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EULESS?Houston-area evangelist Voddie Baucham warned believers in the closing session of the Empower Evangelism Conference to remember their state before Christ redeemed them.
Baucham, raised by a Buddhist mother in Los Angeles and born again as a college student at Rice, said because of his roots he remains sensitive to people Christians sometimes spiritually snub.
He recalled being interrogated by a police officer and made to lie face down on the ground while walking with his uncle and cousin along the Pacific Coast highway in California because they were three black males in a neighborhood the policeman didn’t think they belonged in.
His uncle, he explained, lived only several blocks away. He also recalled preaching at a church that had never welcomed a black preacher into its pulpit. As Baucham took the podium, two deacons walked out in protest.
“So perhaps I do have another level of sensitivity toward those who are outsiders. But I urge you, when you look at people who don’t know Christ, who are not following Christ, before you say anything, remember who you used to be.”
Believers?some of whom were converted young?easily lose empathy toward pagans.
Preaching from Ephesians 2, which says believers were once dead in their trespasses, walking according to fleshly desires and children of wrath, Baucham pleaded: “How dare we pass judgment on other individuals because they struggle with things. I don’t know about you but I remember my life before I came to Christ. You and I were worthless before Christ got hold of us.
“So when you look at the homosexual, remember who you were. When you look at the drug addict, remember who you were. When you look at the garden-variety pagan, remember who you were.”
Baucham also urged his listeners to remember not only who they were but also how hard it was to do right without Christ.
Baucham said before we were saved we tried to do good things but failed often “because there was nothing in you or about you that would allow you to overcome your sin. Remember how hard it was?”
“Don’t be flippant ? How dare we expect non-believers to act like believers.”
Such attitudes make unbelievers think they need to clean up before coming to Christ, he said.
Third, remember what you did before salvation, Baucham reminded.
“You did things to deserve death and hell. We forget that sometimes. It amazes me sometimes that we shake our fists at God when life gets difficult as though difficulty coming into my life means God has slipped off his throne. And sometimes our attitude is, ‘God, I don’t know what you’re doing, but difficulty has come into my life right now, so you must have missed something. Because if you were paying attention and you were on your job, my life wouldn’t be this hard, these trials wouldn’t come my way. To which I respond, ‘Who do you think you are?’
“If he would crush and kill his only begotten Son, who was spotless and sinless, how dare you and I think that we ought to live a life of ease.
“The breath you just took is borrowed from God. You did not deserve it, nor do you deserve the next one that you will take. And if you walk out of here and fall on your face dead, God has still been too good to you.”
Finally, remember what God did, Baucham said.
Baucham said he and his wife would finalize adoption of a baby boy this month?a reminder to him that all believers, too, have been adopted. Several weeks into the pregnancy, the birthmother went to an abortion clinic but left after thinking someone would surely love the child and raise him. Baucham said he eagerly awaits the day he can tell Elijah, their new son, “Number one, God spared your life. Number two, we chose you. Number three, if you think adoption into this family is something ?”
