Mid-week Devotional
Sharing Your Faith Simply
Pastor Wes
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We all know that Jesus wants us to share our faith with others, and there’s lots of creative tools we can use to help us do that. Such as:
Steps to Peace with God:
1. God wants you to have peace and life.
2. The problem is we are all in broken relationship with Him, separated from the Holy God, because of our sin. None of our attempts can mend that relationship, not good words, or religion, or morality
3. God sent Jesus who lived a perfect life, satisfying His requirement for holiness, and Jesus in his death paid the penalty for our sins. Because of what He did we can have access to forgiveness and a restored relationship with God.
4. We must respond to what God did in sending Jesus. We must receive Jesus as Savior and Lord.
Each of the four steps has scripture support, and at the end it gives guidance concerning repenting, believing and asking Jesus into your life.
FAITH:
F.orgiveness- we are all in need of forgiveness
A.vailable- forgiveness is available
I.mpossible- though forgiveness is available, it is impossible for us to earn on our own merit
T.urn- we must turn from our own path and turn to Jesus
H.eaven- is the place where those who turn to Jesus will live forever
ABCs:
A.dmit you are a sinner in need of a Savior (Romans 3:23 all have sinned, Romans 6:23 the wages of sin is death)
B.elieve in Jesus (John 3:16)
C.onfess Him publicly as Lord of your life (Romans 10:9-10 If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord…)
BRF!
Believe
Repent
Follow
As good as these outlines are, sometimes the difficulty in sharing our faith is in approaching the subject, yet doing so naturally and authentically, without it feeling like a forced business proposal. If someone were to walk up to you and say “Hey I want to receive Jesus as Savior and Lord, how do I do that?” I’m sure most of you, hopefully, would be able to come pretty close on one of these outlines, and walk them through the terms of belief, repentance and following Jesus’ teaching. But something I believe we as God’s church need to do better at- whether pastor, missionary, introvert, extravert, super spiritual believer or new young believer– is being more kingdom focused and more aware of opportunities in which God wants to use us to share His good news. This is something that needs to be heavier on our hearts. It was heavy on Jesus’ heart, yet because of the seriousness of the subject, or out of fear of others opinions, we often find reasons not to share. Now, this is something I’m still working on, something that even with many years of being on the mission field overseas and pastoring, this is something God is still working on me to be better at. Right now I want to share some ways that recently I’ve found have been really helpful in facilitating more spiritual conversations.
Entering the subject:
With non-believing friends/family: Any experience of difficulty is an opportunity to share Jesus. Sick, difficult relationship, bad job experience- “Can I pray for you?” Or, “I’ve been in that situation before, and this verse really comforted me…” (share the verse), and then ask, “can I pray for you?” And then pray for them right there, by name, praying for their concern, but also praying that they would be willing to seek a right relationship with God through Jesus. After amen- “Spiritual family and support is so critical right now, I sense you could really use that support right now in this situation. I’ve gotten plugged in at Next/Glady Branch- it’s been an awesome journey of 2 churches from different backgrounds coming together as one. We’d love it if you wanted to come visit with us – we met Sundays at 10am.” Or after amen- “I can’t help but think that God is pursuing you through this difficult situation. Have you ever asked Him into your life?”
With a new friend/stranger: “Are you from around here? Have you found a local place of spiritual community, a local church yet?” If they say yes: “Where? And “What has God been teaching you lately, and/or how did you come to know the Lord?” That way you can find out where they are on their spiritual journey, and you should get a sense as to if they really know the Lord or not. If they respond with a No: “Spiritual family and support is so critical right now- I’ve gotten plugged in at Next/Glady Branch - it’s been an awesome journey of 2 churches from different backgrounds coming together as one. We’d love it if you wanted to come visit with us – our youth group is getting together next Sunday night,” etc. No matter what kind of NO is presented, you can still respond in this way. “No, I hate church,” “No, I’m Buddhist”- this answer still works. If they say No and they say something like, “I don’t know- there’s too many religions in the world,” or “I’m exploring different forms of spirituality,” then you can say something like “What makes Christianity different from all the other religions of the world - it is the only religion in which you are not able to earn your way into Heaven, but rather it is a free gift from God to those who admit they can’t do it on their own. Those who choose to receive the forgiveness of Jesus, those who honestly are attempting to follow Him instead of themselves, no matter how messed up they are, He is gracious and merciful in giving them eternal life.” And no matter what their No is paired with, you still ask, “Can I pray for you right now?”
At a restaurant: Tell your waiter/waitress, “We usually thank God for the food before we eat, is there anything we can pray for you before we eat?” And sometimes they’ll stick around to hear the prayer, but if they don’t, still pray for them and then let them know later that you did pray for them, and if you feel lead, you can always tag on, hey- “Spiritual family and support is so critical, I sense you could really use that support right now in this situation. I invite you to come check out the spiritual family at Next/Glady Branch - we meet Sundays at 10am.”
I hope that something I’ve presented to you will end up being a helpful tool, and that you will be encouraged to more boldly share the amazing truth of God’s rescue plan. And I’d love to hear back from you with any tips that you have found helpful in sharing your faith, as well as hear about your experiences you have had recently in sharing your faith.