Life in Six Words, part 1

This past Sunday, Pastor Philip announced the emphasis for 2025 to be outreach to people in our community who do not follow Jesus. He encouraged everyone to be praying for people in their age group who don’t know Christ and for opportunities to share the Gospel with them. Before I go any further, I want to emphasize that sharing the Gospel needs to follow LIVING the Gospel. One of my favorite quotes of all time is from Brennan Manning who said, “The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians: who acknowledge Jesus with their lips, walk out the door, and deny Him by their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable.” I preached about this in my sermon a few weeks ago in relation to Matthew 25.

Now you may be uncomfortable sharing your faith and how to present the Gospel to someone. Over the next few weeks, I am going to give you my “go to” way of sharing the Gospel. It is simple because it shares the story of salvation through the Bible. It can be done in about two minutes. You’ve heard me do it twice because I share the Gospel at the end of every sermon I preach. Here’s how it starts:

God created us to be with Him (Genesis 1 and 2).

The Bible tells us that in the beginning, God created all things. He finished by creating man and woman in the Garden of Eden. He gave them control of all creation to protect it and blessed them with the mandate to have family. But why did God do this?

Because He wanted to have a relationship with them.

You see, God already had relationships. Heavenly beings existed, but God wanted more. He wanted to pour His love into us. Think about it this way: why do people have children? Children are messy. They are inconvenient. They’re loud and sometime annoying. We have other relationships. Why do we have children? There is something unique in the love we give a child, and that a child gives in return. We have children because we want to love.

We are called God’s children, and He wants to love us. He wants us to love Him in return. He wants a relationship founded and bound in love.

That is part one. Part two “Our sins separate us from God” is coming next week.

SONGS FOR SUNDAY

Yet Not I But Christ Through Me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zundjUFazfg

How Great Thou Art

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjWZz90hj4I

King of My Heart

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbBQ94PZEkE

Raise A Hallelujah

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2XtRuPfaAU

...and we are learning