WHO'S YOUR ONE?

 

“We think of missionaries as God's ‘super servants,’ Jesus’ Navy Seals. The word ‘missionary’ is never used in the Bible, however, not even once. That's because all of God's people are sent; all of God's people are commanded to go. There is no ‘special class’ of sent ones.”  J.D. Greear 

  What freaks you out? We all freak out over one thing or another, sometimes for understandable reasons—if you’re alone when a zombie apocalypse breaks out, by all means, freak out—or sometimes we freak out for really silly reasons. 

  The media seems determined to freak us out. We have 24-hour news channels that by their very nature focus on the latest tragedy or extreme news story, replaying it over and over and over…

  Social media isn’t far behind. We will see things on social media from the hilarious to the terrifying, pushing us ever closer to the freak-out zone.

  A snake will do that for some. It does it for me. So I was on the edge of my seat when I heard the recent story about one Georgia woman.

  Trish Wilcher thought she saw a “piece of fuzz” on the floor under the bed in her home in Augusta, but when she reached for it, it suspiciously moved. “And then a second later another piece moved, and I went to my husband, ‘We have snakes!’” In fact, they had 18 snakes.

  “Ok we have turned the bedroom upside down…found 17 babies and the momma,” she posted on Facebook amid the slithery ordeal. Her husband, Max Wilcher, was able to use a grabbing tool to contain the snakes in a linen bag. He released them outside near a creek, she told WJBF. A wildlife catcher later told the couple that the reptiles in their home were non-venomous garter snakes.

  Well, that’s a sssscare that would freak me out. Who wouldn’t freak out if they came face to face with a large snake family under the bed?

  Most of us don’t like to be freaked out like that. Sure, some of us occasionally like to be freaked out, like teens watching a horror movie.

  I’m not sure what freaks you out. But if you’re a follower of Jesus and want to be freaked out, picture walking up to someone to boldly tell him or her about Jesus. You know, like talking to your church-hating coworker, atheist family member, or that neighbor (the one who freaks you out). No wonder Christians are freaked out at even the thought of sharing their faith.  

  But doing that is a bit of an ambush or at least a shocking surprise, similar to finding snakes underneath your bed. It’s not though what God has called us to do. Sharing the gospel isn’t to be some type of sneak attack.

  Somehow in the Church we’ve created a version of Christianity that makes us freak out over sharing the best news in the history of the universe. Think about it. Why would we be so apprehensive, anxious, tongue-tied and introverted when talking about the very thing that Jesus came to do for us? How can we sing so joyfully about the gospel in a church worship service but then be just as tightlipped about Jesus in our workplace or neighborhood? If Jesus means so much to us, why do we so rarely talk about Him?

  How can we be so quick to speak about a million other things that are often little more than trivia, yet can’t seem to talk about the message that set us free and bought us eternal forgiveness? How can we learn to share Jesus and the gospel by how we live and what we say without freaking out?

  Think about anything and everything that you’ve talked to your neighbors and coworkers about in the last six months. Yet, studies show that something like 70% of believers have not told a soul about Christ in the previous six months. More troubling is a LifeWay study with the discovery that out of eight attributes of growing believers, sharing Jesus ranked at the bottom. Why is evangelism ranked so low?

  Jesus’ last command to us, as His followers, was to share the gospel. Today we’re starting a new series, Who’s Your One? Sadly, we’ve made sharing the gospel something that it’s not. It’s not public speaking, which is one of most adults’ greatest fears (probably higher than a fear of snakes). It’s not some aggressive, ambush plan for type A folk. It’s not a program or some memorized sales pitch where you have to get all of the information just right (I don’t know how many Christians over the years have told me that they shared the gospel with someone but hope they didn’t blow it).

  We’re not going to try to make you the next Billy Graham or Apostle Paul. God has made you you and simply wants you to share His story your way with your personality and relationships just as He has the host of believers in the New Testament and throughout history who have shared the gospel around the world. Some of God’s greatest work of sharing His message hasn’t been done by professionals or preachers or missionaries. It’s been done by people like those described by Michael Green in his book, Evangelism in the Early Church: “In contrast to the present day, when Christianity is a highly intellectualized and dispensed by professional clergy to a constituency increasingly confined to the middle class, in the early days the faith was spontaneously spread by informal evangelists, and had its greatest appeal among the working class.”

  Our world today is freaked out over nearly everything. Maybe it’s time for Christians to freak out a little, yet only about things that truly matter.

  God has placed our church in this community to be a rescue station with His life-changing message of the gospel. God has placed you and me in our families, neighborhoods, and workplaces to be a light for His glory and to share His message of true hope, love, grace, and forgiveness. That won’t happen unless Christians get back on mission.

  When you trusted Christ as your personal Savior, God made you part of His missions team and strategy. You and I are part of something that is making a difference in eternity.

  This is going to be an exciting and challenging series. Please come prayerfully. Please commit to joining us each Sunday as we work through Who’s Your One?

Can we help you spiritually? Can we help you know Jesus better? Please check out more resources on our church's web page, Gracechurchwi.org. Or, call us at 262.763.3021. If you'd like to know more about how Jesus can change your life, I'd love to mail you a copy of how Jesus changed my life in "My Story." E-mail me at Carson@gracechurchwi.org to request a free copy. Please include your mailing address.