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The moment you learn how to share your faith with others, your life will begin to beautifully change. John Maxwell shared how to share your faith in 5 easy ways during his latest sermon at Christ Fellowship.
The sermon notes below capture, to the best of my ability, the words John shared. This should be read in his voice, not mine. I pray they help you embrace and share your faith.
How to Share Your Faith
The Apostle Paul gives a 5 step game plan on how to share your faith with others:
- Value People and Add Value to Them
- Embrace & Hold Fast to Your Faith
- Enter Their World to Know & Understand Them
- Be Creative in Sharing the Good News with Them
- Never Forget Why You Entered Their World
The basis for this message comes from 1 Corinthians 9:19-23:
Even though I am free of the demands and expectations of everyone, I have voluntarily become a servant to any and all in order to reach a wide range of people: religious, nonreligious, meticulous moralists, loose-living immoralists, the defeated, the demoralized—whoever. I didn’t take on their way of life. I kept my bearings in Christ—but I entered their world and tried to experience things from their point of view. I’ve become just about every sort of servant there is in my attempts to lead those I meet into a God-saved life. I did all this because of the Message. I didn’t just want to talk about it; I wanted to be in on it!
Let’s unpack this more. Here are the 5 things we need to practice to be effective in letting people know the hope within us:
1. Value People and Add Value to Them
“I have voluntarily become a servant to any and all in order to reach a wide range of people: religious, nonreligious, meticulous moralists, loose-living immoralists, the defeated, the demoralized—whoever.“
In other words, I serve anybody and any place at any time for any reason to make sure they know I value them.
The first thing Maxwell teaches in his coaching is this: We are people of value who value people and add value to them.
If I see you as valuable, I’ll serve you. (Versus, If I see you as broken I’ll fix you and if I see you as needy, I’ll help you…but those relationships still give us the upper hand.)
The hard word in this passage is “whoever”. We like to put “however” behind “whoever”. We want to qualify who we help and how we’ll help them.
God doesn’t change us to accept us; he accepts us to change us (to give us hope and a future).
We try as Christians to fix people all the time. (They don’t have my values, think like I think, etc.). Serving people is the first step in saving people.
2. Embrace & Hold Fast to Your Faith
I didn’t take on their way of life. I kept my bearings in Christ…
You don’t have to be like them to reach them, but you have to like them to reach them.
The reason we don’t effectively share our faith with the world is because too many Christians don’t like the “however”. We want to curse the darkness instead of turn on the light.
1 Peter 3:15 says: “…Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect…”
Bad times can be good times when you know Christ. What would make me want to become a Christian if the Christian I knew was as fearful as I was and didn’t act like they knew God?
When is the last time you made somebody hungry to know God?
C.S. Lewis wrote in “Living in an Atomic Age” back in 1948:
“In one way, we think a great deal too much of the atomic bomb. How are we to live? The same way people lived during the war, air raids, etc. Do not let us begin by exaggerating the novelty of our situation. You are all sentenced to death before the atomic bomb was invented. It’s ridiculous to go about whimpering because scientists have added one more path to death in our lives where death is not a chance at all, but a certainty. We need to pull ourselves together. Let that bomb when it comes, find us doing sensible things, not huddled together like frightened sheep. They may break our bodies, but they need not dominate our minds.“
Try replacing “Atomic Age” with “COVID”. Everyone who thinks this is the worst thing we’ve gone through doesn’t have any historical perspective.
God is our source. We need to live out the worship music we sing on weekends during the week.
3. Enter Their World to Know & Understand Them
I entered their world and tried to experience things from their point of view.
It’s not about you or me: it’s all about them. Where can I meet them where their need is?
Matthew 9:35-36:
Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.
Jesus connected with people physically, emotionally, and spiritually. When we enter their world, we’re moved with compassion. The closer I get to them, the more I love them and the more I love God.
Are we going to connect with people or are we going to correct people?
How do you connect with people? Find common ground.
101% principle: find the 1% you agree on and give it 100% of your effort. (Many Christians do the opposite and that’s why they’re not very pleasing to lost people).
4. Be Creative in Sharing the Good News with Them
I’ve become just about every sort of servant there is in my attempts to lead those I meet into a God-saved life.
Find out how to meet their needs and add value to them. Creativity is a result of sharing your faith.
There are times when people would ask him questions about his faith and he didn’t know the answer. He’d tell them he didn’t know, ask if he could come back to them, go look for the answer, come back, and share it with them. After that, you have the answer to hundreds of questions.
That didn’t make him brilliant, it gave him the practice he needed.
The person that wins souls is wise (not the wise win souls). Sow seeds every day.
“If I’m at a dinner, I sow curiosity seeds by asking questions.” Example: who do you know that you’d like me to know. Or, if anyone could ask you any question, what would you want them to ask you? That gives him the opportunity to share his relationship with Jesus.
People are hungry for God, they just don’t have a good picture of him.
This is a simple message. It’s a conversation about how you can begin to become salt and light in your life, wherever you are.
5. Never Forget Why You Entered Their World
I did all this because of the Message. I didn’t just want to talk about it; I wanted to be in on it!
The message is that Jesus changes our lives. It’s why it’s called the “good news”.
“If we are in Christ, we become a new person. Old things pass away…” What are the old things? My sins, lack of purpose, fears, loneliness, etc.
They were replaced with joy, peace, purpose, hope and so much more!
“The reason I share my faith all the time is because Jesus did such a wonderful work in my life. If you have something good, don’t you want to share it?”
John prayed that God helps you to purposefully and intentionally share your faith. And when someone asks you a question you don’t know the answer to, tell them you’ll find out and then come back to them.
You don’t have to be perfect in sharing your faith, you just have to practice sharing your faith. You’re never good at doing anything the first time, but you have to practice.
The most important thing you’ll do as a Christian is not going to church or reading your Bible, but sharing your faith. Don’t put “however” after that.
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Catch up on all my past sermon notes and discover where else you can watch church online.
