Evangelization calls us to spread the gospel

Pastor Linn: 00:48 Hey how are you doing Cornerstone? Man, glad you're here.

Pastor Linn: 00:54 We're kicking off a brand new series called Everyone. Before we start that I just want to really quickly shout to our San Tan campus, to our Scottsdale campus. Scottdale's in their brand new digs again this week so that's very cool. And then just five o'clock man you, all of you that are going to be here just welcome and glad you're part of the conversation that we're having today at Cornerstone. So a new series called Everyone and Everyone is about sharing our faith. Is it important that we let everyone know about this Jesus that you and I have hopefully figured out and discovered in our lives. And guys I get it. I get that it can get a little weird and a little uncomfortable to be out front with your faith and very often the reason that's hard is because of other Christians. There are pastors who failed. And then there's Christians who wear those weird t-shirts. You know what I'm talking about right? Matter of fact I found a couple of Christian T-shirts for you here. Here's one: "Jesus answers me-mail." Me-male. All right. Ooh. Just tellin' 'ya, San Tan got that, they're laughing like crazy. Chandler's a little slow. Alright. "Jesus and germs have something in common. You can't see them but they're there." "Life without Jesus is like an unsharpened pencil. There's no point." And then you know we've all pulled behind the Christian or the bumper sticker that says, "In case of rapture this car will be unmanned." And you know...

Pastor Linn: 02:41 You just got to at some point say, "Is that helping or is that hurting?" I mean as I leave people are going, "Man, I just don't want to be one of them." Right? And then the worst, the worst of the worst, is the guy who goes and stands in the courtyard at the university campus and just, you know, "turn or burn" and just screaming at people walk walking by. That guy, that guy makes me want to buy a Christian T-shirt. Mine would just say, "I'm not with him." You know. And then add to it guys, add to that the fact that we do live in a culture that says, "Hey if you're a Christian and you think Jesus is the only way then you're narrow and judgmental. How dare you impose your beliefs on me." And guys let's just be honest. This whole thing about sharing our faith is politically incorrect. It's uncomfortable. It has a way of pushing people away sometimes. And so you and I are left to the moment go well I'm just not sure. I'm just not sure it's worth the effort. But more than that I'm not sure that it's worth the pain of being out there with my faith. And so the discussion we're going to have the next four weeks, and I hope we're we're going to ultimately land together is a place that just simply says, "Hey, it is mission critical. It is essential that every one of us figure out some way, some way in which we are visibly and verbally being the expression of Jesus in this world. Matter of fact the thing we're going to talk about today is simply this idea: Everyone, everyone needs someone to help them find Jesus. Everyone needs someone who has the courage, who steps across the line, who risks a friendship. Everyone needs someone in order to find Jesus, to find what you and I have found and discovered in our lives.

Pastor Linn: 04:39 Grab your bibles because Jesus has this very discussion with a group of people one day. It's Matthew chapter 5. If you're not familiar, if you go to the back of your Bible and work to the left you're going to find this book of Matthew, Matthew chapter 5 starting in Verse 13. It's an interesting passage. It, it's a moment in which Jesus is teaching a huge crowd. Matter of fact it's right in the middle of a message that we often refer to as the Beatitudes. It's probably the longest sermon of Jesus that we have recorded and in the middle of it he has this conversation with the crowd about why it's important that they publicly live out their faith and are willing to share their faith with people who don't have it yet.

Pastor Linn: 05:31 It's Matthew chapter 5 starting in verse 13. Here's what Jesus says, "You, you are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl, instead they put it on its stand and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way let your light shine before others that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven." Here's the part of the passage I think is interesting. You realize when Jesus says you are the salt of the world, you are the light, he says this not to professional Christians. He didn't say it to his disciples. He didn't say it to the clergy. He said it to the crowd and he said, "Look, if you're followers of me, if you're going to do this journey with me you just need to know that mission critical, one of the things we're going to do together is we're going to choose to be salt and light in this world. And you, you are someone's best hope of ever figuring me out." So be salty and be "lighty". Is that a word? Lighty? Be bright. OK, all right. "But the be that," Jesus is saying, right? And he said it's up to all of us not just some of us to be salt and light in the world.

Pastor Linn: 07:15 So let's go back to the passage. Okay here we go, verse 13, again he says, "You are the salt of the earth but if salt loses its saltiness how can it be made... can salt even lose it saltiness? I don't know. But it's no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled and he's saying, "Hey guys, if you as a follower of me lose your saltiness I'm not even sure what we're doing." Right? He's saying, "We're, we're way, way, way off plan. I don't get what your life is about if your life is not about being salt." Jesus says. So here's the first: Everyone needs someone to be salt for them. Here, here is what salt does, salt changes our mind. Salt ends up changing our impression. So you take a piece of beef that may seem bland and you put salt on it and suddenly subtle flavors become bright. Suddenly what seemed to be tasteless is now full of flavor. Salt changes our impression about food and salty Christians, you ready? Change people's impression about Jesus.

Pastor Linn: 08:33 See there are people out there that think you're weird, you realize that right? And they just go, "Ooh, Christ follower, you're weird," and if you could just pretend to be normal in front of them it would change their impression. No, you get there's that moment though right? That someone says, "All Christians are just weak and they, you know, they just need a crutch." And when they run into finally a Christian who's healthy, who Jesus has restored and healed and changed. All of sudden they are going, "I thought all Christians, all Christians were just these needy people," and all of a sudden discovering they are some of the healthiest, strongest people I've ever met. See some people out there are going to go, "You know Christians, all they do is take their head off. They don't think, they don't reason, they faith everything, they just jump off that blind leap of faith." And suddenly they meet an intelligent Christian. Someone who could actually articulate their faith and they go, "Wow, I had no idea that people like that were actually Christ followers." Salt, ready? Salty Christians change people's impression about Jesus.

Pastor Linn: 09:43 Think about this. I guarantee you every one of us in this room had someone who was salt to us. You had someone who at the right moment when you were struggling, when you had questions, when life was at the right moment, spoke into your life. Invited you to church, said something that suddenly hit your heart and you went, "Wow, you know maybe there is room in my life for this God thing." I guarantee you can't tell your story of coming to Christ without telling the story of individuals who were salt to you. Who changed your mind, who moved you forward with Jesus?

Pastor Linn: 10:29 It's interesting. Years ago I was serving as a youth pastor and my wife was actually working more out in the secular world, she was selling computers to like Fortune 500 companies and she just made a point. She said, "Hey, any time I'm out there one of the first things I'm going to do as I'm sitting in front of the CEO of these major companies, I'm just going to put it out there. Hey, I just want you know I'm a Christ follower. And then in her case she'd takes it up another notch because she'd go, "And my husband's a pastor." And what she was trying to do, and she would just say this unapologetically, I want to put myself in a position where every single thing I do I know I'm representing Jesus because they know I'm a Christ follower. And so I've already established that and now I know I've got to live it right. I want them to know I'm not going to lie to them. I want them to know I'm not going to cheat 'em. I'm not going to steal from them. If I have to tell them bad news I'll tell them bad news. But they're going to know who I am. And she did that not only with their customers. She did that with everybody who worked in her company, and there happened to be a gal by the name of Becky. And one day Becky, knowing that Lisa was a Christian because she put it out there, said to her, "Hey, I'm really struggling. I've got my daughter and my daughter all the way up through junior high was this wonderful beautiful amazing little girl. She's a freshman in high school and it's like her brain has fallen out of her head and she's just gone crazy. I mean she's hanging with the wrong crowd. She's all of a sudden all sorts of stuff is showing at home. She's getting in trouble everywhere she goes. I just, I can't even reason. I don't know what to do with her. And matter of fact, you ready for this? I have grounded her for the entire summer. Because her dad and I are out working. So she's not allowed to leave the house for the entire summer because I just can't trust her."

Pastor Linn: 12:18 And in that moment Lisa simply said, "Hey, this is going to sound a little out of the box. Would you consider grounding her for one week? We've got this trip we take with our youth group. My husband's a youth pastor and it's just kind of a camp out trip but the really, really cool part is that you get up in the woods and you just have to kind of deal with God and deal with life a little bit out of the context of normal life. Would you consider having your daughter go to break away, go to this weekend camping trip?"

Pastor Linn: 12:49 To which the mom said, "I'm so desperate I'll even try God." I mean it's that bad. That's how low we've sunk. Ok so. You know even if she ends up in one of those kooks I don't care. It's better than where she is right. So I messaged Annie and I said, "Annie can I tell everybody your story in church?" And so here's, here's what she wrote back. She said, "Hi Linn, man that would be completely fine." She says, "I think my mom shared with Lisa what a troublemaker I was and that I was grounded for all summer while they were at work. Lisa suggested that I go to breakaway, the camping trip, with the youth group. We went to one meeting on a Sunday so that I could know some faces before the trip. During the trip Bill started talking to me about Jesus and salvation. Now Bill was a young person who had been in our youth group, he's probably 5 years older than Annie and now he was serving as an intern in the youth group. Bill started talking to me about Jesus and salvation and after a lot of questions I accepted Christ on that trip. My sweet mom drove me to midweek youth group and Sundays after that." Now you've got to understand they lived in Ontario, we were in Yucaipa so it's forty five minutes one way. Mom would have to sit outside the church and wait for her to go to youth group for nearly two hours and then drive her the 45 minutes back. But she didn't care. She was seeing a change in her daughter. "My sweet mom would drive me to midweek youth group and Sundays after that. She got more than she bargained for (smiley face) when her daughter became a Christian. Amy Neely one of the girls in the group and discipled me for a few months after I became a Christian as well. I was baptized about eight months after accepting Christ. Then in college I started working in junior high and high school ministry through church and Young Life and I loved it. Right now I stay at home with my three kiddos. Rick and I will be celebrating our 18th, Rick is her husband, our 18th anniversary this year. We've been at Rock Point Church. Now here's what you gotta know. Remember Bill the intern, the kid who grew up in my youth group? The kid who led her to the Lord, he ended up starting a church in Queen Creek called Rock Point that right now runs about 3000 people on a Sunday. They, hang on hang on we're not there yet. All right. You're Wooing way too early. All right. OK. So I've been attending Rock Point since the third week of their Bible study," so now she's a church planter, "and I'm a home group leader. I was on staff at the church for a couple of years but really wanted to stay home and we adopted Brock. Rick is on the worship team, we are surrounded by an incredible church family. It's funny that you asked about this because our youngest, he's 4, asked us all how old we were when we asked Jesus in our hearts. Rick my husband was four, Brock was four, Claire, my daughter was four, I was 15. Brock was shocked at how old I was when I gave my life to Christ. And he gave me a look that said, 'What took you so long?' And I got to share my story with him. How I grew up going to church only on Christmas and Easter and was exposed to what it meant or look like to have God in my life. But that changed when I went on a summer trip."

Pastor Linn: 16:27 There you go. Guys here's why I share that story. I share that story because you realize that whole story hinges on Lisa being salt in her workplace. And guys she didn't, she didn't do anything remarkable, she didn't suffer for Jesus. All she did was let it be known I'm a Christ follower. And when one of her co-workers was struggling with life she simply pushed in enough to say, "Hey, would you ever consider letting your daughter go to camp?" And think about this, how different, how different is the life of that little girl because Lisa chose to be salt. She's married to an amazing Christian man. She's absolutely eyeballs deep in church teaching her children about God. I mean how different. Because somebody simply said, "I'll be salt to the people around me, I'll do whatever I can do to help them change their minds about who my Jesus is. So here's the question. Are you salt? Are you salt? Are people around you moving closer to Christ because of your influence in their lives? Are you salt?

Pastor Linn: 18:05 And then Jesus comes back. Grab your bibles again. This is verse 14 and Jesus says, "You (us), you are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden." Now why does he go twice? Because the effects of salt and the effects of light are different. And let's be honest, light has the capacity to illuminate and show things, but light has the capacity to offend. And he says, "Look here's the deal. If you're going to, if you're going to do this you've got to be willing to say, 'Look, the, the when of helping someone see is so great, and it's greater than the risk of offending. And so I'm willing to turn on the light so to speak. I'm willing to be light for the people around me so that they can see my Jesus better.'"

Pastor Linn: 19:03 Let me see if this helps. Imagine that there was a tribe of cave dwellers. They've lived their entire lives in the darkest darkest depths of the cave. And then someone says, "Someone ought to help those people, I mean living in darkness that's gotta be a hard place to be." You're stumbling over things you don't know you're stumbling over. You can't even see your loved ones clearly... someone ought to help. And so someone goes down into the cave, finds the cave dwellers who've lived there all their lives and turns on a light. Now you realize in that moment you're going to get two reactions to the light being turned on. Part of the group is going to go, "Wow I had no idea. I spent my entire life stumbling over that stalactite, who knew, who knew? It was as simple as walking around. Who knew. Thank you, thank you for turning on the light, that is so helpful. You've just changed everything for me because of the light."

Pastor Linn: 20:05 But you realize there's also going to be a group in there who says, "Oh what are you doing? Turn that thing off. That thing burns my eyes. That's so offensive, that's so judgmental of you to turn on the light. How do you know I don't like the darkness?" And you realize that some are going to be offended. Some will be bothered by the light. And what Jesus is saying here about the light is that everyone needs someone who's got enough courage to turn on the light for the hope that some will be helped knowing that some will be bothered.

Pastor Linn: 20:42 See and guys this is that moment when you've got to find enough courage to open your mouth. So you say Francis of Assisi, you've ever heard who he is? How many? OK, a couple people. St. Francis of Assisi said this, he said, "Hey, to everyone preach the gospel and if necessary use words." He was wrong. You'll always have to use words. You can't live a good enough life to get someone to Jesus. If you could then you could be a Mormon, if you could you'd be a Jehovah's Witness. If you could you'd just be a good Buddhist. The reality is you can't live a good enough life for someone to find Jesus. But what you can do is live a good enough life that your words are valid when you open your mouth. And you've got to have the courage to say, "Hey, I know we're at that point and I'm just going to speak it. I'm just going to say out loud who this Jesus is and what he's done for me," and I'm just going to do it. And you realize part of this is, is having the courage to say, "Look, I get it, I get it, I get it. I get, I get that you believe if you have sex with everybody you know that somehow that's going to build you up and you're going to feel whole. And I'm just telling you it doesn't work." Now I know, I know you think if you can buy a new car and get to a bigger house and get the better nameplate in your office, and not there's anything wrong with a bigger car, but you do realize the hole in your heart is not shaped like Benjamin Franklin. The hole in your heart is shaped like Jesus. And you're never, never, never going to find satisfaction in stuff. And simply say out loud, "This is light." Knowing that there will always be two groups of people. The ones who now see better and the ones who are bothered by it. But guys I just need to tell you what Jesus is saying is it's worth the risk. That you and I have got to be willing to risk the offense. We are willing to risk somebody not understanding for the sake of the ones who will see in the light.

Pastor Linn: 22:52 And I know, I know we've got Christians in this room and you go, "Linn you don't understand, my faith is personal. See my faith, my faith is between me and God. I just got to leave it there. I'm kind of a secret agent Christian you know. Kind of sneak around the back. No one knows." Aren't you glad, aren't you glad that whoever it was who influenced and touched your life wasn't a secret agent Christian? Because you wouldn't be here if they were. And Jesus says, "Be light." So here's the question. Are you being enough light? Now guys I'm not, I'm not, I'm not talking about burn their eyeballs out bright, no I'm not talking about that. "Turn or burn", that's not what I'm saying. I'm saying are you enough light that the people around you are seeing Jesus more clearly because you're in their life? That's what I'm asking. Are you enough light that people are seeing your Jesus clearer than they did without you?

Pastor Linn: 24:09 And then back to the passage, here we go, verse 15. Jesus says, and this may be the best part of a whole passage. If you miss everything else we said today don't miss this one. Jesus says, "Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl, instead they put it on a stand and it gives light to everyone in the house, In the same way let your light shine before others that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven." Jesus says, "Look, if you've got a light you would never take that light and tuck it away in a corner where it only lit a portion of the room. That would be dumb," Jesus says. "And no one, no one would light a light and then put a bowl over the top so you couldn't really see the light." Jesus says, "No, no, no, no. Here's what you do. You take that light, you put it on a stand and you put it in the middle of the room so that everybody, every corner of the room is affected by the light." And then, you ready for this? And then Jesus says, "And that's what I do with you, it's what I do with my children. I take them, I place them in the center of their world. The center of their room so that everybody is going to be affected by their light." Which means, you're ready for this? You've been asking why was I born into my dysfunctional family, right? I mean how did I get parents like that? I mean my parents are screwed up. My siblings, my siblings, I don't even like to see them on holidays. I mean my family's such a mess. Jesus just told you why you were born in that family. Did you get that? I position them where they have the greatest effect which means there is someone in your family that you are their best chance of figuring out Jesus. That's why you have Uncle Fred.

Pastor Linn: 26:32 Your job. See you thought you got your job based on your resume. Well of course they hired you, with all that experience going to the school I went to. That's not what Jesus said. Jesus said, "You know why HR called you back? Because I put you in the middle of the room. See I knew, I knew at that company that there was someone in that room and I put you there. Because in that little work group you're in and that division you serve? There is someone and you are their best chance of seeing Jesus. That's why you have the job you have."

Pastor Linn: 27:11 Your neighborhood. See you thought you bought your house because you like the floor plan. Do you ever wonder why you like that floor plan and nobody else does? See Jesus put you in there and you went, "Oh this is wonderful!" And Jesus, ready for this, ready for this? Jesus said I put you in that neighborhood on the street you're on. I put the lamp stand in the middle of the room. Because there's someone. There's someone living up and down your street. That you are their best chance to ever figure out Jesus. Will you be Salt? Will you be light?

Pastor Linn: 28:04 So I am a youth pastoring years ago in another state. And up and down our street we'd kind of had this conversation and we said, "Hey, there's probably someone on our street who needs to hear about our Jesus. Who would that be? Who, who do we think? God put us on this street so that we could be helpful to them. And we looked up and down the street and there was this house like two doors down. And Ken and Barbie lived in that house. It was amazing. I mean blond hair the whole bit, Ken and Barbie, not their real names. But Ken and Barbie lived in this house and we thought OK of course Jesus wants us to care for and hopefully influence Ken and Barbie. It was interesting because Ken and Barbies' life, although it looked amazing, was absolute chaos. And before long it came out that Ken was having an affair on Barbie. And so everything was turmoil and things were blowing up and Lisa and I were down there talking to Barbie and you know the whole thing going on. Before long Barbie moved in with Ken's best friend. Now what's Ken's best friends name? G.I. Joe, so she moved in with G.I. Joe. That's right. So she moves in with G.I. Joe. So now think about this. He's had an affair on her. They're not divorced yet. His best friend is living now with Barbie. They eventually get married and then they have a little Joe. So now they're doing that. Shortly thereafter Ken comes back and starts having an affair with Barbie on G.I. Joe. In the midst of this, in the midst of this Barbie's sister has a son Mikey who is just chaos and, and Barbie's sister's family is total chaos and she says, "I need to put Mikey somewhere healthy," so she takes Mikey and gives him to Barbie and Ken. So, wow. So in the midst of all this. You know Lisa and I have been inviting them to church and they would come on occasion. But Mikey started coming. And so he was a youth, he was a teenager so he was in my youth group and I had some of those moments, you know what I'm talking about? Where God just kind of nudges your heart. And he goes, "You need to talk to Mikey today about me." And I did what we all do right? I did God look he's only been here two weeks. Let him get to know us, let him figure out Christians aren't weird. You know when the time comes, when it's perfect I'll talk to Mikey about it but it would just feel like forced right now. And guys look, I'm not telling you to get into forced conversations I'm just telling you when God nudges He probably knows better than us right? And so I wrestle with that saying, "God no, no, no, no." And I bet that happened two or three times in about a month and a half that Mikey came. Turns out Mikey, now getting into the new high school had seen a little girl that he liked and he started hanging out with her. Turns out she had a former boyfriend who did not believe he was former. So now here's Mikey, he's out in the park, he's playing basketball with a couple of friends, former boyfriend walks up and says, "Hey, can we talk?"

Pastor Linn: 31:26 To which Mikey says, "Well yeah sure we can talk." And as former boyfriend walks up, out of the clear blue without any warning he cold cocks Mikey. Mikey is lifted in the air, falls back, lands on his neck, dies instantly. Brought a whole new meaning to salt. Brought whole new meaning to light for me. And I suddenly realized what it meant when Jesus said, "You know why you live in your neighborhood? Because there's someone in your neighborhood, you're their best chance. You know why you work where you work? Because there's someone at work and you're their best chance. Who, who is this someone that God has put in your life? Because you're their best chance if they're ever going to figure out our Jesus.

Pastor Linn: 32:33 Here's what I want us to do. So in your Weekly when you got it today you got a card that looks something like this. Anyone not get the card? Didn't get the card? You want the card? The card's cool. It's got my autograph on it, no I'm teasing. It's a cool card. You want a card? You didn't get one though. They'll come hand you one if you'll raise your hand. Here's what I'm going to ask us to do. We're going to do some thinking and some praying through the series. On the front of the card it just says hey, everyone needs someone. And on the back of the card it's got three lines. Here's what I want us to do for the next couple of moments. I just want you to write down the names. You're not going to hand it in, you don't have to worry about that. This is yours to keep. I just want you to write down the names of three people in your life that now that you started to think it about you go, "You know what? I may be, I may be their best chance to ever figure out my Jesus. I might just be the lamp stand in their living room. So just grab a pen. There are pens in the seat backs. Put it three names, three people. You say, "You know I may be their best chance. I've got a sneaking suspicion that God positioned me in that job. I think we're playing on that soccer team because there are some parents. And I just may be their best chance to figure out my Jesus." And just fill that out for a moment.

Pastor Linn: 34:01 And then here's what I'm going to ask you to do. I'm going to ask you for the next 30 days that you would just pray over those three names, "Hey God would you give me a chance? Would you give me an opportunity to be salt and light? Whatever that means. If it's an invite to church, if it's, if it's just telling them out loud I'm a Christian. Would you give me the chance to be salt and light to someone on that list? So take a moment, fill it out.

Pastor Linn: 34:58 OK for all of you that thought that was hard. I'm going to get doubly hard right now. I'm going to ask you to do something that you swore before Jesus you would never do and I ask you to violate your ethics and standards and I'm going to ask you to consider putting a Cornerstone bumper sticker on your car. Before you freak out, I know, I know. Here's why, here's why we're thinking that OK, here's why I'm asking you. I'm asking you for four weeks, at the end of four weeks I'll supply the razorblade for you to scrape it off. Four weeks that's all I'm asking because, because, because, you ready? What's happening in four weeks? Easter, and between now and Easter we're going to be buying billboards, we're going to be sending out a mailer, we're going to be handing you rave cards and we want, here's the hope, that everybody in our community goes, "Man, everywhere I turn, everywhere I turn there's that Cornerstone Church just everywhere. I can't even drive down the road and they're running me off the road." Cornerstone Church and guys, not to make Cornerstone famous. But here's the deal, everyone's going to choose where to be on Easter. And you know us right? Who are we going to talk about on Easter? And we're going to make Jesus famous. OK? And this is you being a little bit of salt. I mean this is, this is the safest thing you'll ever do. All you've got to do is promise for four weeks I will not speed excessively. Right? And I will not use hand gestures to salute my fellow drivers. I won't do that for four weeks and then peel it off, peel it off. OK but how cool would it be if you and I on Easter Sunday sit in a filled room of people who haven't figured out our Jesus. And we knew in our hearts we were the salt and the light that helped them get in the room. It would be a good day right? So I'm asking you at every one of the exits, at the back, at the side doors there's stickers. You just take one, you peel it, you stick it on your car four weeks. Salt, light.

Pastor Linn: 37:12 Let's pray. Hey dear Lord Jesus, we, we see things maybe a little more clearly right now. You said to us we are the salt of the earth, we are the light of the world. And God to be honest we haven't been on assignment. We've, we've taken our faith underground. And the reality is that the very people you positioned us to touch haven't seen enough Jesus in us yet. But God we're going to change that. We're going to, we're going to go public with our faith. We're going to, we're just going to simply say, "I am a Christ follower." We're going to look for moments in people's lives maybe to do something just as simple as invite them to church and say, "Can you come to the place where I've found hope?" But God we choose today to live on assignment. This we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.



Recorded in Chandler, Arizona.