Thanks to everyone who took the time to answer my simple survey over the past 3 weeks! I was thinking I might end up with some really creative tools and ideas for all of us when it comes to sharing our faith. I expected that, at the end of this series on getting evangelism in hand, I might share some more helps to put in everyone’s hands to help us share Jesus with people who need to hear about Him. So I studied over those surveys and here’s what I found: I kept reading about parents and Sunday School teachers, youth coaches, friends and co-workers. And I kept reading about invitations to church. It didn’t surprise me, really. The best tool we have for outreach, the greatest secret weapon for helping bring people close to Jesus is still…you. Even when it came to sharing ways that you helped lead someone else to Jesus, I noticed this about them: they all involved you! I hope that’s not a disappointment.
Oh, we still could use some tools and helps, I think… (open bag)
Tip Cards, Trunks and Treats ads, NT’s, The Bridge – a pencil and paper, Circle of Influence list, Events, Service projects, SS contest, church DVD or CD (hasn’t been invented yet!), car show T-shirt, couldn’t fit in a small group, but perhaps some revitalization of our small groups, especially prying open the doors to them so that non-members will be interested in them (pry bar), maybe an opportunity on our website to have members “appear” as a featured testimony and then they could tell their friends, “Hey, I’m the featured interview on our church website this month. You should check it out.” simple gifts to give to people (pens, etc.) that have the church’s website address on them.
What we really need isn’t a secret tool. There are dozens. What we really need is a way to get ourselves in the regular practice of sharing our faith in some way. We need to go ahead and make the move from getting what’s in our heads and in our hearts out through our hands.
If you’re sitting there asking “Well, why do we need to do that?” then you need to go back to the first 3 messages of this series. If you don’t understand why this is so vital, or if you just don’t really care, then this message this morning really isn’t going to get anywhere with you. But if you’ve been listening, and you have in mind what needs to happen, if you have deep inside the heartfelt desire to do something, then I think this morning will help put some feet to that desire. I want to suggest 3 practical ways that we can get that done.
1. Create a win/win/win situation
Not even Charlie Brown likes to lose. And it’s that fear of losing that keeps a lot of us from striking up conversations of spiritual depth with people. We’re afraid that we’ll do it wrong, or that they’ll ask something we can’t answer, or that they’ll engage in an argument we can’t win.
A few years ago, I read a book by a guy who’s very big into personal evangelism. He pointed out how when we share our faith, there are really only a few possible outcomes. What are they?
1. You share your faith, they accept: You win! They win!
“Hey, have you ever considered how the thing you’re searching for in life could be your need for a real relationship with Jesus?” And that person listens, and responds to the gospel, and accepts Jesus. You win a new friend in Christ and the other person wins. That can happen, and does happen, and most of the people sitting around you today are a testimony to the fact that it does happen.
2. You share your faith, they accept later: You win! They win!
“Hey, have you ever thought about how your family really needs to be involved in a church, especially your kids?” and that person listens, but doesn’t respond. You might never even hear about it, but a year later, after some other people also influence him, that guy shows up with his family, and they all end up accepting Jesus. You win because another person will spend forever in Heaven with you, and the other person wins. That also happens often.
3. You share your faith, they reject Jesus
“Hey, are you sure after you die that you’ll go to Heaven?” and that person looks at you and says, “Who cares? I don’t even think there’s a Heaven. I never realized what a weak-minded person you actually are. You believe that junk?!”
Now, you might call this a lose/lose scene, but it’s not.
1 Peter 4:14-16 (NASB)
If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. Make sure that none of you suffers as a murderer, or thief, or evildoer, or a troublesome meddler; but if anyone suffers as a Christian, he is not to be ashamed, but is to glorify God in this name.
In other words, if you share your faith in Jesus, even if the other person rejects it, you still win! The person who rejects loses, but you don’t. The fact is, the only situation where everyone loses is the one where we fail to share our faith. So, in order to create a winning situation, what do you do? You somehow share your faith about Jesus Christ. It’s a Win/win/win deal.
Another way to get off dead center…
2. Go, don’t wait for them to come to us
In the US, why should anyone outside of Jesus be here on a Sunday morning? Why, from their perspective, should they?
I know that, from our perspective this morning, we have all sorts of reasons why people should come pouring through these doors every week, and yet, we look around, and there are all these empty spaces, and we’re saying, “What? Where are they? Why don’t people understand that they can find eternal life in Jesus and a great church family here?”
Ill – Imagine there’s a contagious disease “megahydramania.” It has one symptom: everyone that gets it becomes outrageously thirsty. Only, drinking doesn’t cure the disease. It only helps for a short time, and then you’re thirsty all over again. It won’t go away, and it’s an epidemic. In comes the government. Problem solved! They are providing bottled water for anyone who wants it. So people line up by the thousands. They come and get a free bottle of water, drink it, and feel better for a short time. But, there’s also a cure for megahydramania; a shot that takes away the disease and its symptoms. Some people understand that the cure would actually solve the problem, and they find a way to provide the cure for anyone who wants it. They set up next to the water bottle line. But no one gets in line for the cure. Everyone gets in line for water bottles, drink till they feel better, then leave until they come back, in line for another, thirsty all over again.
Why? We don’t understand! We offered the cure free! We even told people how it would help them with clever sayings like “the shot is the answer.” At summertime when everyone was the thirstiest, we wore buttons that said “the season is the reason for the shot.” But no one came. Why not?
We live in the USA. We are the wealthiest large group of people in the world. We have running water and electricity. No one has to go hungry or naked. So what do you need if you live in the USA? You “need” a cell phone and cable TV. That’s the “needs” people are after. Are they going to get those at a church somewhere? No way!
And then, when people really do look more carefully at their priorities and decide they need love, acceptance, companionship, and a place to serve others, do they think a church is the place they’re going to find that? No way!
“But we’re really nice!” We may be, but they don’t know that!
Most people aren’t going to find the church just because there’s a building here. And many peoples’ concept of what goes on inside the church is very jaded. Besides, they don’t know that the Church has anything they really need.
That’s “the way it is.”
We can do 1 of 2 things about the way it is: we can sit back and say about people, “It serves them right. We’re here. If they want to come, they will, and if they don’t, tough.” Or, we can pay attention to what’s going on in our culture, and we can do what Jesus did and said to do in the first place – we can go. We can go into the mall, our schools, our city government, the places where people are and not wait around for them to come to us.
We can take some definite action to help people understand that the Church actually does have what they really need.
*Matthew 28:18-20
It’s an aorist participle: “having gone” into all the world – Jesus makes the assumption - that His followers would go into the world with the good news.
Having gone, make disciples – that’s the main verb – that’s our goal – to help people become devoted followers of Jesus. What does that involve?
Participles again: “As you are baptizing them” and “as you are teaching them” to obey everything I have commanded you. That’s how you “make disciples” for Jesus.
We like those last 2 parts, because we’re big on baptism and we’re big on teaching people God’s word. Good! But what about that first part: Go?
If what we’re doing doesn’t include “going,” we’ve missed the Great Commission of Jesus.
Going might mean walking across the room to someone. Going might mean you go on a trip overseas, or that you go live overseas. Going might mean you make the first move when it comes to getting to know your neighbors or someone at school or work. For us as a church family it must mean more than just setting up shop and waiting to see who shows up. We need to be going into this community so that people without Jesus know that they matter, and so that they understand what we’re really about here. They need to hear that what we have in Jesus is the real cure for their thirst that just won’t seem to go away.
Fish don’t normally jump into the boat.
Good soil doesn’t chase down the seed.
Lost sheep, lost coins, and lost sons don’t find themselves.
Darkness doesn’t make itself light.
Food doesn’t salt itself.
We need to initiate this whole thing. We have to be on the move. I know of someone else who’s on the move –he’s very devoted to getting people. Only his goal is to devour them, to ruin their lives. Our enemy is on the move.
Shouldn’t we be on the move?
3. Stop making negative assumptions
Story - A guy who took a lot of pride in his lawn had a rash of dandelions one spring. He tried everything to get rid of them, and finally phoned the state department of agriculture. After telling everything he had tried, he asked them what to do next. They said, “Try getting used to them.”
People who are different than you, who make you uncomfortable, who are living just plain wrong, aren’t going to disappear. You can’t make them go away. Try getting used to them. Try, instead, to have them be around you…forever. You do want that, don’t you?
We all bring assumptions into our encounters with other people – right or wrong, happy or sad, we all come with a set of presuppositions. I’m going to suggest that most of them are just about as ridiculous as this guy’s:
(Show “Church Invite” video)
We make negative assumptions, don’t we? Too often they’re unfair, uniformed, or just plain uncaring. We look at peoples’ outside and say, “Aw, they won’t listen; they don’t care; they’re a lost cause.”
Ill - Shoe salesmen from 2 different companies were sent overseas to a remote area in Africa to see about the potential for selling shoes. When each arrived and began to study the market, they saw that everyone was barefoot. Both salesmen phoned back to their home companies. The first one said, “Hey, no one here wears shoes. Hurry up and make arrangements for me to come back home.” The 2nd one said to his company, “Hey, no one here wears shoes! Hurry up and make arrangements. Get as many shoes here as possible!”
Which one are you? Do you look at ½ of Winnebago Co. outside of church buildings this morning and say “We’re outnumbered! Circle the wagons, get in, and get safe!” or do you call it job security?
Jesus looked at crowds of messed up people and called it a field, ready to be harvested.
Matthew 9:10-13 (NASB)
10 Then it happened that as Jesus was reclining at the table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were dining with Jesus and His disciples. 11 When the Pharisees saw this, they said to His disciples, "Why is your Teacher eating with the tax collectors and sinners?" 12 But when Jesus heard this, He said, "It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick. 13 "But go and learn what this means: 'I desire compassion, and not sacrifice,' for I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners."
That’s one thing about hospitals that just really bothers me, you know? Every time I go there, it’s full of sick people! How annoying! It seems like everyone I visit there has some kind of ailment or injury. Can you imagine?
Jesus said it is the sick who need a doctor. When He saw people who were harassed and helpless, who were deceived and lost, who seemed immersed in lifestyles that were far from God, He didn’t assume they weren’t worth His time and effort. He didn’t assume they wouldn’t listen to something of value. He assumed they were people who really needed the message of life.
We need to practice putting aside our negative thoughts about people because they look poor, or worldly, or rough, or ignorant, or dangerous. Assume instead that they’re lost without hope and they need to have a chance to respond to Jesus.
Here’s an idea of how to do that: go over to Cherryvale Mall, or to some other place where there are a lot of people passing by, and watch them for ½ hour. Practice looking at them as people in need of Jesus, rather than as people you wish would just stay away from you. Look at the guy all covered with tattoos and piercings, or the homeless lady, or the 12 year old trying to look like she’s 25, or the 50 year old trying to look like she’s 16, and pray for them. Put away wrong assumptions, and assume the right assumption - that they are people who need Jesus .
As tough as it may be to look at yourself from the inside, Church, we need to do just that. We need to look at ourselves and figure out what about CCC might prevent people from being here right now.
What are the barriers here this morning? What are the things that keep people from seeing the truth about the way that Jesus loves them? Wouldn’t it be worth taking away our pride, our comfort, our personal tastes, our personal security long enough to see people won to Jesus?
Conclusion
This message has been directed mostly to people who are already followers of Jesus this morning, but I hope it also gives some insight into what it means to truly be a follower of Jesus. We are simply fellow beggars who have found a source for bread, and our Master wants it shared with as many as we can bring along with us.
No one ever came to Jesus without hearing about Jesus.
Someone told me about Jesus. Today, you’ve heard about Him too. His great priority is your soul.
The reason He endured the cross, with all the shame and pain that went along with it, includes you. He wants you to be a part of the souls of forgiven people living with Him forever.
