A Simple Guide to Sharing Your Faith

by Aaron Coe , Dustin Willis on Wednesday, October 15, 2014

When God restores our relationship with Him, we begin to discover meaning and purpose in a broken world.

Watch this video from Life on Mission. It presents a simple diagram to help you share their faith in a natural way with the lost people they encounter every day. Jimmy Scroggins, lead pastor or First Baptist Church West Palm Beach, explains three key truths: God’s design, brokenness, and the gospel.
http://bcove.me/v1k08wpp

We live in a broken world, surrounded by broken lives, broken relationships, and broken systems. This brokenness is seen in the suffering, violence, poverty, pain, and death around us. Brokenness leads us to search for a way to make life work.
In contrast to this brokenness, we also see beauty, purpose, and evidence of God's perfect design around us. The Bible tells us that God originally planned a world that worked perfectly-where everything and everyone fit together in harmony. God made each of us with a purpose-to worship Him and walk with Him. (See Gen. 1:31; Ps. 19:1.)
Life doesn't work when we ignore God and His original design for our lives. We selfishly insist on doing things our own way. The Bible calls this sin. We all sin and distort the original design. The consequence of our sin is separation from God-in this life and for all eternity. (See Rom. 3:23; 6:23.)
Sin leads to brokenness. We see this all around us and in our own lives as well. When we realize life isn't working, we begin to look for a way out. We tend to go in many directions and do many different things to figure it out on our own. Brokenness leads to a realization of our need for something greater. (See Prov. 14:12; Rom. 1:25.)
At this point we need a remedy-some good news. Because of His love, God didn't leave us in our brokenness. Jesus, God in human flesh, came to us and lived perfectly according to God's design. Jesus came to rescue us-to do for us what we couldn't do for ourselves. He took our sin and shame to the cross, paying the penalty of our sin by His death. Jesus was then raised from the dead to provide the only way for us to be rescued and restored to a relationship with God. (See John 3:16; 1 Cor. 15:3-4; Col. 2:14.)
Simply hearing this good news isn't enough. We must admit our sinful brokenness and stop trusting in ourselves. We don't have the power to escape this brokenness on our own. We need to be rescued. We must ask God to forgive us, turning from sin to trust in Jesus. This is what it means to repent and believe. Believing, we receive new life through Jesus, and God turns our lives in a new direction. (See Mark 1:15; Rom. 10:9; Eph. 2:8-9.)
When God restores our relationship with Him, we begin to discover meaning and purpose in a broken world. Now we can pursue God's design in all areas of our lives. Even when we fail, we understand God's pathway to be restored-this same good news of Jesus. God's Spirit empowers us to recover His design and assures us of His presence in this life and for all eternity. (See Eph. 2:10; Phil. 2:13.)
This article is excerpted from Life on Mission.

Related Articles and Resources

Knowing, Sharing and Defending Your Faith
Why Do You Believe That? (Bible study)
Christ Made a Way for Peace
Honest to God (Bible study)

Aaron Coe serves as the vice president of mobilization and marketing of the North American Mission Board, providing leadership in mobilizing churches and missionaries to plant churches. He and his wife, Carmen, have four children, Ezra James, Danielle, Joshua and Harper.

Dustin Willis serves as the coordinator of the Send Network and the Send North America Conference. Dustin lives in metro Atlanta, with his wife, Renie, and their two children, Jack and Piper. Before moving to Atlanta, Dustin planted and pastored Midtown Fellowship in Columbia, South Carolina.