The Power of Conversations | Willie Robertson

uh something real sweet happened before I came to speak here this is my first time to speak here that's not the sweet part my daughter stie has already spoken here so yeah so I called her and got advice isn't that awesome when I'm calling and I was thinking about all the times like I gave her advice when she was growing up and here I am as a grown man calling her said what's it like give me some tips give me some pointers and she helped me out so if I don't do a good job it's sti's fault well uh I have a lot to cover today and I can't wait to talk about the book and uh we're going to be talking about conversations today and um uh how meaningful conversations can be and I want to I want to start with a story uh the other night uh I went to see uh Jordan Peterson uh speak and if you don't know who Jordan Peterson is he's like one of the smartest guys on the planet I believe he is a Canadian uh psychologist uh he's a doctor really smart dude and I was at a an arena that they filled up the entire Arena just for him to give a speech and I started thinking about that I don't even know I mean that's kind of unheard of because it's not necessarily it's not like he's a preacher he's just getting up and giving a long long speech and people pay to go hear this and so he my wife um is this is one of his fa her favorite people she loves this guy I have been hearing this little Canadian accent from her closet and from the bathroom and from her car she listens to him all the time and he sometimes well most of the time he's a little bit over my head and I don't know what's more frustrating is me trying to listen to him or her trying to explain him to me but either way some of us going over my head so um so we were there the other night and I thought about how did this start and how did I actually get to know this guy and it all started with a conversation so last year I was invited to speak at a business thing and uh Dave Ramsey's Entre leadership event and I was invited to speak and the other speakers were Jordan Peterson and Malcolm Gladwell well I didn't even tell my wife that I was even part of this and so the invitation came in and my wife wife walks in and she's looking at the paper and she says uh wow um you're speaking at this deal do you do you know who else is speaking there and I said yeah and she goes Malcolm Gladwell and Dr Jordan Peterson and and you and I've been with her long enough I knew exactly what she was thinking one person does not belong on this stage and then I know what she I knew this second thing she was thinking finally being married to you has paid off for something I'm going to get to meet Jordan Peterson and you're my ticket in and I was like yeah yeah this is going to happen well the the the event is coming up my daughter Satie has her second child Corey yeah well it means that Corey has to stay home to be the great grandmother that K Mama that she is and I've got to go and Cory's not going to be there and she's going to miss this opportunity so Corey starts calling me like I'm a child and like okay now now make sure make sure before he speaks make sure you get in the Green Room wear something nice don't say anything stupid I got it I got it I got it so right before he speaks I'm late I missed the green room now I'm like totally screwed this up and I'm like oh no she's going to be so upset with me so I get down there they're like he's already up speaking he spoke for one over an hour the title of his message was this long I didn't even understand what the title meant okay so I sit through and afterwards I go up to meet the guy and I said uh they were like Dr Pearson this is Willie Robertson I go hey how you doing good speech and um uh he's looking at me and uh he says uh so so what brings you to the conference he was being so nice I said well well I I I spoke I was one of the speakers and I'm not I'm not making this up he looks me up and down he goes oh he goes uh you were now the next thing he said guys you're not going to believe this I didn't take offense to it it was one of the funniest things I've ever heard he said to the whole group apparently he thought there was like a maintenance section who put the chairs out and I spoke to that group but now I'm lumping myself in in with him as one of the speakers I said yeah I spoke right there on the same St as you did so he looks at me he goes uh what did you talk about well now I got him I said neuroscience and Canadian politics two of the things I'm into for the first time in his life he was speechless the man who gives speeches was speechless and so that's how we met now from that here's what happened to this conversation then oh let me so then somebody says um I said I'm just joking with you and somebody says he's from Duck Dynasty and his whole face changed he was like Doug Dynasty and then we became friends and um so from there he invited Corey and I to do his podcast and so I still got to be the hero Corey got to meeting we did this podcast like two hours long and um really long from that he invited us to come speak in London uh with all these world leader like world leaders was like this giant conference and here I am again on a stage except this time I'm with with him and with Corey and we're talking and we were going through all these things about the Earth and what we need to do as a society and these are big issues and I'm being interviewed by a lady and and and everybody's talking about the theory and how do we do things and and she goes and I was like we've got to go share the gospel with people we have a message for people like we need to believe in Jesus and she said Willie second accent I've done tonight um Willie uh how do you suppose we do this I said well I guess we just get up get out there and get after it and and literally it took her back she went oh did you just say get up get out there and get after it I said yep that's what I said she goes brilliant sometimes I think we make things so complicated we just need to get up get out there and get after it all right that may be a little river speak but uh that's it's just kind of the way we grew up and so sometimes I think when we share our faith it's the same way where we start waiting for all the theories and we get so caught up in all these things which is why I wrote the book gospeller uh gospeller is an old word that simply means one who shares their faith either publicly like I'm doing now or personally and it's not necessarily pastoral it's not like it's a some official thing normally it's just like some guy and they would be known as someone who shared their faith they would be a known gospeller and uh I was blown I Corey found the word I was writing this book about share my faith and she said Willie I found this word and it used to be like a common word but in the last couple hundred years it's gone and I kind of thought wow that maybe because actually sharing our faith and being known for that is kind of sliding away as well and so I wanted to put this down this was like a it was a long time coming I mean I've I've shared my faith and and I'll talk about that at the end of the the talk about what really inspired me but uh what happened was during co uh I couldn't do things like this and so I was home a lot and so I had went and heard uh lee Strobel give a thing on evangelism and he was talking about how we needed to be intentional about evangelism and and it's a Ministry that a lot of churches don't even have and so what happens people don't even know how to do this and so we're Co we're during Co and so I go to the guys at my church and say hey who's in charge of evangelism around here and they were like I I guess the pastor uh I said okay I'm just wondering CU you know we need to be intentional I'm kind of giving Lee's message I'm like we need to be intentional about this so typical Pastor move about a month later I get a call hey Willie do you love evangelism I do you want to head that Ministry up I guess I stepped into that one so uh I said yeah let's go and it was fascinating it was fascinating everything I learned from putting this together and teaching people so I asked I asked the group I said hey give me the list of people who is out there getting after and sharing the faith and I had a a pencil and paper I was going to write them down I figured I mean there's a couple thousand people at this building and uh I said who are they and I'm going that's the first people I'll go meet with guess how many names I got couple of thousand people guess how many names I got one one one person it was a guy in his 70s and he passed out some tracks uh to people it was the only guy they could think of who was known as someone who was always sharing his faith and you know what I said well we can improve on this and uh we started right there and we started training and so what I found was here's what holds people back uh that you come up with a lot of excuses as to why we don't share our faith uh well I don't know the Bible well enough and I bet there's some people listening who think I don't know the Bible well enough I'm not great at that that's not my gifting uh I thought when I think about that's not my gifting if I went home and told Corey Corey I have decided I'm never going to bring your name up publicly for the rest of my life because it's not my gifting what do you think she would say to that and so to me when I think about whether we bring up the name of Jesus and talk about our faith it should be as natural as when we talk about our spouse so there was a l lot of reasons yeah heard a lot of reasons why we don't uh but so I was trying to break those down in this book I go through through that and talk about that and I talk about a lot of stories uh stories where I've shared with people uh but mostly what I do is stick with the New Testament and I just go through the stories in there it's full of stories there I have about seven passages that I go through with people when I generally talk to people I have a lot more but I felt like that's about all people can take at one point you know like it's a my youngsters when I'm teaching they're like I'm G to tell them this then I'm going to tell them this then I'm going to tell them this I'm like hang on now a person can't take in that much stuff at one time so I break it down it's a big old Bible and so I break it down to where we can kind of understand that we launch in I talk about my gospel story uh I talk about the gospel story and then I talk about the response to the gospel story so it's a simple book and it's not there's different ways and there's all things people do but hopefully it inspires the church it's not I'm not worry about the pastors preaching the gospel but when the church starts preaching the gospel when the church starts preaching the gospel we will then start seeing a movement because if I want to get the word out I wouldn't just get Craig to say it I would take all you guys to get the word out and so that's the magic of it Matthew 28 Matthew 28 is where I start pretty much the whole premise is based on this you guys have heard this Jesus came to them and said all authority in heaven on Earth has been given to me therefore go and make disciples of all Nations baptizing them in the name of the father and of the son the Holy Spirit teach them everything I've commanded you surely I'm with you to the end of the age three things three things he said go do make disciples baptize people teach people you know what I decided guys I decided that as long as I live my life on this Earth I needed to be associated with those three things because it's the last last thing Jesus said to his people he said here's three things to do and I knew I said if I'm not doing any of those if I'm not associated with any of those then I may have a problem with my mission because that came from the Great Commission which becomes our mission and I'm convinced some of us have been living our whole lives with a bad Mission we just have a bad Mission we don't understand what our mission is we thought our mission was like I thought you were just supposed to show up and try to go to church for an hour a week and be a good person that's not a mission if that were the mission Jesus would have said here's what it's going to take these are are the three things he said so I want to be associated with those those are the three things that you'll see over and over in the book the first thing that's going to lead the conversation try doing those three things without opening your mouth and having a conversation every one of them takes a conversation think about it you're going to have to talk to someone else first thing we got to do if we're going to have a conversation we've got to care about people conversations start with caring and I got to be honest that is harder and harder and harder to do is to care about people I think now because we know so much about people now with social media we have the news on all the time and actually what happened was we really see people a lot and we're like uh I can't stand these people who are these people these people live in our country and what happens is and we're like I got to get around people that I like and that are like me and so then we go that way and then the other people go this way and everybody separates and we stop caring for people and we're like well I do care about people the people that I like to care for if Jesus didn't give us the best example of caring about people who was he talking about at the end of his life the people that were actually crucifying him think about Stephen in the book of Acts right at the end of his life as they were throwing stones at him he said father forgive them that's caring about people that you don't like and that's where this starts if you want to know a great example of caring about someone go to John chapter 4 we have the woman at the well Jesus gives a master class on how you talk to somebody that you particularly don't know and you probably shouldn't be be talking to in the first uh Place Jesus encounters a woman at the well she's a woman she's from a different part of the area he's not he supposed to be talking with her and Jesus starts this conversation and here's what happens guys what we start thinking is well I don't know the Bible and how exactly will when you're talking to someone how do you you know what theologically should you start with how should it start and here's how Jesus started this big conversation can I get a drink of water that was the question can I get a drink of water if you can ask that you are on your way to being a gospeller that's where it started that's where it started so he says can I get a drink of what can I get a drink of water and then they start this conversation and Watch What Happens through the watch what ends up happening in this story so gets the water Jesus starts talking to her first thing he's showing that he cares about her right I'm talking to you and so he starts giving her some Heavenly ideas spiritual ideas living water and what does she doesn't understand what he's talking about she's talking about where's your cup where's your little like let's let's I thought you wanted some water don't be surprised when you're talking to somebody and they have no idea what you know and what you believe and what you live for that's normal okay when I talk someone and they start cursing of course they would they don't know who I know they don't act like the church that's why we need to have the conversation I want to show them that I even care enough I'm telling you in the world today people there are people who are dead on a street and people step over them and just keep on walking you want to talk about not caring for people this whole world is full of people who don't care about anybody else except themselves and look at what happens they start talking then he says hey I got to get into your story so every time I'm talking to someone I want to hear their story cuz everybody got a story and then she gives him a little of the story but not the whole story hey go get your husband let's keep talking about this well actually and then Jesus does he goes in there a little bit deeper and says wait a minute wait a minute let's go and talk about this you know why I'm convinced that they had to talk about that because if she couldn't deal with that she was going to have no idea what it was like to follow Jesus these are small towns even in this town you start having five or six husbands and spouses everybody going to know everybody knew anyway and Jesus said let's go ahead and deal with it let's just deal with it then she goes back to her Village and she says this is crazy she goes hey I just met this guy he knew everything about me and that should have in my that would have been a negative I would have been like ohoo everything but it wasn't a negative it was a positive it was the opposite and she starts preaching about Jesus and then the whole village goes to meet him for themselves and then the whole village gets converted to Jesus the whole village one of the first gospellers was a woman right there in John chapter 4 it started with can I get a drink of water it ended with the whole village coming to the Lord one conversation that started with can I get a drink of water John chapter 8 there's another one there's another woman caught in adultery Jesus did what showed her he cared get set on his knee let me get down here with you showed her he cared we got to care about people if we're going to have conversations see if I got time for this one so the other day recently I have this fryer that you fry like massive stuff in and all the stuff goes down I think it's called a Cajun fryer and the sediments and you can use it for a long time I cooked some shrimp in it got a little bit of funkiness there I was like think my grease getting bad now my guys and I'm ashamed to even say this as a man my guys will take care of that for me you know cuz I'm gone lot you I'm busy I was sitting there and I got about 2 hours before I fly out and I thought oh just going to clean this sucker myself so I got a little valve on the back I just opened it up and I had a little bucket there gotop just like a black sludge I was said huh so then I did what any person would do I Googled it how do I clean out this thing so well heat it up do the thing I'm like I Ain got time for all that heating it up stuff so I thought I know what I'll do I'll do the this is where this sometimes I scare myself how smart I am I said I'll just pour boiling water into it it ain't on so don't worry I mean it's off but I'm like the hot water will so I dumped that a whole pot of boiling water into the old grease and I had this little poker and I'm poking it through there and it's like and I can feel something and I'm like and so I'm SLO around like come on so I got my little bucket what happened next there was a projectile I can't even say what the projectile was like on this stage but like I've seen things like it just exploded out of this small hole I ain't got near enough bucket okay it was hot boiling water old grease old flour just all in my face all over me and I'm like what have I just gotten into now I've got a flow in an hour and I'm completely covered in Grease Grease is all over the outside I'm the only person at the house and I'm like Cory's going to kill me I'm like my dog is going to be W now I've got to clean this up and it was it took me forever I tell you that to say this when you go stick around and poking into people was lies get ready you may need a bigger bucket okay now here's the deal guys did that tell me don't ever do that again no it just told me next time I'm going to be way more prepared when I start asking those questions when we ask those questions get ready for that we got to care about people conversations take courage conversations take courage Act chapter 8 Philip and the Ethiopian go read it I was coming in Dallas one night I had a uber dri 3: in the morning I was hoping there'd be an Uber driver I get in the guy's car he's got worship music playing like worship music when's the last time I heard somebody listen to worship music in an Uber car and I could tell from his Z in he he wasn't from around here all right and I was like he's not from here and he got in the car and I said hey are you a Believer we're going to start this this conversation right here you got worship music going are you a Believer he just looks up at me and I forget how I look cuz he's scared to death of me I'd love hearing him tell this story like I get a homeless guy in my car and I'm like he's like I'm just hoping he pays you know and he just looks at me and I said are you a Believer he said yes I said ah I said where you from he said Ethiopia and I went you don't say Phillip in the Ethiopian Acts chapter n Phillip comes after this and he just looks at me goes chapter8 I said of course you would know you would way better than I would [Applause] know the spirit tells him to go by this Chariot this guy has just left Jerusalem he had been worshiping God he was reading the book of Isaiah I'm going tell you right now I would have missed I would have pulled up and said he looks good to me he looks good to me he just left worshiping God now he's reading the book of Isaiah so let me he left here he left church and now he's reading his Bible with the stoplight and I'm like Hey brother amen notice he didn't let that stop him Philip asked him a question do you understand what you're reading ah what a great question sometimes we just got to ask better questions that's why I don't ask people do you go to church I don't even know what it means cuz I we are the church so I don't know how you go and then I'm you know I don't leave I'm like so I want to ask them good questions and that was a great question you understand what you're reading if we're going to have conversations they take courage that was courageous for him to pull up beside somebody didn't know and then to ask him that question the guy gets baptized he ends up back in eth ethopia conversations can create change remember zakus remember zius Luke 19 remember this little unsavory little dude climbs up in a tree he wanted to check Jesus out from afar he's up there want to see what this is all about this could be sometimes people that come and sit in our buildings this one come check it out like what is all this I'm hearing stuff about this going on Jesus looks up at him and he didn't always do this but this is what he did in this move he invited himself over to his house that's a bold move that takes some courage shows he cared about him nobody liked the guy I'm sure the guy knew everybody couldn't stand him and he goes over to his house and he went over there expecting change and I think this is the difference in our conversations with what I read in the New Testament is we don't we're not looking for for change we're just like I'm there and I hang out and I talk to you man he was going for the change zakus looks we don't even know what they talked about he's like I'm giving half everything I got away and if I cheat anybody I'm giving it back and what did Jesus say this is why I came this is why I came to seek and save what was lost conversations can lead to change those are three stories that are in the book there's more uh there stories that I've got y'all need to go check out some of the stories I want you to know the answer to the story when the guy says he got hundreds of people in his yard he goes Willie tell people what you told me that night in that hotel that's one of my favorite ones in there read about the story where the guy would pull out my f to go hunting he goes I need to get baptized right there in that cow pond it's 18° that's a good one all kind of stories all this is to Spur you on so that you can care about people that you realize that conversations can change I just pray that we're courageous there was a preacher got in a car drove to a bar 50s something years ago we just made a movie about it called the Blind and he preached the gospel to my dad when no one ever thought that this guy could ever change and that guy cared about him he was courageous and he walked in that bar expecting there to be a change and he sat down in an avoral situation preach the gospel if he doesn't do that if my father doesn't obey the gospel if my mother does not forgive him if they don't stay together and that family doesn't stay together I'm not standing here right now talking to everybody that's hearing my voice that's the power of the gospel and a conversation and what can come out of that it has now that conversation that happened 50 years ago has now affected you isn't that amazing so what conversations do you need to have who do you need to care about where do you need to be courageous who do you know that needs some change there probably a lot and I pray we have the message I pray that we can go be gospellers father I'm so grateful to be here at this place with these people father I just pray as as I continue to lay out the gospel father in different ways to do it I pray that we realize that it's not the method that we use it's the message of the Cross and father I I just pray that there's a spirit of boldness that the church will wake up and the church will preach the gospel and the church will tell everyone they know about who they are and the good news of the Gospel of you Jesus Christ father we're so grateful to be in your presence I pray that we go out and we change our whole identities and we are known as gospellers with the gospel flowing out of our lips all the time through Jesus we give you this prayer amen thank you guys come on let's tell him thank you really powerful and so sometimes it just starts with a conversation and what I want to do is I just want to continue in an attitude of prayer and I want you to think about someone that you know that needs the touch the love the grace that Jesus offers and we're going to pray for them before we pray I took some good notes and I want to tell you that next week is a good week to bring someone to church and so your assignment is to get up to get out there and to get after it and there are people that there are people that God put in your life that you're going to see this week and it can simply start with a conversation let's pray for them Father thank you so much for the love of Jesus thank you for who he is thank you for the way he transforms Our Lives I pray God for everyone here that is a follower of your son Jesus that you would Empower us with Divine boldness give us a heart to care God give us the courage to share and God we thank you that a conversation and empowered by your spirit can create change use us oh God may we be light into a dark world use us give us eyes to see a heart to care to transform lives even as you're praying right now if there's someone in your life that you know and in love that doesn't know Jesus just pray for them pray for a mom pray for your dad pray for a son or a daughter a brother a sister someone that you work with use us Jesus to help share your love as you keep praying today nobody looking around there may be those of you that you're your one conversation away from having your whole life changed and I wish that maybe if you've got spiritual questions or maybe you're in a place where you've done some things you're not proud of I wish we could just sit down and have a conversation one-on-one and we'll just I'll do the best I can right now and just tell you conversationally that that our God is so good he loves you right now even as you are you've probably done some things you're not proud of maybe some things you're embarrassed of I know I know that I have and the Bible just very clearly calls that sin it's anything that is not God's Will and sin separates us from God we feel guilty we feel bad about it but God he closed the Gap he loved you so much that he didn't just shout his love from heaven but he showed it on Earth he became one of you will he was talking about him Jesus who is Jesus he's a Son of God why did he come he did not come to condemn but he came to save he came he didn't come for those that were already healthy but he came for those who were sick he came for the broken people just like you just like me who needed his love and needed his forgiveness Jesus Is God In the Flesh he was perfect he was without sin and he died on a cross for the Forgiveness of our sins and the good news is the amazing thing is he didn't stay dead God raised him from the dead he has risen so that anyone and this includes you doesn't matter what you've done anyone who calls on his name your sins will be for forg given and you could be completely saved there are those of you God brought you here today to hear about Jesus from a guy that tells it just a little bit different you know why because you need to hear a little bit different you need to hear about a savior Who Loved a broken woman a savior who loved the man that everyone else rejected a savior that will love you and forgive you even now today at all of our churches those of you who say I don't have peace with God I want it I don't know where I stand with God you take one step today step away from your past away from your sin and say yes to the grace of Jesus I want to follow you I want to know you when you do that scripture says that God forgives all of your sins they're gone you become new you're not better you're different the old is gone and you become brand new today at all of our churches those who say yeah I I want to step away from my sin I need I I need the grace of God I want his love I want to know him I want to be forgiven today by faith I give my life to him that's your prayer would you lift hands high right now all over the place lift them up and say that's my prayer today praise God up there and others today saying yes right back over there praise God for you others today say Jesus I want you I need you and all of our churches to say yes I want to follow him and online you can type in the comment section I'm I'm choosing to follow Jesus I'm devoting my whole life to Jesus and today um wherever you are let's just stop right now and and pray together there's nobody going to pray alone just together as a family of God let's all pray aloud pray heavenly father father I trust Jesus I trust Jesus to save me to save me and to forgive my sins Jesus be first Jesus be first the Lord Of My Life The Lord Of My Life fill me with your spirit fill me with your spirit so I could know you so I could know you and I could show your love show your love give me a heart to care heart give me courage to share to share and thank you that your gospel changes lives thank you for changing mine my life is not my own I give it all to you in Jesus name I pray could you celebrate big today Church welcome those born into God's family are you enjoying book club we've got even more messages from this series ready for you right now so tap here to keep watching [Music]

Channel: Life.Church

Views: 30,692

Keywords: Sermon, Life.Church, Lifechurch, life church, life church sermons, craig rochelle, church sermons 2024, willie robertson, power of conversations, having conversations, gospel, sharing the gospel, sharing your life, craig groeschel, groeschel craig, courage, creating change

Id: Xtzpv7K6W4o

Length: 36min 24sec (2184 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 09 2024