by admin | Oct 14, 2025 | Behind the Bucking Chutes
By Scott Hilgendorff / Cowboys of the Cross
Be the reason someone asks you why.
Not, why would you get on the back of a bull or why you’d risk your thumb roping.
But… Why did you pay that guy’s fees when you know you aren’t going to see the money again?
Why did you help that guy change a tire when you were already late for the rodeo? Why did quit drinking? Why did you just now decide to apologize for your part in that fight we got into last year?
Let your faith in Jesus change you so much that people start noticing it and asking why. And then, most importantly, be ready to explain it with your own clear understanding of the gospel: God’s plan for salvation that changed you.
2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!
We know we aren’t going to be perfect the moment we have a saving faith in Jesus but God sees us as perfect anyway. When we have a saving faith in Jesus, that means the Holy Spirit is now at home in us and through that, we are now something new. Through the Holy Spirit, or sometimes we refer to Christ being in us as Paul says here, we begin a process known as sanctification; becoming more like Jesus every day. Whether we experience big changes all at once or little ones along the way, it can be different for each but proof to ourselves of our salvation is that we are different than we were before. When our saving faith is real, we are not left the same as we were.
Those changes are what people begin to notice and they may start asking different questions like why don’t we go to the bar with them anymore.
Sometimes our friends might feel like the changes we make mean we suddenly think we’re better than them or that we’re judging them when we start living differently from them. Sometimes they might see such a positive shift in our attitude that they want to know why or what happened.
Whether they approach us out of a negative or positive reaction, we need to be ready to explain it to them.
1 Peter 3:15 but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect,
The hope Peter is referring to is our understanding that a perfect eternity is waiting for us in Heaven no matter how hard life here can get. He wants us to be ready to explain it to others who see we look at life differently now as Christians. This is a major way that others can come to a saving faith in Jesus through us.
If you identify yourself as a Christian but nothing about how your life is changing, let me ask you the hard question: why isn’t it?
Then let us offer to help you dig deeper into your faith and find a closer, changing relationship with Jesus.
by admin | Jul 28, 2025 | Best Sermons
PART TWO OF TWO
By Scott Hilgendorff / Cowboys of the Cross
The best sermons are lived, not preached.
Many cowboys have seen memes or posts on social media that make this kind of statement and liked or shared them because it sounds great.
But it’s only half of the equation and it’s important not to miss the other half.
In Matthew 5, Jesus tells us to be a light in the world—that how we live our lives and the good we do will show Jesus to others. That’s very true and essential to our faith. When our saving faith in Jesus is real, we can’t help but want to become less sinful and live out more of what Jesus teaches and commands us to do.
One of his commands is what we call The Great Commission.
Matthew 28:19-20 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
A disciple is a follower of Jesus and in this command, we are all told that we are to go into the world around us and make disciples. That means first telling them about Jesus and then teaching them what we have learned or are learning. It isn’t just for preachers in the pulpit, it’s for rodeo cowboys at the fairground and ranch hands working cattle.
Being a light, doing good things, demonstrating that our life is changed by our saving faith in Jesus will show people our lives are different and being affected by our growing relationship with Christ, but others can’t be saved through our actions alone. We have to actually tell them who Jesus is and that he died on that cross to take the punishment meant for our sins so that through belief, genuine repentance of sin and asking to be forgiven, we can have an eternity in Heaven. The plan for salvation is commonly called The Gospel and we understand The Great Commission to be about sharing The Gospel with others.
Peter explains to us that we have to be ready to explain it to people what we believe.
1 Peter 3:15 but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect,
In other verses in this chapter, Peter teaches ways we can demonstrate our faith and that we should demonstrate good, not evil, to others. He also explains that as we live a life different from others, we might even suffer for our faith at the hands of those who reject Christianity as we make different choices than them.
Peter references our hope, which is our understanding that a perfect life waits for us in Heaven so that no matter how hard this life gets or the struggles we face, we have confidence that a better, eternal life is waiting for us. Our hope is in that belief, not in anything the world around us can give or do for us. Whether we face persecution or not, if our life is demonstrating Christ in us, others can see it and ask. He stresses that we have to be prepared to tell others what we believe and why that gives us a different hope than they have.
This is where we can see how both our actions and our words are necessary for others to also come to a saving faith in Jesus.
The best sermon is both lived our and preached, together, so people can see our lives are different through our hope in Jesus but that we can also explain what that saving faith, The Gospel, is, so that they also can have a chance at a perfect eternity in Heaven.
by admin | May 11, 2023 | Behind the Bucking Chutes
By Scott Hilgendorff / Cowboys of the Cross
When we don’t understand what hope is, we set ourselves up to lose it.
“If this situation doesn’t turn around soon, I’m going to lose my truck. I hope I find work soon.”
“That’s two dead calves this spring already, I hope there aren’t any issues with the rest.”
That’s the most common way we’re used to hearing the word, “hope” get used but it sets us up for discouragement when the job doesn’t come and the truck gets repossessed or you lose two more calves in a ridiculously bad calving season.
We put our hope in relationships or friends and family but people are going to fail and we’re going to get let down. As Christians, if we don’t understand what hope is according to scripture, we can get discouraged with God too.
It isn’t easy to change our perspectives but for Christians, our hope is placed in Jesus. That isn’t the same as hoping for a good outcome. “I hope you understand what I’m saying” means I desire a positive outcome that this is helpful. “I hope this job interview goes well” but it still could be a total disaster. With that use of the word hope, there are no guarantees and we can end up feeling defeated.
Hope in Jesus is different. That is something we can be confident in. When we have a saving faith in him, there are no guarantees that life here won’t be hard at times but we are guaranteed a perfect eternity in Heaven. What it means to put our hope in Jesus is that we can face this world’s struggles with the confidence that something amazing is waiting for us in an perfect eternity in Heaven.
1 Peter 3-8 gives some of the explanation.
3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, 5 who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7 These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.
Peter is showing us that we are going to face struggles here but that when we persevere with our thoughts focused on Jesus, he is glorified through our struggles while God preserves our salvation so that when we leave this world, we move on to that perfect eternity.
We place our hope in Jesus, using the word, “hope” in a completely different context—that we know our salvation is secured no matter what happens to us here.
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