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Andy Stanley - You're Invited Prepared! · Andy Stanley Sermons

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: So before I jump into the message, I wanna kind
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: of tag along with what Holly just said, and then
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: it serves as an introduction to the message. So last weekend,
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: as some of you know, because I let you know
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: before I went, I was in Brazil, and we have
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: a network, just like the Australasia network you just saw,
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: we have a Latin American network, has grown so much
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: that we decided to split it into two networks because Brazil,
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: in Brazil they speak Portuguese. So last weekend, we launched
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: the new network, and last weekend, and we were hoping...
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: We were hoping we could get 500 church leaders to
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: show up at this conference. So over a thousand church
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: leaders just from Brazil registered and showed up at the conference.
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: And it was absolutely amazing. So I got to speak
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: twice at the conference. Then I stayed and preached Sunday.
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: This was at Red Church. Red Church is the kind
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: of the church, the show and tell church that had
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: took our model in 2015 and began tweaking, tweaking. And
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: so they're kind of the come and see church in Brazil. Tiago,
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: Pastor Tiago is the main pastor there. So anyway, part
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: of D for wider, we gave their church $ 250, 000 to
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: finish out the inside of their auditorium. So this was,
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: they had just moved into their auditorium not too long ago.
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: And it's so amazing. And so I just, nobody knew
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: who I was. So I just kind of got lost
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: in the crowd as the crowd was waiting outside to
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: go into the auditorium. And it was so emotional. And
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: I kept thinking, I wish everybody at North Point Community
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: Church or at all of our churches could experience this.
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: I couldn't understand a word anybody was saying. And here
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: are all these young, energetic leaders. They couldn't wait to
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: get in there. They sing our songs. It was absolutely amazing.
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: So I stayed and then preached the message on Sunday.
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: So before the service on Sunday, I was just out
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: in the lobby again, just experiencing just all this energy.
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: And again, they have like 4,000 adults attending this church.
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: It's like, to come and see church for the whole region.
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: And a woman walked up to me and she introduced herself.
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: She had really good English, but I could tell she
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: was Brazilian. And she had an envelope. She said, Andy,
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: she said, I wrote out my whole story because I
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: heard you were gonna be here and I wanted to
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: give this to somebody to give to you, but I
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: didn't think I would get to meet you. And then
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: she told me her story and here's her story because
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: you are a part of her story. Four and a
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: half years ago, her husband got transferred to Atlanta and
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: they live in Alpharetta, her and her family. And it
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: was a really difficult, challenging move for her. She said,
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: I'm learning new culture, new people, no friends, no family.
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: I've got, put my kids in school. She said, I
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: was really struggling and somebody invited us to North Point
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: Community Church. She said, and so we went and we
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: liked it and we kept coming and kept coming. She said,
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: but I still, she said, I was really struggling with
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: just so many things. So one Sunday after church, I
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: walked into Connections and I just said, I need to
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: talk to someone. And she had an opportunity to talk
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: to a woman. I found out after the first service
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: who it was. So all these cool connections. So one
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: of our guest volunteers was in there and talked to
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: her a long time. She said she was so patient
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: and she connected me to a Renew, the Renew ministry,
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: which is a one-on-one mentoring relationship. So she got a
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: Renew mentor. She said, Renew changed my life. This was
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: in her letter. And then she was telling me this.
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: Renew changed my life so much so that I got
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: trained to be a Renew mentor so I could do
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: for others what somebody had done for me. And it was,
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: she said, it was so impactful. I thought Brazil needs Renew.
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: The churches in Brazil needs Renew. She said, so I
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: decided to translate all the Renew curriculum into Portuguese. She said,
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: I didn't know why. I didn't know what I was
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: gonna do with it. I just thought this needs to
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: be in my country. And so she translates all of it.
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: Time goes by. She volunteers in transit, our middle school
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: environment because of the age of her kids. And one
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: day she's in transit on Sunday morning. She hears somebody
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: speaking Portuguese. And she walks over to them and says, oh,
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: and they're from Brazil. And they're actually from Red Church,
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: the church that hosted the conference. She didn't know anything
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: about Red Church. And she found out about it. She said, oh,
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: and then she found out that this was a partner.
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: On and on and on. So every summer they go
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: back to Brazil in order to see family, grandparents and grandparents.
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: They spend about a month. So she found out because
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: a couple of weeks ago I mentioned I'm going to Brazil.
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: She found out about the conference. They were going to
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: be there anyway. So she showed up on that Sunday
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: morning because she wanted me to get this letter or
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: hear her story. But the amazing thing is because Red
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: Church is running our model. I mean, it was like
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: being here in Portuguese because they just slam dunked the
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: whole thing and they've contextualized it because Tiago is a
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: great leader. But they want to do Renew and she's
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: already translated the whole curriculum into Portuguese and didn't even
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: know Why? Anyway, so that was amazing. And I just
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: found this out too today. And after I told the
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: story in the nine o'clock service, she was baptized here.
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: She got baptized after going through Renew. She posted her
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: baptism story on Instagram. Somebody she didn't even know commented
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: on it, but apparently I think she's from Brazil as well.
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: She reaches out to this woman, meets her for coffee,
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: invites her to church. She starts coming to church. And
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: she's getting baptized next Sunday as part of the 140 people. Now,
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: here's my point. Here's my point. I know. I know.
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: It's amazing. And here's the connection to the sermon. All
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: of that happened because somebody took a chance to invite
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: her to North Point Community Church. And then somebody was
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: volunteering there. Somebody helped create transit. I mean, all of
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: these connections that's impacting, again, this amazing church in Brazil.
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: So congratulations. That's amazing. The area impacting the area. Here's
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: the cool thing. At the end of the conference, the
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: two day conference, there were 400 instead of 500 people.
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: There were a thousand people there who represented 400 churches
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: in Brazil and over 115 of those churches immediately leaned
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: in and took the first step to becoming partner churches
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: in the nation of Brazil. So all that to say,
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: what you're doing is having an extraordinary impact and you
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: just show up and you're just kind of doing your
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: thing and serving and doing group and stuff. But God
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: is using you in an amazing, amazing way. And every
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: time I visit one of these environments, like you saw
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: on the video, I just think if everybody could see this,
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: those of you who are part of Deeper Widers, as
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: Holly said, you would be so, so encouraged. So all
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: of that is a good transition into today's message. I
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: promise I'll let you out almost on time. Part two
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: of our series, you're invited. As Joel said last week
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: in kicking this off, he said, you know, this is
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: the largest church I've ever attended. And it's the largest church.
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: Ours is the largest church certainly I've ever attended. Perhaps
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: you as well. And I know that not everybody likes
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: big church. I mean, there's a lot of criticism about
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: big church. But I got to tell you, I love
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: what this big church did for my little kids growing up.
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: And I love what this big church does for our communities.
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: Wherever we put a church, we make the community better.
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: And as we've just seen, I love what we're doing together.
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: I love what this big church is doing for our world.
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: The other thing Joel mentioned last week, he asked the question,
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: he said, so how did we get so big? Not
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: that anybody really asked this, but It's a good question.
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: In other words, how did we go from 250 core families,
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: which is a lot of people to start a church with,
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: 250 core families, to currently like 47,000 active adults and
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: thousands of children and teenagers and students as well. And
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: sometimes when I'm with business leaders or I'm in other
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: environments outside of Atlanta, they ask, how did you do that?
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: What's the secret? I've been asked multiple times, what's your
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: marketing strategy? You must be a brilliant... you know, market marketer.
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: And I'm like, well, there's no secret and there's no strategy.
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: The only reason we're big is real simple. People invited
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: people who invited people who just kept on inviting people.
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: In fact, all of whenever we survey, we know we
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: survey everybody, all of you about once a year. The
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: number one reason people show up at one of our
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: churches was is because of a personal invitation. In fact,
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: apart from a personal invitation, my hunch is most of
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: you wouldn't know we're here and you wouldn't be here.
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: And as Joel talked about last week, and this was
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: kind of the focus of his sermon, which I really loved,
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: a personal invitation is actually how the whole Jesus movement
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: multiplied and got started from day one. The Jesus movement,
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: the movement of Jesus should have never survived the first century.
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: I mean, Jesus as a rabbi was sandwiched between the
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: temple that stood against him and the Roman empire that
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: stood against him. And he should have been crushed and
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: his message should have never made it out of the
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: first century. but it did. And the reason it did
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: is not because of the message. The reason it did,
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: if you're new to Christianity or exploring Christianity, the reason
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: Christianity survived is because of a single event. He rose
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: from the dead. And when somebody rises from the dead,
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: everybody sits up straight and pays attention. So that's what
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: actually launched the movement. But the reason it grew is
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: because people kept inviting people who kept inviting people. It
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: was fueled by, and this came right out of the
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: text from last week. It was fueled by an invitation
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  Speaker 1: to come and see. Come and see. I can't answer
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: all your questions. I can't explain how somebody from Nazareth
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: is the Messiah, but just come and see. And then
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: we've added to come and see, come sit with me.
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: Because from the beginning, my heart's desire was, and I
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: didn't even know if this was possible, honestly, and our
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: little team, we didn't know if it was possible. I
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: wanted our church and our churches, back then it was
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: just a church. I wanted our churches to be partners
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: with Christians and in the process of evangelism. In other words,
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: I grew up in a model where you go out
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: there and you meet some people who are not Christians
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: and you explain Christianity and they become a Christian, then
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: you invite them to church. And that's a model. But
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: I just thought, you know what? I want the church,
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: I want the gathering of Christians to be part of
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: the winsome process as people, again, as they want to
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: introduce their friends and family to Jesus. And so we,
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: as from the beginning, we tried to create comfortable environments,
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: appealing settings, engaging communication. We wanted to make sure that
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: all the content was super helpful so that even if
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: you're like today, if you're here and you're not a
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: Christian or you used to be, or maybe you're from
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: a different faith tradition, that there would always be some
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: kind of takeaway to, you know, you'd walk away and say, well,
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: I'm not sure I believe all that, but you know,
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: that was interesting. And you know, that was helpful. And
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: we decided it was very important as far as the
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: Sunday morning service goes to finish on time, right? In fact,
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: every once in a while, we don't do this as
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: often as we used to, but every once in a
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: while in our welcome, we'll say, we're gonna be here
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: for about an hour and five minutes. And for those
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: of you who come all the time, you're like, We
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: know that. Why do you say that? Here's why we
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: say that. Because just speaking for the men, whenever I
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: go to an event that I'm not sure I want
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: to go to, and it's a big crowd of people,
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: and I'm stuck in the middle of an aisle, my
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: number one question isn't what's going to happen. My number
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: one question is what? How long am I going to
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: have to be here, right? So we say up front, hey, relax.
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: We're going to be here about an hour and five minutes. minutes. Anyway,
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: all that to say, and let me back up and
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: say one other thing. If you're here today and it's
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: your first time with us because somebody invited you, I
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: hope what I just described is what you experienced. And
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: the person who invited you, they're already nervous because I'm
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: talking about this. And they're hoping that I don't mess
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: this up for them because they took a risk. Oh no,
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: you're really going to like it. And then you got here.
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: And anyway, so now here's what everybody knows. And this
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: is kind of an all skate observation. There is, when
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: it comes to invitations, as you know, there is a
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: relationship between who's inviting. There's a relationship between who's inviting
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: and the appeal of the invitation. Or to say it
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: another way, generally speaking, not all the time, generally speaking,
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: the credibility of the inviter determines the appeal of the invitation.
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: So As Jesus followers, as those of us who claim
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: to follow Jesus, there are several things that determine our
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: credibility with the people, with people who are outside of
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: our faith or who are of a different faith tradition.
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: There are certain things that either give us credibility when
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: we invite people to talk about faith or invite them
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: to church. There are several things that give us credibility,
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: and there are things that undermine our credibility. And the
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: primary thing, as you know, that gives you or gives
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: us credibility with other people is whether or not we're
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: actually walking our talk, our actions, and more than our actions,
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: our reactions, because this is kind of a general principle.
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: Actions speak louder than words. Everybody knows that. But reactions
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: speak even louder than actions. How we respond when we're
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: under pressure, how we respond when we're surprised, how we
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: respond or react when things don't go our way, that's
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: how you find out what's really inside of a person.
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: When you squeeze them, what comes out. So understandably, those
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: of you who aren't Christians, if you're listening or watching,
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: people outside of our faith tradition, you expect us to, again,
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: walk our talk. And the standard that you hold us to,
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: the standard that you hold us to, generally speaking, is
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: the correct standard. You expect us, duh, to act and
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: react like Jesus does. Shocker, right? That's what you should
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: expect of those of us who claim to be Christians.
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: My experience is this, and maybe yours is different. My
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: experience is this, that many, many people who know very
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: little about the Bible in general know enough about Jesus
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: to know whether or not we are acting and reacting
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: like Jesus. They know enough about Jesus to know whether
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: we are believers or followers. If we're a group of
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: people that just believe a list of things, and we're
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: always trying to get people to believe what we believe,
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: or we are actually following the commands and the teaching
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: of So that's one of the things that either gives
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: us credibility or takes away our credibility. But there's something else,
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: and that's what I want to focus on for a
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: few minutes. In addition to being Christ-like, there's one other
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: thing that every person of a different faith tradition or
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: a person outside of Christianity has a right to expect
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: of us. They have every right to expect us to
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: have a reason why. A reason why we have chosen
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: to follow Jesus as adults. Everybody pretty much understands why
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: children pray a prayer and pray a sinner's prayer and
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: decide to be a Christian. It's parent pressure a little bit,
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: and that's fine, okay? We want our kids in church.
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: We want to get our kids baptized. We get that.
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: But as an adult, people who are adult friends outside
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: of our faith or of different faith traditions, we should
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: expect for them to expect that we would have a
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: good answer to the question as to why we have
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: chosen to follow Jesus as an adult. And in the
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: book of Acts, which is the book of Acts, there's Matthew, Mark, Luke, John,
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: and the book of Acts. Acts, if you're a church person,
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: you know, Acts is the history of the church about
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: for the first, you know, 30 or 40 years after
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: the resurrection of Jesus. And when you read the book
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: of Acts, you discover quickly that first century Christians, first
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: century Christians were constantly put on the spot to explain themselves.
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: In other words, why have you abandoned the gods? Why
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: have you abandoned the gods of your culture? Why are
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: you talking so much about this Christos, this Christos, this
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: anointed one, this king, this invisible king? So they were
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: expected to explain themselves and they were expected to defend themselves. Now,
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: in our culture, we don't get a lot of this
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: because in our culture, it's like you do you, I
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: do me, you have your truth, I have my truth.
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: That's interesting. So there's not a lot of pressure to
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: defend what you believe. Rarely is somebody gonna press you
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: to defend what you believe. But that doesn't mean this
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: isn't important. And here's why. You should have, I should have,
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: we all should have, Christians should have, we should have
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: a short time You should have a short but compelling
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: reason or answer to the question of why are you
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: a Christian? And you need an answer to this, a
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: short compelling answer to this for several reasons. First of all,
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: I think you need a short compelling answer for you.
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: For you to have something to fall back on when
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: it's difficult to be a Jesus follower. For you to
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: have something to fall back on when you start to doubt.
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: when you start to have unanswerable questions, when tragedy strikes,
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: when suddenly life is not going your way and God
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: doesn't seem to be answering your prayer, to fall back
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: on and say, wait a minute, wait a minute. Why
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: did I decide to follow Jesus in the first place?
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: Something to fall back on when following Jesus is not convenient,
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: when you're tempted not to. And You may need to
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: have a short answer as to why you follow Jesus
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: because of certain family members who feel comfortable pressuring you
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: or kind of undermining or asking all those pesky questions
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: you don't have answers to about the Bible. They just
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: sort of rib you a little bit. It's kind of
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: in fun, but it's also their way of saying, there's
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: something different about us and don't try and don't try
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: and don't try to convince me. And besides that, there's
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: too many holes in your argument. You may have that
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: family member and you need a short, you know, succinct
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: answer as to why, in fact, you know, yeah, you're right.
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: That's a good question. I can't answer all those questions,
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: but here's why I've chosen to follow Jesus. You need
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: it when pressed to explain a decision that runs counter
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: to culture. You'll need an answer when you find yourself
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: deciding to follow Jesus and what you've decided to do,
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: does it make sense to the people around you? It's
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: not common sense or common practice. You know, it's like, well,
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: why don't you Or why won't you? Or why did you?
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: Or why didn't you? And you realize, okay, I've made
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: a decision. I've chosen to do something that doesn't really
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: fit with the culture I'm in, but it's because I'm
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: a Jesus follower. And in those moments, you just need
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: a simple, short answer as to why, as an adult,
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: you decided to follow Jesus. Not to convince anybody else
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: and not to convert anybody, but to demonstrate that you
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: have anchored your way of life to something solid, that
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: you've anchored your way of life to something or someone. Now,
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: this idea isn't new, as I've illustrated. I mean, in
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: the first century, there was a lot of pressure on
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: Christians to have an answer for that. But Jesus' most
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: famous disciple, Peter, the famous fisherman, Peter, he actually wrote
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: a couple of letters that have survived antiquity that are
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: in our New Testaments. They're titled creatively, 1 Peter and
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: 2 Peter. And In one of these documents in 1 Peter,
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: he addresses this specifically. And he tells first century Christians,
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: and I think this is appropriate for all of us.
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: He tells first century Christians, this is amazing, to give
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: the reason for the hope that is in them. In
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: other words, that they need to have a reason. They
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: need to be able to verbalize a reason for the
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: hope that is in them. The hope specifically anchored to
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: being followers of Jesus. Now, when he wrote this, this
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: was during a period of persecution. Every once in a
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: while for the first 300 plus years after the resurrection
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: of Jesus, there were periods or seasons of persecution of
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: Christians throughout the empire. It wasn't constant. It wasn't consistent.
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: and it wasn't everywhere, but there were periods and pockets
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: of persecution of Christians for the first 300, 330 years.
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: And the interesting thing about all that, and this is
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: kind of a sidebar, is ancient Rome Ancient Rome, they
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: didn't care who you worship. They didn't care because they
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: conquered different parts of the world. They didn't care who
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: those people worship and what gods they worship because they
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: believed there were multiple gods. Their concern, they weren't trying
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: to convert people away from their gods. Their concern was
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: that everybody they conquered and that everybody in the world
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: would acknowledge that Caesar is the ultimate authority. Or the
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: way they would say it is that Caesar is Lord,
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: and they wanted everybody to be willing to make a sacrifice,
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: a physical sacrifice to Caesar. Now you can worship your
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: household gods and all the other gods, but at the
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: end of the day, your ultimate allegiance has to be
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: to Caesar. Well, for Christians, this was just a non-starter.
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: Because even though, unfortunately, the word Christ shows up in
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: the New Testament, which is a little bit confusing. Christ,
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: of course, as you know, isn't a name, it's a title.
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: And from the very beginning, followers of Jesus understood Jesus
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: to be the king, not a king, the king, God's
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: final king, the anointed one, the Messiah. So consequently, they
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: could not swear ultimate allegiance to Caesar. And that was
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: a problem. And this is why Christians say, were persecuted.
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: And it's why the empire feared this subversive Nazarene sect
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: that had the potential, they thought, to undermine the credibility
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: and the authority ultimately of the empire. So they were
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: arrested at times and questioned with their lives on the line.
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: So with all that as a backdrop, here's what Peter writes.
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: And then he gives us some really, really specific instructions
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: that I think you're gonna find helpful. Here's what he writes.
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: He says, who is gonna harm you if you are eager...
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: To do good. Now, this points to some specific scenarios
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: happening in the empire. And I wish I could, there's
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: documents I could read because they're documented. But basically, here's
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: what was happening. During these periods of persecution, the emperor
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: and the people around him would send out these letters
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: to the different provinces saying, here's how you're to treat Christians.
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: And you're to round them up. And once you think
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: somebody's a Christian, you have to ask them to swear
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: allegiance to Caesar, to say Caesar is Lord. and to
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: offer a sacrifice to Caesar. And if they are, that
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: means they're not a real Christian. But the problem was,
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: and this is what's so interesting is documented. When the
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: governors of these provinces would get these letters, the challenge
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: was there were Christians in their communities, but the Christians
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: in their communities were the best citizens in their communities.
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: And it's like, okay, I see what you're saying, but
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: they're not a problem. In fact, not only are they
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: not a problem, they pay their taxes. The men are
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: faithful to their wives. They have this weird thing they
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: do the first day of the week. They all gather
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: in a garden somewhere and they sing some songs we
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: don't understand and they have a meal. But other than that,
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: they're like the best people in the community. And so
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: Peter is kind of leveraging off of that saying, for
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: the most part, you're not gonna be harmed. You're not
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: gonna suffer probably if you do good. But he says,
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: but even if you should suffer for what is right,
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: you're blessed. And the implication is if you suffer for
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: doing the right thing, you're in good company because your
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: savior suffered for doing what was right. Then he goes on,
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: he says this, do not fear their threats and don't
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: be frightened. And now he's echoing what Jesus taught when
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: Jesus said, it's kind of funny if you think about it,
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: Jesus said, don't fear those who can kill the body.
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: Don't fear the people. The worst they can do is
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: kill you. You're like, well, then who are we supposed
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: to fear? I mean, that's like the worst thing, right?
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: What do you mean don't fear those? He says, well,
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: I'm not done. Don't fear those or don't really swear
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: your allegiance. Don't swear your loyalty to those who the
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: only thing they can do is kill your body, but
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: can't touch your soul. And that's what Peter's alluding to here,
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: that you have eternal life. And so you don't need
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: to be frightened of those that the only thing they
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: can do is take your physical life. The implication is
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: don't allow your persecutors and don't allow your intimidators to
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: become your masters. Because if you defer your loyalty to
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: them away from Jesus, you have allowed your enemy to
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: become the boss of you. He goes on, he says this,
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: but instead of being frightened, in your hearts, revere Christ
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: as Lord. Hagiazo is the Greek term here. And essentially
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: what this means is he's saying, look, you've got to
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: keep your king the king. You've got to make and
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: keep Jesus as your king. Don't let anybody else become
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: the king or the Lord of your life. Revere the king,
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: that's what Christ means, the anointed one, as your ultimate authority.
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: For us, because we're not physically persecuted, for us, this
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: really means don't allow your insecurity, don't allow your inability
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: to answer a hard question, and don't allow fear to
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: remove Jesus from the throne of your life. To which
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: we respond, okay, makes sense. Thanks, Peter. You got any
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: other suggestions? Like, how do we do this? You know,
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: how do we prepare for those moments when somebody's like,
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: why would you do that? Why wouldn't you do that?
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: Why are you going there? Why won't you let your kids?
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: Why won't you attend? You know what? You know what's
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: wrong with you? And so he tells us, and this
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: takes us back to where we started. He says, because
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: of all this, always be prepared. Always be prepared. Always
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: be prepared. In other words, you know, if you're going
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: to be prepared, that means you've done something ahead of time.
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: You haven't waited for the moment. You've prepared for the moment.
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: asks you to give the reason for the hope that
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: you have. Literally, always, always ready for a defense you
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: should be. Always ready for a defense you should be. Now,
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: here's why I love this verse. Peter is very specific
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: which is very helpful in fact what he doesn't say
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: is as or more important than what he does say
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: here's the good news he's not requiring his audience and
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: he's not requiring us to defend christianity He's not asking
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: his audience or us to defend the Bible. In fact,
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: there wasn't the Bible until all the persecution had gone
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: away because the first Bible wasn't assembled until the early
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: fourth century when Rome had capitulated without a Bible and
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: declared Jesus a God, or in many cases, the one
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: and only God. That's when the Bible was assembled. So
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: he's not saying, You should be able to give a
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: reason and an explanation and defend everything in the Bible
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: because there wasn't a Bible. And he's saying, I don't
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: expect you to give an explanation for everything that happens
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: in the church. You don't have to defend the behavior
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: of Christians in the past, the present, or the future.
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: He's very specific. And this is very helpful. And I
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: think this is something we should pay very much attention to.
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: He says, you should be prepared to explain the hope
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: that you have. You should be prepared in an elevator
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: pitch and a short statement and without saying, okay, give
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: me three weeks and I can, or two weeks or
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: three hours. You should be prepared to explain in a
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: sentence or two, the hope that you have, why you
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: as an adult have chosen to follow Jesus. That's it.
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: That's what he's talking about. And then he describes the
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: tone and the posture of our response. And the bottom line,
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: I'll give you my words, then we'll read his. is
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: simply this, and don't be defensive and don't be offensive.
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: You don't need to be defensive. You're not trying to
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: convince them. You're just saying, well, here's why I have
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: chosen to follow Jesus. And don't be offensive because you're
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: here to be winsome and you're not gonna be persecuted
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: for your good behavior. Here's how he says it. He says,
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: but when you give a reason for the hope that's
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: in you, do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: clear conscience. In other words, humble and courteous, humble and courteous. Hey,
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: I'm glad you asked. Don't do or say something that
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: you're gonna have to apologize for later. And here's a tip, okay?
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: And this is just great in general for parenting or
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: leadership or anywhere else. Whenever somebody asks you a question,
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: and you sense that they are questioning you, you know,
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: there's a difference between somebody asking a sincere question and
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: somebody asking a question, they're questioning you. You should always
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: respond as if they're asking a sincere question and pretend
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: like you don't even notice they're questioning you. Oh, that's
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: a good question. Oh, you know what? I've never thought
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: about it. Give me a minute. Hey, you know what?
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: I'm so glad you asked that question. And then Peter
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: tells us why. This is so important. Why this posture
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: is so important and why our tone is important. He says,
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: I want you to be gentle and I want you
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: to be unoffensive. And when you answer, he says, so
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: that he continues. So that those who speak maliciously against
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: your good behavior in Christ, I can't believe, you know,
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: you're doing that because you're a Christian. You won't go
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: because you're a Christian. You won't, you know, those who
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: are like kind of make fun of you or critical
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: because of what you've chosen to do or not do
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: because you're Christian. He said, if you'll do this the
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: right way graciously, ultimately they may be ashamed of their slander. Now,
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: there's no guarantee that's gonna happen, but you know this.
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: especially in the United States. Selfless, generous, compassionate, selfless, generous,
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: compassionate living is ultimately unassailable. In other words, if we
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: are Christ-like, People may have real problems with what we believe,
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: but they shouldn't have much problem with the way we
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: ultimately behave. This is why, you know, when I'm talking
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: to church leaders, I cast this vision. I say, my
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: vision is this, a world, a world in which people
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: are critical or confused by what we believe, but are
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: amazed at how well we love each other and are
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: amazed at how well we treat them. That should be
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: the differentiator for the church. That people are maybe critical
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: of what we believe. I get that. We believe some
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: weird stuff. Man rose from the dead, right? Okay, they
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: may be critical of what we believe, but they have
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: a hard time being critical of us because we're the
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: best citizens. We're the best family people. We're the best employers.
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: We're the best employees. The way we treat each other
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: and the way we treat even people we disagree with.
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: He goes on, he says this, for it is better,
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: and we'll wrap this up, for it is better if
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: it is God's will to suffer for doing good than
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: to suffer for doing evil. For Christ also suffered once
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: to God. Jesus suffered and we benefited. We may suffer
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: for the sake of other benefiting. So wrapping this up, okay,
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: here we go. Here's the real question. So why are
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: you a Jesus follower if you are? Why? What's your reason?
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: What's your elevator pitch? Well, when I was a child, no,
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: you're not a child anymore. You're an adult. Why are
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: you a Jesus follower? Now, let's just end on something.
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: I've never shared this before, and so I'd rather stay
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: in the room, okay? I have repeated my two go-to
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: reasons for my faith, my elevator pitches. I have repeated
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: these two so many times in sermons that some of
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: you have memorized my elevator pitches, even though you didn't
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: know you memorized them because I've said them so often.
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: At least I hope you have. So until you have
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: your own, you are certainly welcome to borrow mine. So
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: what is my answer to the question, what is the
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: reason for the hope that I have? Here are my
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: two Go-to answers. One's kind of theological, depending on who's asking,
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: and one's super practical. The theological one is this. Okay,
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: here's why I'm a Jesus follower. I don't know about
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: all those animals on the boat. I know that in
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: the book of Revelation. I know, doesn't, I know. But look,
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: I'm a simple man. If someone predicts their own death
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: and resurrection and pulls it off, I go with whatever
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: that person says. I believe Jesus rose from the dead
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: which validated what he said about himself. And if you're interested,
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: I don't believe it because the Bible tells us so.
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: It's better than that. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Peter, James,
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: and Paul told us so. So I know those are
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: good questions. I don't know. I believe Jesus. Okay, my
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: more practical reason, why as an adult, you know, in
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: a world, you know, why would I follow Jesus? Okay,
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: I'm not trying to convince you. Here's my story. Following
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: Jesus has made my life better. It's made me and
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: continues to make me better at life. That's my story.
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: I would say I can't imagine where I'd be without Jesus,
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: but I can imagine where I'd be without Jesus, without
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: following Jesus, because in the seasons of my life, when
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: I wasn't following Jesus, I was a mess. So you believe,
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: you do you, okay? I'm just telling you. Following Jesus,
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: not believing, but stuff has made my, so that's my story. Now,
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: real quick. If you're here or listening, watching, and you're
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: not a Christian, you have a reason or you have
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: reasons not to be a Christian. And if I were
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: to hear your reasons, I'd be, I get that. Or
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: if you used to be a Christian or a church person,
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: and you are no longer part of church or Christianity,
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: you also have reasons or a reason, right? And let
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: me just say one thing about your reasons. If your
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: reason for not considering Christianity or if your reasons for
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: leaving the church and leaving Christianity has anything to do
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: with the behavior of Christians, I would just say this
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: to you as kindly as I can. In fact, forget
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: what I would say. Let me tell you what Peter
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: would say. Peter would say, because he just said it.
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: These are my words, my rendition of what he just said.
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: Peter would be quick to say, hey, please, whoa, whoa, whoa,
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: please don't allow imperfect Jesus followers to cause you to
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: miss jesus and if you were to say why peter
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: he would say because i didn't read about this i
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: wasn't told about this i was there when he suffered
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: once for sins the righteous and i'm telling you he
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: was righteous i was with him for three and a
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: half years he was righteous And I know me, Peter
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: would say, and I am unrighteous. Let me tell you
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: how unrighteous I am. I have no room to brag
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: or talk. When my rabbi was arrested and I was
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: intimidated and all my insecurities came to the surface, I
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: told a middle school girl I didn't even know who
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: he was. So if you're looking for hypocrites, Peter would
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: say you're looking at one. I'm telling you, don't miss
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: my rabbi. He was the righteous one who came to
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: give his life for unrighteous people like me to bring
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: you and to bring us to God. For those of
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: you here listening, watching who are Christians, you know this,
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: you work with, you do life with people of a
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: different faith or have no faith. At some point, you
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: may be tempted to walk away from faith. For that reason,
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: you need an elevator pitch. You need to ask yourself,
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: think deep, think hard. You can use my language, but
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: it needs to be your story. Why have you chosen
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: and why do you continue to follow Jesus? And you
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: need to have an answer to that question on the
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: tip of your tongue. Peter's right. We should be always,
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: he said, we should always be prepared to give an answer,
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: an answer people understand and can digest, an answer. For
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: the hope that is in each one of us. You
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: need a reason for the hope that is in you. So, conclusion.
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: Our conduct should serve as credibility for our invitation to
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: follow Jesus.