Establishing Credibility Series

Several years ago (1993), FBI agents conducted a raid of Southwood psychiatric hospital in San Diego, which was under investigation for medical insurance fraud. After hours of reviewing medical records, the agents had worked up an appetite. The agent in charge of the investigation called a nearby pizza parlor to order a quick dinner for his colleagues.

According to the Snopes fact checkers, the following telephone conversation actually took place.

Agent: Hello. I would like to order 19 large pizzas and 67 cans of soda.

Pizza Man: And where would you like them delivered?

Agent: We're over at the psychiatric hospital.

Pizza Man: The psychiatric hospital?

Agent: That's right. I'm an FBI agent.

Pizza Man: You're an FBI agent?

Agent: That's correct. Just about everybody here is.

Pizza Man: And you're at the psychiatric hospital?

Agent: That's correct. And make sure you don't go through the front doors. We have them locked. You will have to go around to the back to the service entrance to deliver the pizzas.

Pizza Man: And you say you're all FBI agents?

Agent: That's right. How soon can you have them here?

Pizza Man: And everyone at the psychiatric hospital is an FBI agent?

Agent: That's right. We've been here all day and we're starving.

Pizza Man: How are you going to pay for all of this?

Agent: I have my checkbook right here.

Pizza Man: And you're all FBI agents?

Agent: That's right. Everyone here is an FBI agent. Can you remember to bring the pizzas and sodas to the service entrance in the rear? We have the front doors locked.

Pizza Man: I don't think so. CLICK (www.vasthumor.isfunny.com; and www.snopes.com; www.PreachingToday.com).

Sometimes, convincing people to believe the gospel is like that interchange. Very few people believe that you are indeed an ambassador for the King of kings (2 Corinthians 5:20).

So how do you convince them? How do you establish your credibility in a world full of skeptics? How do you persuade people to accept God’s grace (which seems too good to be true) and appreciate you, His messenger? Well, if you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to 2 Corinthians 6, 2 Corinthians 6, where the Apostle Paul shows us how as he tries to establish his credibility among a group of people, who were questioning his credentials.

2 Corinthains 6:1 -2 Working together with him, then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain. For he says, “In a favorable time I listened to you, and in a day of salvation I have helped you.” Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation (ESV).

Working together with Christ, Paul urges his readers to receive God’s grace today! For the only way they could receive God’s grace in vain is if they waited too long, if they postponed their decision to trust Christ beyond their ability to do so.

David Brainerd, the great missionary to the Native Americans, was witnessing to a chief, who was very close to trusting Christ with his life. But the chief held back. There was some pause or hesitation.

Brainerd got up, took a stick, drew a circle in the soft earth about the chief, and said, “Decide before you cross that line.”

Why this passion and urgency? Because Brainerd recognized that at that moment, that chief was close to God. If he missed that moment, he might never be so close again (Bruce Thielemann, “Tide Riding,” Preaching Today, Tape No. 30; www.PreachingToday.com).

If you’re close to giving your life to Christ, do it now! Do it before you no longer want to or have the opportunity to do so. Paul urgently begged his readers to receive God’s grace today, and that’s what you must do if you want to establish your credibility.

FERVENTLY DECLARE THE GOOD NEWS OF GOD’S GRACE.

Urgently compel people to accept God’s unmerited favor and blessing today. Plead with people receive God’s free gift of salvation now, before it is eternally too late.

On July 25, 2000, Air France Concorde flight 4590 crashed on takeoff in Paris. One hundred passengers, nine crew, and four people on the ground were killed when the Concorde banked, went into a stall, plunged to the ground, and exploded on impact in a fireball.

The cause of the crash was a 16-inch strip of metal on the runway that burst the aircraft's tire, with debris from the blowout rupturing a fuel tank in the aircraft's wing. It was too late for the pilot to halt the takeoff. So, with the plane on fire, he planned to make an emergency landing at Le Bourget airport a minute's flying time away.

As investigators sought to discover the reason for the accident, they listened to the tapes of the pilot's conversations with the control tower. His last words as he fought to save his stricken craft were, “Too late” (Owen Bourgaize, Guernsey, United Kingdom; www.PreachingToday.com).