Today we begin a new message series called “Share Your Faith.” In a few weeks, we will be entering the holiday season with Thanksgiving and Christmas coming up. Both of these seasons have to do with God, so there will be many opportunities for us to share our faith with others. So, I believe that God wants to prepare each one of us who is a believer, to take advantage of the season.
We’ve just completed a message series called “All About Salvation.” In that series, we’ve talked about God’s wonderful gift of salvation through Jesus Christ. Everyone needs this gift, but so many have not yet received it. Those of us who have been blessed with salvation, have placed in our hearts by God a great desire to tell others about Jesus. Really, the most exciting part of life for a believer is sharing your faith with others. Nothing compares to it.
The world is the scene of a battle between two kingdoms, the kingdom of light ruled by Jesus and the kingdom of darkness ruled by Satan. As we as believers, share our faith, we are planting seeds of light into that kingdom of darkness which will ultimately bring many into the kingdom of light.
Matthew 5:14-16 (NIV) “You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.
Jesus is speaking to believers here when He says “You are the light of the world.” We let our lights shine by sharing our faith in word and deed. We are not to hide our light or be ashamed of it, but let it shine into the darkness. It’s what we were created to do.
Today, the first message in this new series is entitled “Why Share Your Faith?” Let’s look at the phrase I’ve used in this message series “your faith.” Every believer by definition has faith or they wouldn’t be a believer. God doesn’t ask us to share someone else’s faith, He doesn’t ask us to share an in-depth knowledge of the Bible or to be able to answer every question another person may have. What God commands us to do, as we’ll see today, is to share our faith. To do that means leaving our comfort zones and stepping out in faith.
Everything in life that is worth doing has meant leaving our comfort zone, taking a risk and doing something new. God is calling us to be risk-takers for Him, no matter whether we are younger or older. Today, we are going to look at a Scripture that my wife Carol and I have engraved on our wedding bands. Let’s read it together.
Matthew 28:18-20 (NIV) Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
When did Jesus speak these words? He spoke them after He had risen from the dead in the very last days He spent on earth before ascending into heaven. These last words were the most important things that He wanted His disciples and us to hear. So, let’s use this Scripture, often called the Great Commission, as a springboard to answer the question “Why Share Your Faith?”
Listen to or watch my November 4, 2012 message Why Share Your Faith?
JOY MCBRIDE1. God desires to exserps Himself through man for His purposes. 2. Body Physical , Soul Mental , Spirit Contact and recieve God Himself. We were made to contain Gods Spirit. 3. Sin deadened mans spirit , made him an enemy of God in his own soul and transmuted his body into sinful fleash damaging all three parts of man alienating him from God therefore he could’nt recieve God. 4. God became a life-giving Spirit (Christ) so that He could despense Himself into mans spirit. 5. Repent of your sins and accept Christ as your Lord and Savior. 6 .Regeneration + Transformation + Glorification = God’s Full Salvation. It is wonderful to finally understand how things really work. I have never had such an indepth study of the Bible. When you can read and understand what you are reading, it just makes you want to know more and more.I now understand how my life is supposed to play out for His purpose. I dont think it matters what you do in life as long as you do it with God in mind.Everything we do should glorify Him, No matter if you are a doctor or a man on the back of a trash truck.I kind of always thought of Him as being way off in Heaven, not so near as I understand Him to be now.The knowledge of that makes me want to do and be better in general. AWESOME!!!