storage.cloversites.comstorage.cloversites.com/armbrustwesleyanchurch/docum… · Web viewWinsome is a word itself that means attractive, free-spirited, charming. Like someone can

Sermon, 2014-05-18, WinSome, Living a Questionable Life 1 | P a g e

Who here is a reader?If you are, I suggest you check out our new library (pic)

Susan and Tom Ayres and some helpers have moved all of our adult books upstairs to the Eagles Nest room at the end of the hallway next to our welcome window.

They built 10 new bookcases and reorganized everything.Please join me in saying thanks!

I heard that as they went through all the books in the move,they found some that they didn’t know had gotten in there,

that they thought were pretty questionable.

Susan asked me and I thought these titles were a little questionable.Like for example...The Chicken Whisperer’s Guide to Keeping Chickens

My wife actually wanted to read this one.It’s not the keeping chickens part that’s weird, it’s the whispering.

We think the same person who put that one in the library, put this one:Anyone Can Build a Tub-Style Mechanical Chicken Plucker

It says, “plucks turkey, geese, and ducks too!”

Again in the animal section, we thought this was also questionable:Knitting with Dog Hair.

The subtitle is: Better a sweater from a dog you know and love than from a sheep you never met.

So stop vacuuming and start knitting.

In case you don’t know how to knit, you might read:The Manly Art of Knitting

Foreword by Rosie Greer. The cowboy is manly even w/ knitting needles Susan wanted to keep that in our men’s topics section, but I vetoed that.

Sticking to the horse theme, we didn’t think this one was a spiritual help:Bombproof Your Horse

Anyone read that one? I bet it was a page turner. Why would someone ...

But in case you or someone in your family fails,and they get blown up riding a horse, there is this book:Fancy Coffins ... to Make Yourself


Some of the guys afterwards are gonna tell me,“That’s a good idea to make your own coffin. Save a lot of money.”

If you’re married to one of those guys, well ... bless your heart.

And if you’re into the whole economical pre-planning mode,You might also read this one.

Reusing Old Graves

But we can’t be responsible for anyone who does that, so we got rid of it.Why would someone write a book about that?

In case you can’t tell, these weren’t really books that we found in our library. But every one of them is a real book for sale on Amazon.com.

And all of them are also questionable titles and topics for books.They make you have to ask . why? Why would someone write that or call it that?

Today, I want to talk with you about living a life that leads to . why.

Last week we started a series of messages calledWINSOME (Title Slide)

Winsome is a word itself that means attractive, free-spirited, charming. Like someone can have a winsome smile.

And that attractive idea is part of this.But we’re also making a play on the word with what we looked at

last week in 1 Corinthians 9 where the Apostle Paul said,1 Corinthians 9:19-22“I have made myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews.... To those not having the law I became like one not having the law, so as to win those not having the law. To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some.

This is a great philosophy for followers of Jesus Christ.We become all things to all people, so that by all possible means,

we might win some for Christ.

Over the course of the next few weeks we are talking about what are the all possible means (the ways, methods, resources) that we can use today to win some.


Today, I’d like to begin our study in Colossians 4.

Colosse was a Roman city that the Apostle Paul traveled to proclaiming the gospel of Jesus.

People believed his message and became Christ followers.A church organizes and grows.Paul moves on.Later, he writes a letter back to them to instruct and encourage them.His letter becomes 1 of the books in the Bible, the letter to Colossians.

As he closes his letter, he tells them and us this. Colossians 4:2-6Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. 3 And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. 4 Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should. 5 Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. 6 Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.

So what does Paul ask the Colossians to do for him? Pray for him that that God would open a door for the message of Christ.

Pray that he would proclaim it clearly.Pray that he can get his foot in new doors.And then that he will proclaim, implying boldness, the gospel clearly.

And then Paul tells them, “and I will pray the same for you.” Right?! No, he does not turn around & tell them I’ll be praying the same for you.

Paul tells them what they should do.He says 4 things:1. Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders.2. Make the most of every opportunity. 3. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, 4. So that you may know how to answer everyone.

Paul here, explicitly, and in other places implicitly seems to hold that when it comes to evangelism,we, the church, should take a 2 pronged approach.

Some people are gifted as evangelists. Ephesians 4 says some are evangelists.

Some are traveling evangelists like Paul.It is clear that he sees himself as one of them.


They travel to new places to take the gospel to new people.

And some are local evangelists like Timothy.In the letter to Timothy, Paul tells him to do the work of the evangelist.

These are gifted evangelists in a local church in a local setting.

The local church, Paul says, is to pray for these people – that they will have opportunities to use their gifts.

That God would open doors.That they will proclaim the message boldly. And that they will have clarity in the way they present Christ.

That’s what Paul asks them to pray for him.

But, if Paul believed that that was the responsibility of all Christians, why doesn’t he turn it around and say I will pray the same thing for you.

Why doesn’t he say I’ll be praying for you?But he doesn’t.

Instead Paul says here’s what I want you to do.I want you to be wise in all your relationships with outsiders.I want you to let your conversation be full of grace.

Be kind and giving and winsome.And let it be seasoned with salt – sprinkle in just a little content about

your faith in Christ. (That’s how salt is used here.)And, I want you to be able to ANSWER people when they ask you.

I don’t think that Paul thinks that we are all bold, proclaimer evangelistsPaul thinks there are some of us are gifted for that, for boldness & clarity.

We are the door knockers.We are street corner preachers.We are bold gifted evangelists.

But for most of us, average evangelistic believers, the primary mode for proclaiming the gospel,

the way we will speak about Jesus will be . in response to peoples questions.

... that we may know how to answer everyone.

We find the same thing in 1 Peter 3:15 where Peter tells followers of Christ thereAlways be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.


Give an answer to everyone who asks. Be prepared to answer everyone who asks you

to give the reason for the hope you have.Give an answer to questions about Jesus – the reason for our hope.

Some of us we are spiritually gifted to be evangelists.We are spiritually wired to talk to the Muslims on the plane.Or to take a small group out on the street.Or to engage people in direct confrontation with the gospel

of Jesus Christ.And for people like that, we are to pray.

We are to pray for opportunity, and boldness, and clarity.

I love it when I am touching on the core message of Christ in a sermon,and I see some of you closing your eyes to pray.

Cause you know that is the right thing to do at those moments.

But, for most of us, the primary means or mode, that we will speak about Jesus will be in response to people’s questions.

Which implies what?That in some way we are living lives worth questioning.We have to live a life worthy of asking questions.

This is your primary evangelistic method:Live a questionable life!

!No one is going to ask you about the hope that is within you, if you live the same way as everyone else in our suburban American world.

!No one is going to respond with questions about who you are or how you live or what you are doing

if you buy the same kind of houses as they buyif you spend your money the same way as they doif you take the same kind of vacations as they doif you treat your spouse the same way they do.if you have the same views as they do.

If you live your lives the same ways as they live theirs,what would they possibly ask you about??

What are they supposed to ask you about!

Live a life that evokes curiosity.Live a life that arouses questions.Live a life that is so weird that people want to know who you are.Live a life that is so compellingly different that people want to know why

And when they ask . you answer about Jesus.


But they are not asking you are they?They are not intrigued are they?People around us are not asking are they?

(Black slide)But this is not how we conquered and subverted the Roman empire.

We did not do it by door knocking or by Evangecubes.

We conquered the Roman Empire by living such an exquisitely different lifestyle that we literally transformed history.

Do you know that in the 4th century a Roman Emperor named Julian the Apostate became so concerned that the Christian movement was subverting

and would take over the Empirethat he wrote to all his Roman governors throughout the Empire

and warned them that if we aren’t careful we are going to lose the empire if we do not stop these Christians.

From what?From preaching in the marketplace?From door knocking?From passing out literature?

What was his big concern about them?

That the Christians actually feed people that are not part of their assemblies.That these people tend the graves of those who do not belong to their group.That these people practice hospitality and take people into their homes.

These people treat their wives like their sisters.And they treat their slaves like their brothers.

He lists all the things the Christians were doing and because they were doing them Romans were falling into their religion in droves.

Christians transformed the Empire by living lives in such a way that no Roman had ever seen before.

Every Roman man had three women – a wife to bear him sons, a concubine for sex, and a mistress to be seen with in public.

They treated slaves horribly.There was no concern for the poor.No concern for hospitals or hospices.


It was dog eat dog, man on top, only the strong survive.And then along came Christians.

And we fed the poor,And we cared for the sick.We treated our wives with respect.Whether you were Jew or Roman or Greek, you were welcome at our table.We tended your grave if you died.

And Julian writes to his governors and says “we are going to lose the Empire if you don’t stop them.”But, he says, don’t stop them.

Because you couldn’t stop them. There would be an outcry if they did that

He says I want you to out-love the Galileans.Feed more hungry people.Take care of more of the lost and lonely people.

But that couldn’t work, could it?Because you can’t make a government love people.

It’s not a Christian strategy, the love of God in us is real,It is love that wins.

In the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th centuries, the Christians lived in a world

that was hostile to them and their beliefs.It was pagan.It was degenerate.It was immoral.

And the Christians lived such different, virtuous lives and were so wise and gracious,

that of course people said ... why? Why do you do this?

And of course then they told them about the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

Our lives -paying our taxes,sending our kids to school,cleaning our houses,waving politely to the neighbors,watching Jeopardy at night;

it’s not questionable.

We need to learn how to live so counter culturally that people say, what is wrong with you?


when they mean what is right with you?The Apostle Paul writes another letter in the NT to his friend Titus. He left Titus behind at another place he had been through.

In chapter 2 of Titus the Apostle gives Titus & the Christians he leads a big long list of how to live as a follower of Christ.

He calls them to love, respect, patience, honesty, truth, sobriety, good speech, discretion, reverence, integrity, incorruptibility, and more.

He give instruction for old women, young women, old men, young men, and slaves.

A big list of how they should live.And you might say that’s just a list of rules.

But then in v. 10 he says why they should live these ways.Titus 2:10... so that in every way they will make the teaching about God our Savior attractive.

Paul says if you live this way you will make attractive the gospel.The King James says “so we will adorn the gospel of God in all things.

Adorn - make it attractive, winsome even, to those who don’t know it or live it.

Who do I think of when I think of this?

I think of some of you.

I think of Dace and her irrepressible warmth that unquestionably comes from Christ in her and that people might ask why?

I think of Noah and Micah Lohr – two elementary school boys who taught their own Sunday school class today.

And someone might say why? What makes them kids different.

I think of Rick Shaw who came from an unstable home life,yet who has served in our armed forces welland now follows Christ in such a way that his friends ask why.

I think of my son Wesley whose high school friends all thought he was weird for some of the spiritual disciplines he practiced

but who would ask him their questions about God .

I think of everyone who works for a few hours every Wednesday to make and serve and clean-up after our Community Meal,


a meal they do for strangers.

I think of everyone who volunteers at Washington City Mission and Latrobe’s Men’s Mission and The Women’ Shelter in Greensburg.

I think of everyone who takes the gospel to another poorer part of the worldlike those we support - Dorcas Croft in Swaziland, The Picketts in Mozambique, the Manwearings in S. Africa, and the Irvines in Haiti.

I think of those that go to new towns and move in knowing no one and who build relationships one person at a time to start new churches.

I think of anyone who forgives the unforgivable.Anyone who loves the outcast.Anyone who takes in a stranger.Or gives when they don’t have extra.Or serves where they are not appreciated.Who is faithful where they are not respected.

(Black slide)But we have to do more.Some of these things can be things people without Christ do.

We need to find ways to live questionable lives.We need to love better than others.We need to sacrifice more than others do.We need to go the extra mile and another and another.We need joy that is unexplainable.We need to take in the orphans.We need to speak on behalf of the voiceless.We need to be so peaceful that it doesn’t make sense.

I’ll close with a story I heard from an Australian Pastor named Michael Frost whose ideas and some words I’ve adapted for this today.

There is shoe store in the Mission District of San Francisco called The Subterranean Shoe Room.

The owner of the store is a former So. Baptist church planter who moved to the Mission District who loved shoes.

So he thought a shoe store could be his little business on the side that could be his entry into the neighborhood.

The store is just a long narrow room with shelves on the walls and a long chaise lounge down the center of the room.

The thing is that when you walk into his store,


like any shoe store owner, he will walk over and say, “Can I help you?”

And people will say? ... “No, I’m just looking.”

And at that point he says, “Well, if you’d like to join me on the lounge, and tell me your life story,

I will tell you what kind of shoes you’re looking for.”

Some people can tell their life story in like 5 minutes, some take 25 mins.“I was born here. I was raised there. I went to school there.

My mom did this. My dad did that.I’m gay. I’m straight.I’m a Christian. I’m a doctor. I’m a lawyer.”

Out comes their whole life story.Sometimes it comes out with tears.

And people share things they’ve never shared before.They unburden themselves.

And then, because the shoe store owner does know shoes,After you’ve told him your whole life story,

He does know what kind of shoes you’d wear.He then says to them, “wait right here.”

He goes and selects a pair of shoes. And he comes back and says to them, “is this what you’re looking for?”

And after they’ve opened their lives to him, they’re usually a little raw,so they say, “(sobbing) That’s exactly what I was looking for.”

So he sells a lot of shoes.

On the way out, while they’re completing the transaction, They he says they usually say to him, “Who are you?”

He says, “I’m just a shoe store guy.”They say, “No. you’re like some kind of Buddhist guru? “You’re like some kind of psychiatrist or something?”He says “no.”And since he became a person who listens

the shoe store guy says he’s has been invited to more parties, more weddings, and bar mitzvahs than ever.

He says he’s spoken to people about Jesus 100 times more since he became a shoe store guy who listens

than when he was a Southern Baptist pastor.

Because, in a world where no one gets listened to,


if you sit on a chaise lounge and listen to people, that’s intriguing.

My friends, how questionable is your life?How different is it?How peculiar?How intriguing?

If no one’s asking you questions, you’re doing it wrong.

We are the books.The questionable books.The books that make people ask why.

Your life is the only gospel some people will ever read.You need to live it in such a way that when they see it,

they will want . to ask . why.

Live a questionable life.

Documents

storage.cloversites.comstorage.cloversites.com/armbrustwesleyanchurch/docum… · Web viewWinsome is a word itself that means attractive, free-spirited, charming. Like someone can