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Sharing the gospel. That's what we're called to do as Christians. But how do we know if we're actually sharing the gospel authentically and effectively? The trend we're seeing today has people really desiring earnestly to share the gospel via social media and all kinds of different platforms. Yet these presentations at best case scenario kind of fall flat, and worst case scenario - that's not the gospel at all. It's becoming more and more rare to actually hear people present a testimony or present the gospel in a way that really explains it to people who have maybe never heard it before.
The Problem: A Watered-Down Gospel
The gospel has been watered down for a long time. It's been displaced by commercialism. There's just a whole lot of stuff that's taken place where the modern church is afraid to use the word blood, the cross, death. And of course there's the resurrection which is the great news on top of that. But there's a sense of not wanting to use those words because they can be offensive. Well, the cross was intended to be offensive and I don't know how you can preach the gospel without talking about the blood of Christ and the death of Christ.
There's been really a push to replace the verbiage that number one, I'm a sinner. And you're a sinner, too. Number two, the scourging and the crucifixion of Jesus was atonement for that sin. And yet people have a hard time saying it and they're replacing it with things like, you know, Jesus just wants to have a relationship with you. And it's like, well, no, he wants to have a right relationship with you. He's already got a relationship with you and it's a combative enemy relationship. And so it's just been softened.
We've created a completely falsified Jesus, a completely false God. Most of it is because the God we see in the mirror about our size looks kind of like us. That's the God that we really want to serve. And so I think it's beyond watered down. It's not loving to share the true authentic gospel. That that's not a loving thing to do. And Christ loves everybody just like they are and doesn't want them to change.
Why This Happens
Much of the modern church has overestimated their ability to impact people. The gospel centers on obviously a person. It centers on Jesus Christ. Everything about him. In 1 Corinthians 15 when the Apostle Paul says, "This is the gospel. I shared it with you that Jesus Christ as the scripture said died as the scripture said was buried and rose again." That's if you want a nutshell, that's a pretty good nutshell of what the gospel is.
We do a poor job of doing that because they forget that any presentation of the gospel, even when I've been inadequate, and I have been many times in my life in presenting the gospel, the spirit of God is the one that draws that person. We have to give the authentic, genuine, biblical truth, and it's the spirit of God's job. The modern church today has forgotten that. Don't worry about whether they don't like the word blood or they don't like - you don't have to change the word sin. It's sin. It's not a bad thing or you were a bad person. We're sinners. We're lost. We're condemned. We're separated from a holy, righteous God. And the only cure for that is the authentic gospel that's given in the scriptures. There is no other answer.
If we generate a God that we can manipulate, then we don't have to fall on our knees and humble ourselves and recognize we're hopelessly lost. And God loves me with everything that I do and he wants my best life now. And gosh darn it, every day can be a Friday. Isn't that the gospel? Excuse me. Did I miss something, Joel?
You can go on the website and read that they are like-minded and get inside and find out that that's just smoke and mirrors. They've been sucked in by society. They've been sucked in by I got to have the world like me. I've got to make sure I don't offend anybody. Real true love of Jesus is making sure everybody's comfortable and they get a good word of encouragement today. So, don't say anything negative.
The Gospel Must Offend
The gospel is a primary element to make somebody feel uncomfortable. It's got to get me to the place where I am not satisfied with who I am and what I am because what I am and who I am outside of Christ is a failure and is lost. And if I can't get a recognition of that, I will never accept the good news because I won't believe I need it.
Jesus was the one that said, "Hey, this isn't going to be easy. If you're going to serve me, if you're going to follow me, you're going to take up your cross. If you're going to be a part of who I am, you need to count the cost. Like the king that counted the cost before going to war, there is a cost to coming to Christ." And that cost is regarding as a person. There's submission on my part. There's a surrender on my part. There's an acknowledgment of my lostness and my condition. If I can't acknowledge that, I'm not going to come and accept good news.
The weird thing about Christianity, authentic Christianity, is that it's a call to come and die. It's a call to come and let go of all. The only way life makes sense is when you don't care anymore about this life because you're focused on the one to come. So because of that then this life takes on more meaning and you start doing things in your life that actually have purpose.
How do you sell that? You don't. You proclaim. You don't debate and you just simply stick to the authentic truth and let the Bible be the unleashed tiger on the soul.
The Right Approach: Clarity and Trust
If you go out and share the gospel and you witness to people and you share your testimony, you need to be clear on what the gospel is. Don't muddy the waters. Don't bring in oh and everything will be good in your life or minute it happens you'll see changes. Well that may be true for some people and some people not but I need to just realize my job is to be clear. Clarity is kindness. I need to be clear with the gospel. I need to make it simple. And then I need to trust the spirit of God to do what he's going to do. Because no man comes to Christ because of me. No woman, no child is going to come to Christ because of me. It's because I've given the gospel message which has freed me and saved me. But the person that's going to draw that person is the spirit of God. So just give the message clearly. Get out of the way and let him do his work.
Sometimes you do have a window to share the gospel, but you might not feel great at the time, but God can still take that moment and take those words and do a work with them outside of your peripheral. The sharing the gospel doesn't always feel good for the person sharing it either. And maybe when it comes to those feelings, the people that are like, well, you have to make the other person feel good, maybe their real motive is that if I'm making the other person feel bad or feel uncomfortable, I'm going to feel bad and I don't want to feel bad.
Some of the best sermons I've ever preached were the ones that I thought were the worst. Where I went up into the pulpit thinking, man, this I'm going to hit a home run this morning. I've really worked on this. I've had extra time this week. I've spent time in prayer and I come down defeated. And I go up in a week where I've had to be in the hospital six times or there's been crisis and I get into the pulpit and I'm physically tired. And God just does amazing things.
Living Beyond Feelings
I am so sick of living in a world that measures everything by feelings. Whether it's my marriage, whether it's with my children, presenting the gospel has zero to do with my feelings and everything to do with my obedience to the Lord who saved me. It has nothing to do with how I feel. And or how somebody else feels.
If my heart's desire is that someone have what I have, as great as the gospel is, as great as the gift of my forgiveness of sin and my promise of eternal life, am I walking with him every day? If I want someone to have that, I can't worry about what they're going to think about me. I want them to think about Jesus. And I need to paint that picture. And I shouldn't worry.
The Apostle Paul in Acts 26 when he's talking to Festus and Agrippa and he's preaching away and he's full of the gospel and the spirit of God is speaking mightily and at the end they said Paul you're nuts. You've gone mad. You're preaching you've gone crazy. And then Agrippa says you think you can make me a Christian in such short time. He said, "You and everybody here except for these chains." He didn't care what people thought about him, but he made sure that when he left the room, Jesus crucified, Jesus risen from the dead, Jesus alive and walking amongst us, that's the gospel.
If I can't make that clear, if I can't make that simple, there's something wrong with me. My text this weekend is stumbling blocks for the Jews and foolishness to the Greeks, the cross of Christ. You share the gospel and you leave the results in Jesus's hands.
Natural Gospel Sharing
You got to use discernment, too. Sometimes people will go to a class and the four points of how to share your faith. I'm not against those. I'm just not for them because you know, we don't have to be going to a class for somebody to teach us how to talk about our grandchildren. You all you got to do is say, "Do you got any grandkids?" And pictures of my two granddaughters come out of my phone immediately ad nauseam. It's the same thing with the love of Christ. When the opportunity arrives, you start sharing the love of Christ.
I have a relationship with Jesus Christ that he began to build even before I was saved. I can look back at that now and I'm certain of that. Some people preach Christ out of envy, some out of jealousy, but as long as he's preached, I'm happy.
I would never out the door sit down next to someone and say, "Hey, are you going to hell or heaven?" I wouldn't do that. God bless those that can. And God has used them. For me, it's going to be, "Hey, how you doing? Are you from Miami?" We're flying out. I'm going to build some type of conversation and I'm going to be listening very carefully for an opportunity to bring that in. Almost always after two or three minutes, maybe a little break, they're going to bring something up about "I lost my mom a month ago and I'm really struggling with that." Boy, what an opportunity for me. I've lost my mom, too. But it's a perfect segue into the answer to loss. And that answer is Jesus Christ. That answer to your addiction. That answer is Jesus Christ. And I can bring that to them through conversation. That works better for me. I've led more people to the Lord that way than any number of altar calls or invitations I've given preaching.
I call it getting permission. What do you do for a living? I'm in Christian broadcasting or now I'm a pastor, you know, of a church and you let out leaks to the person about what you might have as far as knowledge that you might want to talk about and then I get the vibe from them that they're asking, you know, they're giving me permission to continue the conversation. And then I switch to asking questions. I learned as a young man that the person asking questions controls the conversation and let them tell you where they are exactly at and then can share where you're at. And God can use all kinds of stuff. And some of these conversations don't lead to a sinner's prayer. Don't lead to a conversion on the spot. But like the same thing is some plant, some water, some harvest. We're just planting seeds, watering what seeds might have already been there from somebody who talked to them two years ago.
Sharing Your Testimony
At some point you share your story. The story of you and Jesus. Not the story of you and your wife, not the story of you and your job, but the story of you and Jesus. And even in those stories, it's important that we incorporate those elements of the gospel. If we're going to say I needed Jesus, we need to be able to say, you know, at that time, first time I realized I was a sinner, that I was lost, that there was nothing about me that was attractive or lovely or any interest to Jesus except for the grace of God and his love for me. And he loved me while I was lost. Does he love the lost world? God sent the most extravagant gift in all of time to a lost world. Yes, he loves you. But loving you doesn't mean you're saved. Or feeling. Oh, I feel the love of God. Well, good for you. It might be gas, but maybe it is the love of God. I don't know. But I can only experience the love of God in Christ Jesus.
The greatest testimony of sharing the gospel that I've ever heard is in John chapter nine when they're browbeating him about his mom and dad and who sinned and he just finally says, "Look, dudes, I don't know. Once I was blind, now I'm not." And that's kind of like can be the base testimony for everybody. And if you just share your experiences and have a few maybe scripture references to point to there's just so many different ways to do it.
The Holy Spirit's Work
The emphasis on the Holy Spirit takes away so much. So many Christians want to take credit for something or they take blame for something or they walk away saying, "Oh, I just missed an opportunity." You know, the Holy Spirit doesn't miss opportunities. You might and I might, but he doesn't. And understanding going into sharing the gospel has nothing to do with my success or failure. It has everything to do with Jesus. And it takes away that sting of what if I do it wrong. You can do it wrong if you go into it deliberately deciding not to talk about sin, to talk about blood, to talk about death, to talk about resurrection. You go into deliberately not using those things. Yeah. I guess you're doomed to failure. But going into it with a genuine heart of wanting people to know the Jesus I know. To walk with the Jesus I walk with. That's all I want for you. I'm not going to get anything out of it. There's not a gold star for me in heaven. And when we understand that, it takes some of the fear away.
There's no performance that's going to get the Lord's wink and thumbs up. It's all just living it out.
The Unchanged Message
There's so much false gospel being preached. There's so much where it resonates with me and my idol worshipping self-centered godness. It resonates with me. So therefore, I'm open to deception instead of we're all sinners. We need a savior. Jesus is the perfect one who took away the lamb that came to take away the sins of the world.
I hear it all the time because it's easier to do that than to be genuine. The scriptures haven't changed since the book of Acts and since the book of First Corinthians. The gospel message has not changed. The only thing that's changed is we have moved away from the belief that that's enough. It is. It's enough. I don't have to cuddle them. I don't have to make them feel good. I don't have to swaddle them in swaddling clothes. I just need to lovingly tell them the truth. What they do with that truth, if it is truth, and the truth only comes from the scriptures. It can't be somewhere else. If it's truth, God will use that truth.
I can't say that. I'm not going to sit down like we talked about the plane and be obnoxious and in someone's face and be accusatory in my nature. I need to be non-offensive in who I am. I'll let the gospel do the offense, but I don't have to be the idiot. That offends somebody.
I need to be approachable like Jesus was approachable. I got to be sensitive. I need to be sensitive. I'm sitting next to somebody I don't know or in a room of people I don't know. Jesus was sensitive no matter where the crowd was. But I also need to be honest. Jesus was always painfully honest. If you think coming to follow me is going to make your life easier, you're mistaken.
False Campaigns
I really don't like the he gets us campaign. I think it's an affront to I think it's a just a total false gospel type message. I find it to be, you know, he doesn't get us. They've reduced Jesus to something that he really isn't. It is something that I believe muddies the water with the gospel. I don't hear sin in there. I don't hear the need for repentance. I don't hear the need for change. I don't hear the gospel of Christ's death there. I don't hear any of that. And so I don't know how that can lead to salvation other than somebody plants, somebody waters, and somebody sows. I think it's more deceptive than planting. They had a hundred million dollars to spend and they could have done a he saves us campaign and really shared those things. Although networks would have declined it, you know, it wouldn't have been on the Super Bowl probably. But it would have made a lot better impact with hundred million dollars in marketing money.
Key Scriptures
The power is in the scriptures and that is what really transforms the human heart. I love 1 Corinthians 15 because it is so simple and it is so short. I love Romans road. I know some people still think that's not, but I think the Romans road is excellent as far as painting a clear picture. If you're sitting with someone who doesn't know the word, if you're going to throw 15 or 20 references at them, you're going to lose them. That's me not being an idiot. How can I simply and clearly show you these three things?
When I begin to talk I like to tell people a little bit about this Jesus is the son of God this Jesus was born of a virgin I love to work that in if I can but I don't work that in until after I talk about what the gospel is. The gospel doesn't anywhere include that he was born of a virgin. Is it absolutely biblically true? Absolutely. Would we be in a mess if he wasn't? Absolutely. That goes to the sin issue. And if they want to talk about sin some more, then I can go back and bring those things in. But I need to stay to the simplicity of the gospel and allow the spirit of God to do his work.
Gramster Rant: Iron Sharpens Iron
From the mailbag on Facebook from Southern Mini Doodles comes this comment on our episode about Bible verses taken out of context: "Iron sharpens iron. Realize that iron does not sharpen iron. This is a typology, what is spoken of in Daniel and the statue. It is the watered down gospel and the apostate church that just becomes more of the same."
I would have to strongly disagree. How do we determine what scripture means? It's very easy. Scripture interprets scripture. The number one tool you have for scripture interpreting scripture is context. First thing you do is read five verses before and five verses after and say, is this really what it's saying? Then you go the chapter before and the chapter after. Is this really what it's saying?
Just because iron is mentioned in a book that is a prophecy book doesn't mean that when iron is mentioned somewhere else that those two things are related in any way. They could be. You'd have to study that and look at it. But that doesn't necessarily mean that just because it's mentioned.
Let's look at the book of Proverbs because that's where our verse is found. It's Proverbs chapter 27 verse 17 where it says, "Iron sharpens iron and one person sharpens another." How do we know that this is not prophecy that is talked about in Daniel? Well, first of all, let's look at the book of Proverbs. Is it a prophetic book? No, it is not. It is a wisdom book.
Look at the two verses before it. "An endless dripping on a rainy day and a nagging wife are alike. The one who controls her controls the wind and grasp oil with his right hand. Then it talks about iron sharpens iron and one person sharpens another. Whoever tends a fig tree will eat its fruit and whoever looks after his master will be honored as water reflects the face. So the heart reflects the person."
We looked at the book itself is not prophetic. Looked at the chapter. It's not prophetic. It's talking about just living good wisdom for living. And then we looked at the surrounding verses. And it's really all about relationships, wisdom, and focusing on those things for good living. That's what it's about. It does not have anything to do with prophecy.
Iron has a really good friend named carbon. And depending on how much carbon you add to iron, it will give it a whole broad spectrum of consistency and thus uses. And iron ultimately can and does sharpen iron just through the whole process. Iron is very soft, but you add carbon to it and it gets harder and harder and harder. You add too much carbon, it gets brittle. And so they even in ancient of days, they found that perfect balance and they were able to then fashion different things out of iron.
What we just did right now was iron sharpening iron. You're kind of the sum of the people you hang around. And so you become like each other. And as you're walking together, you're making minor corrections in each other's lives. You're sharing problems. You're sharing victories together. And that whole process keeps all of you on track and keeps anyone from straying too far.
It's kind of a standalone statement in that passage of scripture. And when you read it just as it is, it's not a negative. It's definitely read as a positive. And it alludes to the fact that we were created to live in community and in fellowship. That is a mere image of father, son, and holy spirit living in eternal fellowship. We were created in a like manner. And so that even though it's a short little verse and it seems really relatively simple, it's full of a lot of meaning. Prophecy, however, is not one of them. And it doesn't have to do at all with the apostate church. It's a very positive statement.
Right On or Way Off?
"God does nothing except in response to believing prayer."
At first glance, this seems way off. God does what God wants to do regardless of what humanity is doing. Do we like children of a good father have his ear and his attention? Absolutely. Does he move on our behalf? Absolutely. But there's lots of things that dad does that we know nothing about and we have no influence over. Likewise with God, he does lots of stuff outside of what human beings want, wish, or pray for.
When you don't know how to pray and the Holy Spirit prays and groans, turns your groanings into a prayer because God knows what you need before you even ask for it. God can take that as well and respond to it even though he's already working. God does do what he wants and it's his plan and we are honored to be part of it.
However, this quote from John Wesley is RIGHT ON in context: "Do all the good you can by all the means you can in all the ways you can in all the places you can at all the times you can to all the people you can as long as you ever can. God does nothing except in response to believing prayer."
"Only he who believes is obedient. And only he who is obedient believes. A God who lets us prove his existence would be an idol."
RIGHT ON. Without faith, it's impossible to please God. You must know that he is and that he rewards those who diligently seek him. Faith is believing - the hope of things not yet seen. Only he who believes is obedient, and only he who is obedient believes. If you have a God who lets us prove his existence where there's proof and it's not faith and not belief, that would be an idol. - Dietrich Bonhoeffer
"Anything too stupid to be said is sung."
RIGHT ON. Some of the stuff - have you like taken lyrics of certain songs and just been like it totally doesn't make sense even though you love the song? There were songs by Blondie where it's just like "he went out at night eating cars he ate Cadillacs" - this is the stupidest thing I've ever heard but it was so awesome to listen to.
There are some things in worship music that gets to me because we have been slowly for about a decade - there are some really good worship songs that I love that are a little bit too man focused. And then there's others that are outright man focused that I just find appalling. And yet there's others that absolutely love them. Like that one where you just like 30 times in a row: "He is for you. He is for you. He is for you. He is for you." Stop it. I get it.
I have kind of a litmus test when it comes to some of those songs and that is if I could sing that to my boyfriend, it doesn't - it's not a Christian song. If I couldn't sing that to my boyfriend or my husband, I kind of had some questions. - Voltaire
Final Thoughts
Most sharing of the gospel today is emotionally driven either emotionally by the person presenting it or by the person hearing it. And somehow we've got to get some a little bit more balance on that. It is emotional. I get choked up when I recognize what God has done in my life and saved me. And I want someone to understand that. But I also don't want to the first thing we talk to them and all of a sudden I'm crying.
Stay in the word should be the final word because even if you've read the Bible dozens of times or if you're barely getting started, we leak. So, you need to keep feeding on the word. And not only that, but it's alive. So, it will continue to speak into your circumstances. Let God speak to you through his word. You'll be much better off for it. It will refine your heart.
I don't think my sermons are that good. A lot of times I'm like, did anybody even get anything out of this? So when I tell you what I'm about to tell you, I want you to know it's truly with all authentic humility. I think people should check it out because God's doing something way beyond my skill set with it. Lives are being changed. We're getting feedback from folks and it is something that I don't know what I'm doing. I'm just doing what God's calling me to do. These messages have a life of their own and they're reaching people all over the globe and I just can't be more excited about that God would use my meager little efforts like that.
God does promise that his word will not return void. And trust me when I say his messages are amazingly amazing because God has something to say to you.