As I write this post, I can hear my husband making an audio recording of a sermon called Living Before an audience of One. We live in an old farmhouse. There isn’t a sound made in here that one can’t hear. There is no such thing as a private conversation unless you whisper.

I hear him preaching. I know this is hard, trying to preach in a bedroom with no faces looking back and responding. Perhaps that’s easier in some ways, actually!

Seriously, I know from our conversations that he doesn’t like preaching at home and posting services online. This is the hard reality of church in 2020. While we’ve had some months of in-person worship, this Sunday we are worshiping from home due to a concern about exposure at church last weekend.

In those moments of preaching alone in the bedroom and recording his voice, the thing that keeps him going is that he knows the One who does hear him (besides me sitting directly below him listening to his muffled sermon). It is God who ultimately receives glory from sermons that point to Him and, lead the listener to worship Him.

That term, “Living for the Audience of One” might be familiar as it was discussed in a book by Os Guiness titled The Call. Maybe you’ve heard of it. This is one of my favorite quotes from the book:

“I live before the audience of One – before others I have nothing to gain, nothing to lose, nothing to prove.”

Os Guiness

As I listen to the muffled sermon, I remember a passage from scripture I ran across this week. It caused me to ask myself a question. It was a good question for my heart to consider, even though the answer seemed obvious at first glance.

The scripture that prompted the question:

Paul knew it was God’s grace that allowed him to preach to the Gentiles and he took the opportunities to do it seriously.

When we have opportunities to speak of God, do we see them as given to us by God by His grace and take advantage of them?

Paul’s identification of himself as a prisoner of Christ Jesus reveals that he was wholeheartedly devoted to Him.

Could I say the same thing for myself? AM I WHOLEHEARTEDLY DEVOTED TO CHRIST?

Am I so wholeheartedly devoted to Christ, that I am willing to risk what I might gain or lose from doing something (or not doing something) for Him?

If you’re reading this, most likely you are someone who loves the Lord. Perhaps you’d even say you do that with wholehearted devotion. I think that we all have moments, though, when we realize that there may be a part of our heart that we’ve kept to manage ourselves. Or maybe there is some way that we hold back a part of our hearts for Him in certain situations. Maybe it is to self-protect. Maybe it is because we haven’t grown spiritually in an area.

Perhaps we have felt the urge to say something to someone about the Lord but then chicken out because of some fear of what the person will think or if they won’t want to be our friend anymore. It could be any number of instances similar to that.

Does not sharing the gospel with someone make you someone not fit to be a Christ-follower?

I would say, “No!”

The things we do or don’t do tell us mostly something about our hearts and our need for Him. Be encouraged that He died for you while you were yet His enemy. Did Jesus cast-off Peter when he denied Him three times? No, Jesus restored Peter. And He restores you and me, too.

Sometimes questions are scary. It’s not easy to ask tough questions of ourselves and others. When we do, we can adjust our lives to better reflect our true identity in Christ. When we do, we also need grace. I love this gracious quote by Charles Spurgeon:

“Remember, therefore, it is not thy hold of Christ that saves thee—it is Christ; it is not thy joy in Christ that saves thee—it is Christ; it is not even faith in Christ, though that be the instrument—it is Christ’s blood and merits; therefore, look not so much to thy hand with which thou art grasping Christ, as to Christ; look not to thy hope, but to Jesus, the source of thy hope; look not to thy faith, but to Jesus, the author and finisher of thy faith. We shall never find happiness by looking at our prayers, our doings, or our feelings; it is what Jesus is, not what we are, that gives rest to the soul. If we would at once overcome Satan and have peace with God, it must be by “looking unto Jesus.” Keep thine eye simply on him; let his death, his sufferings, his merits, his glories, his intercession, be fresh upon thy mind; when thou wakest in the morning look to him; when thou liest down at night look to him. Oh! let not thy hopes or fears come between thee and Jesus; follow hard after him, and he will never fail thee.”

Charles Spurgeon

Friends, let us adjust ourselves and be restored. Let us begin to begin again living in ways that reveal that we live before the audience of One…with nothing to gain, prove, or lose. That we are WHOLEheartedly devoted to Jesus Christ.

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.”

Deuteronomy 6:5 ESV

If you’d like more encouragement in this, I’m sharing my husband’s sermon this week on Living Before an Audience of One. Just click on the podcast graphic below!

If you would like more questions to ask yourself and others, sign up for my newsletter below and you’ll receive a free booklet I’ve put together called Asking Is Loving as well as a free course on being transformed by God’s Word called Empowered By Truth.Newsletter and Freebies

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