Speak The Truth Boldy

Tom Shrader explains that Christians are called to both make the invisible God visible through their transformed lives and speak the truth boldly about Jesus Christ. Drawing from Romans 1 and 2 Corinthians 5, he emphasizes that believers are ambassadors with a ministry of reconciliation, sharing the gospel not as an optional activity but as an inevitable result of salvation. Shrader stresses that witnessing requires both authentic life change and clear proclamation of Christ as the only way to salvation.

“If you know enough to believe the truth, you know enough to share the truth.”

— Tom Shrader

Series: How Do I Stay Straight in a Crooked World (2006)

Recorded: 2006 at Cannon Beach Conference Center

Duration: 1 hr 8 min

Themes: witnessing, evangelism, truth, boldness, ambassador, gospel, salvation, testimony, sharing faith at work, new believer, afraid to witness, workplace evangelism, reluctant evangelist, christian in secular environment, young adult, struggling with boldness

Scripture: Romans 1:16-20, Romans 3:10-12, 2 Corinthians 5:17-20, 1 Corinthians 3:4-6, John 1:20-23, John 10:24-33, Isaiah 6, John 6:44, James 2:14-26, Romans 10:9

Theological Themes: ministry of reconciliation, gospel proclamation, biblical authority, sanctification, ambassadorship, soteriology, christian witness, great commission

Full Transcript

**He asked if John and I were twins today. I don't know about that. I come right up to his waist. So that's a discouraging thing. So help me one more time where you're going to be at nine o'clock tonight. That's exactly right. Get those kids first though. Make sure you do that so that we can get in here and we can enjoy John and we'll get set for that. We look forward to this.**

Let's pray as we get started tonight. Father, thank you for that music. Thank you for the worship, for Wade and his team, for John and He reminds us what a wonderful God you are and how you have sent your Son Jesus to die so that we would have eternal life. God, eternal life begins today and with it comes the difficulties, challenges, tests, trials. Now we pray that as we face all that life brings to us, that we would look to your word and in that word we'd find the truth. That we would understand that you have written that manual that tells us how to live. Father, thank you for Jesus. We pray to you in His name. Amen.

Getting Started Tonight

Hey, I'm glad that you're here. Hope you had a great day. Just again, a reminder: if you have questions, make sure you drop them off at the sound booth. Part of the idea was to deal with them Friday morning, but I'd rather just deal with them as they come in.

I will tell you this: I wouldn't be surprised if there were very few questions. I don't think I've ever been to a conference where I've had more people stop me in the hallway or stop me outside or get me over in the snack shack, which is great, and just say "What about this? What about that?" and comment. That's great, and I appreciate that. But if you got some questions, just feel free to drop them off with Marty and we'll go ahead and answer them and do the best we can with that.

Building on Our Foundation

Grab that sheet that you have, please, and let me just remind you: I said to you the very first night we will actually build on this, and that is exactly accurate. Hopefully you see it. We establish the Bible is the final authority in our life, and then everything begins to fall from that becomes very, very practical.

Now we try to develop a lifelong passion for God's Word. We make decisions - godly decisions - we look to the word to tell us how to live, sometimes frankly contrary to our instincts or our senses because we tend to think in the natural and He counsels us in the supernatural. We begin to live life confidently, boldly, not because we're so great, but we serve a God who promises that He will continue the very work that He began in us.

We begin to integrate our faith. By that we mean we can't say that faith works for Sunday or it works at Cannon Beach, but it works in each and every aspect of our life. And God says take this faith to the marketplace now. Take it to work, take it to the gym, take it to the neighborhood. Take it everywhere we go.

Looking Ahead: Upcoming Sessions

We talked this morning about session 6. Tonight session 7, we'll come back to it. I'm going to talk tomorrow night. If you were to listen - and this is a sad prospect for some of you probably - but if you were listen to me for a year, you would find reoccurring themes through my teaching. One of those things that I come back to again and again and again is what I consider to be the missing ingredient in most people's life, certainly in the culture, but even in followers of Christ, and that is this idea of contentment. So we're talking about contentment tomorrow night. It really is a heartbeat for me.

Then we're going to talk on Thursday morning about freedom - the freedom that we have in Christ. And then we'll talk Thursday night about suffering. I think if you again were to listen to me for a year, that would be another theme that would pop through. I mentioned it today.

I understand that in our life we have big problems. We have babies that die, relationships that don't work, jobs that are terminated. I had a guy just a couple of weeks ago - he said they're downsizing at my office. They're starting with one and it's me. You know, just because I'm a follower of Christ - and I'm not talking about just in name, I can actually be following Him - but I'm involved in relationships. I have other people and they aren't always following Him. We give tsunami instructions even at Christian Conference Center because that's the way life is.

Expecting Suffering and Finding Renewal

I personally like the way session 10 is framed: expect suffering. Don't be surprised by it. Don't let it catch you off guard. We aren't exempt from it, but prosper in the midst of it, grow from it. And then we'll talk Friday morning about a thirst for daily renewal - the fact that the outer man is decaying, but the inner man is being renewed day by day. And then Friday night will be our last session together, and those are always interesting times.

I thought I would share with you that I've mentioned to you my father died just six, seven weeks ago, and I want to talk about that also in the last session. I went ahead and had Karen put down there all of our information, my information, the name of the church. There's the email address if you want to email, and lots of people email. I do the best I can. Let me give you just a tip if you're going to email: be pithy early on. If it's a long email and I get a lot of long, long emails, I'll hang in there, but if you got something, get it right in the front. So we'll work through that.

There's the church website and there is the Priority Living ministry website. There's my phone number, and so that's as much information really as you need. That's all the personal information that you have, and you can just communicate anything you want from that.

Recap of Session 6: Making God Visible

This morning, session 6, we talked about making the invisible God visible. We talked about the fact that Jesus says we're the salt of the earth, the light of the world. That men should look at us, see our good works, and glorify our Father who's in heaven.

The Fruit of the Spirit in Difficult Circumstances

We talked about good works. What we said is we're not going to go into some specifics. We understand there's prayer. We understand the spiritual disciplines. We're talking about being maybe even more than doing.

We talked about the fruit of the flesh. If I'm following my own flesh, I'll see these things in my life: immorality, sorcery, impurities, all those things. If I'm following the Spirit, if I'm led by the Spirit in me, I will see love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control.

What has always struck me as I look at that list is that those first three or four items demand difficult circumstances. I don't know if I have love until I'm in an unlovable situation. I don't know if I have joy if I buy a stock at $3 and it goes to $7. That's not a huge test. I don't know I have peace if all the circumstances are going exactly like I want them. I haven't got the foggiest idea if I have patience until I'm in difficult situations.

Again, I think by design—and I'll talk about this when I get to suffering—I honestly believe that God puts us into those pressure situations so we can really see who we are. You don't know who you are until you're put in those situations and they're difficult. I understand that. In the midst of difficult situations, it's important for me to respond in obedience.

Making God Visible Through Our Response

Here's what we said this morning, and then we'll move on. I know in our life we've got big problems. We have a church and on a typical Sunday, we'll have 4,500 people or so there. In that group of 4,500, we have people who've experienced all sorts of hurts and pains and joys in just the course of the week. We have people who've given birth. We have people who've lost children. We have relationships that have flourished. We have marriages that crash and burn. We have kids who are honor students and kids who are struggling. That's part of life.

In the midst of all that, God brings comfort to us. Part of that comfort is our resting in Him, our obedience in Him. So that people begin to look at you and say, "I don't know exactly how you got through that situation. I don't know how you survived in the midst of that. That blows me away. I'm watching you." All of a sudden you're going, "Well, I don't know. I don't know." And all of a sudden you're going, "Well, that isn't me. That's the God in me." We'll talk about that tonight.

Connecting Sessions Six and Seven

We can't take session 6 and separate it from session 7. Make the invisible God visible and speak the truth boldly. Remember what we talked about this morning? If we said we're making the invisible God visible, but we don't speak the truth boldly, then we're a coward. If we speak the truth boldly, but we have not made the invisible God visible, then we're going to fall into this pattern of a hypocrite.

Paul's Indictment of Mankind

We'll go to just a couple of passages tonight. Look at Romans chapter 1, would you please? Paul writing to the church at Rome. I would suspect that many would consider this one of the finest of Paul's works. All written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. In Romans chapter 1 and chapter 2 and chapter 3, He is issuing His indictment really for all of mankind.

When Paul looks at mankind—you, me, us—here's His conclusion. Look at Romans chapter 3. Here's His conclusion. Paul says, "There is none righteous"—Romans chapter 3 verse 10—"none righteous, not even one. There's none who understands. There's none that seeks for God. All have turned aside together. We have become useless. There is none who does good, not even one." That's Paul's assessment of mankind apart from Christ. That's God's assessment of man.

Now, that's not our assessment of each other. The minute we read that we kind of go, "Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. I know somebody who doesn't care a thing about the scripture, a thing about God, but they're good people. When I'm out of town, they cut the grass. They're there and they're available. I went through a hardship in my life and they were there for me even more than the church people were there for me."

The Heart Behind the Action

Here's the deal: you and I are looking at the action. Paul, through God's eyes here, Paul's looking at the heart of the actor. We're coming up on Thanksgiving. Let me tell you, I don't know where you live, but I can pretty much guarantee you somebody on the local news is going to do a human interest story at Thanksgiving. They're going to go down to the homeless shelter and they're going to say, "Here's somebody and they're feeding the hungry. They aren't at Thanksgiving. They've given up their holiday to be there." That's a cool thing.

But watch this. Then they'll interview the guy. They go, "Hey Sam, why are you here?" You know what Sam's going to say? "I love to do this because it"—what do you want to guess?—"makes me feel good." Not because the guy's hungry. "Makes me feel good when I do that." We look appropriately and say, "That's a good thing, right? Should we be feeding?" Sure we should. But do you see without Christ the whole response is, "It makes me feel good." Even when I reach out to somebody that's hurting, it's about me. It's not about them and their need. That's God's assessment: "No one does good. No, not one."

God's Wrath Against Suppressed Truth

As Paul's building this indictment in Romans chapter 1, this is a really scathing indictment of mankind. He says in Romans chapter 1 verse 18, "The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is made known about God is evident to them. For God has made it evident to them. Since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, having been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that we're there without excuse."

Susan, I took a great walk last night. I think I mentioned this morning it was really late for us. But I've been bit by 8:15—

So it was late at night, and we walked downtown and got a bottle of water, then went down and walked on the beach. It was so dark, and you could see the waves and the surf way out there. It was cloudy, so you couldn't see the stars. We were having this debate — we're city folks, we're from the desert. When you see that jug of water over there, that looks like an ocean to us. We don't see a lot of water.

We were having this discussion: is the tide out? How far can we go? Tide in, tide out? Isn't it amazing that you can go down here to the market or you can go on the internet and type in, let's say Christmas Day, December 25th, and they'll say here's high tide, here's low tide, here's what it'll be? It's amazing we can sit here and say, in another 50 years on this date, Halley's Comet will come by.

The Purpose of Creation

God created all that. The whole point of creation is that we'll look at it, and it's going to point us to the God of the Bible. We're not going to understand Jesus and all that from creation, but we look at creation and go, "Okay, there's got to be a creator." That's the whole point that Paul's making here. From creation, God reveals Himself, but man — natural man — suppresses that, and then that flows into behavior.

Paul's Declaration of the Gospel

As Paul's writing this introduction, chapter 1 verse 16, Paul writes this: "For I am not ashamed of the gospel." Let me read it to you. Really quickly, what Paul's been through at this point as he's writing this: he's been imprisoned in Philippi, run out of Thessalonica, smuggled out of Berea, laughed at in Athens, regarded as a fool in Corinth, stoned in Galatia. That's what he's been through.

He says, "I'm not ashamed. I'm not ashamed of this gospel." Why? Because it is the power of God for salvation. Five times in the book of Romans, Paul uses this phrase, three times in a verb form. It means to deliver or to rescue. God has delivered me, God has rescued me from what? Well, from sin and the consequence of sin and the bondage of sin.

The Transformation of the Heart

Though the assessment of man is that man can't do anything good, now as a follower of Christ, we now have the ability to do things that are good because our heart is right. He's rescued us from death to life, from dark to light, from danger to protection. Think with me really big: He's moved us from alienation from Him to intimacy with Him.

Think about the fact that there's a creator God that spoke this into existence. There's a God who created you, He created me, who holds it all together.

A Story of Discovery

I have a gentleman who's become an acquaintance, and his name is Bob Hage. I listened to him speak one time, and we subsequently became acquaintances. He had one of the neatest jobs of all time, in my mind. He worked for McDonnell Douglas, and he was the liaison from McDonnell Douglas to NASA and represented a bridge between McDonnell Douglas and the seven original astronauts.

His responsibility was to work with McDonnell Douglas and NASA, and what they're trying to do is to get these guys into space, orbit the earth, put them on the moon, and get them back. This guy was smart. If you're from Corvallis — smart. I don't know, I don't have a clue, I just throw it out. Like I said, I don't know what always works.

So this guy is thinking, "Is there a God? Is there not a God?" Very philosophical, very heady. That's what you find frequently with very bright people — very reflective. He's thinking. He ends up in L'Abri with Francis Schaeffer, asking Francis Schaeffer the genius all these wonderful questions. He comes back and he says, "I don't buy it."

The Simplicity of Truth

He's talking on the phone one day. He's talking to some scientist in a conference call about something that they see, and they know it works, but they don't know how to deal with it. It's something called gravity. So they're having this conversation. His housekeeper is cleaning. He's all done, and she said to him, "Mr. Hage, can I share something with you? Because I can explain that gravity to you."

He said, "Really?" She takes him to the scripture and she says, "Look, it's God who holds all things together. Don't have to understand how it works. I just know that it works." That's the power. That's the power of God to do what no one else and nothing else can do. No one else and nothing else can do it.

The Power of God for Salvation

It's the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. It's mental assent, emotional understanding, it's volitional, it's submission to God and submission to who He is. I want what I want when I want it. I see it in the little kids, I watch it in the dining room, I see it all around us. That's the way we're wired. I want it my way. I even want God on my terms.

I'll create the God that I want — not the God of the scripture. No, I'll create another God. I'll call him God, I'll give him attributes like God, but I will... Voltaire said this: "God made man in His image, and man has been returning the favor ever since."

Creating God in Our Image

I create the God I want. "My God..." Haven't you sat down with your friends and you're talking about heaven or hell or whatever it is, and they will say to you, "My God would never..." That's exactly right. They've created this God — not the God of the Bible, but their God would never... whatever. Never send anyone to hell, never do this, never have suffering, never have pain.

Paul said, "I'm not ashamed of this. I don't back off from this. I'm not embarrassed by this." He's God. He is. He declares Himself, He reveals Himself, and Paul says, "I don't have to come up with some new hip way to try to take it and modify it and adapt it to the culture or adapt it to my experience. That's the way He is."

The Challenge: Making God Visible

Now here's my challenge: I make the invisible God visible, and then I speak the truth boldly. Again, when we get to suffering, we'll talk about it, but I want you to understand — making the invisible God visible often emerges from very difficult circumstances. I make the invisible God visible. Now I speak the truth boldly.

Three Illustrations of Making God Visible and Speaking Truth

Tonight I want to share three illustrations from my life about how I've screwed this up—two of them from me and one from another guy. These will show you how I've failed to bring together making the invisible God visible and speaking the truth boldly.

When I Made God Visible But Didn't Speak Truth

Let me give you a case where I made the invisible God visible, but I didn't speak the truth. I have an old childhood friend who decided to explore Phoenix and maybe move there. He comes down and spends three or four days with us. We're at dinner now the last night before he leaves, and we're sitting there.

The salad comes and he says to me, "Tom, there's something different about you." I said, "Well, I've lost a little weight"—which makes you wonder how fat I was to begin with, I imagine. Then the main course comes and he said, "Tom, there's something different about you." I said, "Well, I'm a little older, a little thinner, grayer, more wrinkles."

The cheesecake came, the dessert came, and he said to me for the third time, "Tom, there's something different about you." I looked him right in the eye and I said, "Living in Arizona really agrees with me." At that moment I heard in the background the rooster crow as I denied Him for the third time.

This is a really interesting setting here. Do you see what happened? I had made the invisible God visible. This guy knew me—we grew up together, went to kindergarten, grade school, high school together. The first time I ever went out and really partied was with him. He knew all of that stuff. Now he comes and hasn't seen me for a while, sees me in the context, sees me with Susan, sees me with the kids, sees all of this and says, "There's something different. This is different. This isn't how we think, this isn't who we were. There's something different about you."

Do you see what happened there? Point six was made—the invisible God was made visible. He saw the life change. But point seven was missing. There wasn't any speaking of the truth boldly.

When I Spoke Truth But Hadn't Made God Visible

Now just to prove I've screwed this up in a variety of ways, let me give you another illustration where I didn't make the invisible God visible, but I spoke the truth boldly. God saved me in March of 1980. In the old days, I liked to drink a lot and party a lot, and I liked to go to the track—I liked horse racing. Years later in 1983 I was in Montana at a ranch, and it was the first time I'd ever seen a horse that didn't have a number on it. That's what I told people.

God had saved me and it had been about three months, and I'm reading the newspaper on a Thursday. We're in Phoenix, and Prescott is a little north of there. In the summer the horses run in Prescott because it's too hot to run—not even horses want to run in Phoenix in the summer. I saw in the paper that on Friday at Prescott Downs, they were having quarter hot dogs and nickel beer. I was always kind of a health food nut, so I got hold of my buddy that I worked with and said, "They're having quarter hot dogs and nickel beer. Let's go to Prescott tomorrow."

I'm sure this is not what our company had in mind, but we had our administrative assistant drive. So we went up and spent the whole day eating quarter hot dogs and drinking a ton of nickel beer. As you came out from Prescott to the freeway—probably 25 miles—there was only a Circle K there. We stopped and drank more.

I'm sitting in the back seat. I can remember it like it was yesterday. He's in the front seat, our gal's driving. We're sitting there talking, drinking. We were at Dunlap and the freeway, which means nothing to you but we were almost in town, and I said to him from the backseat, "Jesus Christ has changed my life." He looked at me—I've changed the words a little bit—but he said, "You look like the same old drunk to me."

The Aftermath and the Lesson

I got back to the office and sat in my car for an hour or two weeping. I called Larry and said, "Doc, we got to get together." This was now a Friday. We met every Tuesday. I said, "We got to get together." He said, "Tom, I can't get together till Tuesday." I said, "I can't wait till Tuesday." He said, "Well, I can't get together till Tuesday."

I remember Saturday, Sunday, Monday—I remember being an absolute wreck. I remember being down there for our 6 o'clock meeting at 5:30. He came up and I got goosebumps thinking about this. I said, "Doc, this is serious stuff, man. Let me tell you what happened." He started to laugh and I said, "This is not funny." He said, "You're at a crucial point, my man. You right now either figure out if you are a hypocrite or a sinner saved by grace, because you're not perfect."

Do you see what happened in that second instance? I spoke the truth boldly from a drunken stupor. It's not enough to speak the truth boldly if I haven't made the invisible God visible. What credibility did I have with them? The answer is none. The same is true of you.

If you're walking around inviting all your buddies, all your friends, all your neighbors to a Bible study, but you're living in a way that the invisible God is not visible, let me tell you what they're doing. They're looking at you and here's what they're seeing—they're seeing something that everybody hates. Let me tell you something everybody hates. I don't care who you are—you hate a hypocrite.

When Both Elements Come Together

I have to bring these two together. Let me give you an illustration of how they came together. Unfortunately, it's not about me. I have a friend who went through just an awful, bitter divorce. In the midst of that, God saved him.

I have a mutual friend who was watching him. Then he gets cancer and goes through this agonizing process and dies. Our friend had gone to him and said, "It is amazing. You are so strong." My friend said, "It's not me. It's the God who's living in me. It is Jesus."

That's what it means to be a witness. Let me give you this definition. This is Webster's definition: Webster says a witness means to testify to a fact, to bring personal knowledge about something.

What It Means to Be a Witness

Every once in a while I'll stumble into something here that's really important and you need to remember it. You need to write it down. You need to log it away. Here's two of them.

Number one: if you know enough to believe the truth, you know enough to share the truth. Don't fall into this trap that says "I've only been a Christian... I don't know much." If you know enough to believe, you know enough to share. You don't have to have the answer to every question. You're a witness. You attest to a fact.

Here's the fact: I was lost, now I'm found. I was in the dark, I'm now in the light. I was helpless and hopeless though I didn't realize it. Now I realize that I've been lost and separated from God and I've been reconciled to Him utterly, completely, wholly, entirely through His work. If you know enough to believe, you know enough to share.

Here's the second thing, really important: witnessing is not optional. It isn't mandatory. It's inevitable. It's inevitable you're a witness. You may be a bad one, you may be a good one.

I find it interesting that on the second day Janet makes the announcement that says to you, if you're wearing that badge and you go into town, be nice because people are looking at you and they're making a judgment on this conference. That was right or wrong or not—that's irrelevant. It doesn't matter whether it's right or wrong or fair. Who cares about fair? The reality is they're making a judgment on this conference center based on who you are, how you act. You are a witness whether you like it or not. You're an ambassador.

Our Ministry of Reconciliation

Turn with me, would you please, to 2nd Corinthians chapter 5. Familiar passage, maybe to many of you; to others, probably not. 2nd Corinthians chapter 5, verse 17: "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things have passed away; behold, the new have come. Now all these things are from God, who reconciles us to himself"—He did the work, right—"through Christ, and then he gave us a ministry." And the ministry is a ministry of reconciliation.

That is, or namely, verse 19, "that God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and he has committed to us the word of reconciliation." God has reconciled us to himself. God did that work. God accomplished that. And now He gives you a ministry. It's gonna look different in every one of our lives, but at its core is the same, and that is a ministry of reconciliation.

Verse 20: "Therefore, therefore we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us. We beg you—ambassadors for Christ as though God were making an appeal through us—we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. He made him"—God made the Son, Him, Jesus—"who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him."

The Whole Counsel of God

God does this extraordinary work. God treats Jesus on the cross as though He were guilty, though clearly He is not. As though He were guilty of all the sin of all the people who would ever come to Him in repentance and faith, and God pours out His wrath.

We live at a time where we love to talk about the love of God. Is God a God of love? Sure, He is. He's a God of love. But if all you talk about is God's love, you have a distorted view of God. He's also a God of wrath, of judgment, of mercy, of grace.

If all you do is talk about Tom Schrader as a teacher or your experience from this week—good, bad, or indifferent—if all you do is talk about that, you have an accurate but very limited view of me. If you want to understand who I am, and I don't mean this in some self-serving way—it's an illustration—if you want to understand who I am, you have to understand me as a husband. There's Susan. You have to understand me as a father. You have to understand me as a co-worker. You have to have a total picture.

That's why in Acts chapter 20, when Paul is saying goodbye to the elders at Ephesus—I believe we could argue that Ephesus was Paul's favorite church. He spends three years there. He says, "Here's the deal, men. I'm gonna leave and entrusted to you my favorite guy, Timothy." When he's saying goodbye to these guys—an emotional man, Paul. A lot of times he's kind of cast in this picture of the male chauvinist pig kind of a guy who doesn't have any emotion. That's not how I read these letters that Paul writes. They're filled with emotion.

As he's talking about his goodbye with the elders at Ephesus, they said there were hugs and tears and emotion as Paul's saying goodbye to them. Here's what he said: "I never shrank from teaching you the whole counsel of God. I didn't just pick my favorite part. I didn't just pick this part. I didn't just talk about God's love. Nor did I talk about His wrath. I talked about the whole counsel of God."

Watch Out for Wolves in Sheep's Clothing

And he says to them, "You watch out. You watch out, because here's what's gonna happen." It's really interesting what he does. He said, "Here's what's gonna happen. He said don't worry about them out there. There's gonna be wolves in sheep's clothing that'll come in among you. There'll be people in pulpits and people fighting for pulpits and teaching Sunday school classes, and here's what they're gonna do—a wolf in sheep's clothing—and they're gonna distort the word and play with the word."

See, I'm afraid again, as evangelical Christians, we kind of have this idea that our enemy is CBS and NBC and ABC and Fox and the liberal left and ACLU and all that stuff. That's never what he warns about. He never says the enemy's out there—we know the enemy's out there. That's easy to figure out. He says watch out for the guys in here. Be careful. And what they'll do is begin to distort the will of God. Distort His word. Edit it.

You're an ambassador for Christ. You go into the world wise, sharp, with the counsel of God. He's entrusted you with a mission, a ministry. It's a ministry of reconciliation, meaning God and sin are reconciled. It's gonna manifest itself in so many different ways. That's why I love to talk to people who are hurting and people who have had some...

awful experiences. Let me tell you, if we start with John and we go all the way around the room, and I say to you "tell me where you saw God work most significantly in your life," if we start with John, we give every one of you time and we end up over here, I guarantee 90% of you will talk about a time of hardship and difficulty and hurt and pain. That's why we would say in nine, and what's the language of the day, that's why we'd say embrace that pain. Not because you're some sort of masochist or sadist, but because God uses even that yucky stuff that happens in your life. It happens for a purpose and a reason.

God changes your heart and He gives you a platform and He gives you a way and He gives you a reason and He gives you some way to connect. He gives you a ministry of reconciliation and you can sit down with a guy and say "man, I know, I've been there. I know what it feels like right now. I know the pain right now, I know the hurt right now, but let me tell you firsthand, there's hope." You can sit down with a gal and say "hey, I know how you feel. I understand that pain. I've been there. Let me tell you." You emerge from that and that becomes a passion.

God Uses Our Pain to Create Passion

As I travel around, one of the things that I notice is that everybody has a passion. It's wonderful. Everyone has a passion and it flows almost always from some personal experience. There'll be a young lady who's been through some horrific experience and all of a sudden she aborts this baby. God saves her, God changes her life, and all of a sudden it doesn't matter what I'm talking about with her. She's going to want to talk about abortion.

I'll be talking to some guy who comes out of a background like mine and all he wants to talk about is drugs or booze. That's a passion God's given you. We talked about that last night, right? This one thing I do. That's why those things, even as painful, hurtful, ugly, terrible as they are, God uses them for His honor, His glory, His good. He gives you a ministry of reconciliation to take that message to the world.

The Early Church Model

Witnessing in his work "The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire," Edward Gibbon writes about the early church. Here's what he writes: "It became the most sacred duty of a new convert to diffuse among his friends and neighbors the blessing he had received." One of the early historians, a secular historian, writes this: "The feat of Christianity was accomplished" - he's talking about the expansion - "the feat of Christianity was accomplished by means of," and do you not love this phrase, "informal missionaries." That's you. That's what they saw in the early church.

Here's this thing. Do you understand Paul, this giant? He's out to wipe out the church, right? That's why he's on the road to Damascus. He's done well in Jerusalem. He slaughtered them and he's on the way to Damascus to get the church. Something interesting to me at this point: his personality doesn't really change. He was a zealot. He was on the front line. He was going, he was intense. God saves him and in a sense, all He does is change jerseys. Now he's on this team with all the zeal, all the ambition, all the drive.

This One Thing I Do

This one thing I do - remember the stuff we saw, that this one thing I do, this focus, this intensity. Here it is. That's your model. I tell the church, expand it, you can't stop it. Because of what I do, I'm around a lot of the church growth stuff and all that thing. It's real easy how you grow a church: if you have people in your church whose life has been changed and they're sharing that with their friends, your church is going to grow. You can't stop it.

If you go and see Pirates of the Caribbean and you really like it, and you're having coffee with a friend the next day, here's exactly what you're going to say: "I saw this movie last night and you need to go see it," right? If you eat at a new restaurant and now you're with those buddies, you're going to say "hey, I ate at this place the other night. You won't believe it. It was really inexpensive and I got this much food. You got to go try it."

We're talking about movies and restaurants, books. "I just read this book. You need to read this book." I have people all the time saying to me "will you read this book if I give you this book? Will you read it?" And I'll always say no, I get books all the time. I may read it, I may not read it. I won't borrow it. If you want to give it to me, you won't get it back and I may or may not read it. But I got people all the time who say "will you read this book?" You see what I'm saying?

The Natural Response

That's the most natural thing in the world. "Will you read this book? Will you go to this movie? We ate at this restaurant, you got to try it." If the creator God of the universe has reconciled myself to Him, the most natural thing in the world is to say to the next person I meet "let me tell you what happened to me. I was lost and now I'm found." They may say "well, how'd that happen?" You go "don't know much yet, I'll get back to you in a week because I'm reading and I'll figure out some more stuff. But right now that's all I know. I was lost and now I'm found."

That's how the early church spread. That's how the church spreads. I finished that book of Angeline and it was - I read it in a day, and it was really good, and I'm a really slow reader too. But I'm working through that and it's really interesting because they're talking about Archie's dad. I think I mentioned this to you yesterday, who worked with Spurgeon, worked with Moody, who talked about the radical change that went on in England and Scotland. Then there's a little line in there, it's almost a throwaway line. It said in one generation, it was lost.

He said there wasn't anyone who couldn't explain the gospel of grace, and within one generation they can't find anybody that believes it. You got percentage wise way more converts in China than you got in England, Switzerland, Europe. We're heading that way. It's a witness. That's what He's saying. You'd be a witness.

How Are You Doing?

So here you go. Here's the question. It's obvious. How are you doing? You are in 2nd Corinthians, turn to

The Church at Corinth's Real Problem

1st Corinthians, that would be to the left. I was doing a study one time and this guy's there with a Bible and I said "Let's go to the book of Genesis" and he started in the middle and went to the right. I know because I've been there where you're sitting around with all these guys and they're kind of going "We're so smart" and I'm going "Okay, I got to go to the table of contents. I got to find this Ecclesiastes thing." So I try to make that clear. It's obvious 2nd Corinthians are going to follow 1st Corinthians, right?

1st Corinthians chapter 3. The church at Corinth is a mess. Got all sorts of problems. Sinful problems, sexual problems. But he gets at the heart here - here's the real problem. They got divided leadership.

Look at verse 4. "I'm of Paul. I'm of Apollos. What then was Apollos? And what is Paul?" Here's what's going on: some of the guys in the church are wearing jerseys that say "Property of Apollos." Some are wearing shirts that say "Property of Paul." Some are over here and they're churning for one side and some churning for the other side. And it's pulling this church apart.

Look at what Paul writes in verse 6: "I planted, Apollos watered, but God caused the growth." It's the Lord alone who gives faith. Here's your job and my job: it's to be a witness. It's to declare the truth. It is to take the invisible God and make Him visible. To be in that situation where somebody says to you "There's something different about you. What is it?" And at that moment, here's what you've got to say: You've got to say it's Jesus. It's Jesus that makes me different. It's Jesus that's changed my life. He's the answer.

A Desperate Man's Story

I had a call one day from a guy and he said "You don't know me" and I said "All right." And he said "I've heard a lot about you and I'd like to meet with you" and I said "Fine." So we meet, we sit down and I am not exaggerating. I sit down. He's behind his desk, I sit down. He said "Let me tell you about my life" and away he goes.

He takes me through two or three marriages that he's been through. He takes me through a situation where he physically abused his wife. He takes me through a situation where he violated a whole series of gals. He takes me through a situation - he's just going on and on and on. That's just the beginning. He said "Here's what I've done in business. My business looks good. Everybody thinks I'm successful. It's on the brink of going down the drain. I've got kids on drugs. I've got kids that are here and I'm tough" and it's just as he's getting ready to take a breath. He doesn't stop and he goes on and on and on and on for 20-25 minutes.

When he was all done and he paused I said "I don't even know the question, but I know Jesus is the answer. I don't know about all that stuff and we can try to unpack that, but here's the problem: your heart is hard."

Why We Don't Witness

You're a witness. Think with me here: why wouldn't you witness? If the Creator God of the universe - and I don't know, but my assumption is most of you in this room are followers of Christ - if the Creator God of the universe has reconciled Himself to you, why wouldn't you share that?

I'm going to give you a reason that I've discovered that we don't want to say out loud: We don't care.

Do this exercise when you get back to work or you're walking through the neighborhood. Kind of get into the office and - you can't look into people's hearts, you're not infallible, but here's the exercise. Go through to the best of your knowledge and try to figure out if the person in that cube is going to heaven or not. Or do it with the neighborhood, the people in the neighborhood. You're walking through the cubes and going "You know, hell, hell, hell, heaven, hell, hell, heaven, hell, not sure, heaven, hell, hell, hell, hell, heaven, hell, hell, hell." That is, you're working in a church probably, but nonetheless. You see how this goes.

But I'm telling you, when you're done with that exercise you're going to get hell a lot, right? So here's what you just determined: this person right here, this human being you're looking at, they're in that cube sitting there right now. If they were to die this afternoon on the way to lunch, they're going to spend eternity in hell. And you won't risk a relationship to talk with them.

The Truth About Our Relationships

I have people all the time - they'll say to me "You know what? I've got this relationship with this person. They're a wonderful person. They're one of my best friends and I just don't want to risk the relationship and share the gospel with them." Can you really think that through? In other words, here's what you'd rather do: You'd rather have this healthy, wonderful - although synthetic and artificial - relationship here and see them spend eternity in hell.

John the Baptizer's Example

We'll kind of head toward closing. Look at the gospel of John, would you please? We're in 1st Corinthians so turn to the left through the book of Romans and the book of Acts to the gospel of John. We meet a guy in the gospel of John who is a witness. His name is John. He's not the John who wrote this gospel. He's identified to us by a trade. He's John the baptizer. He has a mission.

People are coming to him and saying "Are you the Messiah?" And he says "No, no, that's not me." Look at verse 21. "Are you Elijah?" "Prophet?" "No, not me." John chapter 1, verse 21. "What are you?" Verse 20: "Are you the Christ, the Messiah?" "No." "Elijah?" "No." "Prophet?" "No." "Who are you then, so that we may give an answer to those who sent us? What do you say about yourself?"

He says "Here's who I am: I am a voice of one crying..."

in the wilderness make straight the way of the Lord." There is an undercurrent in this to me that you could easily miss. There's a spirit here of humility.

A little bit later on there's something really interesting happening in John's life. The guys that were his homeboys, his disciples, are now starting to follow Jesus. Let me ask you something, be honest for a second - that'd hack you off a little bit, I think. That could play with your ego a little bit, I think. These are the guys that have been following you. They're the guys you've trained. These are your guys and all of a sudden now they're starting to follow Christ.

John's Model of True Humility

John gives this wonderful answer that shows the very heart of one who witnesses or an evangelist. John says about Jesus these words: "He must increase, I must decrease." That's your whole life mission right there. Jesus must increase and get bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger. And as He does, you get smaller and smaller and smaller.

When we at our church talk about worship, or anyone that seems to me that I'm around that talks about worship, they go right to Isaiah chapter 6. It is a wonderful picture of how worship flows. It's really important when - worship is one of those things that's really difficult because you want to be organized and you want to be prepared. It can easily shift to performance. But it's not about performance and it's not about the presenter - it's about the heart of the presenter, just like teaching.

When I get to Isaiah chapter 6 and we talk about worship, what happens in Isaiah 6 is this: he sees the Lord as He really is and he said, "Woe to me for I'm undone." I think we even talked about that the other night. He sees it that way - woe to me for I'm undone. I'm a man, and this is really interesting, woe to me for I'm in real trouble.

Seeing God Changes Everything

Then what does he say? "I'm a man of unclean lips." You're a dirty talker, huh? Here's what he's saying: what's coming out of my mouth is what's representative of what's in my heart. What's coming out of my mouth is what's really inside of me. The expression of how lost I am are these words that I'm saying.

God comes and He heals them, and then He says "I got a job to do," and Isaiah says "Here am I, send me." Let me give you a little clue there to ministry: if we haven't taken care of that first part, we've seen God and we're just out here "Here I am, send me," then you're just doing this in the flesh and sooner or later you're going to fall right in your face. See, that's just the Christian experience, that's what that is - woe to me for I'm undone, I understand who God is now, I'm saying here I am, send me.

Look at the heart of John the Baptist: "He must increase, I must decrease." One of the favorite words in our vocabulary, I think, is "I," "me" - singular personal pronoun - "mine," "I."

The Problem with Self-Focus

This will be the third illustration from Oprah this week, but I'm watching Oprah and there's some gals and they're talking about their life and talking about some physical changes and some things that are going on. I must have heard the word "I" or "me" or "mine" five trillion times in an hour. I'm not saying those aren't real things, but the "I" and the "me" has to be replaced and say "Him" or "His."

There was a wonderful interview with the chief of police of some little city in Alabama, and it happened to be an African-American gal. They're saying, "You've got an extraordinarily high murder rate in your town. What are you going to do?" You know what she said? "There's really not much we can do. We need God to change hearts." There it is. I mean, that's it. That's the way to go. There it is, I mean that's it.

I know in my relationship with Susan that as long as it's about me, that relationship is never going to flourish. Here's what I know in that relationship: she's going to disappoint me and I'm going to disappoint her. My responsibility is to love her as Christ loves the church, even if in my estimation at the time she's not lovable. Obedience doesn't work if we're sitting in a relationship going "I," "my," "me."

The Heart of the Message

This whole thing - do you see how this theme kind of comes up again and again? This whole thing is about humility before Him. It's to have the right heart and then take that heart and that life to the world. And here's your message: it's Jesus Christ.

I had an experience a couple years ago where I'm with a guy from one of the major denominations and it's around Easter. We're having this discussion about Jesus dying on the cross and I said to him, "Did Jesus die on the cross?" He said yes. I said, "Why did He die?" And he said, "Because He was a political prisoner and that is the way they killed political prisoners in that day." I said, "Okay, I'm still hanging with you. I understand that that's some level of motivation. I got that figured out just a little bit."

I said, "Let me ask you this question: Did He rise from the dead?" And he said, "No, that's just symbolic. That's symbolic of spring and the new beginning and all that goes with it." I think the Bible doesn't stutter or stammer.

The Essential Message of Salvation

When Paul is writing in Romans chapter 10, Paul says this - and I'm going to ask you to make a note. You don't need to turn there because we're going right to another spot and we got to close. Romans chapter 10 verse 9: "If you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved."

Now if I don't believe in the bodily resurrection of Christ, it seems to me according to that verse that I'm not saved. There's our message. Our message is not the Jefferson Bible that Jesus died as an example for selfless love. That's not the message. Was He one who had selfless love? Sure, but that's not why He died - to demonstrate selfless love. He died to demonstrate to you and me how He who was without sin went to the cross, and while we were yet sinners He died for us. And then because He could have said...

That all He wanted. He could have said that's what He was doing, but I still don't know if that's real until Sunday morning resurrection. Why did they kill Him?

Look at John chapter 10. You're in chapter 1. Look at John chapter 10, and we'll close with this. The Jews have been hanging around for a while now. John chapter 10 verse 24: "The Jews gathered around Him and they said to Him, 'How long will You keep us in suspense? If You're the Christ, if You're the Messiah, tell us plainly.'"

So there's the issue, right? What's the issue here? The issue is: are You the Christ? Are You the Messiah? Don't hide it, just answer the question.

Jesus' Clear Declaration of Deity

Here's what Jesus said, verse 25: "I told you, but you don't believe. The works I do in My Father's name, these testify of Me." Here are these miracles, here these signs, here these wonders, here these supernatural events. They testify of Me. But you don't believe Me, verse 26, because you're not My sheep. My sheep hear My voice. I know them. They follow Me, and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father who's given them to Me is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of My hand. I and My Father are one.

Now when He says that, we might go, "I'm a father." Well, that's a little mystical. That's a little—I'm not sure what He means. Well, the Jews knew what He meant, didn't they? Look at verse 31. They picked up stones to stone Him, and Jesus said, "I showed you many good works from the Father. For which one of these are you stoning Me?" And the Jews answered and said, "For a good work we don't stone You, but for blasphemy, because You, being a man, made Yourself out to be God."

So you'll run into people that say Jesus never claimed to be God. That was His whole message. It began with John the Baptist as a witness, and here's what he said: "Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world." There He is, right there. There He is. And Jesus lives this sinless, perfect life—signs, wonders, miracles, teaching. "If You're the Messiah, tell me," and He says, "I can't make it any plainer than this." He tells them who He is, and they stone Him.

The Heart of Our Message

That's why Jesus was killed. Jesus died for the sin of His people, for you and for me, and we're witnesses. That's the message to the marketplace. The heart of the messenger is a humble heart. The message is unwavering: Jesus is Lord. Jesus rose from the dead. That we find life in Christ, in Christ alone, nowhere else. Nowhere else. He's alive. We don't serve a dead savior.

Isn't that an incredible message? See how that's different than the world? It's different than instinctively I would operate. That's even the battle that I have even now with Him.

There's a bumper sticker—I have not gone through the parking lot to see if there's one here. If there is, my intention here is not to embarrass you. But it's a bumper sticker that when I see it, it just makes me laugh. It's a bumper sticker that says this: "God is my co-pilot." Really? Well, you know what's involved in that? If He's the co-pilot, then who's flying the ship? You're the pilot. Isn't that interesting? I remember the first time I saw that, I said, "This guy's got to be kidding. God's my co-pilot." So here's what I'm going to do: I'm going to fly. If it gets a little choppy, I'll throw the controls over to Him. He barrels me through this, but I want Him right back. That's my problem.

Living Out the Truth

He's saying here's this word, here's this truth. Again, I know it's repetitive, but that's how I learn. I'm going to come back to it again and again and again. Here's this word, here's this truth. Now I've got to live this life, and these circumstances of life come at me in all sorts of different ways and shapes and forms. Some I can control, some I can't control. Some are things that I do, some are things that are circumstances that are done to me. How do I respond to that? Not with my gut, not with my reaction, but with obedience to God and whatever it is He says.

So if I have somebody that attacks me, I'll tell you what my flinch is. My flinch is to come right back at him. Let's argue. Boom. You bring your best shot, I'll bring my best shot. Well, He says, "You know what? You don't need to make a defense for yourself." This isn't—and this will kill us—this isn't about you, it's about Him.

Three Essential Truths for Witnesses

Here you go. Three things you need to remember as your witness. Number one: man cannot change himself. This is all about God. "No one," John chapter 6 verse 44, "no one can come to the Father. No one has the ability unless God calls him." So that when I'm sharing this truth, I don't have to argue somebody into the kingdom. I have never had success in debating and arguing somebody. Just stop. My deal, just stop. My deal. Here's what it says. That's what it says, and it's up to the Spirit of God to really apply that.

Here's the second thing: salvation is through Christ alone. Lots of distractions in the world. Jesus said, "I am the way," and you all know this. Definite article: "I am the way, the truth, the life. No one comes to the Father but through Me." When Jesus says, "I am the way," He eliminates any other possibility. He doesn't say, "I am a way." "I am the way, the truth, the life. No one comes to the Father but through Me." So as we're preaching, this is the only message we have.

And the third thing that we say is that when God saves you, He'll change you. He'll just change your life. That's again, look at James chapter 2, verse 14, when he says, "Hey, what good is works without faith?" Verse 17, he said, "Works without faith is dead." Verse 26, he says it again: "If I don't have these works, then my faith is dead again." He's not saying I'm saved by this faith. He's saying the faith that saves will bring these works, result in these works.

We Are All Witnesses

I'm not asking you to be a witness for Christ. I'm telling you, you already are a witness for Christ. Maybe a lousy one. You may be a great one. It's not optional. It's not mandatory. It's inevitable.

As you're living this life as you make the invisible God visible, as God begins to change your life, you speak the truth boldly and you understand very simply that man can't change himself. Only God can change a heart and that salvation is through Christ in Christ alone. And that when God saves you your life inevitably begins to change.

That does not mean by the way that all of a sudden it's smooth sailing. It does mean it's as simple as that.

It Really Is That Simple

I have a friend who called me and said I need you on a Sunday morning to teach at Westchester. Now that means nothing to you, but it's a senior assisted living. And I said you really? And he said I need you to go and fill in for me.

Now I've had experience in that environment before. I was out in Sun City doing a Christian women's club event. How ironic is this? And I am out there and it is an outreach. So I am there and I am teaching. I'm trying to—this is opening my only shot. And so I'm doing my thing and there's an older lady there.

She's not hearing well and oftentimes when you can't hear well, you also talk loudly. So she's with somebody who I assume is her daughter. And so I say something that I think is funny and people laugh and this lady said to her daughter, "What did he say?" She repeats it and then in a voice that you could hear I don't know maybe a mile away, she said "That's not funny."

So now it's become a task for me to win this lady over. So I'm working and working and working and working and working with this lady. Finally I'm getting ready to deliver now the message. I've done an introduction and here's what she said: "He reminds me of my son-in-law." Pause. "That man put my daughter through hell."

So I've had this experience with seniors before. I'm at Westchester and I just explained that Jesus is the only way and if I confess my sin, He'll forgive me and this wonderful old lady said, "It's not as simple as that."

And I said, "You know what? Yeah, it is. Yeah, it is." I've got life in Christ. He saved me and saved you. Saved us. And then He says now you have a ministry of reconciliation. Take that message to the world. Make the invisible God visible. Speak the truth boldly. Not arrogant. Not arrogantly.

This is an offensive message. Let the message offend, not the person.

Prayer

Let's pray. Father, thank You. Thank You for Your Son, Jesus. Thank You for life that we find in Him and Him alone. We look at John the Baptist. We don't see a lot of wavering there. And what's he say? God let us pick up his thought.

Father we pray that in our life Jesus would increase and we would decrease. That this would be about Him and not about us. That all of a sudden we no longer acted naturally but supernaturally. Father we love You for one reason because You first loved us. You put in us the desire to know You.

And Father we will offend and we will hurt. We'll stumble we'll fall. But as Jesus said You'll never leave us never forsake us. He gives us eternal life and no one can snatch us out of His hand. God we thank You. We praise You. We praise You as we begin to see who You really are and the solution we find in Christ in Christ alone.

God help us realize that our witnessing is not mandatory not optional—it's inevitable. Let us make the invisible God visible and speak the truth boldly. Father, thank You for Your Son Jesus we pray in His name amen.