Your Church a Life Saving Station, Part 1 "Rescuing Lost Lives"

So I was flying from, I wasn't, I was in a plane actually, flying back from uh Newark to uh from Chicago to Newark some years ago. And uh as we were uh in the descent, we were flying over uh eastern Pennsylvania and beautiful Poconos countryside. I see this beautiful red barn, nice neat farm down there and so on. And we're just starting to come in And uh I thought the flight was getting a little longer than they had anticipated. And then we were a little while and I'm looking at still this very beautiful singer. I said, well isn't that amazing. There's another red bar just like that that other one. Uh that this farm looks very similar. And then a few minutes later I said, well boy, everybody must have nice red barns uh here in the Poconos because there it is again. Well you've been if you've flown much, you've been in a you know a holding pattern. Yeah, we were in a holding pattern for quite a while. Actually, we were still uh we were burning fuel, for sure. We were not stopping standing still. That's a good thing. We were not standing still. We were still still moving. Unfortunately, we were going around in circles. We were stuck in a pattern. We weren't really going anywhere, but we were sure burning up fuel When you're doing God's work and you're one of God's leaders, sometimes without even realizing it, it gets very frustrating and you are in a holding pattern. You're definitely burning plenty of your fuel You are definitely in motion. You're still doing stuff. But sometimes you get the feeling I'm stuck. I'm not sure we're making progress. And that's when the fatigue and the frustration, even sometimes the burnout starts to come in. I mean, look. There are so many, you know this. Everybody in your church has a different definition of the word pastor, and they want you to be all of them. Right? So, you know, you're supposed to be the uh you're supposed to be Superman, the Apostle Paul, Billy Graham the chief handholder, the chief counselor, the chief fixer, and and uh I mean I uh fireman, you're supposed to be the firefighter. And you can't possibly satisfy all those expectations. And some of the passion that you came into ministry with just kind of gets beat out of you. We're just trying to keep the church machine going. Meeting all the expectations. Actually, and pastors as you well know, uh, who do they talk to? And some of that is evident in some of the surveys that have been taken recently, and some of the research shows that 50% of America's pastors are really dealing with some level of depression. And also that about half of America's pastors would quit if they could. And then 76%, supposedly, according to this research, of American pastors See, their self-esteem is less now than when they went into the pastorate. This is so much of an issue that the Lilly Foundation in Indianapolis, just in the past couple of weeks, has announced a $71 million grant to build pastoral networks across the country just to try to help, encourage, and minister and keep ministers ministering. So obviously, we come here today, some of us, um in need of a shot in the arm. Some encouragement and maybe even some some hope. What's interesting, and now I know different denominations do this differently, but in many of your churches I know you're the shepherd, but what's really weird is the sheep hire the shepherd. And they keep reminding you, we were here before you got here, Shepherd. We'll be here after you're gone, which could be any time now. Um We're having a board meeting while you're at that breakfast. So um So and and so you know here you are uh you know and the the sheep hired the shepherd, but The sheep didn't call you to be a shepherd. No, Jesus did that. That's who you please. That's who you answer to. That's who you do it for. The one who called you. So I want to Kind of go back on this passion thing for a minute. If passion, I I call passion kind of holy fire. And something you came in with, that fire might be burning down or out. Or need some logs on it right now, and there's a bit of a of a passion deficit. I looked up the word passion. It means enthusiastic devotion. to a cause with tireless diligence in its pursuit. Is that how you're feeling now? enthusiastic devotion to a cause with timeless diligence, tireless diligence in its pursuit, in an intense driving feeling, conviction. Maybe not. Or maybe it could be more. Or maybe God wants to even burn it higher How many of you have ever driven in Manhattan? Why? Oh, for heaven's sake. There's one rule driving in Manhattan. Drive safe and die. No, it's true. It really is. I mean you're everybody needs to be a stud driver there. The buses are closing in on you, the taxis, I don't know where you're even there. The pedestrians travel in suicidal packs across, you know, and so it it and it's there's crime and there's dirts and there's weird smells and and push and pull and And uh but if you've ever gone up to the Empire State Building or or the Freedom Tower or any of those really tall buildings and gone up and and looked down on the city, you take that elevator up to the top floor. Everything looks different. Down here it's total chaos. Mass danger up here you say well there's Central Park a big park right in the middle of all this and there's Lady Liberty out there in the harbor there's the ships coming in and there's the East River and and there's the Hudson River And boy, just that whole impressive landscape. It really is majestic from up there. What I want us to do for our time together is take an elevator ride from down on the street where we're in the middle of it all. In the middle of the chaos and the crunch, let's go up the elevator to the top floor, try to get a God's eye view of our calling and our life in Christ and and where we go from here. And maybe Maybe get the fire back again or maybe even higher than it ever was before. I'm going to call passion spiritual plutonium. You know, plutonium is that element that makes possible a nuclear chain reaction and sustains an atomic reaction And if you are passionate and if you have that intense driving feeling and enthusiastic devotion It's going to keep you going on the days when nothing else will. And it's going to get other people going. Holy fire, the power of passion. Here's the power of having passion in a leader. Passion is engaging. It makes you want to listen to the person. It makes you want to hear what they're saying. How many of you remember a teacher Somewhere in your school career who taught a subject you didn't particularly care for, but they just were so passionate about it, it just was engaging. Or some of us got into something because of a passionate teacher Passion is engaging. It's incentivizing. It makes you, it's worth getting out of bed for in the morning. I'm like, man, there's a lot of problems, but This passion incentivizes me to keep going and to keep moving. And passion is contagious. It's like fire. I don't think programs are contagious. And I don't think always our ideas are even contagious, but ideas and truth delivered with passion does something our hearts. It's contagious. But passion is also fragile. And it requires fuel. If it's a fire, it requires fuel. Second Timothy chapter 1 says and uh This is why I remind you to fan into flames the spiritual gifts God gave you when I laid my hands on you. For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love And self-discipline. So it needs fuel. See if we can do some. I want to talk to you today about four holy passions. Four holy passions of a high impact life. Four holy passions. Now we're going to spend a lot of time on one, and you're going to well one and we're going to do the others. The first one is missional. The other three are personal and actually are going to take a lot less time. There's a lot to be said about this first one, but before we're done, four passions of a high impact life. The first one I really want to focus on because it is easily lost, and that is rescuing lost lives. That is a core passion of the heart of the Savior who called you to do what you do. Luke 19, 10. I've got pastors in the room. You don't need me to quote the whole thing. Oh, it's on the screen. No fair cheating. The Son of Man came to seek and save what was lost. I translated it from the Greek. I I do know a little Greek. He owns a diner in New Jersey, actually, but no, I'm sorry. But But Luke 19, 10, when I translate it, it says the Son of Man came to look for and to rescue. Those who are dying. The word for loss there is Apolumi. It's the same word for shall not perish. It's in John 3. 16. And and and the save word is a rescue word. It's a life or death word. So this is a rescue mission. This is all the all the urgency. of those guys going into the rubble of the World Trade Center hoping to find somebody in there. Their only hope of s of of life was a rescuer going. Rescue doesn't go in, they die. Their only hope's a rescuer. Jesus said, I came on a rescue mission. So if I'm following Jesus, which a shepherd has to do, because the sheep follow me, I need to follow the chief shepherd. Well I'll tell you where he's going. He's looking for and saving lost people. Are you? Because that's his central passion. Paul said in Acts 20 and verse 24, he caught the passion from Jesus. He said, my life is worth nothing to me unless I use it. for finishing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus. What? The work of telling others the good news about the wonderful grace of God. Now We live in pretty challenging times, brothers and sisters, for the gospel. Certainly the most challenging in my lifetime, which is getting to be a fairly long lifetime. 1 Chronicles 12 talks about the men of Issachar, and it says they understood the times and they knew what Israel should do. So I want to take a minute to understand our times so we know what to do. Here are some of the challenges of trying to rescue lost people in our world. I made a list real quickly. Distrust. There is a high amount of distrust among a lot of people for things Christian. for Christian institutions, for Christian leaders, they have been made skeptical and suspicious by scandals. by associ but sometimes the gospel being associated with politics and so on. And then there are a lot of misconceptions, huge misconceptions these days. In fact, again, we have social research on this And the most recent research of how unbelievers perceive us, here's what they say. And I'm not joking about this. This is what the research shows. that basically we want everybody to be Republican, we hate gays, we are angry, and they we want them as notches on our belt. Why would they be interested in what we have to say or do? That's the perception. So the misconceptions are daunting. And then there's what I call ignosticism, not agnostic. Ignostic doesn't mean they're stupid. It means that they don't know anything about God's word. I know a lot of lost people. I can tell you, they don't know why what John is, why there's a 3, a 16, or a colon. They don't know what a verse is. They don't know what a chapter is. They don't know, we cannot assume they know the Bible stories or they know much about Jesus. They don't know God's book. They don't know God's rules, so they don't know they're breaking them. They certainly don't know our vocabulary, and they don't ever plan to go to a religious meeting to hear a religious speaker talk on a religious subject, which is basically how we try to reach them mostly. Wow. So we are dealing with ignosticism. One uh real church um uh church uh myssiologist said this, the day of the professional minister is over. You're like, I'm out of work? No. The board meeting was not this morning. The day of the professional ministry is over. The day of the missionary pastor has come. Welcome to the mission field, man. The day of the church culture is over. The day of the mission field has come. Did you think you were going to just do church? No, you're on a mission field. The day of the local church is over. The day of the mission outpost has come. So are you pastoring as if you are the pastor of a mission outpost? And then there's there's what I call pre-rejection. One of the ev the things about a post-Christian culture is this. When the gospel goes to a pre-Christian culture, let's say there's a tribe in the Amazon who's never heard the name of Jesus. And you go and tell them that God loves them, their sins can be forgiven, and God sent his son to die for them, half the tribe may come to Jesus. But in a post-Christian culture, Jesus is what we used to believe in. Now I don't know much about him, I just know we don't believe in him. We. As a culture, don't believe in him. He's like the tooth fairy, Santa Claus. I'm sorry if you didn't know. But it seriously, it's like we pre-reject Jesus. This is our culture. That he's just not one of my options, not something I'm considering at all. So again, it's pretty daunting. There's buffet spirituality When you go to a restaurant, you order a plated meal, you make a decision, and you get that meal. A buffet, you're like, I think I'll take a little of this, a little of this, a little of this, because I really don't want to order one thing. Today, People do not want to land any place spiritually. They want a little off the buffet. I'll take a little of this and a little of that and they come up with the weirdest combination of beliefs and beautiful, beautifully wrapped lives. But faith spirituality. Largest growing group, religious group in America, is a group that George Gallup calls nuns, not Roman Catholic ladies, N-O-N-E-S. who say I'm either an atheist, an agnostic, or I really am nothing. That's the largest single, if you want to call it that, denomination in America today. Witchcraft. Wicca has grown 1500% in 10 years. Faster than any other group. But faith spirituality, that's what we're dealing with. And then viralized sin. Sin is going viral. across this planet. As Jesus said it would before he came back. He said in Matthew 24, 12, just before he came back that He said, because of the increase of wickedness, Greek, rapid multiplication of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold. How could that be fulfilled? Guess what? Technology Jesus made that prediction 2,000 years ago and technology is viralizing every kind of sin you can think of and some you would never think of and don't want to. everywhere on the planet within instant reach, viralized sin, and just a lot of baggage that goes with the gospel. Here's one of the reasons we're not always doing it so well. I somebody sent me this little a post from Facebook. Life's short. Make sure you spend as much time as possible on the internet arguing with strangers about politics We laugh, but might maybe we've been doing it. Who knows? So um We moved to New Jersey. We didn't know any Christian kids. It's not exactly the Bible Belt there in the suburbs of New York. It's bagel belt. And first guy First guy that ever came to Jesus was a young man named Jeff. He was always a clown, but apparently he wasn't a clown when he was alone. He called me one night, woke me up, and he said, Ron, I'm calling you because I'm going to end it all tonight, and I just, you're the only one worth saying goodbye to. He said, I broke into your office to call you New Jersey. I said, Jeff, don't go anywhere. I was with him the rest of the night. He gave his life to Christ by the next morning instead of taking his life that night. And um it's interesting because he felt so he didn't have much of a family, so he would come over to our house and just drop, he would just walk in. So the door was unlocked, we'd just kind of walk in the living room and go, oh, hi Jeff Excuse me while I get my robe. So Jeff went away to the army and when he came back, we had a beelined our house, door was unlocked, came in, sat down in the living room, strange lady came in, so do were you He said, who are you? See, we had moved. It's true. Not because of Jeff, we didn't move just to, you know. But he went he went looking for us where we always were and we weren't there anymore. I think that might be the mistake we're making. We're still trying to find lost people where they used to be. And they ain't there anymore. They moved. But maybe we haven't. And so the world of the church and the world of the lost, the gap between them gets wider and wider, and they keep on dying without Jesus. More and more of them. So there are some serious challenges, but I haven't told you the biggest challenge. By far the biggest challenge is not outside the church. It's inside. Matthew 24, 12 to 14, let's look at these words of Jesus I alluded to before. He predicted two explosions before he came back. First would be the explosion of sin. There would be what I call a tsunami, not a tsunami, a tsunami, that would sweep across planet Earth, now made possible by technology. He said the increase of wickedness, but the love of, and he's talking about his own people. He said, what's going to happen is, it isn't the increase of wickedness, it's the what's going to happen to my people. It is going to make them grow cold. They're going to be apathetic. They're going to be numbed by this sin that's everywhere. It isn't that they're going to become grossly sinful. They're just going to sit there. And their love is gonna go cold because sin kills love. So it's kind of like when you're in a town that has like a paper mill and there's a terrible smell and the locals go, what smell? They can't smell it anymore. We don't smell sin anymore. We don't smell the stink. Because it's everywhere. You live with it. So his people, in the waning days of planet Earth, in the last great battles for lives, are sitting there. But there's hope, because as we go on, he says, the one who stands firm to the end, they're not going to move. They're going to be saved. Look at this next part. This gospel of the kingdom will be preached In the whole world is a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come. There's going to be an explosion of gospel along with the explosion of sin, which means there are going to be two groups of believers before Jesus comes back, the cold and the bold. Guess what's gonna be the bigger group? The love of most will go cold. But there will be a smaller group. They will understand, they're looking at the game clock and they're going, fourth quarter. Let's put some points on the board. This maybe it's two minutes. Let's do a two-minute offense, baby. And so there will be those people who wake up and go, man, we've got to do something differently. But because the love of most is going to go cold, see if it's dark in this room Don't blame the dark for being dark. Dark is always dark. It'll be because the lights aren't on. It's dark in our world. Don't lament the culture. Lament the Christians. Because it's a failure of the light. It's not the strength of the darkness. And so at a time when we Jesus, when he gave the Great Commission, there were 300 million people on this planet, they estimate. There are 7. 7 billion this day. And every day, 150,000 of them go into eternity, ready or not. Today, 150,000 people will go to heaven or hell. Well, we're here today. Fact is, it's a time when every believer has to be fully mobilized to share Jesus, and some surveys show that only 5% do. So the people who are in the best position to do the rescuing, because they're with lost people all day, either don't know they are the ones to do it, don't care. If they do it. Or feel like they can't. They don't think they can. They either don't know, they don't care. Or they don't think they can. Because it just ain't happening. And the question Jesus asked the three disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane, I think he is asking his church. Why are you sleeping? I need you now. Go preach on that next Sunday. Why are you sleeping? Probably a couple guys are literally, and they'll take it very personally. So you go, well, this is really encouraging, Ron. You're sure we're going to be encouraged. I need some Prozac now. This is Fantastic encouragement you've given us so far. Yeah, those are the challenges of our time, but I want to talk to you about the readiness of our time. Mm-hmm Because I believe this. The things that have made people so lost have made them more ready for Jesus than they have ever been. All the stuff that's broken, all the stuff that's disappointed them, all the relationships that didn't deliver, can't deliver. All the pain of their past, all the places they've looked that came up with nothing, all the feelings of meaninglessness, whether they're rich or poor, they wake up in the morning and go, what's the point? I have a Savior who has all of those answers. And if they just could get a right view of Jesus, if they could know who He is, if somebody would tell them. and wouldn't put baggage on the message. I think they would love him. Many of them would. I know that for a fact. Jesus said in Matthew 9, when he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them. They were harassed and helpless, sheep, without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, the harvest is plentiful. You know this, you've probably spoken on it. But the workers are few. I'm a city boy. I grew up on the south side of Chicago. I don't know anything about harvest. We harvested cockroaches in our apartment. But I married a farm girl and I got a lot of farmer friends. They explained harvest. I said to them, what do you think of? First word, when I say harvest, what do you think of? Most of the time they say one word, ready. I mean just ready, Ron. Jesus said the ready is plentiful. My problem is not getting the lost people ready. I've got them ready. They don't know what they're ready for, but they're ready. I can't get my people to go out and harvest them, so they die ready. So the readiness is plentiful, and I believe people are hope-starved all around us. They are starved for hope. And another reason we can be encouraged is this. We have more means to access lives than ever before because of the time in which we get to serve the Lord. Paul talked about by all possible means to save some. We have so many ways we can get the message out. Social networks, so many digital means of communication. We have all kinds of media. Things can be fast-tracked getting messages out. There's so many ways to get to lost people. I heard a Christian comedian say the other day, he said, someone said to me. Boy, I need to get you a laptop. He was a big boy. He said, I haven't had a lap for 20 years. But the fact is, there are so many ways to access lost lives. It's an incredibly exciting time to live in that regard. And the most important thing is the gospel is still the dynamite of God, as powerful as it ever was. The gospel of Christ is the dunamis, the dynamite of God. And it is no less powerful. I am not ashamed of the gospel. And so what's the answer for our time? How do we Live at ourselves and then take the people who follow us into the harvest that is ready but unharvested. Let me suggest to you, given what I said about the times in which we live, here's how we have to make Jesus available. I think our issue is to put Jesus within the reach of as many people as possible where they can reach him, where they could get him. I'm grateful for just radio. I know I hear all the time of people who said this guy got in my car with me every morning. We just I was with another radio uh some other radio folks nearby here in another state and and the uh their morning show host got up and said six years ago I was lost and this guy named Ron Hutchcraft, she was introducing me to speak I could hardly speak after she was done. Kept getting in my car, told me about Jesus. I I gave her my life. Now she's on the radio telling other people about Jesus. So how do we make Jesus Jesus' work she could reach him? She could find him there. So how do we make Jesus available in a way that will work? We understand our time. We know our times, so we'll know what to do. First of all, we have to make Jesus available in the right place. And the right place is probably not in our building. That's the least likely place they will come. We're going to need to reach them where they feel safe, not where we feel safe. where they feel safe. And they feel safe on neutral ground. I've watched an On Eagles Wings team of native young young people. go into the hostility and and pre-rejection of Jesus, of their people, on reservation after reservation. Where do they do it? They don't go to the we don't have at the meetings of church. They're on a basketball court where everybody feels safe. That's where you do it. So there's neutral ground in your community. If you're going to try to reach people, it needs to be in places they go. restaurants and schools and auditoriums and parks. And we're not as comfortable there, but who cares if we're comfortable? We're going to heaven already. Jesus came from the most comfortable comfort zone in the universe I've never known a lifeguard who ever rescued anybody in his chair. I've never known of a drowning person who came to the lifeguard and said, I'm drowning, could you please help me? In every case, they have to go into the surf where the people are. I've never known a firefighter who rescued anybody at the fire station. They have to go into those flames and take the risks. This is what our Savior did. Where do we find that he had a meeting and asked everybody to come? What we find is he went to their meetings, right? He shows up on the street and on the beach and and at the party and at the dinner and he gets plenty of criticism for it. But he goes where the lost people are. He knows the right place to reach them is where they are. John 1. 14 says that the word became flesh and lived among us, or pitched his tent next to ours, is one way to translate that. So, if we're going to reach them, we're going to have to get out of our comfort zone. It's not about them coming to us. Hey, come, come. Y'all come. It's not about them coming to us. It's about us going to them. Notice what's the Great Commission? Go! Go! In fact, the Greek is having gone. It's assuming. You don't wait for them to come. You go So we have to reach them in the right place. Secondly, we have to reach them with the right starting point. The right starting point for our message. When I move to the northeast, From Chicago, I hit an evangelism wall. I was the same guy with the same gospel. Man, I was not getting the response. They looked at me like they had no idea what I was talking about. And one of the reasons was I realized sin is a non-issue to post-Christian people. How would they know they're sinning? Now when I was growing up there was sort of a Judeo-Christian thing and and not everybody lived by it, but if they did wrong, they knew they did wrong and they felt bad about it. Today they do wrong, don't know they're doing wrong, don't feel bad about it. So if we start and say, number one, you have a sin problem, they're like, meh. Because honestly, sin is a non-issue. How could it be an issue? If there's no boundaries How can you talk about being out of bounds? I don't even know what you're talking about. I realized I couldn't start there. I'd better get there. Because you can't give the gospel without getting to sin But if I start there, already, I'm starting with something they don't care about. What I learned was this. Start with something they do care about And Jesus taught me when he talked to the woman of Samaria. How did he start out? Ma'am, let's talk about all those guys in your life. Nope. Was there one thing he had in common? They were both thirsty. Water was the common issue. Jesus said, everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again. And you know that he went on from there. He started with something that she did care about, which was this thirst. He went from her physical thirst to her need to come back to the same well over and over again to get her thirst quenched. I get a feeling she's beginning to think that every guy she's had Has been another well that left her thirsty again. Jesus said, I'll put a spring in you. So you will have the life in you instead of having to go getting all this stuff that is killing you rather than giving you life. We have to have the right starting point. Here's what I concluded. When people walk into a doctor's office, they don't usually walk in and say, Doctor, I'm here because I have cancer. They come in with a not a disease, but a what? Yeah, they come in with a symptom. Doctor, I have headaches, I'm bleeding, I have a lump. Would you tell me why it's there? Doctor says, okay. Now it's the symptom that gets him to the doctor. He says, well you're s you're you're lumped, your headaches, that's not your problem. Your problem is you have cancer that's causing that Now would you be interested in the cure? Yes. So here's how to present the gospel in post-Christian America. Start with the symptom, not the disease. Because there are a lot of symptoms of sin in our life that we don't know are from that. We don't know we have cancer. And it is terminal. This cancer is terminal, for sure. What would be some of the things that are going on in people's lives that they're struggling with that are because God isn't there but they don't know that's why? What would be a few? Let's just shout it out. Loneliness. Loneliness, what? Death. Death. No hope. No hope? Addiction. What else? Depression. Depression, great. You're on it. What else? Relationships. Relationships. This is we could go on. You got it right there. If we start with something they care about instead of something they don't care about, aren't they more likely to listen when we get to the cancer? We explain that the reason that's going on in our lives is because of the missingness of God. The one who put us here in the first place, who is the only one big enough to fill the hole in our heart. But we start with the right starting point, as Jesus obviously did. So you go symptom, disease, cure. And this cure is a blood cure, but not yours, his. So if we're addressing issues of loneliness and meaninglessness, Mark Twain said, not to me personally, but Mark Twain said I'm old, but I'm not that old. Mark Twain said there are two days in your life that are the most important. One is the day you're born, the other is the day you find out why. Everybody knows the first one. Almost nobody knows the second one. When is the day you find out why you were born? Not until you have the one who born you, the one who created you, is the only one who knows why you're here, because he put you here. Colossians 1. 16, all things were created by him and for him. So, um the lack of meaning, a p they don't have anything to help them deal with their past pain. I find a lot of people wish they had the power to change. They start to have kids and they realize when you have a child and you see What you aren't? Because they hope make you face what you aren't and you can't and you don't have? That's a very propitious time to hear about a savior that makes people new creations in Christ. Also, right place, right starting point, right vocabulary. The right vocabulary. Yep, and the right vocabulary is not Christianese. These people don't speak our church talk. So I've had to learn to express the gospel without diluting the gospel in plain words. Colossians 4. 4, Paul said, pray that I may proclaim the message clearly, as I should. And part of that clarity is something every missionary understands. What kind of school do missionaries go to before they mission? Right, language school. Right. Because you don't go to uh Russia and say, as soon as you learn English, I'd love to tell you about Jesus. No, you learn their language. You understand, you don't just transmit your language your message, you translate it. We have to do it in a culture that all may all speak English. But they don't speak Christianese. What would be some words that lost people wouldn't understand that we use very freely and don't even think about? Like What? Blood of the Lamb. Blood of the Lamb, yeah. What else? Salvation. Salvation. What? Sin. Right. Some of the basic words. What? Saved. Yeah, okay, Grace. What else? Okay, you on it. Here we go. You got it. But if I asked you to take the next five minutes and write a full explanation of the gospel and I listed about A dozen words like this, how many of us could do it? Sin. Not a word they understand. Believe. You ask ten people if they believe in Jesus, they'll go, yes. Most of them will say yes. They don't. Not but not what the Bible means by belief. Born again. Right. One guy literally somebody said, you want to be born again? And he said, I'm afraid I come out as a girl. I mean purely they think that's a cult born again. What do they, you know what I'm asking you to do? Write these two words down. Think lost. Think like a lost person. Listen to you as if you were lost. Would you understand it? Would you get it? in a totally non-biblical background. We have to make a discussion we have to we are missionaries, remember, in a missionary culture, in a missionary outpost, we have to do the hard thing. And say, how can I explain these great ideas in words that they can understand? You know what? Lost people don't understand Christianese. And church people, by the way, are immune to it. They have heard the gospel so many times in the same old words that some of them you know in your church are just sitting there going, I got this. And all that got's the words, they don't got the Lord. But because they know the words, oh yeah, wait, I can finish the sentence. I know what's next. Accept Christ as your personal savior. Some of them like it make it one word. Accept Christ as your personal savior. So we'll talk more about this, but we it's gonna have to we need to reach them in the right place. We need to reach them with the right starting point. We need to reach them with the right vocabulary. And we need to reach them with the right message. Well, of course, you say, of course we do. Well, sometimes that message is getting encumbered. Let's remember ourselves. Remember ourselves? What 1 Corinthians 15 says, well we don't have to guess what the good news is. Let me remind you of the gospel I preached, you've received, on which you have taken your stand. For what I received, I passed on to you as of first importance. Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures. He was buried. He was raised on the third day, according to the scriptures. Now that's that's that's it. Jesus, we have we have this problem called sin. It took Jesus dying to pay for it, and he's alive That's the good news. And Paul said in 1 Corinthians 2, too. He said, I resolved to know nothing. He was the greatest theologian of all time. He could have talked about anything He said, I came to talk to you about Jesus and his cross. That's it, Jesus and his cross. No baggage. No extras. Nothing else. No frills gospel. Come right in with that. You know what I think the key word of our gospel presentation ought to be is the word relationship. People, everybody cares about relationships. And what we have to present to them is not a list of beliefs for them to sign up for. It is about life's most important relationship. That's how I share Jesus. Because wouldn't the most important relationship be with the most important person? And wouldn't the most important person be the person who made you and who runs billions of galaxies? Well, how do you have a relationship with him? I can't dwell on this, but my simple developed in rooms full of lost people gospel presentation goes like this. There's a relationship you're created to have. Did you ever feel like someone's missing? Like I got a boyfriend and someone's still missing. I got a husband and someone's still missing. I have kids and someone's still missing. I have a lot of friends. I have a thousand Facebook friends. Someone's still missing. Someone is. It's capital S All things were created by him and for him. You want to know your reason? You were created by Jesus, for Jesus. You don't have to agree with that. It just is true. And so there's a relationship you created to have, but you don't have. You created for a relationship with him, by him and for him, but you don't have it because you live for you. Created for him, living for me. Sin? Sin is me running my life instead of the one who was supposed to run it. Me running my life instead of the creator running it. I'd say, God, you run the universe, I'll run me. That's how it is. That's our deal. You can run all the galaxies you want. I will run me. Sin is spiritual hijacking. It's hijacking your life from the one who owns it, the one who gave it to you, and saying, I'll take it where I want. And there is a death penalty for hijacking. So a relationship you created to have, you don't have, but you can have. Because even though you hijacked your life, the penalty for that was paid by someone else, the one who you hijacked it from. Came and did your dying for you so you don't ever have to. Oh, and uh a dead man can't do anything for you. He's not dead He's alive. He walked out of his grave so he could walk into your life. But that's the last part. It's a relationship you have to choose. Because relationships require a response for there to be a relationship. It's a relationship you have to choose. How do I define belief? I define belief this way. It's grabbing Jesus like a drowning person who grabbed a lifeguard. and saying you're my only hope. When I've explained that to church people, I've had many of them go, wait a minute. I've been in church all my life. I never did that When you put it in different words, the church people finally get it. And finally may realize they don't have it. So It's worth the effort. Let's deliver a message about relationship and abund above all, about a cross. Yeah, about a cross. Paul said he came and talked about the cross. Charles Spurgeon put it this way, the cross is God's magnificent magnet. Remember Jesus said if I'm lifted up speaking of the death he would die, I will draw all men to me. I've been all over the world with that message. And a lot of things don't translate. But the cross in every culture I've ever been in has been the magnet when it's it quiets I've been in rooms of just out-of-control young people. And nothing quieted him down. But when I started to tell about the cross, bam, a holy hush falls across. It's not me. It is the power of the cross. How often? Spurgeon said, in every sermon I beat a straight pathway. to the cross. The cross is where you see how ugly and awful and horrific your sin is, because that's what it took to pay for it. It's where you see how great his love is. It's where you see how much you are worth To God. Keep bringing people to the cross. A God who hung on the cross for them? Again, in Spurgeon's words. will steal your heart away. So keep doing John 3. 16. God so loved the world that he gave his son. Take people up Skull Hill. and let them see how much he loves them. The plaque on my daughter's wall in high school said, I asked Jesus, how much do you love me? This much he said. And he stretched out his arms and he died. That's the right message. But let me just say one thing. The message has to be delivered with the right tone. And sometimes we don't, do you know eight they say 80% of communication is tone? I could say the same words to three different ways, three different tones. I'd say Um, well you look different today. Or you look different today. It's gonna make you feel two different ways. Listen to what Christianity today said. The tone of our rhetoric across most media and even behind some closed church doors is more rage than redemption. more disgrace than grace. The truth of our convictions, the truth of God's truth, seems increasingly worn down by attractive heresy on one side and ugly orthodoxy. on the other. You know what Peter said our tone should be? 1 Peter 3. 15 he said when they ask you about your hope. Now remember this is Peter the ear surgeon. This is the guy who chops off ears. He's learned a little over the years. He said, gentleness and respect. Is that how you share Jesus? Or do they feel condemned? Do they feel preached at? Do you come through gently and do they feel respected Folks, it's not about winning an argument. It's about winning a heart. Let's win the heart. Not try to win an argument. The right message. We have to unencumber the gospel. It doesn't include church. It doesn't include religion. Denomination. It doesn't include attacking their lifestyle. We go after how they're living. They're lost. You don't clean fish before you catch the fish. And we better on we better take the politics and disconnect politics from our message. Do you know why? People think they have to accept the baggage in order to accept Jesus. And it keeps them from Jesus. Because we put all this baggage on it. Now we have to show Jesus and we have to tell Jesus. Show and tell. Remember that in first grade? You couldn't show, you had to tell. You couldn't just tell, you had to bring it and show it, right? Matthew 5. 16, Jesus said, or he said, in 14, you are the light of the world. And then he said, let them see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. We need to be out in our community displaying the love of Christ, not just preaching it. See your good works and then glorify your Father in heaven. Let me make something clear here There are people who say try to present that acts of mercy and compassion are part of the gospel. They are not. I didn't see them in the gospel, did you? Christ died for our sins and was raised again on the third day. There's but They are the evidence. They are the validation of the message of his love. So you say, well, we're just going to save souls around here. Well, there ain't going to be many to save if we don't demonstrate his love in our communities. and show them what that love looks like. They need to see our good works, then they will glorify our Father in heaven. Let's put it this way. We need to know the difference between the apple tree and the tree. I know I'm in apple country. The apple tree and the tree. The tree is the cross. The tree is the relationship with Christ. The tree is the gospel. He died for us because we were we're away from him and and we have we have hijacked our lives and he is alive and we have to invite him into our life. Great. Now, that tree produces apples called mercy and compassion. Something wrong with the tree if there ain't no apples. But let's not confuse the apple and the the apple tree and the apple. And so I am so grateful for churches that I know that are very clear and passionate about the gospel. My own church started a clinic. They have some medical people in the church and they started a free clinic. that all kinds of indigent people came to and ended up coming to Christ because they they reached out and cared about them. My church in New Jersey, when there was a flood, they were on the front lines of flood relief, even when everybody else had left. I know church one church in Branson, Missouri that buys uh I uh I don't know how many shoes and gives new shoes to uh to school kids who don't have the right kind of income to get the right kind of shoes every fall when school starts. You've got to look in your own community, find some needs, and move out into your community and get connected with some people. by doing for them the kinds of things that Jesus did. Because even though he was all about the gospel, he also was meeting a lot of needs along the way. So engage some of the big needs on the doorstep of your church and validate the message that you're preaching. I haven't told you the decisive factor in winning the battle for people's souls, though. All of this other stuff fades in significance to the big one. The decisive factor in overcoming the obstacles of our time and winning hearts to Jesus is the right messengers. It needs to be the right messengers. I have seen that in in incredible drama as native teams have gone to Christ rejecting. areas, hard hearts, lost. Their own people. And if I was out trying to reach them, I'd be it would be more white man's God. White man's God, which is why they reject Jesus anyway. But when they go in there, they're the right messengers, and there is a response that hasn't been had uh thousands I've seen thousands of Native Americans come to Christ, but I didn't do it They were his instruments. Because they're the right messengers. Guess who the right messengers are? The people sitting there in your church every Sunday. Because they're with lost people They don't think they're the right people. They don't think they're qualified. They don't whatever. They already have the trust of their fellow machinists. They already have the trust of the guy they play golf with. They already have some trust of other mothers because their battles are the same. They don't have to build a bridge. They already crossed the bridge all day, every day with these people. They empathize with them. They live the same frustrations. They've already got the connection. This around would you come out motor mouth and you talk to them? I'd uh would you know how long it would take me to gain their trust? Today, lost people are suspicious of professional God salesmen That's what most of us are. That's how we're perceived as professional God salesmen. You have to believe this, of course. You're looking for notches on your belt, right? But when my fellow machinist, my my fellow uh engineer, my fellow teacher My fellow soccer player, you're the best messenger, guys. It's gonna need to be you. It overcomes all of those obstacles I talked about earlier And that list of challenges doesn't anyone right around it if the message is coming from a Christian they know and trust. Most people who come to Christ do it because of a Christian they know. Did you know that? And most people who reject Christ do it because of a Christian they know. It's the everyday believer who is in their world, who's in their life, and is Christ's ambassador where they are. Remember 2 Corinthians 5. 20? We are Christ's ambassadors. We are Christ's ambassadors. And we are the ones in his stead delivering his message. The messengers for our time are the everyday believers. They are the the the probably the best and perhaps only hope of breaking through all of the walls because they're already inside those walls. next to a lost person. You say, good luck, Rod. They ain't doing nothing about it. That's pretty much what the surveys would do. Now I'm going to tell you what I'm going to do. This is an um we're um we do tackling an ambitious subject here, so we'll slop over into the don't worry guys, I'll make up the time. Uh somehow I just talked about something. Okay, all right, we'll do this But we'll get we'll get there, don't worry. Here's what we're gonna have to do. You see, Ron, how in the world? If just think, if every believer in your church decided they were the lifeguard for their stretch of beach. And it was up to them, because they're the embedded reporters. They're God's embedded reporter. What's an ambassador? An ambassador is assigned by the highest authority there is to deliver his messages in a certain location. What's an ambassador for Christ? Someone appointed by the highest authority in the universe to deliver his message in the place he's assigned them. Acme tulendai. Central Middle School PTA Rotary. The guys I hunt with. The veterans I know. Fellow cancer survivors. See, I'm in that tribe. So you know what we're gonna have to do? We're gonna have to give them the want-to, first of all, because they probably don't have a want-to. A lot of evangelism training. Have you ever trained to have a class on how to how to share Christ, how to witness? Who comes? Yeah, you can have a small room. You could probably have it in a closet. Because people don't have the want to. We assume they want to and they don't want to. So why would they want to? What can we tell them that might might help them want to? Well, first of all, it's the answer to the something more hunger they have in their heart. I've talked to so many of God's people who when they're really honest say, Ron, I'm believing all the right beliefs, doing all the right things, there's got to be more than this Yeah, there is. There's a mission you're supposed to be on, and that's a something more. It's the answer to their something more hunger. Secondly, we have to explain to them it's an awful thing to be lost. If you could see the guy across the street through Jesus' eyes, if you could see your fellow student. . If you could see them through Jesus' eyes, you know what he sees? A future inhabitant of hell But for the intervention of a rescue. It's an awful thing to be lost. Proverbs 24. 11 says, rescue those who are being led away to death, and hold back those who are staggering toward slaughter. If they could only understand this is eternal life or death stuff. It is rescue. I don't use evangelism very much anymore. I don't use witness very much anymore. I don't use uh saving souls anymore. I use rescue because that's what Jesus came to do. It's life or death. Same thing as all those other things. But you understand it's life or death. Thirdly, it's doing what your master commanded. You shall be my witness. You! You yeah, who? Yeah, you! You! You shall be my witnesses. And you have to literally say no, Jesus, to not tell people about him. Also, why should I tell about my Jesus? It means the people I care about will be in heaven with me. How about taking some of those people to heaven with you? My dear wife is there as of two years ago. We talk a little bit about quite a bit about that tonight. I know what a broken heart is. But you know what it says on her gravestone? Something that really described her life. Daniel 12. 3 Those who lead many to righteousness will shine like the stars forever and ever. And she did and she is. How about doing something that'll last forever? How about getting there and finding. . . The guy you worked with there, because you told him. And it's what love demands. 2 Corinthians 5. 14, Paul said, the love of Christ compels us. We cannot be loved like this and know about love like this and not tell them, I can't leave you lost without a chance. And I wish every person in your church who knows Christ would look in the mirror and say these four words. I am someone's chance. I am someone's best chance at Jesus. I am someone's best chance at heaven. Every believer is God's designated lifeguard. for their stretch of beach. So if you give them the want-to, then what do you have to give them? Yeah the how-to. Now if you give a how-to without a want-to, they won't use your how-to. But if you give them want-to without a how-to, they won't know what to do with their how want-to. What did I just say? I don't know what I get lost in my own paragraphs. So let me just start on this and we'll pick it up and finish it up at the last session Joining Jesus in his rescue mission is we have overcomplicated this folks. All they need to do is five things they already have. Five things they already have. To give people a chance at Jesus. They don't have to go get something. They already have it right there. It's in their life. Number one is your situation. Teach them this. Your situation is your assignment. Your situation is your assignment. Wherever you are is where you have been divinely positioned by God, it's not random. You've been divinely positioned by God to help people there understand Jesus So why do you live where you live? Uh I could afford the mortgage? Nope. You live in that neighborhood because you're designated by Jesus to be the one who helps the people in that neighborhood know about your Jesus That's why you are there. Do you know why you work where you work? Uh they hired me. Nope. You work where you work because Jesus needed a rep there. He needed a lifeguard there. And that's why he put you there. You know why you go to school where you go to school? I live in the district. Nope. A sign by Jesus. And so this changed, I can't tell how this changed my life to realize my situation is my assignment. Paul, when he was in prison, he hated being there, said I am an ambassador in chains. Your situ your your assignment never changes. Wherever you put me, my job is always the same. I am his ambassador. My situation constantly changes, but my assignment never does. I'm always his guy. I'm the face of Jesus, the voice of Jesus, the hands of Jesus, wherever he puts me. So my my shoulder explodes about a year and a half ago. I mean it was the worst pain I've ever had. My rotator cuff went, but I mean this was years of major league pitching. That's what it does, you know, the money and the fame, but Then comes the boy you're laughing. And so um so I mean it was it was horrific and the doc said it was about the worst he'd ever seen. I went in there and he said, man, he said, it is totally ripped. Now at first I thought he said I was totally ripped, and so I was really I was really excited, but that was not what he said at all. But and that's not the time to be laughing, Jeremy. Okay, so And that that actually started a series of four surgeries that were supposed to be one. So I've had this shoulder operated on four times in about a year's time. Y'all want to go, oh, yeah, I've got there are people who have got real problems. That's not a real problem. But you know, I know why. Ron, your situation is your assignment. This isn't about a shoulder. This is about your doctor. This is about the people of physical therapy. This is about the nurses My doctor turns out my surgeon going through one of the going through the worst time in his personal life ever. We've been to lunch a couple of times. They pray with him in his office. He's of another faith. Coming closer and closer to Jesus. He really needs a savior right now. Hey, a shoulder for a soul, not a bad trade. If you understand your situation is your assignment, you already have your situation. You don't have to go do anything. You have your situation, or it has you. So wherever you're situated, you have a flat tire, you go, well, maybe there's an opportunity here somewhere, okay? Oh, the air conditioning broke. I need the air conditioning guy to come over. Your situation is your assignment So I have a friend, Howie, who developed deadly cancer. He was six months in the hospital before he went to heaven. During those six months, he simply did not allow himself to be identified as a cancer patient. He said, basically, I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, cleverly disguised as a cancer patient. He spread Jesus all through that word and they listened to him because they were on the same trail he was but without hope and he had hope He made such a difference the hospital decided they would get a full-time chaplain for the cancer ward because they missed him. He had started something. So your situation is your assignment. We all are Esther in the kingdom for such a time as this. Divinely positioned. Use your situation to tell them about Jesus. That's why you're there. And let me give you one more and then we'll take a break because you really need to hear me stop talking. The second thing is your relationship, and I've already covered this a little bit, your relationship. You already have your relationship with Jesus. What you do is you tell him about your relationship. That relationship is what changed you. There is a relationship. Relationships always change people's lives. A new friend, a new love. A new coworker, a new boss, whatever. Relationships change us. I want to tell you about the relationship that changed me. Nothing else could. You already have your relationship. You're not telling them about a religion. You're not trying to get them to sign up for beliefs. You give them five beliefs to believe, please check here. Check, check, check, check. No. You want them to know the guy you know. That's what the woman of Samaria. She just went to Samaria and she went, come see a man. Not come he's got a new religion for us. Come see a man. You gotta see this guy. You have your relationship. One more. I'm over over what I said. Your tribe. That's the third one. Everybody is in a tribe. Did you know that? Everybody's in multiple tribes. You're in a generational tribe because of your age. You're in an occupational tribe because of what you do. You're in a recreational tribe because of how you recreate. You're in an associational tribe because of things you're a member of or in a group. We all have many tribes. People listen to someone from their tribe. So that's why a doctor is the best one for his tribe. That's why a mom is the best one for her tribe. Not somebody from outside the tribe. When Jesus goes to Samaria, not good odds that they're gonna like a Jewish Jewish rabbi coming in in Samaria. That's a bad neighborhood for Jewish boys. What does he do? Does he go right in and start preaching? Greatest evangelist of all time? Set up pretend and have a revival? Nope. He sends a Samaritan to the Samaritans. He sends Native American young people to Native American young people. He sends teachers to teachers. He sends neighbors to neighbors. He sends you to your tribe. And you know what the result of sending someone from the tribe to the tribe was? Many of the Samaritans believed in Jesus because of the woman's testimony. She ended up bringing her whole village to him. But they had to hear it from someone in the tribe. Why don't we use the Samaritan strategy? Until God's people are each mobilized to be the rescuer for their tribe? There's just going to be lost people continuing to live without hope and die headed for an unthinkable eternity. You're already in your tribe. You already have the relationship with Jesus. You already have your situation. It's just saying I'm going to use them for getting somebody to heaven with me. A couple more. We'll pick up