If I Believe This Gospel and David Platt

I'm curious if you've ever, how much you feel this, okay, because I have a lack of peace. I mean, it's gotten better and better and better, but I've had this lack of peace in my life because I think, okay, if I believe this, I should be a lot more outspoken. I mean, from the stage or whatever, I'm pretty comfortable.

I'll say anything from up there. But I'm talking about just in everyday life with unbelievers, people who don't believe like I do, like, gosh, if I believe this about that person, I should be like trying anything to get to that person. And so there's been this lack of peace, like there's not that personal, it just is flowing out of me all day long.

And I remember talking to a pastor about it once and going, do you ever feel this? And he was like, not really. He goes, I kind of feel like that's a people's job. And my job is to motivate them to do it, which I agree that is, but like me personally, just as a Christian, this isn't as a pastor or a leader in any way, it's just I personally feel like this doesn't make sense.

If I believe this, I should be talking about it more. And that's what's leading me to do this. I think other people feel that and just go, this is a complete disconnect because these people, you couldn't shut them up because it just naturally came out of them.

And I want that. I want to be that person. I'm not at peace with that.

I'm just curious, like your thoughts on that. Totally on the same page. When it comes to certainly in my own life, yes, there is.

I see these disciples in Matthew 28, like Jesus didn't have to cajole them into going like these guys were ready to go. They were ready to, I mean, he had to tell them to wait because they were going to mess it up if they went without the Holy Spirit. And so there was a natural, probably better word, supernatural compulsion in them that I do.

I often lack in my own life when sitting next to somebody at a coffee shop or if just talking with somebody, there's still even in my own life, like a hesitancy, a timidity that can creep in that I know is not of the Lord. And so I want to address that in my own life. And I fight that in my own life.

And then, yes, as a pastor, I want to help other people fight that, but to do it together. And I think part of it then fundamentally comes back to what does it really mean to be a disciple of Jesus? Because making disciples is a supernatural overflow of being a disciple. And I think I've got a lot to learn about what it means to be a disciple.

And I think we as a whole, in this context in particular, have a lot to learn what that means to be a disciple. What do you think is the main thing that keeps you from speaking freely about Jesus to strangers? I think it's probably a couple of things. One, there is probably there's a fear of man that's a part of that.

Yeah, I think there's a fear of man. There is, you know, I sometimes sense in my own life, and it is so much easier on a stage to, you know, I don't feel like I'm afraid when I'm in front of a few thousand people or whatever, but man, you see me on a plane next to somebody, it's like, oh, this guy, where do I start? This or that. And so there's, I think, a fear of man there that that's the biggest thing that comes to my mind, because I think I believe like, yeah, this guy who's sitting next to me, he doesn't believe in Jesus, he will go to hell.

Like, oh, so then maybe it's just a lack of love. What do you think? Well, I agree, like, I'm the same way. And it's not even just because you say, well, maybe because you're speaking to a crowd of people who believe like you do.

But I think I could get in front of a crowd of people that are absolutely against Jesus and just preach my heart out. But one on one, like there's a different type of rejection or I think it's pride in me that still is thinking about me and I don't want them to reject me. It's just that insecure, almost weird high school worried about reputation thing still.

I don't know, I don't want to be rejected by this guy or I don't want him to think I'm just this weird religious fanatic. And that's just pure sin. So then the question becomes, OK, we're struggling with this.

People all across the church are struggling with this. So how do we how do we get out of this?