Share the Love - Share His Love Through Your Story, Part 1

Everyone has a story, right? But did you know that your story has the power to change someone's life? It's true. And today you'll discover how to turn your story into a tool to share God's love with someone that you deeply care about. Stay with me.

That's today. For the past couple of programs, Chip's been addressing the lies that can squash our chances to communicate the Gospel and the unique style we each have to discuss our faith. Today, he'll unpack how our story, our experiences, upbringing, and choices can be a great opportunity to talk about Jesus with others. But before he dives into this message, if this is your first time listening to this message, I'd like to ask you to share your story with us. Or if you want to learn more about what we do, go to livingontheedge.org.

You'll find tons of resources on a variety of topics and countless programs to enjoy. Okay, let's join Chip for today's talk from Acts chapter 26. You know, a lot of people play all those sports, and you know, we're number one, and you put all those trophies up on the mantle. There's a great big mantle in heaven, and if you are a child of God, you're up on his mantle, and your story is his story about the supernatural love of God, what it does in a human heart, and the change that it brings. And it's powerful. Revelation 12, 11, it talks about the saints in a time future, and in their battle against Satan himself, and it says they overcame him, Satan, by the blood of the lamb, and by the word of their testimony, and they love not their life, even unto death. The word of your testimony, your story is powerful. However, most Christians don't know how to share their story in a simple, clear way that communicates the love of God to other people. And what I want to do is I want to teach you this morning how to tell your story.

And I figured maybe the very best way to do it was to see the model that's outlined in scripture. Three times in the book of Acts, the apostle Paul tells his story, Acts 9, Acts 22, and Acts 26. In this occasion, he gets to stand before Agrippa, Herod the Great's great grandson. Rome has given him this opportunity to be king. He is a practicing Jew, although history tells us that his lifestyle didn't match up very well.

But he knows all about Jewish law and Jewish custom. The apostle Paul is a prisoner. And so we're going to pick up the story in Acts chapter 26, and the apostle Paul has one last shot to make his defense. And of all the things, guess what he does? He tells his story.

This is the outline. He tells about his life before Christ in verses 4 through 11. Then he tells very specifically how he met Jesus. And then third he talks about the difference Jesus made in his life.

And I want you to kind of get that down because it's very simple. Your life before you met Christ, how specifically you met him, and then the difference that he made. Follow along. Let's just read his story and then I'm literally going to take those principles and we're going to outline all of our stories.

So in the days to come, over a cup of coffee, over a meal, sitting next to someone on a bus, they may ask a question and in about 3 to 5 minutes you will learn very clearly how to share your story. Verse 1, chapter 26. Then King Agrippa said to Paul, you have permission to speak for yourself.

So Paul motioned with his hand and he began his defense. King Agrippa, I consider myself fortunate to stand before you today as I make my defense against all the accusations of the Jews. And especially so because you are well acquainted with all the Jewish customs and controversies.

Therefore I beg you, listen to me carefully. Now he's going to build some credibility and say this is what my life was like before I met Christ personally. The Jews all know the way I lived ever since I was a child from the beginning of my life in my own country and also in Jerusalem. They have known me for a long time and can testify if they are willing that according to the strictest sect of our religion, I lived as a Pharisee. And now it is because of my hope and what God has promised our fathers that I'm on trial today. This is the promise our 12 tribes are hoping to see fulfilled as they earnestly serve God day and night. Oh King, it is because of this hope that the Jews are accusing me.

Why should any of you consider it incredible that God raises the dead? I too was convinced that I ought to do everything possible to oppose the name of Jesus of Nazareth and that is just what I did in Jerusalem. On the authority of the chief priests I put many of the saints into prison and when they were put to death I cast my vote against them. Many times I went from one synagogue to another to have them punished and I tried to force them to blaspheme. In my obsession against them I even went to foreign cities to persecute them. And so he gives a story and you just realize there was a murderous, zealous, religious, actually nut who was just trying to kill every Christian in the name of God.

Then notice the shift and I want you to listen for how specific he is. Verse 12. On one of these journeys I was going to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests. About noon, oh King, as I was on the road I saw a light from heaven brighter than the sun blazing all around me and my companions. We fell to the ground and I heard a voice saying to me in Aramaic, Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?

It's hard for you to kick against the goads. Then I asked, who are you, Lord? I am Jesus whom you are persecuting, the Lord replied. Now get up and stand on your feet, for I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and a witness of what you have seen of me and what I will show you. I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles. I am sending you to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God.

So they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me. So he's very specific. It was noon.

The sun was bright. He even tells us what language he heard it in. He gives the actual words.

It's sort of a you are there. And then picking up in verse 19 he talks about what difference it made. So then King Agrippa, I wasn't disobedient to the vision from heaven. First to those in Damascus and then in Jerusalem and all Judea and the Gentiles also. I preached that they should repent and turn to God and prove their repentance by their deeds. That is why the Jews seized me in the temple courts and tried to kill me. But I've had God's help to this very day. And so I stand here and I testify to small and to great alike. I'm saying nothing beyond what the prophets and Moses said would happen.

That the Christ would suffer and would be the first to rise from the dead and would proclaim light to his own people and to the Gentiles. At this point, Festus interrupted Paul's defense. You are out of your mind, Paul, he shouted. Your great learning is driving you insane. I am not insane, most excellent Festus, Paul replied. What I'm saying is true and reasonable. The king is familiar with these things and I can speak freely to him.

I'm convinced that none of this has escaped his notice because it wasn't done in a corner. And now after he's said this is my life before, this is specifically my relationship, how I met Christ, this is how things have changed. Then he ends his story with sort of a provocative question. He asked for a response. He says, verse 27, King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets?

I know you do. Implication, if the prophets are true, if what Moses said, if everything I'm saying is true, the implications about Jesus are true and then notice King Agrippa knew exactly what he meant. Agrippa said to Paul, do you think in such a short time that you can persuade me to become a Christian? Paul replied, short time or long, I pray that not only you but all who are listening to me today may become what I am, a Christian, except for these chains.

The king arose with the governor and Bernice and those sitting with him. They left the room and while talking to one another they said, this man isn't doing anything that deserves death or imprisonment, Agrippa said to Festus. This man could have been set free if he'd not appealed to Caesar.

So the apostle Paul has an opportunity to defend himself. He tells a story and he divides a story in a real simple outline. I won't ask you to raise your hand how many of you have your story written out somewhere or how many times or where you've been able to share it, but what I can tell you is this. If you will walk with me for about the next 20 minutes or so and even with the pen, what I'm going to do is I'm going to walk through how to tell the story. I'm going to show you exactly how you can make a few notes and bullet points and tell your story. I'm going to encourage you at the end of our time to literally this afternoon take a half hour or 45 minutes, maybe an hour for some, and literally write down, this is what my life was like before Christ.

This was the day, and for some it won't be a real specific day. I realize there's some that have had a little bit different experience, but this is specifically my relationship with Christ, how I met him, and this is how my life changed. If you will invest that time to write that out, I will guarantee you, God will give you an opportunity to share that in the most natural, normal way with some people than you ever dreamed. And you'll find yourself sharing God's love and having a confidence to share it. I got an email from someone I had a chance to sit down and he wanted to learn how to share his story, and so I said I'd be glad to, and I took him to Acts chapter 26, in fact I've been in this passage many times, taken a lot of groups through it, and it was a Sunday afternoon and I shared it with him, and he later wrote me an email. He said, you know what, I've been a Christian since I was seven years old and I didn't think I had much of a story.

I actually grew up in like a really great home, my parents actually really loved each other, I've never been on drugs, I've never been an alcoholic, I don't have anything fantastic to say. But when I started to write down my story and how exciting is it to say that when I was five and a half years old, at my bedside with my mom, I trusted Christ. He said, but what I realized was the theme of God's unconditional love and the confidence in what it did in my life.

And he said, you know, I wrote all that out, it took me about 45 minutes or an hour, I wrote it all out, and it got real clear. He said, the next day I was with a fellow at work who was a brand new Christian, whose wife was not a follower of Christ, he invited me, do you want to grab dinner with my wife? And I says, so I go, we eat dinner together, and the conversation went around self-confidence. And I've been a very confident person, and his wife turned to me and said, where do you get such self-confidence? And he said, I realized I get God's self-confidence from his unconditional love. And in about the next three and a half to five minutes, I shared what my life was like, how I met Christ personally, the theme of his unconditional love, and he said, you know, it was so freely and so well received.

Even though I've been a Christian since I was seven, he goes, I've never shared my story. So all I want to tell you, as we go, I'm trying to set you up. Are you getting the idea? Are you kind of getting the idea this isn't like, hey, I'm going to listen to this, I might do this someday some way?

I'm really trying to say, do it. You're a trophy of God's grace. God wants you to be able to tell your story.

It's the simplest and maybe the most powerful way you'll ever share his love with people, people that you care about. So are you ready? Your story is, what was your life like before Christ? And when you make your outline, I encourage you to write it out, but I'm an outline person, so you might bullet point it first. You want to talk about some external issues. If there was a movie camera following you around before your life, before you met Christ, where did you grow up, and what was going on, and what were you doing, and what was your vocation, and were you single, or were you married, or this was your job.

Just give people snapshots. This is externally what your life looked like. And then if somehow there was a little internal recorder that could record the things of your heart, and the struggles, and what you felt, and what was going on inside, and what you feared, then you want to talk about some of the internal stuff.

What was going on inside? And then the final thing you want to do is you want to talk about the realization of your need. No one ever puts their faith in Christ until at some point, at some time, they realize, you know, I need God. I really need forgiven.

I need hope. And so, you know, what was it? What was it that began to move you to realize you had a need? And then second, you want to tell, how did you personally come to know Christ? And if you answer these questions, again, with a few bullet points, what caused you to consider Christ as a solution to your need?

Usually there's some exposure. Usually you met a person. For some of us, I don't know about you, I had never opened the Bible in my life until I was 18 years old.

And I literally said, you know, I don't know if this is true or not, but I'm going to examine it. But what caused you to consider? What motivated you to finally trust Christ?

What was the tipping point? What happened in your life? And for some of us, it's a tragedy. For others, if someone walked out on us, sometimes we went through a really difficult time. I've met people that have really hit bottom. Or by contrast, I meet people that really hit it out of the park. And they just thought, if I ever accomplished this or had that or married him or lived there or earned that much or got that degree, wow! And then they get to that and they go, wow, is this all there is?

And that was a turning point. If you had to write yours down, what would it be? And then be specific about where and how you actually put your faith in Christ. I mean, when Paul did it, he even tells us what language. He gives us the actual words. It was a noonday sun.

It was brighter than the sun. We fell to the ground. I mean, when I get to share my story, when I get done, my prayer is that if someone could listen to what I did, it's specific enough that even if I didn't explain it, they could say, you know what, I think I could do what he did. I could put my faith in Christ the way I heard Chip or you put your name in there. And then finally, if there's a key verse, God's word never returns void. If you can specifically give people, here's a core verse that sort of summarizes your journey.

It will be different for different ones. And then finally, how did your life change after trusting Christ? And you want to get that movie camera back out and look at the external issues. You know, what happened in the things that are external and that people can see? And by the way, share, be honest. You don't ever have to sort of improve on what God's done.

We don't have to sort of exaggerate. Just tell people honestly and candidly what's occurred that they can see on the outside that you can see. What's occurred and changed on the inside?

And then this is really important. Share honestly where you still struggle. I've heard people share their testimony that I've heard them and I think they must already be in heaven. My life was a wreck. I met Jesus. Everything's great. I've never met a Christian that everything's great. He didn't promise to make everything great. He didn't promise that you'll never have any problems. He promised that progressively we'd change. He promised he'd give us hope in the midst of lots of real difficulty. So we've got to be careful that we share very honestly about what God has done but that's still a journey.

Does that make sense? Okay, what I thought I would do is give a sort of a shot at those are the principles. So let me just take a moment and I'll share my story using this outline, okay? You've probably heard parts of it here and there but if I was sitting down and we had a cup of coffee and I said, Hey, where'd you grow up? And you told me where you grew up. So what was it like growing up and you told me a little bit about your family and this and that.

And then just normal or casual you might say, well, Chip, tell me a little bit about your life. Externally what I'd say is, well, I grew up in a home, parents were school teachers and we were in general kind of pretty moral. My mom was an amazing person, a guidance counselor.

My dad, you know, ex-Marine, Guam, Iwo Jima, science teacher. He was a great athlete so I was really, you know, pushed and admired and wanted to be a good athlete. And my dad was one of those guys that I never heard him say I love you until late in his life. I never, he wasn't a hugger but I knew he loved me and the way he loved me was in that generation is he would help you become successful. If you did really well, that's the way you got loved.

So he'd hit grounders until they would bounce off my face and if I got four As and a B, we had a deep talk about what happened with the B. And it was real, I mean that was his love language, it was I really want you to do well because I learned in my house early that if there's a theme, it was if you can become successful, then you'll really be happy. And I want to help you be successful. And the way you're successful is this, it's real easy, you know. You get up earlier than everybody else, you set very clear goals, you develop a strategy to get there and when they're sleeping, you work.

And when they go to bed, you keep working. And I'll tell you what son, you'll be successful and when you're successful, you'll be happy. And so I became a workaholic by the time I was 13, I had six or seven yards, three paper routes at one time.

I lent my parents $3,000 when I was 13 years old at 6% interest. I decided, I read an article about Pete Maravich when I was about seventh grade and I saw all the drills that he did and started doing those drills for about eight or nine hours a day. And decided I'm going to date a pretty cheerleader, I'm going to get a basketball scholarship, I'm going to graduate in the top of my class, I'm going to be in this club and be all league and this and that. And I went like an absolute wild man after that. I didn't do any drugs, I didn't do any alcohol, I was too busy. But internally I was desperately insecure, I was very short and very skinny, so I had that little chip on my shoulder trying to prove myself. I was very mouthy, very arrogant, had a real foul mouth and was really lonely inside because my dad began to drink more and more and more as I got older.

And I just had a big wound I didn't know about. But that's what my life was like. So the realization of my need came the night that I graduated from high school.

I vividly remember sitting in an empty apartment off Ohio State's campus with about 25 or 30 people and in those days they called it a reefer, a joint, whatever you call it. But they were passing it around and we were telling stories about high school and as it came around a gal named Jackie turned to me and said, you must be very happy tonight. And she was one of those girls that was a friend and we were in a lot of study halls together and talked honestly and I remember turning and saying, well why do you say that?

And because we talked she goes, well you know you did well in school, you date that cute little cheerleader, you got a scholarship and she named a few things. And I didn't realize that every single person pursues something or someone that you believe is going to make you happy. Everyone behaves in a way that makes sense to them, even if you don't articulate it, even if you don't think it through. Your behavior, your energy, your time, your money, it all, I mean if you could put it all together all of us go towards something that makes sense. I didn't realize the mantra was, if you work hard and successful you'll be happy.

And when she said that it was like a light came on and I didn't feel happy, I felt empty. You've been listening to part one of Chip's message, Share His Love Through Your Story, which is from our series, Share the Love. Chip will be back with us in studio shortly to share some helpful application for us to think about. For one reason or another, Christians today are hesitant to share their faith. We know we should be doing it more, but sometimes just the thought of talking to someone about God can be nerve-wracking.

So why is that and how can we change it? In this eight-part series, Chip's going to boost our confidence and teach us to have personal and spontaneous conversations about Jesus. Learn how to develop the heart, skills, and perspective to share your faith in a winsome, natural way. Don't miss how you can move from being a secret Christian to an unashamed witness for Christ. For more information about Share the Love or our resources, visit LivingOnTheEdge.org. That's LivingOnTheEdge.org. Well, Chip's joined me in studio now with something special he'd like to share. Chip?

Thanks, Dave. I have a very important word for the Living on the Edge family. A huge number of believers are still spiritual infants. They're not mature. They don't know how to live out their faith in their families, their churches, or their communities. They've trusted in Christ.

They've been forgiven. But their lifestyles don't really reflect the love or the holiness of Jesus. And we at Living on the Edge want to help Christians learn to live like Christians, to disciple believers, and to help them learn biblical truths, so that when they're attacked by the enemy or go through adversity or difficulty or pain or suffering, they'll have the strength to stand strong. If you want to see Christians grow spiritually here in America and around the world, I'm asking you right now, will you give a gift to help us disciple Christians? Will you partner with us? And by the way, every dollar that you give by July 7th will be matched dollar for dollar. So pray about it and then do what the Lord shows you today.

Thanks so much. Well, if you believe God is calling you to join us in helping Christians live like Christians, now's a great time to become a financial partner. Because during our mid-year match, every dollar we receive will be doubled until July 7th. To send a gift, call us at 888-333-6003 or go to livingontheedge.org. That's 888-333-6003 or visit livingontheedge.org. App listeners, tap donate. Well, Chip, today you modeled how we can tell our story to others by telling us yours.

Now, what was your point behind that? Well, first what I want people to see is how simple it is. It basically boils down, as the Apostle Paul modeled, to asking some very simple questions and then overlaying your life experience. Question number one is this is what my life was like before I trusted Christ. This was my life, not just the external issues, but this is how I thought. This is how I felt. These were issues in my heart.

And what happens is we all have those. The second question is, how did you actually receive Christ? And on this one, I just want people to remember people that we're talking to don't get our lingo. So when you say something like, well, I prayed, or I trusted Christ, or I gave Him my heart, I want you to know that makes absolutely no sense to someone that doesn't know Jesus. You know, you walk through it in a very pedantic way where this is what I was thinking and this was the verse, and so this is what I actually prayed.

So that when you're done speaking, that person, because of how you've expressed your journey of actually coming to Christ, would know exactly how to put their faith in Christ if they wanted to. I have a third question that we're going to talk about in our next broadcast, but it's how has my life changed since that time? And the only thing I'll say, because we'll teach on that next time, is we don't have to exaggerate what God has done.

We just need to tell exactly how our life has changed. Because down deep, here's what I've seen. People don't believe that God can actually use them. We see and hear people and they think, well, the people that God uses, they have it all together, or I could never do that, or they must be super spiritual, or I know I don't measure up, or I'm just a regular person, or no one would really listen to me. The people that you will share with, that you'll make the biggest difference, is just the real you, being you, showing up.

We don't have to be super personality, any super gift, your life, your story. The power is in the message, not in the messenger. So God has a story that He wants to get out. He is working in your story. What we want to help you do is calmly, lovingly, in a way that people can understand, is simply tell them what God has done in your life. Now let me ask you, who in your relational network needs to hear that story?

Pray for them today, and then ask God, Lord, give me a chance this week, maybe I don't tell my whole story, maybe I don't, quote, share the gospel, but will you let me begin to tell my story, and build a connection at the heart level, and then watch what God will do? Thanks, Chip. And before we go, the points Chip just reviewed come right from his message notes, a great resource to help you get the most out of every program. It provides you with Chip's outline, all of the scripture he references, and lots of fill-ins to help you remember what you're learning. So before you listen again, let me encourage you to download Chip's message notes at livingontheedge.org, under the broadcasts tab. App listeners tap fill-in notes. We'll join us next time as Chip continues his series, Share the Love. Until then, this is Dave Druey saying thanks for listening to this Edition of Living on the Edge.