Sermon Central
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Give It Away!
Contributed by Paul Decker on Aug 14, 2007 (message contributor)
Summary: Tell the good news!
GIVE IT AWAY!
S: Evangelism
C: Do the work of the evangelist
Pr: TELL THE GOOD NEWS!
?: How? How do we do it?
KW: Tools
TS: We will find in our study three tools that help us to tell the good news about Jesus.
Type: Propositional, topical
The ____ tool is…
I. THE GOSPEL
II. YOUR TESTIMONY
III. QUESTIONS
PA: How is the change to be observed?
• Know the basics about salvation
• Share your testimony
• Ask good questions
Version: ESV
RMBC 12 August 07 AM
INTRODUCTION:
We all like communication that is clear, don’t we?
We don’t like things to be mixed up.
It is very frustrating.
But sometimes that happens, doesn’t it?
ILL Communication (H)
This happened to a Coca-Cola salesman ...
He had returned from his Middle East assignment greatly disappointed in his performance. His manager asked him why he was not successful with the Arabs.
The salesman explained, "When I got posted in the Middle East, I wanted to make sure that I made a good sales pitch as our product was virtually unknown there. I didn’t know how to speak Arabic, so I planned to convey the message through 3 posters. My first poster was a man crawling through the hot desert sand, totally exhausted and panting. Second, the man is drinking our soft drink and third, our man is now totally refreshed. Then these posters were pasted all over the place."
"That should have worked," said the boss.
The salesman replied, "Well, not only did I not speak Arabic but I didn’t realize that Arabs read from right to left."
Well, that would definitely communicate the wrong message, wouldn’t it?
TRANSITION:
Communication is an important subject in Scripture.
In fact, Scripture is communication.
We refer to the Bible as the revealed Word of God.
It is our belief that these are God’s words to us, to be believed and applied.
In fact, this is one of our stated values:
We recognize the Bible is true and our guide for life.
As you heard in the Scripture reading just a few minutes ago, Timothy, the apostle Paul’s disciple, is being given a lot of instruction.
We want to focus on one particular phrase in verse 5 of II Timothy 4.
The verse reads…
As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.
More particularly, we want to consider the phrase…
…do the work of an evangelist…
We mentioned last week, when we were in I Timothy, that the letters written to Timothy are counsel from Paul on how to be a good pastor of the church.
But, I do believe that there is an application to us all since each one of us is called to be an effective minister of the Word.
We are all responsible to be successful communicators when it comes to the Word of God.
So, I think it is fair to say that, for each one of us…
1. We are to do the work of an evangelist (II Timothy 4.5)
The first thing I want us to note here is that if you are a Christian, this is for you.
Nobody gets out of this.
This is not the sole responsibility of those that are gifted in evangelism.
This is not the sole responsibility of those that are trained professionals.
This is not the sole responsibility of those that have been taught some evangelistic program or method.
This responsibility belongs to each one of us.
Some of you may not like the word evangelism.
It has become an unpopular word in the world today, accused of meaning coercion, forcing people to believe something they do not want to believe.
But that would be an inappropriate understanding of evangelism from a Christian perspective.
Not only that, coercion is ineffective, for while you may change behavior, you do not change the mind.
Listen to this, for this is the simple meaning of the word.
Evangelism means the proclamation of good news.
So, in turn…
2. Evangelists proclaim the good news (the gospel).
They communicate.
They tell good news.
They say it out loud.
They live it out loud.
They persuade others about the truths of the Christian faith by what they say and by what they do.
So…
3. We will find in our study three tools that help us to tell the good news about Jesus.
OUR STUDY:
I. The first tool is THE GOSPEL.
The first tool is the good news itself.
Let me first start with a more theological statement.
Here it is…
1. God has acted for the salvation of the world in the incarnation, death and resurrection of Jesus.
Note this…
God has acted!
God has moved on our behalf.
God has not left us alone.
