Beautiful Feet: Sharing the Good News

“As a parent you are the strongest and most consistent influence in your child’s life.” 

 

The impact the church can make in the life of your child is inconsequential compared to the impact that you make – just by living out your faith daily.

If you want your child to be a person of prayer, you must first be a person of prayer.  If you want your child to give generously, then you must give generously.  You can drop them off at church and youth group every week, they can hear all the right things about how God wants them to live, but if you are modeling something else at home, then what they see and experience most is what will shape them the most.

This past week our High School students spent some time looking at and thinking about how we can be better at sharing the “Good News” about Jesus.   We realized that in our culture of “social media” we get more excited to share with the world our latest meal than we are about sharing about what Jesus did.

Romans 10:15 says,

“How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news.”

So as a parent, how beautiful are your feet?  Are you modeling sharing your faith on a regular basis?  Maybe you are sharing your faith in the workplace, but are your children aware of it?  Remember if you are the greatest spiritual influence for your children; then they will look to you to decide how important sharing your faith is.  They will also look to you to discover how to share their faith.

I want to encourage you with 3 “Big Ideas” to help you have “beautiful feet”.  Maybe these reminders can give you a boost and help you begin to model sharing about Jesus for your family.

Before we dive in why don’t you take a moment to read Acts 8:26-39.  This is a great story about a follower of Jesus named Philip stepped up and started sharing the Good News about Jesus.  Once you’ve done that take a look at these three big ideas. 

1.    REMEMBER – God is at Work. 

This is something that we all to easily forget.   I think many times sharing our faith is difficult or feels awkward because we have the emphasis in the wrong place. We treat or view sharing our faith as it being about us.  But it has nothing to do with us.  It’s all about God. 

God has been at work in our lives.  God has been at work in the world.  And God has been at work in the life of the person we want to share with. 

Think about Philip and the Ethiopian. Philip didn’t just say to himself – “I think I’m going to go save an Ethiopian today”.   God nudged him and told Him what to do – Philip was simply faithful to the opportunity.  Philip didn’t do anything except show up. 

God had already put the scriptures in the Official’s hands, he already stirred the man’s heart to be ready to ask questions and to respond to the answers. You don’t “save” anyone – God through His Spirit does that work. 

It’s a work that we have to remember that He is always doing.

  

2.    It’s a Partnership 

God partnered with Philip and he showed up.  The same is true for you and I.  God is at work putting people in our paths that we can help point to God. 

The question is will we do it? 

Maybe you are sitting there and saying, “well that’s great and all but how; how do I partner with God?”.  Too often I think we make it way harder than it really is. 

We don’t have to wait for God to send an angel like Philip did.  He probably doesn’t need you to go chasing after chariots, but it could be as simple as: 

·         Inviting a friend or co-worker to church.

·         Reading your Bible in public, or praying when you go out to eat.

·         Maybe you just need to reach out to someone who is not like you and show them that you care about them, because God cares about them. 

There are a ton of ways – the important thing to remember is that you don’t have to have all the answers, or say all the right words.  Remember like we said – God is at work and he wants to partner with you.

 

3.     We Can Do Hard Things

 

Sharing the Gospel can be difficult, but it is worth it. I’d love to tell you that sharing the story of Jesus will always be easy.  But that would be a lie – it can be hard.  It isn’t’ always hard but sometimes it is difficult. 

If there was anything worth sharing with everyone you know – it’s not your meatball sub that you had for lunch. The thing you should share is who Jesus is and what He has done in your life. 

My wife and I  have recently adopted a motto in our home – We Can Do Hard.  

It’s just a reminder for us that just because something is hard doesn’t mean we can’t or that we shouldn’t do it.  Matter of fact most of the difficult things in life are things that are worth doing and pouring yourself into. I can’t promise you that it will be easy but I can promise you that it is worth it.  I can also promise you that the more you make sharing your faith a part of your routine – the easier it will get.   

If you make it a point to share with everyone what God is doing in your life you may find that people will want what you have and will open up to what God is doing in their lives.

And as you model what it looks like to share your faith, your children will start to understand the importance and value of partnering with God – knowing that He is always at work, and that even the smallest things can make a world of difference for other people and for the Kingdom of God.