1. The Application
   1. As we come to the close of today’s sermon, I want us to draw some principles about correctly handling God’s Word as we share it with others.
   2. First of all, as we share the Word of God, let’s always stay focused on the main subject.
   3. While there are many important spiritual subjects and areas of interest, we must be sure our main subject is Christ Himself.
   4. Christ was Paul’s main subject.
   5. When Paul wrote to the Corinthians, he wrote: “For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.” (1 Cor. 2:2)
   6. Although Paul started with the altar to the unknown God in Athens, he moved the Athenians toward Christ.
   7. Preaching, teaching, evangelism and Christian living that doesn’t exalt Christ is empty.
   8. Christ is the answer to our deepest needs.
   9. Ultimately, we are not trying to make people religious or church goers, rather we are trying to make them Christ-lovers and Christ-followers.
   10. When they truly believe in Christ and are devoted to Him, then their lives are transformed.

1. Second, as we share the Word of God, let’s always speak the truth without fear.
   1. Because we know that the truth can bring rejection and persecution, sometimes we withhold the truth.
   2. We live in a time that Paul predicted in 2 Tim. 4:3-4: For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.
   3. As you know, the pressure of our culture has caused many denominations, preachers and Christians to change their doctrinal stances to make them more palatable for the masses.
   4. A person can literally find a church that will teach whatever they want taught, so that they can live whatever lifestyle they choose.
   5. However, we must stick with the Bible truths alone.
   6. We cannot change or water down what God has said. And we must speak the truth in love, without fear.

Just earlier this year 2016, Russian president Vladimir Putin approved a package of anti-terrorism laws that usher in tighter restrictions on missionary activity and evangelism. The amendments include laws against sharing faith in homes, online, or anywhere but recognized church buildings. The laws went into effect in July 20 2016.

1. We need to pray for our brothers and sisters in Russia.
2. We need to pray that they have the courage to share their faith in obedience to God’s commands, which override any governmental laws.
3. Presently, we don’t have official laws prohibiting us from sharing our faith, and yet many of us are afraid to for reasons other than governmental punishment.
4. I pray that all of us will have the courage to share the truth, no matter how unwelcome it may be or whatever reprisal we may experience.

Third, as we share the Word of God, let’s always start where our audience is.

1. Paul hooked those men in Athens when he spoke of the altar to the unknown god.
2. We need to find a way to build a bridge to those with whom we are trying to share the Word.
3. We need to find a way to get into their world and build a bridge to Christ.
4. We need to begin with the familiar in order to introduce them to the unfamiliar.
5. Jesus did that over and over again in His teaching by using parables from everyday life.
6. Paul did that over and over again by becoming all things to all men in order to reach them (1 Cor. 9:22).

Finally, as we share the Word of God, let’s always surrender the results to God.

1. Paul wrote that he planted the seed, and that Apollos watered it, but it was God who made it grow. (1 Cor. 3:6)
2. I read about an elevator operator at a hospital in Nashville who once described his evangelistic approach like this: “I’m just a nobody telling everybody about somebody who can save anybody.”
3. In some respects, once we have delivered the message, our part ends.
4. Our task is to communicate God’s truth, it is God’s job to empower the truth and draw people through it.
5. Our task is to prepare the patient, but God is the one who does the surgery.
6. When we faithfully sow the seed and water it, then we have done our part.
7. We should never try to force or manipulate people into obeying God, Paul never did, and it doesn’t help in the long run.
8. We should share the Word, pray, care, and show genuine interest, and then entrust the results to God.
9. God can handle the rest and His Word is powerful enough to do its job.
10. Paul wrote: I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. (Rom. 1:16)
11. I pray that you and I will be faithful to do our part to get the Word of God out to those who need it, and when we are faithful to do our part, God can take care of the rest.

Conclusion:

[While preparing this sermon, I came across this and I thought it is a perfect example of some of us Born-Again Christian’s attitude towards planting the word of God.]

1. Therefore kindly allow me to end with this illustration:
2. One day an old Georgia farmer, was sitting on the porch of his tumbledown shack.
3. A stranger stopped for a drink of water and just to pass the time, he asked: “How is your cotton coming along?”
4. “Ain’t got none,” replied the farmer.
5. “Did you plant any?” asked the stranger.
6. “Nope,” was the farmer’s reply, “afraid of boll weevils.”
7. “Well,” continued the stranger, “how is your corn?”
8. “Didn’t plant none,” came the answer, “ ’fraid there weren’t going to be no rain.”
9. The stranger persevered: “Well, how are your potatoes?”
10. “Ain’t got none. Scared – of potato bugs.”
11. “Really, what did you plant? ” pressed the stranger.
12. “Nothin’,” was the farmer’s calm reply, “I just playin’ it safe.”
13. That’s not the best way to handle the seed for the farmer, nor for the Christian.
14. We must not play it safe with the seed of God’s Word, but must spread it abundantly.

Review: As we share the Word of God…

1. Let’s always stay focused on the main subject – Christ.
2. Let’s always speak the truth without fear.
3. Let’s always start where our audience is.
4. Let’s always surrender the results to God.