In a room this size, I'm sure that there are some teenage pregnancies in here somewhere. Maybe you're 40 years old, and you have a 24 year old daughter. That's not hard math to do, and you're sitting here, and somewhere you've wanted to conceal it; but the truth is, you have a story to tell, of God's grace, and how He got you through that, and now you're a living servant of God. You can demonstrate, and then announce your story. It's very important. My father was a wandering Aramean.
Anybody ever went to bed at night, not knowing how they're going to pay their bills that were due the next day - and somehow God came through at the last minute; and now you've got more money than you know what to do with, but deep down in your heart of hearts, you remember when you needed to depend for your next breath on God. Now He's come through, and you need to remember your father was a wandering Aramean.
Where were you blind, and now you see? Where were you angry, and now you're peaceful? Where were you stressed, and now you're calm? Where were you sick, and now you're healed? Where were you insecure, and now secure? Where were you depressed, and now full of joy? Where were you emotionally unstable, and now stable? Where were you lazy, and now proactive? Where were you selfish, and now willing to put other people's needs first?
This is the most powerful witness imaginable, for healing and wholeness: to demonstrate, and then announce.
I challenge you tonight, as we talk about leadership in God's biggest idea, to understand that your most powerful witness is not in announcing - it's in demonstrating.
To show peaceful families, to show calmness of heart, to show no stress, to show peace in our hearts, to show financial security, to show generosity - that when we demonstrate, it gives us the credibility to announce.
That the greatest credibility is not in walking through the streets of the mall in Napier going: let me give you this tract, you're going to turn, or you're going to burn. Do you know where you'd spend eternity?
Listen, I'm not against all that. I'm just simply saying: we can have far greater impact, and far greater credibility, if we demonstrate; and then announce - that that was Jesus' way; Paul's way; and Peter's way.
Paul went into a city where another god was the mainstay, and he never said one bad thing about the other god. He simply demonstrated what Jesus was like, and he said: that's it. They had no standing in court.
Closing PrayerLord, You're the best, and we proclaim You king of the universe, and realise that we are not, that we're not.
Lord, we just take a second tonight, and repent for where we announced before we demonstrated.
We realise now, that the reason there's such a ruckus against Christianity, is because of us; it's not because of anybody else. It's because we announced without demonstrating.
We said that we had something other people don't have - which makes us sound elitist - and then we didn't demonstrate anything.
Forgive us for that. Lord, may we be demonstrators of Your life, demonstrators of Your life. Would You empower us to do that, in Jesus' name. Amen