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"Go" to People: Digging Deeper · Harvest After Sunday

• Harvest Media: Welcome to the Harvest After Sunday podcast. I'm Natalie and I'm here with Stefan Wilson, our pastor of preaching and teaching. And today we're gonna be digging deeper into Sunday's sermon about going to people and really talking about how people need to hear the gospel. If they are gonna believe in Christ, then we will have to tell them about Christ. And first I just thought I would share with you a little peek into our family's morning. I I I'm sure you not only spend so much time preparing what you're gonna present in the sermon, but I would assume praying that God is working in the hearts of the people of the church and they're ready to hear the message. And so just to let you know, we had one of our kids in the car on the way to church asking like, but why did Jesus have to die? And talking about what we do and what Christ has done. so that's what we were getting on the way in and then another kid sharing on the way home that he was like really moved to tears because when you had a call at the end for the Lord to impress specific names in on our hearts and minds of people that we might need to go tell he very clearly had confirmation from the Lord for someone in his life that he felt like he is compelled to share the good news about Christ with. That's great. And so just as an encouragement so that you can get a peek at what the Lord is doing in the hearts of the people in our church. And it was exciting for us as parents, of course, to see glimpses in our kids' lives of what the Lord is doing through the many people that they're hearing from in our church family. And so just wanted to share that with you. And I'm glad we get the chance here to dig even more into this really important sermon. And I know that there's some things that, you know, we might have further questions, and there are some things that I'd love to pull out more and talk about. about here and then there's things that maybe you don't always get to fit into the sermon that you want to tell us about other connections. One of which I know was a reference to in the first few verses of this passage some Old Testament sections of scripture that this is pulling from. Can you tell us more about those connections? Yeah so so it it in Romans 10 when Paul starts launching into what the word says and the righteousness from the law and righteousness by faith. and who the righteousness by faith will not say, who will ascend into the heavens or who will descend into the abyss. He is actually quoting from Deuteronomy chapter thirty. Okay. In that. And it the you know, you see quotation marks in the passage and so he's quoting something. And and if you're not familiar with with Deuteronomy, then you're just kinda left to say, like, what is he quoting? Is this just something that some people say? and so it's always a struggle for me when it comes to the preparation and delivery of a sermon because there is so much that we can talk about. And I would say in a in a forty to forty-five minute sermon, there is probably two hours worth of material that I have removed. my gosh. Wow. I mean like I when I when I write a sermon, like the first the first run at at the sermon, it will be an hour, hour and ten minutes if I were to preach it that way. And And in the writing of it, I have already identified stuff that I just can't talk about. Because the the purpose of a sermon is not to say everything that we could say about a given passage. It's to take the point of the passage and communicate that point and why that point is evident in the passage and what that point means for us as a church family. it's not a sermon's not a theological lecture. And so if you make it a theological lecture, it becomes only informative rather than transformative. Transformative and it needs to be transformative. So there's lots of stuff that I'm just not able to get to. but I actually thought it would be really great to spend some time using this format. Yeah. To help people to see like Paul is not just he's not just kind of waxing philosophical, saying, Well, yeah, I guess I guess logically this would be the case. He is he is highly informed by the first few books of the Bible. And the audience would have been as well. I must like him to make this reference here. One one would think. Mm-hmm. I mean, it's it's difficult to say just how just how much they would have known. Sure. but In the first century, as Christianity is spreading, it it was not understood to be disconnected from the Old Testament. I mean, if you read through Acts, Paul especially in Acts, but the rest of the apostles, Peter as well, as they are communicating the truth of the life, death, and resurrection of Christ to people, they are linking it to the Old Testament. I mean, in in Acts thirteen, when Paul is addressing the crowd in Antioch of Pisidia, He gives a whole survey of the Old Testament with Christ as the kind of the the crescendo of his explanation of the history of all the people of Israel because precisely because it was understood that that this belief system is not something new. It is what things were always moving toward. able to understand what they're saying so much better. So I I'm gonna I'm gonna read a few different passages just as we as we go because it will help us to to do a couple of things. It will help us to understand why Paul says what he says in Romans ten, five through seventeen. it will also help us to think well about people in the old testament and how God dealt with them when it came to salvation compared because they were before Christ came, how did God handle salvation of Old Testament people compared to New Testament people? Yeah, I think that's a very common question that people have. And there are different answers to it. And some answers bring the testaments together. Some answers drive a very clear wedge in between them. As if God dealt differently with people in the old testament than he does today. So it's good It's good just to to know. Yeah, absolutely. So the in the opening chapters of scripture, God creates the heavens and the earth. Chapter two, I've said this We're going back to Genesis. We're going back to Genesis. Buckle your seam felt. We love to do it. It is It's a it's a one story book, right? It's your Bible. So and I this is this is a bonus, this is for free. I always say This is all for free. Okay. That's true. I enjoy. I always say your entire Bible is contained in the first three chapters of Genesis. wow. Everything that you need to know about who God is, who we are, what went wrong, what God is doing to make it right, it's all in the first three chapters. Now it's just in seed form. It's it is in its its infancy. but as that as as we go through scripture, that seed is growing into the full tree, if you will, of the whole picture. and and so when we can wrap our minds. minds around Genesis one through three well we're gonna understand so much better the things that come later in scripture and then we're gonna understand why the last three chapters of the Bible mirror the first three chapters of the Bible. Right in Genesis three you have the entrance of sin. Revelation twenty you have judgment for sin. Genesis two, you have mankind in the garden dwelling with God in a state of Rest and goodness. Revelation 21, you have mankind with God forever in eternal rest, and sin can never enter again. Genesis one, you have the creation of the heavens and the earth. Revelation twenty two, you have the ongoing reality of the new heavens and new earth. Like it's they mirror one another. Yeah. One's the beginning, one's the end. So when we can understand the first three chapters, we'll understand the rest of the Bible very well. Okay, so for people that thought they were just tuning in to dig deeper into real. We're going to Deuteronomy, and we've gotten a little bit of Genesis and Revelation in the first ten minutes here. So we are digging deeper. So Genesis 2 is not a separate creation account. It is it is day six zoomed in. Okay. On day six, God creates man and woman in his image. We're told Genesis one, verses twenty-six through twenty-eight. That is what God did on day six. Then Genesis two, we have the details of his creation of man and woman and bringing them together. So if at the end, if in Genesis 1, at the end of day six, we have man and woman together, that means Genesis 2 happened on day six. So it's zooming in. And he creates Adam first, and then he gives Adam this command before he creates the woman for the man. he gives Adam this command. Genesis two, verse sixteen. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die. So God made every tree that was Good for food and a delight to the eyes, and he made two specific ones that are named in Genesis 2, the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Now he says, You may surely eat of every tree in the garden except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. So, if you eat of every tree in the garden except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, what specific tree will you automatically be eating from? The tree of life. The tree of life. So God says, You may surely eat of every tree except one. So you may surely eat of every tree, including the tree of life. But if you eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you will surely die. Now that knowledge, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, is not intellectual knowledge. It is the ability to determine for yourself. So when I eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, I am saying I want the ability to determine right and wrong for myself. It is to say, I don't need to listen to God anymore. So what is God doing in verse 16? He's saying, if you believe me, if you listen to what I say, and you believe me that this is right and good, you'll live. If you don't believe me, and you believe yourself, and you believe other things that you're told, you'll die. Now that pattern does not go away. That that theme runs through the whole Bible. Yeah. yeah. The implications, practical application, is jumping into my mind right now. And I think that it's one verse and people could kinda breeze through it and just be thinking of, the garden and the animals were created and the trees, yes, the tree of life, and you know, when are we gonna get to eve eating that apple? Right. But the significance in that one verse is huge. So he's setting the pattern for his people. Sin has not entered yet. He is saying the pattern for your flourishing, for your for you to live, is to listen to my words and believe that what I say is true. So then we move over to Genesis fifteen. Okay. Genesis fifteen, we're only a few chapters later. God comes to Abram. And he tells Abram that he is going to have a son. Mm-hmm. that that it will be his own son through whom God is going to make Abram into an a great people through whom the nations of the earth will be blessed. So so he is going to have a son. From his lineage is going to come an offspring through whom all the nations of the earth will be blessed. We know that that ultimately is pointing to Jesus. In the immediate sense, the offspring that he's gonna have is Isaac. But Paul helps us to understand in Galatians that that there was much further implications to that word offspring and that it's ultimately pointing to Jesus because through Christ ev people from every nation, tribe and tongue are going to come to faith. But there's something interesting that happens. God says in ch Genesis fifteen verse five look toward heaven and number the stars if you are able to number them. Then he said to him, So shall your offspring be. Verse six. And he, that's Abram, he believed the Lord. And he, that's the Lord, counted it to Abram as righteousness. He believed the Lord, and the Lord counted that belief as righteousness. Now Paul and James both Help us to understand that that in this, it is not that Abraham did all the right things, and that's what made him righteous. It's that he believed what God said. And and that word counted is the word credited. He gave him credit. Abraham didn't have his own righteousness, but he believed what God said. And so God said, Now I'm crediting to you. Righteousness because you have believed me. Yeah, I loved how you said that on Sunday. It was so practical that we get caught up in doing, like, and we want to be the ones doing what we feel like we need to do and getting God to believe us and approve of us. And it's the reverse. God does all of the doing, and we just have to believe and respond in faith. Right. We we believe that what he's saying is true. We believe that that what he is. Doing is right. And we stop believing that we're right and we believe him. So we we start to have this pattern now. In the garden, if you believe me, you'll live. If you don't believe me, you'll die. Then Abram believes him, and he says, That's right, I'm crediting righteousness to you because you believed what I said, even though you haven't seen it yet. Now we go over to Deuteronomy thirty. And in Deuteronomy thirty, you have Moses speaking to the people of Israel before they're about to enter the promised land. The book of Deuteronomy, so Deuteronomy is a a compound word that means a second telling of the law. Okay. So the book of Deuteronomy, he is it feels like review. Like if you've read Exodus and Leviticus and Numbers, like it feels like we're hearing a lot of the same stuff and it's which we need. We know we need Sure. Every day. But there is there is a specific reason why Moses had to tell the law a second time. Because everybody who was alive in Exodus and Leviticus is dead. These are their children who are about to enter the promised land because that generation that rebelled in the wilderness did not get to enter. So these are their kids. And so Moses is like, I don't get to go in there with you, because I rebelled in my own way. But if you're going to go in there And you're going to realize the the the life that is waiting for you, if you will believe the words of God, then you need to hear his words again. You need to hear his words for yourself. So I'm going to tell you again, so that when you enter into the land, you'll have life. Now listen, listen what he says. Starting so Deuteronomy 30, starting in 15. See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil. If you obey the commands of the Lord your God that I command you today, by loving the Lord your God, by walking in his ways, and by keeping his commandments and his statutes and his rules, then you shall live and multiply, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to take possession of it. But if your heart turns away and you will not hear, but are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them, I declare to you. Yes. It's the same same words from the garden. You shall not live long in the land that you are going over the Jordan to enter and possess. I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life that you and your offspring may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying his voice. And holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days. That is the same language from Genesis 2. Believe God and you'll live. Don't listen to him and you'll die. Now, in that, just before he says that. Let's let's listen for what we heard from Romans ten, five through seventeen. Right before he says what I just read, here's what he says, starting in verse eleven. For this commandment that I command you today is not too hard for you, neither is it far off. It is not in heaven that you should say who will ascend to heaven for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it. Neither is it beyond the sea that you should say who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it. But the word is very near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart so that you can do it. That is the quotation from Romans ten. The who will go up to heaven and bring Christ down. And okay. Right. But the word is very near you. He quotes that. It is in your mouth and in your heart, and that's when Paul says that is the word of faith that we proclaim. Okay, so what is going on here? We have this pattern set for us from Genesis 2 and Genesis 15 and Deuteronomy 30 that life is found in hearing and listening to and believing what God has said. And the people of Israel are being told by Moses, the Lord has told you what life should look like. So believe him. And live like it. And if you will believe him, you will have life. And Paul then picks that up in Romans and says, But if you think that that your salvation is hinged on simply doing the things, you missed it. It's not that he's disagreeing with this, it's that he's saying, Now let me help you understand what that actually meant. It didn't mean that you were saved because you followed all the rules, and it was in your following of the rules that you were saved. It is that by living according to the word of God, you were displaying faith in him. That you were you were believing what he was saying. And God has made a way for you to be made right with Him by believing what He said, not so that you not not by you doing everything, but because Christ fulfilled these words of the law perfectly. And so when you acknowledge Him at for who He is and what He's done, you are believing the word of the Lord. You are seeing His way as right and good, and you will have life, just like He promised. To the people in the Old Testament. Like Paul is not seeing himself doing something disconnected from this. He's saying in Romans 10, let me tell you what what Moses really meant when he said that to the people. That's so helpful and just really anchors us even more deeply in these truths. I know we have so many scholarly people in our church congregation, some that are disappointed when they hear that you cut two hours out of their song. They're darn, where do I get that information? And then there's a lot of us that You know, we're taking in bits of scripture at a time and we're thankful that it's more digestible. But so to have you even just it taking a few moments there to remind us again that the Bible is one cohesive book and story, and God's plan is clear and it's the same throughout. And we can see in a passage on Sunday in Romans how from the garden this is God's plan for our salvation is so helpful. and then I think too. Just to bring it even further into practical application in our lives. I mean, building not only on this sermon, but last Sunday is that what we believe, our mindset, and this is clearly talking about if you believe in this truth about what Christ has done, it it does move us into action. I mean, I think I think of our women last year who studied the book of James and that faith produces works. And last week talking about our mindset mode. Motivates us to act. And so I really appreciated the significance of the sermon this week, practically saying this will, this belief in God, our salvation, will cause us to use our mouths to declare it. In fact, I was rereading the section before we came in here today, and I have the new living translation, and it uses the words openly declare. It says it twice. Openly declare. and I made an admission last week of my own shortcomings and how I think of missions and stuff. And I'll I'll admit again that sometimes I'm fearful when I think about openly declaring my faith. Yeah. For a variety of reasons. And I know there's other people that feel the same way. and so I think it's a good challenge for us to think about where we might be hesitant to openly declare and might be using. Other excuses or justifications. I also find it helpful in this context when we kind of challenge things that we hear in the world. And there are some people that say things like, you know, and not to pick on any one person, but it's like preach the gospel daily and use words if necessary and those kinds of things. And of course, I actually almost referenced that in the sermon. And it's there, you know, it is a significant truth that our lives will reflect Jesus says they will know your might discipline. Disciples by the way that you live, and certainly the truth of Christ empowering us in our sanctification and becoming more like Christ, we will act and live. But we also see repeatedly commands to use our mouths to speak the words of truth. When we're walking along with our children, go into all the world and share the good news. I mean, be ready to give an answer for the hope that you have. You know, they might Notice the way that you live, but be ready to give an answer. And that's challenging for us, I think. What are some of the common things that you find that keep people hesitant to share openly about their faith? A few. The I think the the fear of how someone will respond is probably the strongest one. And it comes in many forms. It's I wouldn't want to make them uncomfortable, or I I I wouldn't want to risk this relationship, or if I share my faith with that person, it's gonna change our relationship forever. our kids play together and you know, like all kinds I mean just all kinds of stuff. I wouldn't want my job to be threatened. All of that is ultimately Rooted in because I don't know how they're going to respond, it's safer to just not tell them. and and I get that. It especially especially the first few times that you share the gospel, like it can be it can be terrifying. because of that root fear of I don't know how they're gonna respond. And I have found that Most people, most, not all, but most people are at least willing to listen. They might not agree with you. They might ultimately say, Well, that's great that that's good for you, but that's that's you know, that's not for me. But most people are willing to listen. I I referenced this weeks ago, but over eighty percent of non-believers Are willing to attend a church service if someone invited them. Wow. Over eighty percent. Of those over eighty percent, more than sixty percent have never been invited. So they are they're they're literally telling us. Yeah, I would come to church with you if you just invited me. But then we don't invite them because we're afraid of making it awkward and and like they're literally saying, No invite me. I would be interested in coming. so I think that that's like low hanging fruit. If you are if you're worried about having gospel conversations, the easiest way to start it is just invite them to church. And then if they do come, now you have all kinds of things to talk about. What did you think? Like what what was that experience like for you? What questions do you have about things that you heard? I'd love To answer them as best I can. Yeah. Or if they say, No, I'd rather not come to church, then you can then you can press in a little bit and say, Okay, that's fine. Could I ask why? Mm-hmm. Now you're learning about that person. Yeah. Right? If I if if the mission is people, if if the mission is not just to be right, if the mission is to go to people, because we want to introduce people to Christ, I should be somewhat curious as to why you are reluctant to hear about Christ. Christ. 'Cause I want to understand. Yeah. It's gonna change the way that I engage you as a person. I think that another reason why we are reluctant to share the gospel is because we think that our life is a sufficient replacement for sharing the gospel. I mean I was I I mentioned a second ago, I was I was wrestling with whether or not to bring up that often quoted statement, preach the gospel at all times and when necessary, use words. And I chose not to, simply because I knew that I was gonna get to the the necessity of declaring anyways, and so it felt it just felt like it was gonna eat up time, honestly. when I was already gonna be making that point. But it it feels like a convenient out. Like, maybe I don't actually have to share my faith. I can just live as an example of Christ. But Peter in First Peter three, which we're actually gonna get to this coming Sunday, in First Peter three, Peter assumes that people are gonna ask you about your life. Yeah. He assumes that because you are living differently for Christ, that will be weird to the world. And they will say, Why do you have this hope even as you're being mistreated? And that's why he says, Be ready to give a and the word is a reasonable defense. Not not an argument, but yeah, I actually have a rational reason for why I have this hope that you think is so alien. It's because of Christ. Yeah. We have to be ready for that. And the gospel is, by very definition, news. And news is a message that has to be said. Yeah. and so I think it's the fear piece and then the the desire for a sufficient replacement for communicating the gospel. I think those are probably the two most prominent ones. Yeah. I think the third, maybe not quite as common, but it's very real. Is you know that you're not living like a Christian. And so y there's some level of shame if I were to speak about Christ, my life would not match the message. And so I just don't. Because I wouldn't want to look like a hypocrite. And if that's for for you know someone listening, if that's you, I think that the the right response then is not to remain silent, but to one, repent to the Lord, two pursue Christian growth and sanctification. And then three, when you do start to share the gospel and someone's like, What are you talking about? Like I know I know how you have acted. You can readily say, Yes, that that is who I. I used to be. And the Lord is changing me. Yeah. And and I want the same for you. Yeah, what a great opportunity for people to practically boast in their weaknesses so that the power of Christ is on display. Yeah. that we don't have to be shrinking back and worried, am I living perfectly? So that they can't say anything negative about me. Am I gonna say the exact right thing or answer? I can't ask them if they have questions about what they are in this sermon on Sunday or about salvation. What if I don't know the answers? And it just takes the focus off of us and us expecting ourselves To be doing all the things to bring salvation. It is God that has done it all and He's continuing to do it all. I was just speaking to my counseling supervisor and he was saying we have to be good sovereignists, like resting in the sovereignty of God and avoiding the two ditches of everything I say and do is so important. You know, or well, God is sovereign. He's gonna save them and give faith anyway. He's doing a work in people. It's not Not me, so it doesn't matter what I do. And I love even the thought of be prepared to give an answer. There are ways that we can be prepared to speak. We've had classes here about sharing your testimony, sharing faith, sharing the gospel, to help equip people to be prepared for that moment. we people can be thinking about if they're not ready to just open their mouth and start sharing, they can invite, they can invite their neighbors and their coworkers, their family and friends to come on a Sunday, to join a group or a study, and just walk with that person in relationship when they're hearing the truth and the good news. So we want to continue to point our church body to those opportunities, to be prepared to give an answer with words, to share the good news. And I thought it was such a wonderful challenge, as I mentioned at the beginning, to ask people to pray speaking. Specifically, that God would bring to mind the names and faces of individual people that He's calling them to share the good news to and pray for those opportunities to prov present themselves. And that we would do it trusting that He will equip us in those moments and that He is He is sovereign over that person's salvation and ultimately their faith. but He's using us as a part of this process. Yeah. Well, thank you guys for joining us for the Harvest After Sunday podcast, where we help you grow into the image of Christ by applying the truths of his word for his mission. We'll see you Sunday.