Dare to Share
Romans 9: 20-33 (The Message)
20-33Who in the world do you think you are to second-guess God? Do you for one moment suppose any of us knows enough to call God into question? Clay doesn’t talk back to the fingers that mold it, saying, "Why did you shape me like this?" Isn’t it obvious that a potter has a perfect right to shape one lump of clay into a vase for holding flowers and another into a pot for cooking beans? If God needs one style of pottery especially designed to show his angry displeasure and another style carefully crafted to show his glorious goodness, isn’t that all right? Either or both happens to Jews, but it also happens to the other people. Hosea put it well:
I’ll call nobodies and make them somebodies;
I’ll call the unloved and make them beloved.
In the place where they yelled out, "You’re nobody!"
they’re calling you "God’s living children."
Isaiah maintained this same emphasis:
If each grain of sand on the seashore were numbered
and the sum labeled "chosen of God,"
They’d be numbers still, not names;
salvation comes by personal selection.
God doesn’t count us; he calls us by name.
Arithmetic is not his focus.
Isaiah had looked ahead and spoken the truth:
If our powerful God
had not provided us a legacy of living children,
We would have ended up like ghost towns,
like Sodom and Gomorrah.
How can we sum this up? All those people who didn’t seem interested in what God was doing actually embraced what God was doing as he straightened out their lives. And Israel, who seemed so interested in reading and talking about what God was doing, missed it. How could they miss it? Because instead of trusting God, they took over. They were absorbed in what they themselves were doing. They were so absorbed in their "God projects" that they didn’t notice God right in front of them, like a huge rock in the middle of the road. And so they stumbled into him and went sprawling. Isaiah (again!) gives us the metaphor for pulling this together:
Careful! I’ve put a huge stone on the road to Mount Zion,
a stone you can’t get around.
But the stone is me! If you’re looking for me,
you’ll find me on the way, not in the way.
This is the Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Let us pray.
We are almost finished with out faith, hope, and love series. I really wanted to go on to hope, but when God puts something on your heart… Well, we know that we just have to go with it.
I didn’t want to talk about faith anymore, but I was reminded of what the District Superintendent said in is address at the South West District Meeting that the focus of our congregations should be evangelism.
He has said that churches don’t grow because of the preachers. Churches grow because of the laity’s leadership and the aggressive approach that the congregation takes in Evangelism. He went on to say that there’s something about sharing the Love of Christ on a one on one basis that compels people to want to give their lives over to Christ. Great preaching helps… good singing is a plus, but when a person takes the courage to step out on faith and tell someone about what God has change his or her life, well that’s what I’d call profound.
So what is Evangelism? According to Dictionary.com evangelism is defined as the Zealous preaching and distribution of the gospel, as through missionary work. Notice that the definition does not say through worship service… it said through missionary work. In order for us to be effective evangelism we need to take the gospel to the streets. We got to get down and dirty in our elbows with filth so to speak. We have to get in some uncomfortable situations in order to be able to get the point across.
There’s people walking up and down the streets here in Lockesburg as well as other places where we go that don’t know about the love of Christ and the path that leads to salvation.
So I bet you’re probably wondering… OK, Deena what does that have to do with faith, hope, and love? It has everything to do with faith, hope, and love?
If we are a congregation that shares in the same belief in God and in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, then we must love God and love others, we must submit our lives in true obedience to get the full extent of this love. And by experiencing the love of God we have the unnatural ability to love those who don’t necessarily care for us. Because we are doing that our faith leads us to ask more questions and lead us to a deeper relationship with God.
We’ve all hear the expression “faith without works is dead,” so when we tie it all together we need to dare to share. Evangelism is a working expression of our faith. What we do for God is faith is being daring to share.
Remember when Bishop Crutchfield told us about his friend who evangelized to the young people in his hometown? The young man was a minister at the Wesley Foundation and he evangelized in what we would consider one of the most unlikely of places. He went to the pool hall… And from what the Bishop said about his friend… he was a top notch pool player because when he took those folk money… before he gave it back to them… he told them about the love of Christ.
Bishop Crutchfield’s message was about evangelism. Christ being the master fisherman that he is… dares us to be like the Master?
But I’ve learned that no matter how good our intentions are… we have our own self serving agenda or not God’s will in our lives… well we shouldn’t be surprised when things don’t turn out the way that we hoped.
I got a funny story I want to share with you. I was looking for yet another part time job in Little Rock. Like I don’t have enough to do right? And I noticed that there was a Starbucks that just opened and was hiring. I was so excited because I love Starbucks. There’s no place that I wouldn’t rather be than Starbucks. I went there filled out an application and got an interview scheduled. When I went in for my interview the manager of Starbucks was… two hours late… yes! Two hours late… and went I got off of work from my lab job early that morning… I was twenty minutes late… and guess what… I got fired! That was the fastest I’ve ever got fired from the job in my life. This man just assumed that because I was late on my first day… then it was going to be habitual. I explained to him that I had just got off from my other job and my mom had made the mistake of unplugging my alarm… he didn’t want to hear it. It just told me that I was fired. But I realized that I really didn’t need the job, but rather… I need to rely on my Lord more. And not until last week, when my brother had an emergency for his son that I needed to help with… that was when I started thanking God for not getting job at Starbucks because if I did get the job, then I’d be at Starbucks working, and there for my family. Like Miss Dobbie has always told me… it only gets better, and me being fired from that job showed me that it most certainly does… because I am able to spend more time with my family and especially with Dedra because her time with me is limited now. She’ll be off to college soon… hopefully… but we aint gone get into that right now.
The reason why I’m bringing this up is because yes, I thought that I needed another job, but I realized that my intentions for getting that job was not for paying off bills or saving money… I wanted to get the part time job because I wanted a necklace from Tiffany’s and new suits to wear. You see how God just allows things to happen when our intentions aren’t the most reputable?
God will cut you off at the quick. We really have to be careful when we are out there evangelizing for God. Are we doing this for his glory or are we doing it for our own. Are we doing this to offer hope and salvation to a starving soul or are we doing it to make ourselves look good or give ourselves a self esteem boost?
We have to prepare ourselves when we do this of course because people are gonna ask us some hard questions. And that’s probably why some people are afraid to dare to share. Ya’ll have read the bible, and can see what glorious things happen when we just step out on faith! Amen! God’s gone give us what we need and equip us as we dare to share.
We have to study, pray, and get to work because in doing that we put our faith into action! We are not here to make a difference in the world! We are here to make the world different Amen! Just like Miss Doobie said one Sunday when she saw the sign, “Don’t point a finger lend a hand.”
Turn to your neighbor and say, “Dare to Share.”
That lending hand is telling someone about what God has done for you! That lending hand is telling someone that God loves them! That lending had is offering prayer and supplication! That lending hand is telling someone how you are a new creature in Christ! Amen! Somebody needs to praise God this morning because if it had not been for God where would be?! We need to lift up the name of the Most High! Not just in church… but we need to take it to the streets.
But I must warn you as you’re studying we have to be careful. With study comes knowledge… Yes, knowledge is power, but there’s something we need to look out for. And that’s self righteousness. When a person studies the Bible…and as they begin to apply the principles of godliness to their own lives… well then tend to be more inward than outward. The only reason why I know is because I used to be that way. I used to study the Bible daily… for hours upon hours… at a time. When I was at work… people would always catch me with a Bible in my hand.
Unfortunately I began to look down on other people. I did, and I’m ashamed of the fact that I used to be that way. I just thank God that I was only a candidate for ministry and not a pastor. Pastors should not ever be judgmental like that because just like you, we are saved by grace! We’re just the ones that were compelled to answer the call.
And when I used to preach I would quote scripture like it was spiritual mandate and not give anything about me to the sermon. I sat up in the pulpit like I was all that and a bag of chips. But I thank God that he humbled me! I thank God that he showed me that I am no better than anybody, and just as easily as he called me into ministry he could just as easily take me out! God showed me that if I want to be an effective minister to his people… Scripture helps… most definitely… but telling people how God took this teen mother, gang banging, pistol packing, domestically abused, cancer survivor, of a woman and transformed her into a messenger for God. Scripture is my guide, but God is my source, and Christ is my Strengthen! Amen! I have to tell people that God is good, but he is most definitely wonderful, awesome, omnipotent, all powerful, omnipresent, superior, a cut above, excellent, top-quality and outstanding! God has it going on! And I got it going on with God! Amen! We got it going on with God!
Turn to your neighbor and say with God: “With God We got it going on!”
I got to tell my story! God’s just been too good to me for me not to! I have to offer Christ! Because it is by his stripes we’ve been healed! We have to depend on the power of the Holy Spirit because how else are we gonna have the courage to do it!
It takes guts and courage to put our faith into action because we stand the risk of being rejected. We don’t want that, but we have to be strong enough to do it all the same! All I’m saying as we study, pray, and dare to share… Beware of the yeast of Sadducees.
We can’t ever thing that we can do this faith thing on our own accord and abilities… no! There’s no way! Because we will always come short! Just like my intentions for getting that job was selfish… I got fired… if our intentions are selfish… don’t you think that God has reserved the right to give us our pink slips as well?
Just like I read in the message text I read previously. Another translation of Romans 9: 33 But those who put their faith in that one will never be put to shame! So don’t worry about it! Just do it. If that expression can sell millions upon millions of Nike sneakers… then us just doing it should be bring the masses to God! When we dare to share, we will not be put to shame because our Trust is God through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Somebody said “Trust!” Say it like you mean it, “Trust.”
Trust and Obey! For there’s no other way! To be happy in Jesus is to Trust and Obey!
God is just too good to not tell somebody about his love!
I need a witness this morning we need to give God some glory this morning because God is something else!
I’m just a nobody.
Trying to tell everybody,
About somebody,
Who can save anybody!
Let’s put our faith to work! If we are a charge that dedicated to leading others victoriously to eternal life, then let’s dare to share! I challenge anyone today right now to share about God’s love and grace.
We’re living this moment because of God! It’s by his Grace and Mercy that brings us through! Dare to Share Christ not only to each other, but to the world! Amen! Amen! Amen!
