[0:00] We're going to look at some scriptures tonight, and this picture, the invitation, comes from this little book that's out there in the foyer area, where you can get some resources for sharing the gospel.
[0:12] This is a New Testament. You're probably familiar with it, right? You have one of these. You probably have a copy in your lap. It's a small version of the New Testament, but it's a marked New Testament, which means that it takes you through some scriptures to help in sharing the gospel.
[0:26] Here in a moment, I'm going to ask Ben Cherry to join me at this table. I haven't told him that, but I'm going to walk through this New Testament together and just show a way in which you could share the gospel with someone.
[0:40] But before we get to that table, the Bible speaks, especially in the book of Acts. Today in the high school class, we get the big overview of the Bible. We say the Old Testament gives, if there's one word that we're going to say, it's anticipation.
[0:53] Someone's coming, someone's coming, someone's coming. It's Jesus, the Messiah. Then, the gospel records would say, he was manifested. He is here.
[1:03] Jesus is here. The book of Acts would be, he is proclaimed. And then the epistles would be, he would be explained, that they would be teaching further about the gospel. And then the revelation would be consummation.
[1:15] And when we look through the New Testament, especially at the book of Acts, we get these incredible verses like, the word of God grew and it multiplied. Or the word of the Lord was published throughout all of the region.
[1:26] Or Acts 19, 20 where it says, so mightily grew the word of God and prevailed. And you just have this picture of something that's just growing and multiplying.
[1:37] And it's just wonderful. You read the book of Acts, you ought to read it in an entire setting. Now that's something that Brother John encourages in the Bible Institute in his class. Certain books of the Bible, you ought to enjoy some time from the very beginning to the end.
[1:51] Read the book of Acts through and you see these things. But you'll also find that there's times where the expressions aren't like that. And there's times in our lives where it doesn't feel like that's happening.
[2:03] Where you don't see the gospel seeming to go forth around you or in your own life. We also find that in the book of Acts. In Acts chapter number 6 and verse number 1, there was a problem in the church and there was disciples were multiplied and there rose a murmuring of the Grecians among the Hebrews because the widows neglected the daily ministration.
[2:24] The people were being neglected and not being cared for. And so it talks about growth, growth, growth, multiplying, multiplying. But then that church faced problems. And they overcame those obstacles together and not alone.
[2:40] When we gather together, we are told that we are to consider one another and to provoke unto love and the good works. I had this vivid picture the day when I was reading the book of Titus where I thought about what would this group of people look like in this room without having come to know Jesus?
[3:00] What if this same group together would have come? Because in Titus it talked about how we once were a certain way, but now the kindness and the goodness of God has come to us. And it's made a wonderful community.
[3:12] It's made a wonderful family of believers. And David Rackley is such an encouragement to me. I just feel cooler because I have him as a friend, right? He's just a cool guy, right?
[3:22] And he came to me afterwards and we were talking about that. And I said, we would have looked worse than any biker gang that you ever met. And that's probably not true, all right? That's maybe not the case.
[3:32] Biker gangs aren't the worst of sinners or criminals or people. But that's kind of the idea, right? You just picture we would all be like this rough and tough group. But that's not the case. We would go about our days, but we would have lived lives not worshiping the Lord.
[3:47] But the gospel, it came to us. And so when we gather together, we provoke one another to good works. I get so much out of my conversations with all of you, especially on Sunday.
[4:01] On Sunday afternoon and talking to you after the service tonight, the things that you say, the things that you're involved in, they challenge me. They provoke me to good work. When you ask me to pray for your loved one, it encourages me to pray for my loved ones.
[4:17] When you tell me of something that you're trying to do and trying to maybe establish a reading plan, I think I want to be more committed to what God has for me. And so the church faces obstacles together.
[4:30] The church, as disciples are growing, the gospel is going forth. There was times where the gospel wasn't going forth from a church. And they face that together. And the result of Acts chapter 6, verses 1 through 5, and people taking on the role of a servant, people being obedient to what God would have, it says that the whole multitude, it says that then they went and it was multiplied.
[4:54] And Acts 6, 6, I believe, is that the gospel, it went forth and it went further. And as a church, we face challenges. And I feel in my spirit and in my heart, not just on a personal level, but when I listen to many of you share, we have a great love for the gospel, but we desire to be more faithful in our sharing of that gospel.
[5:17] And just in simple terms, just in taking the Bible and showing somebody, being obedient to it and praying, having a list of people that we've been praying for, the things that we've all been taught for many years, but just making it part of our life continues to be a struggle because there's just so many wonderful things that seem to crowd it out.
[5:41] And when we're not careful and we're not on guard, we find ourselves being so busy in so many things, but we find ourselves not sharing the gospel. And it's important to us because it's given to us of the Lord.
[5:56] It's also important for us in the joy that God has promised to us. So before I ask Ben to join me at the table, I want to give four steps about sharing more.
[6:07] If you're in here like me and you say, I want to share the gospel more with people, I want to share it simply and plainly and often, and I want to be part of that. Here's just four things that I would encourage us in.
[6:19] One, we should pray together for the lost. Acts 4.29, And now the Lord, behold their threatenings, and grant unto thy servants that with all boldness they may speak that word.
[6:31] And so they were praying together and praying that the Lord would grant them a boldness as they were having a discussion about the lost. If you have a family member in here that you're really burdened for, then there ought to be people in this group that know about that person.
[6:47] They should not just remain on your prayer list. They should be on my prayer list. They should be on other people's prayer list. They should be part of our conversations. We should be meeting together, and we should be having these types of discussions.
[7:01] So one thing that we could do is we could pray together for the lost. On the nights that we have prayer meetings, or we call it only a prayer meeting, and different things happen in different rooms. One of my favorite rooms to be in is the high school room where people share the names of the people they're praying for, and we write it on the whiteboard.
[7:19] And as we do that, it just helps me. I'm filled with hope. I'm so encouraged. I'm so blessed to know my friends think the same way, according to God's Word, that I do, which is that God hears and answers prayers.
[7:34] And it just feels like the right thing to do. It feels like this is, without a whiteboard and without an air-conditioned building, this is what the churches and the book of Acts would have been doing. They would have been together, sharing names, talking together, and it just feels like the right thing, because it most certainly is.
[7:51] So pray together for the lost, and then discuss the gospel together. 2 Timothy 2.8 Remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead according to my gospel.
[8:04] Remember that Jesus of the seed of David was raised from the dead. Here in 2 Timothy 2.8, a conversation is reminding one another of the gospel, which leads into how the gospel should be applied.
[8:17] We should be talking about the gospel, about sharing it, but one of the ways the conversation about the gospel should continue is our conversation about how the gospel applies to our lives. One of my favorite stories in the Bible has to do with Peter and Paul.
[8:34] They meet face-to-face in Galatians chapter number 2. There's almost a fist fight that broke out, alright? They meet each other face-to-face, as it says. And what happens is Paul looks at Peter and he says, you're not walking uprightly according to the truth of the gospel.
[8:51] And so his encouragement to his friend was, based on what you and I know about the gospel, and then in verses later, he's going to talk about justification by faith, which is, you didn't deserve salvation.
[9:03] It was given to you as a gift, not based upon merit. So why in the world are you going to shun this other group of people? That is not appropriate. That is not fitting to the gospel.
[9:15] And it frames that type of conversation. That's how we ought to speak to our children that are believing. That's how we ought to speak to one another when we encourage one another. Is based on what you and I know about the gospel, is this correct?
[9:27] If you have friends dealing with discouragement or whatever is going on in their lives, they're thinking negatively, then it would be the gospel message. I assure you the night in the grief chair, the conversation will often go back to the truth of the gospel as a source of comfort.
[9:45] The gospel ought to be constantly on our lips, not just in the community, but as we speak to one another. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in a little book called Life Together, that I really like, he said this, We speak to one another on the basis of the help that we both need.
[10:02] We admonish one another to go the way that Christ bids us to go. We warn one another against the disobedience that is common destruction.
[10:14] We are gentle and we are severe with one another, for we know both God's kindness and God's severity. We are gentle and we are severe one another.
[10:25] I really like that. A true Christian community will not be people that just pat each other on the back as we continue walking away from something. We are people that would be kind and gentle and encouraging, but we'd be also people like Peter and Paul in the Bible that would say, because of the gospel, it has a demand upon our lives, and we would challenge one another.
[10:47] And then lastly, it's what I prayed this morning that I was able to do for you, as the scriptures did for me this week, which is to remind one another of the power of the gospel.
[11:00] If we do not believe in the sufficiency of the gospel, we will never share it boldly and simply. And so with fellow believers, one another, we must remind each other of the sufficiency of God's word to do his work for his purpose.
[11:14] We should be encouraged. When we say my family member, which I have in my life, that have for many years we have prayed for, and we feel like we are just, it's nothing's ever going to happen.
[11:26] We feel like we're just hopeless. In that conversation, I could use one of you to tell me, well, let me remind you that you were without hope, and you were without it until the gospel saved you.
[11:39] In those times where you just feel so discouraged about the lostness of our family members and friends, it's good for a friend to remind you that the gospel has power. So continue to share that with them.
[11:52] So in the next 10 minutes or so, how are we going to get to this table? All right, this is the question. Ben, you can come over here. How are we going to get to this table? There's a couple ways we get to this table, all right? This table, we can get to this table by a planned conversation, all right?
[12:06] Ben didn't have it planned, but I called him up before, and I said, hey, Ben, would you meet with me? Good to see you, Ben. All right, pretend like we're at Moe's, all right? Have a seat here, all right? And so Ben and I have a planned conversation that brought us to the table.
[12:18] I told you how much I love that story, how this guy said he was a freshman in high school and he was right beside the quarterback at his locker, and the big quarterback looked at him and said, hey, you, we're going to have a conversation about Jesus.
[12:31] When you're ready, let me know. And I just love that. And so in a nicer way or in a different way with your friends, you'd be like, hey, you, we and you are going to have a conversation about Jesus.
[12:42] Let me know when you're ready. So Ben, he lets me know that he's ready. He wants me to take on the most, but he is ready to have that conversation because every time that we're together, I remind him, hey, let me know.
[12:54] Are you ready to have that conversation? When can we sit down looking for them? That's one way that we get to this table. Another way that we get to this table is a response to a question. When your friends are asking you questions about the Bible, even if they seem to be off the wall, recognize that the God of heaven is doing something in their heart and be excited about it and say there's something stirring there.
[13:18] There's something that's happening. And they may want to argue about Adam having a belly button. That's a big one for Ben. It was hard for him. All right. Or they may want to talk about something weird about the tabernacle.
[13:29] They want to fight with you a little bit about something that they said. But what they've done is they have given you permission to speak about what you want to speak about, which is God's word.
[13:40] And so take it. And so when that happens, you need the conversation wherever it starts. All right, Ben? They don't have a microphone here. That's by design. All right? You're just up here for looks. All right? Just kidding.
[13:51] I don't know what I would do. I'm not confident enough to give him a microphone away and say, but I will speak for Ben. So whatever question that Ben brings to me about whatever's going on in his life, the conversation can go to this.
[14:05] Well, Ben, I know that you're discouraged, but one of the most foundational things that we're ever going to know in life about love and joy and hope, it's going to have to find its beginning in the story of Jesus and the gospel.
[14:18] And so as I talk to you today about that discouragement that you're feeling because you're not very tall, I want to start. No, I'm just kidding. All right? Or that discouragement or whatever it is that's going on in your life.
[14:30] You are. He didn't used to be, but he's tall now. All right? Caroline, he's very tall. All right? And whatever it is, the conversation can start off with the foundational conversation about the Bible or something else.
[14:41] Or, hey, you know, you have this question. You said this date for this one king is given at one place, but it's not given at another place. The Bible, and they contradict each other. And, you know, there's full of websites that say that our Bible contradicts, but they're just weak.
[14:56] They're just weak, you know? That most of our kids by middle school could read the context of that passage and say, that is not what's going on here. But maybe it starts there, and you could say, well, hey, you know, you asked a question about the kings of the Bible, but do you understand what was the purpose in these stories?
[15:14] And do you understand why God warned them about kings and the problems with earthly kings and why any king is always going to be insufficient until there's the one true king and then it takes the conversation to the gospel.
[15:27] And then counseling opportunities. So it could be a Bible question or it could be a counseling opportunity that are foundational for life. And so in this little booklet here, I'd like to give to you, Ben.
[15:38] All right? I'd like to give this to you, and you will see that if you'll start on page 150, all right? So on page 150, it speaks here about hope. In Romans 15, 13, it says, Now that the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing that you may abound in hope throughout through the power of the Holy Ghost.
[16:00] That's a lot of big words, isn't it? That's a whole lot of stuff. I mean, really, we have just compressed the most wonderful truth in all of the world into just a handful of words. And that's what I want to talk to you about today.
[16:13] As I've been telling you that I want to have a conversation about Jesus, this is what I've been talking about. This entire Bible, the reason that I read it from beginning to end, and I try to do that every year, Ben, is because this entire Bible points to the story of Jesus.
[16:31] From the very beginning of it to the very end, it points to Jesus. But we have one book, especially the book of Romans, that gives us some verses that really help give a good summary of the biblical truths.
[16:46] And so, first of all, I want you to look at Romans 116. This is a verse that our church looked at this morning. All right? I think you were there. I'm glad that you visited. All right? Romans 116 says, For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God and the salvation that everyone that believeth to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
[17:04] And we're talking about the fact that the gospel, that just simply means good news, is that this good news that's available for us in God's Word, it is powerful. It changes.
[17:15] The Bible says things like, It took us from darkness and the light. It took us from being dead to being made alive. I want you to know that the message today that we're looking at, it is a powerful message for those that hear.
[17:27] Romans 2.4 tells us, just one chapter over, God's power can result in change. Or despisest thou riches of His goodness and forbearance and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance.
[17:43] Repentance is talking about turning from our own ways and turning to Him. And the way that a person will ever do that is to recognize the goodness and forbearance of God.
[17:55] Can you think of some ways that God has been good to you or He has been forbearing in your life? That's right, Ben. All right. He has done that through forgiving you for being as a sinner.
[18:07] The recognizing. Do you recognize? I recognized when I was a young child that I was a sinner. Not that I wasn't just perfect, but I was making decisions that were contrary to the Word of God.
[18:19] That I was going against my own conscience of what was right and wrong. And that I had sinned against the Holy God. And that I deserved, I did not deserve life.
[18:30] I did not deserve eternal life. That I had rebelled against Him. And that's what the Bible would call being a sinner many times. But then I heard the good news, which is that He was good and that He was forbearing and that He has longsuffering towards me.
[18:45] And I'm thankful that He did. Romans 6.23, The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life. And so the payment I would have made for my own sin was death, eternal separation.
[18:59] That's all that was available to me, except that the gift of God was available. That He offered me forgiveness. And that God commended His love towards us. Even though while we were sinners, He knew everything about me.
[19:12] Completely. Inside and out. Sometimes people think about sinning on the outside and things that people know about. But even the sins on the inside, the greed and rebellion, the envy and all those things.
[19:23] He knew those about me, but He still loved me. And so even though sin would bring death to me, the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life.
[19:34] That's just one page over there in 6.23. And so I would, depending on the conversation, that could take much longer. And I was just giving a basic summary of what was in there.
[19:47] But the gospel is certainly more than information, but it's not less. There's things that people need to know. They need to know that God is good and that He is holy. And that because He is good and holy, that I do not deserve to go into heaven because I am a sinner.
[20:03] And that I must recognize that. And that in being a sinner, I have the opportunity, the responsibility to respond to Him with asking for forgiveness and repenting.
[20:14] And that He offers me life. And then sometime in the conversation with Ben, which I would think would take, maybe take much longer as he would like to ask questions.
[20:26] And I wouldn't be in any hurry. We might just only cover one of these points today as we're meeting and as we would continue. But at some point in my friendship with Him, I would tell him what Romans 10, 9, and 10 says, which is this, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thine heart that God has raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
[20:47] For with Him the heart man believeth in the righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. I would let him know what he is supposed to do with that information, how he is supposed to confess.
[20:59] I give him an opportunity if he was ready, but if not, I would tell him, you know, that's not something that has to be done in this building. This doesn't even have to be done with me. But when you come to a realization, Ben, that you are a sinner in need of forgiveness, you should cry out to the Lord and ask for forgiveness.
[21:17] I think a lot of people are missing that. People that I talk to, they know bits and pieces of the gospel, but they don't know what to do with it. Sam Paxson says that he loves how Mark Tolson was a closer, is what he called him.
[21:33] Is Uncle Sam here the night? That he was a closer, meaning that Mark Tolson looked at him, I think he might have been on his golf cart or something, and he said, Uncle Sam, are you saved?
[21:44] Are you born again? And Mark had the opportunity to hear him pray and confess to Christ. And that's wonderful. And then when the first time that Uncle Sam led somebody to the Lord, he came in and he had a name on the back of his Bible and he said, I'm a closer too.
[21:59] All right? Maybe because he's a, is he a closing attorney or some type of attorney? Maybe that's the way he thinks about things. But I like that idea, right? It was to say that I gave somebody not only their need and not only their answer, but I showed them what the Bible said that we should do.
[22:15] And with everything in me, I hope I did not make that complicated. And we'll give it some more time next week again to look at it. But taking something like this, but the challenge that I want to give you before Dylan gets one more chance at leading, saying, maybe we should have Eric do it one last time.
[22:32] No, he's out. All right? Dylan, you get to the lead one more song here in a second before we leave. Something I want to just give you a couple thoughts. Some of the things that keep us from the gospel is we're fearful.
[22:44] We don't feel like we have enough gospel knowledge. I would think that all of you out here knew the truths that I just shared with Ben. You would share them maybe differently. Maybe you would go to a different verse on the matter.
[22:56] But you would know what it means to be a sinner. You would know that Jesus offers forgiveness. You would know what repentance means. You know these things. And so I would encourage you to share those with people.
[23:08] It also encourages you to have conversations with your friends where you have a game plan of taking them through Scripture and not only reacting to what they were saying.
[23:19] The Bible talks about vain babbling and talks about just responding to stuff. It's that a person who isn't a believer isn't going to know how to guide a conversation about the things in the Bible that they need to know but you do.
[23:33] And so it's normal. There's people outside of the gospel that have asked to meet with me to have a conversation and they set the agenda. Trent, I want to talk to you sometime about whatever.
[23:46] And when I sat down with them, they told me what they wanted to talk about. They led the conversation. They gave me an actionable step at the end. And so it was very, you as well as believers, we ought to say, I want to meet with you and this is the purpose and then take them and then you could use a great resource like this where what's great about this is they could take it home with them and look at the verses that are highlighted that you were showing them.
[24:10] And then these type of meetings don't take place unless we take the initiative and we most certainly should. We should take the initiative to have them maybe with your friends or even in our homes.
[24:23] You know, that the conversations with our kids about the gospel don't have to just happen while we're on the run. They can be planned. They can be at tables. They can be at length and it would be good.
[24:35] It'd be good for them. It would be good for you as well. I'm going to pray. Thank you, Ben. You did a great job. All right. I'm going to pray as Dylan makes his way up here. We will end the night singing together.
[24:48] We will have a men's meeting next Sunday night. We're going to postpone it this week. Our softball team really needs a lot of practice. I mean, they need a lot of practice. All right. Pray for them. No, that's not it.
[24:59] I have some other things that are pressing but we'll have it next week. If you will, stand with me. We will pray and then we will end the night with singing. Heavenly Father, I thank you for the gospel. Lord, I thank you for the holy scriptures which were able to make us wise unto salvation even when we were children and young that the gospel came to us in simplicity that is not in the wisdom of this world.
[25:22] Father, I pray that you would help every man and woman in this room understand it, Lord, in a saving manner in their own life but they would also understand it in a way, Lord, that would have great implications on the way that they live but they would also understand it and give their days sharing it.
[25:41] that they would listen to people and that they would be able to respond in a way that would be meaningful from your word. Lord, I pray that the love that you have demonstrated to us that overflows for one another does not stay here and that through our work week, Lord, that you would take the gospel and through the activities of stay-at-home moms and from all the different ways, Lord, that there will be movement that takes place this week that as we move around this community that it would also mirror image a picture of the gospel moving and being shared among those around us.
[26:22] In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.