After 33 years of home ownership, I’ve just had my very first experience with an aspect of home ownership that is fraught with the potential for headaches and nightmares: replacing the backyard fence. And the reason it’s a potentially explosive experience is because backyard fences are typically built directly on the property line which means that they are jointly owned by multiple neighbors. And that means that you can’t just make a unilateral decision about replacing your fence. You have to negotiate this decision with your neighbors.
–Can we all agree on the need for a new fence?
–Can we all agree that this is the right time to build the new fence?
–Can we all agree on which contractor we should use?
–Can we all agree on what materials we should use?
–Can we all agree on the percentage of the total cost that will be borne by each neighbor?
Every one of those decisions…and many others…hold the potential for disagreement and strife between neighbors. So I couldn’t help but smile when I realized that after 33 years of home ownership I was finally facing this particular challenge for the very first time at the exact moment when God had gripped my heart with a compelling call for us…the Petaluma Valley Family…to intentionally be the loving presence of Christ to our neighbors. I just hate it when God makes me practice what I preach. But I think I must have done OK because the contractor, after watching me work through a couple of potentially dicey issues with two different neighbors, later came to me and said, “I want to be your neighbor.”
I first shared this vision with you back in December and for the last two Sundays I’ve been speaking to it again. I’m convinced that God is calling us right now to live in the neighborhoods in which He has planted us with the specific intent of sharing the love of Jesus with the people closest to us, our neighbors. You focusing on your neighbors and me focusing on mine.
And I’m also convinced that He’s shown us how to do it through 3 simple steps captured in the 3 words: PRAYER. CARE. And SHARE.
–First, we’re going to pray for our neighbors. We’re going to come regularly into God’s presence on behalf of our neighbors. We’re going to ask God to bless our neighbors. We’re going to seek God’s heart and will for our neighbors. In short, we’re going to talk to God about our neighbors before we talk to our neighbors about God. Praying for our neighbors is really that simple.
–We’re also going to care for our neighbors. We’re going to care for our neighbors by looking for opportunities to demonstrate Jesus’ love for them in some simple and tangible ways. We want to live the kind of life that invites our neighbors to be touched by the love of Jesus flowing through us.
Last week, we noted that Jesus lived a very inviting, attractive kind of life. People were attracted to Jesus because everything he did or said flowed from a heart of love. People were attracted to Jesus by his kindness and compassion. They were attracted to him by his humility and his servant spirit. They were attracted to him because they sensed that if they approached him, he would welcome them. And our neighbors will be attracted to Jesus when they experience his love flowing through us.
–So, we’re going to pray for our neighbors and we’re going to care for our neighbors. Finally, we’re going to be alert for God-given opportunities to share the gospel with them. God-given opportunities to tell our neighbors something about our experience with God. Something about God’s heart for them.
That’s the vision that we’re going to be following throughout the year.
Two weeks ago, we focused on the prayer component of our action plan. Last week, we focused on the care component of our action plan. This morning, I want us to focus on the sharing component of our action plan which, as I said just a moment ago, calls us to be alert for God-given opportunities to share the gospel with our neighbors. Now, let’s take a few moments to break that statement down into its component parts.
–First, we want to “be alert.” That means that we want to be prepared. We want to be ready. Why do we want to be prepared and ready? Because we believe that something significant is going to happen and we don’t want to miss it.
–So, what is this significant thing that is going happen? This thing that is so important that we want to stay constantly alert so as not to miss it? Answer—we’re going to have an opportunity to share the gospel with a neighbor.
–Question—what is the gospel? It’s the good news that through Christ, God has provided a way for everyone to be saved. It’s the good news that through Christ our sins can be forgiven, our guilt can be left behind, habits and behaviors that have kept us down can be overcome and our life today and forever can be filled with a joy, a power and a hope that is only found in Christ. That’s the gospel.
Folks, my life has been transformed by the gospel. How many of you would say this morning that your life has been transformed by the gospel? And that’s why we don’t want to miss an opportunity to share the gospel with a neighbor.
–And we certainly don’t want to miss that opportunity if it’s been given to us by God. We sometimes refer to those God-given opportunities as “divine appointments.” Here’s what we mean by that.
As you and I are going about our business every day, God is also going about His business every day. Jesus said it like this in John 5:17,
“My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too, am working.”
And when the path that we’re walking leads us into an encounter with a person in whose heart God is actively working, that’s a divine appointment. That’s a God-given opportunity to share the gospel and we don’t want to miss it. Especially when it happens in our own neighborhood with one of our own neighbors.
Now, in previous weeks we’ve seen that the calls to pray for our neighbors and care for our neighbors are both built on rock solid biblical foundations. So, too, is the call to be intentionally alert for God-given opportunities to share the gospel with our neighbors. We find it, most clearly expressed, in 1 Peter 3:15, which says this,
“Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.”
Let’s take a few moments to look at that verse more closely.
–“Always be prepared….” In other words, “Be alert.”
–“Always be prepared” for what? “Always be prepared…to give an answer to everyone…” Do you suppose “everyone” includes our neighbors? Seems like a pretty safe bet to me.
–“Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.”
So, let me ask you–What is the reason for our hope? What’s the source of our hope.
Answer—Our hope is in the risen Christ.
1 Peter 1:3 says, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” What is the reason for our hope? Our hope is in the risen Christ.
Romans 6:3,5 says, “Don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection.” What is the reason for our hope? Our hope is in the risen Christ.
Galatians 2:20 says, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.” (But how is that possible? How can a crucified Christ live in anyone? Because Christ is risen! He was crucified and then he was raised back to life.) That’s why we can join Paul in saying, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.”The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” What is the reason for our hope? Our hope is in the risen Christ…in this life and the next.
So, the second half of 1 Peter 3:15 tells us that we need to be prepared to give an answer for the reason for our hope. And now that we’re clear about the reason for our hope, how do we prepare ourselves to give that answer? We do it with an unwavering focus on what the first half of 1 Peter 3:15 tells us to do:
“In your hearts set apart Christ as Lord.”
–Keep Christ first in your life.
–Don’t let anything drive him off the throne of your life.
–Don’t let anything become more important to you than serving Christ, pleasing Christ, honoring Christ, being obedient to Christ and being like Christ.
–Don’t want anything more than wanting more of Christ.
–Set Him apart as your Lord.
–Love Jesus with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength.
–Just stay in love with Jesus.
And if you’ll do that, not only will you not miss an opportunity…you’ll jump at the opportunity to tell someone about Jesus.
What’s more, you’ll always be prepared; you’ll know exactly what to say because you’ll be speaking from the overflow of your heart. No one needs a script… No one needs a prepared or rehearsed speech to talk about the love of their life.
What a perfect day for us to observe the Lord’s Supper because in the eating of this bread and the drinking of this cup we’re doing the very thing we’ve been talking about this morning. In 1 Corinthians 11, Paul describes the Lord’s Supper as a “proclaiming” of the gospel. So, come and eat and drink and tell the story of Jesus’ great love for you. The story of Jesus’ great love for all people. The story of the Jesus that you love.
The Petaluma Valley Baptist Church Prayer Team is a ministry dedicated to intercessory prayer. A group of Prayer Team members are available to pray for requests that come either through the mail, e-mail, via the telephone. or this web site. Please submit a brief description of your request and we will bring it before the throne of grace.
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