What Faith Sharing Actually Looks Like

Welcome back to Ignite. You know that in addition to all the scriptures that make it abundantly clear that God has mandated that we share faith and quite frankly all the scriptures that explain how blessed we are and happy we are when we do it we want to show you what faith sharing actually looks like. I mean real faith sharing from real life experiences. Most of us know we should share faith but most of us can't even picture what that means except for picturing some kind of memorization or memorizing your life story or whatever but that's not real life faith sharing and lots of you would save by doing that don't get me wrong but when you when your face to face as somebody spontaneously in the marketplace you can't start reciting something to them you just you just love on them and let the joy of the Lord come through and allow conversations to start and I say stop looking for a scalp. So I'm trying to get them saved right now don't look at everybody I got to get that person saved look at everybody I need to love that person's hurting I need to love on that I need that person needs somebody put their arm around them and encourage them and and you know when you do that and they know you're you're genuine they melt and and and they open up and they expose them right they literally tell you things they wouldn't even tell their best friends it's it's amazing almost everybody's hurting and searching for God and in fear and in desperate need for what we have they need to see a God who loves them they think God is judgmental and crushing down on them and judging them because they're fallen so short and God can't love me and this distance for God and then the Christian comes along and loves them and shows them the real Jesus the loving Jesus you know the series that shows and that most of us are watching these days presents a different Jesus descendant from what we normally take from the scriptures because of the weight of the scripture we honorically think of Jesus being very serious like all-time serious Jesus serious dude serious God but people flock to Jesus kids flock to Jesus when you love on people you smile on people and Jesus loved everyone more than anyone you know he smiled a lot and laughed a lot like no analysis ever laughed and when we share a faith we need to be like him and allow him allow his Holy Spirit to attract people to us because of our joy because of his love for them flowing through us such privilege Jesus said they would know your minusiple by your love I probably use that scripture more than any other scripture because the basis for all faith sharing they would know that you're part of God that you represent God not by your damn nation or your pointing fingers or judging them that's how they see us you know but by your love and you can't script love it has to be automatic and it has to be genuine so I want to tell you some stories in this episode podcast and here's an example I was in Detroit it was really cold and it's like seven degrees outside and I was in the Marriott downtown I just need to go to Cobal Hall so I was a very short drive and so I got in the taxi taxi drivers late short drives right and so I'm almost embarrassed to say we just take me there so I got in the first thing I said was I you know I just it's a short drive but I'll give you a big tip and this driver who was one of the few non-Muslim drivers in Detroit and I love wouldn't see the Muslim drivers some of them are more religious than we are a lot of good Muslims that's a whole other story this one was not he was a man about my age scrappy beard and I said but I give you but I'm a certain driver I'll give you a big tip and he yelled at me I don't want a tip you know when you're when you see every opportunity to share the love of God things shock you and surprise you but your reaction is not anger or horror it's okay what are you up to God you know and how can I take this and the people the most disturbed in the most out of control are the biggest targets for the love of God I gotta tell you so I said excuse me he's I don't want a tip I'm a bad person yelling at me so I gotta tell you I just okay always what I say and I said you know God loves you no I said yeah God loves you no how many people are like that today I said you know sir I'm a Christian and and I know the Bible really well I read the Bible and I can tell you for facts he loves you now he didn't say anything he just sitting there I said you know it gets even better do you know he loves you as much as he's ever loved anybody ever it's just a short ride I'm almost there what do I get to say I said actually it gets even better do you know that God loves you as much he loves his own son Jesus Christ not a word not a word back we pulled up I got out it was snowing I can still hear the sound of the window he was lowering with the with the salt on the window shh you know and he looks at me like I just slapped him I mean he had no expression he didn't know what to say and I said you know and this is true it's not just a line to make him feel good I said sir God God put me in your car just now because he wants you to know he loves you and I gave him a really big tip he never he just said they're like you got the bodies look at me I said God bless you I walked away he drives away yes you know it's fun that is I mean if I had not been of that mind I why do I just jump out the taxi before he ran into a full pour or something instead did I get him saved I didn't get him saved did I move in closer to Jesus oh yeah oh yeah I went to closer to Jesus and probably decided for the for God to send the next Christians to take him the next step down the road to his own personal salvation that's how God works it's a team sport and that fun as as I walked away from that taxi I looked up as I always do after divine encounter and and I saw Jesus smiling at me and saying good job there I I put that man in your life and you were ready and you're allowed me to speak through to him you change his life well done and the joy the Lord is my strength think about that scripture it's not your joy that's your it's God's joy think about I gave God joy you can give God joy and the joy the Lord is our strength it's yours and you need strength is how you get it if you're feeling weak in your walk of the Lord it's your own fault for not doing the number one thing God's called you to do being a witness so that you will believe it's powerful I I walked away from that taxi as I as I always do for the series with the bounce of my step I mean it's so cool I know God just used me and spoke through me and as I have to say there's no other experience in the human experience that compares with that and that's why he mandates that you share your faith hear me on this if you're not sure your faith you're missing out on the joy that only comes from loving God with all your heart and all your soul all your mind and all your strength and always being ready to tell people about him when you're all in with God you're all out telling everybody about him and your timidity goes away no matter how timid you are honestly it's a truth I was an introvert before I started showing my faith that's the out of truth you can ask my wife and you never know where an opportunity presents itself even for a moment I was in Detroit Hotel and stepped into an elevator full of very large black men far far larger than me with their beards and tattoos and gold chains staring at me and quite frankly I was feeling rather insignificant but I felt the nuts and guess what I said hey do you know do you guys know God bless you then looked at each other like say what that was the last thing they expect to hear from this white boy you know or this white old dude not a white boy anywhere I've been doing since I was a boy and when they looked back at me they were totally puzzled they didn't know what to make of me I totally interrupted them and their thought process of what they ever they thought about me before I said now they don't even know what to say you know and so I said in that cool to know God loves you and he loves you as much as he's ever loved anybody wow and they're like in the door opens I stepped out I looked back at me and I said God bless you guys it went to door close I yelled yes out loud I yelled yes as strange and unexpected that was I just moved those guys closer to Jesus how many times did they tell that stories simple white dude who got on the elevator with them and told them that God loves them did I get them saved of course not did I move them closer to Jesus you you bad you know it's amazing how often you can work God loves you in the conversation every conversation God loves you do you know how much God loves you it's so easy and guess what people don't get mad at you for telling them that God loves them it's probably what they want to hear more than anything else that God loves them in spite of what they've done it's so sad but lots of times people refuse to believe it they tell me no and he couldn't love me not after all I've done it's like a healing stab to a wound or fresh water and parts ground to pour out God's love on someone who's hurting who feels far from God and today almost everyone's hurting they need for moving everyone every day closer to Jesus hear me on this has never been more urgent or pervasive it's full time almost always fly with Karen we've been married fifty seven years and she's the strength of my life and I also went to Karen and we both have this walk together we both have her own experiences and she could sit here and tell your hers but one day we got an airplane and and to our surprise we weren't sitting together we were separated so me it's like okay God what do you have to you know so I'm sitting down and I wonder who God is going to put beside me and a young lady probably late 20s came and sat down with me and and so I found a way to greet her and start conversation this is before mass you can actually have conversation it's not hard at right now on airplanes with mass to share your faith and very frustrating to me because that's what I love to do it's one of the great opportunities we have when you fly over time you you find ways insert God into every conversation quickly and easily without raising eyebrows so when she asks what I do I answered you know God's giving me an amazing business making car wax and and he's growing it beyond my wildest dreams and then it quickly changed the top he's without allowing her time to respond because then there's pressure oh you know you force him into having to say something you never want to do that for you I just changed subject if I didn't nothing else quite frankly but love on this girl in Jesus name for the remainder of that white she would have departed knowing she would just met a good person who's a Christian again just that moves unbelievers who normally don't like Christians close in Jesus I can't emphasize this enough we can all do this it's so easy and if all of us would move everyone every day close in Jesus we'd ignite America the revival and record time I mean we had this great opportunity we need you on our team and we need you to help us get all your Christian friends on the team we it's gonna take all of us do it but we can do it in this case she came back and that often happens I got shumming you throw out some shum if they're not hungry fish go right on but if they're hungry they bite to trouble that is coming up your chum line in this case she did that and she in the chatter we developed a relationship and she admitted that she believed in God but she wasn't close to him and by the time I inquired why why she wasn't close to God I earned her trust and she told me her story and she admitted that she was in a lesbian relationship with a with a girlfriend and she knew God wasn't happy with it for that and she knew she shouldn't be in it and knew she should change it and so she's God's got to hate me I know he hates me you know what it meant to her what I said you got it all God loves you it's it's what she wanted to hear more than anything else there's nothing I could have said to her they could have had that much meaning to your young guy on her twenties way younger than me different life who's hearing from this old white guy forgive me for here are this old guy who's a Christian telling her God loves her and confirming it I gave her scriptures you can't script these conversations folks because you have no idea where they're going to go how many times do you hyper ventilated over a conversation you're about to have with someone who needs Jesus and then the conversation goes in an entire different direction right and you can't force those conversations back into the mold of your prepared speech so stop trying just love on people and watch the Holy Spirit speak through you to that person's need using information from your own database that that you may not even thought about for years and every time that happens regardless of what happens to the person you're sharing your faith with will explode your faith and your joy that's why God wants you to focus on moving everyone every day closer to Jesus that's why you gotta get on it see you next time