This Seat Is for You (The Power of the Gospel) - 1 Thessalonians 1:5-10 - Skip Heitzig

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This place is my home.

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These people are my family.

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I'll protect this house.

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I'll stand for the one.

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I'll fight to bring those on the outside inside.

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Welcome home.

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This seat is for you.

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Good morning. I am just living a life of faith right now wearing this shirt believing it's going to be in the 80s today. That's what I have been told by my little phone. It's going to be warm. So I'm just T that warm weather. What a special weekend this is. Would you turn in your Bibles to 1 Thessalonians chapter 1. the New Testament book of 1 Thessalonians chapter 1.

So for about eight years now we do this thing called Vision weekend. And what does that mean? What does it mean to have vision and why do we do it? Well, first of all, you need to know it has nothing at all to do with wearing corrective lenses. It's not about you being nearsighted or farsighted or any of that. It's about your ability and my ability to see our role as God intended in the culture in which we live, the church culture, the world culture. Think of it as your worldview, it's how you and I view the world.

Vision is spiritual insight and godly foresight. Let's get that again. It's spiritual insight and godly foresight, the ability to understand what God's plan is for my life our lives together in the community in which we live. It's sort of summed up in 1 Chronicles chapter 12. There was a group of people that came around King David called the sons of Issachar. And we are told the sons of Issachar who had understanding of the times and knew what Israel ought to do. That's vision, that's spiritual insight and godly foresight.

We have an axiom that we're working off of, you saw that in the video, but we'll put it up again. This place is my home. These people are my family. I'll protect this house. I'll stand for the one. I'll fight to bring those on the outside inside. Welcome home. And that's what the chair, this seat is for you. The idea behind all of this is simply that our church should be an active church. That we should be loving each other, yes, but loving others outside in the world who aren't a part of our flock or fellowship. Loving them enough to bring those who are on the outside inside into the fold.

Now I have a book at home that I've referred to for the last several years. It's one of my favorite books on the church called The Living Church by John Stott. John R.W. Stott was a clergyman in London, England at All Souls Church And in his little book on the church he said that traditionally, historically the church has failed in this. And that is because the church suffers, in his opinion, from an identity crisis. That either historically the church has seen itself as just sort of a spiritual club or they have seen themselves as a secular club.

And there's plenty of examples on both sides of those extremes. Some churches just see themselves as a spiritual club. It's all about our membership, our community, our little club, what we do when we're together. Then for others it's not really about the message of the gospel. It's just a club in which we, as a group, do community things so that people in the community feel better. It is in effect Christ-less Christianity, just a social outreach.

So we need to determine from time to time, be reminded of from time to time, what the vision of the church is. Now I do want to say this. When it comes to a vision for the church it's really not about my vision for the church. It's not about your vision for the church. Frankly, I don't care what your vision for the church is. And frankly, you shouldn't care what my vision for the church is. But we should both care about what God's vision is for the church because it's his church.

It's not our church. Jesus said, "I will build My church." So he came to build it and he has a vision for it. He has a design, a purpose for it. We just need to discover what that is. And for that we turn to 1 Thessalonians chapter 1 because it reveals at least in part what that vision is to be. The book of 1 Thessalonians and the verses we're going to look at, show us the natural flow of the gospel, or we might say the supernatural flow of the gospel. It's what happens when the gospel goes out and takes root in the hearts of people. It is what has happened for the past 2000 years of church history in virtually every culture and every community around the world.

And basically, it works this way. The gospel comes to people, people receive it, people get changed by that message, then they go out and tell it to somebody else. That's what we're going to spend the bulk of our time looking at in this chapter. You might put it this way, the gospel comes and then it converts, and then it's conveyed. It comes, it converts, and then it is conveyed. Or in the parlance of our outline this morning, the gospel is received, the gospel redirects, that's the change, and then the gospel rings out.

Now a word about this book, 1 Thessalonians. Paul is writing this book to a very special group of people. People that he loved dearly, a group a church that he established on his second missionary journey. Paul made three journeys and then he finally made a trip to Rome. On a second missionary journey he went through the town of Thessalonica. Luke tells us how that happened.

Apparently Paul and his team were moving from the East toward the West across Asia Minor. They tried to go one direction, the Holy Spirit said no. They tried to go another direction the Holy Spirit said no. And now they're sort of caught. They don't know which way to go. They're are Troas one night, and Paul gets a vision remember this the vision from the man from Macedonia. And it's a very straightforward message. In the vision the man says come over to Macedonia and help us.

So Paul being very astute and very intelligent, wakes up the next day and says to his group, gang I think the Lord has called us to go to Macedonia because I got a vision last night saying, come over to Macedonia and help us. So they got on a ship and they move toward the West and they came to that area of Macedonia, first going to the town of Phillipi and then next going to a city about 100 miles away from Phillipi known as Thessalonica.

Paul is in Thessalonica for three weeks. And for three Sabbath days. Consecutive Sabbath days, he goes into the synagogue, dialogues with Jewish people about the fulfillment of their scriptures in Jesus. And some people believe, most don't, but some do and the some that believe become the Church of Thessalonica. That's how the church started. So to me that's fascinating. It's fascinating because it tells me number one it doesn't take all that long to really start a church. It took him three weeks. We get the idea we have to go into an area, blitz the area, put on an ad campaign, go to the internet, get flyers out.

He was just there three weeks, a few people get saved, he goes, great you're the church. And then the second thing that is noteworthy is that in that three week period of time he evidently was able to deposit an enormous amount of biblical doctrine to these brand new believers who had known the Lord for three weeks. Because he in 1 and 2 Thessalonians, the letter he writes back to them, covers the doctrine that he had taught them. And it's really astonishing when you look at both these books together.

But we want to look at the first few verses of chapter 1 and see how the gospel flows naturally in a community, and how to bring those that are on the outside in. So I'm going to begin not in verse 1 this morning but in verse 5 of 1 Thessalonians chapter 1 where Paul says, "For our gospel did not come to you in Word only but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit and in much assurance, as you know what kind of men we were among you for your sake. And you became followers of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Spirit, so that you became examples to all in Macedonia and Achaia who believe. For from you the word of the Lord has sounded forth, not only in Macedonia and Achaia , but also in every place. Your faith toward God has gone out so that we do not need to say anything. For they themselves declare concerning us what manner of entry we had to you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come."

So I want to show you in the verses that we just read three clear aspects of how the gospel works. The way it works, first of all, is that you have to hear it. Right? You have to hear it to be able to believe it, to receive it. So that's the first aspect. The gospel is received. In verse 5, note that Paul writes, "For our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power."

Now did you notice that here Paul does not refer to the gospel as the gospel? He calls it our gospel. That's noteworthy. He's personalizing it. Yes it is the gospel. Yes it is God's gospel. Yes it is the Gospel of Christ. But here Paul calls it our gospel. Why? Because it has affected us and once it has affected us and we are part of it. It's also part of us. It's ours.

Something else, not only does he call it our gospel but three times in Paul's writings he even refers to the gospel as his gospel. He says, I'm saying this according to my gospel. Now he's referring to the gospel, the message about Jesus coming, dying, rising from the dead, et cetera. But he calls it our gospel, he calls it my gospel. And there's a very great point to be made with that. When the gospel becomes your gospel that's when you're saved. You're not saved until then. You can hear the gospel your whole life. But when you respond to it and it changes you then the gospel becomes your gospel.

And that is when salvation occurs. Now you'll notice something else in verse 5. You'll notice how the gospel works. That the gospel comes to people in two ways, it comes from our lips, and then it comes from our life. It comes by what we say and then it comes by what we show.

So first of all, let's consider how it comes from the lips. "For our gospel did not come to you in Word only." Now it first has to come in word. Paul's point is it didn't just come in word. It came with something else but it must include words, vocabulary. We have to say what the gospel is. I want you to think back to when you first heard the gospel. First time somebody a friend a relative a preacher explained to you the simple meaning of the gospel message. I don't know if you can remember that but I do I remember when my friend, who I had grown up with. I was going to school with explained to me what he had heard the night before.

He said, last night I was at this concert and this preacher came out and he was describing the church I became a part of, Calvary Chapel in Costa Mesa, but he said there was a concert in this tent, and there was this rock band. And then this guy said this, and I walked forward and I received Jesus. So I'm listening to the gospel and then he turned it on me. And he said, you know Skip, you also, and he explained the gospel and said, you need a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ.

And I remember hearing those words. I thought, personal relationship. How do you have a personal relationship with God? You can't even see him. How do you-- how personal is that? I remember asking and thinking all these questions. But as he was sharing the gospel with me and I heard it I became a little angry, a lot of angry. I turn to him and I kind of pinned him, no I pinned him against the wall. And I said, don't get all religious on me. I go to church every week. You know don't tell me about this Jesus. I go to church every week.

So that is the first time I really heard it. I remember the second time I heard it was through a different friend. And then I heard it through another friend. Then finally I heard Dr. Billy Graham explain it in a telecast and that was the day that for me I gave my life to the Lord. That's when the gospel became my gospel. But we actually have a record of how the Thessalonians first heard the gospel, how they received it. In the book of Acts chapter 17, I'm just going to read a few verses to you in chapter 17 verse 1, it says, "Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica," here it is, "where there was a synagogue of the Jews. Then Paul, as his custom was, went in to them, and for three Sabbaths," so that's three weeks he "reasoned with them from the scriptures."

He reasoned with them from the scriptures, "explaining and demonstrating that the Christ," the Messiah "had to suffer and rise again from the dead saying, 'This Jesus whom I preach to you is the Messiah. And some of them were persuaded; and a great multitude of the devout Greeks and not a few of the leading women, joined Paul and Silas. Three words stick out to me. Paul reasoned with them. Paul was explaining to them. Paul was demonstrating to them, or proving with his words an apologetic Bible study, showing, demonstrating verbally.

So the gospel first comes in words. In fact, it is called the word of God. The disciples said to Jesus, you alone have the words of eternal life. Jesus in John 17 praying to his Father said, I have given to them the words you have given to me and now they believe that you sent me. So there has to include a verbal preaching of the Word. That's how the gospel comes. You tell a person who God is. You tell a person who Christ is. You tell a person how to get to heaven, how to be saved, it includes words.

In fact did you know the word preacher or preach originally referred to an official in the Greek court who carried a scepter for authority and would go into a town and make strong authoritative proclamations either on behalf of the King, or the governor of the region, or the local potentate. And that act of preaching is where we get the idea of, go into all the world, and preach the gospel. So it always includes words.

I'm underscoring this because through the years I hear this saying from time to time. I hear this statement, and I know what people mean by it, and it's sort of meant so that when you hear you go, Oh wow that's so deep, that's so profound, that's so good. But I don't think that I think it's kind of lame. And it goes like this, preach the gospel at all times, and if necessary use words. Oh that sounds so good. It's like I get it you just live the lifestyle of a believer. Yeah, but it's always necessary to use words. You need to explain people why you're so awesome and changed and good. When necessary, It's always necessary.

At some point you need to tell others the gospel. Now you might think, well God hasn't called me to preach. Where does it say that in the Bible? Didn't Jesus tell his followers, go into all the world? He didn't just say go into all the world. Go into all the world and find a nice place to live. He said, go into all the world and preach the gospel. He said, as the Father sent me into the world I'm sending you. Guess what? You're called. you're commissioned.

So if we don't tell people about the gospel but we just show people it's sort of like having this chair like in the video. And here you are with a chair, you walk around town with it, you plop it down somewhere, and then you just stand by it and smile. Because you've just done a good deed offering somebody a chair, but you don't tell them what it's there for. You just smile. And they're going to look at you and think, that guy's goofy. Guy's a little weird. Just carrying a chair around smiling. Is this modern art or am supposed to contemplate this what? But when you put the chair down and then you say, I put this down for you. Please come in have a seat or just, here this seat's for you. Please take a load off your feet. Oh now I understand the purpose of the good deed that you have performed.

So the gospel first comes in words but not in words only. That's his point in this verse. You heard the message but you saw something, as well. For he says, "our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit and in much assurance. " Better translation would be much conviction. "As you know what kind of men we were among you for your sake. "

In other words, the message you heard had a powerful effect on you as you watched us. Look at the word assurance in that verse. I said it means conviction. And the idea of this is you were convicted inwardly because you saw the gospel outwardly. So here's the truth of these two things together. When the testimony of the lips is backed up by the testimony of the lifestyle, it produces conviction. If you just have a testimony of the lips but not the testimony of a life lived out then it doesn't produce conviction. But when a person sees a genuine believer changed by the message he or she proclaims, they go, wow. I've never experienced that. I want that. I need that. That Is compelling. And that's why the message can never be separated from the messenger or it loses its effectiveness.

So a moment ago I asked you to think about when you first heard the gospel and I'm going to ask you to do something else now. Try to think back to when you first saw the gospel, first time you saw an authentic believer. Could be somebody that you grew up with that you knew is a relative. You knew they had a radical lifestyle. You saw them now that they claim Christ. Their life has completely changed. They were different. They were happy. Maybe you were on a mission field experience, you saw a family giving their lives to a community. And you saw some display of authentic Christianity and it moved you.

I told you when I first heard the gospel. I heard it through my friend and I heard it through another friend then I heard Dr. Billy Graham preach. I didn't know Dr. Billy Graham at the time. I came to know him. But I just decided to believe the message that he preached that day. But I got involved with a group of people in a Christian commune. And these were the most loving young people, with the most radical backgrounds, and they were all changed. They were all different. And in that context I had a pastor, a mentor who took me under his wings and showed me this new family dynamic.

So I heard the gospel but then I also saw the gospel and this is important. People will follow your footsteps quicker than they will follow your advice. So the testimony of the life is what backs up the testimony of the lips. So the gospel is received that's the first aspect.

Second aspect is once the gospel is received by an individual it changes that person, It redirects that person. They're converted and their life is corrected. Now as I go through this little section with you and what Paul is doing is essentially listing all the ways this group had been changed. But I want to show you a few of those ways that the gospel redirects people. The first change that happened is they forsook the old. They forsook their old ways. Go down to verse 9 and look how Paul puts it, "For they themselves declare that is the people who hear and see your own testimony concerning us what manner of entry we had to, and how you turned to God from idols." Notice that little phrase, "you turn to God from idols, that's another way of saying you repented right you turned around you changed your mind you turned to God from idols.

Now I told you about when I first heard the gospel and when I first saw the gospel. Let me tell you about how I first preached the gospel. Because I was a miserable failure. I was so bad at it. I remember the first time I shared Jesus was with my brother Bob. Bob was 6 foot 8. I'm 6 foot 5 now, but he was 6 foot 8. So I looked up to him, big guy, big motorcycle guy. And I said, Bob you need Jesus. And he looked at me and he laughed. And I tried to explain to him that Jesus gives you peace, and joy, and love, and all that kind of stuff that's about all I knew. He gives you peace, love, joy you know stuff happens like that.

And so I'm talking to him and he goes, yeah but I got to like give stuff up. And this is what I said because I didn't know any better. You don't have to give anything up. You can still do all the stuff you did. You can smoke what you smoke, and drink what you drink, and take whatever drugs you want. You don't have to do anything. You just have to accept Jesus as Lord and Savior, and say this prayer and get peace, love, and joy.

See, I was a miserable failure. I was wrong. I didn't tell him that he needed to repent of anything. One day shortly after that little experience of preaching I'm reading through the New Testament in a very modern translation. I'm reading Matthew the Sermon on the Mount and I come to a place in the Beatitudes where Jesus says, blessed are those whose greatest desire is to do what God requires. And I stopped, and I closed that book. And I thought about my life. And I said, is my greatest desire to do what God requires? And to be very honest before God that day, and to be honest with you now I said, it has not been. My greatest desire in life is not to do what God requires. My greatest desire even in coming to Jesus is that I get peace love, joy. It's all about me.

And I said, there's some things I need to repent of, I need to turn from. And I just remembered that I had this little shoe box of substances up in the closet that the Lord said, go flush those down the toilet. If I'd have hung on to them by now they'd be legalized, right, in this state at least. But

[LAUGHING]

Then they weren't. Besides that God didn't want them in my life. So those were the idols I had to turn from. Now when Paul says, you turn to God from idols. He's speaking to a group that literally were polytheistic, they worshiped many gods. They had different idols. And Paul said, you left those idols and you turned to Christ. And you know I've discovered, I've been through different parts of the world, and I've seen that especially in Asian cultures that when a person comes to Christ, I've seen this in India and in Thailand, they will take their gods and goddesses that they have been worshipping and they'll publicly burn them.

And then publicly get baptized. They want the town to watch them as they're doing this. They know they're going to get persecuted because of it but the message they want to send is, we are not under the power of those gods or goddesses any longer. I'm making a clean break from that I'm under the power and authority of Jesus.

So that's what they do. It's very, very public. In fact a one young man in Burma wrote this and we'll put it up on the screen. "We burned up the charms and amulets took, a wood-cutting knife, and broke down a spirit's house made of bamboo and wood, claiming the lordship of Jesus Christ, and singing Christ's victory songs, and putting all of ourselves under the blood of the Lamb of God and the rule of the Holy Spirit, and claiming God's protection."

That's what it means to turn from idols to the living God. They did it. And so the gospel redirects. That's the first step in changing them, they forsook their old ways. The second thing to note of how it changed them is they began following new leaders.

Did you notice in verse 6 that the apostle says, "And you became followers of--" Who? Us. Wait a minute. What do you mean followers are supposed to follow Christ. He says you followed us. You know, Paul did say follow me as I follow the Lord. He says, "you became followers of us and of the Lord. " Literally you mimicked us. You heard the message, saw our lifestyle, and you decided, I'm going to copy that. I'm watching how that authentic Christian is following the Lord. I'm just going to patterned my life after them, which is exactly what discipleship is.

Discipleship is hearing, watching, doing. That's discipleship-- hearing, watching, and doing. I got a letter a couple of weeks ago I just want to share with you. I won't share the letter but I'll share what happened. So I get a letter from a pastor never met this guy. He's from another place in the United States who hears our broadcast. And he said, I'm writing a letter to confess my sin to you.

So I go, uh oh. Oh that's what a pastor says when another pastor says, I have to confess my-- So I said, uh oh, and I didn't know what that was about. And I keep reading and he goes, during the pandemic last year when it broke you did a series of messages. I love the title of it shelter in grace. You did the thing about, yeah, I did several messages that were kind of pandemic oriented. And he said, I stole every one of them. And I preached them and I didn't give you attribution. I just preached them as if they were my own. And I feel so bad that I did that I just want to make confession to you and retributions.

So I wrote him back quickly and said, hey, listen, if it speaks to your heart it's yours. It's yours as much as mine. You're preaching, as far as I can tell, truth. I mean it's not like shame on you preach false doctrine. I'm glad you preached my sermon you want a few more.

[LAUGHING]

The idea of being mimicked can be a good thing. And so they forsook old ways, they followed new leaders.

Let me give you a third way, they were changed or redirected they found a great joy. I love verse 6, "you became followers of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Spirit." Do you notice that joy is in the same sentence as affliction? That's the paradox of the Christian life. You can have the most distressing situation going on around you and still have joy inside you. You received the word and much affliction with the joy of the Holy Spirit.

I'm guessing the affliction came from the persecution because I didn't read it to you but in Acts 17 when Paul started the church in Thessalonica, you keep reading the rest of the chapter, the group of leaders in the synagogue hired a group of street thugs to start a riot and attack Christians. And it drove Paul out of town under the cover of night and yet there was joy among the believers who were left behind.

But I want you to know the source of the joy says the joy of the Holy Spirit. It's not like he's saying you got beat up and you just smiled your way through it. The idea is you had a source of joy and that was the Holy Spirit working powerfully inside of you despite what was going on outside of you. I want you to get that because joy has much less to do with what is happening around you and much more to do with what is happening inside you. In fact, you can have the worst set of circumstances in life and be the most joyful. And you can reverse that. I've seen people in the most peaceful circumstances be the grumpiest people.

So joy was their outlook because Jesus was their up look. So the gospel was received by them and it took root and it began to change. They forsook their old ways. They followed new leaders. They found great joy. I'll give you another one they furnished an example, or they provided an example. Now here's a twist and the twist is in verse 7. "So that you became examples to all in Macedonia and Achaia who believe."

You see the twist? You know Paul said, you mimicked us, you imitated us because we were your examples. But then he said, you became examples. So the imitators are now becoming the imitated. And that's just the maturing process. That's the growth of the Christian life when disciples become disciplers. When learners turn into leaders you became examples.

And I got to tell you this is the most exciting part of pastoring in one place over a long period of time. I get to see people that I have poured into people that I have trained take leadership roles. I get to see people that I've dedicated to the Lord as babies grow up, give their lives to Christ, become leaders, become pastors on the staff of this church. And will one day take it over. That is a joy. They became examples. That's a natural process that should happen. It should happen for every believer.

The writer of Hebrews said "For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food." The writer is saying that that's not normal. What is normal is that you listen, you see, you imitate, And then you become a disciple, or you become a leader, you become a trainer. You teach others.

So they did that, this church did it. They forsook old ways. They follow new leaders. They found great joy. They furnished an example. I'll give you a fifth and final way that their life was redirected. They focused on Jesus's return. They focused on Jesus's return. Look at verse 10, "and to wait for his son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come. " One of the marks of an authentic Christian believer is they are looking forward to the return of Jesus.

In fact, I believe it's very soon. I believe the Lord is coming very soon.

[APPLAUSE]

Yeah, if you're a believer you get excited about that. Who doesn't get excited about that? Either carnal believers or unbelievers. You tell an unbeliever, Jesus is coming back. He is?

[LAUGHING]

Why? What did I do? You know they have the bumper sticker on the car that says Jesus is coming back and boy is he mad. But if you're a believer you long for it. And you know, there is a difference between looking at something versus looking for something. Unbelievers will look at the return of Christ. Believers look for it.

So here's a little example. I do a lot of weddings. And I stand right about here when I do them. And in front of me is the bride and the groom. And I'm a part of the ceremony but essentially I'm a bystander. I'm looking at this, I'm saying words, and they're repeating the vows, and I'm going to marry them but I'm looking at it. Now I'm very different from the bride standing right about here. She's not looking at it. She has been looking for this day for a long, long time. Looking forward to it, anticipating it, can't wait, can't wait, I count the hours.

Believers look for the coming of the Lord. I heard about a little town in England, southern England named Tiptoe. Isn't that a cute name for a town? Where do you live? I live in Tiptoe. Oh what do you do there? Get on my tiptoes. And they do. So the town was named before they had pavement and when it rained the dirt streets turned into mud. So people walked on their tiptoes. So they just named it that. British people, I guess, do that to their towns. So Tiptoe, England, when I read that cute little story I thought that's how I am to live, that's how you are to live, that's how we are to live in this world, on our tiptoes.

We're looking for the return of Jesus at any moment. That's a mark of a believer. So these five things shows how their lives radically changed, redirected. So the gospel is received. They heard, they watched, they believed. And when they believed those changes happened. They left their old ways, they followed Christ and also the new leaders who were following Christ. In the process they found great joy. They became an example to others. And they were perched looking forward to the return of Christ.

But there's a final phase, the third phase, a third aspect to the flow of the gospel. The gospel is received. The gospel redirects. But then the gospel rings out. It rings out from the very ones who had received it. Look at verse eight "For from you the word of the Lord has sounded forth." Now compare that with verse 5 "Our gospel did not come to you in Word only, but also in power." So it came to them in verse eight " from you the word of the Lord has sounded forth."

So from that small group of Paul spending three weeks in that little town of Thessalonica, now the word is sounding forth. And by the way, the Greek word sounding forth is the Greek word exactly [GREEK] comes from the Greek word echos, where we get our word echo. A reverberation. The idea of the word, by the way, this is the only place in the entire New Testament it is used. It's used only once and it's used here. The idea is the gospel made a big bang in Thessalonica and then reverberated through the hills and valleys of Macedonia and Greece. He mentions here Macedonia, he mentions Achaia and then he sums it up here by saying and in every place.

So that's how the gospel works. They heard it. They're changed by it. And then they speak it, they spread it. Here's the principal I want you to walk away with. Only when receivers turn into transmitters has the gospel done its job. When receivers turn into transmitters, when receivers of the truth become transmitters of the truth, has the gospel really done its job. That's when it comes full circle. The one who receives becomes the one who spreads. Why is this important?

Because as you have heard before, and I want you to hear now, Christianity is always just one generation away from total extinction. All it takes is one person to not, one generation to not spread it, one generation to become apathetic and not tell somebody else, not let it echo forth from their lives. It's like, great I received the gospel, I got changed by it, but I won't tell anybody else how to get to heaven. Wow, really? That's pretty selfish. You won't tell anybody else how to get to heaven? You won't be a channel for the gospel?

You know a few years ago I was struck I was watching the Olympics, I think it was the ones at Sochi, Japan. And I was watching the torch ceremony service. And you know the announcer said, this torch has gone on land, and on sea, and on snowmobile, and gone through 1,000 different communities. And the announcer said the torch carried from one place to the stadium when it's all done will have had 14,000 torch bearers. 14,000 people who grabbed that torch and passed it on to somebody else. Well what if one person goes, nah? I don't want to. Well it's going to be delayed, or it might not get there at all.

Isn't this generation, our generation, the generation that takes the torch from the previous one wherever we heard the gospel from and passes it on to friends, and neighbors, and relatives, and the next generation? The question is, what's the best way to echo through the canyons of our world. You could say, I don't know Skip, that's your job you're the preacher. You just said 269,020 people heard your Easter service. That's it, right there, technology. That's good, that's part of it.

I'm glad we will use that. You could say, well when you do freedom celebration or when an evangelist does a stadium and preach the gospel. That's how it gets done. Well, let me close this one. OK? And I'll just sit, do you mind if I sit down? OK. There's chairs up here, it's comfortable. So somebody explained this to me a few years ago. He was working for evangelism explosion and he explained the power of personal witness. He said, Skip do you realize, think of all the money that is spent in stadium evangelism, et cetera. And he said if you took a stadium and you could fill a stadium with 35,000 people every night for 35 years, and every night 1,000 people walked down onto the field and gave their lives to Christ. So the first night 1,000 people, second night 1,000 people, third night 1,000 people, for 365 days. That's one year-- do that for 35 years.

I said, well that's a lot of people. He said, do you know that at the end of 35 years you would be further behind the task of world evangelization than the day you started. I go, that doesn't make sense. He goes, it makes perfect sense. If you look at the birth rate, the exponential rate at which people are born in the world and you look at a per capita at the end of 35 years you'll be further behind. I go, that's pretty hopeless, He goes, not hopeless at all, because here's the good news.

If you Skip Heitzig were the only Christian on planet Earth, there was no other Christian but you, and you said, Lord Jesus in 12 months I want to lead just one other person to Jesus. Would you answer my prayer Lord? And if he did , so that at the end of year one, we now have two Christians on planet Earth. And if those two Christians covenanted to pray to each lead one other person that next year to Christ at the end of year two you'd have four Christians. The end of year three you'd have eight, then 16, then 32, you see the exponential growth.

He said in 35 years you will have one over 30 billion people to Christ. Now there's only, what, 8 billion people on the earth? 9 billion people? I don't know what the birth rate is today but we're 8 or 9 billion people. 30 billion people at that rate in 35 years. So all of the means we'll use but that one on one, one person telling another person, that holy gossip is the way to do it. So we've received. We've been changed. I hope, I trust. If not start there. And then we let it ring out. We pass the torch to the next generation. And it's our word, and it's our life, and it's our witness.

Father thank you for this. We pray in the name of Jesus that you will help us to simply be your people. Those who are receivers of the gospel, would become those who are transmitters of the gospel for the sake and the name of Jesus. Amen. Let's all stand. We hope you enjoyed this special service from Calvary Church. We'd love to know how this message impacted you. Email us at mystory@calvarynm.church and just a reminder, you can support this ministry with a financial gift at calvarynm.church/give Thank you for joining us for this teaching from Calvary Church.