Greater Works

If you have Bible, and I hope you do, turn with me to John 5. If visiting with us, feel free to look on with someone around you. Know also that we have Bibles available for you, whenever you come in (or when you leave today) at the Welcome Desk in the Lobby. Feel free to use the Table of Contents in the Bible to find the book of John, and then we’re going to be in Chapter 5. If you’re not familiar with the Bible, know that the big numbers are the Chapter numbers, and the little numbers are verse numbers. So in just a moment, we’re going to start reading in John Chapter 5, verse 16.

And let me also invite you to pull out the notes from the Worship Guide that you received when you came in, as well as this little booklet. And if you haven’t received one of these, I’m going to reference it during the sermon today, so it’d be helpful for you to have one. Our ushers are going to be walking up and down the aisles, and if you missed one when you were coming in, just raise your hand, and they will get one to you.

The Church at Brook Hills …

While we’re doing that, I want to give a quick overview of where we’ve been and where we’re going as The Church at Brook Hills. First, let’s think about where we’ve already been this year. Last month, we walked through a series in January that we called “Faith Family”, where we spent time thinking about what it means for us to be a church, a community of faith, of brothers and sisters who have come together for one primary purpose: To glorify God by making disciples of all nations. We walked through what it means to be a member of the church, talking about how every member of the church is a disciple-maker, and we explored what that looks like in practice, as we gather together to glorify God, and then we scatter into small groups all over this city where together we are making disciples, and we intentionally go beyond this city to make disciples and multiply churches in all nations.

And last month, we encouraged one another to walk through a personal disciple-making plan. If you haven’t done that, you can still download that from our website. It is an intentional plan for how we are going to grow as disciples of Jesus and give our lives this year to making disciples of Jesus. I had the privilege this weekend of walking through that personal disciple-making plan with our students. You’ll notice the shirt I’m wearing is a reflection of that. In our 11:00 worship gathering, there will be a sea of students wearing this shirt, as together they have been thinking through what does being a disciples and making disciples look like in a 6th grader’s life, a 9th grader’s life, a 12th grader’s life. And can I just say how grateful I am for God’s grace in the students in this faith family. They are doing this.

I was talking with a few guys last night who started a Bible study in their home in an effort to more intentionally make disciples, and it has grown to the point where now, on a Friday night every two weeks, about 60 teenagers cram into their basement to grow in Christ. And they’re leading their friends to Jesus, and they’re intentionally making disciples of Jesus in big and small ways. And I was just blown away by their hunger for God’s Word, and hunger to be a part of God’s grand global purpose in their lives.

At the same time, they wore me out. After spending time in different homes late Friday night and in mission projects across the city yesterday, I am looking forward to a nap this afternoon! But wow, I am just proud and grateful for God’s grace in these students and in this faith family. At the same time, parents were gathering together this weekend to consider how they can most effectively make disciples with their own lives and in their parenting. And just across this board, this last month, I have been so encouraged hearing ways that you are glorifying God by making disciples of all nations.

So that’s where we were last month, in a way that I hope will drive us the rest of the year. And it leads right into where we’re going the next two months in a series title that you might recognize called, “Threads”. Last year, when our elders got together and prayed and sought the Lord and asked Him, “Where do we most need to grow as a faith family?” and consequently, “What are you leading us to hear and apply from your Word in the coming year?”, there were two particular topics, including one particular Bible book, that were abundantly clear in our discussions with one another. It was awesome; we split up and spent time in prayer, and then we came back together, and there was such unity around the room when it comes to what we sensed we were hearing from the Lord in two particular areas.

And the first area was personal evangelism, personal sharing of the gospel. We sensed that amidst of our talk about making disciples, we as a whole (as a church) were not passionately leading people that we know and work with and live around to Christ. To use language from Jesus’ words to the church at Ephesus in Revelation 2, we were forsaking our first love, which I believe Revelation 2 has much to do with forsaking love for people who need Jesus, which obviously flows from love for Jesus Himself. Twenty-plus years ago, this church was started with a passionate commitment to leading unchurched people to Jesus.

That’s one of the strongest legacies of this church from its inception. But as our elders prayed, we sensed that we have neglected this, particularly among the people right around us. We talk about making the gospel known among the nations, as we should, but we have neglected to make the gospel known among our neighbors in the process.

And this is foundational for every follower of Jesus. Being a disciple and making disciples, in a sense, starts with leading people to Jesus. I’ve told you the story before of believers in persecuted areas of the world – areas of the world where it’s dangerous to be a Christian. As soon as they lead a new brother or sister to Christ, the first thing they do is encourage this brother or sister to make a list of every single person they know. So a new believer lists every person they know, and then this new believer is told to circle the ten people on that list who are least likely to kill them if they share the gospel. And then they’re encouraged immediately to share the gospel with those ten people.

That’s the starting point of being a disciple in that part of the world. And yet it’s so neglected in the lives of disciples all around the world, including here. There are so many Christians (followers of Jesus) who are not actively leading other people to Jesus. Good church members are doing great things in the church or in the community; great people, sincere followers of Jesus, who aren’t leading people to Jesus. And I don’t say that to make you feel guilty if you aren’t leading people to Jesus, or to make you proud if you are. But I say this simply to say to each of us and all of us in this faith family: God has saved us by His grace through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus from the grave, and He will save all who trust in Him. So don’t you want to lead other people to trust in Him? And I think you want to; it’d be impossible to truly be a follower of Jesus and not want to. But you wonder, “How do I do that? How do I intentionally lead people to Jesus in my life?”

And that’s where this series comes in. I want to help us think through how to lead people to Jesus – each of us – in all of our lives. So we’re going to set the stage for this series today in a sermon I’ve entitled, “Greater Works”. And then we’re going to think together about five different gospel threads over the next five weeks. And some of you may remember this picture of gospel threads from something we dove into back in 2008, five years ago. But we’re going to explore the gospel biblically and then think very practically together about how we can weave threads of the gospel into the fabric of our conversations every day.

Then, I’ve asked Jim Shaddix to lead us through two texts where we see “Gospel Threads Illustrated” on March 17 and March 24. Basically, how did Jesus (in one instance) and Paul (in another instance) share the gospel? And my prayer is, my hope is, that in the middle of all this, each of us will be sharing the gospel with people that we are praying would come to know Christ? And hopefully, people will be coming to Christ. I believe it will happen. When the people of God filled with the Spirit of God actually share the gospel of God, people come to Jesus. This is the way it works. Speak it, and they will come!

Now all of this will then lead up to Easter on March 31. This is always an intentionally evangelistic gathering. So maybe there are people that haven’t come to Christ that you’ve been praying for, and the goal is to invite them to be here on that Sunday, where the gospel will be clear. We will obviously be focusing on the resurrection of Christ. And let’s be praying that many people on that day will come to faith in Christ. Let’s be planning to invite people to be with us on that day. Christian, don’t come alone on Easter Sunday. Plan now not to be alone on that day. And hopefully, prayerfully, the Lord will draw many people to Himself that day.

This will then lead to the last week in this series, where I’ve asked Jim to show us what “Beginning New Life In Christ” involves. So for people who have come to Christ throughout this series, people who have come to Christ the week before at Easter, on this Sunday, we’ll dive into, “Alright, now that you have begun a relationship with Christ, how does this play out on a day-to-day basis?” So hopefully this Sunday will be particularly helpful for new followers of Jesus, and also helpful for you as you have led friends or co-workers or neighbors or family members to Jesus. Hopefully this Sunday will be helpful in equipping you as you begin to show them first steps in following Christ.

So that’s the plan over the next eight weeks. We want to be intentional as a faith family to pray and work for the spread of the gospel in our lives to people that we are around every day. And I mentioned this a couple of weeks ago, as well, but if you’re here this morning and you’re not a follower of Jesus, and you’re thinking this is really weird – this group of people who are making lists of people who don’t know Jesus and coming after them – I can only imagine how weird that might feel for you, like you’re being targeted or something. But look at it this way: Just assume for a minute – and I know this may be a big assumption for some – but assume that the Bible is true. And assume that God really loves you so much that He sent His Son to die on the cross for your sins, and He raised Him from the dead as a guarantee of His victory over not just sin, but death itself, so that everyone who turns from their sin and themselves and trusts in Jesus as Savior and Lord will be restored to God forever, saved from the penalty of sin (eternal death and hell) to know and enjoy God forever (eternal life in heaven). If that is true, then the last thing you would want is a bunch of people knowing that truth and telling you nothing about it. You wouldn’t want a bunch of church people singing about this every week but not speaking about it to people they supposedly love around them. It would be the height of hate for them to hide this truth from you, and it would be the height of love for them to share this truth with you. And for that matter, I hope that you see God’s love for you today in even bringing you to this place to hear this truth: God loves you and will save you from your sin if and when you trust Him with your life.

John 5:16—29 Helps Us Combat the Fear of Sharing the Gospel

And Christian, I know that sharing the gospel can be one of the most challenging things for you to do. I know that because, if it wasn’t so challenging, we’d all be doing it, but we’re not. And so I wonder why not. And I’ve thought a lot about this: Why don’t followers of Jesus — authentic followers of Jesus — passionately and consistently share Jesus? And I think one of the primary reasons, if not the primary reason, is fear. Fear in different forms.

Around the world, there’s fear of repercussions, persecution that may come, and that often silences the spread of the gospel. But obviously we don’t have that here. Struggles we face certainly are not anywhere close to many of our brothers and sisters around the world, but there’s still fear.

There’s fear of rejection. And maybe even more than that, there’s a fear of awkwardness ingrained into our culture and our relationships with other people. We don’t like being in awkward conversations; we avoid awkward conversations. We avoid confrontation when we can; we avoid tension. If anything is going to make a conversation awkward or tense, we just shy away from it. And we know that when you bring up Jesus at the workplace, or Jesus with your neighbor out in the yard, things are going to get awkward quick. And so one of my goals in this series in particular is to show how sharing the gospel is not intended to be an awkward intrusion into your conversations with others, but a natural part of your conversations with others.

And this morning, I want to show you that these natural conversations are the overflow of a supernatural relationship that you and I have with God. Let me show it to you; let’s read John 5:16—29. At the beginning of this chapter, Jesus heals a lame man beside the pool of Bethesda. For 38 years, this man had been unable to walk, and Jesus says to him, “Take up your bed, and walk,” and the man does. Now it was the Sabbath when this happened, and some religious leaders saw this man walking with his bed on the Sabbath, and they scolded him for it. The man looked back at them and said, “Hey, the teacher told me to take up my bed and walk. And by the way, guys, did you notice, I can walk!” Well, that didn’t please these guys because you weren’t supposed to heal on the Sabbath either, and that’s where we pick up. Verse 16,

And this was why the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath. But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.”

This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.

So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel. For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will. The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.

“Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. And he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man. Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.”

The Work of the Father and the Son …

Jesus knew God the Father was working.

Now what I want you to see hidden away in the middle of this defense of Jesus’ deity is an astounding picture of the Work of the Father and the Son together. How did Jesus (God the Son) relate to, work with God the Father while He was on earth? I want us to see six truths from this, and we’ll go through them pretty quickly. One, first and foremost, Jesus knew that God the Father was working. Verse 17, “My Father is working.” Even on the Sabbath, a day of rest, there’s clearly a sense in which God is working. He is sustaining the universe.

And He is seeking after His people. Day after day after day, God is restoring His people to Himself, so Jesus says, “My Father is working to restore people to Himself, so I’m working to restore people to Him.” Jesus says, “I’m simply doing what the Father is doing.” Jesus’ activity is not self-initiated; God the Father is initiating the work of God the Son.

Jesus knew that apart from the Father, He could do nothing.

This then leads to the second truth here: Jesus knew that apart from the Father, He could do nothing. Verse 19, “Truly, truly I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord…” Nothing! What a statement for God the Son to say that He is totally dependent on God the Father! And this is emphasized over and over again in the book of John. Jesus says right after what we just read in John 5:30, “I can do nothing on my own” – nothing – “I can do nothing on my own.” Don’t miss this; this is huge: Jesus’ work was totally dependent on the Father’s work. He never acted independently from the Father. He did nothing – could do nothing – by Himself. He was totally dependent on the Father.

Jesus looked and listened to know where and how the Father was working. So how did this work? Third truth: Jesus looked and listened to know where and how the Father was working. Last part of verse 19, “The Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing.” Verse 20 says, “the Father shows Jesus all that He is doing.” Jesus looked and listened to see and hear – to know – where and how the Father was working.

And we see illustrations of this throughout the Gospels. Whether it’s Jesus going out of His way to a well on the outskirts of Samaria to meet with a woman there, with whom He would share good news of living water for her soul. Or another woman who was deeply sick and amidst a crowd of people reaches out to touch his clothes, and He stops and turns around and heals her. Or Zaccheus, a wee little man, sitting up in a sycamore tree, and Jesus sees him – a man in whom the Father is working – and Jesus calls him down and says, “Let’s go eat at your house.” See Jesus in constant tune with the Father, even earlier in this chapter. In John 5, He was going out of His way to the pool at Bethesda, to the lame among whom no one else hung out, to heal this man. Jesus is doing what He sees the Father doing. His life, His ministry, is a response to what He observes the Father doing around Him.

Jesus joined the Father wherever and however He was working. This leads to the fourth truth: Jesus joined the Father wherever and however He was working. End of verse 19, “Whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise.” Right before this, in John 4, Jesus told His disciples, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.” He said in John 12:50, “I say what the Father tells me to say.” In John 15:10, He said, “I do what the Father tells me to do.” Whatever the Father says to do, Jesus does. Whatever the Father says to say, Jesus says. Ultimately revealed in John 12 when Jesus is approaching the cross and He says, “What shall I say, save me for this hour? No, it was for this reason I came to this hour. Father, glorify Your name!” And He walks the road to the cross. “Not my will, but yours be done.” Jesus joined the Father wherever and however the Father was working, even when it meant His life.

Jesus knew that the Father involved Him in His work because the Father loved Him.

But even in that, don’t misunderstand this fifth truth: Jesus knew that the Father involved Him in His work because the Father loved Him. Verse 20, “For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing.” See the intimacy here. We usually think of the Father’s love for the world, like John 3:16; but we need to remember first and foremost the Father’s love for His Son. The Greek word for love here is “phileo” – a friendship! And it’s evident throughout John. John 6:57, “I live because of the Father.” John 8:38, “I speak of what I have seen with my Father.” John 10:30, “I and the Father are one.” The Father shows His love for the Son by disclosing Himself fully to the Son. This is not a relationship between a master and slave, or of an employer and employee. No, this is a Father and Son working together, united together by love in the Godhead.

Jesus knew that the Father’s work in Him had eternal ramifications. This is an astounding picture, and it leads to this sixth truth: Jesus knew that the Father’s work in Him had eternal ramifications. He goes in the rest of what we read to talk about how the Father raises the dead and gives them life. The Father has appointed the Son as the Judge of all, and whoever hears the words of Jesus and believes them has eternal life, while whoever does not, will be eternally judged. Eternity – your eternity and my eternity – rests on how we respond to God the Father’s work in and with and through God the Son. Jesus knew that the Father’s work in Him had eternal ramifications.

John 5:16—29 Reminds Us that the Holy Spirit Works in Us

Now, this passage is clearly describing the unique relationship between the Father and the Son in the Godhead – in the Trinity. The Bible teaches that there are three persons in one God – God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, each distinct persons comprising the one true God. And what I want to do is to draw a correlation between the work of the Father and the Son, and the work of the Spirit in the Christian. And this may sound like a stretch at first, but when you realize what Jesus says later in the book of John, you realize this is no stretch. This relationship between the Father and the Son has huge implications for our understanding of the work of God’s Spirit (the third member of the Trinity) in our lives. Look at this. In Chapter 5, verse 20, Jesus says, “The Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel.” Now is there a place later in John where we see Jesus talking like this? There is, and it’s when, before He goes to the cross, Jesus is talking with His disciples about His Spirit whom He will send into their lives.

Turn over there with me, first to John 14:10. Now obviously, I am not saying that our relationship with God the Father is exactly the same as Jesus’ relationship with God the Father, notably because we’re not Jesus; we’re not God. We’re not another member of the Trinity. But look at this with me in John 14:10. Jesus is talking with His disciples, and He recounts what we just saw in John 5, using really similar language. The passage says, “Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works.

Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves.” And then, watch what He says in verse 12: “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.” Jesus says, “I did the work of the Father on earth. But you, my disciples, you are going to do even greater works than the works I did.”

What a statement!

Why would and how could Jesus make that statement? Well, listen to His reasoning. “Because I am going to the Father.” Why is that important? I’m glad you asked. Because when the Son goes to the Father, the Son will send the Spirit into the Christian’s life. John 14:15—17 says, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.” You see the same thing in John 14:25—26. It says, “These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.” Again, the same thing is found in John 15:26—27: “But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me. And you also will bear witness, because you have been with me from the beginning.” Again, you read it in John 16:5—8. It says,

But now I am going to him who sent me, and none of you asks me, “Where are you going?” But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment…

One more time in John 16:13—15, it says,

When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

And then, one last time in John 17:20—23:

I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.

Do you see this? This relationship between God the Father and God the Son that we have seen in John 5 is intended to be reflected and realized and experienced in our relationship with God the Father and God the Son through God the Spirit.

Follow this: Jesus desires for us to work with Him and the Father through the Spirit in the same way that He worked. Not just in the same that He worked, but in greater ways than He worked! Can you believe this? God the Father involves you in His work, just as He involved Jesus in His work. There are clear parallels between the work of God the Father and God the Son, and work of the holy Spirit in the Christian. And this changes everything about how we share the gospel, how we understand sharing the gospel and doing the work of God.

Be aware …

And based on parallels with these six truths, church, I want to encourage you with six particular exhortations today. These are exhortations that I pray you will apply this week. Not just this week, this afternoon, if you go out to eat or you go to the store or you talk to anybody, but every day this week. Number one: Be aware: God is already at work in the lives of people around you. Our Father is working; our Father is working. Do we believe this? Do we believe that God is working all around us right now in this community? That God is working all around us this week in this community, in this city?

This is huge when we think about sharing our faith. One of the obstacles we face when it comes to sharing our faith is this feeling that we’ve got to create some conversation about the gospel, that we’ve got to go out and do this on our own. But what if we realized that we don’t have to initiate anything? Jesus didn’t. He knew that God was already at work in the lives of people around Him. What if we knew that? What if we knew and believed that God it already at work in the lives of people around us? And what if this is the starting point in sharing our faith?

A few years ago, I spent a couple of weeks in one city in India. The gospel partners we were working with in this relatively gospel-less city asked us to go out every single night into a popular park full of people. “We believe that God is working in people’s hearts in this city,” they told us, “and He wants them to know his love. God has revealed Jesus to some of them in dreams and visions. Others of them have heard a little bit about Him, and they have a desire to know more.” Then they said, “Your job is to go out and find people whose hearts God has prepared, and share the gospel with them.” With that, they prayed that God would direct our steps to people who were open to talking about Jesus, and they sent us out.

Every night, I went into that city park full of confidence. My confidence was not based on my personality or my ability to share the gospel. Instead, my confidence was grounded in the reality that God was already working in people’s lives all throughout that park. He desired their salvation and was drawing them to Himself. Now that didn’t mean that every single person we talked with responded positively to the gospel. But many did. We had numerous fruitful conversations about Christ, and some of the people we met eventually became followers of Christ.

Oh, could it be that God wills for us to approach every single day like this? Maybe He is doing things we have no idea about behind the scenes in the lives of the people we work with, live around, and meet every day. Maybe God has led them into our paths so that they might hear the gospel from us. And maybe when we speak His gospel, He will open their eyes to see His glory. This certainly seems like the daily expectation of the disciples two thousand years ago.

So let’s make it our daily expectation, too. When you go to lunch today, when you shop for groceries later this afternoon, when you gather together with a group of people to watch a game tonight, when you get up tomorrow, whether you walk into an office complex, a construction site, or a classroom, just realize that God is at work somewhere in the lives of people around you. And sharing the gospel fundamentally begins with a sensitivity that says, “I believe God is working in some people’s lives. I don’t have to ultimately initiate anything. He’s got this whole thing rigged, right? I just join Him in what He’s already doing.”

I think about a friend of mine (I’ll call him Ben) who I’ve known for a while, and Ben knows that I’m a follower of Christ. And I hope Ben has seen Christ in me. And one day I was talking with Ben, and Ben began to ask some questions to me about some things in his life, and it was clear that God was working in Ben’s heart. So I invited Ben to go to lunch with me, knowing that I had an opportunity to join in what God was already doing.

Be available …

This leads to second exhortation: Be available: God desires to include you in His work. Oh, there’s this temptation when we have an opportunity to share the gospel, we shirk back and think, “Oh, I wish this person or that person was here. They’d jump right in and take advantage of this opportunity; they’d know what to say.” But this is where I want to encourage you: God has put you in that circumstance; God has put you in that relationship.

God has put you in that workplace. God has put you in that classroom for a reason. He knows what He’s doing, and He desires to include you in His work. Don’t think, “Man, if David was here, or if this pastor or this person was here, they would know what to say.” This is the point of what Jesus was saying in John 14:12. We would do, will do greater works than Jesus because it won’t just be one person on the earth working with the Father; it will be scores of people (Christians everywhere!) filled with the Holy Spirit working with the Father. Oh, God is working all over the world right now. And God is working all over this city this week, and He desires to include you and me in His work.

Be alert …

So I take Ben to lunch, and we begin to talk about various things in our lives and families, but then we begin to talk about spiritual matters and real, honest, tough questions that Ben had. And I began to listen, which leads to this third exhortation: Be alert: Look and listen for evidence of God at work. Now many people will ask, “How do we do that? How do we hear God’s voice and how do we see God’s work?” And this is where I want to encourage you to think about your family. When Heather calls me, she doesn’t have to identify herself.

I know her voice better than anyone else in the world. How? Through my time spent with her; through my time listening to her voice. Or I think about my kids. When I walk in the house and see Legos everywhere, I know two boys have been at work. When I walk in the house and see baby dolls on the floor, I know a little girl has been at work. When I walk in the house and smell something, I know a 2-month-old has been at work.

 

Now think about your relationship with God. The more you know God’s Word, the more you will recognize God’s voice. The more you spend time in God’s presence, the more you will be sensitive to God’s prompting. This is where we realize that our prayer lives and our time in the Word is directly intertwined with sharing our faith. What happens when we get up in the morning, and we hear from God in His Word. And then we pray to Him, spending time with Him, and then before we finish to begin our day, we say, “God, give me a sensitivity to how and where you are working in people’s lives around me today. I know I don’t have to initiate anything. I trust that you are already working, and you have included me in your work, so help me to see and help to hear what you want me to see and hear throughout the day.” That’s a prayer I guarantee God will answer.

And you go throughout the day and you hear people say things like, “I’m really struggling with this.” “I feel bad for doing this.” “I’m wondering why this happened the way it did.” “I’m really afraid of this/that.” What if these are all triggers to help us see and hear what God is doing in people’s lives? Ben looks at me, and he says, “I don’t know what it is, but I’ve really been wrestling with these questions about faith.” And I’m thinking, “I know what it is.” So I say to Ben, “Do you want spend time together on a weekly basis to dive into some of these questions?” And he says, “Yeah, I’d like do to that.”

Be active …

Now that involves a total rearranging of my schedule at that point, which is the fourth exhortation I want to give you: Be active: Sacrifice your agenda each day to join God wherever and however He is working. This is the key, and it relates directly to what we were just talking about. When God shows you where He is at work, it’s His invitation for you to join Him. Remember Jesus; He was committed to joining the Father wherever He was working. Many of us fail to find the will of God because we are not committed to join God wherever He is working.

And this is where I want to encourage you to sacrifice your own agenda on a daily basis, and be willing to reorient your life and schedule around what God is doing in the lives of people around you. And for some of us, that actually may mean rearranging our schedule to prioritize time with people who don’t know Christ in the first place. For many Christians, we hang around Christians all the time. We’ve removed ourselves from non-Christians influences, many times in the name of holiness, and in the process, we’ve missed the point of what it means to follow Christ in the world. If we’re going to share the gospel with people who don’t know Jesus, we must cultivate relationships, meaningful friendships, with people who don’t know Jesus. This is a challenge for me as a pastor, and so I work at this in various ways, spending time in this community in different ways, coaching baseball teams (the 5-year-old Orioles and the 7-year-old Cubs) this season, and in other ways.

Be amazed …

And so I began meeting with Ben, and I prioritized that time in my schedule. And in the process, I found myself not only walking with Ben through questions about his faith, but growing in wonderful ways in my own faith, realizing this fifth exhortation when you are active in sharing your faith: Be amazed: Remember that God has involved you in His work not because He needs you, but because He loves you. Oh, this is such an important realization. When we talk about sharing the gospel over the next eight weeks, we need to remember that we have been given this task, not because God needs us and couldn’t do it without us. That’s far from the case. Think about it: God could write the gospel in the clouds across the sky, and draw people to Himself. But instead, He has chosen, in His mercy, to involve you and me in His work. Why? Because He loves us. This is the case in our relationship with God, and as I started meeting with Ben week after week after week, I found myself enjoying communion with God, working with God, as my Father, I His Son, working with Him to reveal the wonder of His love to Ben.

Be assured …

This leads to the last exhortation: Be assured: God’s work in and through your life will bear fruit that will last forever. Ben came to Christ. Is there anything more valuable that you could give your life to than this, than seeing people brought from death to life? God, do greater works.