Who Should Evangelize - 1 Peter 3:13-17

1:23Let's pray. Heavenly Father, our desire. And what we want and hope to see is that the ends of the earth would turn and worship you, that Jesus Christ would receive his full reward. Specifically, thinking about the reference in Psalm 2 about the inheritance of the nations and the very ends of the earth as your possession. And so, Lord, I pray as we think through our role and our responsibility in evangelism that you would do a work in us. I pray that you would encourage us, equip us, feed us, admonish us. And if there are people in here that have become too comfortable, I pray that you would afflict them. And if there are people in here that are afflicted, I pray that you would comfort them this morning. And so we just dedicate this time to you and ask for your blessing. It's in Jesus' name that we pray. Amen.

2:39Now, I need to make a statement that is going to be offensive to some of you. And I'm not intending to offend you right off the bat because, well, I'll just leave it at that. So, my statement is: I'm not really a hunter, I don't really go hunting that much. And I'm not into hunting. All right? I mean, if I have to give up my man card to do that, well, I don't know. But I'm not opposed to hunters. I'm not opposed to having guns. Many of you may have guns right now, and I'm okay with that.

3:19So I like fishing. I go to New Mexico and Colorado and go fishing. I enjoy fishing. So I'm not a member of PETA. I'm not opposed to people hunting. It's just the idea of sitting in a deer stand for a very long time waiting for Bambi to come. Just I just want to do other things. And so, why am I telling you that? I'm telling you that because I think sometimes people view evangelism like hunting or a hobby. They view it like, well, you can do that if you have time. You can do that if you, maybe, maybe some people are into that, but I'm not into that. I'm not into sharing my faith with strangers, or I'm not into evangelism. So the Bible doesn't give us that option, right? So it's not just a hobby that we can take up if we feel like it, or some people are into that and some people aren't. So we're going to take a look at what the scriptures say about that in just a minute. But before we do that, I wanted to kind of review some of the experiences. Excuses that we make, some of the things that we do, that we say about why we don't have a witness, why we don't share the gospel more, why we don't share our faith. So see if you can find yourself maybe in some of these ideas. And so, number one, lack of time, right? So, we feel pressed for time. You know, we have, I'm changing diapers and I'm also doing college scholarships. You know, I mean, it's a busy time. You're selling a car, you're dealing with insurance, you're whatever it is you're doing. Does anybody in here just feel stressed and overwhelmed by everything you've got to do? Like, and you're just like, these things can't be ignored, right? I mean, it's like, I can't ignore that, I can't ignore that, and then I can't ignore that, and then you lay down at night and you're just like, oh, I forgot to do that. You know, and so there's so many things, and so you feel the pressure of time, and you're like, it just takes so much time.

5:30And I don't know if you've noticed this, but it seems difficult to have a meaningful conversation with anyone about anything. Just because our lives are so fragmented with, you know, the phones don't help in that regard, with screens everywhere, there's always interruptions. It's very difficult to have a sustained conversation with anybody about something that's of substance. Would you agree with that? It's difficult to do that. So, We feel pressed for time. The fear of man, that is a legitimate thing that rises in our hearts because we're just afraid. This person is influential, this person is distinguished, this is, you know, I'm going to get in trouble with my boss or whatever. This person's going to think I'm an idiot. I mean, for me, I think part of the evangelism thing, when you're sharing with people, I start to feel like I'm selling vacuum cleaners. You know, it's like these people are going to view me like a salesman. You know, and I don't want to buy a vacuum cleaner from a salesman. You know, if I want a vacuum cleaner, I go to Walmart. You know, and so I feel like a salesman sometimes. And so there's this fear of what I'm projecting their thinking. And so that all is in the mix. You know, is anybody there with me? You do that? Okay.

6:50People are busy, right? So you're just like, well, you know, they look busy, they look occupied. They're doing the iPhone prayer over there. I don't really want to interrupt them in what they're doing right now. They're having a party at Chick-fil-A for their son or whatever. And so you just feel like people are busy. I don't want to bother them and what they're doing. How about this one? I don't feel qualified, right? I don't feel qualified. There are pilots in here, people who know how to fly commercial jets. I shouldn't do that, you know, because people would die. So there are people who know how to do surgery. I shouldn't do surgery. Right, that would be a bad situation. So, let's just people know how to lay concrete. You know, there are people who are qualified in here to do things that I'm not. And so, sometimes maybe we look at evangelism or missions and we go, Let's just leave that to the professionals. You know, that's what we have Tom for. That's what we have, you know, the elders for, and the staff, and Jeff, and whoever, you know, that's what we have those other guys for. Let's leave that to the professionals. All right, but James White cannot come to your workplace. John MacArthur cannot come to your classroom. All right, so if the Great Commission is going to reach the uttermost parts of the earth, then your obedience is important because you're God's ambassador to AM or Sam Houston or Mexico or Malawi or the post office or Iola High School, you know, the uttermost parts of the earth, right?

8:24I like what Spurgeon said. Charles Spurgeon said, the church is like a beehive where all the bees are bringing honey in. There's activity, right? We're all a part of what's going on here. All right. We can also not feel qualified because we feel like our sin has ruined our credibility. There's people who are broken over their sin. They're just discouraged because it's like, who am I to say anything to anybody? Because my life is so messed up. How can I say anything to anybody? So we have that feeling of not being qualified, apathy. There's just a General sense of just an indifference, you know, and that probably is stemming from a self-centeredness to where we're just concerned with ourselves and we're not really concerned about other people. And it's it's kind of strange how we are concerned about our own children's conversion, because that's a big deal. There's a lot of people that are burdened and they're they're broken because they have a wayward child or whatnot, but are we concerned about the conversion of other people's children? You know, so we should be concerned about that as well.

9:32How about this one? I don't know their language. It's not allowed. So sometimes you feel like, hey, I'm on the clock right now. You know, I need to be stocking fruit right now. I can't be sharing the gospel with people or whatever. So we feel like we're at work, we can't do it. I don't know any unbelievers. We get sort of insulated in our Christian bubble. They probably know this already, right? We live in the Bible belt. People know this already. They don't. Okay, they don't.

10:05If you're having any conversations out there with anybody, there's a lot of people who are completely ignorant of the Bible. So sometimes I work in a middle school and college station where these are mostly a lot of wealthy families, a lot of well-to-do people, nice jobs. And I just go up to a student and say, hey, have you ever heard of David and Goliath? No. You ever heard of Moses? No. Noah? No. Adam and Eve? I heard of Adam and Eve. I mean, I didn't make that conversation up. I had that conversation with a student. They don't have any knowledge of basic Bible stories.

10:50They don't know this already. God is sovereign. If He elected them, they will get saved somehow. So we sort of slip into this hyper-Calvinism, and, you know, God's going to get who, you know. So these are the excuses that we make. But what does God's Word say? And we're going to get to 1 Peter 3. I'm just trying to lay a foundation here for our responsibility because one of the questions I wrestled with and I wanted to think about this morning with you is I'm not just up here making this up. This is the Word of God admonishing us and telling us what our responsibilities are and what God expects of us. Because if we're going to live a life that's pleasing to God and He's going to have first place in everything, like the songs we sing, when you're singing songs in church, it sounds good, right? And they were good songs. The fourth one, I really like the selection on the fourth song. But it's like when you read that, I'm like, I'm lying. I'm lying. I'm saying all these things that I want to do, but I don't do that.

11:51So what is our responsibility? So we can start in Matthew 28, right? All authority has been given to me. Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. So there it is, right there. You should be going and making disciples, all right? Teaching them to observe all that I commanded you. The parable of the talents, right? So with the Luke version of the parable of the talents, he says, do business with this until I get back. What does that mean? Do business. It means that God's given you something, and you're supposed to use that. You're supposed to be a good steward of what God has given you.

12:42As you go, preach, saying the kingdom of heaven is at hand. He sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and perform healing. As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you. Go, stand, and speak to the people in the temple the whole message of this life. Philip went down to the city of Samaria and began proclaiming Christ to them. Philip opened his mouth, and beginning from this scripture, he preached Jesus to him. So there's kind of refuting the idea of, well, I just witnessed by my actions or whatever. It's both, right? It's word and deed. So he was reasoning in the synagogue and in the marketplace with those who happened to be present. When Paul was in Athens, his spirit was provoked by their idolatry. How then can they call on him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in him who they have not heard? How will they hear without a preacher? How will they preach unless they are sent?

13:43And Psalms tell of his glory among the nations, his wonderful deeds among all the peoples. Psalm 145, if you just spent time slowly reading Psalm 145, it really has a life-changing effect. One generation shall declare or commend or praise your works to another and shall declare your mighty acts. Luke 24, that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in his name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. The Joshua Project, you all know what that is? If you go on the interweb and you get to the joshuaproject.net, it tells you that there are over 17,000 unreached. No, sorry. Scratch that. 17,000 people groups, right? In the world, they've estimated there are 17,000 people groups. Of the 17,000, how many are unreached?

14:48Around 7,000. That's a significant number, right? So in the 40s, 41%, by their estimates, are unreached, meaning that there's Does anybody know the definition of unreached? I mean, there's just not a growing church there. People don't have Bibles. There's not access to the gospel in the way that we think of it, right? So there's a significant work to be done. Add to that the doctrine of hell. Just this idea of hell. And just listen to this. This is Kevin D. Young. There's a book called What's the Mission of the Church. And so he was talking about the idea of hell. He says, if we lose the doctrine of hell, either too embarrassed to mention it or too culturally sensitive to affirm it, we can count on this. The boat will drift.

15:45And I don't understand everything about ballast on a boat, but I've heard that it's important, right? That it weighs down, it's important, it keeps the boat stable. The cross will be stripped of its propitiation. Our preaching will be devoid of urgency and the power. And power and our work in the world will no longer center on calling people to faith and repentance. Lose the ballast of divine judgment, and our message will change eventually. And I remember sharing, there was a student last semester. She was from the Ukraine. And I said, do you believe in heaven and hell? And she said, I don't know. And I just described what the Bible said about hell. And she came up to me later after class. She goes, you know, Mr. DeLozier, what you shared about hell, that's kind of disturbing. You know, I was like, yes, it is. You know, I was like, hey, someone actually heard and paid attention to what I said because she understood. This is disturbing. If this is true, what you're saying, this is huge. And so there's some sort of element where that is something that motivates. It's not the driving force, but it keeps us motivated to persuade men to not experience God's wrath. And so the question I want to ask and talk about is who should evangelize? And so I looked at 1 Peter 3 and asked this question, who should evangelize? Qualities of those people who should share their faith. Number one, evangelists are full of faith. Evangelists are full of faith. What I mean by that, so in verse 13 of 1 Peter 3, he says, who is there to harm you if you prove zealous for what is good? And this whole chapter, a lot of 1 Peter is written to suffering Christians, people who are facing persecution.

17:42And he says, who is there to harm you if you prove zealous for what is good? The answer is no one. But even if you should suffer for the sake of righteousness, you are blessed. And do not fear their intimidation and do not be troubled. Who is there to harm you? I like that verse in Isaiah. Says, stop regarding man whose life is in his nose. I mean, what do you have to do to stop a man? Just put a pillow on his nose, you know, in his mouth, and he would die eventually. His life is in his nose. Why should he be esteemed, right?

18:20Stop regarding man. I like this from Paul Tripp. He said, Ministry is always shaped by some kind of fear. If it is not shaped or motivated or directed by the fear of God, it will be shaped by the fear of man or fear of circumstances or fear of the future or fear of financial woes. Only when the fear of God has captured my heart am I free of being dominated and paralyzed by the fear of man. And the fear of man can keep us silent, right? It can keep us from sharing our faith. Why does this matter?

18:56It matters because faith is necessary for our witness. We are a fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. To the one, an aroma from death to death, and to the other, an aroma from life to life. And who is adequate for these things? And I didn't read the first part of that. Thanks be to God who leads us in his triumph in Christ, right? So we're not adequate in ourselves to do these things. And so if you feel inadequate, just That's where you should be, right? I mean, if you, let's just, I don't have an image, but if I had an image of a pie chart, you know, and it was like all the knowledge in the universe, what percentage is yours? It's, you know, can you even draw the line? You know, because I started looking into this, and I'm like, there is so much material on our witness and evangelism. And it's just, there's a ton of information and knowledge out there, and we just have a few minutes together.

20:03One thing that really helped me, and one thing that really has been beneficial to our family, is reading biographies of missionaries. Do y'all do that? Do you know who Costas Makris is? I don't know if I told you about this. There's a book called If I Had Two Lives, and I heard about this from Tim Chalice. Tim Chalice has a website, he recommends a lot of books. Good website. So there's a book called If I Had Two Lives by Costas Makris. And he went to Irian Jaya in the 60s. And so that book describes two missionaries who were martyred trying to go into these unreached people groups. And their names were Standale and Philip Masters. So follow with me. In 1961, these men go to Irian Jaya, which Indonesia thinks Indonesia. Asia, near Australia, islands, Pacific, they go in there, and there are tribes who are living, you know, like they've lived for centuries. They're still cannibalistic. They hunt with spears and bow and arrow. And so these men are coming from Australia and the States to try to reach them. And in 1961, they make contact and they begin somewhat of a ministry, but there's a lot of unrest. And so these people don't want their lives changed. And so Standale and Philip Masters were murdered one day because they were surrounded by a tribe and they were basically shot with arrows until they died. And you know, when you read about that tragedy, you think, you know, what could be, was there really any gain in that? What was gained by that? But then you fast forward over the decades in the year 2000.

22:09The Yali people is what they were called. They got a Bible in their own language, the whole Bible, Old Testament, New Testament, held a ceremony to celebrate this shipment of Bibles. And they have testimonies of these men who knew about the martyrdom of. Missionaries, and now they're like, we're so thankful that they came, you know. But it took 39 years to get a Bible. I mean, who has, you see what I'm saying? 39 years. Who in here, do we have that kind of mindset that goes, I'm going to persevere. And if it takes decades, because I mean, we could show a lot of, we could show a lot of videos from YouTube about successful conversions and evangelism, but there's a lot that don't seem successful, right? There's a lot of conversations you're having with people, and it doesn't seem to be going anywhere. For 39 years, it took to get a Bible to the Yali people. That was fascinating to me, and they were so thankful. There's a documentary called The Yali Story, 27 Minutes on YouTube. Very good. Time well spent. It takes faith, right? It took faith to do that because Stan and Dale Sandale understood that no weapon that is formed against you will prosper, and every tongue that accuses you in judgment, you will condemn. My word, how does it go? My word which goes forth from my mouth will not return to me what? Empty or void without accomplishing what I desire and without succeeding in the matter. For which I sin it. So there's incremental evangelism, right? So what do I mean by that? Incremental. I'm talking about in 1st Corinthians 3, right? He says, I planted, Apollos watered, but God caused the growth, right? And so I was so fascinated by this story. And I know Kirk Cameron gets made fun of a lot, but I appreciate the ministry that he has with Ray Comfort and Living Waters. It's really good. And so, this is a short clip from one of those videos. So if we can watch that, do I have to advance the slide to get there? Or you got it? Do you remember this from the first season of The Way of the Master? We were on the Santa Monica Pier in California when I saw what looked to me like a game. So I ran up to these guys for an interview, and then things got a little tense.

24:51Jesus said, you heard it that it was said, do not commit adultery, right? But I say to you, Jesus said, whoever looks at a woman to lust after. Oh, yeah? Yeah. I can show you in Matthew chapter 5. You have heard it said by the... I'll show you in my Bible. Okay. You shall not commit adultery. But I say to you. I was on Hollywood Boulevard with our Ambassadors Academy who were doing open-air preaching on the street. When I saw an onlooker, and I thought that's the guy from the video that gave Kirk such a hard time. All those years ago, but he looked different, and this guy was holding the Bible and listening to the preaching. I go, It's not very likely, but then he did something that absolutely convinced me it was the guy. He started biting the inside of his lip, just like the guy on the video, and I knew it was him. So I took a picture of Kurt and I said, Five years ago, you were on Santa Monica Pier with a bunch of gang members, and this guy right here told you about Jesus Christ. And he just looked at the picture and he said, That was me.

26:06I go to Bible study every day, I go to church Thursday and Sundays, and I'm loving it. And it's a good, loving thing. It saved my soul, it saved my life, and I'm different now. And it feels good. It feels good. Every time I tell the Lord God, I mean Jesus Christ to put a shield over me wherever I'm at, to guide me from temptation and desire and from the evil one. He always guides me home in the right direction. You know what I'm telling? I'm not going sideways no more or following my face no more.

26:34That's one thing. Life is beautiful. Five years ago, this guy was saying, Jesus did not say that. And today, he was testifying to the things that Jesus had done in his life. It took some time, but God saved him. I had the honor of sowing the seed. Someone else harvested, but it was God who caused the seed to grow. As the Bible says, he that sows is nothing, he that reaps is nothing, but it's God who gives. The increase.

27:04So I like that because, you know, street evangelism is not the only way to share your faith, but it is a way. You know, and here's somebody that saw, you know, the reaping of that. Faith is required. Jesus says, the kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows. He knows not how. The earth produces by itself first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear.

27:35Let's take a look at this. So this is Charles Spurgeon here. It's two slides. He says, Evangelists are men full of faith. How often do you hear the question, what is the reason of such and such a man's power in preaching? I will tell you the reason of any man's power if it is worth having. It is not his retentive memory, it is not his courage, it is not his oratory, but it is his faith. He believes that God is with him and acts as if it were so. He believes that his preaching will save souls and preaches as if he believed it. He speaks out boldly what God has sent him to speak, knowing that what he says is true and must be received.

28:18So, who should evangelize? Those who are full of faith. In verse 15, those that sanctify Christ in their hearts, says Lord, those who are devoted to themselves. To Christ. Evangelists are those who are full of faith and those who have devoted themselves to Christ. What does this mean to sanctify Christ in your heart? Sanctify means to set something apart, to treat as holy. So it's not like we're making Christ holy, but we're treating him as holy. We need air.

28:56Sanctified means to treat as holy. And so what does that mean? You understand what I'm talking about. So yesterday was Daniel's birthday. He turned eight years old. And so he got a drone. And so, but Joseph doesn't understand the value of a drone. So we have to sanctify the drone and put it high on a bookshelf to keep it away. So when you guard something, when you protect something, you get your Aggie ring. You know, you don't just throw it in the back seat. You get your senior boots. You don't just go walking through sewage. You know, I mean, these are things that you guard, you sanctify, you protect them. God said to Moses, take off your shoes. Why? The ground you're standing on is holy because I'm here. Right? So when we sanctify Christ in our hearts, we're treating him as holy. Sanctified means to give the place of primary adoration, exaltation, and worship. Christ becomes the sole object of love, reverence, loyalty. Loyalty and obedience. I mean, you know what it means to guard your food times, right? When it's time to eat, you're like, I'm guarding that, right? I don't know what y'all are doing, I'm eating, right? You know how to guard something.

30:17This is from the New American. He says, right here, Christ is to be sanctified as Lord. This does not mean to make him more holy, but to treat him as holy, to set him apart above all human authority. This means that we not only revere him, but obey him and prepare for his return. He's not just looking for admirers, he's looking for people to obey him, right? There's so many more things we could say about that, but why is this important? It's important because Christ should have first place in everything. One author said, This: I have a tendency to seek the easy way out. I like to be liked. I don't like being considered out of touch or out of my mind by strangers I meet along the way. Therefore, unless I remind myself constantly of my need to honor Christ the Lord as holy, I will end up honoring my reputation or, worse yet, the opinions of men as most prized and precious in my heart. The result is compromise that dishonors Christ and deprives my hearers of the greatest news they will ever know. So there's so much, and I think you would agree with me if you've. Been involved in evangelism, if you've been sharing your faith, wouldn't you agree that prayer is so important? I heard my pastor in college said, Evangelism is the spoils of prayer. Evangelism is the spoils of prayer. Meaning that it's that praying, it's that being devoted to Christ, that fellowship with Christ that spills over and overflows into the witness, into the evangelism that happens in your life. We are only effective in evangelism when we are with God in prayer, right?

32:10So, evangelists, who should evangelize? Those who are full of faith, those who are devoted to Christ. Evangelists, the third one is who should evangelize? These people are ready to give a reason for their hope. They are ready to give a reason for their hope. And I like this because when you look, when I looked in the Greek, the word for ready in 1 Peter 3 is the same word in Ephesians 6:15. Y'all know what that says when it talks about putting on the armor and it says shoeing your feet, literally having your feet shod, shoeing your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace. The preparation, that's the same word as ready in 1 Peter 3. So there's a sense in which we're ready. What does this mean? What does this mean? We must know what we believe, we must know why we believe it. It. We must be able to communicate these truths to other people. We must know what we believe. A lot of people don't even know what they believe. I was at Urban Air yesterday, and I was just talking to this person, total stranger, and we got to talking about church, and he pulled out a rock, and it was a clear rock with an angel in it. He said it was a rock with an angel in it. I'm like, what is that? And he said it makes him feel better. You know, he starts to wear it. He just feels the rock with the angel in it.

33:33Wow. I haven't heard that one before. So people don't always know what they believe. I mean, because if you start talking to maybe someone who is Roman Catholic or Jehovah's Witness or a Mormon, sometimes they don't even know what they believe. Protestant, evangelical Christians don't always, they can't always explain the gospel. Like if you go up to someone who claims to be a Christian and says, and you say, what is the gospel? You know, can they really explain that? Can you explain that? Do you know what you believe? Like I said before, John MacArthur can't come to your classroom. John MacArthur can't come to your workplace and explain the gospel to somebody. You've got to know it to be able to speak it. We must know why we believe. Luke 1:4 says that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught and willing to communicate that. And I want to emphasize that.

34:31When you think about a pair of scissors, right? Which blade is more important? They're both right. So you have word and deed. Because there's sort of this element of criticism about the social gospel. It's like, hey, we don't need to just go dig wells in third world countries. We need to take the gospel there. Okay, yeah, I agree with that. But there's also a need to meet people's needs, right? There's also a need to care for people. So it's not one or the other, it's both. And yes, people have lost their way, and they build hospitals and schools that they don't share the gospel, and that's wrong.

35:14And I would like to talk more about that tonight, if you come back tonight. But it's word and deed. It's declaration and demonstration, right? There's so much more that could be said here, and I don't want to neglect all of this, but I want to make sure that we are tracking here that it takes faith, right? It takes a person who has sanctified Christ in their heart. They have fellowship with the Lord, and they're ready to give a reason for the hope. The idea of giving a reason or making defense, it's the Greek word, if I can say it right, apologia.

35:58What does that sound like to you? Apologia. Apologetics, right? Did y'all know that? Y'all are smart, right? So we get our idea of apologetics. And sometimes we feel like, you know, apologetics is good for those smart people, those people that are on their way to seminary, you know, or the seminary class, apologists, you know, that's something that missionaries and pastors study. No, according to this passage, we are all called to be an apologist. We're all called to be ready to make a defense for the hope and give a reason for the hope that is in us. And how do we do this? Number four, they're kind, gentle, and respectful. It doesn't mean just nice people, but it means meek, gentle, and an unwillingness to establish one's own justice. All right?

36:48Peter is not offering a means by which Christians may dominate discussions, overthrow empires, or change public opinion. It's an expression of our willingness to suffer rather than compromise. Apologetic says to a watching world, we have been captured by something so profound that we are willing not only to be considered fools, but to suffer, such as. And my prayer, I prayed about this morning. And my prayer was, I don't want to just dispense information, because I think you can get that from a book.

37:28But I want us to. Think about what God is calling us to do, and I've thrown a lot at you, but I just want to pause here for just a little bit and have you think about something, okay? What if I told you you could no longer fill in the blank? What if I told you you could no longer eat at Chick-fil-A? What if I told you you could no longer drink Dr. Pepper? What if I told you you could no longer watch ESPN, eat peanut butter, you could no longer play gaga ball, watch anything on Netflix, shop at HEB, lift weights, go to the gym, play settlers of Catan, use any essential oil, or leave the state of Texas, or drink non-alcoholic beer? What if I told you you could never do any of those things?

38:16Some of you would be like, I don't care, I don't do those things, right? Because it wouldn't affect you. If you said, Carl, you can't smoke anymore, I'd be like, that's fine. Because I don't smoke. Right? But if I said, you cannot share your faith anymore. You cannot share the gospel anymore. How would that land on you? I mean, in reality, would you be like, I don't do that anyway. You know what I'm saying? If I said you couldn't share the gospel anymore, what if you told, I mean, we talk about believers in China that are being persecuted. If you told them they couldn't share their faith anymore. That's what the government sold them, and they just said, We're going to do it anyway, right?

39:05What if I told you you couldn't share the gospel? How would that affect you? How would you feel? How can we begin to change our attitude? Because maybe some of us in here need to repent of our indifference, maybe repent of our apathy toward the lost world. And how are we going to do this? How do you just, what do you do? I think you go to Zechariah. You all read that book? There's a famous verse in chapter 4, and you know it because you've heard it, right? They put on t-shirts: Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, says the Lord. So, what's the context of that verse, though? Because Zechariah has a vision of a lampstand. I think I had one.

40:01Get there? Do you all remember this vision from Zechariah 4? And there's a picture of a lampstand, and he sees two olive trees. And then he's having this conversation. I want to say it's with an angel. And they're just like, What are these two olive trees? And he says, These are the two anointed ones. And then there's a little note that says in Hebrew, that means. Means sons of new oil. And so you're like, what does that mean? And it's like, it all just started to like, like a puzzle just came into place. And it was like, God is there, and this is fulfillment of the Messiah, the priest and the king, the two offices, these two trees, fulfilled in the Messiah, who is priest and king, supplying this oil.

40:59And God is able to supply what you need to say to someone who needs to come to know Christ. God is right there. Jesus Christ is there through his word, supplying you with what you need, that fresh oil to keep saying what you need to keep saying. Does that make sense at all to you? All right? I'm not trying to confuse you. I hope this is not confusing to you. I'm saying that the God who created something out of nothing and gives us abundant supplies of metal, oil, wood, and water, we're not running out of those things. We've got to, because God's supplies, and God can do the same thing with what you're saying to people. And just a few weeks ago, it was the last week of school. Everything was kind of slowing down. We had a lot of time. So I took my class outside to play kickball. And it was really hot, and so I was standing in the shade. With Hector and Joseph. And Hector, these are middle school students. Hector really gave me a hard time at the beginning of the semester. Really difficult. And anyway, won't go into those stories. But toward the end of the semester, he really began to change. And so he was willing to listen to me. And so I started asking them questions. I just started asking questions. Hey, do you go to church? You ever heard of David and Goliath? You know, I just, I'm going anywhere just to get some conversation going. And they never heard. They hadn't not heard of it. And so I was able to go back, and it's just the grace of God that we had about seven minutes of uninterrupted time. Seven minutes in a public school is a long time. That's a long conversation for a middle school student, right? And so I started talking about why, why does the Old Testament say, why does God say, bring these animals and kill them?

42:56And I didn't say anything. I was like, why does it say that? They were like, I don't know. And I began to explain about how Jesus was the fulfillment of all of those, and he became the lamb who was slain, and his blood provided an atonement for us, and we can have forgiveness. And I didn't know how they received all that. We go back in the classroom, and Hector was talking to his friends, and he goes, Yeah, Mr. DeLosia was talking to us about church. And he goes, I understand it.

43:31And I was like, that may be the best compliment I've heard in a long time. That he understood what I was saying about the atonement. And you know what? It produced such a joy in me. And so that is my prayer for you. That you will start having conversations with people. You don't start there, start with sanctifying Christ as Lord in your hearts. And I think what you'll find is you will naturally want to tell somebody about that.

44:08So I'm going to pray and then we'll be dismissed. So let's pray. Heavenly Father, there's so much more that could be said. But for now, I pray that we would take in what you've shown us from your word. I pray that those of us who are here today, the present, in here in an overflow, that we would not make excuses, that we would stop giving reasons for why we can't share our faith, but we would be ready to give a reason for the hope that is in us. And that we would cultivate that intimacy with you and that fellowship with you so that when it comes to time for the conversation, it's not. Forced. It's not canned. It's not mechanical. It's something that is flowing out of us.

45:08I pray that for each person here. And I ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.