Dare to speak about Jesus

Automatically generated from the video captions and lightly tidied, so expect the odd misheard word.

How do you know your friend gets engaged? How do you know? Not a trick question. Yeah, they tell you, right? They will have to ring Oh, look at me. They all giddy.

I got engaged. I got engaged. I got engaged, right? And how do you know a person has had a nice holiday? They've been away. They've been in the Maldives or they've been to Hawaii.

Instagram, right? They will tell you. They will post about it. Look at me. I was in Hawaii. Look at the food.

And they take pictures of the food, right? And for those that are grandparents, how do you know like that a grandparent has just had a It's easy, right? Again, they will tell you. There's a story that's told about Winston Churchill. One fellow goes up to Winston Churchill and says, "Oh, if I told you about my grandchild." And Winston Churchill said, "No, you have not, and thank you very much." You know, cuz you know, people don't want to hear that, but people will tell you anyway. How do you know that Arsenal Football Club won the Arsenal fans will tell you, right?

They will tell you that they won. We won't chat about tomorrow. That's That's That's a whole painful subject. That's a different one. But how do you know? They will tell you.

So there's this thing, right? When you've got good news in you, you cannot help but tell other people. Like I actually wanted to do an illustration. I want to bring like a can of Coke and kind of shake and just open it. When you open it, what happens? You know, the can just fizz it out because it just wants to come out.

Cuz when you've got good news, you just got to tell other people. There's this The prophet Jeremiah. So a prophet is just a person who gets a message from God. So in Jeremiah 20, verse 9, he says "But if I say I will not mention God's or speak anymore in God's name, his word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones, and I'm weary of holding it in. Indeed, I cannot." You see, so this thing is like trying to tell an Arsenal fan not to tell you that they've won the Premiership. It's an exercise in futility.

It's not going to happen. Trying to say somebody who's been engaged that you cannot, you know, flaunt your ring and gloat and tell people. It cannot happen because it's like a volcano just ready to erupt. And here's the thing, it should be the same for Christians. Christians should just have this fire in their belly to talk about Jesus. And usually, when a person first becomes a Christian, they've got that fire, right?

They've got that fire. They just want to tell people, "I want to tell you what's happened to me." Until they meet other mature Christians that kind of tell them, "No, no, no, no, calm down. We don't do that. We don't go about telling people about Jesus because over time, what's happened, maybe because of social stigma, you know, you know, you tell your family or you tell your friends, and things become awkward. You know, like, you know, you become that uncle, you become that aunt that, you know, like, when you come to join the conversation, the conversation just stops. You know, because of there.

So, so you've experienced a lot of that stuff. So, you're just like, "You know what? I'm just not going to, you know, be talking about Jesus." Maybe it's even like a fear of persecution, especially there are countries thankfully not in Ireland, but there are countries where people still for talking about Jesus. So, you might just say to yourself, "I will just not talk about Jesus." Or and this is maybe a Western thing now, you just have a personal preference. You know, it's between me and God. It's a private thing between me and God.

Then you do your thing over there and we don't talk about God as well. It's a private matter. So, this is how you might think about it. So, you don't let that fire out of your belly. Without knowing, you actually become what I call like a closet Christian. So, a closet Christian is just a Christian who it's just between them and God and anyone else around them actually don't know that they're Christians.

Like people in their workplaces, they were ever to find out, maybe they see like a clip of you on Facebook or something like that, they would be shocked because you never talk about your faith. But we're going to see from the book of Philippians that is not the way Christian Christians should live. Christians should be able to let that fire that is in their heart come out. The question we're going to be answering in our sermon today is how not to be a closet Christian. So, just a closet Christian is a person who's kind of like don't talk about it. And I understand the reasons why we don't we don't talk about it.

And so, how not to be a closet Christian. And this is now what the Apostle Paul says to the Philippians. Now I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that what has happened to me is actually served to advance the gospel. So, I've got a little bit of good news and bad news, right? You know, as a result, it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to anyone else that I am in chains for Christ. So, let me for all of you who like kind of like the context, let me give you a little bit of context here.

The Apostle Paul is in and this is around probably 60 to 62 AD and he's actually in prison because he's been speaking about Jesus. And he's put in prison because of that. So, I want to say to you if you start talking about Jesus, you might be seen as that weird person. You might be seen as that person who's intolerant. You might be seen as that person who's judgmental. Yes, your friends might actually draw away from you.

If you post something on social media, maybe you put a Bible verse or maybe you'd like a post from your church or from any other church, these things will happen. And we can see in the Apostle Paul doesn't sugarcoat it. Because he spoke about Jesus, these things happened. So, I'm just here to say to you, yes, social stigma might come. Persecution might come. But I also want to tell you the other side of the coin.

So, if we keep going to the next slide, that happens in verse 13. As a result, it's become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ. So, here's the thing. On the one hand, some unpleasant things have happened, but also some good things have happened. So, look at this. So, the soldiers, the people in the palace guard, the people that are looking after Paul, they have become aware of the fact that he's a Christian.

They have become aware of the message that he is proclaiming. And this is actually wild because in the in the in the next verse, like in Philippians 4:22, "All God's people" So, so this is when he finishes the letter, this is what he "All God's people here send you greetings, especially those who belong to Caesar's household." That's mad. Think about it. Paul is in prison under Rome, under the Roman Empire. The Caesar has put him has put him there. But yet, through that experience, people in Caesar's household have become Christians.

They have started to know about Jesus. So, I want to say to you, yes, when you speak about Jesus, you might get pushback. But I also want to say to you, you might bring some life change to people. I'll tell you a story that's kind of told in the Alpha course of life change. There was this brilliant doctor that's called Dr. Collins.

Dr. Collins, I think he was heading the human genome I don't know what you call it, but he's a brilliant he's a brilliant And he was treating this old elderly lady of a heart disease. And then after kind of weeks of treating her, she became better. And so, he brings the good news to her. And he says to her, "I've got good news. You know, your results are looking well.

And at that moment, she just rejoiced and started to thank God. And then she looked at the doctor and she said, "I believe in Jesus. What do you believe?" Just that one statement. That's just one simple statement. "I believe in Jesus. What do you believe?" And this guy who was like a staunch atheist at the time, he had never actually looked into Jesus.

He had just dismissed it. But because of this lady's faith, because she dared to he started to look into it. And because of that lady, he eventually became a Christian. Like it took him like a only two-year journey to just started looking at Jesus and started looking at the resurrection and looked at the at the facts about the resurrection and he became a Christian. But because the lady spoke. So this is the thing for us.

We cannot be closet Christians. We've got to speak. And if we go to the next slide as well, so when I'm like saying we should speak about Jesus, I don't mean that we all need to be Billy Graham, right? I don't mean that we all need to be talented evangelists. That we need to go out there and just be on the street corner. If that's what God's calling you to do, then that's God calling you to do.

But that's not for everyone. But what I am saying is there is a collective effort to bring the message of Jesus to people. And you play a part. So here's the thing. There are spaces that me as a preacher, there's spaces that Billy Graham or whatever famous evangelist you can think cannot get into, but you can. You know, there are people in your life that you can easily speak to.

Be it in your family, be it in your workplace, you can easily speak to them. But if I, as a preacher, were to see them on the street and try and speak to them, they will not hear me. They will not hear me. But you have the platform where they can listen to you. And in those conversations, you can bring Jesus to them. And of course, as Colossians tell us tells us, "Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders, making the most of every opportunity.

Let your conversation always be full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you know how to answer So the thing is, right? It's not like you've got to use wisdom, right? You do You don't want to be that person who's always speaking about Jesus and not speaking about anything else, right? Like I mean, that's that's that's just not a wise thing to do. Like if you've got somebody who's always speaking about Arsenal, that becomes boring, doesn't it, right? It's like, you know, you've got to season it with salt and do some other stuff.

So you don't want to be that person where people's like, "Oh, they never want to hear what's going on in my life. They never want to hear what's going on with my kids. They never want to hear It's always things about Jesus." That's not a wise thing to actually speak to people in a with some way. But I bet Paul is probably there in prison he's probably just minding his business, talking to the guards, "What's going on? What's going on?" And maybe at some point he just comes up, "Huh, so what are you in for?" "Oh, I'm in here because I'm preaching the gospel of Jesus." "Oh, who's Jesus?" "Oh, let me tell you." You do you know that it has to be a natural thing. So for instance, I have a cheat code, right?

I have a cheat code for me. Like normally I'll say to a person, or actually they might ask me something. So I'll just say, "Oh, what's your 9-5?" And they're like, "Oh, I'm an engineer." And then they'll go on talking about, you know, engineering is And I'll ask questions about the engineering. I'm good. But people feel that they need to reciprocate. Then they go, "Oh, so what's your 9-5?" I'm like, "Ah, I don't have a 9-5.

I only work on Sundays at 11:00 for like just 30 minutes." "Oh, what's that?" "Oh, I'm a pastor." And then we talk about it. You know, like it just comes up in a natural way. And if a person wants to continue that conversation, we continue with it. If they don't, we don't. You know, like it just has to be so like a natural thing. And here's the thing.

It is very important that we open our mouths and speak, right? There's this famous kind of Christian saying that's it's been around for centuries. I don't know who actually said it, but it says, "Preach the gospel at all times. If necessary, use words." So, it's this idea of you can preach the gospel. You can tell people about Jesus without actually using words. And the Apostle Paul would disagree with that idea.

Yes, words are important, character is important, love is important, but words are necessary. Like in verse 15, just to show you how important words The Apostle Paul says this, "To be sure, some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of goodwill. These preach Christ out of love, knowing that I am put knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel. The others proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, thinking that they will cause me trouble in my imprisonment. What does it matter? Only that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached, and in this I rejoice.

Yes, I will continue to rejoice. Think about it. There are some people that are going Right? They're going after his But Paul goes, "You know what? It doesn't matter because they're actually preaching Jesus. They're actually opening their mouths and speaking about Jesus.

Yes, it'll be good if they're doing it not out of selfish ambition, rivalry, and envy, that they're actually doing it for love of Christ. It would be good. But do you know what? They are preaching And Paul rejoices because it is important to open your words. So, me and my family, like me and the boys, we're like into Michael Jackson. It's just not us, like a lot of a lot of people are into Michael Jackson.

Like the movie called Michael, it's I think it's now the second highest-grossing movie of the year. And critics had actually written it off before the movie came out. You know, people are like, "Ah, this is a bad movie." But the box office says otherwise. People are like having concerts in cinema. People are seeing this movie over and over and over again. But then I'm like, "How did that happen?" It happened because somebody went to watch the movie, liked it, told somebody.

And then that person then told somebody, and it becomes kind of this viral movement. It's just a whole collection of people telling others, and the message spread. It wasn't one influencer, it wasn't one marketing company, it was just everybody as a opening their mouths and speaking. And this is the same when it comes to the message of Jesus. We all have to do our part and open our mouths and speak in a natural way. And here's the secret of how to do it.

So, the secret of not being a closet Christian so, on the next slide So, the secret of not being a closet is actually found in verse 14. So, if I'm going to read verse 14 very And because of my chains most of the brothers and sisters have become confident in the Lord and dare all the more to proclaim the without fear. So, the secret is to dare to speak about Jesus. So, daring is this idea of taking the courage to try. All right, so, like on the next slide So, it's And then the next slide after that. I don't know if I put that one.

But anyway, today is to try. Is to just have the courage to try. You open your mouth. You speak about Jesus. In a natural way you don't have control over the outcome. But you just speak.

You speak. And here's the thing. There are many gospels out there. Right? Cuz this idea of gospel right? Gospel just means good news.

There are many gospels. So, So, at the time of the Philippians, the gospel that was there was the gospel of Caesar. Right? So, the gospel of Caesar is just means How can I explain this? This is Just think of like a politician. I don't want to pick on any politician.

But if a politician comes through and he says, "Yes, we can." You know, that they that's the gospel they preach they're preaching the yes, we can gospel and how they're going to do. Or if a politician comes and says, "We're going to make America great again." That's their gospel. So, they're preaching the gospel. So, at that time there was a gospel. There was a gospel of Caesar. So, Caesar would have a gospel that he would preach to the people.

So, you can pick about this like in the Philippines chapter 3 verse 21. So, our citizenship is in heaven and we eagerly await a savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ. So, this is actually the deliberately because Caesar would have claimed he was Lord and savior. And Paul is saying, "No, no, no, no, no, no. Caesar is not Lord and savior. It is Jesus who is Lord and savior." So, in our times there are many gospels.

There are many gospels that are out there. It's like "Follow your heart." I was going to name some, but I won't name some. But they like in movies, there's a gospel of just follow your heart, follow your passion, do whatever that feels That's that's a form of gospel. Right? And people will speak about that. You know, just follow your heart.

It doesn't matter who it hurts. Just follow your heart and do whatever feels right to you. That's a form of gospel. Or just the hardest you can and make as much money as you can. That's a form of gospel. So, there are many gospels.

Right? These good news that people in the market and they speak about them. And we're just going We know those gospels do not work. So, we dare to speak about the gospel of Jesus because we know Jesus is Lord and Savior and if we move on to the next slide a couple of slides over Yeah, so I want to finish on this. I want to finish on the next slide actually it was from a president from the United States is called Theodore Roosevelt. He was the president of the United States or Teddy Roosevelt.

So I'm just going to read an excerpt from the speech he gives is called men a man in the arena. And this is what he says. It is not the critic who counts not the person who points out how the strong person stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done them The credit belongs to the person who is actually in the arena whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood. Who strives valiantly who errs who comes short again and again because there is no effort without error and shortcoming. Who spends themselves in a worthy cause. If they fail at least they fail while daring greatly.

So this idea that in our lives we should dare greatly. We should try and especially when it comes to the We should dare to speak about the gospel of Jesus especially to our friends and family the people whom we love.