In My Seat: 9/11 Revisited – The 25th Anniversary
Sept. 11, 2026
Host: Hon. Sam Rohrer
Guest: Steve Scheibner
Note: This transcript is taken from a Stand in the Gap Today program aired on 9/11/26. To listen to the podcast, click HERE.
Disclaimer: While reasonable efforts have been made to provide an accurate transcription, the following is a representation of a mechanical transcription and as such, may not be a word for word transcript. Please listen to the audio version for any questions concerning the following dialogue.
Sam Rohrer:
Hello and welcome to today’s very special Stand in the Gap Today program. Because as we walk through the events of this day here on September 11, 2026, we’re going to reflect back on the events of that infamous day 25 years ago on September 11, 2001. Across America, people who were alive and remember that day as I do, and most of you probably do as well, we remember that the events of that day and following permanently reshaped our nation. Now joining Pastor Isaac Crockett and me today is a special guest and a longtime friend, Dr. Steve Scheibner. He’s a retired commercial airline captain, former US Navy commander, and a pastor who will help us remember certain events of that day from his unique, I’m going to say, divinely directed perspective. You may recognize his name because he’s a lot of place. He’s been very active since then, but stay with us as you know, you’re going to be greatly encouraged.
A little bit of a background. On September the 10th, 2001, Steve was a first officer for American Airlines based in Boston. He was scheduled to fly flight 11 to Los Angeles the next morning and living a full life in Maine with his growing family. He ironed his shirt and waited for his final assignment. At 3:00 PM, another pilot, a friend, Tom McGinnis, exercised his seniority and he claimed that trip that Steve was planning to fly. And when attack reports surfaced the next morning, Steve was at the naval base in Brunswick that evening pulling up the airline system that he would access. He saw that his manifest replaced by three words, sequence, failed, continuity. He’s going to explain that, but his intended flight was the first aircraft hijacked and flown into the North Tower that day. Steve joins us now to share how a single moment defined a lifetime of living on borrowed time, but a life reordered, priorities recalibrated and a platform for the communication of God’s grace and mercy established.
And with that pilot, friend, Pastor Steve Shiver, thanks for being with Isaac and I today.
Steve Scheibner:
Sam, Isaac, it’s a pleasure to be with both of you today.
Sam Rohrer:
Steve, when you logged on to the system on that evening of September 11 and you saw those words sequence failed continuity, what went through your mind in that exact moment?
Steve Scheibner:
Moment that’s kind of etched in my memory forever. As you teed up for me just a minute ago, I had originally been scheduled to fly that flight. I got bumped by a more senior pilot. Fast forward to the morning of September 11th where all of us, the whole world came to a stop on that day, by the way. It’s unprecedented in my lifetime. Nothing was more important than stopping what you were doing and watching the events of nine eleven. So I was no exception to that. I was on the Navy base that day because I was a reserve officer and I was working on a leadership project. And so I thought, well, since I didn’t get an airline trip, I’ll go into the Navy base and I’ll get caught up on that project. Then of course I’m watching like everybody else was the events of nine eleven take place on the TV screen.
And on the Navy base, now we were going in a different direction. Everybody else was kind of watching it. We’re thinking we’re going to war. And so there’s people running around with guns and it was really very chaotic on the base with a lot of contingencies and so forth. So I never really connected the dots during the day of the 11th that that first airplane that flew into the North Tower was the airplane that I was supposed to pilot. And a lot of people said, “How could you not know that?” I go, “My mind was in a completely different place that day. I’m in my Navy uniform and going to war.” So later on that evening when they finally let us go home off the base, I went home and I was pastoring a church at the time. I was a senior pastor at Cornerstone Baptist Church.
And of course all of my deacons and everybody in the church all day long, they had been calling, “Are you okay? Are you okay? I’m not in the air. I’m all right.” So we called an impromptu prayer meeting and we had, I don’t know, maybe 65, 70 people over at our house that night just to pray for our nation, pray for the direction, pray for clarity, a lot of other things we were praying for. Once everybody left, I went into the computer to see if I could bring up the manifest like I had the day before when my name was on it, because I was sure I would have known the pilots and the crew because Boston’s a very small base. So I went to the computer, I brought up the manifest and the screen came up in front of me like it did the day before where it had my name on it.
But this time my name was gone. In fact, all the names had been scrubbed from it and it said sequence failed continuity. That’s all it said. And that’s code at the airlines for the flight never made it to its destination. And you talk about an understatement.
It’s still hard to fathom. I mean, I can see those three words like it was yesterday. And at that moment I realized where my name had been and those three words had substituted that that was a flight I had packed my bags for. And I just kind of sat there and stared at the screen. And a few minutes later, my wife came around the corner and said, “Hon, what are you doing?” And I said, “Remember I told you I was going to Los Angeles today?” And she said, yeah. I said, “That was the first airplane that got hijacked this morning.” And all these years later, there’s still kind of an empty space inside where a feeling needs to be, but I just don’t have it. It’s hard to quantify that moment. So we just kind of held each other for a few minutes, didn’t say a word, just kind of taking in the gravity of what could have happened but didn’t.
Isaac Crockett:
That day, Tom McGinnison, another pilot, another Christian, leaver, father took the spot that you had been assigned to. And you’ve talked about living on borrowed time. We just have a moment before our first break, but what could you talk to us about with that feeling that you’re saying that trying to describe that living on borrowed time, somebody taking your place?
Steve Scheibner:
Well, as you begin to now look back in the rear view mirror on what happened, you realize that there was a date on the calendars for me, September 11th, 2001 where I should have gone to be with the Lord and somebody else substituted for you. Tom had the privilege to do that because of his seniority. He was just looking to pick up some extra pay for his family. And we’ll get into later on how they bumped me off a trip, but he bumped me off the trip basically. And now Tom has perished. And so there’s a family and anguish, there’s a wife and children and his church and everything else. All those people, they’re devastated by the shocking news of all that. I realize now that I should have been in his spot, but now I’m living on borrowed time and there’s an obligation that comes with that.
You can’t just go back to a normal daily routine and slough that off. You’ve got to look hard and say, “Okay, Lord, why did you take Tom and leave me?” And there’s no real clear answer for that. The only thing I know is I was the one left behind. And with that comes that obligation. I’ve got to further the kingdom of God. I can’t go back to an ordinary life. I’ve got to do everything I can to make sure that the days I’ve been given further the cause of Christ.
Sam Rohrer:
And ladies and gentlemen, if you’re listening today, you’re just listening to the voice there of pilot Steve Scheibner, Dr. Steve Scheibner, who was scheduled to be on that plane, Flight 11, American Airlines flight. The first one that went into that tower on September 11, 25 years ago from today. He must have been on that plane and the Lord superintendent and took him off. It’s what we’re talking about. Reordered his life. Not often do people have an understanding. Do we know that God spared us, but we’re all spared. So how are we living our lives? When we come back, we’re going to talk with Steve further and get a family perspective, his own personal family perspective as they have communicated and they look back personally 25 years later.
Well, if you’re just joining us, I don’t know what you’re doing on this day here on nine eleven, but if you were alive, you do remember what you were doing on this day. I’m sure we all do. And today we’re privileged to have as our special guest today, Dr. Steve Schivener. He was the pilot originally scheduled to fly that first American Airlines plane, Flight 11, that first one to contact that tower, right? And we all remember seeing that played over and over and over again. But God moved him off of that plane and he shared a little bit and he’s going to share some more as he and his family look back to 25 years ago because it was 25 years ago that all that happened. But the ripple effects of that day, I’m going to say continue to shape, well, shape US and global policy certainly in unimaginable ways.
And that’s not our primary focus here today, but while public national and freedom shaping impacts have resulted from that event 25 years ago today, the personal and the family lives and the relationship of those many who lost their family or friends on that fateful day continue to this very day. Now in this segment, we’re going to talk with Dr. Steve Scheibner about the impacts on his family, the Scheibner family. For Steve’s children, safety transformed overnight from an assumed reality into, well, frankly, a daily prayer. And over the last two decades, as his children grew and grandchildren arrived, the family’s understanding of how close they came to actually losing their father and grandfather that deepened into a collective commitment to live intentionally, to love generously and to anchor their lives in that godly biblical faith that alone exists as scripture tells us as a solid rock or gold refined in the fire or that shield that functions as an active protection against the fire regards of the wicked one.
A lot of ways we could go at that, Steve, but you’ve just released an updated video that people can now find. It’s called In My Seat, the 25th anniversary of nine eleven 2001. And people can find it on YouTube. As of today as doing this program, almost a half a million people have already watched it. So people can find it and I would encourage you listening to me to do that. But in that, you and your family members share personally their remembrances and more. Here’s my question. You may want to share a little bit about why you made this and maybe even the first one, but in the process, answer this question. How did your children process the reality of Flight 11? Did they understand it then? And as they grew older, how has it shaped their lives and your family’s dynamic even today, 25 years later?
Steve Scheibner:
Yeah, that’s an excellent question. And in that documentary that you just mentioned, and it’s called In My Seat, the 25th Anniversary Edition, if you type something like that in on YouTube, it’ll pop up. It’s available on the Captain Steve YouTube channel if you go there as well. And two of my adult children are interviewed in that documentary as well as my wife. So she kind of goes back over the last 25 years and they, and really kind of for the first time, I’ve sort of heard their story as the documentary maker was asking them questions. And one of them is my daughter, another is my son. And they both have really kind of different recollections of where they were at that time. She, my daughter, was a little bit older than my son. He was just kind of little at the time, but I think he was around six or seven years old and she was almost 10 years old.
So they understood what was going on, but not until they got much older as they explain it, did the gravity of it fell in. And I think when you’re a little kid, you’re like, oh, dad was supposed to be on that flight. What does that even mean? Well, when you grow up and you kind of mature, you realize that that meant you would have lost dad. And the deeper meaning is some other family lost their dad on nine eleven and their whole world was shook up. And so again, their perspective I think is fascinating and obviously it’s gotten a great response. It’s over 500,000 views. It’s probably going to end up at a million at some point. And it’s holding people’s attention. It’s 24 minutes long and people are just kind of glued to the screen listening to a personal family story that they hadn’t heard before connected with September 11th, 2001.
Isaac Crockett:
And Isaac? Yes. Sam, I listened to that video today. I watched it, I should say. And again, reminds me of so many things from Brother Steve, Pastor Steve, things that he’s talked about. He’s reached out to family. I mean, this time that he’s had since then, he has really used it to serve the Lord. But watching that video, hearing this family talk about for 25 years, as he mentioned, a lot of his kids are very young. I think some of his children weren’t even born yet. And how God opened that and has opened a ministry. One of the things, even in talking to him today, Steve, is I want to make sure I can put the gospel in there to tell the good news. And when we talk about nine eleven, there was so much awful, so much frightening, so many things. Even since then, we often talk about the changes that have happened since nine eleven, sometimes good, but a lot of times even bad.
And yet using that as an opportunity to share the gospel. Sam, I know that you’ve had a close relationship with Steve and Megan. For me, they’ve been sort of mentors through their ministry. They have the ministry character health and not only the pastoral side of things, but this is curriculum and conferences. So I think we lost Steve for just a little bit. He’ll probably be back on. But Sam, could you maybe talk to how God has done that in 25 years, he has used that quarter of a century of Steve and Megan to help build out his kingdom. Okay,
Sam Rohrer:
Go ahead. I think Steve, you’re with us, aren’t you?
Isaac Crockett:
Yeah.
Steve Scheibner:
No, I can hear you. I’m still here. Can you guys
Isaac Crockett:
Hear me? Steve was off. I’m so sorry. I’m
Steve Scheibner:
So
Isaac Crockett:
Sorry. I though that Steve had dropped off. I’m sorry, Steve.
Steve Scheibner:
No, no, no.
Isaac Crockett:
By you guys
Steve Scheibner:
Talking about me, so go ahead.
Isaac Crockett:
It might have been my headset that was messing up. Steve, your family then, you’ve grown, you’ve such a focus on family. You have a large family. And hearing this shared, as you just said, your kids, you’re hearing them talk about how they process this. How has this helped focus your mission and drive your family mission together and forward?
Steve Scheibner:
Yeah, that’s an excellent question. And the original In My Seat documentary, it’s about 15 minutes long. It was made for the 10th anniversary of nine eleven. So it’s about 15 years old now. It’s coming up on like four million views. In that documentary, the documentary, the person who made the documentary asked me a question and the question is, why do you think God spared your life? And in answering that question, I shared something I wrote, I don’t know, 35 years ago, my spiritual life objective. I was in a Bible study at a church. Pastor had a bunch of men write spiritual life objectives. And my spiritual life objective that I wrote in 1991, 10 years prior to nine eleven, was to seek, trust, and glorify God through humble service and continual prayer to raise up qualified disciples as quickly as possible so that someday I might hear God say, “Well done, my good and faithful servant.” And I’ve memorized it all these years and I recited it for that 10th anniversary documentary.
And I said at the end of it, that’s what drives me. Wanting to hear well done, my good and faithful servant is what gets me out of bed every morning. It gets me through a day and gets me out of bed the next morning. So I don’t think it’s a lock for everybody. I’m not talking about working your way to heaven. I am talking about being responsive to the voice of the Lord in your life and following his lead. And if you’re responsive to the Lord’s following in your life, I think you’re going to hear well done, my good and faithful servant. But everything since September 11th, 2001 has been driven by let’s get the gospel out, let’s share Christ with people. Let’s give them the opportunity to say yes or no to Christ. I’m not trying to force anybody into anything, just want to give them the facts as we know them according to the word of God and they can make up their own mind.
But all the books, my wife’s written a dozen, I think like 15 books. I co-authored some with her. I’ve written a couple of books. We’ve got all of the character health ministry stuff for marriage and parenting and youth character development available, characterhealth.com. All that stuff came after September 11th, 2001. So the Lord has made us very productive. He’s kept our ax to the grindstone. We keep working until he takes us home someday and hopefully we hear well done, my good and faithful servant.
Sam Rohrer:
Steve, in the last minute and a half here, let me just ask you this question. As you now look back 25 years, and you and I have talked, you’ve been on our program before TV program and this and you’ve shared this story, but if you look back over these 25 years, is there an example or an illustration of something that you can think of where maybe the Lord has allowed you to understand how the sharing of this story perhaps has had been used of God in someone else’s life?
Steve Scheibner:
Yeah. I’ve talked to dozens of people that have told me afterwards that they trusted Christ after watching the original In My Seat documentary. There was a gentleman I was speaking at a conference and he was, I don’t remember him, but the lady who organized the conference, it was her brother and he’s sitting in the back row and she said his arms were folded. And as I recount that I though, yeah, there was a guy who was kind of angry in the back row. And I’m showing that original documentary and then I got up and I shared about living on borrowed time and knowing what it’s like to have somebody die in my place, not once but twice and once was enough. Tom didn’t die for Steve’s sins, but Jesus Christ, the other one who did, hung in bled and suffered on a cross to pay the price that I couldn’t pay so I could be reconciled to God and anyone could be reconciled to God if they received Jesus Christ as their personal savior.
He kind of stormed out of the room, upset, went up to his room and watched the documentary. She said he watched it like 10 times and she came up there shortly afterwards and he was in tears and he told her, “I’m ready. I want to trust Christ.” So he gave his heart to the Lord. That was a particularly poignant one to me. And I’ve heard from a bunch of other people over the years that they’ve received Christ after watching that. And that’s the power of the gospel all these many years later.
Sam Rohrer:
And Steve, you’re right.That’s the power of the gospel. Ladies and gentlemen, sometimes, I mean, somebody’s looking at our life, somebody’s looking at your life. Sometimes we know how that can cause people to come to Christ in faith. Others, we won’t know until we stand before the Lord, but I hope we think that way. Stay with us come and come back and talk to Steve about what our nation has learned or should have learned from the event. Well, as we consider and look back on, well, now the 25th anniversary of nine eleven, in the last segment, we were able to get a glimpse into the personal side of that event from pilot Steve Scheibner’s perspective and that of his family in a way that draws attention to the amazing grace of God and God’s sovereign hand that is visible even in the midst of horrendous physical catastrophes.
And I know all of you listening to me right now, if you know the Lord and you’ve walked with the Lord, we’ve seen that, have we not? And for those of us who remember that day and where we were, I am sure where we were when we first heard that news account in the immediate wake of nine eleven, we can remember how America responded then with shock, clearly, but also with a demonstrated unparalleled unity. There was a surge of patriotism. There was a renewed care for one another. Remember, people returned to church. Prayer meetings were convened even by public officials. And there was for a time a return to seriousness and God consciousness. Yet 25 years later, I would say that those days of shared resolve have not only faded into cultural division and distraction of all types, but essentially disappeared into a climate of, I’m going to say independence from God, an attitude of self-sufficiency and arrogant pride.
In fact, an entire generation has now grown up without direct memory of that morning. So in this segment, I want to examine the national shift from unity to comfort and why remembering what God would have us to remember is more important now than ever. So Steve, we started with the personal side, the familial side that you talked about in the last segment because that is so important, but it impacted our nation. And from your perspective, I’m just curious what you’d say, looking back over 25 years, what do you think are the most lasting impacts on America from that event as it would impact say our culture, our families, our church, the political system, and perhaps what should have been learned from that reality of nine eleven?
Steve Scheibner:
Well, if you’re old enough and you remember the events vividly of nine eleven all those years ago, everybody was getting along. As you said, Congress was hugging each other on both sides of the aisle and we were going to remember this forever, all the banners and we’ll never forget and all that. And that’s a nice sentiment. I mean, I applaud that, but it’s not realistic in the long run. Memories are going to fade. It gets into your rear view mirror. After a while, you get back to the carping at each other thing, which has really taken over the national discussion these days. I mean, everybody is so cynical and so at each other and so adversarial. It’s shocking when you compare it to how semi-unified we were back 25 years ago at this event. And with that being said, the farther we get away from it, the more likely that the current cynicism is going to continue to grow.
Now we’ll remember anniversaries like this, Americans like their anniversaries, so the 10th year, the 20th year, the 25th. But after 25, if you weren’t 35 years old or older, you don’t really remember it. For most people, it’s a historical event at this point and they don’t really have a firsthand emotional and spiritual interaction with what a big deal it was. And over the last 25 years, I know this will get your blood boiling, Sam, we’ve given up a lot of our liberties in exchange for security. You got to be very careful with that, right? And people just go, “Well, I’ll give you access to everything. I’ll give away all of my privacy if you give me or promise me some security over here.” Well, that’s turned out to be a big red herring and something that we really need to reconsider. So I’m not sure we got a whole lot of security.
I’m not sure we’re in a much better place 25 years later for all the liberties we’ve given up. So going forward, as this thing gets farther and farther behind us, that’s my biggest concern. My biggest concern is number one, the liberty and security discussion, and the other is that we will be set up for another nine eleven style attack because we’ve just forgotten about being vigilant about terrorism around the world, and especially in our own homeland.
Isaac Crockett:
Steve, as you’re talking, that does bring up so many different programs that we’ve talked about those exact things right here on Stand in the Gap, but you have such a unique perspective on our country and on how we’ve changed. You’ve worn so many different hats, quite literally, but meaning your different careers. So your military career, being a Navy pilot, Navy commander, being involved in churches, helping families, counseling, all these different things, but your captain’s hat as Captain Steve and flying internationally has helped you kind of look at your own culture as you’ve been out of our country many, many, many times and then coming back in. And so you get to look at America, and I think you have a unique perspective on it because of all these different hats you’ve worn. And as you look at our culture, as you look at our changes that have happened since nine eleven, how we’ve though, okay, well, we’re making ourselves safer, but giving up apparently freedoms and things, what should be the result?
What should our families do here as we look back 25 years later, our churches, our government from federal all the way down to local levels. As we look back at how our nation has changed in that last quarter of century and every 25 years, we see changes going on, but particularly these 25 years looking back on nine eleven, with your unique view as God has used you, what do you see, just some reflection on how as Christians, our families, our churches, even our government should be looking at this today on nine eleven?
Steve Scheibner:
I think pastors and congregations ought to really get engaged like they used to back maybe even a century ago. They don’t. Most pulpits have become very passive in this country, so therefore they become kind of irrelevant in terms of any sort of political change or political direction. Now I’m not talking about jumping behind one or the other political parties. I’m talking about letting your voice be heard. God fears the people that are filling the pews in Bible believing churches and their leadership need to be the first people that are down at local government getting up and saying, “This isn’t right. This is wrong. Why do we have soccer practice every Sunday? Why do we have games on Sunday?” People need to be in church. They need to be standing up for what’s those sort of things they used to. They used to decades ago, but they don’t anymore.
And so the slow drift over this whole time, I think is a big part of. It’s due to pastors not speaking up. It used to be that the local politicians didn’t do anything unless the pastors in their community were on board with it. And if the pastors were against it, they didn’t dare make a move. That’s so laughable now these days, it’s not even funny. And so I think there’s got to be a resurgence of God-fearing people standing up and just taking their constitutionally mandated rights and speaking up. If enough believers do that, here’s a shocking stat for you. Over half, over 50% of people that identify as evangelicals don’t even vote. They’re not even registered to vote. And so we look and we go, “Well, we don’t like our politicians. We don’t like the direction we’re going.” Well, get up and go vote on voting day.
We don’t even vote our values. And so if you’re too lazy to get up and vote, then again, the direction of our country is going to be somebody else is going to get up and vote and they’re going to determine which way we’re going. So I think in the future, going ahead, making sure another nine eleven doesn’t happen, but other things that are very important to us as believers, we need to get out there and our pastors need to lead that charge.
Sam Rohrer:
And Steve, let me follow up with this question. If there was one thing that America today should remember from that event that occurred 25 years ago, what would it be?
Steve Scheibner:
That one thing, Sam, would be the raw feeling of helplessness. So if you recall, as we were all stopping and watching the TVs that day, both of you guys are going to recall this feeling. We stood there and we stared at the screen and we felt helpless to do anything about it. Everybody, you wanted to run down to the local military recruiting station and sign up, and a lot of people did. That was an outworking of I feel helpless, but Americans, we hate that helpless feeling of standing there and watching those buildings collapse. The most vivid memory for me of the day of nine eleven, as I was watching the TV, was watching in the background. As you’re watching the buildings before they fell, you were watching people jump from the buildings. And at first you’re like, “What is that?” And you look a little closer and then another one and another one.
And so there were people that went to work that day on a normal day to provide for their families, and they had to make a decision within minutes to either burn to death or jump out of a skyscraper. That’s cold-blooded murder, and we should never forget that. Let that sear into your memory that if we’re not vigilant, that sort of thing will happen again, and don’t ever get yourself in a helpless position again. And if you’re just complacent and you let things happen and you don’t pay attention, that helpless feeling will come back again and it’ll bite another generation and my hope and prayer is that never happens again.
Sam Rohrer:
Now I certainly hope and pray that it does not happen again either, Steve. We don’t have much time to ask another question, but even as you said earlier, I wonder how close we could be to another event of that type. Ladies and gentlemen, who do you depend on? Are you dependent upon God? Because if you are, that’s the great place to be because he will never fail. But if you’re dependent on something else, anything else, even the building or the government or your own home or your wealth, all that will disappear. We know that. So just some things to think about, how fast what we perceive to be the most important can change. Now when we come back, we’re going to not just look back, we’re now going to look ahead. Moving forward now, because we’re here, what should we do moving forward? And particularly with purpose, because my guest today, Steve Scheibner, talks a lot about moving forward with purpose.
Well, as we bring today’s program to a close, we’ve looked back here on this nine eleven, this 25th anniversary of a nation changing, I’m going to say yay, a world changing event that day because it did actually change policy and attitudes by those who recall that day. So as we mark this quarter century since September 11th, 2001, the ultimate honor we can pay to those who lost someone of which so many did is how we choose to live this day. Now in our final segment here, Dr. Steve Shibner was going to share why no one should sit on their story, something that he’s talked much about. Every one of us has a story. He has a most unique story and thank the Lord. He has allowed God to use him to share that story, but all of us have a story. The fact that we should not trade comfort for intentional service and he’s going to share what it looks like to build a lasting legacy for future generations.
Choices have consequences and it’s part of this. But anyway, Steve, let’s get into this. Why is it so vital for everyday people, those who are listening, all of us are everyday people, to share their personal stories of, well, for instance, overcoming trial or hardship, but to not attempt to do so outside the recognition of our dependency on the God of the Bible. A lot of people have a story and they like to brag about how they became mighty on their own might, but we know from scripture that’s not it. So what do you say about this?
Steve Scheibner:
Well, you’ve got to tell your God’s story and God gives you a story to tell. Now, my story is pretty dramatic and it’s connected to an international event. That’s one thing, but I didn’t get to choose my God’s story. God chose it for me. But I did get the choice of whether I wanted to go out and share it. There’s the old kiddie song about don’t put your light under a bushel and that whole idea is very pertinent to all of us. So if you think about it, let’s go back to the biblical times when Jesus showed up. Now why did God send his son 2000 years ago? Why did he send him in the 21st century? We’ve got all the telecommunications. We could have gotten the message out all around the world. We could have done it simultaneously. Wouldn’t that have been preferable? No, it wasn’t.
Why? Because of the personal testimony side of it. So Jesus shows up in the first century and pours himself into 12 men, 12 ordinary, hardworking guys. And in that, 11 of them then go and tell that story and transform the entire world. And that was much more powerful than anything you could put together through telecommunications in the 21st century. So having said that, God is still at that. He’s still giving all of us, his disciples, those who are God fearers, a God’s story to tell. And so your story, if you’ve ever had cancer, you’ve had a life threatening illness or an injury or a car wreck, you can, like me, mark on that calendar the day you started living on borrowed time. That’s one chapter in your God’s story. There’s many chapters, I’m sure. Don’t keep it to yourself because there’s somebody out there that needs to hear that.
You’re going to give them the courage to press on and face another day. If they’re wrestling with chemotherapy, they’re wrestling with the inevitability of life, whatever it is, your words of encouragement to them are going to give them the courage to press on and might lead them to faith in Jesus Christ because ultimately God put us on this earth as eternal creatures to spend an eternity with him. So having said that, my whole passion is to give people the opportunity to say yes or no to Christ. How? By telling my God’s story as often as I get an opportunity
Isaac Crockett:
To. That is such a good idea. We should all be giving those God stories, telling our testimony to people, taking opportunity to get to know people and share that. After nine eleven, there was a lot of sharing of the gospel. There were a lot of intentional revivals and things set up. What advice do you have though now looking back 25 years? We’re talking to people. I mean, some were so young when it happened, they don’t remember it. Some were not even born at all. You have children and grandchildren. I have children who were not born when this happened. And we saw this kind of return to God that happened and then it almost vaporized. It just kind of left. And we’re also on an important week this week, Thursday of this week was the one year anniversary of Charlie Kirk being assassinated. And I think maybe a similar thing could be said about that as well.
What advice do you have for those listening, whether they remember nine eleven or not, about not making that mistake of kind of a short lived revival, if you were, but turning personally and as communities and as a nation back to God?
Steve Scheibner:
Yeah, I was thinking exactly what you were thinking about, about Charlie Kirk’s assassination a year ago yesterday. And this generation’s nine eleven. I think everybody remembers where they were when they got the news that Charlie had been assassinated and how horrible that was. Regardless of how you feel about Charlie, a public assassination of that nature could be denounced across the world. Everybody should say that was wrong. And the fact that I believe he was shot for his Christian faith, that makes it even worse in my mind. So wake up Christians, especially young believers, wake up. There’s real evil out there. It’s been there for a long time. It’s not going away. It manifests itself in so many subtle ways and not so subtle ways like the assassination of a public figure like Charlie Kirk. You got to get out there and you got to stand up for Christ.
You got to share your God’s story. You got to share the gospel. That’s your main line of defense and offense at the same time to give that lost and dying world an opportunity to say yes or no to Jesus Christ. So take those moments and turn them into something positive. The devil wants you to just get depressed and go home and suck your thumb. And the Lord is saying, no, no, no, that’s part of the story. I need you to get out and I need you to tell your story to somebody. And the springboard might be Charlie Kirk, it might be nine eleven. There may be something down the road that’ll be for this next generation that’ll be their watershed moment where the Lord says, get out and share the gospel.
Sam Rohrer:
Steve, we have two minutes before the program today comes to a close. We’ve asked you a lot of questions. You’ve shared so much information. Let me just give you an open-ended question. Is there anything that you’ve not said that you would like to say here in this closing minute and a half?
Steve Scheibner:
Well, Sam, when I was 17 years old, I was a very cynical kid and I grew up in a very cynical home. My parents were divorced. I had never been to church. I mean, maybe once in my life, I don’t even remember. I was an unchurched kid and there was an older man, he was seven years older than me. Now it’s no big deal, but he seemed a lot older and he ended up being like my older brother and he knew the Lord and he basically invested in me and he shared the gospel with me and he put up with all of my cynicism and my anger as a young guy, but he hung in there and he earned the right to be heard with me. And so I finally started to listen as he told me that I was a sinner and because of that, because I had sinned and continued to sin, I was separated from God for an eternity.
And there was nothing I could do about that on my own except for the fact that God sent his own son, Jesus Christ, to hang, bleed and suffer on a cross to shed his blood so that I could be reconciled, that God’s justice could be satisfied through that sacrificial lamb, Jesus Christ, the sacrifice that was worthy. And all I had to do was reach out and say to Jesus Christ, Lord, come in and be Lord and savior of my life, be Lord and master of my life and forgive me of my sin. And so at 6:50 PM on August 13th, 1978 in Wendy Frank’s driveway, I can tell you exactly where I was, I prayed that prayer. “Lord, come into my life, forgive me my sins, be Lord and master of my life.” And the Lord has never left me. He’s never forsaken me and he never will.
And so at that moment I became a child of God, bound for eternity. I’ve got the Bible authority on all of that and anybody can get in on that. Anybody can get in on that. So I’m saying turn to Jesus Christ and ask him to be Lord and master of your life.
Sam Rohrer:
That’s most important. And Pastor Steve Scheibner, thank you so much for being with us, ladies and gentlemen. No more important news than that. The good news of the gospel very clearly shared. Steve Shivner, thank you for being used of God to share his story, your story.
Recent Comments