Good morning, CHURCH!

(Opening joke)

Two sons were pondering what to give their mom for a Mother’s Day gift.

They have always competed against one another to bring the better gift to their mother and this year was no different.

This was the first Mother’s Day without their father, so they wanted to give her the best gift possible.

One son was living in Central America at the time and thought it would be nice to give mom a talking parrot as a companion for Mother’s Day.

Since she is now all alone, her son thought this would be the perfect gift for her.

She would have someone to talk to and enjoy it’s company.

The 2nd son bought her flowers and a figurine to add to her collection.

On Mother’s Day, the 2nd son brought over his gift as his brother was still in Central America.

He asked, “How do you like my gift?” hoping to get her approval that his gift was the best one.

She loved it! (He was so excited.)

Then he asked if she received a gift from his brother.

She said, “Yes”.

He asked how she liked it. She said, “It was okay”. (He snickered.)

After visiting with mom for a while, his brother called via face-time.

He noticed he did not see the parrot anywhere.

Perhaps thinking it was in another room, he asked his mom, “did you get the parrot I sent you?”

She said “Yes,I Got it”. He asked her how did you like it?

She said “It was okay”. He said “Just okay.”

She said, “Well, to tell the truth, I didn’t really like it that much.”

“Why not” he asked.

She said, “It kind of tasted like dried out chicken”!

Are you ready to be equipped today?

Let me see your Bibles.

Let’s go to the book of 2 Corinthians 13:5 ESV for this week’s wisdom Vaccination.

This Week’s Wisdom Vaccination 2 Corinthians 13:5 ESV

Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you? —unless indeed you fail to meet the test!

2 Corinthians 13 is a very interesting section of scripture.

The Corinthian church had a list of things going on that weren’t very Christ like. (Spiritual pride, suing one another in secular courts, abusing the communal meal and of course sexual misbehavior.)

Paul was going to be coming back to Corinth and threatened to bring some spiritual discipline to the church, but it seems as if they now wanted to challenge if Christ even speaks through him.

Paul was like, how you gone question me.

You need to examine yourselves to even see if Christ is even in you.

Watch out when you are corrected by your spiritual leadership or challenged by the fruit of your lives because human nature tends to want to look for a flaw in the leader rather than accept and deal with our own issues.

Listen, so many people think they are Christians because they go to church or pray when they get in trouble.

Going to church doesn’t make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.

Saying a prayer, going down an aisle or repeating a prayer after someone doesn’t make you a Christian.

Telling yourself that you are a Christian or trying to be a decent person doesn’t make you a Christian.

You can only be a Christian if Christ is in you, which can be tested and proven according to the scriptures and by the fruit that you produce.

Jeff Foxworthy used to make all these jokes about being a redneck.

You might be a redneck if.

You might be a redneck if you have a complete set of salad bowls, and they all say Kool Whip on the side.

You just might be a redneck.

We are starting a new series titled:

You might be a Christian if

Today’s message title is:

“You might be a Christian if”

you want others to become Christians too

How could you be a Christian if you don’t want others to become Christians too.

(You might be a Christian if)

Point #1

You tell others about Jesus

Question

What do you tell others about?

(Sports, The Stock Market, Sales at certain stores, The latest news, Your recent vacation or job promotion etc.)

Jesus always found a way to tell others the answer to their greatest needs or to calm there greatest fears.

Jesus always got to the matters of the heart.

Matthew 19:16-23 ESV

And behold, a man came up to him, saying, “Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?” 17 And he said to him, “Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. If you would enter life, keep the commandments.”

18 He said to him, “Which ones?” And Jesus said, “You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness, 19 honor your father and mother, and you shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

20 The young man said to him, “All these I have kept. What do I still lack?” 21 Jesus said to him, “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” 22 When the young man heard this, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.

23 And Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly, I say to you, only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven.

It seems like the young man knew that money was his idol, and he was trying to be good in every other area of his life to cover up for his love of money.

He asked, “What good deed must I do and what do I still lack?”

Jesus went to the heart of the matter.

Get rid of your idol and follow me.

Let me ask you a question.

If you were to have a ten-minute conversation with an unbeliever, would you be looking for ways to inject Jesus into it?

When you bypass the stock answers that people give you to daily standard greetings, you can get to their heart.

“Hey, how’s everything going?”

(Everyone greets them like that, but most don’t really want to know.)

Your follow up should be, “No, I’m serious, how is everything going with you?”

If there is something going on in their life that they really want help with, this will open the door to it.

If we really are Christians, our major concern about people should be there relationship with God.

Or is it that you more worried about people liking you, than you are about them knowing God?

(You might be a Christian if)

Point #2

You spread the gospel

Question

What are you spreading in conversation?

Are you spreading rumors?

Are you spreading news about Covid-19 and vaccines?

Are you spreading news about the latest viral Tic Tok?

Or are you spreading the good news of the Kingdom?

Mark 16:16-20 ESV

Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.

17 And these signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; 18 they will pick up serpents with their hands; and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover.”

19 So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God.

20 And they went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by accompanying signs.

If you care more about the world than the Kingdom of God, you’ll spread the news of the world.

It didn’t say and they went out and gossiped everywhere.

They say that good news travels fast.

But bad news seems to travel even faster.

Since the gospel is often referred to as the good news we need to be pushing it more than they are pushing the bad news.

No Excuses!

You don’t even have to know the Bible backwards and forwards to start telling the good news.

John 9:23-25 ESV

Therefore his parents said, “He is of age; ask him.”

24 So for the second time they called the man who had been blind and said to him, “Give glory to God. We know that this man is a sinner.”

25 He answered, “Whether he is a sinner I do not know. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.”

Just tell people one thing you do know.

Tell of the sin and struggles you used to have and how receiving Jesus and following him has delivered you.

That will be enough to get them inquiring about Jesus for themselves.

(You might be a Christian if)

Point #3

You win souls

Often, we win people over to our opinions.

-our opinions about fashion

-our opinions about business ideas

-our opinions about how to do relationships

Proverbs 11:30 Living Bible

Godly men are growing a tree that bears life-giving fruit, and all who win souls are wise.

Instead of being in a contest to see who can grow the most in a bank account, the Bible says that the Godly are growing lives by their lifestyle.

We’ve come to think that the second part of that verse, all who win souls are wise, is specifically talking about soul-winning in the aspect of evangelism.

Are you interested in winning someone over to team Jesus?

Your life is a living testimony to attract others.

We all are attracting others to something.

You might be a Christian if; your life wins souls.

(Closing illustration)

I can’t tell you how many times someone has come up to me and said that I’ve been watching you for a long time and you make me want to be a better husband, father etc.

Or they’ve come up to Dr. A and I and said y'all s marriage has inspired us.

Your life is an open door to win someone towards a righteous life.

If you’re watching online or here in the room, I have a very important question to ask you.

What is Holy Spirit saying to you right now?