How's That Working Out for You?

2007

Zane: That’s pretty helpful. Just talking to different people at work, talking with my old boss at my last job, so often I feel like it’s so foreign to me. I mean, you can see the fruit of these people’s lives. It’s so lifeless. That’s just helpful.

Mark: Yeah. Occasionally God will kind of give you a little clue. The man will go on about this, that, and the other. This real-life situation I’m thinking of right now of somebody going on like that. Just look them right in the eye while they’re just chattering about it, almost like they like it and they’re excited about it, and say, “So... How’s that working out for you?”

And their eyes water up, and they say, “My marriage is falling apart, and I’m losing my children.”

“Ok. All right. Are you willing to open your heart and your mind to what Jesus had in mind instead of what men have done with things about Jesus, little ‘lucky charms’ of Jesus?”

“How’s that working out for you?” When they have to probe one level deeper than all the superficial chatter, sometimes you can really catch their attention. Maybe they’ll say, “Oh, fine,” and then they go home and cry. And they come back to you a month later and say, “What did you mean by that? It’s haunted me ever since you said that.” It doesn’t have to be some religious monolog necessarily, but just the courage to go one level deeper than where they want to be at. “How’s that working out for you?” Because you already know the answer to that question if they’re honest enough to know it themselves. You already know, because false gods do not treat their subjects very well. It doesn’t turn out well for people that serve false gods. And no matter what they say, if you go one level deeper, you’ll find that it’s not what it appeared or what they wanted you to think that it was, and in their hearts, they know that. And sometimes that’s just the smelling salts that can make them realize, “Wow. The fact that he even asked me that... No one has ever asked me.” That was a superficial question it would appear—How’s that working out for you? It doesn’t sound very deep. But the fact is, probably no one has ever asked him in his life a question that deep. He’s never had to think about how it’s working out for him. Because everybody he knows is on that la-la level.

So that kind of question or just that brief comment that is a conscience- and conscious-shattering question or comment, like: “I don’t know what that shrine thing is. But I do know the Blood of Jesus has washed away my sins, and I’m so glad. Could you hand me my eight iron?” Those kinds of things will haunt them. It’s a Living and Active Word that lays bare the motives of the heart. You don’t have to make a big deal of it. It doesn’t have to be a debate. You don’t have to put them on the spot where they have to answer you much of anything. Because God’s Words just resonate and shock, and their bones are rattled. They can’t make it go away without just searing their conscience. A Living and Active Word, the Gospel is the Power of Salvation. “I’ll send my Spirit and He’ll convict the world of guilt in regard to sin.” That comes on the breath of His Word. The treasure in earthen vessels of just the simplest, the most brief, the most clarion words, and they’re going to have to make a choice to become a mortal enemy and sear their own conscience and avoid you, or come back to you even a month later and say, “What were you talking about? I can’t get it out of my head.”

It’s a far more pleasant and pleasurable thing to be a servant of God and to speak His word than it is to be a debater or a religious fanatic that has to argue with everybody and dispute them on the basis of their Hinduism, their Islam, or their fake Christianity. It’s just to speak His word in simplicity and trust that His Spirit will join. The Spirit and the Bride say “Come.” The Spirit and the Bride say “Come!” “Oh, I’ll let God convict them. I’ll let God do that. I’ll just lead a good life and that’ll be my testimony.” That’s garbage! The Spirit and the Bride say “Come!”

It’s His Word that’s Living and Active. So, faith comes by hearing...and hearing from the Word of God. It doesn’t have to be complicated. It doesn’t have to be sophisticated. It doesn’t have to be academically sound and thorough. It doesn’t have to be combative. It just needs to be one word, like “Blood.” It just has to be something from His heart and that moment. It’s like Jesus in that video:

“I’m a free woman.”

“Nah. But you could be.” And walk away!