Introduce Your Friend
All about Jesus • Sermon • Submitted
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Lessons Studied
Lessons Studied
- It’s who you know that matters!
- Keep looking at your friend!
- You are part of his Family!
- Talk to your friend!
and Tonight...
Introduce your friend!
Review of last week
Review of last week
Prayer is to our spiritual life as breathing is to our physical life
Jesus prayed after great success, before great trials, after the power of God was revealed to man, when he was about to start his ministry, and in between.
God wants to communicate with us just as much as He wants us to communicate with Him.
Introduce Your Friend!
Introduce Your Friend!
High in the Colorado Rockies, my parents own a redwood cabin sitting on a parcel of land surrounded by National Forest. Our family affectionately refers to it as The Property.
We first visited The Property in April. While exploring, we came across a grove of Aspen trees surrounded by ferns and tall grass. The soil was dark and damp. Wondering if digging would uncover a spring, we got tools from the cabin and prepared to find out.
We soon had a hole carved into the mountain side-a distorted circle about four feet across and two feet deep. The soil became more damp with each shovel full of earth we removed. Gradually the dampness changed to mud. Finally water bubbled up.
The puddle that formed was muddy. It seeped in so slowly that we decided to leave it alone for a while. After a couple of hours we were delighted to find the hole two thirds full of cold, clear water. We took a drink and left, hoping that when we returned it would be full and overflowing.
Imagine our disappointment two hours later when we discovered the water level to be exactly the same as it had been earlier. We pondered the mystery and wondered why it had stopped filling. We probed about in the bottom to see if the seep spots had gotten clogged or covered, but we only made the water muddy again.
We wondered if the pressure on the bottom had increased (as the hole filled) to the point where it could no longer seep. To test that theory, we took an old pipe and pushed it through the soil from the downhill side. It penetrated our reservoir below the water line acting as a drain.
We watched as the reservoir drained lower and lower. Finally it reached the top of the drainpipe. Then an amazing thing happened. Water kept draining out, but the water line remained constant at the top of the drainpipe! We kept waiting for the water to stop draining, but it never happened. In amazement we watched a steady stream continue pouring from the end of the drainpipe.
We ran and got a six gallon container from the cabin. Placing the container beneath the stream of water, we clocked the rate of fill with a stop watch. We couldn't believe the results! The little "seeps" we had uncovered in the ground were producing water at the rate of 3 gallons per minute! We were pleased and drank deeply.
Later that year we returned to The Property in late October for another visit. The aspen leaves had turned to gold, falling like nuggets to the ground. I went for a walk in the forest and decided to check the spring. I was disappointed to find no water coming out of the pipe. The once clear water had become murky and stagnant with tiny insects swimming about.
At first I thought it was simply because the water source had dried up. Then I noticed leaves and debris clogging the outlet. Reaching through the muck, I cleared the drain. Water began flowing once again and before I left for home that week, the spring was clear.
Nature demonstrated this spiritual principle: As you share what you know and love about Jesus, you will receive more to share. Your experience with Him will continue fresh and new each day. If you don't "let it out," what was once new will become old, stagnant and undesirable.
Before he left for Heaven, Jesus asked His followers to share with others the good news about Himself (see ). He must have had good reasons for leaving us with these marching orders.
The Christian witness has been compared to exercise-something essential to good health. In this lesson we will discover how witnessing not only improves your spiritual health, but benefits other and God as well!
1. Have you ever broken a bone that had to be set in a cast? What happens to the muscles that have to be inactive?
2. Give some examples that demonstrate the truth of the expression Use It Or Lose It.
Does this apply to society?
3. In a legal courtroom, what is a witness and what are they expected to say?
4. According to the following verses, what is a Christian witness?
:16Daniel 4::11Acts 4:20
16 Come and hear, all you who fear God,
And I will declare what He has done for my soul.
2 I thought it good to declare the signs and wonders that the Most High God has worked for me.
Daniel 4::11Acts 4:20
11 Most assuredly, I say to you, We speak what We know and testify what We have seen, and you do not receive Our witness.
20 For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.”
5. Explain the difference between sharing information and sharing an experience? What experience is being shared in the verses listed above?
6. Based on what you've read so far, define Christian witness.
7. In what ways is your definition similar to ? In what ways different?
1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life—2 the life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare to you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us—3 that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.
1 John 1:
8. In a court of law, the person on trial hopes to benefit by the testimony of witnesses for the defense. What are some ways in which your witness could reveal Jesus to others?
8 By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.
9 But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;
9. How important is our witnessing of God to others?
36 And looking at Jesus as He walked, he said, “Behold the Lamb of God!”
37 The two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus.
40 One of the two who heard John speak, and followed Him, was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. 41 He first found his own brother Simon, and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which is translated, the Christ).
42 Then they said to the woman, “Now we believe, not because of what you said, for we ourselves have heard Him and we know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world.”
1John 4:42John 12:32
32 And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself.”
10. and end the story of the healed demoniac. What did Jesus ask him to do?
11. Why would Jesus send a person to witness to people they already know? Does this say anything about what our first goal should be in regards to strangers?
12. How can sharing what Jesus is to you and what you are to Him, benefit you in the following areas:
Make life an adventure
Provide real purpose for living
Give you fulfillment
Spiritual confidence
Your understanding & appreciation of Jesus