1 Peter 2:9-10 | Saved to Speak | Andrew Gutierrez

January 18, 2015 Speaker: Andrew Gutierrez Series: Give Your Life Away

Topic: Boot Camp Passage: 1 Peter 2:9–10

Please open your Bibles with me to 1 Peter, chapter 2. And as you’re doing that, I want to read a clever little – I don’t know what you’d call it – poem, a little essay that was written by a man named John Drescher. It’s entitled “Fishermen Who Don’t Fish.”

Now it came to pass that a group existed who called themselves fisherman. And lo, there were many fish in the waters all around. In fact the whole area was surrounded by streams and lakes filled with fish. And the fish were hungry.

Week after week, month after month, and year after year these, who called themselves fishermen, met in meetings and talked about their call to fish, the abundance of fish, and how they might go about fishing. Year after year they carefully defined what fishing means, defended fishing as an occupation, and declared that fishing is always to be a primary task of fisherman.

Continually they searched for new and better methods of fishing and for new and better definitions of fishing. They created witty slogans and displayed them on big, beautiful banners. These fishermen built large, beautiful buildings called “Fishing Headquarters.” The plea was that everyone should be a fisherman and every fisherman should fish. One thing they didn’t do, however; they did not fish.

In addition to meeting regularly, they organized a board to send out fishermen to other places where there were many fish. The board hired staffs and appointed committees and held many meetings to define fishing, to defend fishing, and to decide what new streams should be thought about. But the staff and committee members did not fish.

They engaged in all kinds of other occupations. Some felt their job was to relate to the fish in a good way so that the fish would know the difference between good and bad fishermen. Others felt that simply letting the fish know they were nice, land-loving neighbors, and how loving and kind they were was enough.

Now, it’s true that many of the fishermen sacrificed and put up with all kinds of difficulties. Some lived near the water and bore the smell of dead fish every day. They received the ridicule of some who made fun of their fishermen’s clubs and the fact that they claimed to be fisherman, yet never fished.

Imagine how hurt some were when one day a person suggested that those who didn’t fish were really not fishermen, no matter how much they claimed to be. Yet it did sound correct. Is a person a fisherman if year after year he never fishes? Is one following if he isn’t fishing?

I think that essay needs to be read in the American church today. That essay is saying in a clever, subtle way that if you are a Christian who is not evangelizing, you’re not getting it. You’re missing what you’ve been called to do. The mission of the church is not corporate worship. We will be doing that for all eternity. The mission of the church is not to set up churches with nicer sound equipment and cool fog machines to make a great service. That’s not the mission of the church. But if you read Christian magazines or go to some Christian churches, that may seem like the mission of the church.

The mission of the church is to go out and fish for souls. That’s the mission of the church on earth. And those souls when converted will then engage in the corporate worship that heaven describes in Revelation 4 and 5.

One pastor said this: “Missions or evangelism exists because worship doesn’t.” All around us–your neighbors around you, your family members around you–do not live as worshipers of the Lord. Therefore, evangelism exists. The Lord has called us to a particular mission. This is the mission of the church. And when I say that, don’t think big C church. This is the mission of every member of the church. This is to be our mission.

Jesus told Peter, follow me and I will … make you a better father … make you a better employee … make you more holy … allow you to forsake sin. He didn’t say that. Those things are all important and all things that Christians enjoy. He said, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men” (Matt. 4:19). It’s the mission of the church. It’s why we’re here.

It’s the thing that we won’t be able to do in heaven. You won’t be able to tell your wayward cousin that while Christ is angry at his sin, Christ also loves him and sent his Son for him. You can’t tell your cousin that when you’re in heaven. You can tell your cousin that now. Or your son’s soccer coach. Or the guy who changes your tires. Whoever it may be. We have an opportunity now to tell people about Christ and that is the mission of the church.

In thinking about this church plant, I’ve been thinking about Prescott, Arizona, along with my wife, since around August 12th, which is the first time I had someone approach me about this need here. So we started thinking about Prescott, Arizona, and then we took a trip out here in September to meet some of the people. And then we came out in November and I preached to a number of you over in Prescott Valley. And then we came here in December, landed as pilgrims from the Mayflower, and you embraced us. And all the while I’m thinking about this.

It’s why we’re starting in Matthew 28 when we launch our church. Matthew 28 is the mission of the church and too few churches get, remember, still hold high the mission of the church that Jesus Christ gave his disciples. I said this to you before, I’ll say it again, the Great Commission is in all four gospels; and when Acts begins–the book about the launch of the church–Jesus is about to ascend to heaven in Acts 1. And in Acts 1:8 he’s telling his disciples, go. Now, I’m going to leave and you, go. I’m going to heaven. You go to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, the uttermost parts of the earth.

And he goes up to heaven and all the disciples are gazing at him. Now, was it a bad thing to gaze at Christ? No. That’s what we do as Christians. 2 Cor. 3:18 will say that as we look at Christ and who he is, we will be more and more like him from one level of glory to the next. But Jesus was saying, okay, you’re looking at me, you’re gazing, but now you need to think about going. He told us to go.

The American church needs to hear that we’re to be a people who go. It’s not enough to somehow quietly tell someone about Christ once a decade. We’re missing our mission if we’re doing that.

So as I think about our lives and coming here, I thought about it, and it might sound morbid to you and it sounded kind of morbid to my wife, but when we came to visit Prescott, I was looking for the cemeteries. Don’t mind that. When we came to Prescott, I was looking for cemeteries because I want to live, raise my sons here, love my wife here, love my church here, reach the lost here and die here. This is where we’ve come to live and die.

But I think about what do I want … where do I want to be when I’m in that bed, hopefully an old man about to take my last breath? And when I think about this church, what do I want to be thinking? What would measure faithfulness to the Lord? As I think about that day in the future, I think, if I’m faithful to the Lord, when I’m about to take my last breath, I would look at this church and say, did I do all that I could to show them that the mission they are on is to go and fish for lost souls? If that’s not an overwhelming thought in that church, I’ve failed in that day.

But it’s not just 40, 50 years from now, however long the Lord gives me, but in a year – one year from today, if you do not understand that the mission of your life as believers is to go and evangelize the lost, then I have failed as your pastor–365 days from now. I’ve failed, because Jesus made it crystal clear. This is the mission that his disciples are to be on. All four gospels and the book about the launch of the church starts with the mission of God.

So 1 Pet. 2:9-10 reads as follows, and I’ll start actually in 1 Pet. 2:4 and show you those who have rejected Christ, and then it comes to us in 9 and 10. 1 Pet. 2:4-10:

As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in Scripture: Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.” So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,” and “A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense.” They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.  But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

This text tells us why we are saved and here on earth. Did you see the “so that”? Let me get real fancy on you. In Greek it’s called a hina clause; and we were taught in seminary whenever there is a hina clause, you pay attention because it’s telling you why something is commanded of you.

We are told we are saved so that we may proclaim the excellencies of Christ. Get that? We’re saved so that we would proclaim the excellencies of Christ. We’re not saved for us. We’re saved for him. We’re not saved so that we can go to heaven, and go, man, isn’t this great? He rescued me. I’ve got a much better life. It’s so much easier now being a Christian than the pain of being a non-Christian. It’s much better to know Christ. I am so fulfilled.

That’s not why we’re saved. Are those things true? Praise the Lord, those things are true. And that’s part of the reason we praise him. But we are saved so that we would take the focus off of ourselves and put it back onto the one who saved us. And if we love people around us who don’t know him, wouldn’t we hate them if we never told them that? How can we know the cure to cancer, how can we know the bridge over the deadly cliff and not tell people about those things?

We know the one who brings us eternal salvation and we know people who don’t know him. What do we do with that? Just hope they’ll hear a TV preacher one day? We just hope they stumble across a Bible that their grandmother gave them one day? God could have saved people however he wanted. Whatever instrument he wanted. He chose to save them by a gospel message–the word of Christ. And he chose to put it in our mouth to speak to them. That’s what he chose.

Do I like going up to strangers and trying to get into a conversation to ultimately tell them that they have rejected, they have rebelled against the God who is their creator? Do I like doing that? Not really. It’s not my call. It’s what I’m supposed to do. I’m supposed to show them that they can be reconciled to the God that they have rejected because he loves them and he sent his only Son to die. It’s not easy for me, but it’s my mission. It’s all of our missions.

And so this morning in this passage we’re going to see who a Christian is defines what a Christian does. Who a Christian is in Christ will then give the Christian their direction for what they do. Who a Christian is defines what a Christian does. So we’re going to look at the passage in two sections.

First, the Christian’s privileges. Let’s be reminded of what we have in Christ. Who we are in Christ. And then let’s see the Christian’s proclamation. First of all, the Christian’s privileges in verse 9. He gives the New Testament believer–he gives us four terms that were originally given to Old Testament Israel. Four terms.

He says, “But you were a chosen race.” That’s Israel language. Israel, I’m setting my affection, my love on you. I’m choosing you out of all people. I’m choosing you to be my people. That was reserved for them in the Old Testament. Now he’s giving it to the New Testament church. You are a chosen race. You’re a privileged people who don’t deserve to be privileged.

That’s what we are today. Sitting in these seats, we are privileged people who do not deserve to be privileged. We’ve been born again by his doing, not our own. By his Holy Spirit, not our own desire or will.

Turn to Deuteronomy 7. I want you to see the language that the Lord uses to show Israel the fact that he chose them. It’s beautiful language and because 1 Peter 2 is telling us that we also are chosen as the New Testament church, this type of language is our language as well. We’re not Israel, but we’re God’s chosen people just like they are. Deuteronomy 7, verse 6. Listen to the language of the Lord.

For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.

That’s true of you and I as well.

It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations, 10 and repays to their face those who hate him, by destroying them. He will not be slack with one who hates him. He will repay him to his face.

(Deut. 7:7-10)

You see that “chosen” language? That’s beautiful language, isn’t it? First Peter 2 argues that we’re chosen as well. Eph. 1:3-5, listen to this language for the New Testament church:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, [why?] who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will.

Back to 1 Peter 2 he says, “You are a chosen race.” And that word “you” – that pronoun “you” – that’s emphatic in the original language. But you are a chosen people. Let that sink in a little bit. Other people are not chosen. You are chosen, if you’re in Christ. The fact that we’re chosen is meant to bring us in awe and desire to pass on the gospel that saved us.

You were chosen for salvation and so at one point in time God presented the gospel message to you through another witness. Maybe it was a mother or a father or a Sunday school teacher or maybe someone put a Bible in your hand where you read the gospel message, the word of Christ. Who knows who it was? You’ve all got stories about that. You’ve got people that faithfully declared the gospel to you. God chose you, gave you a messenger to preach the gospel to you and he has shown light into your heart (2 Cor. 4:6) to give you the knowledge of Jesus Christ.

That’s what happened to us if we’re in Christ. God did that for a time and now he tells us there are other people who are chosen. You preach the gospel and people will be saved. “I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matt. 16:18). “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me” (Matt. 28:18), so go make disciples. He’s in charge. He’s given us a message. He’s given us mouths and he’s called us to go.

We’re not only a chosen people, we’re a royal priesthood. We’re royalty. It sounds kind of good to hear every once in a while, right? We’re royalty to the Lord. We’re part of the royal family. Have you ever watched the royal wedding or anything like that, thinking what would it be like to have all those outfits? What would it be like to have that access to the king and queen, for so many people to look and to say, you are in a privileged place? It would be kind of fun to be part of every once in a while.

Listen to this: Jesus Christ is the King of kings and the Lord of lords and he says you are a royal priesthood. You are in with the King. You are united to the King. You enjoy the privileges that the King enjoys. You are part of the royal family. And it says that you’re a royal priesthood. What do priests do? They take sinful men and unite them to a holy God. They represent a holy God to sinful men.

So, Peter’s saying Christians are priests on this earth–privileged priests. So we look like God, show people his greatness, his glory, his character. We show rebels what he is like and we unite the two together. That’s what we seek to do. You are a chosen race. You are a royal priesthood.

Old Testament Israel was known as a kingdom of priests. I’m choosing you, this insignificant, little, tiny people that started by a man named Abram and he populated them in Egypt and then sent them out to show that he was a powerful, redeeming God who would save his people, brought them out of Egypt and said now this group that everyone hates, you’re a kingdom of priests. Show me off to the world that’s watching around you.

People are going to come from all different nations and seek to know what’s different about you. The Queen of Sheba is going to come to Solomon to find out what’s different about this guy than the other kings. They’re a kingdom of priests. They show off God to the watching world around them.

Well, a little bit different than Israel where nations were looking in on them, Jesus tells the New Testament church, you’re not going to stay in Jerusalem and have people come to Jerusalem to see what God is like. You are going to go. Go, go, go, go. When Revelation was written (96 A.D.), it wasn’t like that’s the end of the going. All right, we’re done. So American Church, we’ll just stay here. We’ll buy expensive coffee machines so that everyone can have the nice coffee they like. We’ll get padded chairs (by the way, we did get some padded chairs). We’ll have the best sound system. We’ll have best air conditioning and we’ll just be the most comfortable people and wait for heaven. He says, go. He says, go.

His salvation is so great, we can’t keep it to ourselves. That’s not what he intended us to do. Chosen race, royal priesthood, and a holy nation. We’re to be different. We’re to be different than those around us. We’re holy. See last week’s message. We’re to be holy on this earth. If we aren’t going to be holy, how will people see Christ in other people? A holy nation.

And look at verse 12. It’s not in the text I’m preaching this morning, but look at 11 and 12. "Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul." So be a holy people. Don’t do what is still in your flesh and what you once did. "Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation" (1 Pet. 2:11-12).

Our holiness even is meant to be evangelistic. We’re a holy people. A people called to be godly people so that other people would come to us when they are hurting, when they are in need and they say to us, there’s something different about you. How do you have such joy when your husband has cancer. What’s different about you?

We’re a holy people. We’re different than others. We’re set apart for God’s own purposes. Chosen, royal, holy, and finally we’re a people for God’s own possession. We exist for him. He does not exist for us. Let me say that again, because you’re not going to hear this on Radio Shine. We exist for him. He does not exist for us.

Isa. 43:21 – God talking about Israel: Israel, my chosen people, “the people whom I formed for myself that they might declare my praise.” If we acknowledge rightly that God doesn’t exist for us, we exist for him, then logically we will then go and announce his praise. We will then go and tell people about him. If we exist for God, then we will go and tell people about him because that’s what he wants us to do as we exist for him.

I have a friend that says it this way: “God is for you but God is not about you.” God is for us. He is a loving Father, is he not? Isn’t he a friend to us? Isn’t he a comforter to us? (2 Cor. 1:3-7). God is for us (Rom. 8:31). Nothing will separate us from the love of Christ (Rom. 8:38-39). God is for us.

But then we take that and we think, then God must be about me. He’s not. God is about his own glory. And when God is for us, he puts in us a spirit and he puts in us a love and a joy that causes us to go and then share that with other people because they need to worship him, because God is unlike any other. God is worthy of all praise, not me. Salvation doesn’t end with me. Salvation is meant to be a conduit through which others can come to Christ.

We’re a holy people. We’re chosen. We’re royalty. People for God’s own possession and then two little words in the New American Standard. If you have ESV, it’s one word. It says “that”. So what it means is you’re a chosen people, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, a royal priesthood so that – and now here’s our responsibility – you may proclaim the excellencies of him. So that you may proclaim. So that you may announce loudly. So that you may declare. So that you may shout the excellencies of Christ.

Let me just ask a convicting question, first to my own soul and then to yours. Do I announce how great Jesus Christ is to those around me that don’t know him? Very convicting, but that’s what the church is called to do. That’s what the church is called to do so that we may proclaim the excellencies of him.

I think I said this back in PV when I preached there in November, but I was a high school pastor for 3½ years and there are a number of godly kids. There are a number of kids that were saved, but there were also a number of kids who were socially awkward – don’t know how to have a conversation with an adult, kind of run away when an adult tries to talk to them. You know, it’s kind of that awkward thing. Anybody love talking to high schoolers? Yeah, not many of you. Okay. It’s not always the most comfortable thing in the world, right?

Well, I could take two little freshman high schoolers that normally sweat when I start talking to them, and I’m just asking them how they’re doing, and I can ask them who would win in a fight, Batman or Superman? And the sweat goes away and they start arguing, using these words of debate that they’ve never used before. It’s like a Lincoln-Douglas debate. And they’re just going back and forth and they’re arguing why Superman could defeat Batman and then the other one has a rebuttal time. Then there’s a response. They’re the world’s greatest orators all of a sudden. Why? Why? They love those things. They love Superman. They love Batman. They read those comics. They watch the movies. If there’s a secret language that those guys speak, these kids will learn the secret language. They love that stuff. And so when they love things, they talk about things.

Some of you can tell me the stats of your favorite wide receiver. You can tell me all about a ’57 Chevy. You can tell me all about woodworking. You can tell me all about Paris. You love things. Can you tell someone about the Savior that loves you and is unlike any other person or thing on the face of the earth? Can we do that, Canyon Bible Church of Prescott? And not just can we do that, but we have to do that. He told us to. He told us to.

And isn’t it great that he doesn’t just say, I’m going to save you; go tell people. He reminds us with these terms: you’re chosen, you’re royalty, you’re from me, you’re holy, so that you can go and tell people.

Listen to Ps. 79:13. It’s a prayer. “So we Your people and the sheep of Your pasture will give thanks to You forever; to all generations we will tell of Your praise” (NASB). Did you hear that? Listen, we’re pretty comfortable with the first part of that verse. We’re your people, the sheep of your pasture. We give thanks to you forever. Pretty comfortable with that. But then the second part. To all generations we will tell how great you are. That’s not always easy for us. But this is what’s required.

I’ve said it this way before: Thanksgiving is the appropriate response to salvation. Thanksgiving is the appropriate response to salvation. Evangelism is the complete response to salvation. I’m so grateful to the Lord for my salvation. Now I need to go and tell someone else who’s not saved. That’s the complete response to our salvation.

You know, everyone’s searching for God’s will in their life. High school students want to know God’s will for where they’re supposed to go to college. College students want to know God’s will for who their going to marry. Moms and dads want to know God’s will for their kids’ lives. They want to know God’s will for where they’re going to retire.

We always want to know God’s will for our lives and there are certain things that God doesn’t tell us. He calls us just to be faithful to him and he’ll work it out. But I think we spend so much time thinking about God’s will that’s not revealed to us, we take our focus off of the will that is revealed to us. God’s will is that you would announce loudly to sinners that they can be right to the Creator. That’s God’s will for your life and my life. God’s will for our life is that we would tell people the gospel of Christ.

So while you’re looking for your spouse, college student, or your looking for the place to retire or looking for the next house to buy, what’s God’s will? This one or that one? While you’re looking for God’s unrevealed will, do not let that be the focus. Focus on his revealed will. And by the way, everything else will take care of itself. Focus on what his will is said to be in the Bible.

Let’s put it this way. Let’s say there’s a young man who’s fresh out of college, gets a job with Coca-Cola, goes to the CEO – Okay, what do you want me to do? The CEO looks him in the face and says, I want you to get Coke into the hands of every single person on the face of the earth. Okay, got it. A year later, CEO walks by his office, so how ya doing? Ahh, great. I’ve built a pyramid out of Coke bottles and people are coming to my office to see the pyramid of Coke bottles. Have you been to Nigeria yet? Have you been to Alabama yet? Have you talked to people from there to get a Coke bottle in their hands? I’m working on this pyramid. Everyone loves it. I’ve even ordered lights that shine on the pyramid so at night you can see it and it’s almost romantic.

And then a few years into his job, three years, when he’s kind of losing some of the flare of his job and it’s not as exciting as it once was, he goes and knocks on the door of the CEO. You know, I built a pyramid. I even made a waterfall out of Coke. I don’t think it would be called a waterfall then, but I made it and it’s cascading down out of our company headquarters and I love Coke. What else do you want me to do? You need to tell me what you want me to do because I don’t know if you want me to move to this office or that office. What do you want me to do?

The CEO looks at him and he says, get a Coke in the hands of everybody on the face of the earth. That’s your mission.

I hope the Lord is saying that to us. Lord, what do you want us to do with the church? Do you want us to have a building here, offices there? Do you want us to have these ministry groups here, these ministry groups there? Get the gospel to everyone on the face of the earth, because I’m coming back to judge.

This is our mission. This is what we have to be about. Other churches can get the million-dollar cappuccino machines for their lobby. We’re going to try to send a million dollars to the nations so people would know Christ, because I don’t want to stand before him one day and say, look at the cappuccino machine we had in our lobby. Do you? Do you want to stand before the Lord and give an account of those finances to him? I don’t.

I want to say we sent money to people. We gave people resources to go evangelize their neighbors and they did. We gave people resources to go and preach the gospel in the colleges that were in our city. We sent missionaries to Zimbabwe because we heard there was a people group who had never heard about Jesus Christ.

I’ll stand before the Lord then and say, Lord, this is what we did with our money. Sure we might have made some mistakes here and there, but we never wanted to lose track of the mission. I want to say that to the Lord one day, not you should have seen our auditorium. You should have seen it. Seat warmers. I don’t want to do that and I don’t think you do either.

We’re saved so that we can proclaim, and proclaim his excellencies. And then he reminds us again of our great salvation as if to say, you’re chosen, you’re royalty, you’re holy, you’re for God’s own possession. Now go speak and remember he’s called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Remember that. Remember what he’s done for you. Remember, you did not deserve mercy but now you’ve received mercy. He’s reminding us of the relationship we have with him in order to compel us to go and see other people have that same relationship. That’s what he’s doing here.

There’s the Holy Spirit writing this. He knows what he’s doing. Called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. You know what this tells me? This tells me that in part of my gospel presentation to people I can tell them that I, at one point, was in darkness. That should be part of what we tell people. I was sinful. I was rebellious. I didn’t receive mercy from the Lord. I hated him. I hated his laws and rules. They were constraining on me. I hated it. And then he showed me mercy. He opened my eyes. He brought me out of a dark world into a world full of light. I want to tell you how he does that kind of thing. I want to tell you what he requires. I want to tell you that he wants you to acknowledge that you’re in darkness and to plead to him for mercy. I want to tell you that.

So part of evangelism is our own personal testimonies about how we were once in darkness and have been brought to his marvelous light. And some of you are sitting here going, oh my goodness, this is scaring me. What if my neighbor yells at me? Well, they did worse to Jesus and he said it’s going to come, so I can’t help you there. Actually, I can. He said all authority has been given to me in heaven and earth, and by the way, if your neighbor kills you, you have resurrection coming, so don’t worry. There’s always hope for the believer, isn’t there?

They mistreated him;ws they’re going to mistreat us, but does that keep us quiet? The early church, they couldn’t stop them from preaching the gospel. It’s almost like today’s church, they can’t motivate us to preach the gospel. Hopefully this does it – the words of God. He’s called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. We go and tell people that.

The book of Hosea was written to tell the people, you have been spiritual harlots toward me. You committed adultery against me. And he tells Hosea, tell these people you were once my people, you’ve rejected me. You’re not my people. But what did he do at the end? He shows them that they are his people.

Tell them, I once was not a Christian. I once was not right with the Creator of the entire world. Then he showed me mercy. He reconciled himself to me. And we didn’t reconcile ourselves to him. He reconciled himself to us (Col. 1:21-23). So we tell people that.

So on the back of your worship guide there are some just suggested takeaways from this message. What do we do with this? All right, great sermon on evangelism, preacher. That was a good one. Good theology there. Good cross-references. You preached the truth. Good job. Great sermon. I don’t ever need to hear that. I want to know that you’ve been compelled by the Spirit living inside of you, that his word has called you to go and do something about that.

So some things on the back just for you to consider. And these aren’t gospel truth. Some of you are going to apply this message in different ways. My prayer is that you would apply it though. But just some suggestions for you. Pray. Pray that your eyes would be opened to the opportunities around you. You know, we can pray, Lord, give me gospel opportunities, and that’s a good prayer. But maybe a better one is, Lord, open my eyes to the gospel opportunities you’ve been giving me for years.

So pray that the Lord would open our eyes to gospel opportunities. Then an action point. Maybe consider writing out your testimony on one page. Write out how you came to Christ, and now, salvation testimonies can go all awry. This is not a salvation testimony. Yeah, I was a rebellious kid and then one day I finally got it and me and Jesus have been friends ever since. If you tell that to someone, they’re still not going to know how to be saved. What does that mean? Okay, I want to be friends with Jesus. That’s not a salvation testimony.

Listen, our salvation testimonies have to reflect the gospel. The gospel is the only thing that saves people – that message. The gospel is, in a nutshell:

God, the holy creator, created a people for his own possession. He created a people to manage the earth, to reflect his glory to the earth, and very quickly those people rebelled against him. And we have as our parents those first people. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. God is holy and just and wants people to respond to him rightly. We have not. You have not. I have not. And that could be the end of the story. World annihilation, start all over, like he did with Noah and the people of his time. He started all over, and you know what? He’s a just God for doing that.

But in the story of Noah, you see that God is, by his nature, a saving God. He saved a people and through them saved more people. God, while just and angry at sin because of sinners’ failed response to him, sent his Son as Savior to live for them, to die for them, to give them the life that he lived. He took the life that they lived and now they’re right with God – they can be right with God.

So you go from God to man–the plight of man–to Jesus Christ and what he offers, and then you go to the response. And Jesus Christ came, the Savior came and told people to repent (acknowledge their sin) and believe in him and you can be right with the father. Well, do I have to go to your church for a long time and do I have to go talk to a priest to get my sins forgiven? No. You repent of your sin and you believe on Jesus Christ and you will be saved. That’s the gospel message.

So that needs to be our testimony. So when you share your testimony, people are hearing the gospel. God is holy and created me to be holy. I was not holy. Whether you were unholy as a 5-year-old or a 55-year-old, tell them, I’ve rebelled against the Lord. I’ve sinned against him, but he, because he’s gracious and by nature a savior, his Son paid for all that sin. He told me to acknowledge my sin, to believe in his Son and I’d be right with him – like that. And he saved me. He changed my heart and now I want to seek to obey him. And he offers you the same salvation.

So in your testimony tell the gospel. In your testimony tell the gospel so that God is the main character, not you. Oh, I was lost as a kid. I did some pretty bad things as a teenager and then one day I read my Bible and I said I’m going to do things differently and I’ve been different ever since. Well, then who’s the savior? You’re the savior. Our testimony has to reflect the gospel and the gospel is all God’s doing.

So I’ve given you a prayer and action item. Analyze. Do I mirror the glory of God to unbelievers? Do I represent God to unbelievers? If I told the gospel to a co-worker tomorrow at work, would they think that in the way I live my life I walk in a manner worthy of that gospel? Or do I need to go and tell some unbelievers in my office, listen, I sin way too much. I gossip way too much. I have a horrible mouth way too much. I am not kind to you. I’m impatient with you. Maybe you need to do that so you can properly represent the Lord at work before you start preaching the gospel message, but don’t think that you’ve got to be perfect to preach the gospel. Okay? So analyze. Am I representing Christ to the people around me?

Another action, okay? Preach the gospel to one person in the next two weeks. This is where I go from preaching to meddling. I get it. I know. Preach the gospel to one person in the next two weeks. Moms–I only see 8-year-olds all week long. Okay. Parenting is evangelism before it’s training Christians how to grow in Christ. You’re evangelizing before you’re teaching saved kids how to grow in Christ. You get that your kids aren’t saved once they’re born, right? So parenting is first evangelism. So moms, maybe that’s preaching the gospel to your kids. Maybe it’s for other people taking a walk at lunch instead of eating lunch at your desk.

I don’t know what it is. There’s a million different ways that you can already think of. Maybe for you who have a hard time getting out of the home and those legs aren’t what they once were, maybe it’s writing a letter to a wayward nephew, son, daughter, spouse. Can you preach the gospel to someone in the next two weeks? The gospel, not just, hey man, Jesus loves you and you need to be right with him. See ya. No, no, the gospel. God is holy, man has sinned, including you, but he’s made a way for you to be right with him. You need to acknowledge your sin and turn to the one that will save you. Believe in him. He’ll take all the sin for your life. Preach that gospel.

And you can even cheat. You can even tell them, my pastor is making me do this. There’s no rules here, other than preach the gospel. So at my church we’re going through a series and the book of 1 Peter reminded me why I’m on the face of the earth. I’m going to tell people about Christ. Can I tell you about him in two minutes? And you tell them the gospel and see where it goes. Try it.

Listen, your job is not to save them. Your job is to bring the message to them. Christ will save them. The spirit will save them. So don’t put too much pressure on yourself. Every time you preach the gospel to someone, it is successful, because you’re being faithful to what God told you to do. He does the rest. He does the saving. You do the preaching.

A devotional thought for you. We will not be great proclaimers until we are joyful of the great privileges we have as redeemed sinners. So spend time–maybe at the beginning of the week spend time thinking about all that you have in Christ. Remind yourself. Remind yourself where you would be if you would not have been saved five years ago. Just play that out a little bit. Man, play that out a little bit. And the Lord came and saved you. And maybe that gets you going. Okay, now I’m going to go tell someone else. We can’t be proclaimers unless we are joyful about the salvation that we have.

And then a resource for you. There’s a book by Mark Dever called The Gospel and Personal Evangelism. A tiny book. It’s not very big. Great resource. I recommend that to you as well.

Let me finish by telling you about some people. I know a lady who is housewife. Her husband works many hours and so he works and so things at home kind of get left to her care. So if something breaks, she’s going to call the plumber or call this guy or call that guy or whatever. A few years ago there was a flood in their home. It messed up the walls, obviously the plumbing was bad, the carpet, all of it. And the easiest thing was to call one person, a general contractor, to take care of all of this. And that was what happened.

And for some reason that general contractor didn’t come through. It didn’t work out. So she thought, I’m going to have to call a number of contractors to do the wall, the carpet. And here’s how she viewed it. She said, but that means more people are coming into my house. She’s always carrying good, theologically sound gospel tracts with her. And she doesn’t rely on those tracts to do her evangelism. She does her evangelism and leaves the tract. But she said to a friend, I realized it wasn’t about the flood in my home. It was about evangelism.

What a great mindset. She’s saying right then and there, the flood, the sickness, the lack of funds, the being laid off from work, whatever it is, it’s not about those things. It’s about evangelism to a watching world. I want to be like that.

I can also tell you the story of a young high school boy. A high school boy who said to his little group, now this was a believing kid, pretty new in Christ, maybe a year or two, said to his group of friends in his little small group at Bible study, I want to grow as a Christian. I want to grow as a Christian. I want to be more holy. I want to honor the Lord. So his leader heard that after church Sunday and said, you and me today are going to go the bus station downtown where people look and smell funny and say funny things and we’re going to go and preach the gospel to some people. We’re going to go get in one-on-one conversations and just talk to people about Christ.

And this kid was frozen. Didn’t want to go, was nervous, was scared. But remember what he said to his group of friends. I want to be more holy. I want to grow. Well, this is a part of that. So his small group leader wisely said to him, you’re going with me. They went and after an hour and a half the small group leader said, okay, we gotta go. And he said, we just got here. The kid now organizes groups that go to the bus station. He’s gone on short-term missions trips and he wants to be a missionary.

Now, let me say this. It’s not that evangelism is his thing. Some people are good at it and some people are not. But make no mistake, it’s for all of us to do. All of us are concerned about evangelism and missions and the nation and our neighbors. We’re all to be – not just the kind of funny people over in the corner. It’s for all of us. It’s all of our mission.

And this kid started to live it out. And here’s something else he said. If you think all of a sudden, by the way, that man Andrew’s so focused on evangelism, he’s never going to preach on holiness. He doesn’t even care about people growing as fathers and husbands and wives and mothers and employees. That’s not true. See last week’s message. But these things go hand in hand. After a year of doing this bus station ministry, this boy said to me – and I’ll never, ever forget it – I have been more holy this last year than ever before. Surprise, surprise. As he’s walking in the will of God, telling people about Christ, he is conscious of his life and he’s making decisions to seek to honor the Lord. They go hand in hand.

Another man. Final person. Another man works downtown. Works in a Christian ministry. Around Christians all the time. So he’s determined to go to Subway once a week. Subway sandwiches. Not because he likes the Subway sandwiches, but because he wants to go to places where he can meet unbelievers and know them by name, and he’ll sit there and they’ll get to know him. And over the years, they’ll get to know one another better, and he always seeks to bring the gospel to them early on. He doesn’t wait ten years to bring the gospel to them after they’ve made him 1300 meatball marinaras. He doesn’t do that. He goes and brings the gospel early on, but then he goes every Monday and he calls them by name, all the employees. Smiles at them. He asks how he can pray for them. He talks to them.

Maybe some of us need to go find unbelievers to be around. Don’t get scared. I’m not talking about going to bars. If you can’t handle bars, don’t hang around that. I’m not saying that. We’re called to flee temptation. But in a way that doesn’t tempt you, can you go and be around an unbeliever a little bit for the sake of the gospel? So be wary of your own walk, what tempts you, but go and be around unbelievers.

And again, to some of you it might mean writing a letter or e-mail because you might not be able to get out as much. Or whatever it may be. But can you do something to be around someone, some couple, some group and bring the gospel to them?

So I think of the lady, the high school student, the man, and again, I bring this to you and I say, what can we say about those people? Extraordinary examples, godly? What’s the better word for New Testament Christians? Normal. Normal Christians. Normal, everyday, good old- fashioned Christians. Christians are saved to speak.

Let’s pray.

Father, help us to never enjoy you without inviting others to. Help us to never even be selfish with our own Christian lives, to be so concerned about how we’re going to grow, how we’re going to be more holy, how we’re going to be more joyful or peaceful that we forget that other people need those things as well. You’ve spoken clearly about why we’re here. Now, by your Spirit, motivate us, compel us to go. Let us be like the apostle Paul who was compelled by the love of Christ to go. Lord, take out any Jonah that exists in us and put in us Jesus Christ who came to seek and save the lost.
Lord, I would ask you in advance that you would discipline the church if we ever lose sight of this mission. Do not allow us to thrive or to get our name out there or to have other people want to come see what we’re all about if we are not about this mission. Discipline us for the purpose of godliness so that we would never forget why we’re here. We gather here to worship today, sit under your word, worship your Son Jesus Christ in the power of the Spirit so that we can then go and fish for men and women who could be added to our number so that they would worship the King of kings and Lord of lords.
We pray that every good intention that’s desired by this group in here, every single resolution that we make or endeavor that we seek to be part of or way that we seek to apply this message, we pray that you by your Spirit would allow that to come to fruition and that this would be the start of people in these seats in a year who would be able to trace this sermon back to the reason why they were saved because someone went and talked to them. It is all in your Son’s name. Amen.