Today on the Evangelists Podcast, we're learning that evangelism is not in your hands.
SPEAKER_00The Evangelists Podcast from Revival. Find out what's new in telling people the good news about God, the world, and you. With Andy Brinkley and Glenn Scrivener.
SPEAKER_03Welcome back to the Evangelist Podcast. This is the show where we encourage you in your witness to your friends, your family, and even complete strangers. I'm Andy Brinkley, and with me is Glenn Scrivener. Hello. So uh evangelism not in our hands then.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it's it's uh a truth that I kind of ripped off from Martin Luther. Uh so if you're gonna rip things off from anybody, rip off from Martin Luther, he'll probably forgive you. Um he gave one of the greatest lines about the Christian life I've ever read. It says uh he said that uh a Christian lives far above themselves by faith in Christ, and they live far beneath themselves in their neighbor through love. Right. So you've got these different pairs. You live above yourself, or you live beneath yourself, you live by faith and you live by love, you live in Christ, and you live in your neighbor. And and as you live above yourself by faith in Christ, and as you live beneath yourself in your neighbour through love, you're kind of extending yourself, um, unraveling those sort of folded arms and kind of living the outgoing life that you're meant to live. Uh and that was his definition of what the Christian is.
SPEAKER_03Okay. So sort of living with Christ, as in like your your um you're risen with Christ, and you're kind of you're you're living a life that's that's better than you would otherwise.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah. I'm not sort of living in Eastbourne so much as I'm living in heaven. I'm at the Father's right hands. Right. Okay. You know.
SPEAKER_03And then you're living beneath as in, you know, you you're trying to live lower than your neighbour?
SPEAKER_02Lower than myself by living for my neighbour and in my life. Like putting my happiness into your happiness so that I have no happiness now except for your happiness. Okay. And kind of as I extend myself out to the world like that, um, what I'm not doing is living for me.
SPEAKER_03Okay.
SPEAKER_02And in me, and I'm not living out of my own resources. I'm receiving from Christ far above me, and I'm pouring myself out far beneath me. Okay. Um and that's kind of the Christian life. Now, applying that to evangelism, you say, actually, evangelism happens way above my head in Christ. He's the great evangelist. He he makes the evangelistic encounters happen. And he's the one who's really reaching out, and I just join him.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_02And then it also happens beneath my feet in those cringe-worthy, embarrassing, kind of shame-inducing moments where you just speak of Jesus and it seems a bit naff. Or a bit if you if you're not English, if you're American, you you look a bit dorky. Or if you're Australian, you look daggy. Um in all the yeah, in all those ways, you sort of beneath your feet as you serve, um, you're doing evangelism. But again, evangelism doesn't happen on the human plane as a tip or a technique that you can learn. So that's that's kind of the big point about today. Evangelism is not in your hands. It's above your head and it's beneath your feet.
SPEAKER_03Okay, great. Now, if you like listening to the Evangelist Podcast each week, we'd really appreciate a rating and review on iTunes. It helps us to get seen by more people. Just go to revivalmedia.org/slash iTunes. That should take you directly to the page where you can leave us uh a rating and review. Also, I'd encourage you to send off for our free daily prayer bulletin. It's a small 24-page booklet that tells 31 stories of what God is doing around the world, and it's available bi-monthly. You can sign up via email or you can receive it by post. So, Glenn, uh, what have you been uh doing recently? You've uh been travelling around?
SPEAKER_02Been traveling a l travelling a little bit. On Friday, I sent off the book manuscript for uh 321. So the the deadline was Friday, and I I kind of I went a little bit past midnight and handed it in about uh about 1am Saturday morning. Um so that's that's off and and um the editor right now will be sort of drawing red lines through it all must try harder. Um so yeah, hopefully that's on course for coming out later in the autumn. And uh but this weekend I was up in Stevenage and up in Sheffield as well. Um at the same time. Yes, a bit of scheduling um failure. But I managed managed to do it. So I managed it, so I was up uh Friday night, Saturday night, Sunday night speaking in Stevenage, and then Saturday during the day caught the train up to Sheffield in between and did some evangelism training for the Porterbrook network, associated with uh the crowded house and the guys up there in Sheffield. So did some evangelism training with them on Saturday. Uh, but then for the weekend, there were six churches in in Stevenage that were clubbing together doing some uh Passion for Life mission. Yep. So um that was that was interesting. I said the the Friday night was a it was a comedy night. So there were we we thought that the best way to sort of uh schedule a night of you know Friday night hilarity was to have uh comedian comedian vicar. And uh and I was the vicar, um speaking at the end of the night. Destroying the whole vibe. Uh not just by explaining the jokes, but by explaining the concept of jokes, which is uh almost anti-comedy. Um yeah, just to sort of asking, you know, is your life a comedy or a tragedy? And uh that sort of struck home with quite a few people. Uh is your life a comedy or a tragedy? And then uh Saturday night there was a band night and spoke on that, and then Sunday night the All Souls Orchestra.
SPEAKER_03Okay.
SPEAKER_02Playing lots of classical music, and uh and uh I spoiled the mood in the middle of that one. So that's if you if you want me to spoil the mood of your evening, please do get in touch. Like tonight I'm off to Hailsham for a uh a World War One commemoration uh service, and somebody's gonna talk about the the causes of World War One, somebody's gonna talk about the course of World War One, sort of the historical side of things, and then I'm gonna speak up and and talk about uh how actually the causes of war are not just in the history books, are they? They're in you. So once again, I'm gonna spoil people's evening. Um bringing things to the us clearly in us. Well, it's mainly different though, isn't it? I'm a peacenick. No, uh, so yeah, no, in us. You're right. So yeah, the causes of war are not just in history, they're in the heart. And uh gonna have a look at uh James chapter four. What causes fights and quarrels among you? Right. Is it not your desires that war within you? Thinking about that and thinking about how Jesus uh uh has the answer. Pretty deep stuff then. Pretty deep stuff that's me. That's me making things deep and serious and weird and yeah.
SPEAKER_03Good. Okay, well, what are we gonna do now then?
SPEAKER_02What we're gonna do is we're gonna listen to uh a sermon that I gave on the topic of uh evangelism is not in your hands. So as I say, evangelism happens far above your head, far beneath your feet. And uh this is a talk that I gave a few weeks back uh at a church in Lewis, uh, King's Church, Lewis. And um yeah, my passage was uh Philippians chapter 2, uh one of my favourite passages in the Bible, and then uh yeah, we'll we'll listen to that sermon and and hopefully uh learn something.
SPEAKER_03Okay, well we're we'll listen to that. Uh I just want to point out the web address for this episode. Yeah, should you want to share it or to follow those links that I mentioned earlier, just go to revivalmedia.org slash tep61 and uh all all the details will be on the page there. Uh so here's here's you, Glenn. Here's you.
SPEAKER_04Here's Glenny.
SPEAKER_02Evangelism is not in our hands.
SPEAKER_03Evangelism is not in our hands.
SPEAKER_01We're very pleased to have Glenn come to preach for us. Want to invite Glenn to come over and I'm gonna ask him. Yeah, yeah. Give him a round of applause, everyone. A proper King's Church, welcome. You might have heard Glenn speak, but I've heard him speak. He's got a bit of a funny accent. Glenn, you're not from around these parts.
SPEAKER_02How dare you? Um No, I'm not. I'm from I'm from Australia, but I I've lived half my life over here. So I I sound like a a pom to the Aussies and I sound like a convict to the English.
SPEAKER_01So it's the it's the worst of all worlds, really. Yeah. And I understand you're based in Eastbourne. What did you get up to in Eastbourne?
SPEAKER_02So I am officially an evangelist, um, which Yeah, okay. Most people are generally very scared of evangelists, whether Christians or non-Christians, um, usually you find women clutching their purses to them a little bit tighter and uh men kind of puffing out their chests a bit more. Um I am an evangelist, which basically it just means if you translate the word evangelist out of Greek, it just means I'm a teller of good news. Okay, that's a good job, isn't it? Yeah, suddenly that's a good thing to be, isn't it? So I'm a teller of good news, I'm based in Eastbourne. Uh I go to All Souls, Eastbourne, a church in the center of town, um, but I speak all over the place and I get to shoot my mouth off about Jesus, and it's great.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Well, it's brilliant you could come this morning, Glenn, and um we'll hand over to you. Pleasure, thank you so much. Brilliant.
SPEAKER_02Let me start with a uh a bit of a thought prompter. Um as I said that I was an evangelist, don't worry about this. This will all become uh this will all become obvious later. Um I don't have that much of a thirst. Um let me start with a thought prompter. Um What are the sorts of phrases and words and images that spring to mind when you think of an evangelist? Shout out, shout out. Some of the some of the word associations, some of the the pictures you get in your mind when you think of an evangelist. What do you what do you think about? Missions, God TV, yes, a televangelist. Okay, yeah. What else? What's that? Pussy, yes. Everyone else was thinking it. You said it. Yeah, totally. I don't mind, by the way. You can you can you can be rude. I don't I didn't consider that rude, but no, what's that? Enthusiastic, yes. The sort of person who could sell sand to the Arabs and ice to the Eskimos and Yes, yeah. Anything else? Scary? Pushy, yes, yeah. If you're thinking about a particular person, what gender are you thinking of?
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_02Anyone thinking of a female? Good. Good. I'm glad. Yes. But overwhelmingly, we think of uh a man perhaps on God TV, quite pushy, scary, gift of the gab, enthusiastic, uh, could sell insurance door to door, because they've got the gift of the gab, but they happen to be selling Jesus instead, that kinda that kind of image. We get these pictures about what an evangelist looks like, we get these pictures about what evangelism looks like. Let me ask a question, and you can do this in pairs. Um let me ask you a question, and for the next 90 seconds, what I want you to do is tell the person next to you, uh, one person who is important in your journey to faith. Could be anyone, could be a parent, could be a Sunday school teacher, could be a friend at work, whoever it was. Could be a preacher, could be an evangelist, who knows? But someone who was important in your journey to faith, and I want you to come up with a few adjectives to describe their personality. Yeah? Ninety seconds in pairs? And if you're if you're not yet a Christian, perhaps uh talk about a Christian who you admire and some of the uh some of the things that you admire about that person. Yeah? Ninety seconds in pairs? Let's do that. Okay, have we uh have we generated some other kinds of uh adjectives, some other kinds of personalities that have helped you in becoming a Christian? Would somebody like to shout out some of the some of the characteristics uh that have helped you come to Christ? Caring. Caring, patient, yeah, gentle, yeah. Consistent. Consistent. Okay, so there's a real integrity to them. Consistent, yeah. Inspiring, godly. And what do you mean by godly? Spiritual godly. They seem to know God. You can tell that about them. Yeah. Unashamed. Yeah, I like that. Challenging and unashamed. Yeah, they know where they stand and they don't mind saying it to you and being clear. Courageous and able to explain. Yeah, can make things simple and enthusiastic, so we've got some enthusiasm too. That's good. Sympathetic. Sympathetic. Yeah. Okay. These just sound like nice people, right? You know. But that sounds like a different list to the first list, doesn't it? And I guess what I want to encourage us with this morning is when we think of evangelism, we think about a a a breed of superhuman, super-Christian who we are not sure whether we'd like. But when we think of the people who actually have been significant in leading us to faith, yes, they've been clear and challenging and enthusiastic, but they've been godly and they've been patient and they've been consistent, they've been gentle, they've been very human, haven't they? Um that means they're great evangelists, right, aren't they? All these people who we've been thinking about, they've been terrific evangelists. If they've helped you come to Christ, they are a stunning evangelist, aren't they? But it's not necessarily the first list, is it? What I want to encourage us with this morning is the fact that true evangelism happens entirely above our heads and entirely beneath our feet. Okay, that's the big idea. Evangelism happens entirely above our heads. It's God's thing. And it happens entirely beneath our feet, it's a servant-hearted thing. Where evangelism doesn't really exist is on this level. We always want it to exist on this level, the level in which I'm in control, it's all in my hands, and I need to be a polished communicator. And I need to have the gift of the gab, and I need to learn a certain skill set in order to take me to the next level of being an evangelistic genius. Yeah. We think of evangelism as being this sort of skill set that you learn on this level, and I want to kind of blow that out of the water, really. I'm gonna use Philippians 2 to do it. So if you've got a Bible, why don't you turn to Philippians 2? And if you don't have Bibles, I think there's there's Bibles at the back, you can raise a hand and I'm sure we can get you a Bible. Because we're gonna work through a passage from Philippians chapter 2 in the New Testament. And really the the whole big thing is the Apostle Paul writing to these guys, he's gonna tell them that that the Christian life exists far above our heads in Jesus and it exists far beneath our feet in service. And it's not really about this thing that happens in the middle. Let me read it to you. Philippians chapter 2 from verse 5. Paul starts off by quoting this incredible song that was circulating in the first century. Isn't that amazing? We're we're looking at a 2,000-year-old song, a hymn, that people were using in church. And it's a stunner. It's amazing. Look at this. From verse 5. Paul says, Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus, who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross. Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confessed that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. That's the song. And it's a song that begins in eternity past and ends in eternity future, and it talks about the God who has poured out his love. We've just been singing about that, the God who's poured out his love in the middle, and the God who we will meet at the end is this cosmic portrait of Jesus. And then Paul sort of continues and he says, Well, now what about us? We've thought about life that's sort of completely above our heads. We've thought about these truths that are completely above our heads. Now what about the Christian life? What's the Christian life like? It's about receiving that life and then living beneath our feet. Verse 12. Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence, continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose. Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe, as you hold out the word of life, in order that I may boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor for nothing. But even if I am being poured out like a drink offering, on the sacrifice and service coming from your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you. So you too should be glad and rejoice with me. Christian life happens above our heads and beneath our feet. A way that really brought this home to me was uh I was off to do a mission at a university in Edinburgh uh a couple of months ago, and there were two incidents, in fact, three incidents on that mission that really convinced me uh that evangelism happens above our heads and beneath our feet. Uh the first the first incident was uh in the cab on the way to the train station. I got in the cab and I started talking to the the cabbie and it was a Sunday, so I said, uh, how was um how was Saturday night? You know, because I they can be a little bit hairy as a as a cab driver. And he said, Well, yeah, it was, but it but it wasn't hairy for the usual reasons. Um actually a a friend of mine uh drunk himself into a into a near coma uh and I had to drive him to the to the hospital. I said, Oh, is he okay now? And the cab driver said, Well, kind of. Um the trouble is the reason the reason why he's hit the bottle so much is that he's got stage four lymphoma. He hasn't got long left. And and actually, funnily enough, said the cab driver, he said, he used to be really religious. He used to be really into the church thing. And then the cancer hit and he gave it all up, and he's hit the bottle. And this this guy, this cab driver, is not a Christian, said he was far better off. Far better off when he had a faith. He didn't know I was a Christian at that stage. And and I said, Well, interestingly, I'm I'm off to Edinburgh to start talking to people about God and to talk to them about this whole the whole suffering question. I said, one of the things I'm gonna say is when you've got God and suffering, if you get rid of God, you've still got suffering, but now you're on your own, aren't you? And and how are you gonna walk through it? And and the cab driver said, you know, that makes a lot of sense because my my friend, he was so much happier when he was going strong in his faith. He said, I'm actually gonna drive him to a priest next week to sort him out. And don't know how that's gonna go, but uh it's a nice idea. I said, what about you? What's your what's your faith? Do you do you have any beliefs? He said, Oh no, no, it's hell for me. It's hell for me. I said, it's not compulsory, you know that, don't you? Like he said, no, I'm a I'm a sinner. I've done too many sins. I could I could never go to heaven. I said, well, I've thank God you're a sinner. You know that only sinners go to heaven, right? He said, What do you mean? I said, Well, my favorite story is Jesus is eating with a whole bunch of sinners, and everyone gets offended, and they say, Why are you eating with sinners? And Jesus says, it's not the healthy who need a doctor, it's the sick. I haven't come to call the righteous, I've come to call sinners, right? And I said, think about it, when you go to the GP's office, you don't sit down in the surgery and and say, I'm a picture of perfect health. I thought you'd be impressed, you know. They don't tend to be impressed at that. You're wasting their time. Doctors are for sick people, Jesus is for sinners. He said, I've never really thought about it like that. And he said, a few months ago, there are some Christians in my cab, and they saw on the badge that my name is Luke, and they said to me, There's a book of the Bible called Luke. He said, Is that right? Is there a book of the Bible called Luke? I said, Yeah. Little did he know, I was rooting around the entire time in my bag trying to find this gospel that just hours earlier I'd been packing my suitcase and I took Luke's gospel off the shelf and I prayed, Father, if there's someone who needs this, can we cross paths and can I give this Luke's gospel to somebody? I chucked it in my suitcase, didn't think much of it. In the cab? He says, Is there such a book as Luke? And at that moment my fingers wrap around Luke's gospel. I chuck it onto the dashboard and I say, You mean that Luke's gospel? He says, Is that the Luke book? I said, It's totally the Luke book. He said, They said these Christians, they said three months ago they were going to send me the Luke book in the post. I've been waiting to read it. And it hasn't come. I said, Well, God moves in mysterious ways. Here it is. And uh and I told him, listen, like a couple of hours ago, I was praying, as I put Luke's gospel into my into my bag, I was praying that I'd meet somebody who would need this. He said, I'd better read this then, hadn't I? I said, I think you better had, but it's a dangerous book. When I read this book, I became a Christian. It's very dangerous. He said, Well, if I become a Christian, I'm blaming you. By this stage, we got to the train station, and I and I said to him, Listen, if if you become a Christian, I think this conversation has shown us this is out of both of our hands, isn't it? This is totally out of both of our hands. I didn't arrange for those Christians to be there three months ago. I didn't arrange for them to forget to send him a Luke's gospel. Just prayed, put the Luke's Gospel in the bag. His name was Luke. He said, Have you heard there's a Luke book? There's a Luke, but you know, it's something that's just arranged entirely above your head, and you just get to take part, and it's just fun, isn't it? It's just bring it. Got to Edinburgh, and the next night there was a uh uh an event that the students put on in a in a bar, and various of the students got up and gave their testimonies. And I was sitting at the sort of standing at the back of the bar, and um, and there was a guy who was just giving a really compelling testimony, and he was talking all about um how Christ had brought him from one stage of life to another stage of life, and he had people eating out of the palm of of his hand, and it was it was brilliant. And I I didn't know what to say to this barman, so I just I just thought I'd go with with you know what I learnt at Bible college, which you know just stunning, stunning skills, as you'll see. As he finished his testimony, I turned to the barman and I said, What did you make of that? Um three years in Bible college. Excellent. And uh and he said, uh, what did I make of what? I said, there was a guy up the front, he was giving his testimony. He said, What's a testimony? Ah, um, yeah, uh so all my training is gone now. I like every everything has been exhausted. And then suddenly I I was just I was just a gibbering fool at this stage. I I was sort of praying, oh Lord, give me words, I'm just an idiot. And I I just said, you know, he was talking about um Jesus and church and Christianity and the whole have you ever did you would you the whole Jesus um the Jesus thing with um Christianity? Literally, I just like the final word in that whole gobbledygook was just Christianity. And he was just very gracious and he he just said, um I did religious studies at school. And then and and then I returned back to my training and I said, uh, what did you make of that? And he he said he was carrying the conversation at this point. He was he was just saying, look, uh I could never put suffering and God together. Do you have any thoughts yourself? And so off we go, and we we have this conversation, and by the end of the conversation, it turns out his name was Mark. Um I didn't have Mark's gospel, but Luke Luke's gospel did for him. And uh and gave that to him. And I was telling the students the next day, um, yeah, please pray for Mark. We we really did have a really good conversation. He's interested in doing a course as a follow-up. And people were like amazed, like, what were the steps that you took to take the conversation from one thing to another thing? Because isn't that the mythology about uh evangelism? That a great evangelist in the in the pub discussion, whatever you're talking about, they can change gears into a spiritual conversation. You know, you're talking uh about the offside rule and they can turn it into a discussion of Jesus Christ, your last offender, you know, that kind of And this is what the like all all the Christians there, they were thinking, oh, you must have some amazing technique. And I just told them I was a gibbering fool. And I just but I I guess what evangelism is at that point, it's not above your head, it's beneath your feet. It's just this thing where you just determine to be vulnerable and open and appear dumb, and God picks it up and does something with it. We always want to think of evangelism as as existing on this plane, but it's not. It's above our heads and it's beneath our feet. The the students at at this university wanting to be trained in evangelism, they said, Can you please train us in evangelism? Uh I said, Well, what are the sorts of things you'd like to know? And uh they had two ideas, two ideas that I needed to train them in in evangelism. First idea is, how can I mention the name of Jesus without it sounding weird? How can I mention the name of Jesus without sounding weird? And then the other thing they wanted me to train them on uh was how can I tell people I'm praying for them and for that not to sound odd? Yeah? And I said, this is this is the shortest evangelism training in the world. You can't. Okay, that's it. You can't. You mentioned Jesus, that's the most radioactive name in the world. Like that's just a powerful name. I can't disarm that name. I don't want to disarm that name. That's gonna that's gonna feel like a sack of rocks just you know crashing into the conversation. I can't change that, I'm sorry. And if you're praying for friends and you tell them that you're praying for them, that's just odd. That's weird. And I can't de-weird that, that just is. But listen to me. If you're mentioning the name of Jesus in conversation, and if you're praying for friends and telling them that you're praying for them, you are the Billy Graham of personal evangelism. You don't need me at all. But this is the thing, we always want it to exist on this plane, we always want it to be this normal, hey, how you doing? I'm a cool guy and I'm a Christian. Yeah. You know, we always want it to exist on this level. And and Paul's gonna tell us from Philippians 2, no, it is entirely out of our hands. It's above us, and it's entirely out of our hands. It's just about serving and being vulnerable and weak and stupid and and and all those things. Let's have a look at the above our head thing. Isn't this incredible? I love, I love this song from verse 5. Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus, who being in very nature God, did not consider a quality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing. Here is the God who's poured out. Poured it out upon that cross, you see. He didn't just come from heaven to earth to be a man, he came to be a very nature of a servant, verse 7. And not just a servant being made in human likeness and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross. Do you see how outgoing our God is? It's incredible. Verse 6 does not say Jesus, despite being in very nature God, decided to take a holiday from being God. And he decided to do this weird different thing called service and outgoingness and sacrifice. And he did that for a little bit, and that was nice, and then he returned back to doing the God stuff. Sometimes we think about that. Sometimes we think verse 6 says, Jesus, despite being God, was a servant. Right? That's not what it says. Jesus, because he is God, he serves. Do you see that? Because he is God, he pours himself out. This is perhaps the deepest truth I know from Scripture. The deepest truth I know from Scripture is when Jesus came and stooped and served and suffered and bled and died on that cross, that was not a holiday from the divine nature. That was the expression of the divine nature. What is God like? What is God like? That's the key question. Any area of the Christian life. If we're getting anything wrong in the Christian life, it's because we don't understand who our God is. Who is our God? Our God is a Father pouring out his love and blessing on his son and expressing his very life in his son. He gives his son into the world, and his son comes into the world, and what does he do? Pours himself out even to death on the cross. What's our God like? He's an overwhelming fountain of life and joy and sacrifice. This is what our God is like. He is outgoing. That is so fundamental when we're thinking about mission and evangelism. Quite often we think, mission is all about God is on a throne with his arms folded, and he'd quite like a bit of praise, actually. He'd quite like a bit of glory, he'd quite like a bit of worship. So, oi, church, over there, you go out into the world, you do all the running, you do all the serving, you pour yourselves out. Why don't you do that? And you drag people kicking and screaming from the world up to the throne room, and then they can praise me. Yeah? Is is that is that how it goes? There's a there's a film, uh Anchor Man, um, which uh I I it's a really dumb film, but I love it. And uh the it's it's about the most vain, arrogant uh TV news anchor man that the world has ever seen called Ron Burgundy. And uh and the very first line of the film is Ron Burgundy looking into a mirror, and he likes what he sees. And he's and he says to himself, I look good. I mean really good. And then he yells out to the whole newsroom, hey everyone, come see how good I look. Yeah. Is that how we think God is? Do we think God is actually just quite self-obsessed? And mission is trying to get everyone else as obsessed with God as he is himself. Is that is that kind of what mission is? Philippians 2 just absolutely torpedoes that view, isn't it? Jesus being in very nature God, what does it look like to be in very nature God? It's to be poured out, it's to be other-centered, it's to be outgoing. You see, Jesus is the original, eternal missionary. The original, eternal, outgoing one. And if we ever manage to be missionaries ourselves, it's only because we've been swept up in the tide of his outgoingness, right? It's not, it's it's not that it's not that Jesus sits on the throne and says, Come on, come on, world, come and worship me. It's actually his outgoingness. And we we see that, do you see, uh in verse 8, being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself, became obedient to death, even death on a cross, verse 9, therefore God exalted him to the highest place. I love that, therefore. Therefore, see what the Father is doing, he's looking around all the world to try and see anything that looks like his kind of glory. Is there any is there anything in the world that looks like my kind of life? Is there anything at all? He looks at the cross and he says, Yeah, that.
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SPEAKER_02This is the expression of what it means to be God. We're uh in the middle of uh Bible by the beach, which is a uh a conference in uh Eastbourne at the moment, and lots of churches are coming in from uh uh around the southeast. We're thinking about uh Revelation chapter 5 tonight. It's actually free at the Congress, if you if you want to come along, free at the Congress Theater. We're thinking about uh Revelation 5. And it's got perhaps my favorite phrase from the Bible. It talks about the Lamb, that's Jesus, the sacrificial lamb, the Lamb is at the center of the throne. Now, what an image. Because all throughout Revelation, you think you know the throne represents God's control and authority, his presence. What is at the center of the throne? The bleeding sacrifice. Yeah? And it's this idea of you push through to the deepest depths of deity, and what do you find? You find Jesus Christ on a cross. Yeah? What is the height of godness? You see Jesus Christ on a cross. That's what what's our picture of God? You see, if our picture of God is just arms folded and he'd quite like other people to come and praise him, we're not going to be particularly missionary, are we? Because you always become what you worship, don't you? You know that, don't you? You always become like what you worship. Whatever you idolize, suddenly you become like that thing. And if you think God's got his arms folded, that's the kind of Christian you'll become. What if God's arms open? What if? Twice in the Bible, this line comes. Once in Isaiah, once in Romans chapter 10, the Lord says, All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and obstinate people. All day long I've held out my hands to a disobedient. I mean, how long can you hold out both hands to people who don't want to know? I've been doing it for about 20 seconds now. Feel pretty dumb. Okay? Or even just one hand. Have you ever offered a handshake to someone and they've blanked you? Even for 10 seconds of blanking, that's far too much. You know, if footballers, when they're meant to be shaking each other's hands, you know, before a game, if they don't shake another footballer's hands, if if they just you know have one hand hanging for two seconds, it's like backpage news, isn't it? What a snub, what a snub. And yet what does the Lord say? All day long I've held out my hands to a disobedient and obstinate people. No wonder the Lord Jesus chose to die like this, yeah? Because this is the expression of his divine nature. And he's always got his arms wide open. This is what he's like. He's always the outgoing God. So that if we ever become missionaries ourselves, if we ever become in any way a little bit like him, it's because he is already doing that missionary work. It's all above our heads, all above our heads. Keep a finger in Philippians 2. There's a couple of verses I love in in Hebrews 13. Hebrews chapter 13, right towards the end of the Bible. Um keep going right from Philippians. Hebrews 13. It's brilliant. In Hebrews, you keep asking the question, where is Jesus in Hebrews? And as you read through the book of Hebrews, the answer is Jesus is at the right hand of the Father. He's at the right hand of the Father. He is our ascended priest, he's at the right hand of the Father, he's at the right hand of the Father, all the way through Hebrews, where is Jesus? He's at the right hand of the Father, until you get to the final chapter, and there's this bit of a curvebore here. Look at this. Hebrews 13 for verse 12. And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood. Let us then go to him. Where is he? Outside the camp, bearing the disgrace that he bore. Do you see that? What it's saying is, when Jesus died on the cross outside the city wall, outside of Jerusalem, that was an expression of what he's always like. And when we ever manage to sort of come outside the camp, outside the safe place, outside the place where God is known, outside the clean place, when we go outside the camp into the dangerous place, the unsafe place, the unclean place, the place where God is not known, you know what we find? We find Jesus is already there. Because when he died on the cross, again, that was not a holiday from the divine nature. That was his expression of the divine nature. He is always the outgoing God. He is always the arms wide open, God. And perhaps you've felt it yourself. When you've just been a little bit vulnerable in mission, you've mentioned the name of Jesus, the radioactive name of Jesus, and people have looked at you like you're something on the bottom of their shoe, yeah? Or whatever. Or you've served, you're, you know, you've you've joined the alpha team and you have to give up a Wednesday night, and you just served a little bit. Don't you find that when you kind of step outside the camp and you serve a little bit, you know Jesus better in those moments? That you meet him there? You're like one of the big reasons why I'm a I'm an evangelist, it's totally selfish. Because as I do this, I experience Jesus in a different and fresh way. As you go outside the camp, as you go into the unsafe place, the unclean place, there you meet Jesus. He's there. He's already doing it. He's already working on a cab driver called Luke. He's already working on a barman called Mark. He's already working on your friends and family. He already is. And as you go out and make yourself vulnerable in mission and sound a bit stupid talking about Jesus and inviting people to church and all those sorts of things, you meet Jesus and you know Jesus even better because he is the original outgoing one. You know, that's why the Great Commission ends the way it ends. You know, the Great Commission? Matthew chapter 28, Jesus is just about to go back to heaven. He's he tells his church, go into all nations and baptize them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach them to obey everything I've commanded, and lots of luck. I'll see you at the end. I hope it's a really good, you know, few years. I'll see you at the second coming. No, is that how it goes? How does it finish? Oh, I am with you always, even to the ends of the age or the ends of the earth, however you uh translate that. I am with you always as you go out. We really need to understand this point first. Evangelism is completely out of our hands, above our heads. And God is the ultimate outgoing one. And he's got his arms outstretched to your friends, he's got his arms outstretched to your unsaved loved ones. He really does. That's the first point. It's entirely above our heads, but it's also beneath our feet. It's also beneath our feet. And in that second paragraph, I just want to highlight uh four phrases about how we've we've seen the outgoing God, and now we become an outgoing people, a servant-hearted people. And here are the four phrases. We shine out, we sorry, we work out, we shine out, we hold out, and we work out. And we sorry, and we pour out. It's all it's all in the passage. Glenn, have a look. There we go. Verse 12. Verse 12, we work out. Verse 15, we shine out. Verse 16, we hold out. Verse 17, we pour out. Let's just think about those as we finish. First of all, uh, we work out. Verse 12. Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence, continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose. Now, some rubbish gets spoken about these verses, as though Paul said, now you need to work for your salvation. It doesn't say that, though, does it, doesn't it? Doesn't say you have to work for your salvation. Absolutely not. If it said that, that would be a denial of everything else Paul has ever said. No, no. Because God has worked something into us, verse 13. Do you see? God's worked something into us, and we need to work it out. And most essentially, what God's worked into us is Jesus, okay? The Father has poured out Jesus on the cross, and he gives him now to you by the Spirit, so that the Father has given you a gift, the gift of his son. And now you've got Jesus. Well, that's good, isn't it? But if you've got Jesus, you've got the ultimate missionary in you. And he's gonna want out, okay? He's gonna want out. And and the way that's gonna play out in your life is gonna be in all sorts of areas. There might be all sorts of we've we've thought about unforgiveness this morning. There might be all sorts of areas in our lives that we're being challenged. That's as we're working out what it means to have Jesus in our lives. And if Jesus is the vulnerable one, maybe I need to be vulnerable and start forgiving. Yeah, maybe maybe it's that. Maybe it maybe the issues about freedom in Christ that I need to address. And I need to work it out and what it means to live with Jesus within me. I need to work these things out. So the number one sort of tip about how to be an evangelist. Here it is, the number one tip about how to be an evangelist, be a Christian, right? Just be a Christian. Yeah. With Jesus in you, work out what it means to have Jesus as Lord within you and work it out. But I I hope you see as you work it out, it's not like a private thing. Our faith is intensely personal, isn't it? It's intensely personal, but it's not private. It's not private. If you've got Jesus in you, he will out. Yeah. So there's this working out. And then the next thing is uh we need to shine out. Well, it doesn't say shine out in verse 15, but you can't really shine without shining out, can you? It's by the nature of the case. So let's uh look at ver verse 14 and 15. Do everything without complaining or arguing so that you may became may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe. It's the most glorious picture, isn't it? Shining like stars in the universe. It's extraordinary. How do you shine like a star in the universe? Well, verse 15. Verse 14, rather. Do everything without complaining or arguing. You see, those verses are linked. You know, a star shines because there's a black sky behind it. Okay, what is the black sky in the world? Well, according to these verses, verse 14 is the black sky, it's the complaining and arguing, right? And what Paul is saying, it's so ordinary. It's so ordinary. If you can manage to learn Christian contentment and stand against the arguing and complaining in the office, in the family, wherever else you are, if you if you can manage somehow to stand against the complaining and arguing, man, you'll stick. out like a sore thumb, won't you? But Paul says it's better than sticking out like a sore thumb. You'll shine like a star in the universe. It's extraordinary and it's very ordinary, isn't it? It's so ordinary to learn Christian contentment. Of course, Paul writing this letter, he knows all about the secret of contentment in any and every circumstance. If you want to find out the secret of contentment in any and every circumstance, go home and read Philippians. He'll tell you all about joy. Even in the midst of a Roman prison, he's in a Roman prison, he's chained to a guard. Any minute somebody could burst through the doors and drag him off to be burned alive. And he's talking, don't grumble, don't complain, don't argue. Learn the secret of contentment. Yeah? So don't take it from me, because I I have the easiest life in the world compared to the Apostle Paul. But take it from Paul. If if we learn how to how to be content in any and every circumstance and if we somehow manage to stand against the arguing and complaining in the office. As the boss, you know, leaves the room and everyone else says and you're the one voice that says yeah but I know that things at home are hard. And you just stand against the complaining and the arguing. Okay? It's it's vulnerable. It's odd. It's odd in our culture, isn't it? Not to complain that's that's like what else do we talk about, right? You know? If we can't complain and argue, what else do we talk about? But there's something extraordinary. Something extraordinary when we learn Christian contentment. I hope you see how ordinary this is yeah be a Christian. Don't grumble. Okay. Next one. Verse 16, as you hold out the word of life. See, uh you can't mime the gospel, can you? At some stage you need to name the name of Jesus. And that radioactive word needs to kind of do its work and you need to talk about Jesus and and and sometimes it will feel like a sack of rocks just landing in the middle of the conversation. And I think what the Apostle Paul is doing here is he's saying don't think of rocks landing on the in the conversation. Think of seed. Think of seed. That was Jesus' illustration isn't it Mark 4 that the sower sows the seed onto the different soil types. And you and you look at a seed and a seed looks weak and pathetic and useless and what good can that seed ever do? And you sow that seed and you go away and if you come back the next day there's nothing you come back the next day there's nothing you come back the next day there's nothing and yet over time that seed has life there is life to the word as you talk about Jesus. There's a couple of guys on our street called John and Meredith and uh Meredith's a boy's name it's a good Welsh boy's name and uh he uh they they come and knock on my door they're teenagers they come and knock on my door and uh and they say uh are you allowed to come out and play football and I say uh yes I think I am I uh I've I've checked with me and I'm allowed so I'm gonna come out and play football with you and uh I I just remember we were we were passing the ball around and and uh I invited John to something I think it was a youth event and John said oh if I ever went into church the b the the roof would fall in. Have you ever had people say that to you? The roof would fall in. I hope you've got very good architecture here and um and actually you know because I'm a one-trick pony I just I just said well there was this story that Jesus told in Mark chapter 2 about you know just find your favorite verse and just keep you know boring people with it. And I just said Jesus says he's like a doctor for the sick and so so then I said so therefore church is like a hospital for sick sinners and and and he just looked at me like I was the biggest idiot in the world and he said just pass the ball Glenn and I thought alright okay so it just feels like the rock that just lands in the center of the of the conversation next Sunday I head off to church and he shouts from across the road so you're off to hospital then I said no I'm going to church oh you remember I'd forgotten he remembered and we got talking and he was he was interested we we started meeting up and uh and looking at Luke's gospel together and we started we started chatting about the gospel. He's not a Christian yet but these these these examples of you just you you put the word out there and you think it's dumb and you think it's not going to do anything. It's seed. It's seed of course it looks weak of course it looks pathetic and and useless and and vulnerable and like it's not going to do anything. It's got life to it it's got life to it. And then finally by the way by the way who are your Johns and Merediths I I pray for John and Meredith every day. Who are your Johns and Merediths do you have do you have a couple of people who you just think who can I be praying for so that I can then serve beneath my feet and offer those words of life who are they for you have a think. If you don't have a John and Meredith get a John and Meredith. Final uh final verse and this is this is where the uh the the water comes in Paul says he is poured out verse 17 like a drink offering uh now the drink offering in the Old Testament was the final uh the final offering of the day you you you deal with the guilt offering and the sin offering and all those other things at the beginning of the day and then at the end of the day it was almost like having a drink with God. It was almost like at the end of the day you'd have a cup of wine and you'd just pour it out. And it's like guilt has been dealt with sin has been dealt with let's have a drink. You know it's it's it's that kind of thing. And Paul is saying to each one of us listen there's been a sacrifice the Lord Jesus has died upon that cross and God's inviting all of us to have a drink with him. I don't know if you're a Christian here this morning do you do you know who this God is this God that I'm talking about is not the the egotist in the sky with his arms folded he's the God with his arms outstretched to you saying do you want to come home? You could just say yes to him in your heart now you could say yes I want I want this Jesus and a Christian is not someone who sacrifices for Jesus. No no no a Christian is someone who has received the the outpoured sacrifice of Jesus and now we are just poured out for the world. Do you see the direction? From the Father to us in Christ through Christ by the Spirit out into the world and out we go. And so Paul just says that's that's my whole life my life is just like the drink offering poured out and it's the it's the exact opposite of how we live how we usually live is we just try to fill up don't we fill up on a little bit of experience we want to get uh the great holiday we want to want to get the great home the great boyfriend the great girlfriend the marriage the family that we want the career path that we want the the achievements the the gadgets that we want yeah and we we just want to fill up on experiences we want to fill up on achievements until we're brimmed full and that's the good life right filling up isn't it is that the good life well how how free am I right now? How free am I to move among you? How free am I to sort of get my hands dirty and serve and and and to be all that God's called me to be if I'm always trying to fill up how how how free am I? I'm not at all and Paul says I've learned the secret of contentment secret of freedom and I just pour it out that's that's the Christian life we just receive from the Father and pour ourselves out and it's ordinary it's so ordinary okay it's just about working out what it means to have Christ in me being a Christian yeah it's a it's about shining out in the world just by learning a bit of Christian contentment and stop being such a grumbler it's about offering the words of life holding out the word of life to people every now and again and it's about a life just poured out that's the free life that's the good life it's not about learning a patter. It's not about being a very skilled kind of evangelist that's really not like that at all. Evangelism happens entirely above our heads and entirely beneath our feet which means we can just trust our outgoing God who loves to use even us. Our dear Father we thank you for what you're like this outgoing God so generously you've given us your son Jesus so incredibly has he poured himself out with every drop of his blood and you have filled us with your spirit oh we are full in Christ we are therefore we can pour ourselves out Father and help us to do that for the for the life of the world the life of the world that you love Lord lay on our hearts those who do not yet know you those to whom we can serve and speak and Father we pray for the joy of seeing people come to Christ we love to see that that liberation that freedom and Father if there are those who have not yet come to Christ and said yes to him I pray that there will be those even right now calling out in their hearts calling on the name of the Lord Jesus to have him and to have true life not the life of filling up but the life of being filled by you and pouring ourselves out. We ask in Jesus' name Amen