Sharing
Back to the Basics • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Intro:
Voluntary phone jail?
Back to the Basics
Saxophone,
it makes noise
now make music or else
So far we have covered the importance of
praying
Reading (your Bible)
getting rid of idols and sin that separates you from God
Today we are talking about Sharing
Sharing is Caring
We get to share food together later
Sharing the Love and Message of Christ with Nonbelievers
Wayne Gretzky
"I don't skate to where the puck was, I skate to where the puck is going to be."
Some of you know which days I am in the office.
I run into people stop by the church and they say "Pastor I knew I find you here" why… Because they know me.
Perhaps the reason why most of us can't find God in situations is because we don't know him as well as we think we know him.
We aren’t focusing on where He is going to be
Because even when we can't see him, even when we can't feel him… He is working
...however when we know Him, because we know his presence, we know HOW to look for him ... we know where he is.
We know when we read scripture that he is "close to the brokenhearted."
We know that if we are willing to praise him, that he "inhabits the praises of his people"
Perhaps our issue is less of a vision issue and more a relational issue.
If you don't know him, how will you know how to recognize him.
Paul said "I want to know…"
I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death,
PERHAPS WE should be FOLLOWING the HOLY SPIRIT instead of the Holy Spirit FOLLOWING US
Jesus said
“Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.
The greatest testimony a Christian can have is to live the love of Jesus Christ
It has been said :
How you live speaks louder than what you say
actions speak louder than words
Preach the gospel wherever you go, use words when necessary
Too many Christians compromise their public testimony
by making verbal claims about Jesus Christ
while living in a way that contradicts those claims
They might say Jesus is Lord of their life,
but their lifestyle clearly violates His teaching
I’m not here to create a list of dos and don’ts to describe the Christ honoring life
If you are going through the basics with us,
and committing yourself to daily prayer and daily Bible study
I can promise you that the Holy Spirit is already at work in your life identifying those dos and don’ts
It is the Holy Spirit’s job to help us be Holy, not mine
So instead of focusing on the specifics,
I wan’t to focus on the foundation of a Christ-honoring life:
HIS LOVE
Jesus said
“By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”
Paul wrote:
1 Corinthians 13:8a (NASB95)
Love never fails;
If you look at Paul’s illustrations in 1 Corinthians 13, the love Chapter
you will discover that love really is the Driving force for every other expression of godly living
We can remove 99% of the mystery behind life’s choices
if we simply evaluate our decisions by whether they are founded in love
1. LOVE’S UNENDING FLOW
1. LOVE’S UNENDING FLOW
Jesus went to die on the cross out of love for a lost and dying world
(verse not on slides)
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.
We are constantly in awe of the measureless love required of God to sacrifice Jesus on the cross on our behalf
but we too often stop there
We easily visualize that love radiating from the Heavenly Father to us through Jesus
But we forget
That same love is intended to continue flowing through us to the lost around us
We must allow Jesus’ love to radiate through our lives
That means directing God’s unconditional love toward those who do not love us
who may initially want nothing to do with Christianity
Think of Jesus’ own example and the model he set
Think of Jesus’ ordeal leading to His cricifixion
At every turn, He responded in love to the people who were tormenting him
When Judas betrayed the Lord, Jesus called him friend
And Jesus said to him, “Friend, do what you have come for.” Then they came and laid hands on Jesus and seized Him.
When Jesus was spit upon,
When He was falsely accused
When he was beat
When he was called all sorts of unsavory names
Jesus said nothing
He was oppressed and He was afflicted,
Yet He did not open His mouth;
Like a lamb that is led to slaughter,
And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers,
So He did not open His mouth.
When Jesus did chose to speak, he spoke forgiveness
But Jesus was saying, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.” And they cast lots, dividing up His garments among themselves.
The love of Jesus Christ is what the world needs to see
not just hear it from Christians’ mouths
or from the pulpit
or from tv
or from the radio
Jesus’ love needs to be seen
His love needs to be demonstrated
That’s why Jesus says we are the salt of the earth
“You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men.
We are that preserving influence God intends to mix among this world
Like salt, we must come in direct contact with the world that we are to reach for Him
What is the seasoning of God’s salt?
It’s His love
God’s love is what wins the lost
The world is dying for evidence of real love
They want to know that they are loved
They want to know that they are forgiven as a result of that love
So when Christ’s followers take His love that has brought them eternal life and SHARE IT
that love becomes the driving force of their every relationship
and even momentary interactions
Paul said
For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; if we are of sound mind, it is for you.
In other words, Jesus’ death on the cross was never for the benefit of a select few
All of humanity is lost in sin
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
There is an eternal consequence of Sin. However...
Everyone has equal opportunity of the gift of God: eternal life
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
This is where God’s LOVE comes in.
It is for this reason that Jesus died:
But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
While we don’t pay the cost, we must accept the gift, and accepting means believing, then acting on that belief.
that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;
for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.
All of humanity must hear the gospel
All of humanity is dependent on Christ’s followers: US
without us, people won’t hear about His love
and won’t know the life changing power of the gospel
Paul spoke of this mission when he wrote;
2 Corinthians 5:19–20 (NASB95)
...God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.
Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
Take a moment to evaluate your motivations for faith and church:
Why do you pray
Why do you worship
Why do you read your Bible
Why do you share your faith
Why do you support your Church
Why do you give to missions
Why to you serve your community and those who are poor and needy
Why do you depend on God to do the miraculous
Is it out of habit?
Is is it out of duty?
Too often we must answer yes and acknowledge our selfish desires and the shallowness of our righteousness
But we are called to a faith that is motivated by love
Habit and Duty are fine, but there should be an underlying motivation of Christ’s love
His love should motivate the whys of life
Jesus is why we live as we live
It must be because of our love for Jesus
and as a result of our love for Jesus
His love in me must flow outward to those who are unlovely
God loves the unsaved
He is counting on you and me to bring that love to life through our own lives
Love’s Unending Flow
2. LOVE’S ETERNAL MESSAGE
2. LOVE’S ETERNAL MESSAGE
God’s word says:
“And we are witnesses of these things; and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey Him.”
As followers of Christ,
we are divinely appointed messengers of hope
to reach out to the lost in the anointing of the Holy Spirit
We all have a responsibility to the lost
Think of it this way,
If everyone in America were dying with cancer all at once
and YOU had the cure
What would be your responsibility?
Your responsibility would be to tell everyone:
“I HAVE THE CURE FOR CANCER!”
Well, everyone in the world has a spiritual cancer- it’s called sin
We have the cure since we have already experienced God’s saving grace
The cure is JESUS
God’s forgiveness expressed through His Son is able to blot out our past, our every sin
Who is a God like You, who pardons iniquity
And passes over the rebellious act of the remnant of His possession?
He does not retain His anger forever,
Because He delights in unchanging love.
He will again have compassion on us;
He will tread our iniquities under foot.
Yes, You will cast all their sins
Into the depths of the sea.
God has given to us the privilege of carrying His message of forgiveness to people waiting to hear the good news.
The enemy of our souls will do everything in his power to keep us from being such a witness.
The devil knows of the effectiveness of our witness and the power of the gospel
Paul wrote
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
When sharing the good news of Jesus Christ
our focus must simply be the truth of what Jesus has done in your life
You might say:
I don’t have much of a testimony
my life was pretty uneventful before I was saved
and it’s been pretty normal since
Balloon:
We often get intimidated by the colorful testimonies
of former drug addicts
or gang members
or people who once loudly denounced the gospel from a position of fame and fortune
before coming to salvation
It isn’t the human side of one’s testimony that has the power to convert anyone
it is the gospel that is going to convert the lost
The believer’s life is a framework in which to speak of why Jesus Christ came to earth
why He died
and what was accomplished in His death and resurrection
I’ve had a teen ask me in youth group why we call “Good Friday” good if it is the day that Jesus was killed
sometimes good Friday services are kind of solemn and depressing
However, it is good because of the good that was accomplished
Our salvation is wrapped up in that Friday
in Jesus’ death on the cross before the Sabbath during that Passover week
Were it not for Jesus’ death, I would not be saved
There would be no Christianity
There would be no redemption
There would be no plan of salvation
It is the reality of that redemption offered to all that renders that day spremely “good”
The world needs to hear that truth
and we cannot assume the truth is getting out to everyone who needs to hear it
Statitistics say that 43% of Americans attending church don’t believe that Jesus Christ is the only way to salvation
43% is a number that breaks my heart
In a nation founded on Christian principles
at least 120 million people have no true understanding about the greatest message there is
Look at Europe, largely secular now
Look at Africa, with enormous regions under the sway of Islam
Look at Aisia and the ancient idolatrous religions there
Our world is waiting to hear the message of salvation
and WE ARE THE MESSENGERS
Most everyone in this room has been recipients of God’s love
Why would we want to keep that to ourselves?
Why wouldn’t we WANT to share the good news with those who have never heard the gospel?
Personal evangelism is the best way for a believer to keep the experience of salvation fresh
and to keep gratitude alive in our hearts
As you tell people what Jesus has done for you,
it will become a motivating reminder
and you will experience an overflow of gratitude
and praise to your Savior
Like the balloon refilling.
Love’s unending flow
Love’s Eternal message
3. LOVE’S DIVINE PARTNER
3. LOVE’S DIVINE PARTNER
you don’t need to be trained to share the gospel, share your faith, or lead someone to Christ
When there’s a soul on the line, God doubles the power
Don’t get me wrong, training is good
If you want to get better at something,
then train
In fact, there’s a great conference for evangelism training coming to our area in June called City Quake that I would love for everyone to attend
but that training isn’t required to share your faith
Training, in and of itself, is not going to transform you into a soul winner
Personal evangelism is not merely a head matter;
it is a heart matter
You have to FEEL it
You have to recognize lost people are dying
and going to a Christless eternity
If the eternal destiny of the lost doesn’t move you,
nothing is going to move you
When you expand your spiritual vision to the tragic eternity beyond this life awaiting the lost
you begin to experience the same compassion that motivated our Heavenly Father to send His Son
Compassion is an outgrowth of passion
of a heartfelt commitment that consumes your emotions
your energies
and your worldview
When you are saved
the Holy Spirit awakens within you a passion for Jesus, your Savior
and with that passion for the Savior comes a passion for the lost
because that is what took Jesus to Calvary
The plight of the lost moved Him and motivated Him throughout His earthly ministry as well
The apostle John, when traveling through Samaria with Jesus on one occasion, observed the story of the woman at the well:
When you read the rest of that chapter,
you discover Jesus knew there was going to be a woman at the community well
who needed to be introduced to Living Water
If you look at how Jesus communicated with that woman,
It is easy to see that Jesus did not share the gospel with her from an academic
or formally trained point of view
Jesus expects you and me to reach out to the lost around us
with that same uncomplicated, honest approach
that same nonacademic
but impassioned love
If you go back to the early history of our denomination, the Assemblies of God
many of the greatest soul winners in our history were not educated
they weren’t trained
they weren’t schooled
and they didn’t have a degree
However, they had a passion to tell people about Jesus Christ
and lead other to Him
Once we understand the motivating passion that must energize our witnessing to the lost
we understand that any formal training in evangelism is really secondary
It has value, but it is a tool that must never overshadow the real spiritual dynamic at work in any communication of the Gospel
That dynamic is the Holy Spirit’s inner conviction in the heart of the sinner
As Spirit-filled believers
we have the accompaniment of the Holy Spirit to enable us to see lives changed
Jesus explained the Holy Spirit’s influence this way:
“When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify about Me,
and you will testify also, because you have been with Me from the beginning.
I want to encourage those of you who have yet to receive the baptism in the Holy Spirit to continue to seek it, and pray for it.
Notice the priority of action in that statement
Yes, Jesus’ disciples were to bear witness of Jesus to the world
but the Holy Spirit would be the primary Communicator
The book of Acts is often translated as “the Acts of the Apostles”
However, Some theologians argue that the book of Acts should be called “the Acts of the Holy Spirit” instead
Throughout the history of the Church,
God’s Spirit has been at work in the lives of His servants
to make their human words supernaturally alive
when sharing the gospel with the lost
I remember going through my first evangelism training as a teenager
we were told to memorize the roman’s road to salvation
and to memorize the sinner’s prayer
and were given an evangelism technique based on Socratic philosophy:
You asked guided questions to help a person come to an understanding of the gospel
You started the interaction by making it about them:
In your opinion, how many people do you think are going to make it to heaven?
why?
There was a whole formula as to what questions to ask and when to share the verses from the Roman’s road
Every time I tried this technique, it didn’t work.
It often led to a debate instead of a decision of faith
My friend, JonMark, whom many of you know, went through this same training with me. It was at his dad’s church, John Baker
I would get jealous of him because he would come back to church with all of these testimonies of how he shared his faith with people at the grocery store
He didn’t even get out of the house as much as me because he was home schooled,
yet he was somehow having a bigger impact on the kingdom than me
This is a good reminder that comparison is the thief of all joy.
you see, personal evangelism doesn’t rest on a formula
personal evangelism is being sensitive to the Holy Spirit
It’s about knowing what God wants you to do in the moment
It’s having a passion for the lost
then responding to that passion in prayerful obedience
As you honestly share with the lost what Jesus has done for you
the Holy Spirit will identify for them areas in their lives that need to experience that same kinds of blessing
Has Jesus Christ mended your marriage?
He can heal the marriage of the person you witness to
Has Jesus brought peace to your broken heart?
He can bring peace to the personal storms of your listener
Has Jesus given you hope when there seemed to be only hopelessness?
He can communicate that same hope to someone bound in despair
If God isn’t actively doing something in your life to share, then you might need to evaluate to see if you have become complacent in your faith.
The message of the gospel is an abiding reality
But we must communicate it
We must believe God will cause our pathways to cross the paths of those who are receptive
We must believe He is planting seeds in their heart even when they do not immediately respond to the truths we share
We must never forget the Holy Spirit is at work to give life to our words
“And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment;
Holy Spirit is faithful
He is always there, and always will be
He remains ever-present to accompany your testimony and witness
Don’t allow your worries about your human limitations to get in the way of your reaching out to the lost
Remember, you don’t save people
I don’t save people
That balloon doesn’t move on its own power
The breath inside of it gave it life it can’t have on it’s own
Do your part
Become a partner with the Spirit of God in seeking out the lost
and connecting them with the greatest truth of all time
Altar Call:
Altar Call:
I have a question for you today. It’s time to make this personal.
Where will you go when it’s your time to die?
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies,
Jesus didn’t merely say that there is a resurrection.
He claimed that HE IS the resurrection.
The fact that He would rise from the dead
was the guarantee that others would too.
We often think that this is the land of the living, and that when we die we go the land of the dead.
The opposite is really true
– this is the land of the dying,
when our life here is over,
we are transferred into the land of the living
– either to a place of eternal joy
or to a place of eternal torment.
There are really only two possible destinations.
There’s only one requirement for entrance into resurrection life
-- it’s not a matter of trying to be good or even going to church --
the only requirement is that you personally believe
that Jesus exchanged his life for yours
by absorbing your sins on a cross
and that He rose again
so that at the moment of your death you will rise too.
You can leave this place the same way you came,
you can leave it trying to be a good, religious person
with vague hopes of heaven.
Or, you can leave here in full assurance that you will go there when you die.
The choice is up to you.
Determine today to put your faith and trust in Jesus as the Savior and Leader of your life.
Determine today to share that faith with others before their time comes.
Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.
Friends, none of us know what will happen to us either.
Our lives are very fragile
Proverbs reminds us:
Do not boast about tomorrow,
For you do not know what a day may bring forth.
This passage gives us two very significant reasons why we should never presume upon the future:
· Life is unpredictable.
We don’t even know what will happen tonight,
much less next week or next year.
The truth is that no one can predict the future.
· Life is brief.
Our lives are like a mist that appears for a little while
and then vanishes.
Friends, life is too unpredictable and too brief to live it without God at the centre.
The truth of the matter is that all of us are just one heartbeat away from eternity.
In 1 Samuel 20:3 , David said,
1 Samuel 20:3b (NASB95)
...But truly as the Lord lives and as your soul lives, there is hardly a step between me and death.”
Our lives are like a vapor –
here one minute and gone the next.
Don’t put off this decision.
Decide today to give your life to Jesus.
Jesus said,
John 11:25 (NASB95)
...he who believes in Me will live even if he dies,
Do you believe this?
If not, don’t waste another minute of the only life you have.
Right now,
right here,
decide to pin all your hopes on Jesus Christ,
and him alone,
who exchanged his life for yours,
and who,
in the next life,
will greet you on the other side --
if you receive Him into your life now.
Everyone with eyes closed and heads bowed.
no one looking around except me
if you would like to make that decision today
please raise your hand
that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;
for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.
For those who raised your hands, let us pray the sinners prayer together.
everyone, whether for the first time or the hundredth time,
let us pray together
repeat after me:
Lord Jesus, I come to you a sinner.
Forgive me of the sins I have committed.
I believe that you are the Son of God,
I believe that you are the Saviour of the world.
I believe that You died on the cross for my sins
I believe that You rose from the dead the third day
Jesus, Come into my heart, and make me new.
I receive You as my Lord and Saviour.
Now, help me to live for you the rest of this life.
Amen!
