I want to welcome you all back once again to FCA. This is the last Monday for you seniors that must be pretty exciting. For the rest of us underclassmen we’ve got 2 more to go, we can make it! These last few weeks we’ve been studying the book of Acts, and this week we’re going to wrap up that series. Act’s is one of the coolest books in the bible! Now I know that we’ve only been studying Acts for 6 weeks, but I figured 6 weeks is a lot shorter than an entire year, that’s how cool this book is. Did you notice how instead of titling this book study “Acts” how we named it One Mission? That name really sums up the book of Acts, they had one mission and that was to spread the good news. They lived their lives dedicated to that one mission. And people noticed people looked at them and went “Woah what do they have that I don’t?” As a matter of fact if you look at Acts chapter 20 versus 24, Paul actually shows us how many of those in the early church lived. “But my life is worth nothing to me unless I use it for finishing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus—the work of telling others the Good News about the wonderful grace of God.” We need to live with this idea that we have a MISSION. That word mission comes from the Latin word sending or to send. Being a Christian follower doesn’t mean that we just gather on Sunday’s or Wednesday nights or even Monday mornings, it’s about being sent into the world. We’ve been sent as missionaries, did you know that you have been called to be a missionary. You don’t have to go to a third world country, live in a hut, and eat worms to be a missionary. You can do it in your own state, your own town, your own school. Jesus sends us out for the same reason that he was sent to us. Jesus’ mission was to bring man back to God; our mission is to bring man…back to God. It was his mission but now it is our mission. God desires to have a relationship with his people. He doesn’t want a religion with his people…he wants a relationship. As followers of Christ we’re called to evangelize to others. We’re not to call people to religion; we’re to call people to a relationship. And when we call people into a religion, it puts a lot of misconceptions into people’s minds about who God is. Religion keeps people from having a relationship with God, because they begin thinking “well I’m just not good enough.” See religion is man’s and woman’s effort to try and fix our relationship with God. It’s an effort for us to try to make this thing with God right. And we can’t make it right. You can’t earn your “spot”. Jesus Christ gave his life for you so that could have that relationship with God, and that’s great news! The great news is that God loves us, God has redeemed us, God has restored us, God has saved us from our sin, and Jesus has now brought us back into this right relationship with him. Now that’s not good news, THAT’S GREAT NEWS! In Romans chapter 10 Paul asks how are people going to know God, unless somebody tells them? Somebody has to put it into a language they can understand, from who God is and how sin to us apart to what Jesus did to bring us back together again. And that somebody is you and me, and I believe most of us understand that, most of us know “ok I have to do that.” But not a lot of us know how to start. There is a story in the book of Acts that will help us understand how to share our faith. That story is found in Acts chapter 8 and it’s a story about a man named Philip. Philip was in a revival meeting, and the Lord spoke to him and sent him to the desert. Interesting how the Lord works isn’t it? From a revival to a desert, who would’ve thought? Beginning with Act’s chapter 8 verse 26 “As for Philip, an angel of the Lord said to him, "Go south* down the desert road that runs from Jerusalem to Gaza." So he started out, and he met the treasurer of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under the Kandake, the queen of Ethiopia. The eunuch had gone to Jerusalem to worship, and he was now returning. Seated in his carriage, he was reading aloud from the book of the prophet Isaiah. The Holy Spirit said to Philip, "Go over and walk along beside the carriage." Philip ran over and heard the man reading from the prophet Isaiah. Philip asked, "Do you understand what you are reading?" The man replied, "How can I, unless someone instructs me?" And he urged Philip to come up into the carriage and sit with him. The passage of Scripture he had been reading was this:"He was led like a sheep to the slaughter. And as a lamb is silent before the shearers, he did not open his mouth. He was humiliated and received no justice. Who can speak of his descendants? For his life was taken from the earth."* The eunuch asked Philip, "Tell me, was the prophet talking about himself or someone else?" So beginning with this same Scripture, Philip told him the Good News about Jesus. From this story there are a few steps we can learn about sharing the good news of Jesus.
The first thing Philip did to share the good news was LISTEN. He listened and heard the Angel speak to him. God speaks to us all the time, God speaks through his spirit, he speaks to us through other people, and some of you may say that he speaks to you through songs. We’re just too busy; our minds are just too clouded with thoughts of worldly stuff for us to really hear the voice of God. In John 10:27 “My sheep listen to My voice; I know them, and they follow Me.” We know the voice of God. The second thing we do is we GO. Notice that Philip listened to the voice of God and then he went. We have the good news/Great news that God desires for everybody to hear. You know what I understand that often times its pretty intimidating to share the good news wouldn’t you say? I know it scares me sometimes to share the good news, it intimidates us. But remember that the Holy Spirit is inside us and will speak through us. The other thing Philip did was he LOOKED. He knows that God has called him, he heard the angel say to him “go.” And now he is looking for who it is that he needs to engage with. The fourth thing that we see is that Philip ENGAGED. Philip ran to the carriage, and this is where we make the move, and this is also where it gets a little risky. We’re taking a chance and its going to cost us something. We’ve all been rejected at times when we’ve tried to share something with, or share faith with, and so there is that risk of being rejected and that risk of not being rejected. After Philip engaged, he OBSERVED. Philip observed that the man was reading from the prophet Isaiah. It’s important for us to be observant as to what’s happening in other people’s lives. When we observant it makes it easier to do the next step.
The next thing Philip did was he ASKED. He asked if the man understood what he was reading. When we ask questions, we begin to understand that person’s situation better, we show that person that we care, and that makes it easier. Ask questions because it opens the door of relationships and makes the conversation run smoother. The final thing Philip did was after asking all the right questions he was able to ANSWER. In verse 35 we see that he began with that very passage of scripture and he told him the good news of Jesus Christ. You have to be ready to answer. In 1 Peter 3:15 “Be ready at all times to answer anyone who asks you to explain the Hope you have in you, but do it with gentleness and respect.” Some of you may be going well I won’t even know what to say! Trust me there are times when I don’t know what to say either. But we can be reassured that we do know what to say when you look at 1 John 5:10 “Those who believe in the Son of God have the testimony of God in them.” You have the testimony of God in you. You’ve got the story of what God has redeemed and changed in you. It’s what God has done and what he is doing. It’s your story and some of you may think well my story is not really that cool. This week I challenge you to go home and write down you story and put it in a safe place, after 2 days get it back out and see if you can add to it, and continue to do so until you can’t remember anything else. Then read it over and I guarantee that you will have an awesome story that you can use to tell others about Christ. That’s all I have for this week, thanks for reading!
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