The document discusses the importance of sharing one's faith naturally and respectfully, emphasizing that a deep personal relationship with Jesus is essential for effective witness. It highlights biblical instructions, particularly from 1 Peter 3:15-16, on being prepared to answer questions about one's hope and the necessity of living a life that reflects Christ's love. Additionally, it encourages Christians to be proactive in seeking out the lost, embodying a spirit of gentleness, and maintaining a clear conscience to honor their faith.

1. Sharing Your Faith
1 Peter 3:15-16
Adapted from K. Edward Skidmore,
Charles Mallory & James Kirkland
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2. “I am a Christian and a Saint”
The "evangelist" walks up behind a person
standing on stage, gets in their face and
says, "I am an evangelist! A Christian and a
Saint! Are you saved? Are you washed in
the blood? Are you redeemed? Are you
sanctified? (the victim begins walking away)
Wait! Come back here. I have tracts for
you!―
(Borrowed from Jeremiah People skit)

3. This is NOT what we’re going to talk about
today. When we talk about sharing your
faith that doesn’t mean you have to get into
awkward conversations with complete
strangers. When you develop a relationship
with Jesus, sharing your faith is something
that will flow naturally out of your day to day
life. You’ll find that every day is full of Divine
Appointments that God will give you so that
He can share His love through you.

4. Today we’re going to look at a couple of
verses in 1 Peter that give a good blue print
of what it means to share your faith.
1 Peter 3:15 NET But set Christ apart as
Lord in your hearts and always be ready to
give an answer to anyone who asks about
the hope you possess. 16 Yet do it with
courtesy and respect, keeping a good
conscience, so that those who slander your
good conduct in Christ may be put to
shame when they accuse you.

5. Set your heart on Christ
Notice the FIRST step to sharing your faith
with others. Verse 15 says, set Christ apart
as Lord in your hearts. You can’t share what
you don’t have! Step 1 is to SET YOUR
HEART fully and completely ON CHRIST.
Jesus does not want to be just a PART of
your life. Jesus wants to BE your life.

6. When Jesus is the center of your life,
everyone who gets to know YOU will just
naturally have some connection with Him
through you. People can’t get close to you
without knowing something about Him
because He is central to who you are.

7. May we all be committed to living as Christ
would have us live. If you do that you will
find that sharing your faith is going to
happen naturally. For one thing, People
WILL ask you about your connection to
God.

8. Have your actions & attitudes caused
anyone to ask you why you act the way you
do? I’ve had it happen. At one job it seems
the simple action of holding the door open
for the women & being nice caused co-
workers to ask questions. At another job it
was the absence of vulgar language & just
being nice that caused some questions to
be asked. Waitresses at a restaurant I
frequent have asked questions.

9. Did any of these interactions cause the
other person to turn to Christ? I don’t know,
but they knew my faith in Christ was behind
what they saw & heard.
Notice that these folks didn’t call me, come
by my house or to Church to ask their
questions. To my knowledge they didn’t call
any preachers out of the blue to ask
questions. When God’s Spirit moves in their
hearts, your neighbors, friends and co-
workers are going to feel comfortable
asking YOU.

10. John 13:34 NET "I give you a new
commandment — to love one another. Just
as I have loved you, you also are to love
one another. 35 Everyone will know by this
that you are my disciples — if you have love
for one another."

11. Speak with respect
That’s why Peter goes on to say, always be
ready to give an answer to anyone who
asks about the hope you possess. Yet do it
with courtesy and respect…
1 Peter 3:15b-16a NET
Don’t be afraid to answer when people ask
you questions. It’s not WHAT you say that
will make the big difference. It’s more the
way you love them. Just tell them why
Jesus is important to you. Tell what the
church means to you.

12. Don’t argue with them. It’s up to God’s Spirit
to convict them of the truth. And if they ask
something that stumps you, just let them
know you’ll try to find an answer for them.
That’s one reason we join together in the
church. Someone here will have a good
answer you can give to any questions you
encounter.

13. Being an effective witness for Jesus Christ
was never intended to be a competitive
strategy in hopes of winning an argument or
debate.
The gospel should never be linked with
arguments or belligerence. Gentleness is
the quality that trusts god to do the work of
changing attitudes.

14. 2 Timothy 2:24 NET And the Lord's slave
must not engage in heated disputes but be
kind toward all, an apt teacher, patient, 25
correcting opponents with gentleness.
Perhaps God will grant them repentance
and then knowledge of the truth 26 and they
will come to their senses and escape the
devil's trap where they are held captive to
do his will.

15. When we are being opposed for our
faithfulness and facing adversity and
hostility for our Christian stance, we must
resist the urge to use bitter language or any
form of retaliatory speech. You will always
lose with aggressiveness and arrogance.
Proverbs 15:1 NIV A gentle answer turns
away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up
anger.

16. Colossians 4:6 NET Let your speech always
be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you
may know how you should answer
everyone.
16 Yet do it with courtesy and respect…
Courtesy, gentleness, graciousness, will win
out every single time. Along with courtesy
comes the attribute of ―respect.‖ This is a
very peculiar word as it comes from the
Greek word ―phobos‖ (fah-bos) which
means ―fear.‖

17. What makes this ―fear‖ peculiar is that it
may be defined as ―to be alarmed,‖ ―to be
frightened‖ or ―to be afraid,‖ Peter’s use
here means quite the opposite in terms of
standing graciously to those who oppose
the truth. In other words, what I think Peter
means here is that we should not be afraid
or fearful in the face of slander, persecution,
and hostility.

18. Our ―fear‖ is an obedient, worshipful, and
over-powering reverence for Almighty God
that we have the privilege and duty to
witness not only with newfound boldness in
our faith, but with respect and humility
towards the message that Christ entrusted
to us.
Peter knew exactly what it meant to fail
under the weight of fear.

19. Just after the frightening scene in the
garden of Gethsemane, Peter loses it.
Matthew 26:74 NET At that he began to
curse, and he swore with an oath, "I do not
know the man!" At that moment a rooster
crowed.
Peter denied Christ out of fear in words that
were neither gentle nor respectful. No
wonder he was so adamant about being a
gentle and respectful witness because he
had real-life experiences of utter failure.

20. If you attend Bible Classes and read
Christian Books and take advantage of the
opportunity to know God better through
Scripture, then you will be more and more
ready to give an answer to ANYONE who
asks you. But always keep in mind that all
the clever techniques in the world won’t
matter if you don’t have the ATTITUDE of
Jesus Christ when you speak up for Him.

21. Consider Jesus and the Woman at the well
(John 4) – Since there was no
communication between women and men in
Jesus day, or between Jews and
Samaritans either for that matter, It would
have been natural for Jesus to simply
ignore the woman who came to the well to
draw water while Jesus sat there waiting for
his men to return from town. Instead, Jesus
broke all protocol by speaking freely with
this woman and even asking her for a drink.

22. He showed that he was no slave to the
usual customs of the day, and that his
openness to her was genuine and honest.
He broke custom and in the process gained
her as an ally.
Zachaeus – Jesus didn’t see him as an
unwanted interruption; wasn’t intimidated by
his position as TAX collector; wasn’t afraid
to associate with someone who was
despised by most of the religious folks.

23. Show Christ in your actions
There’s one more part of this blueprint for
sharing your faith. Peter adds this caveat:
16b keeping a good conscience, so that
those who slander your good conduct in
Christ may be put to shame when they
accuse you.

24. * Step ONE is to have Jesus at the Center
of your Heart.
* Step TWO is to be ready to answer those
who approach YOU – which WILL happen.
* But Step THREE goes beyond this. Our
actions DO speak louder than our words.
Nothing hurts your witness more than
behavior that dishonors Christ.

25. This doesn’t mean that we have to be
PERFECT in order to share our faith. Notice
it says to keep a clear conscience. The
operative word here is ―transparency‖ which
implies that we avoid the pretense and
hypocrisy common to most people in the
world.

26. A person with a clear conscience is not
putting on airs to impress others, instead he
speaks the truth with love in all that he
says. His yes is yes and his no is no.
People who encounter a person with a clear
conscience realize that what this person
says is the real deal. This is not a snow job,
not a dog and pony show, not a sales job. It
is a refreshing change from the usual sales
pitch we have all come to expect and have
built up resistance against.

27. As Christians we can do MORE than just
wait for the people around us to ASK about
our faith.
In Luke 15 Jesus told three parables about
the lost, the lost sheep, lost coin, and lost
son (prodigal) all reconfirm the same
theme. In every case, the person who was
seeking went OUT OF THEIR way to FIND
what was lost.
The lost coin was worthy of a thorough
house cleaning to find even though the
owner had nine other coins in hand.

28. The lost sheep was worthy to leave the 99
other sheep safely in the fold and go out to
search for the missing sheep. The prodigal
son was worth bringing out the ring, robe,
and sandals, and slaughtering the fatted
calf in celebration of his return to the
father’s loving embrace. All of this lets us
know that the lost are precious to our Lord
and therefore should be equally precious to
us. We are not wasting time to go out of our
way to seek out the lost.

29. Luke 19:10 NET For the Son of Man came
to seek and to save the lost."
Matthew 28:18 NET Then Jesus came up
and said to them, "All authority in heaven
and on earth has been given to me. 19
Therefore go and make disciples of all
nations, baptizing them in the name of the
Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,

30. 20 teaching them to obey everything I have
commanded you. And remember, I am with
you always, to the end of the age."
To know what the Lord expects of you is
getting ready to serve.
Joshua 3:13 NIV And as soon as the priests
who carry the ark of the LORD—the Lord of
all the earth—set foot in the Jordan, its
waters flowing downstream will be cut off
and stand up in a heap.‖

31. When the Priests entered the water with the
Ark, were they ready to go swimming or
were they ready for God to do something
big?
Moses instructed them to step into the
water, but would they have done it if they
did not have faith that Moses was following
God’s instructions? They were ready for
God to stop the water so they could be
victorious in their obedience. Their faith was
ready for God to use them.

32. On your mark, get set, GO! Getting ready,
be prepared, now do what you are prepared
to do. Are you where the Lord can use you?
Are you ready to be used? Being ready is to
be in a place where God can use you. I’m
not just talking about being in a physical
place at the right time; I’m talking about
your spiritual place with the Lord.

33. He needs to know that you will step into the
water in faith so He can stop the river from
flowing. He’s not going to stop the river’s
flow until you put your feet it. Your
readiness can change your world and the
world of others around you.
Go out of your way to love the ―unlovely‖ –
even those who speak against you. This is
what Christ will do through you if you are
setting your heart on HIM…