Sharing my story with my neighbor

Gosh I love Tim. Hey, today we are wrapping up our sermon series Neighboring. “No more loving our neighbors!” No. This is a lifelong journey of investing in those around us. We have spent this entire series looking at a lot of actions. Praying for our neighbor, listening to then, sharing a meal, serving. But what about when God creates opportunities to use words? To share your faith? We can’t be people just of action. We need words as well.

You know, it reminds me of when my wife Kali and I first met in a statistics class my freshman year of college… ahhh man I hated Statistics. But I love Kali, and after we met, we started talking, and soon it got to a point in our relationship where everyone around us looked at us and could see that we were a couple. I mean we were texting every day, hanging out all the time, even sitting at the high top tables together in the Janzow dining hall. If you saw two people sitting there together, you knew they were a thing. And everything was heading the direction of us starting to date, but there was one problem. I hadn’t officially asked Kali to be my girlfriend. Now I’ve come to learn that this is actually a controversial topic. Whether the guy needs to officially ask a girl to be his girlfriend for them to be a couple, or whether it is just assumed. Raise your hand if you think the guy needs to officially ask. Raise your hand if it’s just assumed. Well, I am in the first camp. I am a traditionalist. Except I am a traditionalist that also happened to be a coward. I was too nervous to officially ask Kali. So we went weeks of looking like a couple, acting like a couple, but were we actually a couple? I was doing fine during all of this. Apparently it was driving Kali crazy. But don’t worry. I finally mustered up the courage to do it. I asked her out in the most romantic spot I could find - the futon in my stinky college dorm room. You can picture it now. Here’s the thing: for our relationship to go where I truly wanted it to, I needed more than just actions—I needed words, because words are a window into the heart. What you say is a reflection of who you are.

This is what we are exploring today as we finish up our Neighboring sermon series. And today, in looking at John 9, we are going to explore how the most powerful and effective words that you have to share Jesus with your neighbor is your story.

John 9:1 begins, “As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man who had been blind from birth.” Stop real quick. If you’ve been with us during this series, this should sound familiar. Jesus is headed somewhere. He has an agenda for the day. He is busy, but not too busy to stop and see this man. It continues, John 9:2 ““Rabbi,” his disciples asked him, “why was this man born blind? Was it because of his own sins or his parents’ sins?”” This was a common belief at that time. That disabilities were a punishment from God for sin. But Jesus shuts this down. He says, John 9:3 ““It was not because of his sins or his parents’ sins,” Jesus answered. “This happened so the power of God could be seen in him.” Man, isn’t that incredible? God didn’t cause this man’s blindness as a form of punishment. But instead, in His sovereignty and deep love, God takes his tragedy and transforms it into something beautiful and powerful. He is so intentional about redeeming our struggles for his purposes - to produce something so much greater - that sometimes you can’t imagine anything better than how God used that low to bring you to where you are today.

And this is how God was using it. John 9:6–7 “Then he spit on the ground, made mud with the saliva, and spread the mud over the blind man’s eyes. He told him, “Go wash yourself in the pool of Siloam” (Siloam means “sent”). So the man went and washed and came back seeing!” Incredible transformation. But notice the reaction, not only from this man, but from those who knew him. John 9:8–9 “His neighbors and others who knew him as a blind beggar asked each other, “Isn’t this the man who used to sit and beg?” Some said he was, and others said, “No, he just looks like him!” But the beggar kept saying, “Yes, I am the same one!”” You start to see the transformation that Jesus brought this man was so much deeper than just giving him sight. What was this man’s life story up until this point? Darkness. Helpless. Ignored. Crying out for help with no one answering. And then Jesus comes into his life sees him, defends him, cares for him, and ultimately heals him. This man was crying out for healing of his sight, and look at how much more Jesus gave to him. He gave him value. He gave him dignity, and as we will see, he gives him a story of redemption through transformation.

And in response to this transformation, the blind beggar begins to speak, and I believe he is going to give us a picture into how we can start to have meaningful and fruitful faith conversations with our neighbors. John 9:10–11 “They asked, “Who healed you? What happened?” He told them, “The man they call Jesus made mud and spread it over my eyes and told me, ‘Go to the pool of Siloam and wash yourself.’ So I went and washed, and now I can see!”” Now let’s look closely at this because this is huge. This blind beggar didn’t go into that day thinking, “Ok. What theological argument am I going to give to convince these religious leaders to believe in Jesus.” He wasn’t theologically trained. Shoot, he barely knew Jesus himself! And yet, he is able to give one of the most effective and powerful witnesses to Jesus and who He is. He could clearly see the impact and transformation that Jesus had brought into his own life and merely started sharing it with others.

What about you? What about your story? You see, there are three main struggles that people often face when it comes to sharing their faith story with others. And the first thinking “I don’t have what it takes.” “If I were to enter into a faith conversation with my neighbor today, I would not know what to say. How to convince them.” And when we think this way, we are treating our faith like all it is is believing in a set or propositions or statements of belief. If I can just recite these 3 Bible verses or this apologetics argument, then they will believe! But let’s be honest. That’s rarely how it works. Imagine going to your favorite restaurant. For me, it’s Sushi AI near the Seminary in St. Louis. Lunch special. $15 All-you can eat Sushi. I love telling people about this place. But when I do, I pull out my phone, open the restaurant website, and start reading facts about the restaurant. No, I share my personal experience there. “Oh my goodness. It’s this fun, small atmosphere. You get this paper slip and you can start checking as many things as you like. The Sushi. Amazing! And they even serve deep-fried oreos. The marriage I never knew we needed! That is how we talk about the experiences that are most transformative to us, right? Shouldn’t it be the same when talking about our faith? We share the things that mean the most to us, and so if we aren’t sharing our faith, are we unaware of the transformation that Jesus is bringing in our lives?

The second struggle is this thought, “I don’t want to impose my beliefs on my friends and family.” Good! Don’t do that! To impose something is to operate from a position of power or authority over someone. I don’t think anyone would look at this account of the blind beggar and think that he was imposing his beliefs on those around him, right? How does it go for him. The people around him notice something different about him - the transformation that he has experienced. They ask him where that transformation came from, and he shares his story of the transformation Jesus brought him. So a question to consider is do your neighbors notice something different about you? Why you prioritize the things you do. Why you exude so much joy and hope? Why you are so generous or encouraging? What if faith conversations came out of you building relationships with them, them noticing something different about you, and then them asking about it. Those are the most natural faith conversations you will have. One that come from a place where your neighbor sees a hope within you that they long to experience as well.

Which gets to the final struggle. “What do you say? What is my story?” I believe this is the biggest struggle for us today. Do you know what your faith story is and are you ready to share it when the opportunity arises? You see, each one of you has a story, and like the blind beggar, each one of you has a story that is being wrapped up in God’s massive redemptive story of creation. And really, there are two main types of faith stories: A Transformation Story and a Growth Story. A Transformation Story is my life before Jesus, how I met Jesus, and my life since I met Jesus. If you can remember your life before encountering Jesus, this is a powerful framework for thinking about your story. However, this framework isn’t great for those of you who maybe have been following Jesus your entire life. It doesn’t work great. “Life before Jesus: born. How I met Jesus? Baptized as infant.” So the second framework is a Growth Story. This instead asks where I was, how Jesus brought transformation, and where I am now. How has Jesus been working in your life? What transformation has He brought? And if you don’t know, ask someone close to you. Sometimes those closest to us can see transformation that we have never seen ourselves.

But I want to close with this. What if your story isn’t one of growth? What if you are in a place today where your story feels like it is going in the opposite direction of growth? The beautiful thing about following Jesus is that, while you may have parts of your story today that are really hard - sentences of failure, pages of mistakes, maybe even chapters of regret - you are not the author of your story. No no no. Jesus is the author of your story, and with Jesus, you know how your story is going to end. Every failure redeemed. Every wrong made right. And you being made into the perfect you that God always had in mind. That is the ending of your story. That is the ending of our story. And this life is one of Jesus using those hardships, using that brokenness, all towards the ending that he already wrote for you in the empty tomb.

As you go home today, start thinking about your story. Practice sharing your story with a family member or friend. And like Jesus said to the blind beggar, may your story be happen so the power of God may be seen through you. Let us pray.