Looking Forward

Acts 1.4-11

                Imagine a ministry that seemed quite popular. It is a ministry that was making inroads, serving the people, getting to the heart of the matter. It was a different way of looking, a different way of doing. The people were excited and coming to listen to this preacher and his disciples. They even a few times went out on individual tours, not too different than the Billy Graham Association does today. (Have one of our representatives speak at your community revival.) For years, this was good. And then tragedy struck. The preacher was killed.

                But here is where it became weird. Months prior, the preacher was telling his disciples that this was coming. And when it came, they still were caught off guard. What would they do? They had an option, to cower in fear. They were good at that. I wonder how many replayed the previous years in their minds to see if there was any way that this could have been avoided. They also were dealing with the fear of would they be next.

                But alas, the grave only held him for a mere few hours, a few days worth. He rose. He kept appearing to the disciples. They were not as afraid as before, but Jesus had this habit of not staying around, and now he’s not as bound by his corporal limitations. They couldn’t follow. Was this to be the new norm?

                Then He told them that soon, though John baptized with water, they would be baptized with fire from the Father. Now they couldn’t understand this. The Holy Spirit, briefly mentioned as the coming Comforter. But their minds were still on the past. “Now is the time for our nation? Will we be once again the mighty nation of God?”

                You can hear the words of gentleness and patience. “No, do not worry about those times, they are not of your concern. There is something more important that you need to be about. You will receive the Holy Spirit and then you will be my witnesses, not just in Jerusalem and Judea, but also to the Samaritans and the Gentile world. Tell them what you know, make disciples baptizing and teaching them all you have learned. You will soon be ready.”

                Those were His last words to them. For upon saying them, He went home. He was lifted beyond the clouds. And while they watched, I wondered if they were longing for him to come back, to spend just a bit more time, answer a few more questions. I wonder how much gazing was really day dreaming, doubting what they were called to do. So God sent a couple of messengers, a final comfort. “Stop looking up into the clouds. He’s will return, and by the same manner in which you have seen Him leave.”

                The disciples were in a new place. They had a new mission, but not really a new mission. Jesus’ words never became irrelevant. Jesus is still coming, and that day of glory is closer now than in the past. No longer would they be entering the presence of Jesus for orders, for encouragement. No longer will Jesus be there to answer the really tough questions, questions that arise from tragedy and hurt.

                Yet from this, they will learn that there is a time to draw on the past. Sure their ministry was great. But now it will be different. Today, many have the hindsight longing. Churches all over remember the good old days. I once had a lady tell me often about the times, when her kids were my kids ages, that the church had a thriving young adult ministry. I kept asking why it ceased to continue. Our kids grew up. Some churches have been shakers and movers and now sit shaking and barely moving. We don’t need to dwell here other than to point out that this is rather depressing. Jesus encouraged the disciples to move forward. The angels came along and reminded them.

                There is a time to remember the past. Jesus’ focus on the past was to teach what has been taught. The past can also be useful for inspiring us to ideas of how to be now. If we once did a weekly fellowship, what if we were to try that again? Invite a few friends over for some good old fashion grilling. Well bad example with the nights cooling and the skeeters seemingly on the war path. But we have football. What if we were to have a fun tailgate party in the afternoon, a Christian based, clean, fun prior to the game and then retire to the living room and watch our team win. Right now, they are ranked 24 with a 3-0 record, lastly beating South Carolina: 56-0. It has been a while since I’ve seen such an impressive start with the U of A.

                Just like talking about the Wildcats can be a distraction, when we consider the time Jesus has been away, or the history that is gone away, we risk becoming distracted. Our mind ceases, our actions cease being on the mission. Consider Jesus’ words that whoever puts his hand to the plow but looks back is unfit. (Luke 9.62)

                This leaves us the option to look forward. We are to carry the mission, the message. It is not enough just to have it, but we must share it by living it out before others as well as telling them this message, that Jesus came to restore our fellowship with God.  We find this encouragement in the Word. The next encouragement comes just two verses past the last one. Luke 10.2. We need to see the world around us as being  ready to hear the good news. Then let’s consider the words to the disciples, to be witnesses in Jerusalem, closest circle, then to the rest of Judea, a bit bigger, then to Samaria, bigger still, and then to the ends of the world. How are we taking the message out to the world?  How are we impacting our family? How are we impacting Stuttgart? How are we impacting Arkansas? Do we realize that the world is ready to hear the good news from us? But we need to be open to being used by God. This is encouragement from the Word.

                There is another source to help us to move forward. Look at verse 4. There is fellowship. Too often in our American culture, we see that we can do it ourselves. Radio stations downplay the Church’s role. Yet meeting together allows us to encourage one another because our time in fellowship with one another is so minute compared to our time in the world.  Paul told the church in Corinth that is why we meet, to build one another up, to encourage. This is not the main place for people to hear the good news and make a decision. They need to hear it in their world from you and I taking time to care for them. We come here so we can pray together and encourage, build one another up.

                Finally, we are motivated to look forward by nature itself. Consider the last verse, “in the same manner you saw Jesus go, he will return.” OK there are two here. Nature serves as a reminder. Driving back from the fair, I saw the sun breaking through the clouds and whenever I see that I wonder… is it today? But let’s not just look to nature, for we have a habit of worshipping nature as well. Let us look at the promise the angels have left. Let us then consider the words of how we should be then. We should be dutiful servants who are busy looking to the work before us so that when our Master does return for us, we shall be surprised, but not unaware. That is something that the clouds remind me. Day is coming that we shall no longer be able to do the work of Him who sent me. Remember those words from John?

                This morning marks the official shift in the next chapter of our congregation. The leadership is asking for a shift in thinking, a shift to thinking forward. We are going to be doing some things that are new, and may be uncomfortable at first. The invitation time, for example, will not be open to anyone needing prayer, but to anyone wishing to share a word of encouragement.

                If you like to share such a word, I invite you to after we sing our song. Let’s stand. 

Sharing Your Faith - Step 5 - Creating Opportunities

A couple of weeks ago, we looked at how we can share our faith with our friends and family. To help in that, this past weekend as well as today most of our friends and family and people in general, are watching or planning to watch the opening of the football season. Yesterday, the Razorbacks, today, Green Bay. As excited as people are about their sports and for others, hobbies, work, family, etc. how much more so should we be as excited about our faith in Jesus? Remember, we are not here for ritual or religion. We are here to worship together around the Lord’s Table. We are here to encourage one another to live the Christian walk the rest of the week. We are here to huddle before we run the play of life.

                This week’s playbook is not about seeing opportunities, but creating them. Today, we’ve hopefully have been reflecting on the previous steps. We have been praying, preparing ourselves by setting out our testimony, and even began using notes and tracts to speak a timely word. Hopefully now we are ready for this one, being open with those we do not know. We are going to look at three passages to encourage us and then we will take real look at applying them in our daily lives.

                First, we must remember that we are to rely upon the Holy Spirit to guide us. Matthew 10.19-20 has the context of Jesus sending out the disciples, telling them to be as shrewd as serpents but as innocent as doves. This passage is dealing with a future prophesy for the disciples after Jesus returns to His glory. But let us still consider it. Here is a promise that when we are in need of the right words to say, the Holy Spirit will guide us. Now I am not going into advocating that we do not prepare ourselves. Jesus often went into solitude for a time of prayer, to communicate with our Heavenly Father. God has given us His Word so that we may fully know God’s will for mankind. Remember also that the disciples were in fellowship daily with one another and with Jesus.  The lesson is that in order for us to be able to rely upon the Spirit to guide us, we need to spend time with Him. We need to spend time with one another, and we need to spend time in the Word. I will tell you, when your relationship is right, then you will always have the right words.

                This last week, someone told me, “As intelligent as you are, how can you be religious? Religion is for the weak-minded!” The person who said this has a point. Yet she didn’t understand what makes Christianity superior to religions. It is not about rituals and rites. Christianity is about a relationship with the Creator of the Universe through the work of Christ, taking God’s wrath for us. Jesus in John 4 even told her as much. “A time is coming that you will neither worship the Father here, nor in Jerusalem…the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.” John 4.21, 23.  I had these words because I spend time with you, with the Father and with the Word.

                So when you encounter someone, if you’ve been following the steps, don’t worry about what you will say. Ask the cashier at Mayflower how you can make her day better. Ask the waiter if there is something you can pray with him about. When he answers, then pray with him there, immediately.

                Second, we need to remember whose favor we seek. God’s opinion is what matters, or obeying God rather than men. Acts 4.19-20, the disciples are answering the Sanhedrin. They were bold about it as well. Fear, as we considered last time, tends to stop us from working. We fear what others might think. Yet in sports, even at my doctor’s appointment Wednesday, I was bold enough to be a Wildcat in the midst of the hog pen. Yeah, the doctor thought I was saying some fighting words.  But you get my meaning? In the same manner, we need to as courageous to stand for Christ when we are in foreign territory. There are more people out there that say, “You believe in Christ, good for you.” But we need to stand for Christ even when our audience may even be hostile against Christ.  What if your waiter said, “Don’t pray for me. I don’t believe in God.”? As Christians, no, not that he can hear. Wait until your are home. But when he says no, he’s given you the opportunity to go further. Why not? But then as soon as he is done, don’t argue back. Accept it. Heated debates might result in poor service or worse, like spit under the bread.  We need to show love to those who would not accept us. If we really want to make an impact, go the extra mile and see to getting his table time and again. Turn him into a friend. Someday, he might very well take you up on it. Oh, and beware of skeptics. They might say something silly. Pray for my son’s turtle. It’s sick. They may not be joking. Often we get caught up in the minutia of life. God wants to hear about that as well as the bigger issues.

                Then we have our final passage. Creating opportunities is important because eternity is on the line. James 5.20 addresses this issue that by turning a sinner from his sin, then he covers a multitude of sins. {{Sci-fi Geek Moment: This passage addresses potential, alternate universal theory. Each decision we make can create an infinite number of alternate universes.}} Now for the mind-blower: God is able to see these choices carried to their conclusion.

                Now a caution is in order. We are not saying that someone in a particular sin, say being greedy in business practices to the point of cheating others, must stop before he can become a Christian. No, not at all. God accepts us where we are, as we are. Then through the working of the Holy Spirit by word, by study, by loving discipleship makes the change in the new believer. The change may come quickly. It may not. Remember, our society has no idea of a guideline of Christian behavior. They don’t know that coming to church in your river/swim clothes, makes people uncomfortable with their own thoughts and straying eyes.  Well let me use a different example. It was years before the Campbells and Stone, founders of the Restoration Movement, realized that they should be baptized into Christ for the forgiveness of sins and to receive the Holy Spirit. But they came to this through studying apart from their theological bends.

                Perhaps I should use another example. When you cast your pole into the water, do you pull out bass filets? Or do you pull out a fish that needs to be cleaned? No, you take the fist as it is, and then you prepare it, change it.

                But let’s return to the moment of eternity. There is a time that is coming, according to Paul, who quoted the Lord’s words to Isaiah, that every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that God is God.  Let us also consider Peter’s words to help excite us from 2 Peter 3.9-10. God doesn’t want anyone to perish. This is why he told the disciples, tells us that we are to make disciples, baptizing them and teaching them in the way they should live. Notice the order. Teach after baptizing. This eternity will come in the blink of an eye. How shall we see the world around us? Luke 10.2, “Look, the world is ready to be harvested, but the workers are few.” You now know how to be a worker.

                Now you might still be nervous. There is another step, from last week, that can help us. Next week we begin a new series about the Kingdom, about reaching people around us. Next week is also the National Invite a Friend to Church Sunday. Next week is also our monthly fellowship dinner. It is really easy just to invite someone. 

The Rest of Your Story

                Imagine a young man sitting in his dorm room listening to a radio station. It is the top of the hour break from the EIB Network show. At this hour, the local ABC News Radio station plays another show, about 5 minutes long. It’s a news show, it’s a commentary, it’s a feel good program. This day, however, the young man hears something that he couldn’t believe. Now to set the next part up, you must know that his last name is a more common Irish name, and the odds of two complete strangers with the same last name meeting being kinfolk. But his name wasn’t as common as Smith or Jones. That said, the commentator related to how he remembers going to his grandfather’s house as a lad. Grandpa was the postmaster of a Central Kansas town that bore the family name.

                The young man takes a double listen and flips over to another station where he knew the same show would be on at the bottom of the very hour. He hears it again. You see, this young man grew up knowing that his great grandfather was a postmaster of a small Central Kansas town that bore the family name. He was kinfolk to fame. For six months, he sold everyone he knew. His own father, however was skeptical. But how? Both men’s grandpas were postmasters of the Central Kansas town bearing the family name. He finally accepted it.

                Then one day, the young man, also a janitor for the college, was asked to fill in for the one who normally cleaned the upstairs part of the library. As he was cleaning, a title caught his eye, and he picked it up. It was by his favorite commentator. Then he read the back cover, looking for confirmation of the claim to fame he had. Paul Harvey, Jr. was born Paul Harvey Ardaunt, Jr… And now you know the rest of the story to my brief moment of being related to the best story teller this side of Louis L’Amour. Even to this day, as I read L’Amour’s stories, I hear it in Paul Harvey’s voice.

                Story One – Let me share another story with you. Joe was a preacher who loved to preach. He loved to share the Word of God with all who would listen. Enjoyed watching them turn their lives around, repenting, striving to live for God, loving God.  But like most preachers, he had a comfort zone. He liked being where he was. He knew the culture. It was his culture. He spoke the language. It was a comfortable tongue, easy on the ears, and sometimes a hoot to repeat. Life was rolling well for this preacher, the icon of the area. Then one day, God startled him.

                I don’t know if in his comfort of doing the same day in and day out, that he wasn’t listening for God’s voice. Perhaps that wasn’t the case. Perhaps he was too comfortable where he was that he started seeing the God of the universe start looking like his neighbors. He was comfortable with the sinners around him. Sinners whose sins were not as tangible. You know, the sins like lying, stealing, being greedy or mean in business. Or any of the other sins that could easily be kept behind closed doors, out of public view. These are the good sinners he was used to dealing with. On Sunday’s, he’d hear the words, “Great sermon, preacher!” That is what Joe is used to.

                Then Joe heard God’s voice. Go to the filthy sinners. Now these sinners are filthy sinners because you can look at them and know instantly that they don’t even come close to holding the same moral compass that Joe, or even you and I hold. One look, you can see their sins. But still God said to preach to them. Leave your comfort zone. They need my love too. Tell them that I am near.

Well, if you know typical preachers, we don’t always like to head a thousand miles away from home to a culture that we are not used to. Now he will have to use a language that sounds harsh on the ears, and to roll the tongue around the vowels? Forget about it! So you know what Joe did? He left. Oh eventually he did go where God wanted him to go. And his ministry was better than ever. He was the first preacher and the response to his message could stir envy even in the heart of Billy Graham. I wonder though: did he stay there? What was the rest of Joe’s story?

Story Two – Henry was a good Christian. He attended church regularly, helped maintain the volleyball courts, taught the high school group and even played in the church leagues, that is when he wasn’t working. He worked a graveyard shift at the nearby E-Z Mart, just down the road from the church. You see, Henry was a lucky man. He loved saying how lucky a person was. He had a routine in his life, almost OCD. He kept a worry stone in his pocket as well.  Then early one morning, he met Jerry. Jerry was a grizzled looking man who came in the darkest hour of Henry’s shift, the point where Henry wants to step inside the cooler and catch a short nap. No one comes in during that hour, until now, until Jerry. Jerry strikes up a conversation about faith. Normally Henry wouldn’t talk about his Christianity while at work, but because Jerry asked, he was free to talk about it.

Jerry then asked him about earlier when he was trimming the lawn along the highway at the church. A grain truck nearly tapped him. Henry, of course said that God saved him. Then Jerry moves on, satisfied with that answer and asked about the game later in the afternoon. You see, Henry hit a softball straight up and out to centerfielder. It was an easy out. It would have been the end of the game. But the fielder dropped the ball. Henry ended up batting two runners in for the win. Henry said he was lucky that the fielder dropped the ball. Oh Jerry did not like that answer.

Nevertheless, Jerry remained composed and questioned Henry. Doesn’t God care of the small things in our lives or just the really big ones? You think that you are honoring God with your attendance, offerings and service, but then you turn around and rob God of the glory due his name. You need to stop. Stop the sin and God will bless you. Give Him the glory. After saying this, Jerry left the store.

What I failed to mention is that Henry was working and serving the church because he was a Bible college graduate. He had spent two years working at a convenience store while he was searching. It seemed no one wanted Henry. But after Jerry’s visit, a church called that following Sunday and invited Henry to come out for an interview. His first interview since he interviewed for an internship now 4 years earlier.

Story Three – Daniel had a little brother named Douglas. And if you have a little brother, you know just the type that Doug was. He was the youngest and therefore, he could do no wrong. I mean if Doug runs his bike into dad’s car and scratches it, it was somehow Dan’s fault. This certainly didn’t help the relationship between the two brothers.  While growing up, Dan didn’t care too much for Doug at school either. If he saw his brother coming, he’d duck out as soon as he could.  Though Doug thought the world of Dan, he always sought approval of his older brother. None would be forthcoming. It was at school that Doug found himself constantly in trouble. He would often get into fights, though he never told Dan it was because some of the kids thought Dan was a nerd and a loser. All Dan could see was the favoritism that Doug was showered with.

After graduation, both men started their careers. Well at least Dan did. He went off to college and was now working as a social worker, helping those in need, giving back. Doug was a drop out. Even though he had his GED, he couldn’t even get into the military. And you know, Dan was at fault for that too. If the day that they fought wasn’t called into the police, Doug wouldn’t have an assault conviction on his record. But what rubbed Dan wrong was that every time Doug was around, he was asking for all sorts of help. If he didn’t need money, he wasn’t there. The family attended church together, except Doug.

Doug’s life continued to spiral downhill. He was caught up in drugs and eventually went to prison because of it. Years would pass before Doug was a free man. But while in prison, Doug changed. He realized how far he strayed from God. It would have been easy to blame his brother Dan for the lack of support growing up, but ultimately, he realized that he still made the choices that have him where he is. After he was released, his dad hosted a huge family celebration. Dad brought in family from other places, put on a spread that Dan didn’t when he graduated college or when he got married, or even for the birth of his son. Dan was furious at Doug once again being showered with love.

                I have given you three stories in which we do not really know the ending. But each story had a point. You see, the Bible is full of unfinished stories. God designed it that way. Now you have to decide what the rest of the story is for each one. Will you go and reach those that God lays upon your heart, even if it means leaving your home? Will you look fully to God and trust him, even in the smallest details of your life? When a person comes to repent, can you, will you shower him with the same love, grace and mercy that God showers upon us? These three stories I used to encourage us in three major areas of our Christian walk.

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.