11/17/19 - Why And How Should I Tell Others - John 4 - Rooted

Times have changed my friends. And they will always be changing. One hundred years ago you were suspicious if you didn’t attend a church. If you called yourself an atheist you were not to be trusted. Today’s landscape is very different. We are in a unique era. One that actually takes us farther back in time. We have many things in common with the earliest believers living 2000 years ago. Ancient documents from the first century tell us that Christians were the most despised of all religions. At least the Jews kept to themselves, but not the Christians. Jesus' followers were labeled "troublesome, exclusive and inflexible." Sound familiar? And yet Christianity grew and spread throughout the Roman Empire. It wasn’t because people were inviting their friends to church. That was an immediate obstacle to an unbeliever. Stepping foot in church would have you instantly labeled as “one of them.” So how did happen? How did a fledgling group break into a movement?  People told their stories of transformation. One of the great evangelists of the Bible is an unnamed woman. She’s a social outcast until she meets Jesus. The joy inside her produces an immediate response. She says to everyone, “Come and see what he has done for me!” As a result, many lives were transformed. She didn’t have any training and didn’t know much theology but she did have a testimony and so do you!