Awkward Is Better Than Silent
First B Jackson
2026-01-04

Automatically transcribed. Where this and the recording disagree, the recording is the record.

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Well, if you saw me sneak up here earlier, was walking around back there and I was like, I'm 90% sure I left my tablet up at the front with my notes. But that that 10% was kinda keeping me anxious, so I had to come sneak up here. So, we're gonna look at first Peter three thirteen through 17, if you've got a Bible and wanna turn in that or on your electronic device of choice. I'll read it here for you and we'll have it as well on the screen. Now, and who is there to harm you if you should prove if you prove zealous for what is good?

But even if you should suffer for the sake of righteousness, you are blessed. And do not fear their intimidation and do not be in dread, but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you. But do this with gentleness and respect. And keep a good conscience, so that in the thing in which you are slandered, those who disparage your good behavior in Christ will be put to shame. For it is better if God should will it so that you suffer for doing what is right rather than for doing what is wrong.

So there's a great new movie out on streaming called Light of the World. It's a new animated version of the Jesus film. I'd recommend it to all of you. It does an amazing job of telling the story of Jesus through the eyes of the apostle John. My son, who's nine, said after he watched it, he had a whole new understanding of the person of Jesus.

Now, while that's true, I'm also mostly making a point that we are all evangelists for something. And I think we all do this. It's your gym. It's your favorite restaurant. It's a book.

It's a movie. It's even the best way to get to Salt Lake City this time of year. Pretty much everything except for that one hunting or fishing spot. But the point is, when we think something can help someone, we share it. We tell them about it.

We love sharing our opinions with people that we know and sometimes with people that we don't. And yet, we are so hesitant to share what matters the most. Jesus. I think we've all in some measure bought the lie that faith is both personal and private. Because, yes, it is intensely personal, but it is not private.

What a tactic. What a lie by the enemy. We're so often afraid of conflict or afraid of offending somebody that we lose sight of the fact that eternity is at stake for everyone around us. If you had a deadly disease and I had the known cure for it, how much would I have to hate you in order to not share it? Or what if I saw a kid playing right there outside, and they're rolling a ball out into the busy street?

Would I not stop everything that I'm doing, run out of here screaming like a lunatic to stop that kid from running into the street even if it's not my kid. Of course, I would. And I think you would too. And there's so many excuses why we don't do this when it comes to telling people about Jesus. Maybe we assume somebody else will do it, or we don't want to offend someone.

We don't want to appear judgmental or be like that guy with the sandwich board and the bullhorn standing on the street corner shouting about sin when you're just trying to go to Disneyland. Maybe we don't have confidence ourselves in the truth or we don't feel equipped. That's what we're gonna look at today. Now, for a bit of context, since we're parachuting in on this verse today, I need to remind you of a couple of things. First, this is the apostle Peter writing to a persecuted church that has been scattered mostly throughout Asia sometime around sixty three AD.

But he's writing to a persecuted church and he's not telling them to hide and he's not telling them to rebel against a wicked government or culture. He is telling them to steal themselves and to be ready to suffer for doing what is right. Peter offers that Christ's very life was an example of how to live in light of his sacrifice. That we are set free not so that we might still be subject to to fleshly desires and worldly whims, but so that we might rightly pursue Christ and those around us. That our eternal hope is already secure in him.

So let's look. We're gonna focus in on verse 15. This will be our key verse for today from which we're gonna get our points. But sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, but do this with gentleness and respect. So the first thing we noticed today here is this is instructions on how to honor Christ as Lord of your life.

Now that leads to an important caveat here that we have to discuss for a couple of minutes. Because this is an these are imperatives. And there are a lot of imperatives in the Bible. Roughly one third of the the verbs in the epistles are imperatives. That means they're they're telling you to do something or not to do something.

They're not to be ignored. And yet, because of our sinful hearts, because of our self righteous tendencies, we can also make the opposite mistake of over indexing our identity based on our performance of those imperatives. Most of us wouldn't say that out loud or even really think it consciously, but but internally what that can sound like is, I'm a good boy because today I had a quiet time or I gave money to the church or I wasn't controlled by anger or didn't give in the lust. Therefore, God has to accept me. The opposite can also be true, where we can assume that because I failed on some construct that there's no way that God could love me.

And church, that's just not the case. The fact is we have to always be cognizant that we do not earn our salvation. You've heard it before, but I'm gonna say it again. Because each of us are adopted as sons and daughters of the eternal king, and you do nothing to earn your adoption. And yet it inevitably changes us.

If you come into a great inheritance and nothing changes, then you haven't realized the scale, the enormity of what has occurred and it's the same thing with God. So we always start at the empty cross. I'm sorry, at the at the cross and the empty tomb. Because while we are saved by faith alone, by grace alone, a faith that justifies is never alone. Let me say that again to make it clear.

We are saved by grace alone, by faith alone, but the faith that justifies is never alone. It inevitably produces the fruits of righteousness. So we dwell on God's love for us every single day until it creates a default operating system for us based on God's love. That's sanctification. And we never outgrow that.

You could be writing a PhD thesis in theology and you would still need to remind yourself of the core gospel every single day. We never outgrow it and we keep preaching it to our self and those around us. You have to remember that most of the time when the when the Bible records the gospel being preached, it's actually being preached to people that are already committed followers of Jesus. That reminds us that we just tell each other all the time about God's love for us in Jesus and his sealing of us in the Holy Spirit. So with that in mind, we'll we'll hop back to the text.

And we're gonna go a little out of order from this English translation here, but here's our outline for today. And yes, I did the alliteration thing again. So whether you like it or not, it is what it is. First point, attitude. But do this with gentleness and respect.

Second point, answer. We're going to take a quick look at basic apologetics. Third point, aspiration to share the hope that is in you. Then we'll tie it up with application and close with the text itself. So that's a road map.

That's where we're going today. So first point, attitude. Peter says, but do this with gentleness and respect. Like so many things in the Christian life, this is very simple but incredibly difficult. It's to recognize that everyone around us was made in God's image.

And that you were saved not because of anything that you do of your own merit, but because God chose you and loved you. You can always remember that you yourself were an enemy of God according to Romans five. That you were and I was actively waging war against God in my sin. Whether I was aware of it or not, that was the truth. There is no neutral party.

There is no Switzerland in this. And yet, God went and laid his life down for us anyway. And because of that sacrifice, we can now do the same for those of us those that are around us. And what Peter says today is that if we get if we get trampled on for doing the right things that we should do for the kingdom, we consider that a blessing. How counter cultural is that idea?

Right? Parallel verse on this is Philippians one twenty nine, for it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for him. How comfortable does that make you Americans? It's unconstitutional basically. But in my flesh, and I need this because in my flesh I can get so wrapped around the axle trying to make sure that I get mine, that I get what I deserve, that I can forget my Christian calling.

And since we're made of the same stuff, I bet that's true for you too. I've had to work so hard to gain ground in this area of my life. And yet Peter says to us that we should expect to suffer for doing right and be okay with it. And that only makes sense in light of eternity. If we trust God to sort out good and evil in his ultimate and righteous judgment, then and only then can we relax and let God be sovereign.

Then we can truly focus on loving God and loving others the way that we are commanded to. So when our text today says, but do this with gentleness and respect, I want you to think about how radical just basic kindness and respect are in our current culture, especially when it comes to somebody that you disagree with. Right? This is straight from the text and we can also look at the way that Jesus interfaced with people that were supposed to be his political or ideological enemies. He was kind.

He was respectful. So you don't have to be combative. In discussions with people that don't know God, we are ambassadors for Christ. We are of another country. Our passport, our allegiance, our heart, it's of another country than the one that you currently reside in.

And you're never gonna win an argument by badgering somebody. Even if you could win that way, it would be like winning the battle but losing the war. Church, we're not trying to win arguments, we're trying to win people. That happens with gentleness and respect. Be patient.

See the person for who they are. Love them as God loves them. And you can also keep in mind that when we provide a defense for the faith, that word that we're translating defense for today is apologia in the Greek. It's where we get the word apologetics which is the the Christian discipline of of kind of what we're talking about today. But don't think that it's like the modern word of making an apology.

We're not saying that we're sorry for the faith. It's more like building a legal case, if that makes sense. Because the faith needs about as much protection as a lion does. If you're unfortunate enough to have to go to a zoo, there is a barrier that is between you and the animal. Right?

Sometimes that's to protect the animal from you. Right? You don't need protection from a penguin, it needs a protection from you and you trying to take a selfie to send to your kids or whatever. But when you go to the lion's den, right, when you when you see the lion, there's no doubt as who's as to who's receiving the protection. That lion ain't getting protected from you anymore than you are from a doodle puppy.

Right? And that's what we're presenting. We present the lion of Judah. When we present a reason for the hope that we have in accordance with our text today, we're saying, come and see. So that when people have an a personal encounter with Jesus, we're introducing them to the living lion of Judah.

And when you have a personal encounter with Jesus, it cannot help but change you. Similarly, in the the parable of the scattered seed. Right? It's just our job to scatter seed. It's God's job to grow plants.

So we scatter seed. We let God be sovereign over the outcomes. But what seed do we scatter? Glad you asked because that's our next point. So we looked at attitude, but gentleness and respect.

Or do this with gentleness and respect. Answer. This is we're gonna take a quick look at Christian apologetics. And before we get into this, I want to let you know that I'm just not gonna do this part justice because this is a whole academic field of study. I'm giving you the trailer to the movie.

But at a high level, I want each of you as you leave here today to know that the faith is not an abandonment or absence of reason. That's a cheap straw man that you'll hear in a freshman philosophy class. But it's just not true. It's so common in our culture as an assumption that I've even heard stand up comedians say it as if everybody knows this. And it's not true.

Now, the idea that there is a a a reasonable logic behind the faith. This is a passion of mine because this is part of what brought me to take the faith more seriously when I was in my twenties. Previously, I had thought that faith was just something that we we had to make us feel comfortable about the big and and and discomforting questions about life that couldn't be answered. And maybe you identify with that. Maybe that's where you are today.

And if this is something that you want to dive into further, I've got a few resources up here that I would highly recommend. You're welcome to take a picture of it. If you want to email me afterwards, I'll send send you the list. We have several of these in the in the church library as well. If you if you've never looked at the the reasonable, like scientific, logical, philosophical evidence for Christian belief, More Than a Carpenter by Josh McDowell is such a great place to start.

It's a tiny little book, super easy to read, great place to start. Tactics by Greg Kochel. If you are a Christian and you are interested in how to share your faith with people in a loving and winsome way. Tactics by Greg Kochel is phenomenal. The other books there are are great as well.

I would also point you to the one at the bottom. Gotquestions.org is a website that everybody should go to on occasion. It is curated, well thought out answers to the hard questions that surround the Christian faith. But I'm going to attempt to give you a crash course in all of these very briefly today. But if you recall nothing else from today's message, I want you to know this, everything starts and ends with Jesus.

Right? I know that's really controversial to say on a Sunday from a pulpit, but but but it's true. Because as we're gonna look at some of these logical bits, it it really comes down to Jesus. Christ is the foundation of our faith. He is the and for those who do not believe, he is the stone of stumbling and the rock of offense.

We leave it to Jesus to be the rock of offense. Paul says in first Corinthians two that when he went to the Corinthian church, he he proclaimed to know nothing but Christ and him crucified. And that can be our aim as well. But there are some basic facts that you need to know. There are three basic historical facts that almost all reputable historians agree upon.

And I'm talking about whether they're secular or whether they're Christian. Three basic facts. One, Jesus was a historical person, biographically similar to what the gospels claim. Two, he was crucified for claiming to be God by a conspiracy of the religious Jews and the ruling Roman authorities. Three, his followers claimed that on the third day in accordance with hundreds of years of prophecy and with Christ's own warnings to his followers, he was resurrected.

Not healed, not resuscitated, resurrected. Okay? So, those three claims. And they're they're phrased in a very specific way so that all historians would generally agree with that. Does that make sense?

The Christian faith is much more specific than that because every person has to look at these three facts and has to make a decision. Every single one of his followers died proclaiming the truth of his resurrection, and they gained nothing material from it. That would make it one of the strangest conspiracies of all time. You generally don't buy into a lie that doesn't benefit you at all materially and gets your head cut off. That's a bad sales pitch.

Unless it's true. That was really dramatic timing. Because plenty of people have claimed to be God, but never have the followers kept up that belief in their deity after their death, and none of them have ever claimed resurrection. And yet Jesus showed himself to over 500 people at once as it's recorded in first Corinthians for 15. And we have to do something with this.

Even we as Christians, in our flesh, we tend to want to tame down the claims of Christ's deity so that we can retain some semblance of control over our own lives. Jesus told us this would be the case in Matthew seven. And he said that the the road to eternal life is narrow, that the gate is small. What I mean is that most people, even when shown a rational basis for faith, will not willingly submit to Jesus as Lord. That can also be true for those of us that attend church our entire lives.

And that may sound harsh or unloving to say, but I firmly believe that one of the things that keeps the most people from becoming a Christian is thinking they already have Christ when they don't. If you don't truly know him, if you don't truly love Jesus, if you don't truly love his people, I'm trying to tell you in love that you're not a Christian. Come experience the true blessing that's available. And this is rooted in in in scripture in second Corinthians thirteen five. Paul encourages each and every one of us to evaluate our faith, to test ourselves is the the words that he uses.

And CS Lewis popularized this notion for the broad culture about seventy five years ago in that mere Christianity book that was up there earlier, in a paradigm that he popularized called Lord, Liar, and Lunatic. The idea is given these three basic historical facts, the logical conclusion is either Jesus was a good man or a bad man. And if he was a good man, he's Lord of all. Then he is the God that he claimed to be. If he was a bad man, then he was either a liar or a lunatic.

But either way, he couldn't have been a good teacher. He couldn't have just been a good example for us. Because good teachers don't claim to be God. Good examples don't don't say that we have to eat their flesh and drink their blood. So for me, he's my Lord.

That means that if I'm convinced that something is of Christ, I'm going to pursue it until proven otherwise. And if you're not operating under that paradigm, you're you're effectively living as if either Jesus is a liar or a lunatic. So we start there. We learn these three truths and then when someone asks me, hey, why do you believe in biblical Christianity? This is it.

Jesus. There are tons of great other arguments and we'll look at some of them. But this is the one that I have the most confidence in and this is the one that roots to biblical Christianity. That way I don't have to have a perfect answer for every bit of minutiae about the dinosaurs. I can point to Christ.

If I'm having a big conversation with a friend, I can say, hey, what do you think about Jesus? And I can let them talk. And if they say he was a good teacher, you know, what kind of good teacher claims to be the only way to God? What good what good example says I am the way, the truth, and the life? No one can come to the father except through me.

So we be kind, we be gentle, we ask questions, we focus on Jesus. Now, I also want you to know that there are rational explanations for several of the academic disciplines and philosophical disciplines that are commonly held as being antithetical to the Christian faith. So, this is these questions all focus around the idea of why is existence the specific way that it is? Things like the big bang, evolution, objective morality, the fine tuning of the universe for existence, the history of the church, the archaeological accuracy of the Bible itself. These are entire fields of study that are fascinating for exploration, but they're not our purview today in terms of going into depth.

I've heard it said before as a summary of all of this kind of idea that Christians believe in the virgin birth of Christ and atheists believe in the virgin birth of the universe. You have to pick which miracle you believe. But either way, you're still believing a miracle. My favorite analogy on this is, let's say you're on a beach vacation, which as I look outside and it's raining in January, sounds kind of nice right now even as a skier. But you're walking on the beach, there's the warm sand on your toes, and you and you come across a Rolex.

And it's in perfect condition. And you notice the complexity of the time and the date mechanism. You notice that the bezel and the band are polished and color coordinated. You notice that the second hand, as well as all of the time mechanism, is perfectly calibrated. That there are 12 luminescent dots exactly where the hours would be.

Now, is it logical to conclude that time plus matter plus chance is what brought that watch to be? No. Or would you assume that someone had intentionally put that watch together in a dedicated factory with craftsmanship and care? Christians hold that the divine watchmaker is not just a watchmaker, but has shown himself to us through thousands of years of revelation and given himself to us through the Holy Spirit and through his perfect eternal son. And even further, as existence is infinitely more complicated than any watch could ever be, who sets the big bang in motion?

Who's the big banger? If we're only products of evolution, who gets to say what's right and wrong? Who gets to say what's good and evil? That's a bigger question than we think. In a culture today that wants nothing to do with God, but wants to call anything that it deems proper as good or evil or right or wrong.

That is a really good question to bring to a friend in humility. Right? Not combative in humility. Oh, what such and such is doing is terrible. What where do we get our basis for good and bad?

It's a great conversation to have. And you don't have to win the argument. Remember, you're trying to win a friend. So there's all these big questions and they're all fun conversations to have. But even if you were to have mastery over all of these disciplines, you are unlikely to argue someone into the faith.

It's been said that if you can argue someone into the faith, can be argued out of it. And several of these arguments are actually more about theism than they are about biblical Christianity. But I just want you to be prepared, each and every one of you, as you walk out of here to know that there is a rational, logical, and philosophical basis for Christian belief. But don't ground your faith in a philosophy. Ground your faith in a person, Jesus.

Because more commonly, even beyond that, before the person trusts Christ, they're gonna trust the Christian in front of them. And that's where you share the hope that is in you. And this is our third point. This is aspiration. So we did attitude, gentleness and respect.

We did an answer with apologetics, and this is aspiration. God has put hope in you through the Holy Spirit so that you might share it with other people. Plain and simple. Share your story. And how do we structure our story?

I use a three point outline for anybody's testimony. There's other ways to do it. This one works for me, and I have the face mic today. So three points. Who you were before Christ?

How you came to Christ? And what your life has been like after? It's very hard to argue with personal transformation. Like the blind man healed by Jesus in John nine. Our personal testimony say, I don't know.

But what I do know is that I once was blind and now I see. You want to meet the guy that did it? That's appealing. That's attractive. And the apostle Paul is probably my favorite historical example of a personal transformation, but the person in front of you doesn't know Paul.

They know you. So you share your story. And this three step testimony works really well for pretty much everybody. Here's mine in a minute and I think you can use this idea for a thirty second version or a thirty minute version depending on the context. By way of example, here's mine in a minute or less.

I grew up attending church, but I couldn't have articulated what it meant to be a Christian. If you'd asked me, would have said something about the 10 commandments and Jesus and being a good person and that would have been about it. But I was successful in all the ways the world told me to be. I was successful in work. I made a bunch of money.

I was I was I had a bunch of friends, and I was living for the lusts of the flesh, but I was miserable. But God, in his kindness, he put people in my life that loved me enough to challenge me and introduce me to the real Jesus. So I dove deep into apologetics. I studied God's word for the first time and I realized that Christianity was not some empty religion. That it was a relationship first and foremost with the creator God who had given himself to us.

And that has made all the difference in my life. Because whereas I was once subject to my identity being based on performance, now I can rest in the fact that I am adopted as a child of God. And gosh, I still need that grace. Because I make mistakes all the time. I blew it all the time.

Still do. Let's use the active voice. But I'm met by the grace and love of Jesus. So that's my testimony. And here's the thing, no one's ever gotten angry with me for sharing it, ever.

The worst thing that can happen is they say something like, good for you, or I'm glad that works for you. And you need to be prepared. That's actually the most common response by a lot. So don't, like, oh, I'm gonna share, and it's gonna go great, and then, Most of the time, people just say, good for you. But now you've been faithful, you've done your part, and you have no idea how God's gonna use that years down the road.

Because we have to remember in all of this that we are not sovereign, God is. His timing is perfect, ours is not. So we remember those three steps for our outline. Who you were before Christ, what brought you to Christ, and what your life has been like since. And you'll need to practice it a few times before you share it comfortably.

But I would encourage you guys right now, set a reminder, write a note to yourself to write out your own testimony and share it first with your family, first with your community group, whatever it looks like, so that you've practiced it once or twice. And then be prepared to give the hope or give the reason for the hope that you have. So those are our three points for today. We did an attitude of gentleness and respect, an answer for the reason for the faith, and an aspiration to share the hope that you have. Now, I don't know when the next time I'm gonna get to do this is, so I always want to send you out the door with something practical.

I want something that you can start with today. Because I know from personal experience that by the time you get to lunch or even by the time you make it into that parking whatever internal motivation has been ginned up by the speaker might fade and probably will. So instead, right now, you get to pick something that you're going to work towards. So, I've got 10 things here that we'll go through very quickly. One, know that there is a rational basis for the faith as we discussed.

It starts with Jesus. We aren't following the myths. We aren't following the dreams of one man like Mohammed or Joseph Smith. This is the revealed prophecy in the 66 books of the Bible written over two thousand years by about 45 different human authors, most of whom never met each other. And they all tell one story.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whoever may believe in him will not perish but have eternal life. That's John three sixteen. Two, be prepared to share your testimony. One minute version, thirty second version, who you were before Christ, what brought you to Christ, what your life has been like since. And it's not just for the person you're sharing with, it's good for you too.

It's like celebrating a birthday or renewing a wedding vow. It's a reminder that you need. Third, ask questions. Greg Kochel's book tactics that I mentioned earlier is the best at explaining this. But the quick and dirty version is just keep asking questions.

That will give you enough confidence to have the conversations that are meaningful. You can steer them in a direction with your questions. So, what does that cross necklace mean to you? Hey, what does that coexist bumper sticker mean on your car? Hey, if if you were to die today, on a scale of one to 10, how sure are you that you would go to heaven?

If if God were to ask why why should he let you in? Would you like to be a 10? Because the Bible tells us how. When they say something like, I'm not religious, but I am spiritual, you go, hey, what does that mean to you? How did you arrive at that conclusion?

And you're just tugging on the threads of a sweater, And you're showing that you care about that person. Fourth practice. Role play your testimony or even apologetics with a friend. And if that sounds too daunting, this is the most redeeming possible use for the AI models. I have a pretty funny conversation going with Grock right now, where I I I prompted it by saying, hey, help me practice sharing my faith in in in the vein of of Greg Kochel's book Tactics.

And we do these back and forth role plays, and it's really embarrassing, so I won't share it. But, I would commend it to you. Five. Ask if you can pray for people. This is my go to.

This is low stakes. This is low hanging fruit. So, if I'm at my men's breakfast Wednesdays at 06:30 at the verge, if we're wherever we are, if if I'm out with somebody, or even if I'm sitting next to a guy on an airplane, or even if I'm standing at a hockey rink like I was yesterday watching eight year olds run into each other. You go, hey, what's going on with life? How can I be praying for you?

Now, most of the time when you ask that question, people are going to stammer and feel a little bit awkward. But they'll eventually answer it and they're gonna know two things. One, that you're a Christian and two, that you care about them. And then follow-up on your promise, pray for them, and then follow-up with them. One of my pet peeves that we as Christians do is say that we'll be praying for something, and then we don't.

Six, be kind. Living with the truth in mind that this world is not our home, that everyone was made in the image of God, and that everyone has an eternal destiny. That helps me overcome my anxiety because now it reminds me of the stakes. When we share our faith with the people around us, it helps us to fulfill the great commandment in a way that almost nothing else does in terms of how uniquely it satisfies both. In terms of loving God and loving our neighbor.

Does that make sense? Seventh, live. This is more from first Peter as a whole than from our specific key text today. But when people look at your life, do they understand the blessing that you have received? Do they want what you have in Jesus?

Or do you just live the same as they do and happen to come to church on Sundays? Does looking at your life help them to to understand the blessing that's available in Jesus? Do you grieve differently? Do you serve differently? Do you suffer differently?

Can we live differently as a church and have the aroma of Christ? Eighth, pray. Before, during, and after sharing with somebody. This is realizing God's sovereignty and being faithful to biblical commands. Ask God for help.

You aren't doing this alone. For being honest, you're barely doing it. God has used throughout history some of the least likely evangelists and sometimes through objectively bad messaging to create profound change. Jonah is my favorite biblical example of this. Three days and Nineveh will perish.

Whole town comes to faith in God. That's a bad message, and I've taught bad messages. Ninth team up. Jesus sent his disciples out in pairs. So let's team up.

This is my email address. A bunch of people in the first service said they regretted that they had not written this down. So go ahead and write it down or take a picture or whatever. I don't take offense if you pull your phone up. If there's something speaking to you right now about doing this in a more intentional way, I'm not gonna sign you up for anything, I'm not gonna ask for anything on your calendar, I'm just trying to kind of figure out a roster of who's interested in doing this a little bit more intentionally to take advantage of some of the incredibly unique opportunities that we have here in Jackson.

Does that make sense? I'm not gonna rush you out on with the sandwich board and the bullhorn. That's day two. Tenth, just start. My friend Caleb who always helps me edit and craft my messages, he has the saying that awkward is better than silent.

And I just love that. Because awkward is at least faithful. So have confidence that the Holy Spirit is going with you. Luke 12 says that the Holy Spirit will actually give you the words to say. Just start.

Awkward's better than silent. But I'll tell you, sharing your faith will bring a depth to your relationship with God that you did not have before if you've never done it. If you are feeling far from God, always remember God didn't move, you did. So you wanna come back closer to him? Start talking to people about Jesus and share the hope that you have.

And we'll close with this. Because it is the hope that we share in our apologetics, in our testimony with gentleness and respect. It's the hope that gets believers through another week where there is a broken world all around us, where sickness and despair and anxiety and depression rule around us, and yet we know this world is not all that there is. So what's our hope? Our hope is that while we were enemies of God, he died for us.

Enemies now adopted as children. God loved you and me so much that knowing everything we would ever do, he still came after us. That thing that you did last night or last week that you swore you would never do again, God knows about it and he died for it. The very God that made you out of love. When you took off running away from him like a child hell bent on rebellion, he came running after you with love in his eyes.

You wanna fall more in love with Jesus? Build the mental image of Jesus in your mind. For me, it's that perfect, strong and gentle Jesus. He told us he was God and we killed him for it. The most humbling thing that helps me is I imagine that I'm the one that drives the nails through his wrist.

Right? Because when he was strung up on the cross, he would push off the nails in his feet probably to pull on the nails on his hands so that he could get just enough of a shallow breath to keep oxygen in it. And I think about my sin driving the nails through his wrist and Jesus looking at me in the eyes and saying, it's okay Brad. I love you anyway. This was always the plan.

Because it didn't stop at death. On the third day, Jesus walked out of that grave. And if we would but submit to him as Lord of our life, we get to walk out of that grave with him. That is the hope that we have. That the world is conquered, not by a sword, not by the strength of logic or arguments, but by a person in sacrificial death in love.

So church, we get to have joy. We get to live out of it, and we get to share the hope that we have when we go forth in joy and in love. Thank you, guys. Have a great week of worship.