Sermon Tone Analysis

Start with calling up Amy and Jason Ward and having the church bless them and pray over them!

OPEN UP WITH PRAYER BEFORE TEACHING!

OK, so how many of you were here last Sunday?

Well, if you were here, then you heard the first part of my message that is continuing on today, entitled, “Back to the Fight”.

And in the first part of this message, I began speaking to you about “we”, as Christians, getting back to what we WERE and still ARE called and commissioned to be doing, as followers of Jesus Christ.

Our very title, “CHRISTIANS”, speaks volumes about us, right?

We understand that a title given to us, in the natural, comes with rights and responsibilities.

For instance:

If you carry the title, “Manager”, then you adhere to the training and responsibilities of managing others in some capacity.

(A department, a store, a whole company!)

If you are in local law enforcement and carry the title, “Officer”, then you have taken on the role of one who defends and protects and serves those in whatever community, city or county that you are hired into.

If you carry the title, “Quarterback”, then you are the offensive leader of the football team on the field in a game of football.

If you carry the title, “Astrophysicist”, then you are an expert in the branch of science, known as “astrophysics” and you thus, apply the laws of physics and chemistry to explain the birth, life and death of stars, planets, galaxies, nebulae and other objects in the universe.

If you carry the title, “Mother”, then you are a woman who has been given the gift of pouring your life into the rearing of children and that blessing and covering that goes with it.

And in like fashion, you would most likely, have the title of “Wife” along with it, which means that you are a woman who has made a COVENANT agreement with God and a man, to spend your life with that man, (slaving under him), I MEAN SERVING ALONGSIDE of him and building your lives together and becoming ONE flesh!

So, we all get the gist of what I am saying, about the “titles” that we carry in life and the understood meaning and responsibility that goes with them, right?

Well, the word, “CHRISTIAN”, literally refers to: One who worships Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah and Son of the God of Israel; the earliest usage of the term “Christian” was used to denote a follower of Jesus the Christ.

So, if you and I say that we carry the title of “Christian”, then we are saying that we are followers of Jesus, adherents of the teachings and commandments of Jesus, right?

Well, is that what you are doing in and with your life, FOLLOWING JESUS?

Hmmmmmm?

You know, Jesus, as the CEO, of this organization, known as the “CHURCH”, didn’t burden us, or weight us down with a long list of obligations and rules.

In fact, He is such a loving and benevolent overseer, that He took some 611 laws and condensed them down into 2 laws and then refined that for clarity.

(ELABORATE on the golden rules and the last commandment and then the great commission of Matthew 28:19)

So, Jesus gives us TWO RULES that we operate under and that we apply to the job description to which we are brought into the company (a.k.a.

“the kingdom”), to perform, which we refer to as the GREAT COMMISSION!

So, if your title is a “Christian”, then you are someone who serves under the Lord Jesus and adheres to His primary rules that enable you to complete the command of spreading the gospel message everywhere you go.

Sound about right?

Great!

Well, then how are we doing with this TITLE that we have been blessed to come under by God’s grace and through our faith?

You know, last week I gave you some facts about Christians in America and of how that many say that evangelism is not really “their” job, but rather it is the churches!

And who, may I ask, is the church?

(HOLD MY HAND UP TO MY EAR FOR THE PEOPLE TO ANSWER!)

Right, YOU AND I ARE!

Well, if you and I are not living up to the title with which we cling to and we are not fulfilling our calling in the kingdom of God, then who is?

We each have the general calling of the great commission and then we each have a specific calling for our lives

That is the whole point of these messages, to bring those who claim Jesus as Lord of their lives, to the understanding of and desire to begin to fulfill our calling!

Did you know that statistics tell us that:

Less than 2% of evangelical Christians in America witness weekly to unbelievers or annually lead someone to Christ.

90% of all Christians in America will never share their faith with anyone in their lifetime!

Only 21% of American evangelical Christians will invite anyone to church in a year.

Only 2% will invite an un-churched person to the church in a year.

95% of all Christian believers in America have NEVER led anybody to Christ!

Now, admittedly, these are stats from 2012, and yet I doubt very seriously that you would find a huge deviation from what they WERE telling us about the health of the body of Christ in comparison to the current, actual condition of the body of Christ.

Especially when you look at studies like I read to you last week, that were taken this year, about the role of evangelism in this nation.

And so here we are, back to the question of, “Why are people (Christians) not getting back to the fight?”

That is, why are so MANY of us not engaging the world around us and at least attempting to share the gospel message and make disciples of others!

Just ask yourself right now, right where you are sitting, “How do those statistics apply to me and my life and my walk as a Christian?”

“What do they say about my effective service in the kingdom of God?”

If we could formulate a few reasons as to why the majority of those within the evangelical church, do not share their faith, what would we come up with?

And for clarity, because this word is used all of the time, EVANGELICAL, is a word that we use, which is derived from the Greek word evangelium, which means "Good News" or "Gospel."

Evangelicalism, is not based upon a denomination, or a certain race or creed or any tenants made by men.

An evangelical Christian, is simply, someone who believes and adheres to the GOOD NEWS or GOSPEL MESSAGE of JESUS CHRIST as we find in the New Testament!

(That is a really basic way of saying it!)

And so, EVANGELISM is thus, the sharing or spreading of the GOOD NEWS, the GOSPEL MESSAGE!

OK, so back to reasons that people may give for not sharing their faith.

There are various reasons and answers that people will give as to why they are not engaging in sharing their faith, but when you get to the bottom of them all, you can pretty much narrow them down to a few and basic reasons.

Probably, the biggest one that I have heard from other people, or read about most often, and have even experienced in my own life, is that of “FEAR”!

Now there are different fears that people list when stating why they are not sharing their faith with others:

Fear of failure - they don’t feel they have what it takes to be able to succeed and thus they might fail.

This fear is closely related to another reason why people will not witness for Jesus - they are poorly equipped (they do not know the word).

Fear of rejection - they are worried about how they will feel when people openly reject them and their sharing of the gospel message!

This is a fear of man!

Fear of persecution or suffering

Another common reason that people do not witness to others, is one that I just touched on in the fear section; they feel that they are NOT EQUIPPED, or NOT PROPERLY TRAINED to share their faith.

(And this one has both a personal as well as church responsibility attached to it!)

Then some people say that they CAN’T share their faith, because NO ONE THAT THEY KNOW IS LOST.

(That is, in the circles that they run in, their are no lost people to witness to.)

Then there are those who never share their faith and the bottom line reason why, is because they flat out don’t have the desire to do so.

(They don’t really care; it’s NOT IMPORTANT TO THEM!)

Now, there are other reasons, but these are really prevalent ones.

Now, before we take a closer look at any of these reasons that people give as to why they are not witnessing to others, let me state and then re-state something to you about these “reasons” I just listed, as well as all of the other possible “reasons” that we are out there for not evangelizing.

These “reasons” for not witnessing and evangelizing are not “reasons” at all, but rather they are excuses that we make to deflect blame and shame for being remiss in our calling!

There is a saying that reads as follows about excuses, “An excuse has been defined as the skin of reason stuffed with a lie!”

Now before you get all in an uproar and form a lynch mob to come after me for calling these “reasons” for not witnessing, just“poor excuses” that we make, let me defend my statement by asking you a question and then commenting on it.

Does God, or His Son, or His Holy Spirit, or the Bible lie to us?

OK, well if you say that within your walk with the Lord, your witnessing is simply just a weakness for you and that’s all there is to it, then, according to the Bible, you should be excelling in this area!

, God says to Paul, “My grace is all you need.

My power works best in weakness.”

How many of the men in here today, want to be considered a man’s man, a powerful, godly man?

Well, listen to this same statement from God, as found in the AMP Bible, “My grace (My favor and loving-kindness and mercy) is enough for you [sufficient against any danger and enables you to bear the trouble MANFULLY]; for My strength and power are made perfect (fulfilled and completed) and show themselves most effective in [your] weakness.”

The word MANFULLY is the same as saying, “bravely, courageously, boldly, gallantly, heroically, intrepidly, fearlessly, valiantly”!

It’s no wonder then why Paul quickly responds back to this, “So now I am GLAD to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me.

That’s why I take pleasure in my weaknesses, and in the insults, hardships, persecutions, and troubles that I suffer for Christ.

For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

Paul was GLAD in his weakness, to be equipped by God to respond to all things, MANFULLY!!!!

And then let’s consider what the Bible says to us in , “By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life.

We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence.

And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises.

These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires.”

By his divine power, God has given us_________________for living a godly life?

“EVERYTHING WE NEED!”

Everyone repeat after me, “God has given me EVERYTHING I need for living a godly life!”

And finally, the icing on the cake as to why we cannot ever say that we have legitimate “reasons” for not sharing our faith with others, look at what the Bible says to us in a very familiar passage, ,

Now let me read that same passage to you with the increased unction and emphasis that is placed upon it within the AMP Bible, “I have strength for all things in Christ Who empowers me [I am ready for anything and equal to anything through Him Who infuses inner strength into me; I am self-sufficient in Christ’s sufficiency].”

So, when we start to list the reasons as to why we are not, or cannot evangelize and share the gospel message, remember what the Bible tells us: God’s power works best in our weaknesses, and that through His power, God has given us EVERYTHING we need for living a godly life and that Jesus Christ, Himself, infuses us with inner strength to do all the things that He has called and commanded us to do!

Can somebody please shout me out an “AMEN”!!!!!!!!!

Look real quickly at this short video clip that Pastor Francis Chan did in reference to the Great Commission.

PLAY VIDEO, “FOLLOW JESUS”, by Francis Chan.

“Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord’ and do not do what I say?”

When Jesus poses this question in , He says it in conjunction with the following analogy, “So why do you keep calling me ‘Lord, Lord!’ when you don’t do what I say?