Jeff Miller

January 31, 2021

This is Who We Are

This is Who We Are: Pillar 4

Jeff Miller

January 31, 2021

This is Who We Are

  
  Introduction:

  The Two Motivations to Share the Good News of Jesus That Are Embraced by Every True Witness (2 Cor 5:14-21):

I'm controlled by Love . (2 Cor 5:14-15)
I'm defined by Identity . (2 Cor 5:18-21)

  
    Trustee  (2 Cor 5:18-19)
  
Ambassador (2 Cor 5:20a)
Spokesperson  (2 Cor 5:20bc)

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

00:42-00:46
Open up your Bibles with me, please, to 2 Corinthians 5.
00:46-00:47
We're in this series.
00:48-00:49
This is who we are.
00:50-00:56
And if you're new around here, we've been spending some time talking about this is our identity as a church.
00:58-00:59
So if you're new, it's a great introduction.
01:00-01:15
And if you've been with us for a long time, again, it's just so important that we get back to this, that we don't forget who we are and what we're about, so we don't drift and start doing some crazy, unbiblical, non-Christ-centered things.
01:17-01:18
This is why we do these series.
01:21-01:28
2 Corinthians 5, while you're turning there, several years ago, we had a knock at our door.
01:28-01:43
I was sitting at the dining room table, and Aaron went and answered the door, and there was a guy at our door who said, "Hey, I just got done sealing a driveway up the street, and I got some extra material, I'll seal your driveway for $220.
01:44-01:45
Anybody ever have somebody show up at your house like that?
01:46-01:48
Show up and, "That guy's been to your house too? A lot of you.
01:51-01:57
Okay." Well, Erin goes, "You know what? My husband actually just did our driveway," which I did.
01:58-02:04
She goes, "My husband just did our driveway like a month ago, so it's like a 10-year sealant.
02:04-02:07
I don't think we need to do it again, but thank you.
02:09-02:11
And he goes, well, I have the extra material.
02:11-02:12
It won't take me that long.
02:12-02:13
It's only $220.
02:15-02:17
And my wife's like, we don't really need it, thank you.
02:19-02:23
And he said, is the man of the house home?
02:25-02:32
And I said, I'm right here, and I'm going to go get some popcorn, because I want to watch how the rest of this conversation goes.
02:36-02:38
I'm going to fast forward through the next few minutes.
02:41-02:48
He limped back to his truck and he came back next year.
02:48-02:49
Same guy, same story.
02:49-02:54
I was in the neighborhood and I have the extra material and I can do it real quick.
02:54-03:06
And my wife's like, "Still no." You're like, "Why are you telling us this story?" in heaven, I'm going to be that guy.
03:08-03:10
I'm going to be that guy in heaven.
03:11-03:35
Because I'm going to go around and say, "Hey, can I tell you how awesome Jesus is, and how He died to take away your sin and rose from the dead to give eternal life?" And everybody in heaven is going to be like, "We know." "No, no, no, if you receive Him, you have the gift of heaven!" they're going to be like, "Dude, we're here." Like, you don't understand.
03:37-03:41
Jesus Christ loves you so much that He was willing to lay His life down.
03:42-03:48
And they're going to say, "Goat boy, are you new here?" Because we know the message of the Gospel.
03:49-03:52
And I'm going to be like driveway guy walking around with my bucket of sealant.
03:53-03:56
"Anybody want to hear the Gospel?" We know! We got it!
03:59-04:00
No.
04:02-04:03
I'm going to be out of a job in heaven.
04:05-04:06
And that's okay.
04:07-04:08
Do you know what that means?
04:10-04:21
That means while I'm on the earth, I have to take every opportunity that I have to do the one thing that I will not be doing in heaven.
04:24-04:26
Not just me. You too.
04:28-04:38
Every opportunity the Lord gives you to do the one thing you will not do in heaven, and that is sharing the good news of Jesus with boldness.
04:41-04:42
This is who we are.
04:43-04:45
We proclaim the authority of God's Word without apology.
04:46-04:48
We lift high the name of Jesus through worship.
04:48-04:50
We believe firmly in the power of prayer.
04:51-04:52
And this is our fourth pillar.
04:54-04:56
We share the good news of Jesus with boldness.
04:57-04:59
So, how do we share?
05:00-05:01
How do we share?
05:03-05:10
I have a stack of books in my office that I was looking at this past week, and every book is about how.
05:11-05:12
How. How do we share? How do you share the Gospel?
05:13-05:13
How do you share the Gospel with someone?
05:13-05:14
How do you share the Gospel with someone?
05:16-05:22
And, you know, biblically there's really only one word used to describe how we are to share.
05:23-05:29
And that is the word "boldness." Boldness doesn't mean obnoxious, okay?
05:30-05:37
Boldness doesn't mean showing up at your neighbor's house saying, "Hey, pagan, you're going to hell!" That's not boldness.
05:37-05:39
That's obnoxious.
05:40-05:41
That's jerky.
05:43-05:45
Boldness doesn't mean condescending.
05:46-05:48
Boldness doesn't mean self-righteous.
05:49-05:50
Boldness simply means this.
05:51-05:58
When God gives me opportunity to share the message of His Son, I'm going to open my mouth and share it.
05:58-06:00
That's all boldness means.
06:03-06:04
But boldness is how.
06:05-06:09
And you know with this series, I'm not going to focus on how, I want to focus on why.
06:11-06:15
I want to talk about why do we share the message of Jesus with boldness.
06:17-06:18
Why? Why evangelism?
06:18-06:20
Why witnessing? Why? Why?
06:20-06:40
And some of you coming in here, maybe you heard Dr. Andrew give the announcements and you're like, "Oh, a message on evangelism! Oh!" Pack your bags, we're going on a guilt trip, and Jeff's going to get up and tell us what horrible Christians we are because we don't share with our neighbor, and you're not getting any of that today.
06:45-06:51
Because when it comes to evangelism, the message, we got that. Easy, right?
06:51-06:52
We got the message.
06:53-06:54
It's all written down.
06:54-06:56
You have a copy on your lap right now.
06:56-06:57
We've got the message.
06:58-07:02
And the method, that's easy too.
07:03-07:03
Boldness, right?
07:04-07:10
When God gives you opportunity, you're just going to open your mouth and say about what Jesus Christ has done for you.
07:10-07:11
That's easy.
07:14-07:15
Today I want to talk about the motivation.
07:18-07:20
Because I can give you all the information.
07:21-07:29
I've taught so many classes on evangelism and how to and different ways to, and I can give you that.
07:32-07:35
But something that I cannot give you is the motivation.
07:35-07:38
I can give you the message and I can give you the method, but I cannot give you the motivation.
07:39-07:39
I can't do that.
07:40-07:42
The motivation has to come from God.
07:43-07:45
Only His Spirit can do that.
07:47-07:50
So in your outline today, if you're taking those, I'm going to look at two things.
07:52-07:56
The two motivations to share the good news of Jesus that are embraced by every true witness.
07:58-08:03
I had some time allotted to shorten that heading, but I got a phone call and I never got back.
08:05-08:06
So that's what we're going with today.
08:07-08:13
The two motivations, biblically, to share the good news of Jesus, and these are embraced by every true witness.
08:15-08:16
2 Corinthians 5.
08:17-08:18
Jot this down first of all.
08:19-08:20
I'm controlled by love.
08:22-08:23
Look at v. 14.
08:25-08:30
It says, "For the love of Christ controls us." Stop right there.
08:33-08:44
"For the love of Christ controls us." And you have to see that Paul isn't saying, "I'm controlled by my love for Jesus." And I think that's what we want the passage to say.
08:44-08:51
Like, "I love Jesus so much and I just can't help sharing with people." That's not what it says.
08:52-09:14
He's like, "We are controlled by His love for us." And I just have to tell you, if you don't know the power that love has to motivate you to the point of actually controlling you, I would just say you haven't met the right person.
09:18-09:20
And you certainly haven't met Jesus.
09:22-09:26
Because nothing moves a person like love.
09:27-09:30
If you're married, you can look at your husband or your wife right now.
09:33-09:39
Go ahead, and then say, "Nothing moves me like your love for me." Go ahead.
09:40-09:41
Early Valentine's Day present.
09:44-09:46
I am so glad the people at home can't see this.
09:48-09:48
That was terrible.
09:50-09:51
That was unconvincing.
09:52-09:55
We're starting a sermon series next week on marriage.
09:57-10:01
Not really, but I'm really rethinking that now.
10:04-10:07
Nothing motivates like love.
10:10-10:13
Nothing motivates like Jesus' love for me.
10:16-10:20
You see, it's like telling a child to get excited about Christmas.
10:21-10:24
Or it's like telling a bride-to-be to be thinking about her wedding.
10:25-10:30
Or like telling the mom of a special needs kid to be protective of her child.
10:31-10:32
I don't need to do any of those things.
10:35-10:43
And that's exactly what it's like trying to convince someone who knows Jesus' love to share Jesus' love with other people.
10:43-10:45
They're like, "You don't got to tell me to share Jesus with people.
10:46-10:51
Because He is so awesome, and everything He's done, I can't help it.
10:52-10:58
I love telling people about what God has done.
11:01-11:03
So how does His love control us?
11:03-11:05
Well, get back to verse 14. He tells us.
11:08-11:31
He says, "Because we have concluded this, that one has died for all, therefore all have died, and he died for all that those who live no longer live for themselves, but for Him, who for their sake died and was raised." How does Jesus' love control us?
11:31-11:35
He tells us being alive in Christ means being dead to myself.
11:36-11:43
My life belongs to Jesus, and because it belongs to Jesus, I can't live for myself, because His love controls me.
11:45-12:19
My God loves me, and through the death of Jesus on the cross, taken away all of my sin, all of my guilt, all of my shame, and that love moves me to do everything that He's called me to do. I don't feel obligated to be standing up here and telling you this. And you talk to anybody who's serving in our ministry teams or our elders, nobody's obligated here. Nobody's taking a guilt trip to teach a class or lead a ministry. It's like, I'm doing this because of the the way Jesus loves me.
12:21-12:24
It's a privilege to do what He's called me to do.
12:26-12:30
So no, I'm not going to spend time today telling you how to evangelize.
12:33-12:34
And you're like, "Well, are you ever?" Yeah.
12:36-12:47
We're in a three-year series in the Gospel of John right now called "Knowing Jesus." If you know Him, you'll love Him.
12:48-12:52
But more importantly, you'll know that He loves you.
12:53-12:58
That's why we're doing this series in the Gospel of John we're getting back to in two weeks.
12:59-13:00
That's why we're doing it.
13:01-13:07
Because everything in the Christian life is about knowing Him.
13:07-13:09
It's about a relationship with the living God.
13:10-13:14
And when we talk about sharing the good news of Jesus with Buldus, That's how it happens.
13:15-13:17
It comes as you know Him.
13:20-13:21
That controls you.
13:23-13:28
The number one thing a witness for Christ needs is knowing Jesus' love.
13:29-13:33
And by the way, speaking of love, there's a secondary motivation from love.
13:35-13:36
And it's a love for people.
13:37-13:39
It really flows from the first.
13:40-13:40
Look at verse 16.
13:44-13:49
He says, "From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh.
13:50-14:05
Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard Him thus no longer." Paul says, "I stopped seeing people as external, just looking at the outside." He said, "We used to look at Christ that way.
14:05-14:21
We looked at Jesus and we just saw He's this Jewish guy, and he's a blasphemer, and I don't really like him or regard him." Paul says, "That's how we used to think of Jesus, but now we see Him for who He is.
14:22-14:29
Our eyes have been opened." He says, "And now I see people differently.
14:32-14:35
I see people as spiritual beings.
14:37-14:46
And I probably don't have to sell you on the fact that we have drifted so far from that in our day, seeing people as spiritual beings.
14:46-14:48
How do we see people in our day?
14:50-14:52
More than ever, it's external, right?
14:54-15:01
Oh, if we find out your political persuasion, you're either an idiot Republican or you're an evil Democrat, That's how we see people.
15:03-15:09
Or you're like, "I'm independent." Okay, then you're a weirdo independent.
15:12-15:14
That's how we see people.
15:14-15:18
Or we look at people according to purely like sexual preference.
15:19-15:27
He is a homosexual, she is a lesbian, they are transgender, and we just, we want to slap these external labels on people.
15:30-15:33
or we look at people according to the money they have, or the money they don't have.
15:34-15:37
You're part of the 1%, you're part of the 99%, or whatever.
15:38-15:48
Can we just acknowledge that all of these things are external things that sometimes we don't get deeper to say, "This is an eternal soul.
15:48-15:59
This person is going to spend eternity somewhere, either in the presence of the God who loves, We're apart from the God who loves forever in hell.
16:03-16:10
We need to see people not as external, but as eternal.
16:13-16:13
Eternal souls.
16:15-16:21
And I have the message that God uses to transform them.
16:23-16:23
Look at verse 17.
16:25-16:28
"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.
16:29-16:30
The old has passed away.
16:31-16:34
Behold, the new has come." New creation.
16:35-16:40
Jesus Christ didn't come into the world to turn bad people into good people.
16:40-16:43
Jesus came to turn dead people into alive people.
16:46-16:52
Christ's love controls us, and as a result, His love for people is now our love for people.
16:54-16:54
And that's compelling.
16:57-17:01
So two motivations to share the good news of Jesus embraced by every true witness.
17:02-17:03
First of all, I'm controlled by love.
17:04-17:06
Second thing, jot this down.
17:08-17:10
I'm defined by identity.
17:11-17:12
I'm defined by identity.
17:18-17:20
Now, evangelism is commanded.
17:20-17:48
Yes, absolutely, 100%, great commission, but when it comes down to actually witnessing, to just simply say, "We're commanded to do it," that's true, but just simply saying that much doesn't really capture the bigger motivation behind sharing Christ.
17:49-17:54
I want you to see in this passage that your motivation has to be tied to your identity.
17:57-17:58
Think about it this way.
17:59-18:10
You need to move from "I have to witness" to "I am a witness." See the difference between the two?
18:11-18:12
"I have to witness.
18:13-18:17
That's what God has told me to do." There's truth in that.
18:19-18:23
The deeper truth is, I am a witness.
18:24-18:25
Because that's what God has called me.
18:28-18:39
And you're like, "Well, I hear what you're saying, Jeff, but you know, witnessing is not really my thing." And I would say, first of all, don't say it like that.
18:42-18:47
And second of all, if you're a born-again believer in Jesus Christ, Witnessing is your thing.
18:49-18:51
The issue is you're either a good witness or you're a bad witness, really.
18:52-18:55
But you're a witness if you're one of Christ's, right?
18:55-18:57
Because it's your identity.
18:57-18:58
It's not your chore.
18:58-18:59
It's your identity.
19:01-19:07
And you're like, "Man, can you back that up?" Well, let's look down at verse 18, shall we?
19:08-19:12
Because Paul describes this identity with three pictures.
19:12-19:14
The first, we're looking at verses 18 and 19.
19:16-19:17
The first picture is a picture of a trustee.
19:18-19:39
He says, "All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation." That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.
19:40-19:46
So first of all, according to God, if you're a believer in Jesus Christ, you're a trustee.
19:47-19:48
Did you see that?
19:49-19:51
He uses that with a couple phrases here.
19:51-20:02
The first one, he says, "The ministry of reconciliation was given to us," and then he says, "it was entrusted to us." Think about that.
20:05-20:11
In this church, we entrust money to Andrew and Sean.
20:11-20:13
They lead our finance team.
20:13-20:15
So when you give, we're giving to God.
20:16-20:17
Yes, right, Alex? We're giving to God.
20:17-20:18
Right? Okay, thank you.
20:20-20:25
We're giving to God, but there's a sense in the church that we're entrusting the money to Andrew and Sean.
20:25-20:26
Right?
20:29-20:38
And you're like, "If I'm giving money to God through these guys' hands, they better be reliable.
20:39-20:40
They better be honest.
20:40-20:47
We better be able to trust these guys if I'm giving the money that I worked for to them.
20:47-20:49
We better trust these guys.
20:50-20:55
But you know, if we do something even more audacious than that, we entrust our children to Mandy.
20:59-21:00
(laughter)
21:04-21:12
That statement I just made has nothing to do with Mandy's character as much as it has to do with how much more precious our children are to us than our money.
21:13-21:13
Amen?
21:16-21:19
That would have been a much easier sell when it wasn't Family Sunday.
21:19-21:20
Right?
21:20-21:23
When we're thinking of our kids back there instead of right here.
21:25-21:27
But we entrust our children to Mandy.
21:29-21:31
You know, this is life.
21:31-21:56
We love these people more than anything, and we do everything for them, and we come here on a Sunday, and we're like, "Mandy, here, I'm trusting you with the most precious thing that I have." Okay, so, God has given to us something that He is trusting us with.
21:57-22:02
God says, "I have this ministry of reconciliation.
22:03-22:25
I can change people eternally through this message." And God says, "Here, I'm giving this to you." Now just as seriously as we would take Andrew and Sean with the money, just as seriously as we would take Mandy watching the kids, how seriously do you think God takes it when He says, "Here, I'm trusting this with you"?
22:25-22:26
He's pretty serious about that.
22:28-22:36
You think God's pretty serious when He says, "Hey, people are lost, and people are self-destructing, and people are heading to hell.
22:38-22:40
So here, I'm giving this to you.
22:41-22:41
I'm trusting you.
22:42-22:47
You make sure they get this." You're a trustee.
22:48-22:49
It's in your lap.
22:52-22:53
Can God trust you with it?
22:56-22:59
So not only are you a trustee, you're also an ambassador.
22:59-23:00
Look at verse 20 again.
23:03-23:12
It says, "Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God, making His appeal through us." Let's stop there.
23:14-23:15
An ambassador.
23:16-23:16
What's an ambassador?
23:17-23:22
It's somebody that's in another country, they're representing the king from their country.
23:23-23:23
Right?
23:24-23:33
And they're not in this other country for personal gain, they're not trying to establish their own agenda, and they're certainly not there to change the culture of the other country.
23:35-23:40
They are there simply to represent the king in another culture.
23:41-23:48
If you're a born again believer, you too are in another culture, and you too are representing the king from your culture.
23:51-23:54
You're like, "What's the other culture?" This!
23:56-23:56
Earth!
23:56-24:02
This is the other culture and you are a citizen of heaven representing the King of heaven.
24:05-24:07
That is a very serious responsibility.
24:09-24:11
You're representing heaven to people.
24:13-24:15
You're representing Jesus Christ to people.
24:18-24:21
So we're trustees, we're ambassadors.
24:21-24:24
Letter C, you're also a spokesperson.
24:25-24:39
Back to verse 20, he says, "God making His appeal through us, we implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God." First of all, it says God is making His appeal.
24:40-24:41
You know what that means? Appeal?
24:42-24:43
That's an urgent request.
24:45-24:48
God's like, "Hey, I need to tell you something, It's really important!
24:49-24:50
He's making his appeal.
24:52-24:56
God is making His appeal to the world through you.
24:59-25:02
But it's even deeper than that.
25:03-25:15
Because He says, "We implore you on behalf of Christ." Now that word "implore" this is going to sound strange.
25:17-25:19
That word "implore" means to desperately beg.
25:21-25:25
In other words, if Jesus Christ was here right now, what would He be doing?
25:25-25:30
He would be desperately begging the world to receive His gift.
25:32-25:39
Because it says, "We're imploring you on behalf of Christ." Like Jesus isn't physically here, but He's spiritually here in His people.
25:40-25:42
because I represent Jesus, I've got to tell you something.
25:43-25:47
He is begging you to get off of the path that you're on and to trust Him.
25:50-25:54
And I just have to ask you, church, do you see the heart of God behind these commands?
25:56-25:59
Do you see the heart of God that we are to represent?
26:00-26:16
Some people sort of view God in heaven as distant and unemotional, and He sort of put the plan out, God's just kind of in heaven with His arms folded, and He's like, "Turn or burn, I don't care." That's how some people view God.
26:17-26:22
That God's up in heaven looking down, and He's saying, "Look, get right, or get left.
26:25-26:30
Whatever." But there's a real passion and emotion behind this.
26:30-26:36
Because of the love that God has, Not just for His people, but for the lost.
26:39-26:40
Because of what is at stake.
26:43-26:47
What's at stake is something that we prefer not to think about.
26:49-27:12
So often people talk to me about unsafe co-workers, for example, and they're like, "Man, Jeff, I work with this guy, and man, Jeff, he is so lost, and this guy needs Jesus so bad, work with this guy, he needs Jesus so bad." And my response is, "If only God had a spokesperson working with that guy.
27:14-27:30
If only God had somebody, somebody that knew the message of Jesus, that could be in proximity of this guy, and maybe spoke the same language this guy spoke, and could maybe tell him, 'That's you, home slice.
27:32-27:36
In case you didn't pick it up, you're the spokesperson.
27:39-27:50
So these aspects of identity, being a trustee, being an ambassador, being a spokesperson, that means getting the message right, obviously.
27:52-27:53
You're going to get the message right.
27:53-27:54
What's the message?
27:55-28:00
Well, five times in these verses, five times, same word comes up, reconcile.
28:02-28:07
The Gospel is not often presented that way, but that's how the Bible presents it.
28:08-28:10
That there's a hostility between God and man.
28:10-28:18
We are enemies with God by nature, because God is holy and perfect and just, and we are sinful and rebellious and self-centered.
28:21-28:25
And we are enemies of God, and God wants to reconcile.
28:26-28:34
God says, "Look, you have sinned against Me, I have made provisions so that you can have your sin taken away.
28:37-28:47
Every nasty thought you've had, every rotten attitude, every harsh word, every time you've avoided doing what you know you should have done, all of that's sin.
28:50-28:51
Everyone knows.
28:53-28:56
Everyone knows deep down that we are flawed people.
28:56-28:57
Everyone knows that.
28:57-29:00
When you're sharing Christ with people, you already have that advantage.
29:00-29:03
We know deep down that we are miserably rotten people.
29:06-29:09
And people deep down wonder, "Well, what happens someday when I die?
29:09-29:10
Where do I go?
29:10-29:12
What happens when I stand before God?
29:12-29:18
What happens when I have to answer for all of the wrong things that I've done?" See, that's where the good news comes in.
29:19-29:28
This is where I get to represent God and say, "Hey, there's a way God will never hold your sin against you.
29:31-29:33
Like, well, how can that be?
29:33-29:37
You know, I've really messed up a lot of things in my life.
29:37-29:39
I've really made a lot of bad choices.
29:39-29:41
I've really hurt some people.
29:41-29:46
And I don't understand how you could say God will not hold my sin against me.
29:48-29:50
How can that possibly be?
29:50-29:51
Well, look at verse 21.
29:53-29:55
in my mind, the most profound verse in the whole Bible.
29:57-30:03
He says, "For our sake, He made Him..." That's God the Father made Jesus, okay?
30:03-30:28
"For our sake, He made Him to be sin, who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God." In other words, for the one who will believe, When Jesus Christ was on the cross, God treated Him as if He lived your life.
30:31-30:42
And as a result of Jesus' sacrifice, now God treats you as if you lived Jesus' life.
30:45-31:03
That in a profound way that I will never be able I can fully wrap my brain around when Jesus was on the cross, He took your sin on Himself, and in exchange, He gives you His righteousness.
31:05-31:16
That in Christ, God sees you as sinless and perfect and holy, not because of your conduct, but because of what His Son accomplished on the cross.
31:17-31:18
I'm not going to tell you.
31:19-31:21
That's life-changing stuff right there.
31:24-31:32
So every true believer says, "You know, I don't really need commanded to share that message.
31:34-31:36
But I'll tell you what, I am going to share that message.
31:38-31:47
Because the love of Christ controls me, and honestly, that's just who God called me to be." Come on, let's pray.
31:48-31:57
Father in heaven, your gospel is beyond human explanation.
32:01-32:05
Sometimes those of us who have known it for a while can take it for granted.
32:08-32:21
What a staggering thought that the God of the universe would pay the penalty that we owe.
32:26-32:28
It's just staggering.
32:30-32:31
that You would love us that much.
32:34-32:41
That Your Son would take our sin on Himself and He would give us His righteousness.
32:44-32:46
It's absolutely staggering, Father.
32:47-32:51
And even if we can't fully wrap our brains around it, we believe it.
32:55-32:57
And we certainly thank You for it.
32:59-33:07
Specifically today, Father, we thank You that You have given us the ministry of reconciliation.
33:09-33:22
In Your wisdom, Father, there are literally trillions of other ways You could have used to communicate Your Gospel that You have chosen to entrust the message to us.
33:23-33:30
And I just pray for my brothers and sisters here, especially as the days are evil, especially as people want to hear it less and less.
33:32-33:35
At the same time, Father, You are preparing people for it.
33:35-33:44
You are already at work in the hearts of people that You are entrusting us to come along and share the message of Your Son.
33:46-33:52
Father, I pray that as we draw near to Jesus Christ, we allow His love to control us.
33:55-34:02
Father, I pray that we look at ourselves the way that You do.
34:06-34:10
We find our identity being ambassadors of heaven.
34:11-34:13
Father, it's all for Your glory and honor.
34:14-34:17
We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.

Small Group Discussion
Read 2 Corinthians 5:14-21

What was your big “take-away” from this passage / message?
Explain how the love of Christ controls us (2 Cor 5:14-15). How does that motivate you to share the Good News of Jesus with others?
What is the difference between “I am commanded to witness” vs “I am a witness”? How does understanding your identity make you an effective witness for sharing the Good News of Jesus?
What would you say to someone who says, “Honestly - I don't really share Christ with others. It's just not my gift.”

Breakout
Pray for boldness – when opportunity comes to share Jesus with someone, you take that opportunity.

Jeff Miller

January 28, 2018

Harvest DNA, Pillars of Harvest

Harvest DNA – Part 4: Unafraid Witness.

Jeff Miller

January 28, 2018

Harvest DNA, Pillars of Harvest

Review / Introduction:

Your walk with Christ determines your witness for Christ!

Matthew 5:16 - In the same way, let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

1 Peter 3:15 - but in your hearts, regard Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you.

Proverbs 28:1 - ...the righteous are bold as a lion.

Three Things You Need to Know to Be a Bold Witness (1 Peter 2:11-12):

Know what you are: Alien. (1 Peter 2:11a)

Philippians 3:20 - But our citizenship is in heaven...

Know what to fight: Your Sin. (1 Peter 2:11b)
Know how to act: Honorable. (1 Peter 2:12)

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

00:35-00:39
Open up your Bibles with me, please, to the book of 1 Peter.
00:40-00:41
We're going to be in chapter 2.
00:43-00:48
We are on the tail end of a four-week series called Harvest DNA.
00:50-00:59
And we're basically just answering one question, and the question is, "What kind of church is this?" Well, we are a church that sits on four pillars.
00:59-01:03
And the first pillar is proclaiming the authority of God's Word without apology.
01:04-01:06
We believe that God wrote this book.
01:06-01:15
So when I, or next week Dan Thompson is going to be bringing the message, when we stand up, we are proclaiming the Word of God.
01:16-01:19
So much as we communicate what God said in His Word.
01:20-01:21
We do that without apology.
01:22-01:25
The second pillar is lifting high the name of Jesus in worship.
01:28-01:31
There's something special to our Lord about worship.
01:31-01:33
The biggest book in your Bible is Psalms.
01:34-01:35
And that's corporate worship, right?
01:36-01:41
And Jesus told the woman at the well that the Father is seeking people to worship Him in spirit and in truth.
01:43-01:44
That's our second pillar.
01:44-01:51
"Lifting high the name of Jesus through worship." Our third pillar we talked about last week is "believing firmly in the power of prayer." We saw that last week, didn't we?
01:51-01:53
Jesus said, "Ask and you will receive.
01:53-01:54
Seek and you will find.
01:54-01:59
Knock and it will be opened to you." Our fourth pillar.
02:01-02:08
of a church is this, our fourth pillar is sharing the good news of Jesus with boldness.
02:11-02:26
Many many years ago when Aaron and I were first married, she was actually getting ready to go to work and she was just about to go out the door and somebody showed up at our door and it was this guy selling meat out of the back of a truck.
02:28-02:40
So Erin's on her way to work and this guy's like, "Hey, you know, he probably had a better sales pitch than I'm selling meat off the back of a truck." But anyways, Erin's like, "Hey, Jeff, just, she goes, could you talk to this guy?
02:40-02:47
I gotta go." So Erin jumps in and she's like, "Just, I'm like, what do you want me to do?" She is, Erin goes, "Just do whatever you think.
02:47-02:54
I gotta go." You can tell this was, Matt and Lexi, this was early on in our marriage because she trusted me to just do what I think.
02:56-02:56
She's learned.
02:58-02:59
But anyways, you can just do what you think.
02:59-03:09
So this guy, he pulls out this chest, this giant white chest, and he starts showing me all this meat that he had.
03:09-03:13
He goes, "Hey, I got some T-bones here." He had something called a rump roast.
03:13-03:18
And he's like, "I got soup bones here." And then he pulls out this pack.
03:18-03:20
He goes, "This is Delmonica right here.
03:21-03:41
"It's a Cadillac of the cow." And I'm just standing there like, "Whoa." And, well, long story short, I ended up, I'm ashamed I have to confess this, but I ended up buying about $500 worth of meat off this guy out of the back of his truck.
03:43-03:44
And she stayed with me.
03:45-03:51
But anyways, later on that day, she, okay, and you guys that are married, you know, the husbands, you know what's coming next, right?
03:52-03:55
Because now I, it seemed like such a good idea at the time.
03:56-03:59
But then when Aaron called all of a sudden, I'm like, maybe that wasn't such a good idea.
04:00-04:23
But Aaron's like, "Hey, what happened with that meat guy?" And I'm like, "I bought some." She's like, "How much did you buy?" And I'm like, "About $500 worth." She goes, "What?" And I'm like, "But it was the Cadillac of the cow." But I was just persuaded by that guy because he was compelling.
04:25-04:27
And he was talking about a frozen dead cow.
04:29-04:36
But you know, I think about that guy because we too, true or false, we too have a job of persuading people, don't we?
04:37-04:46
We have a job of compelling people, of boldly sharing with people the difference that Jesus Christ makes in your life.
04:48-04:59
I'll be honest with you, when the elders had asked me to preach through the four pillars of the church, Thinking about this one, I was like, well, how many sermons have we had about witnessing in the past three years?
05:00-05:03
We've been going through the book of Acts for three years, right?
05:03-05:04
And we're almost done.
05:04-05:06
But how many sermons about witnessing?
05:07-05:14
And we spend so much time talking about things like having the right message.
05:15-05:17
You know, having the right message, that's important.
05:19-05:21
But there's something else that comes first.
05:22-05:24
We've talked about having the right attitude.
05:25-05:26
And that's important.
05:27-05:30
But there's something else that has to come first.
05:30-05:32
We've talked about dealing with haters.
05:34-05:35
And that's important.
05:36-05:37
But there's something else that has to come first.
05:38-05:39
We've talked about prayer.
05:39-05:46
Hey, prayer is important, but there's something else that has to come first.
05:47-05:52
There's something so foundational to your witness for Christ that none of us have the right attitude to do.
05:52-05:54
None of these things are going to happen.
05:54-06:01
Or, on the off chance that they do, they will not be affected.
06:03-06:06
So one main point today, and the point is this.
06:07-06:13
Your walk with Christ determines your witness for Christ.
06:15-06:17
That would be a great sentence to write down.
06:18-06:21
Your walk with Christ determines your witness for Christ.
06:22-06:25
Every true believer wants to be a better witness, right?
06:26-06:27
Here's where it has to start.
06:27-06:31
It has to start with your walk with Christ.
06:32-06:42
Your walk with Christ determines your witness for Christ, and I know we've got some skeptics right here that are going to say, "You're going to have to prove that to me, and I'll be glad to." Here's a few verses I want you to consider.
06:43-06:45
Think of Jesus in Matthew 5, Sermon on the Mount.
06:46-06:58
Jesus said, "In the same way, let your light shine before others that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven." So you see, Jesus said in order for your light to shine, what has to happen first?
06:58-07:00
God has to be shining His light in you, right?
07:01-07:02
You don't have any light of your own.
07:02-07:03
You're like the moon.
07:03-07:05
All you can do is reflect light.
07:06-07:12
And Jesus said the way people are going to glorify God is when they see the light of the Lord shining through you.
07:13-07:16
Actually, 1 Peter 3.15, a lot of people probably have this verse memorized.
07:17-07:27
The second part of the verse that we're familiar with says, "Always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you." Can't have a sermon about witnessing without that verse, right?
07:28-07:29
We all know that verse.
07:31-07:32
But do you know what the first part of that verse says?
07:33-07:34
Put that up.
07:34-07:41
"But in your hearts regard Christ the Lord as holy." Do you see? It has to start in here.
07:42-07:45
It has to start in here before it goes out here.
07:47-07:50
Proverbs 28 verse 1, this is our theme verse of the year.
07:52-08:08
The second half says, "The righteous are bold as a lion." As we're talking about sharing the good news of Jesus with boldness, who's bold according to Proverbs 28.1?
08:08-08:09
Who's bold?
08:09-08:12
The well-informed are bold as a lion?
08:13-08:13
No, it doesn't say that.
08:14-08:16
Does it say the Bible student is bold as a lion?
08:16-08:17
No, it doesn't say that either.
08:18-08:21
How about the longest tenured Christian is bold as a lion?
08:21-08:22
It doesn't say that either.
08:23-08:25
It says the righteous are bold as a lion.
08:25-08:26
Who's a bold witness?
08:26-08:33
The person that has the righteousness of Christ that God gives to those who receive Him.
08:35-08:37
So if you wanna be a bold witness, here's three things you need to know.
08:39-08:42
And we're gonna take these from 1 Peter 2.
08:42-08:43
We're gonna look just at two verses today.
08:45-08:46
Verses 11 and 12.
08:46-08:48
Three things you need to know to be a bold witness.
08:49-08:51
We're gonna kind of work through these verses together.
08:54-08:56
Number one, jot this down.
08:56-08:58
Know what you are.
08:58-08:59
You wanna be a bold witness?
09:00-09:01
First of all, you need to know what you are.
09:04-09:05
You are an alien.
09:08-09:10
Now when I say the word alien, what do you think of?
09:11-09:14
Well, it depends on how old you are, right?
09:16-09:19
For some people, you might have thought of Mork from "Ork".
09:21-09:23
How many people know Mork from "Ork"?
09:23-09:25
Okay, more than I figured.
09:26-09:27
For some of you, you might have thought of Alf.
09:29-09:29
Remember Alf?
09:31-09:33
Some of you might have thought of E.T.
09:33-09:34
Who thought of E.T. as soon as I said alien?
09:35-09:36
Okay, I thought I heard some people say that.
09:38-09:39
Some of you may have thought of the predator.
09:41-09:42
Would you like to hear my imitation of the predator?
09:44-09:44
All right, you ready?
09:48-09:48
(imitating predator)
09:49-09:51
Like, what do you do all week, Pastor Jeff?
09:52-09:52
(congregation laughing)
09:55-09:56
Working on my predator imitation.
09:57-09:58
Some of you might've thought of Superman.
10:00-10:12
Or some of you might've thought of that, remember that movie "Alien" and then there were aliens and more aliens and a big scorpion looking thing with the head and the thing that comes out of its mouth, you know what I'm talking about?
10:12-10:14
Some of you may have thought about that.
10:16-10:30
Actually, look at 1 Peter 2.11, it says, "Beloved, I urge you as sojourners in exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh." Let's stop there.
10:30-10:33
He says, first of all, here's your identity, church.
10:35-10:38
You're a sojourner and an exile.
10:38-10:40
Now these words in the Greek, they're interesting words.
10:41-10:46
Sojourner in the Greek literally means, I dwell near people not of my kind.
10:46-10:48
That's what a sojourner is in the Greek.
10:48-10:50
I dwell near people not of my kind.
10:51-10:59
And an exile, that's a compound word in the Greek that literally translates to nearby stranger.
11:02-11:08
So biblically, when we talk about aliens, biblically, we are the aliens.
11:09-11:15
Despite all the stuff you hear in the news about whatever, building walls or whatever to keep aliens out, here's the reality.
11:15-11:19
If you're a born again believer in Jesus Christ, you are the alien.
11:21-11:31
Meaning you're not of this place, you are living here temporarily beside people who aren't of your kind, worldly people.
11:31-11:40
That's why Philippians 3.20, Paul says, "But our citizenship is in heaven." That's why you are an alien if you're a follower of Christ.
11:40-11:42
You're a citizen of heaven.
11:44-11:51
In March, Russ House from our church is going to India and you're going to be helping to build a training center for pastors, correct?
11:52-11:56
Now I'm gonna go way out on a limb, I'm gonna assume there's some things you're not going to do while you're in India.
11:57-11:58
And correct me if I'm wrong.
11:58-12:00
I'm going to assume that you're not gonna buy a house.
12:01-12:05
I'm going to assume that you're not going to buy furniture for this house you're not going to buy.
12:05-12:12
You're not going to decorate around the furniture that you're not buying for the house you're not going to buy and I'm going to assume that you're not going to landscape.
12:15-12:16
Those are all correct.
12:16-12:17
Do you know how I knew that?
12:18-12:20
And we didn't talk about this beforehand.
12:20-12:24
The reason, Russ wouldn't go over there and buy a house and furniture and all this stuff, why?
12:25-12:27
Because he's not staying there, right?
12:29-12:30
It would be really dumb.
12:31-12:37
Could you imagine Missy, like Russ was like, "Hey, I bought a house in India." Her reaction would be like Aaron when I bought the 500 pounds of truck meat.
12:40-12:42
But you see, he's not staying there.
12:44-12:48
He's only going to be there for a short amount of time.
12:49-12:52
So because of that mindset, you're gonna be packing as light as possible, correct?
12:53-12:54
Because you know, I'm just a passing through.
12:55-12:59
And do you realize that same principle applies to us for our lives on this earth.
13:00-13:05
And sometimes, Gildi, we act like we're going to be here forever.
13:07-13:09
And we're just a passing through.
13:10-13:12
So let me ask you this morning, are you a sojourner?
13:14-13:15
Are you an earth dweller?
13:18-13:20
Are you living for here and now?
13:21-13:22
Are you living for then and there?
13:23-13:27
Because if you're living for here and now, that's a bad idea because no one has ever stayed here permanently.
13:30-13:37
The reality is we're to hold lightly to the earth and we're to hold tightly to our faith and somehow we get that backwards.
13:37-13:47
And then when it comes to witnessing, church, church, when it comes to witnessing, we have a tendency to compromise and go with the world.
13:49-13:51
We embrace the world's values.
13:51-13:54
We want to imitate the world even in the church.
13:55-14:00
And we think, we think in the church, if we imitate the world, we're going to draw the world.
14:03-14:04
Here's what ends up happening.
14:04-14:19
We tell the world, "Hey, I'm just like you." And their response is, "Well, then what do you have to offer me?" Because the appeal of the gospel is that Jesus followers are not the same as everyone else.
14:21-14:26
We are citizens of heaven passing through, holding different values and purposes.
14:27-14:29
So first of all, you're gonna start here, know what you are, you're an alien.
14:31-14:35
Number two, know what to fight, your sin.
14:37-14:38
You gotta fight your sin.
14:41-14:42
Look at the second part of verse 11.
14:43-14:55
He says, "As sojourners and exiles, "abstain from the passions of the flesh," look at this, "which wage war against your soul." Our war isn't with the world.
14:57-15:02
And in our hotly contested political climate, sometimes we act that way, right?
15:03-15:04
Our war is with the world.
15:04-15:06
Our war is not with the world.
15:06-15:08
Our war is with our sin.
15:09-15:11
That's why Peter calls it the passions.
15:12-15:13
The passions.
15:13-15:17
We have this - if you're a born again believer in Christ, do you realize what you are?
15:19-15:21
You have this new nature.
15:21-15:22
You are born again.
15:23-15:31
You have the Holy Spirit living inside you, but what the Holy Spirit is living inside is this old, decaying, corrupted body.
15:31-15:33
It's what the Bible calls the flesh.
15:34-15:38
And this flesh is corrupt and still wants to sin.
15:39-15:41
My body still wants to sin.
15:41-15:51
My body still has these fallen, corrupt passions in them that this new nature that I have in Christ Fighting!
15:53-15:59
That's why Paul says in Galatians 5, he says these two things are at war so you don't do the things that you want to do, right?
16:00-16:01
Romans 7, same thing.
16:02-16:03
That's why there's a war going on.
16:05-16:12
You need to wage war against the passions of the flesh because they're waging war against you.
16:14-16:16
What is it in your life that you want to keep from God?
16:18-16:20
What is it in your life that you've got to have now?
16:20-16:23
What is your favorite sin?
16:25-16:26
What if we just passed the microphone around?
16:27-16:28
What's your favorite sin?
16:30-16:31
You know what it is.
16:33-16:35
Is it sexual in nature?
16:35-16:37
That's for a lot of people.
16:39-16:39
Is it hatred?
16:41-16:44
Is it addiction of some kind to some substance?
16:45-16:46
Is it complaining?
16:48-16:50
I understand that sin is the real enemy here.
16:50-16:57
Specifically, my sin is my real enemy.
16:57-16:59
My sin seeks to distract me.
17:00-17:02
My sin seeks to discourage me.
17:03-17:06
My sin seeks to enslave me.
17:06-17:08
In Christ it can't condemn me.
17:09-17:25
But if I ignore the war that it is trying to wage against my soul, if I make excuses for my sin, tolerate my sin instead of turning from my sin, it's going to render me spiritually weak and ineffective.
17:27-17:31
It's going to leave me wondering where the abundant life is that Christ promised.
17:32-17:33
Oh, it's there.
17:33-17:44
I'm just unwilling to deal with my sinful passions that are waging war on my soul, and embrace what Christ freely offers instead.
17:46-18:02
To paraphrase D.L. Moody, "The person that I have the most problems with in this world is Jeff Miller." Now, D.L. Moody didn't say that he had the most problems with me.
18:03-18:06
His quote was, he was his biggest problem.
18:06-18:09
And I read that this week and I thought I can identify with that.
18:09-18:22
I think of the past 20, however many years of ministry I've been involved in, by far my biggest adversary, my biggest problem person in any church I've ever been to, is this guy right here.
18:23-18:25
There's a war being waged.
18:27-18:31
I kind of like to hear that because he doesn't say battle.
18:31-18:37
He doesn't say battle, and that's encouraging for me because you may lose some battles along the way, right?
18:38-18:40
But victory's already been won.
18:41-18:42
That's the good news of Jesus Christ.
18:43-19:02
want. So I want to encourage you today, maybe somebody sitting here today is fresh off of a loss. I want to encourage you to get back at it. You know what a boxer loses a round? Okay, well you just come out swinging harder the next round.
19:03-19:12
Or maybe a mom with all these kids has a really rough day. Okay, we're gonna put a We're gonna plan together and we're gonna come out tomorrow and do better.
19:14-19:15
Did you lose your round with your sin?
19:17-19:18
Well let's change the strategy.
19:21-19:22
Come out more determined to win.
19:23-19:25
I want you to see here, please don't miss this.
19:27-19:30
If you miss everything else I say today except one thing, please catch this.
19:31-19:35
This is the strategy that you must employ in your war on sin.
19:36-19:36
Please hear me.
19:37-19:38
It's right here in the text.
19:38-19:39
I'm not making this up.
19:39-19:48
He says, "To abstain from the passions of the flesh which wage war against your soul." Here's your strategy for battle.
19:48-19:49
Are you ready?
19:49-19:51
It's abstaining.
19:52-19:54
You know what that word literally means?
19:55-19:58
It means put distance between.
20:00-20:01
That is how you battle your sin.
20:02-20:04
You put distance between it.
20:05-20:07
between you and your sin.
20:09-20:23
Okay, so if we have a guy here today saying, "You know, Pastor Jeff, you're right, I need to battle this drinking problem that I have, so I'm going to be taking my Bible to the bar from now on." Bad idea.
20:25-20:37
Or the person that says, "You know, I've really been struggling with lust in my life, so I'm going to be asking my small group to meet with me at the Gentleman's Club." It sounds foolish. It is.
20:39-20:44
Maybe somebody here is thinking, "You know what? You're right about this battling the sin thing.
20:45-21:03
I'm going to be going on a retreat to Rivers Casino to seek the Lord about my gambling problem." Don't try to fight your sin head on because listen, you will lose every single time you try to fight your sin head on.
21:03-21:04
Not me, yes you.
21:05-21:12
You mean to tell me Adam and Eve, who didn't even have a sin nature when they were tempted, they fell into sin.
21:14-21:16
They couldn't stand up to the temptation.
21:16-21:24
And you think you, living in a fallen, corrupt, sinful body, you think you're gonna face temptation head on and you're gonna come out stellar?
21:25-21:27
You think you're just gonna walk right into temptation?
21:27-21:29
And it's not gonna affect me.
21:29-21:31
You are foolish if you think that.
21:32-21:43
That's why Peter says, here's the strategy, abstain, get away from it, put some distance between you and your sin so you're not even in the same zip code.
21:46-21:48
What did Jesus teach us to pray about this?
21:49-21:50
Remember the Lord's prayer?
21:50-21:52
Father, art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
21:52-21:54
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
21:54-21:56
Give us this day our daily bread.
21:57-21:58
Give us this day our daily bread.
21:58-21:59
What's the part about lead us?
22:00-22:01
How's that go?
22:02-22:02
Lead us not, what?
22:04-22:06
Oh, do you think this is what Jesus was talking about?
22:07-22:09
Notice Jesus didn't say lead us not into sin.
22:10-22:11
It's like taking an even wider path.
22:12-22:18
I don't even wanna be in the place where I might be tempted with sin.
22:21-22:24
So here's a surefire way to not lose your fight against sin.
22:25-22:25
You ready for this?
22:26-22:28
Here's a surefire way to not lose the fight.
22:29-22:34
Determine the place where sin could tempt you.
22:34-22:42
Determine the circumstance where sin wants to fight you and don't show up.
22:44-22:50
You will never lose every fight you refuse to show up to.
22:51-22:52
That's why Peter says to abstain.
22:53-22:54
What do you need to do today?
22:55-22:58
What do you need to do today to put some distance between you and your sin?
22:59-23:01
Put filters on your computer?
23:03-23:04
Put your computer in the garbage?
23:06-23:07
Is there a place that you need to stop going?
23:09-23:13
Do you need to track down Ryan and Sarah so you have some small group accountability?
23:13-23:15
Some people who love you?
23:17-23:21
Who are going to help you make sure that you're keeping your distance?
23:22-23:28
Like, "Wait a minute, I thought we were talking about, I thought we were talking about witnessing today." Well, this is the point.
23:28-23:31
Your walk with Christ determines your witness for Christ.
23:31-23:34
Because look at verse 12, as we wind down here.
23:36-23:47
Verse 12, "Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable." So you see, all this inward stuff is going to be flowing out, right?
23:47-23:53
"Keep your conduct among the Gentiles." When he says Gentiles, that's just a euphemism for unbelievers, right?
23:53-23:54
I think we all get that.
23:56-24:10
"Your conduct among the Gentiles is honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds, and glorify God on the day of visitation." Speak against you.
24:10-24:24
The world, the Gentiles, they love to misrepresent followers of Christ, to the point of calling us "evildoers." More and more and more and more.
24:26-24:35
Christian, you are going to be branded as an evildoer just because you say, "I believe the Bible is the Word of God." That is happening more and more.
24:35-24:38
So I'm just - spoiler alert - it's going to happen.
24:40-24:44
If you say, "Well, I believe the Bible says that life begins in conception.
24:45-24:47
That's why I am pro-life.
24:47-24:52
That's why the Bible would lead me to believe pro-life.
24:53-24:58
People are gonna say, "You're a rotten person for saying a woman shouldn't have a choice in what she does with her own body.
24:58-25:04
What a evil, wicked person you are that would take that right away from the woman.
25:05-25:12
What about the right of the baby?" You can say, "Well, I believe what the Bible says about marriage.
25:15-25:16
One man, one woman, one lifetime.
25:16-25:22
and that's what I believe, you're gonna be branded as an evildoer for just saying, I just, I believe.
25:23-25:26
Notice there was no, I'm condemning anybody else in that statement.
25:26-25:28
Remember that happened with Chick-fil-A a few years ago, right?
25:28-25:32
Like the head guy was like, I believe in biblical traditional marriage or whatever.
25:33-25:38
And everybody was like, boo, your sandwiches taste like hate and racism.
25:38-25:39
And like, what?
25:39-25:44
He didn't say anything about, all he said was, I believe this.
25:46-25:48
That's exactly what Peter's talking about here.
25:50-25:58
The world is looking for reasons to reject the gospel, and they want to use you as the focal point of their rejection.
26:03-26:37
But when you are sincerely walking with the Lord, and He is doing stuff in you, and He is doing stuff through you, and you are blessing the people who are cursing you, when you are encouraging the people who are insulting you, when you are doing good to those who would do you harm, when they see that you're always looking to do, as Peter says, the honorable thing, the day is going to come when God shows up in their lives. And that day, according to Peter, is called the day of visitation.
26:39-26:40
The day of visitation.
26:42-26:44
I dropped this cross reference down, Luke 19.44.
26:45-26:46
What is the day of visitation?
26:46-26:48
That's kind of a weird term. What does that mean?
26:48-26:52
That just means the day God shows up to save them.
26:53-26:58
That's the day the lights come on in their lives.
26:58-27:02
That's the day that they realize their sin has brought them nothing but misery.
27:02-27:08
The day that God's Holy Spirit is speaking to them, calling them to receive Christ.
27:09-27:11
Peter says they're going to remember your good deeds.
27:11-27:13
They're going to remember your conduct.
27:14-27:16
And that is going to lead them to glorify God.
27:16-27:19
In other words, that's going to lead them to receive Jesus Christ.
27:21-27:28
So now do you see why your walk with Christ determines your witness for Christ.
27:29-27:31
So know how to act honorable.
27:32-27:33
Honorable.
27:35-27:36
Let Christ change you.
27:37-27:41
Let the world see the changes that Christ made in you, and you will be a bold witness.
27:43-27:56
Every Christ follower wants to lead others to follow Christ, but you can't lead anyone to a place that you're not in.
27:58-27:59
So do you want to be a bold witness?
28:00-28:01
Know what you are. You are an alien.
28:03-28:04
Secondly, know what to fight.
28:06-28:12
Your sin, it's waging war against you, and you're going to fight by not showing up, right?
28:13-28:15
Thirdly, know how to act honorable.
28:16-28:33
Honorable, so that when the Lord shows up, they're going to remember, "Ah, I see how Christ was at work in those people's lives." Your walk with Christ determines your witness for Christ.
28:34-28:34
Let's pray.
28:35-28:42
Father in heaven, You have called us to be witnesses, but before even that, You have called us to be holy.
28:44-28:52
Father, there's not a single one of us in this room, there's not a single one of us on this planet that have the capability of being holy ourselves.
28:54-28:59
Your Word tells us that You have given us Your holiness, You have given us Your righteousness through Jesus Christ.
28:59-29:10
And You have empowered us by Your Spirit to continue to grow and mature and develop to be more and more practically holy.
29:12-29:17
Father, today I pray that we would be people who are determined that we're going to cooperate with You.
29:17-29:20
We'd stop clinging so tightly to the things of the earth.
29:23-29:34
Father, today I pray that You would be very specific with us Father, show us our point of temptation and show us how we can not show up to even fight it.
29:36-29:37
Show us how to abstain.
29:38-29:46
Father, show us how we can love the lost people around us in such a way that the day's going to come, the lights are going to come on, God.
29:47-29:49
You're on a seeking mission.
29:51-29:56
And they're going to remember the witness of Christians put in their lives, Father.
29:57-29:58
This is all to Your glory and honor.
30:00-30:02
Make us bold witnesses, Father.
30:03-30:09
Let us start with a sincere, authentic, growing, personal walk with Christ.
30:11-30:13
In whose name we pray, Amen.

Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read 1 Peter 2:11-12

What is the connection between your walk with Christ and your witness for Christ? Why?
How do passions wage war on your soul? Even though a believer cannot lose their salvation, how is sin still harmful to the soul?
How would you instruct someone wanting to fight their "besetting" sin?

Breakout Questions:

How, specifically / personally, do you need to "put distance" between you and your sin? Pray for each other to apply wisdom in this war on sin.

Jeff Miller

October 29, 2017

I Will Not Fear

I Will Not Fear Witnessing for Christ.

Jeff Miller

October 29, 2017

I Will Not Fear

Review / Introduction:

How to Fearlessly Give Your Testimony:

Tell about your life Before Christ. (Acts 22:1-5)
1. Identify their Language. (Acts 22:2)
2. Identify their Merit. (Acts 22:3)
3. Identify with their Truth resistance. (Acts 22:4)

  
    Tell how you Came to Christ. (Acts 22:6-11)

  Reveal how you Recognized the truth. (Acts 22:6-7)
Reveal your own Foolishness. (Acts 22:8)
Reveal the Name of your salvation. (Acts 22:8)

Tell how Christ Changed you. (Acts 22:12-21)

  I see things New. (Acts 22:13)
I have a new Purpose. (Acts 22:15)
I have Peace with God. (Acts 22:16)

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

00:35-00:38
If you're visiting with us today, what kind of a church is this?
00:38-00:41
Well, our church can be summed up in four statements.
00:42-00:46
We proclaim the authority of God's Word without apology.
00:47-00:50
We lift high the name of Jesus in worship.
00:50-00:53
We believe firmly in the power of prayer.
00:53-00:57
And we share the good news of Jesus with boldness.
00:57-01:00
And we're seeing all of those today.
01:01-01:02
So I want you to grab your Bibles.
01:04-01:06
You're going to need them coming to this church.
01:07-01:09
The Bible is our middle name.
01:10-01:12
Harvest Bible Chapel. Acts chapter 21.
01:14-01:14
Open up there.
01:15-01:20
As we continue this series, if you are visiting with us, we're going through the book of Acts.
01:20-01:32
And just to get you caught up, we have the apostle Paul in Jerusalem in the temple, falsely accused, ironically enough, of being anti-Jewish.
01:34-01:38
So a mob is stirred up and tries to kill Paul.
01:38-01:44
They drag him out of the temple, and Paul is rescued/arrested by Rome.
01:46-01:53
We get to verse 37, "He is now in their custody." Are you there? Acts 21.37.
01:56-02:10
as Paul was about to be brought into the barracks, he said to the tribune, "May I say something to you?" And he, the tribune, said, "Do you know Greek?
02:11-02:22
Are you not the Egyptian then who recently stirred up a revolt and led the four thousand men of the the assassins out into the wilderness?
02:24-02:31
Paul replied, "I am a Jew from Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of no obscure city.
02:32-02:41
I beg you, permit me to speak to the people." And when he had given him permission, Paul, standing under steps, motioned with his hand to the people.
02:43-02:50
When there was a great hush, he addressed them in the Hebrew language, Stop there for a second.
02:50-02:57
So Paul is in the barracks and your Bible says that the tribune mistook Paul for the Egyptian.
02:58-02:59
Who is the Egyptian?
03:00-03:03
Well, a little history, you can do a little further study.
03:03-03:04
Very fascinating group.
03:04-03:08
But this Egyptian was the leader of a group called the Saqqari.
03:10-03:12
They were actually a terrorist group.
03:12-03:19
that they attacked not only Romans, but Jews who were sympathetic towards Rome.
03:20-03:28
And their name, the Sakari, the name of this terrorist group literally meant "dagger," because this is what they would do.
03:30-04:14
They would go to these big festivals, like Passover, or one of these Jewish feasts, or in the temple, they'd go to one of these things, and they'd get in the crowds, and they'd pull out a dagger and assassinate people, and then just blend right in with the crowd, either panicking or mourning. Some of them would actually assassinate someone, and then, "Well, what happened here?" And they're like freaking out. They're the one that just did it, but they were so good at this stealthy assassination, and for some reason this tribune thought that because the festival was going on, and The mob was all fired up about Paul. They're like, "Oh, you must be the guy!" That was like their modern-day, like, Osama bin Laden kind of thing.
04:15-04:23
And, uh, "Aren't you the, this Egyptian terrorist?" So when Paul spoke, that's why the Tribune was shocked that he knew Greek.
04:23-04:34
He said, "Do you know Greek? Obviously you're not this, you know, wild, uh, terrorist that I thought you were." So Paul asked for a chance to speak to the crowd.
04:36-04:42
And I want you to see here when we go through this passage, that Paul didn't preach a sermon.
04:44-04:50
And you're going to see in the text, Paul didn't even teach doctrine.
04:51-04:53
I want you to listen to me very closely.
04:55-04:55
You ready?
04:57-04:59
Doctrine is extremely important.
05:02-05:03
Why is he talking like that?
05:03-05:11
Because there's somebody that's going to leave here today saying, "Pastor Jeff said doctrine is not important." So I'm going to do the whole sermon like this.
05:12-05:14
How long are you going to last?
05:15-05:16
I'm really not.
05:16-05:18
But listen, doctrine is important, right?
05:19-05:21
Proclaiming the authority of God's Word without apology.
05:21-05:23
Doctrine is important. It is.
05:24-05:30
But we're talking today, what we see Paul doing is sharing your testimony.
05:32-05:49
So while it is important to share, "This is what the Bible says," biblical truth, what we're talking about today is something else that is important to share, and it is just simply this, "Hey, this is what happened to me." That is your testimony.
05:49-06:02
"This is what happened to me." And if you know Jesus Christ, you have an incredible story of life transformation.
06:04-06:09
So if you're sitting here today and you're like, "Well, I know Jesus, but I don't really have a testimony," then you don't know Jesus.
06:11-06:13
If you don't have a story...
06:13-06:18
Remember, we talked about this earlier, Jesus turns you from a dead person into a live person.
06:18-06:44
And if you don't have any story that goes with that, whether you were discipled in your home, or you were living in sin, or whatever the story is, if you don't have a story of turning from your sin and turning to Christ, you have to ask yourself, "Do you really know Christ?" Because if you know Christ, you have been transformed.
06:46-06:51
And if you know Christ, you are a witness.
06:53-06:57
We spent at this church an entire year talking about one verse.
06:58-07:01
Two years ago, we spent the entire year talking about Acts 1.8.
07:02-07:02
Remember that?
07:03-07:09
"You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses." Right!
07:10-07:17
Jesus said the purpose of God's Holy Spirit coming upon His people was so that we would be witnesses for Him.
07:18-07:21
So if you're a Christian, you are a witness.
07:22-07:25
You're either a good witness or you're a bad witness, but you're a witness.
07:26-07:32
And today we wanna talk about being a witness for Christ, sharing our testimony.
07:33-07:54
And a lot of times we talk about this immediately, somebody says, "Oh, I just, I hear what you're saying, "but I don't know enough to share." And I would encourage you to share what you do know, because as we see with the Apostle Paul, there's something that you can share that you know better than any other person on the planet.
07:56-07:56
And that's your story.
07:57-07:59
That's all we're gonna see Paul do here in this passage.
07:59-08:03
He's like, "Hey, here's what happened to me." You can do that, can't you?
08:03-08:08
You know your story, you know it better than I do to say, "Hey, here's what happened to me." All right?
08:10-08:13
We've got a lot to cover, we're going to go through it rather quickly.
08:14-08:19
This material would merit another listen through sometime this week.
08:21-08:24
But how to fearlessly give your testimony.
08:25-08:28
We're going to look at this passage as Paul gives his testimony.
08:28-08:47
Now, when we went through Acts 9, we actually covered these events, and we're not going to be looking as much at what happened to Paul, as much as we're going to be looking at how Paul shared his testimony in this context.
08:49-08:56
You're going to see his defense circles around his actions and his motives.
08:56-08:59
Paul is being accused of being anti-Jewish.
09:00-09:24
So you're going to see as he gives his defense, he's saying, "I'm certainly not anti-Jewish." But you need to see as we're talking this year, you know, Proverbs 28, "One, the righteous are bold as a lion, or a thief this year I will not fear." The apostle Paul, his zeal to share was more powerful than his fear for safety.
09:25-09:27
And you need to get that.
09:28-09:29
Paul wasn't at the old folks' home here.
09:31-09:37
You know, Paul wasn't at some kindergarten class telling the good news of Jesus to a bunch of children.
09:38-09:40
Who was Paul sharing his testimony with in this passage?
09:41-09:45
A group of people that just tried to rip him apart, literally.
09:47-09:49
Let's be honest, how many of us would have been like, the heck with those people?
09:50-09:52
They just tried to kill me, I'm out of here.
09:52-09:59
And Paul's like, I'm begging you, can I share some things with these people?
09:59-11:09
He was begging for the opportunity to talk about Jesus Christ to a group of people that just tried to kill. So I want you to get the principles here and I want you to apply them to your story. So how to fearlessly give your testimony? It's simple. Number one, tell about your life before Christ. Tell about your life before Christ. Look at chapter 22. That's exactly where Paul starts. He says brothers and fathers hear the defense that I now make before you and when they heard that he was addressing them in the Hebrew language that's Aramaic Hebrew dialect they became even more quiet and he said I am a Jew born in Tarsus in Cilicia, but brought up in this city, educated at the feet of Gamaliel, according to the strict manner of the law of our fathers, being zealous for God as all of you are this day.
11:11-11:21
I persecuted this way to the death, binding and delivering to prison both men and women, as the high priest and the whole council of elders can bear me witness.
11:22-11:39
From them, I received letters to the brothers, and I journeyed toward Damascus to take those also who were there and bring them in bonds to Jerusalem to be punished." Stop there.
11:40-11:44
When you share your testimony, when the opportunity comes to share your testimony, here's where you start.
11:45-11:49
about your life before you came to Jesus Christ.
11:50-11:54
Jot these things down before we get to the sub points. These are extra bonus.
11:54-12:00
I'm not going to charge any extra for these ones. But use the context as a bridge.
12:01-12:36
Notice that Paul's Jewishness was under attack. That's why his starting point was talking about his Jewishness. Use the context as a bridge. Aaron and I know a guy who came to Christ because of a fish sandwich. He was on break at work and it was he was part of a religion that doesn't eat meat on Fridays but only fish and a Christian friend of ours was talking to him. You know what are you gonna have for for lunch or whatever? Well I can't eat I can't eat meat I can and only eat fish.
12:38-12:45
Talking about that religious rule led into a whole discussion about Jesus Christ and the Bible.
12:45-12:51
And this man ended up coming to Christ, he and his whole family, because of a fish sandwich.
12:53-12:58
But that's where he was, and that's where this man met him to share the Gospel.
13:00-13:01
That's what Paul does here.
13:01-13:02
He uses the context as a bridge.
13:02-13:03
You want to talk about Jewishness?
13:06-13:11
Also, a couple other things I want you to jot down. When you share your testimony, keep it short.
13:12-13:18
You don't want to give every single little detail. Like, let me give you my testimony.
13:18-14:23
I was born in a log cabin that I built with my own hands, and it was somewhere around nine months that I really was starting to crawl and stand up on my own, and even taking a few steps, and how long is this going to take and they're giving me their life story but they're telling it in real time don't do that because they're going to miss the point of what you're trying to share so keep it short also when you give your testimony glorify God not yourself don't make it like star of this show right here. It's a story about how God rescued you from hell. He is the star. So glorify God. All right, so tell about your life before Christ. On your outline, identify with your listeners. Identify with your listeners. You see Paul did this beautifully here in the passage. The first thing, identify their language.
14:25-14:37
Identify their language. When you're sharing your testimony, you're going to to identify with your listener or listeners and the first thing you need to do is identify their language. That's why Paul switched from Greek to Hebrew.
14:39-14:42
Do you notice in the text that immediately caught their attention?
14:43-15:35
Immediately. As soon as he started speaking their language they all shut up like whoa hang on a sec. This guy's not quite who thought he was. He's addressing us in our own dialect. This is a key principle. When you are giving your testimony, you have to speak the language of the people to whom you are speaking. I've shared the gospel in schools, in prisons, in retirement homes, and it's always the same message, but it's always different presentations. Things like use of slang, things like kinds of details I think you can understand sharing the gospel in the prison and sharing the gospel to a group of senior citizens takes a slightly different approach in rolling out the same information.
15:36-15:38
But you have to identify their language.
15:40-15:41
Letter B, identify their merit.
15:43-15:44
Identify their merit.
15:46-15:48
Why don't you look at verse 3 again, this is so key.
15:49-15:53
Again, these are people that just tried to kill Paul, and what does he do?
15:53-15:54
He turns around and he compliments them.
15:55-15:57
He looks for something to compliment them on.
15:58-16:01
He says, do you see that at the end of verse 3, talking about himself?
16:01-16:08
He says, "Being zealous for God, as all of you are this day." Now, the gospel itself is offensive.
16:09-16:22
People need to know that they're sinners by nature, but when you share your testimony, you share the gospel, but in this context your testimony, look for a point to commend people on.
16:24-16:27
I can tell that you're a very religious person. Would you say that?
16:28-16:47
It seems to me right now that you are, you're in a period of your life where you're really seeking to understand who God is. Is that a true statement? You seem like somebody who desires to know the truth. You sound like somebody who would be open-minded to hear what the Bible might have to say, identifying their merit.
16:49-16:52
Then letter C, identify with their truth resistance.
16:53-16:58
Paul certainly did that, didn't he? You don't put yourself on the pedestal.
16:59-17:45
You're saying, "Look, I was just like you." So important. "I was just like you. I understand where you're coming from. You know, you know, I used to think like you did. I understand you think this, you think the gospel, you think it's dumb and you think that people that, you know, these are Jesus freaks. You know what, I used to think like that. Paul totally identified with these people. Like, yeah, you know what? I was like, I was worse than you. I I was seeking them out, getting them handcuffed and dragged into prison." He's like, "I can identify exactly where you are.
17:46-17:49
When you share your testimony, you've got to identify.
17:51-17:56
Identify their language, identify their merit, and identify with their truth, resistance.
17:56-18:03
When you share the gospel, you're not talking down to them as if you are some, you know, exalted, enlightened person.
18:03-18:06
and let me explain some things to you, little pagan boy.
18:06-18:10
You're not talking down to them, you're coming alongside them.
18:10-18:17
Say, "Look, I understand. I understand. I've been there." So tell about your life before Christ.
18:19-18:23
Secondly, pretty obvious, tell how you came to Christ.
18:24-18:25
Tell how you came to Christ.
18:27-18:29
That's what Paul does. Look at verses 6-11.
18:30-18:49
He says, "As I was on my way and drew near to Damascus, about noon, a great light from heaven suddenly shone around me." Sidebar here, how great do you think that light was if it was that bright at noon?
18:51-18:57
It wasn't that bright at three in the morning or, you know, dawn. He said it was noon and he was...
18:59-19:01
Wow. All right. Where were we?
19:02-19:31
Verse 7, "And I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, 'Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?' And I answered, 'Who are you, Lord?' And he said to me, 'I am Jesus of Nazareth whom you are persecuting.' And those who were with me saw the light, but did not understand the voice of the one who was speaking to me.
19:33-20:02
And I said, "What shall I do, Lord?" The Lord said to me, "Rise, and go into Damascus, and there you will be told all that is appointed for you to do." And since I could not see because of the brightness of that light, I was led by the hand by those who were with me and came into Damascus.
20:04-20:07
So tell about your life before Christ, identifying with your crowd.
20:08-20:09
Secondly, tell how you came to Christ.
20:11-20:17
First of all, let A reveal how you recognize the truth.
20:19-20:21
See, you bridge this with the truth resistance.
20:22-20:30
You know, I used to think like you, and I hated Christians, and I hated the church, whatever your story is, I used to think like you, now we build that bridge.
20:31-20:35
But here is how the lights came on.
20:37-20:42
This is the moment that I recognized the truth.
20:44-20:47
I've shared this with you before, a couple of years ago. Do you know what the moment was for me?
20:49-20:53
It sounds so dumb, but this is the moment that the lights came on for me.
20:53-20:59
It was a little insert, a little story that was in a Bible that I had.
20:59-21:00
I think I still have it somewhere.
21:01-21:09
But this little insert, just this little story about this man on Christmas with the birds in the barn.
21:09-21:10
Do you remember that story?
21:11-21:51
Okay, so this guy, just real quick, if you don't know the story, this guy, he thought, I'm just gonna give you this short choppy version of it, but this guy he thought, you know, church and Jesus and all that stuff was dumb. His wife was a devout follower of Christ and her husband was just always like, "Man, that's so dumb, and what was Christmas?" And she's like, "Why don't you come to, why don't you come to church with me?" He goes, "I don't really get the point of it." And, and so she goes to church, and while he's there, home, he's looking out the window, it's bitter cold, as it is in December around here, and he sees some birds birds flying outside of his barn. And he thinks to himself, those birds are going to freeze to death. I've got to get them in the barn where it's much warmer and I can rescue them.
21:51-22:11
But every time he went out to shoo the birds into the barn, the birds would take off. He's like, well, I'm going to have to try to outsmart the birds here. And he left a trail of breadcrumbs and that didn't work. And he tried all kinds of things to get these birds into the barn, but he just couldn't get them in. And he went back in the house and was staring out his window. Again, the birds flying around the barn but couldn't get in the barn.
22:12-22:37
And he looked at these birds and thought, "There's nothing I can do for them." He says, "They're scared to death of me." And then he thought, "You know, if I could become a bird for five minutes, they wouldn't be scared of me. I could speak their language and I could lead them straight to safety." And when the guy thought that, he heard the bells from the church ringing and it just hit him.
22:38-23:04
That's why Jesus Christ came to the earth. God became a man to lead us to salvation. When I read that story, the lights came on for me. I was like, I get it now! It makes sense, doesn't it? Okay, I get it now! Like, wow, I just never really understood it until I read that silly story. I don't even think that story's true. But I'll tell you what, the lights came on when I read that story.
23:05-23:11
That's why I like to share that story. Reveal how you recognize the truth.
23:11-23:18
Secondly, reveal your own foolishness. Again, this keeps you off the pedestal.
23:18-23:23
You're a sinner in need of grace, just like the person you're addressing. It's humility, right?
23:24-23:36
Here's the thing, maybe if you identify with them and their foolishness, maybe they'll identify with you when you say, "You know, I realized how wrong I was.
23:37-23:45
I realized how miserable I made myself in my sin." I shared this with you relatively recently in my own testimony.
23:48-23:51
When I was at a crossroads in my life, should I receive Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior?
23:52-23:59
that there was a strong temptation to go back to the life of sin that I was living at the time.
24:01-24:12
When somebody said to me, "Do you have any idea how much God loves you?" And I remember hearing that, you could have knocked me over with a feather.
24:14-24:49
And I thought to myself, "How foolish am I?" God would love me so much that he would come to this earth and he would be spit on and humiliated and beaten within an inch of his life and then nailed to a cross to pay the penalty for my sin and I'm debating on whether I want to follow a God like that? How foolish! And instead I'm considering embracing this sin which which never brought happiness, by the way.
24:49-24:51
Sin always brings misery.
24:51-24:52
It isn't a hard sell, right?
24:54-24:57
When I was living for my sin, I was miserable inside.
25:00-25:01
That's one of the good things about sin.
25:01-25:02
It's not a hard sell.
25:04-25:06
Because people that are living in it really deep down aren't miserable.
25:07-25:16
One time at the prison, I don't know if you were there that night or not, but we were sharing the gospel and this guy was just like, "Oh, you think I should give my life to Jesus?" And I'm just paraphrasing him.
25:16-25:51
some of his salty language but let's just say he thought it was foolish to follow Jesus Christ and he was pretty belligerent about that like you know Jesus Christ you know yeah you think I just follow so I just said to the man well okay how's your way working oh how's your way working you think I'm an to follow the God who would die for me.
25:52-25:57
But you found a way that's so much better as you sit here in the prison in your striped pajamas.
25:59-25:59
That's better.
26:01-26:03
You should write a self-help book.
26:03-26:05
I didn't say that, but I thought it.
26:07-26:13
But the point is, what I did say to the guy, I said, "Well, how's your way working out for you?" All of a sudden you could just see he was like, kind of put his head down.
26:14-26:27
I could read his expression. The answer was, "Not so good." "Not so good." "But reveal your own foolishness." And let her see, "Reveal..." This is also huge.
26:27-26:37
"Reveal the name of your salvation, Jesus." "Reveal the name of your salvation." Do you see how clear Paul made it?
26:39-26:40
It wasn't generic.
26:41-26:46
Like, "I found religion!" Well, that's nothing impressive. Religion's everywhere.
26:48-27:01
Don't tell people that, "I found religion." Or even making it generic to say, "Well, you know, I just kind of prayed to God," or worse yet, "I accepted that there is a higher power." Generic, generic, generic, generic.
27:01-27:06
What did Paul say? He said, "I met Jesus." There's a name. Jesus. He has a name.
27:08-27:11
And in case you haven't read your Bible, God's pretty serious about the name.
27:12-27:16
Philippians says it's the name that is above every name.
27:17-27:24
We saw in Acts 4.12, there's no other name that's been given by which we can be saved.
27:25-27:29
Jesus, the name, specific, no ambiguity whatsoever.
27:30-27:39
Paul made sure that these listeners knew this life change was about Jesus Christ.
27:40-27:45
So tell how you came to Christ, and finally today, tell how Christ changed you.
27:47-27:48
Tell how Christ changed you.
27:49-27:53
Look at verse 12. Paul's continuing his testimony.
27:53-27:54
We've studied this.
27:56-28:12
"And one Ananias, a devout man, according to the law, well spoken of by all the Jews who lived there, came to me, and standing by me, said to me, "Brother Saul, receive your sight." And at that very hour, I received my sight and saw Him.
28:14-28:24
And He said, "God of our fathers appointed you to know His will, to see the Righteous One, and to hear a voice from His mouth.
28:26-28:36
For you will be a witness for Him to everyone of what you have seen and heard." And now, why do you wait?
28:37-28:42
Rise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on His name.
28:44-28:48
When I returned to Jerusalem and was praying in the temple, I fell into a trance.
28:49-29:08
And I saw Him saying to me, "Make haste and get out of Jerusalem quickly, because they will not accept your testimony about Me." And I said, "Lord, they themselves know that in one synagogue after another I imprisoned and beat those who believed in you.
29:09-29:18
When the blood of Stephen, your witness, was being shed, I myself was standing by and approving and watching over the garments of those who killed him.
29:20-29:30
He said to me, 'Go, or I will send you far away to the Gentiles.'" Okay, so first, what was my life like before Christ?
29:30-29:31
Am I identifying with the listeners?
29:34-29:35
How did I come to Christ?
29:36-29:41
And finally, this is so key in your testimony, tell how Christ changed you.
29:43-29:53
Quick summary of Paul's story here, as he tells how Christ changed him at conversion, he was briefly at Damascus, that's Acts 9.20.
29:54-29:58
Then we know from Galatians 1.17 that he spent three years in Arabia.
30:00-30:05
Then he went back to Jerusalem where he was praying in the temple, fell into a trance.
30:05-30:09
That was an apostolic experience to receive revelation.
30:10-30:20
And after witnessing in Jerusalem, Acts 9.28, unbelieving Jews tried to kill him, and he was whisked away back to his home in Tarsus.
30:20-30:21
Do you remember that?
30:22-30:24
Like, why don't you just go back home for a while?
30:25-30:30
And God revealed to Paul that he would be the apostle to the Gentiles.
30:31-30:36
And what Paul was doing in sharing his testimony here was just sort of flipping everything back on his audience.
30:38-30:43
He said, you know how, look, I'm Jewish and I've been zealous and you're zealous and we're zealous and we're zealous.
30:43-30:45
And by the way, God told me to do this.
30:45-30:48
And I was just, I was just obeying what God told me to do.
30:50-30:51
Like, how can you argue with that?
30:52-30:54
I'm just doing what God told me to do.
30:55-30:56
Oh, Christ changed you.
30:58-31:03
People have to know, listen, people have to know that the gospel works.
31:04-31:05
They have to know that.
31:07-31:09
They have to know that Jesus can change everything.
31:10-31:14
They have to know that there is a second chance at life.
31:16-31:27
That no matter how badly I've blown it, No matter how horribly I've messed things up, there is a God who forgives and restores.
31:29-31:31
So tell how Christ changed you.
31:32-31:33
Here's three things you want to talk about.
31:33-31:35
Number one, I see things new.
31:36-31:38
I see things new.
31:40-31:44
It's important that you point out when you're sharing your testimony that you're not a perfect person.
31:46-31:49
You're coming to Christ, it's not perfection, But it's a new direction.
31:50-31:56
As I heard one evangelist say, he said, I'm not who I want to be, but I thank God I'm not who I was.
31:57-31:58
I like to point that out to people.
32:00-32:01
Say, look, I'm far from perfect.
32:04-32:14
But one of the biggest evidences of transformation, one of the biggest proofs of repentance is a transformed mind, transformed vision.
32:16-32:18
That was so obvious in my life.
32:19-32:22
Because before I came to Christ, I saw people as annoying.
32:24-32:29
I wanted little to do with most people, unless there was something I think I could get out of you for my benefit.
32:30-32:33
But other than that, I really didn't have time for people.
32:34-32:37
But when I came to Christ, something radical changed.
32:37-32:44
Did I see people now instead as eternal souls who need Christ?
32:46-32:47
a way that I didn't view people before.
32:49-32:59
So just as Paul literally went from being blind to seeing, there's certainly a sense in which that happens when we come to Christ.
33:00-33:01
He gives us new vision.
33:01-33:03
I see things new, let her be.
33:04-33:05
I have a new purpose.
33:08-33:09
Paul certainly pointed that out.
33:11-33:13
Coming to Christ immediately meant a new purpose for him.
33:14-33:15
Everyone's looking for that.
33:15-33:18
Everyone's looking to be a part of something bigger.
33:20-33:22
Good news, God has a purpose for you.
33:23-33:25
God has a plan for his people.
33:27-33:35
He took me from the gutter to standing here giving a sermon today, which every time I get up here and speak, I can't believe it's happened.
33:37-33:43
This is the longing of every heart to have a higher purpose, to have a higher meaning in life.
33:44-33:45
And Jesus gives that.
33:47-33:50
And finally, I have peace with God.
33:52-33:53
I have peace with God.
33:55-33:57
Look at verse 16 again.
33:59-34:12
"Now why do you wait? Rise and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on His name." Talking about baptism, the public proclamation of Christ.
34:14-34:21
Baptism follows salvation. Baptism doesn't cause salvation, but it is a major step in your walk.
34:24-34:30
You know, in the first century, when you got baptized, you were actually marking yourself for persecution.
34:31-34:35
That's why baptism was a call for fearlessness.
34:37-34:40
And church, we're planning our first baptism service here.
34:42-35:07
And if you're sitting here today and you have not been baptized, I just want to echo what he says in verse 16, "Why do you wait?" If you haven't taken the step of identifying with Jesus Christ's death and resurrection, if you haven't taken the step to publicly acknowledge, to say, "Look, you know what? I have given my life to Christ.
35:07-35:11
I am His and He is mine and there is no turning back.
35:12-35:14
I'm living for Him now.
35:16-35:18
If you haven't taken that step, what are you waiting for?
35:19-35:20
The time is now.
35:22-35:32
You need to see me, call me, email me, but take this step and let the world know that you're going to fearlessly follow Jesus Christ.
35:34-35:36
as we talk about sharing your testimony.
35:37-35:42
Again, sharing your testimony isn't hard content.
35:44-35:45
It's simply your story.
35:47-35:52
This is my life before Christ, this is how I came to Christ, and this is how Christ changed me.
35:52-35:53
That's not the hard part.
35:53-35:58
The hard part is the fear to speak up.
35:59-36:04
But remember, the righteous are bold as a lie.
36:05-36:06
Let's pray.
36:07-36:13
Father in heaven, your word is so clear how you've called us to be witnesses for you.
36:14-36:24
Father, to our shame, we've all been guilty of hiding, of sidestepping an opportunity, because we're afraid.
36:26-36:28
We're afraid people might think we're weird.
36:29-36:31
We're afraid people might not want to be our friend.
36:33-36:35
We're afraid of being labeled.
36:37-36:57
Your word tells us that Jesus Christ is not ashamed to call us brothers. How in the world could we be ashamed to call him ours? So Father, I pray for the fearlessness that your word promises, that the righteous possess.
36:58-37:04
I pray, Father, just as that lion roars, it can be heard over five miles away.
37:05-37:08
I pray, Father, that we would roar out our testimony.
37:09-37:15
Every opportunity you give us, let us tell people the awesome things that Jesus Christ has done in our lives.
37:16-37:22
The way He's transformed us and given us a new purpose, washing away our sins.
37:25-37:43
Let us not shrink back. Let us go forth boldly for the limited time and opportunities that we have, even to people that would hate us. Let us glorify your name by being bold and fearless witnesses.
37:44-37:56
We pray these things in the name of your son. The incomparable name of your son, Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior forever. Amen.

Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Acts 21:37-22:21

How did Paul defend himself against these accusations? How do you know when to defend yourself or ignore false accusations?
Why is it so important to identify with your listeners when giving your testimony? Specifically, how can YOU do that when sharing?
Why is it important to recognize some point of merit of your listeners (Acts 22:3)? What effect does this have on your listeners?
How much specific detail should you share about your past sin? Why?

Breakout Questions:

Each of you, using these principles, share your testimony in 3 minutes or less (time each other!). Cover these three areas:

My life before Christ
How I met Christ
How Christ changed me

Jeff Miller

May 21, 2017

The Unstoppable Church

Unstoppable Witness - Part 2

Jeff Miller

May 21, 2017

The Unstoppable Church

Intro / Review:

Witnessing for Christ: 3 Things You Should Never Assume:

Don't assume Religious people are saved. (Acts 19:1-7)

Review:

1 Cor 3:16

1 Cor 6:19

Rom 8:9

5 Clear Evidences for Biblical Transformation:

You have a new love for God's Word. (1 Pet 2:2)

You have a new awareness of right and wrong. (Heb 5:13-14)

You have a new desire to be like Jesus Christ. (Rom 8:29)

You have a new desire to proclaim Christ to others. (Col 1:28-29 | Acts 1:8)

You have a new love for other Christians. (1 John 3:14)

Don't assume you can win Everybody. (Acts 19:8-9)

Don't assume you can see All God is doing through you. (Acts 19:10)

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

00:58-01:37
Being a pastor one of the things that I have the privilege of doing is having wedding ceremonies and this should go without saying but usually part of the wedding ceremony is going to the wedding reception I remember several years ago and Aaron you know what I'm going to say several years ago we performed this wedding at our old church and you know I had my wedding suit on and Aaron was dressed to the nines and it was going to be our big all-day date out. Okay, we're gonna have to go to the wedding, we're gonna go to the reception, it was gonna be fantastic. And so we, the reception was in a different location than the wedding.
01:38-02:28
So we get in the car and we drive down and Aaron and I walk in the reception hall and there was this little table set up and they had all these little cards that have the couple's name and what table they are to be seated, you know. So Okay, and we're looking and we're looking and we're looking and we're looking And we realized We weren't invited to the reception That was awkward not gonna lie That was awkward Standing in the lobby and other people are walking in like oh, where are you sitting pastor Jeff, and I'm like apparently in my car Did you get the steak or the chicken?
02:28-02:30
Apparently we got Arby's.
02:32-02:37
I don't know. I mean, I've been in pastoral ministry now for over 20 years, and I've done, how many weddings have we done?
02:38-02:40
Like dozens and dozens and dozens and dozens.
02:41-03:25
After a while, you just sort of assume some things, but I learned something that day, a very valuable lesson, something I should have remembered, My mama told me one time you should never assume anything And mom actually had a little saying that went with that. No, not the one you're thinking of shame on you But you should never assume Anything and today we're going to be talking about witnessing And I think a lot of Christians get a little Sort of put off maybe a little intimidated maybe a little frustrated honestly, about witnessing for Christ, because I think a lot of Christians have some assumptions about witnessing.
03:27-03:33
And last year at our church, we spent the entire year, if you recall, on one verse, do you remember?
03:33-03:36
Acts 1.8, who remembers that verse?
03:36-03:38
Jesus said, "And you will receive," what?
03:39-03:46
"Power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses." Oh, fantastic, yes.
03:46-03:50
So we saw the whole, that's really the whole theme of the book of Acts, right?
03:51-04:01
The Holy Spirit, God's Holy Spirit comes upon God's people to give God's people power so that God's people would be witnesses for God in a lost and dying world.
04:01-04:02
That's what the book of Acts is about.
04:03-04:05
That's what the church is still about today.
04:07-04:13
And today we're going to revisit that theme as we get to Acts chapter 19.
04:15-04:22
We're going to shatter some assumptions that hinder people from witnessing.
04:24-04:26
The good news is God wants to reach the lost.
04:29-04:30
And He wants to reach the lost through you.
04:31-04:33
And He wants to empower you to do so.
04:35-04:37
So Acts chapter 19, turn there with me.
04:37-04:41
As you turn there, I'd just like to give you a review, get us all caught up to speed where we are.
04:41-04:46
where we saw in Acts, last couple of chapters, we've been following Paul on his missionary journeys.
04:46-04:51
And remember we saw that Paul survived burnout in Corinth.
04:52-05:00
We saw the apostle Paul making a vow to the Lord which sent him to Jerusalem to fulfill and then back to Antioch, the sending-based church.
05:02-05:04
Then Paul started his third missionary journey.
05:06-05:09
And today we're going to end up back in Ephesus.
05:10-05:13
As we go through the text together, I want you to jot some things down.
05:15-05:24
The title of today's message is "Unstoppable Witness." Witnessing for Christ. Three things. Three things you should never assume.
05:26-05:27
Three things you should never assume.
05:27-05:31
If you carry certain assumptions, you're going to be shy about witnessing.
05:31-05:35
You're going to be intimidated. You're going to be fearful. You're going to be frustrated.
05:35-05:41
So today we're going to just look at the text very simply, and we're going to shatter some assumptions about witnessing.
05:41-05:42
Here's the first one.
05:43-05:48
Number one, don't assume religious people are saved.
05:49-05:50
Look at verses one through seven.
05:51-05:53
Don't assume that religious people are saved.
05:53-05:54
Look at verses one through seven.
05:55-06:02
And it happened that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul passed through the inland country and came to Ephesus.
06:03-06:05
There he found some disciples.
06:06-06:39
And he said to them, "Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?" And they said, "No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit." And he said, "Into what then were you baptized?" They said, "Into John's baptism." And Paul said, "John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after him, that is Jesus." and hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.
06:40-06:48
And when Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they began speaking in tongues and prophesying.
06:48-06:55
There were about twelve men in all." So here's the question, what was going on with these guys spiritually?
06:57-07:05
Because there's a lot of controversy and a lot of very weird doctrines that get circled around this passage.
07:05-07:53
For example, the Bible college where I attended had this doctrine that they believed in entire sanctification, and they taught that in the Christian life, or in your life, when you reach this crisis point, and you receive God's grace, and you are saved, you are justified, but then during your Christian life you reach another crisis point where the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you are entirely sanctified, Meaning this, salvation, which justifies you, takes away the penalty of sin, but they taught that sanctification, this subsequent work of grace, not only removes the penalty of sin, but it removes the temptation to sin.
07:54-08:00
And I've talked to guys that claim they haven't been tempted to sin in decades.
08:01-08:04
Is that anybody else's experience?
08:06-08:09
I'm going to be honest with you. I wish it was true. I wish it was.
08:09-08:12
I wish I could say, "I'm never tempted to sin.
08:12-08:24
The Holy Spirit has completely removed the influence of my flesh to such a degree that I never have a sinful thought, attitude, word, action, nothing.
08:24-08:29
Not even tempted." But that's what some people teach and believe.
08:29-08:33
And they get it from texts like this to say, "Well, look, see?
08:34-08:40
They were saved people, and then the Holy Spirit came upon them with this subsequent work of grace.
08:40-08:45
And that is not at all what is happening in this passage.
08:46-08:49
Keep in mind, the book of Acts is transition, remember?
08:49-08:53
We're transitioning from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant.
08:53-09:03
And this was the day before CNN and the Internet that it took word a little while to travel about what Jesus Christ accomplished, right?
09:05-09:18
So here Paul had found some men in Ephesus who were familiar with the Old Testament and even familiar up to the point of John the Baptist, but they were sort of like Apollos who we studied last week.
09:18-09:24
They just hadn't heard what Jesus Christ had accomplished when he rose from the dead.
09:24-09:29
So these were a group of guys that were sort of in the same camp as Apollos.
09:29-09:33
But I want you to notice from the text that the Apostle Paul didn't just assume that they were believers.
09:34-09:37
He asked them what? What did he ask them? Do you see it in your text?
09:38-09:58
He said, "Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?" He asked them, "Did you receive the Holy Spirit?" And the implication clearly, as the Bible clearly teaches, is the Holy Spirit comes upon all of God's people upon belief.
09:59-10:01
Okay? That is crystal clear in the New Testament.
10:02-10:12
For example, 1 Corinthians 3.16, 6.19, both places, the Bible says that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit.
10:14-10:17
See, in the Old Testament, God dwelt in a building, the tabernacle, the temple.
10:18-10:22
New Testament times, God's unique presence dwelt in the person of Jesus Christ.
10:22-10:29
And when Jesus ascended into heaven and sent the promised Holy Spirit, you could say, "Well, where's God's house now?" God's house is you.
10:30-10:34
Your body is the temple of God's Holy Spirit.
10:35-10:41
And if you're a believer in Jesus Christ, if you're a born-again believer in Jesus Christ, that means God's Holy Spirit lives in you.
10:42-10:55
See, God's Holy Spirit is not just for the Billy Grahams and the John Pipers and the real spiritual people of the world, God's Holy Spirit indwells all of his people who come to saving faith in Jesus Christ.
10:56-11:00
Paul says the same thing, but negatively, in Romans 8:9.
11:00-11:10
He says, "Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him." So understand, there's no such thing as a Christian who doesn't have the Holy Spirit.
11:12-11:17
So we see these men that Paul had encountered here in Ephesus said no, they didn't even...
11:18-11:20
never even heard of the Holy Spirit.
11:20-11:32
The Apostle Paul didn't go all like televangelist on them, like, "I'm gonna give you the gift of the Holy Ghost today!" and do some weird thing like smack them with a handkerchief or a suit jacket or whatever.
11:33-11:33
What did he do?
11:35-11:36
He told them about Jesus.
11:37-11:44
He said, "You need to know the rest of the story." The Holy Spirit doesn't come through some weird preacher guy doing some weird act.
11:44-11:51
The Holy Spirit comes upon a person who sincerely received Jesus Christ by faith.
11:51-11:52
So that's what Paul did.
11:52-11:58
He says, "I'm going to share with you the rest of the story about Jesus." And the Bible says he laid hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.
11:58-11:59
That's all through acts, right?
11:59-12:04
We see the apostles being there when the Holy Spirit was coming upon God's people.
12:07-12:07
So what's the point?
12:09-12:20
First of all, before we talk about the witnessing thing, I want to talk to the people that are sitting here, and I want to talk to the people that are going to be listening to this online.
12:23-12:28
Just because you're religious doesn't mean that you're saved.
12:29-12:31
Those are two entirely different things.
12:34-12:40
I was thinking about this this week, you know, I think one of the reasons we like religion...
12:40-13:07
What do I mean by religion? By religion I mean we sort of keep a checklist of here's things that I do, here's things that I don't do, I keep these rules, and when I keep the rules, God's happy with me, and when I don't keep the rules, God's upset with me, and we sort of chalk up things like church attendance or taking communion, or, you know, in the offering or whatever, we sort of look at these religious acts as things that earn us brownie points with God.
13:07-13:16
And I think the reason we as people sort of like the idea of religion is that I think we sort of weigh it as evidence for ourselves.
13:17-13:28
Like, "Do I belong to God? Well, sure I do, because look at all the stuff that I do for God." But I want you to see in the text here, these people were very religious.
13:28-13:30
These people were even baptized.
13:32-13:35
But they were still missing the most important thing.
13:37-13:44
See Paul didn't look at these guys and say, "Oh, religious enough, I'll move on to the real pagans." He said, "You're missing something.
13:46-13:55
Because salvation, the evidence of salvation, comes from the Holy Spirit." What does that look like?
13:57-14:00
Well, the evidence of salvation is transformation.
14:01-14:01
That's the evidence.
14:03-14:07
The evidence of salvation is transformation that comes from the Holy Spirit.
14:08-14:10
When I say transformation, I don't mean...
14:10-14:11
You know what, you're right.
14:11-14:23
From now on, I'm going to really try to behave, and it's an inward transformation of your mind and your heart and your attitudes that reflects in an outward transformation of your actions.
14:24-14:25
It's an inside-out thing.
14:26-14:27
It's not just going through the motions.
14:27-14:30
You can teach a monkey or a dog to go through the motions.
14:31-14:38
The evidence of salvation is when it's an inside-out motivation, because the Holy Spirit has transformed your heart.
14:40-14:47
Like, "Well, you know, Pastor Jeff, I've thought about that, and I'm not 100% sure that that happened to me.
14:48-14:51
How would I know?" Well, there's very clear evidences of salvation.
14:51-14:52
I want you to jot some down.
14:52-14:55
There's many of them. I'm going to share five with you today.
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These are five evidences of transformation.
14:59-15:00
These aren't things I came up with.
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These are things that God says in His Word.
15:03-15:06
God says, "Look." He wrote these down. I'll give you the references.
15:06-15:13
He says, "Here's evidence that you've been transformed." So you're wondering, "Do I really believe? Do I really have the Holy Spirit?
15:13-15:16
Am I really saved?" Well, look at the evidence.
15:17-15:19
Biblical signs, clear transformation has happened.
15:20-15:23
Number one, you have a new love for God's Word.
15:25-15:31
1 Peter 2:2 says that the believer loves the Word of God like a baby loves milk.
15:33-15:36
And that's something our church is very familiar with, is babies, amen?
15:37-15:39
We've got a lot of babies. I love it.
15:40-15:45
Listen, if you are here with your baby, and your baby coos or cries or whatever, how much do you think that bothers me?
15:47-15:47
Not at all.
15:48-15:50
That doesn't bother me. That's a sign of life.
15:50-16:30
like that's awesome you hear that we got a we got a new little guy here a new little girl here that we can disciple into knowing the glory of Jesus Christ so that doesn't bother me at all okay just for the record where was I going with that oh yeah the point is babies naturally love milk they naturally love milk you don't have to convince them talk him into it you don't have to give him a slick sales speech you don't have to get one of those infomercial guys to get on there, you know, with his electric blue polo shirt and try to sell your baby on milk. Babies are just like, I love it. I love it. It's delicious. I suck it down.
16:30-16:34
It helps me grow and I want more. And that's how the Christian looks at the Word of God.
16:35-17:06
I love it. You don't have to talk me into it. God's Word is awesome. And yeah, it takes some studying and some understanding and I'm still learning every day, but I love God's words. 1 Peter 2 says that's an evidence. That's an evidence. Number two, clear biblical signs of transformation is a new awareness of right and wrong. And that comes from Hebrews 5, 13 and 14. Hebrews 5, 13 and 14. The Bible says that we grow in what is called discernment.
17:07-17:13
You see, before I knew Christ, I didn't care what was right or wrong. All I cared about What was going to make me happy?
17:15-17:20
But when you come to Christ, now you have this awareness as the Holy Spirit is working in your heart.
17:20-17:22
No, no, no. This is wrong. This doesn't honor God.
17:22-17:25
I should do this. I should stop doing this.
17:26-17:28
I want to honor God above all things.
17:28-17:32
And I need to make choices that reflect that.
17:32-17:34
And the Holy Spirit gives you that ability to discern.
17:36-17:54
Signs of Transformation #3 I want to grow to be more like Jesus Christ.
17:54-18:03
Loving like Christ, merciful like Christ, praying like Christ, treating others the way Christ would have me treat them.
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That's the desire of every true transformed born-again Christian.
18:09-18:10
born-again spirit-filled believer.
18:11-18:15
You want to be like Christ, and you're growing in that direction.
18:16-18:22
Number four, biblical sign of transformation is a new desire to proclaim Christ to others.
18:23-18:26
You have a desire to proclaim Christ to others.
18:26-18:28
I want to. I want to.
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And maybe I'm still learning, like, how to do that.
18:30-18:34
Maybe I don't always do it perfectly, and I still struggle sometimes with what to say.
18:35-18:36
But I want to.
18:37-18:42
I'm not asking do you have the perfect speech to share the gospel.
18:42-18:52
I'm asking do you have the desire that your friends and family, the people around you that you know are lost, do you have the desire to have Christ be made known to them?
18:54-18:55
That is true of every Christian.
18:57-19:00
Colossians 1, verses 28 and 29, write that down.
19:01-19:11
And we also saw that in chapter 1, verse 8, I see power and the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be My witnesses." That's something true of all of God's people.
19:12-19:15
Spirit-filled, you want to tell others about Jesus Christ.
19:17-19:19
One more, number five.
19:20-19:21
New love for other Christians.
19:22-19:23
That's an evidence.
19:23-19:24
New love for other Christians.
19:24-20:03
1 John 3:14 says, "And we know that we have passed out of death into life." euphemism for salvation and that we love the brothers John says this is an evidence you know you're saying how do you know you're saved he says you know you're saved when you have a love for other Christians I was gonna be honest with you feel like yeah I don't really yeah I kind of kind of like going to church but I really don't like the people there that's a that's a big red flag because one of the key evidences of salvation is that you You love. You love the brothers.
20:04-20:04
Okay?
20:05-20:08
So, being religious doesn't mean you're saved.
20:10-20:20
And as it pertains to your witnessing, I'd like to remind you again, point number one, don't assume religious people are saved.
20:20-20:30
In fact, my experience has been religious people are often the hardest to share the Gospel with, because they're already convinced that they're okay.
20:31-20:40
"Let me tell you about Jesus." "Oh, I don't need to hear about Jesus because I go to church every week." Religious people are often the hardest to save.
20:41-20:43
They're the hardest to convince that they need salvation.
20:44-20:49
Like, "Well, how would I know where they're at?" I would just encourage you to take a page out of the Apostle Paul's book.
20:49-20:51
He just asked these people questions, right?
20:51-20:53
He didn't have some magic apostle glasses.
20:54-20:56
I'm like, "Well, I can see you don't have the Holy Spirit." He asked them questions.
20:59-21:00
Ask questions about their walk.
21:01-21:03
All right, number two, number two.
21:05-21:06
We're shattering some assumptions.
21:06-21:09
Number two, don't assume you can win everybody.
21:10-21:12
Don't assume you can win everybody.
21:12-21:13
Look at verse eight.
21:15-21:19
It says, "And he entered the synagogue, "and for three months," look at this.
21:19-21:20
This is Paul, by the way.
21:20-21:22
Wrote like half of the New Testament.
21:23-21:29
you know, like a couple thousand years later, we're still studying every word that this man wrote under inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
21:30-21:31
Same guy.
21:32-21:40
For three months, spoke boldly, reasoning and persuading them about the kingdom of God.
21:41-21:45
Reasoning means dialogue, okay? It just means he had conversations with them.
21:45-21:51
Like, "Tell me about your walk with the Lord. Do you understand who Jesus is?" And it was back and forth conversation.
21:53-21:54
That's what reasoning is.
21:55-21:55
Persuading.
21:56-21:59
That word means to convince by argument, right?
22:00-22:03
If Paul was loaded for bear, he would have had the Old Testament practically memorized.
22:06-22:13
So you have a guy like Paul for three months evangelizing.
22:13-22:52
We stop right here, you're like, "Man, I bet you that place was on fire for Christ!" have somebody like Paul there for three months preaching could you imagine could you imagine like the altar calls they probably had to buy new carpet because people were just wearing a hole in the floor coming down and repentance and sackcloth and ashes and let's see what happens here verse 9 but when some Some became stubborn and continued in unbelief, speaking evil of the way." The way is what they called Christianity back in Paul's day.
22:54-23:09
Before the congregation, "He," Paul, "withdrew from them and took the disciples with him, daily in the Hall of Tyrannus." Like, what?
23:10-23:26
You mean Paul was there for three months, unloading on these people with everything he knew about the Scriptures and the fulfillment that Jesus Christ made, and the result was you had people that were stubborn?
23:28-23:29
That literally is hard-hearted.
23:31-25:27
unbelief and even to the point of speaking evil Here's the point You can't win everybody you can't win everybody I'll be honest with you. This is a lesson that I had to learn personally because very early on in my ministry I Studied apologetics like my life depended on it. I studied all the creation science and all the archaeological and historical All that stuff is great. I encourage you to study it and I'm telling you my early years of ministry. I devoured that stuff every tape kids there we used to before CDs well you Some of you guys probably know what CDs are anymore, but I remember my car had a tape player I just I get these apologetics tapes and I would listen to them in the car and I'd be reading and I'd be looking stuff Up and I'd be studying because I had this idea that if I was prepared Knowing the Bible and knowing the apologetics I could sort of back anybody into a corner just through arguing and they'd have no choice They're like you're right Jeff. You're absolutely right I'm going to have to receive Jesus because I don't have anything to say against what you're telling me. So, all right let's get the baptizing I was sure of it I'm like I they're not gonna be able to argue with me is that true you can't argue somebody into the kingdom you can't like I said apologetics all this stuff is important you should be studying this stuff and you should be depauled in for three months I'm just saying you can't take it as a personal fail when somebody that that you clearly share the gospel and the reasonableness of the gospel with them, and they still reject Christ, you can't take it personally.
25:30-25:34
You know the Bible, how the Bible refers to the unsaved?
25:34-25:37
You know the kind of terms the Bible uses to refer to the unsaved?
25:38-25:39
The Bible says the unsaved are lost.
25:41-25:42
They don't even know they're lost.
25:42-25:46
Just meandering out, they don't even know they're lost.
25:47-25:49
The Bible also says they're blind.
25:49-25:50
Did you know that?
25:51-25:51
They're blind.
25:52-25:54
The Bible also says they're dead.
25:56-25:57
I want you to think about that.
26:00-26:11
You couldn't take a physically blind person and put a book in front of them and say, "Read this for me." And they're like, "I can't." "What are you talking about? I can read it.
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Why can't you read it? It's easy.
26:13-26:18
You just look down at the page and you read it." It's cruel. But you see the point.
26:19-26:24
A blind person cannot, they are completely unable to read that.
26:25-26:33
In the same way, a spiritually blind person is spiritually unable to see their need for Jesus Christ.
26:34-26:39
That's not your fault. The spiritual blinders are on.
26:41-26:43
The Bible says lost people are dead.
26:46-26:49
Go to a funeral home and go up to the casket.
26:49-26:51
I don't encourage you to actually do this.
26:51-26:59
But go up to the person laying in the casket and say, "Hey, come on, we're going to the movies this afternoon. My treat." Like, why aren't they getting up?
26:59-27:02
"My treat, I said." Because they're dead.
27:02-27:05
Dead people can't respond to anything, right?
27:05-27:09
The Bible says that the lost people are spiritually dead.
27:12-27:14
So what changes that?
27:16-27:21
Only the Holy Spirit can convict someone of their sin.
27:22-27:33
And somehow, in a way that I don't understand, God's Spirit works through God's people sharing God's Word.
27:35-27:52
Like I said, I don't understand how that all works I don't But you see God doesn't tell me to understand it. He just tells me to do it God doesn't say you know thou shalt sit down and figure out how all this stuff works and then go out and try it God says you tell people about Jesus like What if some get saved?
27:53-28:05
Fantastic. That's the work of the Holy Spirit. Well, what if some like speak evil about you know us like it happened to Paul's day That's that's not on us The results aren't up to us.
28:07-28:08
The Holy Spirit's work.
28:09-28:30
Take every opportunity, yes, take every opportunity to share the gospel, but there comes a time that you need to take another page out of the Apostle Paul's book here and withdraw from people who are reacting harshly.
28:32-28:33
There comes a time that you have to do that.
28:35-28:36
I encourage you to seek the Lord on that.
28:37-28:44
There's no magic formula, but I can tell you there comes a time that you need to stop putting your pearls before the swine.
28:44-28:45
That's what Paul did.
28:45-28:53
He goes, "All right, there's..." Not only are they rejecting, hardening their heart, not only do they refuse to believe, now they're speaking evil.
28:53-28:55
Paul's like, "All right, pack your bags.
28:55-28:56
We're going to the Hall of Tyrant.
28:56-28:58
We don't really know much about him.
28:58-29:06
His name means'my tyrant.'" And some people think that was a nickname, like he was a teacher in this hall, and that was the nickname that his students gave him.
29:06-29:13
So, I don't know. But, you do have to see that Paul sort of packed things up and moved on.
29:16-29:22
But for the rejecters, it's not your fault that they're rejecting God.
29:23-29:26
Don't put the weight on yourself. Okay? Don't put the weight on yourself.
29:27-29:37
I have people come to me with the heart and compassion of Christ, and they're like, "Pastor Jeff, I have tried sharing with this person, and they're getting worse.
29:37-29:46
And just when I thought that they were ready to come to church with me, or come to a small group, or come to a Bible study, now they're getting worse, and I feel so bad.
29:46-29:51
Should I have said something different?" You cannot put that weight on yourself.
29:53-30:01
Your job is to share the love of Christ with them, Share the word of Christ with them and pray that the Holy Spirit does the inside out work that only he can do.
30:02-30:06
You can't make a spiritually blind person see. You can't make a spiritually dead person live.
30:06-30:08
Only the Holy Spirit can do that.
30:10-30:15
Paul didn't win everybody. Billy Graham didn't win everybody.
30:17-30:23
Charles Spurgeon didn't win everybody. John Piper didn't win everybody.
30:23-30:27
And did you know Jesus Christ didn't win everybody?
30:29-30:43
Jesus Christ had people walk away from Him while He was preaching, saying, "This is a hard saying. Who can accept it?" So let's shatter that myth. Don't assume you can win everybody.
30:45-30:47
It's up to the Holy Spirit, finally, for today.
30:49-30:52
Don't assume you can see all God is doing through you.
30:52-30:59
Don't assume that you are able to see everything that God is doing through you.
31:00-31:01
Look at verse 10.
31:04-31:05
In the Hall of Tyrannus.
31:05-31:13
It says, "This continued for two years." So all the residents of Asia—by the way, that's Asia Minor.
31:14-31:16
In biblical times it was called Asia.
31:17-31:17
Like, where is that today?
31:18-32:07
I think Asia I think like China and Thailand this was in Turkey modern-day Turkey. Okay, where they're out here Let's continue for two years that all the residents of Asia Heard the word of the Lord both Jews and Greeks so for two years Paul had this little group and he taught them and it would It'd be easy to look at these two years as a waste right again, I spent - this is Paul's life You know the greatest missionary of all time and he spent two years and somebody could look at this and say well I Wasn't very effective You know he goes and he preaches his heart out and he ends up having to leave because people are speaking evil But then you get to verse 10 Where the Holy Spirit tells us?
32:08-32:45
What a testimony all the residents of Asia heard the word Think of the churches that were planted as a result the Church of Colossae the church at Hierapolis and Revelation chapters 2 & 3 those seven churches including Ephesus were all part of Asia Minor and Some scholars think that maybe it was during this time here in Acts that many of those churches were planted So Paul preached a word Paul made disciples and then these disciples went out and spread the gospel.
32:46-32:55
Church, we have such a limited scope of what God is doing through us.
32:57-33:00
I don't know how much of this Paul actually understood at the time.
33:01-33:08
I don't know if he understood how far his influence was going, and I think today the same thing can certainly be said for us.
33:09-33:16
The scope of what's happening in this church goes so far beyond what you see in this room.
33:18-33:47
Because of the marvels of modern technology and the diligence of people like Ben Murphy putting the sermons up on the website, do you know we get emails and cards in the mail from people that we've never met that are like, "Hey, I listen to you every week. I know you don't know me, but I listen to you every week." And they're like, "And I appreciated this sermon on..." and they're quoting certain things, and it really meant a lot to me, and I ever think about doing a sermon on this, and so it's not just like spam, right?
33:48-33:55
These are real people that are being affected by the ministry that's happening in our little church.
33:56-33:57
It's incredible.
33:58-35:22
You know, we sent a group to Romania a couple years ago to build a training center, and we're seeing pictures of pastors and church planters that are being trained sent out to plant churches all over Eastern Europe. Think of the impact that's going to be made for generations. Because a small group of people from a small church like this went out and were willing to invest in a ministry over in Europe. A lot of you might not know this, but do you know that our church is like famous in Ghana? I don't mean Harvest Bible Chapel James McDonald, I mean Pittsburgh North I get regular calls and emails and letters from some pastor in Ghana in West Africa who found us online somehow and he says I'm distributing your materials all through northern Ghana and he sends me testimonies here's what you know pastor Alfred says and you know and then he says me pictures of people sitting in classes and using our materials and again give another shout out to Ben Murphy but he's put our materials on CDs so we can send them over so that they're able to reproduce them and distribute them. Isn't that crazy? Just when you think oh you know what are we doing here there's just you know just a just a few of us shinzers sitting in a sitting in a cafeteria.
35:25-36:46
this is affecting northern Ghana what and the one email that I got from a pastor Abraham in Ghana he said these materials are awakening a spirit of evangelism and revival in Ghana I was like what isn't that crazy and my point certainly is not yay us everybody reach around and pat each other on the back I'm not saying that at all what I'm saying is this we don't ever really see the scope of what we're doing of the way that God is using us we don't we don't see it but it's happening oh we're getting little glimpses I mean the emails and cards I get are only the people that took the time to actually respond you know who knows how many other people are using our materials and resources out there. In October we're going to Thailand to train the evangelists and the ministers over there to equip them in ministering to all of the northern jungle hill tribe people. Think of the influence that's going to have for generations. Not Not just out there, think about what's happening inside the walls of our church.
36:46-36:47
Think of Arrow.
36:48-36:58
I look at the work that Dan and Alicia are doing with these young people, to think, what's that going to look like in five years, in ten years, as these young people go out?
37:00-37:04
And now they are influencers for Christ in whatever community.
37:05-37:07
That's the whole meaning behind Arrow, by the way, right?
37:07-37:34
Psalm 127, they're launched out. What kind of impact are the leaders of the Arrow ministry making across the world when these young men and women are being sent out? I think of Harvest Kids and the work that Mandy and her staff does, teaching them. Think of these kids that are growing and are going to be in Arrow soon. The deposits of God's Word that are being made in their lives right now.
37:34-37:46
Think about that and how these kids are going to affect the next generation which by the way as a culture are we drawing Closer to God or further away from God as a culture which which is it?
37:47-38:02
Further away right to think about think about these kids what the influence for Christ that they're going to have an increasingly dark culture Think of the babies for church What an opportunity from day one?
38:03-38:19
We have the ability to love them and to assist the parents in teaching them about the Lord Here's the point I heard a preacher say this one time it always stuck with me. He said you need to bloom Where you're planted bloom where you're planted?
38:22-38:29
And if this church is where God has you serve him faithfully and Watch how he takes what is happening?
38:32-38:40
right here So when you witness to others, there's something that you can assume.
38:41-38:41
There's something you can.
38:42-39:00
That's Isaiah 55.11, where God says, "When His Word is sent out, it never returns to Him empty, but it always accomplishes the purposes for which He sends it out." You can assume that every time you share the Word of Christ with someone, God is working.
39:01-39:02
You can assume that.
39:03-39:08
But don't assume that the religious people that you meet are already saved.
39:10-39:13
Don't assume that you can win everyone.
39:14-39:20
And don't assume that you can see everything that God is doing through you.
39:21-39:21
Let's pray.
39:23-39:29
Father in heaven, It's a staggering thought that you would save us.
39:31-39:49
And it's almost equally as staggering that you would then use us to tell other people about your plan of salvation, how you've delivered us from sin, from death, from hell, through the sacrifice of your own Son.
39:50-39:58
Father, I pray, even though witnessing was sort of our ministry theme last year, we certainly can't ever get away from that.
39:59-40:04
That's one of the pillars of our church, Father, is sharing the good news of Jesus with boldness.
40:04-40:19
And I pray, Father, You would continue to raise up people who will share the love and the Word of Christ with everyone they come in contact with and leave the results up to you.
40:21-40:40
Father, sometimes we get discouraged because we have expectations on things that you've never given us. We try to claim promises that you've never made. So I thank you for this little portion of Acts that we read here today where we can sort of have a reality check, Father.
40:41-40:48
Shatter our assumptions. Find us faithful witnesses for Jesus Christ.
40:49-40:52
It's in his name that we pray, Amen.

Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Acts 19:1-10

What questions did Paul ask in Acts 19:2-3? What do you think prompted him to ask those questions?
Do you think these disciples (Acts 19:1-7) were saved before Paul ministered to them? Why or why not?
How do you know if you received the Holy Spirit? How can you tell if another person has received the Holy Spirit?
What are the evidences that someone is hardening their heart (Acts 19:9)? How did Paul respond? How should WE respond?

Breakout Questions:

Discuss: Have you held any of the assumptions discussed in the message (religious
people are saved, you can convince anyone into the kingdom, you know all that
God is doing through you)?

Pray: To become a Spirit-powered, God-glorifying witness.

Jeff Miller

February 19, 2017

The Unstoppable Church

Unstoppable Against Idols

Jeff Miller

February 19, 2017

The Unstoppable Church

Review / Intro:

How Do You Witness to Greeks? (Acts 17:16-34)

Meet them where they Are. (Acts 17:22-23)
Just share the Basics. (Acts 17:24-29)

Who is God? (101):

God Created you. (Acts 17:24)

God Provides for you. (Acts 17:25)

God Cares about you. (Acts 17:26)

God wants a Relationship with you. (Acts 17:27-28)

Rethink how you View God. (Acts 17:29)

Encourage a Decision. (Acts 17:30-31)

Leave the Results to God. (Acts:17-32-34)

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

00:00-00:02
Alright, open up your Bibles to Acts chapter 17.
00:04-00:05
Acts chapter 17.
00:07-00:13
As you're turning there, by way of review, just to sort of cap this off, since this will be our last message in Acts for a while.
00:15-00:18
This year we've been talking about the unstoppable church.
00:18-00:23
Jesus promised that He would build His church and the gates of hell will not prevail against His church.
00:24-00:26
And that's exactly what we see in the book of Acts.
00:26-00:40
We saw in chapters 13 and 14, on their first missionary journey, back in time for the Jerusalem Council, where there was this whole discussion, "What place does the law have in salvation?" And it was back to mission work.
00:42-00:45
We saw them in Thessalonica presenting a clear gospel.
00:46-00:49
And we saw the jealous Jews inciting a mob to riot.
00:50-01:00
Remember, we saw Jason and some of the brothers who were guilty by association just because they were Christians and the missionaries, they were persecuted.
01:01-01:07
Paul and company went to Berea to find people eager to receive the Word, and they examined it daily.
01:07-01:09
And I encourage you to be a Berean.
01:10-01:14
Whether it's me speaking, or John MacArthur, or John Piper, or whoever you listen to.
01:15-01:17
Examine everything through God's Word.
01:19-01:25
But the enemies of the Gospel came from Thessalonica to Berea and chased Paul out.
01:26-01:28
all the way to Athens.
01:28-01:39
And when Paul got there, the people that escorted him down, Paul said, "Hey, when you get back, tell Silas and Timothy to get down here as soon as possible." Okay, so that's where we're at.
01:39-01:39
Everybody there?
01:40-01:46
Paul's in Athens, he just fled, and he's kind of like hanging out, waiting for Silas and Timothy to show up.
01:48-02:01
Verse 16, "Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, His spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols.
02:02-02:07
Athens was the greatest city in the world centuries before Christ.
02:07-02:11
It was the home of culture, of art, of philosophy.
02:11-02:17
All these people that you've read about in school came from Athens.
02:17-02:22
like Socrates and Plato and Aristotle.
02:25-02:31
But Athens was also known, not just for the philosophy and the art, Athens was known as a place of idolatry.
02:31-02:32
There were idols everywhere.
02:33-02:35
The buildings were dedicated to gods.
02:35-02:38
And there were statues everywhere dedicated to gods.
02:39-02:46
And one ancient writer named Petronius had this famous quote talking about ancient Athens.
02:47-02:54
He said, "It's easier to find a God in Athens than a man." That's how prevalent idolatry was.
02:56-02:58
But I want you to see Paul's attitude.
02:59-03:14
It says, "Now while Paul was waiting for them, Silas and Timothy, my Bible says," and your Bible says something similar, "his spirit was provoked within him." We're going to see what that did.
03:17-03:21
We're going to be talking about how to share the Gospel and some of the elements.
03:21-03:22
And I can teach you that.
03:22-03:24
I can teach that to a four-year-old.
03:26-03:30
Something I can't teach is this.
03:32-03:33
Being provoked in your spirit.
03:35-03:40
Because sometimes, church, let's be honest, we see people who don't yet know the Lord.
03:42-03:47
worldly people living in a worldly way, and we look at them with disgust.
03:49-03:50
Shame on those people.
03:50-03:53
How stupid, how foolish, how irresponsible.
03:54-03:57
And we'll be disgusted, or we want nothing to do with them.
03:59-04:03
Paul saw the idolatry around him.
04:04-04:06
It says his spirit was provoked.
04:06-04:13
He had to do something about it, but it wasn't criticized, It wasn't to judge or condemn.
04:14-04:17
It was, these people need to know Jesus Christ.
04:17-04:21
I just want to ask you, when was the last time that you felt so provoked?
04:21-04:23
When was the last time that's happened to you?
04:24-04:44
That you had that co-worker or that other student that you know is going through the worst season of their life, and they're hurting, or they're rebellious, and you're looking at them, not with disgust, not with, "What a loser!" And you're looking at them like, "They need to know the Lord.
04:45-04:47
And I've got to say something.
04:47-04:49
I have to say something to them about Jesus Christ.
04:50-04:54
I have to say something." When was the last time you were there?
04:55-05:01
For some of us - and I'm not condemning you, I'm just challenging us, because for some of us it's been a long time.
05:03-05:10
Some of us have adopted the attitude, "To hell with the world." But when was the last time you saw the world through the eyes of Christ.
05:11-05:15
What they need is to know God.
05:18-05:19
Provoked in spirits.
05:21-05:22
Provoked in spirits.
05:24-05:28
If you're not there, I encourage you this, you need to pray for that.
05:29-05:30
For yourself.
05:31-05:32
I pray that for myself.
05:33-05:35
You need to pray that for yourself too.
05:38-05:45
So, he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons.
05:45-05:50
What does that mean? Those were Gentiles who were sort of into Judaism.
05:50-05:52
They were Gentiles who feared the Lord.
05:55-05:59
And in the marketplace, every day with those who happened to be there.
05:59-06:00
I love that.
06:01-06:07
Like, "What's your mission, Paul?" He's like, "I'm just going to get out into the mall and whoever's there, I'm going to tell him about Jesus. That was it.
06:08-06:11
No real like, you know, here's my strategy.
06:12-06:18
He's like, "Here's my plan. I'm just going to show up and I'm going to see somebody and I'm going to tell him about Jesus." That was his plan. I love that. I love that.
06:18-06:20
That's simple. I can do that.
06:21-06:29
Look at verse 18. It says, "Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also conversed with him." Who are these guys?
06:29-06:34
Well, the Epicureans, their philosophy was anything you can do to avoid pain.
06:35-06:36
anything you can do to avoid pain.
06:39-06:40
I'm on board with that a little bit.
06:40-06:41
Not to the degree they were.
06:42-06:43
And what about the Stoics?
06:43-06:47
The Stoics, their philosophy was you shouldn't feel anything.
06:49-06:50
Don't be happy, don't be sad.
06:51-06:51
Stoic.
06:53-06:53
Feel nothing.
06:54-06:55
Stay on neutral all the time.
06:56-06:57
These are the people that Ball was dealing with.
06:59-07:02
And some said, what does this babbler wish to say?
07:05-07:07
This guy obviously had the gift of encouragement.
07:08-07:30
Others said, "He seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities, because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection." Verse 19, "And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, 'May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting?
07:31-07:34
For you bring some strange things to our ears.
07:34-07:37
We wish to know therefore what these things mean.
07:39-07:41
Now the Areopagus, that was the court.
07:42-07:48
And understand, so many times in Acts we saw the apostles on trial, like a criminal trial.
07:48-07:50
This really wasn't like that.
07:52-07:58
This was sort of a, we want to hear you out, but we want to give you sort of an official format to do that.
07:58-08:01
He wasn't on trial like he was going to go to jail or anything.
08:04-08:09
The word was getting around that he was preaching something that was unique to them.
08:09-08:10
And they're like, "We've got to hear this.
08:11-08:15
Get this guy down to the courthouse and we'll get a crowd together.
08:15-08:18
We want to hear what this weird thing is he's talking.
08:18-08:19
This Jesus, this resurrection.
08:21-08:24
We've got to hear more about this." Why did they want to hear him out?
08:25-08:25
Look at verse 21.
08:26-08:49
It says, "And all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there would spend their time in nothing "Hey, did you hear about this religion?" "No, I never heard about that." "Well, this religion teaches this." They were just constantly looking for the next newest thing when it came to religion or philosophy.
08:52-09:01
We're going to stop here for a second, because we see that there's a stark contrast in the two audiences that are here.
09:01-09:03
that Paul had in Athens.
09:04-09:13
Verse 17, he was in the synagogue with the Jews, and he was in the marketplace with the Greeks, the non-Jews.
09:14-09:16
There's a huge contrast between these two audiences.
09:18-09:28
In the synagogue, when you're dealing with the Jews, these were people who already acknowledged the Scriptures.
09:30-09:33
These are people that already had a reverence for the God of Israel.
09:34-09:37
These are people who already believed in one God.
09:38-09:39
They believed in creation.
09:39-09:41
They believed in the Ten Commandments.
09:41-09:44
Everything in your Old Testament, they sort of had that as a backdrop.
09:46-09:55
That's why Paul could go to people like that and say, "Hey, you know what the Scriptures say about the Messiah?" Psalm 22, Isaiah 53, and he could just run it down, Zechariah 12.
09:55-09:57
He could just list these Scriptures.
09:57-09:59
You know what the Old Testament says about the Messiah?
09:59-10:01
Jesus of Nazareth fulfilled that.
10:01-10:02
They had the backdrop.
10:02-10:14
And they're like, "Oh yeah, we're familiar with these Scriptures, and we see how you're connecting the dots here." But I want you to see that the people in the marketplace were a much different audience.
10:15-10:18
They would have been much looser in their beliefs.
10:19-10:27
Unfamiliar with the Bible, but somehow, for some reason, antagonistic towards Jesus and the resurrection.
10:29-10:31
I just want to pause here and ask.
10:33-10:35
Multiple choice. You've got two choices.
10:36-10:38
Which one of these sounds more like our culture today?
10:39-10:57
People that already have a background in understanding the Bible, people that have accepted creation and the Ten Commandments and some of those things, or people who are much looser in their beliefs, They don't really know much about the Bible, but they're antagonistic towards it anyways.
11:00-11:03
Okay? So, inform a poll here.
11:04-11:08
A) Bible creation and Ten Commandments have the backdrop.
11:10-11:19
B) Don't know much about the Bible, but sort of antagonistic to it, but open to any other silly doctrine that comes down the pipe.
11:20-11:21
Which one sounds more like our culture, A or B?
11:23-11:24
That's what I thought too.
11:24-11:25
That's what I thought.
11:26-11:34
I think a generation ago - and there's some people here that lived through that - I think a generation ago, there were more A's.
11:34-11:46
There were more people like, hey, even if I'm not a Christian, I believe the Ten Commandments, and I try to be a good person, and I believe that someone created us, and there was that general backdrop.
11:47-12:03
I think more and more we're becoming to people in the marketplace, our culture, loose in beliefs unfamiliar with the Bible, but antagonistic towards Jesus and the resurrection.
12:06-12:14
The reason it's important to see the distinction between the A's and the B's, between the Jews and the Greeks, is because it makes a difference in how we share the Gospel.
12:14-12:15
You have to know your audience.
12:17-12:20
The question is how do we engage people who don't know the Bible?
12:21-12:26
How do we witness to people who have no real fear of the Lord, or understanding that there's one living God?
12:27-12:28
Where do we even start?
12:29-12:30
Another question on your outline.
12:32-12:33
We're just going to say it this way.
12:33-12:34
How do you witness to Greeks?
12:36-12:40
Okay, that's Greeks with an "r." Okay? Not geeks.
12:41-12:42
What did you learn in church today?
12:42-12:45
Pastor Jeff taught us how to share the Bible with geeks.
12:51-12:52
How do you witness to Greeks?
12:53-13:02
I love this passage, but I so did not want to preach on it because I could preach like eight sermons on this passage and we're going to try to do it in one, so we're going to go through some things rather quickly today.
13:03-13:05
Because I need you to see the whole picture.
13:06-13:07
Okay, how do you witness to Greeks?
13:08-13:09
Number one, meet them where they are.
13:10-13:11
Meet them where they are.
13:12-13:13
Look at verses 22-23.
13:14-13:24
Again, they didn't have this Bible backdrop Paul's like, "You know the Messiah in Isaiah 53? That's Jesus!" Clueless. Clueless. He couldn't start there.
13:24-13:26
Look at what he said. This is awesome.
13:26-13:36
So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus said, "Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious.
13:39-13:49
For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription.
13:50-13:51
To the unknown God.
13:53-13:57
What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you.
13:58-13:59
Meet them where they are.
14:01-14:04
Notice that Paul, yeah, he was provoked in his spirit, but he wasn't a jerk about it.
14:04-14:09
He identified with the people, and he found a point where they could meet.
14:10-14:11
Did you see that?
14:13-14:29
He says, "I perceive in every way that you are very religious." And I was doing some reading this week, I was studying, some people were like, "Well, he was complimenting them." And other people were like, "He was insulting them." Like, what do you think, Pastor Jeff?
14:32-14:33
I think he was identifying with them.
14:34-14:38
I don't think he meant to compliment them, and I certainly don't think he meant to insult them either.
14:39-14:41
I think he was just saying very matter-of-fact.
14:42-14:45
"You people are religious. You guys like to worship." That's all he was saying.
14:46-14:50
"You guys like to worship, don't you? You love to worship." Like, how do you know that we love to worship?
14:51-14:51
Because you have idols everywhere.
14:52-14:59
He was just meeting them where they were, and then he honed down to an unknown God.
14:59-15:01
He said, "I even saw an idol that here was the inscription.
15:02-15:05
The inscription said to the unknown God." Now, here's the mindset behind that.
15:06-15:08
Like I said, they had an idol for everything.
15:09-15:15
And, you know, there was a god of the rain, so we better make an idol for the god of the rain.
15:15-15:18
But there's a, well, the sun, so we better make an idol for the god of the sun.
15:18-15:22
And well, it gets windy sometimes, so we better make a god for the god of the wind.
15:23-15:26
And they even had like, they even had like a goddess of their sewer system.
15:27-15:29
Like they had a god for everything.
15:32-15:47
And eventually when you do that, you get to the point that you think, what if we forgot Maybe there's a God out there that we didn't make a statue to worship in honor of this God.
15:47-15:56
What if this God's out there and this God is ripping mad because we haven't acknowledged Him or Her or Them or It or whatever?
15:57-15:59
What if there's a God out there that we didn't acknowledge?
16:00-16:01
So somebody had this brilliant idea.
16:02-16:06
Well, I've got an idea. We'll make an idol and we'll just put, to the unknown God, we'll put that right on the idol.
16:06-16:11
So that way, if that God ever gets mad at us, we'll be like, "No, no, no, this one was for you, we just didn't know your name.
16:12-16:20
But this is totally you." And so Paul saw that, he goes, "Hey, you guys are religious.
16:20-16:33
You know what, I even saw a statue that said, 'To the unknown God.'" What Paul didn't see was anything that had to do with worshipping Jehovah, the God of Israel.
16:34-16:42
Paul's like, "Ah, I know the God that you don't know." And that's what I'm going to tell you.
16:44-16:52
Paul was saying, "You acknowledge yourselves that there's a God that you don't know." But here's some good news.
16:53-16:54
He can be made known.
16:56-16:57
Because He's revealed Himself.
16:59-17:00
I just want to encourage you to look for ways.
17:02-17:03
Look for ways to make a connection with people.
17:05-17:06
Look for ways.
17:07-17:26
I know a guy that came to the Lord because it was a Friday during Lent and somebody asked him about having pizza or something, and he goes, "Oh no, no, no, I can only eat fish on Friday." And that opened up a whole conversation that ended up leading this guy to the Lord.
17:26-17:28
And this guy laughs about it today.
17:28-17:30
The person led to the Lord over a fish sandwich.
17:32-17:40
But you see, the person who led him to the Lord used that as the point of contact to say, "Why do you only eat fish on Friday?" And got to the heart of that.
17:43-17:49
But he found a point of connection, and that sounds silly, but we have a guy that was saved because of a fish sandwich.
17:50-18:02
Another one that I've shared with you many times in the past, looking for a point of connection, ask people, "Do you have a church home?" "Do you have a church home?" And then their answer says a lot.
18:04-18:21
And they say, "No, no, no, I don't go to church." "Oh. Can I ask why?" People like to talk about themselves. They'll be glad to open up. "Well, I went to church when I was a kid and you know, they were mean or the preacher was always chewing us out." That opens up the conversation.
18:25-18:25
What do you think about?
18:27-18:29
I just want to encourage you like Paul.
18:30-18:32
Find a connection point. Meet them where they are.
18:34-18:42
Paul didn't just walk in and say, "Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of the Mosaic Law." Like, what?
18:43-18:44
That's true.
18:45-18:46
He didn't start there.
18:47-18:49
He started where they were.
18:49-18:51
He identified with them.
18:53-18:54
Ask them where they are.
18:56-18:58
Number two, I'm going to go through these things very quickly.
18:58-19:02
Number two, just share the basics.
19:03-19:12
When you're dealing with somebody that doesn't know the Lord, and doesn't know the Bible, okay, first of all, that's why we're doing the Bible 101 thing, because we want you to bring people to know and understand and learn about God's Word.
19:13-19:17
But you're going to encounter people that have never cracked the spine of a Bible in their life.
19:18-19:18
They never have.
19:20-19:22
They're like, "Well, what do I share with them?" Here's what you share.
19:23-19:24
I share the basics.
19:25-19:26
Keep it simple.
19:29-19:32
Talking about the deep things of the Lord is going to be senseless.
19:34-19:36
You know, you're like trying to witness to somebody.
19:37-19:46
Like, "Can I tell you about Jesus?" And they're like, "Yeah, I'd love to hear about Jesus." You're like, "Well, let me tell you something about Jesus." You know, the Bible says Jesus is a high priest in the order of Melchizedek.
19:46-19:46
You know why it says that?
19:47-19:50
Because the Old Testament Levitical priests, they couldn't beat priest and king at the same time.
19:51-19:51
It wasn't allowed.
19:52-19:56
He came before, he was in Abraham's time, he was a priest and a king at the same time.
19:56-19:58
And Jesus, priest and a king, just like Mephizedek.
20:00-20:11
And they're like, "What was in your coffee, dude?" But is that gonna... that stuff's all true, and it's a fascinating study, and those are some of the deeper things.
20:12-20:13
That's like 102, right, man?
20:13-20:14
That's 102 stuff.
20:14-20:15
You don't want to start there.
20:16-20:17
But look at where Paul starts.
20:18-20:19
Just start with the basics, right?
20:19-20:23
So in your outline, this is kind of a preview to Bible 101.
20:24-20:26
We're just calling this "Who is God 101?" Okay?
20:27-20:28
Oh, that's very creative of you, Pastor Jeff.
20:29-20:29
Everything is 101.
20:30-20:31
Who is God 101?
20:33-20:34
Here it is.
20:34-20:35
First of all, just look at the elements here.
20:35-20:36
We're going to go through this quickly.
20:37-20:51
The first one is this, "God created you." Paul says in verse 24, "The God who made the world and everything in it, The being Lord of heaven and earth does not live in temples made by man.
20:53-20:53
That was the first thing.
20:54-20:57
First of all, this unknown God, you've got to know something about the unknown God.
20:57-20:59
He's a Creator. He created you.
21:00-21:04
See, the Epicureans, they believed that matter is eternal.
21:04-21:05
There are some people who still believe that.
21:05-21:07
That matter has always existed.
21:09-21:11
The Stoics, they were more pantheists.
21:11-21:13
They believed that everything was a part of God.
21:16-21:17
You see, this is where Paul started.
21:17-21:21
He goes, "You get all these gods, all these idols for all these different things.
21:21-21:24
Let me tell you about the unknowing God. He's over all of it.
21:24-21:28
You have a God of the rain, a God of the wind, a God of the sun, a God of the snow, a God of the sewer system or whatever.
21:29-21:32
The real God is God over all of those things.
21:32-21:33
He doesn't specialize.
21:34-21:37
It's not like, "Well, I'm really good at one thing, and that's it.
21:37-21:39
Don't bother me about nothing else." No, no, no, no, no.
21:40-21:41
Let me tell you about this God.
21:41-21:43
He's the God over everything.
21:44-21:48
He created the sun, He brings the wind, He brings the rain.
21:48-21:53
He is the God who is over every single thing because He created all of it.
21:55-22:00
There is not a message in our day that is more attacked than this one.
22:00-22:01
God created.
22:03-22:07
I'm going to say this very quickly because in two weeks the whole message is about creation.
22:09-22:12
But you have been living under a rock if you haven't noticed this.
22:13-22:16
The idea that God is a personal creator.
22:18-22:20
That message is attacked more than anything else.
22:23-22:25
With the damnable lie of evolution.
22:27-22:38
The most pervasive and accepted lie in our day that's disguised as intellectualism and science.
22:40-22:42
It's nothing more than a fairy tale for adults.
22:44-22:44
Evolution.
22:45-22:56
Given enough time, a cell turns into a fish, turns into an amphibian, turns into a lizard, turns into a bird, turns into a monkey, turns into you.
22:56-22:58
Given enough time, that happens.
23:00-23:03
If you say you don't believe that, then you're unintellectual.
23:03-23:06
You're out of touch.
23:06-23:08
you don't understand science.
23:10-23:13
Like I said, we're going to talk all about creation in a couple of weeks.
23:13-23:14
Don't get me started.
23:15-23:16
I want to say this, though.
23:17-23:19
You might say, "You know what?
23:20-23:21
I'm not really prepared.
23:22-23:33
I'm not really equipped to have these discussions with people." Do you know there are entire ministries designed to equip you to be able to discuss these things intelligently?
23:36-23:39
They built an entire museum in Kentucky, the Creation Museum.
23:40-23:47
And the whole purpose is to equip us to be able to share with this lost world that's denying the truth of creation.
23:47-23:51
Look, it's not unintellectual. It's biblical fact.
23:53-23:54
Verified by science.
23:57-23:59
Genesis 1-1 to Revelation 14-7.
24:01-24:03
Over and over and over and over.
24:05-24:08
God is constantly talking about this key truth.
24:09-24:09
God created you.
24:10-24:12
You see, I think people deep down know that.
24:12-24:13
I think people deep down know.
24:13-24:18
Even people that say they believe in evolution, they don't believe in evolution for intellectual reasons.
24:20-24:21
They just don't want to be held accountable.
24:22-24:25
I don't want to think that there's a God that I have to answer to. Nobody's my boss.
24:26-24:29
So I'm going to embrace this idea that we came from nowhere and we're going nowhere.
24:32-24:39
Listen, I promise you, deep down, people know that God created them.
24:41-24:42
Deep down they know.
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We'll talk more about that in a couple of weeks.
24:48-24:48
God created you.
24:49-24:51
2nd Corinthians 1. Look at verse 25.
24:52-25:02
Paul says, "Nor is He served by human hands, because He doesn't need anything, He Himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.
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The second thing He says, not only does God create you, listen, God provides for you.
25:09-25:13
How foolish to think that divinity would need something for me.
25:14-25:16
That's one of the really foolish things about idolatry.
25:17-25:19
The gods need me for something.
25:20-25:20
Right?
25:21-25:25
They're up in their heavens or wherever, and they need something for me.
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How foolish is that?
25:30-25:31
Let me tell you something about the real God.
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He doesn't need anything from anybody.
25:35-25:36
He doesn't need anything.
25:36-25:37
He's all-sufficient.
25:38-25:41
Guess what? He was all-sufficient before we were created.
25:43-25:47
And 100 trillion years into the future, He's going to be all-sufficient still.
25:47-25:49
He's never lacking anything.
25:52-25:53
This God provides.
25:54-26:00
Deep down, we know everything in life comes from God.
26:00-26:03
Deep down we know that we should be thankful.
26:03-26:04
That was a point of contact.
26:04-26:08
He goes, "Listen people, God created you.
26:09-26:16
God provides for you." Thirdly, letter C, God cares about you.
26:18-26:19
God cares about you.
26:19-26:20
Look at verse 26.
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He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and boundaries of their dwelling place." First of all, I want to say parenthetically, He made from one man every nation.
26:42-26:44
That's why racism is so stupid.
26:45-26:46
Because we're all technically related.
26:46-26:48
We all came from Adam and Eve, right?
26:48-26:50
If the Bible's true.
26:51-26:52
came from Adam and Eve, right?
26:53-26:54
That means we're all people of one blood.
26:57-27:09
So the same blood is going through the blacks, the whites, Latinos, Asians, all the same blood.
27:10-27:15
Yeah, there's different shades of skin color and hair texture or whatever, but it's all the same blood.
27:15-27:17
That's why racism is so stupid.
27:17-27:19
Like, we're the same.
27:20-27:22
We all came from the same.
27:24-27:26
He said here's the level of God's care.
27:26-27:29
He determined times and places.
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That it's no accident when and where you are in history.
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It blows my mind.
27:38-27:39
It should blow your mind too.
27:40-27:44
It's no accident that you were born when you were born.
27:46-27:52
It's no accident You're living in this geographic area now.
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So wherever you go a year, five years, whatever down the road, that's not going to be an accident.
27:57-28:00
God has appointed your time and your place.
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Because He cares about you.
28:04-28:05
Like how do you know that?
28:05-28:10
Look at the next thing He says, verse 27, letter D, God wants a relationship with you.
28:13-28:15
So God determined your time and place in history.
28:15-28:16
Why did He do that?
28:18-28:23
We're talking about it on a national level, and I believe it goes all the way down to the individual level.
28:24-28:29
I believe God's sovereignty is much deeper than we'll ever be able to guess.
28:30-28:51
Verse 27, "That they should seek God in the hope that they might feel their way toward Him and find Him, yet He is actually not far from each one of us, for in Him we live and move and have our being." even some of your own poets have said, we are indeed His offspring.
28:54-28:56
He says God wants a relationship with you.
28:58-29:03
"Pointing your time and place so that you would seek after Him." Do you see the common thread?
29:04-29:09
God created you, God provides for you, God cares about you, God wants a relationship with you.
29:10-29:12
Do you see the common thread in those things?
29:13-29:20
Paul was saying was, "Listen, people, you matter to God." You matter to God.
29:21-29:31
Paul didn't walk in and say, "You hellbound, foolish, pagan idol worshippers." He didn't take that approach.
29:31-29:36
He goes, "Look, I see you're religious, and I see you don't know God.
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I'll tell you about Him.
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I'll tell you one thing about Him.
29:40-29:41
He loves you.
29:43-29:43
You matter to Him.
29:46-29:47
You know how I know you matter to Him?
29:48-29:49
He created you.
29:50-29:51
And He provides you.
29:52-29:54
And He's determined your time and place.
29:54-29:56
And He wants a relationship with you.
29:56-29:57
He's not far from you.
29:58-29:59
He is one prayer away.
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And I would encourage you to take these elements that when you're sharing with people, and make that the focal point.
30:10-30:12
People that don't know God, God's mad at them.
30:14-30:22
Maybe they've heard bits and pieces of, "Yeah, I know what the Bible says, because I've done wrong things, God wants to send me to hell, right?" No, no, no.
30:24-30:25
God doesn't want you to go to hell.
30:25-30:26
That's the thing.
30:26-30:28
God wishes that none should perish.
30:29-30:33
God wants you to be with Him in heaven so much that He sent His Son to die for you.
30:33-30:34
I wouldn't do that.
30:35-30:36
God did. He loves you.
30:36-30:39
That needs to be the point of conversation with people.
30:40-30:41
God loves you.
30:43-30:44
He cares about you.
30:45-30:46
You matter to God.
30:49-30:54
The final thing, if you do nothing else in your witnessing, you have to do this.
30:54-30:55
Look at verse 29.
30:56-30:59
Oh, by the way, verse 28, he's quoting a couple of their poets.
30:59-31:08
It would be sort of like us, you know, witnessing in a secular environment and quoting some lines from a heavy metal song.
31:08-31:13
Like, these are things that you already know because you sing about them and you understand them.
31:15-31:16
I'm going to tell you the reality of this.
31:18-31:20
The last one, letter E.
31:21-31:22
You've got to get people here.
31:23-31:25
If you can do this and nothing else, wow.
31:28-31:30
Rethink how you view God.
31:30-31:31
Look at verse 29.
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He says, "Being then God's offspring..." You guys already acknowledge that.
31:35-31:36
Your own poets have said that.
31:37-31:50
than God's offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man.
31:53-32:02
Here what Paul was saying is, "Look, you guys need to rethink. You guys are always talking about gods and gods for this and gods for that. I want you to think about something.
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If, as your poets say, we're God's offspring, and if that's true, if we're God's offspring, then it doesn't make sense that a hunk of metal is God.
32:17-32:18
I mean, let's think about that.
32:19-32:38
So we craft this idol, we take this hunk of gold or silver or stone or whatever, we take it and we craft it, and we shape it, and we put it up on a pedestal, and then we call I was like, why would we think that way?
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If we are the offspring of God, why would you think the rock is that God?
32:49-32:57
I just want to say this to you, if you can just get people to re-evaluate their concept of God, what a huge step that is.
32:58-33:00
Re-evaluate their concept of God.
33:00-33:08
Like I said, the people that grew up, "Yeah, God wants to send me to hell, because I had a bad thought. No, no, no. You need to rethink. That's not who God is.
33:09-33:14
Yeah, God wants me to keep the rules. If I keep the rules, God's happy with me. No, no, no, no.
33:15-33:20
You know that's not true? You need to rethink your concept of God.
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That's what Paul did with these men in the area.
33:26-33:31
Two more quickly. Number three, encourage a decision.
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Encourage a decision.
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Look at verse 30.
33:36-33:40
He says, "The times of ignorance God overlooked." What's that mean?
33:41-33:50
That means God didn't always intervene with special judgment when a nation didn't know Him.
33:50-33:51
That's what that means.
33:51-34:00
Like you can look through history, just because this particular nation didn't worship God, God wasn't like, well, okay, tick, tick, they had their five minutes and I'm going to judge them.
34:01-34:08
Sometimes, in God's grace, nations that didn't know Him, God would say, "You know what?
34:08-34:15
I'm going to overlook that." Not saying they were saved, saying He didn't swoop in and burn them off the globe.
34:17-34:21
He was willing to put up with their rebellion, in a sense, for a time.
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That's all He's saying.
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Look at His next line.
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Now, but now, He commands all people everywhere to repent.
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This is for everybody.
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This is all-inclusive.
34:41-34:45
That's why I don't really get hung up on the whole Calvinism thing when I preach, because of this verse.
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I know that God knows who's going to pick Him.
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I know all that.
34:50-34:51
I understand the doctrine.
34:52-34:57
I'm just saying that when you look at this verse, it's pretty straightforward.
34:58-35:02
God commands all people everywhere to repent.
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How exhaustive is that?
35:06-35:06
That's everybody, right?
35:07-35:08
That's everybody.
35:09-35:13
I know some people are and some people aren't, but that doesn't change the command.
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God commands all men everywhere to repent.
35:20-35:23
See, what Paul was doing here was he was bringing it to a point of decision.
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There's a sense of urgency.
35:26-35:27
Here's verse 31, here's the urgency.
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"Because He has fixed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom He has appointed.
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And of this He has given assurance to all by raising Him from the dead." Here's the urgency.
35:44-35:50
Paul says, you know, God has a calendar on His wall and He's got a date circled on it.
35:51-35:58
And on that day, He's appointed somebody who's going to come to judge the world based on this message.
36:00-36:05
That's why this "He now commands all men everywhere to repent" thing is so vitally important that we get on this immediately.
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Like, well, how do you really know?
36:09-36:11
How do you really know Jesus is coming back?
36:11-36:12
Well, here's the proof right here.
36:12-36:13
It's right in the text.
36:14-36:17
He says that of this, he's given assurance to all by raising Him from the dead.
36:18-36:20
Like, how do I know Jesus is coming back?
36:21-36:22
Because He rose from the dead.
36:23-36:24
That's how I know.
36:25-36:27
Can I suggest to you that that be our measuring line?
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If somebody says they're going to raise from the dead, and they raise from the dead, let's believe everything else that guy says.
36:34-36:35
All in favor?
36:36-36:37
Okay, yeah.
36:37-36:38
I'm gonna believe everything that guy says.
36:39-36:42
He's like, "I'm gonna die, and in three days, "I'm gonna come out of the grave," and he does.
36:42-36:43
Like, boom.
36:44-36:46
You get a ticket for the rest of your life.
36:46-36:47
I'll believe everything you say.
36:48-36:49
That's what Paul's saying here.
36:49-36:50
This guy rose from the dead.
36:51-36:54
this judge, this man, this Messiah.
36:55-36:56
He rose from the dead.
36:59-37:02
God gave us the assurance that because of that, He's going to come back.
37:04-37:06
That's why He was communicating urgency here.
37:06-37:07
Communicating urgency.
37:09-37:12
You have to encourage a decision from people.
37:14-37:17
You know, when Barnabas from Thailand was here, I was talking to him.
37:17-37:22
He said, "You know, when I would share gospel I always love when he says that.
37:22-37:23
He goes, "In the past time..." I love that.
37:24-37:32
He goes, "When I share the gospel with people in the past time, I would be friends with them for a very long time and get to know them." And he says, "No, I don't have time.
37:33-37:34
I just share the gospel immediately with them.
37:35-37:36
I'm running out of time.
37:38-37:40
I just give them the gospel immediately.
37:42-37:48
Because there's urgency." I was sharing the gospel with a guy one time, and he says, "So, let me ask you a question.
37:50-37:57
I live my whole life however I want, and then I'm on my deathbed, and on my deathbed I pray and receive Christ, will I go to heaven?
37:58-37:59
I said, well, technically, yeah.
38:00-38:01
He says, okay, I'll just do that.
38:03-38:05
And I said, no you won't.
38:06-38:07
He said, what do you mean no I won't?
38:08-38:10
I said, because there's two problems with your little scenario.
38:11-38:15
First problem is this, you're not guaranteed a deathbed.
38:16-38:21
Oh, wouldn't it be lovely, wouldn't it be lovely That's how the narrative of my life played out.
38:21-38:23
I lived to be 110.
38:25-38:32
I'm laying on my deathbed, surrounded by my family and loved ones, who held my hand as I gently fell asleep.
38:33-38:35
And everybody sang, you know, "Kumbaya" or whatever.
38:35-38:37
And wouldn't it be nice?
38:37-38:39
Wouldn't it be nice if that happened for everybody?
38:41-38:43
The sad reality is it doesn't happen to very many people.
38:45-38:49
I can tell you stories of people that have died very young from weightlifting accidents.
38:50-38:58
And one of my best friends from high school had a little sister who died in a car accident, suddenly, on her way to work.
39:00-39:07
And I can tell you stories like this the rest of the week, people that died very suddenly, very unexpectedly, some in very unusual ways.
39:08-39:10
But my point is this, that I shared with this man.
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You're not guaranteed a deathbed.
39:13-39:14
Like, where is that written?
39:17-39:18
I said, "But here's the other problem.
39:18-39:23
This is an even bigger problem than that." I said, "Granted, let's say you're gonna have a deathbed.
39:23-39:24
I'll give you that one.
39:24-39:27
Let's say that you are gonna live to be 110 or whatever and you're on your deathbed.
39:27-39:29
Here's the problem with that.
39:30-39:32
What that means," and I asked him how old he was.
39:32-39:33
I think he was 30.
39:33-39:43
I said, "What that means is you're going to have decades of saying no to God, of saying no to Jesus Christ.
39:43-39:45
You're going to be doing that for decades.
39:47-40:10
if the deathbed escape is your plan, that means from now until your deathbed, every time God's calling you to Himself, calling you to repentance, calling you to receive Christ, you're saying, "No, no, no, no, no, no, no." And I said, "What makes you think when you're on your deathbed, all of a sudden, you're going to receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior and your one true passion in life?" What's going to turn that around at the last second?
40:11-40:22
I said, "Because what you're doing for decades is the one thing the Bible absolutely warns you more than anything else, "Do not harden your heart." Read Hebrews over and over and over, today, today, today.
40:22-40:28
If you hear His voice, "Do not harden your heart, do not harden your heart." Why does it keep saying that? Why does God keep saying that?
40:32-40:34
Because you're sending yourself to hell, that's why.
40:36-40:55
By constantly saying no, constantly shutting Him out, constantly, "No God, no God, not today God, not interested today God." I said, "I promise you, if you make it to your deathbed, the last thing that you're interested in is Jesus Christ." That's why today is the day of salvation.
40:55-40:57
That's why a decision has to be made today.
40:58-41:01
And people need to know you've got to do something with this message.
41:02-41:06
It's not like, "Okay, Jesus died on the cross for your sins, rose from the dead.
41:08-41:12
FYI, just thought you'd like to know, have a nice day." There's something you need to do with this message.
41:12-41:15
God now commands all men everywhere to repent.
41:17-41:20
Get serious about God now, because you don't know how much longer you will have.
41:22-41:27
And finally, this is so important, leave the results to God.
41:28-41:31
Leave the results to God. Look at verse 32.
41:32-41:36
Paul gives this awesome sermon. Awesome sermon.
41:38-41:41
Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked.
41:43-41:57
But others said, "We will hear you again about this." So Paul went out from their midst, but some men joined him and believed, among whom were Dionysius, the Areopagite.
41:59-42:01
That guy had to have a nickname.
42:01-42:06
And a woman named Damaris and others with them.
42:08-42:11
Rich Sprunk and I were talking about this a couple weeks ago.
42:12-42:19
People on both sides of the fence, like, "Was Paul successful here?" I mean, look what happened.
42:19-42:20
Was Paul successful?
42:21-42:22
Some people mocked him.
42:22-42:22
He mentions resurrection.
42:23-42:24
By the way, you should always mention resurrection.
42:25-42:26
That's the key right there.
42:28-42:29
Some people mocked him.
42:30-42:32
Oh, this is the guy that talks about raising from the dead.
42:32-42:33
They made fun of him.
42:35-42:36
Some were curious.
42:36-42:37
They're like, well, we never heard this stuff before.
42:37-42:38
We'd like to hear some more.
42:40-42:41
It says that some people believe.
42:43-42:44
So is this successful or not?
42:46-42:50
But we can't evaluate our witnessing effectiveness based on results.
42:50-42:50
We can't.
42:52-42:54
I'd like to remind you, just jot this reference down.
42:54-42:54
We're not going to turn there.
42:54-42:55
2 Corinthians 2.14.
42:58-43:00
Victory is in the proclamation of the gospel.
43:01-43:07
If you share the gospel with 100 people, and 100 people get saved, that's victory.
43:08-43:13
If you share the gospel with 100 people, and nobody gets saved, that's still victory.
43:14-43:16
Because the victory is not based on your results.
43:16-43:20
The victory is based on the fact that the gospel is proclaimed.
43:20-43:22
Read 2 Corinthians 2.14.
43:22-43:24
We had a whole sermon about this once upon a time.
43:25-43:29
Remind yourself also that Noah - He preached for 120 years.
43:30-43:31
How many converts did he have?
43:34-43:36
Zero! None. Just his family.
43:37-43:40
And praise God, his family got on the ark, and I'm sure that meant a lot to him.
43:40-43:49
I'm saying you preach for 120 years while you're building a boat in the middle of your yard, and not one person - not one - not one person outside of your family believed you.
43:51-43:52
Was Noah successful?
43:54-43:55
God found him faithful, and that's success.
43:57-44:03
We should be praying, we should be striving, we should be looking to see new people coming to Christ.
44:03-44:09
We should always be trying to up our game in evangelism, but always with the mindset that we can't save anyone.
44:12-44:16
Let's be faithful to do our part, because God is certainly faithful to do His.
44:18-44:23
This week, when you leave here today, you're going to be encountering some Greeks.
44:25-44:25
What do you do?
44:27-44:28
Meet them where they are.
44:30-44:31
Share some basics.
44:32-44:33
God loves you.
44:36-44:36
God provides for you.
44:36-44:37
God has a plan for you.
44:40-44:41
Encourage a decision.
44:41-44:42
There's urgency.
44:44-44:45
At the end of the day, just leave the results to God.
44:48-44:48
That's correct.
44:49-44:54
Father in heaven, Thank You for the glorious truth of Your Word.
44:57-45:03
Father, You know our culture is becoming more and more like the Greeks.
45:04-45:08
I remember hearing a preacher say this 15 years ago.
45:10-45:13
And I see it even more so today than then.
45:16-45:18
Father, we're not intimidated by that.
45:18-45:19
We're not in despair.
45:22-45:23
It's Your message, God. It's Your power.
45:25-45:29
We've been talking this year about the unstoppable church.
45:32-45:37
Father, we're not concerned that some idolatry and Bible ignorance is going to stop the advancement of Your kingdom.
45:39-45:44
By Your power, Father, and through the opportunities You give us, might we be found to be faithful witnesses.
45:46-45:48
Help us, Father, to be discerning.
45:49-45:51
Father, first, put that passion in us.
45:51-45:58
Let us be provoked to want to move to witness to lost people.
46:01-46:03
Give us discernment to be able to meet people where they are.
46:06-46:08
May your Spirit fill us with the words.
46:09-46:15
Tell them about You and ultimately bring them to the point of understanding who Jesus Christ is and what He's done.
46:17-46:18
Father, we trust You. We know You're faithful.
46:19-46:20
That's never in question.
46:22-46:27
So Father, find us faithful to be ambassadors, to be Your spokespeople.
46:31-46:32
We're going to look to You to do big things.
46:35-46:39
Thank You, Father, that the victory isn't in our results.
46:40-46:42
The victory is in the proclamation.
46:44-46:52
So we will all the more gladly about the victory in Jesus Christ.
46:53-46:54
It's in His name that we pray.
46:55-46:55
Amen.

Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Acts 17:16-34

Why was Paul's approach different in witnessing to these "marketplace" people than it was to the Jews in the synagogue? What does this say about how we should approach people with the Gospel?
List some things about God that Paul taught. Why did he focus on these things in particular? See Acts 17:24-31.
Was Paul's preaching successful in Athens? Why or why not? See 2 Corinthians 2:14.
When was the last time your spirit was provoked (righteous anger) to the point where you had to act (Acts 17:16)?

Breakout Questions:

Pray for one another to have opportunity and boldness in sharing the love of God with people.

This is Who We Are: Pillar 4

Introduction:

The Two Motivations to Share the Good News of Jesus That Are Embraced by Every True Witness (2 Cor 5:14-21):

Harvest DNA – Part 4: Unafraid Witness.

I Will Not Fear Witnessing for Christ.

Unstoppable Witness - Part 2

Witnessing for Christ: 3 Things You Should Never Assume:

Unstoppable Against Idols

Upcoming Small Group Questions CLICK HERE

How much of the Bible have we covered since 2011?

Introduction:

The Two Motivations to Share the Good News of Jesus That Are Embraced by Every True Witness (2 Cor 5:14-21):

Audio Transcript

Audio Transcript

Audio Transcript

Witnessing for Christ: 3 Things You Should Never Assume:

Audio Transcript

Audio Transcript