You need to talk about it!
August 7th, 2009 Posted in Lost Boy Blog, Pastor's corner, essentials, lost boy, sermons | No Comments »Hey everyone!
I will show my autobiographical film Lost Boy: The Next Chapter this weekend at Saddleback Church in Orange County. I will also speak after the screening.
This film has won two festival awards and has been nominated for a third. We have been amazed by its impact.
If you are in the area, I hope you can come and see it.
Why does God use people?
Now, back to the topic of sharing our faith.
Why do we need to tell others about Jesus? Why doesn’t God just poke His face out of the heavens and say, “Believe in Me!” Why does He want to used flawed people like us?
I don’t really know the answer to that, but I do know He does use people. In fact, the primary way God has chosen to reach people is through people. People like you and me.
Paul wrote, “How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, Who bring glad tidings of good things!’” (Romans 10:14-15 NKJV)
People need someone to show them the way
In Acts 8 is the story of a powerful, wealthy foreign dignitary searching for God. He had not found Him in the empty rituals of the dead Judaism of the time. But he did obtain a scroll containing Isaiah 53, where he read, “He was led as a sheep to the slaughter . . . “
Philip approached him and said, “Do you understand what you are reading?” The Ethiopian responded, “How can I, unless someone shows me the way!”
That is what people need, and what many want–someone to show them the way. Someone like you.
You need to talk about it
And the primary way we are to share this message is verbally. That is not to say that you should not live it first, for indeed you should.
Some would say, “People will know that I am a Christian by the way I live. I don’t need to talk about it to others. Actually, you do.
Yes, by all means live it, but also engage people with the gospel message. We need to both initiate and verbalize our faith.
Paul tell us, “Since the world in all its fancy wisdom never had a clue when it came to knowing God, God in his wisdom took delight in using what the world considered dumb—preaching, of all things!—to bring those who trust him into the way of salvation” (1 Corinthians 1:21 MESSAGE).
You may not be called to be a “preacher,” per se, but every believer is called to preach the gospel. Ask the Lord for an opportunity to do that this weekend.
