Hey, really
quickly before I get started, I have another announcement to make. This may not be the best time to say this but
I want you all to know about something that has been going on with me
personally. I didn’t want you to hear it
from somebody else and I don’t want you to make a big deal out of it but I have
been dating a real sweet lady for a while now and it looks like it may develop
into something more and so I want you to know about her.
She, too,
has been married before. She has several
kids. She’s about my age and most of the
time she actually lives in California.
Some of you may have heard of her before. She’s been in several movies. Her name is Angelina Jolie. Have y’all heard of her? No, seriously, after Brad Pitt left her, she
was really torn up and needed some counseling and so I was there for her. She knew how much I love kids and we just
started spending some time together and then one thing lead to another and we
have been dating for several months now.
It’s nice.
Y’all
believe me, don’t you? Okay, I know most
of you believe me but some of you may not and so I want to level with you. I’m just kidding. I’m not really dating Angelina Jolie and let
me tell you how you can know that I am not telling the truth about this. While it is entirely plausible that I could
be dating her and me not dating her has nothing to do with me being short, fat,
bald, poor and thousands of miles away, how you can tell that this is a made-up
story is that I supposedly went months without telling anybody, right?
Because if I
was really dating Angelina Jolie the beautiful, glamorous, movie star, trust
me, I would have mentioned it before now.
I would have told everybody after the first phone call. I would tell everybody. I’d put it on Facebook. Shoot, I might even put it on my business
card. Can’t you see it? Todd Blair, Pastor, Christ Fellowship, Lake
Bridgeport, DATING ANGELINA JOLIE!
If you are
married, you know how it is. You want
everybody to know. You’re proud of your
spouse. You’re proud of being married to
that person and you should want people to know.
Now, what’s even more ridiculous than me dating Angelina Jolie and not
saying anything about it is people who claim to be Christians, who the Bible
calls the bride of Christ, and yet never tell anybody…about Jesus. That’s unthinkable. If you truly have a relationship with the
Savior of the world, you will want to tell others about Him.
You don’t
have to know everything about Jesus to tell others what you do know, do
you? I know that quite a few of you regularly
tell other people about this church and that’s good. You invite people to Christ Fellowship often
and yet I bet you have no idea how many light bulbs are in the Fellowship
Hall. I bet you don’t have a clue what
longitude and latitude we are or how many boards there are in the back
deck. And do you know why you don’t know
that stuff and yet still invite people?
Because you don’t have to know.
All you have
to know is that our church is, as the inmate said, the church that helps
people. All you have to know is that
Christ Fellowship preaches, teaches, sings and talks about the truth of the
Gospel, that we love people and love Jesus and our goal as a church is to do
whatever it takes to lead people to have a life-changing relationship with
Jesus. Now, if you can tell others about
this church, why can’t you tell them about Jesus?
Sure, I know
you have to start somewhere and I know not everybody that sows will reap and
all that stuff but at some point, we all have to do better; we all have to
start saying the name of Jesus to people who are not Christians. At some point, you have to say His name. Don’t answer out loud but how long has it
been since you started a conversation about Jesus with somebody that was not a
believer? Well, as the chili commercial
said, “Well, pardner, that’s too long!”
Let’s look
at the last few verses of the book of Matthew today and we will see the last
few words Jesus spoke to His disciples while still on the earth. Yes, I know you have heard and read and have
listened to sermons many times on these verses but you are going to hear it one
more time, at least. Matthew 28:18-20 is the Great
Commission but we go back over it again today because it has become the Great
Omission in too many lives. Too many
people claim to be disciples of Jesus and have gone their whole lives going to
church and singing in the choir and giving
ten percent in the offering plate as it goes by and yet have never once
witnessed to anybody.
That’s exactly the type of person that
is going to die and see God just long enough for Him to say, “Get away from Me. I never knew you!” (Matt. 7) I love you all too much NOT to tell you that
and I will explain why I say that after we read Matthew 28:18-20.
Then Jesus came to them
and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth
has been given to me. 19Therefore go and make disciples of all
nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the
Holy Spirit, 20and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded
you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."
So, we know how people get saved by now, right? How are we saved? Ephesians
2:8 says we are saved by grace and through faith. We know who can be saved. We know that nobody is too good or too bad
and that everybody can be saved. Revelation 22:17 says, “let the one who wishes
take the free gift of the water of life.”
We also know
that not everybody is going to respond to the Gospel message in the same
way. Some will accept it and others
won’t. Jesus told us that in His parable
of the soils in Luke 8.
Today we
answer the last question in our sermon series, “What next after being saved?”
Let me ask you a question. How many
of you like to have fun? Of course you
do. That seems like a dumb question but
we all know some people that put a little more priority on fun than others,
right? When I go on vacation with my
family, we sometimes like to play a game where you search for things as you go
or you do things as you go, all in the name of fun.
We make a list of things like sing or dance in public, ask a stranger to
scratch your back, get your picture taken with a cop, fall down or tell the
biggest lie. Stuff like that. You get points for doing each one and
everybody votes on how many points you get depending on how much effort you put
into it and the one with the most points wins.
It’s a whole lot of fun but the only problem is that it takes a lot of
energy to have fun. Sometimes you just
want to relax.
It’s the same with making disciples.
When you see the light bulb go off in somebody’s head and they realize
they are a sinner in need of a savior and they ask Jesus to forgive them and to
be Lord of their lives, that is the most fun you can ever have. Period.
That’s a great feeling to know you helped change somebody’s eternity!
But it takes some effort – just like everything else in this life.
So, if you were to ask, “What next
after being saved?”, the answer would be, “Go and make disciples.” We
have talked before about what a disciple is.
A disciple is simply one who learns from Jesus and then tells others
what they know. That’s it. You don’t have to know everything about God
and the Bible. You don’t have to know
the difference in pre-trib or post trib.
You don’t have to know what happened to the dinosaurs or if all dogs go
to Heaven. You just have to learn
something from Jesus and then tell somebody else.
How cool is it that the main thing Jesus tells us to do is also the most
fun thing in the world? That’s
great. But it takes some effort…and it
takes some love. I’ll tell you what you
do. You mix all of your effort together
with all of your love. Put it in your
hands and say to God, “Lord, this is all
I have. Will you please do the rest?”
It’ll be like Jesus feeding the 5000 with a few loaves and fishes but He will
do it.
That doesn’t sound too hard, does it?
Take the effort to tell people what you know just because you love
them. Yet, I have seen two different
polls this week that both said 98% of professing Christians don’t ever tell
anybody else how to be saved. Only 2%
are really carrying out the Great Commission.
I bet there are at least 98% of the people that want to complain about the shape our country is
in. I bet 98% are concerned about the eternity of their children and
grandchildren. I bet at least 98% of
professing Christians want God to bring a revival
to our community but only 2% are obedient to make disciples.
Gee, I wonder why we don’t see revival around here. But the good news about the Good News is that
it’s not too late and it’s not too hard.
I want to share two surprisingly easy ways to do it. You can witness to somebody biblically or
relationally or both. Let’s look at the
biblical way first. Grab your
Bibles. You might want to underline or
circle or highlight a few verses but they are easy to remember.
This is just one way. There are lots
of others. But this way is easy to
remember and tells people the minimum they need to know to become a Christian
and start to be a disciple themselves.
First, they need to recognize they are a sinner. Explain that sin is simply anything that
displeases God. Point them to Romans 3:23 that says we are all
sinners and all fall short of God’s glory.
Then point them to Romans 6:23
that says the wages of sin – what we deserve for our sin – is eternal death and
separation from God in Hell. That’s bad
news, isn’t it?
But then tell them that the Good News, literally the Gospel or Good News of
Jesus Christ is found in good old John
3:16.
”For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only
Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” All we have to do is believe in Jesus but
that belief goes way beyond just believing that He lived and then died on a cross. That belief will manifest itself in a changed
life; one that continues believing and changing to be more like Jesus every
day. It’s not perfection but it is
changed.
That’s easy. We can all remember
three verses. Bookmark them in your
Bible and have them ready for the other person to read when they show an
interest. That’s all you have to
do. They may or may not believe right
then but if you are prayerful through this, God will give you what you need at
that moment and their decision is up to them and the Holy Spirit.
Now, the other way is by giving your testimony. Honestly, you’ll probably use this first
before you go through the biblical way and so you must, must, must have this
down. All you are doing is telling the
other person your story and that story has three aspects. It needs to include what your life was like
before you became a Christian, how you came to know Him and then what your life
has been like since. It’s not
complicated and there’s no magic way but there is a right way and a wrong way.
Let me illustrate the wrong way by first telling you my plans for becoming
a millionaire when I retire from pastoring.
I’ve told some of you this before but if I ever do retire, I’m seriously
thinking about how to start my own business just listening to people. I even have a name picked out: Ears To
You. I’ll go to nursing homes or
peoples’ houses or businesses, wherever I can and just listen to them talk
about themselves. I guarantee it’s a
money-maker because everybody loves to talk about themselves but nobody
wants to listen. In my job all I will
say is, “Yes” “Really?” and “Tell me more.”
Then I’ll charge you a dollar a minute and leave. Money in the bank. I tell you my plans
because nobody wants to hear your life story when you give your testimony. It’s the number one, biggest mistake that
everybody makes. I know it’s important to
you. I know it’s truth and it’s powerful
and it really shows what God has done in your life but if you can’t tell it in
less than a minute or two, it’s not your testimony. It’s your biography. That goes in your memoirs.
Your testimony is not about you.
It’s about Jesus and what having Him in your life has done for you and the
others around you. I’m sorry to tell you
this because I know you want to talk about all the good things God has done in
turning your life around but the person you are witnessing to needs to only
hear a one or two sentence version of what you were like before, then tell them
how you came to know Jesus, which is telling them how they can know Jesus and
then what your life has been like since.
I went on a little weekend retreat a couple of weeks ago with another
church’s men’s group. It’s a long story
why I was there but I was sitting at lunch across from a guy I didn’t know. He had said something about God to somebody
else and so, just to avoid some awkward silence between us, I asked him to tell
me what God was doing in his life. He
said, “Well, the weekend’s not long
enough.” I said, “Okay, just give it to me in a few sentences
while I finish my sandwich.” I said,
“You have three minutes. Go.” No kidding, twenty minutes later, he
paused just long enough to take a breath and I acted like I had something I had
to do and I got up and left. I felt bad
because I know it was meaningful to him but he was boring me to death. The guy actually followed me around trying to
tell me more. It started to make
mad. I enjoy hearing about what God is
doing in your life as much as anybody but when you start out, “I was born at a very young age and when I
was two, my mother took me to so and so church and at four, we moved and then…”
Just stop.
Let me give you an example of what a good testimony should be. I’ll make up a scenario. I used to be a drug-dealing, alcoholic,
bank-robbing outlaw biker who went by the name “Slash”. I spent years and years in prison. I did a lot of mean and nasty things but none
of it ever brought satisfaction or contentment.
I had no joy or peace. I was
miserable and about to kill myself but I met a man in jail who explained that
Jesus loved me even though I was a sinner.
He explained that sin was anything that displeased God and he told me
that if I would just repent – turn away from that sin – that God would forgive
me and that if I would make Jesus Lord of my life that I could be forgiven and
spend eternity with Him in Heaven. Since
then, my life is not perfect. I still
have problems and I still sin sometimes but when I do, I ask God for
forgiveness and now I have joy and peace even in the difficult times because I
know God loves me and He is in control.
Is that something you would be interested in?
Ninety-nine percent of the time that’s all you have time for. Any more than that and you will lose
them. If they ask for more then you tell
them all about it but let them ask.
Again, your testimony is not about you.
It is about what having Jesus in your life has done for you and others
around you. Customize it to fit
you. Make it your own. But keep it under three minutes because
rarely will even the most dramatic story be beneficial after that. Save the whole story for when I come visit
you in the nursing home as CEO of Ears To You.
For some of you, even telling somebody else the bare minimum of your life
scares you to death. What if I mess
up? What if they don’t respond? What if I can’t answer their questions? Look back at Matthew 28:20. Jesus tells His disciples that He will always be
with them. For us, we have the Holy
Spirit living in our lives all day every day and His main job is to guide us
and help us as we go making disciples.
James tells us to ask for wisdom and we will get it. We just have to be willing. But now, as the music plays, I would love to
pray with you about whatever is on your heart today. Maybe you don’t have a testimony because you
have never asked Jesus to be Lord of your life.
You have never truly trusted Him today.
You know how. Do it right now.
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