April 29, 2025 • 41 mins
Discover the transformative power of being a witness for Christ in today's world. Learn how to overcome common barriers to sharing faith and understand why evangelism remains crucial in our contemporary culture. This powerful message explores spiritual hunger in modern society, featuring insights on religious trends, revival movements, and effective witnessing strategies. Perfect for Christians seeking to impact their communities, young believers navigating faith sharing, and anyone interested in spiritual growth and evangelism. Topics include overcoming fear in evangelism, understanding cultural shifts in spirituality, practical witnessing techniques, and living an authentic Christian life.
This sermon was recorded at a Sunday morning gathering at Church of the Lookout in Longmont, Colorado.
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Episode Transcript
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SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
Welcome to the Lookout weekly podcast.
Church of the Lookout is inBoulder, Colorado, and our
vision is Jesus abiding in hispresence, growing in his family,
and living on his mission totransform the world with
awe-inspiring love.
Visit us online atthelookout.church.
(00:21):
If you have your Bibles, I dowant to invite you to open up to
Acts chapter 1 today.
That's where we're going tostart.
Amen.
(00:52):
And so this week, we're jumpinginto a new teaching series
that's going to take us over thenext several weeks, and we're
going to have some differentguest speakers in.
And it's called Witness, okay?
And I'll explain that here in asecond.
But if you have your Bibles,let's start with Acts chapter 1.
In the first book, O Theophilus,I have dealt with all that Jesus
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began to do and teach until theday when he was taken up.
After he had given commandsthrough the Holy Spirit to the
apostles whom he had chosen, hepresented himself alive to them
after his suffering by manyproofs, appearing to them during
40 days and speaking about thekingdom of God.
And while staying with them, heordered them not to depart from
(01:37):
Jerusalem, but to wait for thepromise of the Father, which he
said, You heard from me, forJohn baptized you with water,
but you will be baptized withthe Holy Spirit not many days
from now.
He said to them, And when hesaid these things, as they were
(02:19):
looking on, he was lifted up anda cloud took him out of their
sight.
This is the word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
Thanks be to God.
Thank you, Jesus, for your word.
And as we come into this placethis morning, we just ask that
you would illuminate our hearts.
(02:41):
And even now, Jesus, we take amoment to pause to become aware
of your presence with us.
We thank you that we don't getto just talk about you, but we
get to live life with you.
And so this morning, I pray formyself, I pray for all of us as
(03:04):
we open the scriptures, God,that you would speak to us.
You would make us more like you,Jesus.
Amen.
So some of you guys know Actschapter one.
If you've never read the book ofActs, this is the second book
written by the apostle Luke.
(03:24):
And he was writing an account,an orderly account of everything
Jesus began to do and teach inthe gospel of Luke.
And then Acts was everythingthat Jesus continued to do and
teach through the early apostlesand the release of the Holy
Spirit as the early church wasjust getting its legs, right?
And so this final moment that herecords of Jesus right before he
(03:45):
ascends into heaven, Jesus istelling his disciples, listen,
I'm about to go.
But I want you to wait inJerusalem, and I want you to
wait for the promise of the HolySpirit.
And when he comes upon you, youare going to become my witnesses
in Judea, Samaria, and all theends of the earth.
Now, if you're not familiar withthe geography, that means
(04:06):
nothing to you about Judea andSamaria.
That would be like saying, youwill be my witnesses in Niwat,
in Boulder County, in Colorado,in all of the United States, in
the whole world.
It's just kind of a concentricring of circles.
It's going to start here, butit's not going to stay here.
It's going to And that's whytoday, 2,000 years later and
(04:27):
6,800 miles away, that's whywe're still here talking about
it in this room today.
Because they were his witnessesand the message did spread into
the entire world.
Somebody say amen.
And so he says, you will be mywitnesses.
And this was an important wordfor Jesus.
It was a charge.
This word, you will be mywitness.
UNKNOWN (04:48):
Amen.
SPEAKER_00 (04:48):
is an important one because it's not just an
identity, it's a mission.
It's an identity over them thatthey're going to He said, you're
gonna have an encounter withJesus.
So you are a witness or you'veencountered me.
So you're a witness toeverything I've done and
everything I've said, the lifethat I live.
But now your mission is to sharewhat you've heard and what
(05:11):
you've seen with the worldaround.
Some of you guys know that wordwitness.
We have that word in ourculture, right?
And it's the same thing in theancient world, a witness with
somebody who had a firsthandexperience, right?
And in a legal setting, youweren't even a valid witness
until you had seen, heard, orbeen a part of the event, right?
(05:31):
You couldn't pass along hearsay.
A witness had to bear truth frompersonal encounter.
So this was the story of theearly church.
What happened from here on outas we read through the book of
Acts, account after account ofmen and women as they were
faithful to Jesus to bearwitness to what they had seen
(05:53):
and what they had heard.
And sometimes this wouldactually get them in trouble,
right?
Because as they were proclaimingthat this Messiah, Jesus, had
died and now he's resurrectedand this has changed everything.
This was threatening to some ofthe religious leaders.
He said, hey, how about you keepthat quiet?
How about you stop with thatresurrection talk?
(06:14):
And here's what Peter says inActs chapter four, verse 19.
But Peter and John answeredthem, whether it is right in the
sight of God to listen to you Solisten, you say what you need to
(06:36):
say, you do what you need to do,but I cannot unsee what Christ
has shown me.
Come on.
That's how it works when youeven counter Christ.
And Paul had the same thing.
He wasn't with Jesus originally,but we read the story in Acts
how he's on his journey on theway to Damascus.
(06:56):
And Jesus encounters him with abright light.
And from that moment, hisidentity changed.
He was no longer a murderer ofChristians.
He was now an apostle called byGod to the nations.
And it changed everything forhim.
And so Paul, as he would go out,he would show up to sit and he
would find any crowd he couldfind.
He'd go to the temple.
(07:18):
He would go to where the Greekswould meet in the city square,
and he would start proclaiming,this is who Jesus is and what
he's done.
And he'd get, as you wouldimagine, some mixed reaction,
right?
There's a few people who wouldrespond and said, that sounds
like really good news.
Other people said, that soundslike terrible news, and they
threw rocks at him, right?
And so it was a mixed bag.
He didn't have a great audienceeverywhere he goes, but he did
(07:41):
find a few everywhere he went.
He would proclaim this is whoJesus is and what he's done, a
few would respond and he wouldgather them.
They would start meeting inhomes and start just looking
over all the teachings of Jesusand establishing their lives in
the scriptures and in the wordof God.
And they just ran this play overand over and over in every city,
(08:04):
proclaiming the word of God.
And as that proclamation went,how hearts started to open up,
started to be drawn to Jesus.
And then they would startgathering together to be
equipped with everything Jesusdid and taught.
And so you will be my witnesses.
This is the life that Jesusinvited us into, empowered by
the Holy Spirit, right?
(08:26):
And so this year, as you know,like I said, we've doubled down
on this larger theme of for thesake of others.
We're praying for the one.
We've encouraged you guys tohave somebody this year that God
has targeted in your life thatyou're praying for every day
because you believe that Godwants to do something great in
their life.
If you don't have your one, findyour one and commit to praying
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for them.
We've been doing so loved,moments of love and action, and
we've doubled down on this overthe last several weeks because
we know that preaching thegospel is not just in theory,
but in actual movement, right?
You guys are going to have totalk back to me this morning,
all right?
Loving others is not just a goodidea.
It's got to get skin to it.
(09:07):
You got to put a touch to it.
Love that can be seen and can befelt.
It's not love until it lookslike something, which is very
true.
And we're going to keep movingon that.
But at some point, we also mustbe ready to talk about what we
have seen and heard.
So acts of kindness in and ofthemselves can earn a space in
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someone's life.
They might be a conversationstarter, but we also must be
ready to speak of what we haveencountered in the person of
Jesus, right?
And the reality is people don'tjust hear the gospel by osmosis.
I know that you're awesome, butjust because you're in the
presence of somebody doesn'tnecessarily mean that they're
(09:51):
hearing that Jesus isproclaimed.
It's like this Babylon Beearticle that came out.
Despite Susan saying, let's putthis up.
Despite Susan saying, God blessyou every time somebody sees us,
the co-workers still haven'tasked about her faith.
Sometimes we assume a lot onbasic things.
(10:12):
But there comes a time where wehave to be prepared to give an
answer with our faith.
Now, listen here.
This is where we're going toanchor in for today.
Historically in the church,there is a word for this.
The word is evangelism.
Everybody say it with me.
(10:33):
Evangelism.
Evangelism.
Now say it in a really deep,slow accent.
Evangelism.
Like you really mean it, allright?
Now, when I said that word, whenyou heard yourself say that
word, did your body have avisceral reaction?
Right?
Did you feel a lump in the backof your throat or maybe your
(10:54):
stomach drop a little bit, alittle tingle up your spine?
Maybe you had a visceralreaction based on your emotional
attachment to the word.
Now, a lot of us do.
Maybe that was a good reaction.
Maybe we say the word evangelismand there's a gratefulness that
wells up in your heart becausenow you're thinking about the
first time somebody cared enoughto speak to you about the name
(11:17):
of Jesus.
But we're living in a time wherethat word evangelism, let's
just, to kind of own this for acouple minutes here.
It's not always the most popularword in our culture, okay?
I'm gonna walk you through a fewthings that come to mind, and
this may be for some of us.
When we hear the wordevangelism, here's a few things
(11:37):
that come to mind.
Maybe that's historical accountsof global colonialist conquest,
converting people in the name ofChrist, often with violence and
the loss of life.
We have to kind of own that inhistory, right?
Maybe what comes to mind is thestreet preachers on the boxes,
and they have the A-frame signs,and they're saying, repent! The
(11:57):
end is near! Save yourself fromthe fire of hell, right?
And so we hear, we just have theimage of somebody yelling at us
from a street corner, thoughthat doesn't quite happen as
much as it did, you know, usedto.
That still is, for some of us,kind of an image that comes up
when we talk about evangelism.
Some of us, it's the two guysgoing door to door.
They knock on the door.
(12:18):
And you open it and theiropening line is, if you were to
die tonight, right?
Which I just want to throw thisout there.
It's not the best opening line,okay?
Bring them a plate of cookiesinstead, all right?
But some of us have that.
As a working memory.
(12:55):
It might bring to mind more ofan apologetic approach of
debating somebody about biblicalaccounts, maybe debating an
atheist about the truth andvalidity of biblical accounts.
Maybe that's your workingdefinition of evangelism.
Maybe it's the memory at the endof a church service when the
(13:19):
preacher does the call, and theyask everybody to kind of raise
their hand to receive Jesus, andthey say, you know, I see that I
see that hand, I see that hand,and then you look up, and it's
like, dude, there's like onehand in the room, right?
And it's like, what's going onhere?
But it's that moment when youinvite a friend to church, you
(13:41):
have the courage to invite afriend to church, and you're
just hoping on that particularday it's not weirder than most
days, right?
I mean, you like the weirdstuff, just not when your
friends show up to church,right?
UNKNOWN (13:52):
Right?
SPEAKER_00 (13:53):
Or it could be as something as wild as this,
another Babylon Bee satiricalarticle.
A man cuts off an atheist sohe'll see his Christian bumper
stickers.
Are you following Jesus thisclosely?
There's a lot of ways.
There's a lot of things thatcome to mind with evangelism.
But that's why even before wetalk about being a witness, we
(14:14):
need to have a come to Jesusconversation about evangelism.
Are you guys with me?
We're in a unique time.
And maybe you know that feelingof when somebody finds out
you're a Christian, and you cansee it on their face, when
everything they've come tobelieve about Christians on TV
or in the news, or maybe it'sjust headlines about scandals or
(14:35):
abuses in leadership, theyproject all of that back onto
you once they find out you're aChristian.
Have you ever had that feeling?
And sadly, there's too manypeople that are clear about what
Christians are against, butthey're not entirely clear about
what we're for.
And so everything in you, whenyou get into conversations like
that, there's a temptation towant to separate yourselves from
(14:59):
other Christians.
And I know that other peoplehave done that, but I am not
like that.
And almost from get-go, WhenJesus comes up in a
conversation, sometimes we feellike we have to defend, we have
to set apart, we have todifferentiate, and it brings up
a whole lot of inner turmoil inour very beings.
(15:19):
And it's not all bad.
Even Jesus had to do this alittle bit.
So Jesus had an interestingrelationship with evangelism as
well.
This should bring some comfortto you as well, if that's how
you've ever felt.
Because he was dealing with somereligious leaders who were
evangelizing, but they were justturning people into who they
(15:39):
were, which were not goodpeople, okay?
And the character of their liveswere not representative of God
the Father.
And so even Jesus had to callthis out.
Matthew 23, 15, he says this.
Woe to you.
This is strong language.
He says this.
Woe to you, teachers of the lawand Pharisees, you hypocrites,
(16:01):
You travel over land and sea towin a single convert.
There's that word.
And when you have succeeded, youmake them twice as much a child
of hell as you are.
And some of you are like, Jesus.
Nobody talks like that.
Like this is not some kind ofdisgruntled millennial blogger.
Okay, this is Jesus.
(16:23):
And he goes, he says, you'regoing, you're traveling the
land, you're making converts,but you're making them a son of
hell.
Because that's who you are.
And so Jesus even, he bristledat the thought of why would you
even, don't even bother, whywould you do that if it's not
coming from the pure source?
No, Jesus had to call this outbecause it does have to be
(16:46):
called out.
And yet, in all four gospels,all four gospels end with a call
to his disciples.
Go therefore and make disciplesof all nations.
teaching them to obey everythingI've commanded you.
Go preach the gospel to theentire world.
So it's not that Jesus gave upon evangelism.
(17:07):
In fact, he doubled down on it.
But even Jesus knows howimportant it is that the words
of our life and the words of ourmouth match the message of our
lives when it comes to what weshare about God.
Are you guys with me?
So there's a conflict that wehave to address.
And sometimes this even comes toyou the conflict has to do is,
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what is our responsibility whenit comes to sharing our faith?
Because in a pluralisticsociety, where everything goes,
that's where we're living rightnow, in a pluralistic society,
it feels immoral to preach thegospel when one of the highest
cultural values is tolerance.
It actually feels immoral totell somebody what you believe.
(17:53):
Okay?
So, According to a 2019 Barnareport, catch this, 94% of
millennial Christians who aredeeply committed to their faith
said the best thing that couldever happen to a person is for
them to come to know Jesus.
Okay?
94%.
The best thing that could everhappen to a person is to come to
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know Jesus.
However, over half of those samepeople said it would be morally
and ethically wrong to shareyour personal beliefs with
somebody who had differentbeliefs.
Okay?
So if somebody has a differentbelief than yours, the proper,
respectful, loving thing to dois to allow them to remain in
their belief without question,okay?
So in other words, we believethis is incredibly good news.
(18:36):
We also believe that sharingthis good news is bad.
Do you guys feel that?
And do you see how that isincongruent?
So we're living in a time wehave to reconcile the culture we
live in with the commands ofChrist and the call of Jesus to
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be witnesses of everything he'sdone, everything he's taught,
and the life he's coming togive.
And because of these things,here's what's happened.
Because we don't know how toengage, oftentimes, in the
public sphere, we've turned ourfaith into a privatized personal
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experience.
So hear me on this.
Some of us, we're totally goodshowing up on a Sunday morning.
I'm going to put my praise handsup.
I'm going to shout.
I'm going to sing.
I'm going to sing on the firstchorus.
I'm going to sing even louder onthe second chorus.
I'm going to pray.
I'm going to listen to the word.
But when I go home, I'm going tosimmer down.
(19:38):
I'm going to do my church thingat church, and the rest of my
week is going to be, I'm goingto play it pretty cool.
Why?
Because the mantra of our day isjust don't ask, don't tell, you
do you, you let them do them,right?
And so the risk for us here israther than Jesus being the Lord
of our life, he's the Lord ofour church life.
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And this is where a lot of, Ithink, Christians in the West
have come.
We have kind of adopted Christ.
A privatized religion where I'mjust going to be quiet, I'm
going to live, do my thing, butthere is no responsibility for
me to be a witness to anythingI've experienced in Christ.
(20:25):
Never mind the fact that wepreach a lot of other gospels.
We have no problem evangelizing.
There's a lot of other kinds offundamentalism and evangelism
happening in our culture.
There's fundamentalism as itrelates to politics.
There's evangelism as it relatesto upward mobility and careerism
and climate change andmaterialism and sexuality and
even postmodern gender theory.
(20:47):
There's a lot of evangelism thathappens in our culture around a
lot of different ideals.
And we're always speaking ofthings we've seen and heard.
Did you see that Nuggets game?
Did you hear what Trump said?
Did you see the new iPhone?
Did you hear the new Coldplayrecord?
We're always talking aboutthings we've seen and heard.
We're witnesses to a lot ofthings.
(21:07):
We have no issue evangelizingabout the things that don't
ruffle feathers.
But the thing that potentiallyis the most meaningful thing in
our life we don't know how torelate to it anymore.
So over time We traded a fiery,bold public faith of our youth
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for a silent whisper, ifanything at all.
Now, here's how author HenryNouwen says this in his book,
Reaching Out, which is afantastic book.
Here's how he says this.
As a reaction to a veryaggressive, manipulative, and
often degrading type ofevangelism, we sometimes have
become hesitant to make our ownreligious convictions known,
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thereby losing our sense ofwitness.
Although at times it seemsbetter to deepen our own
commitments than to evangelizeothers, it belongs to the core
of Christian spirituality toreach out to the other with good
news.
It's the core of our faith to berecipients of good news and to
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be bearers of good news in theworld.
Now, here's why this is soimportant right now.
If I haven't depressed youenough at this point, here's why
this is actually good news forus even today.
Some stats would show thatreligious affiliation in the
West is waning.
And every stat, and that churchattendance is going down, all
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these things.
Yet, All of the new stats areshowing that actually people are
craving to believe in something.
Now, last Sunday, which wasEaster Sunday, I woke up and in
my inbox was an article from theNew York Times.
And the title of this articlewas America Wants a God.
(23:00):
And one of the quotes from thisarticle says this, this country
seems to be acknowledging thewidespread spiritual hunger.
America's secularization is onpause.
People have stopped leavingchurches and religion is taking
a more prominent role in publiclife.
I'm not kidding you.
This is what I got from the NewYork Times last week.
(23:22):
And it referenced an articlefrom earlier in the year called
One Nation Under God.
And in this article, they talkabout there's actually what's
happening right now in thenation.
There's a great reversal of adecades-long trend of people
leaving the church.
And actually, it's reversing.
People are coming back tochurch, and there's an increase
of what they call spiritualopenness.
(23:43):
And I want to show you a fewstats of the spiritual openness.
Let's show this next slide.
This is from the New York Times,all right?
This isn't like a fringe,sub-Christian, you know, study.
This is New York Times.
Share of U.S.
adults who believe that eitherpeople have a soul Guys, did you
guys hear me?
(24:05):
Yeah.
92%.
Now, if you were to find thesepeople, they're not all
(24:26):
attributing that to a specificperson.
or a God or Jesus, all right?
Let's just be fair there.
That's not what that's saying.
But what it's saying that in ourculture, 92% of people suspect
that there is more to this lifethan what we're experiencing.
And there's a hunger and there'sa thirst.
And what we are, what this meansis that we are living in the age
(24:47):
of spiritual curiosity.
God is stirring up a hunger forhim again.
he's stirring up a hunger forhimself again.
Now, 20% of US adults arepracticing Christians, but this
particular stat and other statsthat are around the same, say,
yeah, 92%.
(25:08):
of adults are either completelycertain or somewhat certain.
There is a spiritual dimensionto life.
And this explains a lot.
This is why a lot of movies thatare happening, especially in a
secular age, a lot of movies aresupernatural or paranormal,
which means people are notfreaked out about spiritual
things.
People are looking for answersto spiritual things to explain
what they are feeling in theirexperience, right?
(25:31):
And so we're living in a timewhere there's a growing
openness.
College campuses areexperiencing revivals and
outpourings an escalating degreeacross our nation.
College campuses areexperiencing an escalation of
God coming in power.
Gen Z is giving their hearts toJesus.
They don't have the same baggageas their parents.
They don't have the same,they're not disenfranchised and
(25:54):
disillusioned and deconstructedlike their parents.
Like they are responding to thegospel in a way that is so fresh
and so new and they don't carewho knows and they are ready to
tell the world about it.
And this is so important, guys.
This is so important.
We have a paradigm because we'recoming from an age where we
think that nobody wants to hear.
Nobody wants to hear what I haveto say.
(26:15):
But even Jesus himself said thatthe harvest is plenty and
laborers are few.
So why do we live as if theharvest is few while the
laborers are plenty?
The harvest is plenty.
But the question is, do we knowin our day and in our time, in
our generation, how to move withJesus to meet the ones he's
(26:36):
after.
Paul continued to press intothis in Romans chapter 10.
He says this to the Romanchurch.
He says,"'How then will theycall on him"'in whom they have
not believed?
"'And how are they to believe inhim"'in whom they have never
(26:57):
heard?' And how are they to hearwithout somebody preaching?
And how are they to preachunless they are sent as it is
written?
How beautiful are the feet ofthose who preach the good news.
And later on, he would say,listen, have I shrunk back from
preaching the whole counsel ofGod to you?
He's like, no.
I haven't held anything backfrom you.
(27:19):
I've given you the whole counselof God without shrinking back.
Do you ever feel the temptationto shrink back?
I have.
I have.
Do you ever feel, come on, behonest.
Do you feel the temptation toshrink back?
Do you feel the temptation tocool it, to chill, to just keep
that to yourself?
I think we all do.
But it's important to know thatfor those of us who have seen
(27:43):
and heard the living Christ, ifthat's true of you, then there's
an invitation to talk about whatyou've seen and what you've
heard.
And so even atheists understandthis.
There's a somebody that youprobably are aware of, kind of
(28:03):
like a magician do, Penn andTeller.
Penn Jillette from Penn andTeller, years ago, he recorded a
video, and he's a Sancheatheist, at least at the time.
I don't know where he's at now.
But he recorded a video aboutwhat he thinks about evangelism.
Let's take a look at this video.
SPEAKER_01 (28:22):
And I've always said, you know, that I don't
respect people who don'tproselytize.
I don't respect that at all.
If you believe that there's aheaven and hell and people could
be going to hell or not gettingeternal life or whatever, and
you think that, well, it's notreally worth telling them this
because it would make itsocially awkward.
(28:44):
And atheists who think thatpeople shouldn't proselytize,
just leave me alone, keep yourreligion to yourself.
How much do you have to hatesomebody to not proselytize?
How much do you have to hatesomebody to believe that
everlasting life is possible andnot tell them that?
I mean, if I believed, beyond ashadow of a doubt, that a truck
(29:06):
was coming at you and you didn'tbelieve it, that truck was
bearing down on you, there's acertain point where I tackle
you.
And this is more important thanthat.
And I've always thought that,and I've written about that,
I've thought of it conceptually.
SPEAKER_00 (29:20):
Yeah.
Yeah, this is good.
This is a good word.
This is a good encouragement,even from somebody who doesn't
believe in God.
If we believe that coming toJesus has power and freedom,
then we have to acknowledge thethings that war against us,
declaring what we've seen andheard.
And let me just ask you thatquestion.
Do you believe that the gospelof Jesus is the power of God?
(29:42):
Do you believe that?
Paul would write in Romanschapter one again, he says, for
I am not ashamed of the gospel,for it is the power of God for
salvation to everyone whobelieves, to the Jew first and
to the Greek.
He said, I'm not ashamed.
This is power and freedom.
And I think it's so important inthis moment that we're living in
(30:06):
that we come to a place where wedon't just believe that we're
That what we're doing here andwhat we're proclaiming is just
one of many but it's the messageof Jesus that's good and
beautiful and sets people free.
The message of Jesus sets heartsfree.
Is anybody with me?
Are you guys believers heretoday?
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The message of Jesus sets usfree.
He sets us free.
Some people ask me, do I believeall paths lead to God?
Yeah, I do.
I believe all paths lead to thejudgment seat of God.
2 Corinthians 5.
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So whether we are at home oraway, we make it our aim to
please him.
For we all must appear beforethe judgment seat of Christ so
that each one may receive whatis due for what he has done in
the body, whether good or evil.
Therefore, knowing the fear ofthe Lord, we persuade others.
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Can you guys feel the gravity ofthat?
We make it our aim to pleasehim.
So there's a love for God.
Everything I do.
For Paul, it's everything I do.
I just want it to please him.
Because they're all going toappear before him.
All of us.
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We don't get to that.
I don't make up the rules here.
We all appear before Jesus.
And so therefore, knowing thefear of the Lord, we persuade
others.
So there's something about thelove of God combined with the
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fear of God that leads to amotivation to want to persuade
somebody else to know God A loveof God and a fear of God that
affects us from the core.
It's like, how do I keep this tomyself?
And I just have a sense thatmaybe maybe some of us have lost
(32:28):
that.
A love of God and a fear of Godthat would want, that would
propel us to speak of him.
This isn't just about When wecall people to Jesus, it's not
just about, you know, and awayfrom false gods.
It's not because they're thewrong gods and he's the right
God.
It's because all other gods leadto disaster.
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Other gods, lesser gods lead todisaster.
There are no other gods thatwill love you, die for you, and
empower you with their presence.
That's not gonna happen.
So when we call, this is thebest imagination and vision for
what we know will lead tofreedom.
Now, every generation has towrestle this down.
Every time period has to wrestlethis down.
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And we have to continue to askthe question, what does it mean
to preach the gospel in 2025?
And I believe, and here's myplea with us today, and as we
kind of start this journeytogether, and you guys kind of
feel, it's kind of a little bitof a sobering message, but I
believe it's time we renew ourrelationship with even how we
feel today.
about evangelism.
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And we gotta just come to gripswith how that even affects us
and whether we see that as ourresponsibility or not.
Guess what?
The church of Jesus Christ isalways only one generation from
going extinct.
We're always only one generationfrom losing our way.
We're always only one generationfrom what we've seen and heard
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being passed to the nextgeneration.
So we can't just assumeeverything just keeps going.
No, we have to live with theresponsibility that in 2025 in
Colorado, we get to move withJesus so that all will see and
hear.
It doesn't matter how good ourworship or prayer meetings are.
It doesn't matter, you know,what we're doing here as a
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church.
All of us in this room at somepoint will age out and die out
if we don't take seriouslyspiritual reproduction,
basically passing on the faithto those around us and to the
next generation.
So let me just ask you, is thereanything, is there anything in
your life that has kept you fromsharing the good news of Jesus
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with others?
Now, this is confession time forme because number one, I'm an
introvert, okay?
When I get in social settings, Ibarely even want to tell people
(34:58):
my name, all right?
So I force myself to because I'ma pastor, and so I'm like, this
is, I guess, what I should bedoing.
But I'd rather just do my thingoff to the side.
I'm just shooting straight withyou, all right?
And my personality, the lastthing I want to do is make
things weird in a conversation,all right?
It's the last thing I want todo.
I don't want to make thisawkward.
Not only that, but like in theBible, when it comes to
(35:20):
evangelism, I've always givenmyself a get out of jail for
free card.
And this sounds so bad.
I can't believe I'm confessingthis to you.
But like there's this passage inEphesians 4 that talks about,
and in the church, there'sapostles and prophets and
evangelists and pastors andteachers.
I'm like, I got the pastorteacher thing down.
I'll let the evangelist do theevangelist thing.
Those guys are over there.
I'm just going to sit.
I'm going to teach the word ofGod, but I'm going to do my
(35:43):
part.
But I'm going to unhinge fromthis any responsibility to have
to be...
anything else in any other partof my life.
And I just feel like this lastyear, God has pinpointed me and
said, that is not true of youbecause you are also a witness
of what I've seen and what Ihave done in your life.
You don't just get to talk aboutit from a public stage.
(36:04):
You get to message that withyour entire life.
And so for me, even the thoughtof doing this series, I was
like, that's the last thing Iwanna talk about is evangelism.
I don't want to talk about it.
Let's talk about something else.
Let's talk about something likeheady and intellectual.
Let's go somewhere else.
And God's like, no, this is theage of the evangelist.
(36:28):
I believe that this is what theLord wants to speak to us and
even greater than us.
This is an age of the evangelistagain.
God is raising up evangelistsand not just as people, but as a
calling for the entire church,the boldness and the fire of
life with God to proclaim thegood news of God until the
darkness flees, until theoppressed are set free, until
(36:52):
addicts are set free, until thelonely are set in home, until
the shame is gone, until hiskingdom is manifest on earth.
It doesn't just happen.
It must be proclaimed.
proclaimed in all of the ends ofthe earth.
And so if you're willing to heartoday, I'm just saying there is
(37:14):
an invitation here and you canjust kind of make this another.
That was a good message, PastorLuke.
You can quote that online.
Great message.
Fire, fire, praise hands,whatever.
You can do whatever you want.
You can do that.
But what I'm telling you,there's an invitation from you.
And I'm saying, do not walk awayfrom this.
This is for all of us.
This is so important.
(37:35):
And I just want to ask you, isthere anything right now?
Let's just close your eyesacross the room.
And let me just acknowledgethis.
If you're not even a believer inJesus or this is your first time
here and you're like, you wantme to go do what?
I'm like, listen, it's okay.
Just, it's okay.
You're fine, all right?
I'm talking to those.
We've been doing this for a longtime.
We've been following Jesus andmaybe lost the desire to share
(37:58):
with others about who Jesus is.
And that's who I'm talking toright now.
I'm just asking this question.
Is there anything that's keptyou from sharing the good news
of Jesus with others?
Is it fear?
Insecurity?
Rejection?
(38:22):
Embarrassment?
Inadequacy?
Maybe you just don't feel smartenough.
Maybe you don't feel good withwords.
The good news is a lot of thedisciples were not good with
words.
(38:42):
They weren't intellectual.
They didn't know everything.
They had just seen a few things.
So I just want, let's give amoment here Let's just give a
(39:02):
moment here.
If anything came up for you, youfeel like, man, this has been a
wall or maybe I'vecompartmentalized my life.
I'm scared to talk about Jesusbecause I know what that means.
Just acknowledge that and it'sokay.
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But let that confession alsoturn into repentance and say,
God, I don't want that to be thecase.
That's not who you've called meto be.
You have not given me a spiritof timidity, but of power and
love and a sound mind.
(39:48):
He has not given you a faiththat you might shrink back.
He wants to give you theconfidence and the grace and the
power of his spirit So if youneed to even say, Jesus, I'm
sorry, I'm sorry.
(40:10):
This is the time to do that.
(40:39):
So a witness is an identity andit's a mission.
It's acknowledging I've seen toomuch to stay silent.
I can't unknow what I've come toknow in Jesus.
Even if I can't explaineverything, I know that he has
changed me.
It's like the blind man in John9.
He says, one thing I do know,that though I was blind, now I
(41:04):
see.
Welcome to the Lookout weekly podcast.
Church of the Lookout is inBoulder, Colorado, and our
vision is Jesus abiding in hispresence, growing in his family,
and living on his mission totransform the world with
awe-inspiring love.
Visit us online atthelookout.church.
(00:21):
If you have your Bibles, I dowant to invite you to open up to
Acts chapter 1 today.
That's where we're going tostart.
Amen.
(00:52):
And so this week, we're jumpinginto a new teaching series
that's going to take us over thenext several weeks, and we're
going to have some differentguest speakers in.
And it's called Witness, okay?
And I'll explain that here in asecond.
But if you have your Bibles,let's start with Acts chapter 1.
In the first book, O Theophilus,I have dealt with all that Jesus
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began to do and teach until theday when he was taken up.
After he had given commandsthrough the Holy Spirit to the
apostles whom he had chosen, hepresented himself alive to them
after his suffering by manyproofs, appearing to them during
40 days and speaking about thekingdom of God.
And while staying with them, heordered them not to depart from
(01:37):
Jerusalem, but to wait for thepromise of the Father, which he
said, You heard from me, forJohn baptized you with water,
but you will be baptized withthe Holy Spirit not many days
from now.
He said to them, And when hesaid these things, as they were
(02:19):
looking on, he was lifted up anda cloud took him out of their
sight.
This is the word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
Thanks be to God.
Thank you, Jesus, for your word.
And as we come into this placethis morning, we just ask that
you would illuminate our hearts.
(02:41):
And even now, Jesus, we take amoment to pause to become aware
of your presence with us.
We thank you that we don't getto just talk about you, but we
get to live life with you.
And so this morning, I pray formyself, I pray for all of us as
(03:04):
we open the scriptures, God,that you would speak to us.
You would make us more like you,Jesus.
Amen.
So some of you guys know Actschapter one.
If you've never read the book ofActs, this is the second book
written by the apostle Luke.
(03:24):
And he was writing an account,an orderly account of everything
Jesus began to do and teach inthe gospel of Luke.
And then Acts was everythingthat Jesus continued to do and
teach through the early apostlesand the release of the Holy
Spirit as the early church wasjust getting its legs, right?
And so this final moment that herecords of Jesus right before he
(03:45):
ascends into heaven, Jesus istelling his disciples, listen,
I'm about to go.
But I want you to wait inJerusalem, and I want you to
wait for the promise of the HolySpirit.
And when he comes upon you, youare going to become my witnesses
in Judea, Samaria, and all theends of the earth.
Now, if you're not familiar withthe geography, that means
(04:06):
nothing to you about Judea andSamaria.
That would be like saying, youwill be my witnesses in Niwat,
in Boulder County, in Colorado,in all of the United States, in
the whole world.
It's just kind of a concentricring of circles.
It's going to start here, butit's not going to stay here.
It's going to And that's whytoday, 2,000 years later and
(04:27):
6,800 miles away, that's whywe're still here talking about
it in this room today.
Because they were his witnessesand the message did spread into
the entire world.
Somebody say amen.
And so he says, you will be mywitnesses.
And this was an important wordfor Jesus.
It was a charge.
This word, you will be mywitness.
UNKNOWN (04:48):
Amen.
SPEAKER_00 (04:48):
is an important one because it's not just an
identity, it's a mission.
It's an identity over them thatthey're going to He said, you're
gonna have an encounter withJesus.
So you are a witness or you'veencountered me.
So you're a witness toeverything I've done and
everything I've said, the lifethat I live.
But now your mission is to sharewhat you've heard and what
(05:11):
you've seen with the worldaround.
Some of you guys know that wordwitness.
We have that word in ourculture, right?
And it's the same thing in theancient world, a witness with
somebody who had a firsthandexperience, right?
And in a legal setting, youweren't even a valid witness
until you had seen, heard, orbeen a part of the event, right?
(05:31):
You couldn't pass along hearsay.
A witness had to bear truth frompersonal encounter.
So this was the story of theearly church.
What happened from here on outas we read through the book of
Acts, account after account ofmen and women as they were
faithful to Jesus to bearwitness to what they had seen
(05:53):
and what they had heard.
And sometimes this wouldactually get them in trouble,
right?
Because as they were proclaimingthat this Messiah, Jesus, had
died and now he's resurrectedand this has changed everything.
This was threatening to some ofthe religious leaders.
He said, hey, how about you keepthat quiet?
How about you stop with thatresurrection talk?
(06:14):
And here's what Peter says inActs chapter four, verse 19.
But Peter and John answeredthem, whether it is right in the
sight of God to listen to you Solisten, you say what you need to
(06:36):
say, you do what you need to do,but I cannot unsee what Christ
has shown me.
Come on.
That's how it works when youeven counter Christ.
And Paul had the same thing.
He wasn't with Jesus originally,but we read the story in Acts
how he's on his journey on theway to Damascus.
(06:56):
And Jesus encounters him with abright light.
And from that moment, hisidentity changed.
He was no longer a murderer ofChristians.
He was now an apostle called byGod to the nations.
And it changed everything forhim.
And so Paul, as he would go out,he would show up to sit and he
would find any crowd he couldfind.
He'd go to the temple.
(07:18):
He would go to where the Greekswould meet in the city square,
and he would start proclaiming,this is who Jesus is and what
he's done.
And he'd get, as you wouldimagine, some mixed reaction,
right?
There's a few people who wouldrespond and said, that sounds
like really good news.
Other people said, that soundslike terrible news, and they
threw rocks at him, right?
And so it was a mixed bag.
He didn't have a great audienceeverywhere he goes, but he did
(07:41):
find a few everywhere he went.
He would proclaim this is whoJesus is and what he's done, a
few would respond and he wouldgather them.
They would start meeting inhomes and start just looking
over all the teachings of Jesusand establishing their lives in
the scriptures and in the wordof God.
And they just ran this play overand over and over in every city,
(08:04):
proclaiming the word of God.
And as that proclamation went,how hearts started to open up,
started to be drawn to Jesus.
And then they would startgathering together to be
equipped with everything Jesusdid and taught.
And so you will be my witnesses.
This is the life that Jesusinvited us into, empowered by
the Holy Spirit, right?
(08:26):
And so this year, as you know,like I said, we've doubled down
on this larger theme of for thesake of others.
We're praying for the one.
We've encouraged you guys tohave somebody this year that God
has targeted in your life thatyou're praying for every day
because you believe that Godwants to do something great in
their life.
If you don't have your one, findyour one and commit to praying
(08:46):
for them.
We've been doing so loved,moments of love and action, and
we've doubled down on this overthe last several weeks because
we know that preaching thegospel is not just in theory,
but in actual movement, right?
You guys are going to have totalk back to me this morning,
all right?
Loving others is not just a goodidea.
It's got to get skin to it.
(09:07):
You got to put a touch to it.
Love that can be seen and can befelt.
It's not love until it lookslike something, which is very
true.
And we're going to keep movingon that.
But at some point, we also mustbe ready to talk about what we
have seen and heard.
So acts of kindness in and ofthemselves can earn a space in
(09:29):
someone's life.
They might be a conversationstarter, but we also must be
ready to speak of what we haveencountered in the person of
Jesus, right?
And the reality is people don'tjust hear the gospel by osmosis.
I know that you're awesome, butjust because you're in the
presence of somebody doesn'tnecessarily mean that they're
(09:51):
hearing that Jesus isproclaimed.
It's like this Babylon Beearticle that came out.
Despite Susan saying, let's putthis up.
Despite Susan saying, God blessyou every time somebody sees us,
the co-workers still haven'tasked about her faith.
Sometimes we assume a lot onbasic things.
(10:12):
But there comes a time where wehave to be prepared to give an
answer with our faith.
Now, listen here.
This is where we're going toanchor in for today.
Historically in the church,there is a word for this.
The word is evangelism.
Everybody say it with me.
(10:33):
Evangelism.
Evangelism.
Now say it in a really deep,slow accent.
Evangelism.
Like you really mean it, allright?
Now, when I said that word, whenyou heard yourself say that
word, did your body have avisceral reaction?
Right?
Did you feel a lump in the backof your throat or maybe your
(10:54):
stomach drop a little bit, alittle tingle up your spine?
Maybe you had a visceralreaction based on your emotional
attachment to the word.
Now, a lot of us do.
Maybe that was a good reaction.
Maybe we say the word evangelismand there's a gratefulness that
wells up in your heart becausenow you're thinking about the
first time somebody cared enoughto speak to you about the name
(11:17):
of Jesus.
But we're living in a time wherethat word evangelism, let's
just, to kind of own this for acouple minutes here.
It's not always the most popularword in our culture, okay?
I'm gonna walk you through a fewthings that come to mind, and
this may be for some of us.
When we hear the wordevangelism, here's a few things
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that come to mind.
Maybe that's historical accountsof global colonialist conquest,
converting people in the name ofChrist, often with violence and
the loss of life.
We have to kind of own that inhistory, right?
Maybe what comes to mind is thestreet preachers on the boxes,
and they have the A-frame signs,and they're saying, repent! The
(11:57):
end is near! Save yourself fromthe fire of hell, right?
And so we hear, we just have theimage of somebody yelling at us
from a street corner, thoughthat doesn't quite happen as
much as it did, you know, usedto.
That still is, for some of us,kind of an image that comes up
when we talk about evangelism.
Some of us, it's the two guysgoing door to door.
They knock on the door.
(12:18):
And you open it and theiropening line is, if you were to
die tonight, right?
Which I just want to throw thisout there.
It's not the best opening line,okay?
Bring them a plate of cookiesinstead, all right?
But some of us have that.
As a working memory.
(12:55):
It might bring to mind more ofan apologetic approach of
debating somebody about biblicalaccounts, maybe debating an
atheist about the truth andvalidity of biblical accounts.
Maybe that's your workingdefinition of evangelism.
Maybe it's the memory at the endof a church service when the
(13:19):
preacher does the call, and theyask everybody to kind of raise
their hand to receive Jesus, andthey say, you know, I see that I
see that hand, I see that hand,and then you look up, and it's
like, dude, there's like onehand in the room, right?
And it's like, what's going onhere?
But it's that moment when youinvite a friend to church, you
(13:41):
have the courage to invite afriend to church, and you're
just hoping on that particularday it's not weirder than most
days, right?
I mean, you like the weirdstuff, just not when your
friends show up to church,right?
UNKNOWN (13:52):
Right?
SPEAKER_00 (13:53):
Or it could be as something as wild as this,
another Babylon Bee satiricalarticle.
A man cuts off an atheist sohe'll see his Christian bumper
stickers.
Are you following Jesus thisclosely?
There's a lot of ways.
There's a lot of things thatcome to mind with evangelism.
But that's why even before wetalk about being a witness, we
(14:14):
need to have a come to Jesusconversation about evangelism.
Are you guys with me?
We're in a unique time.
And maybe you know that feelingof when somebody finds out
you're a Christian, and you cansee it on their face, when
everything they've come tobelieve about Christians on TV
or in the news, or maybe it'sjust headlines about scandals or
(14:35):
abuses in leadership, theyproject all of that back onto
you once they find out you're aChristian.
Have you ever had that feeling?
And sadly, there's too manypeople that are clear about what
Christians are against, butthey're not entirely clear about
what we're for.
And so everything in you, whenyou get into conversations like
that, there's a temptation towant to separate yourselves from
(14:59):
other Christians.
And I know that other peoplehave done that, but I am not
like that.
And almost from get-go, WhenJesus comes up in a
conversation, sometimes we feellike we have to defend, we have
to set apart, we have todifferentiate, and it brings up
a whole lot of inner turmoil inour very beings.
(15:19):
And it's not all bad.
Even Jesus had to do this alittle bit.
So Jesus had an interestingrelationship with evangelism as
well.
This should bring some comfortto you as well, if that's how
you've ever felt.
Because he was dealing with somereligious leaders who were
evangelizing, but they were justturning people into who they
(15:39):
were, which were not goodpeople, okay?
And the character of their liveswere not representative of God
the Father.
And so even Jesus had to callthis out.
Matthew 23, 15, he says this.
Woe to you.
This is strong language.
He says this.
Woe to you, teachers of the lawand Pharisees, you hypocrites,
(16:01):
You travel over land and sea towin a single convert.
There's that word.
And when you have succeeded, youmake them twice as much a child
of hell as you are.
And some of you are like, Jesus.
Nobody talks like that.
Like this is not some kind ofdisgruntled millennial blogger.
Okay, this is Jesus.
(16:23):
And he goes, he says, you'regoing, you're traveling the
land, you're making converts,but you're making them a son of
hell.
Because that's who you are.
And so Jesus even, he bristledat the thought of why would you
even, don't even bother, whywould you do that if it's not
coming from the pure source?
No, Jesus had to call this outbecause it does have to be
(16:46):
called out.
And yet, in all four gospels,all four gospels end with a call
to his disciples.
Go therefore and make disciplesof all nations.
teaching them to obey everythingI've commanded you.
Go preach the gospel to theentire world.
So it's not that Jesus gave upon evangelism.
(17:07):
In fact, he doubled down on it.
But even Jesus knows howimportant it is that the words
of our life and the words of ourmouth match the message of our
lives when it comes to what weshare about God.
Are you guys with me?
So there's a conflict that wehave to address.
And sometimes this even comes toyou the conflict has to do is,
(17:30):
what is our responsibility whenit comes to sharing our faith?
Because in a pluralisticsociety, where everything goes,
that's where we're living rightnow, in a pluralistic society,
it feels immoral to preach thegospel when one of the highest
cultural values is tolerance.
It actually feels immoral totell somebody what you believe.
(17:53):
Okay?
So, According to a 2019 Barnareport, catch this, 94% of
millennial Christians who aredeeply committed to their faith
said the best thing that couldever happen to a person is for
them to come to know Jesus.
Okay?
94%.
The best thing that could everhappen to a person is to come to
(18:13):
know Jesus.
However, over half of those samepeople said it would be morally
and ethically wrong to shareyour personal beliefs with
somebody who had differentbeliefs.
Okay?
So if somebody has a differentbelief than yours, the proper,
respectful, loving thing to dois to allow them to remain in
their belief without question,okay?
So in other words, we believethis is incredibly good news.
(18:36):
We also believe that sharingthis good news is bad.
Do you guys feel that?
And do you see how that isincongruent?
So we're living in a time wehave to reconcile the culture we
live in with the commands ofChrist and the call of Jesus to
(18:56):
be witnesses of everything he'sdone, everything he's taught,
and the life he's coming togive.
And because of these things,here's what's happened.
Because we don't know how toengage, oftentimes, in the
public sphere, we've turned ourfaith into a privatized personal
(19:17):
experience.
So hear me on this.
Some of us, we're totally goodshowing up on a Sunday morning.
I'm going to put my praise handsup.
I'm going to shout.
I'm going to sing.
I'm going to sing on the firstchorus.
I'm going to sing even louder onthe second chorus.
I'm going to pray.
I'm going to listen to the word.
But when I go home, I'm going tosimmer down.
(19:38):
I'm going to do my church thingat church, and the rest of my
week is going to be, I'm goingto play it pretty cool.
Why?
Because the mantra of our day isjust don't ask, don't tell, you
do you, you let them do them,right?
And so the risk for us here israther than Jesus being the Lord
of our life, he's the Lord ofour church life.
(20:05):
And this is where a lot of, Ithink, Christians in the West
have come.
We have kind of adopted Christ.
A privatized religion where I'mjust going to be quiet, I'm
going to live, do my thing, butthere is no responsibility for
me to be a witness to anythingI've experienced in Christ.
(20:25):
Never mind the fact that wepreach a lot of other gospels.
We have no problem evangelizing.
There's a lot of other kinds offundamentalism and evangelism
happening in our culture.
There's fundamentalism as itrelates to politics.
There's evangelism as it relatesto upward mobility and careerism
and climate change andmaterialism and sexuality and
even postmodern gender theory.
(20:47):
There's a lot of evangelism thathappens in our culture around a
lot of different ideals.
And we're always speaking ofthings we've seen and heard.
Did you see that Nuggets game?
Did you hear what Trump said?
Did you see the new iPhone?
Did you hear the new Coldplayrecord?
We're always talking aboutthings we've seen and heard.
We're witnesses to a lot ofthings.
(21:07):
We have no issue evangelizingabout the things that don't
ruffle feathers.
But the thing that potentiallyis the most meaningful thing in
our life we don't know how torelate to it anymore.
So over time We traded a fiery,bold public faith of our youth
(21:28):
for a silent whisper, ifanything at all.
Now, here's how author HenryNouwen says this in his book,
Reaching Out, which is afantastic book.
Here's how he says this.
As a reaction to a veryaggressive, manipulative, and
often degrading type ofevangelism, we sometimes have
become hesitant to make our ownreligious convictions known,
(21:51):
thereby losing our sense ofwitness.
Although at times it seemsbetter to deepen our own
commitments than to evangelizeothers, it belongs to the core
of Christian spirituality toreach out to the other with good
news.
It's the core of our faith to berecipients of good news and to
(22:14):
be bearers of good news in theworld.
Now, here's why this is soimportant right now.
If I haven't depressed youenough at this point, here's why
this is actually good news forus even today.
Some stats would show thatreligious affiliation in the
West is waning.
And every stat, and that churchattendance is going down, all
(22:36):
these things.
Yet, All of the new stats areshowing that actually people are
craving to believe in something.
Now, last Sunday, which wasEaster Sunday, I woke up and in
my inbox was an article from theNew York Times.
And the title of this articlewas America Wants a God.
(23:00):
And one of the quotes from thisarticle says this, this country
seems to be acknowledging thewidespread spiritual hunger.
America's secularization is onpause.
People have stopped leavingchurches and religion is taking
a more prominent role in publiclife.
I'm not kidding you.
This is what I got from the NewYork Times last week.
(23:22):
And it referenced an articlefrom earlier in the year called
One Nation Under God.
And in this article, they talkabout there's actually what's
happening right now in thenation.
There's a great reversal of adecades-long trend of people
leaving the church.
And actually, it's reversing.
People are coming back tochurch, and there's an increase
of what they call spiritualopenness.
(23:43):
And I want to show you a fewstats of the spiritual openness.
Let's show this next slide.
This is from the New York Times,all right?
This isn't like a fringe,sub-Christian, you know, study.
This is New York Times.
Share of U.S.
adults who believe that eitherpeople have a soul Guys, did you
guys hear me?
(24:05):
Yeah.
92%.
Now, if you were to find thesepeople, they're not all
(24:26):
attributing that to a specificperson.
or a God or Jesus, all right?
Let's just be fair there.
That's not what that's saying.
But what it's saying that in ourculture, 92% of people suspect
that there is more to this lifethan what we're experiencing.
And there's a hunger and there'sa thirst.
And what we are, what this meansis that we are living in the age
(24:47):
of spiritual curiosity.
God is stirring up a hunger forhim again.
he's stirring up a hunger forhimself again.
Now, 20% of US adults arepracticing Christians, but this
particular stat and other statsthat are around the same, say,
yeah, 92%.
(25:08):
of adults are either completelycertain or somewhat certain.
There is a spiritual dimensionto life.
And this explains a lot.
This is why a lot of movies thatare happening, especially in a
secular age, a lot of movies aresupernatural or paranormal,
which means people are notfreaked out about spiritual
things.
People are looking for answersto spiritual things to explain
what they are feeling in theirexperience, right?
(25:31):
And so we're living in a timewhere there's a growing
openness.
College campuses areexperiencing revivals and
outpourings an escalating degreeacross our nation.
College campuses areexperiencing an escalation of
God coming in power.
Gen Z is giving their hearts toJesus.
They don't have the same baggageas their parents.
They don't have the same,they're not disenfranchised and
(25:54):
disillusioned and deconstructedlike their parents.
Like they are responding to thegospel in a way that is so fresh
and so new and they don't carewho knows and they are ready to
tell the world about it.
And this is so important, guys.
This is so important.
We have a paradigm because we'recoming from an age where we
think that nobody wants to hear.
Nobody wants to hear what I haveto say.
(26:15):
But even Jesus himself said thatthe harvest is plenty and
laborers are few.
So why do we live as if theharvest is few while the
laborers are plenty?
The harvest is plenty.
But the question is, do we knowin our day and in our time, in
our generation, how to move withJesus to meet the ones he's
(26:36):
after.
Paul continued to press intothis in Romans chapter 10.
He says this to the Romanchurch.
He says,"'How then will theycall on him"'in whom they have
not believed?
"'And how are they to believe inhim"'in whom they have never
(26:57):
heard?' And how are they to hearwithout somebody preaching?
And how are they to preachunless they are sent as it is
written?
How beautiful are the feet ofthose who preach the good news.
And later on, he would say,listen, have I shrunk back from
preaching the whole counsel ofGod to you?
He's like, no.
I haven't held anything backfrom you.
(27:19):
I've given you the whole counselof God without shrinking back.
Do you ever feel the temptationto shrink back?
I have.
I have.
Do you ever feel, come on, behonest.
Do you feel the temptation toshrink back?
Do you feel the temptation tocool it, to chill, to just keep
that to yourself?
I think we all do.
But it's important to know thatfor those of us who have seen
(27:43):
and heard the living Christ, ifthat's true of you, then there's
an invitation to talk about whatyou've seen and what you've
heard.
And so even atheists understandthis.
There's a somebody that youprobably are aware of, kind of
(28:03):
like a magician do, Penn andTeller.
Penn Jillette from Penn andTeller, years ago, he recorded a
video, and he's a Sancheatheist, at least at the time.
I don't know where he's at now.
But he recorded a video aboutwhat he thinks about evangelism.
Let's take a look at this video.
SPEAKER_01 (28:22):
And I've always said, you know, that I don't
respect people who don'tproselytize.
I don't respect that at all.
If you believe that there's aheaven and hell and people could
be going to hell or not gettingeternal life or whatever, and
you think that, well, it's notreally worth telling them this
because it would make itsocially awkward.
(28:44):
And atheists who think thatpeople shouldn't proselytize,
just leave me alone, keep yourreligion to yourself.
How much do you have to hatesomebody to not proselytize?
How much do you have to hatesomebody to believe that
everlasting life is possible andnot tell them that?
I mean, if I believed, beyond ashadow of a doubt, that a truck
(29:06):
was coming at you and you didn'tbelieve it, that truck was
bearing down on you, there's acertain point where I tackle
you.
And this is more important thanthat.
And I've always thought that,and I've written about that,
I've thought of it conceptually.
SPEAKER_00 (29:20):
Yeah.
Yeah, this is good.
This is a good word.
This is a good encouragement,even from somebody who doesn't
believe in God.
If we believe that coming toJesus has power and freedom,
then we have to acknowledge thethings that war against us,
declaring what we've seen andheard.
And let me just ask you thatquestion.
Do you believe that the gospelof Jesus is the power of God?
(29:42):
Do you believe that?
Paul would write in Romanschapter one again, he says, for
I am not ashamed of the gospel,for it is the power of God for
salvation to everyone whobelieves, to the Jew first and
to the Greek.
He said, I'm not ashamed.
This is power and freedom.
And I think it's so important inthis moment that we're living in
(30:06):
that we come to a place where wedon't just believe that we're
That what we're doing here andwhat we're proclaiming is just
one of many but it's the messageof Jesus that's good and
beautiful and sets people free.
The message of Jesus sets heartsfree.
Is anybody with me?
Are you guys believers heretoday?
(30:28):
The message of Jesus sets usfree.
He sets us free.
Some people ask me, do I believeall paths lead to God?
Yeah, I do.
I believe all paths lead to thejudgment seat of God.
2 Corinthians 5.
(30:50):
So whether we are at home oraway, we make it our aim to
please him.
For we all must appear beforethe judgment seat of Christ so
that each one may receive whatis due for what he has done in
the body, whether good or evil.
Therefore, knowing the fear ofthe Lord, we persuade others.
(31:18):
Can you guys feel the gravity ofthat?
We make it our aim to pleasehim.
So there's a love for God.
Everything I do.
For Paul, it's everything I do.
I just want it to please him.
Because they're all going toappear before him.
All of us.
(31:38):
We don't get to that.
I don't make up the rules here.
We all appear before Jesus.
And so therefore, knowing thefear of the Lord, we persuade
others.
So there's something about thelove of God combined with the
(32:02):
fear of God that leads to amotivation to want to persuade
somebody else to know God A loveof God and a fear of God that
affects us from the core.
It's like, how do I keep this tomyself?
And I just have a sense thatmaybe maybe some of us have lost
(32:28):
that.
A love of God and a fear of Godthat would want, that would
propel us to speak of him.
This isn't just about When wecall people to Jesus, it's not
just about, you know, and awayfrom false gods.
It's not because they're thewrong gods and he's the right
God.
It's because all other gods leadto disaster.
(32:49):
Other gods, lesser gods lead todisaster.
There are no other gods thatwill love you, die for you, and
empower you with their presence.
That's not gonna happen.
So when we call, this is thebest imagination and vision for
what we know will lead tofreedom.
Now, every generation has towrestle this down.
Every time period has to wrestlethis down.
(33:11):
And we have to continue to askthe question, what does it mean
to preach the gospel in 2025?
And I believe, and here's myplea with us today, and as we
kind of start this journeytogether, and you guys kind of
feel, it's kind of a little bitof a sobering message, but I
believe it's time we renew ourrelationship with even how we
feel today.
about evangelism.
(33:32):
And we gotta just come to gripswith how that even affects us
and whether we see that as ourresponsibility or not.
Guess what?
The church of Jesus Christ isalways only one generation from
going extinct.
We're always only one generationfrom losing our way.
We're always only one generationfrom what we've seen and heard
(33:52):
being passed to the nextgeneration.
So we can't just assumeeverything just keeps going.
No, we have to live with theresponsibility that in 2025 in
Colorado, we get to move withJesus so that all will see and
hear.
It doesn't matter how good ourworship or prayer meetings are.
It doesn't matter, you know,what we're doing here as a
(34:16):
church.
All of us in this room at somepoint will age out and die out
if we don't take seriouslyspiritual reproduction,
basically passing on the faithto those around us and to the
next generation.
So let me just ask you, is thereanything, is there anything in
your life that has kept you fromsharing the good news of Jesus
(34:38):
with others?
Now, this is confession time forme because number one, I'm an
introvert, okay?
When I get in social settings, Ibarely even want to tell people
(34:58):
my name, all right?
So I force myself to because I'ma pastor, and so I'm like, this
is, I guess, what I should bedoing.
But I'd rather just do my thingoff to the side.
I'm just shooting straight withyou, all right?
And my personality, the lastthing I want to do is make
things weird in a conversation,all right?
It's the last thing I want todo.
I don't want to make thisawkward.
Not only that, but like in theBible, when it comes to
(35:20):
evangelism, I've always givenmyself a get out of jail for
free card.
And this sounds so bad.
I can't believe I'm confessingthis to you.
But like there's this passage inEphesians 4 that talks about,
and in the church, there'sapostles and prophets and
evangelists and pastors andteachers.
I'm like, I got the pastorteacher thing down.
I'll let the evangelist do theevangelist thing.
Those guys are over there.
I'm just going to sit.
I'm going to teach the word ofGod, but I'm going to do my
(35:43):
part.
But I'm going to unhinge fromthis any responsibility to have
to be...
anything else in any other partof my life.
And I just feel like this lastyear, God has pinpointed me and
said, that is not true of youbecause you are also a witness
of what I've seen and what Ihave done in your life.
You don't just get to talk aboutit from a public stage.
(36:04):
You get to message that withyour entire life.
And so for me, even the thoughtof doing this series, I was
like, that's the last thing Iwanna talk about is evangelism.
I don't want to talk about it.
Let's talk about something else.
Let's talk about something likeheady and intellectual.
Let's go somewhere else.
And God's like, no, this is theage of the evangelist.
(36:28):
I believe that this is what theLord wants to speak to us and
even greater than us.
This is an age of the evangelistagain.
God is raising up evangelistsand not just as people, but as a
calling for the entire church,the boldness and the fire of
life with God to proclaim thegood news of God until the
darkness flees, until theoppressed are set free, until
(36:52):
addicts are set free, until thelonely are set in home, until
the shame is gone, until hiskingdom is manifest on earth.
It doesn't just happen.
It must be proclaimed.
proclaimed in all of the ends ofthe earth.
And so if you're willing to heartoday, I'm just saying there is
(37:14):
an invitation here and you canjust kind of make this another.
That was a good message, PastorLuke.
You can quote that online.
Great message.
Fire, fire, praise hands,whatever.
You can do whatever you want.
You can do that.
But what I'm telling you,there's an invitation from you.
And I'm saying, do not walk awayfrom this.
This is for all of us.
This is so important.
(37:35):
And I just want to ask you, isthere anything right now?
Let's just close your eyesacross the room.
And let me just acknowledgethis.
If you're not even a believer inJesus or this is your first time
here and you're like, you wantme to go do what?
I'm like, listen, it's okay.
Just, it's okay.
You're fine, all right?
I'm talking to those.
We've been doing this for a longtime.
We've been following Jesus andmaybe lost the desire to share
(37:58):
with others about who Jesus is.
And that's who I'm talking toright now.
I'm just asking this question.
Is there anything that's keptyou from sharing the good news
of Jesus with others?
Is it fear?
Insecurity?
Rejection?
(38:22):
Embarrassment?
Inadequacy?
Maybe you just don't feel smartenough.
Maybe you don't feel good withwords.
The good news is a lot of thedisciples were not good with
words.
(38:42):
They weren't intellectual.
They didn't know everything.
They had just seen a few things.
So I just want, let's give amoment here Let's just give a
(39:02):
moment here.
If anything came up for you, youfeel like, man, this has been a
wall or maybe I'vecompartmentalized my life.
I'm scared to talk about Jesusbecause I know what that means.
Just acknowledge that and it'sokay.
(39:25):
But let that confession alsoturn into repentance and say,
God, I don't want that to be thecase.
That's not who you've called meto be.
You have not given me a spiritof timidity, but of power and
love and a sound mind.
(39:48):
He has not given you a faiththat you might shrink back.
He wants to give you theconfidence and the grace and the
power of his spirit So if youneed to even say, Jesus, I'm
sorry, I'm sorry.
(40:10):
This is the time to do that.
(40:39):
So a witness is an identity andit's a mission.
It's acknowledging I've seen toomuch to stay silent.
I can't unknow what I've come toknow in Jesus.
Even if I can't explaineverything, I know that he has
changed me.
It's like the blind man in John9.
He says, one thing I do know,that though I was blind, now I
(41:04):
see.
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