5 years ago I preached from 2 Peter 1:12-15 on how routine isn’t easy. It costs us something to maintain. Sometimes it can feel exhausting to the point where the cost seems greater than the reward, where the cost of following Jesus seems greater than who He really is. It’s why God reminded us through Peter that we need to keep being reminded to depend on God and keep at it and don’t quit, because only in the Lord God do you have a sure thing.
I used Tom Brady as an example of someone who developed and maintained a routine with a goal in mind, that he kept himself reminded of, that led to him being the G.O.A.T. of football. Then he came to Tampa Bay that year and led them to winning the Super Bowl! That was kind of exciting! He would take it all about a year too far, but he was still the best; and his story got used to give us motivation to align our life around Jesus more; and God got the glory.
Then 6 months later – 4 months into covid shut-down – I preached from 2 Peter 1:3-11 on establishing a routine of actually taking steps towards following Jesus. I should have preached this passage first, but I did not know then when I would be preaching next. I said, “If you want something you never had, you have to do something you’ve never done,” and how my job as a pastor is similar that of a coach – to get you to do what you might not feel like doing in order to become what you’ve always dreamed of being… namely, who God created you to be!
I showed a clip of what was, and still is, considered to be possibly the G.O.A.T. NFL catch, Odel Beckham Jr’s amazing catch on November 23,2014. It was amazing, and still is. But then I showed a video of his training – how he practiced catches just like that all the time to the point where it was actually routine. He chose to practice amazing things so that he might actually perform amazing things. We as believers practice our faith – trusting God and obeying what He says to do – trust plus action – in all the day-to-day stuff of life so that we might perform faithfully, which is always amazing – God through us (not from us – that’s not so amazing), but God displaying His power and love through anyone who would surrender to Him. That takes first being clean by not allowing anything to violate or come between our relationship with God (and we can do that by continually coming to Him for forgiveness and for Him to clean us up). And second be available to serve Him to everyone around us!
This morning, I’d like to share “4 Lessons About Evangelism From the G.O.A.T. – The Greatest of All Time – of Martial Arts, Bruce Lee”
This developed from a blog I read about 4 years ago on Bruce Lee just before what would have been his 80th birthday. I made a youth lesson then. It seemed appropriate to re-visit that for this morning.
Bruce Lee is a fascinating guy. It’s hard not to be in awe of some of the things he did in his short 32-year life. He was a game changer when it came to martial arts for millions around the world. His movies inspired a generation to take up martial arts. Bruce Lee was not just a one-of-a-kind action star, he was a ground-breaking pioneer, a trail blazer.
Bruce Lee would be 84 years old today. He died 52 years ago on June 20, 1973. For some of you, It doesn’t seem that long ago that he was beating up Chuck Norris in The Way of the Dragon, or playing the original Kato on Green Hornet, or showing the world how to do a 1-inch punch and a Video – – 2-finger push-up
BTW – He could do 1,500 push-ups in a row with 2 hands, 400 in a row with one hand, 200 in a row with 2 fingers, and 100 in a row with just 1 thumb.
Although Bruce Lee, as far as I know, was not a follower of Jesus, there are still at least 4 lessons that God can use from his life to teach us about evangelism:
1. Practice, Practice, Practice
As a young teen in Hong Kong, Bruce Lee started learning martial arts after getting into some street fights. He didn’t just want to know how to fight, but how to win every fight. And he would go on to master his craft and become a world class martial artist.
To achieve his level of excellence he practiced relentlessly. To this day, the intense training routine he developed over the years is legendary among members of the martial arts community. And he holds 9 world records that still stand strong today!
Let’s talk for a moment…
Bad news – you hope it doesn’t happen to you or someone close to you. You sort of steer clear of bad news.
Good news – you want in on it. You want it for those close to you. It’s compelling and gripping! It causes you to lean in towards it: You listen a little closer, maybe do a quick search on Google or YouTube to find out more.
Bruce Lee leaned into learning martial arts. In the same way, if we as believers want to become effective at evangelism – sharing Jesus’ Good News – the thing all people desperately need to know – we must practice sharing our faith to the point of mastery, not just theory. That means knowing better what you believe, why you believe it, being able to put it into your own words, and living it out in and through your own life. We must learn how to ask good questions (like Jesus did, especially with the woman at the well in John 4), to share our stories (like Paul in Acts 26), and to relate and demonstrate Jesus’ message in a clear and compelling way (like John the Baptist did in John 3) that causes others to want to know how to get in on it.
Getting your “black belt” in evangelism takes precision (truth), persistence (trust), and power – divine power – giving it away!
Acts 1:8 NLT – But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about Me everywhere – in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.
Imagine if we gave this a Bruce Lee-level of practice in action and faithfulness! That’s why we believers practice our faith: ‘Cause we want to get better at being faithful and at handling this Good News well. Without practice, trying to handle all this power could look more like this: Video – Losing Control of Fire Hose
I believe one of the reasons why teens, and adults, don’t share their faith is because they don’t exactly know how to bring it up, besides how to explain it. How do you actually get into a spiritual conversation?
For all you white belts out there, here’s a quick crash course in evangelism to give you some basic evangelism “moves” to start practicing:
You gotta’ start somewhere, so here’s a very simple strategy for how to bring it up, called Ask-Admire-Admit.
As you ask questions, you get to know someone. Jesus asked a lot of questions. We should probably ask more, too. We need to love people by listening to them. Find out who they are and what they’re about, and then you can take the turn towards spiritual subjects: Do you go to church anywhere? Do you have a spiritual background or religion that you believe?
And as they begin to share, you find areas you can admire. For instance, if you find that they’re Mormon, you could say something like, “I really appreciate you guys’ focus on the family.” Or, “I see or hear about your missionaries everywhere, hard at work”, instead of starting an argument. Find areas you can admire
And then finally, admit the reason you are a Christian is that you’re so messed up you needed someone to save you. And that someone is Jesus! And right there you can tell your story of how you came to Jesus. And then you can share the Gospel story using the G.O.S.P.E.L. acrostic, or the Romans Road, or the A.B.C.s, or the 3 Circles – whichever you feel most confident using to share Jesus’ Good News and hope.
I want to encourage you to memorize at last one of those so you can walk someone through the whole Gospel story. I love the comprehensiveness of the G.O.S.P.E.L. acrostic, which I would love to share with you again:
G. God created us to be with Him (Genesis 1-2). God loves us, He cares about us, He made us to be in a relationship with Him. But then…
O. Our sins separate us from God (Genesis 3). Because we sin, we’re separated from God. He’s pure, and holy, and righteous, and we’re not. Our sin is a wall we raise between us and holy God.
S. Sins cannot be removed by Good Deeds (Genesis 4-Malachi). You can try living a good life and going to church, but it just covers up our sinfulness. it’s like putting white frosting on a burnt cake.
P. Paying the price for sin, Jesus died and rose again (Matthew-Luke). Jesus died in our place for our sins on the cross. It’s almost as though if you’re walking across the street, and a truck is coming in at you 100 miles an hour, and somebody sees you’re about to get hit. You don’t notice that truck, but they run out, they push you out of the way, and boom – the truck hits them instead! They would have died in your place in the same way the wrath of God was headed at us, but Jesus pushed us out of the way, and He took the hit instead of us. He died in our place for our sins on the cross, and He rose again.
E. Everyone who trusts in him alone has eternal life (John). It’s not about trying, it’s by trusting; it’s not a matter of Good Deeds, it’s a matter of what Jesus has done on the cross. You trust in Him; you receive everlasting life.
L. Life with Jesus Starts Now lasts forever (Acts-Revelation). You enter into a personal, permanent relationship with God
Walk through the Gospel, and then offer Two Closing Questions:
- Does that make sense to you? If it doesn’t, explain it again or clarify any points if necessary. if it does, move on to the next question…
- Then is there anything holding you back right now from putting your faith in Jesus? If there is, deal with that something – try to help them navigate through that. If there’s not, then right then and there, they can put their faith and trust in Jesus! You can lead them through a prayer. Saying a prayer doesn’t save anybody, but it’s a nice way to kind of put an exclamation point on the Gospel, telling God, “Today I believed in Jesus!”
And obviously after that, we want to get them plugged into church and growing in their faith – not because they have to to go to heaven, but because they’re going to Heaven!
So, how do you bring it up? Ask-Admire-Admit,
Memorize a way to go through the Gospel.
And then go through those 2 Closing Questions: 1. Does that make sense to you, and 2. Is there anything holding you back right now from putting your faith in Jesus?
Now, go and share the Good News!
2. Share the “Beauty” of Your Message With a World Hungry For It
Because of Bruce Lee’s frequent street fights and gang affiliations as a young man in the streets of Hong Kong, his parents sent him to America soon after he turned 18. Within a few years, he settled in, went to college, and started teaching the beauty of Chinese culture, as demonstrated through martial arts, to Americans who were hungry to learn it.
Although some of the old school Chinese did not like him teaching their secrets to “outsiders“, Bruce Lee, one person, persisted and began to successfully train many Americans in the secrets of all things Kung Fu.
And now the secrets of martial arts are hardly a secret anymore! Drive through any town and you’ll see martial arts schools that range from Kung Fu to Karate to Jiu-Jitsu. Bruce Lee helped to popularize martial arts across America and around the world. His blockbuster hit, Enter the Dragon, main-streamed martial arts globally. But his impact for the sake of martial arts doesn’t even compare to the Apostle Paul, who wrote 13 of the 27 books of the New Testament, and the impact he made for the sake of Jesus and His Good News!
In Ephesians 3:8-9 Paul wrote, “8 Although I am less than the least of all the Lord’s people [he’s saying he doesn’t deserve any more than anyone else], this grace [this God-sponsored call to action] was given me: To preach to the Gentiles [the whole rest of the world] the boundless riches of Christ [Jesus’ Good News], 9 and to make plain to everyone the administration [the action-plan, the dealing out] of this mystery [regarding the uniting of believing Jews and Gentiles into one body], which for ages past was kept hidden in [in the mind of] God, who created all things.”
The ancient secret hidden away in the Old Testament scrolls was Jesus and his Good-News message! And, just as Bruce Lee made the secrets of Chinese martial arts known to the western world, the Apostle Paul made the secrets of the Gospel of Jesus known to both Jews and Gentiles – the whole world.
God set Paul as an example for us to follow. We are to help the world see the beauty of the Christian message – by demonstrating how attractive and advantageous the Gospel really is – and hear the Good News of Jesus. – both a visual demonstration and a verbal definition. It’s our sacred duty to make these secrets known – that’s the Great Commission in Matthew 28:18-20.
The world is our dojo! Start recruiting students of all ages, ethnicities, and backgrounds!
3. Keep What Works and Let Go of the Rest
Eventually, Bruce Lee created his own style of martial arts called Jeet Kune Do. He felt that many of the martial arts styles were filled with wasted motions and moves. He borrowed what worked best in every style of fighting, and he mixed them together to form his own. This is where we get the modern term “Mixed Martial Arts.” The UFC (the Ultimate Fighting Championship) and Bellator (an American mixed martial arts promotor) are huge global fighting businesses that owe their existence to the pioneering and the fighting style of Bruce Lee.
In the same way, when it comes to evangelism, we need to adapt from various methodologies to find out what works best. Then we need to build it into our own personal evangelism style.
1 Thessalonians 5:19-22 – 19 Do not quench [stifle] the Spirit. 20 Do not treat prophecies [telling people what God thinks about them] with contempt [don’t discount or despise prophecies!] 21 but test them all [don’t just be gullible either]; hold on to what is good, 22 reject every kind of evil.
One example of this is what Dare 2 Share Ministries has done. Their president and founder, Greg Stier, was trained by his youth leaders to use 7 key statements when sharing the Gospel. He liked the seven statements, but they seemed clunky to share and hard to memorize. So he refined them down to 6 sentences and developed an acrostic to go with it that is easier to memorize. And that is the G.O.S.P.E.L. acrostic I went through with you earlier. Over the years they’ve sharpened and adjusted it to be what it is today.
4. Master Your “Weapon”
Bruce Lee was well known for his mastery of nun chucks. It was his use of this fighting weapon that got many kids practicing nun chucks for countless hours.
Video – Bruce Lee – Ping Pong With Nun Chucks
We have our own version of nun chuck that can make a big dent in the kingdom of darkness when it comes to evangelism. It’s how you talk up the Gospel, Jesus’ Good News, our testimony!
How do you communicate the Gospel in a simple and natural way?
Revelation 12:11 – They triumphed over him [the enemy, the devil, satan] by [3 things] the blood of the Lamb [the Good News of Jesus having gone through torture, death, and resurrection for us to be able to be with Him forever] and by the word of their testimony [how they communicated the Good News of the Gospel in a simple and natural way]; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from [the threat of] death [they weren’t afraid to die in following Jesus].
Like nun chucks, a tool is only as good as one masters using it. So start practicing! If you master it, you will be able to effectively share the Gospel with anyone and everyone you meet.
Blessing: May Bruce Lee’s legendary legacy, and the four lessons we can learn about evangelism from his life, inspire you to be a more effective witness for the Lord Jesus Christ…and deliver a knock-out blow to satan’s influence in the lives of people around you in the process!
Q: 1-10, how effective do you feel at being a witness for Jesus?
Q: 1-10, where do you want to be?
Q: What steps towards that goal is God showing you to risk this morning?
Next Step: Pray for someone to bring the Gospel up with in the next 24-48 hours, and for wisdom and courage in taking that step.
