Going Deeper..."Reach Out" Session 1

This past Sunday night, we began an extremely important teaching series focused around the idea of sharing Jesus with our classmates, teammates, friends, and everyone in between. We began by being challenged to simply bring Jesus up in our every day conversations. We all have conversations throughout the day...how can we begin to think about turning them towards Jesus? Greg gave us three ways to "bring Jesus up"...to "just ask." First, there was the fork in the road. This is when you look for opportunities to either keep talking about what you are talking back, or change gears and make a connection to Jesus (example: A friend's family member dies. The fork in road may be to share about the comfort and peace that knowing Jesus brings.) Another way to bring Jesus up in conversation is to ask questions and simply listen respectively. People like to be heard and respected...so do that and then share your beliefs. A third way is to be blunt about it and ask people questions about their belief in God or what happens after death. No matter what way we choose, we are to be encouraged to be intentional about bringing Jesus up. Here is the thing though. So often, if we were honest with ourselves, the reasons why we fail to bring "Jesus up" in conversation isn't really about not know what to say or how to do it (although that is what we want people to think because they tend to buy that excuse). Our bigger issue is, we lack a desire to actually bring Jesus up. We would rather keep church stuff at church and everything else by itself. Is it fear of what others will think, fear of rejection, humiliation, hypocrisy? Or maybe it is a lack of confidence not in ourselves, but in the message we claim to believe. Do we really believe all that the Gospel has to offer (i.e.- we are sinful, we need a savior, etc...) In 2 Corinthians 5: 13-15, Paul explains his compeling motivation for sharing Christ with others...it is his confidence in what Jesus did on the cross and what that means for his life. So as we begin to think about brining Jesus up...lets not only focus on the tools of what to say, but also on the why...why should we bring Jesus up... Use these questions this week to continue further depth of growth about this topic of bringing Jesus up in your conversations. 1. What is one thing you are convinced is true? Maybe it is a favorite sports team or player that you believe is the best...maybe it is a TV show, a song, etc...How far would you go to defend that particular subject? How does us being "convinced" of its truth affect our desire to defend it? 2. Read 2 Corinthians 5:13-15. What is Paul convinced about? How does it make Him act? 3. Of the 3 types of ways used as examples to bring Jesus up in conversation...which one are you most comfortable with? Why is that? 4. How important is it to continue to ask God to give you boldness and courage to share your faith? Read Ephesians 6:19-20...what is Paul's prayer for? 5. What does it feel like to know that as followers of Jesus we are his "ambassadors" challenged to tell people about how God wants to bring people back to Himself through the cross of Jesus (reconciliation)? As a ambassador of God, who do you represent? Plan to join us at Matt and Amanda's on Thursday night at 7pm to take these thoughts deeper as a group!