[0:00] So if you have your Bible, go ahead and turn to John 7, 11 through 13, or if you have your! iPhone or whatever device that your Bible is on, go ahead and grab that and pull up that passage. If you don't have a Bible with you, there are Bibles in the pews and you can turn in those and follow along with us. If you don't own a Bible, please take that Bible home with you today as our gift from our congregation to you in hopes that you'll continue to be reading the Word of God.
[0:35] John 7, 11 through 13, would you please stand with me as we honor the reading of God's Word. The Jews were looking for him at the feast and saying, where is he? And there was much muttering about him among the people. While some said, he is a good man. Others said, no, he is leading the people astray. Yet, for fear of the Jews, no one spoke openly of him. May God add a blessing to the reading of his Word. Would you please be seated? If you ask a person in our culture, who is Jesus, you'll likely get many different responses to that question. Perhaps some of this confusion is due to our culture's celebration of Christmas and Easter. Intermixed between Christmas lights and gift giving and bunnies and Easter eggs, there is some talk, at least in the secular world, about this Jewish man from Nazareth whose name was Jesus and the many different beliefs that people in the world have about him. In 2015, not too long ago, Barna conducted a study and found at the time that in the United States of America, 92 percent, 92 percent of Americans said that they believed that Jesus was an actual historical person. Though that same study also revealed that of those surveyed, only 56 percent believed that he was God. Only 56 percent. So you see, there's a lot of confusion. Much of the information that unbelievers receive about Jesus comes from our influential news media and our elite educators as they crank out books and movies and documentaries searching for the true Jesus, they would say. And they do so because, again, especially during Christmas and Easter seasons, they find a vast audience who are eager to consume what they are putting out. In fact, over the course of the past 2,000 years, no person has been more studied, more examined, more written about, or more discussed.
[3:19] And of all of this, excuse me, has resulted with a lot of confusion about the true identity of Jesus.
[3:34] Confusion about the true identity of Jesus, though, has always surrounded him. Search through the pages of the New Testament and you will find people with a muddled understanding of who he really was. Some thought he was a good teacher. Others said he's a prophet. Some, like we've read today, said he was a good man or a worker of miracles. On the other hand, you had the Pharisees saying that, no, he was a person who was demon-possessed. He's a man who's truly in league with Satan himself.
[4:11] There was much confusion and division over the true identity of Jesus Christ. But one thing that you won't see, one thing that you won't see, and that I've never personally encountered as I've asked people that question, who is Jesus, is indifference. Indifference. No one has ever said to me, when I've asked that question, you know, I could really care less. Never heard that before. Now, I believe that that confusion, though, can easily be cleared up when we look to Scripture. For there we encounter Jesus and the testimony of his disciples who were eyewitnesses to his life and to his death and to his resurrection. The Scriptures are the location where Jesus is best revealed to us. Not some mini-series on the History Channel or some documentary played on National Geographic Channel or some article written in a magazine like Time Magazine. Or some lecture on Christianity delivered by some professor in some secular institution in some religious studies class. For centuries, men and women, boys and girls, and people from many different tribes and tongues and nationalities have been presented with this question, who is Jesus? And it's a question that continually needs to be answered again and again in each generation. And because there is so much confusion about the true identity of Jesus Christ, it's a question that needs to be continually asked. As we saw last week, Jesus waits to go up to the
[6:23] Feast of Booths in Jerusalem. If you remember, this is a massive celebration of the Jews. Jews from all over the region were flocking to Jerusalem to celebrate this feast. And as many of them were arriving and had arrived, they assumed that once they got there that they would see among the movers and the shakers, the important people of that culture in that time, this Jesus whom they had heard so much about, whom maybe they had even seen perform amazing miracles and had even heard his unique teaching as one who had authority. But to this point, he hasn't arrived just yet. And so here in these few verses, John records the confusion and the division that existed as the people were discussing in hushed voices amongst themselves the true identity of this itinerant preacher, this worker of miracles, this son of a carpenter from Nazareth, whose ministry was quite literally turning their world upside down. Jesus is about to come to them. And when he comes, he will bear witness once again of the truth, of his true identity to them. And that, brothers and sisters in
[7:50] Christ, is something that he calls us as his followers, as his disciples, to continue to do today as well. At least a couple of scriptures that I want to read that point out to this command from our Lord to do this very thing, to go and clear up confusion, to tell the good news of Jesus Christ, explaining who he really is. 2 Corinthians 5, 18 through 20. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us this message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. And then the one we know so well, Matthew 28, 18 through 20, the Great Commission. Jesus came and said to them, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me, go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the
[9:08] Father, the Son, of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded to you, and behold, I am with you always to the end of the age. Now listen, our times are no less confusing than these times that we've read about this morning. And our God-given mission is no less important than when Jesus gave it some 2,000 years ago to his followers. And so here's the main idea for this morning's sermon. Followers of Jesus Christ are commanded to go to unbelievers, provide answers where there is confusion, point them to Jesus as their only hope of salvation, and do so fearlessly, fearlessly. And so if you're an unbeliever listening to this sermon this morning, if you're following us online on Facebook, I ask you, who do you say that Jesus is? Who do you say that Jesus is? And I want you to know that my hope in prayer would be that as you listen to this sermon that the Holy Spirit of God will reveal that truth to you, that you will believe. And I also hope that this question is one that you won't be able to escape as the Holy Spirit, I pray, draws you to trust in Jesus as your Lord and Savior. And I also want you to know that if you're an unbeliever and you have questions, you can ask me those questions anytime.
[10:53] My contact information is on our church's website, however you want to do that. I'd love to have that conversation with you. One thing I've encountered with some unbelievers is that they feel like if they ask difficult questions that they might offend me, they might offend my faith. That's not going to be the case. That will not offend me and I would look forward, please, to having that conversation with you.
[11:14] If you're listening as a believer, you must understand you've been commanded by Christ to go and make disciples. This is a command. As you also maybe were once confused over His true identity and the Lord sent someone to you who opened up His Word to you and through whom the Spirit of God imparted life to you, so you too should seek to be used by God to do that very same thing. That means that you must insert yourself into places, into conversations, into communities where there is confusion over the true identity of Jesus Christ. You must ask, who do you believe Jesus is? What do you know about Jesus?
[12:12] What do you believe about Him? And when you ask, be ready to give an answer, to give an answer, and to be patient as you continually speak with that person in the hopes that the Holy Spirit will draw them to salvation in Christ and knowing that He is their Lord and Savior. A couple of Sunday nights ago, as we were talking in here, one of the things that was brought up is that evangelism, evangelism for so often has been treated by the church as an event. If you want to evangelize, well, come to this event and you can evangelize, but that must change. It must change for our church. It must change for the church. Evangelism is not an event. Evangelism for the believer is a way of life.
[13:03] We should always be ready to give in a defense for the hope that we have in Christ and to go and to share and to declare the good news of who Jesus is. And so my question for you to think about as we go through this message is, will you obey? Will you obey our Lord's command to go and make disciples? His desire to use you to do that. Will you obey? John 7, 11 through 13 presents us with three truths that we must understand and remember as we seek to transition from the thought of evangelism as an event to evangelism as a way of life. The first truth is this that we find in our text, which is that people are searching. People are searching. Look again at verse 11. The Jews were looking for Him, searching for Him at the feast and saying, where is He? Now there in verse 11, the phrase the Jews does not refer primarily to the common people who made up the crowd, but primarily in the way that
[14:23] John uses it to the Jewish leaders who were there, who as we've seen and as we know, were growing increasingly hostile to Jesus Christ. Seeking to trip Him up in His words, trying to turn the people against Him, and ultimately secretly plotting together as to how they might capture Him and kill Him, thus in their minds putting an end to His ministry. Yet still, as we look at these verses in verses 12 and 13, we see that Jesus is the primary subject of these people's conversations as they are talking with one another in conversing. The main subject on their minds is Jesus. Where is He? Who is He?
[15:23] If they had a newspaper back then, if they had a 24-hour news channel as we do today, these questions would be the questions that dominated the headlines in their newspapers. As they got the talking heads together on the TV channels, this is what they would have been talking about. Who is Jesus? What is He about? Reporters would have been roaming the streets of Jerusalem, putting together segments where they interview everyday men and women on the streets, asking them about these questions and putting together these different views that people had about who Jesus truly was. But again, as we see, no one expressed indifference towards Him. And I believe that's the same today. People react when they hear the name of Jesus.
[16:17] It's a powerful name. We hear people use it to curse. We hear people use it to bless. It's a name that will produce a reaction when you speak it. And some of those reactions will be negative, even and often especially by those who don't believe in God at all. But it seems to me that if people would be indifferent, these are the ones who should be the most indifferent about Jesus Christ and who is He. But in fact, what I've experienced and seen is that often these are the ones who are most hostile. They're the most hostile towards Jesus, towards Christianity. I remember one time listening to R.C. Sproul and he was sharing in one of his sermons about a time he was asked to speak at a university and to come. It was either to speak or to debate. I can't remember all the details, but it was at a university and he was in a classroom full of atheists. And he began his talk by first reading to them Romans 1, 18 through 20. Let's look at Romans 1, 18 through 20. It says,
[17:35] Therefore the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them because God has shown it to them. For His invisible attributes, namely His eternal power and divine nature have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world and the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. And so after having read that, R.C. Sproul said to them that the Word of God tells me that you who are here today know that God exists.
[18:17] And then he talked about how once he said that, they reviled him. They were angry with him. It became hostile in that environment. And why? They weren't indifferent because they knew. So some people are searching for Christ, but they're searching for him in order to try to rid themselves of him, but they can't because the truth of God has been revealed. And it's been revealed through Jesus. Jesus knows that many in Jerusalem are searching for him because they want to put him to death, but that doesn't prevent him still from going. In fact, he marches onward towards Jerusalem knowing full well that the cross on which he will be crucified is on the horizon. And he knows that before that time comes, others still will come to faith in him. They've heard a lot about him. And he's going to go to them and declare to them again the truth of who he truly is in their hearing. People are searching today. Ecclesiastes 3.11 says that God has put eternity in our hearts. People know that there is more to life than this. And they pursue many different things trying to find meaning and purpose for the lives that they have. They perform good deeds and they think that basically they are a good person and then they trust in that, in their own goodness, thinking that that is all that is required for them to enter into some kind of eternal paradise. However, we know what the Bible says. We know that we are born sinful, that we have a sinful nature, that we are born broken because of sin. And so often what these people do when they try to find meaning and purpose in their life, when they try to fix what they realize is broken within them, they turn to different things other than God, other than the Lord, to try to bring some kind of meaning or purpose in their life, trying to heal what they understand is broken within them. But in fact, what it does truly is leads them further from the truth. And it only deepens and widens the cracks of their brokenness.
[20:46] I believe that God cares for and loves these people. And He desires to send us to those who are broken as ambassadors of Christ with a message of reconciliation made possible through the life, the death, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. People are searching and you and I must go.
[21:12] And we go knowing, again, that as the Apostle Paul has said in 2 Corinthians 2, 15-17, that we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing.
[21:32] To one, we are a fragrance from death to death. To the other, a fragrance from life to life who is sufficient for these things. For we are not like so many, peddlers of God's Word, but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God, we speak in Christ.
[21:59] Church, the world needs us to go. They need us to be ambassadors of Christ. They need us to go as men and women and children and teenagers of sincerity, as those who know that we've been commissioned by God to do this.
[22:20] We must go. As you read the New Testament, you'll see that often Christ will send His disciples into danger. He sent them out to sea, knowing that a storm would soon come.
[22:32] He sent them out as lambs, He said, in the midst of wolves who would want to devour them. He went to Jerusalem, again, knowing that the hostility that many had towards Him that would culminate in His death on the cross.
[22:46] But, knowing that His death and His subsequent resurrection would secure the salvation of His people. And so we are commanded to go.
[23:00] Knowing that people are searching, knowing that people are confused, and we share the gospel, seeking to clear up where there may be any confusion about Jesus Christ.
[23:16] And the results are up to the Holy Spirit. The second truth we see here about how we transition from thinking of evangelism as an event to evangelism as a way of life is to understand that many are confused.
[23:31] Many are confused. Look at verse 12 again with me. And there was much muttering about Him among the people. While some said He is a good man, others said no.
[23:44] He is leading people astray. So here we see that in Jerusalem, the people were divided over what they believed about Jesus. Some saw Him as a good man.
[23:56] Others saw Him as a deceiver. And both of them were wrong. Both of them were wrong. Now, don't misunderstand me. Jesus was a good man.
[24:08] But Jesus was more than a good man. Jesus was a holy man. He is holy because He is God. And as God the Son, He was able to be the perfect, spotless, sinless sacrifice who could atone for our sins by taking them upon Himself on the cross, giving us His righteousness in its place so that by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, we sinners are redeemed.
[24:41] We're clothed in His righteousness. We're justified by the Father. So, it is wrong to stop short in thinking that Jesus was only a good man because He's so much more.
[25:02] When Danny and I moved here to Bartlesville, we moved into our house, our next-door neighbor, and I met soon afterwards.
[25:13] And I remember standing with Him on the sidewalk that connected between, ran between our two houses. And so, He proceeded to go through who all of our neighbors were.
[25:26] He would point at the house and be like, oh, those are the Joneses. That's Mr. Jones, and He's a good guy. And then He would go through in each house. That's them and the guy who lives there, He's a good guy, and He's a good guy, and He's a good guy, and He's a good guy.
[25:44] And I thought, well, it's comforting to know that we live in a neighborhood full of good guys. And you know how we use that phrase. He's a good guy. And I understood what He meant. Certainly, some of these good men and women had done bad things.
[25:59] You know, I'm sure that they had some kind of sin. And in fact, knowing they probably had a lot of it. They had speeding tickets, or they had relational issues. Maybe there was a fist fight that broke out in the front yard between a father and a son.
[26:12] I'm sure that the cops had been called by the neighbors on one another for something or other. They were not perfect people, but, you know, they were good guys.
[26:25] Now, if He had told me, over there, well, that's Brian's house. And I'll tell you that Brian thinks he's God.
[26:38] And there was this one time when some of the neighbor's kids threw a rock through my window, and I rushed out to handle it.
[26:48] But before I could get there, Brian was already there, and he came over to those boys, and he looked at them, and he said, boys, let me tell you, you're forgiven. Right? And Brian would be one of those people that I think I would be really aware of.
[27:05] Certainly as a Christian, somebody that I know I need to share the gospel with. But if Brian wasn't really God, then Brian is not a good man to say such a thing. To think that he can forgive people for sins that it appeared were committed against somebody else other than him.
[27:21] My point is that good men don't claim to be God like Jesus did. They don't claim to be able to have the authority to forgive sins like Jesus did unless they are truly God.
[27:37] And they truly can. If Jesus said those things which he clearly did, but if they weren't true, then he wasn't a good man.
[27:49] In the climate of Judaism at that day, to claim to be God was blasphemy. It was a capital offense. This wasn't like the Roman and Greek cultures where you had numerous gods and demigods and emperors declaring themselves and their ancestors to be gods worthy of the worship of the people.
[28:10] Jews had one God. And Jesus on many occasions made it clear that his claim was not that he was a good guy trying to make bad people good and good people better.
[28:24] He claimed to be God in the flesh. A short time later in John chapter 8, Jesus drives this truth home to them with precision.
[28:35] There was no doubting that this was in fact his claim. In chapter 8, Jesus is having a conversation with the Jewish authorities over their relationship to Abraham.
[28:47] And they thought they were saved because they were descendants of Abraham. But Jesus denied that. They became angry. Again, a good person in our culture would tolerate such a view, wouldn't they?
[29:05] Like, well, if that's what you believe and you sincerely believe it, then go ahead and believe it. That's what a good person in our culture would do, but Jesus challenges it.
[29:15] Jesus denies them of it and says that in fact you are not saved as a result of that. And then he exposes the reality of their sinful condition.
[29:28] Let's pick up in that conversation in verse 53. They ask him, Are you greater than our father Abraham who died and the prophets died? Who do you make yourself out to be?
[29:41] Jesus answered, If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my father who glorifies me, of whom you say he is our God, but you have not known him.
[29:54] I know him. If I were to say that I do not know him, I would be a liar like you. But I do know him and I keep his word.
[30:06] Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad. So the Jews said to him, You are not yet 50 years old and have you seen Abraham?
[30:20] Jesus said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am. The Jewish authorities did not perceive Jesus as a good man because they recognized in his comments a claim to having existed always in the beginning with God as God before Abraham was.
[30:50] Additionally, and more infuriatingly to them, was Jesus' claim to be God himself. For when Christ said, I am, he was using the very name of God, Yahweh, which means, I am who I am.
[31:04] And so because of this direct claim of his making, they sought to kill him. And there are many other examples, but we need to move on.
[31:15] But first, I think it's worth pointing out that these people who said that Jesus was a good man were not there on the day. Or maybe they were, but when they were there on that day when Jesus appeared before Pontius Pilate and as he carried the cross up to Calvary, they were not heard shouting, stop this!
[31:34] He's a good man! Stop this! He's a good man! They were either hiding or they were shouting, crucify him.
[31:45] Crucify him. Crucify him. John records that the others were confused by being of the mind that they thought that Jesus was a deceiver who was leading the people astray.
[31:58] If that were true, then Jesus was the greatest deceiver of all time. Again, these were monotheistic Jews.
[32:10] Jews were ridiculed by the rest of the world and even persecuted for their belief in one God. Yet by this time, they stuck strictly to that belief.
[32:23] Yet still, Jesus was able to convince many of them, many of them, that he was God. Lots of them. Men and women, Jews, Samaritans, and Gentiles, poor, uneducated peasants, and rich, educated, societal elites.
[32:43] He had a diverse following. That remains to be the case today. So if Jesus was a deceiver, at the very least, he was a very good one. However, if Jesus was a deceiver, he was also the worst kind of deceiver that there could be.
[33:01] Jesus said that he was humanity's only hope of salvation. He said very clearly that he was the way, the truth, and the life that no one can come to the Father, that no one can be saved apart from him.
[33:16] That's an incredibly exclusive claim. He taught that our sin bars us eternally from God's holy presence. That the consequence of such sin is to spend an eternity in torment in hell.
[33:33] He said that he would bear our punishment. He said that he would die for our sins. He said that he would endure the cross and the wrath of God that would be poured out upon him on it for our sins so that all who believed in him would be saved from it.
[33:51] This is good news. This is great news. But only if it's true. Only if it's true. If it's not true, then we are of all people most to be pitied.
[34:07] And if it wasn't true, then Jesus should be hated. Now listen to me. If it wasn't true, I believe that it is. Absolutely. Obviously.
[34:18] But if it wasn't true and he truly was a deceiver as they claimed, then he should be hated as a fiend from hell. Because what he would have done is condemned millions by deceiving them into trusting in him.
[34:33] And so he would have sent generations and generations of gullible followers to a hopeless, helpless, torturous eternity. But has he done that?
[34:47] Is he a deceiver? Is this an accurate description of someone who is described as being meek and lowly?
[34:59] Someone who owned no earthly possessions? A man who turned many would-be followers away, not seeking to gain anything that this world had to give, but to give and to give his life as a ransom to atone for the sins of his people.
[35:21] He said, come to me all who are weary and are burdened and I will give you rest. He was a man who did not run from his captors as they came to bind him and drag him through unlawful trial after unlawful trial where he gave no defense because he would not avoid the cross.
[35:44] The facts of Jesus' life do not fit in any way whatsoever with those who are deceptive. We cannot face the facts of his life.
[35:55] We cannot read his teachings and come away with the thought that here is a deceiver. What then if he wasn't a deceiver and judging by the words he spoke, words of an insightful, lucid man, he wasn't crazy, then what other possibility is left?
[36:16] Well, that he is truly all that he said that he is. He is God. He is the Son of God and we should follow him.
[36:31] We should entrust ourselves entirely to him. We should live to give him glory with the undeserved salvation that we've received from him and we should go and tell others about him too.
[36:47] Again, if you're an unbeliever listening to this, I hope that you've heard this truth about Jesus and I pray that you have been drawn to him as a result of hearing it and that you will place your faith in Christ, that you will know him as more than a good man, but you'll know him as a holy man, the Son of God who has taken away your sin.
[37:13] You'll know him as your Lord and as your Savior. A quote that was shared with me this week by Diane Holland, a Spurgeon quote. Share Spurgeon quotes with me whenever you want to, by the way.
[37:26] And I love it. And as I was thinking about this, this is what came to mind, especially in addressing you who do not believe. Spurgeon said, among the lost souls in hell, there is not one that can say, I went to Jesus and he refused me.
[37:44] Amongst the souls in hell, there is not one that can say, I went to Jesus and he refused me. And so if you're an unbeliever, my encouragement to you is that you read the Gospels.
[37:56] Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. And as you do so, ask yourself, does he, Jesus, sound like a liar? Does he sound like somebody who is crazy?
[38:15] I pray that as you read, as you search his word, as you read those Gospels, that as you read this testimony of Jesus, that the Spirit of God will open your eyes ears and ears to perceive that Jesus is in fact the Son of God.
[38:36] He is in fact the Savior of the world. He is the Lord who reigns eternally. And I pray that you would know him as your Savior too. The third truth, now that we must understand and remember as we seek to transition from evangelism as an event to evangelism as a way of life is this.
[39:00] Do not be afraid. Do not be afraid to talk about Jesus. Verse 13, Yet for fear of the Jews, no one spoke openly of him.
[39:16] Now we know as followers of Jesus Christ that there are consequences for our following him. This is something that Jesus acknowledged time and time again in and in no way did he sugarcoat it at all.
[39:30] For example, Luke 14, 25-27, Now great crowds accompanied him and Jesus turned to them saying, If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.
[39:54] Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. So yes, he said that the cost would be great, but he also promised that it would be worth it.
[40:09] Matthew 5, 11-12 is one of those times. He said, Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.
[40:23] Rejoice and be glad for your reward is great in heaven. For so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. Whatever cost we pay in sharing the gospel and in living our lives for Christ, we see from Scripture and we remind it time and time again, it will be totally worth it.
[40:45] Matthew 19, 27-29, Then Peter said in reply, See, we have left everything and followed you. What then will we have? Jesus said to them, Truly I say to you, in the new world, when the Son of Man will sit on His glorious throne, you who have followed Me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
[41:11] And everyone who has left house, or brothers, or sisters, or father, or mother, or children, or lands, for My name's sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life.
[41:29] God wants you, brother and sister in Christ, to be a disciple who makes disciples. If you are afraid of sharing the gospel, my question for you is why?
[41:44] Why? Are you more afraid of losing your job, losing your friends, having people think badly of you? Maybe they'll think, well, he's no longer a good guy.
[41:58] I believe that God is sovereign in salvation, but I also see that He commands us and wants to use us as His agents through which the gospel is shared. Giving us in that the privilege of being used by Him to advance His kingdom as we are disciples who make disciples who make disciples.
[42:22] Romans 10, 14-15 says, How then, speaking of unbelievers, how then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed?
[42:36] And how are they to believe in Him in whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news.
[42:56] And so my hope and my prayer and my challenge for us as a church is that we will be a church with well-manicured spiritual feet.
[43:08] A people unafraid, afraid of entering dark spaces and confusing places. And have it be said of us that those people love Jesus.
[43:26] Those people live like Jesus. Those people are committed to the cause of Christ who they say is their Savior.
[43:37] Savior. So as we conclude, there are some questions that I want us to briefly consider now. But again, I encourage you to put them in your Bible and come back to them later today or this week.
[43:51] We will talk about these tonight. And I realize that as I put them together, I'm asking a series of questions in one. So, bear with me. The first question is this. to appear good to the world, do you water down the gospel?
[44:08] Do you soften the edge of the word of God with excuses? Are you more concerned with the unbelieving world identifying you as nice or identifying you with Christ?
[44:23] Are we more concerned that people think that we're nice or are we most concerned that people identify us with Christ? Second, do you or we as a church use deceptive means and methods to attract people to Christ and our congregation?
[44:44] Do we use deceptive methods to attract people to Christ and our congregation? And then third, why are Christians often afraid to talk about Jesus outside of the church?
[45:06] And by that I mean this church building to unbelievers. How can the church or how can our church excuse me most effectively share the gospel in Bartlesville and I will add to that in Oklahoma in our nation and to the world?
[45:24] And these are things that I think we constantly need to be thinking about. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.