Sharing Your Faith: Step 4 – Looking For the Opportunities

This week, a poll came out, or at least was talked about on the Christian media circuit. The poll talked about who was more generous and their faith beliefs. It is interesting that where Christian faith is most lacking is in the north, where charitable giving is also the least. The highest area of active Christians seems to be in the South. Giving is also the highest around here. The West was in between. Now this is key: though faith is greater here in the South, all churches seem to be suffering decline at the same rate.  Our evangelistic outreach seems to be almost non-existent. To this point, one minister in our community said, “Brothers, I’ve never really thought about this in (all my years of) ministry, but I’ve come to realize that I’ve never had a burden for the lost. Pray that God will give me such a burden.”

I’ve come to the conclusion that fear is responsible for why we do not reach the lost, why we do not “have a burden for the lost”. To now, we’ve had easy steps in helping us grow to the point of sharing our faith. Praying, preparing, sharing in written word, but now we are going to be more active in the sharing of our faith, as will our last step, which we will talk about on the 9^th.

1.       Fear prevents us from seeing opportunities (Mat. 25.15): We fear being rejected. We fear being judged.

Consider the man who had been given a single talent to use for his Lord. Can we relate to him today? He had two colleagues. One was given 2 talents and the other, 5 talents. The one with 5 doubled. The one with 2 doubled. I imagine the one with 1 talent was seeing the success that his two friends, compatriots were having in their work. He longed to have that as well. What the others were doing looked so simple. Could he do that as well and see the same results?

He was tempted to try, but he also was seized with fear. He feared his master. I also wonder if there is room to say that he feared himself. He feared how his master might see him. I imagine what all might have been in his life as he grew up. I can almost hear his parents tell him time and again that he was a worthless life, stupid beyond measure, that he would never amount to anything. What if he failed? Would his master now see the same man his parents knew he’d become? His feared prompted him to make a decision with the gift that his master gave him. Sit on it. He would show that he was a faithful steward of what he was given. He has settled for a simple life.

2.       Now what should we do about this fear? Spirit helps us to be bold. Consider 2 Timothy 1.7-8. When we are clothed in Christ, we have been clothed in the Spirit. We are not alone. We focus too much on Luke 14.26ff about the cost of following Jesus, and forgetting the promise of eternal fellowship, of never truly being alone in this time as He promised. And sometimes, more times than we know, when we are willing to lay that which we love the most aside for Jesus, then we find that God has also shed his grace on them as well. I was willing to leave my family, only to return a few years later to baptize two and rededicate another. But what is there to be fearful of? Let’s look at the man who buried his single talent. Isaiah promised that if the Word of the Lord goes out, it shall not come back void. You see that is what is missing from the parable that we tend to ask ourselves: What if it fails? What if I fail? Who am I? According to 2 Tim 3.9, God qualifies us. We are not called because of what we’ve done or can do, but we can do because he has called us.

3.       Let’s talk about our faith. People already know that you are a Christian, or at least they should know. And they should hear of how God has blessed you. When you go through a storm in your life and share it with others, you find out that you were not alone within your circle. When we miscarried our first, it was amazing how many around us had suffered. But it also allowed us opportunity to share with those who didn’t have a relationship with Christ. We were not as distraught. Yes, we were crushed and we mourned.  But from there, God’s grace showered upon us. 

Take a moment this week to push yourself further from your comfort. Talk about your faith. Talk about how Jesus helped you through a storm. Even within your fellowship of other Christians, Hebrews 10.24-25 says, “Let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deed, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another – and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”  And now is the moment in which we need to decide, are we ready to take the next step? Do you need help putting aside the fear that we all struggle with? Let us encourage you with prayer as we stand and sing

Sharing Your Faith: Step 3: Simple Paper

There is a commercial on right now about changing your car insurance. They put forth a question: “How are you saving me money?” If you were to ask, you would have fidgeting on the other end of the line. No one knows for sure. You know, I know the answer. ABC Insurance Co. charges you monthly policy of 63.06. Acme Insurance charges 56.06. Acme saved you $7 per month by charging you $7 less. It really isn’t something that is hard to understand, but people tend to over think things.

Sometimes we look for our favorite parable to have many meanings. Everything must stand for something. Take the parable of the planting the seeds. Jesus gives us the meanings of the soil types that would receive the seed, or the Good News. Then we look to other parables and try to find what each element stands represents. Sometimes an element is just part of the story. Theology in general is that way. For example, we will get into debates about what the interim time between physical death and the resurrection will be like. Does it matter when people are around us hurting, needing Jesus’ compassion, God’s grace. Don’t over think it. Look to the mission, share the gospel.

And that is something else we over think: sharing our faith. We somewhere along the way, bought into the lie that if we are not Billy Graham, then we will not be able to share our faith. Or we believe that only the preachers and church leaders are called to share the faith. Does God only call people like Billy Graham to share their faith? Does a person have to be so eloquent when speaking?

Truth is, often God uses simple means, and expects simple compliance. Naaman is one such example. He was the general for the army of King Aram. Now as mighty as he was, he had a skin disease. It kept him uncomfortable to the point that a servant girl told her mistress what he should do. So he travels in pomp and circumstance to be healed. Does Elisha see him? Nope. Gahazi, tell him to dip seven times in the Jordan River.  Look at verse 11. Clearly he was over thinking.  His servants reason with him and then he complied and was healed.

Our step that we do not need to over think is to use tracts or notes. I did have a few timely tracts to use, to show, but this week I found out that my former mission had a system failure so my order won’t be here until next week. So let’s do something simple. Write a note, Dear Son, or Dear Daughter, or better, dear Joe or Susannah. Leave this someplace in public, some place where someone will read it. When they see it’s a note to someone, they will read it. We all tend to like the gossip.

Once you become used to leaving a note laying on a table, the next step is to target a person, or people. These are the same people you should be praying for daily. Leave it on their cars where they will not be blinded by it’s presence, because its annoying to see something blocking my view. Now if most of it is under the wiper, then when I get to my destination, I will pull it out, and more likely, I’ll read it.

Now here is where the promise of God, the prayer and the preparation comes in. God’s word, in Isaiah 55 that as God’s word goes out, it will not return void. Leave a tract, or note, specifically for your waiter/waitress. This means that sometimes you may need to carry a pad of paper. Not a big pad like this, but the size of your wallet. Give them encouragement that God knows what they are struggling with, and God can work it out for their good, if they let Him.

Somewhere along the way, we’ve become a timid people. We are a people of purpose and privilege. We are sons and daughters of the King. He is always with us. So in this light, we need to once again start exercising our boldness. No, not taking an all out offense to sharing the faith, but with humility and gentleness and love. Remember, we really are no different than those around us, except that we are now clothed in Christ. We now have the hope of fellowship with the Father that the world knows it’s missing. Joshua encourages the people that they need to be brave for God is with them. Jesus offered comfort to the disciples by reminding them that God will always be with them, with us, through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Take time this week to share simple paper within your world. Use notes. Next week, look over the tracts and use them. Be open to God’s guidance. You may be the only source of good news a person will ever encounter. And as far as being able? Moses had a stutter. God provided him a voice to deliver Israel. Jesus called 12 working stiffs, regular people. He ignored the polished prim and proper. He wants to use you and me. From those 12, no kingdom has come close to the size of God’s kingdom in Christ. Will you let him use you as we stand and sing?

Sharing Your Faith Step 2: Preparing Yourself

I’ll confess, I haven’t been watching the Olympics. I believe I am a sports agnostic. Few sports grab my attention. Bowling, umm, ok so bowling seems to be the only example of something I watch with any regularity. But regardless of what events you like to watch, one thing is for sure: Gabby didn’t just wake up doing summersaults. She had to train and work for the medals she earned. In fact, every athlete has had to work hard to become the best of the best of their homelands, regardless if they win or lose. To that, I understand that one runner ran the race on a broken leg. Talk about commitment.

This brings me to our race, as Paul calls it. “I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith.” Reading his writings, Paul often talks of the constant need of training in order to live the Christian faith, as we need to share the faith with others. Are we prepared?

Peter encouraged his readers to “…revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect…” (1 Peter 3.15 NIV) This is our second step in sharing the faith. The first step was to pray. Pray to be open to God’s leaning, to seeing opportunities, and for people in general and one person in particular. Now we need to be prepared ourselves.

Yes, prayer does help prepare us. Remember, I told you that we will not be done with prayer. But prayer is not all that we need to be prepared. So what do we need to do to be prepared to share our faith?

Our verse from Peter provides the key to being prepared. Revere Christ in your hearts. But not just revere Him. There is a submission painted here. (Yeah, it’s that 4-letter word.)  We are to set Jesus as Lord of our lives. How often do we seek his guidance and direction? For example, we take our GPS devices and look to it for finding places that we’ve not been to a whole bunch, if we’ve even been to that destination. For every turn, we listen and obey. But do we listen to hear Christ? Not just at the beginning of the day, or its ending. I mean at every turn, there is opportunity to do horrid, to do good, to do better. Do we bring Christ’s lordship into the minutia of daily life?

When we do not, might I put forth that we are robbing God his due glory. Working graveyard shift, an older gentleman came in, driving a beat-up looking smaller Ram 350 RV. He came in and gave me a quiz. When you were working along the highway at the church this afternoon, you were almost hit by a truck. Were you lucky, or did God step in? I said God stepped in. I figured he had driven by and recalled seeing me there earlier. Both my store and the church were a mile apart on the highway heading out of town. This evening, when you barely beat your friend at the net in Volleyball, you were? I said lucky. He asked me what was about God that I didn’t include Him in my minutia. I had no answer. He went to demonstrate that even in, or especially in the minutia, God does care about the very details. He even cares when a bird falls to the ground. (Mat 10.29)

From the end of that conversation, I ceased using the word “lucky”. There were times that I wanted to use that word in the beginning, but after making a concerted effort, it became easy to purge the word from my vocabulary. Like any word that we ought not use, making an effort, looking to the Father’s help. It comes down to changing our vocabulary. Paul tells the church of Ephesus twice that there should be no coarse talk, but words that encourage and full of thanksgiving.

Now why is this important? For a couple of reasons: Paul encourages the reader in 1 Cor. 3 that we should not be of this world. According to 1 Pet. 2.9, we are a royal priesthood, God’s special possession so that we may declare his praise. James would add that therefore we cannot praise and curse from the same mouth. (James 3.9-10). 2 Corinthians 5.17, if we are in Christ, we are a new creation. The old is gone, the new is come.  How we talk, the words we choose to use are first indicators of whether or not we are new, they are what will grab our friends’ attention. But it isn’t just talking the talk. I made the assumption that we are already living the walk. Now as we talk, we will also find our walk matching. There is an old school rhyme: “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but your words will hurt me more than you know.” The reverse is true. “A person finds joy in giving an apt reply—and how good is a timely word.” (Proverbs 15.23)

But having the right words, coming from revering Christ as Lord in our hearts, even in our minutia, will help in the final process of preparation that we are looking at this morning. Write your story out. As we are striving to live our Christian faith, sometimes someone may just force you to jump your steps in learning to share your faith. Writing the story will allow you to be familiar with the details of how Christ has worked in your life. The story is more than just when you became a Christian. Your story should contain why you were looking for Christ, or what you were doing when you discovered Christ. You might include how he has walked you through the storms in your life. “When I came to Christ, I was an awkward teen, my skin full of blemishes that no medication worked. It was my senior year, and I was miserable. Even my family had alienated me. Maybe we alienated each other. Was there anyone to accept me? In the chemistry class I TA’ed, I was tired of hearing of this one clique’s over the top parties, so I was crashing the next one. I learned once I arrived, it was a church party. The youth minister invited me to come to church in a couple of days. When I went, I was showered with love and hugs. I drank it in like the desert floor drinks in the rain.  I later that week, every night actually, I shared my childhood years and asked questions of the youth minister, who was the high school choir teacher. He took his time, even when he saw my ugly past. They accepted me, and I was soon clothed in Christ. They accepted me because God had accepted them. When I was looking for God, God made His love known. January 17^th, 1988.” That is a small bit of my story. What is yours?

This week, I encourage you consider your story as you continue to pray step one, as part of preparing to share your faith. Now I know the prep work is hard. I struggle all the time. Even Paul struggled with it. This is why we need to realize that we are not in this by ourselves. We have one another. If life hasn’t been what it should have been, then let’s lift one another in prayer so that together, we can reach people with the Gospel. Take the next step with me.

Sharing Your Faith Step 1: Pray

The MO Church had an uphill battle. New zoning laws did not "grandfather" in existing buildings. Church had two single rows of parking, but needed 5 rows to be compliant. But where? The one side of the building had a row at the base of the hill, where the more stout would park and walk up the hill. The other side of the building had a single row and the rest of the hill going up 20 feet. No additional parking there. They had 9 months to become compliant or move or close. After praying for a month, they knew they were lost. There was no way to afford to level the hill. But highway 71 needed to be widened. Crew didn't have the dirt needed to make the road bed. God brought the two together. The road crew leveled the hill, paid for the dirt and put in a free paved parking lot.

Preacher, still wet behind the ears, talking about faith healing being a test to God, walks over to the nearest woman at this revival meeting, mockingly  lays his hand on her forehead and prays the typical prayer of faith healing and then shoves her backwards into her seat. It wasn’t a hard shove, but wasn’t too gentle. Immediately, the grown son with anger in his eyes picks up his mom and rushes her to the hospital. Little to the preacher’s knowledge, but the woman had an inoperable brain tumor on her front lobe. Such force could cause her to seize and die. At the hospital, CT scan showed no tumor, no trauma. 

Much we don’t understand about prayer. More often, we use it as our last recourse. And perhaps when we see it answered, it frightens us. Yet prayer is our first tool, our first resource. It is more.

Prayer is preparatory for being used by God. Even Jesus prayed before selecting the original 12 disciples. (Luke 6.12). Prayer is constantly undergirding all that we say and do. At least it should be. Luke 5.16 says that Jesus often withdrew to pray alone, or with his disciples. As I was preparing this series, this topic has allowed me to see Luke’s Gospel in a different light. Often we think of the parables Jesus told, since most of the parables are recorded by Luke. Yet more than the other gospels combined, Jesus prays, tells his disciples to pray, as well as the nature of spiritual realm. Prayer is access to that realm, access to the Father, through Christ. Prayer is a mighty tool, one mightily neglected tool, too.

We pray for a new vision. Luke 10.2, “Look to the fields, they are ripe for the harvest, yet the workers are few. Pray to the Lord of the Harvest that he would send out more workers.” Consider Paul’s admonition in 2 Cor. 5.16-18, “So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.”

We pray for people with whom we will come into contact. God laid it on the heart of Philip to preach the Gospel as he went. (Acts 8.4, those who were scattered preached the Gospel as they went.) He was open to the Lord’s leading, in this case, to the road that headed to Gaza. While on that journey, he happened by a eunuch reading the scroll of Isaiah. It was an opportunity for him to share. In Acts 9, Ananias was told specifically to Paul. Talk about going out on a limb, or from the cage into the lion’s den! God may not direct us to someone particular. But he may indeed do just that. However if we are not praying for both a person and people we might come into contact with, then we can’t be directed by the Lord.

We pray for opportunities. Stephen is my favorite example of this. In Acts 6, He was selected as one of the original 7 deacons. He took the opportunity to preach Christ in his duties. And as the opposition grew against him and falsely accused him, he didn’t argue his arrest. He preached Jesus. This example would surely bleed over to Paul who would likewise take opportunities to preach. Acts 17.24, “For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: to an unknown god. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you.”

Now this step, praying, is not just something we are doing once. This step we will see come into each of the other steps. Prayer will again be another step of itself. Praying, though usually saved for our last recourse should be our first resource. I hope that we will take a different look at prayer.

The end of every message, I don’t lay out an appeal to make a decision for Christ. I do, however, make an appeal to pray with you. Today will be no different. Next week will have the same appeal. Is there some way in which we, as brothers and sisters can pray for you now? Share with us. Let us pray with you.

Sharing Your Faith: Why

                Today, we begin a new series. It is something that is new for me as well. In the past, I’ve preached mainly themes from within books of the bible, basically remaining in the passages. I have done a few topical sermons for special days such as Mother’s and Father’s Day. This however, will be my first topical series.

                I don’t say this to ask for positive feedback, but in a way to let you know that as I ask you to stretch and even leave your comfort zone, you will know that I am doing likewise.  And I am excited to be doing this series. Now why am I asking you to lay aside your comfort zone? The past several themes have been about living for God, to be the type of people that brings glory to God. I have encouraged you to share your faith with others. And as I have done so, I’ve given examples of sharing your faith, but I’ve failed the preparation.

                Sharing your faith for some is easy. Paul does say that some are given to be evangelists. Yet, we are all called to this task, to lead others to Jesus. Now I don’t mean that we all are to go up to strangers and tell them about Jesus. I mean that there are those within our own unique circles that only we can reach. You have more influence in your sphere of family and friends than I do. I have more influence within my family and friends than you. This also goes for the neighborhoods that we live in. You have a better chance with Mr. Jones next door to you than I do, living across town. He’d expect me, but he wouldn’t expect to see you.

                Before we get to the why, let me draw your attention once again to the prayer sheet. Notice both the first and last request. Luke 10.2. That’s all it is. Have you memorized it yet? “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into his harvest field.” (NIV)

                This has been a constant prayer request because by praying this, hopefully our minds will adjust to a different way of thinking, allowing us to be more open about seeing the need of Jesus in the people we encounter, that we would be open to sharing with them.  I believe that we are to be those workers. But like with any work, we need to prepare ourselves. We need to see how plentiful the harvest is. More than ever, people around us need to know who Jesus is, to see how He makes a difference in our lives.

                People are searching. Some may be like Nathaniel. He grew up waiting, expecting something better. One day his brother, Philip, comes along and tells him about Jesus (John 1.43ff). Or the eunuch who summoned Philip, the other one, to come onto his chariot and explain the Gospel from Isaiah to him.  Some may be that easy to reach. Others, however will take persuading, such as with the Bereans. They knew what they thought was important. They had their traditional way of looking at the Scriptures, what they expected a messiah to look like, but when Paul came in with his interpretation, showing the Old Testament testified of Jesus particularly, they took a double look. They had to be sure. Today, people are also searching for relevance. They want to know what they do will make a difference to someone else, that the church is relevant to them. Are we able to serve?

                People are hurting and lonely. Facebook is the largest social media. The fastest growing groups are tweens and seniors, the ends of the spectrum. It’s easy to see the appeal, too. People accept you as a friend, and you don’t have to get too involved. Everything seems to be kept superficial. Still, a yearning remains. People want to be accepted where they are. They are lonely people. They are like the lady at the well in John 4. She was a miserable woman who was scorned. She was a failure in her family. She couldn’t keep a husband. It makes me wonder what her boyfriend saw in her. Someone to walk on? She couldn’t keep friends. She was drawing water while everyone else was home in the shades of their porches. It made the best time for avoiding the judgmental stares and sneers. Jesus saw her. He accepted her. He loved her. Let us not forget the woman caught in sin. All others wanted to condemn her. Jesus showed her grace. He showed her grace when grace was a foreign word. The question for us is: Will we be able to see the person hurting, offer them what they need? Not only acceptance, but purpose. God created us for our fellowship. When sin separated us, He sought to restore us through Jesus. See us clean and pure. A new start.

                Finally, why do we tell others about Jesus? We do so because time is short. One of my favorite passages comes from Acts 1.11. The angel tells the disciples that as Jesus was taken up in a cloud, so he will return. It kind of reminds me of a Neil Diamond Song, “Both Sides”. Anyway, cloudy days, I often ask, is it today, Lord? I remember what he has said in John 9.4 that while it is still day, we must do the works of the Father. Paul echoes this in Romans 13.11 that it is now high time to wake up since our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. Jesus always taught that his return would be unexpected, but that we should be like the servants busy working, pleasantly surprised at his return, than the lazy servants who are caught unawares at their master’s return. There was a time that I was taking an afternoon break. I decided to play a single game of solitaire on the computer. Boss was in Silver City, and would be there the entire day. That was the schedule. As soon as I was into that game, he surprised me. I didn’t know that his daughter had a piano recital that afternoon. It was embarrassing.

                Now of course, someone might say, what has changed in the 2000 years since this was written? When we see the kingdom will come one of three ways. It will happen suddenly with Jesus return, as Paul tells the church in Thessalonica. It may happen after we have lived a full life as many of our loved ones have gone before us. And it may happened tragically as many of us know. But these ways are not new to us. Paul wrote expecting to see the Lord’s return during his life, but also as one who would sleep before that day. It’s this same urgency I hope to convey today. And as for tragedy, Jesus used a contemporary of his day, with the collapse of the tower in Siloam, as recorded in Luke 13. The end came quick. That may be the end for us.

                But I hope that this morning I’ve conveyed why we need to tell others of Jesus. Next week, we will begin looking at the steps needed. If you are willing to step outside your comfort zone, then we shall watch this kingdom grow here in Stuttgart & Ar.