26 Mar Being afraid to speak out for Jesus

I have always wondered why the disciples did not comprehend that Jesus was going to be crucified. It wasn’t until the last moment that they realized he was going to be delivered to the Jews and then crucified. It must have seemed unfathomable. This is the same Jesus who they witnessed countless times perform countless miracles.

The Blind was able to see. The crippled was able to walk. The sick was made well. Demons were cast out of people suffering from torment. And the greatest miracle they witnessed, was him raising people from the dead. It is reasonable to imagine why they could not imagine seeing this powerful person, willingly allowing the Jews to lay hands on him and allowing them to have him put to death.

Scripture teaches us a lot of things, but our humanity keeps us from seeing things that are clearly visible spiritually. How could a person of this magnitude be captured, let alone put to death and crucified? But God can tell no lie. And scripture clearly lays out how Jesus would die. But our humanity as a way of dismissing things that don’t line up with how we wish things to be. Such as with our sin.

Paul says in 1 Corinthians 6:9: “Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor ^[a]homosexuals, nor ^[b]sodomites, ¹⁰ nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God“. The scripture is clear. But there are many who will dismiss the declaration Paul made concerning those who embrace these sinful lifestyle choices.

The next verse is one of the sweetest things you will ever hear: “And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were ^[c]sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God“. So there were some in Corinth who were delivered from these sinful lifestyles, including homosexuality. For those who say “God is not against homosexuality or that he will forgive them their trespasses. No! Paul is making it clear God will not forgive those who embrace these lifestyles.

God forgives those who repent. He does not forgive those who press forward in their sins. You cannot reason in yourself that God will forgive why you sin indefinitely. God always brings judgement. He never lets a Man continue indefinitely in his sins. What a person sows they will reap at the appointed time. If you go to Church every Sunday, and Bible Study every Wednesday, but embrace the lifestyle of a fornicator and idolatry, you will not enter into the Kingdom.

You cannot reason this in your own mind, because your mind has no right reasoning. It only seeks reasons to justify the lifestyle that we’ve chosen to live. “Well I lead a youth ministry, surely God will overlook my sin”. He surely will not. Many of us are deceived in our thinking. I want to make something clear so it seeps down into your Spirit. God will not change his character according to your desires.

Paul said in 1 Corinthians 6:9 that those who were living these lifestyles were washed and sanctified. They became new Men and Women in Christ. God did not change. Many of us our fighting against ourselves because we are looking for God to meet us at a place in our lives that we chose. Most of us really mean well and are not coming from a place of willful deceit, but God will not meet you on your terms.

God picks the place, the time, and the terms. Our job is to be available. Are you available? Can Jesus call on you anytime? Can he call you to speak to any one? We want to be used by God, but we’re afraid to speak to our friends and Family about Jesus. It’s easier to speak to a stranger. They don’t know you. They’re not close to you. They can’t hurt you. The closer a person is to you, the more damage they can do to you.

Many of us are reluctant to speak to those closest to us about Jesus because we are afraid of what they will think about us. If someone you loved was crossing the street, and you saw a truck barreling down the road seconds away from hitting them, you would yell for them to get out the street. If you were close enough you would grab them. So why are you so quick to save their physical life, but not at all concerned about their Spiritual lives?

You may have saved them from that truck this time, but eventually they’re gonna die then what? We have to be comfortable with doing things that are uncomfortable. Telling someone they need Jesus is not particularly a comfortable conversation. Most of us don’t like to be uncomfortable, because it takes us out of our “comfort zone”.

When we are out of our comfort zone, we lose that assurance and we lose that control. I don’t believe God can do his best work in our lives when we stay in self-assurance. It’s hard for God to do great works in the life of a person who is always self-assured. Because it’s hard to see where God starts and where that person stops.

God cannot take glory in the things you do well. Jesus does his best work in our lives when there is uncertainty. He gets glory in the things we do not do well. The things you are insecure about are the things God gets glory from. If you are not outspoken, God will make you outspoken. If you are naturally an introvert, God will make you and extrovert in situations when it calls for it.

I have always been insecure about how much I know. I was never a good student. I think I’ve watched over 1000 documentaries, biographies and auto-biographies simply because of my insecurity of not being smart enough. I have thousands of hours of beneficial as well as useless knowledge of various topics, things, and people. I never knew why I was always drawn to these things. But I suspect that is the reason. Of course I find them interesting, but I believe my insecurity is the driving force behind it.

I’ve always been observant for the majority of my life. Never one to speak out first. Only spoke when necessary, but when I did I made it count. I never had the gift of gab. That is not a gift that I have. I do have a great sense of humor though.

Many people I have met and faced would not describe me this way. I have learned to wear a mask just like everyone else. The mask we all wear to hide our insecurities. The mask we all wear to cover up around wounds. To hide our scars. Some of us are still bleeding from something we got bad in Highschool. Something we got back in College, even Grade school. God’s trying to change stuff that happened to us when we were 5yrs old.

I was told I was ugly all throughout my childhood. God had to undo a childhood of low self-esteem. He’s still doing it. Because those are your formative years. Your childhood and your teen years, determines how your adult years are going to look like. So if you were told your entire childhood that you were stupid, that you were ugly, that you were a burden, that you were useless, that you were unloveable, guess what?

That’s exactly what you’re going to take into the world as an adult. We have Fathers and Mothers, Husbands and Wives, who are battling with scars they received when they were growing up. These issues don’t magically go away. Jesus is constantly working his way through him. And the hope is that we don’t faint and give up in the process.

How many of us have given up before? I have. Plenty times. Giving up is like falling off the horse. You fall down and you get hurt. But some falls you get bruised, other falls you get injured. And when you get injured, you don’t get up and get back on the horse so quick. Injuries take months, even years to heal. I’ve fallen off the horse of Faith and stayed down for almost 2 years before I allowed Faith to pick me back up again.

I’m not talking about a bump. I’m talking about a bruise. I’m talking about a major blow to the expectations of what you thought your life we would be. Who in Christ expects to get a divorce? Who in Christ expects to lose a child? Who in Christ expects to lose a Spouse early in the marriage? Who in Christ expects to lose a fiancé before you could even get married?

Most of us don’t just get up from these things. I suspect, when everyone sees you get up from these things, and you confess it was Jesus that brought you through, they marvel at that confession because they’ve seen you suffer. But it’s hard to confess with joy and a smile on your face, when on the inside your soul is cracking.

You will have more influence over your neighbor then you will your own kin when you talk about Jesus. Your kin has a history of who you are. A stranger will meet you and provide you with a clean slate. Those closest to you, will put you in the smallest spaces. It’s not that you haven’t changed, is that their view of you is too small to see it.

The Bible said in Matthew 13 verses 54-58 that when Jesus went to his hometown of Nazareth, that he was an offense to the people that lived there. They knew his Parents, they knew his siblings, and they knew he was a carpenter. The Bible said Jesus was unable to perform any miracles due to their unbelief. When those closest to you, just sees you as a “Carpenter”, or a “Auto-Mechanic”, or a “Bank Teller”, or a “Manager”, or a “Chef”, it will be almost impossible trying to convince them otherwise.

I’ve come to the realization it is not my job to convince them otherwise. My job is to live a faith filled life, and confess the name of Jesus Christ. Their belief is not up to me. Your Family and friends belief is not up to you. It’s not our job to make people believe. It’s our job to live and confess.

If you make it your job to make your Family and Friends believe in Jesus, you will live a miserable life. Because most of them won’t. And you would have spent your whole life striving for something that was never going to happen in a million years.

Confessing and professing the name of Jesus is not a right or an option, it’s a command. Jesus said in Matthew 10:33 “But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven“. Don’t deny him. Don’t fear being “preachy”. That’s a tactic of satan to keep you from sharing the Gospel. Social media of people sharing things they believe in.

Sharing the Gospel is not being anymore preachy then someone sharing a million selfies of themselves in the mirror. The numerous pictures of their shoe collection. For the many number of people who would ignore what you wrote and deem it preachy, there could be one person who really needed to hear that message. That’s who it was for. It was for that person. Not for the rest of them.

There is no separation between you and Christ and you on Social media. Some of us have dual personalities. Were one person offline, and another person online. Offline we’re ourselves, online were the person that wears the Mask. Social media is literally the most powerful tool we all have at our fingertips, to reach hundreds of thousands of people at one time with the Gospel.

We can literally profess the name of Jesus to hundreds of people right from the dinner table. Or our bedroom, or our couch. God has made it so easy for us to share the Gospel with the World. But were spending far more time sharing photos of what we ate for dinner the night before, and funny YouTube snippets.

Jesus left a message with us before he went to be with the Father. He said in John 14:12 “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father”. Jesus did not mean we would do miracles or work that he was unable to do, but that we would be able to do more and reach more, because his time was on Earth was short, and he did not have access to the Technology and things that we have today.

As toxic as Social media can be, in the hands of someone who loves the Lord, it can be a very powerful tool! Don’t fear rejection. Don’t fear the judgment. Don’t fear the labels. If you are someone who is living a double-life, stop doing that! Do not be Christ like in one setting and worldly in another setting. You cannot bring glory to God that way. There is a falsehood that we can walk in Christ and also walk with the World and even fellowship with those who love the World.

This is a lie! Light has no fellowship with darkness. The two are like same-side magnets. They repel one from the other. God knows breaking away from people we love and care about is an extremely difficult if not impossible task for most of us. As your life becomes more like Christ, they will distance themselves from you! All you have to do is live by Faith, and the light of Christ will separate the darkness from your life, things and people.

The more dark things you hold onto, the harder it is to live your best Christ life. We have become extremely complacent in the States with our Christianity. We have become comfortable. The word “comfortable” is an extremely bad word when it comes to our Faith. The sad truth is that when you are free to worship without consequence, at any time of day without consequence, and in any state or town without consequence, you do not value it nearly as much as you should.

We do not value the fact that we can worship God and share the Gospel and not be thrown in prison, or beaten, or killed. If that were the case, we would make every praise, every prayer, every fellowship, and every evangelism count.

I want to encourage you to not take for granted what God has done by placing us here. Life has a way of distracting all of us, but I want us to never lose sight of what we have. As I write these words, someone is in prison, someone is being beaten, and someone is being killed for confessing the name of Jesus.

If some name calling or ridicule or a hit to our reputation is our punishment for confessing the name of Jesus, then it is a small price to pay compared to what our Brothers and Sisters are going through across the waters in many countries. Not only pray for those you love and care about, but pray for them also daily. Because they are suffering in ways most of us can only imagine.

I wanna take this time to tell you Brothers and Sisters that I love you. If any of you haven’t heard that from someone in a while, or you never heard it, I want to profess today from my fingertips to your ears. I don’t know what you’re going through in your life. I don’t know your scars. I wasn’t there for all the times you “fell off the horse of Faith”.

I wasn’t there for the mistreatment or neglect. I wasn’t there for the abuse or the abandonment. But whatever it is that you are going through, I want you to know that you are loved, and that your life and you being here matters.

I pray that you and your Family stay safe, and that God’s grace stays with you…..