Loving Your Neighbor With The Gospel - Leaders' Talks

Romans chapter 15.

Romans 15 · chapter mention

Now, last time I spoke, I spoke about being a short-term missionary.

And I talked about the fact that we all are short-term missionaries.

All of us.

Either because life is short in general.

So whatever you're doing, the older I get, the more I realize, man, this thing is flying.

Life is short in general, but also God, God knows what your time is.

God knows what He's called you to.

God knows what your season of life is right now.

And sometimes we make plans, and the Lord is saying, yeah, that's not going to work out that way.

So, for instance, my wife and I just two months ago would have told you, if you had asked, hey, what are you going to do for the rest of your life?

I said, We're going to church plant, and it'll probably be in Falcon.

So we're probably going to plant a church in Falcon and be there until I retire.

And then just at the drop of a hat, the Lord said, No, that's not what you're doing.

That's not what you're doing at all.

And so here we are, preparing our home to move to Nashville because the Lord just put it on my heart through a lot of people and a lot of confirmation and a lot of different words that people just came up and said, Hey, there's something that you're supposed to be doing.

I don't know what it is, but you're not doing it.

And God said, Don't do what you're currently doing.

There's something else you're supposed to be doing.

And I knew exactly what that meant.

I had another guy that he said, Hey, what's your plans for the future?

I said, I'm on a church plant.

And he said, Yeah, I don't see it.

I was like, What?

He said, I don't see it.

And that just kind of put me in this spin of Lord, am I am I following you correctly?

And I came in the next morning to uh Pastor Steve's office and he said, Bobby, sit down, I need to talk to you.

So we sit down and he says, Hey, I think you're going to do a great job of church planting if that's really what you're called to do.

I don't see it.

He said, I think you're supposed to be a speaker.

And I had just been up the whole night before just praying about God, do you want me to be a speaker or a pastor?

And the Lord's just bringing people my way.

And then I said, Okay, God, I surrender.

I'll be a speaker.

And that week I had a guy who I haven't talked to in two years.

He called me and said, Hey, I'm looking for someone to tour with David Crowder and be his speaker.

Would you be his speaker?

And so, yeah.

So that's just that's just the Lord like changing things, right?

He changes things.

And so um starting in the fall, my wife and I are gonna, well, she's not going, but she's coming with me because wherever I go, if she doesn't go, it's not an option.

I'm sticking with her.

So um, so in the fall, my wife and I are going on a tour called uh the Big Church Night Out Tour, and um, and so we're gonna be a speaker.

And so we're all in short-term mission because our life is supposed to be on mission, and at any moment, God could say, now do this.

And so that's what we're doing.

Well, one of the ways that you and I are on mission is loving our neighbor through sharing the gospel.

Now, the gospel is good news, right?

So what we have to ask ourselves is, do we really believe that it's good news?

One of the things that pen teller, I don't know, pen and teller, is that how you say it?

Magician, famous guy, Vegas.

One of the things he said, he's an atheist, but he said, How evil do you have to be to truly believe that there's a God, to truly believe there's a heaven, to truly believe there's a hell, and to keep your mouth shut about it.

He said, Now I don't believe it.

I don't believe that there's a God, I don't believe there's a heaven, I don't believe there's a hell.

But I just am appalled by people who say they believe it but never tell anybody about it.

He said, How evil does a person have to be to believe that with a conversation they could save me for all eternity, but not do it.

And so we have good news.

And sometimes it's intimidating to share that good news, right?

It's intimidating to know how and when, and when's it appropriate, and when's it not appropriate, and when am I offensive, and when am I loving, and how what does that look like?

Well, I think Romans chapter 15 does share that.

Romans 15 · chapter mention

So let's go to Romans chapter 15 and let's look starting in verse 14.

Romans 15 · chapter mention

Romans chapter 15 starting in verse 14.

Romans 15 · chapter mention

It says, Now I myself am confident concerning you, my brethren, that you also are full of goodness, filled with knowledge, and able to admonish one another.

Nevertheless, brethren, I have written more boldly to you on some points as reminding you, because of the grace given to me by God, that I might be a minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, ministering the gospel of God, that the offering of the Gentiles might be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.

So he says something in verse 14 that I think is super important to us, and that's just the notion of you have to be in shape to share the gospel.

You have to be in shape for it.

If you're not in shape for it, you're not gonna do it.

And so I had uh some of the younger guys ask me to go out and play basketball, which I love.

I love basketball.

But for some reason, I haven't played in like 20 years.

It's not funny.

And I genuinely thought I could just go out there and just play.

I mean, I figured I'd be a little rusty, but I didn't realize I would be corroded, right?

So I go out there and I haven't been the same since.

I tried to play basketball.

Now, today, I'm not joking, I go to sleep at night with a brace on my ankle for plantar fasciitis or whatever that thing is.

My knees pop, and and I wear a back brace when I'm working at home just because I'm just like, man, I am falling apart.

This is, you can't just get out there and just do it.

Um it's the same way with sharing your faith.

You can't just like get out there and just do it.

But what does that mean to be in shape as a believer?

What does that mean to be in shape to share your faith?

Look, look at verse 14 again.

He says, now I myself am confident concerning you, my brethren, that you are also full of goodness.

You will not be effective in loving your neighbor with the gospel if you're not a good person.

Like if you're rude, if you don't carry the fruit of the Spirit, and if it would be a shock to your neighbor to find out that you actually love God, you're probably not going to be effective in sharing your faith.

But if you love God and you have character, and people look at you and they wonder where this person gets their joy from.

I wonder why this person is so at peace.

This person seems so confident.

This person seems not to have it all together, that's not what I'm trying to communicate today, but just there's something different about this person, and I want to know more about this, but then you're gonna have some effectiveness in sharing your faith.

But if you went up to someone and said, hey, I'd like to share with you, and their first notion is I don't want anything you have.

Like you look depressed, you look miserable, you're cranky, your life's a mess, whatever you have, just if you could just keep that to yourself, then you're not going to be effective in sharing your faith, right?

So the very first thing you do is just begin your day in prayer.

Begin your day in worship.

Like love the Lord.

Love people.

Just genuinely work on your own relationship with the Lord, and then there's going to be an attractiveness about you that makes someone say, Hey, why do you handle life situations different than other people seem to handle life situations?

And I think you'll find doors just kind of opening up for you.

He also says, though, that you're not only full of goodness, but you're filled with knowledge.

Like, I feel like a lot of times we don't share our faith because we don't know what to share.

I wanted to go through four verses.

Everybody grab a pen, grab a phone, do something.

Romans chapter 3, verse 23 says, For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

Romans 3:23

That means we're all messed up.

You know I've never heard anyone challenge that other than to say, I don't believe in sin.

But to say, do you believe that every one of us make mistakes?

Yeah, I believe.

You believe there's any person that's ever been perfect in their life?

No.

Well then that confirms what the Bible says.

The Bible says that we all sin.

And then in Romans chapter 6, 23, it says, the wages of sin is death.

Romans 6 · chapter mention

I love it when people say, I've never done anything bad.

Because I can say, do you realize that the whole earth was damned to hell for a piece of fruit?

I mean, you ever you ever stolen a cookie out of a cookie jar?

I mean, that's pretty much the equivalent of what happened there.

We're not talking about murder or adultery or any of the things that you claim as bad.

We're just talking about eating fruit.

So the wages of sin is death.

Sin cost death, and we all sin.

Then look at Romans chapter 5, verse 8.

Romans 5:8

You don't have to go there.

Romans chapter 5, verse 8 says, But God demonstrated his love for us that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Romans 5:8

Not after we got it all together, but God loved you in your mess.

God loves you enough now.

He's already sent his son.

His son's already came, his son's already gone, his son has resurrected.

Way before you were born, he decided I loved you.

He didn't wait to say, well, let's see how bad this person really is, and then I'll decide if they're worth loving.

No, he loved you before you got here.

While you were still sinners, that's when he poured out his love for you.

Not when you got your life together.

In fact, you can't get your life together.

And so while you were still sinners, Christ died for you.

And then this is the last one, Romans chapter 10, verse 9.

Romans 10:9

That if you confess your sin with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you'll be saved.

So here's the gospel.

The gospel is we're all a mess.

All of us.

And because we're all a mess, we're going to be eternally separated from God.

But God loved us so much that He died for us while we were a mess.

And all you have to do is say, God, I'm a mess.

Will you save me?

I believe Jesus.

I believe Jesus is enough.

That's it.

That's all you have to do.

So one of the reasons why we don't share our faith sometimes is just because we don't have enough knowledge to share our faith.

We believe we don't know enough about the Bible.

So we just stay silent about it.

It's really not a lot to know.

I mean, once it really boils down to it, you can just take these four verses and live by them.

Love people with them.

Be prepared to share it.

And then look at verse 14 again.

He says that you're also able to admonish one another.

Able to admonish one another.

What does that mean?

So years ago, so I had I grew up with a stepfather, and he's a good enough guy, but he and I didn't really, really get along.

He was a church Christian.

He's like, I don't know how to describe that, but if you don't know what that means, I won't dive into that box too much.

But he and I did not see eye to eye.

And um I didn't feel like he should be a deacon in a church because I knew him at home.

And I was like, wow, surely not all deacons are like this.

But then I had an uncle, though.

I had an uncle that loved the Lord, loved people.

He's just a quality man.

He wasn't perfect, still not, still here, he's not perfect, but a quality man.

And I remember one time in high school, I uh said some choice words to one of my high school teachers, and uh my high school teacher, in his wisdom, thought, okay, how do I help this young man get on the path he needs to be on?

And he knew my uncle, but he also knew my dad, my stepdad.

He chose to go to my uncle.

And I was at my uncle's house one day, and he said, Hey, I want you to take the trash out with me.

And so in the South, take the trash out, that's like an hour or two event.

You have to load it up, you have to drive to where there's a dumpster.

Nobody's coming to pick up your stuff.

You have to drive, you have to drop it off.

And so on the drive, he said, Hey, uh I heard you had some choice words for your teacher.

And I was like, Yeah, I did.

And I'm trying to be like bold.

And he just looks at me and he breaks me with this statement.

He says, Ah, I'm really disappointed in that.

And it broke me to know that a man of so much character, a man that I looked up to so much, looked at me and said, I'm really disappointed in you.

And I thought in that moment, you know, if my stepfather would have said, I'm disappointed in you, it would not have had the same effect.

It would have gone something like this.

Hey, get in the car, why don't you take the trash with me?

Okay, get in the car.

We're going down the road, hey, heard you said some bad words to you.

Teacher.

Yeah, said some bad words to my teacher.

I'm disappointed in you.

I'm disappointed in you.

And that's how that would have ended.

But because my uncle had so much character and he was able to admonish.

He looked at me and he said, I'm disappointed in you.

You know what happened?

The next day I apologized to my teacher and I became a model student after that.

Because it bothered me that I disappointed him.

Able to admonish is not so much about just your knowledge and what you can say.

The Bible says this.

It means that you have a character that comes with it.

So when you tell a person, hey, you need to love your wife, man.

You need to raise above this.

They need to be looking at someone who is what they want to be, and say, Well, since you said it, uh, I gotta strive for that.

Your character needs to be a conviction to the people that you admonish.

And they need to know that you're saying it in love, able to admonish.

We can all like put the hammer down, but some of your hammers are ineffective.

Sometimes my hammer's ineffective.

Sometimes when I say, hey, you shouldn't be doing this, my own kids might be saying, Well, we I think of things you shouldn't be doing.

But there's a character that should come with us that when we sit down and say, Hey, I love you, and I just want you to know the God that I know, you should be able to do that because you're in shape to do that.

Does that make sense?

All right, well, let's keep going then.

So in verse 17 it says, Therefore, I have reason to glory in Christ in things which pertain to God.

Things which pertain to God.

Now, all things pertain to God, right?

I mean, think about pretty much everything you can bring God into that subject.

That's not what he's talking about.

He's talking about things which pertain to you having a right relationship with God boiled down to the gospel of Christ.

The gospel.

So when you're sharing your faith with someone, you should be talking about Jesus.

And you should have enough wisdom to know there's certain things it's just not worth getting into.

So when someone comes, when I like when I'm talking to someone, I don't talk about marijuana in Colorado, and just because it's legal, is it okay?

I don't talk about it, I don't care about that.

Because guess what?

If a person is high as a kite, and I go to them and I talk to them about why they should not be high, and they stop being high, guess what?

They still don't have a relationship with Jesus Christ.

That is not what I'm trying to accomplish.

I'm just trying to tell them there's a God, you're eternally separated from them, Him, I was eternally separated from him, and now I'm not, and I'm so happy about that.

And you should know that.

So when someone says, hey, so let me ask you this: what's your view on such and such and such and such?

I usually say, Well, I get that view from the belief that Jesus Christ is Lord.

So if you don't believe that Jesus Christ is Lord, my view is kind of pointless.

Because that's where my view comes from.

So do you believe that Jesus Christ is Lord?

Do you believe that you're a sinner?

Well, I don't believe any of that.

Well, then my views are stupid to you anyway, so there's no need for me to talk about them.

Or, hey, so what's your view on communion, or what's your view on worship, or what's your view on marriage, or what's your whatever it is, it's like that's not the thing that pertains to God that you really need right now.

What you really need right now is to know that there is a God that loves you.

He loves you with all his heart.

He loves you so much that he gave his son for you.

And I'm gonna take a bet and gamble on this.

I bet that if you come to the conclusion because the Holy Spirit brought you to the conclusion that Jesus Christ is Lord and that Jesus Christ loves you, you're gonna come out of your repentance, you're gonna come out of your what the Bible calls a new birth moment, where you're gonna say, Hey God, what's your opinion on this?

And you're gonna start caring about God's opinion.

And you're gonna start digging in the Bible for God's opinion.

I want to know what God's opinion is now because the God of all the world loves me.

And I now know that.

So now all these things matter.

And 24 hours ago, it didn't matter at all.

I just want to argue about it.

So I tend to lean into what Paul said.

Paul said, I choose to know nothing but Christ and him crucified.

And then he goes on later to qualify himself, and he says, Not that I can't speak intelligently, I can have all these theological debates.

I choose not to.

In these moments, I don't see the value in it.

So I choose to share Christ and Christ crucified.

So stick to the main thing.

Don't get off track.

Because a person that doesn't know Christ does not need our preaching.

They just need our God.

And then the Holy Spirit will do the work because you can't change.

Anyway, without the Holy Spirit working in you, you're an island.

You need the help and the love of the Holy Spirit to come and say, hey, that should change in you.

Hey, what about that?

Hey, what about this?

And as you grow, look, all of us are growing, right?

I remember being on a basketball court and I was talking trash and I was telling people they couldn't guard me while they were trying to guard me.

And um, and I was like really proud of myself, right?

Until a guy who really loved the Lord and who was able to admonish, say, Hey, dude, aren't you like gonna go into the ministry?

I was like, Yeah.

He said, Man, you would not be able to tell by the way you play basketball.

And it was like, oh no.

And then God just began to do work in my life and kind of change who I was even on a basketball court because I love him more than I love being a bragger.

That makes sense?

Let's keep going.

He says, For I will not dare speak of any of those things which Christ has not accomplished through me in word and deed to make the Gentiles obedient in mighty signs and wonders by the power of the Spirit of God, so that from Jerusalem and roundabout, that hard word, I have fully preached the gospel of Christ.

What is he saying here?

He's saying, I dare not speak of any things which Christ has not accomplished in me.

Guys, we have to be alive.

We have to be alive.

When a person comes to you to know about Christ, they want to know about the Christ that you know.

We get so intimidated that we don't want to share our faith.

And the real reason is we don't know where to draw from.

What well do we draw from?

And Paul is saying, just draw from your personal experiences.

We don't have to be theologians here.

We just have to love God.

We have to love God.

We have to know how we came into a relationship with God, and we just have to share our experiences.

This is what Christ has done in me.

This is my experience of Christ.

You can't challenge that.

I'm just telling you, this is my experience of Christ.

My real father told me one time that it was crazy that I believed that a God lived 2,000 years ago, that he died on a cross and he rose again, and today he lives in my heart.

He said, Son, do you hear how crazy that sounds?

A man lived 2,000 years ago.

He died.

He rose again, and now he's living inside your heart.

And then he finished it with this.

But what you believe is keeping you out of prison, so I'm okay with it.

Well, dad, that's my experience.

Because of Jesus, I choose not to do things that might get me in prison.

And so that's where our conversation started.

Why Jesus is important and real to me.

And then guess what my dad started doing?

He started going to church.

He starts going to church, and then he calls me to tell me he's going to church, and he goes out of his way to make sure I know that he still doesn't believe in Jesus.

I said, Dad, why are you going to church?

He said, They got food there.

I said, That's cool, Dad.

They got Jesus there too, so be careful.

Be careful.

But from your experience, here's the thing.

Most of us feel like we cannot, we are not capable of sharing our faith.

And we make it this big preachy thing.

And no, no, listen, you're supposed to share your faith on a daily basis just by being alive people.

Sharing the gospel should not be that intimidating to us.

So let me tell you a story.

One time my wife and I took our kids to family camp.

And I took my two boys out in a kayak on this lake.

And I'm going out and then I tip over my kayak.

And I got two boys out there, and I'm trying to hold them up.

I'm in the water.

I'm not as good enough of a swimmer to swim two boys back to shore.

I'm screaming for help.

I am like screaming to the top of my lungs.

I'm going under, I'm just like pushing them up to try to keep them above water.

Every time my head goes above water, I scream for help.

I see someone coming.

I think I'm gonna die.

But come no matter what, my boys are gonna live.

And so I'm pushing them up, I'm pushing them up, I'm screaming for help.

And someone runs out to the lake and they say, stand up! I said, What did you say?

They said, stand up! I stood up, the water came this hot.

I'm not joking.

I'm not joking.

Then it was it was such a dumb move that they were like, stand up, and then everybody pulled out their phones.

And I still have a picture of me holding my two boys standing up in water this deep.

Now listen to me.

You may not be able to swim spiritually well enough to really be of help to people that are deep down and hurting.

But you can certainly help people in shallow water.

So you may not have all the right words for the person who's been way out there, who's has tons of regrets in life, who has all these different questions about which God is and which.

But you can certainly help some some of your neighbors in shallow water.

And it's just a matter of saying, Well, I don't know everything about the Bible, but I put my faith in Christ, and here's what I do know, and let me tell you about my experience.

Because some of us think that, man, if I were to go out there and try to help someone, I would drown.

And it's really like, no, just stand on the ground.

Just stand on the ground, stand on the foundation that Christ has laid in you.

And just be honest, real people, and just say, I don't know everything, but here's what I do know.

For God loved me so much that he gave his only son.

I believed in him, the Spirit of God came in me.

I now have eternal life.

And I'm just different than I was five years ago, ten years ago, twenty years ago, whatever your story is, just be able to share that in the shallow water.

Does that make sense?

Let's keep going.

So then he says, in mighty signs and wonders in verse 19, in mighty signs and wonders by the Spirit of God, so that from Jerusalem and round about Elizabeth.

I cannot ever say the word.

I have fully preached the gospel of Christ.

So mighty signs and wonders are ushering in a moment where someone is now open to what you're gonna say.

So I used to work a job.

Uh I was a kid.

I was like 17 years old.

I was the only teenager in the factory.

I worked in a factory, a paper plant.

And um all these guys all made fun of me.

They made fun of me because uh I was very open about being a virgin.

I didn't want to hear some of their terrible talk.

Um I didn't want to see some of the magazines and pictures that they brought in, and they would make fun of me.

And uh one guy in particular uh who I really liked, his name was Scott, and um one day I had been to Scott's house one time, and one night I was going home, I was driving home, and I just felt the Spirit of God come on me, and he said, Go to Scott's house.

Now it's dark, it's nighttime.

I felt the Spirit of God speaking to me into my heart, saying, Go to Scott's house.

I'm going home.

I turn the car around, I go back to Scott's house.

I feel so foolish, but I feel compelled by God that you need to do this.

So I go to Scott's house, I knock on Scott's door, and Scott says, Come in.

And I open the door and he's sitting in the middle of his living room, but in like a dining room chair.

Like he placed a dining room chair in the middle of his living room, and he had a firearm in this hand, and he had a joint in this hand, and he's just smoking it.

And I walk in, I was like, dude, what's up?

He's like, I knew you were coming.

And I said, I didn't even know I was coming.

And his wife had just left him, and he was trying to get up the nerve to end it all.

And God doing just what God does, brought me into his home, and I was able to sit down with him and hug him.

He was a he was a marine.

So he he told me after like he cried on my shoulder about everything that had happened in his life, and yada, yada, yada, told me a lot of stuff.

And he cried on my shoulder, and then he looked up at me, quit crying, instantly, looked me in the face, and said, If you ever tell anybody I cried, I'll kill you.

And it wasn't like a joke, it wasn't like ah ha ha.

It was like, oh gosh, this is gonna kill me.

And so I was able to take his ammunition out of his gun.

I was able to pray with him, and I was able to uh go home, and and to my knowledge, he's still alive today.

And that's just the power of God that you can't do that stuff, right?

You can't do that, those kind of things.

The Spirit of God does those things.

But as we're aware of what the Spirit of God is doing, then we know, oh, now's a good time to share your faith.

Now they don't all end that well.

I remember a time where I was around about that same age, and God told me to share my faith with a friend, and frankly, guys, I was just embarrassed.

He's a little older than me, really strong guy.

I thought he might laugh at me.

So I said, I'm just not gonna do it.

And I remember getting in my car and feeling so convicted that I was supposed to do that that I almost turned my car off and went back in and said, Hey, I gotta tell you something.

But I didn't do that, and then he died in a car wreck that night.

And the Spirit of God was working in that moment, and God was inviting me to be a part of what the Spirit of God was doing.

See, you can't move anyone towards salvation, you cannot do it.

But what you can do is partner with the Holy Spirit who is capable of doing it.

So when the Holy Spirit is doing a work through signs and wonders, whatever that looks like, I would challenge you not to make that too mystical, but just have your spiritual eyes open and say, God, what are you doing today?

God, where do you want me to speak up today?

God, where do you want me to serve today?

Um, my kids, uh yesterday, I think it was, had a great opportunity to like give our neighborhood neighborhood kids some ice cream.

And it's just a good opportunity to say, hey, we care about you guys.

And then whatever the Lord does beyond that, that's his.

It's not your responsibility to reach people, it's your responsibility to be available to people.

And so as you see God do the work, you just be available to speak up and say, Oh, hey, I know who did that.

Let me tell you about my God.

And that doesn't have to be this big thing.

It can be over a cup of coffee, it can be shoulder to shoulder while you're working beside a brother, it can be whatever it is.

You're just available and you have the good news of Christ.

Let's finish with this.

I talked about this in my last message.

But if you look in verse 20, he said, and I have also made it my aim to preach the gospel, not where Christ was named, lest I should build on another man's foundation.

So, if you're not reaching people, by reaching people, I don't mean they prayed the prayer.

I mean you're just doing your best.

You're ministering to people, you're praying with people, you're talking with people, you're having a conversation that somehow is meaningful to them.

And then whatever they do with it, that's between them and the Lord.

But if you're not having the opportunities to tell people that don't know Jesus who Christ is and what he's all about, if you don't have that opportunity, it's for two reasons.

One, you're not taking the opportunity, or two, you live in a bubble and everybody already knows what you're gonna tell them.

But it's an illusion to believe that every person in Colorado Springs knows who Jesus is.

It is not true.

It is not true.

And if you can't find someone to share your faith with, I would challenge you to stretch your boundaries a little bit.

So sometime instead, it's gonna sound super bad.

But if you have a choice that, okay, I can either go to this Christian group thing, maybe it might even be something at the church, or I can go out with some guys and play softball.

Maybe the most spiritual thing you could do is go play softball with some people that actually need the hope of Christ.

These people already know what you're gonna tell them, they already have it.

All you guys are doing is like spinning your wheels, and that's good.

That's called fellowship, though.

Sometimes it's good to say, I'm gonna go, that's what Paul said.

I'm gonna go where Christ is not being preached, and I'm gonna reach people that have not heard, and that is my aim.

So when I think of aim, I think of appointed and intentional missions.

Or appointed and intentional ministry.

That's what I think of.

And we all know what that looks like, right?

We all know of opportunities where we could go and kind of step outside of our circle and really share the hope that we have.

And I'll finish with this.

Paul says, always be ready.

1 Peter 3.15, he says, always be ready to give the reason for the hope that you have in Christ Jesus.

It doesn't have to be this weird strategy.

It doesn't have to be this weird where you walk up with some to someone and say, Hey, can I ask you a question?

Like, they don't know if you're gonna sell them windows, or if you're gonna like tell them about Jesus, or if you want to want like to borrow some money.

That's weird.

But the Bible says, always be ready to give the reason for the hope that you have in Christ Jesus.

You know what that implies?

That implies that someone asks you.

That implies that the lost person started the conversation.

They're looking at you and they're saying, hey, could you tell me the reason why you have been married 15 years and you seem to still like marriage?

Hey, can you tell me the reason why you have teenage kids and you like haven't like lost your mind?

Hey, can you tell me the reason why you could go to the river but you keep showing up at the church every time?

Why do you waste your Sundays on that?

Or, hey, can you tell me why you seem to have, and then that gives you the opportunity to say, well, you ask, so let me tell you my experience of what I have in Christ.

Listen, our church would grow drastically if we would just listen to this message and say, I'm just gonna start loving my neighbor with the gospel.

I'm just gonna start looking for people that don't have hope, and I'm gonna start loving my neighbor with my words and with the gospel, and I'm gonna do it in gentleness and respect.

If you're here and this is news to you, I would invite you to come up and talk with me, one of our ministry leaders, and just say, hey, I've come into church, but I've never accepted Christ, I've never heard that before.

How can I have a right relationship with God?

We'd love to share that with you.

But for most of you, the point of this message is just to tell you when you go out tomorrow, when you go to work, first of all, make sure that you're in a right relationship with the Lord.

Just have the joy of the Lord.

Go in the joy of the Lord and be prepared to love.