Why: Evangelism - 10th May 2026

Morning everybody. You can turn in your

Bibles to 2 Corinthians. 2 Corinthians

2 Corinthians 5 · chapter mention

chapter 5. Brendan mentioned in his

prayer there. Shane is in the states.

He's at a conference for about a little

more than a week. Um so I get the

privilege of being with you here uh in

this capacity uh today and next week as

well and we are back to uh the why

series

that we looked at at the beginning of

the year. Also just a reminder uh we

love the kids with us. Noise is not a

problem. I'm loud and I can be louder

than they are. And so don't ever feel

parents like you know you're being a

distraction cuz noise is life and we

love it. So let me read from 2

2 Corinthians 5 · chapter mention

Corinthians chapter 5 starting at verse

16.

Says from now on therefore we regard no

one according to the flesh. Even though

we once regarded Christ according to the

flesh we regard him thus no longer.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is

a new creation. The old has passed away.

Behold, the new has come. All this is

from God, who through Christ reconciled

us to himself and gave us the ministry

of reconciliation. That is, in Christ,

God was reconciling the world to

himself, not counting their trespasses

against them, and entrusting to us the

message of reconciliation.

Therefore, we are ambassadors for

Christ. God making his appeal through

us. We implore you on behalf of Christ.

Be reconciled to God. For our sake, he

made him to be sin who knew no sin so

that in him we might become the

righteousness of God. Let me pray one

more time for us. Father, we thank you

for your word. We thank you that it is

perfect.

We thank you that you have sustained it

for us these many thousands of years and

we thank you that you speak to us

through it and it transforms our hearts.

Father, we need to be refreshed. We need

to be transformed. We need to see you

for who you are again

today.

Show us. We pray in Jesus name. Amen. I

don't know how you are when it comes to

hard conversations. There's lots of

different levels of hard conversations.

Uh so sometimes it might just be you

have something in your teeth like that

kind of conversation. Or it might be

your zipper's down. This kind of awkward

conversations. It could be a little bit

maybe more emotional in the point of

like you're serving in church and maybe

it's in a capacity where you're really

not as gifted as maybe you think you

are. You're really not a gifted singer.

Uh you maybe you're not a gifted teacher

and you have to be told those things and

that's kind of just like an awkward it's

an awkward maybe emotional thing to say.

There's also the even more emotionally

weighty things when you have to give

someone the news that they have a

serious health condition or maybe

confronting someone about destructive

behavior like addiction.

From socially awkward to the emotionally

weighty, most of us don't really enjoy

difficult conversations.

We don't want to have them. We don't

want the responsibility. We're pretty

weak and if we're honest, we're probably

sometimes pathetic and scared to have

hard conversations. Yet, yet we know

telling someone that they have broccoli

in their teeth is a way to love them.

Please tell me if I have broccoli in my

teeth. That would be a way to love me.

But when the doctor is honest with us

about our health, we appreciate that.

We need to know

the seriousness of life and its

circumstances. We want to know what's

ahead.

And so earlier this year, as we've

reminded you, we've spent some time

thinking about why we do things as a

church. And we're going to continue this

these next couple weeks, and then we'll

continue it again actually at some point

later. Uh there's a few more wise that

we want to bring before you. Uh but

today we're going to look into the

scriptures and see why

we evangelize. Why evangelism? Why is

that a part of church life? Why do we

share the gospel? And when we look into

second Corinthians here, Paul is

writing, it's all about ministry from

weakness. The whole book is really about

that in some form or fashion. Paul has

been accused of being weak by false

apostles who were in the area of Corenth

and some in the church there believed it

and even sinned against Paul. Paul

desired though to restore that

relationship with the church. He wanted

to bring back what they had once had.

But he doesn't deny his weakness. He

actually embraces his weakness all

throughout the book. He reminds them of

many truths. But in chapter five here,

what I just read, we're going to look at

how Paul reminds the Corinthians that

they've been made new, that they

actually have been given new purposes.

And just like Paul and the Corinthians

had to come to terms with their

weakness, so do we. We need to come to

terms with our weakness, we too must see

that any strength we have to be

faithful, any strength we have to obey

does not come from us.

It does not come from within us. Just

like the Corinthians needed reminders of

who they were called to be,

so do we. We need those reminders. Paul

reminds them that he and they are called

to be evangelists.

They're called to share the gospel. What

What is evangelism?

Well, uh, one guy named Max Styles, he

defines evangelism like this. Evangelism

is teaching the gospel with the aim to

persuade.

So teaching the gospel, sharing the

gospel with the goal, the aspiration,

the the desire to persuade, to convince

someone and call them to a response.

That is what evangelism is. We

evangelize

because God is worthy of worship. God is

worthy of worship. And your ability to

evangelize for Christ is given to you.

It is given to you. So you don't create,

you don't muster up some ability to

evangelize. It's given to you. It's

actually created within you.

And so we are able, we are able to share

the gospel with those around us no

matter how awkward

or emotionally weighty that conversation

gets. We are able as God's people to do

that.

So my question for you is how faithful

are you in sharing the gospel? What is

the health of your evangelism? Are you

teaching others

the gospel with the real hope of

convincing them to believe it?

Unfortunately,

like me, you probably feel convicted

when asked those questions.

You probably feel a weight

of, oh, is he really talking about this?

And we pacify those convictions by

reminding ourselves, well, sure, not

everyone's gifted in evangelism.

That's true.

We lessen our responsibility by telling

ourselves that my life is a testimony.

That can be true.

But we've been made new. We are new

creations and we have the joy and the

responsibility to live like that. So why

evangelism? Well, why not? Why wouldn't

we be eager to share about being rescued

from sin and death? Why wouldn't we

invite others to be made right with God?

Why wouldn't we want to see God

glorified by more worshippers

of him? If you're feeling con convicted

about your faithfulness and evangelism,

join the club. So am I. So am I. I am

preaching to myself this morning. But

listen, wallowing in any kind of

self-pity

or making excuses

doesn't make us more faithful

and it doesn't make disciples when we do

that.

Repentance and faith are always the

answer. It's always the answer to any

conviction that we have. We need to

confess our pride, our unbelief, our

apathy, maybe our cynicism,

and we move forward in faith today. We

can do that today. So, to encourage you

and to answer the question of why, why

evangelism, we're going to first look

from the text here at the wonder of the

gospel. The wonder of the gospel. Why is

the message that we share so great? What

is the good news? That's what gospel

means, right? Why is it good news? And

this is where Paul takes the Corinthians

in this text. He's reminding them of the

the reason that their relationship

because that's one of the reasons why

he's writing the letter. He wants to

restore the relationship he has with

them. He's reminding them of why it can

actually be restored. It's grounded in

the reality that his relationship has

been restored with God. And so

therefore, their relationship can be

restored with one another. And so we

evangelize

because the gospel is wonderful.

Why evangelism? The gospel is wonderful.

Look at verse 16. He says, "From now on,

therefore, we regard no one according to

the flesh. Even though we once regarded

Christ according to the flesh, we regard

him thus no longer." So he says, "From

now on, therefore," Okay, so we're

looking back. What's the therefore?

Therefore, you looking back and look at

look at verse 15. He's speaking of

Christ. He says, "And he died. He died

for all." Verse 15, "That those who

might live no longer live for

themselves, but for him who for their

sake died and was raised." He's talking

about the resurrection of Christ and how

we are raised with Christ. And so he

says, "Therefore," so he's giving us a

practical application. If Christ is

raised, Christ is raised. What's the

practical application? We regard no one

according to the flesh.

We regard no one according to flesh. He

says, even though we once regarded

Christ according to the flesh, we don't

do that anymore. So Paul used to think

of people as Jew or Gentile, clean or

unclean, circumcised or uncircumcised,

but now he truly sees people. He sees

people. He doesn't categorize people.

Verse 17. Therefore, if anyone's in is

in Christ, he is a new creation. The old

has passed away. Behold, the new has

come. When you're a new creation, you

see people differently.

You see people differently. Your old

biases are removed. Your your prejudices

are destroyed.

Jesus sat remember the he sat and ate

with tax collectors and sinners.

That was Jewish like lingo for the worst

of the worst. That's who Jesus spent his

time with. And if you are in Christ, if

I'm in Christ, we should see people as

Christ sees them.

There's a movie. You've probably heard

of it. You may have seen it. There's

three of them now. Avatar. So very well

produced, made lots of money. It's very

long movies. very pantheistic movies

like movies like when you watch it like

God is in everything. So it's it's not a

model of of proper faith but that alien

race the Na'vi one of the ways that they

affirm each other

is a phrase where they say I see you

and they're not just talking about like

I physically see you. They're not

they're not putting you into a category.

They're they're saying I perceive you

fully. I recognize your soul. I

acknowledge who you are. Who you are. I

I see you.

Think of how spectacularly wrong Paul

was

on how he saw Jesus

before,

right? He was so wrong about Jesus. We

are often so rubbish at judging people

the right way. We are rubbish at seeing

people, at truly seeing them. And one of

the wonders of the gospel is that it's

for everyone. If you are here this

morning, the gospel is for you.

Every person you see, regardless of

nationality, skin color, accent, they

are a imagebearer of the living God.

Their socioeconomic status doesn't

matter. Where they live doesn't matter.

What they smell like doesn't matter.

We evangelize because all people matter.

All people people are made in the image

of God. And Christ saves all kind of

people, doesn't he? Look around. We're a

very diverse group.

Any

of our prejudice

towards seeing people is evil.

When we assume that our neighbor or our

coworker will never believe because

they're just comfortable or they're

costic towards the gospel, that's a lie.

We really need to guard

of presuming upon that. When we decide

for someone, have you ever done that?

You make the decision for someone before

you've actually ever had a clear gospel

presentation or conversation with them.

You've decided for them on the front

end. That that's wrong. We are we're

guarding people according to the flesh

when we do that. We're not seeing them.

We're not seeing them. We are to do that

no longer.

We are new creations and we must see

humanity just like Christ sees humanity.

CS Lewis wrote lots of books. One of his

books, The Weight of Glory, he he says

this. He says, "It is a serious thing to

live in a society where the dullest and

the most uninteresting person you talk

to may one day be a creature which if

you saw it now, you would be strongly

tempted to worship." He's saying you, we

walk around, you see dull, unanswering

people. You might think I'm one of them.

And we see people all around. But if

that person comes to Christ, if we saw

now the glorified state that that person

is in, we would be tempted to worship

them.

CS Lewis goes on to say, "There are no

ordinary people. You have never talked

to a mere mortal.

Everyone who crosses your path, no

matter how vile they might seem or

disinteresting,

may one day be a glorified being that

you can barely imagine now

because of the grace of God. Everyone

you see is eternal.

Everyone that walks past you on the

street, everyone that you work with,

every one of your neighbors, they're

eternal. They will continue existing

forever.

We should stand in awe

at who the gospel's for. If it is for

you, then it is for anyone.

You don't deserve it any more than

anyone else does. You didn't believe

because you're smarter or better than

the person next to you. The wonderful

reality of Christ dying for sinners can

be shared with anyone at any time

because the gospel of Jesus Christ is

for everyone.

We evangelize because the gospel is for

everyone. But we also see that the

gospel is a wonder

not just because of who it's for, but

because who designed it?

Who designed it? Look at verse 18.

All this is from God

who through Christ reconciled us to

himself.

Nothing about the gospel,

nothing about the gospel depends on you.

If you go back to verse 17, therefore,

if anyone is in Christ, if you're in

Christ, it is not because you put

yourself there. If you're a new

creation, it's not because you mustered

up the ability to recreate yourself.

If all your old things have passed, you

did not get rid of them. And all the new

things that you get in the gospel, you

did not give them to yourself. It is his

design. It's his work, his grace. He

grants repentance. He gives faith. He

saves souls.

God is the author, the initiator, the

supplier, and the perfector of our

salvation.

It's God.

That's the wonder of the gospel. the one

who designed it. If you are a new

creation in Christ, it's because of God.

That should make us not stand in in awe.

We should be in our face in awe over

that. We should worship because of that

reality that God saves.

God save God saves people like Paul.

God saves people like the Corinthians.

God saves people like the thief on the

cross.

God saves people like you.

He saves.

All of the gospel comes from God. We

have many friends in the states who have

adopted children. And it's it's

interesting in the adoption process,

which is long, arduous, and and very

expensive. Usually,

it is the parents that do it all. The

adoptive parents really do it all. They

pursue the child. They sign the

paperwork. They pay the money. They

figure out how to bring the child home

and care for the child. The adopted

child doesn't do any of it.

God saves. All of this,

all of this great, beautiful gospel,

it's from God. Our evangelistic efforts

are ultimately for God's glory.

Why do we evangelize

God's glory? And God's glory is the good

for humanity. So when God gets glory,

it's good for me. When God gets glory,

it's good for you. And since God's will,

his purpose is his glory.

This is one of the great motivators in

our evangelism. It's actually a great

motivator in evangelism because God does

the work. God saves. If if God is going

to save people, then people will be

saved. If God decides that he's going to

make people new creations, then there

will be people made new.

If God makes people new, then he's going

to get glory.

And if God's will is his glory, and it

is, he accomplishes all of his purposes.

And so, you don't have to put any

pressure on yourself when it comes to

evangelism.

Because, brother, sister, the results

are not up to you.

You do not control the results. You

don't save anyone.

Success, and this is beautiful, success

in evangelism is simply sharing the

person and message of Jesus and calling

that person to respond.

That's success. Whether or not they

respond positively or not, that's not up

to you. So that's not that doesn't

determine successful evangelism.

Successful evangelism is sharing. It's

just sharing. God does the rest. Now,

some will ask, "Well, why do I need to

evangelize if God does all the work?"

Well, it's like the old man

in the 1700s who was talking to the

young aspiring missionary from a few

hundred years ago. this young aspiring

missionary, he wanted to go to the

heathen of the east. He had a burden to

share Christ with them. And this old

older saint sat down with this young

aspiring ambitious missionary

and said, "Sit down.

When God is pleased to convert the

heathen, he will do it without your aid

or mine."

That was the attitude.

this presumptuous young missionary, how

dare he think that he is going to go

share Christ with the heathen and see

people saved.

Well, that young aspiring missionary,

William Kerry, decided he was going to

go anyways

and he went and he shared the gospel.

All this is from God, yes, but God uses

people. He uses you and me as his

sovereign means

of sharing his message, of expanding his

kingdom, of creating worshippers who

give him glory. He uses means, he uses

us. And this is actually really deeply

freeing because again, the results

aren't up to you. They're not up to you.

Remember, evangelism is teaching the

gospel with the aim to persuade. That's

all evangelism

is.

We evangelize because we can trust that

God does the work. God does it all. God

gets the glory.

We also though evangelize

because of the wonder of what the gospel

does. So, it's who the gospel is for.

It's who's designed the gospel. But what

does the gospel do? Well, look back at

verse 17.

Therefore, it's amazing verse.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he's

a new creation. The old has passed away.

Behold, the new has come. We could spend

weeks and weeks on this verse, but the

gospel places you in Christ. The gospel

makes you new. Literally, new creation

power happens in your soul

and eventually your body will be made

new. The gospel removes the old, the old

sin, the desires, the temptation, the

old way of life, your old ambitions,

your old chains. And the gospel replaces

those with new realities, new impulses,

new purposes, new motivations, new

freedoms, new life.

He's the bread of life.

It's the caterpillar to the butterfly.

It's darkness to light, death to life,

fear to confidence, captivity to

freedom, blindness to sight, rags to

riches. It's drowning in my sin to

breathing new life in the spirit.

It's what the gospel does in us is a

motivation to share that with others. We

evangelize because we've been changed

changed. We are no longer blind.

Back in chapter four, Paul says this. He

says, "The God of this world has blinded

the minds of the unbelievers to keep

them from seeing the light of the gospel

of the glory of Christ who is the image

of God.

We evangelize because we've seen the

light. We evangelize because God is

worthy of worshippers. And we know that

the the person who is outside of Christ,

they're blind. It's dark. They need

someone to show them the way.

We evangelize because the wonderful

gospel tells of the wonderful God who

designed it.

But we also evangelize because the

gospel has been entrusted to us. Look at

verse 18 again.

All this is from God who through Christ

reconciled us to himself and gave us the

ministry of reconciliation. That is in

Christ, God was reconciling the world to

himself, not counting their trespasses

against them and entrusting to us the

ministry of reconciliation. Therefore,

we are ambassadors for Christ. God

making his appeal through us. We implore

you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled

to God. You have been given a ministry.

You

believer has been given a ministry. Now,

Paul in this passage, he's mainly

talking about himself, but he's also

talking about the Corinthians. The the

the weis in in this whole passage are

are are

mostly about the church as a whole. So,

if it's been given to the Corinthians,

it's been given to us.

It's the church of Christ.

All believers have been given a ministry

what the text says of reconciliation.

Well, what's reconciliation?

Reconciliation is the idea of like

restoring

of friendly relations,

making right

enemies. Enemies becoming friends. It's

restoring relationship. Paul told the

Romans when he wrote to them that they

were enemies of God.

while they were enemies of God. That's

when Christ died for them.

The gospel is good news because it tells

us how to restore our broken

relationship with God. And he clarifies

that in verse 19. He says God is

reconciling the world to Christ. Christ

is the pathway towards being made right

with God. The the results that

trespasses, sins are no longer counted

against us. That's incredible.

Paul then says very clearly that this

message of reconciliation,

the the message of salvation, the truth

of salvation, the gospel of Jesus Christ

has been entrusted

to you. It has been handed over to you.

You have been given stewardship of that.

You

Christians,

Christ followers have not just been

given life.

We've been given a mission, a purpose, a

responsibility.

Matthew 28, you probably know it well,

the great commission. Jesus is speaking

to his disciples before he ascends to

heaven after the resurrection. And he

says, "Go therefore and make disciples

of all nations, baptizing them in the

name of the Father and of the Son and of

the Holy Spirit, teaching them to

observe all that I have commanded you.

And behold, I am with you always to the

end of the age." The main verb there in

that passage, in that command, is make

disciples. That's the main verb. Reach

people for the sake of Jesus. Jesus

empowers, moves, and sends his people to

make disciples.

The text says that you are an ambassador

for Christ. That's amazing. You are a

kingly emissary. You are a divine

representative on earth for the Lord

Jesus Christ himself, the King of glory.

That's that's you.

God makes his appeal. Did you see that

in the text?

God makes his appeal. Verse 20, through

you.

He's appealing to the world. How does he

do that? Through you.

You go to people and implore them on

behalf of Christ to be reconciled to

God.

Implore. That's the idea of pleading

with, begging, urging.

Is that you this morning? Are you an

enemy

of God?

I beg you,

be reconciled to God.

Come to faith in Christ. He's the bread

of life. There is no life apart from

him. You might think that this world has

so much to offer. It does not.

It feels good for about this much time.

For the grand span of eternity, that's

nothing.

You need Christ. You are damned without

him.

He's the bread of life. We are part of a

millennial long game of telephone. Have

you ever played telephone? you know, you

kind of you whisper to the person some

phrase and then they pass it on and then

they pass it on and it keeps going all

the way around the the room. The idea is

that the the message gets passed down

the line. Now, the game of telephone is

funny and silly because usually what was

started with is not the same thing as

what was finished. And so then you kind

of have a laugh about it in the end. Not

so with the gospel. We have this. We

have the enduring infallible word of God

that has been passed down from

generation to generation. We can trust

it. And so we have a message that can be

shared. And just like the generation

before us told us and the generation

before them told them, we get to share

to this generation.

Sharing is how disciples are made. Now,

our church, we have several big events

where we try to gather people and share

the gospel message, right? We have the

day is away where we kind of use that as

an evangelistic opportunity. Even though

it's great for our church family, we

still use it for that. We have our

Easter outreach, of course. We have our

Good Friday service that we invite

people to. We have the Easter egg hunt

where we have like hundreds of people

out there. We have adventure club in the

summer where we bring in kids and share

the gospel.

We have our carol service at Christmas

time. These are wonderful opportunities

and we should take these opportunities

to invite people.

But to be really honest, these events

are not the bread and butter of our

evangelism.

This is not the wheelhouse or the

lifeblood of our influence.

Events just create the opportunity for

evangelism. But you know what events

events often end up doing other things

better than evangelism. And that's okay.

They do other things sometimes better

than evangelism. Events they encourage

us to be bold with Christ for Christ.

They they foster a sense of community

within the church. They train us to

serve together and and have some fun

while we serve. It's usually fun when

we're serving together.

They also do break down walls in the

community. We're not as weird maybe as

you think we are.

Those are all great things.

Those aren't evangelism.

So events accomplish

good things.

Often it's not always evangelism.

Evangelism is teaching the gospel with

the aim to persuade. Now I want to be

really clear. The gospel is taught at

our events and we should do our events.

We are not anti-event.

But events expect people

to come and see.

Events expect people to come and hear.

You are told to go and tell. That's a

big difference.

We never want our evangelistic efforts

to depend on the lost coming in.

We never want our evangelistic efforts

to depend on the lost coming in.

Paul was writing to the Romans. He was

quoting from Psalm 14 and he says this,

"None is righteous.

Know not one. No one understands. No one

seeks for God. All have turned aside.

Together they have become worthless. No

one does good. Not even would one.

Why should we expect blind people

to come and see?

Now people do come to events by God's

grace. They do. They sometimes come. But

you must teach the gospel with the aim

to persuade.

You must go and tell. I must go and

tell.

How do we do that? Well, let's look at

this last verse real quick.

Verse 21.

It's a model for our sharing. It's much

more than that, but it gives us a model.

For our sake, he made him to be sin.

That's Christ who knew no sin so that in

him we might become the righteousness of

God for you.

For you. God made Christ to be sin even

though Christ did not sin

so that in Christ you might become

sinless.

Christ is your sacrifice for sin that

brings you to God. He took your sin.

Theologians call this substitutionary

atonement. He was your substitute.

Your sacrificial substitute. Your sin is

imputed to Christ. Imputed means like

transferred. It's credited to him. Your

sin is credited to Christ. Christ takes

your sin. But that's not all. That's not

all what this verse says.

says, "He made him to be sin who knew no

sin that in him you might become the

righteousness of God." You get his

righteousness. You get his sinlessness.

Christ's righteousness, his perfection

is imputed to you. It is credited to

you. It is given to you.

Theologians call this double imputation.

He takes your sin, you get his

righteousness.

If you owe €1 million euro to someone

and someone says, "I'm going to pay that

debt." Wow. Whoa. A million. It's a lot

of money.

How much are you worth at that point?

Zero.

Sounds great. Your debt's been paid.

That's wonderful. But I'm still a big

fat zero. I got nothing.

That's not what the gospel does. The

gospel doesn't just do that.

The gospel brings you from an infinite

debt

to infinite wealth because you are given

the righteousness of the Lord Jesus

Christ himself.

It's glorious.

How is that realized?

Faith alone. Peter read it this morning.

For by grace you have been saved through

faith and this is not your own doing. It

is the gift of God, not the result of

works. Why? So that nobody can boast

about it

because it's all from God.

How do we evangelize? We teach the

gospel

for our sake. He made him to be sin who

knew no sin so that in him you might

become the righteousness of God. You

share those realities with the aim to

persuade people to believe them. Now

listen, you don't have to use this verse

and you probably shouldn't use the words

imputed or atonement. That's probably

not going to help your cause.

And you don't have to necessarily always

share all of it in the same moment. We

don't always have the opportunity to

give like this this this clear, you

know, explanation of the entire gospel,

but a few words will help you in

closing.

Sharing the gospel. Think God man Christ

response.

God man Christ response. Tell your

story. Give your testimony.

from those four simple words somewhere

they will fit in to your conversation at

some point. God created and he's holy.

Mankind

Mankind sinned against a holy God.

Everyone knows there's a sin. They're a

sinner. Everybody knows that. They don't

like to hear it.

Might push back. God man. Christ Christ

died for sin once to save you from death

and hell.

That's the answer to the sin problem

against a holy God. God, man, Christ

response.

You must respond to that in faith.

When you are asked about your life, when

you have conversations,

when people tell you about what's going

on in their lives, these four things fit

there somewhere.

God, man, Christ response. This whole

world was created by God.

Humanity is broken.

Man, that comes up in conversation a lot

in some form or fashion or just look at

the news.

But then they need to hear of Christ.

But they don't just need to hear advice.

That's not what the gospel is. The

gospel is news to be believed.

So it's calling people to respond to

that. We must respond. One author said,

"The gospel is not advice to be

considered. It is news to be believed."

Evangelism can be intimidating, can be

frustrating, but as one of my pastors in

Kentucky said, which is really helpful.

He said, 'You can be dissatisfied

but not discouraged. So when you teach

people the gospel and and and they just

don't want to hear it and you see no

fruit and that might be years, you might

be really faithful of just trying to

share your faith and just nobody

responds. That is so dissatisfying. It

is so frustrating at times. But we don't

have to be discouraged because God is at

work. God saves. God uses his people to

proclaim the truth. Do you know how I

know that is that you're sitting here?

Somebody told you

God's plan is working. It's been working

for centuries. It will continue to work.

So sometimes we don't see the fruit and

that can be dissatisfying, but we don't

have to be discouraged by it. We

evangelize because God is worthy of our

worship. We evangelize because the

gospel is wonderful.

We evangelize because it's been

entrusted to us. Let's be a church that

has a culture of this, a culture of

evangelism, a culture of of sharing

about the people around us that we know

need the gospel of asking for prayer

about specific opportunities to share

and then praising God when we get the

opportunity and praising him even more

when those people come to faith and

become brothers and sisters. Someone

taught you the gospel for the first

time.

Often it takes multiple opportunities in

sharing the gospel for someone to even

come close to understanding and

believing it.

Who in your circle needs to hear and be

taught and called to respond?

Teach them.

It's been entrusted to you, brother and

sister. You are able.

Not because I say so, but because the

scripture tells you,

it tells you very clearly that you have

been given a ministry of reconciliation

and that you are an ambassador to King

Jesus. We already have those titles.

He has equipped us to do that.

Let's do it. Let's evangelize.

Let's be faithful to what Christ has

called us. Let me pray. Father, we thank

you for your word. These are hard

things. We are weak people. Help us to

embrace that, to know that we're weak

and that we have a strong God who's at

work in this world. You are worthy of

worship, God. Forgive us when we forget

that and so we stay quiet. Forgive us

when we don't see the beautiful people

around us who are lost and blind and

broken. Give us eyes to see them. May

our heart break for them.

and may we desire to persuade them to

come to Christ.

We think of all the people, Father, that

we have shared and that are on our

hearts right now. As we think of

individuals right now, neighbors,

friends, family, co-workers, classmates,

would you embolden us?

Give us opportunities, Father, even this

week.

Would we be quick to share prayer

requests and quick to share praises?

Create that culture among us. we pray in

Jesus name. Amen.

Let's stand and sing together.