I might hear them fall, right, Chris? Okay, Mark, can you bring that up a little bit? This song comes from a musical entitled, The Day He Wore My Crown. It had some grammatical parts in it, and the verses that we will sing, the verse I sing is the Apostle Peter, and the verse that Sue sings, when we sing, is the woman at the well. So when you hear the first person... mentioned in these two verses, it was these two characters in this musical. The songs and titles, Calibri. I said that I would die for him. I really thought I could. But there I was denying him, I never thought I would. I failed the Lord, I let him down, after all he's done for me. And now he's going up a hill, a hill called Calvary. Calvary Was it meant for him or was it meant for me? is that my cross be taken to Calvary. He found me in my field and told me, for I've been no more. And ever since that day of dawn, the way I was before. For the life he gave to me, the care he sowed over him, I fear called hell to breathe. Was it meant for him? Or was it meant for me? Calvary, Calvary Is that my protein taking to Calvary? wasn't meant for him, but was it meant for me? Calvary, Calvary, is that much for me, I'll be taking to Calvary. In the night of the king taking to Calvary I thought that was going to be where were you when the lights went out at that moment. It won't be. We certainly enjoyed that, Johnny and Sue, and the message of that chorus and hymn that we have heard. I expect that's the most important question we can all ask ourselves. Just drop your mind. One day, as we heard last night, we haven't accepted his word. We will accept that judgment. A very solemn message of that hymn. I'd like you to turn in your Bibles this morning to two passages, and I can't do that at once. So I ask you to turn to First Thessalonians first, and then we'll look more specifically at First Peter. First Thessalonians chapter four. Verse nine, but as touching brotherly love ye need not that I write unto you, for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another. And indeed ye do it toward all the brethren who are in all Macedonia. But we beseech you, brethren, that ye increase more and more, and that you study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we command you, that ye may walk honestly toward them that are outside, and that ye may have lack of nothing. That you study to be quiet, to do your own business, and to work with your own hands as we commanded you. And first Peter chapter three. Verse eight, finally be all of one mind, having compassion one on another. Love is brethren, be pitiful, be courteous, not rendering evil for evil or railing for railing, but on the contrary blessing, knowing that you are called to this that you should inherit a blessing. For he that will love life and seek good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil and his lips so that they speak no guile. Let him flee evil and do good. Let him seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers. but the faith of the Lord is against them that do evil. And who is he that will harm you, if ye be followers of that which is good? But, and if you suffer for righteousness' sake, happy are ye, and be not afraid of their terror, and neither be trouble. But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear, having a good conscience that whereas they speak evil of you as of evil-doers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good manner of life in Christ. For it is better if the will of God be so, that you suffer for well-doing than for evil-doing." Yesterday we were talking about the Christian quiet time, some of the standards that we have placed upon ourselves that give cause and rise to frustration because, in fact, we cannot do what we purpose to do in our lives because the very things that are ingredients of our communion with God, four out of five of them, as we saw, are unschedulable type things. The one being the Word of God and His communion to us, which of necessity must be scheduled. I hope we have some fresh thinking and some areas of freedom of operation in our Christian experience. in our communion with God that before we did not have. I frankly think that many of us had those, that we were just rather ashamed to talk about it, because it didn't fit the pattern. In fact, the matter is, the pattern was not one that rose out of Scripture in the first place. Now, what we'd like to talk about this hour, the time before us, is another area of tremendous frustration and guilt to believers. It is in the area of our witness for Jesus Christ. As yesterday I asked that hypothetical question, are you satisfied with your communion life? I'd like to ask a similar question in relationship to witnessing. Are you satisfied that you are witnessing adequately for Jesus Christ? And we are virtually programmed to say, no, I'm not. I'm a failure in that area. I don't have boldness. I can get on that airplane and sit next to that person all the way across the country and not get across the gospel to that individual. I am somewhat ashamed of the gospel of Christ and the power of God under salvation. And I would expect that if I'd asked that question in an honest moment of our lives, we'd say, yes, we're not really the kind of witness. that Jesus Christ intended us to be. I read some passages today. We have heard messages on the Great Commission. The passages that we've read, if we'd like to give them a title, are the Great Non-Commission. Now, that sounds theoretical, doesn't it? The Great Non-Commission. Apostle Paul says to the Thessalonians, look, you study to be quiet. You work hard with your hands. Maintain a steady manner of life. Make a living so that we may have an honest relationship with the folk around about us. And that we might lack nothing. Apostle Peter is even clearer. He says, do you want to see good days and enjoy life? He that would love life and see good days, Peter says. There are certain things that we need to do. How many of you love, don't put your hands up for this. How many of you really love living? You wake up in the morning and say, praise God, another day. I just look so forward to the opportunities of this day. That's after you get awake and have your cup of coffee, obviously. Do you have that kind of outlook on life? I love living. Every once in a while, song leader says, Johnny does this. He did this this week. He says, well, you don't look like there's a melody ringing in your heart. Did you hear him say that the other day? And we look at one another and... look into our wonderful smiling faces and meet one another on the street. And a lot of times it really doesn't look like we're enjoying life. Sometimes because of the very nature of the way we have had facial expressions as part of our life, by the time we get to forty-five, very old age, and fifty and fifty-five and sixty, our basic mentality of life has leaped through to our face, and some of us have a permanent realm. That's the way we're going to be until the Lord changes his body of humiliation. Others have permanent smile because they've gone through life loving life. And it leaks through to their facial expression. Now, everybody look at the person next to you and see which one they are, okay? Can you do that real quick? Hopefully it's a smile type. Because of all people in the world, Christians should enjoy living. He who would love life and see good days. Now look, there are some passages in Scripture that are the other side of life. The Lord Jesus Christ mentions those kind of things. They hate in me, they'll hate you. In the world you shall have tribulation. He that lives godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. That's one side of life. That is not the normal everyday routine of life. And let's look at some other promises of Scripture. When a man's ways please the Lord, he may even his enemies to be at peace with him. A soft answer. Turneth away, wrath. You know these things. Happy, blessed are ye, if you do that. I have come that you might have life, and that you might have life abundantly. Peter says, he who would love life and see good days. And that's a quotation from Psalm thirty-four. in which the psalmist David talks about the wonderful promises of God to people who follow him that life will largely be an enjoyable time. And in that promise in Psalm thirty four he talks about the gaining of the land of Palestine, the prosperity that is going to come. And Peter takes that promise out of Psalm thirty four and brings it into this passage. and make some variation because the promises that are to us are not landlocked or land oriented or prosperity even but the truth remains that the person who is a follower of that which is good and not evil is a person who will have largely an exceptionally enjoyable life in Jesus Christ he will love life and see good days. And Peter says, who is he that will harm you if you're the kind of person described in those verses? And the answer is not nobody will harm you because there are some people who allow the depravity that is in their heart to treat even properly living people in a wrong way. But the answer is hardly anybody. will harm you. If you do that, which is good. Now it is important for us to get the setting of this passage because Peter is talking to the recipients of this letter in relationship to those people who are going to see him in the day-by-day experience of living. You know, a person can't tell how I live unless he's exposed to me for an extended period of time. Peter is talking about those people who know us. our neighbors, the people that we work with, the students at the schools that we attend, those people who know us by name, they are not going to harm us generally if we be followers of that which is good as Peter has described it. Now it is in that setting that Peter brings up the question of witnessing for Jesus Christ. That kind of a setting. And he gives us this great instruction as to our responsibility in witnessing. First of all, it is a life that we live. Described in those verses from aid onward. Have compassion, be loving. Don't render evil for evil or reeling for reeling, but rather blessing. Refrain our tongues from evil. Flee evil and do good. Seek peace and pursue it. That kind of a life we're talking about. Characteristic dimensions of a Christian who is living for God. In that kind of a setting, Peter says, what is our responsibility in communicating the gospel? How do you feel about your communication of the gospel for people? Some of us are by our very nature rather timid and shy people. I fit that category. Do you believe that? I really do. This is a mask. I find it hard on that airplane ride across the country. to talk to that person about anything. Anything. Not just the Bible, about how are you. And I am not the one who normally initiates the conversation. Occasionally I will. And I'll bring up something like these seats are never big enough. My usual open line is I've never found a belt seat that I had to make smaller. And they might chuckle on that, say a few things, or more often than not be mad at me, because I'm taking my seat in the part of theirs, too. And I get a little upset over it all. But that's a start. And if I'll jump to that and be a gregarious person, then I'll say, hey, maybe I can get the gospel in by the end of this forty-five hour flight. But they don't normally take that long. And I'll start chatting and all that sort of thing. And eventually, the person may ask me what I do, and that's a wide-open door then. Why are you flying from here to there? And I'll fix you up now, folks. You ask the wrong questions. But that's an opportunity, you see. Now, I find that hard to do. And every once in a while, after hearing about some people who can lead anybody they sit next to to the Lord in a three-minute flight, I get a little guilty over that. And then I hear the equivalent to the no Bible, no breakfast thing that I purposed in the course of a day never to rest my head on the pillow until I have clearly communicated all sixty-six books of the Bible to the person, some person that day, or it's equivalent, you know. I've got to get the gospel clearly to some person at least once a day. I haven't quite pulled that one off. And I go through life saying I missed it. I'm a misery. Get to the judgment seat of Christ. The Lord's going to say, I'm ashamed of you because you've been ashamed of me your whole life. If you only dread like that, I'm not sure the Word of God wants us to have that kind of guilt on our lives and in our hearts as we walk through this Christian experience. Fact matters, I'm sure he's not. In this section, is Peter. This is Peter. This is not bashful Peter. He never had any trouble witnessing on an airplane. Never did. He was so bold in his witness it was unbelievable. This is Peter who says, Lord, I'll deny you. I never will. And this is Peter who says, We know unto you, neither is there salvation in any other for this. None on the name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. It's better to obey God than man. That's the Peter that's talking here. And it's giving us advice on how we are to witness, right? Now, we're going to get the whole load right here. You'd expect him to really come on. And what does he say? Well, look at it. You live this kind of a life. You live a Christian life before people. And then he says, Having the Lord in the right place in your life, verse fifteen, sanctifying the Lord God in your heart, be ready always to give an answer to every man that asks you a reason of the hope that is in you. Now that is so clear. What is Peter saying? You live this kind of life. Have the Lord in your heart as central. And then you be ready in your witnessing to give an answer. Do you know what that is saying? Somebody's got to ask you the question. In Peter's witnessing principle here, the initiating person is not a Christian. It's the unsaved person. That's easier already, isn't it? It's the unsaved person. He asks you a reason for the hope that is in you. Now look, he's got to know you. We're talking about your real world. Not the eighty million of China, but the people here in Atlantic or Lyman or Greenfield or wherever that know you and you know them. That's where we are all the time. And Peter says, look, those folks should be able to observe things that you are a different kind of person than they are as they come to know you better and better. And they're going to ask questions. Not all the time. But when the crunch comes in their life, they're going to ask the questions. When they observe something that is distinct about the way you live, they're going to ask the question. The evangelistic contact here is initiated by the unsaved person who has observed the way we live our lives. And that will happen. I was at the checkout counter in one of the grocery stores, and I was watching the clerk ring up the expenses. And she made a mistake. I said, you made a mistake on that last item. And she looked at it, and she had not charged me enough for that. She had rung up a lower price than she should have. And she said to me, you know, I have people correct me all the time the other way. Why did you correct me that way? Well, it's going to cost you more. That's the knock. That's the question. Why are you living this way? There's my opportunity. And you know what I said? I said, I have to sleep tonight. Wasn't that a good answer? That's John three, sixteen, isn't it? I have to sleep tonight. You know, all those days of going by there and being friendly with this lady instead of being crabby like so many people are in a grocery store, griping about the long lines and the weight and the delay and the machine's broken and I have to call forty people to put this check through and all that sort of thing. After being kind in all those ways and showing that I'm not the average griping person that you get when she says, why are you different? And that's what she's really saying, I blew it. I have to sleep tonight. Wonderful, David. I expect to see that judgment seat of Christ. The Lord will say, look, you did what I told you to do, and then when the opportunity comes to give a reason for the hope that's in you, you say you had to sleep tonight. Well, I'm going to keep you up for the first forty years. I'll take you. That is no kind of good answer. Now, I should have had a better answer. You see, I was doing what was right, but when the crunch came, when that opportunity came to say why I acted that way, that in fact, a simple little statement like I am answerable to my Savior Jesus Christ, that would have been enough. Just a little bit like that, but I didn't come through. Be ready to give a reason for the hope that is in you. Why do you live a different kind of life than somebody else? Now the opportunity then comes when somebody who is unsaved, who has observed us, asks us a reason for the way we're living. Now look how Peter says to respond. Be always ready, I wasn't then, but be ready to give every man a reason for the hope that is in you with meekness and fear. I love that. Meekness and fear, gentleness. That little fish nibbles. And boy, I don't have to go yank on the rope and say, I'm not going to let you off. It's with meekness and fear. And you give a gentle answer. Sue sang the words of the woman at the well. I love that story. The Lord Jesus Christ is probing into this woman's heart. And it's clear that he wants to talk about spiritual things, not physical water, but spiritual water. And the question comes up about her husband. And the Lord Jesus Christ gives her opportunity to go and call her husband. She could have said, I'm going to go. I'll see you. I'll be back in a little bit. Don't go away. Go call your husband. She doesn't respond that way. She's genuinely interested. The Lord gave that woman a way out. If she didn't want to continue this discussion, go call your husband. She says, I have no husband. The Lord goes one step further and said, you're right. You've had five. The person you're with now isn't your husband. But you see, he gave her opportunity. Her opportunity. I'm getting a signal here. Gave her opportunity to, in fact, get out from under that discussion if she wanted to. Don't be afraid to do that. It's not your responsibility to nail that person down. It's your responsibility with meekness and fear to give a reason for the hope. that is in you. That we have a good conscience, that we have done what is right in the way we have lived our lives. Paul says that to the Thessalonians. You study to be quiet. You work hard with your hands. You do that which is honest. And do you know what is earlier on in Thessalonians? The Apostle Paul says to the Thessalonians, From you sounded forth the word of God into Macedonia and Achaia and to the uttermost parts of the earth, and they didn't go any place. They lived a steady Christian life in a port of commerce, and the word went every place. We live a steady, quiet life, as Peter has instructed us. being kind and considerate the best possible neighbor, the best citizen of the city in which we live, kind and involved in the lives of the unfaithful around the ballot, gentle to them, loving to our family, regularly assembling with the saints in the meetings of the church, and they're going to see a difference. And when the crunch comes, they're going to ask, what's this all about? what you have I need I don't have it what is the reason for the hope that's in you and they initiate the contact and I give them an answer and it's an answer that isn't going to tie them up in a knot it's an answer that gives them openness and freedom so that they can walk away comfortably and come back the next time with the next question and I respond to it then and by and by as we are doing that people are going to come to know Our Savior. The life that we live must someplace be verbalized. And when they ask the reason, verbalize it. Don't say I have to sleep at night. Verbalize it. Because a person and hear this will never be saved by saying I'm a good person. They have to hear the gospel. And they have to respond to that. But my responsibility is not to go around looking at the millions of the world who are coming into existence and crying out my eyes over the multiplied millions who are being born day in, day out, and I can't ever get to that. My world is the one I can get to. If I would have time, I'd just take one segment of this gathering today and find out how many there are. I do this at a mass on a regular basis in relationship to evangelism. And in a class of forty or fifty kids, in their limited world, the world of a student, which is far more limited than our world, a group of fifty will have two thousand people that know them by names in the course of a week that they'll rub shoulders with. And if we would do this for this audience, we find out that we are contacting four or five, six thousand people. week in and week out who know us by name, who observe our lives, who should be able to recognize that there is a person who has the answer to my life's questions. And my witnessing for which I am responsible before God is to that real world in which I live. Not the hypothetical world of the millions in far-flung places, but that real world that they know me And I know them. They observe me. And I am responsible to live the life before them. And I am responsible to respond to their inquiries into why I am the way I am. You see, this witness that Peter talks about and that Paul talks about is passive. They started. They ask the question, I'm very friendly, that they can cut their conversation off if they so desire. And if I have lived the life described in this passage and in testimonials, and if I respond with the right answer to the question, that is my full responsibility in witnessing. And do you know what? I think most of us do that. And that's what the Bible is telling us to do. It doesn't say to me, Glock, you've got to convert that passenger on the plane. No, I'll do my little bit. But that responsibility belongs to the Christian community at the end of the line, where he gets off, where he lives. That's their job primarily. I just throw a little water on. They're throwing a little seed. But it's their job to really take care of that one, not mine. My world is the real world in which I live. And I wish we could get excited about this dimension of witnessing for Jesus Christ. Look, it doesn't cost anything. We're already there. We don't have to go any place. There are no heart-wrenching separation of parents and children and loved ones. We're all in that same community where we grew up, where we're here at least. There's no big staff needed, just you and the unsafe person. No money needed. Isn't that wonderful? It's all so easy. It's all right there. Thousands of unsafe people that this group knows. and they are reading you and they're saying why are you that way when you come to that counter and you have for months and years laid the foundation that you are different than the other people that are walking through what are you going to say why are you this way somebody will say to you that person that you've lived with why are you this way That student at school, why are you this way? Your neighbor, why are you this way? Be ready to verbalize what you have been living before them, that I live this kind of life as a debt to Jesus Christ who loved me and gave himself for me. Say it in your own way. Give the reason for the hope that is in you. And that's your job in witnessing. That's all. Well, we'll never have any missionaries, will we? Oh, yes, we will. We'll have a lot more. Look, if I have an interest in my heart that says I am living this kind of life before all these people, because I want one day for them to come and say to me, why are you different? I'm going to have an interest in my little community and in my state and in my country and in my world. The person who has isolated his thinking that witnessing is something that's carried on in the church building, whatever that might be, or it's carried on by some crow who comes through periodically. That's a person who has an integrated evangelism into his life. And if we integrate it into our life, recognizing that in all those contacts of life, I'm saying something to these people that they need a year that will arouse questions about eternity. If I recognize that, I'm going to recognize that there are millions of others out there who don't have anybody to observe. And I'll need to get to them. Some of us will. Some of us will. Be ready always to give an answer to the hope that is in you. And having done that, we've done what we need to do in witnessing for Jesus Christ. Let's close in prayer. Father, we pray that we may be gentle and meek and passive, as your word instructs us. We pray that we may have a life that will raise questions with those people who observe, so that we may tell about the loving grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray.