This morning we’re concluding our message series “Change Your World.” In this series, we’ve looked at different ways that you and I can let our lights shine and drive back the darkness in people’s lives and our world.
Mark 4:21-23 (NIV) He said to them, “Do you bring in a lamp to put it under a bowl or a bed? Instead, don’t you put it on its stand? For whatever is hidden is meant to be disclosed, and whatever is concealed is meant to be brought out into the open. If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.”
God’s Word teaches us that as believers, God has put His light and life within us. We are like lamps in a dark world. It makes no sense to put a lamp under a bowl or bed to hide the light. Lamps are meant to let their lights shine. In the same way, God didn’t put His light in our lives to be hidden or concealed. Rather He wants us to bring it out in the open and let that light shine forth from our lives.
How do we let our lights shine? We’ve been talking about the answers to that question this whole series. If you’ve missed any of the messages, the videos are online on our website and on YouTube. To summarize, we let our lights shine through our actions and our words. Our actions show God’s love and our words explain God’s truth behind our actions. Both are essential. With our words, we can talk to people about God’s Word and Jesus. Sometimes, God simply wants us to invite people to come and see what He is all about at Life Church.
Even though most people would accept an invitation from a friend to go to church, only 3% of church goers invite a friend to church in any given year. I believe that God wants us to be much more aggressive in reaching out to those who are not part of a Spirit-filled Bible-believing church family like Life Church.
Luke 14:23 (NIV2011) “Then the master told his servant, ‘Go out to the roads and country lanes and compel them to come in, so that my house will be full.
One of the things that can encourage us in increasing our personal outreach is to understand more about how people respond to witnessing. So, my message today is entitled “How People Respond to the Gospel.” When God challenges us to reach out in a greater degree, many of us will have a certain set of expectations. Some will be convinced that nobody will respond to their witness or invitation, so what bother trying. Others may have the unrealistic temptation that everyone will respond and may be discouraged when the actual results are less that unanimous. God wants us to have a balanced expectation of how people will respond to the Gospel. He also wants us to realize that there is blessing in obedience to His command to witness whether another person responds or not.
Today, we are going to look at a familiar teaching of Jesus and learn some principles about people’s responses to the Gospel. Our goal is that each us would learn how to better let our lights shine and so change our world.