As we begin our last practice together, the practice of Witness, we look to Paul’s teaching in 2 Corinthians. Writing to a church in the middle of a diverse and pagan culture, Paul encourages the church there to live their lives in such a way that their alignment with King Jesus is evident. Much like a strong aroma will either draw others in or push them away, Christians should remain so close to God, each other, and the lost that their lives draw those who are willing closer to God.

Like the church in Corinth, our Witness practice must start with our with-ness. We must remain so close to God that others find our lives appealing. We must remain so close to each other that we’re able to rely on each other for support. And we must remain so close to the lost that we actually have opportunities to draw them into communion with the God who created them.

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 Open your Bibles to two Corinthians chapter two. If we haven’t met before, my name is Trey. I’m one of the pastors here, and I just wanna remind you, no matter how your week went, God, the Father loves you.

Jesus Christ is sufficient and supreme, and the Holy Spirit can transform your life from the inside out if you let him. So let’s let him together this morning, two Corinthians chapter two, starting in verse 14 says, but thanks be to God. Who always leads us in Christ’s triumphal procession and through us spreads the aroma of the knowledge of him in every place.

For to God, we are the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. To some we are an aroma of death leading to death, but to others, an aroma of life leading to life who is adequate for these things? For we do not market the word of God for profit like so many.

On the contrary, we speak with sincerity in Christ as from God and before God. Let’s pray. Father, we thank you that you have used this passage to shape your church for the last 2000 years. You’ve also used it to draw people into the kingdom, and we just ask for the same to happen today. God, as we embark on a new practice.

I pray that we would not just be hearers of the word deceiving ourselves, but may we, by your grace and your power also be doers of the word. In Jesus’ name, everyone says Amen. You may take a seat. I can’t believe it, but it was three years ago, we created, formed by jesus.com, and we started to point you to our three year pathway of discipleship at Passion Creek.

We said three years ago, Hey, we have nine practices from the lifestyle of Jesus. We’re gonna go through it three or four months at a time. And people kept asking, what’s your vision after that? I said, let’s just get through that thing first. And I finally was starting to tell people after that, hopefully we have like land and hopefully we can fundraise for a building.

I’m not saying I’m a prophet, I’m just saying I nailed that. All right? So God is so gracious to us in giving us those, uh, five acres, but we are now, it’s insane. We’re here at the final practice and along the way. Uh, pastor Caleb and I have noticed not every single practice was met with the same energy.

Uh, Sabbath, hospitality, generosity. Everyone had immediate buy-in. We were shocked by some of those, but we were so grateful. For example, it makes sense why everybody wanted a Sabbath. We’re busy, we’re exhausted. So 24 hours a week where we rest sign me up. But other practices like hospitality, I think it totally makes sense.

We were excited for it because our culture is generally lonely and in deep need of friendship, and so si uh, hospitality is great food friends, I’ll do that. I was a little bit shocked at how gracious everyone was and how receptive our church was to generosity, but as Pastor Caleb just mentioned before.

It makes sense because we are in a culture that’s just chasing mammon, and it is so exhausting. And so it’s such a beautiful invitation to learn that it really is more blessed to give than to receive. But other practices were met with resistance. I’m not saying they were bad. They, they’re actually incredible for us.

But others were, you know, filled with some fear. For example, simplicity. Uh, we did this, uh, two years ago, this in, in August. And uh, it really confronted our idols here in the east valley of our addiction to more and having more things and, and our attention span being spread across everywhere. And so that was a hard thing to preach through.

Me and Caleb always joke about how that kind of didn’t grow our church. It shrunk our church for at least for a little bit of a season. And then peacemaking last year it was hard. We had to talk about dealing with our past. We had to forgive those who have hurt us. We pushed people to like take steps of reconciliation, and that’s kind of the point.

Robert Mulholland and his incredible work invitation to a journey, he has this quote that has really guided us as we’ve thought through what the practices of Jesus will be at our church. He says the following quote,   📍 your false self or the person that you’re, you know, the culture is trying to shape you to be your false self will always choose disciplines, or the words we use are practices that reinforce its values and protect its agenda.

 In other words, when we say we’re formed by Jesus. We don’t, we’re not formed by what we wanna be formed by. No, it’s all of Jesus and all that he brings. And so it’s full surrender to his love, his lifestyle, and his leadership. So that means we don’t just do the practices we find fun or enjoyable, we also do the practices that make us die to ourself in our old ways of living.

And so I’m gonna, I’m not gonna lie, as I’ve been praying and processing for this witness practice, I’ve wondered, will this final practice be met with excitement and energy and momentum, or will it be filled with fear and resistance? And I know some of you are pumped, to be honest, once we started the practices, a lot of you’re asking, when are we gonna talk about witness?

We need to share the gospel more. And that’s almost been a critique against our church. And I think that’s fair. Um, but we think it’s kind of been a buildup. There’s been a reason we have been leaving this last, and others of you, you are just feeling so exhausted already. You’re terrified in fact. You’re probably trying to book vacations for the rest of August, at least on the weekend, so you have an excuse not to keep coming back and feeling guilty that you’ll have to share the gospel to someone.

Now, I do think it’s more complex than extrovert verse introvert. I know extroverts who do get scared sharing the gospel, and introverts who really dove love, do love sharing the gospel. So I just wanna kind of name right away, even as a pastor, when I hear words, especially like evangelism, I am filled with fear, resistance, and inadequacy.

I think a lot of, like when I was 16, I went on a mission trip for 10 days to the Virgin Islands suffering for Jesus in St. Thomas and uh, Megan’s Bay, the top five beach in the whole world. But in all honesty, it was a really scary time. We saw people who were demon possessed on our trip. We would just enter into these domains where you can tell the evil one had full rain over certain corners of that island.

And so one day, halfway through super humid, the food was not wonderful. And so my youth pastor was like, Hey, all 10 of us we’re gonna go to the mall. So we thought it was a day off. We’re like, praise the Lord. I need some mall time. I hear there’s a KFC in that mall. That’s the closest to America I can get right now.

And so we go to the mall and instead this was so on par with my youth pastor, he dropped us all off and said, I’ll be back in two hours, but you’re not allowed back in the van until you’ve shared the gospel to 10 people. And then he left. And we had no access to phones back then. I’m pretty sure I could have got that guy fired within a minute.

You know, my dad was the pastor. Um, but I was like, this is terrifying. And so we began, and so actually my girlfriend now. Wife was with me on that trip, and I remember the first time I shared the gospel and she was cheating. She was with me and then counting whoever I shared the gospel with as her count, can we just call her out in this moment?

I just remembered that. But our very first one, they started quoting to me, second Corinthians, but it was chapter four, talking about how the God of this age has blinded, uh, the, the, the nonbelievers. But what’s interesting is he was claiming that the God of the sage was blinding me. And I was like, no, no, no, I’m, I’m talking about the light.

And so we started having this discussion. He gets really angry. He starts chanting curses at me. I’m like, Lord, how in the world am I gonna do this nine more times? That’s all I was thinking the entire time that tirade was happening. And so eventually it was like, okay, I see you later. You clearly do not want me to talk to you anymore.

And so we wandered around the mall, and again, I was told I had to share the gospel 10 more times. And so in my teenage brain, I thought, well. I’m not doing that again, but I’ll share the gospel to myself nine more times. And then technically I can say, you know, I preached the gospel 10 times. Uh, that’s supposed to be funnier than I thought.

I need to work on my comedy. So that’s legit what I did. I walked around the mall saying, God forgive me in advance for lying to my youth pastor saying that I’ve shared the gospel. ’cause I, I’m not, I’ve done, I’m done for the day. I’m tapped out. I’m not gonna have that experience again. I, I made it back in the van.

I made it back to the us but, uh, it was a little bit of a, a, a story that I’m, you know, scarred from and I met with my counselor about, not really. Uh, if you grew up in church, you probably have a similar story. And I just wanna be clear. Uh, I don’t wanna knock that entirely because the reality is as hell is hot.

Eternity is long. Jesus Christ is king and the kingdom of God has drawn near and the world needs to hear the good news of Jesus, that he has become our substitute, that he has died in our place, that we have life and life in abundance. And if it requires you and me to get uncomfortable, then so be it. But some of what we’ve inherited as like evangelism tools, I would argue has not been very helpful.

At least for the past few decades. Evangelism has been more focused on bare minimum faith. But I think the gospel of the New Testament calls us to bear maximum fruit. So that’s why partially, we haven’t called this the evangelism practice because I think it has a lot of unneeded baggage. It’s more associated with making tenders than it is with making disciples.

And it seems to be that most people use evangelism as a guilt trip rather than talking about grace. And so we kind of wanna shift our attention, maybe use a different word, a biblical word to help you realize this is not what we’re talking about. What we want our church to embark on is the practice of witness.

This is rooted in the words of Jesus himself. After he resurrected, he spent time with his disciples, but then he ascended to the Father. But just before ascending, in Acts chapter one, verse eight, he says to his disciples, and to you and me, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you, and you’ll be my witnesses in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria.

And to the ends of the earth. This word witness is where we get our Greek word martus. Can you say that with me? Martus, which you might realize it sounds familiar. It’s where we get our word martyr, which is exactly what happened in the early church. The witnesses, as they witnessed and told people simply about what they encountered through the cross and the resurrection, it began to cost them their life.

They were just sharing of what they’ve seen and heard, but the evil one, the world, the flesh, the devil was trying to, to shut up the Christians and so they began to die for their faith. And so hopefully this month you and I are not gonna die to our. Uh, die, but maybe we’ll die to our ego. Maybe we’ll die to some of our old presuppositions and hopefully become like the early church people who share the gospel in boldness.

And so the plan is that we will all month study Paul’s letters to the Corinthians. So that’s first and second Corinthians. Fun fact. There was a third Corinthians that nobody can find. I think it’s because Paul probably he was not inspired by the spirit, you know, he was just saying what he wanted. So we just have first and second Corinthians.

And so what we’re going to do is to study these letters all month and learn what it means to be a witness for the gospel. Now we have come up just as we do with every practice, with our own working definition of witness, and it should be on the screen.   📍 The practice of witness is leading people from your witness to talk clearly about the gospel and leaning into your weakness.

To invite others into God’s grace.  We’re gonna parse those out in for weeks. Today is about witness. Next week we’re gonna talk about what is the gospel and what is it not. I actually think some of us have been kind of sharing at least an incomplete gospel. Then we’ll talk about how it’s so important for us to use our weakness, not high from it.

Then of course, we want to train you. How do we actually make the call invite people into this new way of living? But today, let’s start by looking at what it means to lead from your ness. Now, let me be clear. This is a made up word, but it’s 2025. It’s my truth. And so we can do whatever we want. Okay? It’s made up word, but I do think it helps us realize what witnessing is and what it’s not.

And plus it rhymes. So it’s, it’s a good one for me. Now, a couple points right away, we are witnesses, not lawyers, and that’s really important.   📍 So because we’re witnesses and not lawyers, our power comes from getting close, not from getting clever.  This is a predominant theme in Paul’s letters to the church in Corinth.

Corinth was amazed with eloquence and they kept chasing after each new truth. And so Paul recognizing the context, came and says, I just came to preach Christ in him crucified. And I think that’s really liberating for you and me. ’cause I think a lot of us, we don’t share the gospel. ’cause what if they say something and I don’t have an answer for it?

That’s okay. What if I present the gospel and I look like a fool? That’s okay. It’s not about being clever, it’s not about knowing all the answers to all things. It’s just about getting close to people and just sharing your experience of what Christ has done for your life. Also, think witness is helpful here because   📍 we are witnesses, not salesmen.

So our power comes from our presence, not from our pressure.  There’s, uh, funny church history. You can read stories of pastors and their tactics to pressure people to make the, uh, you know, to make the prayer, uh, to, to come forward. At the end, they would lock the doors, and we’re not gonna do that today, but they would do all these different tactics to get people to feel pressured into getting baptized.

We are not interested in that, what we’re called to do in two Corinthians five, for example. Paul says, our job is to be ambassadors. What do ambassadors do? They don’t force their faith, they don’t force their culture. They just live among people who are not of their way and say, Hey, here’s how I live it.

I’m inviting you in to show you how we live our life. And I would argue the worst versions of church history have come whenever we have forced the faith or pressured people to make a decision that they were not making on their own accord. So when we say witness, it’s not about pressuring people, it’s not about performing and knowing all the right answers.

Then what do we mean by witness? What is witness all about? Well, I think a beautiful place to start is here in Second Corinthians chapter two. Let’s look at this line by line, understanding Paul’s metaphor and what it means for you and me today, verse 14. But thanks be to God who always leads us in Christ triumphal procession.

And through us, we are used in this story through us spreads the aroma of the knowledge of him in every place. So much to parse here, but let’s of course talk about the triumphal procession and 44 bc. Corinth was established as a Roman colony by Julius Caesar. What that means is Corinth was a mini Rome.

Rome was too full. Rome couldn’t bring any more citizens in. So what they instead did was put Rome out. Okay, let’s make a bunch of different Romes around the world. And Corinth was one of the finest. It was filled with Roman architecture, Roman politics, Roman Dees, Roman values, and Roman parades. A triumphal procession was a parade.

It was to honor a Roman general. When he was victorious in war, it was the highest military achievement and you need to have killed actually 5,000 people in order to secure this type of parade. So when he would do it, which again, the readers of this in Corinth knew this. We don’t know this, so let me explain.

What they would do is just the general would ride through the streets in a golden chariot. His army would be behind him and they would show off the spoils of war, all the gold, all the riches that they gained, and also pretty vivid violence. They would drag their captives behind him showing, look, we are victorious.

We have conquered these people. And as they marched through the city, the priest, their task was to burn incense. They would be in the parade and they would burn incense. And this would do a couple things. One, it would draw people in. Have you guys ever, the reason you like to go to Disneyland is because they pump aroma at certain places at certain times.

Okay? And I can never replicate it at my house as much as I like to try. But the point is they, we would draw people in, they would smell it and they couldn’t help but come and see what was going on. But a scent also, science shows, it doesn’t just draw you in. It actually helps cement a core memory. So they wanted this parade to be imprinted into the citizen’s minds that this great thing has happened, and you can tap into your memory past this day remembering how beautiful that day was.

Part of it was because of the aroma. So Paul is taking this very common practice, this parade, and he’s now using it as a metaphor to the Christian life in the kingdom of God. So as witnesses, we’re not announcing a plan for victory. This isn’t a parade saying we’re going to go in. No. We have to remember, as Christians, the parade has already begun because that tomb is empty.

Christ has already secured the victory and the captives are sin, Satan and death itself. Jesus has conquered those captives and the spoils they’re on offer for you and me are things like peace and love and joy and righteousness and forgiveness and the resurrected life to come. And so we are not the general, but our job is to walk in that parade.

To burn the incense, to draw other people in so that they can encounter the aroma themselves and they can actually join the victory as well. But now Paul says, okay, all of that’s true. We need to go in every place of the world with this gospel, but know not everyone will enjoy, or not everyone will receive this parade.

Verse 15, for to God, we are the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved. That’s those of course who are Christians, and among those who are perishing, to some we are an aroma of death leading to death, but to others, an aroma of life leading to life. Now, of course, we have to remember as they would march through the city, the smell of incense and the parade would bring joy to Roman citizens.

But you have to also remember, many slaves were in all of these cities and they were loyal to another empire. And so the smell didn’t represent joy. The smell for them represented death defeat. They hated Rome. And it was just another reminder that Rome was victorious the same way Paul is using that to remind us the same perfume will be met with different perspectives.

Not everybody’s gonna be happy hearing the gospel. I know. Uh, for me, I actually, the very first wedding I ever officiated, I was 17 years old. It was technically a renewal of vows for this 85-year-old couple’s accused thing ever. But early on in my ministry, I was like 19, 20. I was helping officiate weddings even before I got married myself.

And so before I got married and had kids, anytime, and this wasn’t always true, but sometimes I would get paid for officiating the wedding. And I just kind of made it a rule in life. If I ever get paid, I’m just, it’s like a treat yourself day. You know what I’m saying? Like, I, I’m not doing, I’m using this money for anybody but me ’cause I’m such a godly man.

Uh. Okay, so I remember one time in particular, I got the money at the rehearsal dinner. God bless you. Do that. Whoever officiates future weddings give it to ’em the night before. So the pastor has enough money to get back to that place and have gas money on the way back anyways, so I was so excited I got paid the night before because it’s so awkward if you officiate a wedding and they still haven’t paid you, you’re just hanging around the bride in the groom and they’re like, what’s the pastor doing hanging out with me?

They want your money. Okay, I, I know everybody hates pastors. That’s not funny. Whatever. We’re humans too. So, but I got it the night before. So I remember telling Jordan, and I think we were engaged at the time, I’m gonna go get colon. Because like, I can’t afford cologne, but this is cash that I don’t feel guilty about.

So I went and bought cologne and so I got cologne and I loved it so much. You know, you’re just filling it. So I just sprayed it everywhere, right? I even brought it it with me in the car. It’s like right before I got out, I just sprayed it one more time to the glory of God, the aroma of Jesus, right? And so we go, and thankfully this is an outdoor wedding because I immediately ran into the matron of honor who was pregnant.

And um, let’s just say I was not a pleasing aroma to her at all. She starts gagging, uh, and I think she’s about to throw up and I’m like, what’s wrong with this woman? And then she goes, who put on that cologne? And I just wanted to disappear and die. At that moment I thought, I have no place to run. I have to stand here.

This is where the thing is happening. Oh my. And so she gave me the dirtiest look and was like, do not do that again. I was like, I am so sorry. I can’t take this shirt off. You know, this is not that kind of wedding, you know what I’m saying? So here we are. And so I remember, thankfully it was an outdoor wedding, so that’s not as, you know, overwhelming.

But I do remember, you know like when you watch YouTube and you like hold onto it to make it, to go double the speed, to like hurry through. Anytime the wind would then shift and go towards her, I would just hurry. ’cause I’m like, I know she’s about to pass out while I’m officiating this wedding. All that to say, I just needed to get that out there.

You’re my counselor sometimes. Um, but my fiance loves the cologne. Its smelled great, but to some it’s a terrible response. Now. Now here’s the point Paul’s making. I think it’s really easy for us to try to find a cologne, an aroma that everyone loves doesn’t exist. Even people out there don’t like vanilla ice cream.

I mean like we’re humans. We’re fallen, we’re depraved, right? And so you can never find something that everyone will agree, okay, this is good and true and beautiful. And so the temptation for us is to keep changing the aroma, changing the perfume to make it appealing. And that’s not our job. We cannot change the gospel based off of people’s receptivity.

Some will receive and rejoice and repent and enter into the kingdom. Others will be resistant and mock you and gag in your presence because they find it to be terrible. This is just life. Paul is here, he is about to say in the next verse, we don’t twist or tame the message. We are who we are and we present it in full sincerity.

Look at verse 17 for we do not. Market the word of God for profit, like so many because if we used it for profit, we would keep changing the gospel until it got the most income. That’s not what we do. No. On the contrary, we speak with sincerity in Christ. That word sincerity means we’re not salesmen, we are just in full.

There’s no hidden motives. It’s there’s no dishonesty or deception. I’m giving you the full gospel and it’s up to you to respond because in full sincerity, as from God and before God, we have to remember this gospel is not from man, it’s from God. And if it’s from God, you and I have no right to change its message and it’s before God, which means we have to remember this.

We are held accountable for not sharing the gospel, but we’re also held accountable for how we present it. So we can’t change and shift and remove things like sin. No, we have to bring it in its fullness. But Paul’s here. Main point. I think he uses this aroma language because we have to remember, our witness requires witness.

You have to be close enough to smell the cologne. Now, I did this in the first service and I myself started to choke. But if I were to spray this right now, and then look at my back row Baptist friends, can you smell my cologne from the back? Right? Robert, I see you back there. Can you smell me? Praise God.

No. Right now, my wife, can you smell me? Just lie and say, yes. I know it’s kind of far, but you’re killing my illustration. All right. The closer you are, the more you can actually smell and encounter the aroma. This is the simple point he is making. The aroma of Christ requires proximity. If you were, in fact, to study all of the letters to the church, to the church in Corinth, you’ll see Paul knew that   📍 our witness.

Comes from our ness with God, with the church, and with the loss.  Lemme give you a quick word on each first of all, with God, Paul makes this point clear. If you keep reading to chapter three and two Corinthians, he now talks about Moses and how Moses encounters God at Mount Sinai, which represents the law, right?

And his face begins to shine because he encounters the presence of God and it evokes awe and it draws people in. It shows his authority, but, but Moses does, is he puts a veil over his face. Why? Because he knows the glory is going to fade. As he goes back down to that mountain, his humanity will continue to take over and that glory will fade and people will go, okay, you haven’t been with God.

That’s a verse 13 of chapter three. But then Paul flips the script and the new covenant. He says, we don’t have to veil our faces. Through Christ, we have full access to God, and the beautiful news is that that glory doesn’t have to fade To quote Pastor Caleb from just a few weeks ago, the more we behold him, the more we become like him, which is precisely the point Paul makes.

In two Corinthians three, verse 18. We made this point all summer. As we abide in the vine, as we stay close to Christ, we begin to radiate his light. We begin to bear much fruit, or here we begin to carry his aroma. And it’s an attraction that charisma can never buy you. It’s just from living life with God.

Have you guys met those GA guys or those gals who have clearly been with God? There’s something about their presence and you just want to get close to them because you know they’ve been close with the Father. This is required for our witness to be powerful. We have to have a rich life with God, which is partially why we’ve made witness the last practice.

We have been building up your life with God for the past three years. Not only that, we need to be with the church. I believe it’s alive from the enemy. I hope your biggest takeaway, one of the biggest takeaways all month, is that you realize witnessing is not a solo sport. I think we come with so much stress because we think we’re supposed to know all things and be all things for all people.

One Corinthians 12, Paul argues, we’re the body of Christ, and so we need each other. We rely on each other. We use each other to build each other up and to reach the loss. If someone has a nerdy, apologetic question, I don’t even try to answer it. I just say, pastor Caleb, hey, come over here. Hey, go ask him.

He probably knows he had an existential crisis about this a few days ago. He’ll answer it for you, right? If someone has a past filled with violence or addiction or broken families, of course, I’m not gonna name them out loud, but friends, we have a lot of us in this room with that sort of past. And so for me, I didn’t have that past, but I’m so excited to take a non-believer and connect them with some of you who have that story.

For others who grew up, let’s say, in another religion, I didn’t, but we have so many who have. And so if you come for like an LDS background, I’m like, Hey, have you heard of this guy named Kate? Like he would love to talk to you and talk to you and talk to you. ’cause he’s so passionate about this. It’s incredible.

It’s his life’s mission. So let’s connect them. This is what we’re supposed to do as a church. We, we are called to share the gospel to our city and we help each other along the way. Paul puts it this way in one Corinthians three verse six through seven, I planted Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.

We all have different roles to play, but it’s God who does it, verse seven. So then neither the one who plants, nor the one who waters is anything but only God who gives the growth. I quote this all the time because I get often people tell me how much better Pastor Caleb is than me at preaching. And I agree, but I also tell him it’s neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything.

Okay? It’s God who gives the growth. And so it’s a partnership, it’s teamwork. We don’t care about who gets the credit. We just want our lives to be used to build the kingdom. So as a church, we’re witnessing together. And the two things that I really am praying that we constantly do as a community is to make our faith plausible and desirable.

Plausible meaning it’s intellectual, it’s credible. This faith is rooted in history. It’s rooted in reality. And so it’s a good thing that we have apologetics. We must show how it’s plausible. But also we must show how the gospel message is desirable. I think we’re shifting in our culture where we don’t just want this gospel to be true.

We want it to be beautiful, and I have found it becomes beautiful when our community walks out the gospel together. So the way our witness brings power is when it’s from God and it’s with his people. One of our recommended reads is How to Talk About Jesus by Sam Chan. We’re gonna have it available in our merch box starting next Sunday.

He argues that community is a non-negotiable in witnessing to our friends. Look at this following quote. He says,   📍 community is the most powerful force in determining belief. Community shapes the way we interpret our experiences. Community shapes the way we interpret facts, evidence, and data, which could be positive or negative by the way, but one of the major reasons our friends aren’t c.

Is that they don’t belong to a community of friends who also believe in Jesus.  Guys, I think we make it too complicated sometimes. Love Jesus. Be really rooted in our church and make friends with people who do not follow Jesus and bring him in. See, our, our, our witness comes from our witness with God, with the church.

But don’t forget with the

Paul, he’s the greatest missionary of the New Testament, and he details his strategy to the church in Corinth in one Corinthians chapter nine. Turn with me there quickly, starting in verse 19. Although I am free from all and not anyone, slave, I have made myself a slave to everyone in order to win more people to the Jews I became like a Jew to win Jews to those under the law like one under the law.

Though I myself am not under the law to win those under the law to those who are without the law, like one without the law, though I am not without God’s law, but under the law of Christ to in those. Without the law to the weak, I became weak. In order to win the weak, I have become all things to all people so that I may by every possible means save some.

Now, I do all this because of the gospel, so that I may share in the blessings and man is their blessings when we witness and lead other people to Jesus. Look what Paul is saying here. We can’t run away from the culture. We have to be with those who are far from God. So he did it with the Jews. He avoided pork with the Gentiles barbecue time baby.

This is what he would do. He would quote poets in Athens. He would go and meet the people where they were at, and that’s how the gospel spreads. Michael Green, he’s a theologian and historian. He marks, he shows how the gospel spreads so rapidly in the early church. He says, quote,   📍 80% or more. Of the evangelism in the early church was done by ordinary Christians just explaining their life to their friends and family.

 The hard part is some of us live such a Christian life long enough. We no longer have friends who are far from God ’cause we isolate ourselves. So a lot of today is just like, Hey, hang out with the lost. Go where they are. Paul makes it so clear with this aroma imagery, our witness requires witness. Or to put another way, we’re called to make disciples, not attenders who are perfumed by Jesus together for others.

No one laughed again. No one did in the first service. That’s a dad joke. It’s terrible. You’re supposed to laugh so that anyways, perfumed by Jesus together for others we’re so formed by Jesus. We have an aroma about ourselves that causes people to beg the question, and we rely on each other to serve each other and bring people into the kingdom.

And that’s what we’re gonna practice this week. This week. The practice is you have to share the gospel to 10 people or else you’re not allowed back in. Uh, kidding. I just had to recover from the last joke. I thought this is a good one. Okay. Four things we’re asking you to do. Essentially, it’s all in the name of taking one step of proximity.

I really hope. On your way out, you grab a guide, a witness practice guide. They’re free, so please grab ’em on your way out. This will detail this, uh, some even more. Pastor Caleb wrote this. Also, if you’re a parent, please go over to the children’s checkout and grab this for free. Our, uh, Julie, our kids director, did a wonderful job putting this together for you to walk through with your family, but it’s gonna be a really simple task this week.

I think it’s gonna be easy to be honest.   📍 Number one, make a list of the lost people already in your social circles. What we, what we mean by lost is they don’t know God. They don’t follow Jesus. Number two, pray through each name intentionally. I think a lot of this, we just forget that the lost are already among us, so start praying for them.

 Number three is huge. Go to their things. We’re always shocked when they don’t come to our things, but friends, we don’t go to their things. Go to where they’re at. If they invite you to something, say yes. Well, depending, you know what I’m saying? Still be a Christian, but go to their things. And number four, don’t blame me.

Like, well, I’m here ’cause my pastor said to come here. No. Okay. Number four, find ways to serve them. Show them the Jesus life. This is also important because friends, this is not just a good strategy, it’s good theology. In Genesis chapter one and two, we see God’s original intent for mankind is to be with God, to walk with him in the garden and to find a life in his presence.

It’s not just that before sin entered into the picture, God designed us to be with each other, to enjoy each other, to be fully known and fully love one another. And yet this perfect union was broken In Genesis chapter three, by our own willfulness and desires, we decided to follow away of life that God did not ordain.

We thought we were smarter and better. And so we thought life was better without God. And when you begin to live a life without God, death, destruction, division enters into the picture. To put simply our with was shattered. Great traditions like the reformed theologians, often emphasized Post Eden, we are all morally depraved.

And this is so true. Some of our biggest problems in life is because we love the things that God hates, and we hate the things that God loves. Our desires are disordered and so we commit sin. Sin done by us, sin done to us, sin done all around us. And so we hurt each other, we hurt ourselves. But as a result, the biggest problem is that we’re separated from God and hear me God and His holiness and righteousness is fully, fully allowed to judge us.

He’s righteous, to judge us for eternity, which is eternal separation from God that we chose. And yet, great traditions like the Anabaptists have all also emphasized   📍 Post Eden, we are all relationally deprived. See, we were created to live with God.  Jesus says, apart from me, you can do nothing. We were created to abide in him, and that’s where we have life and life in abundance.

But we were cut off. When we chose sin, we were created to live in perfect harmony with one another. But yet now we are deprived. We blame shift, we hide, we devour. We’re bitter towards one another. We distance ourselves from each other. And so here’s the bad news. Not only are we guilty, we’re lonely, we’re wicked, and we’re wounded, and there’s nothing in our own power to save us.

Just look around. All of these manmade solutions only lead to more despair. But friends, we have really, really good news. There is a parade that has already begun and we are waving the aroma of Christ and inviting people in because post-resurrection, we are made right with God and brought near to each other through Christ.

Yes, we are morally depraved, but Christ died on the cross to forgive us of our depravity and give us a new heart, which in our gospel, which we will detail next week. I think we do such a poor job explaining the gospel, but in our gospel, not only are we forgiven, but we are given new hearts and hear me, we now don’t see it as often.

We’re never perfect, but our hearts, our desires change and morph, and we actually become more and more moral people, even more than that as well. In Christ. We’re no longer relationally deprived. We find life and abundance in Christ. We enter into the throne room every morning and night through prayer and scripture and fellowship.

And because what? Because of the gospel, because we have been forgiven, we forgive each other, we are brought near. And so we are way more effective in sharing the gospel when we not only preach with us, but we live it. And that with begins with non-believers before they even come into the fold. We begin to close the gap and we show the beauty of the gospel starts here and now.

Paul says in one Corinthians four 20, the gospel is not just a matter of talk but of power. It actually changes the here and now. So let’s stand as we respond and ask God to shape us and form us as we begin this practice.