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FORT WORTH?It was an unorthodox invitation by some standards.
“No music, no manipulation, no scare tactics. The majority of you here tonight I believe are saved.” As for others, Clayton King said, “your belief is not the kind that saves.”
Moments later more than 100 teenagers had stood from their seats and made their way to the front, waiting to meet with counselors about their professed desire to accept Christ as Savior.
King, the main speaker during the Friday night portion of the Youth Evangelism Conference (YEC) held July 15-16 at Will Rogers Auditorium in Fort Worth, had just contrasted three types of belief of which two?inherited belief and intellectual belief?do not save, he said. The third type of belief Jesus cited in John 6:29, King explained.
“Jesus replied, ‘This is the work of God: that you believe in the one he has sent.'”
During the annual summer conference, which drew more than 2,000 students and sponsors, 146 students prayed to receive Christ, said Brad Bunting, SBTC youth evangelism associate. This year’s theme was “Search + Rescue,” based on Luke 19:10: “The Son of Man has come to seek and to save the lost!”
Preaching from John 6:26-31, King asked the crowd, “Here’s my question: What kind of belief out of these three do you have tonight?”
King said inherited belief is evident in John 6:31, where the Jewish crowd mentions that their fathers ate manna in the wilderness.
“Do you know where they had their belief? Not in God, certainly not in Jesus, but in their forefathers. They had inherited belief.”
“You do not inherit Christianity from your family,” King said. “You inherit death.”
A second type of belief, intellectual belief, relies on seeing or understanding something?also evident in verse 31 as they asked Jesus what kind of sign he would perform.
King said Christianity has gotten too entertainment oriented. Noting his friendship with the rock band “Third Day,” King said, “I know those guys. I would vouch for them. They love Christ and I think you should support them.”
But though 30,000 people will buy tickets for one of their concerts, “See how many people show up” for a 30-minute prayer meeting on a Friday morning.
King recalled watching Michael Jordan play college basketball at North Carolina and later with the Chicago Bulls. “I know all sorts of facts about Michael Jordan,” and though King believes in him, neither man knows the other, he said.
The meaning of “believes” in John 3:16 and John 6:29 connotes more than intellectual belief. It means “to hold something as true so deeply that it radically changes your life with consequences,” King contended.
“Has it altered your life with consequences? Are you different?”
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