The World Needs Your Life And Your Words

When Christians talk about sharing their faith, it can elicit a wide range of responses from apathy to confusion and even fear. Many times, believers of good intention want others to come to know the Jesus that they love but are often unsure about how to do that. Resources that God has given every believer to help them proclaim the gospel are their life and their words. You need both of them. However, before we talk about those, it’s important that each of us understands our responsibility to this holy task.

You Are Called (2 Corinthians 5:20)

First, it’s important to remember that, like the apostle Paul, you too are called to be an ambassador for Christ. Every follower of Jesus is called to be a witness for the gospel. God has placed you in the family that you’re in, the neighborhood, the workplace, every area of your life. God has placed you there for a myriad of reasons, but one of those reasons is to be a witness for Christ to those around you. Paul describes this as if it were God himself making his appeal through us. Imagine that! The God of the universe, pleading with men and women whom he loves to come to him and experience forgiveness, restoration, and new life in Christ, and he uses us to do it! What a sacred, holy privilege each one of us has. As we serve as ambassadors, two important tools that God has given us are our lives and our words.

Your Life Demonstrates the Power of the Gospel (Titus 3:1-11)

In these verses, Paul challenges Titus to teach Christians to be exemplary citizens in their communities. This was because Paul knew that for the church to have influence in the larger community, the gospel must demostrate its power to transform in the marketplace. In other words, the lives that we live as followers of Jesus demonstrate the power of the gospel to change lives. As those who don’t know Jesus look at us and see people who have joy in hardship, who give in self-sacrificing ways, who love their enemies, who come from a variety of diverse backgrounds, but yet still love and serve and work together, this is meant to demonstrate the fact that the message of Jesus transforms lives! Your life is meant to demonstrate the power of the gospel. You are to live a changed life in front of a world that desperately needs a change.

If you’re anything like me, you read that and you feel woefully inadequate. Maybe you think to yourself as I do, “I don’t measure up to those standards! How is someone going to look at my life and see the transforming power of the gospel when all I see is a mess?” I get it! Believe me!

What we must do, then, is genuinely pursue Jesus as best we can, as faithfully as we can, and trust him to use our imperfect lives as a witness.

Don’t Be Fake, Be Transformed

What we must not do is fake it! The idea is not that we pretend to be holier or more spiritual than we are when we’re out in public, and then when we get home, we can finally let our hair down. Christians have done that for too long, and that kind of hypocrisy has hurt our gospel witness in the culture.

Instead, genuinely, faithfully, authentically, pursue Jesus. Allow him through the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit and through the word of God day by day, to transform you into someone who’s more and more like Jesus. Then, live that authentically transformed life everywhere you go. Allow God to use your life as a testimony to the transforming power of the gospel.

Your Words Communicate the Content of the Gospel (Romans 10:14–15)

It’s important that the way we live communicates the power of the gospel. But that’s only half of what we need to do.

The phrase "preach the gospel, use words if necessary" has been attributed to Saint Francis of Assisi. Now, I don’t actually know if he said that, but if he did, he’s only half right. Because words are always necessary!

No one will ever look at your life, no matter how kind, loving, self-sacrificing you are and conclude that they are a sinner separated from God, and that God loved them and sent his Son who is the second person of the Trinity to Earth to rescue them. They won’t conclude from your good life that Jesus lived the perfect life that you and I never could, and that he gave his life on the cross to pay the penalty for their sins. They won’t put it together from the way that you serve and your kindness that Jesus did not remain dead, but rose from the grave in power as evidence that God has accepted the sacrifice of Jesus as payment for their sin, and that they can now be forgiven and adopted into God’s family forever. They will not conclude from the way you serve your family that they need to repent of their sins and turn to God in faith, placing their trust in Jesus, that only then can they be forgiven, rescued, and adopted into God’s family forever.

Here’s the point: while your life demonstrates the power of the gospel, your words communicate the content of the gospel.

Both are necessary if we are to be ambassadors for Christ.

Be Prepared to Share the Hope You Have (1 Peter 3:15)

The apostle Peter challenges us to always be prepared to give the reason for the hope that you have. In other words, you should be prepared to tell people why you personally have made the decision to place your trust in Jesus. To fully be prepared to do this, you need to feel confident to share two things when it’s called for: first, your testimony. Second, the gospel message itself.

Your testimony is your story of how you came to know Christ. You do not need a dramatic story; you just need a true story. Because every story of coming to Christ is a story of someone moving from death to life, from lost to found, from orphan to adopted. Your story is worth telling. I generally encourage people to structure their story in three parts. First, talk about your life before you knew Jesus. Second, describe the circumstances that led you to decide to place your faith in Jesus. Note, some people don’t remember an exact moment when they made a decision or prayed a prayer. That’s fine! Just say that. Tell people that while you don’t remember the exact moment, at some point along the way, you believed, and you’ve been trusting and following Jesus ever since. Third, I encourage people to talk about what God has been doing in their life since trusting in Christ. Talk about all the ways God has been transforming and refining you, helping you become someone who’s more like Jesus. That’s where people get to hear about the power of the gospel to transform a life!

Finally, you need to be prepared to share the gospel message itself. While the gospel message does not change, there are lots of different methods for sharing the gospel with someone. I recommend you find one that you like, that works for your personality, and memorize it.

We have a short video on our YouTube channel that lays out the method I use.

You are called to be an ambassador for Jesus! God has given you the tools that you need to represent him well: your life and your words. Live a life that demonstrates to a watching world the transforming power of the gospel, and be prepared to share with your words the transforming message of Jesus. You will be amazed how God will use you to make a difference in the lives of people!

I’m cheering for you!

Pastor Chris