Faith Sharing Starts with Pastors

All right, everybody. Welcome back to Ignite. You know, we talk so much about how most of us are not sharing our faith. And, you know, it's this whole thing. People rarely rise above the level of expectations. So nobody's expecting to share your faith. You're probably not sharing your faith. And pastors aren't expecting their flock, their followers to share their faith. They're just not. I mean, we ask this question often. When's the last time you heard your pastor even mentioned sharing your faith. Leave alone that it's the highest priority. It is the great commission, you know. Why are they not sending us? Even pastors that mention that tend to mention it kind of at the end of the list of things we're supposed to do as Christians. But it's not the end of the list type of thing. It is the great commission. It is his highest priority. When we do that, then everything else works. And so we talk about that a lot. I wouldn't talk about pastors today, okay? I have a lot of pastor friends. I love pastors. And I'm a church guy. But when we're part of that, we can kind of do a self-analysis. And it's not a stretch to say that most pastors are not focused on sharing faith. Most of our sermons over the last several decades have been edifying. They've taught us how to be better people. They've entertained us. But being better people doesn't get us to heaven and doesn't get anybody else to heaven. And yet you know the majority Christians today think sharing their faith is being a good person. Being a good person doesn't get you. It doesn't get anybody else to heaven. It's got to be the proclamation of who God is. Being a good person, do all the right things, but give God the glory. If you don't give God the glory, you get the glory. And people will like you and probably respect you. But God's not real happy with sharing his glory with you. It's when you do good things. It's the cup of cold water, right? The cup of water is not what it's about. It's a cup of water in Jesus' name. So as I talk to pastors and I have lots of pastor friends, I find that very few of them personally share their faith. So it's hard to have excitement for doing something unless you're doing it yourself. So I thought it'd be good for us to have a pastor. Most of the people we talk to are lay people like us so we can understand and communicate with and replicate whatever, but a pastor's in a different world. Except that, you know what, pastors go to restaurants. They go to doctors offices. They go to Arby's or McDonald's. They're in real life just like us. So when they're off the clock, what are they doing? And so that's the question. So Steve Wilburn is the most unstandard of the wall pastor I know. I love his heart and he's a great inspiration to me. It has been a great inspiration to me for a long time because we'll talk about it. I bring him on right now. But when back Steve, come on and join us. I mean, I remember you say one time and you speak very hard to people, but you you have almost more fun talking to one person than you do thousands of people. Did I get that right? Yes, absolutely. You know, Barry, it's always been part of my life. I was 18 years old coming out of a situation where I was 16. My parents got divorced. I would got into drugs and drinking. Got to grow pregnant when I was 17 years old. By the time I hit 18 years old, I felt like I had to reach up to touch the bottom and someone shared Jesus Christ with me. I didn't give my life to Christ in a church. I gave it at a kitchen counter in up in California. So every since then, because I realized who I was and how far away I was from God, I realized if God could save me, Barry, he could save anybody. And so I share my faith on a daily basis. I'd say at a seven days, at a week, I'm maybe sharing my faith at least four or five days out of that week. And it can happen anywhere you go. It's like I took my son. He is one of the pastors here in our church. He pastors are a high school ministry. I took him to in and out burger. Why? Because I wanted a three by three animal style will chop chilies on it. But anyway, we walked up to the in and out burger. You know, this isn't that long ago. And so and there's a guy there and he's trying to get donations for his father's funeral. He didn't have any money to bury his dad. So what happens? I walked up and I asked him. He goes, you know, my dad, he was a drug addict and he wasn't really there for me, but he deserves a funeral. And I said, oh my goodness, I'm so sorry for your great loss. I go, hey, let me tell you, once last time someone told you that there's a God in heaven that loves you, that cares about you. Because it doesn't sound like your father, your natural father was ever there for you. He goes, no, he was never really there for me. I said, well, there's a God in heaven who loves you, that knows every ounce of pain that you're going through right now. So here we are five feet from the front door of the in and out people are walking in and out. And I started staring. I shared the gospel with him in such a way that he starts tracking with me. And I told him how much God loves him. And he's knocking on the door of his heart. And if they he would open his heart up that Jesus Christ would literally come inside and live inside of him. And I told him, I said, look, three radical things happen as soon as you ask Christ to come in. He goes, well, what's that? I said, well, number one, he comes in. I mean, imagine it. The creator of the universe comes and lives inside of you. I go second, the Bible says, if any man or woman being Christ, they become a new creature. All things are passed away. Everything becomes new. And the third thing that happens is he writes your name in a lambs book alive. And when you die in the Bible says everyone's going to die. Listen, listen, you're trying to get money for your own dad's funeral. We're all going to die one day. The Bible says it's a point for every man and woman to die wants. And after this comes judgment. Imagine that you're going to stand before God and everything you've ever done, you're going to have to give him the California. How do you think that's going to work for you? And he looked at me and he says, I don't think it's going to work too good for me. I said, that's why Jesus came. He carried your sin on his body. And right there, Barry, it's crazy. It's a sound in front of in and out with people walking in and out the door. He bowed his head and prayed right there on the curb in front of in and out. It was crazy. Some people have asked me, how do you know these, these conversions are real when they just pray so quickly like after 20 minutes of sharing. I go, well, let me tell you, somebody's not going to sit there in public with tons of people walking by them, bow their head and pray out loud as Christ in their heart if they're not serious. Absolutely. Absolutely. It's, it's, it's interesting because you also know that it's like a team sport. There have been other Christians, other team members, if you will, that have shared with that person that kind of set them up because most people don't come to Christ. That's right. And one setting, but God nudged you to talk to this guy, but he was ready. Oh, he wasn't. He's not very. He's in there. He's ready. Maybe his mother message. Mother was praying for, you know, 20 years. You know, there you go. In that, in that amazing. Now, mind you folks, we don't all have Steve's personality, okay? We come because face shares come at all flavors. And I was, I was an introvert when I first started sharing by faith back in the 70s. People can't hardly believe that. I'm not an introvert anymore, but it was face sharing that got me out of being an introvert. I was, I would hide behind my wife going into, in conferences and meetings and stuff because she just loves everybody, you know. But I mean, there are a lot of timid. There's a lot of quiet. There's, there's elderly. There's, there's kids. There's, we're all becoming all flavors. I love your passion, but we just need to make sure we don't have to have people do the same thing you're doing quietly outside of it and out burgers in park places. It's, but it is that same story. That's the message. And, yeah. And here's another example where I wish I could, I wish I could get the love of God as with, with as much energy as you do. I love your heart, man. Well, here's another example, Barry, that just happened. I mean, this is literally just a week and a half ago. I was on the phone. I had a problem with Verizon. I was trying to, you know, work out this situation with the phone. You know, we have multiple phone lines here at court church Los Angeles. And so I was on the phone and, you know, they have call centers all over the United States, right? So I asked the guy, hey, where are you at? And he goes, oh, I'm in Texas. What's the weather like in Texas today? You know, so just that sort of conversation. Yeah, we're just having a conversation. So he's helping me out with my issue, my problem. And he actually was very helpful. So I was thanking him. I said, man, thank you so much for taking the extra time and helping me with this problem. But I said, now I want to help you with the problem. He goes, excuse me. I said, I want to help you with the problem. And he goes, well, what's my problem? I said, well, the problem is mankind's humanity is separate from God because of our own sin. And he goes, well, what are you saying? I'm saying, there's a God in heaven that loves you. And he cares about you. That's why Jesus Christ came to the earth. He died on the cross. He was buried in a grave and he rose again from the dead so that people like you and me can have our sin forgiven and go to heaven one day. Now I wasn't being the total spaz in front of me. I'm just talking to the guy on the phone. I'm in California, Southern California. He's in Texas and we're just talking. And so I started sharing with him more and more. And he started asking questions. And then he told me goes, man, my mother would be so glad that you're talking to me right now because my mom has been praying for me. I'm living with my girlfriend. I've got a lot of things that are messed up in my life right now. And I need to get right with God. And I said, yes, you do. And so the conversation went off for about another 20 minutes. And he prayed on the telephone and gave his life to Christ. And as soon as he got done, he told me goes, I'm going to call my mom right now. She is not going to believe what just happened. So here's the situation, Barry, where I'm just calling up about a problem I'm happy with my phone to a guy that works for Verizon at a call center in Texas. And I just asked him afterwards, look, you know, people, you know, not everyone's going to want to listen, but we as believers, we need to at least encroach on that conversation. And like if the guy would have told me, hey, look, I'm at work right now. And I don't really want to talk about this. Okay, fine. You know, whatever it's over. But at least I told him that there was a God in heaven that loves him. I planted a seed. And as you would say, Barry, I nudged him a little bit, but this particular guy, he was ready again. And how do we know that not everyone we talked to has already had these little nudges in their life? We might be that final nudge or maybe the next to the final love. No, it's it's it's it's it's it's unbelievable. The the people that around us that are hurting they're right there. And we yes, right by him. We talked to you in the phone, whatever. And those opportunities are are right there. And and we get so much blindly just walked by them. An interesting statistic. I think I told you this before, but this comes from three major studies agreeing together. So these are hard numbers over 80% of the end church, which is most of the people in America over 80% of the unchurched. It doesn't matter if they call themselves atheists, doesn't what whatever label you want to put on them over 80% of the unchurched United States of the unchurched United States. Know the world's out of control like duh. They know it's out of control have now come the point of wishing hoping there is a God. Yes, makes sense of it all. They're looking for somebody there. That's right. Looking for somebody to tell them. That's opportunity all around us. I mean, what they're looking for Barry is they're looking for someone with a voice of reason. Every time you turn the news on, it's chaos. It's chaos here. It's chaotic. Everything is out of control. Crime is spiking. Defund the police. Whoever came up with that idiot idea. Like you're thinking you're going to defund the police. Take police away and people are going to do better. No, we're all centers. We all have a potential to do wrong, not just to do good. We will naturally do wrong. So everything's out of control. It's slipping out of control. And people are looking for a voice of reason. So I was on another phone call last week with USAAA. So that's my I have my current insurance with them. Okay. And so I'm calling about a situation and I get a guy. He's not at a call center. He's in his bedroom in Colorado. And so we're talking to go, yeah, I just worked from my house, you know, because of COVID and what have you. And so we got done with the whole situation that I was calling concerning my insurance policy. And we got done. I said, hey, I'd like to share something with you. And he says, well, what's that? I said, once the last time someone told you that there's a God in heaven that loves you. And he just hasn't, he saw it. And there's like nothing. I said, hello, and he's still there. And he goes, uh, yeah. And I said, well, once the last time he goes, no one has ever told me that before. And I shared with him for probably 25 minutes. Now he didn't give his life to Christ, but he listened. He goes, I need to talk to my wife about this. He goes, man, thank you so much for sharing with me, but he listened. But again, here's someone that you could tell they're not a Christian. They're one of those people that you just said, Barry, they're the 80% that are looking in the world. Because look, ask any Christian, what about all your listeners and people that are following you right now that are watching this program? Aren't you a little freaked out about everything that's happening in the world? Aren't you a little freaked out about this whole socialist agenda that's being crammed down our throat about men and women's bathrooms, men and women's sports? I mean, all this craziness that we would have never guessed would ever have happened even 10 years ago. But yet it's happening right now to each and every one of us. Don't you think if it's freaking you out a little bit, then it's not freaking out the 90% of people in America today. So people are looking for a voice of reason. And you don't have to be as fast like me. You can just talk normal. People will listen to you. People are freaking out. You said it. They're freaking out. And they want truth. Yeah. They hear all the hype and all the facts and we get all these figures and then they contradict each other and say something different tomorrow. Where is truth? Exactly. Exactly. Truth. Jesus gave us there's one thing in the world that's not everything's moving except God. Yeah. And we bring constant instability and truth and logic. Well, Jesus said, the Holy Spirit, right? Jesus had to sanctify them in the truth. I word is truth. So here I was, you know, Barry, you know, we went to Israel last year and so there I am. I'm standing right next to the upper room. So here I'm going into the upper room there in Jerusalem. And my youngest son, he just had our, you know, youngest granddaughter. We have 10 grandchildren, you know, four kids and 10 grandkids, you know, but it's like, so he had my youngest granddaughter. So she was just born. And so I seen this young couple there in Jerusalem right there at the upper room and they have a new little baby girl. And I stopped, you know, she was like about three weeks old and I started talking to him, oh, hey, what a cute little girl. And I just said, my son just had a little girl. And so we just again, small talk. And then I said, hey, isn't it cool that we're standing right here outside of the upper room? And they both sent to me. They were Jews. And they lived there in Jerusalem. So, you know, they don't know Jesus to Messiah. And I said, this is where Jesus Messiah spent his last night before he was taken and crucified for the sin of all humanity. And they say, huh. And he just looked at me with a blank stare. I said, is anyone ever told you about the Messiah's savior, Jesus? The one of Isaiah, Isaiah 43, the one of this, the savior God says, I am the only savior. Savior in the Hebrew means a deliverer who is God. And so I started sharing with them with all the Hebrew texts of the old testament, this young Jewish couple. And they're just like, wow, we've never heard this before. And then of course, I pull up my phone and I say, hey, you got a phone. They pull out a brand new iPhone. I said, here, download our app at court church Los Angeles. And they did right in front of me. And I had just done a week earlier a message really looking at who Jesus Christ was as a savior. And it's like, oh my goodness. I'm like, oh, here, you're going to watch this message. So they download the court church LA app right in front of me. And they said, we're going to watch this message. What is the chance of that happening? It's just insane. What is the chance of that happening? Only God. Okay. We're going out of time. I'm going to ask you some rapid fire questions. Okay. Okay. Okay. First off, why aren't pastors sharing their faith? I talked to them and I, well, you know, that's for you to do. And, you know, I'm, but I'm in the church. My job is to minister to the flock. What do you say to pastors like that? Well, I say they should read Ezekiel chapter 34 because God was getting after the leaders of the church back in Ezekiel. And he says, where are the shepherds of my people? They're not out reaching for those who are hurting those who are lost. He got so mad at them. He said that I will reach out to the hurting and I will reach out to the loss. I loved this one versus one of my life versus Barry. And it's an Ezekiel 27. And it says, but you shall speak my words to them. Who's them? It's like it's everyone in the world. He says, but you will speak my words to them whether they listen or not for their rebellious people. We are called to not only reach out to the loss, but we're called as leaders to be an example to the body of Christ. If we cannot take this message and reach out to the loss, then how in the world do we expect our congregation to reach out to the loss? It was pen and teller. It was pen and said, how much do you have to hate someone not to share the love of Christ with them? That's a good thing. So it's like we as leaders, we need to lead by example. So you have Christians, you have not, it's two categories, non-face sharing Christian, face sharing Christian. How would you recognize the difference between the two? How you know, that's bigger than that, but let's say the typical life of a non-face sharing and the life of a face sharing Christian, the difference. Help people and say, why should I share my faith? What did it for me? Well, it's not about us. You know, this is a commandment, God has commanded us to share our faith. But again, it goes back to what I just said. I mean, how much do you have to hate someone like if we really believe this message? If we're like, yes, we believe the Bible. Yes, that's me. Yes, I believe the Bible. I believe what God's words as in a Bible. Well, do you recognize that God talks more about judgment in the Bible than He does about salvation and life? And the reason that He talks more about judgment in the Bible is He's warning us so that we will not be judged. Exactly. And so again, it's like when you think about every single person that you work with, you think about your next door neighbor, you know, you say hi to him, you smile, you know, you're nice, you're nice with your neighbor, you're nice with your coworker at work. It's like, think about it. That person, if they don't come into a real relationship with Jesus Christ, they're going to die one day, like everyone's going to die. And I think that what has to rattle us is when someone that's close to us dies. And then all of a sudden, we realize I never shared with that person. I never did. You know, I have this one story, Barry, that I was witnessing to prostitutes in Washington, DC, when we used to live in Virginia. We would go in on Friday nights and we would witness to prostitutes. There's a big red light district right up from the White House on 14th Street. And, you know, we were coming through town at about one o'clock in the morning like, what is going on here? It's like 4th of July here or something. And it was all these prostitutes. So me and my friend of mine and my wife would go there every Friday night and share the gospel. This one prostitute was always really nice to us. I always wanted to hear, but she never made a commitment to Christ. One night, Barry, she came to me and she was really just kind of beside herself. She was distraught. But I had shared with her so many times. I really didn't spend any time with her that night. I just kind of like, well, I shared with you before and I didn't spend any time with her that night later on. I found out the next week she was picked up by a John and she was killed. And that her life was over. And when I heard that, it just broke me inside. I'm like, oh my goodness. Why didn't I stop and share with her that one more time? And I didn't. And I'm just thinking, oh my goodness, could your people that are watching right now? It's like, what if you came into work on a Monday and one of your best friends from work, they were killed in an accident over the weekend? And you never shared with them. If we have to be moved as believers, if we believe the message of salvation, we have to take ourselves and just force ourselves to open our mouth and just open it. Say something, take up to say, I want to share this message with you. And look, you've built relationship with them. You've earned the right to share with them. Why? Because you care about them. It's not about yelling at someone. You're not popping veins out of your neck. You're sharing the greatest love story that humanity has ever known. You're just sharing with them how much God loves them. If they say no, that's fine, but understand the word of God goes out and doesn't come back void. Even if they look at you and they're saying like, I don't know about this and whatever, that doesn't mean that the Holy Spirit won't later bring those things back up to them. And maybe a week or two later, they come back and want to talk to you. Even when they say no, you move to closer diseases. That's right. Absolutely. Absolutely. You're going to move to closer to Jesus no matter what. So you see an interesting slice of society. Your church, if everybody, if you know L.A. at all, you have La Sieta, a famous La Sieta. And it comes right down to the 10 freeway. That is about as bedrock, hardcore L.A. as you can. Oh, this is hardcore here. We are not in some little fluff Bible belt city here. We are probably one of the most antagonistic anti-Christ cities on the planet, but God put me here for a reason. Our church, great big Jesus says of the roof. I mean, you're preaching. Amen. And you look at your congregation, they all be lost if there wasn't somebody that welcomed them in. You just, you just bring them in and your personal enthusiasm is so magnetic. Horror spirit, just touch these spirits. It's amazing to go to your church. It's an experience. You've been a bury. You've been here. You and Karen have been here. You've seen it yourself. It's really great. I love your heart, Steve. Love your heart, man. I tell you what, just keep keep preaching. Don't ever change. You're an inspiration. Thank you so much, bury folks. I would just point out the obvious. Maybe not so obvious. The harder people to reach for me is people that look like me and they're good people. They're millions of people around us that are good people. I often say they're in my car guy world. If you can earn your way to heaven, you'd be in first in line. I mean, they're really good people and they're they're proud of being good people and they're generous. They're caring. Often times more than my Christian friends. But because they see themselves as good people, they're very hard to reach. But people don't don't look like us. I often say scoundrels are easier to reach. They know they're lost. They absolutely know it. And so when you go out, don't just focus on a certain to just open it up and you'll be surprised. You have no idea in a group of people which ones will respond. Our job is to cast the bread upon the water. I caught Chevy. And if you just picked one, I mean, there are a lot of Angela's program to say pick one person today or pick one person this week. Out of all of the people I could be with today are this week that are on their way to hell. How am I supposed to pick one? And who do I know is the right one? And what about all the other people I was with that I didn't talk to you. I mean, it just doesn't even make make sense. So if you focus on moving everyone every day close to Jesus, the surprises. And I think Steve was pointing that out with the surprises who who cuts back. So you follow the nudge. You can't you can't save everybody. But God gives you that nudge. I need to speak to that person. And every time you follow that nudge, you always always always walk away from that thing. Thank you God that I heard your voice. You used me and it took a little extra time. But then he always gives you back the time. It's the craziest thing. I don't know how that works. I'm in a hurry. But then I have this. But I have I just take the time. I have to do that. And then I find out that a poet was canceled anyway. I didn't have to be there. God has it all in mind. He's orchestrating it all. And the point is we are he's our first love. And we do our first work. And when we do that, we all have joy like we can't believe it. We're not obvious as orchestrated as Steve. I mean, we can't all be a Steve Hoover. But we can we can be ourselves. That's the wonderful thing. Just be ourselves in our own personality and allow God to use us. Use you just the way you are to share your faith. And he carried TV will fill your life with joy and and and and bring you into intimacy with God. You couldn't have any of the way. Sharing your faith is the only way to have that opportunity for God flows through you. And it's just an amazing experience. If you ever go to LA, you got to go to court church in LA. And the meantime, we love doing these podcasts for there about one thing. Igniting you to ignite America through your Bible. We can do this, folks. See you next time.