Key Life Network

Steve Brown: They lied to you, and I am going to tell you why on this edition of Key Life.

Guest (Male): This is Key Life with our host, author and seminary professor, Steve Brown. He's nobody's guru. He's just one beggar telling other beggars where he found bread. If you're hungry for God, the real God behind all the lies, you've come to the right place.

Steve Brown: Thank you, Matthew. We started yesterday a new subject on how to share your faith. I suggested, if you were listening yesterday, that most Christians don't share their faith.

Now, these are not Christians who don't believe. They're not Christians who don't want to share their faith. They're not Christians who don't want to be obedient to what Jesus said about going into all the world, starting next door. They just don't know what to say. But more important, I believe that most Christians are not actively sharing their faith in Christ because of some lies that they have been told.

And we believe those lies, and I am going to fix that for myself and for you, so listen up. The first lie is this: people don't want to hear about your religion. They don't want to hear about Christ. Every time I speak my faith, a man told me once, I feel like I'm imposing.

Another person told me recently, "You're always talking about witnessing and our faith. Well, you just don't know my friends. They are busy, active people, and the last thing they're interested in is my faith in Christ."

Now, let me tell you the truth. There was probably never a time in history when people were more open to answers to life, which are given in the Gospel, than right now in the time in which we're living. There was probably a never never a time in history when people were more desperately searching for someone who believed something that makes a difference.

If we don't ever talk about what we believe, if we never mention the answers we know, those people will not be impressed by our tolerance or our tact. They will think that we don't have any answers.

If you had cancer and there was someone who had a cure and refused to share it with you, what would you think of that person? We live in a time when the cancer of emptiness, and frustration, and guilt, and loneliness, and boredom is on steroids.

For most people, the old ways of forgetting don't work anymore, and they know it. Only the hurt remains. If someone, anyone can speak to that hurt, they will listen.

I have an acquaintance who often spends his lunch hour on the Boston Common. One day he decided that he would test out the myth that no one nobody wants to hear about Jesus. He started by going up to someone on the common, starting a conversation and finally bringing up the name of Jesus. After only a few weeks, he had won over 19 young people to Christ.

These are his words. Not everyone received Christ, but everybody was interested and they listened. If what you have in Christ is real and you aren't ashamed to talk about it, you'll be surprised at those who will listen, especially those who thought were too busy and too active to care.

For years in the seminary, I taught a course called "Communicating to Postmoderns." Postmodernity is a negative thing, and it's not good in most cases. But in some cases, especially for Christians, it's a good thing.

I used to challenge my students, "If you'll go to downtown Orlando, take off your tie, and don't be self-righteous, and meet some people, and have a story to tell, then you're going to find out that they really will listen."

They may not agree, but they'll be interested, and they'll listen because of postmodernity, the playing field is level. Used to be if you had degrees, people would listen. If you were rich, people would listen. If you had written a book or been in a film, people would listen. If you were an important political figure, people would listen. But if you weren't any of those things, nobody wanted to hear. That's changed.

And it's changed radically. And if you are willing to risk a little bit, willing to be honest a little bit, willing to listen a little bit, you're in for an amazing surprise. And you'll see that it really is a lie when people say, "Nobody wants to hear."

Let me give you another lie. It's this: one must be very good before one can speak about Christ to others. A man said to me, "Steve, you're asking me to talk about Jesus. I would feel like a hypocrite. I'm just not good enough."

Let me tell you something. If you if you wait until you're good enough, you're never going to go. You will never share Christ with anybody. And it is not your goodness. It's not a prerequisite for sharing your faith.

Your witnessing is not to your goodness, but to the goodness of Jesus. Your witness is not to your purity, but to a God who loved you even when he knew that your purity level was low.

Peter's Pentecostal sermon in the second chapter of Acts was not preached because Peter felt he was pure enough to preach it. It was preached because the background of denial, his own sin, and his own cowardice were the main things about him.

What if Peter had said, "Fellas, I know there are a lot of people here in Jerusalem who need to know about Jesus. But don't you remember I denied even knowing him? Don't you remember how I failed him? I'm certainly not the one to do the preaching. Somebody else is going to have to do it."

Peter didn't say that. In spite of his imperfections, he had something to say about God who loved him, even knowing about his denial. Because he said it, almost 3,000 people came to know Christ.

The Christian witness is not from the position of goodness. If it were, all of our witness to Christ would be dishonest. No one would listen because they would figure that the Christian faith is only for good people. The Christian's witness is from a position of one who, in spite of his or her sinfulness, has been found by a God who is a God of forgiveness, and mercy, and grace.

And in fact, I got to say this: I believe the basic element of our witness is a witness to our own sinfulness. I think when somebody who's not a believer says to a believer who is witnessing, "I can't believe this. You too? I mean, you did that? You're doing that? You you blow it that way? You are a failure like me?"

And when the response is, "You too?" You're on the you're on the right road to witnessing properly and being engaged in evangelism. That's why you get Christians who really believe that they have to pretend to be good, and nice, and sweet, and obedient, and pure in order to tell people about Jesus. That's a lie.

It's just not true. God had only one perfect witness, and that was Jesus. And then there's the rest of us. And some of us clean up better than others, but we're all dirty. And that's our witness. That's what we're telling people. "Look, I've been forgiven. I know somebody who will forgive you."

"I'm a beggar, and I need bread because I'm hungry all the time. And I'm just one beggar telling you where I found bread. Listen, I'm not any better than you are, except in one area."

"And the area is that I ran to Jesus expecting him to reject me, and he didn't. He said, 'Welcome, child.' Welcome."

Now, friend, that is powerful stuff. But you got to be willing to risk. Of course, you're not good enough. You think about that. Amen.

Guest (Male): And that was Steve Brown continuing to teach us about how we can share our faith. It really can be done without being forced or weird. More insights and encouragement about evangelism tomorrow. Be sure to join us for that.

Well, there's an old phrase, old enough that I never came across it growing up. "Better and better every day in every way." Sounds nice. I mean, it rhymes, and that's not nothing, right? But our spiritual growth isn't always so neat and clean and linear. We fall short of God's standards. We're called to radical obedience, but we still struggle.

Steve addresses this situation in a message called "When Being Bad Isn't Bad Enough." We'd like to send you that full sermon on CD for free. So claim yours right now by calling us at 1-800-KEY-LIFE. That's 1-800-539-5433. You can also email Steve at keylife.org to order that CD, or to mail your request, go to keylife.org/contact to find our mailing addresses. Again, just ask for the free CD called "When Being Bad Isn't Bad Enough."

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