Sharing Jesus With Joyfulness

Introduction

Well, a pleasant good morning to all. It’s good to look out and see so many familiar faces, and also to look out and see a number who are visiting with us this morning. If you are visiting with us, you are our guests of honor, and we’re just so delighted and glad that you have chosen to be with us this morning. We strive to teach and preach from the scriptures and from the Bible and to share Jesus joyfully. When we think about Jesus and we think about our responsibility as Christians, it’s a responsibility to share Jesus. It’s a responsibility to tell the lost world that there is a God, He is alive, and His Son is Jesus Christ, and He loves us. But I think it’s also our responsibility to share Him with the world joyously and joyfully.

Scriptures like Philippians say over and over, rejoice, and again I say, rejoice. I just this past week preached a funeral in Arkansas, and I drove uh many, many miles on the car and many, many miles back. And on my way back, I stopped at a very large establishment called Bucky’s.

There were a hundred stalls where you could place your cars in. Then you got inside, and there were 200 people filling into the bathroom lines, maybe 300 of the ladies. I don’t know. And here’s why. Because they have the world’s cleanest bathrooms. It’s a good place to stop because it’s clean, it’s nice, but it’s big, is my point. And I get to the checkout counter at the end of I don’t know how many hundreds of people the guy at the checkout counter must have checked out through the day for their purchases. And I talk to him just kind of like this, I guess, and thank you for your service. And he says, you know what? You are the most positive guy I’ve met all day. I thought to myself, I just came from a funeral.

This is interesting. We are Christians, and when we share the gospel with people, we ought to have a smile. We ought to have a good attitude, and we ought to help people see that we are the salt of the earth and the light to the world. It is not only our responsibility, but it is our great joy to be able to share Jesus joyfully. The issue comes up when we share Jesus joyfully then, well, we say, well, yeah, I’m a positive person. I’m a happy person. I maybe don’t have a smile on my face as much as JR all the time, but I’ve got a smile. Well, how do I talk about the gospel when I’m so scared to talk about the gospel? I’m so timid to talk about the gospel.

What do I do? Well, we’ll talk about that this morning, but what I want to first recognize for all of us this morning is that we all can do this. This is not a preachers, elders, deacons only thing. We all can share Jesus. And I would beg to just pick your brain for a moment to also say we can do so joyfully. But if we do that, we’re going to have to develop our skills. We’re going to have to fine-tune and hone out our skills as to how to do this for the joy that it brings.

1. F-O-R-M: Family, Occupation, Recreation, Money

Okay, if you’re taking notes, this is going to be really simple. F-O-R-M form. We’re going to look at that for a minute. It’s not something I came up with, but it’s pretty good. What makes for a good conversation starter? Let’s first look at the letter F from formy. You know, you can talk to people about their kids. There’s my kids. You can talk to people about kids. You can talk to parents about their kids. You can talk to your friends about your friends. But if you want to talk to someone about your family, go ask a grandparent about their kids. You want to have a conversation starter, that conversation won’t end. They’ll keep talking. Now, wait a minute. That’s a good thing that they’re glad that they have grandkids and they’re happy for them or thinking about them.

Imagine how much how much how long grandparents will talk about grandkids. I knew even uh when when cell phones had been around for a while, that there was a grandfather I knew who uh when when uh the people were talking to him about his grandkids, he’d go, well, let me show you their pictures, and he’d open up his wallet, and it would look like the thing is like a like a I don’t know exactly how to explain it, but it would just like fold out now now to look like this long sheet of pictures. Here’s them in order of my grandkids, how they used to look 10 years ago, and it’s on and on and on. Here’s a picture of my mother, that’s in there too.

But all these things that would look through that, and it was like, that’s pretty impressive. When we talk about family with people, we talk about something that is near and dear to people’s heart. And so if you want to talk about the gospel, or you want to talk to people about becoming part of the kingdom of God, an everlasting kingdom, we can say, well, no matter what happens to your family, if a dearly loved one, like my friend who just passed away, if a family member dies, you can know that if you were to die, you could be part of an eternal kingdom, an eternal family that could go to heaven. Would you want that? Would you want that for you? No matter what your family situation is now, presently, whether it’s just things are maintaining, and we’re glad for that, or things are downhill or things are really uphill.

Maybe someone just had a baby or something and things are uphill, or maybe someone passed away and things are downhill. Would you like to tell people, hey, you have the opportunity to be living in heaven forever with everybody that’s ever served the Lord? That’s a good thing. And God uses family terms throughout the scripture to talk to people. That’s a good way to begin. And we’ll talk about that some more in a moment. Or occupation. You know, sometimes the easiest conversation starter is what do you do for work? Sometimes it’s not an easy conversation because you hear what they do for work, or maybe the person just lost their job and you’re like, oh, I just didn’t mean to say that that way. But you’re trying to figure something out.

You can you can often, though, find out a lot about a person by their occupation. And sometimes, by someone’s occupation, when you know what they do for work, it’ll help you understand and how to gauge the conversation as to what to discuss with that individual. If you know what type of job they have, whether they have a sit-down at a computer job, or whether they have a job where they’re out mowing grass, or whether they have a job, whether they’re climbing power line poles, whatever their job is, you can make a conversation starter. It’s not a definer of who one is, but it’s a way to have familiar interest. Another thing you can do is try to figure out what they like to do for recreation.

I came to the realization that not everybody’s as big of a sports fan as me. Some people don’t watch sports. I think it’s interesting. But anyways, some people are they’re like culinary experts. You can sit down there and talk about all sorts of culinary things with the people cooking, and they’re really into that. And that’s a conversation starter. If one person is into cooking, another person’s into sports, use illustrations and conversations from the scriptures, things that Jesus talked about from those elements to them that would help them understand things closer to Jesus. They’re familiar with uh maybe they’re a soldier, you go to Ephesians 6. They’re familiar with uh cooking. You talk about the lady who had uh yeast that she put in her bread. I mean, different things like that.

It’s very important to try to find common ground or money. Very levels of interest here. Uh when people talk about money, um, there’s kind of like a wide way of talking about this. Some people are so freely talking about money that it’s just interesting, and you can have a pretty good sit-down conversation about finances. You find out how people react to that. Some people say, we don’t talk about that. Okay, we won’t talk about that. But at the same time, you see different levels of interest. Money is a good indicator as far as a conversation topic starter because there are some people that want to talk about that. And it’s not just the rich and it’s not just the poor. You have different ones in between that talk, and that’s something to uh to talk about.

2. Jesus Did That in Luke 15

And so those are four different areas. Someone might say, Okay, where’s the Bible in that? Jesus. He did that. Look at Luke 15. If you go to Luke chapter 15, you see Jesus talk about family, occupation, recreation, and money. And the interesting thing here in the context of Luke 15 is in Luke 15, it is the context of the way Jesus talks about people in response to various things of spiritual matters. He’s not just talking about passing of the day. He’s not just talking about various things, he’s talking about very important spiritual matters. Luke 15, 11, 15, 1 through 7, 25, and 8 through 10 are parables of the lost son, the lost coin, and the lost sheep. We’re going to pick them apart a little bit because a number of you already know these parables, so we’re just going to pick out a few verses.

If you look at 11 through 32, you have the parable of the lost son. Well, what was the context of the prodigal son? What was the context of that? The context was, of course, that people, tax collectors, sinners, drew near to hear him, and the Pharisees said, Why are all these people listening to your evangelism to hear you? So he’s going to tell them.

In the parable of the lost son, he talks a lot about family. You have a father who cares, a father who loves his children dearly and deeply. And one of the sons does a terrible thing. He says, Father, I’d like my inheritance, so they divvy up the inheritance between the older and younger brother. They do that. I tend to think the young the other brother, the older one, stayed at home managing the inheritance, which is kind of the implication from the text. That’s my opinion. But then you look at the younger brother, he wasted his share with prodigal or riotous or frivolous living, vain living, uh, sinful living. But he comes back to his senses and realizes that even the people that worked for his dad have a much better situation than him.

They come back and look at his family situation in 1132. It says the dad says to the older brother, who’s upset that the son had a party thrown for him, it says, It was right that we should make merry and be glad. For your brother who is dead and is alive again was lost and is found. Do you hear what that’s saying to us? That when we talk to others about the gospel, and when we reach out to others, that we do not need to be like the son who is in the field, who is doing his work and not rejoicing when a good brother comes home. Often someone will fall astray, often someone will go uh uh off into the world and want to come back and want to be welcomed, but they’re really not sure if they will be welcomed back.

Jesus says in his method here that it was right that we should be glad, for your brother, he doesn’t say did a great thing and was out there sinning, and that was okay. He said he was dead, he was dead and is alive again, he was lost and is found. You go back to verse 24, he says it again, this my son was dead and is alive again, was lost and is found, and they began to make merry. When it comes to Jesus’ method for telling us how do we deal with those in the world that are lost, like the tax collectors, like the sinners that drew near to hear him, we need to recognize Jesus first and foremost in his in his efforts to tell the Pharisees and Sadducees and the and the scribes in their complaints, he says, Look, those that are sick need a physician.

And if those of the uh the lost come to their senses and become found, that’s a good thing. And we need to recognize that. Look at Luke 15, 1 through 7 now, not just to talk about family situations, but to look at 15, 1 through 7. Here in Luke 15, 1 through 7, it says, What man of you? I love how he does this to the uh to the Pharisees and tells them, He’s goes, You guys have things. You have a hundred sheep, okay? So go with me here, guys. He says, Which one of you has a hundred sheep, and if he loses one of them, does not leave the 90 and nine and go to the one that is lost in the wilderness and go after the one who he’s lost until he’s found it.

And when he’s found it, which one of you done put him up on his shoulders, rejoicing? And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, Rejoice with me, for I found my sheep. They’re shepherds, that’s their occupation. My shepherd is Jesus. And these Pharisees and Sadducees lived in a situation where some of them were physical shepherds. As he is a spiritual shepherd, he’s telling them something. I know about your occupation. I know what you do. And he uses it to make a bridge, to build a bridge. And hear me. No, not all the Pharisees were bad. Do you remember the Pharisee Nicodemus that came to the Lord by night? He wasn’t a bad guy. Do you remember the guy who took Jesus off the cross?

The literal one on the council who was the guy who took him physically down and wrapped him up in grave clothes and put him in the tomb. He was a Pharisee too. So it’s not that all of them were bad, but he’s giving them information to help them. And he’s using that topic of occupation as a shepherd to bridge a gap, to talk to them in such a way that they would understand something. He could he could valuably tell them. And so that’s a good method that Jesus uses. And so when we are out evangelizing in the world and trying to teach the lost and trying to communicate to other people, family is something good we can talk about that sometimes bridges that gap. Also, someone’s occupation.

In Luke 15, 25 through 32. You might be going, JR, this is kind of a stretch. But I don’t know how much of a stretch it really is. It says here in verse 25, his older son was in the field and he came and drew near to the house and he heard music and dancing. I do not believe in this particular instance this was debaucherous dancing. And here’s the reason why, because that son had been probably engaging in that when he was lost, and they wouldn’t have done something righteous when he came home. I don’t know if they’re uh doing ring around the rosy or just clapping or uh uh I don’t know, step. I don’t know exactly what they’re doing, but I don’t take it in this instance to be something bad.

Because the world does that bad. The world does that often in a very bad way. But here in this particular instance, he heard music. To hear music is to hear a thing of recreation. You all know I’m a musician, I like music. It takes time to learn how to engage on an instrument or even with the voice in a musical way. It takes time to learn how to do that. Uh, we are given the statement here in verse 25 that he drew near to the house and heard the music and dancing. I don’t think it was just a little bit of singing, because he couldn’t have drawn near to the house and heard it from outside. And then again it says it was right that we should make merry and be glad.

These were recreational things they did then, from the earliest times of civilization all the way back until the book of Genesis, we have instances of musicians and music being made. And so here in this particular thing, he’s talking about recreation. Uh, he’s talking about something like that. And then, of course, in Luke 15, 8 through 10, we hear a really interesting story. What woman of you having 10 coins, if she thus loses one, does not sweep house and look all over for that lost coin? Because she’s got 10 and she’s lost one. What woman of you who has not found that coin, when she finds that coin, doesn’t rejoice and call her neighbors and her friends to her and say, I found the peace which I have lost.

Money is tight for a lot of people.

Spending money and then having to roll it over to a credit card because you can’t pay the bills is often done by many, many people in America. Money is something that when you talk to someone, they’re often hesitant to talk about it. Like I said, you have two different views here. Some talk about it profusely, some very rarely do. And so we need to remember what Jesus was telling us here that there was a lady there who lost 10% of that which she had of her silver coins. Some tend to think, with um various scholarship that this may be in reference to a certain band or string of money. I don’t know all that. What I do know is that this lady swept her house carefully until she found her one coin.

3. Hindrances: Christ First, Everything Else Second

She lit a lamp and looked day and night for what she had lost. Brethren, friends, when we talk to people who are lost, it’s very important that we realize some are at different financial levels. And to talk above someone often leads someone against the message that you’re giving. We need to recognize the situations that we meet people in, and often the people that we meet are facing hard times. Well, so what of conversional hindrances or challenges? There certainly is a lack of personal confidence or follow-through with commitment by many people when they’re teaching the lost. Many people have hindrances, and they say, Well, this is kind of not working. I’m talking about the gospel, but people aren’t being converted. What’s the what’s the give here? What’s going on?

We need to realize that we need to put Christ first and everything else second. In Luke 14, 28, we hear the idea of the plow. Luke chapter 12, 14 and verse 28. It says in Luke chapter 14, 28, which of you intending to build a tower does not sit down first and count the cost whether he has enough to finish it. Lest after he has laid the foundation and is not able, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, This man began but does not have.

For our life, we need to ask, have we counted the cost in that? Christ first, everything else second. Turn in your scriptures to a passage of scripture in Romans chapter 12. In Romans chapter 12, verse 9, it says, Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil, cling to what is good, love one another with brotherly affection, outdo one another in showing honor, and be given. Listen, given to hospitality. When you have visitors at a congregation, hear me out. When you have visitors at a congregation, I believe that they should be invited out to a meal. I believe there should be enough people attending a church service that someone in the congregation will want to do that. To say, hey, I see you’re visiting with us.

We we have a little bit of time after services. Let’s go out and have a meal together. Person goes, wow, they really care. They’re really hospitable. They’re really uh uh tending to want to know more about me. That’s important. In a congregation of this size and this number, it shouldn’t be something that you wouldn’t hear the expression, well, I’ve already gotten out invited out to service after services to dinner. You go, okay, then you go find somebody else to invite out to service. And no, I’m not just talking about our family, I’m talking about those that visit with us. I think it’s important to do. Often, what will happen is I will invite people to services from services out to dinner, and I know other elders and members will as well.

But here’s the thing you might think, well, what if somebody else already did that? What if somebody else already invited a visitor to do it anyway? Because here’s the answer you’re gonna get. Well, I’ve already gotten invited out to dinner, I’ve already got an invitation to go somewhere. Someone’s already done that. You say, okay, go find somebody else to do that for or with. You might say, well, that incurs money, that incurs a cost. You don’t have to do that every week. Can that could be your skill? That could be one of the talents that you can develop. You may not be the type of person that maybe is able to sit down and carry out a long conversation, but you might be able to do that.

It’s something that you can do, it’s something that you are able to do. Often we don’t even realize some of the talents that we might have that might make a big difference in someone else’s life. When we put others into our life and focus on them, and they see Christ living in us, they think good of Christ and they think good of the church and they think good of you. Be given to hospitality. Being a Christian is something that is important. And he says very clearly in chapter 12, verse 9 of Romans, let your love be without hypocrisy and cling to what is good. There’s a caveat to this. And the caveat is am I going to accept that from others? Say, no, I can’t do that.

4. Keep Your Hand to the Plow; Don’t Be Fearful

Don’t want to do that. Don’t want to be there. We’ve got to be willing to let this go both ways. We are trying to share the gospel with someone. Often people have fear of what others will think. They’ll wonder well, what if my family and friends and coworkers, what if they don’t really want to hear this? In Luke chapter 9 and verse 26. Luke chapter 9 and verse 26. The scriptures say, For whoever is ashamed of me in my words, of him the Son of Man will be ashamed when he comes into his own glory and in his father’s house and of the holy angels. When we look at this passage of Scripture, we need to remember this very clearly. In Luke 9 and 62, it says, No one having put his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God.

Luke 9 and 62. Glancing down at my notes, my glasses just kind of did one of these numbers, and I think I read a verse invertedly. You ever wondered if preachers do that? We do sometimes. I’ll give you a hunch, a clue. It’s not always intended. But when we look at verse 62, he’s basically saying, Focus. When someone is plowing, they don’t go so looking over their shoulder and trying to look this way. They’re focused on what they’re trying to accomplish here. And if you’re afraid of, well, what do my family think? What are my friends think? What everybody think about the gospel, focus. Preach the gospel message. Keep your hand to the plow. Focus. Don’t be so scared of what everybody will think. Don’t look back on the mission.

Look forward on the mission. There are people in the world who they see us, they hear us, they know who we are, they know what we stand for, and yet at the same time they view us as being hypocrites. I’ve talked to people, and that’s how they sometimes view us. They say, well, this is one way, and this is some other way. You teach this, you say this, and then you go and do this. We need to be on guard against this. And we need to be recognizing that sometimes people in their in their want to, they want to be converted. They want to be a Christian. And they want to be a Christian the right way. And sometimes we’re the biggest hindrance to them, we’re some of the biggest hindrances to them doing that.

I’ve had one person express it to me this way. It was like they prayed to the Lord, Dear Lord, please save me from your followers. I believe in you, but the people that follow you aren’t doing what they should do. We need to be on guard against that and live our life where we’re not a hindrance to someone else’s conversion. When it comes to being fearful, there’s a passage of scripture in Romans 10, we’ll go there, that talks about the idea that we’re trying to convey here. In Romans chapter 10 and the 10th verse, it says, For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. That’s how you profess Jesus. You have the personal confidence to say, I believe in Jesus.

And the society where we live in right now at this day and age says, it’s kind of strange to believe in Jesus. When we’re in reality, we go this, we say it this way. You may say it’s strange to believe in Jesus, but when I look at this world and I see how this world is and I know how it is, and I see all the strange, peculiar, unnatural things the world is doing, that when I hear the apostles in their teachings and their writings in the book of Acts, and when people saw the apostles teaching and preaching Jesus, and they say, Look, here are these people that have turned the world upside down. You can turn around and say, No, we as Christians, we turn the world right side up.

Because they had looked out and they had seen goodness. They had seen the apostles doing things that they thought was rocking the world or changing the world and changing their course, where in reality they were making it better. They were turning an upside down world right side up, and that’s what we are supposed to do too. That is part of our charge, that is part of our call. And we’re supposed to help people not be so timid, but to be able to say, Yes, I believe in Jesus. Yes, I will confess Jesus, Romans 10 10. Yes, I will make him my professed king, and to whom I give my honor and glory and I respect. But oftentimes it is the case that people are timid in that.

And so we need to recognize that. That is a hindrance. And sometimes we are fearful in that effort. Don’t be fearful in that effort. Don’t think, well, what will other people think? You know what other people think? The same thing, they’re just not saying it. They keep it up here, they mull it around in their mind, they go, I wonder why nobody else is saying this. It’s so logical. It makes so much sense, but nobody else is saying it. You can be the one that says what’s right. Don’t think, well, what will my family friends or coworkers think? They may need you to tell them what Jesus thinks, for faith in him comes by hearing not your words, but the words of God. And if Romans 10 17 says, For faith cometh by hearing the word of God, you can deliver that.

5. Christ Living in Us: The Salt of the Earth

Knowing what’s right, yet telling someone what’s right, needs they need to just be like hand in glove. You need to know what’s right, you need to have the right knowledge, say what’s right, and then live what’s right, so that others don’t find you to be hypocr a hypocrite. What would compel you to wish to share Jesus with someone? What would compel you to wish to share Jesus with someone? Because I can talk about family, I can talk about occupation, I can talk about recreation, and I can talk about money with a lot of people. But often what happens is that’s where it stops. It doesn’t do anything other than just become a conversation starter, wherein those conversations need to be conversation starters that somehow morph, somehow mold, somehow get into talking about Jesus because that’s what’s most important.

Those things are very important, but it when all is said and done, Jesus is what it’s all about. May I suggest to you just a simple suggestion that when you live and how you live and what you say, whatever that is, it needs to be a reflection of Christ Jesus living in you. People need to see you and say, It is I see in them that it’s no longer them that’s living, but that Christ Jesus is living in them. And if it’s your friends, hear me out here for just a few minutes. If it’s your friends and they’re saying, Well, I know how they used to be, I know what they used to do, they need to be able to also say, Well, they’re not doing it anymore.

They’re not living that way anymore. Something changed. And something’s different, something’s better, and I want that something. And then you can tell them that something is the gospel. And it’s not just a something, it’s a something that someone gave for some no, but for all. He gave his life. Jesus Christ gave his life for us. There’s a story that is told about I guess you’d just call it a fairy tale system wherein, like for years and years and years, you just have uh, I guess you’d basically say like cultural or ethnic fairy tales that have been in various places, and it’s about salt. And it’s kind of interesting to hear this story, and so I’m gonna kind of explain this as best I can. Uh we know salt is a preservative, that it preserves things, but in these stories, salt also helps things taste good.

And there’s an old fairy tale about salt, and it’s really there’s a number of them. They are found in different countries, they’re found in different areas, uh, and they all have a little different ending. In the beginning of the story of this fairy tale, there’s a king with three daughters. And the daughters say things to the king like this I love you, dad. You’re the king, and I love you more than all the jewels in your kingdom. He goes, Oh, that’s great, daughter. And then another daughter will come up to him and say, Oh, dad, you’re a great king. I love you more than all the horses in the kingdom. All of them. You go, Oh, I love you. That’s great. And then his third daughter, she scratched her head and said, Dad, I love you more than salt.

He looked at her and said, Well, okay, you’re banished from the kingdom. And then lo and behold, years later, the king was invited to a party. And at the party wherein the king was invited to, there was a meal. And everybody’s like, this is made by the world’s greatest chef. And the king’s like, Yes, I get to go to the world’s greatest chef’s meal. And he’s eaten. He goes, This food tastes bland. There’s no flavor. Everybody else around him is going, This is not bland. This is the best food I’ve ever had. He goes, Show me the chef, only to find his daughter. And to realize she hadn’t put any salt in his food. And he’s like, Oh, I catch the error of my ways. I had earlier banished her because she said to me, I love you more than salt.

Now I know that I’m not even enjoying my food. And everybody else is having a good time. Everybody else is enjoying life. Everybody else except me. Brethren, we need to be the salt of the earth. Now I know the scriptures that talk about the gospel and how the gospel helps us preserve what is true. I get that. But in the passages of scripture that talk about salt, do a little investigation. It says, For if the salt has lost its saltiness, it’s no longer fit. He says things like that in the scriptures, that we are the salt of the earth, that we are supposed to be seasoning the earth with the right attitude. May I suggest that when people see Christ living in us, they need to see us as the salt of the earth, not just something that is trying to be grumpy or mean or uh just angry with all sorts of things.

People need to see us and say, Well, they’re the salt of the earth. They’re flavoring the world with Jesus. They’re flavoring the world in the right way. And I think that’s very important to this type of discussion. I think that’s very important to the recognition that we are supposed to be ones that, as Colossians says, walk in wisdom, walk in wisdom towards those who are outside, and let our speech always be with salt, seasoned with graciousness, so that we might know how to answer each one. Not let our speech be so caustic that people say, oh, save me from your followers. But then people go, wow, that’s like Jesus right back here. And we would say, but Jesus isn’t coming right back here anytime soon. And when he does, there will be a judgment day.

But you know, right now, you can live for Jesus and enjoy life. You can live for Jesus and know that you can go to heaven and live forever. You can live for Jesus and know that yes, that’s reality, but also with reality is you don’t have to be morose about everything. I heard an old preacher once say, it looks like some of those Christians were weaned on a sour pickle. I didn’t understand that until I got older. But when we look at what we recognize today, we can be the salt of the earth. We can.

Conclusion

And walking into a place of hundreds and hundreds of people, a guy saying, You’re the most joyous, you’re the most positive guy I’ve met all day. Brethren, if there’s even that little inkling of Jesus in us, we need to build that. We need to develop that. Because if one person can do that for one little moment, surely we can do that. I mean, seriously. Sometimes we have to realize that it’s not all about us, it’s all about him. And when people see that, when they see that, they understand that, the kingdom will grow. It’s important that we bring people to the Lord and not turn them away from him. What do we do about salvation? Hear the word of God. Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

Romans 10 17. Faith doesn’t come by watering it down and not saying actually what God says. We do need to say actually what he says. But at the same time, we need to say it the right way. We need to believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of the living God. John 3 16. God loved the world. That’s what it says that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever might believe in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Not God so loved the world that we might live for a little bit, but God so loved the world that in the little bit that we live now we can live forever with him because of how we spent the little bit here. And repent. Acts 2 37 through 38.

Says repent. God commandeth us to repent. Repent what he says, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus for the forgiveness of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Spirit. For the promise is to you and to those who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call. And like we mentioned in Romans 10 10, with the mouth confession is made. When someone confesses, hear me out. When someone confesses that they believe in Jesus and they want to be a Christian, they don’t have to come forward, sit on a front row, and testify to every vile sin, every bad thing, every misstep deed they’ve ever done. They don’t have to do that because the gospel doesn’t teach that.

Romans 10 10 says we confess Jesus Christ. And so we hear, believe, repent, confess that we believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of the Living God, as also a coordinating passage in Acts 8 37 teaches, and then we’re immersed for the forgiveness of sins. Because Acts 22, 16 says, why are you waiting? Get up, arise, and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord. If we can help you do that, then once you do that, you need to begin to share Jesus. And how shall we share Him if it not be in the way that is joyous, in the way that is joyful? So here’s your invitation. If you’re here this morning and you’re not a Christian, please become one.

Repent, be baptized, have your sins washed away, and start living for the Lord. If you are a Christian and you’ve kind of been backsliding, maybe you haven’t been doing what you need to do for the Lord, change. You need the prayers of the church, people to pray for you, pray with you, we’ll do that. You can come forward and we’ll do that. But if you need to just do what you’re supposed to do, go do that, and people will see that. And for everybody else who’s here who maybe maybe will not come forward this morning, please realize this. When you share Jesus, I believe it is very important that when you share Jesus, for I believe you do, that we need to do so joyfully. Amen.

Amen. If you’d like to become a child of God through repentance and bapt or baptism, please come forward as we stand and sing.