Sermon Info
Summary
Jesus’ call is for His people is to live intentionally. And how do we do that? We invest in what God values, and God values people. The Apostle Paul made it clear in his letter to the Thessalonians that he came not just to share the Gospel, but to share his life with them as well. As followers of Christ, we have a high calling to invest our lives in others for eternity's sake…to invest through empathy and compassion, sharing our faith, living an example of Christ, and through speaking words of encouragement. Ultimately, our investment in others should be rooted in God's call to love our neighbors.
Content
But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.
— 1 Peter 3:15-16
Have you heard this verse before? For many of us, our mind immediately goes to apologetics, which is the field or process of defending our theological beliefs with rational argument. Apologetics are a very important part of Christian study, and most of us have some informal training in the discipline, perhaps without even realizing it. Yet, “giving an answer” should have a broader scope in our lives as Christians than simply answering literal questions asked to us.
We are answering questions every day with our actions! Where we divert our time and energy shows people what we deem important. Even the things we don’t do provide insight into who we are and the Savior we’re trying to represent. We have choices, and what we do always comes at the expense of what we put on the back burner. Our whole lives, therefore, speak to our priorities and the contents of our hearts.
If we really claim to have Good News which can bring others to salvation and into communion with their Creator, we should be invested in bringing that news to other people. Giving an answer is more than fielding spiritual questions every once in a while. Giving an answer means making a proper investment in people’s eternity.
Why Do We Hold Back?
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
— Romans 15:13
Although we might be able to intellectually understand in our minds that witnessing to Christ Jesus is the best investment we can make, the actions we take often paint a different picture. Our intentions will not leave our own minds unless we put them into action. But, for all of us, there are common roadblocks that get in the way of living out the Great Commission.
At the root of these roadblocks may be a lack of trust in the promises of God. We forget that He’s in control; we struggle to believe Him when He says we have a role to play in building His Kingdom; we underestimate the power of the Holy Spirit in us and overestimate the knowledge and charisma we have or don’t have. We delay our work for the perfect moment — as if we could even recognize it — and in doing so put faith in our own performance more than in the inherent transformative power of God’s Gospel message.
At other times it can be a failure to value the souls of the people around us like God values them. We can grow complacent with the fact that an uncountable number of people would spend eternity apart from their God if they were to die tonight. We allow our hearts to harden against them, because they may not have turned our message away many times before. We become more concerned with avoiding awkward conversations than speaking truth.
Being Ready Means Being Reminded
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!
— 2 Corinthians 5:17
If we’re going to be ready to give an answer to those around us about the hope we have in Christ Jesus, we’re going to need to take that hope to heart. We need to remember the hope we have in Jesus.
For this world in its present form is passing away.
— 1 Corinthians 7:30-32
The world is a distracting place, and if we’re not being intentional, we’ll find ourselves focusing on material things which will not follow us into eternity. So that we can be set apart from the world around us, we need to remember what’s at stake in eternity.
It will be good for those servants whose master finds them ready, even if he comes in the middle of the night or toward daybreak. — Luke 12:38
We don’t know when our Master will return, and we should not take even a day for granted. We need to remember that our work is urgent.
And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. — Hebrews 10:24
We need to remember that our work is communal. We’re not alone in trying to bring others to Christ. God gave us our church communities so that we could keep one another accountable, and benefit from our wide array of God-given gifts and experiences. Because evangelism is not about us, it’s about Him, we don’t have to do everything ourselves. We can plant seeds, someone else can water them, and God can make them grow.
SUPPORTING RESOURCES:
MLN Podcast // Bigger Than Yourself // Chris Hardy
