In our message series, Change Your World, we’re learning how to influence others for Jesus, one person at a time. If you’re a believer, God has placed in your spiritual DNA a desire to lead others to Christ. God has created you as His son or daughter with both the ability and the desire to birth others into His Kingdom. Yet many believers struggle with reaching out to those who don’t yet know the Lord. Part of the struggle is simply not knowing what to do. Another aspect of the struggle to reach out is the fear of rejection or offending another person. Yet, God’s Word tells us to let our lights shine. Let the fire of God in our lives burn out in the open, not hidden away in our closets or our churches.
I want to start a fire, how about you? Once one believer let’s their fires burn out in the open, others catch the spark and the end result is remarkable. This morning, we’re going to look at something that everyone can do. Something that everyone can and should do to influence their world. My message this morning is entitled “A Life That Speaks.” God wants your lifestyle to be so different from that of the unbelievers around you that you stand out. God wants your life to be so radically different that others around you say “He/she sure is different.”
A life that speaks is a life that goes against the flow of our decadent culture to such an extent that it prompts people to come up to you and ask questions. Questions like:
- Why are you so different?
- Why don’t you do _____________ like everyone else?
- Where do you go to church?
- Why are so full of joy?
- Don’t you ever worry?
- Why do you read your Bible all the time?
- Can you help me read my Bible?
- Could I come to your church or Life Group?
How would you like people to ask you those kinds of questions? Just answering those questions would make outreach easier, wouldn’t it?
Philippians 2:14-15 (NIV) Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe.
There’s an idea. Just do everything without complaining and arguing and you’re going to stand out in our crooked and depraved society like a star in the black sky of the universe. Everyone wants to fit in with society, to go with the flow. God wants to help us have the courage to stand out for Him. To be so radically different that everyone notices and wonders why.
Daniel 12:3 (NIV) Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever.
When you let your light shine, you will stand out like the brightness of the stars and you will lead many to Jesus Christ. So, let’s see how we can live a life that speaks.