Evangelism & the Sovereignty of God

Apologia Studios

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:06

God, thank you for your protection today, your blessing on our fellowship,

00:25

God, as we enjoyed God, you, and found pleasure,

00:31

God, in what you made, and thank you, God, for the delight that you gave us in one another.

00:41

In Jesus' name, amen. This, I think, tonight, for me, to be honest with you, beyond all the foundational things that we talked about, this is the stuff, the substance of what keeps me going.

01:00

It keeps me fighting, and I want to say that everything that I'm talking to you guys about tonight from God's Word, all these foundations, like I talked to you about last night, they go far, far beyond simply talking about, how do

01:16

I reach somebody next to me with love, with the gospel? How do I evangelize?

01:21

How do I defend the faith? I've been a pastor for a very, very long time, and when

01:28

I was a pastor at the hospital for four years full -time at a drug and alcohol rehab facility, every single day

01:36

I had the most incredible wreckage in front of me, and I had to sit every day, got to sit every day in front of at least like five people for one -on -one counseling, and I got to sit every night with a group of people.

01:54

Many of them were still on detoxification medicine from the heroin and the pills and the alcohol, whatever it might be, and so they were, you know, a little out of it, but the room was full every night with like new people coming into the hospital to detox, and then they were in there for like a 30 -day program, and they got to be with me, and we got to go into the

02:14

Word of God and the gospel, but I every day got to hear the worst of the worst every day.

02:22

I would come into the office and sit down, and I would sit in front of somebody who told me that they worked for the

02:29

Mexican mafia selling heroin, and they didn't pay what they were supposed to pay, and their partner got in trouble with them, and so the people they were working for captured them, and to teach him a lesson, they took his friend in front of him and threw him into a wood chipper.

02:49

This was two days before I met him, and then the next person would walk in, and it was a woman who had been molested by her grandfather her whole entire life, and she's now addicted to drugs and alcohol, and now she's in front of me.

03:07

Saturday morning, the phone rings, 9 a .m., frantic person on the other line,

03:14

Pastor Jeff, Pastor Jeff, you got to get to the hospital quick. What's going on?

03:20

Ezra stopped breathing. Ezra is some of my closest friends, people

03:25

I shepherd and care for, an apology of he's their 10 -month -old son, and all of a sudden, out of nowhere, with no explanation, really to this day, he just died, and so I'm saying all of this to you because I want you to recognize the things that we talk about right now, it's not just about evangelism, it's not just about being bold for Christ, for the sake of the lost, it really is the stuff of life.

04:00

If we don't get this right, it'll meet you in the toughest place.

04:05

Every single one of us is going to face hardship, we're going to face collapse, we're going to face difficulty, we're going to sit at the end of a bed in a hospital, we're going to sit at the end of a bed or the side of a bed next to somebody we love who's dying.

04:20

This is the stuff we're going to face, and the stuff underneath us, in terms of what we talk about right now, is true anyways.

04:31

But what you believe here about this will affect how you evangelize, it'll affect how you walk through hardship, it'll affect how you see the world when you see collapse and ruin.

04:44

We're talking about the stuff of life, we're talking about God, His sovereignty,

04:50

His rule over all things, talking about God and His providence, what

04:56

He provides, and the means of what He does to bring about His ultimate purpose in the world. It is not simply about evangelism, it's about the sovereign

05:06

God that we worship. And I mean this when I say this to you, I don't know how people who do not have an absolute dependence upon the sovereignty of God, I don't know how they answer the hard questions ultimately in front of the person who is just in the midst of ruin, and I don't know how anybody could walk in the world with any confidence whatsoever in a proclamation of the good news if we don't truly understand

05:38

God's Word here that He has given to us about who He is and what He does. And so I want you to think beyond merely gospel boldness tonight in terms of how do we evangelize, but I would love for you guys to really meditate upon these truths and how it sets you off into the world in a way where you can delight in God in the midst of the most difficult situation.

06:05

And so let's go to our Bibles. First thing I want to give you guys a verse to hang on to as the power, the encouragement, the strength behind our evangelism, our gospel boldness, our being godly troublemakers.

06:27

And the passage I've already given to you is in Romans chapter 1 verse 16. I've already quoted it to you, and I want you to know that if you are terrified of the idea of being bold, if you hear the conversation about risking everything, laying your life down for the sake of the lost, and you don't know if that's in you, if you don't know if you have the ability, the strength, if you don't know that you can do it, you feel like, okay, maybe that's for somebody special, right?

06:58

God raises up special kinds of prophets and special kinds of people for the hard, hard work. It couldn't be necessarily me.

07:05

I'm a quiet person, a shy person, or I just don't know that I have all the knowledge necessary to engage somebody with the good news.

07:12

If you're thinking, well, like, I can't do it. It's not really me. It's not the kind of person I am. That's the evangelist that God raises up in a really special kind of way.

07:20

I want you to see right now that Romans chapter 1 should be the defining truth for each and every single one of us.

07:28

It's our hope in the proclamation of the gospel. It's Romans chapter 1, verse 16.

07:36

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the

07:48

Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, the righteous shall live by faith.

08:04

Now, if you want to know what does that mean, the righteous shall live by faith, the understanding there is, by the way, quoting from the

08:11

Old Testament, the righteous shall live by faith means this, that those who are righteous shall live and not die.

08:17

They shall stand and not fall before God. Ultimately, you will live and not die by faith.

08:24

That's how we have our standing before God. That's how we actually come into relationship with God. That's how we have peace with God.

08:32

Faith. We talk a lot about it all the time. It's the empty hand of faith. It's the hand of faith that offers nothing to God.

08:38

There's no payments. There's nothing given to God for it. There's nothing but an open mouth that receives living waters.

08:45

There's nothing but an empty hand that reaches out. It's all reception. But Paul says that it is the righteous who shall live by faith.

08:52

But he says very, very clearly that it is the gospel that is the power of God for salvation.

08:59

It is the message. The message of the good news is the power of God to bring about salvation, which, by the way, should really, really encourage you.

09:09

Because what it means is that it's not you. It's not your strength. It's not your abilities.

09:16

It's not your unique ability to argue with somebody. It's not your knowledge, how much you know.

09:22

You see, God's power and salvation is displayed in a magnificent way in that he takes weak people.

09:30

He takes the lowly of the world. He takes the meek of the world. He takes the ones that the world says, you're not wise.

09:37

You're not very understanding. You're not full of knowledge. He takes the lowly and he puts his message in their mouths, on their lips, and it goes forth.

09:46

And the Spirit of God empowers that message as it goes out. And God, by his grace, raises dead people to life.

09:56

It's the power of God for salvation, not you, not me. It's God and his gospel, his good news, the message of what

10:07

Christ has accomplished, the message about God and us, who we are before God and our need before God.

10:14

That message goes out and the Spirit of God brings that into the heart and mind of a person.

10:19

And he removes hearts of stone, gives hearts of flesh. He takes people and he raises them up and he removes the blindness so that they can see clearly, finally.

10:31

He opens up their ears so they can hear him. And by his grace, he pours his love and power into their lives and he raises them from the dead.

10:42

You see, if you think to yourself, I can't possibly do this, I can't possibly risk all,

10:49

I can't possibly, because that's too risky because I don't know what I'm doing. I don't really know that I have the power to do this sort of a thing. If you're thinking that way, then

10:55

I want to call you to let go and abandon all dependence upon self and recognize something very, very powerful.

11:04

If you look at the world and you think people look too hard hearted, they look too stubborn and you think maybe,

11:10

I don't know, like this is the one that can't really come to Christ. They don't look like they really are ready yet or they would.

11:19

What I encourage you with this, that God performs as glorious a miracle as the resurrection of a dead girl or a little boy or anybody else that he raised from the dead.

11:34

He performed as glorious a miracle when he raised you from the dead already.

11:41

And if you look at somebody and you say they're too far gone, I don't know that they're there yet or their eyes are going to be open to this, or they're really going to have understanding of this.

11:50

I'm going to say this. You need to meditate on your own depravity, your own sin, your own unrighteousness, and understand that you are the hard hearted person.

12:00

You are the person who was dead in their sins and trespasses, Paul says, but the power of God came into your life and God by his love and grace raised you, caused you to see him to come to Christ for life.

12:13

You have to see that. If you don't think, well, this person can't, they can't really receive it.

12:19

They're not really ready yet. If you think like that about somebody else and you haven't really meditated upon the power it took from God in your own life to bring you to salvation, you are a walking, living miracle, modern day miracle today.

12:34

If you believe in Jesus Christ, none of us came to Jesus Christ because we were more spiritual, more knowledgeable because we understood and they didn't, we were just a little bit closer, better parents, better circumstances, better upbringing.

12:49

The truth is each and every single one of us are the people that are described in Ephesians chapter two, where it says we were dead in our sins and trespasses by nature, children of wrath.

13:03

That's all of us. That's not some of humanity. That's the description of each and every single one of us before Jesus saves us.

13:10

And what does it say? Glorious words. It says, but God, the whole story changes dead in sins and trespasses by nature, children of wrath, but God, but God, it says that God by his grace raises you from the dead by grace.

13:29

You've been saved. And I want to encourage you as I call you as your brother to go out into the world and to live a life of risky missionary sacrifice for Jesus Christ.

13:40

I want to want you to know I'm not calling you to do it in a reckless way, thoughtless way.

13:45

I'm calling you to do it in a way of total dependence and confidence. Knowing Romans one 16, there is nobody that should be ashamed of the gospel because it's the good news of God is the power of God for salvation, for the world, for Jew and Greek.

14:03

That means first century, everybody. It's God's power.

14:09

And so I want to encourage you guys to think through as you guys move forward. Now pass.

14:14

Okay. So it's God who does this. It's his message. That's what actually accomplishes salvation in somebody's life.

14:20

Only think about the problem. Think about what's before us. What does the Bible describe as the set of circumstances, our nature, what do we face in the world?

14:30

And the first thing is to think about the problem of our condition. First and foremost, every single person we've already talked about it a little bit today, right?

14:38

So what do we say? We talked about there is no what neutrality, no neutrality.

14:44

All of us are in a relationship with God and that relationship with God, according to Romans five is marked by hostility.

14:50

We're in Adam, we're fallen, we're condemned, or it's marked by peace because through faith, we've been joined to Jesus Christ, given the gift of eternal life.

14:59

We've been raised to newness of life. And so we're already all in a relationship with God covenantally already in a relationship with God.

15:08

Those are the circumstances. There's no neutrality, but the Bible goes on to describe in Romans chapter one, that God's wrath

15:15

Romans one 18 is being poured out upon all unrighteousness and ungodliness of men who buy their unrighteousness, suppress the truth.

15:23

We know God, but what is our condition? What's the vivid high, high definition display of our condition.

15:31

It says that we know God. We don't want him in our knowledge. We don't want to know him. We profess to be wise.

15:37

We become fools. Our thinking is futile. So we switch God for the idol. Now idolatry is, is, is it is the

15:47

M O of the human race is to build idols. John Calvin actually had a fantastic quote.

15:54

He says this, that the human heart is a natural idol making factory, and it is never idle in making idols.

16:00

That's what we do. People say, what about the Hindu? Do they know God? Yes, they do. All those millions of gods.

16:06

They know the true God. Yes, because that is what we do. We don't want God. So we develop our own gods made in our own image.

16:12

You worship instead of God, the creator, we worship the creative things, which is what Romans one says.

16:17

We worship the stuff. We don't want God. So we go off to create gods of our own imagination. We worship false gods and false religion.

16:25

And sometimes people say, well, I don't worship any kind of God. I'm not a spiritual person.

16:30

I'm not like that. I don't worship anything. Okay. So tell me about your pornography addiction.

16:40

So tell me about your addiction to alcohol. Tell me about your addiction to heroin.

16:46

Tell me about your addictions because that's idolatry. When we go to something and it has the glory in our lives, it has the weight preeminence in our life.

16:57

It occupies our thoughts all the time. We're consumed by it. We give it glory.

17:03

Well, that's what God gets in worship. We sacrifice to it. I ask oftentimes people, our ministry kind of specializes in drug and alcohol addiction and giving the gospel to people in that context.

17:15

And I ask people often, what did you sacrifice to the heroin? What'd you give to it? What'd you sacrifice to the meth?

17:21

Did you sacrifice money? Did you sacrifice your time? Did you sacrifice your freedom? Did you sacrifice your family?

17:28

Did you sacrifice your job? Did you sacrifice your criminal record? Did you give it up? Well, glory and sacrifice is worship.

17:36

People who have drug and alcohol addiction problems don't have so much of a drug and alcohol problem as they do a worship problem because we're marked in humanity in the fall by our idolatry.

17:50

We worship something else in place of God constantly. It's a description of us.

17:56

And so Romans 1, Paul describes us. He says, this is what God does. He gives people over to their sin. Therefore, God gave them over.

18:02

He repeats it. Therefore, God gave them over. Therefore, God gave them over. I'm going to say something very, very powerful.

18:07

We often look outside and we think about the disasters that happen around us. And we think about that as judgment from God.

18:14

We think about the hurricane as judgment from God. We think about the earthquake as judgment from God. When it comes into the world, we start saying, well, is that judgment from God?

18:22

Well, oftentimes, listen, there are Christians involved in those situations. There are believers there.

18:29

Are they under God's wrath? No. Is there condemnation from God in them? No. We're in a fallen world.

18:35

And sometimes these things happen and they include Christians. So we can't look at like natural disasters and simply say, oh, well, okay, that's the judgment of God specifically in defining it.

18:44

Because I want to tell you, you can actually objectively say what the judgment of God is in at least this instance.

18:53

Romans 1. People don't want God in their knowledge. They switch God for idols. So it says, therefore, God gave them over to do what?

19:01

Disharmonious sexuality. And what else? It says disobedient to parents, gossips.

19:08

It starts listing sins. And when it says God gives them over to it, that means that was judgment. When people can do their sin and love it and live in it and celebrate it, it says in Romans 1, they know that those who do such things deserve to die.

19:24

But they not only do them, they give approval to those who do it.

19:30

So what does it mean? Watch Romans 1. We're all fallen. We know God. We switch God for idols. We don't want God in our knowledge.

19:35

And so God gives us over to our sins and we do our sins comfortably. Listen, the identification that somebody is currently being judged by God, that God is actually actively involved in their life in this way is that God allows them to have what they want.

19:56

By the way, let me say this to you as somebody that's been through this and it was so clear in my mind in my life when

20:05

I saw it. If you find yourself in a place where you have your sin, you embrace your sin, and you love your sin, this is the time to fall on your knees.

20:16

Because anytime that God hands us over to our sins to do it and to love it, that is a moment of activity of God in our lives.

20:25

It's also, by the way, listen closely to this. This is powerful. It's also, by the way, one of the greatest encouragements in my own life when

20:33

I sin and I'm grieved over my sin and I hate my sin and I'm pleading for forgiveness because I know this, judgment from God is when

20:40

God gives you over to it, to love it, to celebrate it. Grace from God is where God is challenging you and convicting you and you hate your sin.

20:50

But when we face the world, brothers and sisters, and we see what's before us, the nature of the problem, Romans 1 is vivid.

20:57

It's very, very clear. Romans 2, Paul now switches the conversation. The Jews in his day thought he was talking about the

21:05

Gentiles. And so as Paul describes these pagans who are worshiping false gods that God gives people over to, you can hear the

21:12

Jew in the background in the first century giving a little bit of applause to Paul. He's like, yeah, you get those Gentiles, Paul.

21:17

Get those pagans. Get them. The Jews in the background thinking that Paul was simply talking about the

21:25

Gentiles, but then Paul now switches his argument now and goes to the Jewish person who has the law of God, the

21:30

Torah, the Tanakh in their hands at synagogue. He now switches and he talks to them and he talks to the

21:37

Jew. You can read that text. And he basically says, you who say you should not steal, do you steal? He starts naming these sins.

21:45

He says, you say, don't do that, but then you do it yourself. He says, do you think that God shows personal favoritism?

21:54

And he says in Romans chapter two, essentially having the law doesn't justify you.

22:01

If you're going to proclaim that you have the law of God, Paul was saying to the Jewish person, you'd have to do the things in the law in order to be justified by them.

22:09

And the point is you don't do that. And so the Jew has to stand before Paul at that point and say, well, then where's my hope?

22:16

And the Gentiles saying, where's my hope? And here's Paul's answer. Romans chapter three, it says, there is none righteous, not even one, none who does good, none who seeks for God.

22:29

Pause. I think sometimes when I read the Bible, I mentioned this to you earlier.

22:35

I think sometimes when I read the Bible, I read these passages and these statements from Jesus and the prophets and I read them.

22:40

And I think I let it go right past me. I don't actually stop to let the weight of that statement set on me.

22:48

So when Paul says, watch Romans three, he pulls the verse from the old Testament. There is no God seeker. There is no

22:55

God seeker. There is no God seeker. Stop for a moment and think about it.

23:01

If there is no one who seeks for God, then what in the world are you doing here? There's no one who seeks for God.

23:09

No one who is righteous. No one who is good. Their throat is an open grave with their tongues. They keep deceiving.

23:15

And it says what? There is no fear of God before their eyes. Their feet are swift to shed blood.

23:22

And here you sit listening to a guy who has no earthly right being in front of you, telling you about him.

23:28

And here you sit in here right now with your Bibles in your hands or on your smartphones, crazy, right?

23:35

Access to hundreds of different manuscripts and translations of the Bible in an instant, sending the gospel by the click of a button across the world, sitting in a camp now with other believers in love with Jesus Christ, worshiping

23:47

God on an island 2000 years after Christ. Here you sit pursuing

23:53

Christ, loving Christ. And yet there are no God seekers.

24:01

And yet you see God. So if there are no God seekers and here you are seeking

24:06

God, what does that mean? God sought you.

24:14

And there's your hope. You've been called by God, sought by God, bought by God, loved by God.

24:23

Our condition is such that we are not merely sick spiritually. We are dead spiritually.

24:30

And I think this is one of the most important things we have to all wrap our minds around as believers is that our condition before Jesus Christ was not a condition of neutrality and sickness, spiritual sickness, where we just needed a little help along the way.

24:44

The Bible doesn't describe us like that. It describes us in much different terms. Ephesians chapter two, again, it says you were dead in your sins and trespasses, dead.

24:56

Now I'm going to ask you a question. What can a dead man or a dead woman do? What can you do if you are a dead man or a dead woman?

25:05

What can you do? Nothing. Dead people can do nothing. They can respond to nothing.

25:11

They have no power, no will, no nothing because of their condition. And the Bible says that your condition, my condition before God's love poured out upon us was a condition of spiritual death, not sickness.

25:26

So Paul continues in Romans to describe our condition. And when he does describe our justification,

25:33

God declaring us righteous because of Jesus, not because of us, he says that all of us have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

25:42

And it says, but God, there's the switching always in the text, what

25:48

God does. And it says that God provided Jesus as a propitiation, a diversion of wrath in our place so that Christ would exhaust, fully exhaust the wrath of God in our place so that God may be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus Christ.

26:05

And he says, we conclude Romans 3, 28, that a man is justified by faith apart from works of law, faith apart from works of laws, faith over here by itself, faith alone.

26:16

In Romans chapter four, he says, what should we say about Abraham? Our forefather, according to the faith of Abraham was justified by works.

26:24

He has something to boast about, but not before God. He says, Genesis 15, six, Abraham believed

26:30

God and was credited to him as righteousness. Now watch, watch, watch, watch. It's powerful because we miss it.

26:35

It's one of those things. It's like, it's right there on the page. You can memorize it, you can quote it, and then you miss it all the time.

26:41

He says this to the one who works, it's literally says in the Greek to the working one, his wage is not credited as a gift, but as what is due.

26:51

If you're working for justification before God, if you're working for salvation, he says, what you get, what you get from God, if you're working for it is not a gift.

27:01

It's a wage. All of us know what that's like. If you have a job, you work for two weeks and you go into your boss's office.

27:07

If you went in there and he had a gift wrapped box, he said, I have a gift for you for your two weeks.

27:13

I wanted to give you a gift. You're making us a lot of money. You're doing a great job. Here's my gift. You tear open the box.

27:19

It smells like Christmas. You dig inside and you look at the bottom of that box and it's your paycheck for all your hours.

27:26

You look at your boss and you say, where's the gifts? This is my labor.

27:32

I labor for this. I work for it. And Paul saying that to the one who works, his wage is not credited as a gift, but as what is due.

27:41

But watch, he says to the one who does not work to the not working one, to the not working one, the opposite scenario.

27:55

But believes on him who justifies the ungodly.

28:02

His faith is credited as righteousness. Now watch what that says. It says that God justifies ungodly people, not righteous people, the wicked, which seems rather perverse because in the

28:19

Bible that God gave us, they honest us in the Proverbs. It says that the one who justifies the wicked is an abomination in God's sight in a court.

28:31

If there's a judge who justifies the wicked, God says, that's an abomination. You think, well, what's with that contradiction?

28:37

God says it's an abomination to justify wicked people in a court of law. How could God all of a sudden say that he justifies the wicked, the ungodly house?

28:45

God do it. If he says there's an abomination answer union with Jesus Christ, because God doesn't declare ungodly people righteous as though they really were.

29:00

He takes those dead, ungodly, unrighteous people, puts them in his son so that they're covered in the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

29:07

So that declaration is based upon the righteousness of Jesus Christ and not our own. But here's the point, the condition of each and ungodly, dead, alienated from God, haters of God, enemies of God, children of wrath.

29:22

It says in Romans chapter five, we are sinners. We are helpless. We are ungodly. That's our condition.

29:29

That's what we face. Now you may be thinking right now, well, pastor Jeff, thanks for the encouraging message at camp, right?

29:36

This is not the message you go to someone's bedside with to simply offer encouragement unless of course they're lost and they need

29:43

Christ. But here's the point. Our condition is hostility towards God, not neutrality and not sickness.

29:50

What does Jesus say in John 644? Now stop. This is huge.

29:56

This is very, very big. John 644. Jesus says, watch, no man can come to me.

30:04

If he had finished there, we are lost and we should despair tonight.

30:11

Jesus says in John 644, no man can come to me. It literally says no man is able to come to me unless watch the father who sent me draws him.

30:23

And he says, and I will raise him up. Watch go backwards. Now I will raise him up.

30:28

The one, the father draws the one who could not come. They had no ability. That's the condition we face.

30:35

So when I tell you brothers and sisters, get God's gospel on your lips, let it pour forth, have some beautiful feet and go into the world and proclaim the excellencies of Jesus Christ and call people to repentance and faith.

30:49

I'm encouraging you to see that it is nothing about you in you, your power, your knowledge, your wisdom, your theological fancy footwork.

30:58

It is the message of the gospel that goes into the hearts and minds of people who are hostile towards God that cannot come.

31:07

But the glory of Jesus Christ and the gospel, listen, is that Jesus says that he will raise up the one the father draws.

31:15

It's guaranteed. There is absolutely no failure. That's the hope you and I have in the proclamation of the gospel is it isn't you.

31:24

One more text. I want you to see this. Go to first Corinthians chapter one. First Corinthians chapter one.

31:35

More of the apostle Paul on this point. Watch this.

31:40

I hope this encourages you because it does me. First Corinthians chapter one, verse 18.

31:48

Watch this. Watch. This is going to look like a contradiction by the way in how

31:54

I'm encouraging you. Get out there. Go for it. Go for it. Everyone roll and go and proclaim the gospel.

31:59

Now watch. Go out there and tell the world about Jesus. Tell them about the cross in first Corinthians one 18 for the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing.

32:14

All right guys, go out there and preach the gospel. It is foolishness to the world that's perishing. Go get them guys.

32:23

It seems like a contradiction, doesn't it? Until you read the next passage. The next part of the passage just says, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God.

32:36

For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and the discernment of the discerning. I will thwart. Where is the one who was wise?

32:42

Where's the scribe? Where's the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?

32:50

You know what that is? It's pretty sweet. I love it. It's the apostle Paul calling out the world.

32:56

You realize he's doing that? He's calling the world out onto the mat saying, come on, come get some. That's what he's saying.

33:02

He said, where's the wise? Where's the scribe? Where's the debater of this age? Bring them. Let them come.

33:09

He says, hasn't God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For since in the wisdom of God, the world did not know

33:16

God through wisdom. It pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe for Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom.

33:25

They're in love with philosophy. They're in love with knowledge. They're in love with understanding. And the Jews, they want to see a sign.

33:31

They want to see a miracle. They know that God spread the Red Sea apart. They know about the miracles at Sinai.

33:37

They know about all that God had done with his people. And so they want a miracle. And the Greeks, they want knowledge and they want philosophy and they want all this understanding.

33:46

And what Paul says, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles.

33:55

Let me just say this to you real fast. It is insane to try to start a religion in the first century, centered around a man who died as a criminal on a cross.

34:10

Here's why. It was foul to them to talk about a cross.

34:17

Crucifixion was one of the most insanely grotesque forms of capital punishment.

34:25

People in that culture thought talking about crucifixion would be like talking about what you did in the bathroom at the dinner table.

34:34

It was folly. It was grotesque. The conversation wouldn't have made sense.

34:40

And they're out in the streets proclaiming that God became a man and went on the cross and died for the sins of his people.

34:48

That was grotesque. That was a no, no. That was something that you didn't do in this culture. And so here we have

34:54

Christians in the first century taking what is one of the most disturbing conversations to those people and highlighting it as the world's hope.

35:03

God became a man, lived righteously, died on a cross and rose from the dead so that you and I could have forgiveness and salvation, repent and believe the gospel.

35:12

That's how the message went out. And Paul is saying this is foolishness to the world, but to those who are being saved, it is the power of God.

35:20

If you're inventing a religion in the first century, you don't do it like this. You don't talk about a cross and a dead man on a cross crucified by the

35:29

Romans as a criminal. You don't have women showing up to the tomb first in that culture as the eyewitness testimony because they didn't see it that way.

35:38

They actually mocked women's testimonies and thought, well, you need like a hundred women's testimony in courts to match one man's testimony.

35:46

And here in the gospel records, you have them going, oh, the women were there first. They're the first ones that witnessed it. You don't do this.

35:52

If you're trying to create a man made religion, it looks stellar in the eyes of the world. Our religion looks stupid, foolish, ignorant to the world.

36:00

And it's what God chose to bring about salvation for you and for me. Here we are today.

36:06

It's crazy. 2000 years after Jesus came on an island in the middle of the ocean.

36:12

Again, I think that's crazy. I really do. Worshipping and giving our lives for good to a crucified

36:23

Palestinian Jew. And we worship him.

36:29

And we say that he's the center of all of life. And he is the treasure to be sought above all treasures.

36:34

That's foolishness to the world. To those who are perishing, it is the stench of death.

36:41

It is. I want you guys to think that the condition, think about the condition of all people that we face as death, as alienated from God, as hostile to God.

36:54

So you might be thinking, okay, so what's the hope then? I'm glad you asked. The hope we have, the solution we have is in the sovereign

37:02

God. Listen, we have Christian ghetto language.

37:08

We do. We have our slang, right? We use in our Christian ghettos. We have words like sovereign.

37:13

We have words like gospel. We have all this terminology. We have cute little

37:18

Christian quips and bumper stickers, right? We have our Christian ghetto language. We say things like God is sovereign.

37:26

But you need, I think we all need to really invest our lives in studying and understanding and meditating upon what the

37:33

Bible says about God's sovereignty, his rule over all things, his guidance and control of all things.

37:40

The hope you and I have in the gospel is not in you. It's in God. It's in his gospel.

37:46

And it's in his sovereign ability to bring about his plans in the world to bring glory to himself.

37:52

Listen, God says, Isaiah 46, that God declares the end from the beginning.

38:01

He declares the end from the beginning that he does, the Bible says, according to his will. Daniel chapter four, in the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth.

38:13

And no one can stay his hand and say, what have you done? You know, we love to do. I think as many of us love to picture

38:20

Jesus as king over Neverland, right? Like he's king in heaven.

38:26

Really like there's where he really rules. There's where he's the boss, right? In heaven.

38:31

He's king over Neverland, that spiritual realm. That's where he has charge and control.

38:37

He really rules there. But Daniel says that God does according to his will and the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth.

38:51

And no one can stay his hand and say, what have you done? What is the thing that you and I have as an anchor?

38:56

You sang about it last night. I talked about it. What did God say in his word? Romans 8, 28.

39:01

What's he say? God causes all things to work together for good to those who love him.

39:09

Those who watch are the called according to their purpose. Someone says they're the called according to his purpose.

39:20

He causes all things, not some things. He causes all things to work together for good.

39:26

The hope you and I have in salvation and our proclamation of the gospel is a sovereign God who has the power to wield every circumstance, every person, every conversation for his purpose.

39:37

There's your hope. There's your rest. Our hope is in the God who grants repentance and faith.

39:45

If people are dead and alienated from God, you need them to be given new life so that they can see.

39:53

What did Jesus say to John? Sorry, not John, to Nicodemus in the gospel according to John.

39:59

What's he saying? John chapter three, famous conversation, right? Here's a Pharisee. It's nighttime. He comes to Jesus by night.

40:05

He asks a question. And what's Jesus say to him? He says that you must be born again, born from above, or you cannot even see the kingdom of God.

40:17

Now, by the way, kingdom of God there don't think as many do. Kingdom of God is heaven one day when you get there.

40:23

The rule of God, the kingdom of God, which is what that means rule of God. The rule of God is what every

40:28

Jew expected Messiah to bring God's rule into the world. Not simply heaven one day, not just that, but God's rule into the world, his sovereign rule, his reign and watch.

40:40

Jesus says to Nicodemus, you must be born again, or you can't even see it.

40:47

You gotta be born again, or you can't see it. You can't perceive it. You will not understand this unless you are raised again, ultimately born anew, born again.

40:58

It's a powerful truth that God is the one who raises the dead. And what you and I need in the proclamation of the gospel with dead people before us, spiritually alienated from God is we need the

41:10

God with the power to raise people from the dead like Jesus did with Lazarus.

41:15

He waits purposefully about four days. Why? Because the

41:21

Jews had superstitions that day that, well, people, spirits kind of hang out around bodies for a couple of days.

41:28

And so, you know, you have sort of like a window of time before really there is really no point. There's no hope after that.

41:34

And so Jesus waits till all their superstitions can be cast aside.

41:39

And he goes and Lazarus is so dead that in the King James, it says he stinketh.

41:48

That's how dead he is. And so when Jesus goes to the tomb, people are weeping and Jesus weeps.

41:53

When God becomes a man, even as sovereign over all things, he communicates with us. And he actually has this intimate connection with us where even with his sovereignty, even him knowing the future and what's going to take place, even knowing he's going to raise

42:07

Lazarus from the dead, he meets us in our pain and he weeps. And Jesus says, roll away the tomb, the stone.

42:17

And what's he do? He doesn't ask for Lazarus to cooperate.

42:26

He doesn't ask for Lazarus for his permission. The Lord of glory, the one who created the universe and it leapt into existence, the one who called light into darkness and there was light.

42:41

This God took on flesh and stood before a tomb with a dead man who had no hope and was stinking, rotting carcass.

42:50

And he says, Lazarus, come forth. And God's words of life came into that tomb and lifted

43:00

Lazarus up. And Lazarus comes hopping out of the tomb, wrapped, bound and burial claws.

43:08

And that by the way, brothers and sisters is the story of you. When you heard the gospel,

43:17

God called into your life and raised you from the dead. People say, well, but the thing is we have to operate within people's free will.

43:30

We have to, God gives people choices. And so we operate within free will. And here's the thing I want to say is that we as creatures make choices every single day.

43:37

We're making choices every single day all the time. And those choices are choices that we are making.

43:43

God isn't making those choices for us, but here's what we need to understand is that our choices are bound up with our nature.

43:51

Watch our will, our will, what we do and want to do that is connected to our nature.

43:59

It operates on the nature. So watch fallen people do fallen spiritual things.

44:07

People who are dead spiritually make dead spiritual choices. Nobody makes a choice or a decision for Jesus Christ as a dead person.

44:17

They need a new nature. Watch, watch. Here we go. So you guys see the hope you have in this.

44:23

Think about this for a moment. I took this from a friend, so it's not mine. You are free to use it because I took it from him. Okay. This is a wonderful way to describe it.

44:30

Imagine for a moment you have a room and in that room you have a pile of meat and you have a pile of carrots, pile of meat, pile of carrots into that room.

44:40

You get a vulture. Now you try to convince the vulture carrots are great, good for you.

44:47

Great for eyesight. I hear it's fantastic. It makes a good juice, right? So this is carrots are good for you.

44:53

You should eat the carrots. You do your very best to nudge the vulture over to the carrots and have some carrots. Make the choice for the carrots and have some carrots.

45:00

Carrots are good, right? Eat the carrots. And you're doing this and you're saying carrots are good.

45:05

Please get some carrots. You even nudge the vulture over closer and closer to the carrots and then you leave the room and shut the door.

45:11

And there's a window on that door and you can peer in without any influence, without any nudging.

45:17

What will the vulture freely choose? The meat.

45:24

Why? Because the nature determines the activity of the will.

45:31

Now change the scenario. Same room, same pile of meat, same carrots. Now you put a rabbit, a bunny rabbit, a cute bunny rabbit into the room.

45:41

Now try to convince the rabbit. Eat the meat. It's delicious. Good steak. It's hard to come by sometimes.

45:46

Eat the meat. It's delicious. Eat the meat. And you leave the room, shut the door, look through. What will the rabbit choose freely?

45:54

The carrots. Because the nature determines the activity of the will. And as you and I walk into the world and as people, all people, including us before Jesus Christ, are dead spiritually, alienated from God, hostile to God, Romans 1, haters of God, what will people who are dead spiritually always freely choose?

46:16

Not God. Not God. And so here's the thing.

46:24

The hope that you and I have in the proclamation of the gospel is in the sovereign

46:30

God who has the ability to speak life into someone's life and to raise them from death to life and to grant them the ability to repent and to believe.

46:42

Second Timothy 2, 24 through 26, it says the Lord's servant must be patient when wronged, able to teach in humility, correcting those who oppose themselves.

46:55

Watch if perhaps God may grant them repentance, leading to a knowledge of the truth.

47:08

You might be thinking what many of us think when you hear about our condition, all of us, and you hear about God as the giver of salvation and life and even granting the gift of repentance.

47:20

You might be thinking, well, wait a minute, that doesn't sound fair. Let me just ask you, please, to humbly think about this because it is the source of our hope in evangelism, brothers and sisters.

47:37

Fair? Just? Let me ask.

47:44

Take yourself out of the picture for a moment and think about a courtroom. If you have a judge and you have a lawbreaker, what must the judge give to the lawbreaker?

47:58

Punishment. Justice. So we look at God and we say, God, I want you to be fair with me and be just with me.

48:07

Let me say this. That is not what you want from God. You do not want his justice. You want his grace.

48:15

You want his mercy. You want his compassion and not his justice. And fair for God would be to take all of humanity, just for God would be to take all of humanity, every single one of us who actually loves our sin.

48:30

Fair would be for God to give all of us what we want. And that is not God. What is actually amazing is that God did not give us fairness and justice.

48:40

He gave us mercy and grace. It says that God grants repentance, leading to a knowledge of the truth, how you like them apples.

48:50

What's that mean? When I say go out into the world as a believer, lay your life down for the sake of the lost, live a life of missionary sacrifice, sacrifice everything for the sake of the lost.

49:01

And you bring the gospel, which is the power of God into salvation. When I say that to you, I'm saying that it is not you.

49:10

That is the source of the power or the success. It is a sovereign God who grants to hostile people life and repentance.

49:20

He's the kind of God that takes a man who is on his way to another town to destroy the church.

49:28

He takes a man who was not open minded towards Jesus in the gospel.

49:34

He knocks him off his high horse and he removes his blindness and lets him see to believe.

49:40

We're talking about the God who takes someone like you and someone like me who deserves wrath and condemnation and justice.

49:49

And he took you and he refused to let you get what you want, which was your own death and departure from him.

49:58

He loved you so much that he didn't let you have what you wanted and chose to give you life and mercy so that you could see his beauty, so that you could see his glory.

50:10

He gave you the gift of himself. He grants repentance. Philippians 129. It's powerful.

50:16

Listen, listen, it's big. It's really big. There's one of these gifts. Most of us say, I don't want that one. Okay. He says this, that God, Philippians 129, to you, it has been granted not only to believe in Christ, but also to suffer for his sake.

50:32

I think most of us go, okay, it's been gifted to you to believe in Christ and also to suffer. We go, okay,

50:38

I'll take the first one. You can keep the second one, right? But what's it say? It has been gifted to you.

50:44

God gifted to you believing in Jesus Christ. He grants repentance.

50:52

He grants faith. Ephesians 2, 8 and 9. I hope you're, I hope you know this.

50:58

Every Christian has got to have this tucked away in their hearts, treasured up for later guys. You need it.

51:03

Ephesians 2, 8 and 9. After he says you were dead in your sins and trespasses by nature, children of wrath. He then goes on to say, by grace are you saved through faith.

51:13

Thank you. I'm so glad. Okay. By grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves.

51:18

It is the gift of God, not according to works, lest any man should boast.

51:24

You catch that watch by grace. You've been saved through faith and we go, yes.

51:29

Then it says, and that what's the, that for the grace and the faith, that the grace, that the faith, not of yourselves.

51:38

It is the gift of God. Repentance is a gift from God. Faith is a gift from God.

51:45

It's God doing something in our lives that we wouldn't have wanted from him if he had left us in our animosity towards him.

51:53

It's God grabbing the rebel who's running from him into death and darkness, grabbing that rebel and setting his love upon us.

52:03

And we don't even deserve it. We wouldn't have asked for it. We weren't seeking him. That's your hope brothers and sisters in the

52:10

God who grants repentance and grants faith to sinners. What's the golden chain of redemption?

52:15

Do you know it? I hope you know it. It's big Romans chapter eight, we call it the golden chain of redemption.

52:22

It says those whom God for knew he predestined and those whom he predestined, he called those whom he called.

52:31

He justified those who he justified. He also glorified for known predestined called justified, glorified.

52:38

That's God's chain of redemption. And by the way, lest you be tempted to misinterpret it for known does not mean there that God looked through time to see who would believe in him.

52:52

Think for a moment. If God looked through time to see who would believe in him, that means

53:00

God is one learning and therefore not all knowing, but we're not done.

53:09

Okay. If God looked through time and he saw the mass of humanity, what's our condition?

53:17

Dead. And so if God looked through time to see who would believe in him, he would see a spiritual graveyard of dead people with their middle fingers up out of the grave, because that is our relationship marked by hostility.

53:38

People oftentimes describe, well, it's sort of like this when God does it is you have somebody who is out in the ocean, and we really understand that now we're like, that's terrifying, right?

53:47

Okay. Somebody who's out in the ocean and God's there on the boat and he's throwing out a life preserver saying, please grab the life preserver.

53:54

Please come and take it. Well, here's the truth is that in reality, the person isn't sloshing around asking for help.

54:02

The person is actually dead on the bottom of the ocean floor. And what

54:09

God does is dive down to breathe life into him. That's a better analogy. And the real condition is this.

54:15

If there were a boat scenario with God on a boat throwing out life preservers to people, if God threw the life preserver out, we would spit at God and dive.

54:25

That's a better picture of our condition. And so Romans chapter eight, those whom he foreknew is

54:31

God, watch, choosing to enter into intimate relationship with.

54:38

It's active. It's an active verb. It's something that God does. He foreknew you knew no is like a big thing in the

54:50

Bible. It says Adam knew Eve and Eve. God, you only God says to Israel, you only have

54:56

I known among all the nations of the earth. Does that mean that God didn't know about the other nations? It means you only have

55:01

I known entered into intimate relationship with. And it says this about God and his word.

55:06

It says God foreknew us, chose to enter into intimate relationship with us.

55:13

He predestined us. He called us. He justified us. He glorified us. You know what part you and I are a part of in somebody's life, in the world as we preach?

55:22

We're part of that part where God is calling. Repent and believe the gospel.

55:28

Repent and believe the gospel. There's the hope is in the sovereign God who brings about life.

55:33

And the powerful thing I think I want you guys to grasp here is the hope you have.

55:41

I want to confess something to you. I had a period of time in my life where I was really, really, really struggling because we would go out and do a lot of evangelism.

55:56

And sometimes we go out and we're very, if you've seen our videos online, we do our very best to glorify God and to be gracious and compassionate.

56:03

One of the, I think one of the greatest blessings to me in my own ministry is when we go out to say the Mormon temple to preach the gospel, we have

56:09

Mormons that will say to us, hey, look, I don't agree with you at all. And I wish you weren't here, but I want to just thank you for how gracious and loving you are to us.

56:19

So thank you. That's one of the greatest, most encouraging things to me. But I had a period of time a long time ago where like over a decade ago, where I was really struggling because we'd go out and do hard ministry and we'd get roughed up.

56:31

Sometimes people would get mad at us. They grab our stuff and they throw it and they try to tear at our clothes or just their just hostility.

56:38

And I remember I had hit a point where we had been proclaiming the gospel. We had tried to be gracious and loving to people and we're doing it, we're doing it, we're doing it.

56:45

And I'm not seeing any fruit, just mostly hostility. I remember I was really grieved when I was like, God, like, why, why are you, why are we doing this?

56:53

Is it even effective? Should we be doing this? And I picked up a book that had nothing to do with this conversation, but I opened up the like first couple of pages and then the writer was talking about the gospel and God's sovereignty and our condition.

57:07

And he said something that changed me forever. He said, when you and I go out to proclaim the message of the gospel, we're proclaiming the story of what

57:16

God has done. And we're calling the world to repent of their sin and to be forgiven and to come under the authority of the

57:24

King, be saved and be forgiven. And watch, God is always glorified when you and I preach the gospel, whether they receive it or not.

57:34

And here's how, when we proclaim the gospel into the world, when those who hear it and walk away and reject it, walk away,

57:44

God is glorified ultimately in the last day in his justice.

57:49

Because even with a message of God's love and forgiveness, we so hate

57:55

God. If he could come down here, we would kill him. And we did. We are so hostile to God.

58:03

Even when he sends his messengers with a message of love and peace and forgiveness, we turn away because we hate them.

58:11

And God will be glorified in the last day because even in the midst of the proclamation of the gospel, they heard and they refuse.

58:19

God is glorified in his justice. And if God, by his grace, sets his love upon somebody and gives them what they don't deserve and opens their eyes and they receive the gospel,

58:30

God is glorified in his grace. God is always glorified, brothers and sisters, of the proclamation of the gospel.

58:37

Whether you see what you think is fruit or not, God is glorified. Proclaim the gospel.

58:43

Proclaim the gospel because it brings glory to God. It's the message about Jesus Christ and what he has done.

58:49

That's the hope you have. God is always glorified. God has done some stuff for me that has given me goosebumps.

59:02

I'm going to share with you this story. We were going out to do evangelism a lot.

59:12

Sometimes it gets kind of crazy and crowded. I have a lot of stories from the Mormon temple of Mesa.

59:18

We go out and we're usually surrounded by a lot of Mormons at this time. I'm surrounded.

59:24

I'm just getting questions from each side. And there's a girl there who is a woman.

59:30

She's a young woman. She is hostile and she's cussing me out. She's like F -bombing me and cussing me out.

59:38

She's Mormon, right? And I'm surrounded by all these young Mormons. She's cussing me out and she ends up grabbing my tracks and she tears them.

59:46

She throws them in my face and then she spits in my face. And so I'm human.

59:54

I'm not superhuman and I'm not Jesus. So I went home that night and I remember

01:00:02

I was like, man, like what? This is, I could be doing better things than this, right?

01:00:09

Like I could do a lot. I could have a lot more fun in my life than, I mean, gee, you think like, is this even worth,

01:00:15

I don't even, why? But I love God and so I love them and I'm just going to keep going, whether I see what

01:00:21

I think is fruit or not. A year later, it's midnight, my apartment, and I'm doing what

01:00:31

Christians do. I'm with a bunch of Christians and we're eating, right?

01:00:39

Okay. So we're at my house, it's midnight and we would just hang out. We would eat and fellowship, watch movies.

01:00:46

Just, it was just, you know, fellowship. All of a sudden my friend, John was coming and there's a knock on my door and it's

01:00:52

John. So I opened the door, the house is full and John is standing there with a guy and a girl and he says, hey,

01:00:59

I just met him over at Starbucks. They heard me say I was going to come here and do a Bible study with you guys. They wanted to come.

01:01:05

Is it cool if they come? I said, yeah, of course. And all of a sudden this girl starts crying.

01:01:12

And so we let him in. And so I say to John, I said, John, why is she crying?

01:01:17

He goes, I don't know. I just met her. I don't know. And so this girl sort of like stays away from everybody for a while.

01:01:24

And like, well, we're all sitting in the living room. We're hanging out and we're just, you know, talking and in the Word. She's in the corner of the room, not saying anything to anybody.

01:01:31

She's still crying and everyone's kind of leaving her alone. And at one point she finally like speaks up.

01:01:38

She says, Jeff, do you remember me? And I said, no.

01:01:45

And she said, last year at the Easter pageant in Mesa, she said,

01:01:50

I took your stuff out of your hands. I tore them up and I spit in your face and I cussed you out.

01:01:57

I said, oh, yeah. I remember you. And so she says, please forgive me.

01:02:06

I said, forgive you for what? She said, when I went home that night,

01:02:13

I had some of your stuff. And she said, I went home that night and she said, I made an oath.

01:02:18

I committed to God that I was going to study this stuff and I was going to come back the next year and I was going to refute you in front of all my friends.

01:02:26

And she said, after about four months of being in that tract and going through those verses and studying, she said that God saved her.

01:02:35

And then God brought this stranger to my house at midnight, a year later, to show me the fruit of it.

01:02:45

And I can tell you this, I've lost count at this point. I don't do it anymore as to how many people

01:02:51

God has brought to salvation from going out and proclaiming the gospel in this way.

01:02:58

It is in the thousands. I get messages from around the world all the time.

01:03:06

People who see our stuff, Mormons, atheists, Jehovah's Witnesses, they watch the conversations, they listen and they turn to Jesus Christ.

01:03:13

I've lost count. And it has nothing to do with me, honestly. There's nothing spectacular in me at all.

01:03:21

I have a lot of failings. I have a lot of weaknesses.

01:03:27

There's so much more I need to learn myself. It is just getting into the world and proclaiming the gospel that God empowers to bring people to life.

01:03:38

And your hope, I want you to remember two passages that you will set your life on,

01:03:45

John 6 and John 10. If you say which verse? The whole way. John 6, watch.

01:03:52

Jesus says, I've come down from heaven not to do my will, but the will of Him who sent me.

01:04:00

And this is the will of Him who has sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that He has given to me, that He would raise us up on the last day.

01:04:15

So when you and I go out to proclaim the gospel, you know what? You're the means of God's grace and God's plan to bring dead people to life.

01:04:23

And you go out and you proclaim the gospel. And when you proclaim the gospel, God raises people and brings them to Himself.

01:04:31

And Jesus says something, watch. It is the will of the Father that I've come to do.

01:04:37

It's His will that I don't lose anything of all that He has given to me.

01:04:45

The Father gives people to Jesus Christ, and then Jesus Christ saves them. The Holy Spirit of God brings them through His power to God.

01:04:55

John chapter 10, Jesus says, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays his life down for the sheep. He says this,

01:05:01

I have other sheep, which are not of this fold, them I must also bring. And they will be one flock with one shepherd.

01:05:06

And listen, in the same text in John 10, the Jews of Jesus' day say to Jesus, it's crazy.

01:05:12

This is sort of a paraphrase here, but you've got to read it later. John chapter 10, they say, how long are you going to keep us in suspense?

01:05:18

If you're the Messiah, tell us plainly, right? And you think, watch, because of the way they worded it, like He had failed to communicate with them in some way, like they missed a meeting or like they didn't get the tweet or like whatever, like, like they just, maybe they just weren't around.

01:05:35

They didn't care. Are you going to tell us finally, are you the Messiah? And what's Jesus say to them? You go, oh, oh, I forgot to tell you. Let me explain to you.

01:05:41

No, Jesus says something powerful. He says this, He says, I told you. He had been telling them.

01:05:50

He didn't miss it. He told them plainly that He was Messiah. And He says, the reason you can't hear me is because you are not of my sheep.

01:06:05

My sheep hear my voice and they follow me. I give them eternal life.

01:06:13

They're in my hands. Nothing can snatch them from my hand. They're in my father's hand and nothing can snatch them from my father's hand.

01:06:24

Jesus preached the gospel and He said to people, I told you, and you can't hear because you're not of my sheep.

01:06:34

God brings people to life and He saves and He saves perfectly. You know what you have, brothers and sisters, and you preach the gospel faithfully.

01:06:40

Listen, if you preach it faithfully, if you preach it faithfully, you can preach the gospel with knowing about God's sovereignty and salvation with all of its sharp edges.

01:06:50

You don't have to pull punches. You don't have to cut corners. You can tell the truth with love and compassion and tenderness, kindness.

01:06:58

You can tell the truth with all of the serrated edges of the gospel and depend totally on God because here's why.

01:07:04

When you preach the gospel, God is the one who brings people to Himself. And you can preach the gospel, 100 proof, unadulterated truth to people and God saves sinners.

01:07:17

But He doesn't save sinners through some other soft gospel. He doesn't save sinners through a kind of gospel.

01:07:26

He doesn't save sinners through a gospel that beats around the bush. He saves people, truly saves them with the message of the gospel that He uses to bring people to life.

01:07:38

And as a believer, knowing God is sovereign, you preach that gospel faithfully and with clarity and God changes not only you but the person next to you and the world.

01:07:50

George Whitefield, if you don't know who he is, get to know him because this nation exists today in many ways because of the preaching of George Whitefield.

01:08:06

He was essentially kicked out of the church in England after being a popular preacher in England. He came to the

01:08:12

States for like five years. He came back to England and by the time he got back, there was so much corruption in the church and false doctrine.

01:08:20

And listen, easy preaching about like how to be a better dad and a better mom, have greener grass and a nicer house, really sounds kind of familiar.

01:08:32

He goes back to England and now they're really, really soft and they don't like the edginess. And so when Whitefield gets back to England, they kick him out of the church.

01:08:39

People say, George Whitefield, the great awakening, the first great awakening changed England, changed

01:08:45

America. This was huge. They say, George Whitefield used to preach in the fields and there were like 10 ,000 people listening.

01:08:52

Do you know why he was in the field? Because they kicked him out of the church. George Whitefield would preach to thousands.

01:08:59

Benjamin Franklin was a huge fan of George Whitefield. Benjamin Franklin wasn't a Christian, but he loved listening to Whitefield a lot.

01:09:07

Whitefield is a funny story, just as an aside, Whitefield didn't just preach the gospel.

01:09:13

He also started orphanages for children. And he was known after his preaching to ask for help with the orphanages to help the children.

01:09:20

And Benjamin Franklin knew what a good teacher and preacher Whitefield was. And he knew that he would plead for money for the kids.

01:09:29

And so when Benjamin Franklin went to go see Whitefield one time, he left his wallet at home so he wouldn't lose any money when he got there.

01:09:37

And after Whitefield's preaching, he ended up borrowing money from somebody to give to the orphanage. It's an amazing story, right?

01:09:44

But Whitefield, famous. You know what's amazing about Whitefield's preaching? What was it? Was he such a great speaker?

01:09:50

Do you know about Whitefield? Anyone know about Whitefield? Do you know that he looked creepy? Right? Do you know that he was like cock -eyed?

01:10:01

He wasn't good looking. There was nothing in him that we were like, oh,

01:10:06

I want to listen to this guy. He looked kind of spooky. His eyes were messed up. He thought that was strange.

01:10:12

He had a weird look to himself. How come God changed the world through George Whitefield's preaching? How come whole towns turned from their sin to Christ?

01:10:21

And when that town moved along the next couple of months, it was changed. Why was the great awakening such a dramatic moment in the history of the world through the gospel?

01:10:31

Why? Because something different happened then than now. We have people that come into towns now and they do crusades.

01:10:38

They say, oh, look, 20 ,000 people came to Christ last night at our crusade. Let me say this. If 20 ,000 people truly converted to Jesus Christ in one night, that city, that town wouldn't be the same one year later.

01:10:50

It couldn't be. We see how 20 ,000 people turned to Jesus Christ, legitimately heard the gospel, understood their sin and the holiness of God and their total need for Jesus Christ.

01:11:02

Whitefield went places. You know what he preached? He preached a hard gospel about our sin,

01:11:08

God's holiness, the need for repentance and faith and the need, listen, this is what Mark is teaching, the need for new life, new life.

01:11:18

You must be born again. And I want to say this, the world changes when the gospel is preached with clarity.

01:11:26

It does. And your hope, I hope you caught it, has nothing to do with you.

01:11:38

Are you not wise? Are you not strong? Are you not mighty?

01:11:46

Good. You fit the description of the kind of people

01:11:52

God uses to bring about the glory of Jesus Christ. And don't ever forget this, brothers and sisters.

01:12:00

God says, Psalm 1101, Father says to Christ, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.

01:12:10

That's where we're at right now in God's story. God taking his enemies and bringing them into submission to him.

01:12:19

The promise is that all the families of the earth are going to return and worship God. And Jesus says,

01:12:26

I will lose none of all that the Father has given to me, so you go preach that gospel, which is God's power for salvation.

01:12:33

And then we get to glory in God's power and grace for all eternity alongside the same rebel sinners that God has redeemed.

01:12:44

If you think he can't do it, if you think people are too hard, too lost, you have not reflected enough on the miracle that God accomplished when he saved you.

01:12:57

Preach the gospel and always use words, please. Let's pray.

01:13:03

Father, thank you for tonight. Please bless it, God, for your glory. Please, God, convict this room, challenge them to live risky, bold.

01:13:16

Give us boldness. Give us power. Give us your words. Use us in a mighty way,

01:13:22

God. Send us out into the world and, God, save us.

01:13:31

God, I pray right now for this church to be the means by which you turn

01:13:38

Maui to Jesus Christ, all of Maui, at every place, every realm, every level.

01:13:44

Let this place come under the feet of Jesus for your glory and not theirs.

01:13:52

Empower them, embolden them, and give them passion for the glory and exaltation of Jesus.