"May what wells up in our hearts be fresh on our lips so that we will be ready to give a reason for the hope that is in us."
If you know anything about me, you are probably aware that every week I drive 20 minutes to a local deli for their Thursday lunch special, a prime rib sandwich. It’s one of my favorite simple pleasures. I’ve talked about it on the radio, I’ve posted pictures on social media, and I’ve treated my friends to lunch there. The deli really should pay me for all the free advertising I do for them. People from all over have contacted me asking me where they can get a taste of this amazing sandwich, some even traveling from far away.
The sandwich really is amazing. First they start with a perfectly cooked prime rib roast that they shave down and heat on a flat top grill.
They add some au jus, salt and pepper, a slice of provolone cheese, and pile it high on a bulkie roll. It’s a simple sandwich, but it’s the simplicity and the quality of the ingredients that makes it special.
At this point, your mouth is probably watering. You’re intrigued. What makes the sandwich so tempting is knowing how much I love it.
You don’t need to be compelled to talk about the things that you love. What you are most passionate about is what people notice about you.
Sometimes we find it difficult to talk about our faith. We don’t know where to begin and we are afraid of coming across as religious freaks. We think it takes a certain set of skills or giftings to evangelize, but being a witness really is not that complicated.
Knowing the gospel should move us to love God more deeply, and witnessing should flow out of the increase of our own devotion toward God.
Heart, Soul, Mind
The first commandment tells us to love God with all of our heart, soul, and mind. But even in a perfect environment mankind has proved an inability to stay focused. Our hearts are prone to wander, our soul craves individuality, and our minds are distracted by the temptations all around us.
Even those of us who have tasted the redeeming love of Christ are not exempt from having wandering hearts. That is why we need structure and community in our lives to help us maintain a spirit of worship that will fuel our witness.
We Need Structure
Our Sunday morning worship is designed to draw our hearts back toward God and set a model for us on how to worship Him throughout the week. Each element of the service is rich with gospel proclamation. The reading and preaching of the Word teach us the intricacies of the good news. Our prayers remind us that we depend on God and our songs celebrate the God who provides. Our tithes and offerings testify that we are not our own, we have been purchased with a very high price. Our fellowship proclaims the power of God to unite a people for His own possession.
One of the elements, at least for me, that has served to reorient my heart, soul, and mind to the gospel is the communion table. Here, we gather corporately to remind each other of the essential importance of the gospel. We take the bread, as Christ’s body, a reminder that we are sinners, broken and desperate before God. With my head bowed low, I reflect on my sin and the torment that Christ endured on my behalf. This is a time of confession for me, and it breaks my heart every time. Then we come to the cup. As Christ’s blood, it reminds us that our sins have been covered. Our weight has been lifted. This is a cup of blessing meant to be received with a glad heart. With my face raised to the heavens, I praise God for the gift of His Son, for His gracious character, and His redeeming love. I am essentially preaching the gospel to myself.
The Apostle Paul draws out this gospel principle when he teaches the church in Corinth about the significance of the Lord’s Table. “For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes” (I Corinthians 11:26).
We Need Community
As individualistic as my experience is in taking communion, I am aware that I am not alone. I am not just proclaiming the gospel to myself, I am sharing in the work of Christ with those around me. Communion is not just about drawing closer to God, but about unity in the Body of Christ. “Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread” (I Corinthians 10:17). This is the context that the Apostle Paul was speaking into when he wrote to the Corinthians because they had turned the Lord’s Table into a means of self promotion and one-upmanship.
Communion is not just an opportunity to experience the gospel, but to proclaim it in our actions. Paul tells us to wait for each other at the table because at the core of the gospel is an expression of sacrifice and service. The second commandment after loving God with all of our heart, soul, and mind is to love one another as we love ourselves. Jesus declares that the world will identify that we are His followers because we will be distinguished by our love for each other. So the diversity of the church proclaims the gospel through our worship. This, then, is not about individuality or having our own preferences met, but rather proclaiming the gospel to each other and to outsiders.
We assume the gospel when we fail to draw out the various implications of the good news and overlook the design of our worship to remind us of the God who saves. Somehow we think that once we have placed our faith in Christ we don't have to return to the fundamental basics of the gospel, but just read through one of the epistles to the early church and discover how many times the various authors repeat the good news. The gospel is not just the means of salvation, but the source of all blessings for the believer. The church needs to create a gospel-rich culture inside its doors as the foundation for worship and motivation to witness.
The Community Needs Us
We need the church because we need a community of believers to remind us of the gospel in all of life, and the church needs us as individuals to testify to the power of the gospel in real life scenarios.
Too often we talk about our salvation as an experience in our past that we forget the present day realities of God’s grace. Our testimonies should always include something that has happened to us recently that bears witness to the love of God. As we reflect on the goodness of God we will become more aware of how inescapable the gospel is for the Christian life. This gives us fuel to our worship and our mission.
Imagine if we were proficient at preaching the gospel to ourselves on a daily basis. That would help us to identify the gospel moments in our lives and allow us to share them with our Christian community. With such practice, our skill of communicating the gospel would grow. Now imagine how much more natural it would be to talk about our salvation with those who are lost. May what wells up in our hearts be fresh on our lips so that we will be ready to give a reason for the hope that is in us.
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Rev. Adam Miller is the President and Host of Songtime and can be heard daily on the Songtime Radio Broadcast
This article was adapted from a series of seminars entitled, “Motivation to Witness.” If you would like to have Adam come and speak on this, or another subject, at your church or ministry, please contact the Songtime office.