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RISE AND GO |
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Good morning! Let us begin once again with a bit of Calvin and Hobbes: (cartoon) I would suggest that we are just like Calvin and his bath when it comes to sharing our faith. We are scared to do it, but once we just jump in, we realize what God knew all along – it is just what we need. One of the reasons we don’t share our faith, however, is not because we don’t want to; we don’t share our faith because we don’t know how. Many of us have experienced God in such wonderful ways; and we would love to tell others about him. Sharing our faith just seems too awkward. We honestly really do want to help others know who Jesus is. But where do we start? How do we do it? Please turn with me in your Bibles to Acts chapter 8, verses 25-40. This morning we are looking at the account of Philip sharing his faith with the Ethiopian Eunuch. As we look at the passage, we’ll see five principles that will help us in sharing our faith with our friends, neighbors, family, and even those we meet briefly in passing. So let’s dive in… the first principle for sharing our faith is this: Stay close to Jesus. We read in Acts 8:25-26: Now when they had testified and spoken the word of the Lord, they returned to Jerusalem, preaching the gospel to many villages of the Samaritans. Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, "Rise and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza." This is a desert place. Isn’t it remarkable that Philip is all about preaching the gospel throughout Samaria? Isn’t it wonderful that Philip is so connected to Jesus that an angel of the Lord will come to him and say: “Rise and go…” Don’t you want your life to be like this? Wouldn’t you love for your life to be one of intimacy with Jesus? If we want to be successful in evangelism, being close to Jesus is the first step. So how can we be close to Jesus? If, for example, you are right now thinking: “I’d love to be close to Jesus like this. But I just don’t know how!” If this is you: then I’d like to give you one thing you can do to grow in your intimacy with Jesus. A One Thing Study A One Thing Study is a devotional tool that many of our college students and youth are using to have meaningful times in God’s Word. Here is how you do it: 1. Read One Chapter 2. Highlight or underline One Thing from that chapter that stands out to you (it could be a verse or a phrase, or even one word) 3. Pray about that One Thing If you are having a hard time having meaningful time in God’s Word on a regular basis, I would encourage you to try the One Thing Study! If we are going to share Jesus with others, we must first have a relationship with him ourselves. And it is in the midst of this relationship with Jesus that we can hear him guiding us to share his love. When we are in a relationship with Jesus, we will also find it much easier to recognize where God is already working. And this is the second principle for sharing our faith: Harvest where God is already working. In verses 27-28, we read: And he rose and went. And there was an Ethiopian, a eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure. He had come to Jerusalem to worship and was returning, seated in his chariot, and he was reading the prophet Isaiah. Notice that this Ethiopian eunuch had quite some spiritual interest! He had come to Jerusalem to worship… and he was reading Isaiah! If anyone is going to believe the Gospel and turn to Him through our sharing it, we can be sure of one thing: God is already at work in that person’s heart! When we share the gospel with people, we are not ‘cold-calling.’ When I was in college, I worked for a few days as a telemarketer for the University. My job was to call up alumni and ask them to donate money to the University. And you know how it worked? Those who had been there the longest… and were the most successful… those employees got ‘good list’ to call. The ‘good list’ was the list of previous donors. They had already given… and so they were more likely to give again. These were the people that had already expressed interest in doing what we wanted them to do! But the new employees (like me) got the ‘hard list’. I had to call people who had already been called and had already said that they did not want to give! So which employees do you think were more successful in raising funds for the university? You know what I would have loved to do? I would have loved to call people and ask them first: are you interested in giving money to the university? If they said, “no thanks,” I would have loved to be able to thank them for their time and move on… spending my times talking to those who had an interest in giving to the University. But such was not the case. Instead, I was instructed to recite long and boring paragraphs to uninterested people in an attempt to convince them to give money. Well, I hated it… and I didn’t last long at that job – I quit after less than a week! The same thing can happen with Evangelism. We can get the false idea that God asks us to share the entire gospel with people who are not in the least interested. I would suggest that God doesn’t: God invites us to participate with Him in working in people’s lives. God asks us to share the gospel with people who know they have a need for Jesus. God asks us to share the gospel with ‘the good list.’ So how do we find out who is interested in the gospel? Listen carefully here, because this is very complex but important to understand. How do we find out who is interested in the gospel? Ask. And this is the third principle for sharing our faith: Ask where others are spiritually. In verses 29-33 we read: And the Spirit said to Philip, "Go over and join this chariot." So Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, "Do you understand what you are reading?" And he said, "How can I, unless someone guides me?" And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. Now the passage of the Scripture that he was reading was this: "Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter and like a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he opens not his mouth. In his humiliation justice was denied him. Who can describe his generation? For his life is taken away from the earth." Did you catch what is going on here? God brings Philip nearby to someone who is hungry for Jesus. And Philip hears this Eunuch reading Isaiah. Notice what Philip does NOT do: He does not tell the Ethiopian Eunuch that he is going to go hell. He does not present an argument for intelligent design. He does not even start telling the Ethiopian Eunuch who Jesus is. The first thing Philip does is ask a question. And the question is basically this: Where are you at spiritually? If we are going to be effective in sharing our faith with others, we must begin by asking questions! Are there people in your life that you would love to share the gospel with, but you have no idea how to start? Here is a simple way to start: ask. Ask questions. And here are a few tools that I’d like to share for finding out about people’s spiritual interest: There is only one word to remember: FORM (or FARM if the person you are talking to is a student) “F” stands for “Family”: find out about the person’s family. “O” stands for “Occupation”: find out what he does for work. (or if the person you are talking to is a student, the “A” stands for “Academics”.) “R” stands for “Recreation.” What does she do for fun? “M” stands for “Message.” Where is your friend at spiritually? Curious about who God is? If he is interested in knowing more about God, you tell them! If not, you don’t! It is that simple! And here is another question you could ask: On a scale of 1 to 10, how interested are you in knowing God? If she expresses interest, then share! So you see, evangelism is really quite simple: just ASK. And respect the answer. If the answer is negative “Nope, I am not interested in knowing more about God,” then just continue to pray for that person. But if you get another answer (and I guarantee you that God IS indeed working in the lives of some of the people that you are in contact with)… If you get the answer, “I want to know more about God… guide me…” Then you can follow Philip’s example and relate the good news. And this is the fourth principle: Relate the good news. We read in verses 34-35: And the eunuch said to Philip, "About whom, I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?" Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this Scripture he told him the good news about Jesus. You know what is so cool?! Philip related the good news about Jesus, but he had a place to start! He began with this Scripture. He began exactly where the Eunuch was at. There are people in your life that God is working on! And your job is to find out how God is working in their lives. And once you find out what God is doing in their lives, you will know how the gospel relates to them. Are they hurting? Jesus is the healer. Mourning? Jesus is the comforter. Are they bored? Jesus is the giver of the great adventure of LIFE. Are they feeling guilty? Jesus is the forgiver of sin. Are they dying? Jesus is the resurrection and the life. Are they lost? Jesus is the Way. Hungry? Jesus is the Bread. We live in a world of needs, and God has called us to share the good news that Jesus is the only one who satisfies those needs. Find out where people’s needs are… and relate the good news. Let’s do a little recap: First: to be successful in sharing our faith, we need to stay close to Jesus. Second: we need to recognize that God is already working in lives around us. Our job is to Harvest where God is already working. Third: in order to find our where God is working, we need to ask where people are spiritually. Fourth: Those who see their need for God need to hear the Gospel (and they want to hear it!); so we relate the gospel to where they are at. Now that we are getting a clear picture of how to effectively share our faith, I would like to show you an evangelism training video – how can you better follow this guy’s example? And this video is made for youth, so please bear with me. (video: witnessola) “Now you can share the gospel without the inconvenient hassle of actually learning it yourself.” Some people make sharing your faith sound so difficult! And sometimes we’re made to think that it is an inconvenient hassle! But it is not! Sharing the good news about Jesus is one of the greatest joys in life! Do you want to experience the abundant life that God has for you? Much of this abundant life is being used by Him to help others grow in Him. It is when you are part of His working in others’ lives that you grow so much yourself. And the cool thing is that just sharing your faith is not the end! God wants to give you the joy of helping people take the next step in their faith. And this brings us nicely to the fifth principle for sharing our faith: Eagerly help people grow toward Jesus. In verses 36-40, we read: And as they were going along the road they came to some water, and the eunuch said, "See, here is water! What prevents me from being baptized?" And he commanded the chariot to stop, and they both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him. And when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord carried Philip away, and the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing. But Philip found himself at Azotus, and as he passed through he preached the gospel to all the towns until he came to Caesarea. Philip shared the gospel with this Ethiopian Eunuch, and the Eunuch trusted in Jesus! The Eunuch says, “See, here is water! What prevents me from being baptized?” Philip responded by baptizing him. Now most people that we share our faith with these days are not going to want to be instantly baptized. But like Philip, we certainly can eagerly help people grow toward Jesus. Sometimes we get caught up in the thinking that what a person needs is to come to church. Or to talk to a pastor. Or to read a certain book. These may be good things… but we need to remember: God can use ME to help others grow toward Jesus. How? Teach someone else how to do a ONE THING STUDY. If you have someone in your life who is curious about Jesus, invite her to meet with you once a week to read the Bible together and talk about it. And notice what happens with Philip and this Eunuch. After Philip baptizes him: The Spirit of the Lord carried Philip away, and the eunuch saw him no more. Part of eagerly helping people grow toward Jesus is being fully convinced of the reality that God is doing the work. If God takes you out of the picture, it is all good… God’s in control. God is going to bring people to himself whether we are a part of it or not. But if we choose not to join God in his work, we will miss out on part of the abundant life that God has for us. Remember… evangelism is like an apparently scalding hot bath. By the time we are done fussing, complaining, yelling and screaming and just jump in, we’ll find that God knew all along exactly what we needed. Let us be like Philip. May we rise… and go. Let’s pray. PRAYER: Lord, thank you for the example of Philip. We ask that you would help us to share: We want to be people who STAY close to you. We want to be people who HARVEST where you are already working. We want to be people who ASK where others are spiritually. We want to be people who RELATE the good news to the lives of those who need you. And we want to be people who EAGERLY help others grow toward you. These things we pray in the name of Jesus. Amen. |