201: A Compelling Faith | Part 2

Welcome to the Awakening Church podcast.

We pray this message encourages you and provides the hope and light of Jesus Christ.

Thanks for tuning in.

What if Jesus is good for all people and not just some people?

What if he's actually really, really good for every single person on the planet, regardless of your your race, your creed, your nationality, your background, your religion.

You know, we live in a world, you know, we talk about, hey, what's good for you isn't necessarily good for me, and and some things that's true, like um with food, right?

Like like gluten.

Um I don't mean to brag, but uh I can eat it all.

And some of you can't.

It's really not good for you.

But what if Jesus is actually really, really good for every single person on the planet?

And then this.

How do you have a compelling faith in the heart of the Silicon Valley?

We've certainly seen what it looks like to have a condemning faith.

But how do you have a compelling faith in a place that well it seems downright anti-Jesus at times?

You know, in ancient Rome they didn't have presidential elections, they had regime changes.

When the Apostle Paul penned the letter to the church in Rome, it had just undergone a regime change.

Claudius, the emperor, uh, had just died.

Many people think he was poison in AD 53.

It was actually in A.D.

49 where he had expelled the Christians from Rome and they started coming back.

Okay, the the emperor's dead were starting to come back, uh, but his predecessor, or though his the one coming after, um was actually his adopted son, not his biological son, Nero.

AD 64.

Nero is installed as emperor.

For the first couple years, he's 16 years old when he first becomes emperor.

For the first couple years, this actually goes pretty well because his advisors held most of the power.

And then if you've read any history or watched any uh shows, you'll you'll know that Nero is infamous, salacious, can't go into all of his history in life.

It is wild, murdered the people closest to him, his mom, his spouses, all the I mean, it was gnarly.

And Nero, AD 64, lit Rome a fire and blamed the Christians.

And and one actually historian said it this way: said that Nero executed Christians with lavish publicity.

He crucified them.

In the gladiatorial games, he would throw them to the wild beasts, and then he would host parties and he would use Christians as living torches and lighting them aflame to light his parties at night.

And it's in the heart of Rome and to this church that the Apostle Paul pens these words at this time.

For I'm not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes, first to the Jew and then to the Gentile.

I am not ashamed of this gospel of Jesus because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes.

First to the Jew, then to the Gentile.

How do you have a compelling faith in the heart of the Roman Empire under the reign of Nero?

And how do you have a compelling faith in the heart of Silicon Valley?

The first followers of Jesus, these early Christians, the Apostle Paul, the disciples, they had three fundamental convictions that produced a compelling faith.

The first conviction was simply this: that the gospel is actually good news, not good advice.

The gospel, what he's proclaiming, is actually good news, not good advice.

Good advice is like, hey, here's a little parenting tip.

You're struggling with your toddler, you're struggling with your teen.

Hey, here's a little health tip.

Oh, you want to get in shape quick?

I got some tips.

With the social media is inundated with advice.

This is not the gospel.

The gospel is not good advice, it is fundamentally good news.

I like the way N.T.

Wright, historian and theologian, defines news.

He says, News is something has happened upon which the world is a different place.

Something happened.

And as a result of that happening, the world, the landscape has changed.

And the Apostle Paul says, I am not ashamed, I am not embarrassed of the gospel.

That word gospel means good news, as many of you know.

It's the Greek word uangeleon.

It's good news, news that makes one happy, information that causes one joy, words that bring a smile, a message that causes the heart to be sweet.

This word Uangeleon, if you if you had some significant moment of good news in your life, you you would declare the Uangeleon.

If you're out to battle and you won the war, you would send a herald sprinting as fast as he could, declaring the Uangeleon that you have victory.

And then in the heart of Rome, this is fascinating because this is where Paul's writing it.

This word began to take on special meaning when the imperial cult, meaning that the emperor began to declare that he alone is divine and to be worshipped, and all the subjects of Rome are to come under this religion.

The imperial court, every time a new emperor was enthroned, declared the Uangeleon.

The Uangelion that a son of God has landed upon the throne, the Savior of the world, sound familiar?

And this would be spread through the entire Roman Empire.

And Paul confronts the powers of Rome and the Uangellian of Nero and says, No, the good news, something has happened upon which the world is a different place.

What is that?

All of Christianity hinges upon the resurrection of Jesus.

All of Christianity hinges upon the historical events.

See, it's good news, not good advice.

It's not like, hey, you know what?

I have I have a new religion for you to try out.

I have a new philosophy about life.

I have a new kind of some ideas, let's kick it around.

No, something happened.

There was a man who walked in the Middle East, in Palestine, and he preached and he performed miracles, and tons of people followed him.

He said really outrageous things.

He even said that people were going to kill him, and on the third day he would come back to life.

And the religious powers condemned him, and the Roman powers crucified him.

And then on the third day he rose from the grave.

Something happened as a result of which the world is a different place.

1 Corinthians 15, the Apostle Paul says it this way: For what I receive I pass on to you as a first importance.

One, that Christ died for our sins according to the scripture.

In fact, all major historians agree on five historical facts around who Jesus is, the death and resurrection.

First, that Jesus was a real person and that he died by Roman crucifixion.

And then he was buried and that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures.

The second thing, they all believe he was buried in a tomb.

Now, here's the interesting part.

All major historians do not believe that Jesus rose from the grave.

But they all do believe the tomb was empty.

There are lots of ways to try to explain it.

We don't really fully understand it.

You know, maybe he just wasn't quite dead and he just revived himself, you know, in the cool of the tomb and moved multiple tons of stone and said, I'm risen.

You know, maybe that's one explanation.

Maybe the disciples stole the body.

There's plenty of these out there, but everybody agrees Jesus, a real man, lived, walked, really died, was really buried, and the tomb was empty.

And then this next part is fascinating.

Then he appeared to Cephas, that is Peter and the twelve.

After that, he appeared to more than 500 of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are all still living, though some have fallen asleep.

Then he appeared to James and the apostles, and last of all, he appeared to me, the Apostle Paul, as one abnormally born.

That the disciples really, really believed that they saw the risen Lord to the point that they died for that story.

And that the skeptic, the Apostle Paul himself, who was murdering and trying to stamp out followers of this Jesus, said he saw him and he gave his life for him.

The gospel fundamentally is that there is an event that took place, and that event changed everything.

That Jesus died, and he took on the power of hell and death itself, and he rose on the third day, and in his resurrection, he defeated death and sin and Satan that we might have life.

It's an event that changed it all.

C.S.

Lewis writes this Christianity, if false, is of no importance.

And if true, of infinite importance.

The only thing it cannot be is moderately important.

The Apostle Paul, a little later on in chapter 15 of Corinthians, would say it this way.

If Christ did not rise from the dead, your faith is futile.

It's worthless.

First conviction they had.

Something happens.

On January 1st, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, officially outlawing slavery in the Confederate States.

It wasn't until June 19, 1865, when Union Major General Gordon Granger arrived in Gallatin, Texas, and announced the end of the Civil War and the emancipation of all enslaved African Americans.

For two and a half years, these men, women, and children were free, but nobody told them.

The war had been won and their freedom had been secure, but they still were enslaved because nobody told them.

And the power of the land, the evil held on to their grip.

And the first followers, they said, something has happened.

Jesus has defeated the power of sin, death, and Satan.

And he really rose from the grave, and it changes everything.

See, if Jesus really rose again on the third day, then all that he said is true and trustworthy.

This is what the Apostle Paul was not ashamed, even in the heart of the Roman Empire.

The second conviction they had was that the gospel is powerful.

Because it is the power of God that brings salvation.

The gospel, not a person, is powerful.

The gospel, not a method, is powerful.

The gospel is powerful, like what I just shared to you, that Jesus came, he loves you, he came for you, he died in our place, and that he rose again to the third day, and he is extending the offering life.

The kingdom of heaven is breaking forth here and now.

That is powerful.

Not my method.

When I was uh 17, it was the summer before my senior year.

I had a personal and powerful encounter with Jesus.

I grew up in the church.

Um and I uh by the time high school, I was just kind of living my own way, just trying to fit in, honestly, like we all are, I think most of us at least in high school.

And then I like encountered Jesus, and he changed my life.

Like, like it was just one of those moments where I'm like, oh my God, you wow! And and I couldn't help but just share him with everyone.

Here I'm the 17-year-old pimple-faced kid.

I don't really know a whole lot, but everyone I'm coming up to, I'm like, ah, Jesus, you know?

And I I wasn't like the coolest, I wasn't like the uncoolest, but I wasn't the coolest.

Um, I didn't even need to say the uncoolest.

I was, yeah.

First day, senior year, I'm in U.S.

Gov class.

And Preston, who was the coolest.

Preston was the coolest man.

He was, he I I talk about him now.

I'm like, he can sell snow to Eskimos.

I he like he's the got the most charm, charisma.

He fit in every group.

And he's sitting next to me in U.S.

Gov.

The seating was like where all four of us were kind of facing each other.

And here I am, this kid that Jesus just changed his life, and like I can't hold it in, and I I'm not really interested in what the teacher's saying, anyways.

And I turned to Preston and I go, has anybody ever told you about Jesus?

And he goes, No.

Like, can I?

Sure.

I mean, he's stuck there.

We're sitting next to each other.

We got like an hour and a half.

I had a captive audience, literally.

And for the next hour, I just was talking about, I don't know even what I said, but I was just like telling him like Jesus, and he changed my life.

And at the end of it, as we're walking out, he's like, hey man, could do you think we could meet and talk more about this Jesus?

Yeah.

Do you think I could invite some friends over to your house and we can meet and talk about this Jesus?

Sure.

And Preston, who doesn't know Jesus, started a Bible study at my house with all his friends.

I began to write their names on a three by five card and just pray for them every night before I went to bed.

We'd on Wednesday nights sit and we'd read 1 John and talk about it.

And here I'm like 17-year-old, I don't know a whole lot.

I'd go to my dad, ask him some questions, and then like lead this Bible study, and Preston really liked this song called Light the Fire.

And so we sang it multiple times over and over and over again.

And on January, five months later, Preston gave his life to Christ.

I got to see him last week.

On the day he gave his life to Christ, he made sure that was his wedding day as well because it was so significant in his life.

Because new life broke forth in his life.

One of my best friends to this day.

But the power wasn't because I had the right words, the power wasn't because I knew the right things to say.

I didn't.

I'm a 17-year-old kid.

Jesus will speak through a junior higher, Jesus will speak through a fifth grader, and Jesus will speak through a 50-year-old if you're just willing.

It's good news and it's powerful.

And here's the most amazing part is also you are empowered by the Spirit of God.

The gospel's power and you're empowered.

Jesus said, but you'll receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you'll be my witness.

That's all I was.

It's not that complicated.

This is what Jesus did in my life.

I'm witnessing because I saw what Jesus did in my life, and I'm telling you what Jesus did in my life.

We complicated.

This is what Jesus did in my life.

That's it.

I think he wants to do it in your life.

Want to try it out?

I don't know how to.

Let's take you to this person.

He might know how to help you, or she might know how to help you.

And you'll be my witness in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, until the very end of the age.

You are empowered by the Holy Spirit.

Now think about this.

We talk about this.

The same power that raised Christ from the dead lives and dwells inside of you.

And so if resurrection life is living in us, then resurrection life should spring up around us.

And here's where I land, friends, because here's what happens to my heart, and maybe it happens to you.

Like my heart for the lost kind of goes like this.

And there's times where I'm like, I'm really passionate, times where I'm just really want to be in my comfort zone.

Isn't it funny that one of the names for the Holy Spirit is the comforter?

I don't think we need a comforter if we're going to stay in our comfort zone.

One of his names is the counselor.

I don't think we need a counselor if we're going to stay in places that we know and understand.

But my heart for the lost goes up and down.

And here's what happens for me is when I'm in proximity with those who are far from Jesus and I'm intentional, then all of a sudden my heartbeat for them grows.

The Apostle Paul would say to Philemon in Philemon 6, I pray that you may be active in sharing your faith so that you'll have a full understanding of every good thing you have in Christ.

Have you ever been around someone who just shared their faith and how on fire they are?

Like if you want that first fire, share your faith, is what the apostle Paul's saying.

He's like, but then we sit back, we don't do it, and we're wondering what's going on, and we're missing out on the power of God.

And people, there's Prestons everywhere around us.

The gospel.

First conviction is good news, not good advice.

The gospel's powerful.

And the final conviction is the gospel's for everyone.

This was crazy in the ancient day.

The gospel for every single person, not special people, not the right people.

In the ancient day, you had your local deity that you had to protect you, and you appease them and you pleased them, and and like you had your in-group and your out group, and you're really clear on who's out, and you defined your reality by all of that.

And what does the apostle say?

He says, It's the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes.

Every single person on the planet, regardless of what they believe, regardless of what they believe.

They look like?

Regardless of what their past has been.

Every single person, yes, Republicans and Democrats.

Yes, liberal and conservative.

Yes, LGBTQ.

Yes, your neighbor.

Yes, your coworker.

Yes.

Your friend.

Yes.

Your family.

Yes.

Your classmate.

To everyone.

Not some people.

In fact, John, the gospel writer and the uh one of Jesus' disciples pinned the most famous verse, and we miss how big and crazy this is.

He writes this, for God so what?

Loved.

Like when you approach God, when you're coming to him, he's not standing up there with his arms crossed going, like, oh, I've been waiting.

Toe tapping.

Right?

You're gonna get it.

Like God's disposition towards you is one of love.

He loves you, he loves you, he loves you, he came for you.

He loves you.

How do you know he loves you?

For he sent his one and only son.

He's like, I'm coming for you.

And there's nothing I won't do to be with you, to bring you home, to bring you into my family.

My arms are not crossed, my arms are open wide.

I love you.

And it's the world.

There is no past too great that the gospel is not greater.

And some of you are believing the lie and waiting, like, I gotta fix up my life before I get to God.

He's going, no, just just come to me.

We'll work on it together.

Whoever believes.

Believe we turned into an intellectual activity.

That's not what it means.

Because how you behave reveals what you believe.

Belief is I am going to place the full weight of my life on.

I've been going about life my own way.

I've been trying to figure things out.

I've been working really hard and it's not working out.

I'm tired of trusting my way, or I'm tired of trusting that TikTok influencer, or I'm tired of trusting whatever cultural kind of value that I've been running after.

I'm tired of whatever it is.

It's not working.

And today I place my faith, my trust, the full weight of my life upon you, Jesus.

And the promise, the power of the gospel is you are transferred from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of the Son He loves.

You are now a child of God.

The Spirit of God lives inside of you, awakened to new life, kingdom life flowing through.

That's what eternal life is.

It's life now and forevermore.

This is the gospel for every single person.

Tim Keller says it this way The gospel is this.

We are more sinful and flawed in ourselves than we ever dare believe.

Yet at this very same time, we are more loved and accepted in Jesus than we ever dare hope.

The gospel of Jesus is the singular solution to all that is broken in our lives and in the world.

What if, friends, what if?

Just think come with me for a little bit.

Just come on.

Just just just what if it with me.

What if we took the what if?

Stay with me, follow me.

What if we took the what if off of what if Jesus is good for everyone and not just someone?

Some people.

Jesus is good for all people.

Period.

Every single person needs Jesus.

And if you're here today and you've yet to receive him, today is the day of salvation.

The Holy Spirit has been working on your heart, and he just needs your yes.

He just needs your yes.

Yes, today.

I I trust you.

Every single person needs Jesus.

If the gospel's so good, why don't we share it with everybody?

You ever wrestle with that?

Ever wonder that?

Like if it really is so good.

Why aren't we, like Diane was saying, like with the latest restaurant?

This is amazing! I think one of the reasons why is we've encountered this guy.

Seen this guy before, yeah?

Bullhorn guy?

Bullhorn guy that's yelling at you, that's telling you how much God hates you.

Bullhorn guy, as I'm sitting in line, I don't sit in line.

I'm standing in line.

I stand in lines.

I don't sit in lines, by the way.

I'm standing in line at cold play as he's yelling at people, and all I want to do is he's not with me.

He doesn't represent us.

I think sometimes we don't share because we don't want to be associated with bullhorn guy.

Friends, you are in large part the greatest Christian most of your friends, co-workers, or classmates will ever know.

And what we do is we allow bullhorn guy to define what a Christian really looks like.

We let him, it's generally he, shape.

Let me give you just five myths we believe in that keep us from sharing.

The first myth, myth number one, is my faith is a private issue.

It's just a private thing.

We don't talk about politics, we don't talk about sex, we don't talk about faith.

Jesus said, You are the light of the world.

A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.

Let your light so shine before men that they see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.

Your faith is not private, it's personal.

It is deeply personal, but it was never intended to be private.

Myth number two, my life is my message.

It's just, you know, Ryan, I'm just gonna live it out and hope somebody notices.

And friends, we need to live it out.

We need Christians who live winsome lives, who care for the things that Jesus cared for, the people that Jesus cared for, that are living out and mending the brokenness and injustices in our society.

Yes, and amen.

And Saint Francis of Assisi gets misquoted.

He didn't even say this, by the way.

Preach the gospel at all times, when necessary, use words.

And we use that as a cop-out to never use words.

The Apostle Paul in Romans chapter 10 would say it this way.

Romans 10 · chapter mention

How can they believe if they never hear?

And how can they hear if nobody preaches?

And how can if nobody preaches and nobody's sent?

Like somebody has to be sent to preach, to declare.

And then he goes, and he quotes Isaiah, how beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news.

Myth number three, it's not my gift.

It's not just not my, you know, Ryan, you're the preacher.

You're the preacher.

Last week we looked at Matthew 28, 18.

Go therefore and make disciples.

This may not be your gift, it is our call.

And we all, we all have a witness, we all have a story.

Myth number four, I don't know enough.

Isn't that beautiful in Diane's story of like, I just, I don't know, and she just stepped into it.

John 9, it talks about blind Barmaeus, and he's brought before the religious leaders, and they're just pouting them with questions.

And his answer is beautiful.

I don't know about all that stuff.

That's the NIV, by the way, the new Ingram version.

Um I don't know all about this, but this one thing I do know.

I once was blind, and now I see.

I don't know about all those questions.

I don't know about all the stuff that you're wrestling with.

I don't know.

But here's what I know is when I was 17 years old, Jesus met me and he changed my life, and I know he wants to do that for you.

That's what I know.

This one thing I know.

I once was blind, but now I see your story is powerful.

And then myth five.

Well, people just aren't open.

You know, it's just people just aren't open around here.

Jesus would say, look up, the field is white with harvest.

Pray for workers.

Like Jesus looks around us and says, There is a harvest around us if you all have eyes to see what I see.

Um I run.

I may not look like it, I get that.

Um, but I run.

I started like a decade ago.

Um, I didn't want to go to the gym, didn't want to pay, and I figured I could run for 30 minutes.

I enjoy it now.

I really, I really do.

Um I put on my headphones, I listen to worship music, I pray.

Run my neighborhood, I run the same.

I'm pretty boring.

I run the same path every single time, the same thing every single day, time and time again.

Which means I run past a particular neighbor.

I ran past this particular neighbor often.

I'd see this dad out front with his kids, and something pricked my heart as I was running, I just started praying for him.

And I just started praying for him and praying for him and running, and like, and then I see him out there, and when I saw him, I'd pray for him.

And one day on the run, uh, like as I'm coming up to his house to see him with the kids out there, like, I felt this prick in my heart, like, you should stop and talk to him.

And I began to argue with the Holy Spirit of God inside of me.

And I say, Don't you know I'm taking care of your temple right now?

I cannot stop.

I argue, I'm like, that's a bad idea.

I'm this awkward, this stranger.

I've run past his house, it'd be just weird.

And I said, I said, I give I I hit his house like a couple times on my my loops that I'm doing, so I said, Fine God, if he's still out there, I'll stop.

I come by and you know run it.

This is not how I run, that was embarrassing.

Um and he wasn't there.

I was like, oh, it's a sign.

I don't have to stop.

And so I start to run past his house, and like that conviction, like right here, was like a knot in my chest.

And the further I got from his house, like the heavier it felt.

Like, I'm like, I am not going to be able to like get through the day if I don't go back to his house.

And so I'm, you know, a good 300 feet from past his house, I find God.

I think I said it out loud.

I'm just saying, and I and I go up to his house and I knock on the door, and he opens the door.

And I'm like, hey, I'm neighbor, I'm runner.

He's like, no, no, yeah, I see.

You yeah, you've lost some weight.

Thanks for noticing.

I said, this might be weird, but I'm a Christian, and I just wanted to, like, like I've been praying for you.

I just want to, I've been praying for your family.

You, I just walked and run past and pray for you, and I just felt like like God was asking me to stop and talk with you and just tell you about Jesus.

I I know it's weird and awkward, and his response was amazing.

He's like, I don't think that's weird at all.

Like, if you really believe what you believe, why wouldn't you share that?

Yeah, that's what I meant.

We developed a little friendship out of that conversation, found out that we both love volleyball.

We started playing some volleyball together.

He moved and we lost touch.

I don't have that neat little wrapped bow of, and here he is.

Because often that's a lot of our experience.

That's a lot of our story.

Uh there's one study that said, when sharing Jesus, that people need 7.6 encounters with the gospel before they receive Jesus.

7.6.

See, with Craig, I I don't know if I was number one or if I was number six along that line.

Here's what I do know, I wasn't 7.6, right?

But what I am confident of is he encountered someone that cared enough to share, that spent time, developed a relationship so it wasn't some weird guy knocking on his door.

And gotta be, I gotta be somewhere there, one one through six.

I'm somewhere there.

I don't know if I was one or two or three or four.

I don't know, but I'm still praying from him when God brings them to my mind.

And I don't know the end of the story, but I hope to see him in heaven.

And yet we stay in our comfort zone.

Because I don't know if they're open.

Here's what I want us to do.

Pull out this card for me.

When I was in high school, as a 17-year-old kid, I had a three by five card by my bed.

I wrote down the names of all the guys in that small group that Preston brought.

And I prayed for them every night before I went to bed.

Amazing part of that story is every single one of them came to know Jesus that year.

Minus one, and I found out later he was already a Christian.

On the back of this card, you see a blank.

Would you take time and write somebody's name in your life that you're going to pray for who does not yet know Christ?

Could be a coworker, could be a neighbor, could be a classmate, could it be a teammate?

You're like, I got more than one.

Wonderful.

Fill up the whole thing.

And then would you look for opportunities to consistently care for them?

We're gonna pray for them.

Prayer.

We're gonna care.

And then we're gonna share.

I'm gonna look for opportunities.

Jesus, would you help me to have a conversation with them?

Would you give me the opportunity to share with them in some way about you today?

It might be an invite to have coffee, to have a happy hour or a dinner.

It might be to our awakening birthday.

Like, hey, we have this big party.

We throw a big party.

It's a great big, easy invite for people to come and get a taste of what Jesus is like.

But would you do that?

Prayer.

Care.

Share.

The interesting part is we have no idea what hangs in the balance of our willingness to risk.

Like I said, I had lunch with Preston and his family last week.

We were down in San Diego.

And as we were driving, you know, he's got a daughter the same age as my daughter in college and has a son uh similar age to a rider who's a senior and Jenny was telling Ella the story in Preston's story.

And I didn't know when I shared Jesus with Preston that his older brother uh had died of leukaemia.

I didn't know all the story of their family.

Because what I saw on the outside was this picture perfect, popular dude.

Why would he want anything with Jesus?

Yet the reality is the hungering of his soul, he needed Jesus because everyone does.

And one risk.

Ella was so, she's like, Dad, if you didn't share, he married a pastor's daughter, his whole future rewritten and redeemed.

Because the gospel is powerful.

Who's your one?

We hope you are blessed by this message.

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