Pray, Read, Witness — Jose Muniz

Till I was 19 years old. I went to church nine times. Just picture that some of you guys been nine times the church this past couple of weeks nine times. Three times was for funerals. One of them was uh, I guess it might have been my my dad's aunt.

She was like real old and I remember being four or five years old, but I was in the church. The second one was always my uncle he got he worked with the Mexican Mafia and he got gunned down when I was about 14 and then when I was about 17 my great-grandmother.

So that's the three times. I've been the church the other six times. I was in church. It's called breaking and entering you guys know what that is. Where you break through the door and through the window and you steal their stuff.

And that was it. So I what I see I come in as an outsider coming into the church. And I started checking everything out and I'm like, well, wait a minute. What's what's the deal with this guy? I Read I was at the mall this past Saturday and I ran into a guy.

The the very first Bible study I ever went to this man was there and he'd been in church all his life. Still in church. He's about 50 51 years old and He was also a state trooper, but he's already retired.

And he came up to me and and this was just this past Saturday and he said hi I hadn't seen him in about a year. So and he said, you know Man me and Cindy is splitting up. And I thought man that sucks, you know 24 years together.

Been in church. I went to Bible studies at their house and now they're splitting up and I'm like man How can that be? You know these guys, you know Christian they go to church. They went in church every Sunday every Wednesday and Now look what's happening.

Spiritual Decline and the Need for Faithful Witness

So Then I look around and I noticed that in today's society in the church. If you're a young person that means about 75 80 85 percent of you guys sitting right here. You're gonna fall away from God, you know according to the statistics.

And and the reason that I find these things out is because not from just statistics but actually from people that you run into and to me, it's such a sad thing that That's going on in the church. You know, the divorce rate is about the same, you know.

It doesn't matter if you're in church or out of church and of course Tim said a while ago that only 2 of Christians actually share their faith and to me If you're not sharing your faith You're following the wrong Jesus and and I'm gonna read something From the scripture.

Jesus Calls His Followers to Become Fishers of Men

It's found in the gospel of Mark the first chapter. You can turn there if you have your Bible if you don't have a Bible I recommend that you bring it with you where every time you come to church as a matter of fact I'll read this first and I'll share a lot of little things with you that that I want you to think about in in the first chapter verse 14 it says.

Now after that John was put in prison Jesus came into Galilee Preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God notice what Jesus was doing he came in to Galilee and he was preaching the gospel and Saying the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand repent ye and believe the gospel.

Now as he walked by the Sea of Galilee He saw Simon and Andrew his brother casting a net into into the sea for they were fishers they were fishermen and Jesus said unto them come ye after me and I will make you to become fishers of men and straightaway.

They forsook their nets and followed him. Okay. Notice what he just told them he said come and follow after me and I Will make you fishers of men now. When Jesus walked across my path, I was a drug dealer, that's what I was doing.

I was a drug dealer. I I was breaking all the laws. I was all jacked up and When Jesus came up to me, he said come and follow me. And you know what? He did he made me a fisher of men. Now every single person that follows Jesus the Jesus of the Bible He is gonna make him a fisher of men.

He's gonna that's what he does every single one of them now. I know there's a lot of excuses and a lot of reasons in the church today one of the main ones that I hear all the time is Why I don't have the gift of evangelism and and really that is nowhere to be found in the scripture as a matter of fact Jesus says Come after me.

And I will make you a fisherman that's for everybody and you know, I am reading out of the King James it uses the word ye. You know ye why he? That means All of y 'all and he was talking to a couple of guys, but he said both of you come.

It doesn't say you come says both of you guys come. So he's he's everybody that's gonna follow Christ. That's what he's gonna do. Now I keep going back and I'm thinking okay. I see all these people Christians.

You know, they they're they're falling away. They don't want to witness that they they want to go bowling and doing all the fun things all the time. But to me, that's actually boring, you know, if you want to do something fun, you have to go out and preach the gospel.

I mean it does not get any better than that. But to in order to convince somebody first. They have to come to Christ and then when you when you come to Christ He's gonna make you a fisher of men. You don't you you don't come as a fisherman.

He makes you. That's what he does. He makes you so you were doing something else. Maybe you're an adulterer your fornicator your liar your thief a dopehead whatever you was doing in life. And everybody's got a testimony of where they were what they were doing.

When Jesus crossed their path and he said hey come and follow me and the ones that listen. Guess what happens? He makes some fishers of men, you know in the book of Proverbs it says the righteous are bold as a lion so Who in here is righteous?

All of us right man, that's what the word says that the righteous are bold as a lion and We've been made God's righteousness through the blood of Christ. So we're all righteous. Well, then why aren't why isn't everybody bold?

Holiness at Home and the Problem of Hypocrisy

You know. Does it mean that you're not righteous? Because if you are Righteous and been made righteous and you in Christ and you've been saved and you accepted Jesus and you repented and you got baptized.

And you still a coward. You still afraid you what's the deal? What's going on? You know, there's gonna come a time and the time is now. Where there's gonna be a lot of fakeness in the church. Yeah, I Was on 6th Street not too long ago, but they had the Texas relays and I handed this guy a gospel track and He took it out of my hand and he looked it looked at it.

He saw it's about Jesus. He took it and he ripped it in a couple of pieces and then he just dropped it and he laughed he said man, you don't know I don't go to church because there's a bunch of hypocrites in the church and I thought well, I Agree with you.

But you know what man? I'm not one of those hypocrites and then he said Well, there's a bunch of hypocrites. That's why I quit going five years ago. I said, oh, oh man. Look around you, dude. Look around look at all these people laughing smiling and man.

They're having the time of their life. Now and the guy was looking he looked to the sides. I said now tell me something man. Do you really believe that these people are all happy. You know what? I think man.

I'm but I believe they're all a bunch of hypocrites. Look at him you think that's the way they're gonna be when they get to the house. Yeah. Yeah. How about you man? How about you? Are you a hypocrite too?

And Then he just he bowed his head. And he walked away. The Holy Spirit jacked him up. Yeah. Then then 45 minutes later Somebody taps me on the shoulder and I turned around and it was that same guy. He said man, can I talk to you.

I said sure. Yeah, he said man. I went to the bar. I bought me a beer and Man, I I couldn't finish it. You know man, it's I need to talk to you. So I got to share with this guy for about half an hour.

About the gospel of Jesus Christ and he had been raised in church all his life. Yeah. But he was being a hypocrite in the church and then he was a hypocrite in the world. And see in the world. Everybody's a hypocrite.

Yeah, everybody point at one. They're not happy. They got a smile on their face and that's what we're gonna encounter tomorrow or even tonight maybe. But we as the body of Christ as people who are in church.

We need to live out a godly. Holy righteous life. And my main emphasis is How is it at home? Yeah, you know because I've had hundreds and hundreds and thousands of people coming out with us handing out tracts handing out tracts and.

Yet, you know, it's a good thing. But when they go home. They're arguing they're fussing they're fighting they're watching things. They shouldn't be you know. It's it's a totally different person from the guys handing out tracts and and the guy that's at home, you know.

Arguing with his wife or yelling at his kids or being disobedient to the parents. Hypocrite hypocrite and we don't want to be that you know. Because there's too many of them already. Several years ago.

A Young Witness Confronts Hypocrisy

I was I was at one of the high schools and this young lady. She goes to our church and she was a she was a junior in high school and she asked me she said Jose I want to come out with you. Yeah, I said we'll get permission from your parents.

And if they say yes, you know, that's fine. And you know, she lived with her dad. Her dad's a police officer. And they'd been divorced her parents were divorced. And so The dad okayed it. I said sure come on.

So we went and picked her up me and my wife Amy and we went to the mall and and we stood there. And I asked her I said, okay, Anna. What are we doing here? Said we're gonna preach the gospel. Okay, let's do it.

So I stood there and then somebody walked by us. Excuse me, sir. Could I ask you a question? And the guy's like sure. Said man, if you died right now, where would you be going heaven or hell real simple question, you know and you don't have to get real and into theological you just ask him a simple question and.

The guy's like well, you know probably heaven. And then of course then you start going through using the law bringing the law in and bringing other things in from the scriptures and. Man, he just shut down and he's like, you know, then we talked for about five minutes and that was it and he moved on.

Well, then as we're talking To two young kids come up, you know, they were in Anna's class and They came over there and talked to her and you know, we were you know about from here to that speaker apart.

And I could overhear her conversation. Hey, what are you doing girl? You know, it's all just hanging out. Oh. Just hanging out. So then after they talked for a few minutes, you know, I stepped over there a little bit closer.

I said hey Anna. What are we what are we doing here today? Oh. Preaching the gospel. Oh, yeah, that's what we're doing. Okay so then I came back over here and I stopped a couple of more people and she'd get close to hear the Conversation and then, you know talk to a few more people and they they kind of went through and then here comes another couple of guys.

Hey, Anna, what are you doing? You know? Oh just hanging out, you know Saturday. There's nothing to do, you know we're just hanging out and. Then then they asked her who you with all by myself and she didn't want to say that who I'm with this guy.

So She lied to him. So then after they got done talking for about 10 minutes, I went over there. Hey Anna. What are we doing here today? And she just started to cry and I put my hand on her shoulder. I say you okay.

So I said, let's let's talk. So we went sat down. Said well, you know the way that I that I am at school I'm a hypocrite. I can't I can't tell these kids that I'm here sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ because the way I live.

It doesn't match Christianity and It was like so we got to talk, you know for 45 minutes me and my wife ministered to her and Totally that day on the bench. She got things right with God. You know right there on the bench.

She came out to witness. That she found out that she really wouldn't walking it. Yeah. So in in today's church, you know, we have to examine ourself. You know, we we have to judge ourselves examine ourselves.

We got to do all this stuff every day. You know and man, my wife keeps me accountable. But you know more than anything God keeps me accountable. The Holy Spirit keeps me accountable. Because we need to live holy we need to live righteous and you know a lot of people they don't witness.

Prayer and Consistent Spiritual Discipline

Some some of the times mainly is because they don't know. But the other times because they don't the way they live. They don't want to go out there in public especially in their own town. That's why they do missions and go over to Mexico.

Nobody knows them over there. That's why they go to Africa and you know, Ireland and heck who knows you over there. Everybody thinks you're such a saint. So that they don't want to go knock on the neighbors door.

You know, they don't want to go pass out tracks, you know in the school and network and share. No, why they don't even want people come over to their house. It's a sad thing why because the way they live.

You know, it's a few years ago, you know, I think see you at the pole didn't it start somewhere around here. I'm in the neighborhood. Well, you know one of our kids, you know, they do that I think in every school in America now just about.

Well a few years ago, it must have been about eight years ago one of the kids in In in the youth group, you know, he came up to me and he said hey, man I Want you to come with me to see you at the pole and I knew what it was.

I heard about it. But I acted like I didn't know. I said well, what's that man? I Said well, you know, it's this day. You know, and it's a Wednesday and when all the and all the kids come and man we're gonna pray and we're gonna have donuts.

And orange juice and we're gonna pray for our teachers and students and you know, man, it's gonna be good. They're gonna have some music playing the guitar. We're gonna worship God. And I looked at him his name's Andrew.

I Looked at him. I said, nah, I don't want to do that. I think see you at the pole sucks, man. And I walked away from him and he stood there it's like. So I said he said Jose. But but we're gonna pray.

I Said yeah one day out of the year. What kind of Christians are you man? It's all you can do pray one day out of the year. That's it. You're gonna show at the flagpole one day out of the whole year one day.

That's almost as bad as the National Day of Prayer and Then I walked off and then he followed me and he said hey Jose. Wait, wait, wait, I Stopped and said yeah. He said man, you know what? I'm gonna go to school.

And I'm gonna go pray the first day at school. At the flagpole. Will you come with me? I said sure. So I went with him the first day of school. We stood by the flagpole we prayed for about 15 minutes.

That guy Went to the flagpole every single day. His freshman year sophomore junior senior every single day now. That's see you at the pole. And you know what it changed the whole the way he saw prayer at the pole.

You know because you know who shows up at the pole. Religious people show up at the pole. They you'll never see them at church. There's people that man dude you. You're you're a Christian, dude you know man the way you talk and yet aren't you the one you know that screwed so-and-so and.

And you broke up with so-and-so now you with so-and-so. Yeah, but the guys they're praying to who. You know, that's why the church doesn't have power behind it. Because of the lifestyle that they live they don't want to talk about it.

They don't want to say anything. You know, I was at a when Christian concerts were Good years ago. Nobody has altar calls anymore. They just you know, it's all about love and I Went to this concert and and it was rich Mullins.

And I was there and I'm like I looked through the site dude that guy works with me and that dude was the Dirtiest mouth in the whole, you know, there was about 30 guys. Like two I did so I walked over there.

I Said hey, man, what are you doing? And he trying to avoid me. It's all my wife. You know, she wanna join me to come and I said, oh. So then I left it like that. I didn't want to put no pressure on him.

I was gonna wait till we go to work to do that. So then we Monday morning, we're at work. So hey, man, wouldn't that concert awesome dude in front of everybody? We're washing our hands at break. Man did that man?

I love the way that got a song, you know, our God is an awesome God man. That was awesome. So all the guys look at this dude. Dude, you were at that concert Boom on the spot on the spot that guy. For the whole rest of the time.

He was working there. He never said another dirty joke. What put a little pressure on him, but you know what fake he went to church every Sunday. We come to find out. His wife was a strong Christian, but he was just a hypocrite this in our class and They were good-looking as a matter of fact.

The Cost of Silent Christianity

I lusted after them all the period long and I would be checking them out they'd be dissecting worms and lizards and you know doing experiments with fruits and see how many how long it take the mold and.

And I'm just there checking it out. I'm having these thoughts man, and They were really nice to me real kind real friendly. And you know and they even had had brought me a cake on my birthday. And I'm like man, these girls are so sweet.

Not if they'd only just let me you know get to them. Yeah, they'd be really sweet. But I'm like Years later I got kicked out of school and you know didn't see him anymore 50 16 years later. I run into one of them.

Her name was Nikki. And man, she was hot man. She was a cheerleader and and I ran into her at the mall. I Said hey Nikki. And you know she now, you know, she had a couple of kids, you know. And had a like a three or four year old and then had a like a seven year old.

It's Jose. Oh my god, and she came over there and hugged me and you know, so we start talking I Say and I knew she went to church. I knew that say Nikki. Remember when we were at school and I we shared a few stories so remember when I got kicked out of school because I was you know, I Got busted because I was tripping on on acid and math class.

And she's like, yeah, I said man remember remember how I Was on my way to hell. Did you know that I was going to hell. And she just kind of called us all of a sudden it went from being happy, you know.

But she ain't seen me in years to man. I said Nikki. Why didn't you tell me anything? Man you were the nicest person in the whole school to me. Nicest person. I mean, I remember when you brought me that cake for my birthday.

Man, you did you helped me do my homework you man. You were so kind and nice. But yet you never invited me to church. You never told me anything about Jesus. What's the deal Nikki? I Thought we were friends.

What happened? Just start weeping and she's she hugged me and she said I am so sorry. She's still going to church her and her husband didn't say anything. Why is it that people are so embarrassed to talk about Jesus?

They can talk about anything else sports whether. They can talk trash about the teachers about sport anything, but Jesus you got to be kidding. That's for the church. I Don't want to tell anybody. You know.

Let them find out. Well, what if I would have died because you know what? There was several people that were in that class as a matter of fact. I can think of two of them that are dead right now and They one of them was on a motorcycle and He ran off the road and got killed.

He went to hell the dude who used to hang out with me. He's a pothead drug addict sinner to the max nobody told him and. Then this other guy got killed in a bad drug deal. You know dealing drugs. How saved is that?

Down why this girl had all the answers she knew about Jesus. But she never said a word. Well, you know we're coming into a time in in Christianity and in the time in the world where? The church is. Just a weakling, you know why people hate the church because of the hypocrisy in the church, so it's up to us.

You know, we're out there handing out tracts and preaching a gospel, but we also have to be preaching the gospel at home. We also have to be living this gospel at home. Because if we're just doing this over here.

And then you know, you know go here and you know, you're jacking around and just being a hypocrite man. What kind of power is that? There's no anointing on it. You know people can pass out tracks all the time.

But I want to pass out track with the anointing on it. Yeah from God's Spirit on it. You know where man you sometimes, you know. You just say a couple of words and it jacks them up and you're like man, you know, they come back to you.

You know a few weeks ago. We were down on 6th Street in Austin and There was a guy standing next to me Mexican guy. And he was you know, I mean I could touch him, you know. And and he stood there and so I you know I was keeping an eye on him because he I mean he's might want to mug me or stab me.

I don't know what he's gonna do and I try to you know, like smile at him and every time I look he turned away. So then I walked a few steps away and he'd get closer to me and then after about half an hour.

You know, he tapped me on the shoulder. I turned around he said hey man, I like what y 'all are doing as. A matter of fact man, I like the way you guys are doing it, you know, man, you're just sharing the gospel.

It's awesome. You know, it's a matter of fact. I'd like for you guys to come to my restaurant. I got a restaurant down here on 6th Street and Man, it's on the house. I said sure so I went over there and yeah about 1230, you know.

We never leave the street. You know, we get we stay there till the horses come out on 6th Street and that means that the cops on horseback, you know, they kicked everybody off the street and. So but I felt you know by the Spirit of God you need to go over there.

So we went over there and this guy is. We went to his restaurant he sat us down and he said hey man, there's the menu get whatever you want. I said, oh cool, you know, I'll take some fajitas, you know.

And I mean everybody on the team got something and we ate we got done. Said man, we really appreciate it. He said wait before you leave. I want to talk to you right quick. So he met us at the door. He was behind the bar.

We went over to the door and he starts telling me guys, I used to be a pastor up the fastest growing Hispanic Church in Austin, Texas and In two weeks, I lost my church. I lost my wife. I lost my kids.

I lost everything. He didn't tell us what happened. I really didn't care and you know, it's none of my business and as he was saying that he just started weeping and he said Will you please pray for me?

And you know what? I what what God told me. This guy's still a pastor. I Didn't take that away from him. He walked away from it. So we laid our hands on him prayed for him and Then as we were praying God just gave us some words for him man.

Totally when we got done praying he hugged every one of us. We went out back to 6th Street in Trinity 30 minutes later that guy shows up. It was about 130 he shows up and. And I look back and he's over here talking to some guy.

I'm like He had a stack of tracks that we left on the counter. He brought him with him. He's passing out tracks and he didn't last too long. He started talking to this one, dude. And I'd look back and he's like in his face like preaching the gospel.

You know and then I look back and he's like calm down then I look back. He's got his hand on his shoulder. Then I look back a few minutes later. They're both the guy that he's talking to is crying. I look back again.

He's crying with them. I look back again. They're hugging each other and then Tap me on the back say Like to introduce you to mr. Rocky new brother in the Lord. And I thought man, isn't this amazing. You know what?

That is more fun than anything you can do on a Friday night Saturday any night and that guy he came and They exchanged phone numbers well, I go back a couple of weeks later and Pastor James as we call him.

He said hey, man. Guess what happened? You know that guy Rocky that got saved the other night. Well, man, his fiance came to church with me. And him and she got saved too. As a matter of fact, they're think they're talking about getting married and they're living together.

They kind of split up for now saved. Why just because we were on the street handing out a piece of paper. It says Jesus Jesus Jesus on it now. What are you gonna do with your time? You know, you can go and just blow it big time.

And you know, I how many verses have I read just a couple just a few you know and. You know, I I'd read more but you know heck. That's enough because that's that's about how many verses most Christians read throughout the week.

The Neglect of Scripture

Man that's crazy. No, you know what? Did you know I want you to be honest. I'm not gonna make you raise your hand. How many of you in here? Don't raise your hand. It's gonna go up inside have read the Bible one time in your lifetime.

One time I'm not talking about 50. Once you know how many people that I run into. I was speaking at a youth thing 700 youth 700 and I said, okay guys everybody stand up and. Man it took him. I gave him a you know about 30 45 seconds for everybody to get up.

Said okay, if you've read your Bible one time. Stay standing up everybody else sit down. Everybody sat down. Including all the youth ministers youth pastor sponsors everybody in that whole room. Christians.

Never read the Bible one time and then they want to go over there and preach it. Then they want to go over there and tell people. Hey, yeah, you need to believe in this book. I haven't read it yet, but I heard it's good now.

If you want to know why people are hypocrites why people fall away? Why people are so jacked up is because they don't read the Word of God. Yeah, you know, it says in Psalms. Thy word have I hid in my heart.

So that I might not sin against thee. They sin all the time. Why they don't got no word in them. The devil comes after him and what do they do? They hide behind the shield of faith. They ain't got the sword of the Spirit.

They forgot that's the most important thing they got so I recommend that very highly. Read the word get into the word meditate the word listen to the word. You know what? We have no excuse if you can't read.

You can buy dvds you can buy cds. They got it on on cassette tape. I mean they will hook you up. We've been hooked up. To have the word in us around us all the time, but I guarantee you the the most. Most most most neglected thing in today's christianity.

Is the word of god? I promise you. Everywhere I've been going I asked people. I had a 54 year old man approached me in tears. He said man. I've been in church 54 years. And I haven't read my bible yet.

Oh people read the bible all the time. Psalms and proverbs. As a matter of fact 75 of the people that I ask. Hey, man, so what are you reading today? Psalms 75 percent. You know the muslims by the time they're six seven eight years old.

They read the quran several times through someone can quote you chunks at a time. Books at a time. And in christianity. By the time a teenager grows up. Graduates from high school at 18. Goes off to ut.

Or texas a &m or one of these universities. They haven't even read the four gospels. And then we expect them to stand their ground. We expect them to be strong man go go out there and get them. With what?

They got the armor, but no weapon. You know and when jesus got tempted in the wilderness. He just quoted a few verses. It is written. From deuteronomy and exodus. Yeah, it is written. So when when when the temptation comes.

Uh, well for god's love of the world, you know, hey, that's only gonna get you so far. Oh, uh, it says what for for god's love of the world. I can do all things. You know that verse that that's a favor for the you and and you know.

That's what I see from being an outsider like man. They're all jacked up. Man, you know what? I I had a I had a conversation with my brothers. They all have kids. I said, hey, man, what are you teaching your kids?

He said well, you know they go to church. I said man you need to make your kids read the bible amen. He said man, you can't tell us what to do. You didn't even got kids man. I said hey man neither did jesus.

Hey, man, i'm just i'm just telling you. He said but man, you don't understand it's different. It's different man. It's different. I said no, it's not different. I said look. Look what you do. How about if your kid, you know, are you giving them a choice about taking a shower.

Do do they really have to brush their teeth man? Nah, let them skip a few days man. How about homework man. You know when they come in that what what's the first question you got? Hey, you got any homework?

Well, don't ask them that no more. Now oh so it is important to brush your teeth to take a shower. It's important that you do your homework. It's important, huh? But the word of god isn't. Give them give them a a choice if they want to read it they can read it.

But if they don't they don't. You know what that's that's the downfall of the church today that's why there's no boldness there's no anointing there's no nothing. Because they don't even read the bible anymore.

You know, I believe every christian every christian should be reading their bible at least one time a year at the very minimum. And if you're going to be out on the street on the front line. Man, you better read it more than that.

You know, I was out on the street with one of the teams in austin. And we were. There was this one guy and everybody was talking to him. And he was a muslim and I kind of stepped in and overheard the conversation that they were having and The the muslim quote something out of deuteronomy and I had just read it like two three weeks ago.

And then he said whoa, you know I heard that, you know, I read it the other day he read it. And I and then the other guy that was witnessing to him. He said I don't know. I don't think that's in there.

The christian didn't know it was in there and I was like. And I didn't want to embarrass the brother. So i'm like I told the muslim. I said man. I know what you're talking about. Go ahead man. Keep on.

Isn't that sad? Now, I know some of you guys are just starting out, but you know what if you want to be effective on on in the front line. You better take the word you better read the word you better meditate the word you better think it breathe it.

You better be coughing it up. Because when you go on the street, you're disarmed and not just a witness but for your kids for your wife for your work. All the choices you make decisions you make. All these things, you know man shall not live by bread alone.

But by every word. Every word from genesis to revelation all of a sudden. We're like, I don't jack with the old testament. Why not? You know, and you know, this is the way I see it, you know leviticus and numbers and deuteron.

To the christian world. That's like broccoli. Yeah. Yeah, it is. You know, it's like I uh, man, you know, it's like it stinks. Yeah proverb salt mass dessert. Oh, man, I can eat this all day. The epistles hamburger fries steak, you know.