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Overcoming the Fear of Sharing Your Faith · Grace for My Home | Christian Women, Growing in Faith

• 1:14
  Audrey McCracken: Hello friends, welcome back to Grace for My Home.
• 1:17
  Audrey McCracken: Thank you so much for joining me again here this week.
• 1:21
  Audrey McCracken: It means so much to me to know that I have a whole group of friends all around the country, all around the world really, that tune in every week to listen to the things that I share and the stories that I share, and I just want to say thank you.
• 1:39
  Audrey McCracken: That just blesses me.
• 1:40
  Audrey McCracken: It kind of blows my mind when I sit back and think about it, but I haven't had a lot of time lately to sit back and think about it.
• 1:46
  Audrey McCracken: But I do want to say thank you and you know, my heart's desire with this podcast is to encourage women, because I need encouragement, and whatever we sow, we reap.
• 1:59
  Audrey McCracken: And I know that there have been times that I have just wanted to give up.
• 2:04
  Audrey McCracken: There have been times that I've just felt so exhausted I just thought does any of this matter?
• 2:08
  Audrey McCracken: Does anybody see?
• 2:10
  Audrey McCracken: And one person would call me or text me or email me or I would turn on, you know, the radio or listen to a podcast and just something that that person shared would give me the strength I need.
• 2:26
  Audrey McCracken: It really was like the Lord was speaking to me through that person and they didn't even know it, and I thought that is the power of encouragement.
• 2:35
  Audrey McCracken: So that is why I do this, because I want to encourage women that God is on your side, that he has a good plan and that we can be right in the middle of his will for our lives.
• 2:49
  Audrey McCracken: And so this week, just to give you a little recap on what's going on here in the McCracken household I'm still not finished decorating for Christmas, I still have boxes out, but that's okay.
• 3:02
  Audrey McCracken: The house looks good, it looks beautiful, the places that are decorated, and I just hide the boxes in one room.
• 3:09
  Audrey McCracken: And today we had a great church service.
• 3:13
  Audrey McCracken: If you've been listening for a while, you know that we recently moved our church to a new city, actually moved it to a city.
• 3:21
  Audrey McCracken: We were not in a city, we were in the middle of the country, basically in a field, and we felt like we were to move to this neighboring city and so we did that about.
• 3:32
  Audrey McCracken: I guess it's been about seven weeks ago now that we had our first service in that city and we're actually meeting in a gym, a gymnasium, and today we had I think it was our eighth service there and it was great.
• 3:49
  Audrey McCracken: We just had such a good service this morning.
• 3:52
  Audrey McCracken: We have given the worship to our youth.
• 3:54
  Audrey McCracken: We've just said they they're doing a great job and they have a heart for it.
• 4:00
  Audrey McCracken: A lot of our youth went a couple of months ago, back in the summer they went to Israel and they went to Germany first and they went to Israel and on that trip they had an opportunity to be around some other youth, some friends of ours, their children who live in Germany, and traveled with them and they got to see people their age worshiping and leading worship in their church and it so inspired them that they came back here and brought that heart of worship with them.
• 4:34
  Audrey McCracken: And so we've just turned them loose and said do it Now.
• 4:39
  Audrey McCracken: There's been some bumps along the way.
• 4:40
  Audrey McCracken: You know they're learning, they're young, but there is something about when the youth take initiative.
• 4:49
  Audrey McCracken: You know, when they rise up and they say we're going to do this, that it just brings new life and it really has brought a breath of fresh air into our worship service and it reminds us.
• 5:02
  Audrey McCracken: You know why we're there.
• 5:02
  Audrey McCracken: We're not there for perfection, we're not there so that everything sounds just right.
• 5:07
  Audrey McCracken: We're there to worship the Lord.
• 5:10
  Audrey McCracken: And so our kids have done such a good job, and so today we had a wonderful worship service, and after the service we had an opportunity to go and look at a building that is for sale because we are looking for a place to settle down in that city.
• 5:26
  Audrey McCracken: The gym has been just fine, but can you imagine worship in a gym?
• 5:32
  Audrey McCracken: It's kind of chaotic.
• 5:34
  Audrey McCracken: You know, if we didn't know the words, that if the words weren't projecting on the screen, we may not be sure what they are.
• 5:40
  Audrey McCracken: But so we're looking for a place to settle down and call out our own.
• 5:44
  Audrey McCracken: But, and we went and saw a place today which we don't really think that's the place, but it was a great location.
• 5:50
  Audrey McCracken: It just what.
• 5:51
  Audrey McCracken: It just isn't going to meet our needs right now.
• 5:53
  Audrey McCracken: So that's exciting.
• 5:54
  Audrey McCracken: You know, that's really exciting because it's kind of like you're stepping out of the boat and you're just trusting the Lord to show you the next step.
• 6:03
  Audrey McCracken: But today, as I was thinking about what to share with you, I wanted to talk with you about something that is important for all of us, no matter where we are and I walk with the Lord and that is about sharing our faith with other people.
• 6:18
  Audrey McCracken: That may excite you or that may intimidate you, I don't know.
• 6:23
  Audrey McCracken: I do believe that the Lord was very clear that we, as believers, are to share our faith with other people.
• 6:32
  Audrey McCracken: You know he told his disciples go into all the world and preach the gospel.
• 6:36
  Audrey McCracken: And I believe that's not just the job of the pastor or the elders, or you know that's the job of every believer is to go and to preach.
• 6:45
  Audrey McCracken: You know, whether that's down the street or whether that's in another country, and I believe that the Lord gives us that desire to do that, to share our faith.
• 6:54
  Audrey McCracken: It's kind of like when you find something that's wonderful and you experience something that's life changing and you see others who could benefit from that and who need that, you want them to experience it, you want them to know the love of God, you want them to know the truth, you want them to know that God created them for a purpose.
• 7:20
  Audrey McCracken: But over the years I have struggled with sharing my faith and I think that, if we're honest, many of us have, or many of us do, and I've taken classes, courses in my church on sharing faith, sharing my faith, and I've read books and and my heart's desire is to please the Lord and also to share what he has done in my life which I know is very real with other people.
• 7:51
  Audrey McCracken: But there is an intimidation that many of us face when it comes to being verbal about our experience with the Lord, and there are so many reasons why not the least of them is that there is an enemy that does not want us to share our faith, that wants us to feel those things and to let those feelings of insecurity and inferiority and fear keep us from being vocal about our faith with other people who do not believe.
• 8:25
  Audrey McCracken: You know, I can sit down with someone who is a believer that I just met and we have that instant connection and we can talk about the Lord and the things he's done and share very openly with each other about the goodness of God and we get each other.
• 8:42
  Audrey McCracken: But when there's someone who we know is not a believer and we try to share Jesus with them, then we know we're not.
• 8:49
  Audrey McCracken: We're not coming on the same footing, right?
• 8:51
  Audrey McCracken: We're coming from two different worldviews and sometimes you know you even have people who are hostile and you don't know until you start, until you try.
• 9:01
  Audrey McCracken: And so how?
• 9:02
  Audrey McCracken: So if you're like me and I'm not a very confrontational person, you know, I just want everybody to get along and that's not always possible.
• 9:10
  Audrey McCracken: But if you're like me and you're not a confrontational person, then it's hard for you to put yourself in a situation where that might happen.
• 9:20
  Audrey McCracken: And also, you know, I think about me.
• 9:23
  Audrey McCracken: Before I was a Christian and I had people who shared the gospel with me.
• 9:28
  Audrey McCracken: And now look back now and I'm thankful, but at that time I was annoyed.
• 9:34
  Audrey McCracken: Yeah, I mean because I grew up in church and I knew the gospel.
• 9:38
  Audrey McCracken: I knew, you know, I thought I knew it all and had decided I wasn't, that wasn't for me.
• 9:44
  Audrey McCracken: But the truth is I had never had a true experience with Jesus.
• 9:49
  Audrey McCracken: I had a head knowledge of God, but I hadn't had that, that born again experience.
• 9:55
  Audrey McCracken: And so when we approach people, we never know, you know.
• 10:02
  Audrey McCracken: And something happened this week that made me think of this.
• 10:06
  Audrey McCracken: We had a couple years ago who visited, who spent some time at our church and they moved on and that was fine.
• 10:13
  Audrey McCracken: We tried to love on them while they were there.
• 10:16
  Audrey McCracken: And recently, just this past week, the gentleman of that couple came into the coffee shop and he it was really good to see him and he had seen us on Facebook and you know, heard that we'd open a coffee shop and so he came in and and he wasn't sure what to order and and it was like I don't know how to explain this, but I think you might understand.
• 10:44
  Audrey McCracken: I knew he wasn't there for coffee, you know, and it was a Saturday.
• 10:50
  Audrey McCracken: When you know, when this happened, we had an extremely busy day Saturday, something to do, I'm sure, with Christmas season, but people are out shopping and everything.
• 11:01
  Audrey McCracken: But when he came is actually a slow, it's actually a slow moment and you know we helped him.
• 11:09
  Audrey McCracken: You know the guy who's taking orders, helping us out, helping find something he'd enjoy and you know he sat down and I had a few minutes because it was a little slower to go over and sit with him and as we were talking and we were catching up and sharing some things, he was asking about the shop.
• 11:25
  Audrey McCracken: You know just small talk, and it came up in the conversation that his brother in law had just passed away and and I was really sorry to hear that because I know his wife and I didn't realize that her brother had been sick and you know they had come back from the funeral just a few days before and you know he was talking and as he was talking, you know there's a scripture.
• 11:49
  Audrey McCracken: It talks about Moses.
• 11:51
  Audrey McCracken: When Moses was out watching the sheep and he saw a burning bush.
• 11:56
  Audrey McCracken: And it was unusual because the bush was burning but it wasn't being consumed.
• 12:02
  Audrey McCracken: And so he said I'll turn aside and I'll my version, I'll check this out.
• 12:08
  Audrey McCracken: So he knew this is something different.
• 12:13
  Audrey McCracken: So he took the time to say I'm gonna check this out.
• 12:17
  Audrey McCracken: And God spoke to him.
• 12:20
  Audrey McCracken: You know the Lord was calling him, drawing him to turn aside from his normal business.
• 12:26
  Audrey McCracken: And this was one of those moments where I felt like this is, he's not here for coffee and take a minute.
• 12:33
  Audrey McCracken: You know, turn aside from your normal business and sit with him.
• 12:37
  Audrey McCracken: And as we got to talking, I can tell he was talking about the state of the world right now.
• 12:42
  Audrey McCracken: And you know he said he actually said I'm glad I don't have kids, because I see everything that's going on with the world right now and I just don't know how your parents can take it.
• 12:50
  Audrey McCracken: You know, I just see it just feels like everything is just everything's just going wrong.
• 12:56
  Audrey McCracken: And I knew he has no hope.
• 12:59
  Audrey McCracken: He sees what's happening around him and he doesn't have that hope that we have in Christ and I was able, as much as I felt like I could, to share the love of God with him.
• 13:14
  Audrey McCracken: You know, and I shared with him a little bit about yes, it is dark out there right now, but thankfully we have Christ and he has written the story.
• 14:05
  Audrey McCracken: You know, he knows the end from the beginning and that's our hope Is that this is not a happenstance.
• 14:13
  Audrey McCracken: You know, he knows all of the details and he has a plan, and that's our hope.
• 14:19
  Audrey McCracken: Our hope is in Christ and I was able, as much as I felt like he would receive, to share that with him and, of course, invite him to come back and see us and and just make a friend or reconnect with the old friend.
• 14:35
  Audrey McCracken: And, you know, when he left, I was very thankful for that opportunity.
• 14:41
  Audrey McCracken: I got to thinking about it that night and I thought, well, that is what it means to share the gospel.
• 14:46
  Audrey McCracken: Now we want to make it about us.
• 14:50
  Audrey McCracken: You know, we want to be able to say I shared the gospel, I wasn't afraid, but it's, it's, it's.
• 14:57
  Audrey McCracken: It seems like to me that when we wait on the Lord and we ask him to open up doors and opportunities For us, then he'll send us people at the right time who are ready to hear what we have to say.
• 15:14
  Audrey McCracken: And you know I can connect with people that you can't, and you can connect with people that I can't.
• 15:21
  Audrey McCracken: You know my father before he passed away.
• 15:23
  Audrey McCracken: This man was actually a friend of my father's and he said as we were sitting there you know he's my father's age and he said I miss your daddy so much.
• 15:32
  Audrey McCracken: My dad passed away a few years ago from Alzheimer's and he had shared my dad had shared his faith with this man, and I want you to understand that my dad was the shyest man you've ever met.
• 15:47
  Audrey McCracken: He was so quiet and so humble, and so I mean he just was so bashful.
• 15:54
  Audrey McCracken: If he went to a restaurant and ordered something and they brought him out something completely different, he'd never say a word.
• 16:02
  Audrey McCracken: I mean, that was just his way.
• 16:03
  Audrey McCracken: When God came into his life, I saw him share the gospel with men that he had walked with or he had known all his life.
• 16:14
  Audrey McCracken: He'd gone to school with all his life and many of those men had a lot of the same problems he had when he became a Christian.
• 16:20
  Audrey McCracken: They were alcoholics and they had no hope, and they were his buddies, and this was one of his buddies and I got to see that.
• 16:31
  Audrey McCracken: You know, my dad had planted a lot of seeds in this man's heart and the Lord just allowed me to be a part.
• 16:36
  Audrey McCracken: You know, I did not feel like it was the time appropriate for me to talk with him about, you know, salvation and making that step.
• 16:47
  Audrey McCracken: He was seeking something.
• 16:49
  Audrey McCracken: You know he was looking for hope and I shared with him where the hope is.
• 16:56
  Audrey McCracken: You know it's in Christ and that it looks like the world's spinning out of control right now, but it's really not.
• 17:03
  Audrey McCracken: You know, and we as Christians know that we have a hope in the storm.
• 17:08
  Audrey McCracken: We have a hope and I want to read to you from the second book of Timothy, timothy two, starting in verse three.
• 17:16
  Audrey McCracken: I really think this speaks to where we are right now in the world and it says but realize this that in the last days, difficult times will come, for men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips without self control, brutal haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness although they deny its power.
• 17:57
  Audrey McCracken: Avoid such men, as these from among them are those who enter into households and captivate weak women weighted down with sins, led led on by various impulses, always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
• 18:18
  Audrey McCracken: We live in that kind of world right now.
• 18:20
  Audrey McCracken: There is no fear of God, even among many people who claim to be Christians.
• 18:27
  Audrey McCracken: People love themselves more than God and often people in the name of God deceive others.
• 18:35
  Audrey McCracken: 13.
• 18:41
  Audrey McCracken: It says.
• 18:43
  Audrey McCracken: But evil men and imposters will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceit.
• 18:49
  Audrey McCracken: You, however, continue in the things you have learned and became convinced of knowing from whom you have learned them and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings, which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus.
• 19:10
  Audrey McCracken: All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training and righteousness, so that the man of God may be adequate equipped for every good work.
• 19:25
  Audrey McCracken: So, yes, we live in a world that seems like it's going from bad to worse.
• 19:30
  Audrey McCracken: Not trying to be a doomsayer, but just cut on the TV, open your eyes.
• 19:37
  Audrey McCracken: But we have a hope that is in Christ Jesus, and I love the way Paul says here from childhood you've known the sacred writings he tells Timothy, which are able to give you wisdom and leads to salvation.
• 19:52
  Audrey McCracken: I love that.
• 19:53
  Audrey McCracken: And he goes on to talk about how all scripture is inspired from God.
• 19:58
  Audrey McCracken: See we, when we come to the Word of God, by faith, with the aid of the Holy Spirit, we can know truth, we can have wisdom.
• 20:10
  Audrey McCracken: It is a light in a dark world.
• 20:13
  Audrey McCracken: It's a light to know what God is about, to know what he's up to.
• 20:19
  Audrey McCracken: Earlier this school year my youngest son, caleb, and I read through a book about Revelation and it was written for his grade level but it was called the Non-Prophet's Guide to the Book of Revelation.
• 20:32
  Audrey McCracken: And I just want to tell you it was so good and I love that it was written on a preteen level because I don't like complicated.
• 20:43
  Audrey McCracken: But just reading through that book about the book of Revelation really made the book of Revelation come alive to me and going into it I thought is this going to be scary?
• 20:55
  Audrey McCracken: Is this going to be too scary for my son?
• 20:57
  Audrey McCracken: Is this going to be too much for him right now?
• 20:59
  Audrey McCracken: Is it going to put that thoughts in his mind that you know that he's not ready for right now.
• 21:04
  Audrey McCracken: Well, to be honest with you, it was a book of hope because when you're living in a place and a time when it feels like all of the foundations are being shaken and the things that we've always accepted in everyone Christian or non-Christian, have always accepted to be true, are now being questioned, it is comforting to know that God said from the beginning this is how it's going to be.
• 21:33
  Audrey McCracken: Keep your eyes on me.
• 21:36
  Audrey McCracken: And in the book of Revelation he talks about in those times.
• 21:39
  Audrey McCracken: You know, even if it were possible, even the elect would be deceived.
• 21:44
  Audrey McCracken: And he gave us guidance, he gave us insight into what to do during those times.
• 21:52
  Audrey McCracken: He said gather yourself together when you see that day approaching.
• 21:55
  Audrey McCracken: He said love one another fervently, because the love of many will grow cold.
• 21:59
  Audrey McCracken: And as we walk together in the Spirit and we learn to walk in the Spirit, we learn to be sensitive to what the Holy Spirit is saying to us and we grow in Scripture and we're always growing and we're maturing in our faith, then our hope grows with us and we can see him more clearly.
• 22:23
  Audrey McCracken: You know, faith is a muscle.
• 22:25
  Audrey McCracken: I used to tell my boys this.
• 22:27
  Audrey McCracken: I still do when they listen to me.
• 22:29
  Audrey McCracken: But faith is like a muscle, you know, it starts out weak but it's still workable.
• 22:36
  Audrey McCracken: But the more you use it, the more you use your faith, the more you work your faith, the stronger your faith becomes.
• 22:43
  Audrey McCracken: And so we have to work our faith, we have to use our faith.
• 22:47
  Audrey McCracken: You know we have to.
• 22:48
  Audrey McCracken: You know faith is faith without works is dead.
• 22:51
  Audrey McCracken: And so when we work our faith, when we do things that require faith, when we trust God through situations where it just seems hopeless, when we believe when it would just be a lot simpler not to believe, then our faith grows and our tests grow right.
• 23:07
  Audrey McCracken: Our tests get harder too.
• 23:08
  Audrey McCracken: But God is building us into strong men, strong women, that we will not be ashamed on that day when he arrives, that we will be able to say Lord Jesus, I did to the best of my ability what you gave me to do, and he wants that for us.
• 23:27
  Audrey McCracken: You know he does not want us to be afraid of his coming, he wants us to be excited.
• 23:31
  Audrey McCracken: He wants us to be able to say come, lord Jesus, come.
• 23:34
  Audrey McCracken: We're excited to see you return, because he is going to return.
• 23:39
  Audrey McCracken: He promised that he would return and he keeps his promises.
• 23:42
  Audrey McCracken: Amen.
• 23:45
  Audrey McCracken: I hope that this has been encouraging for you today and I pray that the Lord would open up opportunities for you to share your faith in a very natural way and in a way that suits your personality right?
• 24:01
  Audrey McCracken: You know, god doesn't want us to take on somebody else's personality when we go to share the gospel, and I think that's one of the reasons that, one of the ways that people get turned off, because it's kind of like we have this instruction manual If you're going to share the gospel, you got to say this and you got to say that, and you got to say it.
• 24:20
  Audrey McCracken: Just right, or it'll be all wrong.
• 24:22
  Audrey McCracken: And God wants to use you and your personality to reach others and he'll give you the grace.
• 24:34
  Audrey McCracken: He'll put the words in your mouth.
• 24:36
  Audrey McCracken: You know, you don't have to have it written on a card.
• 24:39
  Audrey McCracken: He'll put them in your mouth at the right time.
• 24:42
  Audrey McCracken: Let's pray, father.
• 24:44
  Audrey McCracken: I pray for my friends today that you would give them the awesome privilege of being able to share your gospel with others.
• 24:52
  Audrey McCracken: That, lord, it might be in the grocery store line, it might be with somebody sitting at the park by the kids play, but, father, I pray that you give them the opportunity and you'd put the words in their mouth and that it wouldn't feel forced or awkward, but just natural, and, lord, that that joy would spring up inside of them, that I was able to give hope to someone who needed hope today.
• 25:15
  Audrey McCracken: And, lord, I just thank you for it.
• 25:17
  Audrey McCracken: I thank you for an anointing to do that.
• 25:19
  Audrey McCracken: Holy Spirit, I ask you to teach us the way.
• 25:21
  Audrey McCracken: When you're doing something, lord, when you're doing something different, give us ears to hear and eyes to see, and help us to turn aside from our normal course of business and be obedient to what you're calling us to do at that moment.
• 25:37
  Audrey McCracken: And, lord, let us help us be sensitive to you.
• 25:40
  Audrey McCracken: In Jesus' name, we thank you.
• 25:43
  Audrey McCracken: Amen.