Transcript

Sermon Transcript: Five Keys for Gospel Success

4/16/2023 Jeff Schwarzentraub 49 min read

Pastor Jeff:

Our Father in heaven, we give you all the glory, honor, and praise for who you are and for all that you're doing. Lord, we do lift up this team that's from Brave that is heading to Mozambique. Father, we pray for all of the different arrangements that need to be placed and be made that you would do it for your glory and Lord, for opportunities for the gospel to be shared from now until they get home. Lord, that you would be the one that would open doors, that you would be the one that would go before them, that you would give them the opportunity to share the love of Christ with all that they meet. And so Lord, now we gather before you and we thank you for your living and active word, and that every time it's faithfully and accurately proclaimed that you have a word for us.

And so for all those who have gathered who desire to hear the Lord speak directly to you, who will believe what he says and who will by faith put into practice what he shows you, will you agree with me very loudly this morning by saying the word amen.

Congregation:

Amen.

Pastor Jeff:

Amen. I never get tired of sharing the gospel and seeing people come to Jesus Christ. Last week we had hundreds of people that came to know Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior. I don't get tired of that. I don't get tired of hearing stories about those of you who have shared your faith and have seen friends and family members or strangers come to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. As I've told you before, I can watch old Billy Graham crusade videos from 1970 where everybody's wearing a big fat tie and they're streaming down the aisles coming to know Christ.

There's something special about seeing someone that goes from death to life that fires me up. And it should, because for every one of us who's called by the name of Christ, that's our story for we were once dead and it's in Christ that we've been made alive and that's why we gather. And yet as we've been studying his word, we've seen that God doesn't just save us so that one day we can go to heaven. Although that's a byproduct of being in relationship with him, he saves us because he wants us to be on mission for him. He wants us to do his bidding while we're still here on the earth. He wants us to be engaged in relationships with others and he wants to allow us to be used by him so that others can come to know of his glorious name.

And for many of us, we say, "Okay, that sounds good, but I'm scared to death or I don't know what to do, or where should I start? Or what's this look like?" Because for many of us when it comes to sharing the gospel, we have a picture of somebody else who does it and they do it in a way that we say, "I could never do that." If that's you, I have good news for you today. God wants you to be authentically you and share him in the way that you would share him with whoever he brings in your path. I want to remove all the constraints that you have where you think "If I go to work tomorrow or I go to school tomorrow, I got to pull out a podium. I got to stand on a soapbox and I got to start preaching and that's just not who I am." Well then don't do that. But what do you do and what does it look like to share the gospel and how do I know if I'm doing it right and how do I know if I'm being successful?

And that's what I want to talk to you about today is five keys for gospel success, five keys that you can use to open the doors and unlock the things that God wants you to do so that you can be used of God. If you've ever said, I'm willing to be used, God, I just don't know what the heck I'm supposed to do, or how come I hear stories of other people that can do this, but I guess I'm not just that way. God has a word for you. Today I want to invite you to open your Bible up to 1 Peter, the book of 1 Peter towards the back of your Bible. And in there in chapter 3, there's one verse I want to highlight today, 1 Peter 3:15. And as Peter's writing to the church that is enduring lots of suffering and persecution, he's writing to them as a church to stay rooted in the Lord and to continue their fervency for him.

And he writes to the church, he's writing to the dispersed church and also to individuals to tell them what it looks like to continue to live for Christ in tough times. And here's what he says, 1 Peter 3:15, "But sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence." Read it again, "But sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence." And I want to highlight just three quick things from the verse as we launch from this verse into those five keys that we're going to talk about today.

The first thing he tells us to do is honor the Lord through growing obedience. He says, "But sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts." That means to honor the Lord. It means increasingly looking like Christ. God has a standard of perfection. On this side of heaven you're never going to achieve it. We hold the standard high and yet as we walk in him, what God wants from us is to continue to grow in that. No matter where you are on the spectrum with Christ, whether you've just come to him or you've been a Christian for a long time, I have great news for you. God loves you right where you are, but God doesn't want you to stay right where you are. God wants you to take that next step of faith. The way that you honor the Lord, the way that you sanctify Christ in your heart is by continually taking steps of faith in obedience to Christ's commands.

When God asks you to do something, when God shares something through a sermon, when God speaks to you during your prayer time or in your quiet time, he said, "This is what I have for you. Take that step of faith, sanctify Christ in your heart. Make God honorable. Continue to grow in him. That's number one.

Number two is this. It's be ready to defend your hope to everyone. Notice what he says. He says, "Always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you." Always be ready. Always be ready. For what? To give an account or a defense for the hope that you have. What does that assume? That you have the hope of Christ. If you've been saved, you have Christ's hope. If you've been saved you know that the Holy Spirit indwells you, you know that you're going to heaven. You know that you're going to spend eternity with Jesus. So continue to grow in your hope and always be ready to give an answer.

It means you're living your life in such a hopeful way that people that get around you and see it and know will ask questions like this. "Why are you so hopeful? What is it in your life that's so different?" Right? Always be ready. Sometimes as Christians, we like to take a day off here and there. We like to take an evening off here and there where we say they can ask me for the hope I have other than on Friday and Saturday nights because those are my time and I don't want to talk about Jesus on Friday and Saturday nights. And I hope nobody asks me about Jesus on Friday and Saturday nights because I live for myself on Friday and Saturday nights.

No, always be ready. If you're going to honor the Lord in your hearts, if you're going to sanctify them in your hearts, if you're going to grow in holiness in your heart and grow in progressive sanctification, then always be ready for the hope that's within you. It means to live in the hope that you have. It means you're focusing on Jesus and not just on the things of this world.

And then third, he says this, use gentleness and reverence in conversation. Notice what he says "yet with gentleness and reverence in conversation." It means this. When you go to share the gospel, you're not trying to win a battle. God is the one that's doing all the work. Your job is to present the gospel. Your job is to live the gospel. It's God's job to convict hearts, change lives and take something that's dead and make it alive. That's God's job.

And yet sometimes when we go and talk to people, we think it's up to us and we got to get this person saved. And if they're not going to be saved, you know what? I'm going to let them know just how bad they are. That's not the gospel. The reason some of us get intimidated to share the gospel is we say, "I'm not going to treat people like that." Jesus didn't treat people like that. Jesus came alongside people. He treated him with gentleness. He's the king of the world. He's perfect. He never did anything wrong. He's God in the flesh. He's God incarnate. And yet what did he do? Even when people mocked him and spit on him and all these different things, he still continued to show love to them.

So show gentleness to people and, what? Reverence. Who's reverence for? Well, we're only called to reverence one, we're called to fear the Lord. We're called to reverence the Lord. So as you share, be gentle, but also have reverence for the Lord. And what I find is sometimes we go one of two ways. Either we're gentle with people and we're like, oh, God loves you no matter what and don't worry about it. You're so good. But we're not reverencing the Lord as if to share. But you need to understand you're a sinner and you're dead in your sin and here's what your sins going to cost you. We just want to love them.

Other times, some of us that tend to be more of the prophets of the world, we're happy to tell people they're sinners and go into hell. No problem with that. But we're not really gentle about it. And both are equally important. To be gentle with people and loving to people and kind to people, and yet be reverent to God because he's the one that's doing the work in and through us.

So in that one little verse, he gives us those three things. He's saying, be honorable, continue to grow in your faith, be ready at all times when people ask you for the hope that you have within you, and be intentional. Be intentional. I was talking to a pastor friend of mine recently who said one time he was talking to a group of Mormons that came to his door and he found himself very irritated because they didn't believe in Jesus being God for eternity. They thought he was a created being. And so he was sharing with them the gospel and he was just pounding them and pounding them. And when they left, he's like, "Man, they don't get it." And as he was praying about it, God spoke to his heart and he said, "Stop pounding and start pleading." When it comes to the gospel, the best definition I've ever seen is it's just one beggar telling another beggar where to find bread.

When we share the gospel. I'm sharing my story with you. I'm not sharing I was a good person and now I'm better. Not like you, I'm sharing. I was dead and God made me alive and he's still the one that's in charge of my life. And he can resurrect your life too. That's the good news of the gospel and that's what he tells us to do.

So if we're called to be honorable to Christ and be ready to share the hope we have and be super intentional with gentleness and reverence, here comes the question then what's success look like? If I'm going to share the gospel, what is successful gospel sharing? Here's the way I'd say it. I would say it's a clear demonstration and presentation of the gospel message with an opportunity to respond. It is a clear demonstration and presentation of the gospel message with an opportunity for a response. That's what it is.

Now, when I say demonstration, it means I'm living it. Now when I say that one of the big reasons people don't share their faith is they'll say this, "I'm in church on Sunday, Pastor Jeff, and I do love the Lord, Pastor Jeff, and I know I'm saved Pastor Jeff, but if you saw my life, I'm just not quite there yet. There's things in my life that are still sinful." Take a look around the room. Everybody has that testimony. If you wait until you can say, "I can demonstrate the life of Christ perfectly, "you'll be dead before you share the gospel. Okay? When demonstration, what I'm talking about is does your life look any different now than the moment that you got saved? Has there been any growth at all? That's it. Don't wait to be perfect. Get after it now, but grow in that honor for the Lord.

And the presentation of it is this. Some of us don't share because you would say, "I don't even know what I'd share and I can't share it like my pastor and I can't share it like people that have been Christians for 30 years, I mean, I'm going to screw this thing up." You can't screw up the gospel, okay? You just can't. And I'm going to provide you some keys today, some tools today that you can use, that anybody can use. I look at my life as I was preparing this message, and I was thinking about where I was when I turned 18 and God started using me to tell other people about Jesus and where I was when I was 22 at the University of Illinois when God was using me to lead people to Christ. And I was thinking back about that time and I was praising the Lord, thank you Lord, that I look nothing like I did when I was 18 to 22, and thank you that you've grown me in holiness and thank you that I don't look anything like that.

But I can tell you this, God was using me amidst all sorts of stuff he was working out of my life, and he was still using me to lead people to Jesus. Don't let your life where you're at now be an excuse for not sharing the gospel. And by the way, as you share the gospel, that's one of the ways that you'll grow in your lifestyle and it's one of the ways that you'll grow in your presentation like any other skill in life. The only way you can learn how to share the gospel is by doing one thing, sharing the gospel. The only way you can learn how to ride a bike is ride a bike. The only way you can learn how to ski is ski. I mean, you can take all the classes on skiing you want. If you don't go skiing, you don't know how to ski. I don't know if they teach classes on bike riding, but if they did, I mean, you can't learn to ride a bike in a classroom. You have to learn to ride a bike on a bike.

You can't learn to do evangelism in a classroom. You have to do it by talking to people that don't know Jesus. And this is what he's telling us. He's saying, be honorable, grow in the Lord. Be ready at all times and be intentional with gentleness and reverence. And think about this. I mean, think about the people that God used in the Bible to share their faith. I mean, how about the woman at the well? We know of her. She had five husbands and a man that she's living with now, is not even her husband. She gets saved and what does she do? She doesn't say, "Well, as soon as I get my life and as soon as I get all this stuff worked out and everybody knows what a person I've been and I don't want all that. So I don't know if I can tell anybody yet." She marches right back into her hometown and brings the whole village out with her to say, "If Jesus can do this for me, he can do this for you."

Or what about Zaccheaus the white collar criminal? I mean as soon as he gets saves, he's wanting to give all of his money away and he wants to get right with the Lord. He's like, "I'm not hanging on to this anymore. I want Jesus," right? I mean, if you've been a Christian for just a short amount of time, God can use you. Even as we talked about the demoniac in Mark chapter 5, as soon as he was cleansed from his demons and in his right mind, he's begging, "Jesus, let me come with you." And Jesus says, "No, you go into your cities and the Decapolis and you tell everybody what I've done there."

So a success is not how many people got saved because of your ministry. That's not success. Success is a clear presentation and demonstration of what the gospel looks like. You'll find that some of you are seed sowers, you sow seeds and you sow seeds and you sow seeds and you sow seeds. Some of you are waterers, that come along and kind of encourage all that and build all that. Some of you are harvesters where you would say, "It's pretty easy for me. I get around people and they get saved pretty frequently," but it's not about the result. We rejoice in the fact that we've all been used. Because I can tell you about Gordy Smith that led me to allure, but I can also tell you about all this hundreds of seeds that have been planted for years long before I ever had a conversation with him. All the watering that took place long before I ever had a conversation with him. So success is not how many people did you lead to the Lord? Success is how intentional are you with the gospel of Jesus Christ with the people that you meet?

So if that's the case, then what are the keys for sharing the gospel? What are the keys for sharing the gospel? Now, when I say sharing the gospel, here's what I want to say. When I say sharing the gospel, I mean speaking it out loud with words, right? That quote from church history, share the gospel everywhere you go, and if necessary use words. It's always necessary to use words. If you don't use words, you have not shared the gospel. A bell's not a bell unless you ring it, and a song's not a song unless you sing it and the gospel's not the gospel unless you speak it right?

You just need to know that. So you can't just lovingly be around people and hope they get it. You have to share it and speak it. Now, if that's the case, then what are the five keys? What are the tools that I can give you today that all of you will be capable of using when you leave here today? If you want to be involved in God's work, God's going to give you five tools today that you can use for that.

The first tool is this. The first tool is this. The first key is this, prayers. Prayers. Prayers are the keys that open doors, prayers. Your prayers are the keys that open doors. Here's what I mean when I say prayer. Start praying to God about opportunities to share. Some of us are saying, "I never get opportunities to share. How come that happens for them?" Here's a rhetorical question. How often do you seek the Lord and tell the Lord, "Lord, if you'll bring people into my life, I'll share who you are with them. Just open doors for me. That's what I want." Probably if you're not having those opportunities, it's because you're not praying for those opportunities because when you pray for those opportunities, that is a prayer that God will answer. It's a prayer that God will answer. He may answer it so fast, it will shock you like, "I didn't mean that fast. I don't even know what I'm doing yet."

Why should we pray? If you study the life of Jesus, what did he spend a majority of his time doing? He prayed very early in the morning while it was still dark, he got up and went to solitary places where there he prayed. All day long he was praying. He was sneaking off to pray after he fed the 5,000, he went on a mountain to pray. When he was praying for his disciples, he stayed up all night to pray. Everything that happened was preceded by prayer.

What about the disciples in Acts chapter 1? What are they doing before the church gets launched in Acts chapter 2? They're praying. They're in a prayer meeting. If you study the book of Acts, you see prayer preceding every good thing. That's why for us first Tuesdays is always going to be a mantra for what we do because prayer is foundational to any good work that God's going to have. So when you pray, pray for opportunities. I think we could argue that the apostle Pauls, as far as I know about the apostle Paul, he was pretty good at evangelism. He cared about it a lot, didn't he? He wrote two thirds of the New Testament. How many would say that Paul was fairly good at sharing his faith? Let me ask you again, how many would say that Paul was fairly good at sharing his faith?

Congregation:

Yes.

Pastor Jeff:

Okay, 25 of you. That's good. He was. He was. And in Colossians, when he writes to them in Colossians chapter 4, verse 2, he says, "Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert with it, with an attitude of thanksgiving." Then he says this, "Praying at the same time for us as well, that God will open to us a door for the word so that we may speak forth the mystery of Christ for which I am in prison." I'm in prison for sharing this gospel. Here's what I'm asking you to pray for. Pray for open doors that I get more opportunities to share the gospel. In Ephesians chapter 6, right in the context of spiritual warfare and how to pray for all the saints he said "And pray on my behalf," Ephesians 6:19, "that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel."

Here's the apostle Paul, spoken directly to by God, saved by God, appointed as an apostle by God, being used of God all over the known world at the time, and what's he asking people to do? Would you please pray for me that God would open up doors so I could share the gospel? If Paul needed to pray for open doors and Jesus needed to pray for open doors, how much more do we need to pray for open doors? One of the reasons you may not be seeing opportunities in your life is you're not praying for open doors. The work of evangelism, that work of disciple making is supernatural in nature. You can't muster it up. I've watched people try to muster it up. I've watched people try to gather tracks go out the door. "We're going to save so many people." It doesn't work. God has to be the one that opens someone's heart to the gospel.

So if you want to be involved in mission, you have to pray, and what you're praying for is not God, "Make me like somebody else or God change all my gifts." All you're praying for is this, "God, here's who I am. You know all my strengths. You know all my weaknesses. You know all my sin. If there's a way you can use me to share your love with anybody, I'd love to participate. Bring somebody my way that I can share your love with you." You watch out when you pray that way, he'll open doors. The reason we prayed for our team that's going to Mozambique is because if we don't pray for open doors, they're just doing a vacation in Africa. We're praying for open doors, that the Holy Spirit would open doors, conversations on the plane, rides all the places, conversation at the airports, conversations with natives, conversations with pastors, conversations with everybody. They're going to have conversation with. God, pray for open doors. That's what God wants us to do.

When you think about the apostle Paul, he was praying that way. I mean, when you pray for open doors, God sometimes has ways of opening doors for you to share the gospel in ways that you don't want to have. I used to have ways I wanted God to open doors like "God, let me be the starting quarterback for the University of Illinois. Let me take him to the Rose Bowl. Once we win the national championship, I promise you, I will take the first 15 seconds to thank you as my personal Lord and Savior." I thought it was a good deal. God thought different. When things didn't go well for me, God opened up so many doors for me to share the gospel with so many different people I wouldn't have had an opportunity to, and I realized he's the one that builds the platform. I just need to be obedient.

So when Paul is praying, there's one mission trip he's on with his partner named Silas, and they go to a place called Philippi, and as they're going to Philippi, guess what happens? Because they're sharing the gospel. The whole town gets upset. They arrest Paul and Silas. They beat them with rods, which means it's opening wounds in their back and they've been unjustly tried because of one reason. I'm just trying to tell you about the love of Jesus and you've beaten me and thrown me in prison and I'm in the stocks. Now, what would you do if that was you? Now, we like to be pious on Sunday morning and say, will I be praying and worshiping and trusting the Lord. I know my flesh. I know I probably wouldn't be. I'd probably be ticked. I'd probably be calling my attorney. I'd be mad. I'd want to get revenge at the people that hurt me, but that's not what we read.

I mean, we're reading the Bible in Acts chapter 16 in Acts chapter 16, about verse 25, "But at midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns of praise to God, and the prisoners were listening to them." What were they doing? Oh, they're using key number one, which is prayer, and they're using worship, and guess what happens? An earthquake begins to happen. A shaking begins to happen. All the prisoners are freed, the Philippian jailer knowing he it's going to be his life when he finds out is ready to fall on his sword and what's Paul say? "No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Don't do that." Why is he stop him. That's the guy that beat him. That's the guy that's making his life miserable.

Why did he stop him? Because Paul sees every opportunity he's in as a gospel sharing opportunity with someone that's far from God. Don't do that. We're all here. We haven't left. This guy says, "Well, what do I need to do to be saved?" He says, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you'll be saved." That jailer got saved. His whole family got saved, and Paul was, "praise the Lord. I prayed for an opportunity. You put me in jail again." Right? Sometimes we want things to go our way, but when you pray, God will bring you to the right people, so keep your eyes open even when the circumstances aren't going the way you think they're going to go. We think it's everything goes well in my life and I'm super successful, and then God's going to bring the other successful people and I'm going to share with them.

That's not how God works. If you pray, God will open doors. Just keep your eyes open. That's the first key. You want to be involved in the work of disciple making. You want to be in the work of evangelism. You want to be on mission for Jesus. Here's what I would encourage you to do. Be intentional about praying for opportunities to share with lost people. If you'll do that and you're sincere, God will open those doors for you. It's his desire and it's his heart. That's the first key.

Second key is this. It's a key that people like me that make statements all the time have a harder time with and need to be reminded of, and this is the reason why many of us feel that we can't go out and share because like "What am I going to share? What do I say? When do I say it? I'm not really salesy." Here's the second key questions. Questions. Questions are the keys that open hearts. If prayers are the keys that open doors, questions are the keys that open hearts. Study the life of Jesus. He asked a lot of questions. Even when Jesus was being asked a question, he'd ask another question back, "Do you understand what you're reading? Why would you say that?" I mean all these different things, he's putting it back on the people for them to think about spiritual truths.

I think about in the book of Acts, in Acts chapter 8, starting about verse 25, there's a man named Philip and he's praying. He's listening to the Lord. The Lord tells him, run up alongside that chariot and he runs alongside the chariot. He's just obedient. He's growing in his obedience and he notices that this Ethiopian eunuch is reading his Old Testament scripture from Isaiah 53 that talks about how he will be wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities, and by his stripes will be healed, and what does he do? He said to the Ethiopian eunuch, "Do you understand what you're reading?" He said, "No. How can I unless somebody explains it to me?" and he hops up with him. Now, if Phillip put a run up and said, "Oh, you don't know what that means, let me tell you what that means. Let me show you what that means." Maybe nothing happens. He asked a question, "Do you understand that? Can I help you with that? Are you okay? Are you doing all right?"

He gets up, shares with him from that specific scripture all the way to Christ. The Ethiopian eunuch gets saved, gets baptized, and then Philip vanishes. God uses him. Ask questions. Here's why we don't ask questions. Questions are a sign of love. Questions are a sign of relationship. In order to ask questions, you need to genuinely care about the person you're asking the question to or don't ask the question.

People know if they feel like they're a sales pitch and people know if you care about them. If you're genuinely asking questions and saying, "What is your deepest hurt? Why has that been tough for you? What is really going on in your life? Man, I'm really sorry to hear that," and you genuinely care. Questions are what open their hearts. Now, what about when it comes to the gospel? What kind of questions can you ask? Because a lot of times what I find when you start sharing the gospel, people go in million different directions. They want to talk about science and the earth being created in six days. They want to talk about the migrant farmer in Africa that's never heard, and what do I think of him? They want to talk about all these hypotheticals about everything, and I'm just trying to tell them about Jesus. So a lot of times your questions when you're sharing the gospel need to go right back to Jesus.

There's a group that started a ministry about four decades ago called Evangelism Explosion. They would ask two questions, question one. They would ask, is this, "Have you come to the place in your life where you know that if you died today, you would go to heaven?" That's a good question. Have you come to the place in your life that if you died today, you'd go to heaven? Second question is similar. "If you were to stand before God and he were to ask you, why should I let you into my heaven, what would you say?" I mean, these are two questions I'm asking you to tell me where you're at. I'm asking you what you're going to say to Jesus. I'm not telling you propositions about what's going to happen.

I'm not going to say, "Hey, by listening to you and studying you, and I can tell you're a non-Christian, Jesus is going to say, depart from me and you're going to go to hell." That that's not as effective as a gospel share as what do you think's going to happen? What would Jesus say to you? Here's another question that you can ask. People are willing to talk about anything spiritual, but everybody has an opinion about Jesus. You can ask somebody, what do you think about Jesus Christ? I don't care what faith background you're talking to, everybody has an opinion or an idea about Jesus. Some are positive, some are negative, some are neutral, some are whatever. But when you ask that question, you're putting the attention back on Jesus. Jesus said, if I'm lifted up, I'll draw all men to myself. So put the question and attention back on Jesus.

Or here's a simple way you can do it, especially if you're a prayer and prayer is what you do and is genuine. Here's a great question for anybody to talk to. "Hey, as I'm listening to you, I just want to know how can I be praying for you or would you mind if I prayed for you?" I mean, if you're genuine and you're having lunch at a restaurant and somebody's serving you and you're asking them questions, you can say something like this. "My family and I, we like to pray right before a meal. Is there anything that we can pray for you about?" And you'll get all sorts of responses. I've seen response. "No, no, no. I'm good." Get that response some or, "Yeah, I don't know if I want to pray with you, but yeah, pray for my mom. She's been kind of sick. You can pray for that or pray for my new job."

Okay, we'll do that. Or I've seen some people, when you ask them and you're genuinely interested, they'll start weeping because nobody's cared enough to ask them even how they are, and you're willing to go to the throne of God to pray for them. I mean, if you're at a mall, I mean, it's a simple question. "How can I be praying for you?" Well, the only way you can ask that question is if you're genuinely interested in them. If it's a sales pitch and you're walking by and like, okay, I got to do this for church. "Hey, is there anything I can pray for you for? Okay, good." I mean that doesn't work. It's got to come from genuine interest in them, but prayer opens doors, questions open hearts. Can you ask questions of people? Yeah, you're capable right now.

If you genuinely love people, you know you're loving people when you're looking at them, you're listening to them. You're giving them visual and verbal approval, you're loving on them, right? That's what love looks like. And then you can begin to ask questions about where they are with Jesus, and you can ask questions about what they know about Jesus and you can ask questions about how you can come alongside of them. "Hey, it seems like you're going through a real rough time. What's one way I could serve you that would be an encouragement to you?" That's a question. I mean, when you act like that, you're engaging with people and it's totally different than just trying to ram a gospel down their throat when people don't know that you care. So prayers are the keys that open door and questions are the keys that open hearts.

Let me give you a third key that you're capable of. The third key is testimonies. Testimonies are the keys that unlock interest. Testimonies are the keys that unlock interest. A testimony is where you're personally testifying to what Jesus Christ has done in your life. Oftentimes, it begins with your moment of salvation and what God did, but it also is a testimony of what is he doing now, A testimony means that you are dead and you've been made alive by Jesus and you can tell your story. Now, I know for some of you, you're like, I don't even know how I do that I'm not a speaker. I'm not all this. I'm going to give you a simple way that you can do that today, right? Simple way you can do that. I could share my testimony in about two hours. I could share it in an hour. I could share it in a half an hour. I could share it in 15 minutes. I can share it in a sentence, right? I'm going to teach you how to share it in a sentence or in a couple minutes and it's using this way.

Talk about I was and then fill in the blank. Prior to meeting Christ, think about phrases or terms that would describe who you were and what you were like in your deadness or how you lived. I was this. I was rebellious. I was into myself. I was prideful. I was selfish. I was trying to find meaning in this area. I was trying to do that. I was destroying all the relationships I had in my life. I was. Whatever your brokenness is, you can describe that in a part of a sentence or you can take a long time to talk about it. I was. Part two, but God, you get to fill in the blank and everybody's but God's story starts off the same way, but God revealed to me that he loved me through his son, Jesus Christ, who died on the cross for my sins and rose from the dead.

That's how my story starts. And then it continues that that's what God did. Now I can talk about all the framework for how that happened and who brought me to church and who introduced me to who and all that stuff, or I can just tell you I was, but God did this. He showed me that Jesus's death on the cross is barrel and resurrection could change everything for me, and I could receive forgiveness of sin.

I was, but God. And now. And now fill in the blank. What's different between now and five minutes ago when you trusted Christ and now I have hope in my life and now I know I'm forgiven and now I'm doing this, and now I'm devoting my life to ministry. And now whatever the and now is, it should be looked different incrementally than where you were before. And again, the testimony part is but God, and now. Let me make that clear.

The testimony part is not where you were. Most people think a testimony is the worse your sins were and the longer you were in them, the better testimony you have, the quicker you got to the cross and the longer you've been living with Jesus, the better testimony you have. Can I explain why? Because if testimonies were better if you lived a sinful life for a long time, then we in kids' ministry would teach kids to blow out, like "Go live like hell until you turn 36, then we're going to tell you about Jesus. You'll have a great testimony," because some of us are embarrassed because I was this, "I was four years old and I came to Awana." That's your story. What else? Played with toys. I mean, I was, but God showed me when I was four. In a way I could understand that Jesus died for my sins and rose from the dead and I trusted him in my life and now I've been living for him for my whole life. That's a testimony. You see the difference? And everybody that's a Christian has a testimony. And if you don't have a testimony, you're not a Christian because your testimony is that you were dead and now you're alive.

And so when you tell your story, I grew up and I was religious and I was prideful and I was self-centered, but God met me at a Young Life camp. He revealed who he was and my need of sin and my religion wasn't going to do enough, and I repented and trusted Jesus. And now slowly but surely, I've been trying to live my life for Christ for the last 32 years. That's my testimony. I can give you a lot more details, but that's it. But always follow up with this when you tell your story than ask this question, do you have a story like that? Because what am I trying to do?

I'm trying to engage you in the story. I'm not trying to tell you all about my story. Look at me, look at me. I'm asking you, do you have a story like that? Because if you don't have a story like that, God wants you to have a story like that. So when you share your testimony, it's not just, this is my testimony, I did it. Whew. I'm telling you. Do you have a story like that right now? You don't have to be a Christian very long to have a testimony. Here's what your testimony could look like. It could look like this. Here's how I've been living for a number of years, but somebody invited me to Brave church last week and I heard the gospel for the first time that Jesus died on the cross for my sins and rose from the dead, and I stood in response to the gospel. And this week I've been filled with hope in my life. That's my testimony. It's that clear, right?

I mean, think about all the people that God used. I mean, one was in John chapter 9, you know the guy that was blind. What was his testimony? When he kept getting poked by the religious people? Like "How'd you get healed? And what happened to you?" And "I don't know. All I know is I was blind and now I see, and that guy, Jesus did it." "Well, you one of his followers?" "I am now." You don't have to be overly complicated with your testimony and have flowerly religious language just tell them, "I was dead. Now I'm alive. And Jesus did it." That's your testimony. Amen. And testimonies unlock interest. When you hear somebody share a story about how God is in the process of transforming their lives, it moves our heart. And while people can argue all sorts of things, they can't argue with your changed life. They can't argue with it.

So when you use prayers to open doors and questions to open hearts and testimonies to open interest, let me give you a fourth key. How about scriptures that unleash the Holy Spirit? Use the scriptures that unleash the Holy Spirit. God says he told his disciples that when he went to heaven, he was going to send the Holy Spirit who now indwells all of us who believe. And here's the Spirit's job. The Spirit's job, according to John 16:8, Jesus said, "And when the Holy Spirit comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment." When you share the gospel, it is not your job to convict people of sin. It is not your job to convict people of Christ's righteousness. It's not your job to convict people of the coming judgment they're going to face. Guess whose job that is? That's the Holy Spirit's job. I'm just presenting truth. He's got to do the work. All he's asking me to do is to be faithful. And when I share a scripture verse, the Holy Spirit comes out in power to do all those things.

You say, "Well, I don't even know a scripture verse." Let me give you one to memorize this week, John 3:16. "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him would not perish but have eternal life." That's a great one to start with right? Then you can add to it, Romans 6:23, "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus, our Lord." You can add Romans 3:23 "For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." You can add Romans 10:9. "If you confess through your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart, God raise from the dead, you'll be saved." And I can give you a hundred more just standing here. But when I learned to show the gospel, I didn't know any of them.

So just pick one and start with one. "I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." Right? When you use scripture in your presentation, the Holy Spirit will magnify the resurrected Christ in their heart to show them that Jesus is true and that they are without excuse. It goes into their conscience. So use the scriptures. The more you study the scriptures, the more you'll be able to share the scriptures. The more you share with people and the more questions they ask you when you say this, I've done hundreds of times and still do to this day. I don't know. I hadn't thought about that one before. It forces me to go back to the scripture, say, "God, what do you say about that? Where does it say that here?" And then I'm like, "Okay, it says it right here. Next time I'm ready for that one."

So don't wait until you know everything about the Bible. If you know one verse, you're ready to go. So scriptures are the keys that unleash the Holy Spirit. Is this possible for all of us? Is it possible for us to pray and ask for opportunity? Is it possible for when we meet people to love them and ask questions? Is it possible for us to share our one or two sentence testimony about what Christ has done? Is it possible for us to know one scripture or carry a Bible where we can read one scripture? I think it's totally possible for everybody to do. And then this, I'll give you the fifth one. The fifth one is this. It's God uses the keys of summaries. Summaries. Summaries are the keys that provide clarity. Summaries are the keys that provide clarity. Summaries are what really needs to be shared.

When we share the gospel, sometimes we use gospel tracks. Those are a tool that we can use, but what things need to be shared? Now, I'm going to share you five things that should be present in every gospel proclamation, every gospel presentation, every gospel demonstration. But I want to be clear with you, I've shared the gospel a lot and there's times I haven't got all these things in there, and there's times that I'm jumping all over the place or I think back and I should have been clearer on this. Or again, you can't screw this up. When you're saying, "God, I want to you be used by you." Just know that these are some of the things that you can grow into, but I'm going to give you five and see if you hear them. I mean, these were five I was thinking about last week when I was sharing the gospel on Friday and on Sunday, and when I share with people one-on-one.

First is this God's holiness and love. God's holiness and love. Many people like to share the love of God, but they don't like to share the holiness of God. God loves you no matter what. He does love you no matter what, but I got news for you too. He's also holy. He's also righteous. He's also different than us. He also has a standard that we can't attain. If you don't share the holiness of God and the love of God, people will have no need for God. So share both God's holiness and his love. If you doubt God's holiness and love, just look at the cross. God shows his righteousness and his holiness on display by punishing sin for his son, and he shows love for the world as he stretches out his arms for everyone. Love and holiness go together like a hand in glove.

Number two is this mankind's sin and its consequences, mankind's sin and its consequences. Most people will ime admit they've sinned, but sometimes when we share the gospel, we don't want to tell people the consequences. Here's the consequence of sin. You are born dead and because you're dead, there's a punishment for being dead. If you die in your sin, you will be dragged off to a place called hell where you will await final judgment to be put into the lake of fire. That's a fact, right? Sometimes we're like, "Yeah, God loves you no matter what. Yeah, you sin, but don't worry, God loves you no matter what." Well then why do I need Jesus? God loves you no matter what, but he's holy and you're in sin and you can't get from here to there. And the consequence of that is you will go to hell if you die in your sin. You have to share that. If you don't share the bad news, there's no need for the good news.

Number three is this God's gracious and only provision for salvation comes through the incarnate Christ's death, burial, and resurrection. Another way of saying that is he is the way, the truth and the life and there is no other way to God, except through Jesus. It's only through his death on the cross, his burial and his resurrection from the dead that you can have life. There is no other way. Well, I'm Buddhist. Great. You need to repent and believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, because your Buddhism will not save you from your sins. Being a Muslim will not save you from your sins. Being Mormon will not save you from your sins. Attending Brave church will not save you from your sins. Only Jesus Christ, God's incarnate son, the God man can save you from your sins. That has to be clear to people.

Number four is this. The need for both repentance and faith, the need for both repentance and faith. In some people's gospel presentation, they say God loves you no matter what. Yeah, you've sinned, but don't worry about it. Jesus died for you. And if you just believe that he died for you, that'll be enough. I don't think that's the gospel. I think it's God loves you, but he's holy and you're dead in your sins and you're in need of a Lord and Savior, and Jesus Christ is the only one that can save you. And you need to turn from your sin and you need to trust Christ because you can't have Christ while you're running headlong into your sin and wanting him.

It doesn't mean that after you're a Christian, you won't sin. It will mean I want to get away from it. I want Jesus more than I want my sin. You say, where do you get that? I get it from the Bible. So let me show you where. 2 Corinthians 7:10 says, "For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces" what? "a repentance." That's a turning from sin without regret "leading to salvation," meaning you need to repent to be saved, "but the sorrow of the world produces death." Yeah, I feel bad. I did sins. So I just pray this prayer and I go to heaven. No, you need to turn from your sin and turn to Christ. You need to realize that you're dead.

And then number five is this, it's urgency. Every gospel presentation should have some urgency to it. Why? Because we don't know when people are going to die and eternity hangs in the balance. So just for a minute, I mean, just think about all the friends and family members and coworkers and neighbors that you know that don't know Christ or you would say, I'm not sure that they know Christ. And then picture getting a call tonight at about 6:00 letting you know there was some tragic accident and they're dead. And what would that do to your heart? Now again, people don't go to hell for your disobedience. I'm not trying to heap guilt on you. I'm just saying if we really believe that heaven and hell are real places and that we were God's ambassadors here to share the truth, what links would we go to make sure that they could hear? And what would we do differently? And those are the five things that I think need to be in gospel presentations.

When I'm listening to somebody share the gospel, that's what I'm listening for. Is God holy and loving? Are you a sinner by heredity and by your habits? And is there a consequence for your sin? Is Jesus Christ the only one that can save you from your sin? Are you called to repent and believe? Is there an urgency to that message? That's what I'm listening for. Now, for some of you who say, "I don't know all that, man, if I got to share all that, man, I'm toast. I'm not going to remember it all." That's why I love summaries, summaries. We can use tracts. We can use different things. I've used different things over the years. I'm going to present to you a tool that we're using in our membership class. We share it really quickly. And then in Cadre orientation, we teach you this tool.

But I'm going to do this tool for you today because I want you to see a real clear way that you can summarize everything that I've just said and use this when you're talking to someone in about three minutes to explain everything that I've just been talking to you about today. Would you like to have a tool that you could do that? If somebody asked you, "Hey, what do you believe?" So that you didn't freak out and say, "I don't remember all five points. I don't remember all five." How about I just draw you a little picture that you can use for anybody that would ask you to give hope for the reason that you have within them.

This is called the three circles. We did not invent it at Brave. We're using it. It's being used all around the world. But I find this to be one tool. It doesn't have to be the only tool you use, but it's one tool that you can use to share the gospel with Jesus. And when I'm talking to somebody, one of the first places that I talk to people about, and you can go in different orders for this, one of the first ways I talk to people about is just this world that we're living in. Because even if you're a nonbeliever, you realize something about this world. And I'll draw a circle and I'll say, "Don't you see that in this world, this is a real broken place." I mean, this world's broken. Nonbelievers know that it's broken. I mean, we got wars going on all over the place. We got school shootings happening. We got economies tanking everywhere. We're uncertain about the future. We have all sorts of girls being trafficked all over the world. We got massive political problems. We have all these things going on. Even a non-believer knows. Yeah, it's totally jacked up.

And then they'll ask this question, but if you're God's so good, then why is this so messed up? And I'll say, I'm so glad that you ask because we even see glimpse of goodness in the middle of this broken world, don't we? We have goodness in certain relationships we have that we value or certain foods that we're able to eat or certain things we get to do for fun or I mean, there's glimpses of God's goodness even in the midst of all this brokenness. But God didn't design us to see glimpses. When God designed the world, God designed it perfectly because God's heart for the world is a world that would love him. God is a God of love. God does care for the world. God created this world perfectly, and there's something you need to know about God.

God's a perfect holy God. He's not like me and you. He stands outside of time and space. And because of his love, he created this world to be enjoyed by us. And we as human beings were created in this image. And when he created the world, it was not broken like this. He created the world perfect. He provided all the food. It was perfect weather, it was perfect everything. And he said we could enjoy it. The reason it's not perfect anymore is not because God's not good, it's because we sinned against him. And what sin is, sin is rebellion against God. We decided we'll do it our own way. God said we could do whatever we wanted. He only made one command we couldn't do. And that was not to eat off the knowledge of the tree of good and evil for the day you eat off it dying, you will surely die.

And what happened? Adam and Eve both ate off the tree. And so when they reproduce offspring, there's a heredity of sin already in us. Sin leads to deadness. That's what sin is. So what I'll do is I'll go over to that circle of brokenness and say, the reason we're living in a broken world is this is a world filled with dead people. Put a little RIP, right? We're dead. We're born spiritually dead. And when you're dead, here's what you go looking for. You go looking for life. You go looking for things to find life. Every sinner apart from Christ that sinning is ultimately trying to find something in their life worth living for. And they do that in all sorts of ways. You and I have done it in all sorts of ways. Some people kind of go out here and what do they look for?

They look for money. Some people look for illicit relationships and all that kind of stuff. Some people are looking for success in their jobs. Some people are looking for influence with people just to be liked or whatever it is. I mean, we could add tons of these, but really what they are, they're like bungee cords because when you're dead and you're trying to find life and deadness, all these things end up snapping back into this world of brokenness, making you feel more broken than you were before. It's why when you talk to somebody who says, well, alcoholism has their life. It's not making them better, it's making them feel worse over time because we can't find life in this world. There is no life and there's no way to get back to where we came from.

And so in our lives, we're trying to find all this life and we start blaming God for all the things that are wrong. But God's so loving and God's so good. He did something. You see, God, the Father sent his son Jesus Christ to be the savior of the world. He sent the second person of the trinity, Jesus who became incarnate flesh and came to the world and then he did what you and I couldn't do because he was born of a virgin. He didn't have a heredity of sin. And then he lived a perfect life, which you and I didn't do. And what he did was he went to the cross, and when he went to the cross and he was punished for sin, he died in your place for your sin, and he crushed sin on the cross. And then he validated that he was indeed God because he rose from the dead. And in him is the only place that you can ever find life in this world.

Jesus said in John 14:6, "I am the way the truth in the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." Why? Because when Jesus rose from the dead, he became the undisputed king of the universe. And here's what the Bible says. The Bible says that if you will turn from your sin and you will trust in Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior, you can be restored to life in His name. See how good of an artist I am, put a little smiley face on him. All right, we'll make him really happy.

So I'll ask people, when you see this diagram, tell me, there's really only two places you can be. One is in this place of brokenness here, and two is being enjoying fellowship with the God of the universe. What circle do you see yourself in? Let them tell you. Sometimes people will say, "Well, I'm in the heart." I'm like, really? Okay, tell me how. "Well, I just kind of was born that way." So then I go back and say, "Well, I probably didn't do a good job of explaining this, but when you were born, you were born spiritually dead, and these are the things that you've been trying to find. You've been talking about your religion this whole time that you've been trying to find this little thing over here called religion because your parents were Christian, so you think you are." And then they'll think about it, say, "Well, then I guess I am right over here." And I said, "Well, if that's where you are, what circle would you like to be in?" They'll usually say, "Well, I'd like to be over here," and I'll ask this question." Is there any reason that's keeping you from trusting Jesus right now?"

So this is about a three minute presentation of the gospel. It is a tool. It is not the tool, right? It's a tool that we can use. By the way, just so you know today, on your way out of brave, you came on the right day, you're going to get a sticker with this on it. I have this on the back of my phone just to tell you a story about how this works because I was praying last week about, yeah, I use a bridge illustration. I've used other things. I really haven't used this as a tool very frequently, but I wanted to get good at it since we're using it here and I'm like praying that God will give me opportunity and wouldn't you know it? Last Wednesday, here's what happened. I'm praying for opportunities all last week because I'm going to be preaching on Friday and Sunday, but I'm like, "Lord, I want to be used by you."

By the way, we took our whole staff out on Thursday last week, took them to two different malls where we were asking people, "Hey, is there any way I can be praying for you?" Some people got to share the three circles. Some people didn't. Some people were like, "Get away from me. I don't want anything to do with it." That's okay. Because remember, success is not how many people you talk to. Success is your intentionality to give a clear presentation and demonstration of the gospel. We had 14 people on our staff that were scared to death to go out and do it. So we had a little mock draft on Thursday morning, said, "Hey, you guys we'll go in order. You can pick anybody you want to pair up with and go." And so they had a draft. Nobody picked me for some reason,

But we all went out. And the 14 that were scared came back and they said, "I can do this. Now, this is not hard. I know how to pray. I know how to ask questions. I know how to share my testimony. I know at least a scripture, and now I know the three circles, so I have a tool that I can use. So I'm not scared to do this anymore." So about a week ago, I put that three circle sticker on the back of my phone. I've just been praying for opportunity. Last Wednesday, my son and I were working out, I was riding a bike. He likes to run. And so we have this deal where we time ourselves, we each hold on our phone, we're going to run for 30 minutes, or I'm a bike for 30 minutes, so at the 15 minute mark, I'm going faster than he because I'm on a bike.

We turn around, so we kind of end it the same time. So the 15 minute thing went off on my phone. I'm like, "I'm feeling good. I'm going to go a little further, plus I can get back faster because it's a little downhill." So I went a little further, turned around, and when I turned around, my son was still running this direction and I was mad at him because I wanted to be done. I'm like, "Why didn't you turn around?" He's like, "Well, I felt good." I'm like, "Turn around. We're going home. We got to be eating. We're going to be late for dinner." So now I'm finishing the last part of my ride and I'm mad at my son. You ever had that with your kids? Just kind of frustrated with him. And that's all I'm thinking about is how frustrated I'm with my son. As soon as I get done with my ride, I'm going to turn around and go give him a piece of my mind.

That's all I'm thinking about. And what am I going to say and how am I going to say it, and what does he need to hear? And God calm me down and all those kind of things. As I get to where we started, I got right here, and instead of going up to my truck, I turn back around to go talk to my son, and I hear all this screaming like, "Hey, hey," And I have my earbuds in. So I turn around and I see these three kids on the hill, and they're all walking towards me, and I was like, "Me?" They're like, "Yeah." So I take my earbud out and this kid points at me. He goes, "Did you know Jesus loves you?" And I was like, "Yeah, I did, as a matter of fact," I said, "Do you know that he loves you?" He's like, "Yeah. And he even loves my friend, even though he's Jewish." And I said, "Well, of course he does, because Jesus came to the world. Jesus is Jewish."

Now I'm not kidding. I took my other earbud out. These guys are coming at me with a rapid rate of speed, and I'm asking, "God, what in the world is going on here?" So they're chasing me down this hill, and I start asking their names and the questions, they're all three ninth grade boys. And we're talking to them. And I finally said, I said, "Well, do you really know that God loves you?" And the one guy said, "Well, kind of." And I said, "Well, would you like me to show you a little illustration in about three minutes to show you how you can know the love of God?" And he goes, "Yeah." So I shared this with him from the back of my phone, walked him through what I just told you, asked him what circle he was in. He pointed to the heart. I said, "Well, wait, you told me that you're still here, and let me explain sin again." And so I did. And he's like, "Well, yeah, then I'm still here." And I said, "Well, where would you like to be?"

He's like, "Well, I'd like to be there." And I said, "Well, is there any reason it's keeping you from trusting Jesus Christ right now?" And he goes, "No, let's do it." And this other guy next to him said, "Let's do it." And I'm thinking, this has only been six minutes. They're chasing me down to ask him how ... I mean, it was crazy. So I said, "Well, let's keep our eyes open." And then we just prayed and I said, you just repeat after me. Dear Jesus, I know I'm dead in my sins, dear Jesus. I know I'm dead in my sins, but I want to be made alive by you. I want to turn for my sins right now. I want to trust you as my personal Lord and Savior come into my life and be the Lord overall. They both pray that. And like I said, "What do you think of that?"

He goes, "That's awesome." I said, "Yeah, it is." And the Jewish kid didn't pray. And I said, "You know what? I'm still praying for you." I said, but I got on my bike to go back to my son. I was no longer mad at my son. I was like on cloud nine, thank you, Jesus, for letting my son run further so that I could be there and do that. I mean, it was God ordained. I had nothing to do with it. I had been praying for opportunities, and God brought an opportunity where three people are chasing me down, asking me how to share the gospel. I'm like, "I'm a pastor." So I told them about Brave Church and how they're welcome and all these kind of things. At the end of the day, that's what gospel sharing is like. You just be you. You just be you and pray for opportunities.

You just be you and ask questions of people when you're around them. You just be you. Share your testimony when you have an opportunity. You just be you. Share scripture as it comes to mind, and you just be you and you summarize for them how they need to hear Christ. And here's the truth. You could go out and share the three circles with some people that don't want nothing to do with it. And there's other people that would say, "Man, I want that." You say, well, how do I engage in that real easy? Here's what you can do today. "Hey, you know what, friend? I was just given the sticker at church. I don't know a whole lot about it, but could I practice this with you? I'd like to share with you what I learned in church today. Would you be interested?" They'll be interested. Just walk them through it, right? I mean, gospel sharing is part of disciple making.

It's not hard. Nobody's questioning you about how many people did you share with and what did you need to do and how many people got saved under your ministry? It's all that kind of stuff that's religious that keeps us from doing what God wants. All God is saying is, "I saved you. I loved you, and I saved you for purpose. I saved you for a mission. If you'll seek me, if you'll pray to me, if you'll meet people, if you'll ask questions, if you'll share your story, if you'll share my word," now you have the three circles that synthesizes and summarizes all that. Use that as a tool if that's a tool that you want to use, and just trust God using simplicity of it.

And by the way, you can't blow this. Well, I forgot I only did two of the circles. Just make sure one of the circles is Jesus, and you'll be okay. Nobody's grading you. God's not grading you. God loves you. God just wants to use you. And here's the reality. When God uses you to lead somebody else to Christ, I'm telling you, there's no greater feeling in the world. And he can use you to do that. He can use you to do that. If you're here today and you never trusted Christ, we're going to pray here in a minute. You can trust him as your personal Lord and Savior, because you heard the gospel shared about five different ways this morning. Take these keys seriously. Start with prayer and grow them. Ask God to use you and he will. Amen.

Father, we give you all the glory, honor and praise for who you are. And Lord, we thank you for the gospel, the simple, clear gospel. We don't have to know every truth about who you are. God, because you're infinite and huge and beyond everything that we'd ever know even a billion years from now, we couldn't know everything about you. But we do know that you're holy and loving, and we do know that we're sinful and dead, and we do know that Jesus Christ is the only way. So Lord, right now, we're just asking for anybody who's here who wants to trust Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior, here's how you can pray. Lord Jesus, I know I'm dead in my sins. I know if I die in my sin, I'll be dragged off to hell awaiting judgment. But I believe that you died on the cross for my sins and rose from the dead. I want you to be the Lord of my life. Today I want to turn from my sin, and I want to turn my life over to you. Come into my life, Lord Jesus and save me.

And Father, we just pray. I'm praying for every single person here who hears my voice for an opportunity to share the gospel this week, that our eyes would be open, and that we would be prepared to give a reason always for the hope that we have within us with gentleness and reverence as we continue to honor you, we give you all the glory, we give you all the honor, we give you all the praise, because Lord, we want more of this. We love you and bless you, and give you the praise in Jesus name, amen and amen. Can we give God praise?