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Matt. 10:40-42
“Sharing Jesus in Practical Ways”
Jared and his dad were playing a game of catch one afternoon,
when Jared asked his dad if there was a God.
The dad didn’t know exactly how to answer that question,
since he himself questioned the existence of God.
The little boy went even further, “If there is a God, how
would you know him?”
Again, the dad had no satisfactory answer for his son.
After a few minutes Jared interrupted their game of catch and
headed for the house.
He soon returned with a mylar balloon he had gotten
recently, along with a pen and an index card.
He told his dad, “I’m going to send a message to God –
airmail.” Jared started
writing on the index card, “Dear God, if you are real and if you
are there, send people who know you to Dad and me.”
And with that Jared let go of the balloon and both father
and son watched it sail away.
A
couple of days later, Jared and his dad pulled into a car wash
that a church was holding as part of their outreach into the
community. “How much?”
the dad asked.
“It’s free,” the guy told him. “No
strings attached.”
And when asked why they were doing this, the guy said, “We just
want to show you God’s love in a practical way.”
It was then the father realized that his son’s prayers
had been answered.
That, my friends, is what servant evangelism is all about, doing
acts of humble service with no strings attached.
It’s making God real to others.
It’s sharing Jesus in practical ways.
When Jesus talks about sharing a cup of cold water in today’s
Gospel, he’s talking about practical ways to live the Christian
life. For while
Christianity and our relationship with God is indeed personal in
nature, it is by no means meant to be private.
Our life with God is a
life that is designed to touch others in practical ways.
And so today I’d like us
to look at three principles to share Jesus in practical ways.
Principle #1 is: Do the small thing to show the main thing of
God’s love at work.
Let me give you a “What would you do?” challenge.
You’re driving in your car on a dark, stormy night.
You pass by a bus stop, and you see three people waiting
for the bus: an older woman who looks as if she is about to die,
an old friend who once saved your life, and the perfect man (or)
woman you’ve been dreaming about.
You can only offer one person a ride.
Which one would you choose?
This moral/ethical dilemma was once actually used as part of a
job application. The
candidate who was hired (out of 200 applicants) had no trouble
coming up with the perfect answer.
He answered: “I would
give the car keys to my old friend, and let him take the lady to
the hospital. I would
stay behind and wait for the bus with the woman of my dreams.”
A
lot of times it takes “thinking outside the box.”
In Matthew 10, it’s giving a cup of cold water.
In John 13, the night
before Jesus dies, he washes his disciples feet and then
challenges them to love others, so that everyone will know that
they were his disciples.
In Matthew 25 Jesus talks about feeding the hungry,
giving water to the thirsty, clothing the naked, welcoming the
stranger, taking care of the sick, visiting those in prison.
It’s about doing the small thing to show the main thing
of God’s love at work for we never know what small act of
kindness will touch and change a life.
Principle #2 is: understand that simple acts done with great
love will change the world.
Think for a moment how God came into this world.
How did he come?
Not with bells and
whistles, not riding white horses with trumpets blaring, he came
as a baby. He touched
people at their point of need, not just to heal them physically
or to lift their spirits, but to change their lives.
He came and gave his life
on a cross, on an instrument of death, to pay for our sins and
to change the world with his love.
God was well aware that
we’d never achieve salvation on our own, so he sent his Son to
die for us and his Holy Spirit to lead us to faith and to change
our hearts. And now
God invites us to share his love in practical ways so that he
can change the hearts of others, too.
Principle #3 is: realize that our power to serve isn’t based on
who we are, but who Jesus is through us.
It’s real easy to feel guilty or inadequate, to think that we’re
not doing enough to show love toward others.
The reason we feel guilty
or inadequate is because we try to love under our own power.
But in reality the power to share Jesus in practical ways
comes from Christ himself. Paul
knew this to be true.
Even when he was in prison, Paul knew and experienced the
power of Christ at work, and that’s why he tells the Philippians
and us in Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things through Christ
who strengthens me.”
Salvation and life with God isn’t by our power, but by what
Christ has done. Once a
Sunday School teacher asked her class, “If I sold my house and
my car, had a big garage sale and gave all my money to the
church, would I get into heaven?”
“No!” all the children answered.
“If I cleaned the church every day, mowed the yard, and kept
everything neat and tidy, would I get into heaven?”
Again, the answer was an
emphatic “no!”
“Well,” the teacher continued, “then how can I get to heaven?”
In the back of the room
one little boy shouted out, “You gotta be dead!”
We
get into heaven not by what we do, but by what Christ has done
for us. The power of the
life we live in love toward God and others flows out of God
working in us.
Nike commercials at one time challenged us to “Just do it!”
Sharing Jesus in
practical ways with a cup of cold water, with a meal, with words
of encouragement, a listening ear, a ride to the doctor’s office
and in so many other ways is a call to just do it.
Yet we need to always
remember why we just do it. Our
actions flow out of the realization that Jesus did it.
He died for us.
He gives us life eternal.
He empowers us with his
presence. He challenges
us to live out our purpose not only in the big moments of life,
but in all of its little ones as well, even a cup of cold water
given in his name.
Dear friends, simple acts done in love might seem so small, yet
when you realize that God is at work through them to change the
lives of others, you’ll discover the joy of sharing Jesus in
practical ways.
AMEN
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