Speaking Jesus to One Another
“Come and hear, you who fear God, and I will tell what he has done for my soul.”
Consider for a minute what the psalmist is saying here, or better, to whom he is saying it.
“All you who fear God” is another way to refer to everybody who already believes God is real and makes all the difference in this life. The psalmist is looking at others like him who have found in God the grace their souls most desperately need. He is not talking to his agnostic co-worker — not this time. He is talking to a fellow disciple in his Life Group, or maybe to one of his pastors, or maybe to his Community Group during a Wednesday night discussion. He is speaking to those whom he expects want to hear what he has to say.
And there’s where it hits me.
If we as a church don’t speak about God’s grace to those we expect want to hear it, then there’s little chance we’ll speak about God’s grace to those we’re unsure about.
Put more starkly, if you can’t tell your brother or sister how Jesus has showed up in your life recently, then you’re not going to say anything about him to your fornicating neighbor who thinks religion is stifling. Maybe the reason we don’t talk with more non-Christians about Jesus is because we’re not used to talking with anyone about Jesus. Selah.
Now, don’t make the mistake here to think that praising Jesus in gospel community is just practice for gospel witness outside of community. It is not that. We praise Jesus because he is worthy to be praised. So worthy. So out-of-this-world worthy. We barely scratch the surface when it comes to how worthy (and Jesus, you know it). What I mean to say is that if we can build a culture of speaking Jesus to one another — of telling one another what God has done for our souls — then we will find that Jesus-talk will flow from our hearts in other contexts too.
So I want to encourage you, all of us, to speak about Jesus to one another. What has he done for your soul? How has he stood by you over the last week? What did you read about him yesterday in the Gospel of Mark, or in the drama of 1 Kings?
This topic takes me back to the inaugural sermon at Cities when we launched our Sunday Gatherings (“way back” on January 18, 2015). I closed that sermon with this:
Our work (to proclaim Christ) and goal (to be complete in Christ) and our reason (because of who Christ is) — this is what I pray becomes our culture at Cities Church. I want this to be thick in air. We speak Jesus to know Jesus because of Jesus.
Yes. That.
