Get Going! Series

Teaching this kind of obedience is done on field trips.

Do you remember how great it was to go on field trips as a kid?

They were the highlights of the school year.

They were exciting because they were an opportunity to get out and get going.

Ideally, they melded together experience with what had been taught in the classroom.

But here is a truth.

How can we teach obedience if we are not doing it ourselves?

I would suggest that we cannot.

We cannot teach that which we have not experienced.

So here are some very practical applications that I think are essential for us as individuals and for us corporately as a church community.

First, we must…

Feel God’s heart for the world (II Peter 3.9).

Note how Peter describes God’s heart…

The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

We know that God is love.

Thus, whatever He does, He does out of love.

Here, Peter expresses that God is not willing that any should perish.

He has gone all out so that people do not have to remain lost without Him.

He has held nothing back in order to win them.

In the same way, this should be our heartbeat as well.

Our hearts should be breaking that there are those that are dying without knowing Jesus.

Our hearts should be breaking when we are unsuccessful in depopulating hell.

Because, these things are breaking God’s heart as well.

The second application is…

Express what Jesus means to you (II Peter 3.15)

…always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you…

Tell your story.

Give your testimony.

You are a witness.

So, tell how Jesus has changed you.

Now, you don’t have to preach a sermon.

And you don’t have to force Jesus into every conversation.

Like someone says to me…

“Well, Paul, the sky sure is pretty today.” “

Yes it is! My Jesus made the sky!”

That now, that’s not the way we want to do this.

But, as opportunities come up to share our faith naturally, we work Jesus into the conversation.

Ask God for wisdom.

He loves to answer that prayer with the affirmative.

He will give it.

The third application is we…

Don’t separate good news and good deeds (Acts 10.38).

In this passage, there is a reference to Jesus…

“He went about doing good…”

Sometimes, in our evangelistic zeal, we often think people just need more or better information in order to believe.

We think that if we just tell them the right things, then they will eventually make a decision for Jesus.

What we are finding more and more in our present day is that people are not looking for more information.

There is a ton of information available to us today.

What people are really looking for is authenticity.

You see, people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.

For, when people who talk about a loving God demonstrate love, the gap between doubt and faith is narrowed, and the people around them often find themselves wanting to believe.

This means then, that when we take the time to show love through serving, it helps us tell the good news more effectively.