Welcome to Sunday Sermon Share Day for 3/30/14
Today’s sermon comes from Destiny Metropolitan Worship Church in Marietta, Georgia. Taught by Minister Courtney Harkness and Minister Will Gravely.
Today’s Subject is: Developing a World Wide Witness
Today’s Scripture Selections are From:
Mark 16:15-16 (NCV)
Luke 5:2-7 (NLV)
Luke 19:10 (ESV)
2 Corinthians 1:3-6a (GNT)
Psalm 96:1-3 (TLB)
Matthew 9:35-38 (NCV)
Acts 1:8 (NLT)
Highlights From Today’s Sermon:
God doesn’t just want to be a blessing to us, but through us!
Psalm 37:21-22 (NIV)
Mark 16:15-16 (NCV)
Jesus is telling all of them to go everywhere in the world to share the Word.
Your church should be collecting witnesses globally. Think about this, if you are originally from another country than the country you live in, what if you went back to your home country and helped save all of the nonbelievers that you know.
Jesus wasn’t telling his disciples to reach more people. He’s having a conversation with them telling them to reach all people.
The Great Commission is a turning point from one group of people getting God’ grace and mercy, and hearing and receiving God’s News, to where all people have access.
Do you really want everyone to be saved? Do you only want a small segment to be saved? Are you really praying for everyone to be saved?
The Great Commission is about our job of telling people, not God’s job of saving people.
Jesus said don’t worry about the added details, backlash, etc. He would do that, just go and share with everyone.
I can develop a world wide witness if I…
1. Download God’s salvation plan as my relational search engine for the lost.
Luke 5:2-7 (NLV)
The disciples worked all night and caught nothing You know they had an attitude. That’s such a frustrating moment because you know there are fish in the water, you feel like you are fish watching not fishing. Then you wonder if they know that you’re above water trying to get them, and if they are just waiting you out until you give up.
When this happens you are less eager to do it again. So many of us haven’t fished in years. The same is true with us sharing our faith with others. You come to church, read your Bible, but when was the last time you let down your ‘nets’? When was the last time you shared your faith with others? It’s usually a bad experience that stalled you.
Simon said he’d put down his nets because Jesus told him to, so he obeyed and ended up with so much fish that his nets broke. Looking at this story, we should keep fishing.
Keep fishing. Even when the friend, co-worked, or neighbor who seems turned off by our invitations to attend church, spiritual posts or text messages, etc.—keep fishing.
There’s a secret sourcing online called “Phishing” it’s another fishing where there’s an extraction of information from us without us knowing. Think of top online search engines: Google, Bing, and Yahoo. They all have certain things in common:
1) Access to Data: Google has the most data. They keep track of everything. They can tell you your social security number, what you ate weeks ago, where you live, where you’re gonna live, your goals, your dreams, who you’re going to marry in two years. They know it all.
A good search engine gets the answers you’re looking for. Nothing frustrates a person more than asking a question and getting off-the-wall answers. A person asks a Christian, “what did you do today?” and the Christian responds, “I was blessed and saved by the Lord who lifted me out of darkness…” That is not the answer they were seeking. They wanted to know what you did that day, what activities did you participate in, and where did you go?
2) Targeted Search: They will put topics and results in order of relevance.
Getting directly to the answers is key.
How accurate is your ‘search engine’? Do you have access to all ‘web pages’?
Are you prejudice? (not in the racial setting) Are you a sinner profiler? Do you look at people and determine whether or not they are saved? “I know they are going to hell”
We evangelize believers and disciple the lost. Jesus said save everyone. Jesus didn’t say for us to determine who are saints and sinners.
Luke 19:10 (ESV)
Jesus is seeking the lost. We’re trading God’s good stories with other believers, church goers, but not to those who are nonbelievers, and those who don’t go to church. That’s not discipleship.
I can develop a world wide witness if I…
2. Bookmark my experiences to refer people to God’s home page for help.
2 Corinthians 1:3-6a (GNT)
How do your experiences refer people to God?
Your tough times, suffering, etc can associate with others—all of which you must share with others, with the lost, with nonbelievers, with those different than you.
The vast majoring of us would avoid pain and suffering because it hurts, plain and simple. It’s easy to believe in God when everything is going great.
We must capture our experiences so we can ‘bookmark’ them and go back to them to reference how we made it through with God. Some people are currently in ‘bookmark’ relationships, careers, etc. But when God saves you from something, when He gives you a new job, don’t post on social media, “God blessed me with a new job” and then your next post is a picture of you with a bottle of liquor partying in a club, bar, etc.
Make your suffering count!
Everything that happens in your life aren’t always about you. Sometimes it’s used as a commercial unfolding in other people’s lives. We sometimes want to focus in what we’re going through without interruptions (not trying to be disrespectful to others when we do it, we’re just trying to focus, have tunnel vision)—like recording your tv shows and then fast forwarding through commercials because you want to focus on the show, the content, the story, and not be interrupted with commercials.
God places ‘commercials’ in our lives to give us a breather, a pause, a break.
If some else’s story can help you how do you know that your story can’t help others?
Psalm 96:1-3 (TLB)
‘Sing a song’: Many of us have predetermined years that we call our ‘testimony’ but they are outdated, from many years ago, but not current. They are from our past sharing what God pulled us through back in the day, but where is your testimony from today?
A ‘thug’ testimony from 20 years ago is absent of current testimony. Someone was a thug 20 years ago, but what is God doing right now in their lives that they can testify about? Being a sex addict or deviant years ago is no longer your testimony, what has He saved you from currently? What can nonbelievers see happening now in your life?
‘Sharing the song with the world’: Have you ever listened to music you’re ashamed of? Be honest. The pop album, song about violence or sex? What do you do when you’re around other people and you are ashamed of what you’re listening to? You put headphones on or turn the volume down. When you’re alone the song is cranked up to level 10, but when others are around you turn the volume down to 3.
Are you ‘bumping’ worldly music but turn down songs about God? Are we embarrassed about letting the word know we’re a believer?
Ever been next to a car with loud bass that you can hear the music almost clearly, and it shakes your car? Why is your music about God not loud enough for others to hear?
God is always good regardless if you say anything or not, but by not saying anything what message are nonbelievers getting? When good things happen and the credit isn’t applied to God, who and what then becomes the source of that good? Who or what gets credit for the goodness coming to that person if it isn’t God?
Satan has been trying to steal God’s credit for thousands of years, and your silence about God’s glory makes you an accomplice to satan’s crime. There’s no such thing as a ‘silent witness’. It’s called an ‘obstruction of justice’ in the court system, but it’s called an ‘obstruction of grace’ in God’s Kingdom.
Share your story with all people—believers and nonbelievers!
I can develop a world wide witness if I…
3. Log into prayer to always maintain a strong connection to God.
Matthew 9:35-38 (NCV)
Acts 1:8 (NLT)
There are more people willing to receive than people willing to share God’s Word, testimony, grace, love, story.
There’s no ‘backlog’ on receiving the Gospel. It’s like going to the grocery story with tons of people waiting in line but only two registers open, it’s so frustrating.
Jesus said pray that people will go out and share, not that people will come in.
Many people who claim to know God the most, witness the least here’s why—your circle of influence is mostly or all Christians, believers, and you’re isolated in a bubble. There are no connections or relationships with nonbelievers, so then who can you possible witness to?
Those who are recently saved do more witnessing because they are fresh in being saved from darkness so they want to celebrate, share with others, and bring other people to see and know God as they do.
– You give to charities but do you say that check is given because of God?
– Do you really feel and care for the poor and homeless?
– Are you okay with writing a check but you’re not on the ground, in the ditches, sharing and witnessing to those you’re helping? Or do you think you’re sharing from your distant location just because you wrote a check?
God’s store houses are half empty because only half of us are witnessing.
There’s a method to it all.
1) Strategy: even the music played at church is strategic. If it is a song commonly played on ‘worldly’ radio stations and even on gospel stations, such as today’s song, “Happy”, it does something for nonbelievers. It tells nonbelievers, “this is a pretty cool, hip, happening church because they also listen to and sing this song just like me”. It connects believers and nonbelievers with familiarity of the song.
So your strategy for witnessing and sharing your story should be:
– Starting with family. Many of you need to help save your own kids.
– Then once your family has been witnessed to, you branch off to friends.
– Then go to your neighbors. Do you even know their names? You start off by connecting with them and then sharing gradually your story, who you are, where you came from, what you have been through, your beliefs, that Jesus is your savior, and how God has blessed you. As your relationship grows the more you share.
– After branch out then if you have social media accounts, you then share there. But don’t broadcast what God’s still working on with you and to the areas where God has changed you. Don’t sit up there and show pictures of you partying, etc but there aren’t any pictures and videos of you witnessing, ministering, and serving. REPRESENT GOD’s BRAND
Here’s the deal, looking at the empty seats in your church, we’re talking about world wide ministry, but is there even a local witnessing?
Why is it someone else’s responsibility to fill the seats in your church? Why not take the responsibility? Why not connect with other ministries to bring people in to fill the seats? Why aren’t you bringing people in who don’t have a relationship with Christ and putting them in those empty seats?
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Now this part you hear from me every Sunday: Be sure to share highlights from sermons at your church or place of worship here on my blog. Feel free to also visit and contribute to our community chat room where we can have healthy, positive, dialogue on the sermon I shared today, Breaking Bread daily posts, or issues impacting the Christian community and the entire world.
Remember there is absolutely no preaching, passing judgment, converting, recruiting, or focus on any specific church or religious leader. Those are the rules. We’re here to share words of love and peace inspired by the Word of the Bible. We’re here to uplift and never tear down. If you can roll with that, then you can roll with me and the Breaking Bread family! Visit the chat room here:
http://chatroll.com/embed/chat/breaking-bread-with-natasha?id=lCL-CHvZOne&platform=wordpress-com
You can also send me an email at: breakingbreadwithnatasha@gmail.com
Have an amazing week family. Remember that you know you have seen Jesus if you believe the Word of God, embrace God’s will, and follow the way (Jesus) to God.
Love always,
Natasha
Copyright 2013-2014. Natasha Foreman Bryant. Some Rights Reserved. All Prayers and Reflections are Copyright Protected by Natasha Foreman Bryant unless otherwise noted. breakingbreadwithnatasha.com Copyright 2009-2013 under Natasha L. Foreman, unless otherwise noted.
Scripture quotations marked HCSB are taken from the Holman Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Holman Christian Standard Bible®, Holman CSB®, and HCSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers.
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