A New Years Resolution
Matthew 28:19
December 28, 2003
Study Guide - Help for Study Guide
I. INTRODUCTION
I saw a recent article that listed the five most popular resolutions made most every year. The 5th was to take up a new hobby, the 4th was to make more money, the 3rd most popular resolution was to improve relationships, the 2nd was to stop smoking, and the most popular New Years resolution, you guessed it, losing weight.
**** A woman walked into her bathroom at home. As she did, she saw her husband weighing himself on the bathroom scales, sucking in his stomach. The woman thought to herself, "He thinks that he�ll weigh less by sucking in his stomach." So, the woman sarcastically said to her husband, "That�s not going to help." Her husband said, "Sure it will. It�s the only way I can see the numbers." ****
After the overindulgence of the holidays a lot of people make resolutions to change their habits and way of life. A new year gives us an opportunity to start fresh and improve ourselves. But by the middle of January most of us somehow forget our resolutions and find ourselves back to our old ways.
It�s so easy to forget the commitments and resolutions we make. But there�s one resolution we can�t allow ourselves to forget - it�s the resolution we made to be witnesses for Jesus when we were saved, the commitment to tell people about God�s grace through His Son.
Our church shouldn�t be shy about actively trying to share the good news of Jesus Christ with others as we help them through �the Struggles of life�.
I�m not talking about dogmatic Bible thumpers who sometimes seem to try to force their religious views down people�s throats. But we should want to tell people about the Good News that through Jesus the can experience freedom from guilt, a hope for eternity and the power to deal with whatever their present circumstances might be.
And we need to make sure they understand that that all of this is not gained through good works, it�s a free gift from God.
II. THE NEW YEAR�S RESOLUTION TO KEEP
So here�s the New Year�s resolution I want to encourage the people of Newman Baptist to make for 2004. LET�S RESOLVE TO SHARE JESUS WITH PEOPLE. I�m not calling you to be pushy or obnoxious; I�m challenging you to fulfill the Great Commission.
In Matthew 28:19 & 20 Jesus said, �Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you.� Jesus Christ wants us to resolve to share our faith and go into the world and teach people about Him.
And I expect there�ll be lots of opportunities for each of us this year if we�re open to them. One that I know of is the puppet ministry the Community Outreach Committee is just getting started. It�s a great idea. They�ll be using puppets to tell Bible stories and communicate good moral values to the kids and some parents at the FLC and to our own kids - and I hope that in every one of their skits they�ll somehow include the Good News that Jesus died for our sins and wants to forgive us so we can be with Him in heaven some day.
In order to fulfill this resolution we�ll all need to be prepared to tell the people in our lives that they need Jesus: our friends, our co-workers and our family members.
We think of love when we think of Jesus and that�s good but Jesus also said some hard things to us, like Mark 8:38 and Luke 9:26 that both quote Jesus as saying �whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, of him the Son of Man will be ashamed when He comes in His own glory, and in His Father's, and of the holy angels.�
Most of us don�t have much trouble making conversation on just about any subject you can name - but when it comes to Jesus we don�t seem to have the courage. But we should!
It�s because of Him that we have forgiveness, a secure eternity, a rock to hold us through the tough times of life and God�s principles to build our lives on now. And you know, once you get to know the circumstances of the people around you, it�s obvious they need Him too.
When we enthusiastically tell them what a difference Jesus makes in our lives, they might think it�s too good to be true and suspect that there�s a catch. But there isn�t.
III. WHAT WE NEED TO FULFILL THE RESOLUTION!
Let me share with you some traits you can develop to share your faith tactfully with those around you.
A. SINCERITY
First, if we�re going to share Christ people they have to see that we�re SINCERE.
James 3:17 says, �the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy.� In other words, it is SINCERE.
What people need to see in us more than anything else is that we really are sincere about our faith. There is nothing that turns people off to the gospel more than phony Christians. A major temptation for us is to try to cover up: to be deceptive: to act pious and religious: to pretend we are holy. But people already know we�re not that pious, we�re not that religious and we�re not that holy.
**** Reader�s Digest carried a story about a woman who traveled fifty miles to visit a friend. When she went to the car to go home, she discovered she�d locked her keys in the car. She didn�t know what else to do, so she went to a near by house and called her husband long distance. He was upset with her, but he said, �You just stay there and I�ll drive out and bring my keys to you.�
The woman went back to her car and found that actually one of the back doors was open. So she raced back into the house and called her husband, but he�d already left.
�What are you going to do when your husband arrives?� her friend asked. �He�s going to be mad when he finds out he came out here for no reason.� And the woman said, �I�m going to do what any red-blooded American wife would do.� And she went out and locked the door and slammed it shut! ****
It is hard to try not to cover up our imperfections. We�re used to putting on masks that make other people think we�re better than we really are. But no one�s perfect and we�ll attract the world to Jesus a lot faster by simply being open about who we are and pointing them to who He is.
The way to influence your friends who don�t know Christ is not by leaving the impression that you never stumble or fall.
*** It�s been said that there are four ways Christians can treat people. You can treat them like, "I�m okay, you�re okay"; you can treat them like "I�m okay, but you�re not okay"; you can treat them like "I�m not okay, but you�re okay"; or you can treat them like "I�m not okay, and you�re not okay." Which way do you look at other people?
The fact is that the New Testament teaches that I�m not okay - and you�re not okay either. But because of Jesus that�s okay. ****
If we want to influence our community for Christ we need to be honest with ourselves and honest with the world and openly admit that we�re no better than anybody else.
Look around - this church is a place full of imperfect people. And if you�re here today and you�re new to this church, I want to tell you that you are not sitting among a bunch of religious people who think they�re better than anyone else. In fact, most of us would be quick to tell you that if it weren�t for Jesus, we�d be in big trouble.
B. CONVICTION
Second, need CONVICTION. Someone once said, �that one man with conviction is worth more than 99 with opinions.� Dictionary.com defines a conviction as a strong belief. I�d say conviction is a strong belief backed by deep emotion or passion.
In Acts 17 Paul was in Athens and it says, �while Paul was waiting for Timothy and Silas to join him, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols.�
Athens was a city that had about 30,000 statues made in honor of 30,000 gods. Paul probably took a tour of Athens to see what the city was like and as he walked around it sickened him to see all the pagan worship going on. He was distressed. In fact, that word distressed means, �violent emotion.�
We�ve become subtler about false faith but it�s still the same thing. People today are being brainwashed into believing that there are �lots of names for God and lots of ways to heaven� but Jesus said He is the way, the truth and the life and no one comes to the Father but through Him.
It amazes me that children in California can be forced to learn about Islam and read the Koran but you sure couldn�t teach about Christianity in our schools. And we�re being seduced into �tolerance� by just about everything we see on TV or hear on the radio. Like the new commercial for a cell phone company I saw at the movies this week. Two men, one whispering in the other�s ear about how important he was and how he loved him and then the camera pans away and you realize he�s practicing on this salesperson for how to tell his girlfriend. Cute, but it subtly implies homosexuality is common and normal.
False beliefs and false religions are all around us but how many of us feel what Paul felt in Athens? Does it distress you that pagan gods are filling the spiritual void in people�s lives, that these people are being led astray and if you or I don�t at least try to do something about it they�ll spend eternity separated from, God?
Do you believe that? If you do, how can you not have a deep conviction that makes you want to share Jesus with them in a way that they�ll accept?
**** The purchasing department in a major grocery store has a sign that reads, �Salesman, before you try to sell your product, be so convinced of its superiority that when you�re finished, people will be more anxious to buy it than you are to sell it.� ****
If you don�t believe what you�re saying then people will know you�re a fake. Your belief in Jesus has to be passionate in order to be contagious. It has to be something that comes deep out of your soul.
In Jeremiah 20:9 the prophet described the words of God as a fire in heart. He wrote, �His word was in my heart like a burning fire
Shut up in my bones; I was weary of holding it back, and I could not.�
That�s the kind of conviction we need to motivate us to share Jesus. We need Jesus in our hearts and a fire that won�t stop burning.
C. SPIRITUAL RELIANCE
Third, we need to have SPIRITUAL RELIANCE. If we�re going to share Jesus with people effectively we can�t do it by human effort alone. We need spiritual help to win people to Christ. That�s why we need to start with prayer if we want to speak to our friends about our faith.
Before we talk to people about Jesus we need God to work on their hearts and we need Him to give us the opportunity and the right words to say.
In John 6:44 Jesus said, �No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him.� And in John 15:26 He says, �when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me. And you also will bear witness, because you have been with Me from the beginning.� It�s the Holy Spirit that testifies to the world about Jesus.
U2 singer Bono, in a private meeting in June 2001 on the Hill in Washington, D.C., said, �I believe that the Kingdom of Heaven is taken by force. God doesn�t mind if we bang on the door to heaven sometimes, asking Him to listen to what we have to say.�
He�s right - God wants us to pray that the kingdom of heaven will expand on earth. In Matt 21:22 Jesus said, �whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.� There are lots of ways to misuse this passage but no one would argue that if we ask to be able to lead people to Him to be saved He�d grant it because there�s nothing He wants more.
If we want to see people saved we have to pray for them. Usually the most effective thing you can do to see a person come to Christ is to pray for them. Don�t say a word to them at first, just pray deeply and passionately for them for a few months.
Then begin asking God to draw them to Him, to open an opportunity for you to talk about it and to give you the wisdom and the words to tell them simply and clearly.
You don�t need to be able to answer all their questions, I can�t answer all mine! And you don�t need to have theological training; you just need to have a real relationship with Jesus and a willingness to be used by Him to bring others to salvation.
Let me challenge you to choose one person in your life that you know needs Jesus and pray for them for the next six months. And then after you have prepared their heart with prayer then ask God for a chance to talk about faith with them. Can you think of someone right now? Write their name on the insert and take it with you.
A few of you might remember when Billy Graham came to Cleveland. Did you know that before he will come, there�s about a year of preparations? Did you know that the first and most important preparation they make is to recruit and regularly meet with people who will pray for the lost to come to Christ in their city?
At a recent Crusade in Cincinnati the volunteers of the Mission went through Paul Brown Stadium and knelt over every single seat, all 60,000, and prayed for the person who would sit in that seat. And when Mr. graham gave the call, the people who came forward filled the entire field. That�s what can happen when God�s people pray for the lost!
Martin Luther said, �As it is the business of tailors to make clothes and of cobblers to mend shoes, so it is the business of Christians to pray.�
D. URGENCY
Finally, we need is a sense of URGENCY. Most of us are too passive about sharing our faith.
There�s a level of aggressiveness that�s offensive and repels people but I don�t know any of us who have that problem. Actually, I think we have such a casual, nonchalant attitude about sharing Christ that I wonder if people outside of church even know that some of us are Christians.
A recent church study revealed that 95% of evangelical Christians admitted that they had never led anyone to the Lord. You know what that is a sign of? It proves we�re too passive about lost people!
Just think what would happen in the church if every Christian led just one person to Christ. Will you live your whole life as a servant of Christ who never planted seeds or reaped any harvest for Him?
Paul said, �we implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God.� (2 Corinthians 5:20). �We implore you� sounds kind of urgent doesn�t it? Some translations say plead or beg.
Let�s never leave the impression that it doesn�t matter whether or not someone comes to Christ or it can wait. 2 Cor. 6:2 reminds us that �now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.� None of us know whether we�ll have a tomorrow or not.
Let�s recognize that time is passing and that today is the day of salvation. We need to be urgent about people who are lost - for their sake!
Romans 10:14-15 says, �How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? (unless someone tells them)�
**** John Harper was born into a Christian family May 29, 1872. He became a Christian 13 years later and had already started preaching by age 17. He received training at the Baptist Pioneer Mission in London, and in 1896 he founded a church, now known as Harper Memorial Church, which began with 25 worshipers but had grown to 500 members by the time he left 13 years later.
In 1912 Harper, the newly called pastor of Moody Church in Chicago was traveling on the Titanic with his 6-year-old daughter. After the ship struck an iceberg and began to sink, he got Nana into a lifeboat but apparently made no effort to follow her. Instead, he ran through the ship yelling, "Women, children, and unsaved into the lifeboats!" Survivors report that he then began witnessing to anyone who would listen. He continued preaching even after he had jumped into the water and was clinging to a piece of wreckage (he�d already given his lifejacket to another man).
Harper�s final moments were described four years later at a meeting in Hamilton, Ontario, by a man who said;
�I am a survivor of the Titanic. When I was drifting alone on a spar that awful night, the tide brought Mr. Harper of Glasgow, also on a piece of wreck, near me. "Man," he said, "are you saved?" "No," I said, "I am not." He replied, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved."
The waves took him away, but, strange to say, brought him back a little later, and he said, "Are you saved now?" "No," I said, "I cannot honestly say that I am." He said again, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved," and shortly after he went down; and there, alone in the night, and with two miles of water under me, I believed. I am John Harper�s last convert.�
That man was also one of only six people picked out the water by the lifeboats; the other 1,522, including Harper, were left to die. ****
Let�s make it our New Year�s resolution to be as urgent about souls as John Harper was.
The great preacher George Whitfield once said, �O Lord give me souls, or take my soul!� Think about it, if you really believe you�re saved and bound for eternity in the presence of God, then what�s the point in staying here except to influence others for Christ?
IV. CONCLUSION
Make a resolution this year to share Jesus with at least one person this year. Start by praying for them regularly for several months, and then add a request that God would give an opportunity and equip you with the courage and just the right words to lead them to salvation.
Start by becoming more SINCERE about your own faith. Develop a firm conviction about your need and their need for Jesus. Trust the Holy Spirit to give you the opportunity and words at the right time and follow through when it comes. And realize, the chance God gives you may be their last chance, so don�t blow it.
I think some of us have a misconception about all this. It�s not about being a preacher or an evangelist, most people aren�t called to that. Preachers do what I try to do, challenge, encourage and equip the saints so the saints can do the work of the ministry. Evangelists like Billy Graham, Luis Pillau and thousands of unnamed of others, try to gather large crowds of mostly unsaved people and share the Good News with them.
Being comfortable as an individual Christian about sharing Jesus with others isn�t as hard as you think and it�s not just for preachers, evangelists or Sunday school teachers.
God wants every one of us to be ready, willing, and able to talk about Him to those who don�t know Him. If God puts someone in your life and you don�t offer God�s gift, what will you say when they ask you why you didn�t when you see them at the Judgment?
I�m not saying this to use a scare tactic - I believe it�s true! If you really love them and you really believe that without Jesus they�re lost forever, then you MUST tell them before it�s too late. Tell them in love and tell them in a way they�ll accept and understand - but tell them.