The 2 Keys pt 1

Health has become everyone’s major obsession over the last 3 years. Before the pandemic, we were “health conscious” in certain segments of society, but now…man we are health obsessed. We evaluate everything. What’s my pulse ox? Heart rate? Has my watch run my EKG in the last 5 minutes? Can I smell? Taste...

Yeah, we may not know everything about our health and we may not even do what the medical experts tell us to do…but we are conscious of our health. Constantly.

But when it comes to church, we evaluate health differently. We have our own measures of whether or not the church we attend is healthy. And like our physical health, sometimes we are using the wrong measures. We are evaluating pain points, rather than real health. And that leads to churches that lose focus and become factories of idols rather than healthy bodies that are honoring Jesus.

The good news about church health is this: there are really only 2 indicators of church health. The problem with both of them is how they are evaluated. Because one of them is difficult to do and the other one is difficult to measure.

Sounds like fun doesn’t it!

So for the next several weeks, we are going to talk about those two health markers. How do we measure a church’s health? And we are going to hold up a mirror to West Metro, and to ourselves, and ask some hard questions- and hopefully, prayerfully, we are going to hear from God about how we as a Body can become more healthy.

Have I whetted your appetite enough? Wondering what the 2 indicators are? you probably can name them if you think about it for a moment. They are simply:

Are people coming to know Jesus- evangelism

Are people growing in their faith- discipleship

So this week and next week I just want us to look at the first one. Are people coming to know Jesus? We can see that happening in a church when people are being baptized and when new people are coming into the church who have never been to church before. But how does that happen?

Admittedly, sometimes that happens purely by God’s grace. He sends us people who He is seeking and entrusts them to us. But that’s not the main way we see people come to Jesus. In truth, the most natural way to see people come to Jesus is when one person shares with another person the Good News of the Gospel.

And that is what I want to focus on this morning. What does this loom like in its simplest form. How do we become people who just as a natural course of our lives see people come to know Jesus?

To do that, I want to take a look at a passage of scripture that makes it clear how this can happen. Turn with me to Acts 8:26-40)

(Read passage)

Now I know there are a couple of odd little moments in this passage, but there is no need to focus on those to the neglect of what is actually happening here. Let’s look at Philip. What does he do?

First, he is available.(v26-27a) God sent him somewhere and he just went. He didn’t argue. He didn’t offer an alternative suggestion. He just heard where he was supposed to be, and went to where he was told.

Sometimes we struggle to simply be available. We have our own plans and how we want to be used. There is nothing wrong with having a plan and having a desire to serve in a certain way, but when that gets in the way of what God has for us, we are not going to see the fullness of God’s plan, until we are available for His purposes.

Second, Philip was aware. (v27b-28) When he saw the eunuch and the direction he was coming from it clicked. This guy was someone who was seeking God. He had come to Jerusalem to worship. He was a “God fearer” but most likely not a “God knower.”

Acts The Preparation (8:26–29)

His physical status was then highly significant for the story. He had been on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem and was in all probability, like Cornelius, one of those “God-fearing” Gentiles who believed in the God of Israel but had not become a proselyte, a full convert, to Judaism. In his case, as a eunuch, full membership in the congregation of Israel was not even possible because of his physical blemish (cf. Deut 23:1). He could visit the temple in Jerusalem, as he had done; but he could never enter it

We are so busy today and consumed with so many things that I fear we often are unaware of the spiritual needs all around us. When was the last time in the course of a day you stopped to consider the spiritual condition of anyone who you interact with? Stopped to consider their words or actions or practices and how that flows out of their spiritual condition? We generally don’t. And as a result we are perpetually unaware of the people around we we could share the Gospel with. In fact, I bet most of us have not even considered the spiritual condition of even some of our closest friends or co-workers in the course of this week. And I don’t say that to make you feel guilty, as much as submitting it as a wake up call. We aren’t being very useful for the sake of the Gospel if we are not thinking about people’s spiritual condition.

Third, when we are aware, we need to be attentive to what God is doing- with us and the people we are around. (v29-35) Philip first off heard God. He heard God tell him what to do- not just to be on the road, but specifically go and talk to this man. When we are paying attention, God will direct us to people who are seeking Him. He wants to do that. He wants you to be a part of what He is doing. It gives Him joy because it gives you joy!

And even more, Philip is attentive to the person in front of him. He answers his questions. The ones he is asking. So many of us, when we see an opportunity to share the Gospel want to get to the main thing, without actually answering the question being asked. The opening is the door that is open, not the one we kick down.

Acts The Witness (8:30–35)

His response enunciates a basic principle that runs throughout Luke-Acts concerning the interpretation of the Old Testament prophetic texts—the need for a Christian interpreter. The disciples themselves had needed such guidance, and Christ had “opened … the Scriptures” for them (Luke 24:45). They in turn sought to explain the Scripture in light of Christ to the Jews in Jerusalem. How indeed would this Gentile pilgrim from a distant land understand the real meaning of Isaiah’s servant psalms without a guide?

Philip answers the eunuch’s question and that naturally leads to the Gospel. (Gospel presentation here) You do not have to force someone into a presentation or formula. Just talk to them. Be you. God wants to use you, as you are. Not some fake person who you are not. And He has uniquely equipped you to answer the person in front of you.

Acts The Preparation (8:26–29)

In all the Old Testament, Isaiah holds forth the greatest hope for the eunuch in his picture of God’s ideal future, a future that promises them a monument in God’s house, a name better than sons and daughters, an “everlasting name which will not be cut off” (Isa 56:3–8). Little did the eunuch know that he was about to experience the fulfillment of those promises

Finally, be alert to what God is doing in the person you are sharing with. (v36-40)

The eunuch trusts Jesus. How does Philip know that? He asks to be baptized. And he doesn’t care where. He wants to be obedient!

Sometimes when someone says they want to trust Jesus we want to put the thru the 3rd degree or we want to make them “prove it.” Just stop! Be alert to what God is doing. And let’s celebrate it!

Now here is the deal. You probably aren’t going to baptize someone and then disappear. And you may not have God saying to you “Stand here. Talk to them” in an audible fashion. That is not the point. You can be the 4 things Philip was WITHOUT any of those oddities. Why? Because the same Spirit who led Philip leads you!

What stops us is simple. We don’t believe God can use us the way He used Philip so we get caught up on some technicality. What if we just took God at His word?