Jun 18 2017 Rick Reynolds: Sharing without Fear

Good morning – Happy Fathers’ Day!

Lord Jesus – help us to hear from You today – speak to each of our hearts – to see You and love You and know You better.

Nothing But Jesus

I Cor 2:1-5

And so it was with me, brothers and sisters. When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.

I Cor 3:10-11

By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as a wise builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should build with care. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.

Gospel Conviction

The Great Commission must be the center of everything the Christian does

Nick Nye – founding pastor of Veritas in Columbus – gave the first portion of this message. As they talked to people in Columbus – what is your vision? We will preach the gospel! What else will you do? Preach the gospel!

Jamie & Ruthie, Ron & Linda, Patrick & Ashlee

Veritas Vison: just the Gospel. Ok, but what else?

It should be everything: Jesus Christ and him crucified and resurrected

Gospel Conviction

Stark State is building a new campus in Akron just off Rt 8. What if we were asked to help start a campus ministry? How would we go about doing that?

What are some ideas? Let's brainstorm a little bit.

Radio.

Facebook – Twitter – Face to face – get the word out – come up with ideas.

How do we communicate? Who do we communicate to? Students. That might help decide what radio station to use.

What should the opening service be like?

Big kickoff – circus on the front lawn? Have Selah lead the music? You want something to grab their attention! Or like H2O – you have to have cookies there. Let’s go back in time – Maybe Paul could have done better if we had been there! But Paul didn’t have anything spectacular to offer – unless you consider Jesus dying on a cross and being raised from the dead spectacular.

Maybe if we could travel back in time, we could have given Paul some ideas on how to reach the people of Corinth! Maybe he could have done a lot better.

Why did Paul come to Corinth? To push back the darkness! No pamphlets, no flashy designs or logos -- Nothing spectacular, no big show

What did he do? He started with the Gospel

NIV: "I resolved" to know nothing except Jesus Christ, and him crucified

What was Paul’s resolution? his resolution had 1 focus, 1 message, 1 hope – Jesus Christ

How about us?

* I, like most men, can be easily distracted: SPORTS – CARS – FOOD – SQUIRREL!

* most women can stay focused on something, but their problem is they are focusing on 2 or 3 other things at the same time

We have to resolve to stay focused on the gospel. As Christians – that is our focus.

Here's why we have to fight for it: Because…

We are naturally bent towards self-preservation, (What do I want to do today?)

there are idols of our own heart, there are the cultural idols around us. The list would be endless –

The trick is to recognize when you are being distracted and by what

We must have this conviction not only as individuals, but corporately as a church.

As individuals, will be tempted over and over again to be about something else.

We are always drawn to other things.

Its easy to say no to the really bad things (usually), to recognize them as the wrong direction. Ideally, it should be the same for our church, as the body of Christ. We don’t want to go in THAT direction.

Its when we see a lot of good things that we could become -- a helper in the time of need - that's when it gets very tricky

We might be tempted to be all about missions or church planting: to reach out.

Or counseling: walking with the wounded thru pain and suffering – being there and sharing and helping in that time.

And we can't overlook mercy and justice: caring about the marginalized – helping to pull them up.

There are always big needs in the city around us and the with the people we know – those seem like good things!

Are these good things? Of course they are! They are even required things that the church should be doing. If we become all about those things, we've lost the core of what we are to be about. What are we to be about? Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

If these things are not done through God, they can create a kingdom that might look like what God wants, but guess who’s not really on the throne?

Christ is not on the throne, and not sitting at the right hand of God.

If the King is not on the throne front and center, individuals or the church becomes the center of focus.

We see this all the time, where a church will wander off and easily stumble.

They paint a picture of the kingdom of god, but if you look closely, the king is not on the throne. He's sidelined, and if he's sidelined something or someone else is ruling.

Remember: These things are something to care about, but not to be all about. That shouldn’t be everything we are involved in.

Great Commission – GC – but GC can also focus on gospel conviction. We need to fight for gospel conviction. We need to have conviction in our bones.

Some of you might say, yeah the church needs to get this right.

But personally, we as individuals often miss the bull's eye of the gospel

In the same way the church can drift, we can so easily become about other things in our everyday lives. This body is the body because of the individuals in it. We must individually focus on the important things so the body of Christ can focus on the important things.

its just easier to let the cultural norms of the world around me start pushing Christ off the throne

its hard, its difficult to carry around the conviction that Jesus is central in everything that I do

I tell you: Stand firm on the gospel, this is the center, this is the bread of life for us as Christians.

You will be tempted, I am tempted, to wander off-center – and that is exactly what Satan wants. The focus has to be Christ and Him alone.

We don't want to make waves at work, we don't want others to think we’re crazy

We don't want our family to think we're weird – so it is easy to let things go.

We try to hold on, but we often slip.

Sometimes I am put on the spot at work and miss the opportunity to present what God’s word has to say.

We're talking about Gospel Conviction

CONVICTION. Listen closely! -- Conviction is something you would die for.

I’ll say it again: Conviction is something you would die for.

Paul did. Most of the apostles and disciples did. Do you have that conviction in your heart -

We often have values, things we work for, things we aspire to, things we strive for, but these aren’t convictions.

Conviction should make up your heart and your bones and be the very fabric of your life.

It is far deeper than politics, sexual identity, ethnicity, deeper than all the identities that we carry with us: single or married

None of those things can be the conviction of our soul. For Paul, that conviction was Jesus Christ, his death, his resurrection, all the implications of Jesus Christ applied to you and me.

It must be in our bones! It must be the fabric of our life.

Paul didn't just choose this to be passionate about -- it was the core of his being!

The rule of Jesus Christ is… He's the only thing that matters. And for His followers – that must be for us – He must be the only thing that matters.

***** We (GSCC) are an incredible church because no one pretends to be incredible.

That is the foundation of what we are to do with Gospel Conviction. Now we need to build on it. So I will share something I heard a few weeks ago.

On the Janet Parshall show – In the Marketplace. Her husband is a lawyer – and they will hit what is happening in Washington or what is going on with the Supreme Court. They will also bring in a liberal lawyer and have point-counterpoint.

She had a guest on a few weeks ago: William Fay – excellent tools on how to talk to people about Jesus. It might not fit you exactly – but it may give you ideas of what will fit you. Share Jesus Without Fear sharejesuswithoutfear.com

Great Commission is OUR responsibility. How do you carry it out? We have heard several people share how they carry it out.

Or, have you chickened out? If so, why?

One study revealed that most followers of Christ rarely, if ever, witness to the lost because of our struggle with four major fears:

What do you think some of those fears are? Can you think of some? Rejection. Let’s start there.

Fear of rejection?

feeling inadequate and fear of rejection (strongest emotion)

Def of success: NOT leading someone to JC, but telling someone about JC!

It is Jesus Christ they are rejecting, not you.

This is one area you cannot botch. No matter what you say, God can use it. That’s what is so easy about it.

But there’s one thing He can’t use. Can you guess what it is? Silence!

Only 15% of conversions come from an event – Billy Graham or an altar call.

The average person hears the Gospel 7.6 times before they believe.

Fear of not knowing enough?

person giving answer has always been Christian >10 years – you take it all in – but don’t give it out!

The bigger problem is - too much knowledge – it is all swimming around in there – but you fear you don’t know the right verse, but nothing goes out.

Fear of offending?

gospel can be offensive, but you aren't offensive – you are not going to smack someone upside the head with a 3inch thick Bible. Jesus himself said it would divide families -

Fear of ridicule or persecution? There is no easy answer for that. Jesus said we would be persecuted for His name. We just need to do our job – speak what God wants to speak.

Here’s William Fay’s plan:

Use questions that determine where God is working -

Asking questions puts you in control – you don’t try to tell them stuff – it just puts them on the defensive – putting up the walls and shutting the gates.

Don't tell - puts other on the defensive

the purpose of the questions is to seize a moment.

thermometer analogy: what is the temp of the person - Questions help you gauge the spiritual temperature of the person.

1. Do you have any kind of spiritual belief?

2. To you, who is Jesus?

3. Do you believe there are a heaven and a hell?

4. If you died right now, where would you go?

5. If what you believe were not true, would you want to know?

**** Show how to respond to the 5 questions.

• uh hum, uh, hum. DON'T respond – just listen – ok, ok.
• Their answer will tell you a lot – if an impersonal answer – like a wise guy, but not Lord – not a believer vs. my Lord and Savior
• This is head knowledge – they are taking a guess – hopefully it is a more educated spiritual guess.
• The other questions lead to this - This is heart knowledge. If they say heaven, you can circle back to that later. If they say don’t know – you can still move on.
• If yes, go on. If no, … no one ever answers a "no" that sticks. If they say no – wouldn’t everyone really WANT to know eventually.

Evangelism is not a project, it is a lifestyle – it should be like that gospel conviction part of your inner being.

EVERY conversation can be turned into an evangelism conversation

Talk about Myles Garrett: injury > loss > despair > how do they cope? That has to be discouraging. How do you cope with stress - Do you have any spiritual belief?...

Kids or grandkids and values: what's the most important thing you can teach them?

what if you died?...

There are so many ways to use these questions to lead them.

The goal of questions 1 - 5 will lead to the Word of God.

Do you have a sharing bible, and are you willing to share? He has several verses to share.

You can write notes in the margin so you don’t have to remember where to go next.

Smart phone – most of us have our Bible there. He has an APP for that. A place to download – questions/rebuttals people give – a solution for everyone.

Pagan thinks he's got you when you take out the bible

May raise an immediate objection -- there is error in it

Simply hand it to them and ask them to point one out! Most won’t have any idea where to find one.

There are many translations - which one is correct? Yes – they are all correct! But they all say the same thing

*** The day they find an error in this book, we can all go home.

How do you defend the Bible?

You don't have to defend the Word of God!

Do you feel nervous talking to people about this? It’s natural – let’s see how Paul did it:

Lets read from I Corinthians again.

The purpose of the 5 questions is to get to the Word of God

• Rom 10:17
• Lk 10:25-26

Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ.

On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

“What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”

How are you going to ask them to read it? Out loud (hearing) – not just hearing – but reading and hopefully digesting.

Ed, what does it say to you?

If they get on a mis-reading – ask them to read it again.

Do you have the courage to do it? I am still struggling through the beginning stages.

May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The one who calls us is faithful, and he will do it.