YP Talk—Bernie Brecht
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You may read this today.
Caught my eye when I walked out. I picked one up and I read it quick. It says no warning.
That we heard last night from Matt, no warning, and he was involved in a serious accident.
I myself within one many years ago.
Back in 1972.
Man stopped in front of me and I was on a motorcycle.
You know that this isn't enough room sometimes.
So we had a little drive.
But what I have on my heart?
Is an extension of what we heard.
Yesterday.
From Mr. Brusink, from young people.
Building towers and digging wells.
What I have on my heart is the extension of that, and that is.
Buddy, your friend.
Once your teeth felt different.
And I read from the book of Daniel.
In chapter one.
Start with verse 6.
Now among these were the children of Judah Daniel and Anaya Michel Azariah, unto whom the Prince of the eunuchs gave names.
Or he gave unto Daniel the name of Belshazzar.
And Ananiah Shadrach, and the Michel Meshach and Azaria Bendigo. But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not be fired himself with a portion of the King's meat, nor with the wine that he drank. Therefore he requested France's eunuchs that he might not be filed himself.
Now God had brought Daniel into favor and tender love with the Prince of the eunuchs.
First of all.
Prove thy servants, I beseech thee, 10 days. Let them give me, give us pulse to me water. Drink, let our countenance be looked upon before they the countenance of the children that eat the portion of the cane's beef. As thou seest deal with thy servants, so he consented to them in the matter, and proved them 10 days.
At the end of 10 days, her confidence appeared fair and fatter and flashed and told children.
Which did eat the portion of the game's meat 17.
As for these four children, God gave them knowledge, skill, and all learning and wisdom, and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams.
19 And the king communed with them, and among them was found enough, like Daniel, Ananiah, Michelle Azariah. Therefore they stood before the king.
And things started to go South.
You can get over in chapter 3.
Verse 12.
There are certain Jews whom thou hast set over the affairs of the province of Babylon. Shadrach, Meshach and Mind have not regarded thee.
They serve not thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast said.
Verse 16 Shadrach Meshach had to go answered and said to us, Can you hold the Nebuchadnezzar?
I got a backup one first there 15 now if you be ready.
At that at what time you hear the sound of the cornet, the flute, the harps that but sultry and dulcimer and all kinds of music, you fall down and worship the image that I have made well.
Asked the same, No, but if he worship not, he shall be cast the same hour in the midst of the burning fiery furnace. And who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands? Shadrach, Meshach. And a minute ago answer to the king, old Nebuchadnezzar. We are not careful to answer thee in this matter.
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If it be so.
Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fire furnace, and He will deliver those out of the handful dying hand. But if not.
Being known on the Leo King that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou set up.
Then was Nebuchadnezzar full of fury.
Form of his visit was changed against Shadrach, Meshach and Guilty and Spake and commanded that they should eat the furnace.
Seven times more.
That I want to be needed.
Born in London, the men were bound in their coats. Their hoses, their hats and other carpets were cast in the midst of the fiery furnace.
Therefore, because the King's command was urgent, furnace exceeding half flame of the fires slew the men that took up Shadrach Meshach. And then you go, and these three men, Shadrach Meshach and Mingle fell down her fell bound, fell down bound in the midst of the burning fiery furnace.
25 He answered and said, Lo, I see four men loose walking in the midst of the fire. They have no hurt, and the form of the 4th is like the Son of God.
The thoughts I had on those three men, there they were.
Taking Kathy, they would not bow down. They found favor with. OK, so that things kind of went as you read through there, things kind of went South.
And they would not bow down.
To what became a decree.
The thing that I enjoyed in that.
Is the 16th verse. It says, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee on this matter. Their minds were already set before they were confronted with that.
They knew the answer before they were given that option.
The king said you fall down.
Everything will be good.
We've already gone back on this quarter.
So.
They were already set in their mind. They were going to serve the living God.
And then later on, we have a portion with Daniel.
In chapter 6.
Then this Daniel was preferred above the presidents and the Princess, because an excellent spirit was in him.
And the king sought to set him over the whole rail.
Later on in that chapter.
Verse 11 Then these men assembled and found Daniel praying, making supplication for his daughter.
Sang a song just a little bit ago.
And the gain demanded because that is his prayer, worshiping his dog.
Then a cave was commanded and they brought Daniel and cast him into the whole denim lines.
Now the king spade, instead of the Daniel thy God, whom thou service continuously, he will deliver.
Stone was brought and laid upon the mouth of the den, and the king sealed him with his sickness.
Signal of the Lord's that the purpose might not be changed concerning Daniel.
Then the king went to his palace and passed the knife fast.
Neither were instruments of music from before him, and his sleep went away from him.
He cared for him, but he got caught in his own trap, so he had by decree.
Fulfill the law that he had made.
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And the king arose very early in the morning and went to haste the denim lines. And when he came to the den, he cried with a lamentable voice unto Daniel and the King's faith. He said to Daniel, Oh, Daniel, servant of the living God, this man's starting to cease him.
Servant of the living God is thy God, whom thou service continually able to deliver thee from wines.
Then said Daniel Lumpur, with King spoke in Live forever. My God has sent his Angel and has shut the lion's mouth that they have not hurt me.
Or as much.
As before him, Innocency.
Was found in me and also before the old king.
Have I done one for?
What I was thinking about in these passages here?
These four men, they got together. They were supposed to. The king had a dream and no one could answer it but Daniel. These three men got together and they prayed and they asked the Lord to show them.
They were in there was kind of a difficult situation.
And then?
They worked together. They were buddies.
They prayed.
They thought he.
When they went.
And they had.
If I set one.
That they are going to honor God.
Their God, they were going to honor him and we're not going to dishonor him in any way with food or drink.
Or not praying, because that's how that went.
They were thrown into the fire.
Uncertain that Daniel was in prayer for going in.
And they have. They were probably more than likely prayer with each other as they were going in.
And we see that there is another one in there and the whiteness of God. God will not let you go through a trial without being there with you. That I would say. I know I've done a lot of things. I've had a lot of trials.
With Daniel.
Doesn't say anything about HIV and then we go.
Chat, right? But I can't help but think that when they put Daniel in the lion's den.
Those three men were in prayer for them.
I know that that is.
That he was trusting into living God. He did. He was brought out of the lion's den.
And thinking about that buddy system.
There was a time, many years ago, when I have a little reflection about myself.
And if you don't know me, some of you have met me for the first time. Some of you I met many years ago, 35 years ago. My name is Bernie Craft. I'm from Iowa.
Back in the 70s, as Sam says, we worked together in a facet. There was a lot going on in that factory. There was a lot of a lot of commotion.
Young men getting saved, they're finding Christ.
And Christ was living in him.
It was kind of strange to me because.
The foreman and a supervisor, they didn't really care for it, but when a lot of these men got saved, their production went up. They were happier.
And they were working for the Lord. We weren't working for the man, we were working for the Lord.
And.
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The early part that I have with Christianity.
Was the fact that I was working in that factory.
A man came down into the shipping dock that I worked. I was the welder down there.
If you see cranes going down the railroad tracks, you see those iron bars holding them on the rail car. It was my job to Weld them together so that they would hold the bar, call the crane on the car.
Wasn't that very beautiful? It's an easy job.
We had a man named Alex George. He came down into the area.
We all knew he was a Christian.
I didn't like it. I didn't like Christians because I had decided earlier in my life.
One thing I did appear, I would raise the Catholic and I had a falling out.
And.
I just despised people that preached.
And we got Alex down in our area and I made a commitment.
To some friends of mine. I said that's fine. I said he'll be gone 3 minutes. I said all right and I tried.
I tried my best to drive that man out of the area because I didn't like it.
He was.
The unbeliever himself, I don't think he was saved more than a year.
But I didn't see something.
And I didn't pay attention to it.
He had Sam and I don't know how many others praying for.
I gave that man the Dickens. I said this on that Zoom meeting. He come in in the morning, said lunch, bailed out. I'd do something to it.
No morning. I grew up rope as much failed take his apple up. I take a bite of it, put it back.
Go back to work.
He'd come over there lunchtime, hopefully lunch bailed up.
Use that.
Stand here and I just think to myself, what am I going to do next?
When I took a bite out of the sandwich a couple times.
You put that sandwich up and look at it.
I got to the point where I thought I'm going to have to do some destructive things to get him, so I poured Gaz Mullane in his shoes. His work, too. That's what we paint on cylinders, so we ship them overseas. The salt water will affect the cylinders that Chrome.
Remedies use.
He just went there, took him over to the bathroom, coming up, put him on.
I can't get this guy.
I don't know what's wrong, I didn't see something.
I did not see Sam. There he is. I did not see Joe Bird.
And compass otherwise that we're praying that I would find Christ.
I had committed myself to hell because I knew I couldn't do enough good to get to heaven because that's how I was raised in the Catholic Church. You do good to offset the bad, and hopefully the scales will tip in your favor.
That's how I was released and I gave up.
And then one day.
This is a gospel term.
Alice came in and said hey bird, freeze that. I said take it away if I don't want it.
He just left it.
I sat there, looked at it.
After a couple days.
I slipped off the bathroom and I read it.
I read more.
I don't know how many 100.
I couldn't do enough.
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Couldn't do enough against him to drive him out and after six months I said I'd have him drove out in six months or in three months at six months.
I asked Christ through my life.
And I could not believe it myself.
Sam came down into the area. If there's any questions I have, I'd ask Alex. Sam was around, I'd ask him. I just couldn't understand it. I don't know, but I found something that I could lay hold of.
That I have that I could take and it was more.
And yours doesn't mind.
And thinking about Daniel.
And those three men?
They gave them different names.
They still have God in their heart. They would not bow to the King.
And that man Alex, I tried to knuckle him under as hard as I could. He would. And that's what I think dropped me more than anything was the fact that.
Everything I did to you.
It was just like.
OK, we're good.
No big deal.
So.
There's.
A thought that I had.
Especially for your life.
Is the best thing you can do.
Is find yourself.
A godly friend.
One that loves Jesus as much as you, if not more. Someone that you can confide in.
It may be your parents.
It may be a personal settlement next to you, I don't know. I've got a few that I can talk to and I can unload my herds.
And I know I've got a few that talk to me. And that is the best thing because you do not need to carry your burdens alone.
God will help you carry them.
And he's given you.
All these people in this room.
That will help you. And that's one of the things that that I really cherish is the fact that no matter what kind of a problem I'm having.
I could talk to the morning, I can talk to Bob, I can talk to Sam.
I now know Steve. I met him.
Fellow and got to know him a little more down here.
Some other people around here and some that I met 35 years ago, I can point you out. I can't really say your names all the time. I'll say the Buchanans. Anybody here know any Buchanans?
But.
In First Timothy.
In First Timothy.
In chapter 6, verse 11.
It says, But thou, O man of God.
Plead these things, follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness.
Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, life eternal. Where do thou art also called and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses.
And second Timothy?
Chapter 2.
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Thou therefore endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No man that wore entangled himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who have chosen him to be a soldier.
That no man of war entangled himself with the affairs of this life.
I was an army for three years.
We gave, we were given, we were given a job, we were given an operation.
We've dedicated all our resources to that operation.
Because we didn't want faith.
And in this here it says no man that wore the tangles himself with the things of this world.
We didn't. We didn't entangle ourselves with things that were going on, problems. We dedicated ourselves to our operation.
To the function that we wanted to accomplish.
And that is something that all you young men didn't think about, the ladies that it is about. It is a war.
I'll give you a second there.
Not too long after I got saved, I got transferred to 2nd shift of 12 and experimental boon together.
I got stuck, they picked me. They said he wants you to go and do it and I said OK. So I went to 2nd shift, started working. I got there, I got about 10 people around there and he says pick whoever you want to work with you.
I said no. Any one of them guys, I don't want her.
I just didn't want to work with a girl.
15 minutes later I won't be there. I'm packing stuff, getting everything set up. Here she comes.
You all knew that was coming.
Here she comes, and I thought to myself.
That I'm going to let this.
But I gave it to the Lord and I said this will be funny.
We worked together for about 3 weeks.
One day she come over and sat down and I was at my lunch. We always sat right back. I always sat right in my work area because we didn't have time to go out.
Sat down, She came over and sat down. She looks at me and she says what's with you?
As we're able, she said. Well, you're different.
I said, well, I'll explain that. What do you mean by different? I thought she was going to get on this thing about not liking working with her, but she said I knew you before.
I knew you before you started acting this way.
That's what do you mean, she said. Well, I knew you when you used to go out more party with all them guys.
I said yeah. I said that's over.
I said I got something now that I've never had before.
I said I've got eternal life, I've got the Lord Jesus.
I know that I'm going to death.
And she said. And I, from that point on, she started asking questions.
After about a couple weeks.
She accepted, correct.
I'm just don't find it because here I didn't want to work with him. The Lord murdered there so she could find the Lord.
We don't know what's going on.
But then about 2-3 weeks later she comes in and she's really sad and I was thinking to myself, what's the matter?
You've been really happy for three weeks.
She says.
I can't tell you, I said. Well, what is it?
I said, is it Tom that was her boyfriend who were living together?
Yeah.
I wasn't gonna beat me up, no.
So you won't feel it.
She said yes.
I called on my buddy sister.
My friend Candy Kettleton, whom Sam led to the Lord.
He was working with me on that same department only a couple days over. Great time comes over here again. You got a problem.
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He said what is it? So I explained it to me, he says.
Well, let's just go talk to her.
OK, let's do that, I told Linda. I said we'll go talk to him.
This is alcohol always older ones and made it.
He did. He called several other people, too.
We went to see him.
We got off work at midnight and on Friday night went down to the old oh, I can't remember the name of that restaurant anymore. I don't even know if it's still there. Country Kitchen. Yeah, Country Kitchen. Nice burger. He's inside. He's inside, sitting down. Kenny and I walk in. He's sitting in the booth here. She's here. Kenny standing here, and I come walking. We're all standing there.
They're sitting, we're standing. And I looked at him and I said, what's up, Tom?
And he says, you know, before this night's over, I'm going to cut your throat from here to here.
I said, well, that's what the Lord's gonna have to do. I said that's what's gonna stop me.
Candy.
He walked up. He says, well, it's not all Bernie's fault. He let her to the Lord. I'm the one that told her she shouldn't be living with you.
And he hit him with a right hook right across his face and his glasses flying out. Cut his nose. He's bleeding. I picked his glasses up. That's your penny. Manager comes over, says you guys got these.
Kenny says. Here's the other chief.
Tom says I ain't fallen for that.
Found out later on because he said that earlier. Before that he said to me one day he says how can a just kind loving God take my parents away when I'm 12 years old?
He hated God.
And he was taken out of us and everyone else.
But anyway, getting back to it, we get thrown out. We're standing outside, we're in a grassy area about this big.
He's over here.
Yelling at us. Yelling at her.
And she's standing about 10 feet away from me.
We're over here.
And he mellows out as loud as he can.
Who do you love?
More.
Me or this Jesus that you can't see.
And that beautiful woman stood right there and said Jesus.
And it's on a proud of people.
Front Bus.
And it took the wind out of his sails so fast. He just.
You have nothing to say. The police came.
See your identity that there is without your face, blood run Canyon's face, Kenny says I strongly.
Wasn't going to say anything bad about Tom. We just left, he said. Were you guys there or?
Thank you, Linda took tall, he said Saturday morning. He said we're going to go to church this afternoon. So they did. I got back home from church. I got into an argument.
She gave him up.
Sunday afternoon he comes back and says I want to go back to church.
Went to church and Sunday night he got saved.
I come in and work on Monday morning thinking that I was going to get beat up.
Attacked. Sam came out the door from the factory. He was leaving early, just a few minutes and I was coming in. Sam goes, you ain't going to believe this. And I said what he said. Tom got saved.
That's exactly how I feel. I felt like the weight of the world was off of my story and I was never so happy in my life. She was just beaming when I got into work with her.
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And I've lost track of them. I haven't seen them for many years. And we got laid off in that factory.
But that's just a couple little incidents in my life about the buddy system and what I'm trying to say to you.
Shakrat, Meshach, Mendigo, Daniel. The Buddy System.
Keep a friend.
With more than one seven close.
Keep in touch with them constantly share the word with them.
These young people's things are just wonderful. I love it. It is it is awesome because the words of my friend Bobby.
Pause.
I've got to reconnect with a lot of people down here that I haven't seen in many years. And I'll say another thing, a lot of the people that I knew when I was down here 35 years ago are not home with the Lord.
And in this little story, there's a warning that says no warning that we all jump in to get a shoe and over the falls.
There's no more I popped over here with my motorcycle going 60 miles an hour. Vehicle Center also weighs in the road.
My headlight came down.
I spent six months in a cast.
LinkedIn hero, right? They had to rebrake it. Put screws in it.
It's all.
Doesn't matter now.
Because I know when I go with glory.
I won't have sore knees and I won't have sore elbows. I won't have a bad leg.
I'm gonna be able to show this.
That's one way.
As I was saying.
Is your.
How is Buddy close?
In mind for your boys might be a girl.
Someone that you can talk to.
Times get rough.
And most importantly, don't ever lose the communication connection with your parents.
Because I'll tell you one thing, I will do more than you know.
Sometimes it doesn't feel that way.
But they do.