Romans 15:8-13
Getting on the Same Page as God about How to lead someone to Christ
Introduction
A. You probably looked at the title of today sermon an got scared
B. AHHHHHHH, Evangelism Explosion!!!!!
C. Ahhh, door to door
D. Ahhh, the pastor is going to want me to go to the city and hand out tracks
E. AHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!! Help!!!!!!!!!
F. Wait if I “Go the bathroom” and “forget how to walk back up the stairs” I can escape; now I just have to make my move ready set Now!
G. Hold on
H. As you know I am a simple person
I. I try really hard to make things really easy to understand.
J. I feel that is the most important thing, to explain the Bible in easy to understand, though maybe not easy to accept, ways and apply them to our lives
K. So that is what we are going to do today
L. I do not know where we got this idea that sharing our faith is worse the going to the, no offence Barb, dentist
M. Today we are going to look at the steps to lead someone to Christ
N. We will be keying in on verse 9-12 specifically
a. Live the Life
b. Invite to Watch
c. Praise Go Together
I. Live the Life (9)
A. Explanation
1. The phrase that I want us to key in this verse is among the Gentiles
2. The Jewish community and the Gentiles were literally in the same city
3. We have to understand that there were no such things as Jew only cities or Gentile only communities
4. They were intertwined
5. So when we read I will praise you among the Gentiles
6. We are not talking about going to California and praise God in front of West Coast People
7. We are talking literally about our neighbors
8. The quote from 2 Samuel 22:50 and Psalm 18:49 mentions that “I will praise you among the gentiles and I will sing hymns to your name”
9. Now understand we are not necessarily talking about going outside and singing, but we are talking about the attitude
10. See the writer of those verse is saying hey I am not ashamed, I am willing to let my neighbors know of my love for God
11. I will not try and hide it in the comforts of my house
B. Application
1. Let’s apply this verse to our lives
2. Every action Every Dead that you do is noticed by someone
3. Let people see you praising God
4. Let people see your love for God
5. Now how do you do that?
6. Simple acts of kindness and love,
a) Talk to your neighbor when they tell you what is going on in their life, tell you will be praying for them
b) Let’s just say you are mechanical and your neighbor is less then mechanical, help them work on their car
c) Mow the grass
d) Bake a pie
7. When they ask you why are you being nice, simply respond with a “if you think this is nice, you should see what Jesus did for me!”
8. If your neighbor can not see that you are different something is wrong
9. In this country that we live in we do not have to worry about being thrown into Jail for what we believe in
10. Since we do not have to worry about that we, have no excuse not to let our neighbors know were we stand
C. Illustration
1. You want to know what amazes me sometimes? Mission Trips
2. We will send some people on a Mission trip, and well they are on the mission trip they will tell everyone that they see how much they love Jesus
3. That is a good thing don’t get me wrong
4. But then they get home, and they don’t tell anyone.
5. I know were most if not all of you live and work.
6. You all live and work on a mission field, you are all around people who need to know Jesus
7. Just by living the Life that you are called to live, people will notice
8. People will be curious, then comes step two
II. Invite to Watch (10)
A. Explanation
1. Let’s key in another phrase “with his people”
2. His people are obvious the Jews
3. Now let’s explain what should happen
4. You have be living the life as we just talked about
5. Now you have the “Gentile” curious
6. The “Gentile” knows that you care and because you care they trust you
7. So the next thing you do is simple, ask them to come and “rejoice with his people”
8. Quite simple, invite them here or to some other function
9. There is a static out there that 80% of the unchurched would go to church if someone invited them
10. That is one of those that blow my mind, imagine the reason that someone has never come to church is because they have not been asked
11. Sad isn’t it?
B. Application
1. Let’s apply this to our lives
2. We are not inviting people to, “Rejoice, o Gentiles, with his people”
3. Now the question is why is this happening?
4. There are two possibilities
5. One: We are chicken
6. We are afraid that the person might be in the 20% bracket. They might turn us down,
7. And we would get are feelings hurt
8. To respond to that I am going to say “Don’t be a baby”
9. First of all if they do turn you down, oh well, ask them again later, don’t view it as an attack on you
10. The Other possibility is our Church embarrasses us.
11. Maybe you think our services are too “Churchy”
12. Maybe you think our members are embarrassing
13. If you have a problem do not let that be the reason you do not reach people
14. If you have a problem with something, you come to me, Don’t talk behind someone’s back, you come to me
15. We will talk about it, Maybe it is something that we never thought of before and you have a good idea to make something better
16. I would love to here those
17. Maybe If you asked me why we do something I could explain it and we would solve the problem that way
18. Bottom line is that we need to be inviting people.
19. Whatever is preventing you from do that, fix the problem
20. Fix the problem now!
C. Illustration
III. Praise God Together (11-12)
A. Explanation
1. The phrase that I would like to key into is “all you peoples”
2. Here we get the idea of both the Jews and the Gentiles worshiping God under one roof
3. Two arch enemies, two groups of people who seemed diabolically different
4. Now together under one roof
5. Worshiping one God
6. In a spirit of unity
7. With God in charge of both of them
8. All the divisions, all the wars, all the fighting, all the name calling, all the abuse, now gone
9. God never intended us to be enemies with one another
10. God has always and will always want us to get along with fellow humans that we created in God’s sight
B. Application
1. Let’s apply this all to our church
2. Let’s not kid ourselves there are certain people we fill more or less comfortable around just because of their social class, their race, or their gender
3. As Christians our job is to, as we learn last week, accept one another
4. We need to make sure that we create and environment were people feel welcome
5. Were people walk in and there are greeted
C. Illustration
1. Have you ever been to someone else’s family reunion?
2. In my various quest for food I have ended up at other family reunions.
3. There were some were I walked in an I just wanted to find the nearest exist, get me out of there
4. Nobody wanted me there, and it was just awkward
5. Then there are the other family reunions that I walked into
6. I felt welcomed, I felt loved, I felt like they had been waiting for me to show up
7. We need to be that type of church
8. When someone walks through those doors, I want them to feel welcomed, I want them to feel loved, I want them to feel like we have been waiting for them to show up
9. There is nothing more special then seeing people who are externally different
10. Worshiping one God together
11. Putting their differences aside, and worshiping God as one
12. Again if you have a problem with this you come to me and show me in Scripture why we should not do this
13. If you realize that you had a wrong attitude towards others, you need to fix that, and fix it now
Conclusion
A. You probably have notice I have mentioned a lot about neighbors, a lot about coworkers and have not said much about Mass Evangelism
B. There is a reason for that, most people who come to Christ it is a direct result of someone talking to them individually
C. Let me give you an example
a. John was a decent hard working successful businessman. His wife was a Christian, went through some hard times, and turned her back on Christ. Later she came back to Christ. Billy Graham was in Pittsburgh. She invited John to one of the Crusades, his life changed
b. He was never the same again, I can not describe the difference in his life, in his family, in his relationship with his wife
c. Now, It is true that Billy Graham was the one up their giving the message, but it because of his wife that he was there
D. It is all about personal contact
E. Personal contact, personal witness, personal evangelism, personal reaching, is difficult because it is personal, it is so much easier to “hang a poster” “pay for a TV commercial” or even “put a bumper sticker on your car”
F. But it is way more effective
G. Let me give you a couple of concluding thoughts
a. Show Your Neighbor God. Live a life worthy of the calling you have received (Eph 4:1)
b. Invite Your Neighbor To Church. 80% of non churched people would go to Church if a friend invited them
c. Accept your neighbor as is. Do not expect them to be this or that, accept them for who God made them.
H. How are we going to do all of this?
I. This seams like a lot of work doesn’t it?
J. Well Good news, we have a verse of the week,
K. This verse of the week, will give us the power to do all of this
L. Ready for the Verse of the week?
M. Romans 15:13!
N. May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace, as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit!
O. That will do it wont it?
P. The question is our you on the same page as God about how to lead someone to Christ?
