Continuing our series on self-examination, John Wesley asks, “When did I last speak to someone about my faith?” Let’s be honest, we’re not good at this. We know we should be speaking more openly about our faith, but we struggle so much. Why do we struggle? Let me give you a few reasons why I believe we are hesitant in speaking to others about our faith.
1. Uncomfortable – It’s not that we fear talking to people, and I don’t even think that we fear rejection. After all, if people reject the message you share with them, they are not rejecting you, they are rejecting Jesus. It’s simply uncomfortable to share our faith. When we talk about what we believe, we are allowing people to see into the deepest area of our lives.
2. Don’t know what to say – What do you say to someone about God? Where do you start? You can simply invite someone to church, but that’s not really sharing your faith. One of the reasons why we are hesitant to speak to others about our faith is that we don’t know what to say. We don’t have a clear understanding of the Gospel ourselves, and so we know we’re going to mess up when we start talking to someone about Jesus.
3. Not living out our faith – How can you share your faith if you are not living out your faith? Many of us are never going to share our faith because our faith is not valuable to us. We don’t treasure it, and the fact that we don’t treasure our faith is evident in the way we live our lives. Our lives are void of devotion to God because we have a infantile understanding of the life-saturating grace that has been provided for us through the death and resurrection of Christ.
So, what do we do?
1. Build community – Most of us do not feel comfortable walking up to strangers and starting a conversation about the Gospel. However, we do crave relationships and community. The better you get to know someone, the more intimate your relationship becomes, and it becomes easier to share with that person. The easiest way to share your faith is to build intentional relationships that will eventually allow you the opportunity to easily share what you believe. The key is that as you are building relationships, live as Christ before those that you will eventually share Christ with.
2. Learn the Gospel – Have a firm grasp on what you believe and why. You must make it a priority to understand the salvation you’ve been given. Immerse yourselves in the book of Romans or Ephesians. A helpful book for learning the Gospel and how to share it is The Gospel and Personal Evangelism by Mark Dever.
3. Immerse yourself in you faith – Is your life giving evidence of spiritual growth? Are you maturing in your faith? If not, you’re not going to be much of a witness for the sake of Jesus Christ. As you immerse yourself in Christ, you will be continually and increasingly amazed by His grace. The more you grow, the more you want to share. You can’t help it. Christ become a sacred treasure that you want others to experience.
Beginning next month, Big Stevens Creek is going to become much more intentional in our efforts to reach our community for Christ. For the next year, we are going to focus on Servant Evangelism. Simply put, we are going to let our community know that Jesus loves North Augusta in practical ways. I know that God is going to use our efforts to open up opportunities for relationship building that will allow us to share the Gospel. I pray you will be involved in these efforts.
When you put on a pair of shoes for the first time or the thousandth time you always check to see if they are still comfortable. We do the same thing in relationships we check each other out, my disposition or the other person’s disposition may have changed. Our savior’s disposition is the only one that will never change. We don’t need to say Well I’m a christian, we need to say yes I am a christian and my faith has changed these things in my life. I have a better relationship with my family, I have peace less stress knowing God is in control, yet I do have a choice and it is to seek a closer relationship with Christ.