven because of your influence? If you if there's if you if you're right now like most Christians say none,
15:30 guess what? You need to get busy. And now it's never been easier. Let me leave you with 1 last thought and then I'm out. Can you imagine being in heaven
15:43 and having a person walk up to you and say because of your influence I'm here. Think of it. Imagine having a person come here
15:54 and say because of your influence, I went to that church. I went to that service. I prayed that prayer. God rescued me and saved me and forgave me of our sins, and I'm here today because of your influence.
16:06 Wow. Can you imagine to have a whole bunch of people say that to you? That's possible if you keep first things first.
16:19 Commission. Live for his purpose and move everybody every day closer to Jesus. See you next time.
Barry Meguiar292K followers
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