Video Transcript: Lack of Vocal Witness, Part 2

Okay, so we've been talking about the lack of vocal witness. The last time that we were together, we talked about fear. We all have fear, there are ways to deal with it. Maybe in the end, we just have to live with it. And today we're going to talk about another reason for the lack of vocal witness. You know, Jesus said once, Jesus didn't really say that. But we know that Jesus couldn't be in every place at one time. He's a physical human being. Right now. His body is with him. He's somewhere so he left us behind. 

Somebody told a little story and said, when Jesus went back to heaven after he was ascended, that was his victory parade and everybody was cheering and he had won the victory. And somebody said to him, but who's going to do your work on earth? He said, My followers. Another angel said him, but what if they don't do it? He said, I have no other plan. It's just a story. But it shows the urgency of you and me as being followers of Jesus Christ, that we have to be vocal witnesses for Him. 

Let's pray together and then get on with the material. 

Jesus, you had such a sense of urgency about you. You always use the word must. I must go to that city. I must talk to that person. I must go to Jerusalem. I must suffer and be humiliated. I must die and I must rise again. We want that same urgency and we're going to look deep into our hearts now, to find out why we don't have that urgency that drove you on. We love you. Amen. 

Well, one of the reasons that we can have a lack of urgency is because we think things are I've always been the same, they're always going to be the same. We can become over familiar with things. Think for example, of the world around us what I like to call creation. Last night we got a full moon here. It was so big, I thought it would fall out of the sky. Today when you look at it for about five minutes, and then I went in the house. I didn't sit up all night looking at it. I've seen full moons before and I'll see them again. 

Or imagine if this morning were the first time you saw the sunrise. You'd be so excited you'd be getting people out of bed, you'd be writing about it. We're familiar with it now. Or with the rain, or with lightning, or the great big tree or with an animal and we can become familiar overly familiar with things in our family. Imagine if I told you this morning that my daughter is walking and you say, Ren your daughter's 54 years old? It'd be silly isn’t it? When she was 15 months she started to walk or to talk or to call me daddy. And I told people that I'm used to it now. Only when my grandchildren says that they love me and they want to go to breakfast with me. And I think that's okay, but not the first time. 

I think about daily life. When's the last time we got to worry about the invention of the internet? Or what about riding in a car if they're in your area? Or a certain kind of food that you can buy. Fast food in a restaurant or clothes or playing a game? We just don't think about it or an alarm clock. We get used to it all the time. 

Another thing we can become overly familiar with is danger. Sometimes we forget how dangerous things are. We go too close to animals or too close to the edge of a cliff or we drive too fast. Or we eat the wrong things. You know it's going to be all right. And then once a dog bites us or we have an accident in our car or something falls on us from the ceiling. Because we've gotten so familiar with danger, we don't worry about it anymore. 

Another thing we can become overly familiar with is forgiveness. There is so much junk in my past. I live with a lot of regret not guilt because I'm forgiven. But regret. I wish I hadn't said this. I wish I hadn't done this. I wish I had done that. And then I just have to stop and remember that I'm forgiven, but that don't always do that. And when I think about others not being forgiven, I don't remember what it's like not to be forgiven. And I'm gonna get all excited that they could be forgiven too, so we get over familiar with stuff. 

You know what? We can become overly familiar with the Bible as well. What I'm gonna ask you to do now is write down the name of a relative, an unsaved neighbor or an acquaintance, you're not sure is forgiven by God. Just pause and think about it for a minute and then write it down. Who would that be? Write down the name of the person you're not sure is saved. And now that you're back, think of this person as your answer these questions. At the final judgment, what would Jesus do with a person you named.

Listen to what Jesus is going to do? Matthew 25:32 All the nations will be gathered before Him and He will separate the people one from another as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. Everybody will be before him. You and I and everyone else, and the person whose name you wrote down will be there. And Jesus is going to take that person and put him to the left, which is hell the goats,  or to the right, which is heaven, the sheep. What is he going to do with the final judgement with the person you named? Are you still familiar with this idea? That you're not excited about it to talk to him? 

Or here's another question. If the person you named does not now believe, what is his present situation? Listen to what Jesus said in John 3:18. Whoever believes in Jesus is not condemned. That’s you, if you're trusting Jesus. Listen, the person whose name you wrote down, or whoever does not believe stands condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of God's one and only Son. If the person you named does not believe what is his present situation, write it down.  It says right here in God's word. 

Or here's another question we can look at. If the person whose name you wrote down stays the same, what stays the same for him or her if he or she rejects Jesus? Listen to this verse. John 3:36. For whoever believes in the Son has eternal life. That's a promise. That's a truth. And it's true about you if you're trusting in Jesus right now. Listen to this, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life for God's wrath remains on him or her. It doesn't say it comes on that person. We're born under God's wrath because of sin in our lives. God's wrath remains on that person. Do you get a little more urgency when you think about that. 

Or here's another question. What is the only way for the person you named to escape from being unforgiven? To live in this life and to live eternity with a burden of sin on his account? Look what it says in Ephesians, 1:13. And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed you were marked by him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit. What will happen with your friend? How can that person escape the burden of sin? That person will be included in Christ when he or she heard from you the message of truth. And when that person believes that person is hidden in Christ Jesus and marked with a seal that can't be broken.

How about this for urgency? This is the plan determined for the whole world and this is the hand stretched out over all nations. This is the plan determined? This is the hand stretched out what? For the Lord Almighty has purposed and who can thwart him? His hand is stretched out and who can turn it back? God created the world; we sinned against him. We are born with that burden of sin. We are on the wrong side of the fence. We are condemned already. And if we believe in Jesus, we are sealed in him. 

Now, the word urgency comes from a word that means to press. If all these verses we studied are true about the person you named, write down why you don't have a sense of urgency. Write  it down, pause it, and say the reason I will have urgency is because… Why are you not pressing forward to present the name of Jesus? If you know that that person is born under the wrath of God, that remains the same if that person doesn't believe and that person can have this life and eternity changed forever? If he or she will believe right now. Write down now, why you're not urgent about that.

You know what? Always that Bible question comes back. Romans 10:14. How can anyone believe on the one of whom they have not heard? The person whose name you wrote down. If that person has not heard the name of Jesus how can he or she believe in Jesus? You know what? There's a saying, the truth unapplied is truth denied. And if you're not applying the truth of Jesus to that person, you are denying the truth of Jesus to that person. I saw a sign on a print shop the other day, the more you tap, the more you sell. Are you willing to be that vocal witness? 

Well, there's another part you know, about, why do we have a lack of urgency, and that is that we just plain don't know the misbelievers around us and note that we're missing believers again. Because every person you know, is a believer. Those who trust in Jesus are true believers. And those who trust in something else are misbelievers, that they are believers. 

And look at some of the excuses that we give, busyness. I just don't have time to spend with people who aren't Christians. You know, by the time I work, and by the time I cut my lawn, or by the time I've wash my horse or whatever it might be, I just don't have that time to spend there. You know, there's so many good things I watch on TV. 

Another excuse is family. I spend time… family, God bless family, he originated family. I love family, I spend time with family. But sometimes, by the time you remember all the birthdays or you go to all the meetings or you go to all the school events or you spend time taking care of family and you're teaching your family about Jesus, sometimes you don't have time to talk to anybody else, except your family. 

Another thing can be church. You're so busy at church, you're going to services that's a good thing. You're volunteering, that's a good thing. Maybe you're cleaning up at church, maybe you're preparing materials, or you're spending so much with people who are already saved, in that holy huddle there is no time to get to know misbelievers all around you and they just keep on walking right to help. 

And here's one that I put in there that I think is maybe going to shock you but it's true and that is faith. For a long time. I was afraid to really get involved in misbelievers lives. Because I didn't think Jesus wanted me to. I thought if I spend a lot of time with him, is it going to look like I'm telling them that it's okay the way they live. You know what? It's not that way, but our faith can kind of set us up that way. I can't spend too much time with misbelievers, because after all, they don’t love Jesus.

Another thing is that we can just plain forget. You  know what, I look right at you and I say I am forgiven. I'm not afraid to live, and I'm not afraid to die. I belong to Jesus. And I've told all my children and my friends when I die, you will cry because you miss me. But don't cry for me, because I'll be with Jesus. And sometimes when I'm busy or I'm so occupied with family or I'm at church or I have feelings about spending time with misbelievers, I forget what it's like not to be forgiven. I forget what it's like to live with fear and with guilt and with doubt, and horror about death. 

And one of the other things that keeps me from getting to know misbelievers is I make assumptions. They might mention of the name of God, and I think oh, they're okay. God who, but what God? Or they might even go to church. They might even raise their hands in worship. And I think well, they’re saved. I ask a lot of people about their faith and they say, Well, I believe in God. And I always press on from there. You can't make those assumptions. You can't think that people are saved because they're nice people. So part of the problem in not knowing misbelievers is missing reality. 

Listen to this vision. Genesis 12 verse three, all people on earth will be blessed through you. I'm pointing at you. I'm pointing out at myself. You point at you. The original vision after the world had gotten all messed up after God sent the flood and it still didn't change things. Then God started with one person again and said, I'm starting over and through you. Everybody on earth will be blessed. And everybody in your life can be blessed through you. Have you gotten too familiar with that vision? Are you forgetting about it? Is that why there is an urgency there? 

There's another verse and another thought that maybe keeps us from missing reality. And that is the delay. Listen to this. God’s people had been slaves for 400 years, and God brought them out and said, now I'm going to bring you into a new land and their leader Moses in Deuteronomy seven one and two said this, when the Lord your God brings you into the land you’re entering in to possess and drives out before you many nations, then you must destroy them totally and show them no mercy. Is this the same God? Yes, it is. Because that's a picture of what's going to happen at the final judgment. When we enter into that land we're going to possess and that is heaven and those who are God's enemies are going to be driven out and spend eternity apart from him. And no more mercy for them. And just because God has delayed that punishment, we think it's not going to happen. So we miss reality. We think we don't have to be vocal about Jesus. 

There's another way we miss reality and that takes away our urgency. And that is the example of Jesus in Luke 15 verse one. This man welcomes sinners and eats with them. We forget about that. There's such a line between the church and those who aren't in the church, and it shouldn't be. Because it's a line between being holy and being unholy. And yet the holiest man in the world, crossed over that line. Bible says he himself never sinned. The Bible says he was pure, but he welcomed sinners and he ate with them. 

One more thing that can cause us to miss reality is the images. Jesus said you are the salt of the earth, you are the light of the world. The  kingdom of heaven is like yeast. We forget each one of those has to be in contact with something to make a difference. The salt has to be in contact with the food not in the salt shaker. The light has to be in the darkness, not in the bright light and the yeast has to go all through to make the bread rise.

And so one more and that is the urging. Paul said I'd become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. And we think well, there's one way to do it. It’s a church service where it's this or that and we miss the urgency. Jesus said once that at the end, people we're going to be crying out for the hills to cover them and the rocks to hide them from the wrath which is coming. Will you be a witness.