WHAT WE DO AND HOW

WHAT WE DO AND HOW 1 Peter 3:15-16 With grateful acknowledgement of these sources of direction and inspiration: the Holy Spirit; the Word of God; Joseph Aldrich, Gentle Persuasion; Michael Green One To One; Wayne McDill, Making Friends for Christ; Michael Simpson, Permission Evangelism October 19, 2003 Given by: Pastor Rich Bersett [Index of Past Messages] Introductory On Wednesday, July 24, 2002, nine Pennsylvania miners were trapped 240 feet underground in Somerset County, Pennsylvania. For three desperate days Americans followed the rescue efforts on CNN, hoping and praying for a miracle. Blaine Mayhugh, one of the nine, recalls his feelings when 50 million gallons of water flooded the mineshaft in which they were working. "We tried to outrun it, but it was too fast. I thought, 'This is it.'" Within 24 hours of the disaster, the rescuers successfully lowered an air pipe to where they believed the miners were. The miners signaled they were still alive by banging on the pipe. Filled with hope, the rescuers decided to drill a shaft to reach the men. They waited 24 hours for the heavy-duty drill to be transported from West Virginia. But hope waned when further signals from the trapped miners stopped. Then an unexpected obstacle stymied the rescuers on Friday: only a third of the way into the solid granite, a 1,500-pound drill bit broke. For 18 hours the drillers worked to fish out the broken pieces of the drill in order to pick up where they left off. The delay was a setback, but the rescuers continued to work non-stop, hoping there was sufficient oxygen for the miners to breathe. Mayhugh admitted he and his co-workers fought despair when the encouraging sound of drilling stopped a few hours after it began. At that time, he asked for a pen to write a final word to his family on a scrap of cardboard. "Tell them I loved them," the strapping miner said, fighting back tears as he recalled his fear that the rescuers had given up. But the rescue workers had not given up. Precious lives were in jeopardy. Eventually they reached the trapped miners. As the miners were transported to ground level in a makeshift capsule, each of the nine heard the thundering applause of colleagues, reporters, and bystanders cheering their rescue. Like these trapped miners, hundreds of thousands of people are dying in a mineshaft of sin and they are depending on our help. That's what evangelism is, isn't it? It is those who are already saved engineering whatever help they possibly can to save others who are not yet saved. If God's Word is to be believed, that is exactly who we are, saved rescuers, reconciled reconcilers. The New Testament is clear that evangelizing others into the kingdom is our primary goal as the church. "Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing…and teaching them.." Matthew 28:19-20     "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us." 2 Corinthians 5:17-20 "You are the salt of the earth…you are the light of the world…let your light shine before men that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven." Matthew 5:14-16 "Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life…" Philippians 2:14-15 "Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone." Colossians 4:5-6 "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." Acts 1:8 "When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me; but you also must testify…" John 15:26-27 "But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light." 1 Peter 2:9 "...in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect…" 1 Peter 3:15 Last week we dealt with that powerful first sentence in this verse: "...in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord..." Our study led us to understand that the first thing a Christian must do if he is going to be an effective witness for Christ is COMMIT HIMSELF TO THE LORDSHIP OF CHRIST. When believers are truly committed to Christ, loving Him and wanting to serve Him sincerely, their motives are pure and their motivation is powerful in the Holy Spirit. Today we will spend a few minutes in study of the second part of the verse: "Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have." If the first sentence in 1 Peter 3:15 instructed us to commit ourselves to the Lordship of Christ, I see this sentence telling us to be ready to wisely answer everyone who asks us questions about our faith. Implicit in these directions is the idea that unsaved people WILL ask us about our faith! So this text is inviting us to PROVOKE QUESTIONS AND ANSWER THEM. The question rises, HOW do we provoke the questions we should be ready to answer? Clearly the general New Testament answer is that our good behavior and holy lifestyle will provoke questions from the unbelievers around us. But there are two other important strategies that, when we employ them faithfully, will bring the attention and the questions to us from the unbelievers around us. Those two are PRAYER AND PERMISSION. The Strategy of Prayer A key part of our calling as Christians is that of intercession on behalf of lost people. The Bible says that they are blinded by the god of this age and cannot see the light of the glory of the gospel of Christ (2 Corinthians 4:3-5). We pray so that God will lift those blinders. The Bible says that non-believers are beguiled by spiritual mindsets that are against the knowledge of God (2 Corinthians 10:4-5). We pray that God might demolish those strongholds. The Bible says that people who are distant from God are dead in their sins (Ephesians 2:1); they are following the ways of Satan and the spirit of disobedience (2:2); they are lost, hopeless and without God in this world (2:12). We pray asking God to give them life through Christ, turn them from the control of the devil and give them deliverance and hope. And prayer is our most powerful tool in this agenda of winning people to faith in Jesus Christ. Sidlow Baxter once said, "Men may spurn our appeals, reject our message, oppose our arguments, despise our persons-but they are helpless against our prayers." I want to suggest to you that people want our prayers. They really do. More and more I am learning to pray for people that I am talking to, even and especially before I witness about my faith. I have seen grown men weep at the mere offer of saying a prayer for them. They're touched by the offer, but there is more to it. They never cry when I offer to open a door for them! They know that the God from whom they are hiding is being summoned by a friend of His in their behalf! I want to read for you just some of the cards that were filled out voluntarily by passers-by at the church's booth at last month's Oktoberfest. You need to have a picture of this table. It's off to the side, and there are blank cards and pens and a fishbowl for people to fill out prayer requests and drop them into the bowl for us to pray for them. Greg: my job and family My name is Taylor. I'm 15 - I was ingaged for over 1 year and we split up I can't eat I can't sleep and I really love him I miss him to please please help me so I will be happy…Please help me bring him back. Prayer for our troubled teenage daughter Janet. Have her come home. Heart condition and family To make the world better Pray for me to get good grades and me and Kyle will be together! To save and heal my family People have so many felt needs. And we as a kingdom of priests are called to be intercessors in their behalf. The effectiveness of God's answers to those prayers, coupled with the love that offered them in the first place, serves lost people like no other ministry can. Pray for people. There's a somewhat difficult passage at John 6. Verse 37 says, "All that the Father gives me will come to me and whoever comes to me I will never drive away." Then in verse 44: "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day." Now there's a lot I don't understand about that text. The scripture is just as clear in 2 Peter 3:9 that God is not willing that any should perish, but wants everyone to come to repentance. But what is perfectly clear in John 6 is this: God draws sinners to Christ. And I'm given to understand that I may freely ask Him in prayer to draw them. Let me further encourage you to not give up praying for those you know who are outside of Christ. Two years ago Patrick H. asked if he could bring a friend to visit with me concerning her questions about Christianity. I agreed, provided he would also be there. Over the course of the next year we met three or four times, and Liz came to our morning Celebration a few times, both with Patrick and without him. I haven't seen her lately, as she and Patrick are both off at college now. But Patrick has continued to pray for and encourage Liz. I just got a note from Patrick last week, and I think he wouldn't mind my sharing a portion of it with you: Quick report about God's faithfulness & the power of the Holy Spirit-Liz ___ goes to school at George Washington University in D.C. She was reading her Bible one evening with her dorm room door open. A few people saw her from the hallway and came in her room asking her questions about God! Additionally, Liz walked into one of her professor's offices and asked him what he believed about Christ. She ended up sharing the Gospel with all these people! I am so excited and humbled . . . Please keep praying that she will continue to grow in her relationship with Christ… I want to encourage you again to be praying the RWA (Ready, Willing and Available) Prayer each morning and asking God to let you in on some of the most exciting experiences in the Christian faith walk. God's leading and power are there, available to believers. What an impact we could have on those around us if every one of us every day started sincerely praying this prayer! (Click on the link to open a copy of the RWA Prayer.) I do not want to suggest that there is something special about this particular prayer. But there is something very important about this kind of praying-it opens us up to God's will and invites His leading and power into our daily lives. It is so exciting to know that when we come to the Lord asking for things that are expressly a part of His will, He will answer and empower us. We can literally ask Him to lead us to individuals whom He is drawing to Himself, and let us in on the action! Take the challenge each morning this week. Ask Him to speak to you, lead you and empower you. Lily Tomlin asked a poignant question: Why is it that when we talk to God we're said to be praying, but when God talks to us we're schizophrenic? C. S. Lewis wrote: The moment you wake up each morning, all your wishes and hopes for the day rush at you like wild animals. And the first job each morning consists in shoving it all back; in listening to that other voice, taking that other point of view, letting that other, larger, stronger, quieter life come flowing in. John Bunyan wrote: He who runs from God in the morning will scarcely find Him the rest of the day. That's the first strategy, Prayer. The second is GETTING PERMISSION. The Strategy of Permission There is a new book written by a brother named Michael Simpson that has had me somewhat fascinated for the past couple weeks. It's entitled Permission Evangelism and it's all about how Christians can and should seek to get permission from people before invading their space with strong evangelistic language. It's not because we should be afraid or shy about witnessing to them, though. I has to do with the growing evidence that the pushy evangelism being practiced by many who are not gifted as evangelists is turning more pagans OFF to the gospel than ON. Using several biblical examples, like Jesus' encounter with the woman at the well (John 4), the author stresses how Jesus earned the social right to speak to people. The purpose of permission in evangelism is to create trust, get around the legal and social barriers to discussing your faith, and most importantly, to discern the leading of the Holy Spirit in someone's life. The result is fruitful conversations, more often, and the ability to speak with confidence in every encounter. Evangelism, when asked to tell someone about Jesus, is easy and resembles giving an answer for the hope that you have, rather than forcing an answer on a person yet to ask a question. Permission is biblical, and Jesus' example bears witness that it not only is God-inspired, but effective. One more short quote: In the Permission Evangelism conversation, when you allow the non-Christian to move away from topics that are uncomfortable, you leave the door open for him to address those issues with you in the future. In fact, Because you approached a topic that made him uncomfortable, but you didn't press, he is more likely to come to you and initiate discussion in the future. . . The ultimate goal of Permission Evangelism is to get them to give you more and more permission over time until they say, "I do." That's an apt objective because you are inviting them into a lifetime relationship with Christ… How will I know when I have their permission? There are three tip-offs. First, there is the nudging of God's Spirit in your heart. That's that feeling you get when He is prompting you to obediently speak in a given situation. You may have spent considerable time with your friend, cultivating a relationship. Then, one day while you are waiting in line at Borders for coffee with him, you get that feeling in your spirit that you are to broach the topic of religion that morning with him. The Spirit of God has any number of ways of letting us know when the light is green to move on in ministry. It really is to our benefit to get familiar with how He uniquely speaks to us about ministry opportunities. Then we can move into those situations with the confidence that He is opening the doors and He will bring the wisdom and power to get done what He wants to get done with your friend. The second way you'll know when you've gained permission to proceed evangelistically with a person is when the person asks you a question that directly or indirectly leads to talk about God or salvation or Christ or church. Notice, YOU have not brought the topic up, the other person has! The third indicator that you are gaining permission to speak with this person about spiritual matters is if they signal that they are comfortable with you. This could be in the form of a compliment about the nice person you are or a good character trait they see in you (thank them and let them know it is God, not you…). Simpson offers a helpful list of trigger phrases for engaging spiritual conversation. (Page 94) "spiritual experience" "I discovered I was wrong" "life-changing experience" "change in belief" "work with an organization that helps people…" "I used to think that way, too, but I had an experience ____ years ago that changed my perspective…" Conclusion You don't get involved in personal evangelism because you feel guilty not doing it. You don't get involved in evangelism because it's your duty. You don't get involved in evangelism because someone makes an emotional appeal, complete with sobering charts and grim statistics. You get involved in evangelism because Jesus is so precious a pearl that a man would sell everything he owned in order to get it. You get involved because Jesus stretched out his arms in love on the Cross to draw to himself his lost sons and daughters. You get involved because Jesus is the King of kings and Lord of lords, the Lamb of God, the Prince of Peace and our personal Savior So I will end the same way this week as I did last week. Will you take the challenge to pray this way every morning this week, because you love Him? "Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen." Ephesians 3:20-21   [Back to Top]