Bob Barney: The Tramp on the Street and a Message from Jesus Christ to You (TRANSCRIPT)

 

 Bob Barney: The tramp on the street and a message from Jesus Christ to you. 

Hi, Bob Barney here with another edition of The Plain Truth Today. 

Last week my wife and I was in Richmond, or were in Richmond I should say, and we had stopped by an IHOP to have breakfast and a person who was the host, a black man, came up to us while we were eating and asked us if we wanted to donate to a cause. 

I forgot which one it was right now, but we said no, we didn’t really want to be disturbed while we were eating.

We didn’t tell them that, we just said no, and while we were eating I began to become a little, I should say, guilty about turning the man down.

 In Romans, the Apostle Paul says that we should be careful with strangers and be good to strangers because we never know when we’re entertaining an angel and not know it. 

In our life, people can come upon us or cross our paths and we are not aware, according to the Apostle Paul, and I believe this, that some of the people we meet are angels and we are being tested to see what kind of character we have, and sadly I would like to say I failed that test.

It reminds me of a time about 35 years ago, I was in the marine paint business at the time, and we were doing the Miami Boat Show, and walking to the convention center one morning, an old man came up to me and asked me if I had any money—- I was a little perturbed, and I said no, I didn’t have anything on me at the time. 

I did, but I didn’t want to give it to him… He looked at me and said, “I believe in God too.” 

Well, that touched me, and I reached in my pocket, I think I gave me either 10 or 20 dollars, I forgot what it was, to the chagrin of my friends and fellow salesmen around me who thought I was not giving this guy any money, but I thought then, as I think now, that you never know when the person asking you for money is really an angel, or God just testing you. 

Now, that being said, I’m not saying we should give money to every panhandler on the street, you know, many of which, you know, when you follow them home at night, they get in their BMW or Mercedes, and they drive home.  They take their family out to an expensive steak dinner. 

There are many charlatans out there, and I’m not suggesting that you should give your hard-earned money to everyone who asks for it, but there are times when you’re not sure of what’s going on, maybe it’s good to reach in your pocket and give out some money to the people who ask for it. 

Jesus said, lend to or give to whoever asks you for it, if you have the ability to, and as God blesses us, it is our duty to take the earnings that we have in excess and distribute some of that, at least, out to those out there who need it.

And so, from THE Plain Truth TODAY, this is a little reminder that we may be tested by angels from time to time, and we should not make fun of that fact or make light of it.

.We never know when God is testing us, and that is in your Bible, you find it in the book of Romans, you find it other places too, and God does test his people, the people who claim to follow God and to listen to what God says. And honestly, I don’t care if you’re reading the Old Testament Scriptures or the New Testament Scriptures, you really get the same kind of message because, as we point out so often on this show, the very same God who created Adam and Eve, who made the heavens and the earth, the very same God who made man in the image of God, who talked to Adam and Eve in the garden, who wrote the Ten Commandments with his own finger for Moses, who was David’s Lord, that God, known as Jehovah or Yahweh, with the personal name that you find in the Old Testament, that God was none other than the God who became a man and became known as Jesus Christ.

And He is now today, back in heaven, and is that same Yahweh, Jehovah, God again. Unlike before, however, when he created the heaven and the earth, Jesus, as the Lord of the Old Testament, Jesus as the Lord, the Lord God, Yahweh, was equal to the Father God. He lowered himself to become inferior to God the Father because of their love and Jesus’ love for us, their creation.

Is that simple? He did the ultimate test of love by taking away the equalness that he had with God. And you can prove that by going to the book of John and what I call the true Lord’s Prayer is when Jesus was praying the night before his crucifixion, when blood fell down like drops of blood out of his head when he was praying, showing how deeply emotional this prayer was. And he said toGod the Father in this prayer, glorify me like the glory we had together before the world began.

Yes, Jesus Christ is not a stepping stone as so many people want to make it happen to be. He isyou know, these people who pray to the Father and they say in one prayer the name Father 34 times and they end it by, in Jesus’ name, amen. Because in one place in the Bible, Jesus said,whatever you ask in my name, it will be given to you.

And so everybody has this formula. One time in the Bible, this formula of just praying to the Father and asking everything you want from the Father in Jesus’ name and all now Jesus has become was from the God who created the heavens and the earth, who parted the Red Sea, who wrote the Ten Commandments, who destroyed the enemies of Israel. Now he’s been delegated to some stepping stone to get to the God, the Father.

And it’s, in my opinion, it’s a crime. It’s an insult to the God who made you and who died for you. And so many times it is perfectly proper to pray to Jesus Christ.

That is who Jesus, I’m sorry, that is who Moses prayed to. That is who David prayed to. That is who Abraham prayed to and was best friends of.

Remember in the Old Testament, you see there’s a scripture where God, Yahweh God, the Lord Jehovah God, who is Jesus Christ said, my friend, Abraham, or actually he says Abraham, who was my friend. Wouldn’t it be great to have Abraham as a friend? 

But going back to the subject I was talking about, we’re gonna talk about Hank Williams’ song, I believe he wrote under the pseudonym Luke the Drifter. It is a song summing up that chapter in Romans about when you help the underprivileged people, you are doing God’s will.

And many times, and there’s another Bible example I’ll give you after this next break to advertise about the plain truth, that you see Jesus himself is saying that when you help the little guy, you are doing God’s work, you’re actually helping God. And I’ll be right back after this brief message about the plain truth. 

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BACK to the show:

And this is the story. It’s called “Men with broken hearts”. And it was written, I believe by Hank Williams.

And he did not sing this song under his own name. He actually sang it under Luke the drifter. 

I guess maybe his handler thought that such religious songs could maybe ruin his career. He was really the beginning of what we’d call today rockabilly, rock and roll with hillbilly involved. He was the very first really rock artist, even though he came out of country and Western, but the rock artists that Elvis Presley became, and then finally, Rolling Stones, the Beatles and everything, a lot of their influence came from two sources, black soul music, and as well, the country and Western music of Hank Williams, which was not like all the other country and Western music of the day.

And I’ll give you verse one:

    You will meet many just like me upon life’s busy street with shoulders stooped and heads     bowed low and eyes that stare in defeat. Poor souls that live within the past where sorrow     plays all parts for a living death is all that’s left for men with broken hearts.

You have no right to be the judge to criticize and condemn. Just think, but for the grace of God, it would be you instead of him. 

One careful, I’m sorry, one careless step or thoughtless deed, and then the misery starts.

And to those who weep, death comes cheap. These men with broken hearts. Oh, so humble you should be when they come passing by, for it is written that even the greatest men never get too big to cry.

Some lose faith in love and life when sorrows shoots her darts and with hope all gone, they walk alone. These men with broken hearts. 

You never walked in that man’s shoes or see things through his eyes or stood and watched with helpless hands while the heart inside you dies.

Some were paupers, some were kings, and some were masters of the arts, but in their shame, they’re all the same. These men with broken hearts. 

Life sometimes can be so cruel that a heart will pray for death.

God, why must these living dead know pain with every breath? So help your brother along the road, no matter where he starts. 

For the God that made you made them too. These men with broken hearts.

And there’s a message in there. It’s a Christian message. It’s a message from Jesus Christ whenhe walked this earth and he expects us to follow today.

We live in a life or a time of life where it’s easy to be hard. That’s a three dog night song, easy to be hard. And it is a time when it’s very easy to be hard.

It’s very easy to turn your head and walk away and pretend you don’t see the tragedy that’s befalling fellow people. But the God that made you expects that if you can help these people, it is your job to help these people. Now, I want to tell you something.

I’m somebody who has struggled my entire life trying to make a living for my family. And I tell everybody this story that we struggled for many years, my company called Tamco, named after my wife. And it wasn’t until the first Donald Trump administration that we really took off and became a large multimillion dollar corporation.

There was like 40 years worth of struggle before that. And I know what it is to be poor. I know what it is to not even have furniture.

When Tammy and I, and she was six months pregnant at the time, moved to Stuart, Florida, we lived in an apartment with no furniture, nothing. I took a hose reel, that air hose that you use spray guns, you hook to a compressor and you have an air hose. And I painted it black.

And that was a table. We would sit on the floor and eat our food off the top of that sideways air hose roll made out of wood. The very first piece of furniture we bought because we literally slept on a cot in the bedroom on the ground because we couldn’t afford anything.

And we bought a bed, was the very first piece of we bought when we moved to Stuart, Florida, we had no money. We were really hurting for money. We were suffering.

Like I said, Tammy was six months pregnant. And the very first thing we bought was a bed. Now a present that Tammy had gotten from her uncle who worked for Lockheed in Saudi Arabia during the 1960s and 70s, he gave her a gold necklace.

I think it was a Nefertiri. That was a big thing, you know, in the 1970s, you know, 24 karat gold Nefertiri necklace, which even then was a very valuable piece of jewelry. And she left it on the kitchen, actually not the kitchen, the bedroom counter or the bedrooms, bathroom counter, to get the story straight here.

And she had to go work with me. The guy came, we left the door open. He put up the bed for us, left.

We come home and the necklace of Tammy’s is missing. Of course, person denied he ever took it. And we lost even that, which was probably worth more money, believe it or not, than that bed was worth at the time.

And I understand, and I know what it’s like to go, not knowing where you were going to make your next dollar. We worked very hard, very long to get to where we are. But at the same time, we had people who helped us along the way.

Not only my family who lived, you know, 1500 miles away, we were all by ourselves in the state of Florida. And we’re from Connecticut. But people that I work for, the Esposito family, I went to work for them in 1984, starting in July of 1984.

We had already our oldest daughter born, and our second daughter was on her way. And the man who owned the company, Frank Esposito, and his two sons, Frankie and Billy Esposito, treated me like I was a member of the family. I was actually treated like I was Billy and Frankie’s brother by the Frank senior, and by Billy and by Frankie.

And it meant a lot to me. I remember Frank Esposito telling me that too many employers want to be polygamous, but they expect their employees to be monogamous. And what he meant by that is they expect their employees to be loyal to them, but they’re not loyal back.

And with Frank Esposito, loyalty was a two-way street. You gave him loyalty, and loyalty came back to us. And the Esposito family literally took Tammy and I out of dirt poverty and gave us a stepping stone up to become a manager of a store, then a technical director of a manufacturing paint company they owned, and then to the American Lacquer Company, which we still own the patent rights now to the Amerflint, a paint that just ruled Florida back in the 1980s.

That family was a white knight to me. And I’ve had others ever since. But at the same time, once you make it, it’s about time you become a white knight too.

It’s about time that you realize there is a payback. Because the God who made Frank Esposito see something in me that came from God, in my opinion. And he said in his mind, take care of that kid.

He needs your help. He’ll be good for you if you help him along the way. And by God, that man and his two sons, especially the younger son, Billy, who became my best friend, helped me and Tammy and our children along the way.

And it meant a lot to me, still does. When they sold part of their paint company and they became multimillionaires, the youngest son, Billy, lived in a phenomenal house in Jupiter Farms. And he let us, he built a nice house down at Palm Beach.

And he let us rent this house, today worth a million dollars, by the way, because we looked it up. But at the time, probably worth $250,000. It was on five acres of land, screened in pool.

It was a beautiful, beautiful Florida country estate home for $300 a month. And he paid all the taxes, which was probably that kind of money. And we lived like kings on a very low income still.

And we, our children did not ever lack anything. And it was because Tammy and I worked hard to make sure our children did not suffer. And we also had benefactors who made sure that we got ahead.

They cared about us. And it is our job, now that we have made it, to do the same back. And that’s how I look at my employees.

I tell my employees a lot about my experience with Frank Esposito for a reason. To let them know, I was where you’re at. You might think you’re the poorest person that ever lived.

No, there’s others that shared it, including your boss. I’ll be right back. 

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And that is theplaintruth.com and The Plain Truth Today podcast that you find from that site. Go there,you will not be disappointed.

And we’re back, and I’m gonna read something that Jesus said similar to the Hank Williams song concerning helping others.

And it is found in Matthew, I believe, let me make sure I’m right here, Matthew 25. And it starts out by saying this, 

“When then I, the king, shall say to those at my right, Come and blessed by my father into the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For when I was hungry,you fed me.

When I was thirsty, you gave me water. When I was a stranger, you invited me into your house. When I was naked, you clothed me.

When I was sick and in prison, you visited me. Then these righteous ones will say to me, Sir, when did we ever see you hungry or feed you? When did we ever see you thirsty or give you anything to drink or a stranger and help you or naked and clothed you? When did we ever see you sick or in prison and visit you? And the king shall say to them, When you did it to the least of my brothers,you’ve done it to me. Then I will turn to those among my left and say away with you, you cursed ones, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his demons.

For I was hungry and you wouldn’t feed me. I was thirsty and you wouldn’t give me anything to drink. I was a stranger and you refused hospitality to me.

I was naked and you wouldn’t clothe me. When I was sick and in prison, you didn’t even visit me. And then they will say, Lord, when did we ever see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or even naked or sick in prison and not help you? And I will say, when you refused to help the least of my brothers, you were refusing to help me.

And they shall go away into the eternal punishment, but the righteous to everlasting life.”

And by the way, you notice the eternal punishment is death. You’re gone.

You’re not tormented in hell. The reward is immortal life, eternal immortal life. When you actually become a God person, you actually, the destination of mankind is so much more wonderful than any church has ever taught you.

Your job, when you make it and you follow God in Christ, when you are born again, if you’re a Christian from the grave at the resurrection, which does not happen until Jesus Christ returns at the very last trump before he lands on this earth, when the dead in Christ, this is what the Bible says. I’m sorry if you minister don’t agree and you think your loved ones are in heaven. They are not.

They’re still in a grave. They are waiting for that last trump to sound when Christ touches down on this earth. And then those who were Christians alive or dead will be changed into spiritual,immortal life.

They will become literally sons of God, brothers of Christ, or simply gods. That’s your destiny. When you go and you abort a baby, when you kill someone, you are killing a potential God.

Now, the good news is you can’t kill a person, body and soul, body and spirit. You can only kill, physically kill a person, but God has the power to bring you back. Every single baby ever aborted, every single baby that died in the womb, stillborn, or every young child that was cut down in life or crib death, every person who was killed is coming back to life.

They’re coming back to life for judgment. Now, those who were not Christians come back to life without the devil’s influence. You can read this in Revelation and will live a life.

And after they live a good, perfect life without the influence of the devil, they too will be born again. They won’t have to experience death like most of us Christians will. They will be born again into the family of God and they themselves would be gods.

This is why it is so important to take care of your brother or your sister who are down and out, because you’re taking care of a potential future God. 

That is why Christ is comparing himself as God to this tramp on the street, as Hank Williams calls him, because Christ sees that that tramp on the street will be equal to any Christian who becomes a God if they too become a God. It makes no difference how much money, how much wealth you are able to accomplish on this earth.

What makes the difference is God looks at your character, sees what you do, and says, this person has made it and you will be a part of the first resurrection. 

You can read this in the last few chapters of Revelation. And if you don’t believe me, I wish you would go there and read it because you’ll find out when the dead in Christ rise and when the rest of the world who died and did not know Christ included and aborted the babies and stillborn babies and people who never knew even who Jesus Christ was or denied his existence.

They have a general resurrection when they come back to life and then they are judged. And that is the second chance of life or the second death. And the second death is eternal because Jesus said again, fear not man who can kill the body but not the soul.

Fear he who can kill both body and soul in hell fire. And that is what happens with the secondresurrection or the second death. The second resurrection are all those people who never knew Christ that are brought back to life after they’re dead and are given a chance without the devil being in the world to deceive them.

Unfortunately, when you read the rest of that in Revelation, you’re gonna find a lot of people still human nature still refuse to follow God and still wanna follow a devil the minute the devil is released from his prison after a thousand years. And many millions of people look like, hey, we’re gonna go follow Satan again. And they’re gonna be wiped off the face of the universe, not suffering in some hellfire somewhere burned up like a log on a fire.

And that is the plain truth of what happens to the dead and what your promise is according to the Bible. Your incredible promise of what you will become if you are a Christian this time around, you accept Jesus Christ and you obey his commandments. His commandments are not grievous says John.

If you obey Christ’s commandments, the 10 commandments he wrote with the finger, his own finger, according to the Bible, the fourth commandment is to observe the Sabbath day and keep it holy. And you can go to every Sunday worship you wanna go to. It is not the Sabbath day.

It’s never been changed into the Sabbath day. Follow Christ words and read in both old and new Testament, what you could do with the plain truth Bible, just a little plug there, but this is what you’re supposed to do. And if you do it, you will find yourself being called the good servant and you’ll find yourself have an eternal life.

This is Bob Barney for the plain truth today. A little side note from the usual program saying, thank you for listening. Bye-bye.