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Few things can be freakier than talking about faith with our friends. How can we find fire to share the good news about Jesus? In this message, Pastor Mike Novotny shares how Paul, reminds us of the goodness and power of the Word that we share.
The episodes are the weekly sermons from 922 Ministries (St. Peter and The CORE) of Appleton, Wisconsin.
How To
Week 5 - The CORE
Pastor Mike Novotny
Good morning, everyone. Welcome back to week number five, our last week of a sermon series called “How To”.
Apparently, most of the Christians who attend our church are pretty bad at one of Christianity’s, most important parts.
A few months ago, we sent a survey out to our church family and about 400 people sent back their replies based on the data that they shared. The kind of people that replied were the most devout, committed, passionate members of our church in a place like this every single Sunday, reading their Bibles praying at home giving financially to support the work. We are people who are all in when it comes to the cause of Jesus Christ. And yet when we asked them, when we asked you about one particular part of your Christian Life, to rate yourself on a scale of one to five, one being the worst five being the best 72% of you gave yourself a 3 out of 5. Or a 2 out of 5 or one out of five. With this one particular part of the Christian faith. And that part was, Evangelism.
Talking about your faith. Not just saying Jesus name when you're in a safe place like this. But when you leave these doors and you're with your family, and friends, just sharing the most important part of your heart, your soul, your connection to God through faith in Jesus Christ. 72 percent of people said, I'm average at best, probably below average or I really, really feel terrible about this part of my Christian life. And I was thinking about that data, you know, it's not just one or two people, 400 people from our church said that. And it struck me as kind of a curious thing and kind of an understandable thing. It's a curious thing for me because I'm not sure if this is your experience, but I never see. Christians happier than when one of their friends or family members comes to church. Right? When a person gets baptized here and you get to hear their story like I was disconnected and I got connected. I know much about God and then someone told me about Jesus I'm being baptized. My family's being baptized me, you don't have to know that person we start clapping and cheering and celebrate. Like we love seeing people connected to the good news of Jesus.
I just love it with strangers when it's someone that we know. Like the person you're married to or dating, your dad, or your daughter, your roommate, or your teammate. When the person sitting next to you is the person that you invited and they're singing praises to Jesus and pray in His name. Like, there's nothing better for a Christian, then seeing another person become a Christian.
Which makes it interesting, doesn't it? I mean if that is so good to us as church people, then why, why would inviting people to church or talking to them about the best part of our life be such a thing that we feel so inadequate and bad at. There's an understandable answer to that question too, isn't there?
Because it's terrifying because the people that we love, there's no guarantee how they're going to react. I mean, John, the first 10 people on the street, grab them by the shoulders and told him about Jesus. You might have some interesting reactions, right? And this is what freaks Christians like, are they going to be offended? Are things going to get weird with my relationship with this person? Are they going to think I'm being pushy? That I'm cramming Jesus down their throats. Am I crossing some line at work or at school? Should I do it now or should I wait until later? He doesn't know anything about church or maybe she does and she walked away from the church. The people that you love that aren't connected to a church family or to Jesus have such different stories, it's hard to know what to say or when to say it or how to say it.
Are often say it. Right? There's a script you can memorize as a Christian, that works with every single person. And so there's no guarantee with how people will react to it. And I think what happens is that we're so scared of how they could react.
That we play it safe. Maybe I'll just keep praying and hope something happens. Right here where we wait for this perfect opportunity and As a result, a lot of us as Christians. We probably know that we should share our faith more often. We should have an July's. Jesus was really clear about that, but we play it safe, we keep things safe. Maybe Christmas, maybe Easter, and we live with this low-level Christian guilt. I'm not sure if it's just me but I feel that way. Very often. I have a feeling based on the survey a bunch of you do to. And today I want to try to fix that. Today we're going to open up our Bibles and study this really short and Powerful section from the Apostle Paul who I think was one of the greatest sharers of the Christian faith in human history. Decades of experience with all different kinds of people. He was bold, he was courageous today in just a few short verses Paul is going to give you and he's going to give me a crash course on how to talk about Jesus with our friends and our family. But forgot the Bible. I should probably acknowledge. The elephant size awkwardness that might exist in the room.
Which is some of you here are not Christians. Which means for the next 20 to 30 minutes, I'm going to be talking to fellow Christians about how to convert you which is pretty awkward, right now. If it's your first time in church. Like, yeah, sure. I'll come with you buddy. Now, the pastor's, like, how can we get them? So I should probably be honest with you, all right, if you're unsure about Jesus, if you're just checking this out, if you're not totally and just yet, the truth is We are trying to convert you. That is the truth. Actually, you shouldn't be weirded out about that word. I looked it up in a dictionary, the word converts literally means to change your mind about something. So are we as Christians trying to change your mind about Jesus? Yes. Are we trying to get you to agree with the things that Jesus said about the problem of bad behavior and the solution of his forgiveness? Yes.
Because we believe, no matter who you are where you're from, what you think about the Bible, that you share the same problem that all of us do is that you don't love people the way you should and you know this. You should be patient. You should be kind. You should be forgiving. You should let things go. You shouldn't argue. You shouldn't be defensive but that happens all the time. Not just to me and the church people but to you too, it's a problem. And according to Jesus, it's actually a huge problem if you want to connect with the God who is perfect. But you might think. Well, I'm just human. Everyone makes mistakes. That's true. But if you have aspirations of like making it to a better place, when you die of being in the presence of a God, who is perfect, then that very human problem is a very big problem. And the truth is I'm trying to convert you to believe that, to not dismiss it, to not minimize it, and not say, well, whatever, I'm human. But to agree with Jesus, that being imperfect can separate you from the Perfection of God and Heaven. And, I'm trying to change your mind about the solution to that gap. While the world would tell you, you should just learn from your mistakes, or try harder to be a better person or live a good life or balance. The scales are fixed. Your karma. Jesus doesn't agree with any of that. Jesus says the answer is that God apparently is so loving and so forgiving and so merciful that he was willing to fix the problem that you can't fix.
That instead of making you wonder and bear the burden of am I good enough? Am I good enough? Am I good enough for God? Jesus came, gave His life on the cross, so that every one of your sins, and mistakes would be wiped away in a God, could look at you and see someone who's actually good enough to be in his perfect presence. If you don't believe that yet, I want to convert you. We want you to believe that. It's the best news in the world. It helps you sleep at night. Let go of guilt and shame and it's actually the one thing that Jesus said, we'll get you to a better place. So, it's true. I'm gonna talk to my fellow Christians today about the best way to communicate. Indicate that with you his bad ways to do that.
Maybe you've experienced it today. The Apostle Paul is going to teach us some really good ways to do that. Connecting with people in a reasonable way, to give them the best chance that they have to believe the best news of all time. So if I have your permission, if you're not a Christian just yet, we're to dive into the Apostle. Paul's words in the book of Colossians chapter 4, we're going to learn three things about how to evangelize. Here's the first one, starting in Colossians 4:2.
Pause this.
Devote yourselves to prayer being watchful, and thankful. And pray for us to that. God may open a door for our message. So that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ for which I am in Chains. Pray that I may proclaim it clearly as I should.
All right, if repetition teaches you anything, the first thing Paul wants you to know is catch it. Yeah, pray he said three times actually in verse 4, pray that I may proclaim it clearly in verse 3. Pray that God may open a door in verse 2. He actually said, devote yourselves to prayer. So, before you knock on a door, send a text talk to them about Jesus. According to Paul, you should first talk to Jesus.
Taking notes to fill in the blanks, write this down. The first way to evangelize the most important place to start is pray intentionally talk to God about the person that you love that you want to connect to the love of God.
I know about you but I forget that all the time I'm stressing about. Like what do I say, is now the time to say it? And the bosses will hold up, hold up first pray. Devote yourself to praying for that person. Let your conversation to the Father be less like your relationship with your dentist and more like your relationship with your phone. All right, I'm not going to just pray for them twice a year because I probably should Christmas and Easter. No, like, I'm constantly going to talk to my Father. Father, please give me a chance. Open a door.
Give me an opportunity. And Paul actually says that he says devote yourselves to prayer and pray for us, so that God may open a door for our message. I love that phrase. It makes so much sense to ever try to have a conversation with someone who did not want to have a conversation with you. Right. Maybe you've been in sales before you've experienced this a thousand times over, right? For someone to have an open heart or an open mind, like that conversational door. Has to be, has to be open if it's shuts, if it's locked. I mean, what are you gonna do? And I want that Paul. I mean he's writing this actually from under house arrest, he's been a Christian for about 30 years and by this time in his life, he's preached the Gospel on three intercontinental tours. He's shared Jesus with rabbis in Jerusalem with professional intellectuals and Athens with wizards in Ephesus, Acts chapter 19. Look at that one. I mean, Paul has been with Jews and Gentiles, people who knew everything about the Old Testament, nothing about the Old Testament. He was sharing his faith.
And yet, what did he say?
I can't do anything unless the door is open.
Thirty years of sharing my faith but if God doesn't get involved and give me that opportunity for a real conversation about spiritual things, I can't say anything. I can't do anything, I can't change anyone's mind or change anyone's heart. God needs to open a door. That's why I'm going to ask at my door. Moving friends to literally bring us a door. This is Austin. This is Rob, can you put your hands together for the best door prop movers in recent church history. Look at this. We were practicing all morning. Don't hit the keyboard. Get in the right spot and leave like, ninjas. Boom, thank you very much, guys. Alright, so here's the door. Let's imagine for a second that you're sitting in your living room. You're watching your favorite football team on your 75 inch, Ultra HD screen and I'm your friend who's a Christian? You're not a Christian and here's your door and the door is currently closed.
What am I going to do unless that door opens?
And here I am with my Bible. My good news about Jesus. I can't. I would just want to sit down right next to you at the table, on the couch, and talk to you about the things of Jesus. But if the doors not open,
Hey, I would like to talk to you about our Lord and Savior. Jesus Christ.
I know you're in there. I saw him. I'm gonna slide the Bible underneath the door. Just read pages. 1 through 2000. All right, what, am I gonna keep pounding? Am I gonna get, a battering ram? Obviously if the door isn't open to a conversation I can't do anything with the conversation. And so Paul says, before you know, pick the perfect passage to share, like work on what you're going to say, you have to have to get involved. This is to devote yourselves to prayer. Pray for that person, all the human skill and Ingenuity in the world. You could be the Apostle Paul and you couldn't do it unless God would open a door. Alright, so here's my homework for you. I just want you to think of one person right now, one person that, you know, that doesn't go to church. One person is not like all in when it comes to their faith in Jesus. Would you be willing to just pray for them every day? Devote yourself to this for the next seven days. Right. But put a note in your phone. Write in your church bulletin, sticking your car every time you're driving to work. Just pray, God. I can't, I can't force them to believe anything. I can't make them have an open mind about spiritual things.
You know, my brother has been through after growing up in church. You know what my best friend thinks about religion and pastors and all this stuff. God please. I can't. But you can. Seven straight days. Pray that God would open a door for the message.
Because that's where evangelism starts, pray.
But that's not where it ends. Let's look at what Paul says next. Verse five, I love this line. Paul says “be wise in the way that you act towards outsiders and make the most of every opportunity.” Read that again, this one is my favorite evangelism passage. “Be wise in the way that you act towards outsiders, make the most of every opportunity.” I'd be wise in the way you act and be really intentional about the way that you behave. It's really important as Christians. Our behavior doesn't save us. That's all Jesus. But our behavior might be the thing that God uses to open the door to save them. But your character, the way you carry yourself at work, What kind of neighbor you are? Kind of sibling, you are the kind of parent you are. The kind of boyfriend you are or wife, you are has incredible power to open people's minds to give this Gospel a chance. I've had to pick one word to describe it, because pastors love things that rhyme or start with the same letter. I would say how to evangelism. Sway.
I'm trying to sway you. Persuade you, influence you with the way that I behaved. Let's go back to our door here. Imagine that this is your front door. You're sitting watching the game. Imagine this is a big picture window so you can see me walking up the sidewalk before. I get a knock on that door question, does it make a difference? What person is walking to the front door? That influences your attitude towards opening. It,
If I was a stranger with a clipboard and a big stack of pamphlets, and some bunch of political buttons. You're hiding under the couch, throwing a blanket over your head. If I was your grouchy neighbor, was always yelling at you for your cars and the dog going on my yard. I mean you're already closed down to that conversation. But what if what if I was not that? What if I was a good friend that had been there for you in your time of need. That wasn't like rushed or busy to text or invite you over. What if I'd really loved, you not perfectly but well, If you saw me walking up and then the knock came,
Do you think he'd be more likely to open the door? For sure. Jesus said this beautifully in Matthew, chapter 5. He said, let your light, (let this Jesus thing inside of you) shine before people that they can see your good deeds. Before you get to the good news. Get to the good deeds. 1st Peter chapter 3, Peter said, if you have an unbelieving husband like wives, this is so important. I'm, you can invite them to church every single Sunday. What sometimes is even more powerful is the way you love him. The way you serve him, the way you try to show him respect even if he doesn't respect the authority of Jesus just yet you can win him over. By the way you behave and not just the things that you believe. I think 1st Peter chapter 2, says, if you're living in a pagan culture, if you're being persecuted, the way you react to that turning the other cheek. Loving people who hate you, not getting into the online drama, but like just letting a bright light shining in a dark world that has so much sway. That sooner or later people will notice it and they will say, well, what's up?
And the daughter of curious conversation can open.
So, for homework for you, what would that look like for that one person, you were thinking of
They just increase your love for them by 10% this week. What would you do?
It's not rocket science. You don’t have to buy him a new car or house. What about? What about asking how they're doing? Listening to the answer. Writing down a note to pray for whatever they're going through. And following up in 7 days.
I think people notice that. Hey man. Sorry it's been a rough week. I was praying for you every single day this week. Hope you're doing better. Let me know how I can help. Picture the person holding the phone. Read that, huh?
Or here's an idea, I found that people are desperate for Christian love when they're new. New kid in school, new widow who just lost her husband. New person who moved to town, new neighbor next door, new person at the job. They don't have connections. What if I mean that's such a great opportunity just like God loved us when we were far from him to love those people. Well you want to come watch with me. You want to watch the game at my house. You want to hang out with my friends like that. You have to do anything for found. You want to travel to Africa, to share the gospel. Just love a person intentionally and well. And who knows? God might open a door, your love, might draw them to the gospel of God's Amazing Grace.
Decades ago, there was a terrible plane crash in the Florida Everglades., Hear about this? And tragically a bunch of people died, a middle-of-the-night crash into the swamp but miraculously a bunch of people survived. But they were scattered all throughout the Everglades. It was dark stuff. Was like, starting on fire, people are scared. They're standing in the swamp. They don't know what to do or where to go. Until one flight attendant who survived. It's something powerful. She stood with two feet planted and she started to sing Amazing Grace and her voice echoed through the swamp.
And people heard it. And they were drawn to the sound of it.
In the middle of their fear, looking for hope for something, they heard the beauty of her voice, and they instinctively took a step towards it.
That's the way. When you stand up on the rock of your faith and you love people, it's like a beautiful song that makes them curious. It draws them towards you. Love has magnetic power. So whether they believe it or not, whether they come to church or they don't, love people as best you can. You start to pray and then you sway. Be wise in the way you act towards Outsiders and make the most of every opportunity. And it brings us the last thing Paul wants to share with us today. Let's wrap up today in verse number 6,
Paul says, let your conversation be always full of grace seasoned with salt so that you may know how to answer everyone I can. You figured out of all the words, rhyme start with pray. Then sway in the last thing is,
Well stumper, huh? Say are you have you got to say something? He says let your conversation. All right, so these are words that are coming out of our mouth. He says let it be seasoned with salt so that you may know how to answer everyone. So, actually, having a dialogue. So if God answers the prayer, if your love works and make people curious, well then you actually have to say something to tell them about Jesus.
The word evangelism literally means the process of sharing the Evangel and the Evangel is the Gospel, and the Gospel is what Jesus did right there. So if you're the best neighbor in the world, but you never get to that. That's not evangelism.
No one can make it to Heaven by having a great neighbor. No, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through this word about Christ. Prank. So that time comes in, here's the scary part Christians, where you can't just be nice and you can't just text and you can't just pray in the safety of your own home, but we got to talk about who Jesus is and what Jesus did. And why Jesus is everything that we need. I pictured this way. Imagine you see me coming like, oh, hey, I know that guy is pretty nice. I knock on the door by the grace of God, the door opens.
I have to speak, right? I can't just love you. I can't just be a smiling face, the door open. So the conversation now is, my chance. Now is your chance to talk about Jesus. So, here's the question, when the door opens and you step through into that conversation? What will you say?
Did you put on deodorant this morning? Are you sweating already? Whatever we go, sir. All right, there's no guarantee they're going to come. It didn't for Jesus either. There's no script that I'm going to hand you after church, and that's good because I would be stilted and robotic and awkward. Let me give you just some suggestions to think about what you could say. You could say your story. I just say why do you love being a Christian? Say something as simple as you know I mess up all the time and that's actually why I love Jesus. I'm trying, but I'm still struggling, but I know that I'm going to heaven and I'm forgiven and I'm safe. And I'm saved with God because of what he did on the cross. I'm not sure if you know that or not, but that is everything to me, say it. Or a lot of people just say something about their Church.
Person comes to church. You're going to hear us talking a lot about Jesus and so you might say something like I've never been to church before. I actually love asking this question growing up was Faith part of your family life, who you can learn a lot about people with that question. Right? And then you might say, wow, I'm sorry that sounds terrible. It sounds like you heard a lot of like, give us money and not a lot of, but Jesus. Did you not know that? Not every church is like that. Actually I love going to church. My parents don't force me and I still go because there's so much hope and so much peace and such good people that I meet no pressure. But would you come sometime?
Say or my last idea. I love the Evangelistic potential of sharing links. Did he do this? Sometimes I'm in church and I think about someone that I know and a conversation, we just had, and it is so easy to like, find that sermon online. Click the share button, say I thought of you, when I listen to this, Minute number seven, especially If you have a chance, let me know what you think.
And if your friend is scared of church, doesn't want to walk in, not knowing what's going to happen in the safety of their own home, the privacy of their own space. They can listen to the good news about Jesus through that message specifically tailored for them. You can say, right? Paul says, let your conversation always be full of grace seasoned with salt so that you may know how to answer everyone. So what does the Apostle Paul say near the end of his life? Teach us about sharing our faith. It's very simple. You pray this way. You say, you can actually ask God in prayer to open a door, you do your best to love people in an intentional way to let your light shine. And when the opportunity comes and you sense it in the conversation, you take the risk, you take the chance, you do what you can. And you say something about Jesus,
Yeah. Before I say, Amen, a few of you may be a lot of you are thinking. I'm still probably not going to do anything. I'm still too nervous. I'm still too scared, the same things going to happen, that always happens. I'm gonna be thinking, I should say something. I should say something that should say something, and I don't say something and then I get in the car and I feel really bad Jesus mad at me. Like, okay, if that's where you're at, I want to leave you today with an amazing story. About a woman, whose name you've never heard? Who's little acts of love, made a huge difference. More than she would ever know. She lived many decades ago. I think about 60 years ago and her name was Dorcas.
Not making that up. The word Dorcas is actually in the Bible, it's the Greek word for gazelle. It sounded much better. 2000 years ago than it does today. All right, so her name was Dorcas and Dorcas found out from her Pastor that near the church. There was a little seven-year-old boy named Bill who did not know anything about Jesus. Bill actually came from a pretty tough family background. I think there were felons, train robbers in his family tree. No one tucked him in bed at nights with prayers and a Bible story. But there was no spiritual connections. And then the pastor found out. Yes, Dorcas if she would just pick him up and she did
Just picked up a seven-year-old boy. From the church. Where you got to hear this? Good news about Jesus. Did you pick them up from the Sunday School? Where you got to hear the good news about Jesus? And she picked him up around the church where you get to hear, the good news about Jesus. And in fact, God worked a miracle in little bills heart. He became Christian. He started to see this incredible message of God's mercy and forgiveness and he loved it so much. That as he grew older, he actually decided not just as a Christian, but to be a Christian pastor.
Remember the grace of God bill got married to a wonderful woman and they had children, and they decided to tell their children. This great news about being Christians and they share their faith with the Next Generation. And then years went by decades, went by, and those children, have their own children and bill, and his wife, got to share the good news of the Gospel with their children's children, and a family, which was so spiritually, broken in the beginning, became filled with mercy and love and with faith. And with Jesus, the grandchildren would have no clue what it was like for their grandpa to be six or seven and not know the good news because it's saturated their whole family tree. Well not many years ago, Dorcas was dying and Bill, now Pastor, got to say goodbye.
And he went to the room where she was lying. Sat next to her and took her hand and he told her the story of how her act of love, just picking him up, bringing him in church. Was the thing that God used to bring him to Jesus and his children at Jesus and his children's children of Jesus.
You know, the coolest part? Bill's here in this room.
Pastor Bill. would you please stand?
Here's a man whose life is changed by the simple Act of love. And if you're willing would Bill's wife Paula, please stand.
And how would your children, please stand.
And we do children's children, the grandkids, please stand.
Bilil told me before church every fall he takes time by himself to think about the simple people in his life that shared the good news of Jesus, that God used to give him faith and sustain that Faith Through The Years. This is the power, brothers and sisters, when you pray, when you sway and when you say .