Are You Ashamed Of Jesus? Series

Are you Ashamed of Jesus?

Pray.

I'm going to start a small sermon series this morning on being Unashamed.

This week we are going to address the question," Are You ashamed of Jesus?" WE will learn, what that means and what that does to the Christian life. And next Week, we will learn and discuss, HOW NOT to let this happen.

So to get started, I'm going to ask you a question this morning, " Normally, I say, don't answer out loud, but you can answer out loud now if you want to, "Are YOU Ashamed of Jesus Christ?"

Everybody immediately said no. And that's wonderful and I hope that is true in your life. '

IN 2 Timothy 1 :6-18 Paul is writing a letter to Timothy. Paul nearing the end of his life wrote a letter of encouragement to Timothy. Paul had trainned Timothy to carry out his work in the ministry during his absence.

Now, Paul was a born again believer and Timothy was a born again believer. Two true Christian people with two very different personalities.

Paul was very bold, strong and dynamic for The Lord, where Timothy was a very good and faithful man , but was timid and scared at times.

Therefore Paul encourages Timothy in this epistle to stand strong, be bold, do not be timid when working for The Lord.

Paul actually tells Timothy in vs. 8 Do Not Be Ashamed of the testimony of our Lord.

Your question was posed to you already this morning , Are you ashamed of the testimony of your Lord, Jesus Christ?

But before you answer that question again, let's examine , first the definition of NOT Being Ashamed of Christ

Not being ashamed of Christ is having the courage and boldness to speak for Christ at every opportunity, no matter what the cost might be.

Is that you?

So, here's the sad fact about most Christians, When I posed the question in the beginning of this message, everyone answered NO, Of course I'm not ashamed of My Savior.

But many of us do not truly fit the definition above, of having the courage to speak His name anywhere with courage and boldness. So which is it, are you ashamed of Jesus or Not?

The reason many Christians , Sometimes are ashamed of Christ is this,

And I believe all of us have occassions when we are afraid to speak of Christ or be identified with Him. In some cases it's the result of severe persecution, such as Timothy was facing. But most often it is simply because, " the fear of man brings a snare, Accoriding to Proverbes. 29:25.

Often times, we fear what others might say about us or how they will react to us if we're outspoken for Christ.

Sometimes we are afraid or embarassed we won't have the right words to say. At other times the sin in our lives leads us to be silent out of fear that someone will confront our hypocrisy. In some cases our job or reputation will be jeopardized if we identify with Christ. But if we are going to be successful in serving the Lord, we have to conquer our fear and our shame.

Now so far, I'm receiving two reactions. One group is being honest with themselves, saying, maybe I am ashamed to associate or identify myself with Christ at times.

And there is another group here saying, I am never ashamed of Christ, nor would I ever be ashamed to identify myself with Christ.

To the first group, I say, thank you for being honest and I pray, by the end of this service, you will commit to being more bold and courageous for The Lord.

And to the Second Group, I say, Prov. 16:18 that says Pride cometh before destruction. I say, remember the great Apostle Peter. Flip your Bibles over to Matthew 26:69-75 and read.

Peter was clearly ashamed of Christ, and most of us would agree that he acted in a deceitful, weak, unthankful, and unloving manner towards Jesus.

Yet, I believe there are times when ALL of us fail to speak boldly for Christ. We may not do it the same way Peter did, but we are ashamed nonetheless.

Quickly, I've compiled three things, being ashamed of Jesus will do in the Christians' life.

1. it will stifle your service for Him.

How can you be of any use for The Lord if you won't open your mouth and mention His Name to anybody?

Think about Peter, what shut his mouth? Fear of other men. What shuts our mouths today? Fear of men.

How many people have died and gone to hell because Christians were too afraid, too ashamed of Jesus to open their mouth?

And you can sit there and say, Just because I don't tell other people about Jesus, that doesn't mean that I'm ashamed of Him. OK then tell me why you don't do it then?