Telling Your Story - Contagious Christianity

Telling Your Story - Contagious Christianity


Most of us have heard that being a “preacher’s kid” can be difficult for a young child. A preacher’s little boy who was told by his mother that he should wash his hands because there were germs living in all the dirt he’d been playing in. He looked up at his mother and got this really disgusted look on his face. “Germs? Germs?” He said. “Germs and Jesus! Germs and Jesus! That’s all I ever hear around this house! And I’ve never seen either one!”

At that young age, that little boy wasn’t sure he was comfortable believing in something that he hadn’t seen. A lot of people are like that.

Remember how Thomas reacted to the news that Jesus had risen from the dead? John 20:25 tells us that Thomas told the other disciples, “I won’t believe it unless I see the nail wounds in his hands, put my fingers into them, and place my hand into the wound in his side.”

Thomas had difficulty believing in something he had not seen and touched.

John wrote “….. what we ourselves have actually seen and heard so that you may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.” (1 John 1:3)

Now, you’d think that it would be easier for us if we, like the Apostle John here, could claim to have seen and touched and heard Jesus. You’d think that it would be easier for us to convince people about Jesus if we ourselves had actually seen and touched and heard Jesus.

But the Gospels repeatedly point out that even when people PERSONALLY SAW the miraculous power of Jesus, they still rejected Him. Even when they heard from the lips of those who had personally seen Jesus they still would not believe. Being an eye-witness to Jesus did NOT make it easier to convince people to become Christians.

Lee Strobe, in his book “Inside the Mind of Unchurched Harry and Mary”, maintained that the unchurched aren’t necessarily looking for miracles and appearances of Christ.

• The unchurched haven’t necessarily rejected God - they’ve rejected “church.”

• Many of them are morally adrift, but they secretly want an anchor.

• They often don’t understand Christianity, but they’re also ignorant about what they claim to believe in.

• Often they’re not so much concerned with the question of “Is Christianity true?” Instead, they’re more concerned with “Does Christianity work and how can I experience it?”

In other words, just like the people in John’s day… the unchurched today want to hear about what YOU’VE seen…

what YOU’VE touched…

what YOU’VE heard

They want to know if it works for you.

A woman put an ad in the local paper: “Lost 50 pounds! Selling my fat clothes – they’re in good condition, sizes 18-20.” She was bombarded with phone calls, but nobody wanted to buy the clothes – they all wanted to know how she had lost the 50 pounds.

You see, the callers wanted to know about something that had changed her life hoping that this something could change their lives too!!!

That’s what the unchurched are really looking for. They want to know if Jesus really works in your life.

Now… there are a couple of ways that can help your friends decide Jesus works in your life:

1st they can hear your story

• Why did you become a Christian?

• Why do think Jesus has made a difference in your life?

• Or… why are you a Christian?

Now, I’m going to do something really scary for me… I’m going to quit talking for a few moments. The reason that’s scary is that I never stop talking! And, no I do not need any feedback here! 

But I want you to take a few moments and answer at least one of those questions. You can write your answer on your copy of the lesson, or you can write in some corner of your mind. But for the next few moments, I want you to ponder on these questions:

• Why did you become a Christian?

• Why do think Jesus has made a difference in your life?

• Or… why are you a Christian?

The reason for this “exercise”, is because some believers have never given much thought to those questions. They never give much thought to why they are Christians or even to why they first became Christians. They simply go thru the motions of going to church and Sunday school and Bible studies and youth activities… but they often times they don’t consider why they do them. And so they have a hard time explaining to others why they should love Jesus like they do.

SO 1st – to help people understand how Jesus has worked in your life, they can hear your story .

THEN a 2nd way up can convince them Jesus works is if they can see Jesus in your life.

On the way home from church a little girl who said, “Mom, I’ve been thinking.”

The mother said, “Oh! About what?”

The girl replied, “Well, my teacher this morning said God is bigger than we are. Is that true?”

“Yes, that’s true,” the mother replied.

“He also said that God lives within us. Is that true too?”

Again the mother replied, “Yes.”

“Well,” said the girl. “If God is bigger than us and He lives in us, wouldn’t He show through?”

You and I need to ask ourselves – does Jesus show thru our lives.

But… how would we know if Jesus is showing thru? Galatians 5:22-23 will give us some insight into this. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.”

If you show these qualities in your life… people will see Jesus in you.

OK… SO HOW DOES THAT WORK?

Let’s just pick one of these “fruits” out of the list as an illustration. Galatians tells us that one of the fruits of the Spirit is having joy.

So… do people see you being filled with joy? When people are around you – do they see you being at peace. Contented with your life…? Or do they see you as one who complains about things instead?

Now… we all complain now and again. In fact, let’s take a poll. How many of you have complained at least once this week?

Ok. So we all complain when life gets uncomfortable or someone has rubbed us a little raw… but some people seem to have developed that trait of complaining down to a fine art. If you asked them, they might even try to explain to you that this is somehow their Spiritual gift.

A pastor tells the story of a man in his church that reminded him of a rose. He did beautiful things for the church. He’d worked with the youth, he’d been actively involved in outreach for church, worked with missions. He was extremely talented. He was just like a rose – so much that was beautiful about him. But roses have thorns, and so did he. Whenever you were around him all he did was complain.

He complained about the preacher, the church leadership, the music, the way the church did this…

-or did not do that. He never seemed to be happy. He had no joy in his life. He was just like a rose. There was so much that was beautiful about him. But being around him was like holding on to the stem of a rose that loaded with thorns. He had no joy in him… and that made him really uncomfortable to be around.

DO YOU KNOW SOMEONE LIKE THAT?

They’ll complain a lot about how things are going at work, or at home, or at church?

They might say… “Well you don’t understand my situation… You don’t understand the type of people I have to deal with!

Well, no… we don’t. You nor I really know what other people have to go thru in their life and what effect it can have on their outlook on life.

But we need to understand that joy isn’t so much a BY-PRODUCT of life or our circumstances… as it is a CHOICE that we make.

And that’s the way it is with us to belong to Jesus Christ: we get make choices in our lives. And because we belong to Jesus we have the opportunity to choose the brightest and most cheerful “fruits” because we have a reason to do so.

Now there are some people that just come naturally by these traits of love and joy and patience and long-suffering. But for most of us this can be a struggle at times. The reason we can show these fruit of the Spirit in our lives – even when we’re faced with difficult situations and people around us – is because Jesus shines in our lives and brightens up even the darkest corners.

John wrote: “…if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.” 1 John 1:7

You see… Jesus has the power to just light up our lives so that the vibrant colors can truly color our lives. And when people see that in us… they see Jesus.