How to Share Your Faith - Walking the Spirit-filled life - Part 3

Call to worship (voice recorder) 2min

Lord, we want to meet with you, and ask that you will truly make yourself known to us. Amen.

Psalm 96 ESV

1 Oh sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth! 2 Sing to the Lord, bless his name; tell of his salvation from day to day. 3 Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples! 4 For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; he is to be feared above all gods. 5 For all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols, but the Lord made the heavens. 6 Splendor and majesty are before him; strength and beauty are in his sanctuary. 7 Ascribe to the Lord, O families of the peoples, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength! 8 Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name; bring an offering, and come into his courts! 9 Worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness; tremble before him, all the earth! 10 Say among the nations, “The Lord reigns! Yes, the world is established; it shall never be moved; he will judge the peoples with equity.” 11 Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice; let the sea roar, and all that fills it; 12 let the field exult, and everything in it! Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy 13 before the Lord, for he comes, for he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness, and the peoples in his faithfulness.

Let’s sing our first Hymn...

SONG: Praise my soul the King of Heaven 3min

Yes, God is the king of Heaven and must always be reminded of His character which the next hymn will do...

SONG: Holy, holy, holy 4min

And again, not only is God holy, holy, holy and gives us a sense of how awesome He is. But just as in that vision that Isaiah had God does not leave us in despair about how bad we are in comparison to Him but sent Jesus came to cleanse us and because of His victory over death we are also able to sing this next song with simple lyrics and tune:

SONG: Jesus strong and kind 4min

Children’s Talk 6min

Good morning kids! How are you? Today I want to talk to you about the bible!

What is your favourite thing to do? Have you told anyone about it? Did you tell people what you got for your birthday or for Christmas? Why? You were excited right? Have you a favourite TV programme? Who do you talk to about it? Your mum, dad, friends, anyone who would listen, right?

Now, I need the willingness of everyone here who are able to stand and walk and speak. First, I am going to ask all those who are under 18 years old to go up to two different people and say: Jesus is alive! And when the rest of you are told, you go and tell two different people: Jesus is alive! Hopefully I have explained it well. If someone whether a child or a young person or an adult tells you Jesus is alive, you have to go and tell two other people: Jesus is alive. It’s a good experiment! So, kids and young people. Get up and tell two people here Jesus is alive. {Now wait till they have done it!}

Has everyone been told Jesus is alive? I expect some of you were told at least twice. See how easy it is once you start. We can speak so easily about other things that excite us but we leave Jesus to last. But what do we read in the bible about the first disciples? - it says in

Acts 4:20 ESV

20 for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard.”

The first disciples had to talk about Jesus -

Let’s pray: Dear God, thank you for all the good things you give me, for… and for Jesus who gives eternal life. Help me to talk about Him too. Amen.

Notices 3min

SONG: What love my God 5.5min

Prayer 2.5min

Thanks and Praise

We pray for Shirley and her family. Comfort, peace, everlasting arms.

For all others in the fellowship who are sick, in need of finances, in need to reconciliation, for those who are grieving.

Thank you that our hope is in you, and upward we look and know our redemption is coming.

But into this world you will come again where there is much injustice, war, hate, deceit, persecution and know that you will prevail but we pray that the Gospel will go forth and bring inner peace - and help each of us be bringers of that peace, in Jesus’ name.

Let us pray the prayer our Lord taught us:

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power, and the glory, forever and ever. Amen.

Sermon

Today we move to another passage of Scripture before we will return to Galatians in two weeks, God willing, as next week we are celebrating 85 years of the founding of this church.

The passage in Galatians, the magazine article sent out on Friday and today’s sermon are all about Walking the Spirit-filled life. Today’s message is called: How to share your faith. And unless we are filled with His Spirit this will not be possible to do effectively and long-lastingly.

Let us, then, read the bible passage for today:

Luke 14:15–24 NKJV

15 Now when one of those who sat at the table with Him heard these things, he said to Him, “Blessed is he who shall eat bread in the kingdom of God!” 16 Then He said to him, “A certain man gave a great supper and invited many, 17 and sent his servant at supper time to say to those who were invited, ‘Come, for all things are now ready.’ 18 But they all with one accord began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a piece of ground, and I must go and see it. I ask you to have me excused.’ 19 And another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to test them. I ask you to have me excused.’ 20 Still another said, ‘I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.’ 21 So that servant came and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house, being angry, said to his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in here the poor and the maimed and the lame and the blind.’ 22 And the servant said, ‘Master, it is done as you commanded, and still there is room.’ 23 Then the master said to the servant, ‘Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled. 24 For I say to you that none of those men who were invited shall taste my supper.’ ”

This sermon is to give us the tools that we need to be the kind of people God wants us to be in relation to unbelievers, one of the main reasons why we as a Church exist here on earth. We can see that if we do not speak to people about Jesus then there is little hope that they will ever enter the doors of this building. And each of us have a responsibility to fulfil the Great Commission:

Matthew 28:18–20 NKJV

And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.

Acts 1:8 ESV

8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

In recent years the idea that somehow there is a difference between a believer and a disciple has arisen. We are not called to to make believers but disciples, is what is said. However, when we read throughout Scripture about believers or disciples they are the same group of people. Indeed we are saved by believing, that is trusting that what we have been told about Jesus is true and that He is our Saviour.

John 3:18 NKJV

“He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

We actually become disciples the moment we believe but it is also to this that I want to preach today...and disciples are to make new disciples.

The passage that we read from in Luke Jesus makes it clear that the task is urgent: Compel them to come in. Compel here means to force them. Force practically describes violence. To force someone is to make them do something against their will. Interesting concept. And we kind of baulk at it. Though I think it impossible to get around the gist. It is paramount that people come into the Kingdom. The alternative is too horrendous.

In this passage we see the excuses that people make about their possessions, things that they have to do and other people whom they have commitments. Now, if these people will not hear then we are to widen our scope. Go to the lonely, the poor, the downtrodden of society and make them come into a Kingdom that in the next life will give them an abundance and to sit at the Table with Jesus.

Whether we know it or not we all have a sphere of influence: all of us are in contact with people who none of the others here have: whether it is family, friends, colleagues, people who work for us, people we work for, clubs that we belong to, Facebook, other social media and many others who we have some kind of contact with. If we all were to write a list of all these people it would not be a small list. Some of those on our list would be people that someone else in the fellowship knows but many, if not most, will not. It is reckoned that every person on the planet has 6 degrees of separation from everyone else on the planet. That means the contact of our friend with their friend with their friend with their friend with their friend with their friend could be the United States President. While it may not be strictly true always it shows that we have a great influence upon a great number of people if we know how to influence them with the gospel. We could literally preach to the whole world.

Then why don't we? Perhaps this is because we don't know why we should and that is partly addressed in the magazine article. First and foremost it is a command to keep that has been given by Jesus. And this is in response to the love He has shown us saving us from our sins, from death, from hell.

Hell. This is another reason why we should tell the world. This is the most unpleasant feature of the life to come. Hell has become something of an embarrassment to Christians because we have altogether become too sentimental and hope that if there is a hell, and some Christians do wonder, they hope that if there is a hell people will only suffer for a short time rather than for the rest of eternity. Something that has become very popular of late is the idea of annihilation...that they will be destroyed after a short time. It might seem comforting but it is not in the Bible. The Bible gives four pictures of hell which are of fire, destruction, separation and death all of which are portrayed as lasting forever. If hell is not forever neither is heaven for it uses eternal and everlasting for that place too. And whilst I do not want to concentrate too long upon this we should note that the Bible does not mince its' words. In one place it tells us of our enemy:

Revelation 20:10 ESV

10 and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.

Then four verses later it tells us the consequence of those who have not come to faith in Christ:

Revelation 20:14–15 ESV

14 Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. 15 And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

Somehow we think it incredible that God would judge people forever but sin is an affront to an absolutely holy God who, if we remember, killed Ananias and Sapphire for lying, who destroyed a whole family in the desert, the father, mother, and the children by opening up the earth and swallowing them all up. Why? Because of the father's sin of stealing; and what of the young man who took the Lord's name in vain and was stoned to death for it or the man who steadied the cart carrying the Ark of the Covenant and was struck down by God for it.

At what point do we start to understand that God is not like us where little sins, in our eyes, have terrible consequences because they are not small to Him. Those who either do not hear about Jesus or refuse Him will go to hell, forever, without end, a tortuous punishment. Are we the judge of God or put our ideas of how God should be because we would not act this way? Plainly ridiculous. God wants all people to come to Him. Jesus draws all people to Him. But they do not come because they like their lives the way they are. They have rejected God.

Our view of God and of hell affect our telling other people that there is a way of escape. But if we think there is nothing to escape then why bother? However, the good news is good news in contrast to the bad. It is only in the last century that we think we are so civilised, think that God is like us, that we think that God, because He is love, could not justly put people into a hell that will last forever. The previous 1900 years of Christian thought and understanding is done away with and God in His holiness and Righteousness is belittled. “Will not the judge of all the world do right?”, Moses asked of God. And God saved Lot and his daughters but destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah - and the area where those cities existed, if you go visit if you are ever in Israel, is still covered in sulphur today as a testimony to this generation. So, God did what was right and who are we to judge Him?

If we don't tell people the Gospel then who will? If we don't tell people to escape the wrath that is to come, who will? Hell was not created for people but for the devil and his demons. God does not want anyone to go there but the way to life is narrow - it is through Jesus alone who can save people from a living hell; who, if we are to follow, expects us to lay down our lives to do so.

So now, let us come to how we can share our faith with those who are unbelievers: and I am grateful to Russel Spray for the four headings:

1. Be a Friend

Proverbs 18:24 NKJV

A man who has friends must himself be friendly, But there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.

Christs sticks with us closer than a brother who is always there, and so it follows that we must also show ourselves to be friendly, hospitable, warmhearted if we are going to get close to sharing that which is close to our hearts, the love of the Lord Jesus to make a way for us through the cross. It is because of many friendships that so many have come to faith in Christ. I, myself, am one. Through the persistence of a friend I eventually went to his Christian fellowship. Earlier I spoke of our sphere of influence which includes our friends and of course, our family and so on.

2. Be Fearless

Isaiah 44:8 NKJV

Do not fear, nor be afraid; Have I not told you from that time, and declared it? You are My witnesses. Is there a God besides Me? Indeed there is no other Rock; I know not one.’ ”

It seems we have nothing to worry about. What is the worst that anyone can do to us? Kill us? Indeed that is what Jesus said:

Matthew 10:28 NKJV

And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

Jesus was fearless. He faced His opposition with boldness and courage. Paul spoke of others having no fear as a result of him being in prison

Philippians 1:12–14 NKJV

But I want you to know, brethren, that the things which happened to me have actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel, so that it has become evident to the whole palace guard, and to all the rest, that my chains are in Christ; and most of the brethren in the Lord, having become confident by my chains, are much more bold to speak the word without fear.

When we look at our brothers and sisters around the world suffering for the name of Christ, as we did last week hearing about the 340 million suffering servants of Christ, then we gain boldness too. They are bold. We can be bold. You can be bold. Tell people the good news as you have opportunity. Urge them to come to faith in Jesus. What? They will think you mad? well, so what!

3. Be Fervent

Romans 12:11 NKJV

11 not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord;

To say that Jesus was fervent or zealous is an understatement. Jesus knew what His Father had called Him to do and He was going to do it no matter what, no ifs or buts...Jesus knew He was on the way to the cross.

Mark 10:32 AV

32 And they were in the way going up to Jerusalem; and Jesus went before them: and they were amazed; and as they followed, they were afraid. And he took again the twelve, and began to tell them what things should happen unto him,

We have to set our face, be zealous, be fervent in spirit in sharing Jesus with others, in helping the needy, and in feeding the hungry.

4. Be Faithful

Revelation 2:10 NKJV

Do not fear any of those things which you are about to suffer. Indeed, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and you will have tribulation ten days. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.

This point may be the most important of all. Jesus was faithful in all He did. He devoted His life to helping, healing and serving for others. He was faithful unto death.

We should also be faithful to God and the work He has given us to do. Once you know what God has called you to do it until He gives you something different to do and then be faithful in that too.

Luke 16:10 NKJV

He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much.

If we are faithful to God in what we do then He may give us greater responsibility or greater tasks. At the end of our lives you and I who are faithful will receive the crown of life.

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All this must be under the cover of prayer in obeying this great commission. The more we share our faith the more we will understand it and grasp the great things that have been done for us in Jesus going to the cross to buy our redemption:

Philemon 6 ESV

6 and I pray that the sharing of your faith may become effective for the full knowledge of every good thing that is in us for the sake of Christ.

In conclusion God in Jesus came to save people and not to destroy...we are following in the steps of Christ who does not want anyone to perish. The task before us is great so the task requires us to be friendly, to be fearless, to be fervent, and to be faithful.

Song: Yet not I 5min

Benediction

Philemon 4–6 CSB

4 I always thank my God when I mention you in my prayers, 5 because I hear of your love for all the saints and the faith that you have in the Lord Jesus. 6 I pray that your participation in the faith may become effective through knowing every good thing that is in us for the glory of Christ.

Bibliography

Spray, R. E. (1984). “How to …” Sermon Outlines. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House.