4 Ways to Share Your Faith Like You Mean It | Pastor Ty Hayes

In this powerful message, “4 Ways to Share Your Faith Like You Mean It,” Pastor Ty Hayes kicks off our journey through the Gospel of Mark by unpacking Mark 1:1–11. This opening passage sets the stage for everything—introducing Jesus as the Son of God and calling believers to live with bold, authentic faith.

If you’ve ever wondered how to confidently share your faith in today’s world, this message gives you four practical, biblical ways to do it with clarity, conviction, and purpose. From the example of John the Baptist to the baptism of Jesus, you’ll discover what it means to prepare the way, point people to Christ, and live a life that reflects the power of the Gospel.

Whether you’re new to faith or have been following Jesus for years, this sermon will challenge and equip you to stop holding back and start sharing your faith like you mean it.

Listen now and take your next step in boldly proclaiming Jesus.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Good morning. I am so excited for what God has for us in his word today. We're going to spend the next year and a half in the Gospel of Mark. Over the next six weeks, the title of this series will be called Voice in the Wilderness, talking about John the Baptist, the Holy Spirit leading Jesus, and just the beginning of the message and the story of Jesus. If you have your Bibles, we're going to be in Mark chapter 1, verse 1. It says this, starting in verse 1. This is the good news about Jesus, the Messiah, the Son of God. It began just as the prophet Isaiah had written Look, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, and he will prepare your way. He's a voice shouting into the wilderness, Prepare the way for the Lord's coming, clear the road for him. This messenger was John the Baptist. He was in the wilderness and preached that people should be baptized to show they had repented of their sins and turned to God to be forgiven. All of Judea, including all the people of Jerusalem, went out to see and hear John. And when they confessed their sins, he baptized them in the Jordan River. His clothes were woven from coarse camel hair, and he wore a leather belt around his waist. For food he ate locusts and wild honey. John announced, Someone is coming soon that is greater than I am, so much greater that I am not even worthy to stoop down like a slave and untie the straps of his sandals. I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit. As Jesus came up out of the water, he saw the heavens splitting apart, and the Holy Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice from heaven said, You are my dearly loved son, and you bring me great joy. Let's pray. God, right now, I pray as we dive into your word that you would just begin to transform us. As we spend this next year and a half hearing the story and the good news of Jesus, I pray that you would make us more in love with Jesus, more passionate about Jesus, and more like Jesus. God, I pray that those of us that know Jesus would walk away here more like him and closer friends with him. I pray to those of us that don't, that we would meet him today. That God, your power would saturate the service in this word. We love you. We thank you. In your name I pray, and everyone said, Amen. Come on. Amen. I remember when I first became a Christian, I was a Christian for less than a year before I ran off to Bible college, let me tell you. And to say my walk was messy was an understatement. Man, I love Jesus. My only issue was I lived like the rest of the world. And I took a job in Bible college to pay my way through at a place called Goodwill. Come on, we're not too good for the Goodwill. We do our shopping there. Let's go. Man, I show up at Goodwill and I work in the back. I accept the donations. I thrift through the, I like sort through the donations and we send them out and all that good stuff. And uh I remember I worked with a bunch of late teen, early 20 guys just like me. And we would hang out, and after work, we'd get dinner together all the time, and we'd like the same video games and the same movies and the same girls and all that good stuff. Our likes, life looked very similar. And I never really thought much about it until I realized that, man, I wanted my coworkers, my friends, to know Jesus. And so one day I built up the courage and I went to them and I said, Hey man, I'm going to church this Sunday. You guys should come too. And they all looked at me kind of funny, and some of them even began to kind of giggle, and they're like, Ty, we didn't even know you were a Christian. And I was kind of taken back, and I'm like, not only am I a Christian, but I'm going to Bible school to become a pastor. And they thought it was the wildest thing. They're like, I just can't imagine someone who's a pastor that lives like us, that looks like us, that has all the same issues as us. And it made me realize that if I really wanted people to experience the power of God, if I really wanted people to know Jesus, that they had to see Jesus in my life, not just through my words, that I had to choose to live differently so that my words might carry weight and power. Let me ask you this morning, have you ever struggled to share your faith? Maybe you've been too timid and you need to be more bold. Maybe, like me, your lifestyle wasn't consistent with what you say you believe. Maybe you've been just waiting too long for the right opportunity, whatever situation it is, maybe you've struggled like I did, sharing your faith. Today I want to talk to you about what this passage and what John the Baptist has to show us about how to live our faith. In fact, if you're taking notes, I want to call this message Four Straight Up Ways to Learn and Share Your Faith like you mean it. If you're writing notes, I want you to write this down. We need to practice what we preach. Can I get an amen somebody? We need to practice what we preach. See, there have been many bold witnesses throughout history. There was a guy named Hugh Latimere who stood before King James in the early 14th century. And he preached against the sin of having an affair and constant divorces. And King James was so mad that this preacher would call him out that he kidnapped him, put him in prison, and for the whole week threatened him and said, Man, you need to preach the things I want you to preach. Otherwise, I can make your life very difficult, and I can, in fact, even kill you. And they beat him and they break him and they think that they've gotten their way, and they bring him to church on Sunday, put him on the pulpit, the king sits in there and he's like, You better say what I want you to say. And Hugh stands up on that same pulpit the next week and preaches the same message he did the week before, but with more passion and authority. I think of Martin Luther, who at the time went before the church leaders and said, What we're doing is wrong, even with the possibility of being excommunicated, casted out, and even put to death. But Jesus, even seeing witnesses as bold as this, said that no one was greater a witness than John the Baptist. In fact, in Luke chapter 7, verse 28, it says, Jesus says, This, I tell you, all who have ever lived, none is greater than John. Yet even the least person in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he is. So this tells us two things. One, that John was something special because he actually didn't just preach the message, he lived it out. And two, we are called to do the same thing, and even to a greater degree. Today I have four C's on how you can strengthen your witness and strengthen the ability and power for you to share your faith. The first C is character, which means we've got to live it. We've got to live this message. See, Jesus and John's life was the message before they ever shared the words of Scripture. John was set apart from the culture of his day. He lived differently. He was consistent in how he lived both privately and publicly, and he was humble. In fact, when Jesus came around, he would say things like, I must decrease so that Jesus can increase. See your life either gives more weight to your words or it takes and strips the power from them. To make it practical, we need to remove the things from our life that contradict our faith. That we need to live with integrity even when no one's watching, so that no one can speak evil against us. And we consistently, in every decision, in every minute, in every second, everything we do, choose to be holy over being comfortable, to do what's right even when it's difficult. See, a real witness lives it before they even say it or speak it. And John didn't look polished, he looked different, he looked set apart, he looked, I would say, kind of wild. In fact, this is how the Bible described how he dressed: camel hair clothing, locusts and wild honey diet. He's not on the carnivore, he's not on the vegetarian or vegan, he is eating grasshoppers and honey. And it says he's doing desert living, he's living outdoors, he's got leathery skin. Man, he looks wild. Why would John do this? Because he wanted to protest against the culture in which opposed God and God the Father. See, he wasn't trying to fit in. He was trying to wake people up. Too many preachers, too many Christians, too many people today are so worried about being accepted by the world, accepted by the culture. And John sets such a good example of why we don't need to be worried about fitting into the culture, but we need to be worried about waking people up to the power of God. Can I get an amen today? Come on. This is why I dress often like I do. I know I get asked this all the time, Pastor Ty, why do you dress like that? You're a preacher, you're a pastor, dress more professional, wear a tie, wear a suit, wear this or that. Number one, I dress like this because this is how I dress. It's comfortable, it's how I like to look. Secondly, it's because I want to remind people that it's not our clothing that makes us holy. That just as John the Baptist looked a little different than the Pharisees with their robes, that it's not about how we dress. Here at the church, I get often asked by the staff or people just attending the church, man, what's our dress code? And I always say the same thing. No butts, nuts, or coconuts. It means cover up the goods. But outside of that, man, wear what's comfortable to you. See, I don't want you distracted wearing something different so that you miss the presence of God. I don't want you to be worried about how your suit's not as expensive as the next person's suits, or how you have to wear your Sunday best in order to meet Jesus. Man, Jesus meets you where you are. Let's be reminded today that it's not about dressing a certain way. See, our life is called to preach a message, preach a sermon before our mouths ever open up. Can I tell you, we can't preach freedom to others while we still live in bondage? You can't preach generosity to others while we still live selfishly. And we can't preach Jesus to others while we still look identical to the world. See, the truth through personality is the description of preaching. It means that you take the truth of this word and you live it as well as speak it so that others can experience it. See, the Bible calls us as preachers to not just read the words out loud, but to live them as truths so that through our life, it's not merely just lip service, but it's an embodiment to behold. For John, it comes through his character, it comes through his affliction and suffering, it comes through his intellect, his morals, and it must generally come through both him, you, and me. Can I remind you that people don't just follow words, people follow weight, and weight only comes from integrity. Can I get an amen? Our second see, everybody say two. Everybody say two. Come on. Our second see is content. Our second C is content. That means we have to tell it. That means we've got to read the whole Bible and preach the whole word. See, John was very good about preaching the full message of Scripture. Not only did he preach repentance and how we fall had fallen short about how we needed to rise above our sin and change our life and follow God's law, but he also preached grace, the power of God, the power of Jesus' life and sacrifice, and how that can change our hearts so that our actions might follow. See, a partial gospel will only produce partial transformation. It means if we only take the parts we like, we're only going to live a partial life. Let's make this practical. Don't skip out on sin. We must name it. Don't avoid issues, preach the gospel to them. Don't just skip grace, offer it. Don't just judge people harshly. Remind them of the love, mercy, and graciousness of Jesus. And always, always, always remind people that Jesus is the answer. See a real witness that tells the whole truth. And John, he was never ever preaching a soft message. He preached repentance, he preached sin, he preached judgment, but then he would always follow it by preaching hope. He would say things like, Someone greater is coming. And that's the tension that we have to hold in our lives. See, too many of us today we want grace without repentance, we want blessing without surrender, and we want Jesus without change. And can I just tell you today, that is not the gospel, that is not the message of Jesus. See, if you remove repentance, if you remove changing your life, you weaken the story and power of the scripture. If you remove grace, on the other hand, you crush people beneath the judgment. I remember working out at the gym a couple years ago and I saw this guy from the waist up, man, he was huge. You could tell he worked out all the time. He was buff, man, he had a six-pack, he had the shoulders, the abs, the biceps, everything. The only issue was you could tell that man skipped leg day because his legs were scrawnier than my arms. And so he was top heavy but bottom weak. And many of us, that's how we preach our gospel. That's how we preach the words, that's how we share with about Jesus with others. That we forget that we have to hold both grace and truth, that it can't be one or the other. We can't be top heavy or bottom heavy. We've got to preach all of Jesus, all of the scripture. And when we do, just like it did for John, it'll draw in the crowds. It says that John grew drew in thousands into the middle of the desert and the river. A half gospel produces half transformation. But a whole word produces a whole changed life. Our third C today is conviction. Say, you've got to feel it. Come on, look at your neighbor and say, Man, you gotta feel it. You gotta feel it. See, John didn't just deliver information, he delivered it with fire. There was urgency, there was emotion, and there was boldness in how he preached. To get a little practical, this means that we should pray for boldness daily. We should ask God to not just give us the right words, but give us the right mindset, attitude, and spirit. That we should speak each time we talk about Jesus like eternity matters because it does. And we should not let our hearts be moved by people. We should not be scared of preaching the whole truth because of the opinions of others. But we should allow that need of theirs to move us to be more passionate. See, if it's not real to you, it's not gonna be real to anyone else. That if we preach it dry, if we preach it uninterested, if we preach it without fire, then that's how people will receive it. All the time I tell my staff that if we want them to be a seven out of ten in excitement for worship for the preaching, then we've got to be an 11 out of 10. We've got to set the example. And that's how we as believers should be that when we're sharing with others about Jesus, that we've got to be passionate, that we've got to remind ourselves and remind them that what we're saying matters because Jesus matters and they matter, and where they spend the next life matters. John's sermons were very practical. They were relevant. And can I tell you, they weren't just spiritual mumbo jumbos. They were real things that apply to real lives. Look at this. In Luke 3, it says, John replied, If you have two shirts, give one to the poor. If you have food, share it with those who are hungry. Even the corrupt tax collectors came to get baptized and asked, Teacher, what should we do? And John replied, Collect no more taxes than the government requires. What should we do? asked some soldiers. John replied, Do do not extort money or make false accusations and be content with your pay. Can I tell you a real witness burns with urgency? And John wasn't casual, he wasn't chill, he wasn't indifferent. He preached like their life, their eternity mattered because it does. And everything he preached was applicable, required a changed life, and it wasn't just some churchy message, but it caused them to live differently when they left for the doors. See, people went to John and they confessed their sins, their lives were changed, and the crowds, man, they kept showing up. Why? Because passion for the word of God is contagious. Passion is contagious. And can I tell you, I am not the most eloquent speaker, I am not the most learned person, but I will never, ever be outdone in passion. I will never run short of my passion for the Lord Jesus, his word, and for people to know him. I just worry sometimes that we've got too many quiet Christians that don't understand that we serve a loud and powerful God, that we have a loud gospel, that we have a powerful word of God, and yet somehow we live quietly. Last week on Easter, I invited some people over after for supper, and one of those people that came over was Pastor Kyle Chelsea and their family. And while we were there, uh me and Pastor Kyle were talking about uh something in the Bible that I believe that not a lot of other people believe yet. And he was talking about how he's looked into it, and it's it's been something that he's excited about and that he's he's believing, and that's uh changed how we see some stuff, and he wished we talked about it more. I'm not gonna tell you what it is because I don't have enough time to jump into it, and some of you are all gonna think I'm crazy until we actually get to talk about it. But I'll say this that while we were talking, I was passionate, Pastor Kyle's passionate, we're talking back and forth, and his wife Chelsea comes up to us, she's like, Are you guys fighting? Like, are you guys okay? You're getting really loud. Man, we were not fighting, we were agreeing together with passion. Can I tell you, if you don't want your preaching to work, if you don't want sharing the Bible with others to work, if you don't want to see your testimony work, lives changed, then don't have passion because that doesn't work. See, if it doesn't move you, it won't move anyone else. Coming to our fourth and final Clarity. We always need to point to Jesus. A real witness points away from themselves and towards Jesus. When Jesus showed up, John didn't compete, he stepped back. Again, he said, He must increase, and I must decrease. Can I tell you how sadly and unfortunately that how rare that is for Christians, for preachers, for churches, for influencers, for people in general. See, most people they want a platform more than anything else. They want recognition more than anything else, they want influence more than everything else. But John lived differently. John never made it about himself. He would constantly remind people that he is not the Christ Jesus is. That I have the great blessing and privilege in my life to be a preacher of the word, to be somebody that brings the Bible to you. But I never want to forget that I am simply someone that shares the word, but I'm not the word Jesus is. This is why I remind myself not to take myself seriously. I don't worry too much about what other people think about me or my shortcomings. I'm the first to admit them. Why? Because I'm not that serious, I'm not that big deal. But I take what I get to do very seriously. Why? Because the word of God matters. People knowing Jesus matters. Pointing towards toward people towards Jesus matters. I'm not a big deal. But the Jesus that I preach every single week, the God that we lift up every single week, He is a big deal. Can I get an Amen? Come on. Come on, this is Jesus. Can I get an Amen today? Let's get practical. We need to make Jesus the hero in every conversation we have. That we need to want attention, not from ourselves back towards Jesus. We need to remind ourselves to stay small to not have an ego so that Jesus can be seen there. John wanted one thing for people to see Jesus. And that's what meaning you were called to live. Because the moment it becomes about you, it becomes about me, it becomes even about us. The moment the church becomes about me. But that soon one would come, would wrench them with the Holy Spirit, which is an intrinsically internal thing. He's reminding them that he can only point them in the right direction. He can only change the outside, remind them of these things. But as soon as someone was coming that can empower them from the inside, that can change their lives. So let me close with this challenge. John changed a generation because everything lined up. That if you want to be someone that can point people towards Jesus, share about Jesus, tell others about Jesus, that these four C's are how you do it. See, John changed a generation, not because he was impressive, not because he was cool, but because he was authentic, bold, and surrendered to Jesus. You don't need a microphone to be a witness. You need a life that's ready to prove the message is real. I remember when I first got married to Rachel, I left the ministry for a little bit while I was in between jobs looking to find out what's next. I took a job at T-Mobile, and I worked there for six months or so between jobs and was a salesman of phones and uh had a good time and man, I invited more people to church and saw more people come to church through those years than I have in a lot of my life. I didn't have a pulpit, I didn't have a ministry per se, I wasn't, I didn't have my name on a church, I didn't have anything special about me other than I was around people and I wanted them to know Jesus. And when those people got to see my character, when those people got to see my conviction, they got to hear the Bible from me, and when they got to see that I was pretty clear on who Jesus was, man, I had coworkers come to my church and get saved. Guys, we don't need to be a pastor, we don't need a pulpit, we don't need a stage, we don't need a title, we don't need even a church, we just need to trust Jesus. See, we are called to make a way for the coming of the Lord. Isaiah 40, verse 3. This is the part that's prophesying about John the Baptist says this. Listen, it is the voice of someone shouting, clear the way through the wilderness for the Lamb. Make a straight highway through the wasteland for our God. And that was a prophecy about John the Baptist, but I hope that that is a prophecy about me and you as well. That we are people that go into the uncharted territories, go into places where Jesus isn't known, and make them known, whether that's the grocery store, whether that's your school, whether that's your job site, whether wherever it is you go, that you would clear away for the coming of the Lamb, that you would clear away for the Lord. So, how do you need to change your life to be a witness this week? Do you need to align your life, fix the things in your life that don't match your message? You need to repent and live clean. Or maybe you need to speak up, you need to share your story and you need to stop watering it down. Maybe you need to live with urgency and passion and remind yourselves that there are people far from God that are gonna spend an eternity in hell and that the things matter now and not just someday. Because we can wait thinking that someday I'll do this, someday I'll do that, but we don't know when that day is. The only thing we can do is remind ourselves that eternity matters now. Or maybe we need to simply get better about pointing people to Jesus. Stop making it about us and make him the hero of the story every single time. So let me ask you: are you walking the talk today? Are you walking the talk today? Can I have everyone bow your head and close your eyes? I just don't want you to be distracted in this moment. And I want to ask two questions today. The first one is this, and I ask it every single week because it's the most important question. Maybe you're here today and you're hearing this message of Jesus, and you've realized that you are not a follower of him yet, and you're ready to change that. Just like the message that we preach, just like John said, that you're ready to repent, which simply means to change your life and follow Jesus. If that's you, I want to give you the opportunity on the count of three. One, this is the most important decision of your life. More important than who you marry, where you work, or where you live, your relationship with God is everything. Two. Many of us, we think we have all the time in the world. We think that we'll get it right someday. But can I tell you, someday, we just don't know how much time that we have. Someday just doesn't work. Let's follow Jesus today. Three, if that's you, would you just raise your hand? Come on. Come on, raise your hand. We're here to follow Jesus. Would you just repeat this prayer after me? Say, dear Jesus, thank you for loving me, for saving me, for changing me. Make me bold, make me loving, make me joyful. Help me to follow you all the days of my life. It's in your name we pray.

unknown 29:54

Amen.

SPEAKER_00 29:56

The second question I want to ask is for you believers. Because maybe you've been sitting here, and after we go over these four seas, you've realized that there's been a spot of inconsistency in your life. That maybe one of these seas you you've realized you need to work on more than the others. That maybe you need to spend the next week really analyzing your life and getting it more consistent with your faith, upping your passion, preaching the whole word of Jesus, knowing the whole word of Jesus, and constantly pointing people towards him. And you've realized a disconnect between what you believe, how you live, and what you say. And you'd like me for me to pray for you that just like John, you'd be a bold witness for Jesus. If that's you, and you'd like me to pray for you for a more consistent life and for boldness to preach, would you just raise your hand? God, right now, you see these hands. God, you know these hearts and you know these lives. I pray for each and every one of us that we would live a life of integrity, of passion, consistency. God, a life that points others towards you. God, that we would be bold in our faith. We would be reminded of the crucialness of eternity. And God, we would not rob ourselves of your life-transforming power. God, help us to be more faithful followers so we can be more faithful witnesses. God, make us passionate so that others can be made passionate. God, help us to make much of you. We love you and we thank you. It is in your name we pray, and everyone said, Amen. Thank you, everyone. I'll see you next time.