We Believe: Sharing the Gospel

Good morning. Welcome to CCC. It is great to see each of you here with us this morning. It is also wonderful to welcome those watching and worshipping with us via the live stream.

Over the past 9 weeks I pray you have dug into God’s Word. That your Christian foundation is founded upon the Chief cornerstone…Jesus and that your foundation has been sured up with scriptural tenants or beliefs.

We began this series back on August 7th and we have discussed and looked to God’s Word to build or strengthen our foundation in Christ in the following areas....Repentance…Salvation....Baptism…The Bible…God the Father…God the Son....God the Holy Spirit and the Trinity....Faith.....and last week Worship.

I hope to have the entire series on our Youtube channel at some point this week…watch for a social media announcement so you can easily go back and watch and listen to God’s Word at anytime.

Let’s Pray

Start OBS

Another way to sum up our We Believe sermon series and especially today....sharing the gospel is with the Great Commission

Matthew 28:18-20

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“Jesus came near and said to them, “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. 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 everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.””

I want to use this scripture as the game plan if you will to jump into and drill down sharing the gospel because I believe our modern version of sharing the gospel and Jesus’ original version of sharing the gospel are very different from each other!

First

What Is The Gospel?

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The Gospel is the Good News. What good news? The good news of Jesus and his saving blood and sacrifice that made a way where the was no way.

The Gospel is very simple. There is a problem that affects all of us. That problem cannot be corrected by humans. The end result of that problem sends humans to hell for eternity. What is the problem?

The Problem: Sin and disobedience and separation from God

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Isaiah 59:2

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“But your iniquities are separating you from your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not listen.”

Your sin....my sin…separate us from God. That is a huge problem

Romans 3:23

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“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God;”

Romans 5:12

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“Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, in this way death spread to all people, because all sinned.”

Romans 6:23

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“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Romans 3:10

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“as it is written: There is no one righteous, not even one.”

Clearly there is a sin problem…we are the sin problem and as Romans 3:10 says not one of us sitting here today or via live stream or that will see this later on youtube....none of us are righteous....not even one.

That is the problem because of sin we are separated from God and will go to hell when we die

The Solution: You and I are saved through faith in Jesus’ payment: Jesus’ Death, Burial and Resurrection

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John 14:6

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“Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

John 3:16-17

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“For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”

Jesus is the only solution to our sin problem. Period end of story

Ephesians 2:8

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“For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift—”

There is nothing you can do to earn salvation. There is nothing you can do to fix the problem. Only Jesus is the answer and you are saved by grace through faith which is not from you.....it is God’s gift.....God is the solution

We have quickly looked at the problem and the solution and now lets look at the goal of the gospel

The Goal of the gospel is reconciliation with God and living His mission in your life

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John 8:31-32

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“Then Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you continue in my word, you really are my disciples. You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.””

Jesus sets you free. Jesus reconciles you to God. Jesus is the solution to your sin problem and that sets you free to live from Jesus and from God and live only to do their work and build their kingdom

Acts 20:24

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“But I consider my life of no value to myself; my purpose is to finish my course and the ministry I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of God’s grace.”

You are no longer your own after accepting Jesus Christ. The only thing that should matter to a Christian is building God’s kingdom…the ministry of reconciliation

Sharing the gospel. This is what most modern Christians think of when the pastor says you need to share the gospel

Tommie play the invite video

Now I want you inviting people to church....absolutely I do…but that is not sharing the gospel.

What we do here matters.

Being around other Christians matters.

Hearing the Word of God proclaimed and taught matters so yes invite invite invite but inviting is much different than sharing the gospel. Very different than the great commission.

Sharing the gospel is a mindset. A lifestyle. An intentional decision to believe, apply and follow God’s Word.

When you accepted Jesus or if you have yet to accept Him when you accept Jesus you were or will be transformed into a new creation. A New person. You are transformed from a worldly, sinful, self-serving wretch into an ambassador.

II Corinthians 5:16-21

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“From now on, then, we do not know anyone from a worldly perspective. Even if we have known Christ from a worldly perspective, yet now we no longer know him in this way. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and see, the new has come! Everything is from God, who has reconciled us to himself through Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation. That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and he has committed the message of reconciliation to us. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us. We plead on Christ’s behalf, “Be reconciled to God.” He made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

I read all of that for verse 20. Ambassadors. But to understand and apply 20 you must understand 16-19.

If you have accepted Christ you are new.

Your life now belongs to Christ and you have a new mission....a singular mission....allowing God to make His appeal through you.

That is it.

That is your life’s mission....the ministry of reconciliation

I believe that this also fits with our game plan of the great commission. Jesus said to His disciples and us.

Go.

Make disciples.

Baptize them and teach them.

Ministry of reconciliation.

Now there are many parts and steps along the way and we are all gifted individually to meet those needs but we all share the same mission and ministry....the ministry of reconciliation

Philemon 1:6

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“I pray that your participation in the faith may become effective through knowing every good thing that is in us for the glory of Christ.”

sharing the gospel is a lifestyle not an activity

I also want to look at this scripture from two other translations

the NLT

6 And I am praying that you will put into action the generosity that comes from your faith as you understand and experience all the good things we have in Christ

and the KJV

King James Version Philemon

6 that the communication of thy faith may become effectual by the acknowledging of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus

I am not sure of this next version as it was in some of my teaching materials from the school of discipleship that follows men’s encounter but I really like it

“I pray that you may be active in sharing your faith so that you will have a full understanding of every good thing we have in Christ.”

I shared all of those versions because I wanted you to get a complete feel for this verse and truth.

You are active in, or in other words have a lifestyle of sharing your faith because you realize all the good Christ has done in your life.

The sin he forgave in your life.

The past He is not holding against you.

God is so good to us and because of that we live a lifestyle of sharing the Gospel.

I want to close with 2 scriptures that give us the how of sharing the gospel

Matthew 5:16

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“In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.”

Today this is the equivalent of flipping a light switch.

Back in this time if you wanted to light the room you lit a lamp and you put it on a lampstand so that it’s light would light up the entire space.

Light changes the entire room.

It lights up the entire room.

You as a Christian have the light of Jesus inside of you, so you ARE the light source and the room should light up and change when you walk in.

Not in an arrogant......look at me.....I am so much better than all these people.....sort of way but in a peace has arrived......everything is okay.....overwhelming feeling of love sort of way.

Why because Jesus lives inside of you and should be shining through you

You don’t do good works for your glory but God’s.

Be quick to shine the light on what God did both in and through you.

Live like Jesus and people will want Jesus!

I want to make that statement again and I want you to listen and get it.

This is one of those statements that should be followed by a resounding amen from the congregation.

You do realize what amen means.....i agree or so be it is what amen means.

I pray all of you in here will agree with this statement.

Live like Jesus and people will want Jesus!!!!!

Let the light of Jesus shine through you.

Another way to look at it is people should be able to read the Bible by watching how you live.

A lifestyle that has a singular focus…

shining the light of Jesus....

a life focused on the ministry of reconciliation to God......

a lifestyle of sharing the gospel.

Finally turn to

Matthew 4:19

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““Follow me,” he told them, “and I will make you fish for people.””

First notice how Jesus starts.

Follow Me.

Accept Me.

Give your life to Me.

It all starts there and must remain there.

Getting saved is not the end all.

It is the most important decision you will ever make because of the eternal impact so because of that once you make that decision you truly follow Christ.

His way is the only way.

You will never fish for men....you will never truly share the gospel until you truly follow Jesus!

Next notice Jesus didn’t say he would make them catchers of men or catching people…no he said fish for people but we must realize that to fish requires 3 things of the one doing the fishing

1. Preparing

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If you have ever gone fishing you know that you don’t just show up at the lake or river or pond and hope the fish jump out of the water to you.

Well I guess you could do that but you would not be very successful.

No you have to have the right equipment and the right bait and the right location and the right techniques

You are not going to use a top water lure to catch a catfish…why because catfish are bottom dwellers

Same with fishing for men.

You cant just open the church doors and hope someone walks in.

No you have to be where the people who need Jesus are.....

you have to build a relationship with them....

you have to offer them something of substance…

Jesus....

2. Action

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Tommie put the picture of the boat on the screen.

This is a fishing boat with two fishermen in the boat but are the fishing?

No they are not fishing.

They are prepared to fish but they are not fishing.

These two guys are getting ready to fish but are not yet fishing.

They are going, great commission says go.

They are on their way but not fishing.

To be fishing your bait has to be in the water.

If you are using a lure you are casting and reeling....casting and reeling.....

It take action to fish. It is not just enough to advertise a church and say we are here for you

We MUST be there for them.

Be active in the community

Going to community events and loving people like Jesus loves us.

Action take sacrifice because we are bound by time and space. If we are going to be with the lost and broken being Christ’s ambassadors, living out the great commission, being ministers of reconciliation it means we can’t be at home, it means we have to decided, be intentional about being there and not where we may want to be....

golf course....

garage tinkering.....

taking a nap.....

watching the ball game.....

Remember the video we opened with this morning.

Those people who left the church were prepared.

They just spent time worshipping....

listening to great Bible preaching and teaching…

they were ready....

they were prepared....

they had all the right bait and tackle and techniques…

they were even in the right location but they didn’t do the third part of fishing

3. Catching

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Now this is Jesus’ job.

This is the work of the Holy Spirit.

Those people in the video, and if we are honest us most days of our lives....

even though Jesus says to go fish....

go and make disciples....

God even calls us Christ’s ambassadors and that we have the ministry of reconciliation....

even with all that those people and us many times go right past the people we were sent to fish.

God places us in specific situations and circumstances to carry out our mission of reconciliation but we miss it.

We are so busy in our own lives or

talking about the sermon or

our to do list or

thinking about lunch

and we miss the fact that God has given us a wonderful opportunity to carry out our mission and we miss it

There are thousands of hurting,

broken,

addicted,

homeless,

lost people just outside our doors that need Jesus.

They desperately need reconciliation with God and we miss them

We are not fishing.

We are not carrying out the ministry of reconciliation.

I will be honest with you just as Jesus was honest with his disciples…

count the cost.

Being a minister of reconciliation will cost you dearly.

Time.

Money.

Hobbies.

Family at times.

It will require you to put God first and you last.

It will require you to be uncomfortable.

It will require you to have conversations that are hard.

It will cost you friends

It will cost you jobs at times

It may cost you your earthly freedom

It may even cost you your physical life

But for the glory that was to come Jesus endured the cross.

You are called to be a minister of reconciliation.

The question is will you go and will you fish and will you share the gospel by living the lifestyle of Christ?