Talk I Gave

I gave this talk to a Christian group at a non-Christian school. It was a way to encourage and show them that evangelism is not just speech but also how we live. Hopefully it'll be encouraging for you as well. For your ease of reading unified is the name of the group I spoke to. Just to help your understanding

Titus 2:11-3:11

Just after I finished high school, which is actually quite a long time ago now, I went on a student conference called the ‘Global Young Leader’s Conference.’ It was a program run by the American congress and I thought it was going to be full of serious, studious people. To be honest I wasn’t really sure what I was doing there as I am neither serious nor particularly interested in studying. But that was alright because I quickly found some friends who were also not interested in studying. So we spent the two weeks on the conference gossiping, skiving off and in general not learning very much. In particular gossip about the other conference attendees was something we very much enjoyed. And even more particular there was one girl, who dressed in a way that made it very easy to make fun of her. She also liked to sing karaoke badly on the bus trips to the places we went. You know how there are just some people whom there is nothing about them that you can’t laugh at them? She was a target that was easy to hit. And we spent two weeks making fun of her. It’s sort of funny but also really sad. Let’s have a look at why. Rd Titus 2:11-3:11.

At unified you guys have been doing an evangelistic theme. Which is awesome. How to share the good news of Christ. And I want to encourage you guys in that. Even by coming to Unified you’re sharing the good news of Christ. You’re declaring that you’re a Christian. And when you declare that there are certain things that come along with that. The grace of God has saved us because of that we should be living self controlled and upright lives. What we believe should effect how we behave. Because telling people about Jesus is fantastic and our mission as believers. But if it is not backed up by how we behave we come off as hypocrites. Today all I want to do is show you that living as a Christian witness is not that hard, and that you are probably already doing a great job.

When you listen to your teachers, you are a being a witness for Christ. When you are prepared to pay attention to those who are in charge of you and not gossip about them or make fun of them you are being a witness for Christ. When we were gossiping about that girl on the conference rather than me continuing to do that I should have made a stand and got them to stop. Instead I behaved like someone who wasn’t a Christian. As Paul puts it we ‘we too were foolish, disobedient…we lived in malice…hated and hating one another.’ There is no doubt that we were being hateful towards the girl we were mocking. And if she’d heard us she would have hated us.

As Christians it’s not that we’re morally superior to non-Christians. It’s simply the fact that as Paul puts ‘when the kindness and love of God our Saviour appeared, he saved us…so that those who trusted in God (that’s us!) maybe careful to devote themselves to doing what is good.” Christ saved us-and because of that we should live lives that reflect our salvation. Non-Christians have no reason to do good but as Christians we do.

On the conference I had a great example to shine Christ by my behaviour but because of what I said and what I did I came off as no different to someone who couldn’t care about Christ. As Christians our behaviour is so important. Like I said though, I want to encourage you guys. You may not have thought that the way you behaved in class or at lunchtime was evangelistic but it was. If you have a sponsor child-that’s evangelistic. When you go and support a friend in a difficult time that’s being evangelistic. When you’re in a group and you’re all having a gossip and you change the conversation-that’s being evangelistic.

Seriously-it’s that simple. You’re not doing those things so that people will become saved, you’re doing those things because Jesus Christ at an incredible personal cost saved us. Our lives should reflect the change that’s happened in our hearts. On that conference I was the worst possible Christian-had I said anything about Christ none of the people I was hanging out with would have listened. Our behaviour tells people what we believe. In the simple, everyday interactions that you have with people at school you have an opportunity to be evangelistic.