Sermon Tone Analysis

Last week, we talked about being willing to be weird as we look to honor Jesus by sharing the gospel with others.

We need to go to weird places and have weird conversations.

That may have left you wondering, “Okay, I’m ready, but what do I actually say when I get to that point?”

That’s where we are going to spend our time this morning.

I want to equip you with a couple instruments that hopefully give you some foundations to build on as you talk to other people about Jesus.

Sharing the gospel with someone is often a process.

Remember that Philip last week asked questions and started where the Ethiopian official was.

He didn’t just launch into a gospel presentation without first listening and discerning what was going on.

The tools we are going to look at this morning are ones you can use after you have done that.

You have started a conversation with someone—a friend, a stranger, a family member—and you sense they are open to a spiritual conversation.

You have listened to their concerns, and now God has impressed on your heart that it is time to start talking about Jesus.

With the foundation in place, we want to talk about doing two things: sharing your story, and sharing the gospel.

The material I am sharing is not original with me.

For sharing your story, I drew from Cru’s website (https://www.cru.org/us/en/train-and-grow/share-the-gospel/evangelism-principles/preparing-your-personal-testimony.html) and the book Evangelism Is by Dave Earley and David Wheeler

The gospel presentation we are going to look at when we talk about sharing the gospel is from the North American Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention.

Before we go any further, let me remind you about one of the most important truths about sharing your faith, or witnessing:

It is your job to share, but it is God’s job to save.

You and I cannot save anyone; only God can do that.

Our privilege is that we get to share the gospel with others and let God take it and do what he will.

With that understanding, then, let’s look first at how to...

Share Your Story.

One of the most powerful tools you have in talking about Jesus is telling others what following him has been like for you.

This morning, I want to walk you through the process of writing out your story.

Some of you may have never thought about this, so it may take a minute.

Give yourself permission to write this poorly.

You have your whole life to think about what God has done and refine how you need to say it.

For others, this may be a great time to think about how to more accurately and succinctly express what God has done in your life.

We aren’t trying to craft a sales pitch here.

We are trying to be able to talk clearly about how awesome God is and has been to us, and it is often helpful to think through this in advance so you can speak more confidently when you get the opportunity.

We are going to look this morning at how to craft a short version of your story so you will always have something to share, even if you don’t have much time.

If you have a conversation where you have more time, you can always expand on what you came up with here.

Let’s think about this in five steps.

1) Opening

As you think about how you are are going to tell your story, come up with one main theme that you can weave throughout your story.

What was your life about before you met Jesus?

What was the main thing that drove you?

Have fun, success, not get hurt, anxious, etc.

This has to be true; don’t just make something up to sound more impressive.

What God has done in your life is a miracle, even if you don’t feel like it when you hear others’ stories.

Write out your theme on your handout.

2) Before I met Christ

Next, think back to what your life was like before you came to Jesus.

In a sentence or two, we want to paint a picture of what we were like before Jesus came into our lives.

Be careful with the level of details you give here.

We don’t want to glorify or dwell on sin.

We want to move to the good parts of the story!

As you are thinking through it this morning, write one to two sentences about what life was like before you met Jesus.

If you can’t think of full sentences right now, put down some key words for you to come back to later to flesh this out.

If possible, relate this back to the theme you identified at the beginning.

3) How I met Christ

After that, take some time to talk about how you came to know Jesus.

For this exercise, it doesn’t have to be incredibly in-depth.

Was it your parents who told you about Jesus?

Was it a friend or a pastor or an event?

What did God use to help you see who Jesus was and respond?

Again, write this out in a sentence or two for now.

You can give more detail if you have time in the conversation, but for now, we are writing a concise version of our story we can use anywhere.

How did you come to know Jesus?

4) How my life is different now

Think of some of the ways that Jesus has changed your life, especially as it relates to the theme you identified in the beginning.

How has following Jesus helped or changed the issue you identified in the “before”?

A few pointers here:

Be honest - we all still struggle and fall short.

Remember that Jesus is the hero, not you.

Write out one of two sentences about how life is different for you now that you follow Jesus.

5) Conclusion

Think about how you are going to end your story.

You don’t want to get to the end of your story and say, “And, yeah.

I guess that’s about it.”

You have to land the plane!

I would think about landing the plane in two different ways:

Sum up your story - condense the whole thing to a brief summary sentence.

Ask a question

The question may change depending on the situation.

Examples:

Has anything like that ever happened to you?

What do you think about what I just shared?

Would you like to know more about how you can follow Jesus?

Write down your summary sentence and a question you can be ready to use.

Before we move on to what to say next, I want to address something that may have just happened:

You may have been sitting there this morning and realized that you don’t have a story to share yet because you haven’t ever actually trusted Christ.

You can’t tell anyone how your life changed when you came to Jesus because you never have come to him!

If that’s you today, I have some great news for you.

You can start a new chapter in your story today.

We are getting ready to talk about how we can help other people learn to follow Jesus, but maybe this isn’t for someone else—it’s for you!

Hold on just a minute while we talk about how to...

Share the Gospel.

We need to be ready to tell the actual message of the gospel to other people.

Remember that the word “gospel” is used for a word in Greek that literally means “good news”

When you are sharing the gospel, you are sharing the best news anyone could ever hear.

The culture around us may have grown more hostile to the gospel message, but in one sense, it has never been easier to share the message of Jesus.

We have more gospel-sharing methods, tools, studies, apps, and more than at any other time in church history.

As I think back over my life of following Jesus, I have learned at least 9 or 10 different gospel presentations.

Each one has its own strengths and weaknesses, and it is great to have a toolbox full of different ways to talk about Jesus.

Start with just one, though.

Learn one method of sharing the gospel so well that you can do it from memory before you start investigating others.

Now, if you already know you can confidently share one way, it is a good idea to pick up different tools you can use at different times.

Some work better with younger adults, some work better with people you know, some are better with strangers or skeptics.

It can be helpful to have a number of tools in your toolbox, just so long as you have one you know and can use easily.

Our goal is not to master a pitch; instead, it is to develop comfortable ways for you to talk about the truths that are so important to us.