Message Follow Up | The E-Word: Part 3 – Take the Step
By Zack DeBerry
I don’t know about you, but I have enjoyed the E word series. I’ve always had a desire to reach out to people who are far from God, but I have always felt like I was not equipped to do it or I would let my fears keeps from taking the next step.
What I have discovered over the course of this series is that Evangelism is less about a rigid guideline and set of rules to be followed and more about how I live my life in this world. It’s less about what we do and more about who we are as we begin to engage people who are far from God in conversation and friendship.
There are some habits that we can begin to employ when we take the step to develop friendships with people who are far from God for the purpose of humbly pointing them to absolute hope. I discovered this list a couple of years ago and I feel it is a great way to begin to reach out to people and begin to take easy steps to develop friendships and discover stories in their lives. It’s an easy to remember acrostic, B.E.L.L.S. Here is what it stands for:
B – Bless
What this means is that we should be willing to bless someone around us when we find out they have some kind of need. This is a great way to begin to develop a friendship and an easy way to find out what is going on in their story.
Challenge: Bless someone who is far from God this week.
E – Eat
This an easy one to do and really it’s something you probably do on a daily basis anyway. Take someone to lunch that you know that is far from God. And Pay for it. You can always get to know someone and hear their story over food.
Challenge: Take someone who is far from God out to Eat.
L – Listen
This is a hard one sometimes because it requires us to take time in prayer and listen to the Spirit of God as He directs us. I truly believe that when we ask in prayer and seek out opportunities to share our faith that God will provide opportunities. We must constantly be Listening so that we can hear God’s voice as He leads us and directs us to people who are far from Him.
Challenge: Spend time each day in Prayer to ask God for opportunities to point people to hope.
L – Learn
What I mean by this is that we have the privilege of sharing the love and hope that Jesus gives and we should take the time to learn more about Him and how to share our story. Everyone has a story, but some people just don’t think it’s worth sharing. I want to tell you that every story where God is involved is a story worth telling. When we get opportunities to share our story with people who are far from God we have to be ready.
Challenge: Take some time this week to write out your story. Who you were before you discovered the Hope of Jesus Christ, How you found that Hope, and How that Hope has changed your life.
S – Sent
The last thing is to really understand that we are sent by God into our neighborhoods, work environments, and families. God longs to use His followers to continue to tell everyone of His fame and freedom in this world. We must realize that it’s not just up to “professional pastors”, but it is the job of every follower of Jesus Christ to go and tell everyone of the hope that we have found.
Challenge: Identify and make a list of ways that you can begin to live a Sent life in your neighborhood, workplace, and family.
I hope that at the end of this series you have an understanding of what Evangelism is, how we can overcome the fears that exist, and begin to take some steps to truly engage with people who are far from God for the purpose of seeing the absolute Hope of Jesus Christ change their stories.
God gave us the privilege of being His messengers of love and hope where He has placed us so let’s take a step this week and see people as He does and share the hope that we have found.