knackered
I think I did this to myself. I woke up with a little bit of a sore throat on Saturday morning and it is now Sunday night and I feel like I have been hit over the head with an anvil.
I have been running myself a little ragged lately, but having fun while doing it.
Friday after walking to Clovis Ave. and back and getting stuck in the rain I was convinced to drive to Bakersfield for dinner and a movie. Since the rain had let up I decided, "why not?" I had a good time with MEEP and we went to our usual spot- Red Robin. Going to a movie didn't work, but we rented some. We had a good date :)
Saturday morning I woke up with the icky throat and got some airborne. I then drove back to Fresno and then to Merced and then back to Fresno by 11 pm. I decided not to go back to Merced for Sunday and skipped church and rested all day. Still not feeling better.
Of course this would be the week I am not feeling well. We are having a campus wide outreach next week. An illusionist named Andre Kole is coming to campus. He does an amazing illusion show and has helped people like David Copperfield in their shows. He uses his show to present the gospel.
To promote the event we will be going into classrooms at 6 am and writing on chalk and whiteboards. We will also be handing out flyers all week and trying to get the Sattelite Student Union full on Wednesday night.
Please keep this event in your prayers and that I can wake up tomorrow feeling better.
Overcoming Fear in Evangelism
Standing in His Name
What is your greatest HOPE in evangelism?
Why would you want to share your faith with your friends?
What is your greatest FEAR in evangelism?
What prevents you from talking to your friends about Jesus?
When it comes to talking to non-Christians about Jesus, everyone experiences some level of fear. Lets take a look at the apostle Paul’s reaction to evangelism, as he recounts his mission in Corinth in 1 Cor 2:1-5:
“When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power.”
Fear is a natural, normal and appropriate response to evangelism. Everyone is fearful of evangelism. The question is, “What are we going to do about it?
We are going to look at the life of an Old Testament king, King Asa, to learn how to deal with fear.
Can anyone tell me about King Asa??
2 Chronicles 14:2 says, “King Asa did what was right in the eyes of the Lord.” He went around the land and tore down all the altars to false gods. The people who worshipped those gods didn’t like that much. We pick up the story as King Asa’s men come against the armies of those who worship the foreign gods
In other words, when King Asa ascended to the throne, the first thing he did was to lead the nation in a moral awakening. He did what many people today say is a wrong thing to do: He began to legislate righteousness.
To put this in present-day terms, what King Asa did was to clean out the adult bookstores, close the massage parlors, confiscate all the pornographic films, close the adult movie theaters, jail the drug pushers, and restore the reading of the Bible and public prayer in the schools and the courts of the land.
King Asa was taking a step in the right direction for restoring his nation.
2 Chronicles 14:8-11
Asa had an army of three hundred thousand men from Judah, equipped with large shields and with spears, and two hundred and eighty thousand from Benjamin, armed with small shields and with bows. All these were brave fighting men. Zerah the Cushite marched out against them with a vast army and three hundred chariots, and came as far as Mareshah. Asa went out to meet him, and they took up battle positions in the Valley of Zaphethah near Mareshah.
580,000 men is approximately equal to
20 full football stadiums! These are not
just your trained warriors. They are your
kebab shop vendors, sandal makers and
second hand camel salesmen showing up
to fight for what they believe in.
This Southern Kingdom of Judah was made up of the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin. Each tribe committed its young men to be trained for the army -- one tribe committed 300,000, and the other 280,000, for a total of 580,00 men. Now that is a rather remarkable number of men. This was a tiny country -- less than half the size of California -- yet its standing army in peacetime was almost as large as the army which the United States maintains in peacetime. (I found this out on the internet) Yet here is a tiny little country with 580,000 men under arms in a time of peace.
Lets look at the opposition
King Asa's army of 580,000 men must have seemed very impressive when they were first gathered together, but now he looks out on this plain, which is covered as far as the eye can see with the tents of the soldiers who have come against him. The scouts report the size of the army, and the fact that they had three hundred armed chariots (equal to armored tanks in our day). Asa knows now that he is outnumbered almost two to one, and totally outclassed by this maneuverable band of chariots. As he sees the tremendous host arrayed against him,
The word “vast” literally means “thousands
upon thousands”. We are led
to believe that King Asa was greatly
outnumbered. This was no small feud.
How would you feel if you were in King Asa’s shoes?
Now let’s see what happened.
2 Chronicles 14:11-12a
11 Then Asa called to the LORD his God and said, "LORD, there is no one like you to help the powerless against the mighty. Help us, O LORD our God, for we rely on you, and in your name we have come against this vast army. O LORD, you are our God; do not let man prevail against you."
12 The LORD struck down the Cushites before Asa and Judah.
King Asa’s reaction is incredible. Can you imagine his fear? Instead of giving up and booking it, or trying to convince himself that his army could win this battle, he turns in faith to God.
Let’s take a look at his prayer in more detail.
“There’s no-one like you to help the powerless against the mighty”
Powerless is not the word I would use to describe 580,000 brave fighting men. But King Asa knew he was outnumbered and realized that they could not win that battle in their own strength.
“Help us, O Lord, for we rely on you...”
King Asa realized that the real battle was not between them and the Cushites. It was between God and the enemy. God is fully able to win the battle.
“...and in your name we have come against this vast army”
The reason for this confrontation was that Asa’s men
Stood in God’s name.
They tore down the idols to false gods (2 Chron. 14:2). When we stand in God’s name we always come into Spiritual conflict. And when we do, it is God’s responsibility to defeat the enemy, and not ours.
“Do not let man prevail against you”
I might have prayed, “Do not let man prevail against us!”. King Asa had the faith to give the battle to God, and let Him win it.
Two Types of Fear
Many of us can identify with King Asa’s fear. Especially when it comes to evangelism. There are two kinds of fear that people have about evangelism.
The first is that our friends might reject us, that it might jeopardize the relationship. There’s not much you can do about that. It doesn’t happen as often as Satan would like us to believe, but it could happen. We have to weigh things up, and decide whether we are willing to risk the relationship for the sake of gaining it for eternity.
The other kind of fear is that we don’t think we are up to the job. We might answer a question incorrectly. We might misrepresent Christ in some way. We do not have a right to own this fear. It is not our responsibility to have all the right answers.
Our Role
God did not choose us for this mission because of our amazing skills and abilities in saving the lost. There is not one thing that any of us can do to save the lost.
God’s Role
We are utterly dependant on God to bring about new life in people’s heart. It is God’s job to use our mumbling words, our foolishness, to bring about new life in our friends. Our only job is to stand in His name; to put ourselves on the battle field.
God is picking a spiritual battle, so we have no need to fear spiritual conflict - it’s a normal part of our relationships with non-Christians and we should embrace it, standing in His name!
What does it mean for us to stand in His name?
Standing in His name is not...
· Hoping that your silence will convince your friend to receive Jesus.
· Hiding your relationship with Jesus to strengthen your friendship.
· Saying that you’re a Christian, then avoiding any spiritual conversations for the rest of your 40 year friendship.
· Filling your schedule with so many prayer meetings that you don’t have time to talk to your friends about Jesus.
· Only hanging out with committed Christians.
· Being defensive about your faith.
Standing is His name is...· Being open and honest about our relationship with Jesus.
· Being disciplined in your words, actions and behavior.
· Taking a loving interest in your friend’s beliefs and personal life.
· Confronting your friend’s dodgy beliefs and practices (often passively).
· Communicating acceptance, despite spiritual conflict.
· Continually bringing up issues that they are avoiding talking about.
By standing in His name, we are able to overcome our fear
and take part on the battlefield as God intends us to!
Starbucks Challenge
• God is picking a spiritual battle, so we have no need to fear spiritual conflict - it’s a normal part of our relationships with non-Christians and we should embrace it, standing in His name!
