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Sunday, August 3, 2014
Harvest OC
Lee Strobel
SPECIAL GUEST INTERVIEW:
Frank Sontag was a New Age
Spiritualist leader on the radio- he came to Christ in his fifties.
He used to be on the Mark and
Brian Morning Show.
Ozzy Osbourne was someone he
interviewed. He actually told him that he was a follower of Christ; Ozzy told
him that he did believe there was a God and he wore crosses because of that,
but he knew he did bad things. He didn't get a chance to share his faith with
Ozzy.
Frank told Greg he couldn't
believe he was actually a spiritualist at some point, that it really is the
doctrine of yourself.
He came to Christ after he
watched his friend’s life change over a three-year period. It was a huge change
that he witnessed in his friends life.
That friend questioned his
beliefs and it changed him when his friend asked, "if you died today, are
you right with God?"
He had a quick response saying that
he was, but that was a lie and he knew it. Then he felt God asking him
"are you ready to submit to me?" His life has been changed forever!
This verse is his life passage:
Luke 9:23 NKJV
[23] Then He said to them all,
"If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his
cross daily, and follow Me.
Nelson's study bible says Luke
9:23 take up his cross daily: Although Jesus offered salvation as a free gift
(John 1:12; 3:16–18; see Eph. 2:8, 9), He also warned that following Him would
entail suffering and hardship (Matt. 5:10–12; see also Rom. 8:17; 2 Thess.
1:5).
Lee Strobel Notes: Seizing
Spiritual Opportunities
He is talking about how he kept
things together when he was slammed at work as a new believer and how his boss
asked how this Christian thing is going. He noticed he was different since his
conversion.
Lee was very happy to speak to
his beliefs with him and it changed him forever.
Colossians 4:5-6 NLT
[5] Live wisely among those who
are not believers, and make the most of every opportunity. [6] Let your
conversation be gracious and attractive so that you will have the right
response for everyone.
Lee wants to talk about three
people that walked in his life as a believer and helped change him.
1. Faith Regardless of
Consequence:
First is Ron, who always lived
his faith regardless of consequence. Ron was a second in command in a violent
Chicago street gang.
Ron was a guy who plotted killing
a rival gang member and the guy’s brother.
Ron pulled the trigger point
blank on the guy twice and it didn't fire. But, it went off every other time.
He fled from the police.
Later he came to Christ, and then
he went and turned himself in, because as a believer he was convicted.
Even though he could of gotten
away with it, he didn't. He didn't take the easy way out.
We need to live out our faith
even when we have to pay a price as a result.
It can be a monetary price,
sacrificing your pride, giving up a possession you love, forgoing a larger
income, what ever it means you need to do it!
It cost Ron two decades of time
in prison! Lee wrote an article about it. The judge read Lee's article and let
Ron go. Ron told Lee, that judge showed him grace. It left a mark on Lee.
2. Live out Compassionate
Christianity:
Doctors told Lee that there was
something wrong with his baby when she was born. They told him that he needed
to prepare for the worst.
He was an atheist at the time,
David was a devout follower of
Christ that called Lee to let him know that he would do anything for him while
they were going through this time of hardship.
David has affected Lee ever
since, he can remember David saying that too him all those years ago because
Lee always mocked David's faith prior to that.
Mark 10:45 NKJV
[45] For even the Son of Man did
not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for
many."
Matthew 5:16 NKJV
[16] Let your light so shine
before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.
Lee knows that David marked his
heart and was an event that helped lead him to God.
3. Live out a Courageous
Christianity:
Romans 10:13-14 NKJV
[13] For "whoever calls on
the name of the LORD shall be saved." [14] How then shall they call on Him
in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they
have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?
We have to take risk to reach
people with the gospel.
Luke 19:7 NKJV
[7] But when they saw it, they
all complained, saying, "He has gone to be a guest with a man who is a
sinner."
Jesus was falsely accused of
being a drunkard and a glutton because if how closely he interacted with people
that were.
Leslie, Lee's wife, told him she
had become a Christian.
Lee was mad, that he was a drunk,
self-serving narcissist at the time. He had kicked a hole in the wall when she
invited him to church once.
When he was hung over, she
prayed, and then invited him to church. He said he would go, just so that he
could get her out of that cult he felt she was in.
That day he heard a simple
presentation of the gospel. So after that he spent two years trying to prove
that Christian was a fake.
What he discovered instead was
that it is real. After examining all the evidence, Lee fell to his knees and
professed his faith.
We need to be like Leslie and
just invite people.
We can invite them to the Harvest
Crusade!
What's the worst that can happen,
they say no. If they say yes they could find Jesus and be saved!
When God opens the opportunity we
need to say a quick prayer and seize the opportunity.
He says do not wait to decide if
we are going to share our faith.
We need to decide right now to
take the opportunity to share our faith whenever we get the opportunity!
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