Pointing to Our Hope – Part 4 (1 Peter 3:15)
Written by Pastor Fausel   
Grace mercy and peace …

Over the last few weeks we’ve been looking at that injunction, that encouragement from Scripture, 1 Peter 3:15, to be ready to give an answer to anyone who might ask us about the hope that we have.

And so we’ve been talking about how we might go about doing just that … giving a witness or testimony to our faith.   And in doing so … we’ve talked about telling our own story … that personal story of faith each one of us has … telling others about the difference being a child of God has made in our lives …

And along with that, we’ve talked about sharing Jesus’ Story, the story of His life, suffering, death and resurrection on our behalf as our Lord and Savior ….

Telling someone about all that Jesus has done for us … And about how God’s gift of faith, then, makes us forgiven and holy before Him … in time and for all eternity …
 
And … over the last couple of weeks … we’ve also looked at some video clips that showed us how people with different personalities interact and share their faith with others.

And today … we’re going to put all that together.   And we’re going to do that through what you might call a case study:  looking at a situation where we might share our hope in Jesus Christ.

But first… there’s one more very important topic that we have to talk about.  We’ve been talking about sharing … about telling our story and Jesus’ story.

But before we can do either of those two things, we have to do something else.  We have to listen.  Yes, listen.  And listen not just with our ears … but also with our hearts.

Why?   Because generally, people not going to come up to you and ask you point blank about the hope that you have.  No.  What they’re going to do is talk about themselves:  their issues, their situations, their problems, their sufferings … and their fears.

And your primary job, then, is to listen … and to try to listen with your heart, to get to the spiritual problem that’s behind all those physical problems that this person may be experiencing.

And while you’re listening, it’s a great time to be praying and asking God to give you clarity of insight by the power of His Holy Spirit.

Now, there are some very basic tools you can use as you listen.  One of them is called Active Listening:  and it’s simply this:  the person says something to you.  And you simply reflect back what you heard them say.

For instance, they might say something like, “You know?  I like to go some place warm on vacation …”

And you might say something like, “Ah, I hear you saying, you like to take your vacations south of here, huh?” 

What you’re doing is not reflecting back the exact words the other person said, but the thought you heard them say.

A lot of times what happens is even though we’ve heard the words … we’re not really in sync. with the thought that the person is trying to convey.

For instance, in our example, the person we’re listening to might say to our question “No, not south like Florida … I like to go to the desert in Nevada or Arizona …”   And so we find out that the person we’re listening to had a bit different picture in their minds when they said “warm” … than was in our head..

Again, this is called Active listening, and it helps us keep our focus on listening … and at the same time … it helps us understand what the person we’re listening to really means.

Often, also, this kind of questioning allows us to probe beneath the surface of what’s being said.  The person we are listening to may just state the facts.   Like they might say, “Joe died yesterday.”

And so, we might reply, “He did?  Oh, I’m sorry … It sounds like that made quite an impression on you…”   You see where that other person might go, then, with their answer?

So saying back the idea you’ve heard … is one tool to keep in mind while we are listening…

And here’s one more “tool” we might want to have in our tool box as we’re listening.  And that’s the tool of asking open-ended questions.

What’s an opened-question?  Well, here’s a closed ended question for comparison:  “Are you feeling okay today?”   That’s closed ended question because it’s simply asking for a yes or no answer.

But if you were to ask it this way, “Say, you’re looking a little down, tell me about it …”   You see, you can’t answer that with a yes or a no, and it gives the person an opening to tell you about how they’re feeling and why. 

Asking those kinds of questions while you’re listening will help the person you are listening to give you more insight into what’s going on.

And one more point on listening before we move on.  Take the time to do it, to listen.   Take the time to let the person you are listening to fully express themselves.  They may first tell you about a problem that is bothering them, but as you listen and question, you may find that it’s just a surface problem … and the real issue is much deeper, and more likely to have spiritual dimensions.

Now, this morning we’re going to pretend that we are at the gym with a friend of ours from work named Peter … Listen, now, and pay close attention to what he says … and perhaps, what he isn’t saying.
 
Now, even though we couldn’t ask Peter any questions … the producers of this clip gave us a lot of things we might not have gotten unless we had asked.
  
Peter tells us his health-food and exercise friend Nathan died in a month due of Cancer.   Peter confesses that his own father, his grandfather and his aunt also all died of cancer and so he feels that cancer is in his genes … and he confesses he doesn’t want his family to have to endure what he endured as a child watching his father suffer.

So … what would we say is Peter’s Spiritual problem, given what we know by listening to him?   How about … a fear of death? … and maybe also, a fear of the dying process?

For those without hope in Christ … what is the answer the world offers to those fears?  How does the world try to defeat death?  It can’t, can it? … it can only try to postpone it as long as possible.

What might Peter’s hope been in up until now?  What do we see him doing?  The exercise thing.   His Northwestern Sweat shirt might also imply that he’s staying abreast of the latest medical thinking about cancer prevention.

But what just happened?… Nathan, a guy on health food and exercise, perhaps the bases for Peter’s two biggest hopes … died in just a month.

So … now … no matter what your personality style might be, how would you connect Peter to the hope that you have?

If you’re of the lion type … what might you tell Peter, right then and there?  What hope would you offer … and why?

If you’re more of the careful building, Beaver type, how could you connect a good friend like Peter with the Hope of the Gospel?

If you’re the inviting, Otter type … what might you share or what might you invite Peter to go with you to hear or to see that would plant that hope?

And finally, if you’re a person who’s drawn to others in need like a magnet, the golden retriever type … what might you do and/or say to help lead Peter into the hope that you have?

You see … no one gets off the hook.  We each are enjoined by Scripture to give the reason for the hope that we have, no matter what our personality is.  And that’s what Peter was doing here… He’s asking for an answer to His lack of Hope in the face of His fears.

Now.  We’ve been really pushing our technology with this sermon series … so we’re going to take it one more step.  Sunday morning messages are mostly one way communications.  Today we’re going to open up the feedback channel.  We’d like to hear what you would do in this situation.  And to do that, we’d like to invite you to send me an e-mail, directly, or through the church office.
 
In your e-mail … First, say what kind of personality type you think you are (lion, beaver, otter or golden retriever)  and then say how you’d respond to Peter as he is looking to you on his exercise bike.  We’re very interested to see how the Spirit might be moving each of us.  And we will keep the responses confidential.   The church office address is on the announcement pages …My address is easy: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it  

Next week we’ll put some closure on this “case study” in sharing our hope in Jesus Christ  … and we’ll look at one or two more.

The object is, and will always be … sharing Jesus Christ.  It’s our privilege … and we want it to be our joy as well.

In Him.

Amen.
 

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