Truth That Changes Lives

JP Jones: The life you've always wanted, it's a message to proclaim. It's a life to give away. We need to see as Jesus saw. We need to feel as Jesus felt. We need to pray as Jesus prayed. We need to do as Jesus did.

Greg: Thank you for joining us on Truth That Changes Lives. Pastor JP Jones is the senior pastor of Crossline Community Church in Laguna Hills, California, and a professor in biblical studies at Biola University. Today on Truth That Changes Lives, Pastor JP will be giving us a message from a series entitled, "The Life You've Always Wanted." Let's listen in as JP gives us part two of "A Message To Proclaim."

JP Jones: The life you've always wanted is a message to proclaim. It's a life to give away. But we need to see as Jesus saw. We need to feel as Jesus felt. In fact, when you look at the Gospels, you will see this word "compassion" over and over again describing Jesus' response to people. Moved with compassion, He reached out and touched him. Moved with compassion, He healed them. Moved with compassion, He taught them many things. That's Jesus' response. That's Jesus' feelings towards human need. To be the men and women who proclaim the message and give our lives away, we need to see as Jesus saw and we need to feel as Jesus felt.

My daughter Ashton, who's nine, was riding in the back of our car not too long ago. We had a magazine back there, a missionary magazine, and there was an article about this new film, "The Passion of the Christ" by Mel Gibson. There was a picture of the crucifixion. Ashton was looking at it and then she said with great concern in her voice, "Look what they've done to Jesus." Because the picture was a graphic picture of Jesus on the cross and He was brutalized and bleeding. We explained to her that's what happened to Jesus when He died on the cross. Now, she had known that Jesus died on the cross for her and she believed that, but seeing it in a picture, she was looking at it and we said, "Yeah, they beat Jesus and then they nailed Him to a cross and He died for us."

Then we began to hear my daughter crying. She was looking at the picture and she was saying, "I can't believe they did that to Jesus." You know what she was feeling? Compassion. See, the life that you've always wanted, the life that God wants to give you, it's a message to proclaim. It's a life to give away. We need to see as Jesus saw. We need to feel as Jesus felt. We need to pray as Jesus prayed.

It says in this passage that Jesus, in verse 37, turned to His disciples and said, "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest therefore to send out workers into His harvest field." Ask the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into the harvest. Why? Because the harvest is plentiful. Do you realize there is nothing wrong with the harvest? Nothing. In fact, it's interesting, there is no place in scripture where we are commanded to pray for non-believers to become Christians. Did you realize that? There is no place in scripture where we are called to pray for non-believers to become Christians.

But on several occasions, we are prayed for Christians to speak the message. In fact, that's one of the things Paul asks us to pray for himself. In Ephesians chapter 6, we looked at the passage last week in terms of the battle to fight. He starts off that passage, "Be strong in the Lord and the strength of His might, put on the full armor of God that you can stand firm against the schemes of the devil." Then he lays out the armor and he says, "Take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, and pray at all times in the Spirit." Well, in the next two verses he says, "And pray for me as well, that with boldness I might proclaim the mystery of the Gospel that I've been called to proclaim." There's nothing wrong with the harvest. The harvest, in fact, is plentiful. It's the workers who are few.

So Jesus turned to His disciples and says, "You need to pray for workers." This morning, as I came to church here and it's just such a beautiful day as you know, and I got here early, I was walking out on your patio and just saw that view out over the valley. What an unbelievable view and I stopped for a moment and I thought three things. First of all, just what a gorgeous view. Secondly, it was, "Lord, just what a reminder of Your awesomeness and Your beauty." And here was the third thing: "God, give this church a vision to reach these people for Christ." If you don't have a vision, just as you leave, stop out on that patio and just look out. The harvest is plentiful.

It's the workers who are few. So Jesus commands us, pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into the harvest. We need to pray as Jesus prayed. We need to pray for one another, that we live lives that reflect the reality of Jesus Christ. We need to pray for our pastor and our elders, our missionaries. We need to pray for one another seated next to one another in this church, that Christ would fill our lives and fill our words and the reality of Christ would just flow through us. We need to pray for workers.

Maybe that begins at home, praying for our spouse, praying for our children. Like many of you, I began praying for my kids even before we had kids, but then as we found out that we were pregnant and going to have children, I began praying for them specifically and claiming promises. God has given me a scripture promise for each of my children and as they've grown up and their personalities are so evident and their bent is evident, it's amazing how those scriptures that I felt I should pray for them have really become clear. The scripture that God gave me to pray for my son was from Joshua chapter 1: "Be strong and courageous, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go." That's my prayer for him. I've prayed for him every day of his life.

Just the other day, my son's on the wrestling team at his high school and his coach is a Christian. He pulled him into his office and said, "Taylor, I can't do this because I'm a teacher here at school, but I'd like you to lead a Bible study for the wrestling team." He gave him some studies and my son is leading a Bible study with his fellow athletes. I realized all those prayers for him to not only come to know the Lord himself and become a follower of Christ himself and to be strong and courageous himself, but to also give his life away. Here he's having a platform to share his faith with the kids in his high school.

I lead a group of men in our church. Every year I invite a group of men into a year-long discipleship leadership training program. One of the guys last year that I invited, John, had been professionally a headhunter helping place professionals in different jobs. He's about 50 years old and had been thinking and praying about the second half of his life. As we were praying for him and with him, John's real prayer and passion was to find out what the second half of his life could be like in terms of counting for significance and not just success.

Somebody invited John to go on a mission trip to Africa, a short-term trip, and he went over there and his heart was broken by the need, especially of these AIDS babies and of the inner city and the youth in Africa without any kind of role models or father figures. He came back and as a result of that and a bunch of circumstances, felt God lead him to go full-time with this missions organization. So John works full-time, changed his career completely in his 50s and is a missionary to Africa. He is linked up with our men's ministry in our church and takes teams of people throughout the year to Africa and exposes them to an opportunity in another culture to share the Gospel and to make a difference in people's lives. We just sent two of our pastors full-time to go as missionaries as a result of this one guy who'd been prayed for and had a sense and saw how the harvest was plentiful and decided to become one of the workers in the harvest.

God can do miracles in response to our prayers. This morning, in my own devotions and prayer time, the passage from Jeremiah came to mind, Jeremiah 33:3, that says, "Call unto Me and I will show you great and mighty things that you know not of." Are you calling unto God and asking Him to do great and mighty things in your life, to do great and mighty things in the lives of your children, great and mighty things through your church? You see, Jesus says pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into the harvest. The life you've always wanted, it's a message to proclaim. It's a life to give away. We need to see as Jesus saw. We need to feel as Jesus felt. We need to pray as Jesus prayed.

Lastly, we need to do as Jesus did. We need to do as Jesus did. It says here in our text in Matthew 9:35, Jesus went through all the towns and villages teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. We need to give our life away. We need to proclaim the message. It's good news. It's good news.

DL Moody, who was the Billy Graham of the 19th century, was the first evangelist that popularized the altar call. Before, when the Gospel would be proclaimed in large meetings or in church settings, there was no opportunity for decision or response. It was DL Moody who popularized the invitation at the end of the message and so people came by the hundreds, by the thousands and gave their lives to Christ under his preaching. But because it was kind of new, there were people who criticized it.

One woman came up to DL Moody after one of his crusades and said, "Mr. Moody, I really don't like the way you preach the Gospel." And he said, "Well, madam, how do you preach the Gospel?" It was kind of quiet and she looked down and she said, "Well, I don't." Moody looked back at her and said, "Well, I like the way I do it better than the way you don't do it." My point is this: however it is that you share the Gospel is the way you ought to share the Gospel. Don't try to be like me, don't try to be like your pastor, don't try to be like Billy Graham, don't try to be like your favorite radio teacher. Be yourself.

Just be yourself. Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew chapter 5, "Let your light so shine before men that others may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven." Be true to God, be true to yourself. See, however it is that you share your faith, that's the way you ought to share your faith. Now, I worked for 11 years with Campus Crusade for Christ. I've shared my faith in every way, shape, and form: the good, the bad, and the ugly. Not every style is the way I want to do it. It's not true to me. In my younger years, I used to be so aggressive in the way I communicated the Gospel with people and tried to just prove the truthfulness of Christianity to everyone, tried to win every argument and every discussion. That's really not my personality and it's not the way I share my faith normally now.

I had a guy come into my office just a couple of weeks ago. I didn't know him, he'd been attending our church for a couple of weeks and heard me preach. He scheduled a counseling appointment, so he came into my office and I began talking to him. I asked him what I could do for him and he was having a hard time sharing what was going on. I knew something was happening in his heart spiritually and I began to ask him some questions about his background and his spiritual history and some of the questions that he had. I just felt a real compassion for him.

I got out from where I was sitting behind my desk and I sat next to him and I really sensed that there was this deep-seated wound in him that had never been resolved and worked out with his dad. He'd been in the whole course of his life seeking to prove himself and he was very successful but had bankrupted all of his relationships in marriage and with his kids. I put my arm around him and I looked him in the eye and said, "I think you just need to know that God loves you and God loves you just the way you are." He began to cry.

I said, "You know why you're here? You're here because you want to give your life to Jesus Christ." Through his tears, he nodded his head and I said, "Can you think of any good reason why right now you wouldn't want to open up your heart to Jesus Christ?" He said no and I had the privilege of just praying with him and leading him to Christ. The next day we had our big men's Bible study and I invited him and he was there and I said, "Hey, this is my new best friend Randy!" Everybody gave him a cheer and I told him how Randy gave his life to Christ. Randy got connected into a small group and I just saw him at our Christmas Eve services. The guy's life has been changed.

You see, however it is that you share your faith is the way you ought to share it. Lewis, one of the guys that I mentor, works out all the time. He's a former professional baseball player and looks more like a professional football player because he's all buffed out. He befriended a guy named Ali who couldn't be more opposite from Lewis than possible, kind of an older guy, small, diminutive, Muslim. But Lewis is just a friendly guy, developed a friendship with Ali, changed the whole times when he worked out just so he could work out at the same time Ali works out. He showed him how to exercise and how to work out, invited him to church, and Lewis led him to Christ just by being a friend.

I've always said that if you can be a friend, you can be a great witness for Christ. You know, Paul said in 1 Thessalonians chapter 2, "We were well pleased not to impart the Gospel of God only but also our own life because you've become so dear to us." Maybe God just wants you to reach out to your friends and start spending more time with your friends, with your neighbors. Out of the course of just that natural relationship, the light of Christ will show through your life. You see, the life that you've always wanted is a message to proclaim, it's a life to give away.

Maybe you feel like the way you ought to share your faith is just by stepping up and speaking the word and boldly challenging people to give their lives to Christ. I remember the first time I ever was involved in any kind of a street preaching event. My first year on staff with Campus Crusade for Christ, our director was a real bold evangelist and he had all the students out for this intense time of evangelism. I worked with Campus Crusade over here at UCLA. I'm a Bruin more than I am a Trojan, but anyway, I worked at UCLA with Campus Crusade for six years and met my wife there. She was a student, did a little after-hour discipleship, got married, anyway.

We're at this outreach out on the street in Westwood and this is when all the students are walking around Westwood. It was crowded and just like a zoo. We had like 40 or 50 kids there and then there were like a couple of hundred people just wondering, "What's going on?" and they all just gathered around. Well, one of the students was sharing her story of how Christ had changed her life. Don, the Crusade director, who everyone thought was going to get up and speak, turns over to me and goes, "By the way, JP, I want you to speak." I'd never done this before in my life, so I'm scared to death. I'm sitting there sweating bullets, I could just feel it just dropping down my arms. Oh my gosh!

In the course of this girl sharing her story, she made this line, "And now I know that I'm going to heaven, that I have eternal life." There was a heckler in the crowd and all of a sudden he starts scoffing really loud and his heckle was louder than the girl sharing. What he was saying was, "Ah, you can't know whether you're going to heaven, you can't know whether you have eternal life!" So I figured this is my cue. I jumped up, I got in the middle and I stood next to the guy and I said, "What did you just say?" The guy shot back really loud, "You can't know whether you have eternal life!"

Then I said, "Did everybody hear that? Say it again! 'How can you know whether you have eternal life?'" I said, "This guy's question is brilliant! How can you know whether or not you have eternal life?" I had memorized 1 John 5:10-13 and so then I said, "You know, it says this in the book of 1 John in the New Testament: And the witness is this, that God has given us eternal life and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God in order that you may know that you have eternal life."

Then I said, "Let me just take a couple of minutes to let you know how you can know that you have eternal life." I shared the Gospel there and then everybody was buzzing around talking. I was scared to death, scared to death. That's not the style that I most enjoy. Maybe you feel like that's the way you ought to do it, just get in somebody's face and just share it. Do it that way.

I've got a buddy Lou, one of the guys that I mentor. Lou's a real estate appraiser, got the biggest heart. You meet Lou and you just fall in love with him. He is a caring, compassionate guy and he's a prayer warrior. Every time he goes to appraise a house, he prays for the people who live there and prays for an opportunity to just encourage people. You know what Lou does? Every time he meets people, he's talking to people and then he just asks, "Can I pray for you about anything?" You'd be surprised. He's never had anybody say no. People go, "Well, yeah, sure." He goes, "Well, what would you like me to pray for you about?"

People just open up and tell him and then Lou prays for them. The guy shares his faith more than anybody I know because he just prays for them. After he prays for them, people start pouring out their whole life story and then Lou says, "You know what? Can I tell you about Jesus? Because He's the one who can really help you in the life circumstance that you're facing." However it is that you're designed to share your faith, that's the way you ought to share your faith. Because it's a message to proclaim and it's a life to give away. In Matthew chapter 9, we see Jesus engaged with people, involved with people. For us to be the kind of people who follow in the steps of Jesus, we need to see as Jesus saw, we need to feel as Jesus felt, we need to pray as Jesus prayed, and we need to do as Jesus did.

When my son was about 10 and 11, he ran AAU track. He was pretty fast at the time, he was a sprinter and he ran on the relay team as well. If you've ever seen a track meet on TV or in person, the relay race is kind of interesting because track's a very individualized sport. But the relay race is more of a team concept because you've got four guys running a leg. They practice before the race the pass of the baton. You can see them out there, the four guys kind of running in unison and they're kind of doing like this. Then they have a little signal and they'll say, "Stick!" or they'll say, "Baton!" or they'll say, "Pass!"

Sometimes they turn around and grab it like this or sometimes they just run and put their hand back like that. But they practice the pass of the baton over and over and over again. You know why? Because in a relay race, if you drop the baton, you're disqualified. You could have the four fastest guys in the world, but if they drop the baton, they lose the race. It's the pass that's so important in a relay race. The pass of the baton, you see, is what guarantees that the race keeps on going. Just stop right there whoever has it and hold it up high. See, the baton has been passed here and now you have it. If you don't pass it behind you, do you realize it's not just the next person who doesn't get the baton? If you hold onto it, if you keep it for yourself, if you don't give it away, it's not just the next person, it's everyone else who potentially could have gotten it. Here's the reality: for 2,000 years, the baton of the Gospel has been passed. In fact, somebody passed it onto us and God wants us to pass it onto someone else. The life you've always wanted is a message to proclaim. It's a life to give away. We need to see as Jesus saw. We need to feel as Jesus felt. We need to pray as Jesus prayed and we need to do as Jesus did.

Greg: What a great message for all of us today. Pastor JP provides us with great insight. That is why we'd like to make it available to you on CD. Just get in touch and mention today's date. We'll send it your way for just $5. Or if you'd like to support this ministry, you can write us at:

Truth That Changes Lives

23331 Moulton Parkway

Laguna Hills, California 92653

Or give us a call at 949-916-0250. That's 949-916-0250. For your gift of $25 or more, we will send you a signed copy of JP's new book, "Facing Goliath." Please join us every Sunday at 9:00 or 11:00 AM at Crossline Church in Laguna Hills. The address is 23331 Moulton Parkway, Laguna Hills, California 92653. Or check us out on the web at crosslinechurch.com. We're going to get the address and phone number again in a minute, but before we do that, Pastor JP, do you have any insight from today's message?

JP Jones: Thanks, Greg. The life you've always wanted is a message to proclaim and a life to give away. In fact, it's the life that Jesus wants to give all of His followers. Christ has called us to a life of significance. In fact, He said in His final words, "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I've commanded, and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Jesus Christ has called us as His followers to proclaim His message and to give our lives away.

We've learned from our study of Matthew chapter 9 that that means we need to pray as Jesus prayed and we need to do as Jesus did. There's always a connection between our prayers and our actions. The apostle Paul reminds us of this in Colossians chapter 4 where he says these words: "Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. And pray for us that God might open a door for the message so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ for which we have been in chains. Pray that we may proclaim it clearly as we ought. Be wise in the way you act towards outsiders, make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation always be full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone."

We proclaim the message and we give away our lives as we pray for opportunities and as we live out those opportunities in the life that Christ has called us to. Jesus said that we are to let our light shine before men that others may see our good works and glorify our Father in heaven. The life you've always wanted is a message to proclaim and it's a life to give away. It's the life that Jesus wants to give you. Would you ask Him to help you? Would you ask Him to live His life through you and use you to share His message and give away His life? Let's pray together.

Lord Jesus, thank You that You've called me to share Your message. Thank You that You've called me to give away Your life. I pray, Lord Jesus, that You would fill me right now with Your love and fill me with Your compassion and fill me with Your resurrection life. Live through me and speak through me so that I might fulfill the mission that You've called me to in proclaiming Your message and giving away Your life. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Greg: We want to help you in your relationship with Christ. Please get in touch with us at Truth That Changes Lives, 23331 Moulton Parkway, Laguna Hills, California 92653. Or call us at 949-916-0250. On the internet, you will find us at crosslinechurch.com. We hope to see you at one of our services every Sunday at our new campus in Laguna Hills. For more information and directions, please go to crosslinechurch.com. Please join us next time on Truth That Changes Lives.