{"id":32277,"date":"2022-09-10T16:03:13","date_gmt":"2022-09-10T21:03:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/what-if-evangelism-came-as-natural-as-breathing\/"},"modified":"2022-09-10T16:03:13","modified_gmt":"2022-09-10T21:03:13","slug":"what-if-evangelism-came-as-natural-as-breathing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/what-if-evangelism-came-as-natural-as-breathing\/","title":{"rendered":"What If Evangelism Came As Natural As Breathing?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By Matt Henslee<\/em><\/p>\n

Some say you never forget how to ride a bike. I proved this clich\u00e9 true a few years ago when I bought a new bike after having not ridden one since my childhood.<\/p>\n

A few months after my bike purchase, I completed 70.3 grueling miles in a Half Ironman triathlon in the heat of a Florida summer. (Side-note, before the competition, I thought Florida was flat. After a 56-mile bike ride, I realize I was wrong.)<\/p>\n

While completing the triathlon wasn\u2019t easy, riding a bike proved to be a skill I hadn\u2019t forgotten. It felt natural.<\/p>\n

Breathing and Blinking<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Two other things that come natural to me are breathing and blinking.<\/p>\n

Most of us breathe without giving it a second thought. Even in the Sacramento Mountains, where my runs find me breathing a bit harder and oxygen seems to be at a premium, I usually don\u2019t think twice about the act of breathing.<\/p>\n

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Likewise, scientists say we blink an average of 15-20 times a minute or 1,200 times an hour. Yet, we hardly even notice we\u2019re blinking unless a speck of dust or an eyelash makes it onto our eyes.<\/p>\n

Blinking comes naturally even when we\u2019re squinting into the noonday sun.<\/p>\n

Could Evangelism Come This Naturally?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

What if evangelism came as natural as breathing or blinking does? What if we spoke about the good news of Jesus Christ as effortlessly as we take a breath or blink our eyes?<\/p>\n

Some Christians think declaring the gospel is the job of missionaries or evangelists, not the task of every follower of Christ. Why is that?<\/p>\n

Maybe it\u2019s like the fear my daughter had of falling off her bike\u2014a fear that led her to want to wear enough pads to survive an atomic bomb. When it comes to evangelism, some of us are so afraid of messing up or saying the wrong thing that we simply choose to not tell people about Jesus.<\/p>\n

We also claim the lack time as an excuse\u2014cramming our days so full of activities that we believe there\u2019s no time left to learn how to share the good news, let alone actually do it.<\/p>\n

We can look at our calendars to get a good idea of what we consider important. Is evangelism on that list or are activities getting in the way of our call to share the gospel?<\/p>\n

It Takes a Choice<\/strong><\/h3>\n

When my daughters wanted to learn to ride their bikes, they had to choose to put excuses aside. They had to let go of their fear, buckle the straps on their helmets, kneepads, and elbow guards, and take the time to get bike-riding right.<\/p>\n

As they learned how to ride, the minutes bled into hours and the hours turned into days. As they fell off and learned to get back up again, little scratches multiplied like the fish and the loaves.<\/p>\n

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See also  What Churches Must Do to Reach Gen Z<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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But guess what? Today, all of our girls now ride their bikes as effortlessly as they breathe and blink.<\/p>\n

Put Away the Excuses<\/strong><\/h3>\n

It\u2019s easy to let excuses like fear or full schedules keep us from following our Lord\u2019s command to, \u201cGo, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded\u201d (Matthew 28:19).<\/p>\n

The issue of time, however, should be the easiest nut to crack. Jesus commands evangelism, and the lost are all around us, walking right toward hell. Do we love them enough to warn them? Do we love the Lord enough to follow His command?<\/p>\n

As for fear, I believe if we make time to evangelize and believe our Lord\u2019s promise to be with us as we declare His victory over sin and shame, then our fear will wash away.<\/p>\n

Further, if we\u2019ll strap on our helmets to learn and practice an effective evangelism strategy\u2014whether it\u2019s the Roman Road, the ABCs of Becoming a Christian, 3 Circles, or whatever other method you prefer\u2014our confidence will build every time we jump on the \u2018bike\u2019 that is evangelism.<\/p>\n

Just Do It<\/strong><\/h3>\n

My friends, Jesus is with us as we share His good news with the world around us. As ambassadors for Christ, we have but one thing to declare: \u201cBe reconciled to God.\u201d<\/p>\n

We call out to the lost around us, \u201cRepent and believe!\u201d We can walk them down the Roman Road or we can tell them about the Four Spiritual Laws. But the key is to just do it!<\/em><\/p>\n

So, I encourage you to take the time to learn and get comfortable with an evangelism strategy. Practice it, and then step out into the world declaring the good news!<\/p>\n

The more you share the gospel, the more evangelism will become as natural as breathing and blinking\u2014just as it was when you learned how to ride a bike, which only happened because you took the time to learn, practice, and to toss your fear away along with your training wheels.<\/p>\n

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Matt Henslee<\/h2>\n

@mhenslee<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Matt and his wife Rebecca have four daughters. He is the Associational Mission Strategist for the Collin Baptist Association in Texas, and coauthor of Replanting Rural Churches<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n