In week 6 of our series, The Life of a Jesus Follower, Pastor Tom taught from 2 Corinthians 2:14-17. If you're a Jesus follower you have a mission, and that is to take the gospel to the whole world! Check out this sermon to learn more!
Hope Church LV Sermons
I Have a Mission
- Thank you for joining us today. We're excited that you came across this message. The sermon you are about to watch is from our teaching series, The Life of a Jesus follower. At Hope Church, we believe in connecting people to live the life of a Jesus follower. And we do this through abiding in Christ, connecting in community and sharing in the mission. In this foundational teaching series to the life of our church, we will discover together what it looks like to live the life of a Jesus follower. If you're joining us for the first time, I wanna be the first to say welcome to Hope Church. Go ahead and open up the Hope Church LV app or visit us at hopechurchlev.com. Click Las Vegas congregation and fill out the short digital connection card so we can get to know you better. Once again, thanks for joining us today. - Good morning, Hope Church family. My name is Nancy Nix. My husband and I have been attending the church for two years and we are members of Hope. It is my privilege to serve the Lord on the care ministry team, the prayer ministry team and in facilitating women's groups. And it's my honor today to share God's word with you out of second Corinthians chapter two verses 14 through 17. But thanks be to God who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession. And through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing to one of fragrance from death to death to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things? For we are not like so many peddlers of God's word but as men of sincerity as commissioned by God in the sight of God, we speak in Christ. This is the Lord's word. - Amen. Thank you, Nancy. Thank you. My name's Tom, I'm one of the pastors here at Hope and you can go ahead and turn to second Corinthians chapter four. We'll read those four verses in just a bit. But as I start today, I just wanna start in this way. There are 8.1, almost 8.2 billion people on planet earth today and all of them, including us were created in God's image. All of us don't just have a soul, we are a soul. Amen? Of the 8.1 billion, more than five billion of them remain separated from a relationship with Christ. Most of them don't know they need him but can have a relationship with him. Paul addresses this need in Romans chapter 10 with three questions concerning the plot of these people and they'll be on the screen, this verse, we'll be on the screen for you. Here's what Paul says. How then will they call on him and whom they've not believed and how are they to believe in him of whom they've never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? These questions should force us to think about where the 5.8 billion will spend eternity. If it's true that five of every eight people on the planet are separated from God for eternity, these verses should make us think, make us focus in on them, on what it means for them. Now what's clear from scripture, though there are 5 billion of the 8 billion who don't know him, what is clear is that God's got a plan, amen? He's got a plan and some people say, well, tell me what that plan is 'cause I can't wait to hear, that's a lot of people who are without Christ. Well, here's the plan, me and you. Where the plan? The church is the plan, there's not another plan. God who indwells us, living his life through us, is the plan. The saved being sent to tell them that they too can be saved. John MacArthur put these verses like this. He said, if God didn't send people no one could hear, if no one could hear, no one could believe, if no one could believe, then no one would call on the Lord. And if nobody called on the Lord, then nobody could be saved. So what exactly is the plan? If it's me and you, what's the plan? Here's the plan. The whole church taking the whole gospel to the whole world. The whole church taking the whole gospel to the whole world. I thought it was awesome that we got to hear from our missionaries overseas. And sometimes my team, we feel like we're the only ones getting all the news back. Today they didn't talk though about the things that God is using them to do. And God is using them greatly and bodily. And there are people in their people group that are coming to faith in Christ, and churches are being started. And that's an amazing thing. But the reason that we had them do that video is because we wanna show you how important it is, not just for people who are here at Hope Church to spend time with God, to be connected to the community, to be sharing in the mission, but it's important for people all over the planet. Our missionaries included thousands of miles away from us. All of us should live lives as Jesus followers with these three relationships that I'm about to share with you in mind. We're currently in a series called Life of a Jesus follower. And here's the phrase that we've used for the last five weeks to describe what that life looks like. The life of a Jesus follower is all about relationships. When our founding pastors came and they did a study through the gospels, they found basically three relationships that Jesus had with different people, and that should be the relationships we should have with people. The first one we call a bide relationship with the Father. A bide means spend time with God, and have a relationship with Him. That's what Jesus did with the Father. But then there's the connect relationship, relationship with God's family, with other believers. Those are the relationships that Jesus had with His disciples. But He didn't just have a relationship with the Father and the disciples. He also had a relationship with the world. We call that share, and that's what we're gonna focus on today. There's a foundational reality that we haven't shared much in this series, but it's kind of a pervasive foundational reality that we have shared through the last 23 years here at Hope, and it's this. The Christian life, if you're wondering what it is, here's what it is. The Christian life is not me living for Jesus. The Christian life is Jesus living in and through me. That should be freeing. 'Cause I know many of us are still trying to live the Christian life. Listen, it's why many people aren't Christians. Well, I can't do it. We know. (congregation laughing) He knows there's no way we can do it. The Christian life is Him living in and through us. So what does that look like? Like practically, Tom, on the ground today, 2024, what does that look like? Well, here's what it looks like. If I'm going to examine my life as a faithful follower of Jesus and say, this is what it's supposed to be like, then what I have to do is I've also got to examine his life in the gospels. Whatever Jesus' life was in the gospels, that's what my life is supposed to mimic or to look like 'cause it's his life being lived out through me. And as we've said in the last five weeks, we find the three relationships that Jesus was talking about in those gospels, relationship with the Father, relationship with other believers, relationship with those not in the faith yet. And those are the same relationships that we should have. Here's what Major Ian Thomas says about it. He says the Christian life is nothing less. Listen to this, man, this is put so succinctly. Nothing less than the life which he, Jesus, lived in, lived now by him and you. You say, what was Jesus doing in? That's what he's doing today. What was Jesus' life like then? That's what it's still like. Listen, he's the God that never changes, never. He's unchanging, he's immutable. So today, we're gonna focus on the third of these three relationships, which is the world. We describe this relationship with the word share. But how exactly did Jesus relate to others who didn't know God? Well, this can be described, I think, with two short sentences. Here are two truths that Jesus had in mind as it pertains to this word share. Number one, Jesus was sent. Now, before you get too excited, this is all introduction. (congregation laughing) We're still in the intro. Hang on, we're getting there. I just gotta describe this out, okay? Jesus was sent 42 times in the Gospel of John in 16 of the chapters that he wrote in that book. Jesus refers to the truth that Jesus was sent from God. Now, he uses two different terms, two different Greek words that are kind of interchangeable or they seem to be in these passages. The word pimpo and the word apostelo. And when he used these words, they both mean to dispatch someone, to be sent out by someone or something for a mission. And that's exactly why Jesus came. Jesus himself was sent for a mission to reach us. You see, Jesus wasn't confused. He had a clear understanding of the mission that he had and he knew that it was directly from the Father. Our God, Jesus, was sent. But the question is, what was he sent to do? That's number two. Jesus was sent to bring light. We know that because in John chapter 12, verses 45 and 46, he says so. He who sees me, sees the one who sent me, Jesus said. I've come as light into the world so that everyone who believes in me will not remain in darkness. But what did Jesus mean when he said light? What exactly does that mean? It's a little bit of an ambiguous statement. I have come as light. Is he talking about the sun? Is he talking about these lights? Like what light is he talking about? Well, in the past, we've described this with saying that there are 30 definitions in the Webster's dictionary that describe what light is. Some of them are super simple. One of them means just not heavy. So when something we pick something up, we go, this is light, we mean it's not heavy. When we light a candle or we light a campfire, that's another way to use the word light. Another way that's not commonly used and maybe hardly ever by most people is when you light a horse and it doesn't mean you lit him up. It means you got off of him. You made him lighter. You made what's on his back lighter. So when you light a horse, you dismount a horse. For those of you who are scientists in the room, you'll like this one. We've used this one in the past as well. This is a very scientific definition. I'm sure you'll shake your head with your hand firmly placed on your chin doing this. Here it is, you ready? An electromagnetic radiation in the wavelength range, including infrared, visible, ultraviolet, and x-rays, and traveling in a vacuum with a speed of about 186,281 miles per second. That's not what he's talking about. He's not talking about line of fire. He's not talking about getting off a horse. He's not talking about something not being heavy. How about this one? This is an easy one. This is really easy, not dark. I like that one. So I want to propose to us while we're here today, not a new definition, but one that will fit this passage perfectly. Light is that which makes human vision possible. That's true, right? That's true. I thought about cutting the lights off in here so you guys could see exactly what that was like. But I thought, ah, you already know you're human so you know what that looks like. But without light, we physically cannot see. We know that the human eye is an unbelievable organ. 40 different parts in each of our eyes. And the one part, the retina, listen to this, has 126 million cones and rod cells. But if you take all the 40 and you put them all together, basically when all these components of the eye function properly, lights converted into this electronic impulse and those impulses are conveyed to the brain and an image is perceived. Our eye is absolutely a miracle, isn't it? It's unbelievable. But even with all that complexity, 120 million in that one part with all the complexity, the eye is useless without these. What an amazing part of the body we have. But it means nothing without light. Crystal and I, my wife and our crystal, we went to visit our oldest son in East Tennessee to visit him and his wife and our granddaughter. And, yeah, woo-hoo. I've been trying to figure out how I can put the word Tennessee in today, I guess. Go Vols, woo-hoo! All right, he says Dallas a lot. I can say what I want. Anyway, we went this past summer. We visited a place, a local place in Sweetwater, Tennessee. What a beautiful name, huh? Sweetwater, Tennessee. There's this place called the Lost Sea. Has anybody ever here ever been to the Lost Sea? Brother's been to the Lost Sea, anybody else? You're not proud, are ya? Raise your hand, anybody been to the Lost Sea? Now, let me describe what the Lost Sea is. I mean, we can show you pictures, it's not that great. I mean, it's okay, you know. It's a cave. And in this cave, there's like a lake in this cave. Like, I forget how many hundred feet down, but it's like down there, man. It's like the same temperature all the time, like 47 or something like that all the time. Like the fish that live in this lake, too, are blind because there's no light. Like, it's a weird place. But I remember, Crystal, you remember this, but we, Crystal's in the service, so she can attest to this. But when we went down into the cave, we got down in there and the tour guide said, "Hey, we're gonna turn the lots off, "we want you to see what total darkness looks like." They shut the light, and she was like, "If anybody doesn't want that, then you might need to," you know. Everybody stayed and they turned the lots off and it was odd. Somebody told me after the first service that there's a place down in somewhere south of here in one of the ghost towns where you can do that, too, and they shut the lots off, anybody done that? I don't know, me either, I haven't either. But anyway, you done that, brother? So, listen, it is so weird. Like, my eye was searching for any kind of light I could find. It was like, there was nothing. Total darkness is the weirdest thing. I looked at my wife and I said, "You know, babe, that's one part of what hell is like." Like, I couldn't wait for him to turn the light back on. And the reason is, is because no matter how awesome our eyes are, we cannot see if there is no light showing us what to look at. And the same is true spiritually. Humanity, left to our own, would never discover God unless light was shined on us from Him. We would never see Him. We wouldn't know anything about Him. We're unable to see God without light being shown. So Jesus said, "I came as light." So what's the spiritual definition of light from the perspective of God Himself? Here's what I think it is. It's the true knowledge of God and of spiritual things. Our C.H. Linsky said it like this. He said it's the very embodiment of all the saving realities of the gospel. Jesus was sent to make it possible for all people on the earth to know the truth about God and to have a personal relationship to Him. Apart from what we think the reason, you know, people say all the time, "What's my purpose for being here?" That purpose is relationship with Him that leads other people into relationship with Him. Now after the fall, not your job, not your success, not your bank account, not all those things. The purpose is this, that we would know Him and point others to Him. Hebrews 1 says it like this. God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers and the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in the last days has spoken to us and His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world, and He is the image of the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature and upholds all things by the word of His power. Throughout the Old Testament, God progressively revealed Himself, but when Jesus came to earth as a human, He wants Him for all fully revealed the truth about God and how we could know Him personally. I want you to look at these words that are on the screen and notice the highlighted words. One of the things, and this is not the moment we need to do this necessarily, but when you read the scripture, I challenge you first to find the subject of every sentence and the verb of every sentence. It's not that these other things don't matter because they absolutely do matter. It's a plenary, perfect word of God, amen? But look at it, but just read it with the yellow highlighted words. God has spoken to us in His Son, and He is the radiance of His glory. He is the showing, He is the beauty, He is the light of what our God is that we cannot see. That's who He is. He came so that we could know Him. So you could say, Tom, long introduction, but what does that got to do with me? As a follower in Jesus, what does it have to do with me? And I want you to know, if you catch these next two things that I say, these next two verses that I'm gonna share with you, your perspective about life will maybe hopefully never be the same. Jesus talking to the Father in the Garden of Gethsemane, John chapter 17, verse 18. Jesus, knowing He's going to the cross, praying the high priestly prayer. Here's what He said to God. Of all things that He said, here's what He said. As you sent me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. He was telling the Father, I've done what you've asked me to do. Then in John 20, just three chapters later, Jesus is talking to His disciples, and He makes almost the same exact statement. He says, "As the Father has sent me, I also send you." Listen, you've sent me, I've sent them too. Oh, as the Father sent me, I'm sending you guys. So here's the picture I want you to get, and I hope you're getting it. I mean, are you getting the picture? Listen, let me ask it like this. If Jesus was sent, and He is the light, then what am I? What are you? If He sends us, and He's living His love through us. If He's light, and He was sent by God to be light. And now, He's living in me, and He's sending me. Then what am I? Light, He says that exact thing. Matthew chapter five, verse 14. You, this is what Jesus says to everybody He was listening on the side of the hill that day, as Jesus preached the sermon on the Mount. He said, "You are the light of the world." You're the light of the world. All who are in Him are the light of the world. You and I have been called and sent by Jesus into the world to be light. So here's the big question. How exactly do I reveal Jesus to the world? How do I do that? I mean, you said it's biblically sound, you said it's theologically true, but like, what does that look like? What does it look like for me to live as light, to allow His life to live through me to the world? Second Corinthians chapter two, verses 14 and 17, gives us these answers. Look at verse 14, but thanks me to God, who always leads us in Christ and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place. For we are a fragrance of Christ to God, among those who are being saved, and among those who are perishing, to the one in aroma from death to death to the other, and aroma from life to life. And who is adequate for these things? He's in verse 17, he picks up and says, for we are not, excuse me, like many, peddling the word of God, but as from sincerity, but as from God, we speak in Christ in the side of God. Here's what these verses teach us about what it looks like for us to live our life like that. Number one, God does it. You say it's my life, but you're telling me that God does it 150 billion percent. You say, but I'm a really good talker. Yeah, I know, me too, but nobody wants to hear most of the stuff I say. (congregation laughing) God does it. Verse 14 tells us that, but thanks be to God, he says, who always leads and manifests what through us? God, thanks be to him who always leads, who always manifests. God didn't bring us into relationship with himself for us to do for him, but so that he might do through us. We're not adequate to do it. In fact, 2 Corinthians chapter three, verse five says that. Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything is coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God. My life is only valuable and able to accomplish anything because of his life and me. Your life is only valuable and able to accomplish anything because of his life and you. It is him living through us, he does it. In fact, Jesus said so much. He said, in John chapter five, verse 15, apart from me, you can do nothing. Man, I'm gonna do all this stuff for Jesus. He's not even expecting it. 'Cause he knows you don't have the ability to do it, but what you do have the ability to do is allow him to live you through it and then it's gonna look like you're actually the one doing it. I can't even make that up. (congregation laughing) We try, we try, and God has said, no, I do it. And then secondly, God does it as the overflow of my relationship with him. Look at verse 15, he says this, "For we are a fragrance of Christ." If we would slow down reading the Bible, we'd read a whole, we'd understand a whole lot more stuff. You know what I mean? Look what he says, "For we are a fragrance of Christ "to God among them." What we think it says is, "For we are a fragrance of God among them." We just leave the part to God out. Listen, the focus is God, not them. As we focus on him, he reveals himself through me to them. Does that make sense? It's why we start with the body. Your relationship with Christ is of the utmost importance. It's what the missionary said on the screen. If we miss that, we miss the whole thing. The focus is him, not me. Clyde Craphers said it like this. He said, "If we're walking in an intimacy with Christ, "the sweet smell of his presence in our lives "rases first to the nostrils of God as a fragrant aroma, "then this fragrance disseminates to those who are around us." God manifests himself through us. Verse 14 says that, "The knowledge of him in every place." This word manifests means to show or to reveal or to openly make visible. You see, as God transforms my life, Christ is made visible through my life. I can't make Christ visible in any other way. I can't just mimic and say, "This is who I am, "and this is what God's like. "His life living through me." You see, living sin is about Christ's likeness. And as we allow him to live through us, evangelism will happen through us. You wanna win your friend, get close to Jesus. All of a sudden, you'll start feeling things about your friend that you didn't know you could. You'll care about their eternity. You'll care about their salvation and about them not knowing. Clyde goes on to say, "This is real Christianity, "a spontaneous overflow of the life of Christ through us." You say, "Tom, the living the Christian life is hard. "It isn't really. "It's impossible if he's not doing it." And he can. Thirdly, God does it through my life and my lips. First, through my life, listen to Paul's words. He says, "God manifest what do you say through us, "the knowledge of him in every place, "for we are a fragrance of Christ, Paul writes." You see, God's instrument of choice is us. And his plan is that we reveal Jesus through our lives, where he tells us every place, pass, top us, every single place, every opportunity, every location. God's design is that in every aspect of our lives, Christ is revealed through us. I know that because Matthew 28, 19 says that. He says, "Go, or as you go, make disciples." You see, the routine of our life is to make disciples to win people wherever we go, where we live, where we work, where we play, where we go to school, where we shop. None of it's an accident. God wants us to tell other people about him. Matthew 5, 16, Jesus goes on to say in the summer on the mount, "Let your light shine before men in such a way "that they may see your good works "and glorify your Father who is in heaven." Hear this. We authenticate the message of Jesus by the lives that we live. We are a book that people read. We are explaining God in our interactions with people, in our daily actions in general, and our reactions to difficult situations. Many people would say, people today, they're just not open to the gospel, Pastor Tom. They're just not, excuse me, they're just not open to hearing what God has done and what he will do. But that's not true. You know how I know? 'Cause on Thursday, I got to lead a young man to the Lord. Here's what that means. He's still working, right? Let me tell you, people all of this planet, there are more people giving their lives today to Christ than ever in the history of the world. Not only is our God not working, he's working harder and faster and longer, and maybe there was more people. I don't know the reason. I'm just telling you, people are getting saved. He's still, but what about my friend? They can too, you have to tell him. We gotta live our lives. Listen, our people are waiting to find out if what we actually believe is real. Here's what that looks like, okay? Not that y'all do this. You're in a lot of Burger King. You get up to the window 'cause you know, have it your way. (congregation laughing) No telling how much money they've made off at one sentence. My way, yeah, they get me, you know? (congregation laughing) And you get up there and you order the hamburger, no pickles, and I'll be doggone if when you don't open it, there's some pickles on there. (congregation laughing) How about this? How about you just drive away and take off the pickles? I mean, it's an idea. (congregation laughing) You know? Like, the person behind the counter doesn't need to be cussed out, okay? First of all, they didn't even make it. How about we just go take the pickles off? I had a friend a few years ago and I remember one time he told me, he said, "Pesh time," he said, "you won't believe what happened to me." He was eating that, oh, the most famous place in all the south, the Waffle House, if you've ever been there. He said, "Well, I was at the Waffle House "and, you know, I was meeting with this guy, you know, "and we were talking about the Lord "and having a little Bible study there, me and him." And he said, "All of a sudden, this song came on." He says, "You're so ungodly, just such an ungodly song." He said, "I call the waitress over." I said, "Listen, ma'am." He said, "I'm a Christian." He said, "I need you to turn that off. "It's offensive." And I said, "Wow, his, unfortunately, his name was Tom, too." (congregation laughing) I know, we got bad reputations. He said, "I said to him, wow, what happened?" He said, "Well, she went and turned it off." I said, "Wow, man, you are some kind of Christian." (congregation laughing) I didn't say that, but it's what I was thinking. (congregation laughing) And, but I did say this. I said, "Well, hey, were you able to share the gospel with her?" He goes, "Oh, man, I sure didn't." I said, "Well, that's too bad, 'cause you never will." 'Cause he lost his testimony. She didn't pick the song. She might not even know the Lord, but she doesn't want to hear anything he has to say. Listen, they're open to it. They just want to know if what we believe is really what we believe. And what's happening is our lives are either authenticating or it's doing the opposite. You say, "Tom, my life sometimes doesn't look like that." I know me, too, and I'm telling you, that's not the way of Jesus. We can change that, but in some respects we can't because it's of our flesh and there's, there's a whole thing going on, but here's what I can tell you. Let him live through you. God will speak to them. It's okay if you don't, if you get the pickles. It's okay if there's a song you don't like playing. It's okay. It's the Waffle House. (congregation laughing) But not only through our lives should it look like that, it should be through our lips. Some would say that evangelism and reaching other people is best done through the way that we live our life. And I hope that you'd wanna live your life in a way that's glorifying to God. And what I just said, that's important. The truth is we need to use words. We gotta use words from the gospel to share with them the message of salvation. They need to know what Jesus has said about it. The Bible says here, but as from sincerity, but as from God we speak this word sincerity is a word that also means purity. It means something that is good and right. It means to examine something through light, no cracks in the vase if you will. Here's the point. As we live lives that authenticate Jesus' message of the gospel, doors will open for us to share his message with other people. But look what else Paul says. He says we speak, but we must open our mouths. We must share the message. He didn't say we think. He didn't say we live. He said we speak the message. We are speaking it. It has to come out of the vocal cords in our mouths. Out past our lips to people's ears. You see we should tell our story of salvation. We should use the words of scripture as the foundation for that story because people cannot believe what they've never heard of. You remember the questions I said at the very beginning. I said there were three in that one verse and there were. But the truth is, is there were four questions. The third question was this. How will they hear unless someone preaches? This is not, when you hear the word preach, you're like, oh, that's the guys or the people who are called in the ministry and they're supposed to hold down the fort as it pertains to the gospel. And we'll let you guys do that. I had a lady one time tell me. She said, oh, she was awesome lady, but she was like, hey, past your time, I need your help this week. If you got any time, I was like, okay, what's going on? She said, I need you to come to the pharmacy with me. Well, that's a little odd, you know. Never had that one before. Yeah, I said for what? She said, well, my pharmacist doesn't know the Lord. I said, well, I mean, you know. Why don't you tell her? Tell me. I mean, I gotta go. I mean, I don't mind going, but the truth is, is like you got the same message I got. And you actually know them. I'm some weirdo who just stepped up to the counter. We so are supposed to tell people they're not gonna know unless we use our lips to do it. So why don't we share? You know, last week, we're round and third going home here. But last week, Pastor Scott did the acronym, but you remember that? So I'm not gonna let him out, do me. I have a butt too. See? Why don't we share with other people? Here, I think are the three big reasons. Number one, because my behavior doesn't match God's words. You see, by the way we act by the, our reactions to things, we feel very embarrassed, right? We feel hypocritical. And so we just go, well, you know, it's kind of like the story I just told you. And so it shuts us down. When our lives authenticate the gospel, man, we are bold and confident. Here's the second reason, because I feel unprepared. Some people won't share because they feel unprepared. When we don't spend time with God, when we don't know God, we can't, but when we don't spend time with Him, then we can't grow in our relationship with Him. So it's not that we feel unprepared. It's actually that we are unprepared. And here's why, because we don't know God's heart. When we know God's heart, all of a sudden, we have all kinds of things to think about and to talk about and to say, when I spend time with God, it's not to write a lesson or put together three points for a good sermon. I never do that. My time with God is going, Lord, what do you want me to say? What do you want to say to me today? And what do you want me to learn about you that I just don't know yet, that I'm not like? Tell me what that is. Show me yourself. Show me your heart. Some people think it's just because, you know, I'm unprepared because I'm just not smart enough. This is not an intellect thing. This isn't, you have to have a degree, then you can share the gospel or you got to be a Christian for a certain amount of years and then you can share your faith. No, no. She's in the room today, so I won't tell your name, but one of my daughters, when she was seven or eight years old, I remember, I don't know if she remembers this, I'm sure she does. I remember I came outside the house and she was across the street talking to a little girl. She actually, you know, wasn't supposed to be across the street, so my first thought was, "You are in trouble." (audience laughing) She crossed the street. You know what I'm saying? That's not cool. You're eight. So, I was like, "Hey, honey." She was like, "Hey." (audience laughing) I said, "Come back over here." She said, "Just a minute." Oh. So, now we're disobeying. Okay. (audience laughing) Disobeying when I'm not there, disobeying when I am. (audience laughing) I mean, I was thinking this in my head because, you know, I didn't know what she was doing, talking about Barbies or something. You know, I didn't know. When she finished, she came back across the street, I'm standing, I said, "Babe, what's going on?" She goes, "I was sharing the gospel with her." (audience laughing) Okay. (audience laughing) Sounds good. (audience laughing) Now, she's a smart girl to this day, but she was eight. I mean, if an eight-year-old can tell somebody else what happened to them, surely a 40-year-old can. You're not unprepared because you're an educated. You're unprepared because you're not confident when he did to you. My little girl was confident Jesus had saved her and she wanted this little girl to know what that looked like. It was that simple. She'd have the Romans rode down. She didn't quote John 3.16 and everything that came after that. I mean, she might have, I don't know, but. (audience laughing) Unpreparedness means you're just unprepared because you don't know it's hard. But this next one's probably the biggest one. I'm too fearful of what others will think of me. You see, our enemy's goal is to kill us and when God won't let him do that, then he'll use whatever weapon is available to discourage us, to disarm us, to distract us. But one of the weapons he uses the most, more than anything else, is probably fear. Fear debilitates human beings. It makes us stop doing whatever we're doing. Fear to get on a plane, to go to another culture. That's one thing, and there are people who are like that and I get it and I don't get it. I don't even like the seats either. I understand, like, how do planes fly? I mean, there's a whole scientific method behind it, but here's what I'm saying. 36,000 feet in the air for 12 hours doesn't sound like a great plan. Unless you lived in the 1800s and it took six months to get there, I'm telling you, it's a great plan. Here to Shanghai, 11 hours, that's awesome. But for most of us, that's not the issue. For most of us, it's this. It's simpler than that. It's the fear of what my neighbor, my classmate, my coworker, my relative will think of me. They're gonna think I'm brainwashed. They're gonna think, listen, you aren't simple-minded. You are a saved child of God who in eternity will go, oh my gosh, this was all real. Why didn't I bring everybody I knew with me? Our friends, our neighbors are dying and going to hell. You say, Tom, I don't believe that. You can be wrong. Mainly 'cause you are. Here's what the Bible says. He's the way. There is no other way. Well, I just don't believe that people live forever. So, there's a whole bunch of things we believe that aren't right. This isn't one of them. You will know 13 milliseconds into eternity. So were your friends. So how can my behavior line up with God's word? Well, appropriate the life that Jesus has for you, that he's already has in you. That's how you can appropriate your behavior. How can I be born prepared to share the gospel? Grow in your daily walk with God. Spend time with him. Heck, take an evangelism class if you want to. Tom, how can I push past my fear? Share no matter how you feel. These things all have answers. Do the opposite of what your flesh wants to do. Believe God. Push through the anxiety. Doing spiritual things is part of spiritual growth. Things that are hard. So what gets us past our embarrassment, our unpreparedness, our fear? Here's the only thing that does it. And this is what did it for me. The realization that there are billions of people who have no relationship with Christ. But there's a reason that we're unaffected by this massive number of lostness. It's because most of us have never seen it face to face directly with our eyes. I remember I was in big country one year. If you want to know what country that is, you're welcome to ask me after the service. But I was in big country one year. I met a young man named Lance. That was his English name that wasn't his name, but that's what he called himself. After sharing with him, I shared the gospel with him. And after sharing with him, he looked at me and he goes, "Are you talking about God?" I said, "Yes." He said, "I've always been taught there wasn't a God." I said, "Do you think there is?" He said, "I don't." And that one sentence affected me so much because I thought I've heard of people who didn't believe in God. I've never met anybody who was taught there was no God. But most of the five billion, that is their testimony. You say, "Tom, aren't they in big country or there overseas?" A lot of them, but there are some right here. You may be in this auditorium today. You may be in the Sworship Center and you are one of those people, but they are definitely in Las Vegas, Nevada. (gentle music) And that should drive us in the way that Jesus was driven to the cross. For the joy set before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame. Our God got on the cross, died for us. He's asking us merely to tell them that's what happened. So what can I do to get started? Well, number one, ask God to give you opportunities to share the gospel. Just ask him, "Pray, ask God. Will you give me the opportunity to share?" Number two, be sensitive to the spirit of God to see the opportunities when God shows them to you. Sometimes we pray and then the opportunities come and we go, "Oh, that's what that is." Yes, that's what it is. You've asked for it. He gave it to you and not do it. Which is three, aim for your words to be true and sincere and not eloquent. I will promise you that day when my daughter did that, they were true and sincere. I don't know what she said, but it didn't even matter. And then when you have the opportunity, simply open your mouth and share the gospel with them. Tell your own story of salvation, telling them how God can save them too. Allow God to do the work in their heart, but also ask them if they would like to accept Christ. You'll be surprised how many will say yes. We never get to the point of asking them to repent and believe. Where else can I share, Tom? How does that look like? Well, come back next week. Pastor Scott's gonna help us walk through some more things and this will be the, it's not the final message, but it's the final one of share. And I want you to hear it. Please come back. Let's go back for a moment to my story and I'll be finished. We were in Christal and I were in the lost sea and our eyes were searching. Unlike our eyes searching, humans don't search for God, but I will promise you this, when just a little bit of light is shown into the face and the eyes and the heart of those who don't know him. It's like they have eyeballs on their heart and they can begin to see and their eyeballs begin to dilate to bring in all that light. You know how when you're in your bedroom at night sometimes and as soon as you go to bed, you're like stumbling to get to the bed 'cause you just turned the light off and you're like, man, it's dark. And then just a minute later, you can open your eyes, you can see every window in your bedroom. That's because our eyes are searching for that light. Though we don't search, when the light does come in, our spiritual eyes can open up. Does that make sense? Listen, you share the gospel with somebody who doesn't know Christ for the very first time and I will promise you there is a window to their heart that they never knew existed and they're gonna have to do something with it. They're gonna have to hear and listen and then they're gonna have to wonder, is this really what it is? So I would say to you, just like at the lost sea, when we were in that total darkness, there are people in total spiritual darkness and the only thing that will penetrate that is the gospel spoken through somebody who knows it. They could be eight years old. They could be 88. It's the same gospel. Final thing, I just wanna leave you with this. Here's God's plan. Me and you, yes, God's plan is the whole church, taking the whole gospel to the whole world. That's us, the whole church. Not just the ones who are really good at it, all of us, taking the gospel everywhere. Amen. Let's bow. I wanna ask you to do something that's a little different. I wanna ask you to stay as long as you can stay. I know the traffic's bad, I get it. (gentle music) Just stay with us for a little while, okay? So much of the service, I know this isn't a service where you're like, "Man, the altar call here," or you're gonna ask people to be saved, and there's gonna be lots of people who come down and wanna pray or whatever. Well, here's what I would say. That really wasn't the intention of today, but in the last two services, I would say this. I would say that God moves in the hearts of people when his word is taught and preached. And while I've done my best, it was really God who spoke today. If you don't know him, you can. I know that's not what I've said today, but if you don't know God, if you don't know Jesus as a savior, you actually can give your life to Christ today, 'cause you've heard some of the gospel and there's been some lot that has penetrated the spiritual darkness. And I know 'cause I used to live in that darkness. And I remember the day spiritual, my spiritual eyes awakened, and all of the sudden this light meant something to me. Maybe that's you today. If you'd like to give your life to Christ, we can show you how. Just come down here and say something like, I need Jesus. Somebody will share with you. You can give your life to Christ today. But for most of us in the room, probably. You're a believer, just like me. You may not be confident. You may be a little scared. You may feel unprepared. You may be embarrassed by how you live your life. Here's what I would say. Come get right with the Lord, 30 seconds later, it's a new day. The devil has nothing else to use as a weapon on you because your friends need him. Your relatives need him. People in your life need him. Number one, number two. Who were the people that you said their name during the prayer? Who were those people? Like pray for them even right now. And then when you leave this place, ask God to give you the courage to go tell him. Ask him to open up an opportunity. I promise you, when he opens up an opportunity, you won't wonder if that's the opportunity. You'll know it's the opportunity. But listen to the Lord. Do what God is asking you to do, okay? Lord, we've listened to you today. We've praised you, we've sung, we've read your word. God, we wanna be like you and that's it. We just wanna be like you. But we want people to know you so they don't have to go to that awful place. As our pastors and our prayer volunteers come, if you need to just be with God in this moment at this altar, please do that. But think about those who don't know, ask God to save them, even if you never leave your seat. God, today, we've come to glorify you. We love you, we need you. Use us for your glory, we pray this in Jesus name. Amen, let's stand and sing together. Let's stand and sing. We'd love to talk to you if you'd love to talk to us here at the altar. Amen. (gentle music) (gentle music)