How to Share Your Faith

How to Be a Better Witness for Jesus Christ https://www.learnreligions.com/how-to-share-your-faith-701257

1. Represent Jesus in the Best Possible Way 2. Be a Friend by Showing Love 3. Be a Good, Kind, and Godly Example 4. Be genuine and real 5. Live out your faith 6. Be a blessing 7. Pray for God to Open a Door

Sharing your faith 101 Excerpted from Billy Graham Evangelistic Association

https://billygraham.org/story/sharing-your-faith-101/ Gary Cobb, a BGEA staff member who helps train others to share their faith, shares five things to remember.

1. Understand that your own life is a great part of your witness. 2. Realize that we earn the right to be heard by sincerely listening to others. 3. Recognize that people are looking for a cure. 4. Keep it simple. 5. Stress the love of God.

Sharing the gospel simply Excerpted from Billy Graham Evangelistic Association

https://billygraham.org/story/sharing-your-faith-101/ 1. Tell them about God’s plan—peace and life. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that

whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). 2. Share our problem—separation from God. “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).

God is holy, but we are human and don’t measure up to His perfect standard. We are sinful, and “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23).

Opening doors as

compassionate cupbearers

one cup at a time

Welcome!!To Week #6

3. Talk about God’s remedy—the cross. “‘He Himself bore our sins’ in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; ‘by His wounds you have been healed’” (1 Peter 2:24).

4. Our response—receive Christ. “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God” (John 1:12).

What people need to understand to become a true child of god 1. To recognize and admit they are a sinner. 2. Believe that Jesus died for them on the cross. 3. Ask for forgiveness, be willing to turn away from their sins and to commit to make Jesus Christ the Lord of their

lives. 4. Understand that this is not just about getting into heaven but getting heaven into them through a lifetime of learning

and applying the teachings of the scriptures in their everyday lives.

Doing for some what we wish we could do for everyone Concept from Andy Stanley

• We are much more aware of pain and suffering in the world due to social media and information sources that often give “real time” access to tragedies.

• The pain people are subjected to is much more complex and often closer to “home”. (i.e. divorce, diseases) • Absorbing it all can be overwhelming, and not knowing what to do can be immobilizing. • ”Caring and carrying” can be painful and easier to disengage.

2 Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. 5 For each will have to bear his own load. Galatians 6:2-5

1. Go specific rather than general. (i.e. Who is the one student that can be touched rather than taking on the whole youth group.

2. Go deep rather than wide. 3. Go long-term, rather than short term; time investment, rather than quick answers. 9 And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. 10 So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.

Galatians 6:8-10

6 COMMON ELEMENTS TO GENUINE CHRIST-CENTERED CARE From “Lay Counseling: Equipping Christians for a Helping Ministry”

by Siang-Yang Tan 1. It acknowledges the legitimate expression of emotions in the process of uncovering hidden perceptions and

wounds, and in the resolution and healing of those wounds. 2. It acknowledges that many of the problems people experience result from attempts to meet genuine needs in ways

apart from Gods design. 3. It acknowledges that Christ-centered caring can only be provided by a person whose faith in Christ provides

empathy, love, insight, and direction. 4. It acknowledges that the truth of Scripture is the first and foremost source of wisdom and insight about the human

condition, needs, and remedies.

5. It acknowledges the need to carefully observe each person’s situation to see how the Scriptures can be applied most specifically and powerfully.

6. It acknowledges the importance of a powerful blend of God’s work and our responsibility, of the Holy Spirit’s power and the role of spiritual disciplines.

Eight Ways to Show Hurting People You Care by Gary Hardin

Pastor of Enon Grove Baptist Church, Cedar Bluff, Alabama All adults need people who will stand with them during difficult times. The Bible says, "Carry one another's

burdens; in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ" (Gal. 6:2). How can you show people you care? How can you help to carry the burdens of people who are coping with adversity? Here are eight tips.

Listen! Listen! Listen! Listening might be the paramount caregiving skill. When we listen, and I mean really listen to people, we demonstrate that

their problems and concerns matter to us. Listening affirms the worth of the other person. Great listeners cultivate the ability to hear not only the words but also the feeling behind the spoken words. If you developed only the ability to listen well, you

would be an effective caregiver.

Be cautious about giving advice. Rather than give advice, help people identify and evaluate the options available to them. While you may be tempted to give advice immediately to someone who is seeking help, sometimes the best thing to do is (again) listen and let people talk out

their problems and possible solutions.

Refrain from sounding judgmental and or condemning. People’s problems, including bad choices, can make a person feel hopeless, without solutions, and destined for failure.

Convey hope to people who suffer the consequences of a poor choice. Assure them that no mistake or sin lies beyond the reach of God's forgiveness.

Avoid saying, "I know how you feel" Even though you may have had the same experience as someone else, similarities may end there. To say we know how a

person feels means we have walked in their shoes throughout that experience.

Be alert to warning signals i.e. changes in behavior like if normally outgoing becoming distant, facial expressions, cues in what they say that might

indicate a struggle, unusual reactions to situations, etc.

Realize the power of your presence In the face of death, severe crises, gut-wrenching heartache, and the like, we often struggle with what we should say. I have

known people who were hesitant to minister to hurting folks because they feared they would not say the right words. Sometimes your physical presence - the fact that you are simply there - speaks more loudly than spoken words.

Never divulge confidences As we minister to hurting people, they may confess gross errors in judgment as well as personal sins they have committed. People who make themselves vulnerable and confide their personal secrets in you have also placed great trust in you. They

are counting on you to keep confidential what they have shared with you.

Let God guide you The psalmist prayed, "Make Your ways known to me, Lord; teach me Your paths. Guide me in Your truth and teach me"

(Ps. 25:4-5). In determining how best to show care for people, ask God to guide you. When you struggle with what to say,

ask God to give you the right words. When you wonder if the person you want to help will be receptive to your care, ask God to create openness. When you feel inadequate to help, ask God to equip you.

10 Ways to Help someone who is hurting Jolene Underwood, Crosswalk.com contributing Writer

1. Be Gently Present 2. Practice Silence Over Solutions 3. Allow Room for the Expression of Emotions 4. Empathize with their Experience 5. See, Hear, Love

Three powerful phrases help us feel seen, heard, and loved. “I see (the pain/challenge).” “I hear you.” “I don’t know what to say, but I’m here for you.”

6. Offer Specific Ways of Helping 7. Pray Specifically 8. Plan to Check In 9. Leave Room for the Holy Spirit 10. Remember Who This is About

6 Observations about “open doors” From the sermon “God of the Open Door” By John Ortberg

Revelation 3:7-8 I know your deeds. See, I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut. I know that you have the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: These are the words of him who is holy and true, who holds the key

of David. What he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open. 8 little strength, yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name.”7

This is a rich image. It is an open door. Actually, grammatically, it's an opened door. This is action that has been taken and the idea is that it was God who opened the door, that God does this in human lives. It's a picture of

boundless opportunities, of unlimited chances to do something worthwhile, of Grand Openings into new and unknown adventures of significant living - to make our little lives count for eternity. Open doors are glorious and

often mysterious, and they always involve God and they're what we should live for.

1. God is a God of the open door God loves to give opportunities for impact and contribution to people. It's part of why He made us and so open

doors, opportunities for impact to make a difference, come to us not because we're smart or connected or educated but as a gift of grace from God.

You are blessed to be a blessing on a scale that you cannot imagine. This was a mission statement for Abraham and then for Israel and then for me and you. The purpose of the open-door mission is to go and then bless.

Now bless is one of those kind of Bible words that often just becomes a cliché. To bless is to be seriously concerned about someone's life and to want to enhance a life, to want to add to their life. To want to give blessing

is what God does. Blessing is when the will is inclined to love. God blesses the human beings and then tells them they are to be a blessing supremely to other human beings. An

open-door life is a life with a purpose, with a mission to make a difference. Whose mission is it? It's God’s.

What is the mission? To bless.

Where? Wherever you go.

When? Congratulations today is your Day!

You can do that to whoever and wherever you are and it is not optional.

2. Start where you are not where you think you ought to be.

3. Open doors are about opportunities not about guarantees.

4. Going through an open door does not mean that God will make my life easy on the other side of that door

People sometimes actually refuse to go through doors based on this criterion: “I just don't feel peace about it.”

Well, where in the Bible does God ever tell Moses to go confront Pharaoh for crying out loud or David to have to fight Goliath or Daniel to go into a lion's den or this young girl Esther to face a genocide of maniac named Haman

and have one of them say, “Yes I feel peace about that Lord”? Deep peace does not generally lie in getting God to give me other circumstances.

It's found in finding God in the circumstances where I am right now.

5. the best way to learn about how to deal with large open doors is to practice a lot with small ones. Mostly open doors are about following Jesus in one moment to the next moment to the next moment to the next

moment in ways that are quite small because every moment comes with a door. See an open door simply as a God-ordained, God powered opportunity to do good.

6. if I'm gonna live an open-door Life, if I want to make my life an adventure and unlimited chances to do good for God and with God,

if I want to be different, if I want to make a difference,

I will have to reject the myth that says if I ever choose the wrong door, I'm stuck with God's plan B for the rest of my life.

God's specialty is redemption. If the Cross teaches us anything, it is there's no human choice that is so bad that God cannot transcend it and use

it to create glorious good.

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If you're not dead you're not done! Some of the saddest stories I think are about calls that never get answered, risks that never get taken.

There's a whole field of study in the social sciences around the psychology of regret and it's fascinating how regret changes over life.

When we’re younger we often regret the foolish things that we did, wish I hadn’t gone there, wish I hadn't eaten that, wish I had not asked her out, wish he had not asked me out.

When we get older, its kind of shifts and we end up regretting the things we did not do – the words we did not speak,

the risks we did not take, the roads we did not go down.

If you're not dead you're not done! Will you make your life about making a difference?

“God would you send me just open doors?” Jesus knows all about open doors. He made his life an adventure in unlimited chances to do good and they killed him for it. They didn't want somebody who wanted to bless all the peoples, all the nations, Gentiles, rich and poor,

slave and free. They didn't like that, and they laid his body in a tomb but on the third day the Father rolled away the stone and the

Father said to the Son, “See I have set before you an open door now as the ultimate open door.” God sets before you an open door.

Go feed the hungry. Visit those who have been imprisoned.

Free those who are oppressed. Love those who are forgotten.

Care for those who are marginalized, those who are discarded,

and those who are discounted.

I will be with you and one day I will come back, and we will set everything right, but in between that day and this day, oh the places

you will go.

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WHAT IS THE OPEN-DOOR(S) GOD IS OPENING FOR YOU?

Don’t hesitate go through them!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOBaLrItEyc