Out of His Abundance // The Freedom to Share Jesus with Others, Part 8

Sometimes, we can be a bit shy about sharing our faith in Jesus with others, because, well frankly, our own lives aren’t looking so flash right now.  So, when life isn’t going along just the way you’d hoped, when perhaps you yourself are wondering what He's up to, how do you share Jesus with others?

You know sharing Jesus with others can feel like a tough gig sometimes. Especially when our own lives, well they're not going quite so well just at the moment. And let's face it sometimes life, overall, isn't fantastic. And what we're tempted to do is to put on a brave face and pretend you're a super Christian and try and sell people something that, frankly, we don't have happening inside us right now.

Now, people aren't stupid and in an age where they're hungering for spiritual authenticity, people can see right through that kind of sham. No, if we're going to share Jesus with others the whole 'Jesus' thing has to be happening on the inside of us, no matter what's going on the outside.

We and the rest of the world, we tend to judge success on external factors. You think about it, the pastor of a Church is successful when? When they have lots of people in their Church. When they have a big Church. When there's money rolling in. When the building programs doing well, right?

You and I, we're successful when? Well, when we earn a lot of money. When we've got a nice wife or a husband. When we've got three well adjusted children. When we look happy. When we're driving a good car. But we know that that's not what success is about and we know that God doesn't look on the outside stuff, He looks on the inside. He looks on our hearts.

Turns out that God is looking for people whose hearts are a flood with His joy and His love and His peace and a passion for their Saviour. They're the sort of people that God's looking for and when it comes right down to it, today's generation.

You know we live in a world that no longer is impressed by large Church buildings. We live in a world that's no longer impressed by institutional religion, right? We're not into those things anymore. And even though we live in a world that is so incredibly materialistic.

You scratch under the materialist veneer when you meet people, people who have bought everything they could possibly have with the income they have and they want something more. We live in a world where today’s generation is looking for an authentic form of spirituality. Something that gives real meaning beyond buying stuff.

It turns out they're looking for exactly the same thing that God is looking for. A heart that's a flood with a joy and the peace and the patience and the love and the goodness of God. They're looking for people who've got something that they don't have. They're looking for the stuff that's going on inside.

One of my favourite authors is John Piper. He's written a book called The Supremacy of God in Preaching. He makes this point, he says, "You can't consistently give something to someone else that you yourself don't have."

We can't sell the concept that Christianity works, Jesus is wonderful, you should have this in your life. When deep down in our hearts we're not living that joy and that peace and that wonderful thing that happens when we connect with Jesus Christ.

We try and sell a religion, people will see through it. Being a Christian, sharing Jesus with others, you know something, it's not about flogging a philosophy, it's not about flogging some political dogma, it's not about pedalling a belief system or religious doctrine. There are enough doctrines. There are enough philosophies out there. There are enough dogma's out there.

I think that when you or I decide that we need to share Jesus with others it's kind of like one beggar showing another beggar where to find the bread. The bread of life. The bread that feeds us. The bread that's good. The bread that works. I'm eating this bread, I'm having this relationship with Jesus and it's fabulous and I want to give you some too.

Let this set you free. Telling people about Jesus doesn't rely on our outward success but on our inner peace and joy which comes from having a day, by day, by day, by day walk and relationship with Jesus. I don't have to be rich to share Jesus with others.

I don't have to live in a big house or drive a flash car or be the most successful person in the world or be the most articulate person in the world or be the smartest person or be the most beautiful person. None of those things matter.

You know why? Because some people are tall and some people are short. And some people are fat and some people are skinny. And some people have grey hair and some have brown hair. And some are smart and some are not so smart. And some are good looking and others are less good looking in the world’s eyes.

It's just the way it is. And no matter what we look like or how smart we are or how well we speak or how much we earn. That peace that Jesus Christ died for and rose again for to give to you and me is available to each and every person in every circumstance when we place our faith in Him.

No matter what the world throws at us, I can be in bankruptcy, I can be going through divorce, I can be suffering pain and persecution. I can be living in the middle of a war. I can be starving and yet still know the inner peace and the joy that comes through knowing Jesus Christ.

2,000 years ago the Apostle Paul was on death row. He was in prison. He had chains around his ankles and his wrists and he wrote a letter to the Church in Philippi and there on death row he writes these words.

Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I say rejoice.

Man that guy had a fire. That guy has something I want. That guy has something burning inside his heart for Jesus and that's what people are looking for. If you are a Jesus follower, if you have the Holy Spirit on fire in your heart and you spend time with Him praying. You spend time in God's word today. That's where that peace and that joy comes from.

Got problems? Well pray. And in the same breath from his prison cell Paul writes.

Pray. Ask God. Give thanks and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your heart and your mind in Christ Jesus.

Man, that guy knows some stuff. He knows some stuff about joy and peace in the most dismal of circumstances and that stuff, I want to have.

My very favourite author other than the Biblical authors is a man by the name A W Tozer. The very first book I ever read after I became a Christian was ‘The Pursuit of God’. This is what he wrote about that book on the cover:

This book is a modest attempt to aid God's hungry children so to find him. Nothing here is new except in the sense that it's a discovery that my own heart has made of spiritual realities most delightful and wonderful to me. Others before me have gone much further into these holy mysteries than I have done but if my fire is not large it is yet real and there maybe those who can light their candle with its flame.

Man, isn't that beautiful? Don't you want to have a life like that? Where there's this fire burning inside you like Tozer, like the Apostle Paul and people look at you and they think, "Man, I want to light my candle there. I want to be around that person because flowing out of their heart is this living water that is Jesus Christ."

They're working out of abundance that Jesus has given them no matter what's happening. There's this flood tide of blessing flowing out of this person and you might say to me, 'Berni, I don't have that abundance' and Jesus said,

Without me you can do nothing.

Nothing. Without Jesus it's a sham but the fullness of His joy and His peace and His love is available to you and me, here and now, when we place our faith in Jesus. All we have to do is ask. All we have to do is spend time waiting on Him. Everyone grows tired and weary.

Even youths will faint but those who wait on the Lord will renew their strength and they will soar like eagles.

That's His promise. When we share Jesus, the only way, the only way we can share Him is through His abundance and His grace and His presence and His peace and His joy.