Unashamed

Find if there's a lot of people who are fearful about sharing their faith because they just don't know if they'll be able to answer the questions that others give to them. Today, we're talking about not being ashamed of the gospel.

To open with us, we're going to start in Second Timothy, chapter three. Follow along as we consider these things together. Would you stand with me? We are going to open our Bibles. We're going to jump out of the passage that we have been looking at. We've been studying through First Timothy for quite some time here on Sunday mornings, but we're going to take a slight detour today and begin in Second Timothy.

Second Timothy happens to follow right after First Timothy. If you open to the end of your Bible, the very last book is Revelation. Turn to the left, and you will find a whole bunch of smaller books; two of them are First and Second Timothy. It's not too far from the end of your Bible.

We are going to begin reading today at Second Timothy, chapter three, verse fourteen. This is Paul's second letter to Timothy. We've been studying through the first, and we will actually be in Second Timothy at the end of this year as a whole.

In Second Timothy, chapter three, verse fourteen, Paul writes, "But you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them. And that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and it is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work."

I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom: preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season; convince, rebuke, and exhort with all longsuffering and teaching. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers and will turn their ears away from the truth and be turned aside to fables.

But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, and do the work of an evangelist.

Fulfill your ministry, Father. As we come before the Scriptures today, I pray that you would enable and equip us to do just that: to fulfill the ministry that you have ultimately given to every single one of us who have put our trust in you, Lord.

As we study through the Scriptures, it becomes very clear that the ministry is not only for a small select few of ministers, but it is for the whole of the body of Christ, the whole of the church, all those who believe in you. You have given us your Word; you've breathed it out. It is inspired, and it is useful and profitable for doctrine, sometimes for rebuke, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness. This is so that we, your people, would be ready and thoroughly equipped for every good work.

The Scriptures make very clear that you have prepared good works for every one of us, that we would walk in those things—good works that would bring glory to you, our Father in Heaven. I pray for this time that we have here today, that it would be a profitable time in which you are preparing us to be ready for those good works. Teach us and transform us by the renewing of our minds, by the power of your Word, and by the work of your Spirit. We ask this in Jesus' name. And all those that agreed said, "Amen." You could be seated.

Several things happened this last week that caused me to think that perhaps it would be a good time this weekend to take a brief detour from the book and the passage that we've been studying through here on Sunday morning, going through First Timothy. One of the reasons was that as I was preparing to teach on the last several verses of chapter 5 and the opening verses of chapter 6, I found that I hit something of a wall.

Perhaps if you've ever written anything on a regular basis, you understand the reality of writer's block. I spent about eight hours in my office on Friday, which is my study day. By the end of the day, I had literally nothing. I was staring at my computer, wondering what was going on. I was having a hard time putting things together for that message. So, I'm going to blame God and just say that God wanted us to talk about something different, because that's what preachers do—they just blame God when that happens.

Additionally, I've been teaching a class at the Bible College in Marietta every semester. This semester, they had asked me to put together a new class called...

Pastoral preaching is an essential part of preparing students to study and preach the Bible. I have more than 60 students in the class, and we've been discussing how to study and preach the Bible. This past week, as we talked about preaching, one of the topics I shared with them was how a preacher chooses a text of Scripture.

For us at Cross Connection, and many other evangelical Bible teaching churches, it is often fairly easy because we go paragraph by paragraph, book by book, through the Bible. I generally know months in advance where we will be. I have a schedule on my computer that outlines our upcoming passages. I know that in about six months, we will be in one place, and in three months, we will be in another. So, it is generally pretty easy to plan.

However, there are many other ways that we may come to a passage of Scripture to consider what we will go through on a week-by-week basis. Two of the ways I shared with the class regarding how a preacher might determine their text are pastoral reasons and personal reasons.

A pastoral reason arises from the pastor's understanding of the congregation. One way we do this at Cross Connection is by collecting prayer cards each week. We receive dozens of these, and myself, along with the other pastors and leaders, become aware of some of the challenges you are facing through your prayer requests. As I interact with people, I learn about what is going on in your lives. There are passages of Scripture that speak to those specific situations.

One great Bible preacher, John Stott, said that the best preachers are always good pastors because they know the needs, problems, doubts, fears, and hopes of their people. This understanding helps determine what the Lord might have to say to us.

The second way I mentioned is a personal reason for going through the Scriptures. This may involve God speaking directly to me or one of the other pastors about something we want to share. In thinking about this, I found myself going through exactly that this week and realized that we should consider another passage of Scripture.

Additionally, I had a long conversation with my wife about a discussion she had with a co-worker regarding the things of God and faith. Perhaps you have had a similar experience where you talked with a co-worker, neighbor, family member, or friend about God, the Bible, and faith, only to walk away feeling discouraged. Has anyone ever experienced that? Let's be honest.

I came home from work one of the days this week a bit discouraged from a conversation. She felt that she didn't do a good job, in her own estimation, of defending the faith or giving a reason. We've all experienced that. As a pastor, I've experienced that on many occasions, where you go away feeling like, "Well, that just didn't work." If you've been in that place, you can relate.

Finally, I played golf this last week with a friend from the church, and there were a couple of other guys we were playing with. One of them is a retiree who is Jewish. On about the 11th tee box, I believe it was, he asked me, "So, what is a pastor?" This started a brief conversation. We weren't able to talk a whole bunch about it, but in talking with him for just a few minutes, I quickly realized that here was a gentleman who had spent almost thirty years in a professional environment, no doubt around Christians, and he had literally zero understanding of the Christian faith.

He knew about Catholicism; he'd heard the word before, but he had never heard the word Protestantism. He knew something about the Father and the Son, asking, "What's that about?" But other than that, he had no real understanding of the Christian faith. I shouldn't say that it's surprising, because it's a reality that there are a lot more people around us than we realize who don't really know anything about the Christian faith. They have a lot of ideas.

There is a perspective in our culture today about people who are called evangelical Christians, and it's not a good perspective. I'm sure you've noticed this. Evangelical Christians are portrayed in pop culture and by many in the news media as being this weird, backwards group of crazy people. Now, I can attest that there are some weird, backwards, crazy people who would be identified as evangelical Christians, but I hope that's not describing us.

If you attend this church, this is an evangelical Christian church. We believe in the gospel of Jesus Christ and believe it's important that people put their trust in Christ for salvation. So, if you believe that, you're an evangelical Christian. However, there are a lot of opinions, views, and ideas about evangelicalism and Christianity. There's a lot of misinformation, or just a lot of misunderstanding in our culture, and so people don't often know what we might assume they know.

We live in a much more biblically illiterate culture than we probably realize, and that means that we, as Christians, need to do a better job of communicating our faith.

We need to do a better job of representing the faith of Christ. If you've been a part of Cross-Connection Church for any length of time, you know that our vision here is life in connection with God, one another, and the world through Jesus. It is my desire, in that vision, that we would know life through Jesus and that we would make that known to the other people we interact with. I want those we come in contact with to understand what it means to have life through Jesus.

There are a lot of people in our community, in our county, who don't know the life that Jesus offers. The Southern Baptist Convention conducted research back in 2010, which I have shared before here at the church. They researched San Diego County and found that of the 3.2 million people who call San Diego County home, only about 9.8 percent have any connection to a Christian church, specifically an evangelical Christian church that preaches the gospel.

Sometimes, numbers like that can go over our heads—9.8 percent. However, when we think it through, it becomes really clear what that means. Within five miles of this building, there are more than 360,000 people who probably don't know the gospel and likely don't know much about the Christian faith. If we extend that to ten miles, which accounts for pretty much everyone in this room, there are 825,000 people who probably don't know anything about the Christian faith or the gospel. They won't know anything about it unless someone shares something with them.

There are many people around us—people we know—who don't know anything about Jesus or know very little about Him. You may not realize it, but the people you interact with in your neighborhood, at your kids' little league games, in the office building where you work, or on the school campus you attend, very few of them really know much about Christ or the gospel.

This brings us back to a very important value within the Christian faith that relates to our mission. Jesus, in the Gospels, commissioned His followers, His disciples, to go out on a mission—to go into all the world and make disciples of all nations.

Nations are called to go and preach the Gospel to every creature, to give forth the good news of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus to anyone we come in contact with. For many of us, when we hear the idea, the concept, or the words "mission" or "the Commission," we think of missionaries. Typically, when we think of missionaries, we envision a passport, a plane ticket, and a country far away. We often think there are people who do that kind of thing. We have a missionary coming to share with us at the men's breakfast in a couple of weeks, someone who has been doing that for the last 20-plus years in Cambodia.

However, the reality is that every single time you and I walk out those doors, we are stepping into our mission field. We need to understand that this is a mission field that God has called us to. He has specifically and strategically placed each one of you in the places where you are on a daily basis to be a light for Jesus. When I say those words, your heart rate might increase a little—not out of excitement and anticipation, but out of fear and anxiety. This is probably true for many people in this room who think, "I don't know if I can do that." It’s easier to think of missions as something far away because that feels less daunting.

But God has called you, whether you recognize it, realize it, or acknowledge it. Today, I want us to focus on three things. First, remember the purpose for which Christ came into the world. Secondly, I want to remind you of the importance of the Gospel message that you have. Third, I'd like to teach you a simple way to answer the tough questions of a skeptic.

To begin, let’s remember the reason for which He came. It has become trendy in 21st-century American culture for business leaders and leaders within institutions, organizations, and corporations to gather together to create a clear and concise purpose statement or a mission and vision statement. They express the values of their organization or institution. Perhaps you are a small business owner, or maybe you work in an area within business where you have been called upon to think about these things: What is our purpose? What’s our mission, our vision, our values?

A lot within the church context, I find myself talking with church planters and pastors about this quite frequently. Do you realize that when you look at the New Testament of the Bible, Jesus clearly articulates his purpose in a number of places in the Gospels? There are several of these purpose statements, and I want to consider four of them for just a few minutes. I'd love for you to turn with me to see them.

The first one is in the Gospel of Luke. If you're in 2nd Timothy, turn to the left. You'll pass books like Ephesians, 1st and 2nd Corinthians, Romans, and Acts. Then you'll get to the Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. In Luke's Gospel, chapter 19, we have one of those purpose statements of Jesus. The context of this purpose statement is important. It happens as Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem. One of the last outposts, one of the last villages you would encounter before going up into the hills to the city of Jerusalem, was a small village called Jericho.

As Jesus is passing through Jericho, he has an encounter with a man by the name of Zacchaeus. If you've ever been a part of children's ministry, you remember Zacchaeus. He was a wee little man, and a wee little man was he. He climbed up in a sycamore tree to see what he could see. This is a little song that you'd sing in a second-grade classroom if you taught there.

Zacchaeus was a man who lived in Jericho, but he was not a very well-liked guy. April 15th is just days away, and you probably know that April 15th is known for taxes. Zacchaeus was a tax collector, and I'm sure that we all just loved the tax collector. However, they did not like tax collectors in the 1st-century world in which Zacchaeus lived. In fact, they would put tax collectors in the same category as harlots and sinners. So, every time they thought of a tax collector, they would think of harlots and sinners. Zacchaeus was a total outcast; he probably didn't have many friends. He was a wealthy tax collector in Jericho, but he wanted to see Jesus.

The problem was that there was a big multitude around Jesus, and Zacchaeus was short. He ran ahead of the crowd because he knew Jesus was probably going that way, and he climbed up into a tree so that he might see Jesus. He just wanted to see who this guy was that everybody had been talking about. When Jesus got there, he looked up into the tree and said, "Zacchaeus, come down from there, because today I'm going to come to your house and have a meal with you." He invites himself to Zacchaeus's house, which is quite a good sign. Jesus invites himself to your house.

That's good. When the people heard this, they got upset and started to say among themselves, "How is it possible that this man goes to be the guest of a man who is a sinner?" In response to that, Jesus gives one of His purpose statements, which is found in Luke 19:9-10. Jesus said to him, "Today salvation has come to this house because he also is a son of Abraham." For look at this: verse 10 states, "The Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost." Would you underline that in your Bible? The Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which is lost. Among purpose statements, this is about as clear and concise as you can get.

Another one of the purpose statements is found in the previous Gospel, the Gospel of Mark. Just turn a few pages to the left, and you'll find Mark chapter 10. In Mark chapter 10, Jesus is talking about one of the values of His kingdom. He says that one of the values of the Kingdom of God, or the people of God, is what we would refer to in our day as servant leadership. It’s becoming a real trendy thing again in our culture—the importance that leaders acknowledge they are to serve people.

He says this is a value of the Kingdom of God; this is one of the ethics of God's people: that they would be servant leaders. He explains that the leaders of this world lord their authority over other people, but it will not be so for you. In my kingdom, those who will be great will be servants. Then He says this in Mark 10:45: "For even the Son of Man did not come to be served." Even God incarnate, Christ Jesus, did not come to be served but to serve and to give His life a ransom for many.

So, among the purpose statements of Jesus, we have that the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which is lost, and that the Son of Man did not come to be served or catered to, but to serve and to give His life a ransom for many. Then, if you would turn in your Bibles to the Gospel of John...

John chapter 10. This summer, we're going to do a series in the Gospel of John on the "I Am" statements. The Gospel of John is built around seven "I Am" statements and seven miracles that Jesus performed. We're going to look at the "I Am" statements this summer.

Here in John chapter 10, there are actually a couple of "I Am" statements, but we're not going to focus on those right now. In John 10, Jesus contrasts the work of the devil with the work that He came to do. In verse 10, He says, "The thief," referring to the devil, "has come to steal, to kill, and to destroy." This highlights the work of the devil in the world. However, Jesus continues, "But I have come that you may have life and that you may have it more abundantly." He has come to seek and to save that which is lost. He has come to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many. He has come to give life, and that more abundantly.

Now, if you turn a couple of pages over to John chapter 12, we find the fourth purpose statement that we're going to consider. In John chapter 12, verse 46, Jesus is contrasting light with darkness. He states, "I have come as a light into the world, that whoever believes in Me should not abide or remain in darkness."

Here are four concise statements of purpose from Jesus, the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, the Creator of all things seen and unseen. He came to the earth as God incarnate, and He says, "This is why I came: I came to seek and to save that which is lost. I came to serve, not to be served, to give My life as a ransom for many. I came to give life, and that more abundantly. I came to bring light to those who are in darkness."

Point number one on your outline: Jesus came to seek those who were lost in darkness and to give His life in order to win abundant life for us. It's a little bit of a long point, but I think it's important to get it all down. At the very least, remember this or put it in your notes.

To understand the purpose for which Jesus came, we can look to the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. He tells us very clearly why He came. Jesus did not come merely to feed the multitudes, though He did that. He did not come just to heal the sick, though He performed many healings. He did not come solely to cast demons out of people, though He did that as well. He states that the primary reason for His coming is this: Jesus came to seek those who were lost in darkness and to give His life in order to win abundant life for us.

As followers of Jesus, we need to understand His purpose and the mission He commissions us to. I bring this up because many people within the church, all across the United States and around the world, focus on the various things Jesus did as byproducts of His purpose. They elevate these actions to the status of the prime product, claiming that feeding the hungry and tending to the sick are the most important things. While these are indeed good deeds, the primary reason Jesus came was to seek those who were lost in darkness and to give His life to win abundant life for us.

You and I were dead in trespasses and sins. Every person born enters this world in a state of lostness, darkness, iniquity, and sin. Through one man, sin entered the world, and death through sin, spreading to all humanity. This is why bad things happen in the world; we live in a broken and fallen world because of sin. We were all born dead, alienated from God, and without hope in this world.

There are people all around the world, even in our own community, who are hopeless. They may find temporary sources of hope or fleeting happiness, but ultimately, they remain alienated from God and separated from Him. In the book of Ephesians, specifically Ephesians chapter 2, we see a discussion of our lostness, darkness, and death. There are two beautiful words that are a...

Transition for us in Ephesians chapter 2. You can turn there if you'd like. Ephesians is near First and Second Timothy, just before that.

Ephesians chapter 2, look at verse 4. Galatians, Ephesians, Ephesians chapter 2, verse 4: "But God." Those are the transition words. We were dead in trespasses and sins. Verse 1 of chapter 2 says we were alienated from God. But God, Ephesians 2, verse 4: "But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses and sins, has made us alive together with Christ. By grace, you are saved, and He raised us up together and made us to sit with Him in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. That in the ages to come, He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. For by grace, you are saved through faith. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. By grace, you are saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast."

But God, who is rich in mercy. If we took the time—and it would take a lot of time—to go through the whole of the Bible, Genesis to Revelation, 66 books, if we went through every one of those books and wrote down all of the attributes of God that we could find, we would see that the Bible is the revelation of God. He is revealing Himself to us. If we wrote down all of the attributes of God, there would be many of them. I don't know that I've ever seen a complete count of all of them, but it would be a huge list of the attributes of God.

It is my contention, my conviction, that if God were to order those in a hierarchy and place one at the beginning of the list to say, "This is an important one; this is above the other ones," how would God identify Himself? You see, every one of us has ways that we identify ourselves to other people. There are many things that could be listed as attributes of each one of us. Maybe you're a mother, a sister, a brother, an uncle, or a father. All kinds of things could be put as the attributes of who we are.

But when you meet someone for the first time, you identify yourself by something. You self-identify as what? Well, most men identify by their career, and so when they introduce themselves...

They say I am an "X," and they identify themselves with whatever it is that they do. "I'm a contractor. I'm an engineer. I'm a dad. I'm a cop." Whatever it may be, how does God identify Himself when He introduces Himself? Come on, all the attributes of who He is.

Well, it's my conviction that we know the answer because He tells us the answer. We see Him do this in Exodus chapter 34, verse 6. He introduces Himself to Moses and says, "The Lord, the Lord God, merciful." The first thing He chooses to identify Himself with is merciful, and I am eternally grateful that He does.

How many of you agree with the statement, "God is holy"? That's true. How many of you agree with the statement, "God is just"? If God placed His holiness and His justice at the top of the list, all of us would be toast; we wouldn't survive. But it's my conviction that He puts His mercy above that.

The Lord, the Lord God, merciful. But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, even when we did not rise to the level of His holiness—"Be holy, for I am holy," that's what the Scriptures say in Deuteronomy. It's reiterated again in First Peter. We did not rise to the level of His holy, righteous, just standard.

But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were unrighteous, by grace He saved us. This is good news; this is the gospel. That's why we call it gospel—gospel means good news.

Romans chapter 3, verse 23 says, "All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." Romans 6:23 says, "The wages of sin is death." But in Romans 5:8, we read, "But God demonstrates His love towards us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."

Therefore, Romans 10, verse 9 states, "If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved." For with the heart, Romans 10:10 says, "With the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation."

The Scriptures say whoever believes in Him will not be put to shame, for there is no distinction between Jew and Greek. The same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. For whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. This is great news, and we need to remember the purpose for which Jesus came: to seek and to save that which is lost, to give light to those who are in darkness, and to give His life as a ransom for many. He might take us back from the thievery of the devil so that we might experience the abundant life in Jesus Christ.

We need to remember this good news of the Gospel. It simply is this: whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved; they shall not be shamed. I think many of you here today know these truths. Many of you have believed this; many of you have received the Gospel of your salvation, the good news of Jesus Christ—His death, burial, and resurrection for our salvation, for our forgiveness, for our sanctification.

You know that you were blind, but now you see. You know that you were lost, but now you're found. You sang those words with us: "Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, now I'm found; was blind, but now I see." You sing that, and you sense agreement in your spirit as you say it.

However, at the same time that you know these things and believe them, when I say God has called you to be an evangelist and to share these things with people, there is a level of anxiety that rises within you. Your heart rate begins to increase. You're not sure how to share this with someone else, and you're afraid to try for fear that you might fail. Perhaps you have failed before, or you feel discouraged because you've done it before and walked away thinking, "Well, that didn't work."

I think Paul has a word for us again in Romans on that same truth. He says this in the opening words of Romans 1:16: "For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek." I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ. How many of you have wished that when someone...

Asks you a question, talks with you about the things of God, or the Bible, or faith. How many of you have wished that God's power would show up in that moment?

Romans 1:16 says, "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God." Point number two on your outline: God's power is in the gospel. I don't think it would be wrong to say, according to Romans 1:16, that God's power is the gospel. But at the very least, God's power is in the gospel. If you desire the power of God to show up, then share the gospel, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes. Don't be embarrassed or ashamed to share it. Don't believe the lie of the devil, the lie of the enemy, that causes many Christians to keep quiet about it. Share the gospel; it is the power of God.

Peter says in 1 Peter 3:15, "But in your hearts exalt Christ as Lord." If you're a Christian today, you have exalted Christ as Lord in your heart. He continues, "Always be ready, always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give a reason for the hope that you have, but do this with gentleness and respect."

Now, I think you would probably agree that in our culture today, gentleness and respect in discussion and debate are completely lost. All you have to do is turn on CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, or whatever your flavor might be. Turn it on at pretty much any hour of the day, and what you will generally see is a debate. You'll have some moderator or news person, and they'll have a person on one side and another person on the other side, and all they do is yell at each other. You can't even understand it because you have no clue what they're saying. God bless whoever has to do the closed captioning, because they have no idea what these people are saying. They should probably just type a whole bunch of letters because who knows what they're saying? They're just yelling at each other. There's no civility in the way that people communicate.

But for you, as a follower of Jesus, the Scriptures say to be prepared to give an answer, but do it with gentleness and respect. You don't have to be obnoxious. You don't have to...

Be disagreeable or be nasty; do it with gentleness and respect. Give an answer to whoever asks for a reason for the hope that is within you. Now, you might say, "Well, Pastor Myles, you don't understand my co-worker, my friend, my family member, my neighbor. They're not very agreeable; they're pretty skeptical. I'm afraid they'll ask a question I don't know how to answer because they have in the past."

Well, that's okay. They probably will ask you a question that you may not know how to answer, but notice that Peter says to be prepared to give an answer. It doesn't say to be prepared to give the perfect answer; it just says to be prepared to give an answer for the hope that is within you, with meekness and fear.

What I want to do with the time that we have remaining is teach you a simple way to answer the skeptic, to respond to a person who asks you a question about God, the Bible, or faith. All week long, as I was talking with my wife, as I was talking with this gentleman on the golf course, or as I've been thinking about these things, there has been a passage of Scripture that has been coming to mind. It's recorded in three of the four Gospels: Matthew, Mark, and Luke. I just want to look at it briefly, so we'll pick Matthew because that's the first of the Gospels.

If you turn in your Bibles to Matthew chapter 19, there is a story here of an interaction of Jesus that reveals something about the way He interacted with questioners, interrogators, and people who confronted Him with questions. You see this throughout the Gospels; this is just one example of how Jesus interacted with people, and I think it gives us some important teaching.

This is in Matthew chapter 19. Look at verse 16. It says, "Now behold, one came to Jesus and said to Him, 'Good Teacher, what good thing shall I do to inherit eternal life? What do I have to do to get eternal life?'" Now, some of you probably wish that a family member or someone would come to you and say, "What do I have to do to be saved?" You might have an answer like, "Well, just pray this prayer; just do this thing."

But this person comes and says, "Good Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?" Jesus responds in verse 17, "Why do you call me good? No one is good but one, and that is God. But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments."

And so this man said to Jesus, "Which ones?" Jesus said, "You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness, honor your father and mother, and you shall love your neighbor as yourself." The young man said to Him, "All these things I have kept from my youth. What do I still lack?"

Jesus said to him, "If you want to be perfect, go sell what you have, give to the poor, and you'll have treasure in heaven, and come follow Me." Would you underline those words, "come follow Me"? But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. He wasn't willing to come follow Jesus.

This gives us a simple way to respond to an interrogator. Point number three on your outline: be prepared to answer questions with questions. This is what Jesus did constantly. When people would ask Him questions, whether it was a Pharisee, a Sadducee, a Herodian, or a commoner, whoever came and asked Him questions, Jesus always answered questions with questions. It frustrated people, and that's perfectly fine. Sometimes it will frustrate people.

I remember when I was doing junior high ministry, and the kids would come and ask me questions. One of the common questions would be, "Can I go to the bathroom?" I would say, "I don't know, can you?" It's terrible; that's why I didn't last in youth ministry.

But answering questions with questions is very valuable because you are going to be asked questions by family members, co-workers, neighbors, and friends—people who know that you go to church and do that church thing. They might ask you a question, and you may fear that they will ask you something you can't answer. They probably will ask you a question that you've never studied or thought about.

In fact, the number one question that Christians are asked by non-Christians in our country today is this: "If God is all-powerful, if God is all-loving, if God is all-wise, then why is there pain, evil, sorrow, and suffering in the world?" It's a good question, and there are some really good answers that have been written by many people who have thought long and hard about these things. C.S. Lewis's "The Problem of Pain" is a beautiful place to start with that.

But that's beside the point of what I want to consider here for a moment. If someone comes and asks you a hard question, they are skeptical, but they want to know something about your faith. They want to know something about God, and they want to know something about the Bible. When they ask you a question, how should you respond?

So I want to give you a very simple way to respond to any question.

With a series of questions, someone comes with a question they've been thinking about—some intelligent question. Jesus always spoke to the heart, and I want to encourage you to do the same thing.

How do you do that? Someone might say, "Well, what about this whole thing? God is good, and God is loving, and God is wise. Why is there suffering?" You say, "That's a really good question. Let me ask you another question: If you died tonight, do you think you'd go to heaven?"

Now, they may say, "Well, that's beside the point." No, this is exactly the point. If you died tonight, would you go to heaven? They might respond, "Well, I don't believe in heaven." Just humor me for a second. If you died tonight, do you think you'd go to heaven?

"Yeah, I think I would." Why? "I'm a pretty good person." Are you? Let's test it. Have you ever told a lie?

"What? Have you ever told a lie?"

"Well, yeah."

What's that make you?

"A liar."

Yeah, all right. So, have you ever stolen anything, irrespective of its value? Something small, something insignificant? Have you ever taken something that was not yours?

About this time, they kind of look down.

"Well, no."

Well, you just told me you're a liar.

"Okay, yeah, I've stolen something."

What's that make you?

I'm always surprised. So many times, I say, "A stealer?"

"A thief."

A thief, yeah. You're a thief. You know, from Pittsburgh, you're a thief.

So, have you ever used God's name in vain? Have you used the name of God as a word to show forth disgust or indignation?

"Oh yeah, I do it all the time."

Well, the Bible says that's blasphemy. Here's a tough one: Jesus said in one of His most famous messages, "If you look upon a woman to lust after her, you've committed adultery with her in your heart." Have you ever looked upon someone with lust?

They probably say yes.

"See? All right, by your own admission, you just said to me that you are a lying, thieving, blasphemer, adulterer at heart. If God judged you with these commandments—these are four of the Ten Commandments—if He judged you with those on Judgment Day, would you be guilty or innocent?"

About that time, from their conscience, from their heart, they say, "I guess I'd be guilty." You simply say, "Does that concern you?" I've never had a person say no. They might not believe that there is a God.

They might have a hard time with the sayings of Jesus. They may have never read the Bible. I've never had a person say no; they always say, "Yeah, that concerns me." They say, "You know what? A concerned God too, and that's why Jesus came to die."

Now we can deal with the hard questions later. There are volumes of apologetic books that address virtually every objection that Richard Dawkins or Christopher Hitchens could throw at you, with very good answers. But the bigger issue is the heart, not the head. The head is out of order because the heart is broken because of sin. Jesus came to seek and to save that which is lost, and He has called upon you and me to take the power of the gospel and bring it to those who are in need. God has placed you in positions to share this good news.

As I was talking with my wife about the conversation she had this week, I told her I wish I had conversations with coworkers like she does. My coworkers are all Christians. Sometimes I wonder, but they are all Christians. I rarely have that kind of interaction. God has placed you in these places, places where I probably will never meet any of the people you see on a regular basis.

Paul says this again to Timothy: "Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord or of me, His prisoner, but share with me in the sufferings for the gospel according to the power of God, who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began. But now it has been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, to which I was appointed a preacher, an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles. For this reason, I also suffer these things. Nevertheless, I am not ashamed, for I know in whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I committed to Him until that day."

So may God remind you that you have the power of God unto salvation in the gospel. Don't be ashamed. Yes, the enemy wants you to be embarrassed, fearful, frightened, and anxious, but you have the power of God unto salvation. God has called you with a holy calling to be an ambassador of His kingdom, and He will empower you by His Spirit and grace to do just that.

Amen. Would you stand with me as we close in prayer?

Father, I thank you for the fact that is revealed in the Scriptures: that You loved this world so much that You gave Your only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him would not perish but have everlasting life. Jesus, You demonstrated that love towards us in that while we were still sinners, You died for us in our place. I pray, God, that You would enable and empower us to share the good news of this grace with the people we come in contact with.

In this county, people who live next door to us, work in the same office as us, and go to the same school as us—there are hundreds of thousands of people who do not know the good news of the Gospel. They have been robbed by the devil. So, God, I pray that You would help us to give forth this abundant life to others.

As we stand here in an attitude of prayer, this may be the first time that these truths have come together for you. It may be the first time that you understand the truths of our brokenness and the salvation of Jesus. If you would like to call upon the name of the Lord and be saved, receiving His forgiving grace, I want to give you a chance to do that today.

If that's you, if you'd like to put your trust and faith in Jesus and receive His forgiveness, I want to lead you in a prayer of faith and confession. Would you just lift up your hand so I can see it? Anyone here today? God bless you. I see you over here and in the back. Several of you over here. Anyone else? Just lift your hand up high if you say, "I want to put my trust in Jesus." Praise the Lord!

If that's you, I want to lead you in a prayer. Just where you're at, you can pray this with me out loud if you like:

"Dear Jesus, I know that I need You. I cannot save myself. I pray that You would come into my life, that You would forgive me of my sin, and that You would help me to follow You by faith and to trust You with my life."

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