HOW & WHY
Discipleship. • Sermon • Submitted
0 ratings
· 3 viewsleading someone to Salvation thru a HOW or WHY approach.
Notes
Transcript
Are you the How or the WHY?
Are you the How or the WHY?
“How and Why”
(Guitar vamp several measures)
Welcome, welcome! Come and join us today, Gateway Church, as we lift our hearts and our voices to our Lord and Savior, our friend, and Father. Let us worship this morning.
Song: Ten Thousand Reasons
Good morning, everyone, good to see you and to hear you. Let us welcome each other and the Holy Spirit into our house this morning. Prayer…Lord, we are here to WORSHIP you this morning, to give this time to you and to lift our hearts and voices to you. Join us here.
Song: Here I Am to Worship
We will take a quick pause to remind you this evening is our Diving Deeper discussion. We have been so encouraged by the fellowship and conversations we have had the past two weeks and invite you to come join us, Diving Deeper at 5:00 tonight here at the church.
Song: Yet Not I But Through Christ In Me
Ahh Amen, that’s right, it is Not I but through Christ In Me that we are moved to do all things for His glory…
Prayer Requests:
Message: How and Why
I want to begin our message this morning with a story about scoring in the game of football. Our son, Riley, who many of you have met, was a running back in high school. Now, he wasn’t a real big guy, 5-9 and 145 pounds. And he wasn’t a real fast guy. He usually came in mid-pack among the sprinters. But he was an agile guy, and he was a gutsy guy, and he wasn’t afraid to get hurt a little. And in his mind, and in his heart he was a great running back. But to tell the truth, Riley, was not a great running back. He only rushed the end zone for a touchdown once in his entire high school career. He couldn’t seem to carry the ball further than five yards to eight yards at a time. But it wasn’t entirely Riley’s fault. You see, often times when he received the snap or the sneak pass, he would head straight into the wall of the defenders, like he had been coached to do, only to be held up and often flattened by the defensive line. He knew HOW the play was supposed to go. He was supposed to have big men going before him, holding the line to allow him to break through for a rushing gain. But most times he would peal himself up off the ground, look around at his own offensive lineman, shake his head in frustration and make the motion of “where were you guys?” while the line coach on the sideline was throwing his hands in the air saying Where were you guys?
After a few more plays, Riley, out of sheer bullheadedness would just drop his shoulder and carry the ball into a wall of defenders, trying out of guts and tenacity, to gain some yards. It never worked too well for him.
Then we watched a game one time where our opponents had their offensive line working like a machine. Literally, it looked like a machine advancing itself ten yards at a time down the field. The snap was made and those O guys would build a wall in the shape of an inverted horseshoe where their running back advanced quickly and safely until a hole was made for him to bust free down the field into the end zone. That team knew WHY you protect the running back, not just HOW.
So with that understanding of how to score in football by making an intentional team effort to protect the guy who has the ball, today we are going are going to consider the Gospel. As Christ followers, we each are carrying a ball. We are trying to get across that plane of the end zone in order to score, or to help someone else score the eternal inheritance only faith in Jesus Christ can give. So let me ask you, How do you share the Gospel? Why do you share the Gospel. Is the HOW more important that they WHY, or is the reason WHY people need Jesus and His word in their life more crucial that HOW to get Jesus and His word into their life?
Turn with me to
Romans 10:9 in your Bibles:
If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
“If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”
That is the HOW of the Good News of Jesus Christ. It is simple to understand, simple to do. That is HOW you take that ball into your hands and get through that defensive line in life and score the way, the truth and the life of Jesus Christ. It is the way to eternal life with Him.
Now turn in your bibles to
Romans 3:23:
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
“for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” That is the WHY the world needs the Good News of Jesus Christ. It is simple to understand. This is WHY you need a defender to block the blows and make a way through that defensive line in life to help you score eternal life. And that is WHY we as people will struggle to get through that line and end up getting smeared on the field of life without the saving grace of Jesus Christ.
So let me ask, which of these, the HOW of asking Jesus into your life, or the WHY of you needing to ask Jesus into your life, is more important?
Now, I don’t want you to answer just yet. We are going to use the remainder of our time this morning in its discussion.
Some of us are HOW people. Now, “How” is absolutely essential in knowing the steps to take to begin, complete, and accomplish something. Follow these directions and you will arrive at your end destination or your end result. How is an action. People of action like the How of anything.
Our son Riley is a HOW guy. When he was playing football, he was so focused on the end destination, the end result, the END ZONE, that he was going to get there no matter HOW. Even if he had to bust through the defensive line himself. Sometimes it didn’t work so well for him.
Jesus tell us in Matthew 28:19
Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
to take the gospel into all the nations but does he give us the clear direct instructions on HOW to do this? I am speaking of how we share the gospel with others. Do we just go up to some random person and start sharing the gospel and good news with Jesus in a way that projects our opinion onto them and try to get them to believe the way we do by saying they will accept Jesus after a 1 minute Romans Road gospel presentation?
Picture this, someone walks up to you and suggests you need to quit gossiping about people. How likely are you to tell them to go take a leap in a lake? Who are they to tell me my business? What did this person have for influence in your life? Nothing right. In essence this is what we do when we share the gospel in this style. Were trying to break thru the defensive line on our own without Jesus working on our offense. I exaggerated this to make a point. Truthfully I know we don’t all approach sharing the gospel this way and Jesus didn’t approach his ministry this way either.
We can think of the example of Jesus speaking to the adulterous woman. in John 4 we read of such an encounter when Jesus meets a Samaritan woman at the well. Already Jesus and the disciples knew of her background, a Semaritan who in those days was one of the “unlikables” of the culture. Yet Jesus comes right out and says in verse 10 “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him he would have given you living water. “ Essentially Jesus is telling this woman she NEEDS JESUS. She wasn’t understanding him. Yet he goes on to explain in verse 13, Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water i give him will never thirst.” She then wants the water. But then here is the game changer, Jesus does something different, he goes to the WHY. Watch this, in verse 16 he says “Go, call your husband and come back.” She replies, “I have no husband.” At this point there is a life connection, a relationship is planted through an exchange of personal interest. Now, I want to acknowledge here that Jesus, being God in flesh, does have one huge advantage on this offensive line, He is all knowing and He KNOWS this woman, so he is able to go to the WHY. He knew this woman has no husband and in fact has had five husbands. Now, is this something you or I could find out from one of those random people we approach with the Godspel? Not unless we start asking questions, getting to know them, entering into a relationship with them. Then they can begin opening up to us and sharing with us their hurts, and hang-ups.
Jesus was the HOW....but he also is the WHY. This is how we do it folks. Jesus was the running back and the offensive line. He can play both positions with ease and expertise. If you need him to carry the ball, do the HOW part, while you are bringing peole the gospel, let him. If you need him to block and hold the line and be the WHY while you are sharing the love of Jesus, let him. There is no one before the other, the HOW and WHY are equally important.
We are all geared differently. Some of us are HOWs, get it done, move on. Some of us are WHYs, give me a reason to do this before I do this.
Therefore if we begin speaking to someone about jesus when we’ve only known them for a little while how are we going influence them? You and I are voicing our opinion of an idea or concept of salvation when we really don’t know anything about them? This is what I call sharing the How of Evangelism pre-maturely. All we know is they are sinners in need of a savior.
Romans 3:23 comes to mind again.
I have spent most of the last 20+ years of my life trying to sell products, ideas, and concepts that have not been very successful with this style of approach. We are called to share the Gospel, however the success of it taking up root and growing has to do with a lot more than just sharing. It has responsibilities tied to salvation called discipleship, maturing the new Christian, and walking with him in step to help them grow strong in the faith. When we share the gospel we will only get one chance to do it, so lets do it to the best of our ability and help Jesus by playing the game in our favor and building a great O LINE. The goal when we share the gospel is to have the person were sharing with ask “So how do I become a Christian”. The Methods reflect the message!!! If the Method is good the Message will be good!
The Law of Timing from John Maxwell Book 21 Laws of leadership
Jesus understood this better than anyone.
tells us timing is very important.
Therefore Jesus told them, “My time is not yet here; for you any time will do.
Man usually puts God on his own time.
Just like the running back needs a hole to go thru it all has to be timed just right in order for successful execution.
Are we willing to learn how to time it wright for the best opportunity for success?
A well timed execution makes for a successful execution!
We desperately need the running back to carry the ball and we desperately need the linemen to make a hole in order to win.
Jesus is our offensive line giving us the hole to run thru. When he gives you a hole and you know without a shadow of a doubt that you need to run the ball we want you well prepared to run the ball into the end zone for score.
If were living a life of freedom in Jesus Christ I am firm believer it shows in our walk. When we hit that wall of defensive linemen we have a wall of offensive linemen leading us forward into the salvation message. Yet if we are not showing the life of Jesus Christ people see that too.
The HOW
What if we ask questions like
do you sense a spirit about your being in life?
Do you believe in a GOD of the Universe?
Do you struggle with lots of challenges in life?
Are you really stressed out a lot of the time?
Do you feel just downtrodden from survival of the world?
Would you like to know what real freedom feels like?
Does your job cause you lots of stress?
Do people aggravate you?
Are you feeling like you cant handle this world?
Does your spirit feel crushed or defeated?
Do you feel like you have unmet needs?
WHAT DO WE DO?
Start with those that are looking for a solution and Identify with you!
Find out the unmet need and offer up the opportunity for Jesus to work and heal that unmet need. If they accept the offer now they are open to hearing about the gospel truth of Jesus Christ, and want to know the HOW in order to experience the fulfilling power of Jesus Christ salvation!
Luke 4:18
“The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
Jesus ministry consisted of bringing the good news to the poor, proclaim freedom for the prisoners, recovery of sight to the blind, and to set the oppressed free. Jesus came to do all of these things for for any believer, brand new ore spiritually mature. This was his mission and he lived out faithfully.
Those of us that have accepted Jesus Christ as our savior know the gospel is about God sending his Son into the world to save us,
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
from our sin by dying a blameless death on a the Cross for our sin in this fallen world in order that we can spend eternity with him in Heaven.
We all know as Christians this is the answer to getting into heaven.
Like a great offensive line I am certain that the way to share the gospel that will likely yield best results is to come the point in sharing the gospel with someone that they ask, “HOW DO I GET THAT”? Leading with Y will almost certainly yield best results due the fact people know you care when you ask them several questions.
At the end of the day you can chose to lead with the HOW of sharing the gospel of Jesus or you can choose the WHY of sharing the Gospel of Jesus neither one is wrong as long as you ask Jesus to go before you.
More scripture from Roman’s Road… https://www.christianity.com/wiki/salvation/what-is-the-romans-road-to-salvation.html
CLOSING PRAYER
SONG: Because He Lives