Message:
For several weeks we have talked about sharing things; our spiritual gifts, our time, our resources and our treasure. But the most difficult thing that Christians find hard to share today is their faith.
It is strange that the one thing most Christians have an abundance of is the hardest thing to share.
Have you ever been in an elevator as the doors open to the lobby and a crowd of people rush in? Suddenly it becomes a shared space.
People tend to be in a hurry wanting to get to their room or to their event or appointment. People crowd into these small spaces willingly knowing that it’s the most convenient way up or down. They put up with the strangers and the invasion of their personal space and with waiting their turn to get on or off. They even put up with the small talk and let others push their buttons.
Yet these same people will not step into a church to hear the small talk about eternity. They will not allow their personal space to be compromised, they want to avoid these strangers called Christians and they want to avoid this space we call church. They certainly do not want anyone pushing their buttons. It seems they would rather take the stairs.
For many of us this is what sharing our faith is like today. We know that faith in Jesus Christ is the best way to go up from where you are standing. But many folks find that being in the elevator is uncomfortable. Some people in the elevator are loud and inconsiderate. They let their baggage press up against others and some jostle and bump without so much of an apology. We can begin to understand why some folks dislike the elevator.
So how can we share our faith today when so many people avoid the elevator and choose to take the stairs?
Well, we have to step out of the elevator and be willing to open the door to the stairs and take one step at a time. Not everyone does well among a group of strangers. Some people do better one on one.
These days there seem to be more people taking the stairs than there are people taking the elevators. So we have to be where they are if we hope for them to discover the faith that is in our hearts.
Our faith is not in the elevator it is in the person of Jesus Christ. People need to see and know that what we believe and trust in is real whether we are in or out of the elevator.
It is often an uphill climb one stair at a time. It is also harder to carry on a conversation climbing the stairs. Usually someone is walking ahead of you or behind you. Carrying luggage is much harder on the stairs too. You just can’t set it on the floor like you can the elevator.
This presents an opportunity for us to offer to help carry what these folks are struggling with. We can lighten their burden so to speak so that they can catch their breath and talk more freely.
Jesus met people where they were in the everyday living of life. He met people as they were going about their work, traveling, celebrating, and mourning and He took special effort to reach out to those who were blind or crippled or def. The mystery of a saving faith is not hidden in Heaven and it is not buried in a tomb in Jerusalem it is alive in the heart of the believer just as Romans 10:6-8 says.
We are to offer our faith from our hearts.
All we need do is to tell the people we meet on the stairs about how we came to know Jesus as our Savior and how Jesus has changed our broken hearts so that they are whole again.
We need to tell people that it was Jesus who did this for us and that how He was the only one who could heal our broken heart.
We can let them know that we were once just like them, people who took the stairs and avoid the elevators.
And we can tell them how Jesus met us on the stairs one day and convinced us that we did not have to try to climb up in our own strength but that He would lift us by His love.
All anyone has to do is to call on His name and believe in Him. There is no special formula and it’s not a matter of choosing one elevator over another. It’s a matter of faith, a matter of trust. It’s about saying yes to Jesus.
When we open our mouths about our faith; the love of Jesus should come out. Not religious speak but honest heart felt truth the kind of truth that made you want to trust Jesus with your soul.
Friends just like our call to worship says;
Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone. Colossians 4:5-6
If we start to talk like this to the people we meet in the stairs they just might be willing to ride with us in the elevator someday. Amen.
