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Some of you in this room, you're going to be the person that says, well, I used to believe in God, but this church did me wrong. If you're one of those people, you are dead. Your soul is dead. Guys. People in this world think that people choose to become alive in God.
If you're dead in your sins and trespasses, how can you choose God?
We got something going on on 21st, don't we?
You mean March 21st? Yes, I do. Oh, are you talking about the spring break block party? I am. Yes, we do. We have that from four until 7 p .m. Where on earth am I going? You're going to be at Witten Baptist Church, which is 6773 Macon Road.
It's right on the corner of Witten and Macon, across from the Walgreens.
A very important question for you. What's that? Because I'm hungry now. Is there going to be food there?
Yes, actually, we're going to have free hot dogs. I like free popcorn. Snow cone machine and cotton candy. It's not just food. We're also going to have games, so, you know, little hoops. And we've got some other other games going on.
But I heard that you are actually setting up live music. Yes.
Yes. Is there any giveaways that go around?
Actually, there is the first 100 families to come to our spring break block party will receive a free gift bag. And that's actually what I was just working on right now.
Do we have a slide? We do have a slide.
Should I post it right now? Yes. Post the slide right now.
Matthew chapter nine. And I so appreciate Brother Andrew, including that particular text within our praise and worship service, Matthew chapter nine. And we've been discussing the idea of evangelism. Now, if you remember, we talked about three different forms of evangelism that Witten does.
Number one, we have what is called pulpit evangelism, pulpit teaching, pulpit evangelism. And that's what we're doing right now. But we also have planned evangelism. And that's where we use our food pantry, our MMA ministry, other ministries that we have to focus on delivering the gospel of Jesus Christ through different medium.
But the one that I really want us to really focus on, the one I want you to take personal responsibility in is peer evangelism. And that is your friends, your family, your co-workers, anyone in your sphere of influence.
What are you doing to share that life changing message of Jesus Christ? As we read throughout the praise and worship service, Matthew chapter nine, I'm going to look at three different encounters that Jesus had with folks in that peer evangelism mindset.
The first one is the woman with the issue of blood. Now, let me just explain this to you. She had been on her cycle for now 12 years. But it wasn't just that physical problem that she was dealing with.
The reality is, according to the law, she was considered unclean. She could not enter the synagogue. She could not touch or be near anyone because of that uncleanliness. And so she lived a very isolated and ostracized life.
It says as Jesus was moving through the crowds, her mindset was that if I could just touch the hem of his garment, his tassel, I can be made whole. Now, this is kind of a hokey picture, but that is exactly what's going on.
Now, what's really cool about this is this. We know and the Jews, the rabbinical Jews still today, wear this shawl. And on the bottom, you'll see it if you look at Orthodox Jews, they have these blue and white twisted tassels.
Now, I'm not going to go into what all that means, but that is what she is reaching out for. Now, she is a little superstitious. See, there are folks in your life, ladies and gentlemen, church, wake up, focus right here.
There are people in your life that know they need help. There are people in your life right now, today, that are destitute and they've tried everything in the world to make themselves happy and to find peace, and yet it eludes them.
It's because I'm telling you this first, and y 'all listen to me, without the peace of Jesus Christ in your heart, everything else turns to ash. I don't care how much money you got. I don't care how many friends you got.
I don't care what your job is. If you keep looking and thinking the grass is greener over there, the problem isn't the grass is where you stand and the problem is the heart in which you see it through.
OK, now there are people who need a point of contact. Church, listen to me for a second. We are that tassel. We are the point of contact. We cannot heal anybody. Witten Baptist Church pastor, senior pastor Jeff Shipley can do absolutely nothing.
I can't save your soul. I can't do anything for you. And what's more important for us to understand, what's more important for us to understand is this is the same spirit of God that is in me as a pastor is the same spirit of God that's in you.
I am nothing more special than you guys are. I just have a different job. Church, we've got to see ourselves as that tassel. We've got to see ourselves that people who even in ignorance need healing, they don't really know that they need Jesus.
They don't really know that that little prayer they prayed at vacation Bible school or that time they walked down the aisle and had a religious or an emotional experience, yet still truly are not converted children of God.
They don't understand it is our job to be available for that when we reach out the hand of Jesus grows flesh in the hand of his church, that we become God's physical hand, his voice, his feet. How blessed are the feet of those who preach the gospel of Jesus Christ?
We have got to be that point of contact. Now, it's not just within the walls of this stupid, ugly building. You see, your church is never more powerful than when it leaves this building and walks out into that mission field.
I want to sign over that door that says you are now entering the mission field because we have this jacked up idea that the missionaries are in some place way over there. Yet before me, before the eyes of God, every saved person in this room is a missionary and the mission field is white under harvest.
Guys, we are that point of contact. Even when people know they need something, but they're not really sure what they need. Look at this woman. She touched that tassel. Jesus was walking along and she reached out and touched that tassel.
And when she did, she was immediately healed. You see, she knew that actually by her touching Jesus, it was almost a sentence of death. She didn't touch his flesh. But according to the law, she was unclean.
And for her to touch a man, you got to understand, back then, if a man touched a woman or a woman touched a man, they were not husband and wife. It was a bad day for them. So she reached out and touched that tassel.
And when she did, this is the most beautiful part in the whole world. And I've seen this thousands of times in the last 29 years of being a pastor. The whole world stopped. Jesus was on his way to go somewhere else.
He was on his way to go raise up a little girl from death. But the immediacy of all that other stuff stopped when he knew that this woman had acted in faith. And he stopped and he turned around and he looked at her.
And notice what it says here in Scripture. In chapter nine, it says this in verse 22. But Jesus turned, saw her and said, have courage, daughter. Your faith has made you well. And the woman was made well from that moment.
Guys, I want you to understand. Even though she wanted to keep anonymous, Jesus made it public. Even though she wanted to receive that healing and let no one else know about it, Jesus wanted to make sure that it was a public event.
And I'm going to tell you why. In church, we need to take note of this, that as you go in your life, your testimony about Jesus Christ is not a personal, private matter between you and God. If you have the gospel of Jesus Christ that has saved your soul and you are keeping it hid under a bushel, shame on you.
And the repentance that needs to happen today is not the drug addicted sinner. It's you and the apathy that steals your soul. Guys, he wanted to make it public and I'm going to tell you why. I know this sounds weird, but guys, it's not the extrovertedness of our words, but the obedience and love that motivates us to preach the gospel of Christ.
And here's why publicly. Number one, she needed to know that she was healed. And it wasn't just a physical healing that transpired in that day. Her faith, when the faith of God strengthens your body, it also by default strengthens your heart.
It cleanses your mind. It gives you that fresh touch and that fresh fire. So many of us in this fallen world needed. She needed to know and hear it from Jesus Christ himself. You are healed. Some of you have claimed that you are born again Christian, yet you walk through this life in doubt because you keep looking at the failures of your works rather than the grace of Almighty God.
And today you need to know to not fear that which is of the future, because if you look through the future, I promise you, you will not see the fires of hell, but you will see the glory of God waiting on you in heaven.
Listen to me today. You need to walk out of this room in that pure evangelistic mindset, not looking at your hypocrisy, but hearing the words, you are healed. It's a defeated Christian that cannot preach the gospel.
Oh, but one that has tasted the grace and known the power of forgiveness, who has known the power of healing. It is those words from that testimony of that trophy of God's grace that speak the loudest to others.
It is your scar tissue that shows the power of grace, not your biggest King James Bible or your religious overtones. I'm telling you, the world needs to see our scar tissue. They need to know that there is healing at the name of Jesus.
And for you to hide your testimony and your failures because of some sort of religious shame, you are doing a disservice. Let it be made known publicly that you are healed by the power of Christ. Number two, she needed to hear that.
But it wasn't just she that needed to hear that. Jesus stopped that day. And in that thronging crowd of his disciples, Pharisees, Sadducees, the religious elite, those also who were seeking Christ, everyone needed to hear Jesus say, you are healed because that woman needed to be accepted.
Guys, look around us today. Look around us today. There are a lot of peoples in this room. And Brother Jeremiah made mention of the ethnicity of our congregation, because how many races of people are there?
I don't care what CNN or Fox News tell you. There is one. There is one race of people, guys. It's not the outside that we need to see and accept. I hear churches all the time saying we need to be multicultural.
That is not a goal of mine. I don't care about your stupid culture. I want to be singular culture and that culture be Jesus Christ. I am not here to placate or somehow tickle the elite liberalism or even the conservative yuppie movement that we need to be culturally inclusive.
I don't care about your culture. I don't care who you are. It doesn't matter to me. What I want you to know is that you are accepted in the beloved of Jesus Christ. I don't care if you have more scar tissue than you can even identify.
If you are a child of living God, you are my brother and sister in Christ. Now, notice I said brother and or sister. There is no other gender identification, OK? Just the way it is. Sorry if that makes you sad or makes you feel icky inside.
Come see me and let me introduce you to a man that will heal you of your stupidity. Number three, she needed to know this, that it was faith that healed her, not religion. This morning, today, I'm telling you, if you right now reach in that pocketbook, pull that checkbook out and you write me a check to Jeff Shipley Ministries, Amen, you write me that check for everything in your account.
I promise you this, you will be healed. You know, man, I ain't never healed nobody. And I'll tell you what, neither of any of you in here. Let me tell you something, any religion or church that focuses on an individual and that individual is not Jesus Christ, that is not a church, that is a cult and an abomination to the Lord God Almighty.
You know why we're never going to have 20 ,000 members is because we, as long as I'm pastor, we will never, ever glorify the preaching of a man nor the religious aspects of this place. The only glory goes to God and God alone.
Because I tell you this, no matter the size of your congregation, pastors, no matter leaders of the churches, no matter what you do, zoom right here. Unless Jesus Christ is the first foremost and the thing that you hold up the most, you are going to fail.
But what's even more dastardly is you are going to drag an entire generation of your people straight to the gates of hell. Guys, it is a disgusting shame that people take credit for what faith does. Now, I have seen a woman healed of cancer.
I'm not talking about she got through it. I'm talking about she was healed. She had leukemia, 32 years old, was a doctor, not a physician, but she was a doctor herself. She had leukemia and within two weeks she was healed.
I did not do that. Yes, we prayed over her. Yes, we anointed her. I didn't do jack. I don't even know where she is or what she's doing. You know why? Because I'm not the central focus point of her healing that faith in Jesus Christ is.
This morning, let me ask you a question. Do you need a healing in your life? Do you need healing? If you do, it is okay for you to come down here and for us to pray over you. But understand this, it is not the prayers of failing men nor the will of a broken church.
It is only by faith in Jesus Christ alone that you can know that healing. I have never saved a soul. I have never brought even anyone to a place of physical healing. But I know someone who can and his name is Jesus Christ.
Guys, she needed to know it was faith. Watch this. This is also beautiful. This woman hid her whole life. She was that person. You know what I'm talking about? She was that person that was socially a little awkward.
We have some of those people in this room right now. Man, you know who I'm talking about. They're just dorks. You know what I mean? They just make you feel icky when they show up. And I'm not talking about in like a weird, like they need to be shot kind of way.
I'm just talking about they're not really that socially acceptable, right? I didn't want to just call them out by name. You know, I didn't want to do that. And Paul has worked really hard on trying to become more cool.
I think Paul is one of the coolest dudes I've ever met. I swear he is. But people like Marty Wilson, you know, Adam, you know, kids are scared. They're afraid that he's gonna pull out barbecue sconce and eat them.
I mean, there are socially awkward people in this room. Let me tell you something, guys. Tissue, you all right? You can picture Adam like. If you ever see any meat, it's not that hard of an imagination to see.
Guys, listen to me for a second. You don't have to hide. Guys, you don't have to hide. If you're struggling with homosexuality, OK, if you're struggling with alcoholism, depression, if you're struggling with being one of those socially awkward people.
OK, I don't care. I don't care because here's why Jesus didn't care. He's interested in souls. That's what he's interested in. Because listen, listen, let me tell you something. I want you to think about this for a second.
Right now, our human minds conceive a linear time frame. We can see today, tomorrow, next week, next month. But there's going to come a time when time is going to cease to exist. That's called eternity.
Now, what's really cool about that is two things. Number one, I will not be in hell because there's no recess, no time off. There's no parole. You're there, OK? And I know that it's, you know, intellectually cool today to think that God was mistaken about the whole hell thing.
Wrong, OK? And if you need some help on that, please come and see me. I'll be more than happy to sit down and talk to you and dispel your millennial beliefs. But also this. Is there that person in this room that just gets on your nerves?
Everybody's going, yep, pastor. I know sometimes I'm a little much. I just am. I remember a long time ago when Marty first came here. He was like, God, you just force yourself on me. You just come up and hug me when I'm ready for it or not.
Marty wasn't used to love like that. Now, Marty's like, pastor. And he kind of waddles up and I give him a hug. He ain't waddling no more. He's slim. Guys, listen to me for a second. It is important that we understand the acceptance of God and his family because you're going to spend eternity with these people.
You're going to spend eternity with them. And I know your little minds can't conceive that because mine can't either. But think of the most glorious day lasting forever. And everyone who is a born again believer, no matter what they struggle with, is going to be there with you.
That's a beautiful thing. That's a beautiful thing. Look, she didn't had. And also, this is another thing. We used to have a lady who used to go here. And I underscore the word use because this is what she said.
She goes, this is not my family. This is people who I go to church with. Wrong church, baby. Wrong church. Jesus turned around and looked at her and said this. Daughter, your faith has made you well. Guys, this is my family.
Y 'all realize we have people in this room that this is the only family they got. You know why we do Thanksgiving on Thanksgiving here? Because if we didn't, people be sitting home by themselves. Guys, some of people in this room, this is all they got.
And it's the best thing in the world for you. Listen, you join this place. You're part of a family. That means if someone hits you, they hit all of us. And that's a really bad career move if you do that, right?
Guys, this is a place where you're safe. Guys, you realize I've told you this before. There's a woman's battered shelter that this is the only church in Shelby County that they will allow their women to go because they know when they come here, ain't nobody going to mess with them.
You're safe. Last thing, one of the most important reasons when you come forward, there are people who have who have been redeemed by the blood of the lamb, but they've never publicly confessed it through baptism or through the words of your mouth.
Listen, the word of God says confess Jesus Christ is part of that salvation experience. Listen to me this morning. The reason we do that is for all these other reasons. But you see, Jesus was on his way to someone else's house.
And this person, unlike the centurion that happened, somebody the centurion told Jesus, you don't have to show up at the house. Just say the word. My servant will be healed. This guy needed a little bit more.
He said, Jesus, please come with me. And here's why. There are some people who show up in your lives whose faith are at different levels. They still are mustard seeds. They have yet to mature or matriculate into that sanctification process in which they take off.
There are people that so desperately need a little extra helping hand. Guys, that ruler needed even though he was with Jesus and Jesus was on the way to do a miracle in his life. That ruler needed to see the faith of this woman.
Ladies and gentlemen, if you want pure evangelism in your life, it's going to have to be come with transparency. It's going to have to show your scar tissue, but it's also going to have to show your victories.
And if you're one of those folks that always say, well, that wasn't me. That was Jesus who did that. You're robbing the glory of God indirectly by not giving the glory of God enough credit that he worked through a broken vessel just like you.
Oh, pastor, that wasn't me that just sang the solo. That was Jesus. No, Jesus is not that fat or ugly. Listen to me for a second. You need to come to a place where you give God the glory, but understand that I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me.
Give God the credit and the glory because people need to see the victory of Jesus Christ in life of flesh and bone and in the brokenness of other vessels. Guys, I'm going to quickly do these two other points of these two other peer evangelistic ideas real quick.
There are people who know desperately they need to see Jesus, but then there are people who don't know. Guys, as Jesus entered the household of this ruler of the synagogue, and out on your little paper, I wrote all the different kinds of rulers this guy could have been.
But as he entered the house, he went to go minister to a dead person. Some of you in this room look up here. I know I've been preaching for 25 minutes and I need cats with disco lights. Keep your attention.
But just real quick, understand this. There are some of you in this room that are dead right now. You're dead. You see, you don't need any help. You're dead in your mind. You think you're alive because you've trusted in a religion or you're atheistic and you don't need God.
Some of you in this room, you're going to be the person that says, well, I used to believe in God, but this church did me wrong. If you're one of those people, you are dead. Your soul is dead. Guys, people in this world think that people choose to become alive in God.
If you're dead in your sins and trespasses, how can you choose God? You see, it is God who regenerates your soul. It is God who wakens you up to the need of salvation. It is God who calls your name. You don't find Jesus.
Jesus finds you. And if you're in this room today, and the words are stirring in your little brain and in your little heart, that is the call of God in your life going, hey, I'm talking to you. Because Pastor Jeff's an idiot.
He ain't bothering no one. Don't worry about it. Hey, Pastor Jeff's an idiot. I can't do nothing for you. All I can do is show you who can. This morning, if you're one of those dead people, I'm speaking to you.
But for you other Christians, here you go. Listen to me. Sitting in a church and praying over your Big Mac at lunch is not showing Jesus Christ enough. You see, Jesus had to go to the little girl because she was dead and incapable.
You understand what I'm saying? Guys, you're going to have to get a little bit more bold in your proclamation of Jesus Christ. You being a moral or ethical person, I know atheists that are great moral people.
I know atheists that have better ethics than some Christians. There are people out there that do not believe in God at all, and they are great, great people. It is not your morals or ethics they need to see.
For that soul to be stirred, they need to hear and see a physical body coming to them saying, hey, I'm concerned about where you're going to go when you die. And they're going to be offended. They might be, or they might go from section two of not knowing they need Jesus back to section one with one sentence.
Either way, you have a responsibility to go where they're at. You cannot rely on this altar. This altar ain't magic. It's just two by fours and carpet. You've got to take Jesus Christ to where they are and minister to them where they are.
Last one is this. Jesus heals that little girl. They're going to mock you. Jesus says, whatever. And He does His business. The last one is this. There are two blind men sitting there. I'm almost done.
Relax. Deep breath. There are two blind men sitting there. And these two blind men hear, don't see, hear that Jesus Christ is marching by. And they say this, have mercy on us, O son of David. Now, I could preach for 12 days on that one verse, but I don't have time.
But basically what they're saying is they recognize that Jesus Christ is the promised Messiah, the descendant of David. We'll study that some other time. There are people who need Jesus and they know they need Jesus and they can come.
There are dead people that can't do anything. But then there are people who know they need Jesus, but they don't have any ability to come where they can hear. Guys, the words of Christ. Jesus said, I write my laws on your heart so that as you go, God's word goes with you.
You know, guys, we have done in the church in America a very big disservice. We have taught our kids stupid Bible stories instead of teaching them the word of God. And so as they grow and we wonder as they run off to college, why they drop out of church and why they become disillusioned is because you filled their head with religion and Bible stories rather than the immutable word of the living God.
I tell you this, you understand the word of God. There is a steel in your backbone that can't be put there by fancy speeches or orations. You have the word of God in your heart and in your mind. There is a strength to resist sin because God's word said, Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee.
There are continual sins that people deal with their whole life because they learn Bible stories instead of learning the prophetic message of God's word. These men, they had nothing else but to cry out, Oh, have mercy on us.
And they were blind. Guys, there is a reality in which there is blindness in this room today. There is blindness in this room today. Let me just say this. Some of y 'all grew up in a very strict, legalistic, religious upbringing.
Very few of you because most people in here are first generation believers. But you guys know what I'm talking about. You probably went to a Bill Gothard seminar. You know, heretic. He's a cult. I'm telling you.
If anything, you got a Bill Gothard, throw it in garbage. OK, guys, an idiot. But understand this. Your rebellion and the lack of peace that you have in your life. You've got to actually grow up and quit blaming the failures of people in your past.
You see, you've been blinded. You actually can't see the problem that you have. And the problem that you have is your rebellious and hurt heart. Guys, we could all sit in here and start telling war stories about our parents or you got picked on in school or you were bald and people made fun of you.
Guys, we could all tell war stories. But let me ask you a question. How long are you going to drink from a poisoned well? How long are you going to sit and lament your past instead of embracing the hope and the peace of your future?
How long is it going to be? How much scar tissue are you going to develop before you actually allow the son of David to heal you and bring you to a place of peace? If you're in this room today, I my words are not meant to condemn you.
They're meant to stir in you past the embarrassment or past the hurt of what's keeping you where you're at. I ask you now, come to a place of repentance. Repent to almighty God. Let go of that which is causing you so much pain and cry out to Christ.
And I promise you, he will heal you. Also understand this. The reason these guys were lost, it wasn't just lost physically and blind physically. They were blind spiritually. Read with me 1 John. It says this.
And I say this with all love. I truly do. But hear the word of God today. Now, this is the message we peer evangelists listen. Now, this is the message we have heard from him and now declare to you. That's our job.
God is light and there is absolutely no darkness in him. If we say we have fellowship with him, yet we walk in darkness, we are lying and not practicing the truth. But if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another.
And the blood of Jesus, his son cleanses us from all sin.
