Share Him - 260212

SPEAKER A 00:00:00 - 00:00:51 Hello, I'm Rod Butler. Welcome to Let God Speak. Every follower of Jesus is called to witness from the overflow of their living relationship with him. Now, whether you're an introvert or outgoing, today's program will encourage and equip you to let God's love flow through you to a weary world. Stay with us, you'll be inspired. On our panel today we have Aaron Brown and Lena Yoon. SPEAKER B 00:00:51 - 00:00:51 Welcome. SPEAKER C 00:00:51 - 00:00:52 Thank you. SPEAKER A 00:00:52 - 00:01:12 Thank you. Before we commence our discussion, let's bow for prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the privilege of knowing you and the call to share your love with others. Open our hearts today to your word and fill us with compassion and boldness of Jesus. Guide our discussion, touch every viewer, we pray in the name of Jesus. SPEAKER C 00:01:12 - 00:01:13 Amen. SPEAKER A 00:01:13 - 00:02:02 Amen. Well, in Matthew 28:19-20, we have what is called the Great Commission. All believers are called to go and tell the entire world about Jesus, teaching and baptizing them. Many Christians find this way outside their comfort zone. So let's start with a discussion on the Great Commission. I'm going to read, um, firstly though, the verse before the Great Commission, which is Matthew chapter 28 and verse 18. And I have a question for you, Lena, straight after this. Verse 18 says, "And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth." Now, Lina, why is He saying "all power"? What's the significance of that? SPEAKER B 00:02:02 - 00:03:13 Yeah, so as soon as the 11 disciples see the resurrected Christ and they worship Him, some still doubt, but now, now they understand the fact that Jesus won the battle over death and He is God. And so now the disciples understand Jesus' identity and all His divine authority in heaven and also on earth. And the domain of His authority encompasses all of the creation and granting Him the universal sovereignty of Creator. So, because of all of these divine, His divine authority, and now Jesus is entitled to send, you know, His disciples, like with the commission to, you know, to send them to all nations and teach them all that He has commanded. And this commission, Great Commission, by the way, is also for all Christians down through the history who would not see Jesus physically. So, their walk with God would be in faith and also they would face persecution, but we don't need to fear because this Bible verse boosts us our faith that we are connected to the Supreme God of this universe. SPEAKER A 00:03:14 - 00:03:19 Yeah, so if we believe we're connected to the supreme power of the universe, who can be against us? SPEAKER C 00:03:20 - 00:03:20 Yeah. SPEAKER A 00:03:20 - 00:03:46 Let's keep reading. Let's read now the Great Commission. This is Matthew 28:19-20. Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Now, Aaron, what actually stands out to you in those verses? SPEAKER C 00:03:47 - 00:04:31 Yeah, Rod, the word 'all' stands out particularly to me there. It's repeated 3 times. And that means we should go to all the world, not just the easy parts, the parts that we prefer to go because it suits our culture or whatever it may be, but the parts that may even be dangerous. But these are the parts that also need to hear the Gospel of Christ, the good news, but also the commandments. But also we're told that all power, we're told, is in Jesus. And in verse 20, Jesus promises that His power and authority is with every believer all of the time. So what stands out to me also is that with faith, nothing can stop us going forward to fulfill this Great Commission. SPEAKER A 00:04:31 - 00:04:38 Amen. Yeah, nothing can stop us. We're connected to that supreme power. Yes. Lena, in verse 19, what else stands out to you? SPEAKER B 00:04:39 - 00:05:23 The other thing that stands out to me is, "Go therefore." "Go" is a command. So, that means, you know, it's not negotiable. All of us, all Christians should go to all nations and teach them all. And that also means, you know, everyone should be taking part in it. There wouldn't be any exception. So, we're going to go and read Luke 9:62. Here it says, "But Jesus said to him, 'No one having put his hand to the plow,'" and looking back is fought for the kingdom, fit for the kingdom of God. So basically we must be moving forward and we should never look back. SPEAKER A 00:05:24 - 00:05:38 So we're called to go. Yeah. And that verse just says we're to go and not look back. We're to go forward and continually to go forward. That's very important. This was given to the disciples, Aaron. So how did the disciples carry out this commission? SPEAKER C 00:05:38 - 00:06:49 Now, Rod, there's two verses that provide the answer for us. We could go to Acts 1:8, and it says, "But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be witness to me in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth." Also, so they knew they had the power and they could go with the power of the Holy Spirit to the ends of the earth. And we can also read in Acts 4:20, it says, "For we cannot speak the things which we have—" sorry, "For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard." So they are giving eyewitness accounts. They are sharing their own personal testimony and experience. Nobody can deny the experience that they have.. And when they share that, it is a very powerful witness for what Christ has done for them. And every believer can do this. It's not just the theologian, somebody with a degree, but anybody who has that experience with God, they're able to share that with anybody. SPEAKER A 00:06:49 - 00:07:10 And the disciples, they shared with cultures that weren't easy to go to. Some of these cultures weren't friendly, so they had that promise that all power was with them. And yeah, they had that promise, that comfort. That's right. Selina, what can we learn from the early experience of the Christian church with this commission? What could we learn from it? SPEAKER B 00:07:10 - 00:07:55 Yeah, so the early church's witnessing was the natural flow of the intimate relationship or walk with Jesus Christ and also with the power of the Holy Ghost. So whoever actually heard the message and they actually were impacted. So we're going to go and read Acts 4:13. Where it says, "Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled, and they realized that they had been with Jesus." So, this is also the same for us. When we spend our time with Christ and people can see in us and they know that we have been with Jesus in faith. SPEAKER A 00:07:56 - 00:08:13 It is interesting, isn't it? You can tell with someone's faith if they've in their face, I should say, if they've spent time with Christ. Their eyes sparkle, there's a joy in their countenance. So just on that, the witnessing part, how did Jesus minister to the people, Aaron? Uh, I'd like to— SPEAKER C 00:08:13 - 00:09:12 What was His methodology? We can read an answer. We have scripture that comments directly on that. That's in Matthew 9:36. It says, "But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion." for them, because they were weary and scattered like sheep having no shepherd. So we see that Christ, He felt their need, He saw their need, and He acted upon that need. He didn't just see it, He actually acted upon it and supplied their need. So also likewise in Matthew 4:14, He had compassion on the people. He healed their sick when He saw they were sick and needy. And in Matthew 15:32, he also saw people that were hungry, and so he fed them. His method was to mix with people, show empathy, build friendships, and then offer them the gospel. SPEAKER A 00:09:13 - 00:09:30 Yeah. So he had to actually mix with people initially, though, didn't he? His sequence was he mingled, he had empathy and compassion, he saw their need, he ministered to their needs, And He physically did things. He didn't sort of think it. He actually did things to administer to them. Absolutely. SPEAKER C 00:09:30 - 00:09:33 And then He asked them to follow Him after. He won their confidence. SPEAKER A 00:09:33 - 00:10:07 Yes. And then said, "Follow me." Now it sounds easy to do that, but for some people who are shy, maybe timid, how do we do it? How do we overcome our fear to go to different people? Because unless you mix with people, you won't see their need. You won't have any idea what their hurts are, what anything are. Christ saw their needs because He was physically there. So we're called to mix, not to sort of lock ourselves away in, you know, little communes anywhere. We're to mix with the people, and that way we can minister. So how do we do it, in your opinion, Lena? SPEAKER B 00:10:07 - 00:11:32 So in our own strength, we cannot do anything, but through the power of God. So there's a very encouraging verse, very well-known verse we all know, Philippians 4:13. Here it says, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." So we're going to rely on Christ and He will give us the strength to overcome our shy tendency, you know, to become a more bold person. And also we're going to go and read Matthew 4:19. Here it says, "Then He said to them, 'Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.'" So, it is Jesus Christ who makes us fishers of men. So, our role has to be submit to His will and also ask to follow Him. And also, our focus has to be building our relationship with Christ. So, as our relationship with God, Christ grows, then God will arrange, some of the opportunities for us to share our faith with other people. In other words, He will put some people on our path for us to witness to. But still, we have to be willing to accept God's call and move forward as He directs us. SPEAKER A 00:11:33 - 00:11:57 I love that verse, "Come follow me, I'll make you fishers of men." We aren't to worry or fret about, "Oh, I'm not witnessing, I'm not telling anybody." If we just focus on Christ, He arranges the witnessing for us. Yeah. But He's just like, we've got to be willing to step forward and do the work. We've got to go. Well, let's apply Jesus' method of making disciples. Aaron, how do we mingle and show this empathy and minister? SPEAKER C 00:11:57 - 00:12:42 Yeah, well, um, God's love, we, like we were saying, if we have God's love in us, we will likewise minister like Jesus did. You know, He's our example in all things, and, um, We will also feel the burden as Jesus did for lost souls. So without compromising our own beliefs, of course, we can go into their areas where they may be, find them, whether it be even our family, friends, work colleagues, any environment that we found ourselves in. We could be praying continually, "God, help me to witness to this person. How may I meet their needs?" You know, if I see their needs. We have to just ask the Holy Spirit to guide us and He will actively guide us and help us to understand our best way that we can witness to somebody. SPEAKER A 00:12:43 - 00:13:26 You know, it's interesting these days people sort of have the view that they won't listen to you unless they think or believe that you care for them. And when you— because meeting people's needs takes time, but you've got to physically do things and it's all very well to say, "Look, I'll pray for you," but Sometimes you've got to do more than that. You've got to physically get involved. It takes your time. You've got to be able to be able to meet a need that they can't fulfill themselves. Then they know this person really cares for me. Then they'll listen. Absolutely. That's where it becomes quite a challenge. So once we've made friends, how do we get on to spiritual matters, Lena? It's all very good to sort of mix with people and see needs and fix them, but how do we get the conversation around to spiritual things? SPEAKER B 00:13:27 - 00:14:59 Yeah, so the good thing is they already know that we are Christians. So what we can do, we can pray for their specific needs and their questions and also look for some opportunities to share or actually we can tell them how the Bible works and how the Bible gives us comfort, advice, and guidance and directions in our lives. They might be thinking, oh, really? And they might be thinking about maybe, oh, I might want to read the Bible too. And also, now we're going to go and go to Isaiah 50:4. Here it says, Then the Lord God has given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him who is weary. He awakens me morning by morning. He awakens my ear to hear as the learned. And also, the other thing that we can do, we might share a Bible verse or ask them a question or we can offer them, you know, whether if they want us to pray for them or with them. And quite often times they would not really deny it. They're actually happy, you know, to pray with you and for them. And all these things might open the doors for more discussions and eventually, you know, you, they'll, you know, there will come a time for a friend to ask you to take a, move on to the next step, like to have a Bible study with you. SPEAKER A 00:14:59 - 00:16:06 Yeah, sometimes if you can sort of say to someone, "Oh, that's interesting. The Bible's got something to say about that," and you can relate a real-world problem to what the Bible says, that gets their interest as well. So we've got to be mindful. The Holy Spirit will prompt us. We've got to step through and answer the call to that speak for him. Now the Great Commission tells us to move forward and go forward and teach and baptize. We have 1 Peter chapter 3, verses 8 to 17, and it focuses us on how to prepare for mission, how to prepare to go forward. So I'm just going to read 1 Peter 3, verses 8 and 9, and this is in context of what are we to do to prepare for this Great Commission. This is 1 Peter chapter 3, And verse 8: Finally, be all ye of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous. And verse 9: Not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing, but contrariwise blessing, knowing that you are thereunto called, that ye should inherit a blessing. What is this telling us? SPEAKER C 00:16:07 - 00:16:40 Aaron, what's your take on this? So it's fairly straightforward there, I believe. It tells us the words there that we should follow, which is we should have unity and love and be compassionate, and we should be courteous and have pity toward one another. This is the relationship that we should demonstrate between fellow church members, family, friends, even our enemies. We should still demonstrate these characteristics. Towards whoever we come across as a witness. SPEAKER A 00:16:40 - 00:17:18 Yeah, I mean, if we don't have our own house in order with our relationships and our relationship to man and to God, are we expected to speak for the Lord? So yeah, that's right. Let's keep reading, and I've got a question for you, Lena. I'm going to read verses 12 to 14, and I want to ask you, what, what is this actually addressing? Verse 12: For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers. But the face of the Lord is against them that do evil. And who is he that will harm you, if ye be followers of that which is good? But, and if you suffer for righteousness' sake, happy are you: and be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled. SPEAKER B 00:17:20 - 00:18:07 What's that about, Lena? Okay, so it addresses suffering, persecution for our faith. You know, if we are innocent and suffer unjustly, But still, we are not to repay or return evil for evil. You know, Rod, you already read verse 14 here. It says, "If you should suffer for righteousness' sake, you are blessed." In other words, suffering of the righteous is a blessing. It's hard to say, but it is a blessing. And our God knows it all, and He is on our side as long as we are righteous. So, we must be prepared. I know, You know, we all don't like it, but we must be prepared to face persecution through lots of prayers and trust in the Lord to keep us. SPEAKER A 00:18:08 - 00:18:44 Jesus suffered persecution, and so are we. And, but we've got to remember Matthew 28:18, all power is given unto Jesus. So we are connected to the supreme power of the universe. So persecution comes, we hang on to that promise. Well, let's keep reading. I want to read verse 15 because this is an important one too. This is 1 Peter 3:15: But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh your reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear. Now what are the implications of this verse, Aaron? SPEAKER C 00:18:44 - 00:19:17 Yeah, look, the implications are in the word 'always' there. Our hope is in Jesus and it is cause for rejoicing. Because of the promise of eternal life. It is a duty of every Christian to share the gospel, no exceptions. Now I'd like to read from Colossians 4:6. It says, "Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one." So we should always have an answer for why we have faith. We should be able to share that. SPEAKER A 00:19:17 - 00:19:36 That's important to answer every question, you know, always give an answer, but also how we speak is important too. The language we use and the tone of voice is very important when we're witnessing to people. We've got to ask the Holy Spirit to use our voice. Linda, how important, how effective and important is our testimony, our personal testimony? SPEAKER B 00:19:36 - 00:20:13 Our personal testimony is unique and very important, very, very important. It is because no one can argue with it because It is our own personal experience that how Jesus, God, transformed our life. And so we're gonna go and read Revelation 12:11 here: And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death. And also, the personal testimony is important, especially at the early stages of our witnessing, because it carries most weight. SPEAKER A 00:20:13 - 00:20:25 Yeah, that's very important, isn't it, in the early stages. Yeah. Now in the parable of the rich young ruler, there's another important thing to remember, which is important to others when we share our faith. SPEAKER C 00:20:25 - 00:21:08 What's that, Aaron? Let's read Matthew 19:21-22. It says, Jesus said to him, if you want to be perfect, go sell what you have and give to the poor. And if you will have treasure in heaven and come follow me. But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. Now this young ruler, he kept the law, but yet he lacked something. Jesus tells young ruler what to do and invites him to follow him, but he goes his own way. You see, Jesus never forced him to follow him. The rich young ruler still had a choice to make. Whether he followed Christ or whether he would go his own way. SPEAKER A 00:21:08 - 00:21:45 That's important because the rich young ruler had everything but he lacked something, and Christ only told him to give everything away simply because he knew that was the problem he had. And when he walked away, Christ didn't say, 'Hey, come back, you know, we can do it another way.' He made his decision and Christ respected that. So we have to remember that. Lena, when we are witnessing and we need to also avoid coercion, what example has Jesus set for us? We had the rich young ruler. What else has Jesus done to set an example of what we are to do when— SPEAKER B 00:21:45 - 00:22:48 um— Yeah, sure. Coercion is contrary to God's teachings and His character particularly. And He never actually forced Adam and Eve to stay away from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. And the people in the ark to be saved from the flood, or even Israel in their covenant. Those are the examples. And Jesus, by the way, He met their needs and invited them to follow, and He never compelled anyone. You know, we have to do the same. We should not force anyone. People should choose to believe God, accept God, just because they want to, not because they are forced or compelled to. But often in history we can see that forcing conscience is a spirit of Satan, not Christ. And so our role is to be a loving conduit for God's service, God's people, and sharing Him and our faith thoughtfully and lovingly even in this world that resists truth. Okay, very good. SPEAKER A 00:22:48 - 00:22:59 Now we've talked about when We have that situation. We don't force and coerce. Aaron, what do we do when the gospel message we give, our witnessing, is rejected? SPEAKER C 00:22:59 - 00:23:33 Let's read from Matthew 23:37 where it says, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her, how often I wanted to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, 'but you were not willing.' Ah, so though the message was rejected, we shouldn't take it personally. It's not us necessarily that's being rejected, it's the message of God. We need to pick ourselves up, carry on, and continue to share the gospel. SPEAKER A 00:23:33 - 00:23:47 And the key thing is that we are to maintain relationship even though they may reject what we say. We keep friends. Yeah. So Lena, what practical steps can we take, for example, when a loved one when a family member walks away from God? SPEAKER B 00:23:47 - 00:24:35 Yeah, so we may leave and talk with them from the overflow of our time with Christ, but most importantly, we should pray for them constantly as Jesus' prayer for Peter changed his future completely. And also, we might submit to God all our sadness or any negative emotions, judgment, or even condemnation we feel at times, and we ask God to forgive us for those and ask God to fill us with His selfish love, which is very important. And also lastly, we may model a constant loving and Christlike life. And author Ellen White says in a book, Ministry of Healing, "The greatest argument for the gospel is a loving and lovable Christian." And it's a real challenge to be loving and lovable when you're rejected and people don't like you. SPEAKER A 00:24:35 - 00:24:45 That's right, that's right. That's a very good quote, that one. Um, question for you, Aaron. Why can we have hope even when loved ones do wander away from God? SPEAKER C 00:24:46 - 00:25:29 Because even though we love them, God loves them also. It's not just us. We have God on our side as well. I'd like to read from Jeremiah 31:16-17. It says, refrain your voice from weeping and your eyes from tears, for your work 'shall be rewarded,' says the Lord, 'and they shall come back from the land of the enemy. There is hope in your future,' says the Lord, 'that your children shall come back to their own border.' Our role is to keep loving, praying, and sharing, and living a faithful example while trusting God, yeah, and his restoring power. That's very important, isn't it? SPEAKER A 00:25:29 - 00:25:56 As parents, we should never give up on our children, never give up on praying for them, never give up that God's going to somehow reach them. Because if we don't pray for them, who else is praying for them? That's right. Even though they may reject us as what we believe, we don't reject them. We keep praying for them. We love the sinner, but we hate the sin is the, is the way we go forward. Well, from our discussion today, um, how does this change the way we should live and interact with others? SPEAKER B 00:25:56 - 00:26:16 What do you think, Lena? What is the most important thing is we are to ask God daily to fill us with His love, unselfish love and compassion like Jesus had, so that every encounter will reflect His love and Christ. Okay, thank you, Lana. What do you think, Aaron? SPEAKER C 00:26:16 - 00:26:54 We should just commit ourselves to sharing the gospel in everything we do, regardless whether we face adversaries, have trouble. And I'd like to read Ephesians Ephesians 3:17, 19, and 20— uh, 17 and 19. It says, "That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height, to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God." Amen. SPEAKER A 00:26:54 - 00:27:58 So this has been an interesting discussion today. Thank you, Lena. Thank you, Aaron, for your comments. Well, when God's love and His living, powerful Word fill our daily lives, we will be compelled to love and share Him with those around us. We won't be able to hold it back. We should be prayerful, thoughtful, and intentional about our witnessing, believing that His Word which goes forth from His mouth shall not return to him void, but it shall accomplish what he pleases, and it shall prosper in the things for which he sent it. We've got to have that faith and hope that we have that message and we can give it and it'll be productive for God. Well, we're glad you joined us today on Let God Speak. Remember, all past programs plus teacher's notes are available on our website 3abnaustralia.org.au. Email us on [email protected]. We'd love to hear from you. Tell your friends about the program. Join us again next time. We'd love to see you, and God bless. SPEAKER B You have been listening to let God speak, a production of 3ABN Australia television. To catch up on past programmes, please visit 3abnaustralia.org.au. Call us in Australia on 02 4973 3456. Or email [email protected]. we'd love to hear from you.