God's Not Dead: Prepare To Give An Answer Series

GOD’S NOT DEAD: PREPARE TO GIVE AN ANSWER

A. How many of you have ever had to DEFEND your FAITH in

COMMENT:

Maybe you had a co-worker who challenged your belief in God? Or had a classmate in school who made fun of you because you went to church? Perhaps the one who you have to defend your faith with most of all is your husband or wife or one of your children?

1. If your Christian life is transparent, undoubtedly you have had to defend what you believe about God and his son Jesus at one time or another.

2. That’s the entire premise of the movie: God’s Not Dead. (MOVIE CLIP –LIGHTS)

ILLUSTRATION:

The movie tells the fictional story of Professor Radisson, a philosophy professor, deciding that teaching his college-level introductory philosophy class would be much more productive if he could remove any discussion as to the existence of God. so he required all his students for the purposes of the class to sign a piece of paper saying that “God is dead” or face a failing grade.

As all the students wrote those three words on their paper, signed it and passed it down to be given to the professor, one brave freshman student, Josh Wheaton, decides that he is not prepared to compromise his Christian faith to sign the paper. as a result of his conviction, he is given the assignment to convince the class that God’s Not Dead.

The rest of the movie shows Josh Wheaton preparing to give an answer to his class for not only his belief that god’s not dead, but to also show that god is the creator of the universe.

B. 1 Peter 3:15 (READ and COMMENT)

1. Everyone of us knows people whom have not given their lives to Christ—either because they don’t

believe in him or they merely won’t accept him.

a. Many of these are people we know and love—family, friends, neighbors, co-worker, class-mates.

b. we want more than anything for them to obey the

COMMENT:

But what do we do? How do we bring up the subject with them? What if they ASK us something we don’t know? What if they get upset with us?

2. We begin by simply talking to others about the One we love.

COMMENT:

There’s no certain strategy to adopt. There’s no set of instructional videos to watch. There’s no special method to be used. It is simply telling people you love and care about what Jesus has done for you.

C. I want us to look at some simple actions from 1 Peter 3:15 that everyone can do in preparing us to share our faith with those who ask.

MESSAGE:

I. BE PASSIONATE ABOUT YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH CHRIST

A. Peter- “…in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord.”

1. This is where it all begins—living for God in Christ Jesus.

a. There are a lot of people out there who call Jesus “Lord.” We hear it all the time.

ILLUSTRATION:

Have you ever watched these music awards shows where some rapper gets up to receive his award and thanks the lord Jesus, yet the lyrics of his songs are inundated with curse words and immorality? Or, watch some of these country singers get up there and thank Jesus for their awards, and their songs are all about heavy drinking and cheating on your wife?

b. Calling Jesus “Lord” and “setting Him apart in your heart as LORD” are two entirely different things.

2. Jesus- “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven”- Matthew 7:21.

B. When Jesus is genuinely set apart as lord in your heart, people will take notice.

ILLUSTRATION:

When I went on a mission trip to Corozal Town, Belize in Central America some years ago, I met this young woman. I cannot recall her name, but she impressed me greatly. This woman, a new believer in Christ, was responsible for bringing 10 people to Jesus. In fact, she had converted two people while our mission team was there.

When I asked the local preacher, Randolph Baptist, about her, Randolph Baptist told me that she had been a Christian for just a few months. Prior to giving her life to God, she lived a very ungodly life that involved drugs, robbery, and prostitution.

Randolph said that after “setting Christ apart in her heart as LORD”, this new-Christian young woman couldn’t wait to tell others what Christ has done for her.

She was PASSIONATE about her relationship with Jesus, and you could SEE IT.

II. LET YOUR LIFE AROUSE OTHERS’ INTEREST IN CHRIST

A. Peter said that “we are to be prepared to give an answer to anyone who asks . . .”