Speak Truth
Notes
Transcript
Speak Truth- How do we speak truth or contend for the faith without turning others from God– How can we talk to people in love and share the truth without pointing our fingers in judgment?
What comes to mind when someone says to Speak Truth and to explain the word of truth like in 2 Tim 2.15?
Term “the word of truth” is used 3 times throughout Paul’s writing.
2 Tim 2.15, Eph 1.13, Colossians 1.5
In the other two places, Paul is clearly defining this term as the gospel. Therefore, because it is the same author, we can understand this use as referring to the gospel.
So, how should we share our faith without turning others off from God?
What we’re really asking is: how do we & should we disciple people?
1. We need to understand where the person is at in their walk with Christ.
A. Spiritually Dead or Spiritual Infant? - Share the gospel with them
B. Spiritual Child? - Connect with them. Walk through faith with them.
C. Spiritual Young Adult? - Train them to make disciples.
D. Spiritual Parent? - Release them to make disciples
We cannot assume that everyone is at the same place in their walk with Christ. Just like a human being grows and develops, so does a person’s spiritual life. 1 Cor 3. 1-2
But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready,
Paul could not give these people spiritual meat, because they were not ready for meat. They still needed to hear the spiritual milk to grow and deepen their faith.
Ex. You wouldn’t give a baby peanuts or almonds because they would choke. Similarly, we shouldn’t jump straight to discussing transubstantiation or other deep theological topics while bringing someone to Christ.
SO, how do we share Truth without turning people off from God?
Your lifestyle is worth a thousand words
The way you live your life shows Jesus to others.
When you’re with friends who are pressuring you to drink, and you choose not to, you’re showing Jesus to them.
When your friends are bullying someone and you stand up for the person being bullied, you’re showing Jesus to those people.
When other people on the court/field are pouting and disappointed after a big loss and you choose to keep your composure and congratulate the other team, you’re representing Jesus.
Look at the commands in the Old Testament
Yes, they can be boring to read through, but they pointed people to God.
When Israel lived according to the commands God gave, Israel showed God to the neighboring people.
Ex. Exodus 20.3
“You shall have no other gods before me.
This is an obvious example, but having no other gods allowed Israel to worship their God only.
This didn’t happen often. Most nations had a pantheon or an assembly of gods they worshipped.
Ex. Exo 20.4
“You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.
The nations around Israel would make images of their gods to worship. Yahweh did not want his people making images of him or of any other god.
This again, set the Israelites apart and showed Yahweh to the other nations through the lifestyle of the Israelites.
What does this mean for us?
It’s easy to say “well, live like Jesus”
But, what does that mean? How do we live spirit-lead lives, like Jesus, so that other people will see the Truth through us?
Bridle your tongue? What else?
I think it starts with reflection - about how we live our life and how we speak.
Ask The Spirit to show us where & how we can live more like Jesus
Use your tongue to share Truth - Speak it!
So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?”
This scene in John shows Jesus at the well with the Samaritan woman.
Jesus asks her to draw water from the well and eventually confronts her of her sin. She knows that a messiah is coming, but doesn’t appear to notice that Jesus is the Messiah. When Jesus tells her, she goes, and shares all that Jesus did for her.
When Jesus changes our life, we SHOULD go and tell about it. Especially the people we have communion with everyday.
Why are we so afraid to share what Christ has done for us?
It’s our own story!!
There are countless stories of Jesus doing something for someone and they go and share what happened.
Why do we receive something and keep it to ourselves?
It’s the good news…go share it!
When we share the gospel, we need to remember that everyone is at a different place in their journey. Share the gospel with someone at an appropriate level for them.
This requires you to be in relationship with them. We can’t know where someone is at spiritually, unless we know them intimately.
We can still share with people we don’t know, but more often that not, we’ll have opportunities to share with people we know.
Ex. gentleman at the sports card store
So, how do we share the truth?
Through the way we live AND how we speak to other people.
Share the gospel in love and unashamedly
Reflection Q’s:
1. How do we live this out?
2. Where do YOU need to grow? Speaking your faith? Living like you follow Jesus? or just begin following Jesus?
3. Where do you think living through persecution comes in when talking about