Tell The Story

TELL THE STORY

John 3:3, 16

* Everyone loves someone who can “tell a story.” Now, I’m not talking about the person who can “reel off” untruths, but rather I’m talking about those people like my Evangelist Uncle James, who can spin a tale with the best.

* Do you know what I’ve discovered? Everyone has one story that they can tell. It is a story which they can express more clearly, accurately and completely than anyone else. No matter who you are you can tell this one story. Do you know what this story is? It is the story of your life, it is YOUR story. You see, it doesn’t matter how often or how many times you tell me, nor does it matter if I know all the words you may use, the truth is, I lack the experience and passion which you have for your life.

* This thought reminds me of the engineer who developed a new “process” in his particularly field of rocket science. His introductory speech for this process was so compelling that he not only sold the process to a large corporation, but they hire him as a consultant. This was his job. He was given a big Limousine and a chauffeur to carry him to his speaking assignments. For 6 months, these two men traveled together 5 or 6 nights every week for the engineer to deliver this speech to spellbound crowds. Over the course of time the men became friends as they spent enormous amounts of time together. Finally, after about 6 months, the driver said to his passenger, “you speak to these huge crowds every night and you get paid big dollars. After hearing this same speech for all these months, I can give the same speech and do it just as good as you, but I make only a portion of the money you make.” The engineer responded, “Why don’t you give the speech tonight?” The driver agreed. So the engineer drove the Limo to the site and the driver received all the attention. Standing to speak to this college crowd the speech came off in great fashion as the engineer (posing as the driver) listened in awe. There was a standing ovation when the speech was concluded. Then in an unexpected turn of events, the emcee said, “Before our expert departs tonight, does anyone have a question for our guest?” On the 3rd row was a science geek. You know the type, he has horn-rimmed glasses which were very thick. The driver couldn’t even understand all those long words which the kid used let along respond with any cogent answer. When the question was over, the driver stared at the young man and said, “Boy, that may be the most stupid question I have ever heard. Truth is, this question is so dumb that I refuse to stoop low enough to give you an answer. But tell you what I’ll do. My driver is sitting right there & I’ll ask HIM to come up & respond.

* Please don’t miss this truth; you have a story to tell and your story needs to be told. But it needs to be told right.

* The story we want to tell is not necessarily the story which needs to be told. Living in a day of unbridled and even uncontrolled sentimentalism we tend to tell our story in terms of our earthly family and friends. While this portion of our lives is indeed important, it is not the most important. The most important story we can tell is rooted in the Bible and in the very words of Jesus Himself.

* John 3 records Jesus as saying, “unless someone is born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God” and then He continues, “God loved the world in this way: He gave His one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.”

* When we hear this, we say, “Well yeah, you’re right. And someone needs to tell this story; it just needs to be someone else.” And herein lays the rub. It seems that few, if any, who claim to have been forgiven of their sins, lives changed, hearts remade, and saved from the eternal punishment of hell have any desire to tell the story to one who doesn’t know, hasn’t heard, and is hopeless.

* There is a story to be told. It is an important story which is a matter of life and death, heaven & hell, saved & lost.

* This morning I ask two question; (give the questions)

1) Why should I tell the story? Let’s just candid. The reason I begin with this question is that so many seem to dismiss the thought that we have both the responsibility and privilege of telling the story. For years, pastors and leaders have told us we should share our faith and tell our story about our faith but it seems we have become almost anesthetized to our responsibilities to tell. So let me offer 3 reasons to tell the story: