Video Transcript: The Hardest Part of Vocal Witness

Well, here we are, again, moving on in our desire to be vocal witnesses for our Lord Jesus. You know, here in America, we used to lose a lot of people in hurricanes and those wild storms called tornadoes, because they never saw it coming. And now we have all sorts of equipment and computer programs to get people ready ahead of time. Sometimes we can have a real big storm, and nobody's killed, let alone even hurt. And that's because we prepare for it. And when we use that word prepare, we're talking about, let's say a farmer. He just didn't go out there and pick the corn. But he's out there and he fertilizers and he discs it. And he gets it all ready. And then he puts the seed in and covers it over. He's preparing the field for the seed. 

And now that word prepare, is what we're talking about. Pre means ahead of time, and in this session, now we're talking about the fact that local witnesses are prepared. Think of all that we've been talking about so far. That's been preparing right? We've been talking about the possibility of being witnesses, of being vocal witnesses. We saw that in the Scripture, we've been talking about the necessity of being a vocal witness and mentioning the name of Jesus Christ. We talked about the lack of it. We talked about the joy of being vocal witnesses. We saw the last couple of times about the power of the Holy Spirit in us and now we're really getting close, if you hadn't been there already yet to be able to witness. 

Last time we saw you as you. If you're a fisher person, fine, then Jesus will use you that way. If you're an architect or a nurse, whatever it might be. We had one person in the group where I was teaching some of this material. She  went out in about the fourth week, he was someone to Jesus right across the line as we're gonna see today. Are you posting Are you there? Are you prepared? The next three parts of what we're going to be talking about is that vocal witnesses are prepared. 

Let's pray about it. Dear Jesus, you've been giving us a lot of material. And you've given us a lot of Scripture. We know it we're ready. We want to be the vocal witness for you. And we ask in these sessions, that you would help us to move in that direction. To be obedient to you. We'd love you. Amen. 

Well, we want to talk about part one, and that's the hardest part of vocal witness. You know what 90% of Christians have never brought another person to full life in Christ, 90%. And we've seen the difference between a reason and an excuse. The word reason is something that comes from the word for the basis, the bottom, something that's real. And  the word excuse, you see the word x in there, it means to put it off to the side, to put it out of the way. There might be reasons, but excuses are never acceptable. And we saw that maybe a reason might be fear. Fear can be a good thing, but it can also become an excuse, and a lack of enthusiasm for bringing people to Christ that's just an excuse that can never, never be a good reason. And then also the just plain disobedience. That might be the reason but we can't use it as an excuse. 

Today, we're going to be talking about the hardest part of vocal witness. We want to look at a verse together. Look at this verse. Peter said, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you. Yet do it with gentleness and respect. What is the hardest part of vocal witness? Think about it with me. What is the hardest part? You know what? It's not answering questions? That's not so hard. Look what it says here. Give the reason for the hope that is in you. We have the reason, we've been trained by the Holy Spirit, we're ready. We want to lead others to Christ. I mentioned once before about that ad in the newspaper that said they were looking for people to teach others to read and the ad said if you can read this ad, you're qualified. And if you're a Christian, you're qualified, you have the reason within you. 

You probably have the answers for 80% of the questions that will be asked you. That's not the hardest part. And by being a Christian, you have the answer, by living the Christian life you have the answer. By designing to see other saved, you have the answer. And you know what, when you don't have the answer, you just tell somebody I'm not sure about that. I'll find out and I'll come back to you. So you know where the answer is able to be found. The hardest part of vocal witness is not answering questions. Well, then what is the hardest part? 

Well, let's look at another verse. He goes on there and he says having a good conscience so that when you are slandered those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame. Is this the hardest part? Do we read about it in this verse? It's not creating opportunities. Look what it says there. If you revere Christ in your heart when they see your good behavior in Christ, that's living out the Christian life. You don't have to create opportunities. You do that already. When you are faithful in your marriage, you're creating an opportunity. When you are kind to someone you are creating an opportunity to because they're wondering now why are you that way? When you are joyful, even though things are going downhill in your life. I'm not saying happy but I'm saying joyful. We'll talk about that later. People are watching you think I wonder why you are that way. And sometimes they're gonna ask you about that. When  you are faithful, when you're honest, what this world needs is honest people who will keep their word, who will not cheat, people you can trust. And when people see that in this world, they'll wonder why are you that way? 

You know, Jesus said in Matthew five verse 16, Let your light so shine in front of people, that they will see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. I've taken that as a promise from him, that if I live for Him, if I do those good works, the Father is going to be glorified. And when you do that, you're going to have opportunities to speak for him. We don't have to create those opportunities. All around us, there are other ways of opportunities as well. Here in this country, and I think in other places in the world, around Christmas time, Christmas carols all over the place. You listen to those words, Christ, the Savior is born. When I'm in a store, or I'm out on the street, and I hear those songs being played on the loudspeaker. I always pray. I say, Lord, this is the truth about you. Oh, come let us adore Him. May that enter into people's hearts, but people around you hear all those words. That's creating a condition that people are going to ask about. 

There’s another thing that creates opportunities. And that's trouble. When there's a mass shooting, when there's a huge storm that destroys a lot of property and even kill some people, when something happens in the government, so that the government is revealed as being corrupt or oppressive. People already they're asking, the opportunity is there. We don't have to create the opportunities. 

Another part is Christian ceremonies. People hear about baptism. People wonder what's it all about taking communion? People see Christian holidays. People watch you if you worship in a certain place on Sunday. You're always being observed. People are always watching. And the stuff that we take as ordinary everyday, to others is very special. So they look at you in those situations. And they look at your good behavior, and it says there, they revalue, they put you down. But not for long. I have found many times that people who first are very, very resistant to hearing about Jesus, when they see your good behavior, slowly on they quit shaming you, slowly on they quit avoiding you because they want what you have. Why wouldn't it be? We have the truth. We have Jesus He's the Son of God. He's God Himself. He's the one who gives the Holy Spirit. And he's the one who works in our hearts. 

So the hardest part of local witness is not that you have to answer questions. We have the answers and we know where we can get the answers we don't have. And the hardest part of open witness is not creating opportunities. People will see our good behavior, when we have a good conscience. Peter says when we honor Christ in our hearts you're gonna ask us about it. So then, what is the hardest part of vocal witness. This is a very important. I have observed this. I've been a pastor for over 50 years. I've seen it in my own life. And I've seen it in the lives of many other Christians. What is really the hardest part of a vocal witness? 

It's not what we think. It's not that we don't have the answers. You are ready. It's not that we have to create an opportunity. They're all around us. Jesus talked and he said, people are ready. There's a harvest out there. But you know what the hardest part of being a vocal witness is. It's knowing how to get from here to there. Okay, knowing how to get from here to there, and this is what I mean by that. Look at the people you know, right now. People who aren't Christians. It might be relative, your own parents, your own children, a cousin and uncle, grandparents. Think of friends, you know, who aren't Christians. Maybe you know that well some of us have friends who are friends since we started school. Some of them are new friends. Some of them are friends who are close to us. Some are friends a little more distant. I think of people who live around you, maybe their houses next door, maybe their houses in the back, maybe you're living in an apartment building there in the next apartment. You see them in the lobby. People all around you, you come in contact with every day. Maybe you have a farm. You know other farmers. Maybe you have a business, you know other businessmen all around us. We have these contacts. It's not like we have to go out and find people. 

In fact, one of the things that helped me was to be able to see what scared me the most was talking to people I didn't know I'm kind of attendant guy. And the material that you're hearing, and that we're studying now is material that comes from that experience of having talked to people I didn't know. I used to think that's what I had to do and just go out and start talking to people. Some people can do that. I admire them. They're good at it, but I wasn't. And so there's people all around this right. We already have a relationship with them. Sometime make a list of all the people who know the people who I mentioned already other people that I didn't get to mention. 

But we have all sorts of relationships right now. And you know what? In those relationships, we talk about all sorts of things. We talk a lot about the weather. We talk about sports. We talk with dear friends about our marriages. We talk with other parents about our children. We talk about a death that we've experienced or that they've experienced. We talk about the prices in the shops. We talked about everything in everyday life, all the time. We walk together, we ride together. Sometimes you ride in a car with someone maybe you're riding with someone on the way to work every day, an hour there an hour home day after day after day. We play sports together we talk about it, we watch shows together. And that's all there. We don't have to create. We don't have to answer the questions. We don't have to create opportunities. We are really surrounded by people we know. We are already in relationship with Him. We already talked with him all the time. 

And what's the tough part? Think about it. In fact, maybe just put it on pause right now and say what for me is the toughest part of actually being a vocal witness for Jesus. You know what it is? Getting from here to there? We're already talking. We already have the relationships, and we're already talking about all sorts of things. But when we're talking about the weather, how do we start talking about Jesus? And when we're talking about rearing children, how do we get from there to talking about Jesus? When we're talking about the high taxes we pay, or the government corruption or we're talking about a death or we're talking about an illness? How do we get from that everyday stuff, to talking about Jesus? That is the toughest part. You know, God wants people to be saved. You want them to be saved. You want to be able to tell them about being saved. We know that. It's in us. We go home and we say why can’t I do why am I not doing the biggest thing? How do we get from here to there? We're friends, we talk about things. God wants them saved. I want him saved. You know what? That's true for all of us. 

And then the next time when we're together in our meeting, I'm going to explain very carefully how to get from here to there. How to bridge that gap. I want to show you how the Lord showed it to me. I believe it is directly from the word because I would be there and I wouldn't have any clue. I want them saved. I knew Jesus did. I know I'm supposed to be that vocal witness. But how do I tell them about? 

Some time ago, a nurse called me and said a man was dying of cancer and would I go to see him. I went to see him and he wasn't a Christian. He had been in the armed forces for about 30 years. And he said you know how we live that way? And so after we talk because I've been in the Army myself and we talked about the armed forces and about our country, about his family, and then got to talking about his illness after an hour. And then I just said to him once. Hey, Bob, are you a Christian? Not the best way to approach it, but I jumped in there. He said, I don't know anything about it. And I said, Would you like me to tell you about it? What would you say at that point? Would you know how? He was ready, he was dying of cancer. He died actually a month later. 

Do you know how to get from here to there? But not only with dying people, with people on the street corner, with some of you riding in the car with with your own parents or your own child. You already have that relationship, but to know how to get from here to there. What we're talking about is a bridge, a bridge from what you know and what you want, to what that person doesn't know and what that person wants. And when we get together next time, we're gonna learn how to do. Something that brought me to be able to do it so that I look forward to it and you can too. I'm looking forward to it with you.