A Passion to Proclaim Him - Part 2

Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Friday, December 16. How much desire do you have to share God's truth with others? Today's podcast wraps up our current series by encouraging your passion to proclaim Christ. A major part of that passion was to proclaim Christ. That is, his desire was to get the message out.

And you'll recall we said that a passion is a strong, intense, overwhelming desire for something or someone. And the Apostle Paul certainly had that. And if you'll notice what he says in this passage. He says, and we proclaim him, then he tells us how. He says, by admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom. Then he says that we may, this is his goal, that we may present every man complete in Christ.

And then he says, for this purpose, I labor, wearisome labor, I strive, he says, tirelessly, according to his power, which mightily works within me. The Apostle Paul knew who Jesus Christ was. Listen, he understood him in such a fashion. He was so able to grasp the reality of the crucifixion and what it really meant, and the resurrection and its real message and the ascension of the promise and the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.

He so absolutely took hold of him. His passion was to share the truth of that to everyone. That's why here's a man who says, shipwreck at sea, beaten with rods, stone, left for dead and on and on and on he goes. No pity part is what his passion in life is to proclaim Christ. And it is the same Apostle Paul who sits in prisons, who sits in jail houses, not calling for his friends to come and comfort him, but doing what?

With his secretary there saying, take this down. And so what does he do? He writes the book to the Philippians. He writes the epistle of the Colossians. He writes the epistle to the Ephesians.

Paul wrote to the Corinthians. Paul writing these letters. What is he doing when he can't get there?

He writes them a letter. Why does he take a vacation? Why does he just take it easy and say, Well, you know, I've done all I can I'm quitting and this is it. Why didn't he stop when he was dying there?

At least they thought he was dying in the city streets of Lister when they stoned him and thought he was dead. Why does the man keep on being beaten? Why does he keep on being thrown in prison? Why does he keep on having the heartaches and the troubles and as he says, above all, carrying the burden of the churches? Why doesn't he stop? Why doesn't he just give up? Why doesn't he just retire from the ministry?

I'll tell you why. Something burning on the inside of him would not let him be quiet about Jesus. They could lash him in the back. They could stone him and leave him for dead. And the only thing that is just stir him up to do what to talk about Jesus Christ.

You know why? Because not only was there something in his heart that kept bringing him back to his conversion experience, but the more and more truth that he understood and the more about Jesus Christ that he knew, the more he was committed to telling it. And my friends, you come to church week after week and you want more and more knowledge. Listen, if God shut down your knowledge until you did most of what you already knew, I wonder how many of us have learned much of anything else. Listen, the mark of a godly man or woman, the mark of a true saint of God who has a passion for him isn't just going to Bible studies and listening to sermons.

It is sharing Christ telling the world that Jesus Christ is their only hope. It isn't enough for me just to know about him. Suppose the Apostle Paul had died with everything he knows in the book of Colossians with him. Suppose he had died with everything he knows in the book of Romans with him. If he had died with those things in his mind, I'm here to tell you, my friend, you and I would be spiritually poor. Because in the pages of those few chapters of the Word of God are the deepest riches of the explanation and insight into the personality of Jesus Christ and his whole personhood and sovereignty as the Son of God to be found anywhere.

There is absolutely no equal to those books. Now listen, not only did the Apostle Paul, not only was he motivated by the fact of his conversion experience, by his convictions about Christ as he studied, but also this passion of his was fueled, I mean like you fuel an automobile, fueled by the realization of his co-crucifixion with Christ. Now I'm going to explain that. He said, I have been crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. Yet not I, but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. What in the world did he mean when he said he'd been crucified? He said that in Galatians.

He was writing it, so he certainly wasn't dead when he wrote it. One of the things that stirred his passion, listen carefully, was not only the fact that he'd been converted on the Damascus road, but when he realized that he had been co-crucified with Christ, then the Apostle Paul knew that not only could his message set men free from the ultimate penalty of sin, but his message could liberate and set men and women free from the power of sin in their life now. Listen to what he says in Romans chapter 6. He says that old self, that is what you and I were before we were saved, he says all of that has been crucified with the Lord Jesus Christ. He says that old self was crucified with him. Then he says that we should no longer be slaves to sin. And then he says in verse 11, therefore consider or reckon yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ.

Don't go on presenting your members of your body as slaves to sin. Listen, let me explain carefully because I've explained this in sermon after sermon. Co-crucifixion means that when Jesus died on the cross 2,000 years ago, that God the Father saw not only Christ upon that cross, but spiritually and positionally. God the Father placed every single believer on that cross with him. That's why the Bible says, Paul says, when Jesus died, I died.

When he was buried, I was buried. When he arose, I arose. That is God the Father, not only at the cross dealt with the penalty of our sins, he dealt with the power of our sin. Christ crucified for me, took care of the penalty of my sin.

My being crucified with Christ took care of the power of sin in our life. Therefore, you and I are to live a life that is crucified. Crucified what? Crucified to the allurements and the power of sin in our life. The fact that Jesus Christ says that you and I have been crucified with him means that Christ who now lives within us will enable us in every single circumstance to overcome the power of sin in our life. He says we've died to that. We've been crucified to that. And when by faith, every single time by faith, no exception by faith, I am willing to claim my position and affirm that position.

Lord Jesus, I thank you and I affirm that I have been crucified to that. I can say no to that. It has no allurement to me.

It has no appeal to me. It has no power in my life because Jesus, when you died, I died. When you were buried, I was buried. When you arose, I arose. And therefore, living within me, I now have the power to say no to those things that enslave and put many women in bondage. You're talking about motivating a man. Listen, the apostle Paul knew that his message was not only good enough to get a man saved, it was good enough to enable him to live victoriously in this life.

And the only way that can happen is not by self-effort. Most people have all of their lives trying to do better. Going to church, listening to sermons, saying prayers, going through sometimes all kinds of legalistic things when it's not all that. He says when Jesus died, when he was crucified, we were crucified. When he arose, we arose.

What? And remember what Paul said in Philippians 3? He says above everything else, he said, I want to experience the resurrection power of Jesus Christ in my life.

Why? Because he'd been crucified with him. That is the apostle Paul knew that at any moment in his life, no matter what the temptation may be, what the trial may be, he could claim his position. Listen, when you don't know what your spiritual position is, you're sort of out there on your own trying to do your best. But when you were saved, the Bible says Jesus Christ came to live within you. And his desire is to live through us, his life. And as you and I accept that position of being dead to this old world, by faith allowing Christ to live his life through us, then Jesus who is sitting at the Father's right hand can express through your life and my life what he would express if he were in your family, had your vocation, in your school, majoring in your subject, doing your thing, living in your home. He will express his life through us on the basis of the need to live that through us and meet the needs of other peoples through us. Paul was motivated. Listen, he didn't have half the message.

Now I don't know any other way to say this except to say it the way it really is. Most people have half the message. They know how to get saved, but they don't know how to walk in victory. They do not realize that the grace of God not only took care of my sin debt that penalized me forever, it's been canceled. But it also took care of sin's power.

It has been broken at the cross. And remember this now, his crucifixion set us free from the penalty of sin. Our crucifixion set us free from the power of sin in our life. And Paul understood that like few people understand it. It motivated him. It fueled his passion to preach and to teach the gospel of Christ. That's why nothing could stop him. Any one or two or three events in Paul's life would have stopped most of us.

We want to retire and quit and give up and say folks don't love us and have a pity party. Paul turned every stone and every time, every single time one of those leather tongs hit him, sometime with bone in the ends of steel or lead, he thanked God for the privilege of suffering for Christ. You know what that did? All of his suffering intensified his message, fueled his passion. And my friend, when you're in love with Jesus Christ, nothing is going to dampen your desire to proclaim him.

But one last thing, and that is notice what he said. He kept saying to every man, admonishing every man, teaching every man, presenting every man. And when we think about this passion to proclaim him for Paul and for us, it must be directed by our commission from him.

Listen to what he says. As you go and what we've done, we've made this terrible mistake. We read the Great Commission and what we do, either consciously or subconsciously, we project that on preachers and missionaries. As you go, make disciples of all nations, preachers and missionaries, baptizing them because I can't baptize, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, teaching them, not a teacher, teaching them to observe all the things that I've commanded you and along with you all the way, even in this age. And so what do we do? We just automatically transfer that to people have vocation, religious vocations.

Listen, that's not what that's for. If you've been saved, you're under commission. And we ought to have a passion to share him. And the Apostle Paul, you hear him talking about being constrained by his love of Christ and being an ambassador for Christ. This isn't just for one man.

It's for all of us who know him. You don't have to be a missionary in the terms of a foreign missionary who's gone to school to be a missionary to share the gospel of Jesus Christ. You see, until we're able to see ourselves the way our Lord sees us, we'll never fulfill the commission he's given us.

All of us have it. And Paul knew that this passion that God had given him was directed by a very clear command. The world is the field. Now, our problem is we always think of the reasons we can't rather than asking God how to do what he said do. Listen, when Jesus said that we are to get the gospel of the world, that's exactly what he meant. As you go, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all the things that I've commanded you.

And I'm with you all the way, even at the end of this age. And that is exactly what we do week after week, instruction, warning, building up the body of Christ, explaining to people how to be saved. And all of a sudden it hit me, well, Lord, what should our goal be? Can our goal be anything less than the world? I said to our staff, if we're willing to believe God, we can cover the world with the gospel of Jesus Christ through this one ministry. That is not an egotistical, prideful expression. It is a simple truth. I said, let's ask God to show us how to do it.

That sounds like an impossible task. But today, isn't it amazing how God is opening the doors of opportunity for us to get it everywhere? And listen, if he opens a door of opportunity, we better run through the door while there's time. Now why am I saying all of that simply to say this? If we have a passion to proclaim Him, listen carefully. If we have a passion to proclaim Him, you don't have to figure out how. God will show us always how to be obedient to what He's called us to do.

Now I want to ask you a question. Do you intend to spend your life or to invest it? What are you going to do? Do you want your life to make an impact? Or do you just want to live your life trying to make an impression on others so they'll like you? Do you want to leave a rich heritage of Christ that your children and grandchildren and your friends and the people who know you can't ever forget?

Or do you just want to leave a will that's confined to finances? I want to tell you something you don't get but one trip through this life. For me, I prefer Christ. Listen, not added to your life, but that He is your life. Don't ask the question, what can I not do? But God, listen to this, what can you do with my life if I totally surrender it to you?

I can tell you something, you'll never be able to figure that one out. He will show you and you will walk continually being surprised and thinking, God, what's going on? I'll tell you what's going on.

Here's what goes on. When you yield yourself to Him, He just keeps unfolding His will and making a way to make your life worthwhile. And I want to challenge you that if you've never trusted Jesus Christ as your Savior, if you're willing to confess your sins to Him and place your trust in Him, He will save you right here and now. Some of you, you're married, you're gifted, you're talented, you've got a lot to give. Listen to me, you're listening, you've got a lot to give, but you're not giving it.

You just sort of have your life wrapped up in me, myself and I and our things, my things. And the question is, are you willing to say to the Lord Jesus, Lord Jesus, wherever You lead, I'll go. I'll be what You want me to be. I'll do what You want me to do. I'll go where You tell me to go. I don't know about you, I could not live if I thought that I had decided what I was going to do, where I was going to do it, how I was going to do it, with whom I was going to do it, when I was going to do it, and left God out. You know why?

Because everything is suddenly very uncertain. But when you say, Lord, here am I, send me. He may just send you to the next room across the street or across the world, but here's the one thing you'll know, He has all of you, and you've done all you can do. Thank you for listening to Part 2 of A Passion to Proclaim Him. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or In Touch Ministries, stop by intouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.