This is My Story
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Intro
We need to be people who serve so that people can Know Jesus.
Last week we learned the why’s we need to share our faith. It’s our calling. People need the Lord. People want the Lord. I once was lost. We learned that the biggest factor in someone know Jesus is us.
Look for the moments Jesus gives us.
Refocus our manners - positive not negative, common ground, their perspective, patience, show unconditional love… we don’t have to be like them but we do have to like them.
Relay the message of Hope -
I want my life to be so attractive that people know me, but don’t know God will want to know God because they know me.
I want my life to be so attractive that people know me, but don’t know God will want to know God because they know me.
We want to have Attractional Evangelism. Jesus wants us to reaching other people for Jesus. If jesus were here to say to us directly what he wants us to do, he would say go find the lost.
Amazing Grace says, I once was lost, but now am found… Once you are found, Jesus wants you to join the search and rescue team. He is looking for lost people and wants us to join him in that. Jesus is distracted by lost people.
Have any of you had a child that became lost? When that happens, the only thing that is important is finding that lost one… right?
If you read Luke 15, there are three stories that show that Jesus will leave the found things to go find the lost things or people. If this is what God is all about, it has to be what we are all about. So today, we want to teach you in reaching lost people.
Last week we talked about being Salt and light, but today we are going to talk about sharng your story.
But you are the ones chosen by God, chosen for the high calling of priestly work, chosen to be a holy people, God’s instruments to do his work and speak out for him, to tell others of the night-and-day difference he made for you—from nothing to something, from rejected to accepted.
You are the chosen ones
It’s all of our jobs to do His work, which is reaching the Lord. Paul says, It’s all of our jobs to do His work, which is reaching the Lord. In 2 CO 5:20 Paul says, “So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!””
We are to tell others about the difference he made in our lives. This dispels one of the myths about evangelism that says you just go around telling people how bad they are. NOOOOO. How many of you have see the person at a parade with a loudspeaker yelling you are all going to hell.
That’s not what evangelism is at all. Evangelism is telling others what Jesus has done in my life, in your life.
Here is another verse… these were his last words before leaving Earth for heaven.
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
Baptism in HS. The purpose of being filled with the Holy spirit is to be his witnesses. Courtroom witness… not called to be judge, jury or prosecutor… not even the defense attorney, but we are the witness.
Story of the blind man Jesus healed on the Sabbath. The Pharisees were mad about it, and when they asked the man did he believe that Jesus was the SOG, he replied, I don’t know… I just know I was blind and now I can see.
You don’t have to have the answers… all you have to do is know what Jesus has done in your life. We are simply witnesses.
In the next few minutes, I want to share three things…
1. Share the hope we have.
1. Share the hope we have.
Tell them, I am going through the same things that you are going through but I am going through them differently because I have hope.
I saw that too… but I wish you had my peace… my joy… my confidence it will be ok…
Instead, you must worship Christ as Lord of your life. And if someone asks about your hope as a believer, always be ready to explain it.
Settle in your heart, Jesus is your Savior and Lord…
We don’t need to be able to explain everything in the Bible to them. Peter just says that we are to be able to tell them our story… what Jesus has done in our lives.
We are to know why we have hope in Jesus. Here is what you focus on.
How I realize I needed Jesus
How I realize I needed Jesus
How did you come to know that you needed Jesus.
Tell my story - I went to a meeting where I had to describe my relationship with Jesus, and I admitted that I did not have one.
Think about what made you realize that you needed Jesus in your life. Sometimes it’s tragedy that will come into your life… or a difficult time… maybe a job loss…
But begin by sharing what your life was before and what made you know you needed Jesus in your life.
How I committed my life to Jesus.
How I committed my life to Jesus.
We need to share what that moment looked like. People have the wrong idea of what that looks like. join the church… pay something… get baptized… whatever
A lot of people believe that they have to be better before they come to Christ, but you have to know Christ to get better.
We need to share how we came to faith in Christ....
I commited my life to Christ one night after Campus Life. describe that night. I had been raised in church, but until that night, I didn’t know it was a relationship… not religion. Christianity is relational…
This will help us break down barriers people have toward God.
The difference Jesus has made in my life.
The difference Jesus has made in my life.
What kind of a difference has Jesus made in your life?
For me it gave me peace inside… My temper tamed… my words changed… Jesus has made a difference in my desires and actions. I am not perfect, but I am forgiven.
Another way many of us have had God make a difference in our lives is when we lose someone. We don’t morn like others… we get to see our loved ones do. I know I will see my mom and dad again. They are not lost, I know right where they are… waiting on me to get to heaven.
tell about the day I almost got run over… told Brandi that if one day I didnt’ come home… I would be waiting on her i heaven.
Just share the hope that you have in Jesus.
2. Share my church
2. Share my church
It’s not as effective as it used to be… it’s more effective in the South than the north or west.
We want our church to be a place where anyone can walk in and not feel out of place. You don’t have to worry that I am going to say something against another church… everyone is welcome here. Let me give you a goal. Make sure that in 2 of the 52, you have someone lost with you in church.
It’s a great time to invite someone. The week on “stress” is a great week to invite someone. Everyone is stressed out right now. If you are living your faith, people see a difference in you… invite them to come and see how you are doing that.
This place should be full and causing us to look into doing two services or even more. Not because we want a big church. We want people to come ot know Jesus the way we do. We want people to have the peace that we do. We want people to experience the abundant life like we are. Listen, We are never too big as long as heaven and hell are real and there are lost people in our FRAN.
So his master said, ‘Go out into the country lanes and behind the hedges and urge anyone you find to come, so that the house will be full.
How do we do it. Here is the playbook,
Pray for them
Pray for them
Have some lost people that you are praying for.
Add value to them
Add value to them
People do not care what you know until they know that you care. We serve people… find out what their needs are and try to meet them.
We have people who if you are sick, they bring you food. We have people that get groceries for many of you that can’t.
We do the Fall Festival to serve and show that God loves them.
Invite them to church
Invite them to church
Look for an opportunity to invite them to church. Your favorite Sunday will be the one that your FRAN is sitting next to you in church. I know that when I say every head bowed and eyes closed your eyes will not be closed. You will be peaking to see if your friend is responding.
Many will receive Jesus.
But today, there is a growing number of people who will never come in these doors to hear. it’s 80% in some parts of the country. We can’t put together a program that will cause them to come to church. So the church today… we are going to have to learn to tell them.
3. Share Jesus with them.
3. Share Jesus with them.
Three ways.
The problem is sin
The problem is sin
They need to know there is a problem and it’s sin.
For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.
We all have sinned. Because of our sin, God will not allow us into his presence.
People may wonder how to get rid of sin. Here is the answer.
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.
Nothing takes care of sin but death. church attendance… memorizing your bible doesn’t… serving… none of this takes care of sin. The payment for sin is death. But the free gift…
Hell is not the place God’s sends people he is mad at, Hell is the place where people go to pay for their own sins.
Jesus stepped into the courtroom of life and said, yes, he deserves to spend eternity in hell, but I will take his place… let him go. That’s the solution.
The solution is Jesus
The solution is Jesus
The solution is that Jesus paid the price for yours and my sins. Only he is qualified.
But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
It’s like sitting in a restaurant and waiting on the Bill, but instead the waiter comes up and says, “someone else paid your bill.” You ate it, but they paid for it.
Jesus stepped in and paid for your sin. No one else has done this, so Jesus is the only person who could do this because he lived a sinless life which qualified him to be the sin payment for your sin. That’s why he can say,
Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.
Acts…
There is salvation in no one else! God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved.”
We had a problem… sin. The solution is Jesus.
The Response is accept Him
The Response is accept Him
We have to do something with what Jesus did. We can either pay for it yourself or we can respond.
How do we respond?
But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God.
believed and accepted… invited him into their life…
That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.
Confess - just like at a wedding -
Confess - believe… saved
That’s the response. We have to believe in our heart and confess with our mouth. Here is what is happening right now..
“Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends.
Prayer
Bow Heads -
Share our hope, share our church, share Jesus.
I believe he is knocking on someone’s heart this morning. It begins privately.