“I don’t know much, but I do know Jesus.”

Announcer: I don’t know much, but I do know Jesus. Let’s talk on Key Life. It’s for freedom that Christ set us free, and Key Life is here to bring you biblical teaching that encourages you to never give into slavery again. Our teacher on Key Life is Steve Brown. He’s an author, broadcaster, and seminary professor who’s sick of phony religion.
Steve Brown: Thank you, Matthew. If you were listening yesterday, I told you about my friend Alan Emery. I told you a lot about him, but the thing I liked a lot was a book he wrote, and it was called *A Turtle on a Fence Post*. And his point was, when you see a turtle on a fence post, you know that turtle didn’t get there by himself. Listen, that’s what we are. We are turtles on fence posts. And the question is, how did we get there? First, listen to me, don’t minimize your experience of Christ. It is more powerful than a seminary degree. It always is. When I was a young pastor in the Boston area, we had a lady in the church who later became my secretary and assistant. She told a friend—she’d just become a Christian, and I was kind of hesitant about making her the secretary and later my assistant. I liked her and her husband a lot. She was bright, she was articulate, she was pretty, and I thought, man, she will shine in that position. But she didn’t know anything. So I was going to require her to go to more Sunday school classes, to be discipled by proper Christians, to grow into maturity, and then I was going to hire her as my secretary. Jesus said forget all that, do it anyway. So I did. And she was one night talking to a friend of hers about how Jesus had changed her life. She told her friend about her new faith. And you know what the friend said? She said, "I’d become a Christian if someone would explain original sin to me." You know what my assistant said? She said, "What? I don’t have the foggiest idea what you’re talking about." And then she said, "I’ll ask my boss. But I do know Jesus. Let me tell you that I’m forgiven, and it’s changed my life." And shortly after that, her friend became a Christian. There’s a similar story in John 9, but with a different outcome. Jesus heals a man who’s been born blind, and the fact that he could now see irritated the spit out of the religious establishment. And so they did what establishments do all the time: they called a meeting. The hostile religious establishment questioned what Jesus did to heal the blind man. They called Jesus a heretic, implying that everyone knew that God didn’t use heretics and sinners. Suspecting that the incident was a con, they called the man’s parents to come and testify. Having established that the formerly blind man was healed, they called him in, trying to get him to repent of what had happened to him. One can repent of one’s opinions and actions and mistakes. I do that all the time. But listen to me, it’s almost impossible to repent of an experience. The untrained, unqualified man stuck by his simple witness. And you’ll find it in John 9:25: "Whether he [that is, Jesus] is a sinner, I don’t know. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see." And so the first thing to remember, and it’s really important in reminding you that you’re a turtle on a gatepost, is don’t minimize your experience with Christ. That’s genuine and that’s real. One of the problems in our witnessing is that we require the potential born-again believer to subscribe to certain propositional truths. And they are true. Jesus was God. Jesus shed his blood, and it was sufficient, absolutely sufficient for the sins of the world. Jesus was a dead man, and he got out of the grave. Jesus knew God so much so that it was clear that he was God. And you could go on and on and on. And then once they subscribe to all of those propositions, then they can become a Christian. Now I don’t—don’t get me wrong, I don’t disagree with that. However, I do think sometimes people believe that those who become Christians are simply people that Jesus hugged. And he hugs some weird people, frankly. And it doesn’t have a whole lot to do with how smart we are in our presentation, how much training we’ve had in evangelism. It’s just—it’s just Jesus goes around hugging certain people. And once they’ve been hugged, they can’t be unhugged. Okay, let me move on. Secondly, remember that your qualification is as great and powerful as that of the late Billy Graham. There’s a story about a time during the Civil War when Abraham Lincoln visited a church. The young pastor removed his hat and bowed his head toward Lincoln, clearly intimidated by Lincoln’s presence. You know what Lincoln said? He said, "Reverend, for heaven’s sake, put your hat back on. We’ve both done exactly the same thing what we were supposed to do." Let me suggest a prayer and an action. The prayer is simple, one from my late friend Tony Campolo. While Tony and I didn’t agree on much, we agreed on Jesus, and that’s enough for us to love each other, and we did. I miss him. He called me just two or three days before he died, and that’s one of my very sad and wonderful memories. But at any rate, Tony opened up each day with a prayer. And if you had heard Tony preach much, you know he said this a thousand times: "Lord, what kind of neat things have you planned for us today? I’m available." Because of Tony, I’ve started my days praying a similar prayer. Generally, my prayer had been—oh, you know the difference between a Christian and a non-Christian is that the Christian says, "Good morning, Lord," and the unbeliever says, "Good Lord, it’s morning!" That would be me. But I’ve started thinking about Tony’s prayer and praying something like that. And the positive effect that kind of prayer has on my insecurities is nothing less than amazing. The action is from another friend, the Apostle Paul. It’s important to remember that we should not just sit there. In the first part of Philippians 3, Paul talks about resurrection power and being like Christ. Let me tell you what he says, and it’s in Philippians 3:12. He says this: "Not that I have already obtained," in other words, I don’t have all the qualifications. I’m not as smart as you think I am. "Not having already obtained this or already perfect, I press on to make it my own because Christ Jesus has made me his own." When you move, in other words, make sure that Jesus moves with you. He does the heavy lifting. The truth is, when you go—and this is Galatians 2:20—when you go and you witness to him by just being there sometimes, when you do that, you smell like Jesus and you can’t help it. "I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, but Christ lives in me." That’s not a commandment or rule you’ve got to follow; it’s a fact. So for heaven’s sake, don’t just sit there. Do something. You think about that. Amen.
Announcer: Thank you, Steve. That does it for this week in our God’s Not Mad at You series. But by the way, you can find all of these teaching episodes in one place at keylife.org/notmad. Great way to review this series or share it with a friend. Tomorrow, Steve and Pete will team up once again for Friday Q&A, discussing how we balance grace with judgment. And next week, guys, very cool news: Steve will be joined by Jerry Parries for a look at Luke’s gospel. Don’t miss that. Well, for several months, you’ve heard us talk about Steve’s new book called *God’s Not Mad at You*. And I’m happy to say it is now available at keylife.org/notmadbook or, of course, Amazon. And to celebrate, we have released a brand new booklet based on Steve’s book. It has excerpts from *God’s Not Mad at You*, and it’ll give you a deeper understanding of the sanctification process and why it takes so long. We’re ready to send it to you for free, so call us right now at 1-800-KEY-LIFE. That’s 1-800-539-5433. You can also email Steve at [email protected] to order that booklet, or go to keylife.org/contact to find our mailing addresses. Again, ask for the free booklet called *God’s Not Mad at You*. Last thing, if you believe in the work of Key Life, would you give today to help us continue that work? Giving is easy; just charge a gift on your credit card or include a gift in your envelope. Or just take out your phone and text KEYLIFE to 28950, then follow the instructions. Key Life is a member of ECFA in the States and 4C in Canada, and Key Life is a listener-supported production of Key Life Network.