MAR 26 2017 | Rooted S1E9 | 1 Peter 3

Sea Change Church · Rooted S1E9 · "1 Peter 3" · Dr. James Smith III · March 26, 2017
1 Peter 3
Automated transcript. Not reviewed for accuracy.

Let's look together at a vitally important topic. Episode 9, the Rooted Series, Sharing the Good News. Now, we picked 1 Peter chapter 3, not only because it's in the Rooted Series materials, but also because it's a wonderful passage in God's Word that opens to us the life and the approach of a very seasoned witness for Jesus. And that's the Apostle Peter. As in a lot of things, Peter got some things done really well. In other things, he just stepped in it.

And so what we find is a person here, as the notes suggest, Peter is someone who understood what it was to share the faith. We're in the Gospel, for example, of Matthew chapter 16, and he confesses, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God. You are the human face of God. And he declares it out loud. What a cornerstone confession for those around the world today and across the centuries, for those who have come into a right relationship with the Lord.

But give it about 10 chapters, and Peter's denying Jesus, right? So this is the yin and yang of Peter's life, if you will. Peter understands it's a challenging road to be able to be someone who embraces this good news of Jesus and is, like Jesus, full of grace and truth. One of the things that happens, as my wife and I talk about life, is we realize if we're not full of grace and truth, we'll be full of something else.

Okay? You can fill in the blank. You can put street language in there. You can put favorite idols, favorite hobbies, favorite bangles, whatever it is. But if we're not full of grace and truth, like Jesus was in John 1.14, we're going to be full of something else. So we could subtitle this, what are you full of? Right? At this point. But that would seem tactless.

So let's pull back, and Peter then gives us an example saying, you can go off in this direction or that. What is his counsel as to being good people, spreading the good news of our Lord? And the outline here is just one way of approaching that. Will you join me in that, in the passage here? Do not be frightened, Peter says in the text, but in your hearts set apart or sanctify Christ as Lord.

What's number one? Priority number one in this is setting apart Christ as the Lord and the center of our lives. Do other things matter? Absolutely. If a person comes to Christ for the first time, or think back to many of you, when you made a commitment to be followers of Jesus, did that wipe out your skills in a particular area? Not if it was legal.

You know, but the issue of the skills, they were there. The gifting was there. The calling was there. The profession was there. The question is now, what's become, who's become the center of all this? To make me a good steward of the gifts I have and the opportunities before me. Peter says, set apart Christ, sanctify Christ as the center of our lives.

And that's against the idols, the toys, the fantasy land that beckons to us, the old grudges, the stuff. God gives us the grace to be at the very center of his will and his purpose as we center on him. And so that word, if I can do a little Latin here this morning. You've heard the word sanctus, the word for sacred. The line here is, Peter calls us to live a sanctus holiness.

And as we live that holiness, that wholeness, that commitment to Christ, there is a passage we mentioned a moment ago. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. What a divine promise. That's found where in God's word? 1 John 1.9. If you don't know that passage, you might want to write it down.

Please. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1.9. What a faithful promise. It invites honesty about, in my own life, I'll personalize it, honesty about when I mess up. Honesty, when I'm wide of the mark. Honesty, where I specialize in better excuses rather than being a better person.

Honesty, and confessing that and being cleansed and restored and healed to go forward. That life of sanctus, holiness, then, enables us to become a sanctuary. I don't know if you've thought of it that way or not, but it is God's word that says, Don't you know that your body is meant to be a temple of the Holy Spirit? We are walking temples. We are walking places of worship, of God's habitation, where the reverb of praise is meant to sound through our lives.

We become, through sanctus, a sanctuary. And then what do we get to do? We get to offer sanctuary to others. Now, I know that's a politically charged subject, and we're not going there. If you want to talk at leisure, my email address is on the back of the folder. And that's out there moving around in the political arena. This is a non-political statement.

This is simply a relational and spiritual truth. As we seek to become people who are filled with the sanctus, the holiness, the fullness, the health, the wellness of God. Then our lives, through that sanctus, become a sanctuary. And then we can turn and offer sanctuary. A place of respite. A place of hospitality. A place of invitation. A place of care.

A place where people can be confident that we are not jealous of their strengths or disgusted by their weaknesses. We're just glad they're there. Because they have, as Genesis 1, 26 and 27 says, they have in their very being and nature the imprint of the image of God. Male and female, he created them in his image. Us in his image. So we've become a sanctuary.

Does that make sense this morning? I don't know if you ever thought of yourself as a place of refuge for people. A place where they can come to you and they're not going to get bad-mouthed. They're not going to get one-upped. They're not going to get marginalized. They're not going to go through ritual disdain. Right? I went to Harvard. I know what ritual disdain is.

And that's not what we want to offer in Christ. Amen? That's right. So our Lord, who so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, he puts that love in us. He's put that love in our hearts. And we want that to grow and to grow. Peter says, step one, sanctify. Set apart Christ as Lord, as the center of your lives. That's an identity statement.

And that sanctus holiness makes us a sanctuary whereby we can offer sanctuary in life's relationships to other people as well. And with that, there is a sanctus but also a salus. That's the Latin for salvation. Jesus said, John 14, 6, I am the way, the truth, and the life. I am the way, the truth, and the life. And in that, he invites us to come to the Father through him.

Now, years ago, somebody who had distinctly the gift of an evangelist, he had this remarkable, call it a gifting, an anointing, a strength, a skill. I don't know what to call it, but it was there. Dear guy. First name was Hal. And he had the privilege of inviting and helping shepherd amazing arrays of people into faith in Christ. One of the things that he said was, he was convinced that virtually everybody that he knew that made a commitment to Jesus was either looking for Jesus to be the way, the truth, or the life.

That virtually everybody was either looking for a way as in, how the heck do I find a healthy way forward in this life? How do I find a way that's got integrity? How do I find a way that is a faithful one and doesn't just become a one-lane road bumping others off the road, but a way in which we can travel together? Jesus is the way. How do I find the way forward?

What's the best next step for me? Jesus can show us. Or the truth. In a world of half-truths, like my dad used to say when he laid brick, half a bubble off, right? Some of you know what that is, where you level a brick wall. He taught me to lay a brick, and he said the first course of brick that you lay, if it's half a bubble off, the whole rest of the wall is going to be tilted.

Anybody know what I'm talking about here? Yeah. So be careful of that. Sometimes they're called half-truths or half-lies or whatever else, but half a bubble off. And how do I know that I can go somewhere and the priority is hearing the truth about me, about my world, about values, about possibilities? I am the way, the truth, and the life. How do I avoid a way in which I just get up every day and walk around?

The next day I get up and walk around. The day after that I do what? Right. Get up and walk around. Right. How can I be full of life? How can the very vitality that brought all this creation into being be part of what's instilled in me day by day? I am the way, the truth, and the life, said Jesus. John 14, 6. And the moral of this story, as we commit our lives to Jesus being the center, as in that praise song, right?

Jesus be the center of it all. Isn't that a beautiful song? Okay. I can hear some of you vibing it right now. You be the center of it all. Okay. I can hear it. All right. So if you want to bust out, go ahead and do it. But, you know, that's the heart of this. That's point one. But, you know, sanctify the Lord in your heart as that happens and as we follow him and receive his perfect love that casts out fear.

1 John 4, 18, if you're keeping score. Perfect love casts out fear. As that happens, then we become a place of sanctuary for others because you can't share what you don't have. Ever notice that? I mean, I can say, for example, on a particular day, hey, I'd love to share good news. I'd love to share the story of Jesus and his love. I love to tell the story of unseen things above, of Jesus and his glory, of Jesus and his love.

Old hymn. If you look in your hymnal, which is also a book of Christian poetry, you ever thought about that? Whether you like the tunes or not, there's some awesome Christian poetry in these hymnals. And if you start at page 478, if my mind serves me, then you can start reading poetry about invitations to follow Jesus. Someone here I know in the sanctuary is now turning to 478.

God bless you and discover well. But that's Christian poetry in that hymnal in front of you. You can't share what you don't have. So let's have it. Let's live it. Let's be it as daughters and sons of the Lord. Anybody got an amen? All right. Good. Right? And this is not just cheerleading. It's just saying, let's lift it up. Because we can be an encouragement to each other.

Peter said, sanctify Christ in your heart. And then what? What's the next passage? Be ready. To apologia. Not to apologize and say, I'm sorry. But to say, you know, I have an apologetic. I have a defense of the faith. Logos. Apologos is a word in response. Notice, if you will, that our call as believers, we might say, is not primarily in our relationships to react, but to respond.

Anybody know what that's about? Right? I mean, I know what it is to react based on whether something appeals to me or doesn't. Whether I think I've got a snappy comeback. You know, whether I think, you know, ha, I might get the last word in. You know, boy, I better defend myself. You know, there's a difference. And our Lord calls us not primarily to react to people, especially based on first impressions.

Or even second. Or third. But to respond in a way we're back to full of grace and truth that values them as full on as human beings. Be ready to respond to opportunities for sharing a reason for the hope that lies within you. There were three classical virtues. Again, forgive me if you're newer to the church. I teach church history. That's where my doctoral area is in.

So I do some, you know, classic stuff too. So as far as it is applicable, pick it up by all means. But historically, the classic virtues of relationships are ethos, pathos, and logos. Is that familiar to some of us? Ethos, pathos, and logos. So a logos means a reply, a response, a reasoned, coherent, your heads together, response for the reason, for the hope that lies within you.

How do we explain the good news? How do we give an outline of the good news? That's a logos. But part of it also is ethos. All right? You see it on your sheet. And ethos is a root concept out of which we get empathy. That is, the first step is not me telling somebody something. The first step is me figuring out who in the world they are. Any of you ever had the experience of trying to speak to someone in some language and they didn't understand it?

Right? Right? Had this marvelous opportunity the other day. I was out hiking around Lake Murray. We live on the edge of Lake Murray out in greater metropolitan La Mesa. And was out there hiking around the lake, having fun, met this gentleman, and I did not know what his ethnicity was. And so I said, you know, do you speak Spanish? He said, I speak Russian.

Well, I know one word in Russian. It's karandash, which means pencil. Anyway, so I, you know, that's all I know. So I said, I know one word, karandash. He goes, karandash! Karandash! Karandash! You know, so here we go. We're taking off, right? And believe it or not, with my karandash foundation in Russian and with his kind of basic English, we began to talk about, ultimately, about what we write about.

What do you write about? I write about Jesus. Oh, Jesus. Oh. And all of a sudden, we had a spiritual conversation going. It's very simple. He talked about the Orthodox Church in Russia. But the Orthodox Church, you know, no one group can express the fullness of Christ, right? No one denomination, no one church can express the fullness of Christ. He's that grand.

He's that big. And we need people who can raise their hands and who can sit on their hands and who can clap their hands and fold their hands as long as we dedicate our hands to the service of our Lord. Isn't that right? There's room for all in that. So we had a wonderful conversation there. Be ready. So the ethos was step one. Karandash. So anyway, wonderful time.

So ethos, the empathy is important, but also the pathos, and that is the fellow feeling. And so the ethos, the pathos, the logos, they all classically go together in sharing with our neighbor. And that's why the sharing of the good news of Jesus takes so many forms in our lives and in the scripture accounts. So in Acts chapter 17, it's in your text here.

In Acts chapter 17, we find Paul in the city of Athens, that great philosophical area outside what's called, and it's still there today, the Areopagus. And Paul is dealing in terms of logos. He is talking to philosophers. He's working in philosophical terms and doing something that's highly, highly built on making a solid presentation, even a case for following Christ, for the truth of the good news.

But you go back over into Luke chapter 24 on the Emmaus Road, and there's not a preaching at all. Step one is Jesus empathizes with the pain of disciples who had not heard of the resurrection. They were just beaten, and they were going home. And Jesus listens and listens and listens and listens and listens. And then he says, hey, you know, didn't the Lamb of God need to die?

Wasn't there something in the Old Testament scriptures? And he began to open the scriptures. So the ethos and the empathy preceded it. So to be ready, then, is through whatever starting point we have to share good news, whether it's the Caran d'Ache School of Witnessing, or whether it's listening well to the pain that someone has. Someone, for example, some years ago had the privilege of helping invite to Jesus, and she had been diagnosed with severe cancer.

It was through a work contact that my wife had. And this gentleman said, my daughter is in difficult shape. I'd like you to talk with her. And step one was just listening to pain. And then working through, what would it look like, both to live well, to live optimally, the remaining time of your life? Can I speak honestly? She said, absolutely. I don't want anything else.

What does it mean to live well? Well, the remaining days and weeks and months, God willing, of your life, and then to find that coming across the bridge into the next life, that Jesus himself is there saying, come unto me. In good King James English, right? Come unto me. And she said, that's exactly what I want. And she was a changed person, absolutely transformed person.

Just amazing. The remaining months of her life. And she invited others to come and join her in this pilgrimage, in this journey. So being ready, being prepared, being attentive is part of it for the opportunities that we have. There is God's story, and then also at times we'll share our story. How has God changed your life? How has God touched your life?

Let me suggest, in addition to us becoming then a sanctuary, that each one of us might want to take some time, if you've never done this, or perhaps it's a little need of updating, write down something of how you first came into faith. And there may be a date involved. Some people can't remember the date in which they came to faith in Christ.

Billy Graham's wife, Ruth, who was an amazing woman, could never remember a particular date. She just said, I loved Jesus. And that's good enough. Right? So we're not doing technical kinds of registry here. But if you can think back, can you write down the story of your spiritual life? So you're ready to give a response. God's story, he's taking care of that and continues to by his grace, his reach.

But our story enhances that too. So I'll say very simply, I'll do this in two minutes. I was born at a very young age. My mom and dad both loved Jesus. My dad had made a commitment to Christ. He was born here in San Diego in 1916. He was 19 years of age, summer of 1936. He was walking in Balboa Park. He had gotten over the fact that the first person that really shared the faith with him, he punched out and knocked him down a flight of stairs.

And at the bottom of the stairs, the guy looked up and he said, you still need Jesus. My dad couldn't get that out of his mind. He learned to forgive his stepmother, who by many accounts wrote a broom. He was able to get beyond that, to go back and do reconciliation with her following the agonizing death of his mother. My dad was saved from a personal darkness.

My mom went through a hellacious divorce. I was left with my two older brothers. She didn't know where to go for refuge. Her own mother blamed her, said, what's wrong with you that you can't please your husband? My mom, wounded, limped across the street, as she would describe it, to a church that took her in with open arms. And my rug rat brothers, in the name of Jesus.

And her life was transformed. The road had been prepared by a woman whose name was Pietra up in the Bay Area, who barely spoke English. But my mom said, every word she told me, told me that God loved me and that I wasn't junk. Right? I praise God for that woman. I praise God for that church. And so I was there with people who lived a credible faith, and they loved the music.

I can't remember a time when I didn't love Jesus. But the time came, because as I used to tell my USD kids, having lectured there for 17 years, right? I used to tell the kids, you know, whatever your situation and upbringing, you still wind up making a decision for yourself. Isn't that right? Right? Or as a buddy of mine once said, you know, hey, I'm no more a Christian simply because I'm raised in a Christian home any more than I'm a car because I was born in a garage.

Right? You get the idea. So with that, it's a decision. And so with that, at the age of 12, I thought, I want to go public with this. I want to be baptized. And so at 12 years of age, I was baptized. I had skipped a grade earlier in elementary school. And so I was a year behind everybody, and everybody was looking pretty cool, and I was looking pretty out of it.

But in high school, at the age of 15, I said, Lord, I feel like I'm just a throwaway. You can't want me like this, but I can't do anything about it. I need you by your spirit to keep your promise to just give me life. And within the days of that week, there was a whole new perspective I had of seeing myself as God's child, of seeing opportunity to share with others.

And that was the beginning of a more mature, call it a recommitment. And some of us might want to consider that on a day like this. But a recommitment of my life to Christ at age 15. So God's story, and be ready to share that and your story. That's why in the worship folder, at least in most of our folders, we've got a pamphlet here. I've utilized this across time.

It's called Your Spiritual Journey, a Personal Guide. There are a lot of ways that one can use literature to share the faith. And when you open it up, it talks about people who may be in different stages or different places in life in their pilgrimage as we talk about Jesus. This is not about labeling people. This is about understanding perspectives that often people bring and having a deeper sense of where people might be.

We can find ourselves somewhere, generally speaking, on this continuum. And so it may be helpful as a tool. I won't go into this step by step. If you'd like to talk after the service, I'll have this and a few other materials. I'm glad to walk through with you if that's of interest. Okay? But in any case, that's why this little pamphlet is here. I've utilized this for some time and seen the Lord use this in just helping others find clarity and identify their steps, their potential steps for growth.

Whatever the starting point. Any starting point's fine. Any starting point's fine. Right? And then we ask, how can we point this toward the ultimate, toward the Lord himself? Sanctify the Lord. Be ready for the hope that is within you. One of my teachers, a Catholic spiritual writer, Henry Nowen. If you don't know anything about Henry, talk to Virginia over here.

She is a big fan. And I worked with him for two years as a doctoral fellow. And one of the things he'd say is, be aware there's a difference between optimism and hope. That optimism so often is about calculating out some kind of outcome that's favorable to me. Or about denying a certain part of the diagnosis, whether it's medical or psychological or sociological, economic, whatever.

You deny part of it to help sustain some kind of favorable, cross your fingers, you know, whistle in the dark picture. Hope is different. Hope is grounded not in calculation or in denial of certain factors. Hope is grounded in the reality that God is about something bigger than I can grasp right now. And if I can draw near to the Lord, I can draw more fully into the best that's intended in this situation.

Hope is linked, as we see in 1 Corinthians 13, to faith and love. So when we share hope with others, when we share a word that God is able, when we offer hospitality, and as Peter said, we offer, if you will, a threefold virtue here. Do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience. As we seek those threefold things, to work with others, to enjoy others, share life with others with gentleness, respect, and a clear conscience, then what we share becomes even closer immediately to being life-giving.

There is a cultural alternative we present. In a culture, as Pastor Adam has said several times in this series, that is so busy being critical, is so busy being adversarial and argumentative and partisan and taking cheap shots at each other and seeing what can get the biggest splash for one hour on the news band, we provide a cultural alternative.

It is about the kingdom of God. which we already are tasting. We already are sensing elements of that. Already, but not yet fully. What's just ahead. We're an alternative. And what I found is when my nephew, dear, dear boy, he was the way I figured out I loved kids. My oldest brother is 13 years older. My nephew is only seven years younger than me, right?

So I held him as a little kid. My nephew came to a faith in Jesus not quite two years ago. After sharing the faith with him for 50 years. So I just praise God for that. Part of what he saw, he's a school principal up in the Bay Area. Bright bulb, right? School principal. And he said, so much of the culture around us is so weird, so cheap shot, so fleeting and temporary and combustible.

Part of what Jesus gives personally as his example and spiritually through the power and the goodness of his word and spirit is an alternative culture that people can live by. That makes sense this morning? So that's what we are. We are culture creators, not just culture consumers. We are culture creators, finding ways of life that can be shaped by what God calls us to, whatever our area of endeavor.

And so there is that hope, that hospitality, that virtue. I put in quotes here a little word, keep the A in the window. You know what that means? Anybody take a guess what that means? You ever go to restaurants and notice the A in the window? It's almost routine, right? Oh, there's the A. We actually, this is another fun thing, in our kitchen we have an A, by the way.

Years ago a restaurant was shutting down and I said, are you getting rid of everything? And they said, yep. I said, how about that A? And they said, yep, don't need it anymore, right? I said, cool. A cash? Yep. So anyway, here we go. So we got an A in our kitchen. One of the few, maybe the only family in the church that has an A in our kitchen. Is that pride? I think not.

Anyway, but there we are. So, so I want to say to all of us this morning, as we talk about sanctifying, setting apart the Lord as the center of our lives, about keeping short accounts, confessing our sin, being ready both with the story of God and our own personal story with God. because what we're about is not a transaction. It's a relationship. Can I massage that in?

This is not some religious transaction where we did a little, little auditing of the books here. We shifted a little position. We changed the name cards. This is not a transaction, either in our sharing or in that life with God. It's a relationship. It's personal. What a joy that is. And so keep the A in the window. Now, I've eaten in a restaurant that had a C in the window.

I have. Anybody know what I'm telling you? Anybody else here eating in a C red? Yeah, hello. Anybody else? God bless you. You're still there. Good. Right? Anybody else? Yeah, C in the window, right? The A is what color? Blue. And the B is what color? Green. And the C is what color? Red. That's right. Yeah, you get it. Don't eat here. You can keep the C in the window, I think, it used to be for a month, and after that, they shut you down and threw away the key.

Right? Keep the A in the window of your life. If we keep that A in the window where it's a healthy place, we are healthy company. We bring a healthy word, a word of wholeness. I couldn't tell much difference between the A restaurant and the C restaurant sitting down. But the health department could. Why? Because they knew about things like death-dealing fungi, right?

That were hiding just below the table. Right? So, sometimes it looks good, but go deeper. Like one of my friends, a Christian dentist once said, he says, in my life, I have to watch out for not just brushing my life. I need to floss my life. Isn't that interesting? You ever think about that? The difference between just brushing so I have a good smile and flossing.

Getting this stuff out of there that causes decay. You can learn something from all kinds of people. God bless my Christian dentist years ago. What a great reminder. Floss our lives. So there's a cleanliness there. So, there is great hope. Keep the A in the window. Why? In part because Malfoy is out there. Now, somebody say, I haven't looked at the notes. Where's Malfoy?

Answer, right there. Peter says, do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander. Okay? There are those who will speak maliciously. There are those who will say, if you're a Christian, you must be brain dead. What's wrong with you? But we live a quality of life.

We give responses in a way that we trust is life-giving. Okay? Can I tell you a quick story? We're out of here by 1130. But can I tell you a quick story? If I may. Some years ago, I went to the American Atheist Convention. Right? I thought, what do you do at an atheist convention? Right? I had read. I'd read a fair amount of material. I met certain, you know, different individuals and so forth.

Richard Dawkins, who's a poster atheist, I've had conversation with him before at a conference. Those kinds of things. So if you want to go there in conversation, I'll talk to you about that too. But the punchline is, I went to this convention. This is right on the point. Went to the convention, checked in at the front desk. I said, I've got to tell you the truth.

I'm not an atheist. I'm a Christian. Can I still come here? The guy looked at me, you know, and kind of said, eh, okay. So, I said, thank you. I said, I got a doctorate from Harvard in church history and Christian origins. I'd love to talk to some of the atheists here and just find out what your view is, updated, in terms of where you think Jesus came from. I said, I believe it's historically credible.

I can tell people why or I can listen really well. Where do I go? Is there anybody here? And they said, yeah. He said, yeah, go to the table upstairs. There'll be a round table and that's where the guy who really knows what he's talking about is and he'll have a group. So, I said, terrific. So, I went up there. I had a wonderful conversation. You know, what a nice bunch of people who were, most of them, just kind of saying, how can I know what's true?

How can I know what is? So, I had a wonderful conversation. And then, Malfoy showed up from the front desk. He came up and he said to me, you know, some people have large computers and some people have small computers. I said, say that again. Some people have large computers and some people have small computers. I said, let me guess. We met down at the front desk.

You believe that since I'm a Christian, I have a small computer. And since you're an atheist, you believe you have a large computer. Is that right? He said, isn't it obvious? And I said, I don't find arrogance any more appealing in atheists than I do in hyper-fundamentalists. And those other conventioneers around the table looked up and they said to him, we think you ought to leave.

Isn't that beautiful? And as we turned back to the conversation, which is an awesome conversation, one of them said, tell me more about the second century evidences in the papyra for the authenticity of the Bible. He said, I've never heard this before from anybody. I said, I'd love to. And we went on with the conversation. Right? Malfoy, the character, mal means evil, foy, you pick the French, you know, or the Latin, either one, but it basically means a person who does evil or a person who, who pours out in bad faith.

That man was unmasked. Can I put it that way? He was revealed for what he was, a cheap shot guy at the front desk. But the rest of those at that table, and a couple of them said at the end of it, we got some things to think about. This is really a different presentation of the historical aspects of Jesus. Praise God. Right? What awesome company at the atheist convention.

I mean that. So, so with that, you never know what God's going to do, but let's live in a quality of way that invites authenticity and credibility and this kind of a hearing of what Jesus is about. If there's an offense, let it be in the message, but not in the messenger. Okay? Let it be that way. Jesus said in John 12, 32, if I be lifted up, I will draw all manner of people to myself.

And if we have to suffer, well then, suffering can be a part of life, but God, God can use that. God can use that in our lives much as it was decisive in Jesus' own life. It has a deeper, a deeper meaning to us. I put on the back of our notes this morning, maybe you've already read it, the conversion account of General William Booth of the Salvation Army. William and Catherine were founders of the Salvation Army.

And there are a couple things in that account that just stand out. One of them is, Booth said, I decided it was better to do good than to do bad. I mean, that's so simple. It's not easy. But it's so simple. And that remained his desire to help those and found an organization that right up to this present day does some wonderful, wonderful ministry and has not laid aside the name of Jesus, but still is active in worship and encouraging people to the Lord.

I invite you to take a look at that account if it's convenient for you and just consider some of the events that took place in his life. So with that, in summary, to bring you to God, the section in your notes that you see there, several of you haven't looked at your notes yet. God bless you. But in any case, to bring you to God. There are summaries. You can talk about the good news of our Lord by story.

For example, the story of a perfect creation, the terrible fall of sin, Adam and Eve, God's solution through Jesus Christ, and forgiveness which makes us partners in reconciliation. God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself. There's the four spiritual laws. God loves you. But there is sin and separation. What follows is Jesus' provision and a personal invitation.

There's what some have called the Romans' road. And you walk through the book of Romans, and these passages lead you sequentially, all the way from all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God and the wages of sin is death. Romans 3.23 and 6.23. But faith is in coming to Christ. Yes to his promises. We are transformed. There's a hymn, Amazing Grace.

Have you ever thought about that as a starting point for a witness? Do you like the hymn Amazing Grace? Yeah? Here's how it works. I once was lost and blind. And then Amazing Grace, which had a sweet sound, came to me. And now I'm saved. I'm saved. I'm found. I can see. Another way of saying it. Evangelism, e.e., the question, if something happened to you and you met God face to face, why would God let you into his heaven?

That's a powerful question. The answer is our Lord. There's the poem, One Solitary Life, which highlights the uniqueness of Jesus. There are books, if you want to dig in. Lee Strobel's book, The Case for Christ. That's coming out as a movie, by the way. April 6, if you're interested, The Case for Christ is coming out as a movie. And you might enjoy looking at that.

It's an awesome story. I've got a copy of his book, The Case for Easter, with me, if you want to look at it after the service. Strobel started out as an atheist and an agnostic then, and then a seeker, and then, well, here we are, searching, and ultimately looked more closely at the evidence. And as a Yale-trained attorney, came to faith in Christ. Francis Collins, the head of the National Institute for Health, starred out as an agnostic, came to faith in Christ.

It was wonderful. And so, with that, his book, The Language of God, talks about the design in all of creation. C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, John Mulder, a book that's entitled Famous Conversions. Actually, it's a retitle. I helped Mulder revise it. It's now called Finding God, A Treasury of Conversion Stories. How many different ways God's led him to himself.

When I taught at USD, we used it, and people made commitments to Christ by reading conversion accounts and saying, that person's like me. If God can work with them, I think God can do something with my life. Right? What an open window. So, in any case, there are others that we can share. But at the bottom line, there's John Wimber, there's Jim Elliott. He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep this life to gain what he cannot lose.

Or as Wimber, the founder of the Vineyard Fellowship, said, his life was changed when he saw a guy wearing a sandwich sign. Remember the sandwich sign? Some of you may be too young. On the front, it said, I'm a fool for the sake of Christ. And on the back, it said, whose fool are you? And Wimber said, I could never forget that. I went there to buy drugs. And I came out of there saying, I've got to think about this.

And years later, it echoed back to him. All we can ever do is give opportunities. But what a privilege to be people who invite others to the good news of Jesus. Now, let me mention a word at the close of the service. We've got about five minutes until the magic moment. And what we're going to do is this. I didn't want this just to be a talk. And I've taken a while, but was invited to take a while this morning.

Want to come right down to the point. And Chris, Chris Peterson, invited Chris to come. She's someone who has a special gift in sharing Jesus with others. And to take five minutes, that'll carry us up to the 1130 mark. Maybe introduce a friend too, if you'd like. Would you share a personal word? Then she'll turn it back to me. We'll offer a blessing and then the worship team will come up and what you're doing will be after the service.

All right? Let's do it that way this morning. Kristen, thank you. Good morning, everybody. I thought that was a fabulous message. And, yes, fabulous. And I will shamelessly promote, as he always says, he does teach a class here on Wednesday nights over in the Fellowship Hall at 630. And so you might want to join Pastor Jim for that. And I really appreciated his word on sharing your faith and in particular, I loved his grasp of the Russian language, the word pencil.

And to equate that spiritually, I think we all can be pencils in the hand of God. writing his story with our story full of grace and truth as we live our lives out in this world. I do love to share the gospel. And from the moment I was saved, I wanted to go tell somebody. So that was kind of a glimpse of a gift that God had for me. But it's good news. Hashtag, not fake news.

That's for Adam. And for the first 43 years of my life, I was an agnostic. I knew nothing about God. And I was in, when I was in great need, he saved me. And he used a woman named Rebecca to witness and lead me to him. She was just working in a physical therapist office and befriended me. And who would have thought that I could find God there? That was 27 years ago.

I was redeemed and restored and came alive for the very first time. Rebecca's example motivated me to share my faith always and when appropriate to use words. Very briefly, here are some of the elements she used that I found to be effective. And maybe this would encourage you also to try some of these things. First and foremost, she prayed. She prayed regularly and passionately for the lost and for opportunities and that she would recognize those opportunities.

You know, every life is in process. We're all on a journey. And we can interact with someone's life at one point or another, maybe at the beginning or the middle or toward the end of their journey towards Christ. And perhaps we might be the one who destroys someone's negative stereotypes of what it means to be a Christian. Just recently, my angry brother, who's an atheist, I want to say my brother, who's an angry atheist, paid me the highest compliment.

And he said, you are the best Christian I know. And that just, you know, really touched my heart. I'm probably the only Christian he knows, but it's okay. We'll take it. Back to Rebecca. Rebecca. She was authentic in the way she lived her life and in the way she shared her message. She was confident. And I have to think that was the ethos, the pathos, and the logos that Pastor Jim spoke about.

You know, she was full of grace and truth. And we, as Christians, full of grace and truth, we have what everyone needs. We have Jesus. And she had a joy in Jesus that was just contagious. And she had what I wanted. She was just fragrant with the fruit of the spirit. She also asked me probing questions. And I really listened. And she really listened to me.

And one day she invited me to lunch. And the first question she asked me is, Chris, where are you spiritually? Well, that just shocked me. I didn't expect that. I thought we were just out for a bowl of tortilla soup. And, but she met me where I was on my journey, just as Jesus would. She started, I knew nothing. And she had to start from the beginning. She didn't have one formula or one method of sharing the gospel, but she was led and guided by the Holy Spirit.

And also, I love this, she spoke words of hope and life into me. I was struggling at that time. And she encouraged me in so many ways, telling me that in Christ, I could become what God had designed me to be, the best version of me that he designed. Lastly, she followed up with me. She made sure I was plugged into a good church and she discipled me. And even as we talk with people along the way, following up after we've given them a word, after we've planted a seed or watered it, it's always good to follow up.

And yes, I want to end with, I am not ashamed to share the gospel. It is the power of God and to salvation for all who believe. And it's a privilege. And last week, I had the privilege to pray with someone to receive Jesus Christ as her Savior and Lord. I did nothing to get her to that point except invite her out for a cup of soup. and I'd like you to meet her.

I'm getting kind of teary-eyed over this. This is so cool. This woman is recently back home in San Diego after a long journey. How many years? 15 years of becoming a doctor. She presently moved into La Jolla or recently moved into La Jolla. She came into our church three weeks ago for the first time that she'd been in church maybe ever, she said. And she works as a hand surgeon at Kaiser Hospital.

And she told me she is so excited to be here and she just wants to say hello to everyone. So with Samantha Piper. Dr. Samantha Piper. Thank you. Thank you so much, Chris. It's been really an honor to meet you and to be introduced to this community. So I myself was an atheist until about six weeks ago. My best friend, Kevin, introduced me to Christianity and I read Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis, which is an outstanding book.

He was visiting three weeks ago and said, oh, let's go to church and see what it's like. And I said, okay. And the first person I met when I walked through the door was Chris, of course. So it was meant to be. Yes. And I had always felt an emptiness within me as an atheist and finally opened my mind to trying something different. And we did a faith commitment last week and I feel like I have met God and already my heart feels more full.

So I'm very happy to be here and to grow that relationship. So very appropriately, we're giving her a hand, right? Thank you. Wow. I could never have done that as a new Christian. Could you? Oh my gosh. I can hardly do this now. Anyway, Samantha and I will be up front after the service and please come up and say hello to her. She's so anxious and ready to meet everybody and I will be up here in case anybody may be ready to make that commitment to faith today.

We can do it. Okay? And I'll turn it back over to Pastor Jim. Thank you so much. It's just a privilege being here to worship God and again, when someone comes to the Lord and thank you for just for sharing for the moment. We look forward to getting better acquainted. When someone comes, it's not like somebody's come over to our side. It's like we together come over to the Lord's side.

Right? This is not about partisanship. This is about discovering the source of life. So, what we want to do is invite you to stand where you are if you would and we're going to invite a very simple, a very simple recommitment of our lives to the Lord to being messengers of his. And after this, there'll be prayer ministers up in front. Kristen and Samantha will be up here too.

I'll found my place over there off of that pillar if you want to look at some materials. All right? I brought copies of books that may be helpful. But this will be the blessing. Let's pray. Let's pray. May our Lord Jesus Christ who is full of grace and truth today make you full of his grace and his truth as you live for him. If that's your desire, say amen. Amen.

May the Lord who so loved the world, our God, our Heavenly Father, that he gave his only Son who willingly came. May the God of this love. Give us love for our neighbors as a reflection of our love for God and help us to be aware of opportunities for hospitality and for sharing good news. If that's your desire, will you say amen? Amen. And may the Holy Spirit of God who is the one who cleanses us, who airs us out, who refines us and who leads and guides and convicts us, may the Holy Spirit of God that is stronger than any spirit on heaven or on earth besides the Lord himself, may that Holy Spirit fill you and push everything else to its proper place so that you might live in the abundance of the infilling of the Holy Spirit in the power, in the grace and truth.

If that's your desire, will you say amen this morning? We give thanks to you, God. Thank you that we're not just whistling in the dark, crossing our fingers and winking. We are looking up to you as almighty God, the maker of heaven and earth. It's like Francis Collins, the scientist, said, boy, big question, why is there something instead of nothing? The answer is you.

And so we thank you for that and we pray you'll help us by your grace to fulfill these deep desires to which we've offered our amen today. and in all that happens afterward, whether upstairs with some refreshments and the music that reverbs here in the conversation, that it might all tend to your glory. We ask this in your name, the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Amen. Thanks be to God. God bless you all.