Do you consider yourself an evangelist?
I suppose to answer the question, we first need to talk
about what an evangelist is. We tend to think of somebody like Billy
Graham, you know, someone who stands on a big stage and preaches God’s word and
does altar calls and things like that. And of course, that’s one way to
be an evangelist, but it’s not the only way.
An evangelist, really, is someone who tries to spread the word of
God. An evangelist is someone who tells
people about the salvation and everlasting life that’s available through faith
in Jesus Christ.
So, let me ask you again. Are you an evangelist?
I hope that at least some of us answered yes. If you
did, the rest of this message really is not aimed at you. You’re welcome
to listen to it, but the rest of this message is really aimed at those of us
who said no, that we are not evangelists.
Now, if you said no, I want you to know I’m not mad at
you. I understand. I don’t
necessarily consider myself an evangelist, either. I mean, yes, I can
stand up here and talk about God’s word and salvation and eternal life through
faith in Jesus. But do I do it in other places? Not so much.
Do I do it with people I don’t know?
Not really. Do I do it with
people I do know, but who may not believe in Jesus? Not really there,
either.
So I understand if you say no, you’re not an
evangelist. But here’s the question:
why not? Why are you not an
evangelist? Why am I not an evangelist?
Why is so hard, both for you and for me, to share God’s word with
people? Why is it so hard for us to tell people that they can be saved
through faith in Jesus Christ?
Now understand, I’m not suggesting we should open every
conversation by telling people they need to be saved. But as we go
through our day, and we see the people we see and talk to the people we talk
to, there are often chances to bring God into the conversation. There are
often chances to talk about our faith in Jesus, just as a natural part of
talking about the things we talk about.
Not always, but more frequently than we probably realize. And we
let them go by. We let them go by,
sometimes, because we’re not looking for them and so we miss them. But a lot of times, the reason we’re not looking
for them is that this is something we simply do not want to do. We don’t
feel comfortable doing it. In fact, if
we’re really honest with ourselves, a lot of times the thought of having a
conversation like that really kind of scares us.
Of course, we’d never say it that way. We make
excuses for ourselves. We say things
like, well, that’s just not something I’m very good at. I don’t know how
to do that. That’s not one of the
talents God gave me. Besides, I don’t
need to talk about my faith. I show my faith by the way I live my life.
Any of those sound familiar to you? They do to me,
because I’ve said them, many times. I’ve made all the excuses for not
talking about faith. But the bottom line is that that’s what they are,
excuses. Because Jesus told us to go and spread the gospel. He told us to go and make disciples. He
did not make it optional. He did not
tell us to do those things if we think we’re good at them. He did not
tell us to do those things if we feel comfortable doing them. He did not tell us to do those things if we
thought God had given us a special gift or talent for them. He did not
tell us to do those things as long as were not scared of doing them. He told us to do them. Period.
In our Bible reading for today, the Apostle Paul is writing
to his friend Timothy. And it sounds to me like Timothy had the same
problem you and I have. And it sounds to
me like Timothy was probably making some of those same excuses you and I make.
And it also sounds like Paul saw through all those excuses. He knew that the real reason Timothy did not
want to go and spread the gospel was because he was scared of doing it, just
like you and I are sometimes.
And so, Paul tells Timothy some things to give him
courage. Listen to what he says:
For the Spirit God gave us does not make us
timid, but gives us power, love, and self-discipline. So do
not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord or of me...He has saved us and
called us to a holy life--not because of anything we have done but because of
his own purpose and grace.
Paul is telling Timothy, you do not need to be afraid to do this. You have power. Not because of who you are. This is not about you. It’s not about
how good you are or how talented you are or how great a speaker you are or any
of that. None of that matters. The
power you have does not come from you.
The power you have comes from God’s Holy Spirit. All you need to
do is trust that. All you need to do is
trust God’s Holy Spirit and step out in faith.
You’ll be doing what the Lord wants you to do, and if the Lord wants you
to do something, the Lord will give you everything you need to do it.
There’s nothing to be afraid of. Just do
it.
There’s one other thing Paul
says there. It’s something we really don’t want to face. At least I
don’t. But if we’re honest--if I’m
honest--I have to admit that it’s a factor here. It’s when Paul says, “Do
not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord.”
We don’t want to think about
that. We don’t want to admit to it.
We say, hey, wait a minute. I’m not ashamed of the testimony about
Jesus. I’m proud of God’s word.
I’m proud of what Jesus did for me. I’m
not ashamed of any of that.
And Paul says, oh, yeah?
Then why don’t I hear you talking about it? Why do I hear all these excuses
instead? Paul says to us--Paul says to
me--if you’re so proud of God’s word and you’re so proud of what the Lord did
for you, why do you only talk about it when you’re in church? Why do I
hear excuses instead of evangelism?
What’s stopping you?
When we strip everything else
away, what’s really stopping us is fear. Fear and a lack of trust in
God. When we strip away all the excuses,
when we do away with all of our so-called reasons for why we cannot talk to
people about the salvation and eternal life that’s available to them through
Jesus Christ, that’s what we’re left with. Fear and a lack of trust in
God. We’re afraid we’ll do it
wrong. We’re afraid we’ll turn people
off. We’re afraid people might not like
us. We’re afraid our reputation might
suffer. We’re afraid we won’t be able to
think of the right words to say. We
don’t have the courage to trust that, when the time comes, God’s Holy Spirit
will give us the right words to say. And so we don’t try.
And again, I feel this every
bit as much as anyone else does. And so, I don’t have an easy
answer. I’m not saying God’s going to
send us to hell if we don’t do this. But I do think God is
disappointed. Because, again, this is
something Jesus told us to do. Jesus did
not make it optional. Jesus just said do it. With no exceptions granted and no excuses
accepted.
So what can we do? How
can we start trusting God enough to spread the word about salvation and eternal
life? How can we start taking advantage of those openings in
conversations as they come up?
Well, here’s what I think it
comes down to. Do we believe that Jesus is the way and the truth and the
life? Do we believe that faith in Jesus Christ as the Savior is the way
to heaven? Because if we do--if we really believe that--then we have to
admit that there are people we know who are not going to go to heaven.
Because I suspect each one of us knows people who have not accepted Jesus as
the Savior. At the very least, there are
people whom we’re not sure have accepted Jesus as the Savior.
So, if we truly believe that
faith in Jesus is the way to heaven, and if we want those people to be in
heaven, then we need to do whatever we can to bring them to faith in
Jesus. That means we need to stop making excuses. That means we need to have the courage to
talk to people about faith in Jesus Christ.
We need to look for those openings in conversations to tell people about
Christ, and we need to take advantage of them when we get them.
And remember, we don’t do this
alone. We could not do this alone.
By ourselves, you and I cannot bring people to faith in Jesus. But
we don’t do it by ourselves. We have the
power of God’s Holy Spirit. We have
God’s Holy Spirit to lead us. We have God’s Holy Spirit to guide us. We have God’s Holy Spirit to inspire us. We have God’s Holy Spirit to tell us what to
say and what to do. All we need to do is take that step out in
faith. All we need to do is let our
faith in God be bigger than our fears.
All we really need to do is trust God.
Some of us are already
evangelists. But all of us are called to be. So let’s stop making excuses, and let’s stop
being ashamed of our faith. Let’s let people know about the salvation and
eternal life that’s available to them through faith in Jesus Christ.
Let’s not let people we know miss out on that.
God’s Holy Spirit will be with us.
And we know that with God, all things are possible.
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